According to recent U.S. media reports, Kamala Harris has garnered support from Islamist factions, with expectations that they will hold an equitable stake in governance if she wins. Analysts are forecasting a substantial victory margin for Harris, signaling strong public support that could shape the future administration’s policies, says Former Diplomat Pradeep Kapur.
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00:00Mitali, we will come back to you definitely and as more results would also trickle in
00:04from some nondescript village in United States, we will be bringing you up to speed with that
00:10but before that, let me welcome Pradeep Kumar, former diplomat and visiting fellow scholar,
00:16George Washington University in Washington DC.
00:19Mr. Kapoor, thank you so much for joining us here on One India.
00:24Before we get into the diplomatic arena and the circles of the relations between India
00:31and Washington DC, how, in your opinion, Washington, it's almost 6, 10 minutes past 6 o'clock there
00:39in Washington, how do you think those living in the capital city, it's a busy affair since
00:49early morning or is it a lukewarm response from their side?
00:53Well, currently, Pankaj, I am in India on a visit, just landed yesterday but in Washington
01:02DC, there was a lot of mail-in voting and in tens of millions, about 77-78 million have
01:12already voted but the enthusiasm for voting in this election is very high on both the
01:20sides. So, the colleges like where my wife teaches in Washington DC area, the professors
01:29and the students and the faculty and the staff, they have been given half a day off to go and
01:35vote. So, even if they have put in their votes by postal ballot, they still get half a day to enjoy.
01:43In the other university, University of Maryland, where I used to teach earlier,
01:47they have watch parties, for example, when the counting starts. So, till the late night,
01:52till the preliminary indications come out about the election trends, there will be continuous
01:59watch parties. So, there is a lot of enthusiasm for both the candidates but if we were to take
02:07it on a comparative scale, then I would say that currently, the voter enthusiasm is probably
02:15a little more for the Democrats, for Kamala Harris, not necessarily amongst the Indian
02:21origin people, the Indian diaspora which is evenly balanced between the two candidates
02:26but amongst a lot of the other segments of the population, there is slightly higher
02:32enthusiasm for Kamala Harris. Also, the number of volunteers who are registering for canvassing for
02:41Kamala Harris is more than for Donald Trump in this election. The fundraising which is happening
02:49is also significantly higher for Democrats and for Kamala Harris. People like Elon Musk are
02:55supporting Donald Trump but there are people like George Soros and other woke elements and the
03:03deep state and the military industrial complex and the liberals, they are all supporting Kamala
03:11Harris. So, she has got a lot of the backing including of the Islamists. For example,
03:19Tim Walz, the vice president candidate, he has signed a document with the Muslims
03:25that Muslims will get an equal share in the governance of US after the elections. Now,
03:32those are documents which are not coming out very much in the mainstream media or in the narrative
03:39or in the discussions but they are going to pose a very significant challenge in case Kamala Harris
03:45wins. My current reading on the ground when I was there till yesterday in Washington DC
03:52is that very likely that Kamala Harris is going to win by a big margin and the opinion polls
03:59may be proved wrong as they were proved wrong in India. They kept on saying all the western
04:04mainstream media kept on projecting about the Indian elections that Modi is going to win big,
04:12Modi is going to get more than 350 seats and they sort of try to create a sense of complacency
04:19and saying that you are winning anyway, nothing will happen to that and that sort of thing they
04:25have done to Donald Trump and the Republicans. The Democrat machinery is very well oiled,
04:30very streamlined, very efficient and they are miles ahead of the game than the Republicans
04:37in this way. They are also able to put out their narrative and their stories and their
04:43facts or non-facts and their truths and lies in a very effective manner to the people.
04:50The Republicans are not able to cope with all that. So, they are a decade ahead of
04:54the Republicans in that game also. So, to that extent they have a good chance of winning
05:00currently and I think that she will win with a big margin. But then for her with all those IOUs
05:08which they are signing left and right and centre, how far they will be able to govern effectively,
05:15how far they will be able to look after the US interest, how far they will be able to cope with
05:20the breaking US forces, how far they will be able to cope with taking India-US relations forward
05:28without interference because for example, just as a simple example I will tell you,
05:33Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania, was a very good candidate for Vice President
05:39and he was far ahead of Tim Walz and the support he had from within the Democratic
05:44Party was very, very high. But then the woke element, the Islamists and the others,
05:51they got into the act because he's a Jewish person that he will not be good for America
05:57because of Israel-Palestine, Israel-Gaza issues and they mounted a massive campaign.
06:03So, the whole decision to select a Vice President candidate got delayed for many days
06:08and Kamala Harris did not have the courage or the capacity to go against that sort of
06:16inputs or massive assault onto her choice. Joe Biden still had some capacity to do that,
06:26how much capacity she has and sometimes you grow in the chair, you sort of assume that position
06:31and you become bigger in persona and character and capacity but Joe Biden had that because
06:37I was told by White House, a friend of mine that when Prime Minister Modi was visiting US,
06:44there was again a massive campaign being launched by all these forces which I've listed,
06:47George Soros, the wokes, the Islamists, the Khalistanis, the leftists, the liberals,
06:53the progressive Democrats and people like Rahul Gandhi from India who signed on the same letter,
07:00same draft, same template against Modi's visit. What Joe Biden did was he kept on listening to
07:06them for a long time then he got very upset with all the disruptions and he told his staff that I'm
07:12not interested to get distracted by all these things, I want to focus on the visit in a very
07:19positive way. So, he focused on the visit and it became a very big visit for India and a very big
07:24visit for US. I was there at the White House, we saw the way Joe Biden treated Prime Minister Modi
07:30and the way the whole Indian diaspora was treated. Now, what will happen next
07:35if she owes so much to so many disparate elements, entities, groups, agencies, etc.
07:44So, in the State Department, for example, there are a lot of people who have ideas which are
07:49absolutely against India-US interest. They will give a lot of money in tens of millions or even
07:56more for human rights studies in India, human rights efforts in India, religious freedom studies
08:01in India, religious freedom conferences in India. So, while there are a lot of sectors of the US
08:09thought leadership which are very clear like many of the academia, many of the think tanks,
08:15National Security Agency, Department of Defense, the military people who have a very great interest
08:22in forging the relationship with India, in expanding that footprint. But there are people
08:27in agencies like the State Department who are very antithetical to that. So, those elements
08:32under Donald Trump cannot really thrive. Whereas, with Kamala Harris, they may have a field day and
08:38that may not be very good for US, for India, for US-India relationships and for the world.
08:44Back to you, Pankaj. Right, absolutely. Mr. Kapoor, the analysis you gauged that Mr.
08:53Kapoor has put up is very relevant, especially what is happening just in the proximity of United
09:00States, in Canada. Aur yeh jo fringe elements ki agar hum baat karein, yeh jo hum baat karein,
09:05you know, the separatist elements, those who are also finding a voice in countries like this,
09:12at times during state visits of Prime Minister Modi, these things do come up. And we have seen
09:19in the past as well how invariably India has been given an upper hand as far as any ruling
09:26dispensation is concerned in United States. Don't miss out. Log on to OneIndia.com for more updates.