On the President's Desk: India
India became an independent nation on August 15, 1947, although it was still a member of the British Commonwealth. It achieved complete independence from Great Britain on January 26, 1950. While still a part of the British Empire, there was little interaction between Indian and the United States. Mark Twain visited India in 1896 and described it positively in his travelogue, stating that in ins equatorial travels, India was the only foreign land he longed to see again. In the 1930s and early 1940s the United States expressed support to the Indian independence movement, seeing a connection with its own past in once breaking away from Britain.
In World War Two, India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, influencing the culture with new technology. The issue of Indian independence arose once again, with demands by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that India be given its independence, something that Prime Minister Winston Churchill vehemently rejected. Roosevelt's position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, as well as gratitude for the aid that India had provided to the American war effort in Asia. India had also become the main American staging base for aid to China.
Under the Truman administration, the US continued its support for India. During the Cold War, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's policy of neutrality led to some tension in the relationship. US Ambassador Henry F. Grady told then Prime Minister Nehru that the United States did not consider neutrality to be an acceptable position. In 1948, Nehru rejected American suggestions for resolving the Kashmir conflict between Indian and Pakistan via third party mediation. His 1949 tour of the US left bad feelings on both sides. India refused to follow American advice not to recognize Communist China, but relations recovered somewhat when Indian supported the 1950 United Nations resolution condemning North Korea's aggression in the Korean War. India tried to act as a broker to help end that war, and served as a conduit for diplomatic messages between the US and China.
Poor harvests required India to request American aid for food assistance, which began in 1950. In the first dozen years of Indian independence from 1947 to 1959, the US provided $1.7 billion in aid to India, including $931 million in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, but offered other forms of aid such as soft loans, technical knowledge, and skills involved in the areas of steel mills, machine building, hydro-electric power and other heavy industries. In 1961, the US pledged $1.0 billion in development loans, in addition to $1.3 billion of free food.
In 1959, Dwight Eisenhower was the first US President to visit India in an effort to improve the ties between the two nations. Eisenhower was perceived as being very supportive even though he did not receive support from India to help confront further Chinese Communist aggression.
During John F. Kennedy's presidency, renewed were made calls for India's assistance in addressing the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said, "Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people, if she can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine, particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they can develop their resources is through the Communist system." The Kennedy administration openly supported India during the 1962 Sino-Indian war and the United States Air Force flew in arms, ammunition and clothing supplies to the Indian troops. The United States Navy briefly sent the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier from the Pacific Ocean to protect India, but decided to recall it back before it reached the Bay of Bengal. In a May 1963 National Security Council meeting, the United States discussed contingency planning that could be implemented in the event of another Chinese attack on India. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor advised the president to consider the use of nuclear weapons. Though Kennedy did not confirm that he would approve the use of such weapons, he said, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India." Kennedy's ambassador to India was the noted liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who had close ties with India. While in India, Galbraith helped establish one of the first Indian computer science departments, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, relations between the two nations deteriorated gradually. President Lyndon Johnson sought to maintain relations with India to counter Communist China, but he also sought to strengthen ties with Pakistan with the hopes of easing tensions with China and weakening India's growing military buildup as well.
Relations between the two nations worsened under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. Richard Nixon established a very close relationship with Pakistan, aiding it militarily and economically. India was now under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, who was seen by Nixon as leaning towards supporting the Soviet Union. He considered Pakistan as a very important ally to counter Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent. He also saw Pakistan as beneficial in establishing ties with China, with whom Pakistan was very close. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the US openly supported Pakistan and deployed its aircraft carrier USS Enterprise towards the Bay of Bengal, as a show of force by the US in support of the West Pakistani forces. In 1974, India conducted its first nuclear test, Smiling Buddha, which was opposed by the US. However the test did not violate any agreement and in June of that year, it proceeded with a shipment of enriched uranium for India's Tarapur reactor.
In the late 1970s, the anti-Soviet Janata Party leader Morarji Desai becoming the Prime Minister. As a result, India improved its relations with the US, even though President Jimmy Carter signed an order in 1978 banning nuclear material from being exported to India. In 1980 Indira Gandhi returned to power. Despite this, relations between the two countries continued to improve gradually, although India did not support the United States in its role in the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The Reagan Administration provided limited assistance to India. In 1984 Washington approved the supply of some military technology to India including gas turbines for naval frigates and engines for prototypes for India's light combat aircraft.
