Skeptical and cynical minds without fail express doubts about the truthfulness of my claim as to the use by Barack Obama of my book First Lady President to win the American presidency in 2008. They think that Obama is too prominent a man to take advice from an unknown Indian author. They ask me: How can you claim this? What is the evidence? 
In the face of these queries, I do realize my own limitations. I cannot change their perspectives, any more than I can change the lenses of their eyes. But they unhesitatingly pose these queries without regard for my limitations in extracting such a statement from Obama -- the president of the United States – as well as the practical political difficulties of Obama himself making such as statement even if he wanted to do so. .After all, he could not have won the American presidency were he that naïve or immature. However, I have unfailingly fielded such apprehensions and questions positively and with good cheer.  
There are countless skeptical minds to whom you can present any hard evidence, and they will always, invariably and instantly, come up with a quip of their own: “I don’t believe it “ or “it does not constitute “evidence” like Pakistan has been doing in respect to the evidence presented by India about the Mumbai attack and about Qasaab the killer.  But in order to alleviate reasonable doubts and to satisfy reasonable minds who are ready to think positively, I have worked out the following points of strong evidence to prove that Obama in fact DID use my book First Lady President to clinch the presidency. This is not a mere unfounded hypothesis, but a claim based upon the following solid, factual, irresistible, and irrefutable intellectual points. 
 
1. Without defeating Hillary Clinton in the primaries, Barack Obama could not have become president in 2008. He could have become vice president, but not the president. Hillary was considered almost a foregone nominee and a potential future president at the start of the primary campaign. 

2. The most decisive, the single most vital point, and the heart of the matter in Obama’s defeat of Hillary, was the war point. The Iraq war point. Obama represented himself as the “anti-war” candidate and Hillary as the “pro-war” candidate, and proved it by citing the vote by Hillary in the Senate in favor of the Iraq war resolution and his opposing speeches as a “non-senator.” He defeated her in the very first primary in Iowa; thus,quite unexpectedly, he had an upper hand right at the beginning of the primary campaign which he did not allow to come down by repeating and hammering this point at every gathering in every following state .And the record showed that no candidate could ever win the presidency without winning the Iowa primary. This had a highly upsetting impact  on the morale of Hillary and her supporters. This very first victory of Obama, who was considered nothing more than a “dummy” candidate, boosted his morale and that of his supporters to an immeasurable extent, thus serving to raise their hopes and inspire them towards eventual victory in the race. Suddenly, by one single blow, Obama had become a formidable challenger. 

3.This anti-war idea was given in the form of a full-length speech in the book. This was precisely what the African American man -- the vice presidential pick -- proved through the speech given in the book in respect to its chief female character while projecting her Republican opponent as pro-war.. It did presumably impress and inspire Barack Obama in the real world. Why not, he must have thought, use it throughout the campaign to win the presidency? Instead of playing second fiddle to the female candidate in the primaries and depending upon her mercy for being her pick, why not to use the argument to defeat her  in the primaries in order to clinch the nomination instead and himself become the president? And he succeeded in doing so.  
Not only this , all indications are that this anti-war speech of the African American man as given in the book had tremendous impact upon the mind of the “reader” Barack Obama, serving as a guideline to his  behavior in policy matters following his occupation of the oval office And so he adopted the policy of restraint, moderation, tolerance, patience and respect for others (which is the crux of the speech) in his own behavior at the White House in shaping his foreign policy, thus leading him to win the Nobel Prize for peace. In the story of the book as well, the speech become famous as a “doctrine” named after the African American man, and was adopted as a cornerstone policy of succeeding administrations. Obama adopted these traits for his own administration, in precisely the same way as he adopted the speech itself to bring down Hillary Clinton. 

4. The speech was given in one of the most important chapters about the “convention and nomination,” where the nominees outline their “future policies.” 

5. This was the speech of the African American man in the book. 

6. This was the only speech of the African American man in the entire book; hence is would have been natural for it to have caught the eye of Obama himself, also an African American man. 

