Modi’s India led by Hindutva—the ideology of Hindu nationalism— bears responsibility for enhancing communal divisions within Indian society and unleashing anti-Muslim hysteria. Examples include the Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2019, which makes it easier for immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to get Indian citizenship provided that they are not Muslims. The same year, the enacted constitutional and administrative modifications stripped the former and predominantly Muslim-based Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, which led to arrests and communication lockdown. These two examples are significant enough to raise questions as to whether India should be internationally supported or condemned for human-rights violations. 

Since the declassified document does not mention a single word about protecting human rights, the Trump White House’s blind eye for New Delhi does not come as surprise. Although human rights might not have appealed to policymakers under the transactional presidency of Trump, the traditional American values and democratic ideals have now found their way to the global stage. Speaking to G7 leaders in Germany on February 19, 2021, Biden said that “democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it.” Certainly, the Biden White House should not then forget that the Modi administration has its own nativist, Hindutva-driven interests. And in response, New Delhi should be reminded that the largest democracy in the world has the responsibility to honor its secular constitution and restrain itself from violating human rights.  

Even in the realms of Realpolitik, which prioritizes national interests over values, the fact that India might use the very same military and intelligence support it gets from the United States not just against China but also against Pakistan, should raise red flags for the Biden White House. Nonetheless, the success of the U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific region is as important for its own security and development as its support for India and other “like-minded” democracies in the region. Although in every democratic country, political platforms might periodically change as a result of each election, the American alliance with India is now solidified by numerous agreements and congressional acts. Hence, it is manifestly clear that the alliance between the United States, the world’s most powerful democratic state, and India, the largest democratic country, will remain resolute for at least the next few years to come.

Dr. Patrick Mendis, a former American diplomat and a military professor, is a distinguished visiting professor of global affairs at the National Chengchi University and a senior fellow of the Taiwan Center for Security Studies (TCSS) in Taipei. 

Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz, a faculty member of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, is a visiting scholar at Tamkang University and TCSS. Both served as Taiwan fellows of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of China. The views expressed in this analysis do not represent the official positions of their current or past affiliations nor governments. 

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