By Nilova Roy Chaudhury (Hindustan Times)

New Delhi: Jeb Bush on Saturday pushed for closer ties between India and the US, and proposed to set goals, which he described as ‘B.H.A.G” or “big, hairy, ambitious goals”, to promote relations between the two countries.

The former governor of Florida told the HT Leadership Summit his formula for improving ties rested on “three cornerstones” — encouraging entrepreneurial enterprise, commitment to enhancing the goals of democracy worldwide and raising education standards to boost the knowledge economy, so that “children gain the power of knowledge”.

It was also important, he said, for both countries to develop energy security, particularly for India to sustain its economic growth. Speaking “strictly as a private citizen”, Bush said he hoped the India-US civil nuclear energy deal would work out because it was “good for India, good for the US and good for the world”.

He spoke at length about life after politics and as the brother of US President George W. Bush. Life after politics was hard and he was still finding his way as a consultant, but he envied former vice-president Al Gore, who won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar after he left politics.

It is also tough when you are the brother of the President of the United States, said Bush, declining to answer a question on whether he would have acted differently in Iraq. “I don’t want to give people back home immense joy by publicly disagreeing with my brother,” he said.

Later, Bush said he didn’t think his brother had acted wrongly, nor had he spoilt the legacy of their father, former President George Bush, by attacking Iraq. “The best measure will be history… Historians will treat them differently and 20 years later, people will have a different view,” he said. “The world will be a better place by encouraging democracies across the world."

Asked why the US felt the need to impose democracy on countries far away from it, he said, “We are not imposing our views, but by promoting democracy, we are allowing people to have views. But for the US, who’d support the monks in Burma, or promote democracy in North Korea and Pakistan?”

On whether US action in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11 had enhanced security for Americans, he said, “Yes. Homeland security has made sure America and Americans are safer now.”

Bush said he had no presidential ambitions for the 2008 elections. He agreed with an American who asked him why Americans had become defensive and needed to recall the values for which America is known, adding that he was “tired of being held responsible for actions over which we have no control”.

Email: nchaudhury@hindustantimes.com