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India Notebook

by

Inder Dan Ratnu

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The Turbaned Man encounters American bureaucracy.

"When I complained to him about the runaround I was getting, he replied: "the response you are getting is far more than an average American citizen  gets from us.'"

"Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink". This was a description of an ocean conceived by a nineteenth century Western poet, and it also describes precisely what is happening to me and my likes here in respect to President Clinton: "Clinton Clinton everywhere, but not a Clinton to see." I have been trying to make an appointment with the President for the past month or so by writing to the White House and the American Embassy, but to no avail. When an advance team of the President's security staff, press staff and the Embassy coordination staff arrived here, I thought my job would be made easier. Instead, I found it as tough as ever. I have handed to them two representations to allow me to see the President for a photo opportunity but nobody is prepared to listen to anything I say. Their answer is the stereotyped "We do not have time ... The President is coming here for a private visit and a pleasure trip; he is not meeting anybody." When contacted by phone, that is their usual reply. In order to console they will sometimes say: "O.K., give me your contact number -- if someone is interested he/she will contact you." But nothing beyond. Nobody ever contacted me.

Amazed by their apathy and ignorance, I decided to take my daughter and son and contact them personally in order to assure them that I was no security threat to the President. I was a gentleman with a family. I had no bombs and guns. Just a pen and a paper are the weapons/assets I possess. But all in vain.

There was one more funny thing. They found me strange and somewhat untrustworthy with my typical dress of turban and dhoti as against the shirt-and-trouser-clad  people who, though local just like me, were at least getting nice smiles and invitations to the "control room." I, on the other hand, was stopped at the gate while attempting to enter the hotel reception. After a long wait, a stout, well-built young man appeared and asked me my name. He told me he was from the security staff, and asked me to hand over whatever I wanted to.

I told him my problem -- that I was getting access to no one to which I could properly speak and thus no proper response to my request to see the President. I told him about my qualifications as the only Indian who has written a full book with the aim of saving the President from being removed from the White House -- purely out of goodwill and at a great cost. I informed him that I had undertaken this humble work  when my father was on his deathbed; and now I had this one desire of having a photo opportunity with the President.

He in turn retorted to me that his job was to take the message to the concerned people, and that only they had the right to decide about it. He could not say anything about what happened to my representation. When I complained to him about the runaround I was getting, he replied: "the response you are getting is far more than an average American citizen  gets from us." He had spoken with me for about two minutes. That was all.  I had run into a stone wall, and there was no use in arguing any further.

With a broken heart and a sad face, I returned. Yet I did not give up. I decided that I had to contact the media people. I did not leave any stone unturned: the White house; the US Embassy; the control room; all the hotels; the village he was due to visit the Amber fort where he was due to visit, but all in vain. His news is everywhere -- newspapers, radio, TV, and on the tip of the tongues of the people. Everywhere. But now I am left here to sing, perhaps for the rest of my life, "Clinton Clinton everywhere but not a Clinton to see."

More Perspectives on India:

Current Installment

Installment 1: "Charans and Churchill"

Installment 2: "Democrat's Pilgrimage," Heart Burning in Pakistan."

President to Visit India

Preparations for President's Visit

Diplomatic Issues facing Clinton during visit

Clinton & Chelsea in Jaipur (w/photos)

The Afterglow

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In my second book, Layman's Questions About Churchill, which I wrote about two years ago, I devoted one full question to President Clinton. In the answer of this question (at the end) I  made a prediction which like the prophecies of "Ultimate Defence" has today come true. America and Clinton have taken a U turn in respect to friendship with India as opposed to the hostile reaction to her following the nuclear test explosions of two years ago. Question number 80 on page 72 states:

What is common and uncommon between Churchill and Clinton ?

Common between the two are "emotions:" both of them are highly emotional persons. But the degree of emotion differs between the two, in that it is greater with Clinton than Churchill. Clinton often wears his emotions on his face, whereas Churchill was somewhat the calculating type as are the most Englishmen.

Clinton grew up as a fatherless child, and only those who do not have their father in the world, can understand what that really means. His father died a few weeks before his birth, and even his mother is no longer in the world.

Clinton was educated in the school of adversity; Churchill, on the contrary, belonged to one of the most privileged families of his Imperial nation, and he never knew the tough conditions through which Clinton had to pass. In other words, Clinton is closer to the common man than Churchill ever was.

Both of them are highly witty and excellent orators. Yet in spite of his Oxford education, the oratory of Clinton lacks the high literary quality, the stylish bent of expression, and the mischievous humour of Churchill -- but not the grace and dignity of the office he occupies or the nation he represents. Even in prepared speeches, Clinton's delivery is casual and he makes nearly-constant eye contact with the audience, making it appear as though he is barely reading from the text. Churchill could hardly do that; yet he authored most of his written speeches himself. This cannot be said with certainly about Clinton.

What can be said with certainty about him is that he has hardly authored a book, whereas Churchill had many volumes to his credit even before he became the highest Executive of his country, not to mention his tour-de-force, Second World War, which he wrote later. But Clinton has risen to a height, at an age and in an era of competition, to which Churchill could nothave aspired in spite of all the volumes he had written. It speaks of the brilliance of Clinton but only of the dream of Churchill. Churchill has millions of ardent admirers all over the world, but the rarest of them gets a chance to occupy the seat of power of which of Churchill himself was an admirer: the Presidency of the United States of America. But in turn, Clinton is one of Churchill's greatest admirers.

Cleverness has always been an outstanding feature of the character of the British people, including that of their Prime Minsters -- Churchill not excluded. They are renowned for their tactics to perplex their political opponents at home and abroad, keeping them busy in the "guessing game" and keeping them constantly haunted by a mirage of strategies to checkmate them (PMs). But the way the President has conducted affairs at White House during his nearly tow terms of office, it would not be unfair to say that the total quantity of this quality commanded by Churchill and all his successors combined together might be insufficient to contend with that of  ONE SUPER CLEVER Clinton.

The personal touch that Churchill gave to President Roosevelt through his expression "the former naval person" and other similar gestures were simply nothing compared to what President Clinton gives to any man or a woman on his way by personally embracing or holding their hand, etc. His recent assistance of old President Mandela in descending from a podium represents not merely his respect for elderly persons but also that he is a highly humane person -- an embodiment of decency armed with and characterized by a "nice-guy" touch that was certainly missing in the traits of Churchill, in spite of whatever place one might assign him in the history of the world. A heartly hug to any person, gentleman or lady, that President Clinton is capable of giving, no other President of the United States could give -- much less a British Prime Minister, and certainly not Prime Minister Churchill. It opens up and flowers up the heart of a man or a woman who is hugged and also of those who watch it.

President Clinton is simply unparalleled in this respect. Lately, he personally attended the return of the bodies of the Americans who fell victim to the terrorist bombings at Kenya and Tanzania. His solemn, somber face and the spontaneous spilling flood of tears spoke far more than his words. For they were not just currents of human tears: they were the Mississippi and Colorado rivers passing down the gorges of his eyes, exhibiting the pain of the great American nation through the bleeding heart of the President triggered by the outrageous bombing tragedy. Perhaps no President of the United States could so publicly and so openly cry for his fallen compatriots. This stands him out above all his predecessors inspite of all the storms raging around his personal life. President Clinton has recently found a common ground with Churchill in an unexpected field in a far away land -- "India baiting" -- following India's exploding a few nuclear devices. Nevertheless, in view of his matured and fine nature and the fact that he himself is sitting at the top of a heap of such devices personally holding the "Red Button"ready to blow the whole world apart, he is expected to take a more conciliatory and considerate posture in this respect than would Churchill.