BOSTON (IPA Service): Two weeks have passed since the much hyped second official visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the USA. The real impact of the India-US agreements is still being debated amongst diplomats and Indian diaspora. Modi was the third world leader after Francis Emmanuel Macron of France and Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea to have that honour. That President Biden has chosen to fete Modi in this way is indicative of the deep and close partnership between the two countries, the White House said in a statement, especially in the matter of foreign policy. But it is perhaps also emblematic of the growing visibility and electoral heft of the Indian American community.
New Delhi Indian Americans are a key constituency in US political battle and they play a significant role in a number of swing states; says Sara Sudhwani, a professor of politics and senior researcher of AAPI Data, which publishes demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans. With a population of nearly 5 million, Indian Americans are the second largest immigrant group and fastest growing voting – block in the US today.
On Narendra Modi’s part, he also might have shrewdly and subtly used his visit as an endorsement of his Hindu nationalist politics. The decor of the White House for the state dinner for Modi was accentuated by saffron and lotus. This was highly acclaimed by the Modi supporters in US but got flayed by many prominent politicians.
The visit has big implications for US -India relations, as president Biden seeks to shore up an alliance against Russia’s Ukraine aggression and China’s economic influence. Swirling around the pageantry of a momentous visit for Indo-US relations, seen as an affirmation of India’s rise as an economic and diplomatic power , it would be weighty questions of geopolitical alignments with regard to China’s economic influence and Russia’s military aggression, as well as the erosion of India’s secular democracy under Modi. It is assumed that Biden administration sought to draw India closer, politically, economically and militarily at the cost of muddling his oft-stated world view of a political battle between autocracy and democracy. Judging by the attention paid to Modi’s arrival and deals announced, both countries came away with winning outcomes, singularly and jointly.
For Modi, the visit is a personal and somewhat political win. He shrewdly and subtly used his visit in America as an endorsement of his Hindu nationalist politics. The decor of the White House for the state dinner for Modi was marked by saffron and lotus. He was enthralled by a jubilant Indian American community who was invited to his joint show with Biden, though a large section outside was reluctant to adore or praise his rightist politics. The state visit showed him as a powerful and accepted leader of a valued partner country.
The US also offered concrete wins. It promised to help India increase production of electric vehicles and meet its goal of installing 500 gigawatts of wind, solar and other renewable energy this decade .US memory chip firm Micron Technology will invest up to $ 825 million in a new chip assembly and test plant in Gujarat, which will be its first factory in India. On immigration, which is a thorny issue, US agreed to allow a small number of H-1B visas to renew them in the United States, without travelling abroad as before.
The US also made symbolic and material gains. In terms of symbolic wins, the United States was able to showcase its close partnership with India – a country that also shares a mutual deep anxiety about a rising China. Biden labelled Xi Jin ping, president of China, a dictator. There were also some material wins for USA. The Indian solar panel maker Vikam Solar Panel Ltd will invest up to $1.5 billion in US solar energy supply chain. India also agreed to join the US led Armenia Accords on space exploration and will work with NASA on a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024.
In a huge political win for Biden administration, India will remove retaliatory tariff imposed on US products such as chickenpeas and apples without the expectation that US will remove its own tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium imports. Most importantly, both countries scored wins in their defence and strategic partnership. US company General Electric has signed a MoU with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to produce fighter jet’s engines for Indian Air Force. Indian Defence Ministry has approved the purchase of armed MQ-9B Sea Guardian Drones made by General Atomics, which will enhance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of Indian Arms Forces.
The two countries also established a joint Indo- US quantum co-ordination mechanism and launched the Indus-X partnership to expand India’s strategic technology. India agreed to join MSP (Mineral Security Partnership) , a US led partnership with 12 other countries plus EU to create critical energy supply chain. In this way, they have announced a strategic partnership on critical and emerging technologies, which bears the acronym ICET.
