A bit late … but finally it is … ABKI BAAR TRUMP SARKAR … and JOE BIDEN is going to be the next US President. Along with him KAMALA HARRIS will be the vice president (first woman). The result came after a close contest going in DEMOCRAT’s favor, after which TRUMP behaved like a child, well was behaving like that even before that, but whatever. For relief now AMERICANS will have to compulsorily wear a Mask and also US will be back at ‘Paris Climate Agreement’. Though it is understood that for any US President INDIA is a big powerhouse, whom they want to coordinate with. So, here we need to discuss what impact will it have and what prospects it holds for INDIA.

Relations with INDIA :

TRUMP was said to be having a very healthy rapport with our prime minister NARENDRA MODI. So everyone is worried figuring out how good will be BIDEN for us. If his Campaign Paper is anything to go by, we can expect something positive : “World’s largest and oldest Democracies are bound together with shared democratic values which have endured throughout our histories and will continue to be our strengths in future”.

Let me remind you all that BIDEN was also the Vice President during OBAMA’s presidential term. During that time as well, he was very inclined towards India. In 2006 he said “My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States”. And let me remind you all that this is 2020.

The major highlights of BIDEN’s Indian Effect are :

1) INDO-US Nuclear Deal : After OBAMA was a bit sceptic, it was BIDEN only who facilitated this deal in the US Congress working with both the parties.

2) UNSC Membership : It was during OBAMA’s tenure only that US officially declared its support for INDIA’s permanent membership in United Nations Security Council, though it has not happened still, because of CHINA’s stand against it.

3) Defense Partnership : Defense was a major talking point of INDO-US partnership during OBAMA’s tenure. INDIA was named a major defense partner which was the first time for any country outside US’s traditional alliance was given this status. After this both countries shared many defense technologies and agreements and BIDEN played a very crucial role in US-South Asia strategy. ‘US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region‘ and ‘Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement‘ for deeper military cooperation were products of this tenure only. Also, it was during this time only that nomenclature changed from Asia Pacific to Indo Pacific. The stand of both countries have been similar and close regarding Terrorism as well.

Issues of Suspense

1) Stand against CHINA : Though it is not very clear what will exactly be BIDEN’s stand against CHINA, but well … he is an US President and he will try to counter balance the influence of China over the globe. And for doing that he will surely try to keep INDIA by its side.

2) H1B VISA : A very concerning topic for every Indian will be BIDEN’s stand on H1B visa. Democrats as of whole are considered quite liberal regarding Immigration and BIDEN has also promised of supporting family based, skill based immigration and limit the number of employment based of Green Cards. But the thing is that TRUMP has tightened the rules so much and the Democrats still having majority at the Senate, it will be difficult for BIDEN to reverse them.

3) Differences : There are bound to be differences everywhere and so is here in the case. BIDEN has criticized and said that he is disappointed on INDIA’s policy over CAA-NRC. He also pressed for restoration of rights of people in KASHMIR. Also … he obviously might not have liked MODI leaning too partial by saying ‘ABKI BAAR TRUMP SARKAR’ in front of a Crowd of 50000. So it will be very interesting to see how these differences hold during his tenure.

Do You Know … ?????

Since we are talking about US Elections I would like to briefly state some SPECIAL Facts :

1) You might be knowing that votes are casted over there in Ballot Papers which makes the counting slow there but the results in this elections were even slower. Reason for that was people there can submit their vote through Mail also (counting becomes even slower in this case) and in this election due to COVID Pandemic most of the voters submitted their vote through mail only and that was precisely the reason why results were officially declared after some 2-3 days.

2) A very interesting feature of their elections that I came to know about this time only, I would also like to share with you all. The main instrument there is not no. of votes or seats but the Vote Percentage. If in a particular state, X has higher vote percentage than Y then, all the 10 or 20 or whatever delegates of that particular goes to that candidate even if Y was just 2% behind he will get 0 Delegates. Even in the last elections, HILARY CLINTON had higher vote share than TRUMP but the delegate system ended the latter with more delegates making him victorious … Interesting, isn’t it … ?????

 

Conclusion : What should the Indo-American Focus Now

Despite, whatever be the differences, INDIA’s rise to political, economic and military power holds immense value for US. Something can no longer happen, such as S. JAISHANKAR, our external affairs minister refusing to meet a Democrat politician just because his party has been in criticism of INDIA’s policy … this will not be accepted. We might see the Democrats or we can say the US only criticizing INDIA over a number of issues but we have to ensure that we don’t make a fuss out of it on extreme level . In this era when CHINA is trying to dominate almost everything INDIA and US need to work closer and together. TRUMP too didn’t had much against us in particular but we can expect that in whichever way we were ‘TRUMPED’, the scope for INDO-US Partnership gets ‘BIDENED’.

 

JAI HIND

ARUNESH SINHA

 

References :

1. How does Joe Biden’s win affect the Indo-US relationship? Here’s a detailed study: Edited By SHAMPA SEN, Source : DNA Web Desk, updated Nov 8, 2020 https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-us-election-2020-democrat-joe-biden-us-president-india-relationship-2855180
2. The Political Fix : What would a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris victory mean for INDIA – and MODI? A Newsletter on Indian Politics and policy from Scroll.in. By Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, Oct 19, 2020 https://scroll.in/article/976141/the-political-fix-what-would-a-joe-biden-kamala-harris-victory-mean-for-india-and-modi