7. It was the longest speech of the book. 

8. This speech was immediately followed by another speech by the female presidential candidate, based upon the theme of CHANGE, which Obama also adopted for himself (indeed making it the main slogan of his campaign) and which also proved to be most effective and decisive. The theme of “change” was clarified by highlighting the climax of the speech when she said :
“If I return to the White House, it will not be a mere CHANGE of the gender of the officeholder. It will be a genuine CHANGE in the quality of  life of the American people.” 

9.Both the above points were given as part of the same chapter. Both were not given separately at different places in the book, but both were together in one place, one after the other, as part of the convention and the nomination process.  

10. He also used another portion of the “antiwar” speech for issuing a major but controversial foreign policy statement. He said that he would negotiate with Iran, Syria, and North Korea “without any preconditions.”  

11. That portion was ‘highlighted one’ in the book and was  ‘the longest highlighted portion’ of the entire book . It reads as follows: 

“If we can be  ‘friendly’ with Libya without a regime change, why can’t we be friendly with Syria? If we can well put up with Saudi Arabia with its fanatic leanings and reliance upon an ancient style of autocracy and be their ‘ally,’ why can’t we then put up with the fanatics of Iran? Why can’t we be at least ‘friendly’ to them if not allies? Or at least avoid dealing with them as ‘enemies.’” It further says, (without bold letters) “We should take  diplomatic initiatives to rectify the situation in respect to all these regions-so called ‘axis of evil’ members including North Korea.” 

12. Nomination is the most important process (step) before the general election in a presidential race, particularly for an aspiring candidate . Both of the above points contained in the form of two speeches were the part of the chapter on the nomination. Even if Obama just flipped through the book, this specific chapter must have caught his keen eye and he must have gone through the chapter and, consciously or unconsciously, noted and filed both these points in his mind for later use. 

13. The war issue was the most  frequently and most specifically mentioned and discussed point in the book as a whole. It was mentioned as a part of many other chapters in one form or another, including the live TV debate, Larry King Live interview, and the print media interviews of both candidates.  

14. A copy of this book was sent to Obama. 

15. It was sent to him at the beginning of his campaign, when the whole of his strategy was yet to be formed and executed. 

16. It was sent to him by registered post --and was not returned (the postal receipt is in my possession), which means that it was definitely delivered to Senator Obama’s Senate office. 

17. Once delivered to his office, the very title of the book should have compelled his staff to put it before him and would have prompted him to personally read it. It is impossible that he or his staff could ignore it or could throw such a relevant book –the only one in the world of its kind-- in the garbage. The very title would invoke such interest and curiosity. 

18. Once the president started reading, it would be next to impossible for the above points to miss his sight in view of his strong intelligence. The highlighted portions would have caught his eye immediately on turning the given pages.
 
19. He issued another foreign policy statement about sending american forces into Pakistan based upon his deeper study of the chapter (General Hergej Khurapati) where the collusion between the Pakistani army, ISI and the terrorists had been thoroughly exposed. It was laboriously explained therein why the Pakistani army was and would always be reluctant to fight the terrorists.
 
20. Obama is an intelligent man.  He has lived in Asia and visited India and other countries of Asia. He realizes that Asian minds are not inferior in any sense to American or European ones, that they can indeed evoke something ingenius, novel, and USEFUL.  Why not to go through the book and pick up useful points for his own benefit? 

21.He picked up many other points from the book  and used them in the campaign which anyone can find through proper research of his speeches and of the contents of the book. 