In 1998 Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Indian Prime Minister. He authorized nuclear weapons testing at Pokhran. The United States strongly condemned this testing, and threatened sanctions against India. The US supported a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning the tests. President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on India, including cutting off all military and economic aid, freezing loans by American banks to state-owned Indian companies, prohibiting loans to the Indian government for all except food purchases, prohibiting American aerospace technology and uranium exports to India, and requiring the US to oppose all loan requests by India to international lending agencies. These sanctions proved ineffective, as India was experiencing a strong economic rise. India's trade with the US only constituted a small portion of its GDP. Only Japan joined the US in imposing direct sanctions, while most other nations continued to trade with India. The sanctions were soon lifted. In March 2000, Clinton visited India for bilateral economic discussions with Prime Minister Vajpayee. During the visit, the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum was established.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations improved during the George W. Bush Administration. India agreed to allow close international monitoring of its nuclear weapons development, but refused to give up its current nuclear arsenal. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, President Bush collaborated closely with India in controlling and policing the strategically critical Indian Ocean sea lanes from the Suez Canal to Singapore. The two nations shared common concerns regarding growing Islamic extremism, energy security, and climate change. President George W. Bush described India thusly: "India is a great example of democracy. It is very devout, has diverse religious heads, but everyone is comfortable about their religion. The world needs India". Under President Bush, the two nations cooperated on a wide range of issues, including technology, space exploration, education, agriculture, trade, clean energy, and counter-terrorism. After the December 2004 tsunami, the US and Indian navies cooperated in search and rescue operations and in the reconstruction of affected areas. In 2005, the United States and India signed a ten-year defense framework agreement, with the goal of expanding bilateral security cooperation. The two countries engaged in combined military exercises, and major US arms sales to India were concluded. An Open Skies Agreement was signed in April 2005, enhancing trade, tourism, and business between the two countries. The number of flights between the two countries increased, and Air India purchased 68 US Boeing aircraft at a cost of $8 billion. The United States and India also signed a bilateral Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation in 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, India donated $5 million to the American Red Cross and sent two planeloads of relief supplies and materials to help. On March 1, 2006, President Bush made another diplomatic visit to further expand relations between India and the U.S. The value of all bilateral trade tripled from 2004 to 2008.
The positive relations between the two nations has continued and between 2009–2010 more than 100,000 Indian students have attended American colleges and universities. In November 2010, President Barack Obama visited India and addressed a joint session of the Indian Parliament. President Obama expressed his support for India's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. In March 2009, the Obama Administration approved the US$2.1 billion sale of eight P-8 Poseidon submarines to India. This deal helped to make the US one of the top three military suppliers to India (after Israel and Russia). US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen encouraged stronger military ties between India and the United States, and said that "India has emerged as an increasingly important strategic partner.:
On July 2, 2014, U.S. diplomats were summoned by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to discuss allegations that the National Security Agency had spied on private individuals and political entities within India. A 2010 document leaked by Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post disclosed that US intelligence agencies had been authorized to spy on the Indian Prime-Minister Narendra Modi. WikiLeaks alleged that Western intelligence agencies used foreign aid workers and staff at NGOs as non-official cover. This has resulted in the Government of India increasing the monitoring of satellite phones and movement of personnel working for humanitarian relief organizations and development aid agencies near sensitive locations.
India–U.S. relations were also strained over the Obama administration's approach to Pakistan and the handling of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. India's National Security Minister was critical of the Obama administration for linking the Kashmir dispute to the instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He suggested that India take a more proactive role in rebuilding Afghanistan, irrespective of the attitude of the Obama Administration. India refused to accept a US invitation to attend a conference on Afghanistan at the end of February 2009. Since the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India's position has been to pressure Pakistan more aggressively to take actions against those behind the terrorist attack. India and US governments have also disagreed with the Obama administration on a variety of issues ranging from India's cordial relations with Iran and Russia to foreign policy disagreements relating to Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh. India also criticized the Obama Administration's decision to limit H-1B (temporary) visas, and India's then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later became the President of India, promised that his country would oppose US "protectionism".
