President Barack Obama throws rose
petals as he participates in a wreath
-laying ceremony at the Raj Ghat
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial on
Sunday in New Delhi.

In today’s newspaper there is a picture of President Obama throwing rose petals on the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial site in New Delhi on Sunday. The headline of the article reads “U.S., India strike nuke plants deal.” President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a deal Sunday to clear the way for American companies to help build India’s nuclear energy power plants.

I realize President Obama is the first President in over 30 years to build a new bomb plant, in fact three of them, and that India is Nuclear Bomb country. To make matters worse, or more obvious, President Obama and the Prime Minister of India attended Constitution/Republic day parade. Here is what a friend of mine had to say about this parade in 2011 on his Pilgrimage of Peace in 2011. “Wow! I saw the parade of parades on Wednesday, a National Holiday. It is India’s Constitution/Republic day (Jan.26 1950)! The parade started about 10:30 and went till 12. Here you go. Each aspect of the defense of India was represented. India, despite all its poverty, spends one/third of its entire budget on the military. They are fearful of both Pakistan and China. Tremendous security! No cameras -everyone is searched on the way to the parade twice. I had a camera which I gave to a condo parking lot attendant before the last checkpoint. He had it for me after the parade.” At India Republic Day Parade you can see some pictures of the parade. My friend was told that “the parade is a statement about the power of the Indian military as well as the integration of diversity among its ranks.”

Although Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India independence was assassinated in 1948, at the beginning of the ‘nuclear age’, he did make clear his absolute disdain for the atom bomb and the science that was part of it. “I regard the employment of the atom bomb for the wholesale destruction of men, women and children as the most diabolical use of science.” His view of the power of nonviolence as opposed to military force is quite clear. “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”

The President of USA and Prime Minister reach an agreement about US developing nuclear energy in India and then, after paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, go off and watch one of the greatest displays of military power at a parade celebrating India’s independence that was won with nonviolent power Gandhi not with military power. What is wrong with this picture? A friend of mine, a leader of Gandhi nonviolent movement in India, told me once that people of India honor Gandhi but ignore his principles of life, like nonviolence.

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