Democratic Party chairman Dr Howard Dean has challenged US President George W Bush on who between them would visit India first.
Dean was the opening headliner at the 23rd annual convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, arguably the largest and most influential international medical group in the US.
In a brief interaction with reporters after delivering his keynote speech to AAPI members gathered at the Hilton Houston Americas Hotel, Dean, who was asked if the President should be visiting India soon since he had not done so in his first term, said: "I am going to India soon, (and) let's see who gets there first."
The former governor of Vermont and erstwhile presidential candidate, described the United States' relationship with India as 'extraordinarily important, particularly as India has really changed.'
"What is going on in India in so many ways has changed the American relationship more than the Americans have done," he argued.
While acknowledging that President Clinton gets an enormous amount of credit for going to India (in March 2000, which many say led to the transformation of US-India relations), Dean said the changes in India under the United Progressive Alliance have been extraordinary.
Elaborating, he said: "In India, you are allowed to join free trade unions that are independent of the employer -- that's something that doesn't happen, in many other countries.
"So we are close to fair trade with India than we are for example, to fair trade with China or other countries and that's contributed to the increasing closeness of the relationship between the US and India," he added.
"I have always said that we got to have fair trade, which means even-handed laws from country to country and that means, protecting workers rights, protecting environment rights, in every country," Dean said, adding, "World trade ought to be not just good for multinationals -- it needs to be good for people who work."
Dean said his rationale for being at an Indian physicians conference was because 'we have very strong support from the Indian American community. "In some sense, it symbolizes the willingness of the Democratic Party to reach out to different groups who make up our party and respect their traditions, instead of just asking them to respect ours," he said.
