Based on the 25 years of history of India-US relations, the recent tensions between India and the US can be safely described as a mere swing of the pendulum that was set in motion by the former Indian Prime Minister, Late Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and the former US President Bill Clinton in the year 2000.
On July 30th, Trump announced a 25% tariff on Indian exports to the US, which took effect on August 1st. Among the reasons cited for this tariff were high Indian tariffs on US goods and non-tariff trade barriers, together with India’s continued purchase of Russian oil and arms, which was very unusual.
Thereafter, on August 6th, Trump signed another executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods specifically as a punitive measure against India’s purchase of Russian oil, bringing the total US tariff on Indian goods to 50%. This second round of tariffs is slated to take effect on August 27th.
Now, India’s high tariffs on the US goods as well as other non-tariff barriers have long been an irritant in the India-US relations, however, the US’ trying to punish India for its trade with Russia is unprecedented.
Historically, the United States, irrespective of its ruling dispensation was known to have been exempting India from its sanctions’ regime directed toward Iran and Russia, which includes the first Trump administration as well, and this enabled India to manage excellent ties with the US as well as Iran and Russia.
However, now, by imposing 50% tariffs on India as a punitive measure for buying Russian oil, the incumbent Trump administration is being described my many as effectively impinging on India’s strategic autonomy which it values over everything else, which has caused many to suggest that this could jeopardize one of the US’ most important strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific.
That said, the Author, is not writing this article to simply criticize the Trump administration or the US for what can be rightly described as ‘unreasonable behaviour’ on its part toward India, largely if not completely.
Instead, the purpose of this article is to point out that this is not the first time that the US and India have found themselves at odds with each other in the 25 years of their strategic partnership so far, and regardless of the ruling dispensation in either country, the governments of both the countries have always managed to resolve their differences and take their partnership forward from strength to strength.
Already, the governments from both the countries have begun signalling at a potential easing of tensions in coming months.
Now, the question should be why is it important to point out what could appear to some as obvious? It is because if one goes by the overall narrative generated from the media and the intelligentsia from both the countries in recent months, it would seem that the relations between India and the US had deteriorated to the point of no return.
Therefore, the Author intends to write this article for not just the present but also for it to serve as a reference in the future when India and the US find themselves at odds again, as it is to be expected in a dynamic between a superpower like the United States and an emerging superpower like India.
So, let us begin.
Pendulous History Of India-US relations
Soon after Late Shree Atal Bihari Vajpee became the Prime Minister of India for the second time in 1998, he authorized nuclear weapons testing at Pokhran. These tests were met with condemnation and economic sanctions from the United States under Clinton administration.
These economic sanctions, however, were ineffective. Only Japan joined the US in imposing direct sanctions while several other countries continued to do trade with India.
Soon the sanctions were lifted and shortly after, the Clinton administration and Vajpayee ji’s government exchanged representatives to help with improving relations between the US and India.
In March 2000, President Bill Clinton undertook a visit to India, marking the first US Presidential visit to India since 1978. The visit entailed economic discussions as well as the establishment of the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum.
The aforementioned events could be categorised as a prologue to the significant improvement of diplomatic relations between India and the US that happened during the George W. Bush’s administration in the US, who was also described by Journalist Fareed Zakaria, as the “most pro-Indian president in American history” in his book ‘The Post-American World’.
However, even during the time of President Bush, there were periods of friction between India and the United States. For instance, the Bush administration’s military assistance to Pakistan involving $1.5 billion of Foreign Military Financing from 2005 to 2009 as well as sell of other advanced weaponry, continued to create discomfort for the Indian political and military leaders.
There was also divergence between the US and India when it came to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration wanted India to join the US and Europe in their efforts to get a majority on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to vote in favor of referring the issue of Iran’s nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for possible consideration of sanctions.
The Indian government, on the other hand, was of the view that while Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons and it had indeed failed to disclose elements of its nuclear program to internation inspections, referring this issue to the UNSC will only backfire, as it could be seen as a provocation by Iran’s newly elected President at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Despite these instances of frictions, the India-US ties flourished, including in the military domain which was described by the US diplomats as the most important aspect of the transformed bilateral relations between the two countries.
The really challenging times for the India-US partnership though, began during the Obama administration which entailed a series of major diplomatic rows as well as the impasse on global trade deal, and India’s concerns related to the Obama administration’s engagement with China.
Challenges To India-US Relations During Obama Administration
In December 2010, two of India’s diplomats were subjected to security search. One was India’s US ambassador Meera Shankar, who was frisked at a US airport, and another one was India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Hardeep Singh Puri.
Ms. Shankar was singled out from a security line at Jackson-Evers International for frisking merely because she was wearing a sari.
Whereas Hardeep Singh Puri ji, who is currently India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, was asked to remove his turban at an airport in Houston, Texas, and was detained in a “holding room” when he refused to do so.
Puri ji belongs to Sikh faith which requires men to keep all their hair intact and heads covered in public. The turban is meant to be a symbol of self-respect, righteousness and sanctity, and it can only be removed in the most private circumstances, particularly when one is cleansing their face or hair. It is also considered insulting to touch a Sikh man’s turban without his consent.
Both these incidents caused uproar in India. Three years down the line, a similar incident happened.
So, in December 2013, a diplomatic dispute erupted between the two countries when India’s Deputy Consul general in New York at the time, Devyani Khobragade, was arrested on the charges of visa fraud and making false statements on an application for her Indian housekeeper to live and work in New York.
The news of this arrest quickly dominated India’s TV news bulletins, sparking public outrage in the country. Per the Indian officials’ account of the events, Khobragade was arrested and handcuffed while dropping her daughter off at school, and after that she was strip-searched and held in a cell with drug addicts before she managed to post bail of US$250,000.
India responded to this strongly by removing security barriers outside the US embassy in New Delhi as well as by withdrawing all airport passes for consulates and import clearances for the embassy.
Also, leading Indian politicians like Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress (INC) which at the time was the leading party of the ruling coalition government in India, as well as Mr. Narendra Modi, who at the time was the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the largest opposition party at the time, boycotted a visit by a US congressional delegation to India.
The timing of this incident could not have been worse, as it happened amidst the stand-off between India and the US during the multi-lateral negotiations of the Trade Facilitation Agreement at the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly on the issue of proposed rules in the agreement that governed food security programmes of the member countries.
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