Lalit Shastri

Joe Biden is no friend of India and the Indian Americans or Americans with ancestry from India should know this as they go to elect the next US President on 3 November 2020.

For over three decades, to be precise in the ’90s of the last Century, when the US had proposed a $24 Billion aid package for Russia when it’s economy had gone into a spin, democrat senator Joe Biden had put in an amendment to the effect that if Russia sold the cryogenic engine to India, the US aid package would be buried.

Los Angeles Times had reported in May 1992 that a key Senate committee had voted to block further U.S. economic aid to former super power Russia if Moscow went ahead with a $250-million rocket sale to India.

Joe Biden, who had started the amendment, is on record stating:“I am confident that the Russian leaders will recognize the wisdom of stopping this sale once they see the risk of losing their economic aid.” This is no minor sale; this is dangerous, he had added.

The amendment in question was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by unanimous 19-0 vote by adding several new conditions to President Bush’s proposal for $24 billion in international assistance to Russia.

Los Angeles Times had also reported in 1992 that due to Russia’s rocket deal with India, in which Moscow’s state-owned space firm, Glavkosmos, was selling a long-range rocket to the Indian Space Research Organization, the US State Department banned U.S. dealings with both the Russian firm and ISRO.

The amendment by Biden was against India’s interest as it coincided with India’s efforts to acquire the Cryogenic engine from Russia. India at that time was trying to put it’s space programme at another level by advancing from the PSLVs to GSLVs.

Acting under the US pressure, Russia scrapped the ongoing Cryogenic engine deal with India as it badly needed the US aid package.

This was the time when China also was buying technology from Russia as if in scrap and Biden, along with the US, had chosen to look the other way.

‘It’s an entirely a different story how India, after having been pushed back several years vis-a-vis its space programme, courtesy Joe Biden, managed to carry forward its GSLV programme.