Tag: joe biden administration

‘Lack of Clear Decision-Making’: US Report Criticises Nation’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan

A US State Department report, critical of President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, has pointed to the inadequate preparedness for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021.


Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s administrations made mistakes before and after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, the US State Department found in a report released on Friday.

“The decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the US military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security,” the review said.

The so-called Afghanistan After Action Review report, requested by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, found their decision “presented significant challenges” to the State Department.

The review said that “during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.”

State department wasn’t prepared

Only 24 pages of a 85-page report were made public, the rest remained classified.

The were a lack of clear decision-making, an absence of centralised crisis management and confusing public messaging, it found.

It said there were shortcomings in the management plan concerning the Taliban.

It mentioned the department’s failure to expand its crisis-management task force to combat the Taliban forces and to appoint a senior diplomat to “oversee all elements of the crisis response.”

Without naming, the report also criticised Secretary of State Antony Blinken and said, “Naming a 7th floor principal … would have improved coordination across different lines of effort.”

White House report skipped critical viewpoint

Biden was defiant when asked Friday if he would admit to mistakes.

“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there,” Biden said. “I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.”

In April, the White House had released a report summarising the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan based on the State Department’s review and a similar study by the Pentagon.

The White House report had defended the conduct of the rapid exit of US troops from Afghanistan and had blamed the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Trump.

The report excluded the State Department’s critical point of view on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This article was originally published on DW.

Biden Aides Find Second Batch of Classified Documents at New Location

The president’s aides have been searching for additional classified materials that might be in other locations since a set of classified documents was found in November at a Washington-based think tank.


Aides to US President Joe Biden have discovered at least one more batch of classified documents in a location separate from a think tank office he used after serving as vice president, US news outlets reported on Wednesday.

According to a report by broadcaster NBC News, the president’s aides have been searching for additional classified materials that might be in other locations since a set of classified documents was found in November at a Washington-based think tank.

The NBC News report said the classification level, number and precise location of the additional documents were not immediately clear.

Senators request damage assessment

Senator Mark Warner, the Intelligence Committee’s Democratic chairman, has asked for a briefing on the first Biden document discovery, he said Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Senator Marco Rubio, the committee’s Republican vice chair, said Rubio and Warner had written to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, asking for access to the classified documents.

The two senators also requested a damage assessment by the intelligence community and a briefing on the retention of classified documents by both Biden, a Democrat, and Republican former President Donald Trump.

Classified documents found in think tank

The reports come two days after a White House lawyer said a dozen classified documents from Biden’s vice presidential days had been discovered in November by the president’s personal attorneys at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement think tank.

Biden kept an office there after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his Democratic presidential campaign in 2019.

Biden’s attorneys informed the US National Archives of their discovery, turned over the materials and said they were cooperating with the Archives and the Justice Department. The president also said on Tuesday he and his team were cooperating fully with a review into what happened.

This article was originally published by the DW.

Biden Vows to Work With Republicans as Control of US Congress Remains Uncertain

The Senate contests in Nevada and Arizona, where Democratic incumbents were seeking to hold off Republican challengers, were as yet undecided, with thousands of uncounted ballots that could take days to tally.

Alpharetta/Phoenix: U.S. Senate control hung in the balance while Republicans edged closer to securing a majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, a day after Democrats outperformed expectations and avoided a Republican “red wave” in midterm elections.

The Senate contests in Nevada and Arizona, where Democratic incumbents were seeking to hold off Republican challengers, were as yet undecided, with thousands of uncounted ballots that could take days to tally.

If the parties split those races, the Senate’s fate would come down to a Georgia runoff election for the second time in two years, after Edison Research projected neither Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker would reach the 50% necessary to avoid a December 6 one-on-one rematch.

Republicans were closing in on the 218 seats needed to wrest control of the House from Democrats, with 210 now in their column, Edison Research projected. But 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters, were still pending as of Wednesday evening, raising the prospect that the final outcome may not be known for some time.

Even a slim House majority would let Republicans hem in Democratic President Joe Biden during his next two years in office, blocking legislation and launching potentially politically damaging investigations.

Speaking at a White House news conference, Biden vowed to work with Republicans and said he understood voters are frustrated despite Democrats’ surprisingly competitive campaign.

“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” Biden said. He also reiterated his intention to run for re-election in 2024 and said he would make a final decision early next year.

