The significance of the Modi-harris meeting

Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into an hour. A little over an hour, actually. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s meeting with the United States (US) vice-president, Kamala Harris, was now well past the outermost expectations of Indian diplomats, who were watching the clock, and dreading the worst. This was the most consequential meeting for the future of India’s ties with the US under the Biden administration.

Harris has been a strident critic of the Modi government. As a Democratic senator, she had opposed the controversial move to effectively nullify Article 370 that guaranteed special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that expedited Indian citizenship only for non-muslim refugees.

Harris’s criticism of the Modi government on these issues was a manifestation of an underlying disquiet in the Democratic Party, especially of its progressive wing, about the Indian PM. Modi was seen — and continues to be seen — in these quarters as an illiberal, authoritarian figure.

“We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world,” Harris had said in 2019, in the frenzied aftermath of the change in its constitutional status. “We are keeping track of the situation. There is a need to intervene if the situation demands.”

Harris’s criticism, along with that by Pramila Jayapal, struck Indians hard, rudely awakening them from their belief that all Indian-americans are on their side.

Jayapal struck the first blow when she got into a rather nasty public spat with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, who is usually impervious or dismissive of criticism.

He refused to appear for an interaction with the foreign relations committee of the US House of Representatives because of Jayapal, who was expected to attend and grill the minister.

“It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill. I stand with @Repjayapal,” Harris had written in a tweet.

India, it was assumed and believed, had lost the Democratic Party, or at least the progressives. But now vice-president Harris, the first Indian-american to hold the second most powerful political position in the US, Harris passed up the chance to confront Modi at their meeting — to ask him about Kashmir, CAA and every other issue that has agitated Modi’s critics in the US.

Harris’s earlier criticism of the Modi government was seen as reflecting the dissatisfaction felt among progressives in the Democratic Party, which has since 2020 controlled all three pillars of the US government — the White House, the House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Thursday’s meeting was a bold and risky move by Modi to test that antipathy. It could have gone either way. But the gamble paid off.