In May 2009, President Obama expressed his opposition to outsourcing by companies to India. He criticized US tax policy "that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York." This was somewhat at odds with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said at thee US India Business Council meeting in June 2009, that there should be stronger economic ties between India and the United States, and who rebuked protectionist policies, saying that her nation "will not use the global financial crisis as an excuse to fall back on protectionism. We hope India will work with us to create a more open, equitable set of opportunities for trade between our nations."
In November 2010, President Obama visited India in his first term in office and on November 8, he became the second US President (after Eisenhower in 1959) to address a joint session of the Parliament of India. Obama declared US support for India's permanent membership on the UN Security Council. He also announced the removal of export control restrictions on several Indian companies, and concluded trade deals worth $10 billion.
In December 2013, a diplomatic incident arose between the two nations when Devyani Khobragade, the Deputy Consul General of India in New York, was arrested and accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of submitting false work visa documents for her housekeeper and paying the housekeeper wages "far less than the minimum legal wage." The Indian government protested the incident. The government expressed outrage that Khobragade was strip-searched and held in the general inmate population. India demanded an apology from the U.S. over her alleged "humiliation" and called for the charges to be dropped. The U.S. declined to do so and the Indian government retaliated for what it viewed as the mistreatment of its consular official by revoking the ID cards and other privileges of U.S. consular personnel and their families in India and removing security barriers in front of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Khobragade was prosecuted because she had only consular immunity (which gives one immunity from prosecution only for acts committed in connection with official duties, as opposed to the more extensive diplomatic immunity). After her arrest, the Indian government moved Khobragade to the Indian's mission to the United Nations, upgrading her status and conferring diplomatic immunity on her; as a result, the federal indictment against Khobragade was dismissed in March 2014. She subsequently left the country. The incident and response appears to have damaged U.S.–India relations.Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha called for the arrest of same-sex companions of US diplomats, citing the Supreme Court of India's upholding of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which makes homosexuality illegal in India. President Obama visited India in January 2015, in part to repair the damage to the relationship caused by this incident.
Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014 after the Bharatiya Janata Party decisively won the 2014 Indian General Elections. Prior to Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India, the US Government had refused to permit Modi to travel to the US because of alleged human rights violations when he had been Chief Minister of Gurjat province. Controversy surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots led the U.S. revoking Modi's visa in 2005. In 2005, the US Department of State had used a 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) provision to revoke Modi's tourist/business visa. The Obama administration maintained the 2005 decision.
Following Modi's 2014 election as the Prime Minister of India, President Obama congratulated him over telephone and invited him to visit the US. US Secretary of State John Kerry visited New Delhi on August 1, to help plan Modi's US visit as Prime Minister. Modi visited the US from September 27-30, 2014, beginning with an address in the United Nations general assembly followed by attending a gala public reception put on by the Indian American community in New York's Madison Square Garden. He then went to Washington, D.C. for bilateral talks with President Obama. He also met several American business leaders. Modi also toured the Silicon Valley in 2015 and met with entrepreneurs involved in successful microelectronics, digital communications and biotechnology start-ups. Modi visited Washington again in 2015 and in 2017.
On June 26, 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US and met with President Donald Trump. President Trump has spoken favorably concerning Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has called for a closer alliance with India. When running for President, he told a campaign rally of Indian-Americans that under his administration, relations with India would be "the best ever". The Trump Organization has extensive business ventures in India, involving at least 16 Indian partnerships and corporations. President Trump reiterated his position earlier this week on November 13th when he said that United States' relationship with India can act as a "bulwark" for freedom, prosperity and peace. He celebrated the Indian festive known as Diwali in the White House along with prominent Indian-Americans for the second consecutive year. The President told those in attendance that he was thrilled to celebrate Diwali at the White House. He said the United States has deep ties with India and he was grateful for his friendship with Prime Minister Modi. Here is a video of his speech.
A good relationship with India is beneficial for the US both economically and in order to have a strong and stable partner in the region. Tensions will continue to exist over a number of issues, including the out-sourcing of American jobs to India, the level of military cooperation, and about significant cultural differences which exist. US relations with India have been, and will continue to be an important issue on the President's desk.
