Indo-US relations: The battle for influence between Rahul and Modi
In 1874, King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands, visited the United States on a 91-day state visit to see the reciprocity in policies toward each other. Those were early days for the new nation when America may have been considered a large island, but its influence was limited to its vast landmass, as it took a long time to travel from one end to the other. Now state guests don’t come to America for long. They come and go. Some may leave an impression, and some may not, but the US state visit was actively sought.
In the past, when communication was limited, heads of state from India and other countries used to visit the US once in a while. America was considered so powerful that it was believed in diplomatic circles that those who could not move to America would not last long as heads of state.
Narendra Modi certainly subscribes to this view, and that is why he wants to visit the US frequently. Unfazed by the fact that he was barred from entering the US after the Gujarat riots, he managed to overcome the challenge of becoming Prime Minister.
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We’re a small, dedicated team at The Probe, committed to deep, slow journalism that dives deeper than the daily headlines. We cannot continue our important work without your support. Please consider contributing to our social impact projects: support us or become a research member. Even your small contribution will help keep our journalism alive.
Since becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, he has completed his 9th visit to Washington. Although he is considered the most pro-US prime minister, he is weighed down by India’s historic commitment to non-alignment, which has been rebranded as “strategic autonomy”.
Indo-US relations: The battle for influence between Rahul and Modi
In 1874, King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands, visited the United States on a 91-day state visit to see the reciprocity in policies toward each other. Those were early days for the new nation when America may have been considered a large island, but its influence was limited to its vast landmass, as it took a long time to travel from one end to the other. Now state guests don’t come to America for long. They come and go. Some may leave an impression, and some may not, but the US state visit was actively sought.
In the past, when communication was limited, heads of state from India and other countries used to visit the US once in a while. America was considered so powerful that it was believed in diplomatic circles that those who could not move to America would not last long as heads of state.
Narendra Modi certainly subscribes to this view, and that is why he wants to visit the US frequently. Unfazed by the fact that he was barred from entering the US after the Gujarat riots, he managed to overcome the challenge of becoming Prime Minister.
Our request to you: keep our journalism alive
We’re a small, dedicated team at The Probe, committed to deep, slow journalism that dives deeper than the daily headlines. We cannot continue our important work without your support. Please consider contributing to our social impact projects: support us or become a research member. Even your small contribution will help keep our journalism alive.
Since becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, he has completed his 9th visit to Washington. Although he is considered the most pro-US prime minister, he is weighed down by India’s historic commitment to non-alignment, which the current BJP government has rebranded as “strategic autonomy”. To his credit, PM Modi has been under pressure from Washington to abandon India’s traditional friendship with Russia, but no one in Washington thinks of him as anything but a close ally.
During the 80s when Narendra Modi was gaining momentum as a youth leader of the BJP, he went on a long tour of the US under the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). After that, he traveled to the US several times and leveraged a powerful network of believers in the RSS and Washington’s ability to support those aligned with free-market, anti-Soviet policies. At that time, America was afraid of fighting the Soviet Union and its communist supporters in different parts of the world. From this point of view, Modi, like other BJP leaders who visited America, represented a perfect fit.
Brought up on a staple diet of Congressism, Modi is fighting the ghost of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who many years ago recognized America’s importance in the development of Third World countries. In 1949, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru went to Washington as Prime Minister and told the leadership that he had a mind of his own. He got support from the American people, but not from the leadership. He returned from the U.S. in disgrace, although he later met with President Dwight D. Developed a close relationship with Eisenhower. US President John F. Kennedy thought Nehru’s trip was the most difficult, although he had a good relationship with his wife, whom he hosted at Tin Murthy Bhawan when he visited the country.
