 "Why shoot-and-scoot diplomacy with India isn't good for America")
On 28 March 2024, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned the US diplomat Gloria Berbena after the unwarranted remarks of the US on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. The MEA ‘strongly objected to the remarks of the spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India’. In the middle of March too, the US publicly expressed the concerns on the CAA, which India’s MEA called ‘misplaced, unwarranted.’
The US and India are strategic partners with strong ties in commerce, technology transfer, and defence. Both the countries have trade worth $122 billion annually with close people-to-people relations. Both the democracies have to address the dragon in the room, making their cooperation absolutely necessary. Still, the US, whenever a mic is offered by any controversial journalist, takes a moral high ground to belittle India using the latter’s petty internal matters. The faulty diary of the US State Department - particularly under the Biden administration - lacked phrases like ‘It is India’s internal matter’ or ‘We don’t have any comments.’
The Biden administration might have used different words to not invite diplomatic hostility from India. Instead, it chose to stake the Indo-US relationship, most probably due to electoral gains. There are multiple reasons to back this statement up. The latest survey done by Reuters/Ipsos in March 2024 showed that 56 per cent of Americans disapprove of Biden as a President. Also, among democrats, as per the same survey, 20 per cent of voters disapproved of him.
As these surveys show, things at home are not hunky-dory for Biden, who ran for presidency as a restorationist. Even before the 2020 election, the progressive camp among Democrats, which supported Bernie Sanders as a president, saw Biden as a ‘man of the past’ due to their advocacy on the so-called values in American foreign policy. Biden somehow tried to appease this block by taking some steps (releasing agendas for American-Muslim communities where he mentioned to ‘restore’ rights in Kashmir). In his article for Foreign Affairs, Biden wrote that he would be ‘rescuing the U.S. Foreign Policy after Trump’, meaning the usual interventionism in others’ internal matters. But such promises, as happens in this complex world, can’t be kept.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThus, the progressive camp and the Arab and Muslim votes, who are critical for Biden’s return to power, are unhappy with Biden. The first reason for their unhappiness is how the US did not control the war in Gaza after the 7 October attacks. The recent Gallup survey also indicates that 55 per cent of Americans, up from 45 per cent, oppose Israeli action in Gaza. Second, the issue of immigration on the US-Mexico border is still open and, specifically, the Latino senators opposed Biden’s move by putting forward the interests of immigrants who lack legal papers. Third, the long-standing Russia-Ukraine war, its impending cost, and no progress for its peace has also raised eyebrows from one section of the Democrats.
Surrounded by this chaos, the urgent priority on the desk of Biden is to keep the Democrats happy to ensure another term. In last week, Washington let the UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire pass be a minor step for damage control. Concerning India, there has been no progress on the matters of Kashmir from the US—and the progressive crowd needs to be kept happy.
Therefore, the Biden administration went one step further and twice criticised India on what New Delhi considers strictly internal matters. But Biden forgot that India is not a country that tolerates unnecessary interference on domestic issues. The pushback from India is not something new and unexpected. Since the times of Nehru, whenever the US tried to meddle in India’s internal affairs, New Delhi has hit back. The governments might have changed but the unnecessary comments have never been welcomed. Particularly, when the elections are underway and the Modi government is set to face the public, the pushback was expected to be stronger.
Still, this hasn’t stopped the spokesperson from the State Department. He again commented on India’s domestic matters after their diplomat was summoned. This heated exchange, if the US doesn’t show restraint, is likely to be continued. For the sake of electoral gains in his country, Biden’s confederates have staked the India-US relationship. But this doesn’t go well in the South Block. To conclude, ‘[t]he West has many areas to work on with India–and false virtue-signalling on democracy isn’t one of them,’ as I wrote this one year back for this publication.
The reviewer is an independent columnist who writes on international relations and socio-political affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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