In World War Two, India became the main base for the American China Burma India Theater in the war against Japan. Tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived, influencing the culture with new technology. The issue of Indian independence arose once again, with demands by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that India be given its independence, something that Prime Minister Winston Churchill vehemently rejected. Roosevelt's position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, as well as gratitude for the aid that India had provided to the American war effort in Asia. India had also become the main American staging base for aid to China.
Under the Truman administration, the US continued its support for India. During the Cold War, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's policy of neutrality led to some tension in the relationship. US Ambassador Henry F. Grady told then Prime Minister Nehru that the United States did not consider neutrality to be an acceptable position. In 1948, Nehru rejected American suggestions for resolving the Kashmir conflict between Indian and Pakistan via third party mediation. His 1949 tour of the US left bad feelings on both sides. India refused to follow American advice not to recognize Communist China, but relations recovered somewhat when Indian supported the 1950 United Nations resolution condemning North Korea's aggression in the Korean War. India tried to act as a broker to help end that war, and served as a conduit for diplomatic messages between the US and China.
Poor harvests required India to request American aid for food assistance, which began in 1950. In the first dozen years of Indian independence from 1947 to 1959, the US provided $1.7 billion in aid to India, including $931 million in food. The Soviet Union provided about half as much in monetary terms, but offered other forms of aid such as soft loans, technical knowledge, and skills involved in the areas of steel mills, machine building, hydro-electric power and other heavy industries. In 1961, the US pledged $1.0 billion in development loans, in addition to $1.3 billion of free food.
In 1959, Dwight Eisenhower was the first US President to visit India in an effort to improve the ties between the two nations. Eisenhower was perceived as being very supportive even though he did not receive support from India to help confront further Chinese Communist aggression.
During John F. Kennedy's presidency, renewed were made calls for India's assistance in addressing the rise of Communist China. Kennedy said, "Chinese Communists have been moving ahead the last 10 years. India has been making some progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people, if she can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine, particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way they can develop their resources is through the Communist system." The Kennedy administration openly supported India during the 1962 Sino-Indian war and the United States Air Force flew in arms, ammunition and clothing supplies to the Indian troops. The United States Navy briefly sent the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier from the Pacific Ocean to protect India, but decided to recall it back before it reached the Bay of Bengal. In a May 1963 National Security Council meeting, the United States discussed contingency planning that could be implemented in the event of another Chinese attack on India. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor advised the president to consider the use of nuclear weapons. Though Kennedy did not confirm that he would approve the use of such weapons, he said, "We should defend India, and therefore we will defend India." Kennedy's ambassador to India was the noted liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who had close ties with India. While in India, Galbraith helped establish one of the first Indian computer science departments, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, relations between the two nations deteriorated gradually. President Lyndon Johnson sought to maintain relations with India to counter Communist China, but he also sought to strengthen ties with Pakistan with the hopes of easing tensions with China and weakening India's growing military buildup as well.
Relations between the two nations worsened under the Nixon administration in the early 1970s. Richard Nixon established a very close relationship with Pakistan, aiding it militarily and economically. India was now under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, who was seen by Nixon as leaning towards supporting the Soviet Union. He considered Pakistan as a very important ally to counter Soviet influence in the Indian subcontinent. He also saw Pakistan as beneficial in establishing ties with China, with whom Pakistan was very close. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the US openly supported Pakistan and deployed its aircraft carrier USS Enterprise towards the Bay of Bengal, as a show of force by the US in support of the West Pakistani forces. In 1974, India conducted its first nuclear test, Smiling Buddha, which was opposed by the US. However the test did not violate any agreement and in June of that year, it proceeded with a shipment of enriched uranium for India's Tarapur reactor.
In the late 1970s, the anti-Soviet Janata Party leader Morarji Desai becoming the Prime Minister. As a result, India improved its relations with the US, even though President Jimmy Carter signed an order in 1978 banning nuclear material from being exported to India. In 1980 Indira Gandhi returned to power. Despite this, relations between the two countries continued to improve gradually, although India did not support the United States in its role in the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The Reagan Administration provided limited assistance to India. In 1984 Washington approved the supply of some military technology to India including gas turbines for naval frigates and engines for prototypes for India's light combat aircraft.
