US President Donald Trump’s statement expressing dissatisfaction with India is significant in the light of our persistence with Nehruvian foreign policy. Trump said, “We’re not treated very well by India,” but went on praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot.”
Quite expectedly, the grand old party has slammed Trump for insulting India. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “The President of the United States, on the eve of his visit for the first time to India, has made certain remarks. I think it is an insult and affront to the dignity of the country and the Ministry of External Affairs should respond to it.”
This is typical of a party whose leaders, politically marginalized in the last few years, are finding solace in nostalgia, fondly remembering Nehru, and even eulogising the traitorous V.K. Krishna Menon, the man responsible for the 1962 debacle. It is galling to GOP worthies and indeed to the grandees of the Left-liberal establishment that the leader of the country they hate the most is being feted by the Modi regime (it is another matter that the same America haters strove and strive to settle their kids in America).
The folks who, like Ayatollah Khomeini, believe that America is the Great Satan are forced to watch its President being welcomed warmly in India. And that too a President for whom liberals have used all manner of adjectives—Islamophobic, homophobic, sexist, racist, misogynist, etc. And feted by India, which once waged a quixotic jihad against America. Remember Krishna Menon’s rants at the UN? Could apocalypse be more horrifying?
What horrifies Left-liberals is usually very good. They screamed when the Green Revolution was launched; it ended our food problem and rescued us from the humiliating ship-to-mouth situation. They warned of doom when former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi talked about computers; they said computers would kill jobs; information technology and IT-enabled services, on the contrary, are creating jobs. Professional revolutionaries thundered in 1991 that economic reforms would pave the path for multinational corporations or MNCs, which are the contemporary versions of East India Company, and gobble up domestic firms; Indian companies have become multinational instead.
Now that the force of events has brought the world’s two biggest democracies together, the ancien regime is feeling upset. That shouldn’t bother anybody; what is bothersome, though, is that there are elements entrenched within the system and in the saffron brotherhood that have swallowed the Left-promoted anti-Americanism line, hook and sinker. This is the reason that the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) remains firmly opposed to any trade deal with Washington. “If it is related to the livelihood of the people or religious issue or supplementation of the farmers’ income, one cannot support [it],” SJM national co-convener Ashwini Mahajan told a news agency.
Dinosaurs come in all hues—red, pink, and saffron. Modi has to ensure that they don’t trample over trade, foreign, and strategic policies. It is in India’s interest to align with the US, especially under Trump. It is interesting to note that while most Indians are favourably disposed towards Trump, socialist and sanskari elites see him with suspicion. A new survey from the Pew Research Center, conducted between 24 June and 2 October 2019, based on 2,476 adult respondents, found that his policies have won a lot of Indians. As many as 56% of Indians expressed confidence in him, up from 14% in 2016.
Equally important finding of the Pew survey was that 62% of Indians said that it was more important to have strong economic ties with the US than with China. This surely makes more sense, for while we have a huge trade deficit, in the region of $57 billion, with China, we have a surplus with the US.
Trump has said he is “saving the big deal” with India for later; that shouldn’t discourage us. At any rate, India has to be flexible on trade and security-related issues; much of this flexibility is in our national interest. For instance, the Trump administration regards Huawei as a Trojan horse, and would like India to have a similar approach towards the Chinese major. We should do that, for our own sake.
Similarly, we must send our troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and support Washington against Beijing in the South China Sea—again for our own sake, as Indian military presence in Afghanistan will rattle Pakistan and our support to the Western bloc in East Asia will help contain Chinese imperialism. In fact, New Delhi should increase its role in East Asia and interact more with such democracies as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Everybody hates China in the region anyway because of its bullying ways.
India need not placate the US on every count. There is no reason that we should antagonize Iran and Russia, for example, but Indo-US ought to broaden, deepen, and widen in every possible sphere. The Modi regime’s policies should resonate with the views and aspirations of people, not with the discredited canons of America haters of various hues.
Ravi Kapoor is a freelance journalist.