Swaying to Modiplomacy

It’s being described as “a new dawn” in the India-US relationship nurtured by candour and respect where dif­ferences are managed and commonalities celebrated. The new name of the game is “trust” and it showed in spades. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden committed the two democracies to the most ambitious and expansive agenda yet as two free agents of the global good.

The atmosphere was unmistakably Indian—support­ers and protesters vied for air time with slogans. Thankfully, the rain gods kept mostly to themselves and sent only a near-continu­ous drizzle for the welcome ceremony, not a downpour. The state dinner for around 400 guests that included a few luminaries— Ralph Lauren, Billie Jean King, Manoj Night Shyamalan to name three—was all vegetarian with a helping of sea bass available on request. Who knew there was a “Patel red blend” in existence and it was a nice Indian American touch. First Lady Jill Biden personal­ly supervised the long preparations for the banquet orchestrated by three chefs.

With this visit Modi and Biden have publicly owned the re­lationship and marked it as a memo to the world. As Big B said, the relationship “spans the seas to the stars”. In his address to the US Congress, Modi went a step further and reinterpreted AI or Artificial Intelligence. He expanded AI to mean America and India and the “momentous developments” in the partnership over the years. He also checked all the boxes that will please US lawmakers—from climate change to the Ukraine war to the China challenge, to highlighting India’s digital revolution to securing supply chains. Members of Congress crowded around Modi to get his autograph, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy who issued the invitation for a joint address. It’s a rare honour to be invited to address a joint session twice and the Indian leader seemed to relish it to the maximum, pausing dramatically, repeating the core points and enjoying the applause.

One country that shall not be named will take special note of the historic visit because the signal was loud enough to burst the eardrums and long enough to keep Beijing boys busy deciphering the meaning. Modi talked of the “dark clouds of coercion and confrontation” in the Indo-Pacific, that being code for China’s aggressive behaviour all around. Biden repeatedly talked of a “free and open Indo-Pacific region” and the Quad (the grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the US) as the coming together of democracies to ensure it remains so. He recently called Xi Jinping a dictator and when asked in Modi’s presence whether he stands by it, Biden stuck to his guns.

That the visit happened in a mela-like atmosphere with thou­sands of Indian Americans shouting “Modi, Modi!” and “USA, USA!” during the dignified welcome ceremony will cause more consternation in China because the strong people-to-people ties were impossible to miss. Over there they don’t do the people thing. Around 7,000 Indian Americans crowded on the South Lawn waiting in the cold drizzle for hours before. Modi and Biden both stressed the four million-strong Indian American family as a strong pillar of the partnership.

Ok, the visit was not only about China. The 58-para joint state­ment is heavy on content—in fact, the cup runneth over with agreements, promises, commitments, and more. India and Amer­ica are getting joined at the hip. That is simply the reality minus value judgments. Two disparate systems are coming together to set the norms, the rules, the standards for the world before a certain other Asian giant does so by default and sets traps all around.

“We are seeing the crystallisation of alignment between the two governments on how to address the big policy questions of the day—a rising China, emerging technologies, climate change, securing global commons,” said Dhruva Jaishankar, executive director of ORF America.

As for major deliverables, the list is long and dense with details. Among the most notable, is a path-breaking MoU between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to co-produce F414 military jet engines to fire up the Tejas Mk2. India is set to buy 31 MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from General Atomics further diver­sifying its arms acquisitions; Micron Technology, Inc will invest $800 million for a $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India; Lam Research will train 60,000 Indian engineers to helm the semiconductor ecosystem; NASA will provide train­ing to ISRO astronauts to launch a joint effort to the International Space Station; and H-1B visa holders will no longer have to leave the US for renewals. New US consulates will open in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad while India will open one in Seattle.

The joint statement has much to show that the defence partner­ship is off to the next level. “Interoperability”—the favourite word of US defence officials—is set to increase. Once India has the Sea Guardian drones in its arsenal, they will be yet another US platform the Indian military will use. Vivek Lall, chief executive of General Atomics, called it “a breakthrough moment” in the strategic and defence partnership.

Tanvi Madan, director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution, said, “There was a missed opportunity in the 1960s for the US and India to build a close technology and defence part­nership. The countries are at such a take-off moment again.” New beginnings were indeed made under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET)—the umbrella under which many cross-cutting domains shelter—to get to the next level. “iCET is a game-changing initiative. It will enhance the relationship with new depth and breadth in the deep tech domains.”

On the side of this historic visit, a debate on India’s democracy was underway with different participants intervening at different levels. Outright opponents of the Modi government sat out his address to the session—about six members of the House of Repre­sentatives at last count. Then there were those in the middle in the US Congress—about 70 of them, most of them Democrats—who wrote a letter to Biden asking that he raise human rights issues with Modi. At the same time, they supported the movement recorded in the bilateral relationship, including India’s potentially increased role in securing supply chains for critical sectors.

“This visit will serve to strengthen our shared commitment to a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific and support for a rules-based international order, which is most effective when we demonstrate respect for a rules-based order at home. Whether it’s how we treat those who disagree with us, the most vulnera­ble amongst us, or our minority populations, we know much of the world looks to India and the United States for inspiration. It is the power of our examples that sends the strongest message,” the letter said. The top signatories were Senator Chris Van Hollen and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Van Hollen is remembered for going to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and making anti-India statements after New Delhi refused him permission to visit Jammu and Kashmir in the midst of Article 370 crises. He is seen as a friend of Pakistan by many.

Then there were senior congressional Democrats, such as Gregory Meeks, ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Rela­tions Committee, and Ami Bera, an Indian American and ranking member on the subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, who issued a statement welcoming Modi to the chamber. They said support for a rules-based international order is “most effective when we demonstrate respect for a rules-based order at home.”

Former President Barack Obama’s stark intervention on the rights of India’s Muslim minority, talking about a potential split of the country on the same day as Modi was in the White House, was unnecessary per tradition. Former presidents are not supposed to advise the current one even if one was the other’s vice president. What is certain is that it’s not going to affect Biden’s India policy because too much is at stake for the world in his and Modi’s telling for the relationship to veer off. Biden did mention all the elements of a healthy democracy—religious freedom, a free press, rule of law—as being necessary for growth not once but twice in a day and in public. Modi, for his part, didn’t entertain the premise of the ques­tion itself that Indian democracy is in danger. He acknowledged no flaw and went about his answer as if it were to a different question.

The debate about Modi’s India will continue because a certain section of American society is seized of the matter. But his visit to the US was about shaping the future together—India and the US are in it for the long haul. The “hesitations of history” are largely overcome not just through words but by actions—the clarity of purpose and a commitment to push forward were evident.

diplomacyGDP growthIndia-US relationsIndian economyJoe BidenModi in AmericaNarendra Modi