The warning should be stated plainly. If Washington continues with confrontationist course, it should not get a pliant India—but one that hedges its bets with deepening its compact with Europe, keeps Russian energy flowing, explores a cautious thaw with Beijing and concludes that American promises carry an expiry date. The US would lose the one large Asian democracy that could balance China—all over a trade deficit smaller than a quarter’s profits at some of its tech giants.
The solution lies in firmness without hysteria. India should refuse to sign anything under duress and draw non-negotiable public red lines on agriculture and dairy. It should offer targeted bargains that shrink the surplus on its own terms, buying American energy, aircraft and defence equipment tied to co-production and technology transfer.
It should fast-track its agreements with the European Union, Britain, the Gulf and ASEAN so that no single market can hold its exporters hostage. It should treat the visa squeeze as a 1991 moment for higher education and build universities that reverse the brain drain. And it should work the American system itself through individuals who don’t double cross. They should cultivate Congress, governors, universities and the very companies now bleeding from these policies, with the diaspora as a bridge.
Protocol, too, must run both ways. So the way doors open for America’s envoy in Srinagar and Leh should open equally for India’s ambassador in Washington. Or shut the doors on Gor. A friendship that must be renegotiated every quarter is not a friendship but a lease. India has no need to be anyone’s tenant.
New Delhi should tell Washington—courteously, but without blinking—that it seeks a partner and not a bully, and that the window to choose is narrowing faster than the White House seems to realise.
Read all columns by Prabhu Chawla
Prabhu Chawla
Follow him on X @PrabhuChawla
