http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/03/151200Here's a portion of the transcript from Democracy Now. It seems that the Indian government couldn't find safe place for Bush, nor one where he wouldn't get heckled (such as the Parliament), so they decided to have him speak in front of the zoo. Also, it appears that Bush arrived at India's most expensive hotel with at least 16 guard dogs in tow:
ARUNDHATI ROY: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It's great to have you with us. Your response to President Bush's visit.
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, I must say that it's been one of the weirdest times I’ve lived through, because on the streets, you have these hundreds of thousands of people protesting, and you have -- we have a government that’s been so obsequious that it makes your skin crawl, and we have stories in the corporate press in India which are unbelievable about how Bush arrived with 16 dogs that are staying in a five-star hotel and are not to be referred to as dogs, because they're actually officers of the U.S. Army. We have stories about, you know -- the front-page story today in the major newspaper is about Laura Bush shooting with Boombah the bear and Aanchoo and Chamki, and the front-page story is why Bush missed his dessert at the banquet, and this whole nuclear deal, obviously, which sounds to me a bit like, you know, some -- I mean, I hate to be so rude, but it sounds like sort of like pimps negotiating how somebody should act with their client. You know, you can sort of
the girl, but you can't kiss her, because it’s -- and it's all theater, you know? The whole thing about what – whether the fast breeder reactor will be included or not, and so on, because everybody knew that there was no other way but this. And really, it’s a cover for all sorts of other deals that are being signed.
And yesterday on the streets, while I was there, there were, you know, 53 widows, from my state of Kerala, of farmers who have committed suicide because of the closing net of debt around them. Tens of thousands of farmers have committed suicide. And yet, you know, he arrived here with these corporates like ADS and Cogentrix and Unocal. All of them have such dubious records. It's really unbelievable, and yet if you see the way the CEOs and the corporates are falling over him -- and I have to mention this, that they couldn't find a public space in India for Bush to speak, so he ended up -- the meeting was organized in the Delhi zoo, in the walls of the Purana Qila, which houses the Delhi zoo, where he was going to speak to some rich people and some corporate people. But because the Parliament refused to have him there, the Red Fort was surrounded by, you know, a Muslim population. It was too dangerous. Vigyan Bhawan was rejected as being not good enough for him, so -- and you have today, American soldiers on our streets preventing my friends from going into their own homes because Laura Bush is going to drive past to have pictures taken with some orphans. It's just unbelievable, you know. The whole city is shut down. I can hear helicopters flying around over my head.
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