A day after its envoy’s meeting with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the United States has let it be known that it is ready to do with the business with whichever government that assumes office in India after the ensuing general elections.
Taking the stand that Ambassador Nancy Powell’s meeting with Modi is a part of Washington’s comprehensive outreach to India’s political class, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said: “We look forward to working closely with whatever government the Indian people choose in the upcoming elections.” Asked if that included a government headed by Modi, Harf said: “Whatever government is chosen.”
“I know that there’s a lot of attention being paid to this one (the Powell-Modi meeting), but it really is part of our broader outreach,” she maintained. In contrast to the US government’s bid to downplay the call on Modi as part of the envoy’s engagement across the Indian political spectrum ahead of the elections, the country’s most influential newspaper, The New York Times, found the meeting sufficiently important to merit an editorial comment.
Calling the US move a reversal of its “long estrangement”, The Times commented that the envoy’s meeting represented “a pragmatic step in engaging with India and the controversial and troubling politician who could well become the next prime minister after elections in May”. “Regardless of who succeeds Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this year, the United States and India have a lot of work to do to strengthen their partnership,” it said, noting: “Opening a door to a relationship with Mr. Modi is a necessary step.”
While taking note of the official contention that Powell’s meeting was part of a renewed American effort to reach out to politicians across India’s political spectrum, The Times commented: “Such moves are long overdue. President Obama has not paid as much attention to India as President George W Bush, an oversight given India’s central role as a democratic anchor in South Asia and its developing relationship with Japan.”
Turning to the recent strains involving the treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade and the trade dispute over solar panels, the paper noted: “It is in no one’s interest to let these tensions fester. India and the United States have much to cooperate on, including Obama’s efforts to strengthen America’s role in Asia and work with partners to balance China’s rise and more assertive stance in the region without provoking conflict.”
Writing in the Foreign Policy magazine, former White House official Anish Goel faulted the US government for having “let its relationship with the party (BJP) atrophy almost to the point of non-existence” over the past decade (since the departure of the Vajpayee-led NDA government). “The United States should remedy this situation as soon as possible to avoid any unwelcome surprises,” said Goel said, currently a senior South Asia fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation. He went on to call upon the US government to “reform its untenable visa position on Modi”.