Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s short visit to the US in being hailed by Modi lovers as a shot in arms for India. They see it as a beginning of road to five trillion economy and a seat-sharing with big powers. The US is also happy as it would get big military hardware orders. America is the largest manufacturer and supplier of arms in the world. The prosperity of America is in a big way dependent on arms industry. In a way they benefit from conflicts in the world, and if there are no conflicts, they would love to create some. That is why some critics openly allege that all big powers are, at least partly, merchants of death.
Modi announced that talks were successful and have opened the doors of a new era of cooperation between the US and India. Biden confirms that our mutual relations are now stronger, closer and more dynamic. The pact signed assure Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) transfer of technology which will enable India to manufacture fighter jet engines for Indian Air Force. Agreement for Cooperation in the field of space technology also has been made. This opens doors to a joint mission to International Space Station (ISS) in 2024.
Now let us turn to the pieces of advice Mr. Modi got and reverses he had to counter. Seventy-five Democrats of US Congress wrote a joint letter to President Biden to remind Modi about the weakening of democracy, violation of human rights and curtailment of press freedom and freedom of expression in India. We do not have information whether Mr. Biden took this advice seriously and discussed these with Mr. Modi or his attention was fixed on the financial aspects of the pacts signed.
Former President Mr. Obama was franker. He said on TV that he knew Mr. Modi well, and if he had an opportunity, he would have told him that majority Hindus must be careful about treatment of minorities, especially the Muslims, otherwise it would be injurious to the future of India.
For the first time in his nine years of prime ministership, P.M. Modi faced a press conference and was asked about democracy and discrimination, etc. In his usual verbose and eloquent style, he is reported to have answered: “India is a democracy. Democracy is in our spirit. It runs in our veins. We live democracy and our ancestors have actually put words to this concept in the form of the Constitution. India has proved that democracies can deliver… regardless of class, creed, religion, gender. There is absolutely no room for discrimination. Benefits of central schemes are available to all without bias…. Without human values and human rights there is no democracy.”
Unfortunately, discrimination is widespread in India. Every Indian knows it and the world organisations have documented the cases of stark discriminations. We need not give details. But we would remind the powers that be that the world is not blind to what Indian minorities, especially Muslims, have faced especially during the last eight years.
We would confine to remind the rulers of India to put into practice what they shout from the top houses: sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, sab ka vishwas. No one wants any special facilities. What every Indian wants and deserves is liberty, equality and fraternity without even an iota of discrimination. If the government fails to deliver this, the history will never forgive it and God will never forgive it.