Amid common hostility against China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “official state visit” (highest level of diplomatic US protocol) to US which includes a “state dinner” hosted by President Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, Business deals and arms sales, a ceremonial welcome at the White House- signifies a shifting headwind where America is carting India closer despite “concerns” about India’s “democratic backsliding, targeting of civil society, journalists and rising violence against Indian Muslims.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said US President Joe Biden is expected to bring up America’s concerns about democratic backsliding in India, but he will not lecture Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the subject.
“US wants India to be a strategic counterweight to China and sees India as one of the defining partnerships of our age" Sullivan said.
When the US sees challenges to press, religious or other freedoms, "we make our views known," Sullivan said.
He added: "We do so in a way where we don’t seek to lecture or assert that we don’t have challenges ourselves."
"Ultimately, the question of where politics and the question of democratic institutions go in India is going to be determined within India by Indians. It’s not going to be determined by the United States," Sullivan said.
President Biden and PM Modi are also expected to announce a variety of agreements including arms sales, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and investments in India by Micron Technology and other US companies.
Ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s “official state visit,” more than 70 Democratic lawmakers urged US president to raise upholding democratic values and human rights with the Indian prime minister, citing “troubling signs in India toward the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access.”
“Mr. Modi’s India has become fatal to more than 200 million Muslims, as his right-wing supporters have fomented religious tensions with the aim of imposing Hindu supremacy or Hindutva on India’s constitutionally secular democracy,” the letter told Biden.
However, Mr. Modi was warmly greeted by US CEOs, including Tesla and Twitter Chief Elon Musk in New York.
When Musk, who last year bought Twitter for USD 44 billion was asked about Jack Dorsey’s statement, he said: "We cannot apply America to Earth. Twitter does not have a choice but to obey the local government. If we don’t obey local laws then we will get shut down. We will do our best to provide the freest speech that is possible under the rule."
Elon Musk’s meeting with Narendra Modi came days after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey made sensational comments that the Indian government threatened to shut down the social media platform for not complying with content takedown orders during a 2020-2021 farmers’ protest.
The government has denied the allegation, calling them an "outright lie".
Moreover, experts said the Biden administration is primarily interested in India as a potential counterweight to China, which the US sees as its most formidable global competitor.
Mr. has previously visited US six times since 2014— September 2014, September 2015, March-April 2016, June 2016, June 2017 and September 2019 but this is his first official state visit.
US State Department classifies visits by visiting foreign dignitaries under five categories — state visit, official visit, official working visit, working visit, and private visit.
According to the US State Department, out of Modi’s previous six visits, the one in 2014 was a working visit while the one in 2017 was an official working visit. The one in 2016 was classified as a working lunch.
He also made two other visits — to attend a Nuclear Security Summit in 2016 and to participate in the “Howdy Modi” rally in 2019.
PM Modi is the only second prime minister of India to make such an “official state visit” after Manmohan Singh.
Biden has so far hosted only two state visits since he came to power in 2020 — for French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
A formal invitation for a state visit by the US president signals that he considers the visiting head of nation an important friend and ally.
