Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a 3-day official visit to the United States. Amid this, a former US foreign service official named Anthony Renzulli has reflected on the changing US-India ties under the Narendra Modi government.
In an interview with The Hindustan Times, Anthony Renzulli stated that a real emphasis is now placed on policy implementation and achieving shared goals.
He pointed out, “The big difference today compared to the early days is the real emphasis on implementation. The trend was maybe you do something and you bank it. But now there is an expectation of both sides that they are going to do the things that they pledge to do and they are intent on following through on that.”
The ex-foreign service official added, “For example, if you might look at past statements, you will see lots of stuff kept showing up every year. But now when I look at the joint statements you don’t see a lot of reiteration of stuff. There is a little bit of that. But it focuses on new stuff and the implementing of the stuff that’s been agreed.”
An evolved form of non-alignment
Anthony Renzulli, who also worked as the India director of the US National Security Council (NSC) for 2 years, noted that the country has re-aligned its foreign policy doctrine.
He pointed out how the Narendra Modi government signed the Artemis Accords in June 2023, thereby making a sharp departure from its policy of not joining US-led multilateral initiatives.
For the unversed, The Artemis Accords lay down non-binding principles for the exploration and use of space by nation-states.
“The decision to join the Artemis Accord for example, which in and of itself is not the most alluring thing, but is also something that India typically doesn’t do,” Anthony Renzulli stated.
“It doesn’t usually join US-led multilateral initiatives. We understood that. Several officials conveyed to us that India saw this as linked, everything was everything — technology transfer, technology sharing, the broad commercial space economy and our cooperation in that area was all part and parcel of India’s commitment decision to join Artemis,” the former US diplomat emphasised.
While speaking to The Hindustan Times, Anthony Renzulli highlighted the role of Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in changing the dynamics of the Indian foreign policy doctrine.
“Among the great foreign policy legacies of the Modi administration is that this government has articulated — credit, of course, to this foreign minister — an evolved version of Indian non-alignment that has sort of freed India from the sort of trap that non-alignment can sometimes leave you with. It can be called a lot of things; multi-alignment, multipolarity, minilateralism. And obviously this is most evident in Quad,” he added.
FCRA rules impacted US funding in India
Anthony Renzulli, however, lamented that the Modi government made amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and disrupted US funding to civil society.
“This issue just impacts nearly all aspects of the partnership. When it’s acute, you manage it and you push and you try to diplomatically lobby and maybe you get some relief temporarily on a case to case basis. But you just can’t do that across the board,” he claimed.
“You have an aspiration for an educational partnership, yet FCRA is impacting your ability to do research grants and other educational cooperation. The US Embassy can’t work with organisations the way that it used to work to implement its programmes,” the ex-diplomat alleged.
It must be mentioned that the Modi government amended the FCRA in 2020, the constitutionality of which has already been upheld by the Supreme Court of India.
The objective behind the amendment was to ensure the utilisation of funds by NGOs as per their declaration, enhance transparency, and accountability, and strengthen compliance mechanisms.
The Union Home Ministry has previously cancelled the licences of over 19000 organisations and initiated a criminal probe against dozens of such associations for financial impropriety.
Nonetheless, Anthony Renzulli noted, “The US and India have done a tremendous amount to shrink political risk. The political risk issues around the durability of the US India partnership have been largely addressed as best as the two sides can.”
