Manipur, minorities and India's mute response to US Ambassador Garcetti's comments

He who fights and runs away lives to run another day. This seems true for how New Delhi has been responding to barbs about its handling of minority rights and questions of that nature. The latest was the tactical veil of deafening silence thrown around the egregious remarks of the American Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, who is here just because of his proximity to US President Joe Biden.

“You don’t have to be an Indian to care when children or individuals die in this sort of violence…we stand ready to assist in any way if asked. We know it’s an Indian matter and we pray for that peace and that it may come quickly,” Garcetti said, responding to a pointed question on Manipur while on a trip to Kolkata on July 7.

Obviously, Manipur isn’t too far away from the minds of people other than the Prime Minister, who still is very much on the ‘ostrich yoga pose’ on that question. Shutur Murg Asana, for the novitiates. Which is why the ‘Supreme Leader’ asked, “Desh mein kya ho raha hai? What is happening in the country?” of BJP president JP Nadda upon his return from the US where he was obviously in cloud cuckoo land.

Modi and ‘media management’

It is not immediately clear how choreographed the Kolkata interaction with the American Ambassador was, but usually such exposures to media are managed in a way that the chances of an ambush with an uncomfortable question are minimised, even eliminated by a moderator who allows only questions of a certain kind.

Also read: Who is Eric Garcetti, the new US ambassador to India?

It may be recalled that so uncomfortable was our Prime Minister with the ‘56 inch chest’ that his diplomatic negotiators worked hard so no questions could be posed to him at the White House press opportunity. This must have been easily the toughest part of the negotiations in the run-up to Modi’s US visit. According to CNN, “The format of the news conference was only agreed upon after lengthy, delicate negotiations between the two sides. Indian officials initially balked at the White House’s insistence at holding one, two US officials familiar with the matter said.”

We also know that the former US President Barack Obama’s remark did not go down too well among the more heavy lifters in the BJP such as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. All Obama had done when asked a question by Christian Amanpour was tell her, “If President (Joe Biden) meets with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, the protection of Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning.”

It was not a frontal attack or anything, just a gentle suggestion. Yet Sitharaman angrily pointed out that US, had dropped 26,000 bombs on six “Muslim” countries, including “Saudi” (Arabia). Obviously, someone in her office has been tracking these interesting events minutely, probably a troll-type researcher, but it is difficult to imagine the US ever having bombed Saudi Arabia in recent times, even though many of the 9/11 bombers had roots there. But since when have facts got in the way of a good story for the cymbalists of the ‘Supreme Leader’?

Why New Delhi remained silent on Uzra Zeya’s visit  

Therefore it is a matter of great surprise that when the American Ambassador made clearly gratuitous remarks, the same went uncontested and unreprimanded, and ahead of a visit by Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights and US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Uzra Zeya.

New Delhi turned a deliberate deaf ear to the careful outburst by the American Ambassador who hoped that “peace” came “quickly” to Manipur.  Wasn’t this tantamount to setting a deadline on an internal matter?  Who, after all, is the American ambassador to suggest how quickly to resolve Manipur? There is an Indian way of doing things, and there is a Modi way of doing it. American advice, we can do without.

Also read: Ready to help India on Manipur crisis, says US envoy Garcetti; Cong slams ‘interference’

Also, Zeya is no stranger to India, having been given the credit of plunging ties with the US to a serious low when she, in her capacity as Acting Under Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labour, helped engineer a situation where an Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, despite immunities, was arrested, strip-searched in December 2013, on visa fraud charges. It is not likely that Uzra Zeya is in these parts to discuss how mangoes are consumed by certain high individuals with her interlocutors.

According to the State Department readout before she left for her trip, “In India, she (Zeya) will meet with senior government officials to discuss the deepening and enduring US-India partnership, including advancing shared solutions to global challenges, democracy, regional stability, and cooperation on humanitarian relief…Zeya will engage with civil society organisations on freedom of expression and association, and inclusion of women and girls, persons with disabilities, and vulnerable groups, including marginalised religious and ethnic minorities.” Wonder who these marginalised religious and ethnic minorities would be in India?

