New Delhi, November 07, 2008. The Institute of Objective Studies has written the following letter to the President-elect United States of America, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama.

Mr. Barack Hussein Obama
President-elect
United States of America

Sir,

Congratulations on your spectacular victory in the US presidential elections. Your victory ushers in a new era in America's internal evolution as a democracy and a racially integrated society. With your victory the dream of a fair, even-handed American society has begun to come true. Yes, your country has travelled impressively far from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Sir, you know that your country is so vital for the rest of humanity that if America sneezes the rest of the world catches cold. Your people decide to spend less and send their economy into a tail spin, which sets the world economy into a downward spiral. The bad health of your economy is a matter of concern for the rest of us for reasons you very well know. That's why when your country voted you to power with the hope that you would pull the country out of the economic morass, the rest of the world too had hope for getting their countries out of economic trouble.

At this moment there are quite a few concerns of the US citizenry that coincide with the larger humanity's worries. The world, especially the Muslim world, is deeply disturbed over the US-led war in Afghanistan and Iraq. All of us know that Iraq was invaded on the pretext of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The whole world saw America lying through its teeth and sustaining a vicious war to make that lie look and sound like truth.

Since the war began nearly half a million people have perished in Iraq, all deaths being related either directly to this war or to some consequences of it. Your country know as well as anyone else that this war is unsustainable. One reason for your victory is that American voters do not want an unjust, unfair and unaffordable war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was rightly pointed out during the poll campaign that voting for Senator McCain would amount to allowing Mr. Bush a third term in the White House. Mr. McCain's stance on the present war being the same as that of Mr. Bush, it was only natural for Americans to opt for the change that you represent. It is only natural to expect America to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and allow those battered countries to heal themselves.

We, Indians, rejoice in the prospect of growing Indo-US relations which should flourish during your presidency. We hope to see a more prosperous, peaceful Subcontinent in the coming years and deepening multilateral cooperation.

As we look forward to an early end of the global economic downturn we are especially worried about the stagnation on the Palestinian statehood front. Repeated American assurances of a Palestinian state coming up in the first term of your predecessor turned out to be unreal. Then a similar promise was made virtually every year of the second term. The last such promise said a Palestinian state would be a reality before 2008 end. That too turned out to be a red herring. The frustration among Arabs and other Muslims over the wild goose chase is enormous.

An Obama White House, we hope and pray, would address these issues and pull America and the world out of the present distress.

With regards,

Yours Sincerely

Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam
Chairman
Institute of Objective Studies
New Delhi (INDIA)