If Joe Biden wins, he will be the third US President to deal with Modi – Here’s how it could play out

• Joe Biden is currently leading against Donald Trump in the national polls for the 2020 US presidential election.
• If Biden wins, he will be the third US President to deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Propagators believe Biden will keep an open mind, while critics warn it could cause hurdles in relations with India and the United States.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden currently leads the nationwide polls against incumbent Donald Trump for the 2020 US presidential election. If he wins, Biden would be the third US president to deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Biden will uphold his long-held belief that India and the United States are natural partners, and a Biden administration will place a high priority on continuing to strengthen US-Indian relations,” is the campaign’s official position.

However, for the equation between India and the United States, it could mean a wind of change.

Many of the issues that have been swept under the rug, such as India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Section 370, turn to thorns between the two nations, according to Mukesh Aghi, the chief executive officer. of the United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

“They will challenge religious freedom. They will question human rights. They will question what is happening in Kashmir and some of the other issues that have been ignored by the Trump administration, ”he told Business Insider at the Global Trends Festival 2020.

Publicity

Biden has grazed the Indian bureaucracy on several occasions in the past. He was the president of the
Senate Committee on External Relations when the
US-Indian nuclear deal was signed in 2008 and was co-sponsor of
Transfer of Warships Act, 2005, which led India to mark its first US-built warship – the
INS Jalashwa.

Propagators of the Biden campaign believe his nearly four decades of diplomatic experience will work in his favor, even if he disagrees on some points.

“What makes him special about Joe Biden is his ability to find common ground. It also has the ability to let you know very clearly – to leaders overseas and other countries around the world – where the United States does not agree, ”Moe Vela, former senior management consultant, told Business Insider. of Biden since his days as vice president. during a live Twitter in June.

Biden and human rights
When the Modi government revoked Kashmir’s special status under section 370, Democrats rallied behind Trump
dismissive attitude at the 2019 Hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Human Rights in South Asia.

In addition, the Biden campaign agenda for
American Muslim Communities addresses the situation in Kashmir as a “pain” for the community alongside the Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Myanmar.

However, Biden’s push against India’s actions is unlikely to be immediate. With the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole and the U.S. economy in need of help – issues on the national front will likely take priority, according to the Observer Research Foundation (
ORF) Kashish Parpiani.

Biden’s play to allay China’s fears
Biden’s agenda pledges to “work with India to support a stable, rules-based Indo-Pacific region in which no country, including China, is able to threaten its neighbors with impunity », To counter the success of the Trump administration in structuring the QUAD.

Another sign of political continuity is Biden’s pledge to continue to treat India as a Major Defense Partner (CDM), as it did under the Barack Obama administration. This could signal that other developments could be underway, such as the classification of India as Strategic Trade Clearance-1 and the finalization of the annex on industrial security to facilitate the transfer of sensitive technologies, according to Parpiani.



The issue of H-1B visas
Vela believes Trump’s ban on H-1B visas is just another example of racism. Since most of these employees are knowledge workers who know their way around a computer, he says, working remotely is a real possibility.

And, the CEO of StackOverflow – one of the largest online communities for developers to share tips and tricks – Prashanth Chandrasekar can already see the trends changing. In the plethora of their network, StackOverflow has noticed how businesses around the world have changed their attitude towards asynchronous working during the pandemic.

One of Biden’s promises
includes reform of the H-1B visa system and the elimination of country employment-based green card limits. It plans to “protect American and foreign workers.”

But again, with the global economy recovering from COVID-19 and unemployment rising on the home front, these changes are unlikely to be a top priority in the near term.

Trade tensions
On trade, Biden has openly criticized Trump and his approach to tariff collection, which “ alienates ” U.S. allies. however,
Parpiani believes that a Biden victory could also signify misgivings by the United States about India’s ties to Russia, as it did during Obama’s time.

The Biden campaign is also the first to publish an agenda for the Native American community. Even though the community doesn’t view Indo-American relations as one of its main problems, a Carnegie investigation shows their support for Biden far outweighs their support for Trump.

Even though poll averages show Biden to be in the lead, it’s the eight pivotal US states that hold the power to overturn the election. Hillary Clinton faced the same odds in the 2016 election when she lost to Trump.


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