Abhijit Bhattacharyya | Can India Really Afford to Trust America Today?

India, like most countries across the world, has little choice but to lump what comes its way that originates from the current occupant of the White House. Remember that for the past 80 years or more, Britain and the US have enjoyed a so-called “special relationship”, based on a shared Anglo-Saxon heritage. Despite that, even London is not spared when it comes to Mr Trump’s whims and fancies and when America stands to gain from any deal. In his view, the US should be the sole 100 per cent beneficiary from any financial or monetary transaction. Since that is rare in any bilateral deal, Mr Trump will settle for the next best option, to gain at least the lion’s share, or 75 per cent, in any contract.

India, of course, is no match for the United States in almost any sector; but till today it has successfully charted an independent foreign policy based on “neutrality” or “non-alignment” since the Jawaharlal Nehru era. This had of course led to friction with several previous US administrations but nothing comparable with the reality under the egotistical Mr Trump. This is all the more so as heads of state and heads of government across the world are falling over themselves in desperate attempts to appease the US President’s vanity and try to win him over with deals favourable to America, giving up their sense of self-respect, honour and dignity.

In this climate, India is still valiantly holding out in the face of incredibly strong pressure from Washington. The negotiations on the free trade agreement are continuing, but New Delhi is standing firm and not backed down on its “red lines”, particularly over agriculture. Not yet. Irrespective of any tactical or short-term setbacks, no government in India can afford to be seen as succumbing to dictates from Washington. India simply cannot emulate what Cambodia, Pakistan, Israel and now even Japan’s new woman Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, have done by recommending Mr Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. This kind of fawning behaviour was unbecoming of all these Asian leaders, but India has at least set an example befitting a sovereign nation.

The real challenge for India remains to successfully conclude a free trade agreement with the United States on terms that both nations can find acceptable. For India, protecting its agriculture and dairy sectors is the key priority, while America seems driven to “correct” its $43 billion bilateral trade deficit. The strange thing is that, in comparison, the US has an annual trade deficit of a staggering $298 billion with the People’s Republic of China, yet that did not stand in the way of recent bonhomie between President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping at an airbase in South Korea, which led to US reducing its steep tariffs on Beijing.

The bogey of India’s Russian oil purchases raised by Mr Trump and his advisers is part of the strong-arm tactics by the US to bulldoze India, which paradoxically is even now being hailed as a “strategic defence partner” of Washington. One wonders whether all parts of the US administration are in sync, or are the commerce, state and defence departments devising their own policies? Some members of the Trump team are resorting to totally unacceptable and grossly unethical diplomatic dealings, which crossed all limits. Targeting non-resident Indian businessmen for transporting oil to India on allegedly blacklisted ships reeks of reprehensible race and colour prejudice by White America driven by the MAGA lobby. One wonders if Mr Trump’s top advisers have thought their strategy through: whether creating needless bitterness in an otherwise friendly country like India really serves America’s long-term interests.

Given that unlike America, Moscow has always remained, through decades, a steady and dependable friend for this country, New Delhi must be wary about getting into Washington’s clutches after having experienced America’s hostile attitude and antics. It is no secret that the US has always been an unreliable and undependable defence partner, right from the 1950s, and there is no reason to believe things would be any better in future.

The growing internal turmoil within America, especially with no end in sight to month-long federal government shutdown, is an added cause of concern. Over a million US employees are without pay over a month and the mighty American aviation network is on the rocks with a large chunk of Air Traffic Controllers off duty. That’s a potentially dangerous situation as without the guidance, navigation and command of ATCs, every flight is a possible aviation disaster.

How America governs itself is, of course, its own concern and not the business of foreign nations. But the staggering decline in the quality of everything -- from the economy, armed forces, aviation, race relations to international relations -- is undeniable. Regrettably, however, the self-created US mess is now contaminating the non-US world too, including India.

India’s greatest advantage is its largely non-export economy, which reduces any excessive dependence on undependable bigger economies that are only focused on themselves. Mr Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement is taking a onetime “sole superpower” steadily downhill, as the besieged President makes desperate attempts to make the rest of the world fall in line. It is becoming quite evident Mr Trump is trading short-term victories for long-term problems, and in the process taking a wrecking ball to the diplomatic capital his predecessors spent over eight decades to build up.

While, sadly, many Indians are being adversely affected by the downturn in relations with the US, including students, and Indian-origin American residents, with some even targeted or killed in racist attacks, not to mention of many immigrants being handcuffed and deported on 25-hour-long flights, it is not entirely a bad thing that fewer Indians look at America as “land of opportunity”. It is anything but that any longer. Of course, there will always be some who swear by America, but their numbers are fewer. To most people, it is becoming clear that the US is fast losing influence with key players across the globe, especially in the non-white Global South. There is now a visible anti-American wave worldwide, as London’s Financial Times highlighted in its headline.