Republicans pitch for building up partnership with India

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, Sept 2 (PTI) Bidding for a fresh White House
term, Republicans at their National Convention have
emphasised on continuing build up of an enduring partnership
with India, including the U.S.-India civil nuclear accord,
championed by President George Bush.

The thrust of the Republicans to build on the partnership
with India came out in the party's Platform for 2008, which
was unveiled at a scaled-down of a normally boisterous opening
day of the party convention at Minnesota.

The party also placed on record its shared commitment
with India to political freedom and in the war against terror.

"Representative government can be the foundation for an
enduring partnership" between the two countries, the Platform
said.

Scaling down of the opening of the Convention was in
deference to Americans caught in Hurricane Gustav. While the
opening day of the Convention was shorn-off political
rhetoric, officials said that normal convention activities
would be resumed today with a keynote address by New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The party's White House contender John McCain is likely
to deliver his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday as
scheduled. White House officials have held out possibility of
President George Bush could make a televised address to the
Convention from Washington.

But sources said that Bush's speech appeared to rest with
McCain campaign, which has tried to distance the Arizona
senator from the President.

The opening session was barely two-and-a-half hours long
and began with adoption of a party platform, a document that
largely sidestepped the national debate about the Iraq War.

"The waging of war, and the achieving of peace, should
never be micromanaged in a party platform. In dealing with
present conflicts or future crises, our next president must
preserve all options," the G.O.P. has maintained.

And unlike the expansive comments the 2004 Platform had
on India, this time the Party was succinct and to the point,
but did not missed the larger aspects of the bilateral
relationship between the United States and India.

The platform also calls for a constitutional amendment
banning abortion, the deportation of illegal immigrants
convicted of gang crimes and no new taxes.

Though the President did not make an appearance at the
Convention, instead the First Lady Laura Bush and her would be
successor Cindy McCain provided the night's star power
appealing to delegates to open their wallets for relief for
Gustav victims.

The Republican Convention is also taking place at a time
when the McCain-Palin ticket is under tremendous pressure from
liberal quarters with news surfacing that Governor Sarah
Palin's 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant and
unmarried at that.

But even before this news hit the air waves Laura Bush
warned that stepping on sexism by picking on Governor Palin is
going to be a risky business.

"Do you think she'll face the sexism from the media and
from the general public that the Hillary Clinton people said
that they faced?" the First Lady was asked on Fox News.