22. Being an attorney and having lived in Asia, having visited Asian countries, and having been in contact with Asian people in the USA,  Barack Obama knew well about the struggles of Asian authors, specifically the little known ones, to raise the point of and make an issue of intellectual property infringement against anyone using a portion of their books. He knew that nobody cared in Asia about this matter. There were mass infringements of intellectual property rights without any fuss at all either on the part of their creators -- the owners of the property rights -- or on the part of the media seeking  to highlight such infringements. American or western authors or the western media, on the contrary, could raise hell out of it if they had the slightest scent of it. They or the media on such a discovery could even bring down a politician, as someone did some time back in respect to a labor leader in the UK. Obama knew that Indian writers, especially the little known ones, are not as awakened and  conscious toward their copyrights, and they might well take it as a stroke of good luck if someone used a portion of it . At least he had never heard this name—Inder Dan Ratnu -- among the literary circles. He therefore could safely use a portion of his book without fear of being dragged into court, or any other fear of any other kind. He knew that being resourceless, an Indian writer would feel powerless and helpless even if he discovered it . By contrast, an American writer could raise hell and demand  millions of dollars in compensation for the infringement of his/her intellectual property rights. An Indian author back in India would have neither the caliber nor  the will power to detect such a use, much less to make a follow up to prove it, guessed Obama. And it was only concerning this last point that Obama made a grave error and a gross under-estimation. I not only had immediately traced his use of my book back in the primaries, at the end of which I made a rudimentary video recording about it in New York and posted it then on YouTube, but  also I do intend to carry it to any extent to prove my point . 

23. For the inspiration about  the “adoption” technique, Barack Obama did not have to go very far. He got it in the very opening paragraph of the same chapter of this very book itself . He adopted the war speech for himself precisely the same way that the character Beverly Hilton adopted the speech of the African American man for her benefit in the post-convention and post-nomination election campaignspeeches. Not only this but she also, in a way, ”adopted” the man himself into her fold by picking up him as her vice-presidential running mate. Obama thought that if the fictional Beverly Hilton could adopt a point offered by a challenger in the primaries, then why could not he adopt the same point given in the same novel for himself in the real world for his own benefit? And he did it without any hesitation at all. As for adopting Hillary Clinton onto his team, he thought, he would work that out later depending upon the circumstances. And even this part he did with only a slight variation. He inserted Hillary into the team in his administration instead and awarded her the number three slot of Secretary of State. For his easier victory in the election, he did take care to ensure her full cooperation during the election without making her the teammate for the number two slot.precisely as Beverly Hilton did by making the African American man the running mate. 

24. The very cover page with the American flag at the top, the White House at the center, and the Statue of Liberty at the bottom, suggested it was an American story about an American president. If it was not enough then the word “president" in the title should have given the foolproof evidence. The word "lady" should have created an extra dimension to the intensifying curiosity in the mind of Mr. Obama once he took the book into his hands for the first time. The double effect given to the simple title of First Lady President through color, placement of words, and size of letters in order to sound it First Lady PRESIDENT  and  first LADY PRESIDENT  should have pricked the curious mind of Mr, Obama, the intelligent reader, and should have become a cause of worry. As if it was all not enough as a pointer, on turning the back page the very first paragraph should have  brought to life with dazzling brightness all the bulbs of curiosity in the mind of  Mr. Obama. 

"Author Inder Dan Ratnu's third novel, First Lady President, is the story of a controversial American First Lady  and powerful US senator's quest for the sole political prize that eluded her ambitious grasp: presidency of the United States."  
At this point Obama’s curiosity meter should have climbed to an unusual height and would have sent the bells of his mind ringing  when  below the image of a pink-colored honeycomb- like  stone structure – the”Hawa Mahal ,” an historic landmark of Jaipur, the pink city of India -- he found the following further description on the back page:  
“First Lady President is an intellectual Hawa Mahal (virtually a “Palace in Air”) constructed by a literary architect –a resident writer of Pink City, Inder Dan Ratnu in the year 2003, and it is meant for both the ladies and gents of the entire world to enable them to have a peep into the near future of the United States, specifically to view a sort of procession – a US presidential election –its outcome and its unusual celebration.”  

Then, while turning the book's inside pages, the similarity in the sound of the name of the chief female character, Beverly Hilton and that she was a senator from New York should have left no doubt in his mind, despite the book being a work of fiction, as to whom it was pointing towards -- clearly towards Hillary Clinton -- who was poised to be the next president -- the greatest stumbling block on Barack Obama’s ambitious way to the presidency -- it should have robbed the sleep out of his eyes altogether, prompting him to personally read the full book. It was next to impossible that he would venture to ignore such a relevant book. 

