Unmasking The India-US Partnership

By Sajjad Shaukat

During the visit of the Indian Prime Munister Narendra Modi to Washington on June 22, this year, protestors gathered outside the White House to protest over human rights violations within India under Modi’s tenure.

Demonstrators in front of the White House hold a sign reading, “Democracy” on an arrow pointing left and “Autocracy” on an arrow pointing right.

In this regard, The Guardian wrote on the same day: “Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US has prompted condemnation and protest from Muslim leaders, lawmakers and other allies. India’s prime minister ‘has a notorious and extensive record of human rights abuses’, said a statement from lawmakers…US house representatives Rashida Tlaib, Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Kweisi Mfume are among those who have said they will boycott the Indian prime minister’s address to Congress in light of the violence and repression of the media and religious minorities like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits carried out under his rightwing nationalist government…It is shameful to honor these abuses by allowing Modi to address a joint session of Congress”.

According to the Reuters, “In the joint statement, issued by the two after their 2.5 hour private meeting seemed to take aim at both nations. The United States and India declared themselves “among the closest partners in the world”. Washington has been frustrated by India’s close ties with Russia while Moscow wages war in Ukraine. Modi did not address China or Russia directly, and Biden only mentioned China in response to a reporter’s question”.

It said: “The two sides emphasized the importance of “rules-based international order,” saying “the contemporary global order has been built on principles of the UN Charter, international law, and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of states…The United States and India reaffirmed their resolve to counter any attempts to unilaterally subvert the multilateral system.”

Reuters further indicated: “The two leaders “expressed their deep concern over the conflict in Ukraine and mourned its terrible and tragic humanitarian consequences,” noting the “serious and growing impacts of the war on the global economic system, including on food, fuel and energy security, and critical supply chains…Both countries pledged “continuing humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine” and “concurred on the importance of post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine.”

Analysts opine that beyond the convergence on China, India and the US are seeking deeper ties on economic, defense and technological grounds.

In this respect, under the caption, The Illusion of a U.S.-India Partnership Arundhati Roy’s article published in The New York Times on July 13, 2023, and republished by the Sri Lanka Guardian on July 17, 2023 under the title Beyond the Facade: Unmasking the U.S.-India Partnership are of particular attention.

However, Arundhati Roy wrote: “The state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to Washington last month was billed as a meeting of leaders of two of the world’s greatest democracies, and the countries duly declared themselves “among the closest partners in the world.” But what sort of partners will they be? What sort of partners can they be?..President Biden claims that the “defense of democracy” is the central tenet of his administration. That’s commendable, but what happened in Washington was the exact opposite”.

Roy stated: “We needn’t be shocked by America’s choice of friends…A central tenet of U.S. foreign policy has, too often, been democracy for the United States, dictatorship for its (nonwhite) friends…India is not a dictatorship, but neither is it still a democracy. Mr. Modi heads a majoritarian, Hindu-supremacist, electoral autocracy that is tightening its grip on one of the most diverse countries in the world. This makes election season, which is just around the corner, our most dangerous time. It’s murder season, lynching season, dog whistle season. The partner that the U.S. government is cultivating and empowering is one of the most dangerous people in the world—dangerous not as a person but as someone turning the world’s most populous country into a tinderbox”.

She pointed out: “What kind of democrat is a prime minister who almost never holds a news conference? It took all of the U.S. government’s powers of persuasion (such as they are) to coax Mr. Modi into addressing one while in Washington. He agreed to take two questions… White House reporter, stood up to ask him what his government was doing to prevent discrimination against minorities, particularly Muslims. Given the worsening abuses against Muslims and Christians in his country…But the Biden administration outsourced it to a journalist. In India, we held our breath. Mr. Modi expressed surprise that such a question should be asked at all. [Neglecting ground realities] he said Democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins. We live democracy…There’s absolutely no discrimination”.

Arundhati Roy indicated: “Eventually the White House had to step up and condemn the harassment as “antithetical to the very principles of democracy…It felt as if everything that the White House had sought to gloss over had become embarrassingly manifest…The State Department and the White House…would have known plenty about the man for whom they were rolling out the red carpet…They would have known about the role Mr. Modi is accused of having played in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the state of Gujarat, in which more than 1,000 Muslims were killed. They would have known about the sickening regularity with which Muslims are being publicly lynched, about the member of Mr. Modi’s cabinet who met some lynchers with garlands and about the precipitous process of Muslim segregation and ghettoization”.

She further wrote: “They would have known about the hounding of opposition politicians, students, human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, some of whom have received long prison sentences; the attacks on universities by the police and people suspected of being Hindu nationalists; the rewriting of history textbooks; the banning of films; the shutdown of Amnesty International India; the raid on the India offices of the BBC; the activists, journalists and government critics being placed on mysterious no-fly lists; and the pressure on academics, both Indian and foreigners. They would have known about the situation in Kashmir, which beginning in 2019 was subjected to a monthslong communication blackout— the longest internet shutdown in a democracy—and whose journalists suffer harassment, arrest and interrogation. Nobody in the 21st century should have to live as they do, with a boot on their throats. They would have known about the Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in 2019, which barefacedly discriminates against Muslims; the massive protests that it touched off; and how those protests ended only after dozens of Muslims were killed the following year by Hindu mobs in Delhi (which, incidentally, took place while President Donald Trump was in town on a state visit and about which he uttered not a word)”.

Roy added: “And what kind of an ally will the United States be to India in the event of a confrontation with China? The United States is far from the potential battlefield. We need only look around our neighborhood at the fate of America’s old friends Afghanistan and Pakistan. A bad moon is rising in the South China Sea. But for India, its friends and enemies are all wrapped up together in a tight ball of wax. We should be extremely, exceedingly, exceptionally, extraordinarily careful where we place our feet and float our boats. Everybody should”.

Nevertheless, we can conclude that Arundhati Roy proved a powerful critique of the U.S.-India partnership, exposing the erosion of democracy under PM Narendra Modi’s rule. She highlighted the U.S. government’s complicity in empowering a dangerous regime that discriminates against minorities and curtails civil liberties. Roy questioned the true nature of the alliance and warns of the potential consequences, urging caution in aligning with India as tensions rise with China. She called in her article to acknowledge the reality of India’s deteriorating democracy and the need for careful consideration in international alliances.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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