Dal quotidiano americano “Chicago Tribune”; Should the US coddle or cudgel India? Actually, neither approach works.

American foreign policy straddles two missions — the first is championing democracy and human rights around the world and the second is pursuing in realpolitik fashion what it needs from other nations. Quite often, the gap between the two is formidable.
President Joe Biden has encountered that disconnect several times in the last 2 ½ years, most notably with Saudi Arabia and the abysmal human rights record amassed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian leanings, and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right incursions into judicial independence.
On Thursday, Biden faced it again, as he rolled out red carpet treatment for Narendra Modi during the Indian prime minister’s state visit to the White House.
Modi isn’t a dictator, but neither is he a paragon of democracy. He sidelines political opponents, as was the case with Rahul Gandhi, a major rival of Modi’s who was kicked out of parliament this spring after a court found him guilty of criminally defaming the Modi family name. He relies on internet shutdowns to tamp down protests, and according to a 2022 State Department report, oversees a government that violently cracks down on religious minorities, mostly Muslims and Christians.
And yet, Modi leads a country that’s pivotal to U.S. global interests right now, as the Biden administration copes with the belligerence of Vladimir Putin and the long game of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Right now, India is more of a hindrance than a helper when it comes to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has been able to cushion the blow of U.S.-led sanctions on the Kremlin’s energy sector thanks to India’s voracious appetite for Russian oil. Since the war began in February 2022, India has dramatically increased the crude it buys from Russia, which now amounts to about 2 million barrels a day,The New York Times reported. That’s nearly half of India’s overall oil imports. New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, coupled with China’s sharp increase in Russian oil imports following the invasion, have helped the Kremlin keep cash flowing into its war machine.
India’s rapidly growing economy needs ample energy supplies, and cheap Russian oil satisfies that hunger. Biden likely won’t have much success trying to wean India off Russian energy. He can, however, push Modi harder to lessen India’s dependence on
Russian military equipment and arms. Modi’s government gets roughly half of its military supplies from the Kremlin. That’s revenue that helps keep Putin’s brutal and illegal war from flagging.
On Ukraine, India has consistently maintained neutrality, though that’s not the way Modi would describe it. He recently told The Wall Street Journal that “we are not neutral. We are on the side of peace. … All countries should respect international law and the sovereignty of countries.” If Modi wanted to back up that easy rhetoric with action, he would put far more pressure on Putin — who is the sole reason why legions of Ukrainian civilians are dying needlessly — to recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty and bring an end to the conflict.
On the question of China, the U.S. may have more success with Modi, whose nation increasingly sees China as an economic and geopolitical rival. Relations between the two countries have been tense for years, in part because of territorial disputes that led to a deadly border clash in 2020. Also rankling New Delhi are the billions of dollars that Beijing for years has poured into India’s nuclear archrival, Pakistan.
The Biden administration sees India as a formidable counterpoint to China’s ever-growing economic might. India has surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation, and it makes sense for Washington to shift more economic focus toward Modi’s nation of 1.4 billion people. The foundation for that shift is already strong; the U.S. is India’s biggest trading partner, with trade between the two nations hitting a record $191 billion last year. America is also India’s third largest source of foreign investment.
Turning to India as a counterweight to China and a stronger partner against Russian aggression doesn’t have to mean that the Biden administration must treat Modi’s checkered human rights record as if it doesn’t exist. It does mean, however, that Washington would be smart to rely on careful, measured diplomacy in dealing with Modi, rather than a cudgel.
Modi, meanwhile, should recognize that his vision for India as a global leader can only happen if India behaves like a true democracy, rather than one in name only.
Governments that regard themselves as democratic but apply a different set of rules to political opponents and minorities are unlikely to gain sufficient global credibility to ascend to the world’s upper tier of leaders. The U.S. and Biden can and should advise Modi of that truth, but it would be even better if he realizes it himself.