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Op-Ed                                                                 NOVEMBER 27, 2020  |        The Indian Eye                          15




        What joe Biden means for new delhi?




                        Views and opinions from the top commentators in Indian media




            “Can India expect a more                                                                                  Senate are almost equally di-
        nuanced      policy    under     a                                                                            vided between Democrats and
        Biden-Harris administration?                                                                                  Republicans; Trump will most
        Some within India’s foreign pol-                                                                              likely have to relinquish the
        icy establishment fretted about                                                                               White House but he will proba-
        a possible Biden-Harris victory                                                                               bly try and take it back in 2024;
        during the presidential  cam-                                                                                 Trump may or may not go to jail
        paign. Their misgivings mostly                                                                                in the many cases prosecutors
        stemmed from a small handful                                                                                  are  waiting  to  lay  against  him,
        of carefully crafted comments                                                                                 but the creed of Trumpism isn’t
        from  both  aspirants  about  In-                                                                             going anywhere anytime soon.”
        dia’s decision to abrogate Ar-                                                                                  -- Ruchir Joshi, The Telegraph
        ticle 370 and the state of Hin-                                                                                   “As India and China look set
        du-Muslim  relations  in  India.                                                                              to endure an acrimonious winter
        These comments, however, un-
        palatable to India’s ruling party                                                                             military standoff in the Himala-
        and  its  supporters,  cannot  be                                                                             yas, their recent skirmishes and
        seen in isolation. Instead, they  failed to address them.                ministration.  The  first  Obama     domestic pressures make it dif-
                                                                                                                      ficult for governments in Delhi
        need to be contextualized. They         Three decades after winning      administration was a mix of          or Beijing to exit the imbroglio.
        represent     friendly   criticism the Cold War the American             isolationism and naivete. The        The presence of three armed,
        from India’s well-wishers even  state is facing a crisis that no         second was a belated attempt
        though on issues of some sensi- one could have foreseen when             to pushback against Beijing.         nuclear states make South Asia
        tivity.                              the Soviet Union disintegrated.     Going by the statements of the       potentially the world’s most ex-
            Looking past these nettle- Instead of bringing peace, these          Biden team, it is the experience     plosive place. In such a scenar-
                                                                                                                      io, the role of the US becomes
        some issues there are a host  decades have brought incessant             of the second Obama term that        crucial over the next few years.
        of matters where Indian and  war; instead of creating a new              animates them. But while they        For the last two decades, the US
        American interests will neatly  global order these wars have             talk of the need to confront Chi-    has been fighting terrorism and
        dovetail during this administra- created global anarchy and fos-         nese hegemony, this goes hand-
        tion. At the outset, the aggres- tered terrorism.”                       in-hand with a desire to cut back    small wars.
        sive behavior of the PRC in Gal-            Prem Shankar Jha,            US defense expenditure.”                 Unlike the neatly curated
        wan and beyond has not gone                      The Wire                             Editorial,              earlier alliances such as NATO
                                                                                                                      and the Warsaw Pact, Asia in
        unnoticed amongst the experi-           “The incoming Joe Biden                   Hindustan Times             Cold War II exists in a com-
        enced foreign policy hands that      administration has chosen a             “Twenty-odd days after the  plex web of relationships. Yet,
        will assume office on the after-     foreign policy team of liberal in-  American elections, in the whirl- semi-comatose groupings such
        noon of January 20 next year.”       ternationalists in an era of hard-  pool  of  political uncertainty,  a  as the QUAD – with India, Aus-
                 Sumit Ganguly,
                The Times of India           edged realism. The question for     few solid artefacts keep bob- tralia, Japan, the US – have now
                                                                                 bing up and circling past: after  shown signs of spurring to life,
                                             New Delhi is not whether they
            “Joseph Biden’s victory has  have knowledge or affection for         four years of naked Trumpism,  with Australia recently declar-
        been greeted with the expected  India. There is an equilibrium           almost 74 million Americans  ing its intent to join the Mala-
        exhilaration and apprehension,  in the India-United States (US)          still voted for the man to have a  bar naval exercise in November.
        which every newcomer to the  ties from which no administra-              second term; about 77 per cent  Author Robert Kaplan says that
        White House experienced be- tion will stray far. The ques-               of these Trump voters — rough- in the Indian Ocean, the rivalry
        fore. This time the exhilaration  tion New Delhi needs to ask is         ly 57 million people — seem to  between the US and China in
        is more striking because it marks  whether the incoming Biden            believe that the elections were  the  Pacific  interlocks  with  the
        the end of a presidency that had  administration understands that        fraudulent, that the nearly 80  regional rivalry between China
        trivialized American democra- the tenets of an earlier post-war          million who voted for Joe Biden  and India.”
        cy, and held it up to global rid- global order increasingly no           didn’t actually do so, that  the             Probal Dasgupta,
        icule. But the apprehension will  longer hold true. And that the         actual number was far lower                      The Quint
        surface soon when the hoorahs  primary reason for this is a pow-         and their man actually won; af-
        are over and the changeover in  erful and pugnacious China.              ter four years of Donald Trump        Every  week,  we  look  at  what
        Washington has been complet-            Mr Biden’s senior-most ap-       and in the throes of the worst         the top commentators in the
        ed. The new administration will  pointments, Anthony Blinken as          (and disastrously mismanaged)         Indian media are talking about
        face the same challenges that its  secretary of state and Jake Sulli-    pandemic their country has ever        and bring to you a slice of their
        predecessors have faced since  van as national security adviser,         undergone, the electorate still        opinions and comments
        the end of the Cold War, and  are drawn from the Obama ad-               made sure that the House and


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