US Elections 2020: In whoever wins, India can hope to find a friend

It’s the day after Election Day in the US and there is no winner. As the

US polls

go down to the wire, countries around the world are watching keenly not only at the outcome of what is a prolonged and complex counting process but what it might mean for global politics even as observers here consider how India would manage its increasingly close ties with America.

If Donald Trump wins, India could find itself on more familiar ground, having developed a great deal of familiarity with the Trump administration, and it’s expected the most of his cabinet would remain.

In the past year, as it became clear that Joe Biden had more than a fighting chance at the presidency, India, both at the government and private sector level, reached out to members of his group. This happened both at the official level and at the community level in the US.

For instance, the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) registered itself under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) earlier this year.

Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, has herself generated a lot of interest among Indians and Indian Americans. A recent survey of the Indian American vote by a think tank said most Indian Americans tended to vote Democrat, but that their vote had little impact on foreign policy or India-US relations.