New Delhi: After decades of mutual suspicion, the fact that nothing seems to derail the US-Indian relationship is proof of just how strong it is, said outgoing American ambassador Eric Garcetti to the New York Times.
Things have been fraught for the past year: a “pair of legal bombshells” have tested the relationship, what with accusations over Indians plotting to assassinate an American citizen on US soil and the Justice Department filing fraud and bribery charges against Gautam Adani.
“I don’t think there is anything out there big enough to threaten the trajectory of the US-India relations,” Garcetti told the New York Times over the weekend, two days before Trump’s swearing in ceremony on 20 January.
“Washington sees great potential in India as a geopolitical counterweight to an increasingly assertive China,” explains NYT. “Now comes Mr Trump’s second presidency, with its America-first orientation and threats of steep tariffs on trading partners. While leaders of many countries are unnerved, Indian officials insist that they are not among them.”
Jaishankar and Narendra Modi are both confident of the relationship enduring, what with Jaishankar quoting Modi as saying the two countries are overcoming the “hesitations of history”.
But tensions are inevitable, and NYT warns of two in particular—India’s high tariffs, and Trump’s threat of mass deporting illegal immigrants.
“During the interview, Mr Garcetti described the bilateral relationship as ‘the most compelling, challenging and consequential’ for both countries,” writes NYT.
Garcetti arrived in India in April 2023, after the mission was without an ambassador for two years. He made up for lost time with “a burst of energy and outreach like that of a politician in campaign mode”.
“He was everywhere, from cricket grounds to cafeterias to cultural programs. Sporting a leather jacket, he even got behind the piano to open for the jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Dianne Reeves, who had come to perform at the Piano Man Jazz Club in New Delhi,” writes NYT. “But by the time Mr Garcetti tried his hand at dancing to a viral Bollywood tune at a Diwali celebration, relations between the two countries had hit major obstacles.”
Right-wing trolls in India and nationalist online voices volleyed a series of accusations against the US after the murder-for-hire indictment came to light — specifically that the country is trying to “dampen India’s inevitable rise”. Garcetti, as the official representative of the US in India was massively trolled, and described the incident over the assassination case as an “immediate gut check”.
“Mr Garcetti said that the Biden administration had been reassured by India’s response. New Delhi had accepted the US demand, he said, ‘not just for accountability but for systemic reform and guarantees that this will never happen again’,” reports the NYT.
Garcetti also says that he’s been “pretty blown away with how trust can deepen through a challenge.”
He then comments on how India still has some distance to go before being an effective challenge to China, and whether India has what it takes, despite all the progress its making.
This is not a concern Jaishankar has, an observation that Global Times also makes. Jaishankar summed up India-China relationship as that of “mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests”, which Global Times hails as aligning with the “current momentum in China-India relations which is characterized by both opportunities and challenges.”
This momentum needs to be maintained, the piece says—“it will require more time and sustained effort to further stabilize the border situation, bring people-to-people exchanges back on track, and in particular foster a mutual perception that China and India should not drain but treat each other as development opportunities.”
Another NYT article reports on how Oyo, which built its reputation as a getaway destination for couples who want privacy, is now updating its policy guidelines to give partner hotels the discretion to deny rooms to couples, unless they provide proof of marriage.
“Premarital sex is still largely taboo in this deeply conservative country, where marriages are traditionally arranged by families. It is widely viewed as a malign import from the less-inhibited West, and as an affront to Indian culture that is either to be policed or left unacknowledged,” the NYT explains conveniently, as if the patriarchy is a uniquely Indian problem. “Many young Indians, too, have embraced liberal attitudes toward dating and sex that transcend caste, class and religion, which still often dictate arranged marriages,” it continues blithely.
NYT locates the problem, not with the active fear of parental or societal retribution—sometimes violent and deeply reactionary, especially towards women—but with the “lack of private spaces” in a country as crowded as India.
Oddly, Oyo seems to have caught the global media’s fancy. Bloomberg writes that it’s not fair to set the morality police on India’s unmarried couples.
“Naturally, the policy has set off something of a firestorm. It has also underscored how companies may increasingly struggle to deal with India’s deepening social and political divisions,” Mihir Sharma writes in a better discussion of the issue than the NYT. “Few have any doubt that, in this case, the term is a euphemism for the socially conservative right-wing groups that have claimed growing political influence under India’s Hindu nationalist government.”
This column locates Oyo as another corporate caught in a political crossfire, similar to Zomato, which recently faced issues over delivering non-vegetarian food.
“In any case, companies that attempt to keep up with unpredictable political tides can spend too much time over-correcting,” writes Sharma. “Policies begun for political reasons will have to be abandoned for political reasons. The biggest loser is often the company caught in the middle.”
Meanwhile, AFP reports on the 5,000 sanitation workers hired to clean the toilets at Maha Kumbh—all of them Dalit manual scavengers.
“Caste remains a crucial determinant of one’s station in life at birth, with higher castes the beneficiaries of ingrained cultural privileges and lower castes suffering entrenched discrimination,” AFP writes. “But sanitation workers say deep-rooted attitudes of contempt towards them remain the same, and many people refuse to clean up after using the toilets.”
The daily wage is around $4, AFP reports, and the latrines don’t have proper water connections, making it harder to clean.
“That was a deliberate choice, organisers said, because otherwise the septic tanks would have to be suctioned every couple of hours,” AFP reports. “Instead, users must fill a bucket from a tap outside—with one servicing every 10 toilets. But with buckets often in short supply, people use water bottles which they then dump inside the toilet after finishing their business, cleaners say.”
The latrines AFP visited were all overflowing with faeces. Sanitation workers were covering their noses to avoid the stench, even as 1,500 volunteers have been
“tasked with inspecting the toilets, each with a QR code scannable by phone,” taking place every three hours.
“With the relentless crowds, it seemed like a losing battle,” AFP reports.
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