A White House official said Biden spoke by phone on Wednesday with Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who would be the leading candidate for House speaker if Republicans win a majority.

The election fell short of the sweeping victory Republicans had sought, as Democrats eluded the kind of heavy midterm defeat that often plagues sitting presidents of either party.

The results suggested voters were punishing Biden for presiding over an economy hit by the steepest inflation in 40 years at 8.2 percent, while also lashing out against Republican efforts to ban abortion and cast doubt on the nation’s vote-counting process.

Poor performances by some candidates backed by Donald Trump – including Walker – signaled exhaustion with the kind of chaos fomented by the Republican former president, raising questions about the viability of his possible 2024 White House run.

“I think his ego is just too big to handle,” said Yvonne Langdon, 75, as she cast her ballot for Republican candidates in Michigan on Tuesday.

Biden had framed Tuesday’s election as a test of U.S. democracy at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates embraced Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

A number of election deniers who backed Trump’s claims were elected to office on Tuesday, but many of those who sought positions to oversee elections at the state level were defeated.

“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Biden said.

Fears of violence or disruption by far-right poll watchers at voting stations did not materialize. Jen Easterly, head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said she saw no evidence any voting system was compromised.

Republican Plans

Control of the Senate would give Republicans the power to block Biden’s nominees for judicial and administrative posts. But in a critical win for Democrats, John Fetterman flipped a Republican-held U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, beating Trump-backed retired celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz and bolstering his party’s chances of holding the chamber.

Democrats also had their share of embarrassments, as New York Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the committee charged with reelecting House Democrats, conceded he had lost his own race.

If the Republicans do take control of either chamber, they plan to seek cost savings in the Social Security and Medicare safety-net programs and make permanent tax cuts enacted in 2017 that are due to expire.

Republicans also could engineer a showdown over the debt ceiling to extract major spending cuts, and could pare back aid to Ukraine.

The party that occupies the White House almost always loses seats in elections midway through a president’s first four-year term, and Biden has struggled with low public approval.

“In this climate we should have done better,” said Rob Jesmer, a former head of the Republicans’ Senate campaign arm.

U.S. stock indexes fell on Wednesday as the uncertainty weighed on traders’ mood.

Mixed Day For Trump

Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates, had mixed results.

He notched a victory in Ohio, where “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance won a Senate seat to keep it in Republican hands. But Doug Mastriano, another Trump ally, was handily defeated in the Pennsylvania governor’s race.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could challenge Trump in 2024, won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points, Edison projected.

Thirty-five Senate seats, all 435 House seats and three dozen governors’ races were on the ballot.

(Reuters)

The World’s ‘Happiest Country’ Needs a Peace and Reconciliation Process 

An inspiring initiative seeks to bring peace and reconciliation to a place most people think doesn’t need it. 

Bhutan’s much-touted happiness rating lies atop a bed of pain. The pain of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin. I know, because I am one of them.

I come from an average working-class family that lived in Bhutan for generations, with no interest or involvement in politics. My community, known in Bhutan as Lhotshampa, has traditionally lived in the south of the country. 

In 1989, Bhutan conducted a national census and revoked our citizenship after retroactively implementing the 1985 Nationality Law. The policy of “national integration” and “revocation of citizenship” catalysed our community’s large-scale exodus. 

One night, the coal mine office at the Bhutan-India border where my father worked as a clerk was attacked and ransacked. The next day, security personnel picked up my father and severely beat him. They questioned his patriotism and nationality and tried to get him to confess to the destruction or say who was behind it. My father, born to a simple farming family, had no clue. After this traumatic experience, he made the hard decision to leave the country. 

Trauma

On March 3, 1990, we were among the Bhutanese who fled to save our lives. I was nine years old. We relocated to Timai, a Bhutanese refugee camp in eastern Nepal, where I grew up. 

The United States Refugee Resettlement Program helped me relocate to America in 2009. Two years later, my family joined me. We are now well settled but I still want to heal the pain of dislocation. This is true not just for me but for all the Bhutanese traumatised by what happened in the 1990s. 

Those who left Bhutan felt compelled by the threat to their lives, identity, culture, and language. In some cases, the state pushed them out through its crackdown on human rights and political activists, including some exiled Bhutanese and members of political parties accused of engaging in violence. Many are still in prison in Bhutan. The violence has decreased over the years, but this does not mean the establishment of a positive peace. 

