It happened to the Labour Party in the UK, so shall it happen to Joe Biden in the US. The Labour Party’s prime ministerial candidate Jeremy Corbyn lost UK elections. His defeat counted on his missteps – namely opposing CAA, NRC and abrogation of special status of Kashmir. Alas, Biden has wandered into the same muck, which Corbyn got stuck into. This shows either his ignorance of Indian politics or willingness to lie.
It is shocking that Biden, fighting for the most coveted seat in the world, should turn a blind eye to the context in which Narendra Modi government corrected Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic mistake of giving special status to Kashmir, which had witnessed the ethnic cleansing of the entire Hindu Kashmiris from their homeland and fanning separatism, besides denying rights to women, backward castes, homosexuals and migrant workers.
Since the abrogation of the special status to Kashmir, however, the Modi government has been successful in sharply bringing down terror attacks and stone-throwing in the valley.
Biden’s stance on CAA is shallow since he neither has been informed properly nor is he willing to speak the truth about it. Contrary to his utterances, CAA helps granting citizenship to the minorities of three Muslim-majority neighbouring countries of India, where they face systematic persecution. The law, in fact, does not restrain a Muslim from any of these countries to apply for Indian citizenship under regular laws.
His stance on this also is hypocritical, because he is mum over Lautenberg Amendment, which is nothing but an equivalent of CAA. It provides special treatment to the persecuted minorities of erstwhile Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.
In 2004, the law further expanded to include persecuted Jews, Christians, Baha’is and other religious minorities from Iran. If Biden claims that CAA makes India communal, is he then not saying that the Lautenberg Amendment also makes America communal?
His cry against NRC is also artificial. As a sovereign nation, India has all the rights to maintain a registry of bona fide citizens to protect its cultural identity and avoid its resources falling into the hands of illegal immigrants. Is he suggesting that India should open its doors to millions of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants?
Biden is fishing in troubled water. The Hindu-American diaspora will not take this lying down and give a whacking in November-3 election as Hindu-British did to Corbyn in UK election. Because, since Modi’s rule in India, the Hindu-American diaspora has been taking a lot of interest in Indian politics and the politics of the host country.
This, Boris Johnson understood, while campaigning as Tory’s prime ministerial candidate during UK polls, and he won. Donald Trump also understood during 2016 US elections. This realisation has grown even more on him as he did not waste any time to woo Modi and Modified his poll slogan to “Ab Ki Baar, Trump Sarkar” to make Hindu-American voters feel at home.
With his latest pledge of ending Muslim travel ban on his first day in office if he gets elected as the President, Biden has not only placed himself in an uncomfortable zone vis- a vis Hindu-Americans, but also a large chunk of voting population.