India is a major pillar in the Indo-Pacific strategy to keep the region free from Chinese coercion with the Indian Navy playing an ever-larger role. It’s also a crucial member of the Quad. Broadly speaking, its ‘peaceful rise’ is a source of stability in the region. Washington remains acutely aware that the distance travelled over the last 10 years would have been longer and harder under, say, Rahul Gandhi.
On the economic front, US officials recognise the business environment and infrastructure both improved under ‘Modi’s decade’. They also note a general sense of fiscal responsibility. As the world’s fastest growing large economy, India is an island of opportunities in a fragmenting world where trust among partners is becoming a necessary precondition for doing business. In this context, Rahul Gandhi’s talk of redistribution of wealth during the campaign was alarming to Americans. Competitive welfarism in Indian politics is a fact of life, but the degree matters.
A question that does rankle some US officials, and some on Capitol Hill relates to ‘shared values’— a concept that has taken a beating under BJP rule. They repeatedly ask if the US really shares values with Modi’s India and whether Washington is repeating the mistakes it made with China. The BJP rhetoric against minorities, in general, and Modi’s campaign speeches targeting Muslims, in particular, sparked a new round of criticism and concern. The ‘check and balance’ the verdict provides can be reassuring.
Friends of India warned that the ‘values issue’ could become a ‘drag’ on the relationship down the line. The constant drumbeat demands constant relationship management, especially on Capitol Hill where demands for Indian accountability in the alleged assassination plot to kill a Khalistani have been persistent. Now that the elections are over and have thrown up a divided verdict, these voices may now be a bit muted.India’s relationship with Russia creates a loop of scepticism, creating a demand for a more ‘realistic’ US policy — code for a less-ambitious agenda with New Delhi. The narrative is honed in conference rooms of ‘unofficial’ America populated by thinktank experts and opinion-makers. But those calling for a go-slow approach with India don’t have much traction with decisionmakers in the White House, except to muddy the waters, which sometimes can be sufficient. But Biden is a pragmatist with a clear-eyed view of the here and now — the China threat is here and now is the time to address it. Modi, too, is seen to have a clear-eyed view and a willingness to work with the US in areas seen as verboten before.
Finally, people will continue to raise questions, some legitimate, some tendentious, and that is the nature of business between two democracies. No matter how tweaked or reshaped one of them may have just come out of its latest electoral test.
