Democrats more pro-India than Republicans, claims US political scientist

The Print 
October 25, 2019
By- Srijan Shukla

In recent years, US public opinion on India has been quite favourable but the revocation of Article 370 has led to substantial backlash.

The revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir by the Modi government has led to massive international scrutiny, most significantly by the US government . The recent congressional hearings on the revocation and the subsequent curbs imposed by the government, are an example of this trend.

In order to provide an overview of US opinion on India, Paul Staniland, a political scientist from the University of Chicago wrote a blog post analysing various public opinion polls in America.

The biggest takeaway from Staniland’s findings is perhaps the political party split in the US.

While a large number of both Democrats and Republicans view India favourably – the former are more inclined to the country.

According to the 2017 Chicago Council Survey, 41 per cent of Democrats are more confident about India’s ability to deal with global problems as opposed to 27 per cent Republicans.

“In this measure, we see a partisan divide – Democrats are more pro-India than Republicans by 14-16 percentage points,” writes Staniland.

He adds that this is probably due to the fact that Indian-Americans are more inclined to support Democrats.

Staniland also observed that there has been a dramatic shift in the public opinion of Americans regarding India in the past 20 years. According to Gallup’s public opinion polls,  47 per cent Americans viewed India as favourable, while 38 per cent viewed it unfavourably in 2000.

By 2015, in a major shift, the number of Americans in support of India rose to  71 per cent.

Further, according to a 2019 Chicago Council Survey, 63 per cent Americans think that India’s relationship with the US is good for their national interests.

To put this in perspective, the countries viewed more favourably by Americans are their treaty allies – Japan (78 per cent), Germany (75 per cent) and South Korea (70 per cent).

Only 39 per cent Americans are in favour of Pakistan, according to these polls.

However, the Indian government has received substantial backlash from Democratic legislators after it revoked Article 370.

“India’s justifications for its actions in Kashmir have clearly not persuaded a chunk of Democratic lawmakers, despite Indian diplomatic efforts,” remarks Staniland.

“The globalised media environment makes other countries’ political systems more legible than in decades past: every campaign speech by Amit Shah is immediately visible to a global audience, as is every report about conditions in the Kashmir Valley,” he adds.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more