In 1998 Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Indian Prime Minister. He authorized nuclear weapons testing at Pokhran. The United States strongly condemned this testing, and threatened sanctions against India. The US supported a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning the tests. President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on India, including cutting off all military and economic aid, freezing loans by American banks to state-owned Indian companies, prohibiting loans to the Indian government for all except food purchases, prohibiting American aerospace technology and uranium exports to India, and requiring the US to oppose all loan requests by India to international lending agencies. These sanctions proved ineffective, as India was experiencing a strong economic rise. India's trade with the US only constituted a small portion of its GDP. Only Japan joined the US in imposing direct sanctions, while most other nations continued to trade with India. The sanctions were soon lifted. In March 2000, Clinton visited India for bilateral economic discussions with Prime Minister Vajpayee. During the visit, the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum was established.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations improved during the George W. Bush Administration. India agreed to allow close international monitoring of its nuclear weapons development, but refused to give up its current nuclear arsenal. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, President Bush collaborated closely with India in controlling and policing the strategically critical Indian Ocean sea lanes from the Suez Canal to Singapore. The two nations shared common concerns regarding growing Islamic extremism, energy security, and climate change. President George W. Bush described India thusly: "India is a great example of democracy. It is very devout, has diverse religious heads, but everyone is comfortable about their religion. The world needs India". Under President Bush, the two nations cooperated on a wide range of issues, including technology, space exploration, education, agriculture, trade, clean energy, and counter-terrorism. After the December 2004 tsunami, the US and Indian navies cooperated in search and rescue operations and in the reconstruction of affected areas. In 2005, the United States and India signed a ten-year defense framework agreement, with the goal of expanding bilateral security cooperation. The two countries engaged in combined military exercises, and major US arms sales to India were concluded. An Open Skies Agreement was signed in April 2005, enhancing trade, tourism, and business between the two countries. The number of flights between the two countries increased, and Air India purchased 68 US Boeing aircraft at a cost of $8 billion. The United States and India also signed a bilateral Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation in 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, India donated $5 million to the American Red Cross and sent two planeloads of relief supplies and materials to help. On March 1, 2006, President Bush made another diplomatic visit to further expand relations between India and the U.S. The value of all bilateral trade tripled from 2004 to 2008.
The positive relations between the two nations has continued and between 2009–2010 more than 100,000 Indian students have attended American colleges and universities. In November 2010, President Barack Obama visited India and addressed a joint session of the Indian Parliament. President Obama expressed his support for India's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. In March 2009, the Obama Administration approved the US$2.1 billion sale of eight P-8 Poseidon submarines to India. This deal helped to make the US one of the top three military suppliers to India (after Israel and Russia). US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen encouraged stronger military ties between India and the United States, and said that "India has emerged as an increasingly important strategic partner.:
On July 2, 2014, U.S. diplomats were summoned by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to discuss allegations that the National Security Agency had spied on private individuals and political entities within India. A 2010 document leaked by Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post disclosed that US intelligence agencies had been authorized to spy on the Indian Prime-Minister Narendra Modi. WikiLeaks alleged that Western intelligence agencies used foreign aid workers and staff at NGOs as non-official cover. This has resulted in the Government of India increasing the monitoring of satellite phones and movement of personnel working for humanitarian relief organizations and development aid agencies near sensitive locations.
India–U.S. relations were also strained over the Obama administration's approach to Pakistan and the handling of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. India's National Security Minister was critical of the Obama administration for linking the Kashmir dispute to the instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He suggested that India take a more proactive role in rebuilding Afghanistan, irrespective of the attitude of the Obama Administration. India refused to accept a US invitation to attend a conference on Afghanistan at the end of February 2009. Since the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India's position has been to pressure Pakistan more aggressively to take actions against those behind the terrorist attack. India and US governments have also disagreed with the Obama administration on a variety of issues ranging from India's cordial relations with Iran and Russia to foreign policy disagreements relating to Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh. India also criticized the Obama Administration's decision to limit H-1B (temporary) visas, and India's then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later became the President of India, promised that his country would oppose US "protectionism".
