The jitters: How will Modi dodge this one?

ON Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the US Congress to address a joint sitting.  Like his predecessors, he will also discover he is walking into a unique institution in one of the most powerful democracies in the world where the legislative branch insists on operating independent of the government.Unlike Parliament, a product of the Westminster model that India follows, the bicameral US Congress is one of the three branches that govern the United States and is fiercely protective of its role ordained by the Constitution.In the run-up to PM Modi’s sojourn on the Capitol Hill, New Delhi had a taste of how US lawmakers can curdle up the entree. Last week, a Ranking Member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat representing Maryland State), was in India — and he minced no words in telling what he and his colleagues would ask the Prime Minister — India’s record on human rights violations, religious intolerance and extra-judicial killings.Now it should not have surprised the South Block mandarins coming as it did in the backdrop of a India-specific hearing in May on the bilateral relations, balancing progress and managing expectations, where SFRC Chairman Senator Bob Corker (Republican from Tennessee), while acknowledging the overall cooperation between the two countries remains at an all-time high, went on to say: “We’re not as brutally honest about our relationship with India as we should be, and it benefits neither them nor us.”Making a scathing observation that PM Modi’s promise on economic reforms was high on rhetoric outpacing reforms, Senator Corker expressed frustration over India’s failure to address its status as a country with the largest enslaved population. “How does a country like this have 12 to 14 million slaves. Do they have just zero prosecution abilities, zero law enforcement; I mean how could this happen? On that scale, it’s pretty incredible.”Adding to the rub is the decision of the Tom Lantos Congressional Commission on Human Rights that scheduled a hearing on the eve of the PM’s visit on the Hill. The topic is: “Challenges and Opportunities — The Advancement of Human Rights in India” and it will be based on a report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. This report makes a mention of how Dalits are victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labour. It also talks of religious minorities facing challenges. “In 2015, religious tolerance deteriorated and religious freedom violations increased in India. Minority communities, especially Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups,” the Lantos Commission hearing  the notice says, quoting the latest report.The hearing, it said, will examine these and other issues while seeking to provide concrete recommendations for how the US policy-makers can most effectively encourage the protection of human rights, given the strategic importance and continued growth of the US-India bilateral relationship.Many in India would find such notices rather disagreeable. Why does it happen? Is it meant to embarrass a preferred guest or intended to convey a strong message from members of the Congress — 100 Senators and 435 Representatives — to a country whose caucus enjoys the largest number of Congress members among any country-specific group?Perhaps the answer lies in the largely unnoticed tendency of the Indian diplomats working in Washington DC.  Barring a few exceptions, the India connect on the Capitol Hill is largely outsourced to the outreach by enthusiastic Indian-Americans who have come to organise themselves as a cogent group.It could be a smart and cost-effective way of doing things in a city where lobbyists work with a professional purpose, of course, for a fee. Yet, what is missing is the professional diplomatic outreach and level of intense engagement with the lawmakers on a scale that for a country of the size of India is less than adequate.Has New Delhi found another way of working its way through the doors of various offices that dot either side of the Capitol Hill, where staffers continue to play a significant role in assisting lawmakers in arriving at an opinion? The evidence is missing.Each lawmaker is acutely aware of the causes that are dear to him or her and their constituents. Irrespective of what the person inside the White House thinks and irrespective that many envy the President as holding one of the most powerful offices on the planet, yet each member of the Congress has his or her own world view. No wonder it is said the US has 535 Secretaries of State, with each Congressman wanting to leave an imprint on how the US shapes its foreign policy.Imagine this, during the run-up to the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, two members of the US Congress, on a visit  to Delhi organised by an international think-tank, were sounded not to attend an interaction with the BJP leadership in Delhi. The ostensible reason was that two among the group of four had signed a petition in the wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Incidentally, the programme was coordinated by a person who is a close relative of a top-ranking Indian diplomat.  Among those asked to step aside was a founding member of India caucus, Jim McDermott, who sportingly signed up to join 36 Congress members and shook hands with Prime Minister Modi during the Madison Square event a few months later. Sometimes statements made at committees sound to the Indian ear like talking down but it is surely meant to resonate among policy-makers and intended to have an amplifier effect. Yes, India enjoys bipartisan support on the Hill, but it is time that the Indian engagement with the Congress  and Indian Parliament was restructured and the Ministry of External Affairs relied more on its traditional methods and professional officials  than on Indian-Americans, the White House and the US Administration to do heavy-lifting with lawmakers. The Capitol Hill is institutionally zealous of its voice and its say in the conduct of US foreign policy. It is about time that we learnt to operate the Congressional ropes.The writer spent a year pursuing American Political Science Association-Fulbright Congressional Fellowship on “Role of US Congress in shaping foreign policy”