An alleged murder plot concerning a US-based terrorist at the hands of Indian authorities has powered a strikingly grim disruption in one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in geopolitics in this century. American pro-Democrat media outlets have been bursting with hit pieces, carefully crafted and timed to play up the rift. Meanwhile, Indians’ perception of the US as a hypocritical, duplicitous and flatly hostile power is back in the mainstream.
As Congressional Democrats storm into the fray amid election season, the Biden administration seems to be orchestrating a controlled implosion of India-US ties, a move directed at altering the perception of rising Modi-Biden bonhomie, or as many left-leaning democrats would view it— remedying it.
US President Joe Biden’s recent decision to turn down the Republic Day chief guest invitation from India points to this direction. The visit has been turned down at virtually the last moment, and to top it all, after having made the invitation public for weeks, putting India in a fix. In late September, it was the US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, who confirmed to the media that an invitation for January 26 had been made. The US purportedly sat on that invitation until revealing just six weeks prior to the event that the President was busy. This is not just a sloppy job at diplomacy but a deliberate, and perhaps calculated snub.
There is no other way to look at this except as a politically hostile move right in the run-up to the crucial parliamentary election in India in 2024. 2024 is an election year in the United States and also in India. However, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a right-leaning political powerhouse, is almost certain to breeze through into a third term, President Joe Biden, the global left’s tallest advocate, is just not there yet.
Biden’s nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate needs to come through. As it turns out, that is going to be quite an uphill task for the 81-year-old whose political heft is waning with age and was never enough on its own to tightly secure his position in the first place.
Consider this, Biden’s approval ratings are trailing behind former President Donald Trump in all of the seven swing states of the US, according to a Bloomberg Poll. Now, with his son, Hunter Biden, on a highly publicised trial, a raging undercurrent in support for former President Donald Trump and talks of manifestations of apparent senility, the American President has his work cut out to make some compromises and get all and sundry of the Democrats to rally behind him.
Biden faces veiled opposition from the more radical sections of the party and may be out to please those who for long have soured over soaring ties with India and would love to see a collapse of the same in a dramatic and public manner.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s recent hearing on ‘transnational repression’ featured talk of India alongside America’s adversaries— China, Russia and Iran. The alleged targeting of Khalistani terrorists on Western soil has been flagrantly contrived as political repression of the Sikhs. It is all the more questionable when the Khalistanis in question are reported to have received security briefings from the FBI, or that one of their clownish ringleaders— Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is the alleged target of the flimsy murder plot— is widely believed by sources in the Indian security establishment to be a CIA agent.
The Democrat senators termed the allegation as “disturbing” and one of them, Senator Chris Van Hollen even suggested putting curbs on arms exports to India, a prospect that would hollow out the defence partnership by a mile. One cannot help but view this outrage as a forced theatre by a bunch of stakeholders in American politics and the media, who lean heavily towards Pakistan for old times’ sake and of course, business purposes.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), unprincipled and mendacious as always, made sure to enter the alleged murder plot of known Khalistanis associated with drug trade, criminal activity and terror activities in India, as the targeting of Sikhs, a religious minority. It is now “deeply concerned by India’s transnational repression against religious minorities”. With the case still in court, the USCIRF has acted as a jury on its own. And this is not the first time that the USCIRF spewed deceitfully fact-free rhetoric against India.
Congressional politics is casting a shadow over the strides made by the friendlier executive. Those in the Biden administration, who have invested tremendous amounts of resources and time in solidifying a multi-dimensional bond with India, penetrating nearly all aspects of economic, defence and security cooperation, seem to have taken a backseat to allow the drama to unfold.
It also does not help that following a limited rapprochement with China last month, Washington spent last week hosting Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir who is the de facto leader of the country, signalling a thaw in ties and potentially greater economic and military aid for Islamabad.
The manufactured furore over the alleged murder plot is playing right into the hands of China— which seeks concessions from India to end the border standoff and Pakistan, which seeks to be back on the USA’s payroll.
Further, the discord between India and the US is exacerbated by the sustained American onslaught on Bangladesh’s moderate leader, Sheikh Hasina, ahead of the elections. Under the garb of restoring democracy in Bangladesh, the US is using sanctions and other measures to install Hasina’s Islamist adversaries into power— all while accepting the military’s high-handed dominance of Pakistani politics.
All this, including the disaster set loose in Afghanistan and the reckless policy of interventionism against the military junta in Myanmar through support for various rebel militant groups, have run counter to India’s security calculus, destabilising its neighbourhood which in turn threatens to spill over across its borders.
While part of the differences between the US and India oscillate between good times and bad times, others are deeply ingrained in American policies toward India and its interests. As the other half of a mature partnership, the US must shake off its politically hostile tendencies and respect India’s democracy, its sovereignty and its security interests.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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