Kamala Harris gets muted response in India as few see change in US ties

US has sought to cultivate deeper partnership with India as bulwark against more assertive China, while India has sought greater US investment and deeper cooperation in technology sharing and defence

Four years ago, when Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, much of India was abuzz over how the first Indian-American in the White House might affect the future of US-India relations.

Now, Harris is a step closer to capturing the Democratic nomination for president — but few are expecting any change in ties should she win.

Despite Harris’ well-documented Indian heritage and family links to the country there is little indication that her presidency would meaningfully tip the direction of the US-India relationship, which has strengthened in recent decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 

The US has sought to cultivate a deeper partnership with India as a bulwark against a more assertive China, while India has sought greater US investment and deeper cooperation in technology sharing and defence. The economic and strategic logic that underpins US-India ties would likely remain intact were Harris to win the White House, analysts and Indian officials said. 

 

“There would be a degree of continuity if she’s elected to the White House,” said Harsh Pant of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “India has had a productive relationship with Mr. Biden. And Kamala Harris was part of the administration.” 

In 2020, Biden’s choice of Harris as his running mate sparked a wave of excitement in India, with social media users poring over her family connections to Chennai, the southern Indian city where her mother was born. Undated photos surfaced of a younger Harris and her sister Maya in saris, posing with grandparents during a visit. 

Harris at the time was the first Black woman and the first woman of Indian descent on a major ticket in a US presidential election. Her joining the ticket sparked reports in Indian media over how a Biden-Harris win might further bolster ties between the two countries. 

Ties have indeed continued to improve, but India has not been a personal priority for Harris, who has instead been occupied with domestic issues, like reproductive rights and securing the US-Mexico border. Harris hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House last year, where she talked about her Indian heritage and praised Modi’s leadership. But she hasn’t visited India during her time as vice president. 

While on the campaign trail in 2019, Harris criticized Modi’s policies on Kashmir, a region contested by both India and Pakistan and was the site of a lengthy crackdown after Modi scrapped the Muslim-majority state’s autonomy. “We have to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world,” she said in September of that year. 

One reason Harris’s Indian ties may not be much of a political factor is that they aren’t a prominent part in her public persona, said Sreeram Sundar Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs. “Unlike say Rishi Sunak in the UK, for example, who has been very open about showing his Indian and Hindu roots,” he said. Sunak was Britain’s prime minister until earlier this month. 

Instead, Harris’s African and Carribean heritage — her father is from Jamaica — is the more visible part of her public identity, Chaulia said. 

Modi, meanwhile, is widely believed to enjoy warmer and more personal ties with Donald Trump, who is the Republican’s candidate for president. Both leaders have hosted each other at political rallies in their respective countries, with Trump holding a “Howdy Modi” event in Houston before a huge crowd of Indian Americans in September 2019 — just days after Modi’s new policy in Kashmir. 

That event was followed up in 2020 with a visit by Trump to Modi’s home state of Gujarat for an event billed “Namaste Trump.” There, the US president addressed a rally of nearly 100,000 people at a stadium in the city of Ahmedabad.  

Irrespective of who wins November’s election, US-India ties should maintain their upward trajectory — despite having been tested in the last year. Allegations of India’s involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against a Sikh activist on US soil, as well as Modi’s embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin, have both been an irritant for the US. 

“The relationship between the United States and India goes beyond individuals, and even beyond parties,” said Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University. “All administrations, starting from President Bill Clinton, have advocated closer ties with India and that is not going to change, especially when the China factor looms large in both national capitals.”  

Still, in Tamil Nadu — the home state of Harris’ Indian family — pride in the prospect of an Indian-American in the White House runs high. B Krishna Moorthy, who runs the Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non Resident Tamils, said the group was “deeply moved and filled with pride” at the prospect of a Harris presidency.

“We look forward to seeing how her experiences and perspectives will contribute positively to global discourse, inspire future generations and foster the Indo-US relationship.” 

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