The US does not like pro-Putin China, the race towards India starts: from Meloni to Scholz to Blinken all at Modi’s court

Everyone in India passionately. In recent days the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, in the coming days (among others) the US secretary of state Antony Blinken and the premier Giorgia Meloni. India has long been identified as a strategic partner by the West. From a commercial point of view, it offers an alternative outlet to countries committed to diversifying relations in Asia with respect to the Chinese market. From this point of view, India is on the rise, also considering the demographic boom which this year will lead it to the historic overtaking of China as the most populous nation in the world. From a strategic point of view, given that the United States have identified New Delhi as one of the pillars of their strategy of “containment” of Beijing.
Meloni will be in New Delhi on Thursday 2 March to take part in the Raisina Dialogue, the main conference on security and geopolitics held annually on Indian territory. She will be the main guest of the event, on the sidelines of which she will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Indian press is describing the visit as the decisive step in putting behind “a decade of frost” caused by the tensions arising from the arrest of the two marines and the entire legal and diplomatic affair that followed. According to The Hindu, a cooperation agreement in the defense sector will be discussed, with the signing that could then arrive next September when Meloni returns to India for the G20 summit.
Scholz instead met Modi last Saturday, promising a commitment to sign a free trade agreement between the European Union and India by the end of 2023. Blinken will participate in the G20 summit, where he will try to create a groove with Russia and a more decisive position on war in Ukraine. New Delhi, like Beijing, has never condemned the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin. Without offering the political and rhetorical support guaranteed by Xi Jinping, the Modi government has provided economic support to the Kremlin by exponentially increasing oil and gas imports. Not to mention the historic relationship between India and Russia on the military front.
One of the many events to which Washington and the West seem willing to turn a blind eye. On the internal front, in fact, Modi’s India has seen a progressive deterioration of rights. Just think of what happened in recent weeks, with the censorship of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question”. The film has been called “trash” by the Indian government: students who have organized public screenings circumventing the bans have been targeted by universities, police and pro-government student groups.
Following the lawsuit, the BBC’s offices in India were repeatedly raided by the Indian authorities on charges of tax evasion. Documents were confiscated, as were several computers and journalists’ telephones. It is difficult not to connect the story to the documentary, which is “faulty” of telling the role played by Modi in the massacre in Gujarat, the western Indian state he governed when in 2002 a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire. The culprits were identified in a mob of the Muslim minority, which later became the target of a violent and bloody retaliation that caused a thousand official deaths but about 2,500 according to estimates by activists and non-governmental organizations. Modi was later acquitted by an investigation against him but he exploited the tones of Hindu ultranationalism to make the climb that led him to become prime minister in 2014.
Since he came to power, Modi has restricted the rights of minorities, especially the Muslim one. Among the most controversial moves, the revocation of the autonomy of Kashmir (the only Indian state with a Muslim majority) and the new law on citizenship. Press freedom crashed: in 2022 New Delhi collapsed to 150th place out of 180, the worst position ever. The acquisition of the Ndtv broadcaster, one of the last remaining with a critical posture towards Modi, by Gautam Adani did not help. Yes, precisely the multibillionaire who has been very close to the premier since the days of Gujarat who recently got into trouble for the report of the American fund Hindenburg Research on his giant Adani Group. A mega conglomerate that allegedly carried out “blatant share price tampering” and “decades of falsifying financial statements”. He accusations that led to the burning of tens of billions of capitalization, with Adani and the government itself giving credence to the version according to which it is a “foreign attack on all of India to block its rise”.
It is unlikely that the situation will improve in the near future. Elections are held in 2024 and Modi is looking for a third term. The opposition tries to consolidate around Rahul Gandhi but is almost invisible in the Indian media. While Modi looks set to spend a year in the spotlight between the G20 presidency and high-level international meetings. With so many hands to shake.