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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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