Joe Biden pledges closer ties with India, fairer H-1B norms
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, on Saturday pledged closer ties with India and a better deal for Indian Americans in a short, policyladen Independence Day message. He will stand with India in confronting “new threats its faces in its own region and along its own border”, he said.
Kamala Harris, his running mate, struck a personal note. She spoke of her visits to “Madras” (as Chennai was called then), stories she heard from her grandfather of heroes of Indian independence and her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris’s efforts to instil in her “a love of good Idli”.
Biden’s campaign had earlier in the day issued an expansive agenda on relations with India and the welfare of Indian Americans if he wins in November. The Biden administration will not allow China to threaten its neighbors with “impunity” and will have “no tolerance” for cross-border terrorism.
Biden built on it n a pre-recorded message played at a virtual outreach to the Indian American community to celebrate Indian Independence Day. Recalling his leading efforts to ratify the civil nuclear deal in 2008 as a senator, he said he had held then that if India and the United States “became closer friends and partners the world would be a safer place.”
“If elected president, I will continue to believe it,” he went onto says and added that he will “continue what I have long called for — including standing with India in confronting new threats it faces n its own region and along its border.”
The former vice-president covered an entire range of issues for cooperation in the future over the next few minutes, such as trade, climate change and public health. And also have “honest conversations on all issues as friends”, which is diplomatese for discussing disagreements and difficult issues. Biden spoke disapprovingly of rising hate crimes and crackdown on legal immigration in recent years — “the sudden and harmful actions on H-1B, which for decades made America stronger and brought our nations closer”.
The expansive agenda, address by Biden and Harris, and the participation of senior members of the campaign former deputy secretary of state Tony Blinken, former National Security Adviser to former vicepresident Biden Jake Sullivan, speechwriter Vinay Reddy and Seema Sadanandan was part of the campaign efforts to woo 1.2 million Indian American voters who can help in closely fought swing states. Former US ambassador to India Rich Verma and former assistant secretary of state Nisha Biswal also participated in he discussions,
Harris spoke largely in personal terms. She spoke of her grandfather P V Gopalan and grandmother Rajam, and the values that her mother Shyamala Gopalan learnt from them — “if you see injustice in the world you have an obligation to do something about it”. Growing up, Gopalan would take Harris and her sister Maya Harris to “what was then called Madras” so that they could understand where she came from what was their ancestry.
Harris has faced criticism among some Indian Americans — and a section of Indians — for not embracing her Indian-ness enough, and for projecting herself more Black. She wrote in her autobiography she and her sister were raised by their mother to be “confident, proud black women”.
On Saturday, Harris may have checked a few boxes for her critics as she spoke also of stories her grandfather told her about the heroes responsible India’s independence. “He would explain to us that it was on us to pick up where they left off,” she said, adding, “those lessons are a big reason why I am who I am today.” Blinken, who is expected a top portfolio in a Biden administration such as secretary of state or national security adviser, suggested that cooperation between the two countries should “extend even beyond the region to the world as large”. Blinken went to say the Biden administration will support a larger role for India in international institutions — including a permanent seat in a reformed UN security council. The US first extent support for India’s claim to a permanent during President Barack Obama’s first visit to India in 2010.