Hillary Clinton woos India
Hillary Clinton woos India
Date: Monday, February 28, 2005 5:35 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
February 29, 2005 No. 1206
Sen. Hillary Clinton is visiting India, and while there she is making a
big hit with its wealthy power-brokers. Clinton made it very clear that
unlike Kerry, she will do nothing to stop the outsourcing of jobs to
India.
Hillary Clinton made it apparent where she stood on
outsourcing during her India visit, in an attempt perhaps
to clear the Indian misgivings received during the Kerry
campaign.
"There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing
will continue," she told an audience of Indian big-wigs.
Hillary defended her support for bringing Tata Consultancy Services
(TCS) to Buffalo, New York, making the following statement:
"We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of
putting up fences," Hillary said firmly, despite inevitably
invoking the ire of the anti-free trade brigade.
Hopefully the "US policymakers" Clinton refers to here are more capable
of legislating reality.
"I have to be frank. People in my country are losing their jobs
and the US policymakers need to address this issue."
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden issued a proclamation that any Democrat
who wants to run for president in 2008 should keep in mind these three
words: Hillary Rodham Clinton. They should also remember what Clinton
said about outsourcing because by 2008 the voters aren't going to
tolerate behavior like hers.
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC01Df03.html
Hillary Clinton woos India
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - For all those who think that Hillary Clinton isn't gearing
up for the US presidential elections circa 2008, they would do well to
take a peep at her recent visit to India. She wasn't here as the wife
of ex-president Bill Clinton, well known for enjoying India having
visited the country several times as president, meanwhile charming a
whole lot of Indians.
Hillary was in New Delhi last week in her own right as New York senator
and as a person whom India sees as playing an important role in global
politics and economics in the near future. She may deny that she
aspires to be the Democratic nominee for president and says she is
looking forward to standing for re-election to New York in 2006, but
the rest of the world (including India) certainly does not perceive her
in this light.
Despite busy schedules, including elections to three states and a
natural disaster in Jammu & Kashmir to manage, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and the all-powerful Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi marked
out time for Hillary, who was accompanied by US ambassador to India
David Mulford to a number of meetings. An official reception was hosted
for her by the Indian government, while she also addressed a conclave
of world leaders organized by a leading national magazine. She was
followed around by the media, not to cut a decent picture of her for
the glossies, but for her views on India-US relations, including
burgeoning economic ties, as well as her strict adherence to the
principles of free trade and outsourcing that affect India directly.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of her visit was the hour-long meeting with
Gandhi. The two women placed third (Gandhi) and fifth on the list of
the most powerful women in the world prepared by Forbes last year.
Everybody, at least in India, expects Hillary to make the dash in 2008
that would surely pitchfork her onto the top position of any list.
During her meeting with Gandhi, Hillary discussed at length the
socio-economic issues of both countries. "Both the leaders assessed the
growth of India-US ties from [Bill] Clinton's time and how far it
progressed. They have also reviewed the socio-economic situation
prevailing in the country," a statement said. "It was a nice meeting
and both enjoyed it," said an aide to the Indian prime minister
following her discussions with Manmohan. "They talked about healthcare,
education, India-US relations and South Asia. It was a wide-ranging
discussion," the aide said. Manmohan told the New York senator that the
Indian people fondly remembered the visit by her husband in March 2000.
This marked a "turning point in India-US relations", the prime minister
said, and recalled the "warm welcome your husband received" when he
addressed the Indian parliament. Clinton said her husband "greatly
enjoyed" visiting India and was deeply committed to the HIV/AIDS
program the Clinton Foundation had undertaken in this country.
Even as Hillary left India, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden issued the
clarion call that any Democrat who wants to run for president in 2008
should keep in mind these three words: Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I think
she'd be incredibly difficult to beat," Biden said on US television. "I
think she is the most difficult obstacle for anyone being the nominee.
She'd be the toughest person and I think Hillary Clinton is able to be
elected president of the United States."
It may be recalled that former president Bill Clinton enjoyed close
ties to the Indian American community during his presidency. It was he
who first actively sought to build bridges as well as cultivate the
Indian community in the US, recognizing their numbers - more than 2
million - as well as their immense money-power (read potential campaign
fund contributors) as global information technology pioneers.
