Categories
Politics

US Presidents on Indian PMs

Obama effusively praised Modi in a recent article in Time magazine:

Am reminded how Nixon/Kissinger called Indira Gandhi a bitch and a witch in 1971 just before the Bangladesh war

Conversation Among President Nixon, the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), and the President’s Chief of Staff (Haldeman), Washington, November 5, 1971, 8:15-9:00 a.m.

Nixon: This is just the point when she [Indira Gandhi] is a bitch.

Kissinger: Well, the Indians are bastards anyway. They are starting a war there. It’s—to them East Pakistan is no longer the issue. Now, I found it very interesting how she carried on to you yesterday about West Pakistan.

Nixon: I think I’ll make the meeting today a rather brief—cool. [unclear] I don’t mean by that cool in terms of not trying to bring up [unclear] I’ll talk to her a little about Vietnam, and–

Kissinger: I’d let her talk a little more, maybe today—

Nixon: Yeah?

Kissinger: —to be a little less forthcoming. But basically, Mr. President—

Nixon: So I was trying to give her no excuses. Now I’ve talked to her, told her everything we’re going to do. Now it’s up to her.

Kissinger: While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too. You very subtly—I mean, she will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn’t give her a warm reception and therefore, in despair, she’s got to go to war.

Nixon: Yeah.

Kissinger: So her objective—she has a right to be a little sore because you thwarted her objective. She would rather have had you give her a cool reception—

Nixon: That’s right.

Kissinger: —so that she could say that she was really put upon.

Nixon: Oh, we really—

Kissinger: And—

Nixon: We really slobbered over the old witch.

Categories
Links

Weekend Mega Linkfest: April 17,2015

Some off beat reads for the weekend:

Rahul Bhatia: High Flier (Open)

Subhash Runwal:Building a 1 Billion $ fortune (Forbes)

Why ITC and L&T’s CEOs are loath to leave (Outlook)

How vague prose can muddle court rulings (Caravan)

Why BJP bhakts love to hate NDTV (Newslaundry)

Kerala:The crises within the CPI (M) (Socialism)

In Pictures:Arun Jaitley doing things (Unreal Times)

Travelogue:Mukutmanipur (TeamBHP)

Obama’s failed Afghan peace strategy (Brahma Chellaney)

The Vietnam War, as seen by the Victors (Atlantic)

The gold rush at the top of the world (New Yorker)

How Obama abandoned Iraq (Slate)

How to end India’s tax terrorism (Bloomberg)

Elan – The first Hindi film to have invisibility device (JaiArjun)

Knuckle cracking mystery solved (Independent)

Categories
Image

Vijay Mallya’s personal plane sold as scrap

Oh…what a fall !!

Source:Mid-Day

Categories
Chart

Chart: India pulls ahead of China

Source:Bloomberg

Categories
Links

Linkfest:April 15,2015

Some stuff I am reading today morning:

Passive funds dominate India’s FII flows (BS)

European banks now pay borrowers ! (WSJ)

How Vijay Mallya tipped the scales in the MCFL takeover battle (Mint)

The trouble with Mutual Fund Star ratings (FreeFinCal)

Warren Buffett on the stock market,circa 1999 (Charles)

Commodity crash is 2nd worst in four decades (Short Side of Long)

Should,must and Apple’s little details (Om Malik)

The markets are on fire now in these 3 countries (Daily Reckoning)

The Small Cap Premium: Where is the beef? (Aswath Damodaran)

Larry Fink’s letter to CEOs (BI)