Why Did A Progressive Congressman Champion Modi's Visit?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wrapped up his first official state visit to the United States after spending several days being feted by Washington’s political and business elite. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), along with Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida), were the architects of the invitation to Modi to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on June 22. The same evening, President Joe Biden hosted a grand state dinner for Modi. This celebration came at a time of escalating violence organized by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against India’s religious minorities.

In the northeastern state of Manipur, instead of halting interethnic violence, the BJP has used it as an occasion to attack Manipur’s Christians, leading to the burning of 249 churches, according to one source. In the northern state of Uttarakhand, the state’s BJP chief minister has run a campaign demonizing the state’s 1.4 million strong Muslim community, leading to calls for ethnic cleansing across several towns, with mobs demanding Muslims be expelled from their homes.

Why did Rep. Khanna, who positions himself as a progressive, choose to invite Modi in spite of the prime minister and the BJP’s track record of violence and bigotry — especially at a moment when the Uttarakhand and Manipur violence was escalating? The answer lies in the U.S.-India defense partnership and the drive toward war.