Bush remarks on food crisis spark anger in India

[Doctor Cynic]

Source: Reuters

NEW DELHI — A remark by U.S. President George W. Bush saying India was partly responsible for rising global food prices has sparked a nationalistic storm across the political spectrum, with the Defence Minister calling it a “cruel joke”.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's main opposition party, threatened on Monday to force a parliamentary debate on Mr. Bush's remarks that India's increasingly prosperous middle classes were helping push up prices.

The political uproar highlighted how quickly a latent anti-U.S. nationalism in India could rear its head despite years of diplomatic rapprochement. It also underscored how food price rises have become a huge electoral issue in India.

“U.S. policies are also responsible for the food grain shortage,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told local media on Sunday, saying that official encouragement of biofuels in the United States was causing food shortages.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080505.windiabush0505/BNStory/International/home

---

Who else would like to be a fly on the wall next time he needs to call someone in India to ensure his computer is on?

[spanone]

1. yep and the democratic congress is responsible for the enconomic crisis...bu$h* takes no responsibil

ity.

[smoogatz]

2. Smooth move, Dubya.

'Cause what we need are more enemies.

[Mountainman]

3. Yeah we send our jobs to India and they become more prosperous and compete with us for

food and everything else.

Back when we were one of the few industrialized countries we could consume as much as we wanted because there wasn't much competition. Times have changed.

[eleny]

4. Is there no one who can tell him to shut up

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. No there is not

he's surrounded by doting enablers who keep his booze cabinet well-stocked and tell him what a great job he's doing.

[Dr.Phool]

5. What else would you expect from an idiot.

Let them eat cake!

[mcollier]

6. Insert foot in mouth again...

take a look:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Y1qcma0Q4">Has Bush done anything right?

[indio55555]

7. Yes sir...

Indians woke up one day and started eating all the food.....On average they consume rs.37 (~$1) of food per day.

[Barrett808]

8. 259 more days of this idiot

259 too many...

[Hulk]

11. I am counting off each one of them.....with my fingers crossed.

I just hope and pray this jack ass doesn't get us DEEPER in the hole than we already are. It IS possible ....for this clown!

[OhioChick]

9. .........

Native Indians do not like to hear the truth but Bush may be right in blaming India for food crisis

Ratan Sen
May 3, 2008

All major political parties, including Congress, BJP and the Left, on Saturday lashed out at US President George W Bush for blaming growing demand in India for the spiraling global food prices. It is true that India is a net exporter of food.

But in the middle of this row, if you analyze in cool mind, George Bush may be right at least partially. India exports certain food items but India also imports 80% of its crude oil and natural gas needs.

The middle class Indians and their credit card based demand for ‘dream life’ is not directly responsible for the food crisis. But these same people are also responsible for buying $2000 cars from Tata. The problem lies in India’s subsidizing of petroleum products to influence the voters in the next election.

Crude oil is a form of carbon. Most food products are also some derivative of carbon. We need to burn carbon and release carbon dioxide to gain the energy we need. Currently food and crude oil based fuels are linked. Sugar and grains are directly converted into biofuels.

India has irresponsibly subsidized the crude oil and petroleum products for the last five years without requiring its growing middle class to conserve. If market price was allowed in India and the politicians not artificially keep the price of gasoline and diesel lower, people in India would have conserved. It is easy to buy a $2000 car on credit card or personal loan but it is not so easy to drive the car when crude oil trades in open market at$120 a barrel.

The rise in food price has happened because India and China has increased their subsidized use of petroleum products by many folds in the last few years. If the foreign direct investment and outsourcing dollars is channeled into subsidizing the crude oil, you get shock price escalation not only in petroleum products but also in grains and other food products.

Ignorant little educated Indian politicians never understood the current relationship between crude oil and food. Common people in India and elsewhere in the world are now suffering because of the incompetence and lack of common sense among Indian politicians.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/19445.asp

[indio55555]

14. LoL

Nice spin Ohiochick..... I could always count on you to spin things around.

[OhioChick]

16. Give Credit Where Credit is Due....

Thank Ratan Sen.

[fujiyama]

28. Pretty pathetic when you defend Bush's comments just to find a dig against India

[OhioChick]

32. I Defended Bush's Comments in No Way.

As a matter of fact, I offered no response of my own, but an opinion of an Indian. I thought it was interesting to hear another point of view and not one from the U.S.

The article was from "Ratan Sen" and note that I gave no personal response.

[greiner3]

22. Sorry Ohiochick;

I have to disagree with you a bit. Carbon caught in the food web is pretty much self sustaining in that it goes into a cycle; a carbon cycle. This cycle ensures that the food we eat, when digested and excreted, is put back into easily obtainable forms so that plants and microbes can use this carbon as building blocks of energy. The energy obtained allows for growth which is then eaten by animals thus completing the cycle. However, fossil fuel sources of carbon are partially combusted and then expelled into the atmosphere. These gases are mostly in the forms of greenhouse gases; CO2, methane, CFC and others. Little of this carbon is captured by the carbon cycle and these gases end up as contributers of global warming.

