Indian Americans Welcome Obama Presidency

To the utter disbelief of millions, in less than half a century after the civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King— who was inspired by Mohandas Gandhi— delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Barack Hussain Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. Placing his left hand on President Lincoln’s Bible, Obama, 47, was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts.

Nearly two million people from across the world came, braving the sub-freezing temperatures, to be part of and witness the historic inauguration of Brack Obama at 11.56 am on January 20, 2009 at the National Mall in Washington.

They went there not as white, black, or colored but they were present as members of the larger humanity, witnessing the swearing-in-ceremony of the first ever black-President of the United States, filing in the three-kilometer-long grassy strip from the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

People waved their hands in the air and pumped their fists, chanting “O-ba-ma!”

As he took the oath of office, a thunderous cheer went up from the people watching in the public areas and the many more who watched the historic event from their homes and work places. .

In his acceptance speech soon after he was sworn in as the President of the United States, Barack Obama gave hope to millions of people in the United States and across the world about reviving the economy. He said bold and swift action would be taken to get the economy on track. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.” He said economic “greed and irresponsibility” had led to the crisis and promised swift and bold action to put the US economy on track.

The local residents in New Jersey made the most of the celebrations in their own backyard by singing, dancing and drinking to celebrate Obama’s ascendancy. Nearly a thousand people including New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Indian Consul General Prabhu Dayal attended the event held at the Holiday Inn at Raritan Center. 

In his speech Indian Consul General Dayal termed this day as `historic’. “Our hearts are filled with joy and hope of an unblemished relationship between the world’s largest and oldest democracies”, he said adding “ like India, the United States was also multi-lingual, multi-religion and also faced similar problems of recession, job loss and above all terrorism.”

The Consul General, while raising the Mumbai blast issue, said, “the attacks were not only done by our enemies, they were undertaken by your enemies too. It is time for all of us to jointly take up this challenge and fight it together so that the world was a better place to live in.”

Governor Corzine, in his address to the crowd said “this was a joyous occasion for us. The Change has come, though late and it was for us to cherish this change”. He called upon the people to strengthen the hands of the President to overcome the troubled times that we were passing through”.

According to reports, as the business leaders in India hailed Obama’s swearing in as US President, they gave vent to their concerns over the possibility of the new American administration making the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal contingent on New Delhi signing the test-ban treaty. The Indian industry expects President Barack Obama to remain committed to the Indo- US nuclear deal and is hoping the new American administration will not create roadblocks for outsourcing, which is more helpful to the US firms than businesses in India.

While the industry here, like rest of the world, hopes the Obama team to revive the moribund US economy, apprehensions were also raised over the possible moves against outsourcing of businesses of which India has been among the main beneficiaries.

“We expect Obama’s continued support to the Indo-US nuclear deal. We are hopeful that Obama would take steps to ensure continuity of the 123-agreement and give shape to commercialization of the agreement,” FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra said.