Time India Stops Being America's Subordinate Ally

It's not accidental that Trump has levied some of the highest tariffs on three founding members of BRICS. India should use the opportunity to make the Global South more cohesive

- PRAKASH KARAT

One should, ironically, thank Donald Trump for compelling the Narendra Modi government to undertake a long-overdue course correction in India's foreign policy. For nearly three decades—beginning with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, to the Manmohan Singh government, and then with accelerating speed during the Modi government—India was set on a course of becoming a subordinate ally of the United States. This was a strategic policy orientation which eroded the basis of an independent foreign policy and the scope for strategic autonomy.

Till recently, the Modi government had proudly proclaimed that it had signed all the 'foundational' military agreements with the United States and aligned itself with its geopolitical strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. The QUAD (the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between India, Australia, Japan, and the United States) was a manifestation of this emerging alliance. During the first term of the Trump presidency, India had meekly stopped buying oil from Iran, to our great detriment, falling in line with the unilateral sanctions imposed by Trump; this was followed by stoppage of buying oil from Venezuela.

The second coming of Trump was seen as a heaven-sent opportunity for India to further cosy up to the United States banking on the personal friendship between Trump and Modi. Such an approach has led to the shameful silence on Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza—a project that Trump actively supports and abets. Neither did India condemn the bombing of Iran's nuclear installations by the United States, an act of aggression against a friendly country, which was heightened by the danger of nuclear proliferation.