[mikeytherat]

10. If you ever see Bush near a one-car funeral, run.

Run your ass off.

mikey_the_rat

[poppysgal]

12. Are there any

Muslin countries anywhere that he hasn't insulted yet?
:wtf:

[Doctor Cynic]

19. India is a Muslim country?

[14thColony]

25. Or perhaps...

Hindu countries in this case. In which case the answer would be 'no.'

[smitra]

26. India is officially a secular, democratic republic

According to the constitution of India adopted in 1950.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India

To say that India is a 'Hindu country' is the same as saying that the USA is a 'Christian country' despite the separation of church and state enshrined in its constitution. Yes, there is a major political party in India that incorporates a philosophy called 'Hindutva' (Hinduness) in its manifesto. And it formed the government from 1998-2004, but did NOT overturn the secular nature of the constitution. Just as the Bush administration and its 'faith-based initiatives' (and other steps to undermine the separation of the state from the church) has not actually managed to remove this from the US constitution.

Incidentally, on another note, anyone visiting the wikipedia link above should note that the Dr. Ambedkar mentioned as one of the main architects of the constitution was a Dalit (or so-called 'untouchable'). And K R Narayan, one of India's recent presidents, was also a Dalit. I mention these noting the selective presentation of certain news articles from the Indian media in this thread that refer to caste-based atrocities in the country. This is not to deny that these do happen. But to present these in this manner is akin to stating that life for African-Americans in the USA needs to be thought of only in terms of race riots in LA, and not on the fact that an African-American may become president.

[14thColony]

29. True, but...

There is a difference between a truely religion-based state (a theocracy, i.e., Iran, Vatican City) and a country that can be classified as 'culturally religious,' simply because that religion is the underpinnings of the predominant culture of the nation. Therefore while the United States, Germany, Canada, Australia, Spain, etc. are not Christian theocracies, they are certainly culturally Christian, as Israel is primarily culturally Jewish, and very secular Turkey is nonetheless predominately culturally Muslim. Therefore India, with 80% of the population Hindu and 72% ethnically Indo-Aryan, is best described as culturally Hindu, or just a 'Hindu country' to make it quicker to type.

[maxrandb]

13. That's OK Mr Defense Minister

Most of us here in America consider his entire presidency to be a "Cruel Joke".

[noonwitch]

15. India has a lot of issues that have nothing to do with US policy

1. Overpopulation.
2. A caste system that is outdated and contributes to the poverty of those at the bottom of it.

I won't even get into the mistreatment of women that occurs there, frequently, even among the higher castes (or maybe especially, considering the whole dowry system). Once the husband's family cashes in the dowry, the wife may just accidentally set herself on fire in the kitchen.

I'm no Bush fan, but the US is not to blame for everything that goes wrong in the world.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OhioChick]

18. Why the Name Calling?

India: 6-yr-old thrown in fire for walking on 'upper caste' road

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/6yrold-thrown-in-fire-for-walking-on-upper-caste-road/64236-3.html

[Doctor Cynic]

20. Maybe you should stop comsuming 8X the energy of the average Indian

before blaming India for wanting a middle-class lifestyle.

We'll have to take a lesson from pre-school. Share the world's limited resources fairly and don't whine when others want to have more. We aren't learning that so far.

[OhioChick]

23. "Maybe you should stop comsuming 8X the energy of the average Indian"

Who is to say that I do?
I double-checked my posts and see no where on this thread where "I" blamed India for anything.....Only copied and pasted articles by Indians, themselves.

[indio55555]

21. See typical.....

Like I said what does this have to do with this article??? Spinning again are we? That's all you could do.

[OhioChick]

24. You asked "noonwitch".....

Quote: "By the way what does caste system have to do with this????

And I responded as I knew what the poster was talking about.

This: India: 6-yr-old thrown in fire for walking on 'upper caste' road

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/6yrold-thrown-in-fire-for-walking-on-upper-caste-road/64236-3.html

Pay attention.....

[fujiyama]

27. This isn't about being a Bush "fan"

It's about Bush making idiotic remarks that have little basis in reality.

And when it comes to consumption - OF ANY KIND - Americans are by far the most guilty. If you want to discuss India's numerous other problems, I welcome you to start another thread, but the issues you bring up have nothing to do with Bush's comments.

[excess_3]

30. Does the US owe grain to the world?

if so, how much?

[OhioChick]

33. That I Do Not Know...

Maybe someone else does.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[truthisfreedom]

31. That's our bush!

[melody]

35. All I can say is ...