Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that India and the United States have lost their “open DNA” of tolerance, which defined their partnership. Instead, Gandhi said the relationship between the two countries seems to have become “very transactional” and “episodic”.
In a conversation with former American diplomat Nicholas Burns on how the coronavirus crisis is reshaping the world order, Gandhi said that historically, India’s relationship with the US always focussed on multiple fronts such as education, defence and healthcare. But now, the relationship is “sort of focused mainly on defence,” he added.
“We are supposed to accept new ideas, we are supposed to be open,” Gandhi said. “But the surprising thing is that DNA – that open DNA – is sort of disappearing. I say this with sadness that I do not see that level of tolerance that I used to see. I don’t see it in the United States and I don’t see it in India.”
Gandhi criticised the government for its handling of the coronavirus situation in India and accused it of taking decisions unilaterally. “It [The Centre] decided to impose a hard lockdown and the result was for everyone to see,” he added. “You had thousands of migrant workers walking thousands of kilometres to their hometowns. This type of episodic leadership is very very disruptive.”
The Congress leader also discussed other timely issues with the former diplomat, ranging from the role of Indian diaspora in shaping of Indo-US ties, to America’s tensions with China.
According to Burns, India and United States face challenges from authoritarian governments in other countries, PTI reported. “I mentioned two before, China and Russia,” he said. “We never want to fight, we don’t want war but we want to preserve our way of life and we want to preserve our positions in the world.”
Burns said that the governments of United States and India should “combine forces to promote human freedom, democracy and rule of people in the world”. “I think that India and the US can be working together,” he added. “Not to fight China, but to make it observe the rule of law as we try to live together in this world.”
Burns is currently the Professor of Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government.
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