Many Lhotshampa citizens are still missing, unaccounted numbers have been killed, and close to 50 political prisoners are serving life sentences in Bhutan’s prisons. 

On the positive side, the King recently released six political prisoners, and commuted a life sentence. 

In 2021, approximately 6,300 Bhutanese refugees still languished in two refugee camps in Nepal. Many of the over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees resettled in eight western countries, even if they have not been able to return ‘home’, feel an intense love for their country of birth.

Men are seen wearing the gho, the tradional and national dress for men in Bhutan. Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif

Peace Initiative Bhutan

That is what catalysed the movement Peace Initiative Bhutan, started in 2020 by diasporic Bhutanese whose families are divided between Bhutan and the countries they settled in.

The Initiative went public in April 2022, with the goal of ending the polarisation and distrust between many Bhutanese back home and overseas. Peace Initiative Bhutan currently functions under the auspices of Global Citizens Circle, founded in 1974 in the US, catalysed by the Vietnam War, political assassinations, and the Civil Rights Movement. 

The Circle has been involved in peace and reconciliation processes in Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East. It aims to foster sustainable constructive change by bringing together intergenerational, diverse individuals from world leaders to local activists for courageous conversations necessary to build trust.

Peace Initiative Bhutan is not interested in ‘defeating’ the government in Thimphu. We want a ‘win-win’ solution. This will not be easy or quick. But it is possible through a sustained, holistic peacebuilding and reconciliation process, in which remorse, apology and forgiveness play a critical role. The process, rooted in restorative rather than retributive justice, centres fairness and justice which are prerequisites for addressing conflict. This was central to the Truth and Reconciliation Process in South Africa. 

The past years have seen a growing realisation among Bhutanese at home and abroad about the futility of the conflict. The suffering of divided families is underpinned by the urge to visit their birth country and meet loved ones. Western education has also led to a visible shift in the thinking amongst exiled Bhutanese even as new thinking is evident among Bhutanese politicians.  

This shift in perceptions and attitude makes it possible, perhaps, to find a pragmatic and peaceful resolution to the decades-old, seemingly intractable conflict. The disputing parties have a shared goal of making Bhutan genuinely happy and prosperous.

Since the conflict, Bhutan has transitioned into a democracy with general elections every five years. It adopted its first Constitution in 2008 and established an independent judicial system. A silver lining to the conflict was also the formation of political parties that are now participating in the democratic process.

According to two United Nations’ triennial reviews, 2015 and 2018, Bhutan has met the criteria to graduate in 2023 from the category of least developed countries (LDCs) and rise above the poverty index. 

The transition involves the loss of certain trade preferences and other international support measures. Overseas Bhutanese can help with this. Many are outstanding in the fields of academia, entrepreneurship and literature, yet consider themselves Bhutanese first. 

Positives 

This provides a great opportunity for Bhutan to have an international profile on a scale vaster than its physical area and population size. 

The Bhutanese diaspora can now play a vital role providing soft power to the home country, to garner international support and solidarity in Bhutan’s favour. 

I have spoken to many Bhutanese American business owners who want to contribute to Bhutan’s economic development, its education sector, and in other fields, besides directly helping their family members who are in Bhutan. Many are eager for an opportunity to improve their relationship and reconcile differences with their country of birth. 

Another positive is that Bhutan is a carbon-neutral country. Plus it has a happiness policy that is maturing, devoted to enhancing the happiness and progress of its people. 

An opening to the Bhutanese in exile will also improve Bhutan’s ranking in the World Happiness Report – a ranking that it played a central role in establishing. 

Last month, 17 young Bhutanese American professionals representing Peace Initiative Bhutan and other non-profit organisations visited Washington DC and called on Congress and the Joe Biden administration to help foster peace and reconciliation in Bhutan. The delegates also promoted a message based on trust and mutual understanding, in hopes of reaching sustainable peace by reconciling the existing differences between the government of Bhutan and the exiled Bhutanese. The delegates also met with the deputy director, South and Central Asian Affairs under the US Department of State and director for South Asia Regional Affairs National Security Brian Luti at the White House and asked for their continued support and engagement with Bhutan.

