Era of America-India: Modi in US Congress

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the US Congress, highlighting the deepening of India-US ties and the mutual benefits of their partnership.

Even as there had been advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in the last seven years since he addressed the US Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared there had been even more momentous developments in another AI — America-India ties — terming his visit a moment of “great positive transformation” and the deepening of the India-US partnership, the “calling of this century”. (Follow PM Modi in US LIVE Updates)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington. (PTI)

“We are united by a common vision. And, by a common destiny. When our partnership progresses, economic resilience increases, innovation grows, science flourishes, knowledge advances, humanity benefits, our seas and skies are safer, democracy will shine brighter, and the world will be a better place… Together, we shall demonstrate that democracies matter and democracies deliver,” Modi told a joint meeting of Senate and the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill on Thursday evening eastern time.

In a speech marked by humour (including good-natured digs at the partisan battles that mark the operation of the US Congress) and a spirit of positivity, Modi showcased India’s recent economic dynamism, social welfare, technological embrace and global contributions, including on climate, using the platform to present New Delhi’s achievements to a powerful audience that wields enormous influence in determining American foreign policy.

He owned democracy and diversity as India’s innate values in a setting where there have been concerns about India’s recent record on both. He laid out a persuasive case for the mutual synergies that had already propelled the India-US relationship forward. He raised new frontiers of progress in the chamber where there is bipartisan support for ties. And he hailed the role of the diaspora, acknowledging in particular the person sitting behind him, vice president Kamala Harris and the “samosa caucus”, as the five Indian-American members of the House informally call themselves.

Modi spoke about the challenges of the moment, including the war in Ukraine, reaffirming India’s commitment to principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity and reminding the audience that he had “directly and publicly” said this was not an era of war, in a bid to allay any apprehensions or where India stood on the war in Ukraine. But he also spoke about the importance of diplomacy, the impact of the war on the Global South, and the need to end the suffering, which drew applause.

He also offered a stark warning about the challenges in the Indo-Pacific, shorthand for China’s behaviour and actions, to the American legislature united across party lines in its antipathy towards Beijing. “The dark clouds of coercion and confrontation are casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific. The stability of the region has become one of the central concerns of our partnership,” Modi said. He added that both India and the US dreamt of a “free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, connected by secure seas, defined by international law, free from domination”.

“A region where all nations, small and large, are free and fearless in their choices, where progress is not suffocated by impossible burdens of debt, where connectivity is not leveraged for strategic purposes, where all nations are lifted by the high tide of shared prosperity,” Modi said.

Each reference can be read as a critique of China, which is seen as coercing smaller nations, trapping them with debt, and using the Belt and Road Initiative for geopolitical purposes. In another context, Modi also said India created “capabilities, not dependencies”, another dig at Beijing.

From the press gallery of the House, HT saw members clapping over 50 times and offering a standing ovation over half a dozen times during Modi’s hour-long speech. The mood was rather electric, in no small measure due to members of the diaspora who crowded the visitor gallery and regularly chanted “Modi, Modi” through the speech, which may well have taken by surprise legislators not used to political sloganeering from the gallery as they sit on the floor.

With critical pacts sealed across sectors such as technology, defence and space, the US trip of PM Modi has marked the beginning of a new chapter in bilateral ties. The developments assume significance against the backdrop of China’s aggressive strategy along the Line of Actual Control and the Indo-Pacific. The key will be to operationise these landmark deals quickly.

Raisina Hill meets Capitol Hill

As he rushed to the Congress after prolonged meetings and a joint press conference with President Joe Biden at White House, Modi first met the US Congressional leadership — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell. After his address, he also attended a reception in his honour and spoke about how Capitol Hill and Raisina Hill were connected by a bridge of shared values.

But the core of Modi’s speech was the construction of a positive vision, one where India was making great strides and also one where New Delhi and Washington DC together were shaping the world for the better.

In a bid to show the value that India brought to the US, he told Senators and representatives acutely conscious of the interest of their districts and constituents, “When defence and aerospace in India grow, industries in the states of Washington, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania thrive. When American companies grow, their research and development centres in India thrive. When Indians fly more, a single order for aircraft creates more than a million jobs in forty four states in America,” the last being a reference to Air India’s order of Boeing aircraft.

He then shifted track to highlight the mutual advantages. In a chamber worried about the concentration of supply chains in China, Modi said that when India and the US worked together in semiconductors and minerals, it helped supply chains become more “diverse, resilient and reliable”, adding, a little later, that diversifying, decentralising and democratising supply chains was a shared interest.

In possibly a reference to Apple’s manufacturing operations in India, he said, “When an American phone maker invests in India, it creates an entire ecosystem of jobs and opportunities, in both countries.” To a standing ovation, with many legislators sharing close ties with the military-industrial complex, he said, “We were strangers in defence cooperation at the turn of the century. Now, the United States has become one of our most important defence partners.”

Modi acknowledged that every Indian and American leader had worked to improve the relationship, but this was a moment to take it to new heights and agreed, for the first time in public, with President Joe Biden’s characterisation of the relationship as the defining one of the century. “When I was here in 2016, I had said that ‘our relationship is primed for a momentous future’. That future is today.”

With 75 Senators and Representatives having written to Biden to raise concerns about democracy with Modi, the PM also spent time emphasising India’s democratic credentials, pointing to the diversity in the political spectrum (“we have over 2500 parties in India, yes you heard that right..about 20 different parties govern various states governments”), the diversity in languages and faiths (“we are home to all faiths in the world and celebrate all of them”) and claimed India was the “mother of democracy”. While celebrating the fact that India marked 75 years of Independence last year, Modi, however, also said this was after “after a thousand years of foreign rule in one form or another” — a controversial statement back home given the debates about the history of the medieval period.

Given the rare honour of addressing the US Congress more than once, Modi ticked all the boxes in a speech with the central message of India’s rise, and a deeper India-America partnership, music to the ears of the institution that, despite occasional censures of India, has been an institutional ally. “The scope of our cooperation is endless. The potential of our synergies is limitless, And, the chemistry in our relations is effortless.”