Since then, there has been a dramatic change in India-US relations. No one talks about socialism, the public sector or poverty anymore. The talks are more focused on technology, reining in China and bringing in huge investments in various sectors. More affluent Indians now move to the US than ever before, thereby increasing America’s influence in both our domestic and foreign policy. To his credit, Prime Minister Modi has sought to take advantage of this growing wealth among Indians to build a powerful pressure group. He has tried to show the number of Indians in electoral terms. It’s all hogwash, as the 2020 US election proved. Modi held a “Howdy Modi” event promising to form a “Donald Trump government” with the support of Indians. Then Trump got sad.
Modi and India have also lost their traditional ties with the Democrats. This time Modi is not trying to become an electoral factor. During his latest trip, he did not meet Donald Trump, apparently under the advice of the State Department, which is always wrong. Despite playing it straight, Biden’s America has not made life easy for Prime Minister Modi. A US court has summoned India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and several other officials on charges of conspiring to kill an American citizen. A recent Freedom of Religion report also criticized India for its brutal treatment of its Muslim and Christian minorities. Modi’s India is trying to brave these unfortunate events that could pave the way for a new administration next year, if the Democrats regain power. It is for these reasons that India wants Trump to come to power.
Indian-American Relations: The Growing Influence of Indian-Americans in American Elections
Electorally, the number of Indians may not be substantial—just 1.35 percent of the total population—but they are beginning to represent significant financial muscle that US presidential candidates aggressively hide. In this presidential race, Democrats have fielded a candidate with Indian roots — Kamala Harris — and there are others of Indian origin aspiring for high-profile jobs, such as Nikki Haley (née Randhawa) and Vivek Ramaswamy. If Kamala wins the election on November 5, 2024, there are many who will throw their hats in the ring to share their American dream.
America is a sucker for a good story. Ordinary Americans love a yarn when it’s about hard work and success. That is why BJP and RSS supporters in the US and India feared Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Dallas and Washington days before Modi’s visit to New York. They feared that the Western media and the Indian diaspora would start drawing comparisons between the two leaders. Although Chief Minister MK Stalin also drew huge crowds in the US and signed deals with several American companies, BJP supporters were not worried about him. Rahul, who visited the US after a relatively successful performance in the recent parliamentary elections and emerged as a successful leader of the opposition, was worried about them.
RSS supporters scrutinized every word he spoke or anything he did during his short stay. And as he wished, Rahul gave them enough to mock him and his considerable Nehru pedigree. He opined that if RSS and BJP get 400 seats on their own, uniformity and uniformity in the way Hinduism is practiced will be ensured. He claims that Sikhs, in that majority scenario, would lose their identity and not be allowed to wear their trademark turbans and beards. As expected, he was trolled badly, and BJP members like Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, a Sikh, were wheeled out by the party leadership to refute him and make him inadequate for the task of opposition leader. In the US, the Hindutva ecosystem aligned with Republicans led by Donald Trump worked hard to portray the Democrat’s meeting with Muslim leader Ilhan Omar as an anti-Indian act, as she had gone to occupied Pakistan. He criticized the Indian government’s decision to abrogate Article 370, which changed the status of Kashmir and the disputed state. What was forgotten was that meeting Ilhan Omar was an act of anti-nationalism, pointed out by many who disagreed with the statement, with many Democrats such as presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders criticizing the repeal. However, they never drew the kind of response reserved for Minnesota’s congresswoman.
What the BJP and RSS feared in Rahul’s visit was India’s resurgence of old Nehruistic syncretic values. After all, for the past 10 years, since the BJP has been in power, it has sought to reconcile the narrative that has gained currency in the US and the West for some time – Muslims are terrorists. It was also embedded in a policy framework that bound India to a worldview of global dominance after the horrific atrocities of the 9/11 WTC attacks.
The impact of Rahul’s visit, though poorly packaged by his chief handler, Sam Pitroda, was highlighted in the Financial Times of London. Titled “Rahul Gandhi Brings a Different India to Washington”, the gist of the report was that the US was monitoring Delhi’s transformation. The RSS leadership who came to criticize the Congress leader was the most feared. These organizations did not want to tell the US that India had changed.