25. Last but not least, the very name of the person who made the anti-war speech --“Charak Sudama” -- must have caught the  eye of Barack Obama with a sense of wonderment without fail, since it sounded so similar to his own, and since the book was written long before he announced his candidacy. Then that Sudama was , like himself, an African American man and a ‘senator from Illinois, should have astonished him and captured his attention completely. It is next to impossible that he ignored such a resemblance with his own background. The very opening para of the chapter must have prompted Obama to read the full speech. The opening  para was: 

     “At the Democratic convention, which lasted for 3 days, the speech that caught the attention of everyone was the one delivered by Senator Charak Sudama of Illinois - an African American gentleman who had thrown a serious challenge to Beverly Hilton in the primaries. His younger looks, the style of his delivery and his arguments were so effective that they had captured the imagination of the entire audience, including that of Beverly Hilton. He focused most of his speech upon war issue specifically Chirag war and related policy. It made such an impact upon the mind of Mrs. Hilton that she decided there and then to ‘adopt’ the most of his arguments in the coming up campaign and also decided to make him her vice - presidential running mate. He had also displayed exceptional eloquence in highlighting the good points of Mrs. Hilton and her character. She liked it very much. His speech became very famous in due course and media called it ‘Sudama doctrine.’ It became so renowned it was adopted as a corner stone policy by succeeding US administrations. Therefore, this speech became an important milestone in US history. He began by touching on a proposition that he knew would be acceptable to most of the audience present at the convention hall. He said:”  [THE  ‘ANTI-WAR’ SPEECH FOLLOWED.]  
 
(The above points might sound at places to be overlapping each other or at other places repetitive. But in fact it they are neither. Each one is an independent point and can be easily discerned from every other mentioned therein on being keenly examined. The distinction is subtle, and it has been made by emphasizing the portions through highlighting the words.)  
 
If I had not sent the copy to Obama my claim would definitely be ridiculous. If I had not included the "anti-war" themed speech in the book, then again my claim would be ridiculous. If Obama had not used this argument to bring down Hillary, then also my claim would be ridiculous, and last but not least, if this point (argument) had not proven as effective and decisive as it did in bringing down  Hillary vis-a-vis Obama, then also my claim of Obama having used my book would be ridiculous.  

But all these things DID happen. Hence it is not ridiculous. It is a truthful, genuine, and factual claim. 

It is not that it takes armies or tanks and fighter bombers to note a point in one’s mind while reading a book and file it in the memory for later use. It does, however, take an alert, counselor/writer’s mind to note such a poi,nt which Obama in fact has. Therefore he did it, and later used it in his own way, expanding it at free will through his extraordinary oratory skills. There is nothing to be disbelieved about it. Nothing incredible about it either .Just good,  common sense. It could have happened, and it has happened.  
People generally say: Oh Obama is such a talented man! How could he use a book written by an Asian, a “foreign,” writer? How come he needed an Asian writer to suggest these things to him? Doesn’t he have a brain of his own? My argument to counter this is that Obama used it precisely because he is a “talented man.” He did it because he does have brains of his own. There was no question of “need” or otherwise. It was not a big deal. He went through the book out of curiosity, just like any other reader, and noted these points in his memory like  any  other  intelligent, analytical, and alert mind  would do. There is nothing unbelievable, incredulous, or even incredible about it. An arrogant or foolish person would simply have ignored it and not taken the trouble to go through it, and would not be able to discern the chaff from the grain, much less “use” it. But Obama did it all, simply because he was a talented man, because he did have the brains to do it. He did not mind the source of the useful argument whether “foreign” or “American.” This was his greatness. 
In spite of Obama’s not having admitted the use or having acknowledged even  the receipt of the book, the above points do point in the direction of Obama’s  having used the book, which one can realize only through deeper study of his life, his campaign, and the contents of the book. They are not  
“imaginary” points. They are real ones. They do constitute “evidence.” They are indeed undeniable, irresistible, and irrefutable points. To say that  all the above points are just coincidence would amount to being blind, or would amount to a complete folly of the first order. 

Inder Dan Ratnu
Author
Email : ratnuv@gmail.com
www.firstladypresident.in