As for foreign policy , US has somehow shown some kind of tolerance towards India’s stand on Russia’s aggression on Ukraine .Note that while the US and Western countries call it Russia ‘s attack/ aggression of Ukraine, India do call it Russia-Ukraine war. Earlier the USA had objected about India’s oil import from Russia, but now they somehow are reconciled to it.it. There is a large difference of opinion about the relation with Russia and it will continue to exist. Russia still remains India’s largest defence supplier and friend for a long time, but the way the China- Russia relations are growing ,India is watching it and genuinely feels worry about it .
President Biden in a news conference, called the relationship between US and India most consequential in the world while stressing that universal human rights remain vital to the success of both the countries. But as he fetes Modi and a crowd including many members of Indian diaspora broke out in chant ‘ Modi, Modi, Modi’, human rights advocates and a group of law makers are questioning the Democratic president’s decision to offer the high honour to a leader whose nine years tenure over the world’s largest democracy has seen a deep black side in political, religious and press freedom.
A group of more than 70 lawmakers wrote to Biden to raise concern about those issues. Biden officials say honouring Modi, the prime minister of India and the leader of conservative Hindu nationalist BJP is diplomacy. White House National security advisor Jack Sullivan said the president raised the concern but avoid lecturing the PM. He said ‘ the questions of democratic institutions in India are going to be determined within India by Indians’. –‘The state visit of PM Modi confirms for India that liberal or anti-democratic moves won’t in the near term change the strategic partnership’, – Washington Post article says.
But for Indian Americans, Modi’s visit reveals polarized views. House representatives Promila Jaypal, Alexandrea Occasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib boycotted Modi’s speech in the House. Promila Jaypal , an Indian born Democratic House-Rep. in a joint letter to president Biden says. ‘If India continue to backslide, I think it will effect our ability to have a really strong relationship with the country’. Indian Americans, though feel high pride for their ancestral country, many do not appreciate Modi for his human rights records. A few hundred of Indian Americans gathered at Lafayette square in front of White House to protest against the visit of Indian PM Modi to the US, chanting slogans and holding placards that read ‘save India from fascism’.
They castigated Modi over human rights violations and religious persecution. The protestors called on the US president to keep up his campaign promise of making human rights a central feature of American foreign policy. Indian Americans political attitude demonstrate that nearly three quarter of them are supporters of Democratic Party. Many of them are critical of PM Modi’s views. The diaspora in the US is split vertically in terms of support to the Indian Prime Minister’s domestic policies. According to Pew Research, 49 per cent of Indian diaspora is opposed to Modi.
‘It is a polarized space’- said Sunitha Viswanath, a co – founder of the civil rights group for human rights – ‘ On one hand you have the mainstream Hindu response, which is that Indian national leader is coming here and is being greeted by the American president with a state dinner and that put India on the International map’.’ On the other hand those in minority religion and casts oppressed in India say the visit feels as though the US is validating the structural bias their families face there in India’. ‘Inclusive secular democracy means the rights for all different religions to exist and practice freely.’- she says. The council of Americans Islamic Relations released a video and a petition opposing Modi’s visit to address a joint session of congress because of his anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh policies
The committee to protect journalists issued a statement denouncing Modi’s media crackdown and arrest of journalists since he came to power in 2014. ‘Journalists critical of the government and the BJP have been jailed, harassed and surveilled in retaliation for their work.’- CPJ president Jodie Ginsberg said in the grand statement – ‘we expect the US to make this a core element of discussions. The nation’s ranking has slipped to no.1661 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, a list compiled by Reporters without borders.
The Hindu American Foundation and the Overseas Friends of BJP didn’t response for comment. In 2019 during Modi’s trip to the US, nearly 50,000 people gathered in Houston in a rally shouting ‘howdy Modi’. But this time no such rally was organized. The educated young Indians showed no big enthusiasm in Modi’s activities though the US based Overseas friends of BJP and the Hindu organisations tried to project that the entire diaspora extended support to the Indian Prime Minister. (IPA Service)
By Debabrata Biswas