Members of Peace Initiative Bhutan at the West Wing after meeting with the Biden Administration in Washington DC, July 24-27, 2022. Photo courtesy: Peace Initiative Bhutan

Common ground

Finding common ground is crucial for conflicting parties to come to a meaningful dialogue. The common ground in this situation lies in the desire to fulfil the aspirations of genuine gross national happiness in Bhutan.

Dealing with trauma means facing the fact that we have been harmed in some way. When we separate the action from the person who harmed us, we can help rehabilitate them and create new connections.  We need to learn to hate the game, not the player. Or, hate the sin, not the sinner.  We are all against injustice, and there are many ways to seek justice. As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the world go blind.”

To reconcile the people of Bhutan and bring peace, we need collaborative efforts. Community agencies, local organisations, religious leaders, politicians, the King of Bhutan, and businesses, all can play essential roles in this process. 

We can deal with these issues using strategies that have worked in building peace elsewhere. Just one step in the right direction may make all the difference. Combining realism with hope may help us move toward a more peaceful future. We at the Initiative believe it is time for representatives of the Bhutan Government and the Bhutanese diaspora to sit down to discuss the future, focusing on agreement and accommodation.

Such a Bhutanese reconciliation would lead to a joyful, long-awaited reunion. The past should not stain our present and future. We can and must end animosity. We need to embrace each other and work on healing the wounds rather than making them deeper. 

Note: An earlier version of this story erroneously said the King commuted a death sentence. 

Suraj Budathoki is founder-member of Peace Initiative Bhutan and a doctoral student in Transformative Social Change at Saybrook University, California. Email: sbudathoki@pibhutan.org.

This is a Sapan News syndicated piece.

India Welcomes US Decision to Waive Off Patent Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines

The Indian embassy in the US reached out to various American lawmakers to gather support for the proposal made by India and South Africa.

Washington: India has appreciated the Biden administration’s decision to support a proposal moved by it and South Africa to temporarily waive some Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past several weeks, India’s ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, along with the diplomats from South Africa, had been meeting US lawmakers and officials regarding the proposal.

“We appreciate the US administration’s announcement today of its support for waiver of IPR for COVID-19 vaccines,” Sandhu told PTI on Wednesday.

Making the announcement, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said this is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures.

“The (Biden) administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Tai said in a major policy announcement.

A majority of Democratic Congressmen had written to President Joe Biden urging him to back the proposal so that vaccines can be made accessible and affordable.

“We also thank the large number of US Senators and Congresspersons who expressed their support. We will continue to work with all stakeholders in the US to collectively fight the global pandemic including through equitable distribution of affordable vaccines for global public health at this critical juncture,” Sandhu said in response to a question.

In the past few months, the Indian embassy had made a focused outreach on the need for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the developing world.

The embassy methodically reached out to the members of the House and Senate. This was reflected in the series of letters that the US lawmakers wrote to President Biden in support.

In recent months, Sandhu has spoken on this issue to Senators Ed Markey and Raphael Warnock; Congresswoman Katherine Clark, Assistant Speaker; Congressman Gregory Meeks, Chair of House Foreign Affairs Committee; Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Chair of the Progressive Caucus; Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Congressman Ro Khanna.

A joint outreach was also undertaken with the South African embassy in Washington DC and together, the two envoys had underscored the importance of the issue with Congresswoman Karen Bass, Chair House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

(PTI)

Biden Administration ‘Undecided’ on Ending Trump-Era H-1B Visa Ban

The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations.

Washington: The Biden administration has indicated that it is still undecided on ending the Trump-era ban on issuing new H-1B visas, with the homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserting that the US government’s top priority is the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution.

The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

In January, then-president Donald Trump had extended the ban on issuing new H-1B visas till March 31, arguing that the country is having a very high unemployment rate and the US cannot afford to have more foreign workers.

Biden has revoked dozens of executive orders issued by Trump, including several of those related to immigration like the lifting so-called ‘Muslim ban’ on visas or those related to issuing green cards. However, the one that imposed a ban on issuing H-1B has still not been lifted. It will expire on March 31, if Biden does not issue a fresh proclamation.

“What is the status of the review of the Trump era visa bans for H1B visas and has the White House decided to lift those bans before they expire at the end of the month?” Mayorkas was asked at a White House news conference on Monday.

“I don’t really (know)- I hate to end the questioning on a question. The answer to which I am not certain. But this goes to what preceded us. We have so much work to do to repair and to restore and to rebuild that we have a prioritisation matrix and of course, the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution is a high priority. Which brings me to this meeting this morning,” Mayorkas said in response.

