Excerpts from Barack Obama's new memoir have been making rounds on the internet for the past few days. The most-talked-about portion, possibly, being his first impression of Rahul Gandhi where he calls the Congress leader 'a young man who lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject'.
But there is more to what he wrote about his first visit to India than just Rahul Gandhi.
In the book titled 'A Promised Land', the former US President talks about his political career and his rise from being a Senator to becoming the President of the United States in 2008. Though the memoir is spread across 768 pages, let us focus here on the less than 2,000 words he used to pen his memories about the trip to India in November of 2010.
The observations made by Obama are centered around a dinner party hosted by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur. The then President and his wife, Michelle Obama, were invited for dinner at Dr. Singh's residence in New Delhi in which Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were also present.
On Manmohan Singh:
Obama was all praise for Dr. Manmohan Singh, who served as the Prime Minister of India for all but the last two years of his presidency.
Obama writes 'Singh and I had developed a warm and productive relationship.' He further wrote that 'as a chief architect of India's economic transformation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed like a fitting emblem of this progress: a member of the tiny, often persecuted Sikh religious minority who'd risen to the highest office in the land, and a self-effacing technocrat who'd won people's trust not by appealing to their passions but by bringing about higher living standards and maintaining a well-earned reputation for not being corrupt.'
India avoided the worst of the 2008 economic crisis, but Manmohan Singh was 'worried for the economy,' Obama wrote.
Obama also talks about the brief one-on-one conversation he had with Dr. Singh before dinner. The two leaders discussed the threat of Pakistan soon after 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Obama writes how Manmohan Singh feared a 'rising anti-Muslim sentiment in India which had strengthened the influence of the country's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)", now the ruling party in India.
On Sonia Gandhi:
Obama found the Congress President to be 'striking' in a traditional sari. She 'had probing eyes and a quiet, regal presence', he observed.
'At dinner that night, Sonia Gandhi listened more than she spoke, careful to defer to Singh when policy matters came up, and often steered the conversation toward her son. It became clear to me, though, that her power was attributable to a shrewd and forceful intelligence,' writes Obama.
Obama mentions in the book how 'Manmohan Singh hadn't originally become Prime Minister as a result of his own popularity. In fact, he owed his position to Sonia Gandhi.'
On Rahul Gandhi:
"As for Rahul, he seemed smart and earnest, his good looks resembling his mother’s. He offered up his thoughts on the future of progressive politics, occasionally pausing to probe me on the details of my 2008 campaign. But there was a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject."
On Mahatma Gandhi:
There is no mention of any other Indian political leader or figure except Mahatma Gandhi, who Obama writes was one of the main 'fascinations he had towards India' as Gandhi had a 'profound effect' on his thinking.
Due to his fondness for Gandhi, both Michelle and Barack visited Mani Bhavan, 'the modest two-story building tucked into a quiet Mumbai neighborhood that had been Gandhi’s home base for many years.'
While drawing inspiration from Gandhi, Obama mentions how despite his efforts he couldn't stop the Partition of India and undo the 'stifling caste system' in the country. 'Most of all, India’s politics still revolved around religion, clan, and caste,' Obama writes.
This is just the first volume of Barack Obama's memoir. The publication date for the second volume has not yet been announced.
(Note: The pages of 'A Promised Land' have been accessed by The New Indian Express and the excerpts have been taken as written in the book.)