India's relations with the US were by and large on the ascent under
Clinton. Post presidency, Clinton has been closely associated with the
American India Foundation and visited India in 2001, as head of an
Indian delegation to collect funds for victims of the Gujarat
earthquake. There was considerable talk at that time as well that the
Clinton visit was a well-orchestrated plan to cultivate the Indian
American community to keep them warm for Hillary if the need arose. The
2004 US elections also witnessed Indian-Americans reaching out to
Republican George W Bush as a reaction to the virulent anti-outsourcing
campaign being orchestrated by former Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry.
Further, given the strides that Indo-US relations have taken under
Bush, politically, economically and militarily, the Indian community
felt much more comfortable in maintaining this continuity. Bush has
himself indicated his pro-India proclivities by promising that he will
visit the country this year. Hillary surely does not want to lose the
momentum built by her husband and wants to arrest any decisive turn by
Indian Americans towards the Republicans.
Hillary clears outsourcing air
Hillary Clinton made it apparent where she stood on outsourcing during
her India visit, in an attempt perhaps to clear the Indian misgivings
received during the Kerry campaign. "There is no way to legislate
against reality. Outsourcing will continue," she told an audience of
Indian big-wigs. She pointed out that there were 3 billion people who
feel left behind and are trying to attack the modern world in the hope
of turning the clock back on globalization. "It is not far-fetched to
imagine ... if the Indian miracle would be the one of choice of those
who feel left behind," said Hillary.
Hillary has been at the forefront in defending free trade and
outsourcing. During the height of the anti-outsourcing backlash in the
US last year, she faced considerable flak for defending Indian software
giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for opening a center in Buffalo,
New York. "We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of
putting up fences," Hillary said firmly, despite inevitably invoking
the ire of the anti-free trade brigade.
Hillary further clarified her position during her recent visit as well
as solutions that could be beneficial to both countries. She urged
Indian industries to invest more in the US to allay negative
outpourings over outsourcing of American jobs to India. "I have to be
frank. People in my country are losing their jobs and the US
policymakers need to address this issue," she said. She ruled out that
the anti-India feeling was a reflexive reaction, and explained that the
feeling was more because of the imbalance in trade between the two
countries, which in turn caused anguish among Americans about the
nature of the economic relationship.
"In 2003, US merchandise exports to India was $5 billion, while India
exports to the US was $13.8 billion. Though the US understood that the
economic vibrancy of India was in its own interest, there are people
who feel left behind and might stir up negative feelings against India
because they do not understand the economic benefits of outsourcing,"
Clinton remarked.
"If the feeling was to be arrested, Indian companies should invest more
in the US to create a balance in trade relations," she said. Hillary
added that she had personally wooed Indian companies to establish
partnerships with American counterparts. "In June 2002, TCS partnered
with the University of Buffalo to bring patented research to the market
place. I would like to see more of such partnerships," she said.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/28/104755.shtml
Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 10:46 a.m. EST
Hillary in India: 'Outsourcing Will Continue'
In comments that may cause her trouble back home, New York Sen. Hillary
Clinton told political and business leaders in India over the weekend
that she supports outsourcing U.S. jobs to the populous South Asian
country, while acknowledging that it hurts American workers back home.
"Outsourcing will continue," Mrs. Clinton told an audience in New
Delhi, one of several stops on her Indian tour last week. "There is no
way to legislate against reality," she explained, according to quotes
reported Monday by the Asia Times. "We are not in favor of putting up
fences."
Clinton's defense of outsourcing came despite what she said was the
inevitable hardship for U.S. workers. "I have to be frank," she told
the Indian group. "People in my country are losing their jobs and the
U.S. policymakers need to address this issue."
But Mrs. Clinton sought to reassure Indian officials in the wake of
last year's U.S. presidential campaign, where the candidate she
supported, John Kerry, repeatedly blasted the Bush administration for
outsourcing jobs to countries like India.
"There are people who feel left behind and [that] might stir up
negative feelings against India because they do not understand the
economic benefits of outsourcing," The New York Democrat said, hinting
that critics like Kerry were ill-informed.
Noting that the Indian exports to the U.S. were nearly three times what
the U.S. imports to India, Clinton said the best way to remedy U.S.
economic hardship was for India to buy more American products.
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