Navya Naveli, Pune
The congressmen and co-chairs of the House of Representatives India and Indian-American Assembly, Ro Khanna, and Michael Waltz, will visit India with a bipartisan American congressional delegation. This will be the first time a US political delegation has attended the Independence Day ceremony and witnessed the flag hoisting at the Red Fort. They will also participate in the Prime Minister’s speech.
While six other American legislators will also accompany them to the ceremony, they believe that India being a key factor, will make the US-India relationship one of the most important ones of the twenty-first century. With a focus on democracy, human rights, and press freedom, the countries should continue strengthening their bond by looking into more collaborations in the coming years. The motive is to discuss enhancing the economic and defense relations between the two countries with the oldest and the largest democracy.
On the 10th of August, the congress members will visit Mumbai to meet the corporate leaders, see the Western Naval Command, and understand India’s digital public infrastructure. They will then visit the Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited facility and a biotech company in Hyderabad to discuss defense and scientific collaborations. They will then visit Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, to discuss strategic issues and visit Raj Ghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. This history repeats itself for Khanna as his grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was an Indian freedom fighter. He was part of India’s first parliament and spent four years in jail alongside Mahatma Gandhi. The plan is also to engage in Major League Cricket, which will host the T20 World Cup in the US.
As the Indian government continues the engagement with both chambers of the US Congress, it becomes remarkable also because Khanna and Waltz are very significant members of US politics.
Khanna brings a unique political perspective for managing strategic competition with China as a member of the House select committee and the armed services committee. He talks about the relapsing of democracy and the violations of human rights. He supports the India-US initiative on emerging technology and is a key shareholder in the India-US tech partnership.
As an Afghanistan veteran, Waltz is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is also a member of the Friends of Afghanistan caucus. He talked about economic partnership, human rights, press freedom, defense, democracy, etc.
Khanna and Waltz were part of the historic US-India Summit earlier this year. It featured panels and speeches from government officials, academics, and Indian American leaders nationwide.