While commenting on the importance of people to people linkages during his recent US visit (June 20-24, 2023), in the context of India-US ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “.. the real engine of India-US relations is our strong people-to-people ties.”
US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken also referred to the importance of people to people linkages, India’s soft power and the ‘thriving Indian diaspora’ in the US, while speaking at a luncheon hosted by US Vice President Kamala Harris at the US State Department for the Indian PM.
Announcements pertaining to H1B Visas and additional Indian and US consulates
During his address to the Indian diaspora, the Indian PM spoke about the bilateral relationship and some of the important outcomes of this visit, such as the announcement of General Electric (GE) to manufacture fighter planes in India. Modi also referred to the US decision to announce ‘in country’ renewal H1B visas, whereby Indian professionals, holding H1B visas, will be able to renew visas within the US itself and will not need to exit the country.
It would be pertinent to point out that of the 4.41 Lakhs H1B visas issued by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2022, well over 72% percent were issued to Indians.
One of the important announcements made also was to open two more US consulates in India – Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Bengaluru in Karnataka.
Several immigrants in the US hail from these two cities (Bengaluru is also referred to as India’s Silicon Valley). India on its part will be operationalizing three consulates in the US, including one in Seattle.
Interestingly, US President Joe Biden while speaking at the state dinner invoked history while referring to the setting up of the US consulate in Kolkata. Said Biden: “In 1792, our first president, George Washington, established one of the first consulates in Kolkata, nestled along the Bay of Bengal — a hub of commerce and culture. Home to more Nobel laureates, I might note, than any — than any other (inaudible) city — including the great poet-philosopher Tagore.”
The India-US relationship: Beyond the lens of national capitals
US Presidents visits no longer restricted to New Delhi, the national capital and US Presidents have visited not just Agra (Uttar Pradesh), home to the Taj Mahal, during their India visits but also included Mumbai (India’s financial capital), Hyderabad now capital of Telangana and erstwhile capital of United Andhra Pradesh (one of India’s IT hubs), Jaipur. The last US President to visit India, Donald Trump, visited Agra and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) during his trip in 2020.
Indian PM visits to the US have also not been restricted to Washington and New York. In 2019, PM Modi visited Houston while in 2015, Silicon Valley was on his iterinary.
State governments too have been pro-actively engaging with US provinces. The participation of sub-national units in foreign policy referred to as ‘para-diplomacy’ or ‘constituent diplomacy’ has become a global phenomena, over the past few decades, and Indian states have played an important role in strengthening ties with several countries.
Over the past decade, several Chief Ministers have undertaken visits to the US, this includes the Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar (2015), Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao (2016), Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan (2017), Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Reddy (2019) the most recent being one by Kerala CM, Pinari Vijayan (June 9-14, 2023) where he reached out to the Malayali diaspora, and also sought investments for his state. While hailing the Malayali community in US, he urged them: “…to continue to cooperate with us in the times to come to make your land more and more prosperous.”
State governments have been working closely with the US India Business Council (USIBC) (US Chamber of Commerce) to learn about potential investment opportunities and to reach out to potential US investors.
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu was awarded the transformative Chief Minister award by US India Business Council (USIBC) in 2017. In his earlier tenure as CM of united Andhra, Naidu had played an important role in hard-selling Hyderabad, now capital of Telangana, and then capital of Andhra Pradesh and managed to impress top US CEO’s including Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates. Interestingly, CEOs of several tech companies hail from Hyderabad – this includes the CEO of Microsoft — Satya Nadella, CEO of Google — Sunder Pichai, CEO of Adobe – Shantanu Narayan. Current World Bank Chief and former CEO of Mastercard, Ajay Banga, Satya Nadella and Shantanu Narayan all went to the same school — Hyderabad Public School.
Apart from the economic dimension, diaspora also plays an important role in ties between India and US. During their US visits, Indian Chief Ministers have been trying to tap the diaspora for drawing investments to their respective states, and strengthening people to people contacts.
During the COVID period, several virtual meetings were held between senior officials from Indian state governments, and US investors. Senior officials of the US embassy have also been visiting several cities and interacting with Indian state governments. The current US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti has visited Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
While the India-US bilateral relationship has grown manifold in recent years, people to people linkages are an important component of the US-India relations. The role of state governments in India-US ties is bound to play an important role in strengthening bilateral ties.
[Photo by Prime Minister’s Office, India, via Wikimedia Commons]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Tridivesh Singh Maini is a New Delhi based analyst interested in Punjab-Punjab linkages as well as Partition Studies. Maini co-authored ‘Humanity Amidst Insanity: Hope During and After the Indo-Pak Partition’ (New Delhi: UBSPD, 2008) with Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik. He can be reached at [email protected].
