India-US ties can be 'repaired,' says Congresswoman Deborah Ross (IANS Exclusive)

Washington, Sep 12 (IANS) Congresswoman Deborah Ross, co-chair of the Congressional Study Group on India (CSGI) and a strong supporter of India-US ties, expressed confidence that the bilateral relationship can be “repaired.”

In an exclusive interview with IANS in Washington on Thursday, Ross said she was “very heartened” with the fact that trade negotiations have resumed between the two sides. She also spoke about the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, saying, “violence has no place in our political discourse.”

Deborah Ross is a Democratic Representative from North Carolina, and serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

IANS: What's your reaction to the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and the rising cases of political violence in the country?

Ross: First of all, violence has no place in our political discourse, and I think that the rhetoric has gotten so heated that people are starting to resort to violence. This is not the first time we have seen this.

More than a year ago, there was an assassination attempt on then-candidate and now President Trump. We also saw the assassination of Minnesota lawmakers, and this is a very, very serious thing. We have got to as elected officials take responsibility for dialling back this rhetoric and setting a better example for the American people, and that includes the President of the United States, who, on many occasions, has advocated violence.

IANS: You have been a big supporter of India-US bilateral ties. President Trump, on Tuesday, announced the resumption of trade talks with India after a period of escalated tensions. How do you analyse the Trump administration's India strategy?

Ross: I'm baffled by it, as are so many other business people, and of course, as is India. But I'm very heartened that the dialogue has reopened. The last thing we need to do, after 30 years of a positive dialogue and a positive educational relationship, business relationship, we are the two largest democracies in the world, the last thing we should do is push India away from us to Russia and China.

And I think the fact that the Chinese Premier had hosted both India and Russia really made a huge impression on people in the United States and the folks in Washington to restart this relationship. And we need to continue that for the Indian diaspora, but also for the good of democracy and economic relations and innovation and for the whole world.

IANS: Indian students form the largest group of international students in the United States and contribute $9 billion annually to the US economy. In July, you led a bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address recent delays for Indian students seeking to obtain student visa appointments to begin or continue their studies in the United States. Has there been any progress on the issue?

Ross: I haven't heard directly back from Secretary Rubio, but I have been in touch with a lot of institutions of higher education about how they are pushing through those visas and how they are working with those students.

As a matter of fact, last week, I was at Duke University, and many Indian students go to Duke University. They also go to the medical school at Duke and talk to them about how visas are coming through, and then how they are dealing with people who may not get their visas in time for the first day of school, and how they are doing some remote learning, and they're adjusting how people matriculate.

IANS: There have been a few proposals from the Trump administration to change the H1-B visa process. What’s your analysis?

Ross: I have been a huge proponent, along with many of my colleagues, of expanding the number of people who can get the H1-B visas and also lifting the caps. As a matter of fact, the House has passed legislation doing just that, but it didn't pass the Senate, and I'm hoping that that would be part of any immigration bill.

The business community wants to expand these visas. The fact is that the US is not graduating enough qualified people for a lot of these high-skilled jobs. We're not graduating enough doctors. We're not graduating enough engineers.

The more we can cooperate, particularly with countries that are democratic, like India, the better off we will be in terms of that exchange.

So, we are in a situation where we need all of these workers, and we need that international cooperation. And I will emphasise again, it is so important that we have that cooperation with India, because you are a transparent democracy, and we would prefer to have that relationship with you than with more authoritarian regimes, ones that steal our intellectual property, ones that have other agendas. India is the right partner.

IANS: In 2023, you and Ro Khanna were part of a two-member US Congressional delegation that visited the Headquarters of the Indian Navy's Western Naval Command in Mumbai. Both navies are committed towards ensuring maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region and beyond. Do you think these tariff tensions have damaged India-US ties in other spheres as well, including defence?

Ross: It certainly has in the short term. What I'm hoping is, again, we have heard that the talks are resuming, we may be able to do some repair work. I'm hoping that in the long term, it does not. And I think, given that I did the trip with Representative Khanna, we also are going to take a delegation, a bipartisan delegation to India in February.

I'm hoping to include people who serve on military and intelligence committees. And I am hoping that that will show that the Congress, in a bipartisan way, wants to repair and improve our relationship, not just in terms of academics and economics, but also militarily.

IANS: The images and videos of PM Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping went viral during the SCO Summit in Tianjin. Many experts reckon that the Trump administration has pushed the trio together and lost India, their trusted partner, when it comes to the Indo-Pacific. Do you agree?

Ross: I think it was a wake-up call to the administration. I think it was actually a smart move for him to do that, because he showed that he has options. Unfortunately, they are bad options. They are both bad options for him and for us.

So, the great hope, and I'm a woman of hope and faith, is that this relationship will be repaired. I want the relationship to be strong with Congress, which is why I went to India with Representative Khanna. I had been to India previously as a state legislator, and why I'm going to India again.

IANS: Some of the stakeholders believe that Congress members, especially Democrats have not been vocal enough to defend the US-India partnership as senior officials of the Trump administration continued to target New Delhi on a daily basis. Do you agree?

Ross: From my vantage point, the Democrats have been doing all the heavy lifting. I'm part of a new bipartisan study group on India, and my Republican colleague, Representative [Rob] Wittman from Virginia, and I were very vocal when we launched this study group last week. We had ambassadors, business people, so many people coming and saying, this is such an important thing.

Both of us are very positive. So, everybody always wants more. But I don't think there could have been better timing for this bipartisan study group to be launched.

IANS: We have witnessed a rise in targeted attacks on places of worship, including Hindu temples, across the country. How do you respond to this trend?

Ross: People are trying to divide us, to blame other people for their situations. There are two things that I have done in response to that. One is to make sure that places of worship can get grants for security assistance. We've been doing that, and people have been taking advantage of it. I think it's unfortunate that we have to do that, but at the very least, we can get them that security assistance.

And then the second thing is that we have a federal law about protecting places of worship and being able to get federal protection for that, and the Republicans actually have tried to repeal that law because it also protects access to abortion clinics.

I have been very, very vocal that we cannot repeal that law because I would like people to get full access to health care, but also, this is the wrong time to repeal federal protections for places of worship.

--IANS

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