At the same time, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has gone ahead with its H-1B application allocation process for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2021.

Last month, it announced that it had received enough applications to allocate 65,000 H-1B visas and another 20,000 H-1B visas to those who have completed their higher education from US universities.

Biden has revoked a policy issued by his predecessor during the COVID-19 pandemic that blocked many Green Card applicants from entering the US, a move that will benefit many Indians working in America on the H-1B visa.

Trump, a Republican, issued the ban last year, saying it was needed to protect US workers amid high unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A green card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted green card or permanent legal residency.

The US is currently facing a backlog of nearly 473,000 qualified family-based green card requests.

As a result of Trump’s ban on issuing green cards, as many as 120,000 family-based preference visas were lost. But this came as a big boon for issuing employment-based green cards, mainly those on H-1B visas.

Thousands of Indian IT professionals who painstakingly waited for their green card received their legal permanent residency as a result in the last few months of the Trump administration.

(PTI)

In First Meeting After Biden Inauguration, Quad Foreign Ministers Ponder Over Myanmar

The usual buzzwords of “free and open” Indo-Pacific, the rule of law and ASEAN centrality also featured in the separate statements issued by India, the US, Japan and Australia.

New Delhi: The continuing fallout from the Myanmar military takeover was one of the topics broached in the conference call between the foreign ministers of India, US, Japan and Australia, which also marked the first meeting of the ‘Quad’ after the new Joe Biden administration took over.

On Thursday, the 90-minute-long phone call was the third ministerial-level meeting of the Quad; the first was in New York in September 2019, followed by their second outing in Tokyo in October 2020.

It was the first time that US secretary of state Anthony Blinken had taken part in a Quad meeting, even though he had already spoken to the three other foreign ministers on the phone separately.

In the continuing tradition of the resumed Quad meetings since 2017, there was no joint statement but separate press releases by the four foreign offices, which had overlaps but also divergences based on their national priority.

The usual buzzwords of “free and open” Indo-Pacific, the rule of law and ASEAN centrality featured in the statement. Japan and India pointedly noted that there was increasing support for the concept of Indo-Pacific, especially from Europe.

All the press releases noted that the exchange of views was around current topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, counter-terrorism, maritime security, cybersecurity, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), supply chain resilience and Myanmar.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated that the ministers highlighted their “shared attributes as political democracies, market economies and pluralistic societies”. The Indian readout said the “changes” in the world makes a “strong case for their countries working closely together”. “It was important for the international community that the direction of changes remains positive and beneficial to all,” it added.


Australia described the Quad as “bringing together four like-minded democracies committed to respecting and upholding international rules and obligations through positive, practical engagement to protect and support the sovereignty, prosperity and security of the region”.

The Japanese foreign ministry’s press release was more explicit in pointing fingers at China. The four ministers “shared the recognition that the existing international order has been under challenge in various fields including unilateral attempts to change the status quo”, noted Japan.

According to Tokyo’s readout, the four ministers “concurred to strongly oppose unilateral and forceful attempts to change the status quo in the context of the East and South China Sea”. However, there was no reference to the East and South China sea in statements from India, Australia or the US.


There was a common mention of Myanmar in all the press releases, but the emphasis was varied.

Incidentally, India didn’t refer to any consensus but only noted minister S. Jaishankar’s remarks on the developments of February 1, when the Myanmar military declared an emergency and detained all elected leaders. “In the discussion pertaining to recent developments in Myanmar, the upholding of rule of law and the democratic transition was reiterated by India,” the read out said.

Australia also employed similar phrases to assert its commitment to Myanmar’s “democratic transition”, while labelling the developments as a “military coup”.

The US claimed that the ministers discussed “the urgent need to restore the democratically elected government in Burma” and the “priority of strengthening democratic resilience in the broader region”.

However, the most detailed remarks on the developments in the south-east Asian nation was issued by Japan, with foreign minister Motegi expressing grave concern about the “deteriorating situation in Myanmar”.

He stated that Japan, one of Myanmar’s largest donors, had told the military junta to “immediately stop violence against citizens including shootings” and release all the detained politicians, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Echoing language used by the US, the Japanese statement also added that the “four ministers shared the view on the need to recover the democratic regime early”.

