Do not turn friends into foes

Multiple reports across several years have appeared that claim members of the Biden family are tied to China as a consequence of their financial interests. In the case of US President Joe Biden, such reports should be dismissed as conspiracy theories lacking a foundation of truth. However, it is a reality that a few members in the present US administration have acted in a manner, whether wittingly or not, that in effect serves the interests of the world’s other superpower. An example is the way in which the Biden administration has allowed some within it to act in a manner prejudicial not just to US interests but to his own political interest. Donald Trump would have been a forlorn and forgotten figure, had Biden followed in the case of Trump the example of Trump himself as President of the US with Hillary Clinton. “Lock her up” was a frequent chant at his campaign rallies in 2016, but after he moved into the White House, Trump ignored the Clintons. Had he prosecuted her, it would have been Hillary Clinton and not Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris who would have been his Democratic Party opponent in the 2024 US Presidential polls. And very likely, this time around, she would have won. The way in which the Justice Department has been seeking to impoverish and imprison Donald Trump since Biden became the President is the single most important reason why Trump has established such a lock on the Republican Party, and could be within a few weeks of coming back to the White House. The longer the string of indictments against Trump, the higher does his support among voters rise

Should Kamala Harris become US President, the best course to ensure that Donald Trump be reduced to the sidelines of the Republican Party rather than centrestage as he is now would be to give him a pardon

. With every turn of the screw against Trump during the Biden administration, the popularity of the ex-President has only increased. If Harris gets defeated on November 5, it will be as a consequence of what many voters in the US regard as less the prosecution than the persecution of Trump by the Biden administration. If public opinion in India turns as sour on the US as it was in the 1970s, such a shift would be as a consequence of the way in which the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun matter is being handled by the US administration. Even a high school student familiar with computers would be able to access troves of material showing that the US-Canadian citizen has not just talked but acted against India in ways that are the opposite of kosher. President Biden has thus far himself wisely abstained from treading down the path in which Justin Trudeau is rushing. He seems to be on a mission to disrupt and thereafter destroy defence and security linkages between India and the US, linkages that have bloomed robustly since Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister in 2014. Whatever has been taking place between elements in the US administration and their counterparts in India regarding Pannun, they ought to have been handled behind the scenes rather than in a manner that has angered not just the Government of India but the people as well. Terror has the same devastating effect on human lives in India as it has in the US, and several of Pannun’s actions have had terrible consequences. Under Trudeau, Canada is regarded, whether justifiably or not, as a safe haven for terrorists and their facilitators targeting India. Were those intent on separating India from the US to succeed, the biggest beneficiary would be China, and the biggest casualty the free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific that both countries have been working together more and more closely to ensure.

It is pertinent to note that more than 60 extradition requests from India have been pending in the US for over a decade.