Although Prime Minister Modi gave a good account of himself in his recent state visit to the US and perhaps even charmed President Biden and the general populace, Modi bhakts should resist the temptation to interpret this bonhomie as blanket endorsement of BJP rule over India during the past decade. That the word ‘democracy’ was mentioned over a dozen times in the speeches of the two leaders, is a subtle indicator that the US expects the Modi administration to practice democracy in the full sense of the word, i.e, improve its human rights, especially its minority rights protection record, if it is to expect large-scale American technology transfer and investment.
There’s no doubt that the US establishment has been spooked by the astonishingly swift rise of Communist China into a high-tech superpower capable of challenging the US in the global arena. As recently as 2001, the US had smoothed the way for China to enter the WTO as a less developed country entitled to duty-free imports into the US, and American multinationals such as GM, GE and Apple were officially encouraged to establish large supply chain subsidiaries in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Furthermore, research students from China were given free passes into American cutting edge technology establishments.
Only recently has the American polity become aware that the assumption that liberalisation if not democracy, would spread in China as it prospered, was a monumental mistake. Now with China having grown into a Frankenstein ready to absorb Southeast Asia into its sphere of influence, only the world’s most populous country with a 430 million middle class can be transformed into a counterweight to the PRC. It’s not love of PM Modi, but fear of President Xi Jingping, who far from liberalising modern China, is tightening the grip of the 100 million-strong all-pervasive CPC (Communist Party of China) over the country, that has prompted the American re-discovery of India. Modi bhakts, please note.