While India and Australia stated that they looked forward to regular ministerial-level Quad meetings, only Japan and the US mentioned that it will be held on an annual basis.

Indian-Americans With RSS Links Don’t Make It to Biden’s First Cut

Sonal Shah and Amit Jani worked with the Biden campaign, but have not been nominated to any positions yet.

New Delhi: The Joe Biden administration has so far not named two Indian-Americans who had worked for the Democratic campaign for the US presidential elections, allegedly due to their “RSS-BJP links”, according to a report by the Tribune.

While 20 Indian-Americans have been appointed to the Biden administration, two members of the Democratic party – Sonal Shah, an Obama administration staffer, and Amit Jani, who was part of the Biden campaign team – “have so far been excluded”, the report said.

However, Democratic party sources told The Wire that it was “still really, really early” to claim that Shah and Jani have been kept out of the administration with appointments still being revealed daily.

Their exclusion comes after a coalition of 19 Indian-American organisations had sent a letter to Biden in December 2020, saying “many South Asian-Americans individuals with ties to far-right Hindu organizations in India are affiliated with the Democratic party”. The groups said the Biden administration should have ‘no tolerance’ for such persons.

The letter specifically mentioned Shah and Jani, describing them as individuals “who received funding from or made public statements in support of Hindu supremacist groups”.

Further, the extrapolation that the letter is the reason behind the two persons not being named in the administration yet may not be correct, as per the Democratic source. “I don’t think they are out. I just think they haven’t been given spots yet… if they even want a spot”.

Shah was one of six Indian-Americans who served on the Biden-Sanders “unity task force”. Her father was the president of the US branch of Overseas Friends of BJP and is the founder of RSS-run Ekal Vidyalaya. She was also criticised for raising funds for victims of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake victims on behalf of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America.

Jani was named as the Biden campaign’s ‘Muslim Outreach’ coordinator, a decision that came under fire when his family’s links to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders emerged.

Last March, following the reports of Jani’s family connections with Modi, Khizr Khan, who is known for his speech at the 2016 Democratic Convention, backed Jani and dismissed all the allegations. “These allegations have been made just to create nuisance and discord,” Khan told a diaspora newspaper, India West. Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, had lost his US army captain in Iraq in 2004.

In July 2019, Shah joined the presidential campaign of South Bend mayor and Biden’s nominee for transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

In a response to The Intercept, a Buttigieg spokesperson had referred to her statement when she was on Barack Obama’s transition team that she “would not have associated with VHP of America” if she could have known the role its Indian counterpart would have in the Gujarat riots. “My personal politics has nothing in common with views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or any such organisation. I’ve never been involved in Indian politics, and never intend to do so,” she had said in 2008.

Among the Indian-Americans who have made it to the 46th US president’s administration are Vivek Murthy, Neera Tanden, Uzra Zeya and Samira Fazili.

Perhaps encouraged by Biden’s statements on Kashmir and the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, secular Indian-American organisations have lobbied hard to keep people who “advance the ideology and political interests of violent, extremist Hindu nationalist groups in India” out of his administration.

The letter written by the 19 organisations describes such people as ‘foreign agents’ of the RSS and BJP.  Thewse people “often claim to be anti-Trump, citing their minority status and the values of the Democratic party. But in India, they stand for the equivalent of Trumpism: Hindu supremacy,” the letter said.

“Indeed, they practice a peculiar form of identity politics, presenting themselves as spokespeople of the ethnic Hindu minority in the United States, while endorsing the worst forms of Hindu majoritarianism in India. They often use the pretense of fighting American racism, and espouse multiculturalism in the US, but perpetuate a racism of their own in India,” it added.

Anyone who has received funding from or makes public statements in support of the BJP, RSS are “entirely complicit” in the rise of “authoritarianism and ethnonationalist violence in India”, the letter said.

“We urge that you thoroughly screen all individuals offering advice to, lobbying, vying for a position within, or in any way engaging with your administration. Specifically, there should be no tolerance for any individuals who uphold any form of supremacist belief, including in Hindu supremacy, both in India and the US. As a broad coalition representing the interests of the Indian-American, we demand to be involved in this screening process,” it said.

India Looks to Resume Iran, Venezuela Oil Imports Under Joe Biden: Dharmendra Pradhan

India was the key buyer of Iranian and Venezuelan oil before slashing purchases after President Trump imposed unilateral sanctions on the two OPEC members since taking office in 2017.

