/ world today news/ Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed in the USA like a king. President Joe Biden even put his hand over his heart when the Indian national anthem played instead of the American national anthem. What do Americans want to achieve from Narendra Modi, the politician they recently cursed and punished with sanctions?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his major state visit to the US with a yoga class in front of the UN building in New York. This could be considered eccentric if one did not see the sober account. The ambitious Prime Minister sees as his goal the economic and cultural (but also with economic goals) expansion of India and uses “soft power” for this – the fashion among Westerners for Eastern spiritual and sports practices.
But this is not only and not so much the visit of a guru to America as the visit of a winner. It is no coincidence that it is the first for Modi, although next year he will celebrate the tenth anniversary of his prime ministership. Before winning the 2014 elections, he was under US personal sanctions as the head of the state of Gujarat. At home he was a political star and the author of the local economic miracle, but in America they decided that Modi did not do enough to prevent the so-called pogrom in Gujarat in 2002 and punish its instigators – radical Hindus who attacked local Muslims . Estimates of the number of dead then vary, but are not less than a thousand.
In general, relations between the Indian prime minister and the American leadership were strained. Modi had the right to be insulted as a human being, and there were and still are many anti-Indian lobbying organizations operating in the US trying to keep public opinion in good shape with stories about the crimes of Indian nationalists and the oppression of Indian Muslims.
This is why, according to public opinion polls, only half of Americans have a favorable view of India. More than 40% are hostile even though India has done nothing wrong to America. Multiple publications covering the visit described Modi as a “controversial politician”.
It should be understood that the United States is Pakistan’s ally, Pakistan is India’s worst enemy, and Modi is indeed a supporter of Indian nationalism, which there has a religious, not an ethnic or linguistic dimension (e.g. the Prime Minister’s mother tongue not Hindi but Gujarati).
Equality of religious rights is such a scare in the US that it is well understood by the population (after all, freedom of religion is one of the pillars on which the nation is built), but they only start waving it around when political expediency demands it. That is, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky would not be reprimanded for the persecution of the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the opponents of the United States for something like that would be vilified in Congress and the media from morning to night.
This time, only 70 people gathered in Congress – senators and members of the House of Representatives, who signed an open letter accusing Modi of violating human rights, violating the freedom of the media, oppressing Muslims and so on. But the signatories include many Democrats, that is, members of President Joe Biden’s party, part of whose electorate is American Muslims.
However, Biden’s team tries to ignore such outrage and received Modi in the first category: the president gave an ala dinner in his honor (in the United States this is “first category”, the highest honor), and then the prime minister was invited to speak to Congress. South Asia’s “bad boy” made his critics bow down to him – so he can be called a winner.
Apparently, they will not even whine to him about cooperation with Moscow, since it does not bring the desired results. The Indians categorically refuse to enter into a conflict with Russia, on the contrary, next year they plan to increase the share of Russian oil in their processing to 30%. Before the start of the SVO and the sanctions war between the West and the Russian Federation, this figure was at the level of 2%.
This does not mean that the Americans have given up on the idea of achieving our “isolation”, it’s just that the conversation about Russia will take place at another time in another place. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Newland will gather representatives of India, Brazil, South Africa and possibly Turkey for a special meeting in Copenhagen to try to re-engage them in the Ukrainian coalition. The prospects of success are doubtful, but at least the program of the Indian Prime Minister’s visit is devoid of pitfalls.
This is because India is the counterbalance that the United States wants to use against China’s growing influence. Beijing and New Delhi cooperate actively, for example in the form of BRICS, but relations between the two powers of more than a billion people are complicated to say the least – they are in a mode of chronic territorial conflict, where no one wants to give way. That is why the Americans rolled out red carpets for Modi, despite the hushed murmurs of Pakistani lobbyists and human rights activists whose opinion is no longer of interest to the authorities.
As the above-mentioned Sullivan stated, US-India relations “will be one of the defining relations of the 21st century.” Concerns about China and the perception of Indians as key allies are, according to one version, the reason why the US has eased its pressure on the Russian issue. . Several media sources say Modi has threatened to withdraw the US from the CSTO, an anti-China alliance that also includes Australia and Japan, if he continues to be harassed by Russophobic claims.
From Washington and New York, where the Indian Prime Minister also met with the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, he will take away several “fat” contracts, mainly in the field of defense and weapons. In addition, the production lines of many American companies now in China are planned to be transferred to India, and this is the second major victory for Modi.
Watching the Americans fawn over him (Biden particularly distinguished himself by putting his hand over his heart during the Indian national anthem, apparently mistaking it for the US national anthem), the usually calm and level-headed Modi is probably chuckling inwardly. As an Indian and a Hindu, he knows exactly Gandhi’s saying – “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win”.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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