India needs a cultural revolution to get rid of the American Dream

India’s muted response to US provocations contrasts sharply with South Korea’s assertiveness

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has snubbed United States President Donald Trump with his forceful rejection of the latter’s demand for the ‘return’ of Bagram air base by the Taliban. Elsewhere, five major Western countries — the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Portugal, and France — have announced their formal recognition of a Palestinian State highlighting their breach with Trump’s seamless support for the Zionist project of Greater Israel.

In between fall a number of shadows also indicative of the waning US influence to enforce its will on the international community. Russia denied the recent airborne incidents against eastern members of the NATO alliance, including the shooting down of Russian drones that entered Polish airspace, but one would, nonetheless, like to believe that Moscow is testing the US-led Western alliance’s limits. 

A transatlantic schism of sorts has surfaced over NATO’s impending defeat in the war in Ukraine. It is a parting of ways over the US’ retrenchment, which Europe sees as an existential danger. Even more galling to Europeans is Trump’s declaration that the US intends to annex Greenland. In fact, Denmark suspects that the CIA is undertaking intelligence operations to promote separatist sentiments among natives of Greenland with a view to eventually legitimising Trump’s ‘Anschluss’ as an act of self-determination by the people. But the European resistance to Trump’s best-laid plans is also gaining traction, with France and Germany shifting to a proactive mode to strengthen Greenland’s autonomy and identity.

Amidst these theatrical happenings, from the Indian perspective, the US-South Korea tariff war becomes a case study by itself. After the US imposed a 25 per cent tariff on South Korean imports, Seoul entered talks and, in late July, secured an informal agreement to reduce the tariff to 15 percent. Trump claims that the agreement included a South Korean package worth $350 billion for investments ‘owned and controlled’ by the US (on the pattern of a similar secret US-Japan deal recently, whose details are still kept under wraps). 

But Seoul wants to protect national interests while managing a vital economic relationship with Washington. Of course, such a massive outflow of investment funds will put financial stress on South Korea’s economy. 

What gives a cutting edge to the standoff is the backdrop of an attempt at an aggressive immigration crackdown on South Korean nationals in the US. Images of workers in handcuffs and chains caused deep outrage in South Korea. Indeed, New Delhi has also gone through such a traumatic, humiliating experience. But unlike New Delhi, Seoul decided that enough is enough. 

Seoul insisted that its nationals should be unshackled before the flight took off. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung later said modestly, “The US wanted to handcuff our workers, but we insisted it should not be that way.” The South Koreans ultimately prevailed. Vice foreign minister Park Yoonjoo accompanied the detainees to make sure they were not mistreated on the aircraft.

Of course, our government instead drew comfort that women and children were not handcuffed! When a small country like South Korea (population: 5.18 crore) stands up to defend its honour, why the Indian leadership behaved so pusillanimously is baffling.

New Delhi is delusional about Trump. He is hammering India with a master plan while also claiming he has a wonderful personal relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But respect is a two-way street. And that is not happening here.

On the contrary, when it comes to the US, India’s political elite inexplicably become wibbly-wobbly. They simply lumped the insults meted out by the likes of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, or senior counsellor to the president Peter Navarro. Equally, they fail to react proportionately to the sanctions on the Indian project in Chabahar Port, which is a patently unfriendly act with potentially profound consequences for India’s geostrategy. 

Simply put, why not suspend the so-called Logistics Exchange Memorandum Of Agreement (LEMOA) signed in 2016? It is a one-sided agreement that allows the US military to replenish from our bases, and access supplies, spare parts, and services from land facilities, air bases, and ports. Why should India get entangled in the ‘forever war’ in the Persian Gulf instigated by the US and Israel? 

Congress MP Manish Tewari hit the nail on the head when he said, “The US is systematically turning on the screws on India. What happened with regard to the H-1B visa is no coincidence at all. If you look at it in context, the premature ceasefire announcement by the US at the instigation of Pakistan, subsequently, the felicitation and the feting of the Pakistani Army chief in the White House, followed by the 50 per cent tariffs which have been imposed by the US and even the Saudi-Pakistani defence partnership won’t have happened without the tacit support and blessing of the US. So, in a very systematic manner, for reasons which are inexplicable and understandable, the US is deliberately being belligerent towards India.”

The ‘mantra of Swadeshi’ in Modi’s address to the nation on September 21 touches on this issue as an underpinning of the GST reform. But for the mantra to “become the attitude of every Indian”, as the prime minister flagged, there is a formidable attitudinal problem, too. The point is, the ‘American dream’ and the ‘unipolar predicament’ are borne out of the same scenario of infinite regress. Indians need a cultural revolution. And it must begin from the top. Look at the raison d’être of the Trump Gold Card and the planned Trump Platinum Card.

M K Bhadrakumar is a former diplomat.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH)