Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met US President Barack H. Obama in Italy yesterday. A new opinion poll shows that more Indians think the United States abuses its greater power in its government’s relationship with this country’s.
In the poll conducted by World Public Opinion, only one in three Indians think the US plays a positive role in the world although two out of three think Uncle Sam is cooperative with other countries.
The Indian leg of the poll was conducted by C-Voter:
“While Indians widely express confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs, they only lean toward seeing the US as playing a positive role in the world. Like most nations polled, Indians see the US as respectful of human rights and cooperative with other countries. However, a growing number say the US is hypocritical for promoting international laws and not following them itself, and Indians are now divided on whether the US treats their country fairly or abuses its greater power.”
# A majority (80%) says they have confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs.
# Half of Indians (50%) see the US as respectful of human rights and a majority (61%) believes the US is generally cooperative with other countries.
Indians are divided over whether the US treats their country fairly (45%) or abuses its greater power to get India to do what it wants (47%, up from 32% in 2008), and a majority (61%) believes the US uses the threat of military force to gain advantages.
# A majority (62%) see the US as promoting international laws for other countries but also as hypocritical because it often neglects to apply the same rules to itself (up from 51% in 2008).
# A slight majority (53%) approves of how the US is handling climate change, while 35% disapprove.
# A plurality (47%) says that the US is playing a mainly positive role in the world, while 31% see its role as mainly negative.
Read the full article: Much criticism of US foreign policy
Tags: Barack Obama, C-Voter, Churumuri, Manmohan Singh, Sans Serif, United States, World Public Opinion.Org
10 July 2009 at 7:23 pm
This is a very naieve question. Any country can trust another country to the extent it helps to safegaurd and promote its national interest. Any altruistic relation and blind trust can be detrimental. Take Russia for example, which we trusted blindly and got shafted by Brezhnev during 1962 Chinese aggression.
But expecting any pragmatic thinking on the part of our leadership is futile, as is proved by the repeated piss process that we indulge in with Pakistan even after facing terrorist attacks for the last 20 years.
10 July 2009 at 8:59 pm
I’m sure Obama’s ‘Say no to Bangalore and yes to Buffalo..’ comment has a huge influence on the way Indian diaspora reacted to this, and rightly so.
With unemployment at circa 10%, Obama’s job approval ratings are slipping back home as well — people pinned too much expectations on the chosen one I guess and hoped for a panacea on the recession.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/121553/Obama-Job-Approval-Drifts-Down-58-So-Far-July.aspx
10 July 2009 at 10:52 pm
There is no doubt that US is arm twisting India for its own purposes, ex: India’s vote against Iran at the IAEA meeting, when it was beneficial for India to get in good relations with Iran who had promised supply of natural gas.
The blame lies with the people of our great country who have elected an ineffective set of leaders.
11 July 2009 at 3:51 pm
We have trusted them enough. Only because of our PM Dr Manamohan and the Congress the trust drama is still on. US foreign policy never changes with the change of their president. To day all the Indian news papers blare as to how we have been taken for a free ride on the Nuke deal! Who will pay for all this? Indian People!