In May 2009, President Obama expressed his opposition to outsourcing by companies to India. He criticized US tax policy "that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York." This was somewhat at odds with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said at thee US India Business Council meeting in June 2009, that there should be stronger economic ties between India and the United States, and who rebuked protectionist policies, saying that her nation "will not use the global financial crisis as an excuse to fall back on protectionism. We hope India will work with us to create a more open, equitable set of opportunities for trade between our nations."
In November 2010, President Obama visited India in his first term in office and on November 8, he became the second US President (after Eisenhower in 1959) to address a joint session of the Parliament of India. Obama declared US support for India's permanent membership on the UN Security Council. He also announced the removal of export control restrictions on several Indian companies, and concluded trade deals worth $10 billion.
In December 2013, a diplomatic incident arose between the two nations when Devyani Khobragade, the Deputy Consul General of India in New York, was arrested and accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of submitting false work visa documents for her housekeeper and paying the housekeeper wages "far less than the minimum legal wage." The Indian government protested the incident. The government expressed outrage that Khobragade was strip-searched and held in the general inmate population. India demanded an apology from the U.S. over her alleged "humiliation" and called for the charges to be dropped. The U.S. declined to do so and the Indian government retaliated for what it viewed as the mistreatment of its consular official by revoking the ID cards and other privileges of U.S. consular personnel and their families in India and removing security barriers in front of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Khobragade was prosecuted because she had only consular immunity (which gives one immunity from prosecution only for acts committed in connection with official duties, as opposed to the more extensive diplomatic immunity). After her arrest, the Indian government moved Khobragade to the Indian's mission to the United Nations, upgrading her status and conferring diplomatic immunity on her; as a result, the federal indictment against Khobragade was dismissed in March 2014. She subsequently left the country. The incident and response appears to have damaged U.S.–India relations.Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha called for the arrest of same-sex companions of US diplomats, citing the Supreme Court of India's upholding of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which makes homosexuality illegal in India. President Obama visited India in January 2015, in part to repair the damage to the relationship caused by this incident.
Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014 after the Bharatiya Janata Party decisively won the 2014 Indian General Elections. Prior to Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India, the US Government had refused to permit Modi to travel to the US because of alleged human rights violations when he had been Chief Minister of Gurjat province. Controversy surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots led the U.S. revoking Modi's visa in 2005. In 2005, the US Department of State had used a 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) provision to revoke Modi's tourist/business visa. The Obama administration maintained the 2005 decision.
Following Modi's 2014 election as the Prime Minister of India, President Obama congratulated him over telephone and invited him to visit the US. US Secretary of State John Kerry visited New Delhi on August 1, to help plan Modi's US visit as Prime Minister. Modi visited the US from September 27-30, 2014, beginning with an address in the United Nations general assembly followed by attending a gala public reception put on by the Indian American community in New York's Madison Square Garden. He then went to Washington, D.C. for bilateral talks with President Obama. He also met several American business leaders. Modi also toured the Silicon Valley in 2015 and met with entrepreneurs involved in successful microelectronics, digital communications and biotechnology start-ups. Modi visited Washington again in 2015 and in 2017.
On June 26, 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US and met with President Donald Trump. President Trump has spoken favorably concerning Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has called for a closer alliance with India. When running for President, he told a campaign rally of Indian-Americans that under his administration, relations with India would be "the best ever". The Trump Organization has extensive business ventures in India, involving at least 16 Indian partnerships and corporations. President Trump reiterated his position earlier this week on November 13th when he said that United States' relationship with India can act as a "bulwark" for freedom, prosperity and peace. He celebrated the Indian festive known as Diwali in the White House along with prominent Indian-Americans for the second consecutive year. The President told those in attendance that he was thrilled to celebrate Diwali at the White House. He said the United States has deep ties with India and he was grateful for his friendship with Prime Minister Modi. Here is a video of his speech.
A good relationship with India is beneficial for the US both economically and in order to have a strong and stable partner in the region. Tensions will continue to exist over a number of issues, including the out-sourcing of American jobs to India, the level of military cooperation, and about significant cultural differences which exist. US relations with India have been, and will continue to be an important issue on the President's desk.