It was probably inevitable, but it is still surprising to see how Indians are reacting to the Obama nomination.

In today's Sunday Times, Shashi Tharoor discusses Obama's nomination in the context of a political elite drawn from Harvard and Yale. Instead of complaining of elitism, he asks why India's politicians are not from similar elite institutions. The implication is that even a minority candidate in the US comes from the very best educational institutions compared to the earthier backgrounds of some of India's new generation of political elites.

Of course, Tharoor is not smart enough to realize that not everyone who goes to Harvard or Yale gets in purely on the basis of intellectual achievement. This should have been obvious to him when he discusses the current President's Harvard and Yale connections. Tharoor boasts a degree from India's prestigious St. Stephens, perhaps they should ask him to return his degree since anyone who cannot distinguish between a credential and intelligence is probably not too educated.

In another op-ed, M. Akbar uses Obama's race speech to chastise India's muslims for being "parasites". It is hard to imagine a more one sided, bizarre, and faulty reading of Obama's words.

Given that several of India's newspapers and t.v. shows are generally devoted to the daily caste, class, and communal war that characterizes elite Indian discourse, Obama will simply be used at every turn to forward the same reactionary agenda.

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