Brad Sherman has distinctive report on US-India ties

If he turns into Chairman of the Home International Affairs Committee, bilateral ties could be in protected palms.

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The competition for Chairmanship of the influential Home International Affairs Committee (HFAC) will seemingly be held within the coming weeks, if not days. Three candidates — Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) are vying to interchange present Chairman Elliot Engel (D-NY), who misplaced his seat in the course of the state’s main early this 12 months.

The congressional strategy to India will seemingly not change beneath the brand new Congress, nor the brand new incoming presidential administration beneath Joe Biden. Ties with India, due to this fact, is not going to play an enormous function within the race for the committee gavel. All three candidates can and must be anticipated to pursue robust overseas relations between the world’s oldest and largest democracies.

However Congressman Brad Sherman’s stalwart report of strengthening U.S.-India relations is notable. He has sought to champion bilateral ties from just about the start of his congressional profession in 1997 and confirmed to be a real pal of the connection.

Greater than 15 years in the past, Sherman was an early proponent of the historic U.S-India civilian nuclear deal at a time when the accord generated controversy and suspicion amongst members of his personal get together, notably on account of non-proliferation issues. The deal was hailed as a breakthrough and remodeled the strategic partnership between the 2 international locations.

He presently serves as Co-Chair of the “Home Caucus on India and Indian People” with Rep. George Holding (R-NC) and lately served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation, the place has championed dozens of resolutions of payments through the years all geared toward bringing the US and India nearer collectively in all areas of cooperation.

READ: Congressman Brad Sherman condemns terrorist assaults in India (January 4, 2016)

Only a few weeks in the past, Sherman was a lead sponsor of a decision honoring Mahatma Gandhi and the enduring legacy of his life around the globe, coinciding with the chief’s 151 beginning anniversary.

Sherman additionally lately launched the “Sherman Modification” to the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA) that might make India a “NATO plus 5” nation, placing it on par with nations like South Korea and Israel, and additional boosting bilateral protection cooperation. “Our protection ties with India are rising. We conduct extra joint workout routines with India than some other nation,” famous Sherman at a current occasion.

Final 12 months, Sherman additionally joined forces with Chairman Engel to guide efforts pushing again towards President Donald Trump’s foolhardy affords to mediate the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. U.S. coverage from each the Government and Legislative branches has rejected such an American mediation function for years, sustaining that the Kashmir dispute is a bilateral problem that should be resolved straight between the international locations with none US intervention. President Trump broke with previous coverage and repeatedly provided to mediate the dispute, a lot to New Delhi’s chagrin.

Sherman and Engel sprang into motion, apologizing on to the Indian Ambassador to the US for the massive fake pas. Sherman known as Trump’s supply to mediate “amateurish,” “delusional,” and “embarrassing.” Trump by no means raised the mediation affords once more after that.

Sherman additionally rapidly got here to India’s facet this summer time following a violent border conflict between India and Chinese language troops alongside the disputed border area between the 2 international locations in August. The episode resulted within the deaths of over 20 Indian troopers. Sherman issued the strongest assertion issued by a U.S. official on the time, calling the Chinese language aggression towards Indian troops “premeditated” throughout a dialog with the Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu. Sherman reiterated the necessity to proceed bolstering U.S.-India ties and the significance of the strategic partnership.

Through the years, Sherman has additionally repeatedly expressed his sharp consciousness and understanding of the challenges China’s rise poses to each India and the remainder of the world. Talking in 2017, Sherman stated, “China has elevated its army presence in Tibet…this not solely impacts the Tibetan inhabitants but in addition impacts India. We try to construct a strategic relationship and partnership with India, and we now have acquired to commend India for offering refuge to over 90,000 Tibetans, together with the Dalai Lama himself, who’ve needed to flee Chinese language repression.”

Rep. Brad Sherman is prime Democrat on Subcommittee on Asia in Congress (January 23, 2015)

Sherman has additionally spoken on the significance of resurrecting mechanisms geared toward deepening cooperation between like-minded democracies such because the “Quad” among the many United States, India, Australia, and Japan. Again in 2018, he stated, “we’re reviving the quadrilateral group involving the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India. And whether or not it’s conducting maritime patrols or whether or not it’s working for improvement and democracy, this might be a helpful working group.”

Following the 2019 Pulwama terror assault that killed dozens of Indian troopers in Kashmir, Sherman was among the many first to sentence the assault and reaffirm assist for India and the bilateral partnership. Sherman went additional than most different lawmakers on the time, calling on each Pakistan and China to be held accountable.

“I’ve been condemning China for stopping the [UN] Safety Council from imposing sanctions on the chief of [terror group] Jaish-e-Mohammad. And who else deserves sanctions greater than any person that might plot such an assault?” Sherman requested on the time. “India and the US share so many issues. Sadly, we share being the victims of worldwide terror. I sit up for working with India on [matters of] mutual safety,” Sherman stated.

Sherman attracted important criticism for an October 2019 subcommittee listening to he chaired on human rights in South Asia. India’s August 2019 resolution on Article 370 and Kashmir have been an enormous focus of the listening to, which was seen by massive segments of the neighborhood as a discussion board for India bashing and one-sidedness towards India. Sure members of Congress attacked “pro-India” witnesses and didn’t sufficiently implicate Pakistan’s accountability for cross-border terrorism, together with the slaughter of a whole bunch of 1000’s of Pandit Kashmiris within the 1990s, in keeping with the listening to’s critics.

However the listening to must be considered the exception to Sherman’s stalwart report on India, not the rule. In truth, sure Hill insiders have famous that Sherman’s resolution to carry the subcommittee listening to prevented the problem from being taken up by all the Home in one other discussion board or changing into an even bigger, worse problem in a fair much less pleasant discussion board. The listening to was additionally the primary time a member of the Kashmiri Pandit neighborhood testified in entrance of the American Congress on the atrocities Kashmiri Pandits suffered by the hands of terrorists in the course of the 1990s.

Hill insiders and neighborhood members additionally level out that Sherman deserves big credit score for his “behind the scenes” efforts stopping Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s controversial decision on Kashmir from being marked-up and shifting any additional by way of the Home’s legislative course of. The decision has turn out to be a lightning rod of criticism and controversy amongst massive components of the Indian American neighborhood and even throughout components of India. “[Congressman Sherman] has performed this precisely proper, and has seemed out for the usIndia relationship from starting to finish,” one neighborhood member stated who has been following the bilateral relationship for greater than 40 years.

Brad Sherman has constructed deep ties with the Diaspora neighborhood in Southern California (the place his district is) and throughout the U.S., partaking them on problems with significance to them. He has acknowledged the contributions of the Indian-American neighborhood to the US innumerable occasions, “saluting” it for all it has executed to make the U.S. a extra vibrant, numerous, and profitable melting pot.

Congressman Sherman’s report on U.S-India speaks for itself. He has served on each subcommittee on the Home International Affairs Committee and has devoted a big a part of his Congressional profession strengthening U.S.-India ties. His management on these points is acknowledged by members on either side of the aisles in addition to neighborhood leaders throughout the US. Ought to he take the gavel of the HFAC, the usIndia relationship could be in protected, regular, and professional palms beneath his management.