It is nobody’s case that humanitarian relief to Ukraine may not have been discussed. But it is equally likely that the Manipur situation will also likely have come up. Americans are good with lectures on certain variants of democracy, both privately and publicly. Joe Biden admitted to being guilty, well, in his own gentle way, while Modi was eating millet variations served to him.

Also read: Modi says India-US bond is ‘for global good’ after Biden calls it ‘most consequential’

Made in India Mess

Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi, usually prompted quickly to take offence on such matters, when asked specifically about the American Ambassador’s Manipur remark declared innocently, “I haven’t seen those comments by the US Ambassador. If he has made them, we will see… I am not sure foreign diplomats would usually comment on internal developments in India, but I wouldn’t like to make a comment without seeing exactly what has been said.”

It has been now a week since. Either he sees nothing offensive about it or more likely, he is still waiting for the verbiage that will constitute the public statement to be handed to him on a platter. It is most likely that he has been advised that discretion is the better part of valour, and it is better not to wade into the mess that is Manipur. This time it is a Made in India Mess, better to keep it within India, with a tight lid on top. The trickle-down effect of the Shutur Murg Asana. When the ‘Supreme Leader’ is silent ostrich no point being loud cockerel.

Garcetti, the Big Picture Man

Now, for the Garcetti angle. There are two ways to play it. India did not have an American ambassador for close to two years since January 2021. Garcetti, who was the co-chair for the 2020 Biden presidential campaign was nominated in July 2021. It was confirmed on March 15, 2023, barely three months before our prime minister was to visit the US. He presented his credentials on May 12, whittling that time frame. This may be kind of relevant to note. If prime ministerial visits, and that too State visits with a high level of confetti, toasts, and extra-shimmering red carpets thrown in, can be organised in merely three months or less, you will agree that it has to be more show than substance. Critics of course will say the beef in the joint statement is inversely proportional to the number of paragraphs (58) in the joint statement, but go figure.

Also read: PM Modi on India-US partnership: ‘Even the sky is not the limit’

Consider the alternative: that preparations began long before Garcetti entered the scene as ambassador. Where would that leave the centrality of an ambassador? Garcetti may not exactly be a John Kenneth Galbraith but he does count for something, even though he makes interesting remarks here and there. Consider his statement:  “I hope soon we’ll see the United States and India working together across the Pacific and into the Atlantic, from Central Asia to Southern Africa. …We can deploy our ships together in the Pacific and Indian oceans, and even beyond…” (June 28 at IIT Delhi). Clearly, Garcetti is a Big Picture Man.

Now, kindly consider his job profile. You can get an unambiguous sense of it here.

If Senate confirmation hearings are anything to go by, Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat, New Jersey, chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, underlined two of the three concerns:  “reports of democratic backsliding and discrimination against religious minorities. I expect you to be frank on your Indian counterparts…on these differences, both of which are bipartisan priorities for this committee.”

Benjamin L Cardin (Democrat), Maryland, took pains to mention that in India, “They recently enacted a citizenship amendment act which is very much aimed against the Muslim population within India…the human rights record there are certainly anything but the way we would like to see them. How do you intend…making advancements on behalf of human rights?” he asked Garcetti straight out.

Garcetti replied: “… I will actively raise these issues…I intend to engage directly with civil society…It will be a core part of what I will pursue with my Indian counterparts.”

Cardin persisted: “I believe the citizenship amendment rights, the way it will be implemented will be very discriminatory against the Muslim population which is very, very large. So do we have your commitment that you will be a voice with regard to any discrimination such as against the Muslim population?”

Also read: 2024 a big year for India-US relationship, says official

On the Manipur issue, so far as American taxpayers are concerned ambassador Garcetti is doing his job. If the government of India had a chest of equal proportion to the prime minister, it would not have allowed Uzra Zeya’s visit to go through and would have publically told off the American ambassador. Did that happen? Will it happen? Oh well, 2023 is promising more to be the Year of the Millet than Modi.

(V Sudarshan, a journalist, writes on foreign/strategic affairs and is the author most recently of ‘Tuticorin: Adventures in Tamil Nadu’s Crime Capital’, and ‘Dead End: The Minister, the CBI and the Murder that Wasn’t’.)