Joe Biden gave India one of its biggest recent diplomatic wins. By being flexible in the formulation around the Ukraine war, he paved the way for the New Delhi Declaration and made the Indian G20 presidency a grand success.
Biden inaugurated a new chapter in India-United States (US) technology cooperation. His national security advisor personally prodded semiconductor majors to invest in India, which has laid the ground for India’s integration into global supply chains in the world of chips. On space, Biden pushed both invisible cooperation on the strategic side and the more public collaboration between NASA and ISRO. And on the knowledge partnership, he pushed American institutions to collaborate with Indian counterparts on scientific research.
Biden transformed the India-US defence relationship from merely a buyer-seller model to one that was based on co-production and co-development. Under him, both the departments of defense and State began serious work on export control restrictions that stand in the way of supporting India’s rise as a defence industrial power. The GE deal may be delayed but the scale of tech transfer envisaged remains unprecedented. Under Biden, Indus-X represented the first concerted effort to link governments, academia and industry with startups on both sides. Biden’s tech confidantes kicked off a unique collaboration between US military command, a US defence major and an Indian startup to set up a semicon fab.
Biden disproved the old perception in Delhi that India-US convergence didn’t extend to the region west of India. By making India a partner in I2U2, a group with Israel and UAE, and then announcing IMEC, the ambitious corridor that seeks to connect India with West Asia and Europe, he recognised India’s centrality in its extended neighbourhood. And with Quad, Biden cemented India’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific.
Under Biden, the quality of intelligence cooperation between the US and India on China continued to improve. India’s voice on the reform of multilateral development banks got American backing. Biden supported India’s flagship digital public infrastructure, allowing its inclusion in multilateral statements, overriding sceptical voices in his own setup. Biden also helped India in crisis situations, including the evacuation of students in Ukraine. And he did not let real differences on Russia come in the way of the broader strategic partnership.
To be sure, Biden’s team did all of this because it served American interests. But all this helped India. And that’s why Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited Biden’s hometown in Wilmington, Delaware in September, and acknowledged Biden’s personal contribution to the India-US relationship. Modi showed grace with his act.
And that is why when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) blames the US State Department and the US Deep State for hatching some deep anti-India conspiracy (incidentally, the public diplomatic arm of a State isn’t the same as the secretive intelligence arm), it doesn’t add up.
This is, of course, not to deny the presence of an American intelligence apparatus that has often wreaked havoc across the world or the existence of American liberal evangelism that has engaged in regime change. This was a factor in the 2024 election. Donald Trump represents a post-Iraq generation that is sick of America’s myriad external entanglements and doesn’t trust the State, Pentagon or CIA. The Trump-stoked suspicion of the justice system has also energised a domestic constituency that is also suspicious of America’s law enforcement and judicial system, with Biden’s unethical pardon of his son only aiding the perception of rot.
The BJP has now waded into this domestic American debate.
The Right’s critique of the US basically hinges on four issues. The US is playing a “double game” and has undermined India by its official statements expressing concern about Indian democracy; it has undermined India’s internal security interests by giving home to Khalistanis and going after Indian officials in the Pannun case; it has undermined India’s external security interests by engineering a regime change in Dhaka; and it has now undermined the PM by going after Gautam Adani.
Let us separate fact and fiction.
It is true that the State Department has occasionally commented critically on Indian politics. This has been wholly unnecessary and counterproductive and it is really up to India to shape its own politics. But the real story is not what the State said or how it wastes its money on global civil society initiatives or how deluded the US is given its own democracy. The real story is how these statements have translated into zero policy impact. The department’s own top three officials — Antony Blinken, Kurt Campbell, and Richard Verma — are among India’s closest friends in the system and the Biden administration ignored voices seeking action against India.
On Khalistanis, the US has been blind to the trauma in Indian society and the threat perception that Indian security managers continue to feel on the issue. But the Pannun crisis is of India’s making, a result of incompetence and hubris and, to Biden’s credit, the US compartmentalised the controversy from the rest of the relationship.
On Bangladesh, the real story is not any real or perceived American involvement but the undoubtedly overwhelming degree of domestic discontent that drove the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime, and India’s failure to engage with broader Bangladeshi public opinion. And the Adani controversy has all to do with Indian capital still coming to terms with global norms, even as it attempts to raise money in global markets.
And that’s why the recent controversy reveals a gap between India’s strategic and diplomatic realities and political rhetoric, what the government knows and what the party says. It will help the leadership to be more honest with one’s own domestic political base to prevent the political and strategic disconnect from deepening further. On the US end, Joe Biden’s career is over and there will be a new beginning with Donald Trump. But it will be good form, in tune with Indian culture, and smart for the future to continue to walk in the PM’s footsteps and show grace rather than kick friends when they are down and out.
The views expressed are personal
