Just weeks after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh and the reported US role behind it, concerns are now being raised about the possibility of an American attempt to stir a similar instability in India. This comes in the backdrop of US diplomats meeting several opposition leaders, social media content creators and politicians in the country.
The last few months have witnessed an increased interest of Washington on matters concerned solely to India. The buzz around US diplomats meeting National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and other Kashmiri Politicians just ahead of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir had not even subsided when the news of the US ambassador to India Eric Gracetti meeting the Indian National Congress chief Malikarjun Kharge made headlines, further fanning the flames of concerns over a potential American intervention in India’s domestic politics.
The US embassy and consulates in India have been working overtime lately. Outreaching opposition leaders, partisan youtubers and important allies of the National Democratic Alliance along with carrying out routine jobs are not easy after all. After Asaduddin Owaisi and Omar Abduallah, the American diplomatic mission finally made its way to Mr Kharge on September 4. Taking to social media platform X, the congress leader posted, "Delighted to meet Ambassador of the US to India, HE Mr. Eric Garcetti, Minister-Counselor of Political Affairs, Mr. Graham Mayer and Chief of Staff, Ms. Lisa Brown and discussed deepening of ties between the two countries."
Graham Mayer was also a part of the delegation that called on Omar Abdullah at his Gupkar Road residence in Srinagar on August 26. Speaking to the media, National Conference Chief Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Tanvir Sadiq, stated that a wide range of topics were discussed during the meeting, “pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir and the region in general.” The delegation however refused to divulge any details about the “wide range of topics” discussed.
Meeting the opposition leaders from different states and fostering a channel of communication and exchange is a common subnational diplomatic practice. In fact, in the latter’s case, the diplomats had to first take a clearance from the ministry of External Affairs and the intelligence agencies before visiting Kashmir, meaning that the entire meeting was done amid governmental scrutiny. However, the sudden hyperactivity of the American subnational diplomatic unit that is infamous for its interventionist nature and inability to respect sovereign democracies in addition to the timing of the rare visit in a sensitive border region like Kashmir has raised several eyebrows.
In the last few weeks, US consul general in Hyderabad Jennifer Larson has met Telangana’s chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu whose party TDP is a crucial NDA ally for the survival of the government at the centre and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, a fierce critic of the Modi government. Larson in a tweet stated that she shared “informed and important views on a range of shared issues and concerns” with Mr Owaisi. Interestingly, Mr. Owaisi in all probability is the only Indian politician who has openly criticised the government for sheltering the deposed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As the Principal Officer in Benghazi, Libya between 2010-2012, Larson reportedly played a key role in the US government’s response to the Libyan Revolution by building relationships with local politicians.
Besides these, the call of the US embassy in India for social media influencers to attend a workshop on “impactful content that drives real change” in July this year to encourage the Indian populace for “active citizenship” by learning from partisan social media Influencers like Akash Banerjee was a peculiar move. It is strange how the US state department is so concerned about enlightening the host populace on disinformation and correct political discourse. It set aside a whopping amount of Rs 1.68 crores to recruit fact checkers in India as a part of its “Empowering Media Savvy Youth” programme aiming to actively combat misinformation and shape narratives effectively to address the root causes of disinformation. The project was set to start from September 1 this year in 5 cities - Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. It is ironic when the American state department claims to not support partisan political projects but ends up inviting and collaborating with content creators and NGOs who have earned notoriety for peddling one sided propaganda.
It is even stranger when the white house itself has had a questionable track record of censoring content and indulging in information manipulation. The US House committee on Weaponization of the federal Government published a ninety-eight-page report on May 1, 2024 revealing how the Biden administration coerced big tech companies like Meta to suppress and censor true information, satire and critics. Speaking on this issue, Meta Ceo Mark Zuckerberg regretted succumbing to the pressure and accused the FBI of shielding the biden family, particularly Hunter biden from corruption allegations.
There is more to the sudden American passion against disinformation than meets the eye. Disinfo labs(@DisinfoLab), an Open Source Intelligence organisation in an intriguing twitter thread revealed a string of similar events sponsored and hosted by the US embassy and consulates across India in collaboration with far leftists that have a track record of peddling vicious half baked truth. The lab further digs into the NGO roped in by the US embassy for countering disinformation. It is the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) founded by the Ford Foundation and funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation among many.
Thus, these efforts may be interpreted as an attempt to reshape political discourse by influencing youth and to create political pressure groups within India that propagate American rhetoric on democracy, human rights and religious freedom - concepts that the US proclaims to be the champions of and trigger political transformations. This is alarming not only because it is a blatant breach of India’s sovereignty and trust in the strategic India-US partnership but also a threat to the nation’s integrity and stability.
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