You've heard it a 100 times, India's economy will boom if we can meet our energy needs. The US has access to the two countries that have the largest oil reserves, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. So aligning with the US would still make a lot of sense. Think of the types of goverments we would have to deal with (iran, venezuela, etc) to achive our oil needs if we didn't toe the US line. It is great we debate these things or even take the moral high ground of being non-aligned but the ground reality is that the US is the pre-eminent superpower in the world and has control of most of the world's oil. India's development hinges on the free-flow and constant availabilty of various energies and until we can ensure that we will never turn the conner and become a superpower in our own right. Beside we don't have the bargaining power like China (atleast not yet) to strike it alone. For more than half a century we have stood up for the small guy, voted or abstained against measure because they were morally wrong. Maybe it's time to think about ourselves what we need and not what others think about us. Forget "India Shining", how about "India - a bit selfish and still shining"