New Delhi: India wants to diversify its oil imports, including the resumption of supplies from Iran and Venezuela, after US President-elect Joe Biden takes office, said oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Wednesday.

India was the key buyer of Iranian and Venezuelan oil before slashing purchases after President Donald Trump imposed unilateral sanctions on the two OPEC members since taking office in 2017.

“As a buyer I would like to have more buying places. I should have more destinations to go for purchasing (oil),” Pradhan said in response to a question if he wants the Biden administration to relax sanctions on Iran and Venezuela.

India, which used to be Iran’s biggest client after China, stopped buying oil from Tehran in May 2019 and has drastically reduced its intake of Venezuelan oil in recent months after Trump imposed sanctions in a bid to curb Iran’s nuclear programme and oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Biden, who was vice president under President Barack Obama when the 2015 deal nuclear accord was struck between Iran and six world powers, has said he wants to offer Tehran a path back to diplomacy.

India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, wants to diversify its oil imports to buy cheaper oil to cut its import bill and save foreign exchange.

Sanctions on from Iran and Venezuela have blocked up to 3 million barrels per day (bpd), or 3% of world supply.

India’s Nayara Energy, partly owned by Russian oil major Rosneft, stopped imports from Venezuela in June this year, while Reliance Industries had obtained permission until October from the US to continue oil imports in exchange for diesel.

Pradhan, however, said there is a strong bond between India and the United States, “Both depend on each other. Our relations are sound, grounded.” He also urged oil producers to work towards a more reasonable and responsible pricing to help Asian buyers. “Gone are days of monopoly. Oil producers have to recognise aspirations of consumers,” Pradhan said.

(Reuters)

Joe Biden Considers Appointing White House ‘Tsar’ for Asia: Report

Establishing the position, with three senior officials under him to manage the portfolios of China, India and US treaty allies, would underscore how important the region has become.

New Delhi: Even as US president-elect Joe Biden said that he doesn’t intend to immediately undo Donald Trump’s measures against China, his administration may be considering appointing a White House Tsar for Asia, with three senior officials under him to manage the portfolios of China, India and US treaty allies, international newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A Financial Times report said on Wednesday that “[f]ive people familiar with the debate inside the Biden transition team” have stated that the president-elect was considering the option of creating the role in the National Security Council. “Establishing the position would underscore how the region has become even more critical since the Obama administration’s ‘Asia pivot’,” the report stated.

The incoming national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, was considering the creation of a Tsar for Asia post as part of a number of ideas, but no decision has yet been taken.

“The president-elect has repeatedly made clear the Asia-Pacific region is one of tremendous opportunity, but also one where our interests and values face increasing challenges,” said one Biden transition team official.

The FT report had identified Jeff Prescott, a Biden transition official and former NSC senior director in the Obama administration, as a possible name for the White House Asia Tsar post.

The report says one formula being considered is to have three senior National Security Council directors to manage three geographical portfolios who will report to the Tsar. “One would oversee China, the second would manage India and the third would focus on Japan, South Korea, Australia and other US allies in the Asia-Pacific,” the paper reported.

It was noted that any such a move would also reflect that Biden would be have to deal with complications in the US-China relations, which are largely a result of the legacy of the Trump administration.

The new administration would have to deal with not just trade friction with an assertive China, but also look into human rights abuses in Xinjian and Hong Kong.

In his first interview after the election, Biden told Thomas Friedman of the New York Times that he won’t rush into undoing the measures imposed by the Trump administration against China, like the tariffs on half of Chinese exports to the US.

Biden stated that he would first conduct a review of the existing agreement with China and then consult with allies in Asia and Europe on the collective way to move forward.

“The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our — or at least what used to be our — allies on the same page. It’s going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies.”

He explained that dealing with China required “leverage”, which “in my view, we don’t have it yet”.

The US president-elect said that his “goal would be to pursue trade policies that actually produce progress on China’s abusive practices — that’s stealing intellectual property, dumping products, illegal subsidies to corporations” and forcing “tech transfers” from American companies to their Chinese counterparts.

In his article, Friedman wrote that Biden would also be developing a bipartisan domestic consensus for “massive, government-led investments in American research and development, infrastructure and education to better compete with China — and not just complain about it”.