Narendra Modi sets foot in the United States more frequently than his predecessors, perhaps to make up for the years when his entry was banned. On Tuesday, however, he landed in New York with a newly released title. That of prime minister of the most populous country in the world, on his first visit as a state.
India wants to sit at the table of the elderly and, in turn, the greats of this world entertain her, so that the balance can tip. Modi will have her state vegetarian dinner at the White House tonight, with Joe Biden, who until now had only treated his French and South Korean counterparts in this way.
Earlier, Modi will have addressed Congress and the Senate, in joint session, for the second time, a privilege previously only distinguished Churchill and Mandela.
On the same Tuesday, Modi met with businessmen like Elon Musk. "India is more promising than any other country," said the owner of Tesla and Twitter, a highly censored network in that country.
Early yesterday, Modi followed from his mat, in front of the UN headquarters, the postures of the International Day of Yoga, which he himself promoted.
Relations between India and the US can also be very loose and Biden will pretend not to remember the Modi-Trump affair.
On July 14, Modi will once again be the guest of honor, this time in Paris, with Macron, at the July 14 parade. In the air, the purchase of more Rafale fighters.
The Pentagon, for its part, is confident that India, Russia's biggest arms customer, will announce the purchase of US engines for its domestically-built fighter jets. Modi, in turn, would like to see US co-production and technology transfer offers come to fruition.
The truth is that, since the end of the cold war, despite the turn in New Delhi, US multinationals have put their factories in China and not in the most populous democracy. Despite the current rhetoric, no major changes are expected. India pretends to believe the siren songs, beneficial for her bags.
Today there will be talk of a "strategic alliance" again, along the lines of the Quad forum. But the reality is much more complex, as the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar himself recalls, who speaks of "taking advantage of all opportunities."
The “special and strategic” relationship between New Delhi and Moscow has deeper roots, but far less human and business exchange. India, moreover, is part of the Brics and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with Russia and China.
In any case, relations between Washington and New Delhi have never been so smooth. Although Jaishankar says that India is not in the business of propping up the hegemony that emerged from World War II, because "the world has changed, no matter how much the media lags behind." And although he does not recognize himself in the old non-aligned rhetoric, he calls for a multipolar order in which India is one of the poles, guided by its own interest.
The good image of India in the United States has to do with the economic success of Indian immigrants, pre-selected at source for their qualifications. It is a reciprocated love. 6% of income tax collection in the US comes from citizens of Indian origin. These, in turn, since their uprooting, adore Hindu chauvinism and the one-size-fits-all nationalism of the BJP, Modi's party.
In Silicon Valley, Indian computer scientists – the majority from the south and of the Brahmin caste – run some of the most highly capitalized and most innovative firms in the world. In fact, 25 of the companies in the S Index
The reverse of this undisguised brain drain is the cooling of expectations in India itself. Abroad, moreover, hardly anyone is able to cite an Indian brand.
However, a few months ago, when its economy rebounded after the impact of the covid, India came to be presented as little less than the white hope of capitalism.
The load test is always the same, a timid relocation of the assembly or manufacturing of Apple's Taiwanese suppliers, such as Foxconn, from China to India. We are talking about just over 5% of iPhones. The story is spoiled by the revelation that half of the back covers were defective and that Wispron has divested from its factory due to labor disputes.
The truth is that, despite programs like Make in India, in the Modi years hardly any industrial employment has been created. Although all the success stories in Asia have passed through the factory, before reaching the office, the cunning Brahmin believed that they had found a shortcut to avoid dirtying their hands with industrialization.
But what works in Singapore or Dubai, fails in a country where tens of millions of young people enter the job market every year.
If the export of "Indian" goods has risen in the last two years, it has been partly due to the re-export, to virtuous Europe, of Russian crude oil, refined in India, to the greater glory of its greatest tycoon, Mukesh Ambani.
Modi has finished many of the great works started by Manmohan Singh, from airports to highways. But the Japanese-funded bullet train has just been postponed for another five years. The deadliest rail accident in decades this month is eye-opening.
The US, for its part, will turn a blind eye to the lynching and destruction of 249 churches this month in Manipur, without Modi speaking out.
Finally, India, which chairs the G-20 this year, says it hopes to provide a voice for developing countries and consults 125 of them on some issues. Something that reinforces her aspiration to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Although first she must convince China.
