as the u.s gets ready to vote in just
under four weeks many in
india are paying very close attention
over the past decade thousands of
indians have flocked to the u.s many of
them applying their skills in the
country's
flourishing i.t sector but the pandemic
and the trump administration's clampdown
on visas have many in
india concerned about the future dw's
namisha jaiswal
has been finding out why
it's an election on the other side of
the world but
opinions on it abound on the streets of
delhi
i definitely don't want trump the first
thought that comes to my mind because
he's
anti-woman for sure and i don't want her
so from my perspective i think donald
trump would be a better president so i
feel that joe biden would definitely be
better for india and he would be better
for the us as well
whosoever comes the president of
us the relationship with india should be
much much better
but for some here the result of that
election so far away
could be life-changing nilesh jagnik
a software engineer at google lived in
the us for six years
when india started cancelling flights
amid the corona crisis in march
he rushed home to his family now
despite a valid visa he no longer feels
confident about returning to silicon
valley
thanks to confusing restrictions on
immigrants from the current
administration
decision to return will hinge on whether
trump is re-elected
i am very worried about a second
presidency term because um
uh who's to say what other laws will
come in i
can't just go back and have
uh my life taken away from me again
his sister simran wants to study design
in the u.s
but they are both putting their plans on
hold
until they see the outcome of the
election
some see advantages to a continued trump
presidency
anal peshawari a garments exporter sees
immense value for his
whole sector in trump's tough stance on
china
the moment he will be re-elected it is
for sure that a lot of restrictions
would be
imposed on china chinese goods and
chinese exports to us
and the moment that happens to fill up
that gap there have to be certain
treaties
uh which will take place between india
and usa
and those potential treaties he believes
could be boosted by trump's camaraderie
with india's prime minister narendra
modi
for now indian workers here will put
plans on hold
until a signal comes from the next
american president
let's get more now with our chief
international editor richard
walker on this good morning to you
richard um u.s indian
relations have been deepening haven't
they over the last
few years based on that strong personal
relationship we heard about in in the
report as well between donald trump and
narendra modi yeah that's right i mean
donald trump and narendra modi they're a
really interesting pair
both of them uh really fall into the
category of broadly of populist
nationalists
each in their own way and you really saw
this on display earlier in the year i
was in delhi
at the time when trump came to visit
india and he took part
in a huge rally uh in
modi's home state of gujarat really
which is modi's power base it was modi
inviting him this is my home
and you know it's a very personal
gesture to come into his home absolutely
and you know we see pictures of it
taking place there and that was a real
sort of fanfare where you saw
you know their messages are really quite
similar you know uh trump is kind of
anti-immigration
you know has a very strong support from
from
kind of white working-class voters in
the united states uh
modi is seen as you know he's a hindu
nationalist
really his base is india's hindu
majority and he's seen as quite
hostile to the muslim minorities so they
are quite sort of natural
allies in a way and it's quite
interesting that that is reflected in
trump's relative popularity in india
compared to in other countries around
the world
most recent numbers from uh pew research
uh
show a 56 percent approval rating for
donald trump in india now that's
certainly far higher than he would see
in any european country or at home he
could only wish for
numbers like that in the united states
running into this election but there's
it's not just the personal relationship
between these two men and all the
commonalities they share there's also
some real strategic strategic elements
that
both countries have in common aren't
there absolutely and
there it's really all about china yeah i
mean of course this has been the year
uh where we've seen more and more talk
about
uh a kind of new cold war between the
united states and china that china's
rise is a fundamental kind of threat to
american hegemony particularly in the
in the pacific region and
this is also a threat to india
and we've seen that really explode this
year with
border clashes between india and china
on the very remote
border that they have up high up in the
himalayan mountains
dozens of soldiers killed there's a
simmering long-standing border dispute
there
which has never been resolved but it
hasn't really flared up like this
of in a very long time and this is just
evidence of of
of the fact that both of the both of
these countries the rise of china is a
major challenge
uh so whoever wins the white house
building on that relationship with india
is going to be
a big priority i think for biden as well
and not just even for the united states
but other
western countries and other democracies
more broadly we also see even germany
talking about
an indo-pacific strategy trying to kind
of broaden
uh its uh its uh network of partners
in the indo-pacific region
so india's relations with the us and the
west something to watch
richard zever great to talk to you look
forward to hearing more about this
moving forward richard walker thanks so
much for coming in