Biden-Harris combine unlikely to enthuse India

V Sudarshan

Journalist and Author

Soon after Senator Kamala Harris was declared as the Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s running mate, US President Donald Trump began calling her names. He called her ‘meanest’, ‘most horrible’ and threw in his somewhat more frequently used ‘nasty.’ These are epithets that the Indian foreign policy establishment would be almost tempted to use as well, with reference to the same development and its possible portents for India.

But diplomats, as we all know, always think twice before saying nothing. With barely 11 weeks and five days to go before the Election Day, the elections in America have become even more relevant for Indian policymakers. They realise well the importance of segueing from HowdyModi to BadhaihoBiden and exploring ways to smartly jettison that old slogan ‘Abki Bar Trump Sarkar’. For the most disconcertingly long time, as policymakers must have watched, Biden has held a clear lead over Trump. It has been the widest polling gap in decades. It can even be mischievously argued quite successfully that the trial of 4G connectivity in select districts in Jammu and Kashmir is a visible part of the process of trimming our domestic sails to prevailing electoral winds in the US. As is the appointment, quite coincidentally, of a politician-type Lieutenant Governor for one of our newest and most controversial union territories, J&K. As the Chinese and Pakistanis bilaterally work it out, which is more controversial — the Ladakh development or the Kashmir development — it remains a challenge and a bit of a puzzle how Lt Governor Manoj Sinha can open up political spaces as convincingly as 4G networks.

It is connected, in no small measure, to the significance of the Biden-Harris combine, should America back it on November 3. Consider the ‘covfefe’, that delightful Trump contribution to the English language, Dr S Jaishankar created when he chickened out — there is no other phrase for it, since it is his job, among other things, to explain his government’s policy — of meeting the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Eliot L Engel and the committee’s top Republican Michael McCaul and other members of the US Congress. He ducked that meeting after they refused to drop at New Delhi’s insistence, Representative Pramila Jayapal, from the team that was to meet him. This is what Jaishankar said, explaining his no-show: “I have an interest in meeting people who are objective and open to discussion but not the people who have already made up their minds.” The subtle reference here was to a resolution Jayapal had helped steer in the House of Representatives on Kashmir. This is what the resolution-Res 745) had to say and it bears reiteration: “That the House of Representatives rejects arbitrary detention, use of excessive force against civilians, and suppression of peaceful expression of dissent as proportional responses to security challenges; urges the Government of India to ensure that any actions taken in pursuit of legitimate security priorities respect the human rights of all people and adhere to international human rights law; and urges the Government of India to lift the remaining restrictions on communication and to restore Internet access across all of Jammu and Kashmir as swiftly as possible; refrain from the use of threats and excessive force against detained people and peaceful protesters; swiftly release arbitrarily detained people in Jammu and Kashmir; refrain from conditioning the release of detained people on their willingness to sign bonds prohibiting any political activities and speeches; allow international human rights observers and journalists to access Jammu and Kashmir and operate freely throughout India, without threats; and condemn, at the highest levels, all religiously motivated violence, including that violence which targets against religious minorities.”

It is, as you can see, quite a mouthful of full-bodied epithets as well, very unambiguous, very clear, and some would say, albeit privately, mean, horrible, and nasty to boot.

It will also be quite appropriate, although at the risk of tedious repetition, to point out that Biden has already made his views clear, not only on CAA, but also J&K: “In Kashmir, the Indian government should take all necessary steps to restore the rights of all people of Kashmir; restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or shutting down the Internet, weaken democracy.” Biden is disappointed by the measures the Government of India has taken with the implementation and aftermath of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act into law. “These measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy.”

In that covfefe, it will be useful to recall, Kamala Harris weighed in sharply and heavily on Pramila’s side against Jaishankar, not as two part Tamilians ganging up against one another — none of that diaspora nonsense — but as two Americans speaking forthrightly for their country. Again, for your reading pleasure, these are the remarks attributed to Harris’ Twitter handle: “It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill.” She underlined that she stood with Pramila Jayapal, and added, “I’m glad her colleagues in the House did too.”

These words might come back to haunt our external affairs minister if there were to be a red carpet event, let’s say a dinner where the humble pie has been served, and where he should have the good fortune of running into Vice-President Kamala Harris standing beside Representative Pramila Jayapal at the Biden White House, and the after-dinner conversation, also turns to Kashmir, since you can never discuss too much of a good thing. And yes, the good thing about chicken is that it is better not to count them before they hatch. That must be the soundest bit of analysis coming out of South Block today.

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