THE GREAT GAME: The message from New Delhi is that those who break the law deserve the punishment they get

“Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran calls it “uncivilized behavior on the part of the US.” Except, civility and good manners are already casualties of Naya America’s foreign policy. The manner in which Trump is overhauling the Middle East — Gaza, Palestine, Jordan — is unprecedented. India is keeping quiet because the hyper-realist policies that it has been propagating for some time now you only get involved when you are directly affected. And you are not directly affected in Gaza, Palestine and Jordan.”

February is fast turning out to be the cruelest month, with apologies to TS Eliot, on India’s foreign policy calendar.

In the east, Bangladeshi lumpen youth, with no connection to either memory or even a desire for history, danced to the Bollywood song, “munni badnam hui,” as they participated in the burning of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s home in Dhaka. Indians watched, horror-struck, at the hammer blow to what was once a glorious chapter in the lives of both countries — and couldn’t help asking, What now?

And in the West, questions abound as PM Narendra Modi prepares to fly to the US to meet President Trump, barely days after 104 Indian nationals, shackled and cuffed, were deported back home. Another 487 are on their way. A sense of disquiet persists on whether the PM’s decision to go to the US in these circumstances is the right one.

Many would say, yes of course. The India-US relationship remains the most important foreign policy relationship, notwithstanding Russia’s help with slashing the price of oil these recent post-Covid years. In support of this argument, a trade roadmap is on the cards when the PM visits, as is the likely announcement of India opening up the civil nuclear sector (after 17 years), while talk of Delhi buying more US defense equipment is gaining ground.

Which is why External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has travelled to the US thrice in the last four months, in September, December and January, so as to make the Modi-Trump meeting count. He has put out that the PM will be only one of the three leaders to have met Trump in his first month in power — Israel’s Netanyahu, Japan’s Ishiba and India’s Modi.

Unfortunately, barely a week before Modi lands in DC, the news has not been very complimentary. Pictures of young Indian men in second-hand jeans and cheap Chinese shoes shuffling towards a US military plane because they have chains on their feet has sent waves of shock and awe across Punjab, if not the rest of the country.

This, of course, is exactly what Trump wants. He wants to send the message to the world that he’s not interested in the great unwashed landing up at America’s doors — talented, skilled and accomplished brigades on H1-B visas are just fine.

Nor does he seem to have time for saving face. If the Indian PM is coming to see you in a week, you should no longer expect that the news is good on the eve of your visit. Trump has already rewritten the rules of the world order in the few weeks he’s been around.

Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran calls it “uncivilized behavior on the part of the US.” Except, civility and good manners are already casualties of Naya America’s foreign policy. The manner in which Trump is overhauling the Middle East — Gaza, Palestine, Jordan — is unprecedented. India is keeping quiet because the hyper-realist policies that it has been propagating for some time now you only get involved when you are directly affected. And you are not directly affected in Gaza, Palestine and Jordan.

As for the 104 deportees, including women, who were shackled during their flight home earlier this week, the message from New Delhi is that those who break the law deserve the punishment they get. The US Border Patrol described them as “aliens,” and so they are.

And yet, as Jaishankar spoke in Parliament on the deported Indians, admitting on record that he was “being bureaucratically correct,” one couldn’t help wondering what his predecessor, the late Sushma Swaraj, would have said when confronted with India’s present predicament — witnessing the humiliation of its poor and unskilled masses being rightfully punished for doing a very stupid thing.

Sushma Aunty had so stirred the bureaucratic consciousness of the toughened bureaucrats of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) that they were forced to be kinder to the bluest-collar workers across the world. Reforms were ordered for the protection of emigrants, laws were toughened for those wanting to work abroad, immigration agents were forced to fall in line. Not that she cleaned up the entire system, but she certainly tried. She knew her fellow citizens were more often than not on the wrong side of the foreign law in question, but she demonstrated compassion. She offered them a hanky to cry when they got caught after knowingly breaking the rules.

The current Modi government, instead, is throwing the rule book at these people. Moreover, the MEA is pointing out, these Punjabi folk who can spend Rs 45 lakh chasing the American dream are not exactly poor. Of course, the MEA is right. These 104 men and women knowingly bought that one-way ticket to Amreeka, well aware that the “dunki route” is what it was. And still they went. Problem is, they will still go if they get a chance, if only because they need to pay the loan their families took to send them to the US.

But back to Modi and Trump and the importance of the India-US relationship. Apart from the fact that the PM seems keen on making that early connection with the President, the fact remains that both countries are increasingly invested in each other. From intelligence-sharing to defense and technology partnerships, via military foundational agreements that have been signed over the last 25 years — an alphabet soup called GSOMIA, LEMOA, COMCASA, BECA — India is so closely integrated with the US that it would not be far wrong to describe it as an “informal ally.”

Some would say, why not? There are as many as 5 million US citizens of Indian origin, a hugely influential group. We celebrate them all. We wallow in the appreciation of Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella and Indra Nooyi and Ajay Banga, as if they were part of our immediate family.

The problem arises when the Punjabis from Doaba, the Haryanvis from Kaithal and the Gujaratis from Gandhinagar bomb this pretty picture — wearing handcuffs and all. What is worse is that no one, except their immediate families, want to own these Indians. The nowhere men and women of a nowhere world.
(Jyoti Malhotra is Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune group of newspapers. She has been a journalist for 40 years, working in print, TV and digital, both in English and Hindi media, besides being a regular contributor on BBC Radio. She is deeply interested in the conflation between politics and foreign policy. Her X handle is @jomalhotra Insta handle @jomalhotra Email: jyoti.malhotra@tribunemail.com)