New Delhi: The “level of tolerance” in India as well as the US has witnessed erosion under the present governments even as the bilateral relationship between the two countries is now “transactional” and singularly focussed on defence, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said.
Gandhi made the comments during a conversation with former American diplomat Nicholas Burns, which the Congress released Friday.
“I think our partnership works because we have tolerant systems… You are an immigrant nation, we are a tolerant nation. We are supposed to have new ideas, we are supposed to be open. But the surprising thing is that open DNA is disappearing… I don’t see that level of tolerance that I used to see. I do not see in the US and I do not see it in India,” Gandhi said.
WATCH: In conversation with Ambassador Nicholas Burnson the Covid19 crisis. https://t.co/qXkUbx2mxx
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 12, 2020
Burns, who is an international relations professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, spoke about the ongoing protests across the US over the killing of an African-American man, George Floyd, by a white police officer on 25 May.
“In the US we have a problem of race, mistreatment of African-Americans since the beginning of the founding of this country… Race has come back now. The horrible murder of George Floyd, a young African-American man in Minneapolis… We are trying to protest peacefully, as is our right, as is your right in India,” said Burns.
However, he added that unlike China, the US can “correct” itself as a democracy through free and fair elections – similar to that in India. “My country will be back, we will strengthen our democracy,” said Burns.
According to Gandhi, deep divisions are appearing in both Indian and American societies, which could prove to be “tremendously weakening”. People who encourage these divisions, be it in the US or in India, call themselves “nationalists”, he added.
“Democracies go through trials. We play out our differences in political campaigns… Authoritarianism (is) coming back in Russia, in China…” said Burns. He stressed that “we democracies” are going through “painful episodes” due to “our freedom” but “we are so much stronger because of that”.
The conversation came as part of Gandhi’s ongoing series of ‘interviews’ with experts amid the Covid-19 crisis. He earlier spoke to economists Raghuram Rajan and Abhijit Banerjee, among others.
Talking about the crisis in India, Gandhi said this was the “most rigorous lockdown” that has instilled a sense of “fear” among people.
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US and India ties have become ‘transactional’
According to the Congress leader, the relationship between the US and India has gone from being that of a “partnership” to being “episodic and transactional”.
“When we look at the relationship between India and the US, there’s been a lot of progress in the last couple of decades. One of the things I have noticed is that the relationship that used to be a partnership seems to have become very transactional. It has become episodic and transactional,” said Rahul Gandhi.
He added that the ties used to be broad-based encompassing education, defence and healthcare among others, but is now “focussed down mainly on defence”.
Nicholas Burns agreed that the military relationship between the US and India is robust, and that defence has become the only defining aspect of the relationship. However, he said that H1B visas should not be restricted.
“Keep the doors open for each other. Lower the restrictions on movement of people between the two countries. The H1B visas have been severely limited in recent years, we simply do not have enough engineers to run our economy and India can supply those,” he said.
Burns also said that during the former Manmohan Singh government, the bilateral relationship was focussed on trade and military ties while both sides explored ways to bring in new ideas.
Both Gandhi and Burns also praised the Indian-American community and its contribution to the US, which the former Congress president believes is an “asset” for both countries.
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‘Covid crisis has made people insular’
On the issue of China, Rahul Gandhi said India should look at a relationship of “cooperative cooperation” with Beijing without any violence.
“Yes they have a different worldview, yes they have an authoritarian worldview, yes we have a democratic worldview. And I believe the democratic worldview will do well. But in order to achieve that it has to start from insides our countries,” he said.
Gandhi added that around the world people are becoming “insular” and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this.
According to Nicholas Burns, the Covid crisis gave an opportunity to the world leaders – US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi – to work together to overcome the pandemic for the “common global good”.
“I would have predicted that countries would have put down their differences and worked for a vaccine together and how to distribute it in an equitable and humane fashion. It has not happened, because Donald Trump is a unilateral and Xi Jinping has to compete with Trump,” he said.
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