Synopsis
Talk about moving away from Russian weapons, Khanna could read about Indian arms purchases from the US over the last decade. They come to about $20 billion. If he doesn’t have time, his staff surely does.
It’s well known the US administration has taken a mature position on India’s dilemma on Russia’s war against Ukraine. A few members of Congress are not as accommodating. But that’s fine. Even they understand India’s difficulties and wish things were different. They engage intelligently.
Then there are those who feel a desperate ‘need’ to say something because they fear getting lost in what I call the ‘outrage shuffle’. Count Indian American Democrat Congressman from California Ro Khanna in the ‘needy’ category. We know Washington is on steroids, pumping weapons into Ukraine, unleashing sanctions and sharing intelligence information on an unprecedented scale. It’s hard to be heard in the din.
Enter Khanna. He neither has combat experience to speak authoritatively about the war nor a deep understanding of the vicious geopolitics of today. But he is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. The committee held an important hearing last week trying to probe defence department officials about US preparedness in the Indo-Pacific should war break out as it has in Europe.
As even young students of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy know, India is key to US planning and force projection in the region. They also know the Quad is an instrument of that policy, and that India is a member along with Australia, Japan and the US. The four countries think alike on the big challenge called China.
So, it was embarrassing to watch Khanna’s 5-minute video appearance in a 2-hour hearing. The sole purpose of his jarring intervention was to prove he was tough on India while his colleagues were busy discussing security challenges in the IndoPacific. Fortunately, Khanna left after making high school-level debating points having contributed nothing substantive to the debate.
Khanna said he was ‘perplexed’ by India’s abstentions in the UN, and wanted the administration to ‘press’ India to change its position. It was like he missed the last 10 days of briefings and hearings on Capitol Hill. But, as people say, too much ambition leaves too little time to listen.
Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defence, tried hard not to smile while addressing Khanna’s gratuitous remarks. He tried to school Khanna gently, explaining a bit of history. ‘We are aware that India has a long history and a complicated economic and security partnership with the Russians. They receive a majority of weapons from Russia,’ he said.
Ratner further explained that India was diversifying arms purchases and indigenising defence production at the same time. The trend lines are positive. He reminded Khanna that in the end, it was India’s ‘sovereign decision’, something that didn’t seem apparent to the Congressman. Besides, India and the US are in ‘deep conversation’ about security issues that will continue in the 2+2 strategic dialogue coming up next month.
But Khanna wanted the exact date by when India would be weaned off Russian weapons. He asked Ratner to put ‘aside’ India’s own decisionmaking and give him a time line. How about a weaning off rate of 10% a year, he suggested. Ratner looked incredulous. He said everything depends on the nature and range of the weapons available to India — from basic munitions to higher-end capabilities.
What Ratner couldn’t say in public was that for decades, Russia was willing to sell top-end systems to India and the US wasn’t. History is complicated and does not fit 140 characters. Here’s a simple question: would Khanna be willing to advocate selling the most sophisticated US armaments to India? Not really.
Khanna would rather go on about his grandfather being in India’s freedom movement to gain traction among Indian Americans. Frankly, the grandfather story is well past its sell-by date, because the grandfather forgot to teach him about non-alignment and Jawaharlal Nehru’s efforts to navigate the Cold War. There’s also 1971. But it would be graceless to remind Khanna of that story.
Talk about moving away from Russian weapons, Khanna could read about Indian arms purchases from the US over the last decade. They come to about $20 billion. If he doesn’t have time, his staff surely does.
PS: Khanna deleted a 2015 tweet for which the Left is mercilessly ridiculing him: ‘Ever since the ‘orange Revolution’ began under President Bush, the US has been complicit in the rehabilitation and spread of NeoNazis in Ukraine. Enough is enough!’ In 2019, Khanna signed a letter asking the State Department to designate Ukraine’s Azov Battalion as a terrorist organisation.
Oops. But today, Khanna wants to flood Ukraine with weapons. Don’t laugh, but Khanna claims Leftist credentials for himself. Says he has a ‘progressive’ approach to foreign policy.
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