Modi And Indias Diaspora: A Complex Love Affair Making Global Waves
On the final night of his visit to Washington in late June, after 15 standing ovations from Congress and a lavish White House dinner tailored to his vegetarian tastes, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi bided his time and secured another nod. Important Collection: Indian Diaspora.
Backstage at the Kennedy Center, as businessmen in tailored suits and gorgeous silk saris filed into the 1,200-seat auditorium, Modi met several entrepreneurs. Many of them were young, educated in India, made rich in America, and longed to associate with a man who presented himself as a guru to the world, preaching that this was the "century of India."
"Thank you for raising the profile and raising the spirits of American Indians," Umesh Sachdev, 37, told the prime minister, explaining that he is the founder of Uniphore, a $2.5 billion artificial intelligence company with offices in India and California. Mr. Modi patted Mr. Sachdev on the shoulder and shouted "woah" or "woah" in Hindi.
Emphasizing national pride, Mr. Modi and his conservative Bharatiya Janata Party have forged surprisingly strong ties with the successful Indian diaspora. The League is bolstered by a global political machine backed by party offices in dozens of countries and thousands of volunteers led by Modi. And it has allowed Mr. Modi to associate his image and his "Indian Rise" column with prominent leaders and influential, often more liberal, circles in the United States, Britain, Australia and many other countries.
No other world leader seems to have such a steady stream of diaspora welcome parties, most recently in Paris, New York and Cairo, or the massive audience of 20,000 fans at a rally in Australia in May. Modi was in France on Friday as the guest of honor for the annual Bastille Day parade, with next year's elections in India setting the precedent.
"The BJP leadership wants to project its power abroad to gain a foothold at home," said Sameer Lalwani, a senior South Asia expert at the US Institute of Peace.
But there is tension in some parts of the diaspora. Many Indian professionals, who cheer when Mr. Modi boasts that India has become the world's fifth-largest economy with new infrastructure and more modern cities, also fear that his government's pro-India policies and growing intolerance for the test will prevent India from truly enjoying itself. superpower. status and alternative democracy for China.
Vinod Khosla, a major Silicon Valley investor who often pushes for closer ties between the US and India, said in an interview that India's biggest risk is that economic growth will be slowed by instability and inequality fueled by Hindu nationalism. Others fear that Mr. Modi, in a bubble of political prominence and religious confidence, is overlooking the fragility of positive momentum in a complex, diverse and volatile country of 1.4 billion people.
"The demographics in India only work if there is progressiveness and inclusiveness," said Arun Subramoni, a Washington-based private banker who invests in digital, healthcare and other investments in India. "The party must do everything to make it clear that India is for everyone."
Dreams of a technological utopia
The relationship between the diaspora and the BJP began pragmatically with the first BJP Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who in the late 1990s promoted information technology as a solution to India's development problems.
Kanwal Ricky, the first Indian-American to list a company on the Nasdaq stock exchange, heard Mr. Vajpayee speak and thought: "This guy got it." He asked for a meeting and arrived in New Delhi in April 2000, leading a group called IndUS Entrepreneurs, or TiE.
There were paratroopers on the roof of the Prime Minister's house, tanks nearby, traces of the last conflict with Pakistan. Mr. Rekhi promised that entrepreneurship can build bridges between India and Pakistan, Muslims and Hindus. Mr. Vajpayee praised their virtuous technical philosophy.
He asked. What do you think about India and Indians? Then he said: "Our future is very bright and you have to show us the way," Mr. Rickey said in an interview.
Thus began a relationship with emigrants that reversed decades of bitterness when those who left with a university education were seen as traitors to Indian interests. When Mr Vajpayee made it clear that he saw overseas Indians as mentors and advisers, they became just that.
TiE made several suggestions supported by Stanford professors, and Mr. Vajpayee followed their suggestions. In 2001, for example, his government loosened its monopoly on Internet infrastructure, allowing for increased private competition.
Narain Bakshi, another tech executive who attended the meetings, said Mr. Vajpayee was insisting that the diaspora also play a direct role.
He said to them: "If you care about India, come to India."
Mr. Bakshi bought a house in Rajasthan, where he grew up, and has since spent four months a year in India.
In the early 2000s, he also helped found the Indian Community Center in Milpitas, California, a sprawling complex in the South Asian suburb of San Jose that has become a center for yoga, Islamic and Hindu ceremonies, weddings and reunions. Visit of Indian officials.
"People here are very active," said the center's director, Raj Desai, over tea one morning.
Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party's international wing, has a permanent presence in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Helping with immigration and other matters, its members complement and compete with the Indian Corps of about 950 foreign service officers, a tiny fraction of the approximately 16,000 serving in the United States.
Last year, even though India must vote in person, the BJP sponsored events with party officials in Texas, New Jersey, Washington, and North Carolina, as well as several events at the Indian Community Center in California. Mandatory registration as a foreign agent.
Visiting officials also gather small groups for lunch and discussion. Uniphore CEO Sachdev said he had attended several such meetings, adding that the talks were more about business than politics.
He and other participants said they were never invited to participate in BJP campaigns.
However, political scientists believe that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu organizations are extracting large flows of money from the diaspora. In 2018, Modi's government quickly pushed legislation through parliament to allow non-disclosed political donations by overseas Indians and foreign companies with subsidiaries in India. In 2019, election spending in India exceeded $8 billion, making it the most expensive election in the world.
"There is a lack of transparency, and that is due to the project," said Gilles Vernier, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Studies in New Delhi.
In the US, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered its presence, a requirement for any foreign political party, only after questions were raised about its funding of the mega Hi Moody 2019 celebration in Houston, which was attended by President Donald Trump.
In Australia, the organization is still not listed on Transparency International's foreign register, despite spending related to Modi's May rally at Sydney's Kudos Bank Stadium, where hundreds of people lined up to take selfies with two Modi cardboard cutouts. With the words "We are Modi" in bright white light.
"He is the leader of the century," Mira Rawat said.
His group arrived in Sydney in a bus chartered by the local BJP. The group also missed several flights.
When asked about the operation, the Australian BJP said the whole thing was "fully funded by the local Indian community and businesses".
Australian Sikh Association secretary Alpil Singh Kang said his group was initially recruited for the event. When the organizers refused to mention the names of his sponsors, he left the venue. India's Muslim leaders also chimed in, noting that members of Modi's party had called for the killing of Muslims without the prime minister's strong condemnation.
Commitment to change
Many Indians abroad are concerned about the bloodshed in India, where religious minorities make up 20 percent of the population and where Hindu mafias are regularly accused of executing people, mostly Muslims, for food, clothing or interfaith marriages. But Indian immigrant families also fear violence spreading to the countries they have moved to.
In 2021, four Sikh students were attacked in a car by men armed with clubs and hammers in Sydney. After serving a six-month sentence for one of the men, he returned to India, where he received a hero's welcome. Tensions between Indian immigrants in the UK, Canada and the US have also risen in recent years, along with vandalism and threats.
Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow at the Asian Community Policy Institute, Delhi. "The reality is that there are divisions in India and they need to be expressed because politics is not confined to national boundaries."
Growing concerns about Modi's polarization are often ignored. At a diaspora event in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese compared Modi to Bruce Springsteen, calling the Indian leader "the boss" to a standing ovation.
In Washington, where 7,000 Indian Americans joined him for a wild party on the White House lawn, Modi told a press conference that there was no discrimination against minorities under his rule. A few hours later, human rights defenders gathered at the gate, including Muslims who fled to the US after persecution in India. The broadcasters have already moved.
Behind the scenes, US officials say Mr Modi is under more pressure.
Ro Khanna, co-chairman of the Indian Congress and Indian American Caucus, which represents the district that includes the center of the Indian community, said he spoke with Modi about the importance of pluralism.
"I want us to focus on strengthening the relationship between the United States and India, consistent with the foundations of India and our institution, and not on glorifying any particular person," Khanna said.
Some business leaders say Modi deserves their unwavering support. "I wonder if you have been able to put India on the path to growth and global leadership." said Mr. Sachdev of Unifor. The United Nations recently reported that India's economy has lifted 415 million people out of poverty over the past 15 years.
Others have begun to confuse praise with practical concern. Khosla, a major investor, says it is time to recognize that government patronage of Hindus "can derail, support mainstream economic progress and stall global relations".
Even among the supportive diaspora in Washington, there were calls for pride, restraint, equal opportunity and constructive criticism.
Subramuni, a private banker, says he grew up in southern India without running water or electricity, surrounded by 10 families from four different faiths. He called Mr. Modi "a very quick learner" who hopes to uphold India's more tolerant values.
"It is also our responsibility, the people who support Modi, who are inspired by what is happening in India," he said. "It is our duty to make him change."
Sonia Paul reported from Santa Clara, California and Karan Deep Singh from New Delhi.
