Rahul Gandhi’s mysterious visit to Uzbekistan has created a buzz in India. Why Uzbekistan? Why now, especially when the assembly elections fever is at its peak? We do not have the answers. 

However, now that the Central Asian country is in the spotlight, let me share about someone else who was in Uzbekistan on official business. Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was there on October 23-24 to preside over the C5+1 Regional Connectivity Ministerial.

Activist-in-Chief

Samantha Power has an impressive resume – a war correspondent for several publications including The Economist, an author, a government official and a diplomat. Her notable work, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. In that book, Power meticulously chronicled a century’s worth of American inaction in the face of massacres. The book inspired the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine, emphasising that the United States and other nations bear a moral obligation to safeguard persecuted or threatened populations worldwide.

Samantha Power boasts a significant history of association with Barack Obama, dating back to his days as a senator. Her journey alongside him began as a foreign policy fellow in 2005-06 in his senatorial office. She further played a pivotal role as a foreign policy adviser during his 2008 presidential campaign. However, she encountered controversy during this time when she referred to Hillary Clinton as ‘a monster’ during an interview, which she thought was an off-record comment, leading to her resignation from the campaign.

In late November 2008, as the Obama administration took shape, Power was in the State Department transition team. She was appointed the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on the National Security Council, serving from January 2009 to February 2013. She spearheaded the creation of a White House task force called the Atrocities Prevention Board – an interagency body to focus on emerging human rights crises before they escalated to the level of genocide. She was its inaugural chairperson. 

Power’s long-standing association with Obama underscores her involvement in shaping the US foreign policy of the Obama era. She is considered a key figure in persuading President Obama to militarily intervene in Libya; something that Obama considers as the worst decision of his Presidency. Thanks to her unwavering belief in the United States’ responsibility to prevent or alleviate the suffering of civilians in foreign nations, she earned nicknames such as the Ivy League Joan of Arc and Activist-in-Chief.

According to The New Yorker, “When she entered the White House, at the age of thirty-eight, she had already established a reputation as a kind of Joan of Arc for humanitarian intervention.” The same article also mentions that while Obama welcomed her advocacy, she used to get on his nerves and that during a meeting to discuss Syria, Obama snapped, “We’ve all read your book, Samantha.” In February 2013, she left the National Security Council. In June of that year, Obama appointed her as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. In a 2014 article, The New Yorker stated that unlike Vice President Joe Biden, and others who had risen through the foreign-policy establishment, Power favoured aligning the United States with citizen-led movements.

Power was on TIME’s influential 100 list in 2015 (also in 2004), where she was referred to as the ‘new conscience of the US foreign policy establishment’ by Madeline Albright in a tribute titled Enemy of despots. She has been a big advocate of greater interference in the internal affairs of other nations, even military interventions, to defend humanitarianism. Given her openness to military interventions in Libya, Syria and Yemen, she has been often criticised for wanting to solve ‘problems from hell’ by using ‘solutions from hell’. In December 2014, she told The New Yorker, “As time wears on, I find myself gravitating more and more to the GSD people… (‘get shit done’, a term favoured by Susan Rice). Principles and positions only take you so far.”

In January 2021, Joe Biden nominated Power to head the USAID.

Power’s husband, Cass Robert Sunstein, is a professor and author and was also a part of the Obama administration. His views on ‘Mission LiFE’ were featured by Niti Aayog as well as included in the collection of views published by the Press Information Bureau.

The Usual Suspects

Power’s meetings with the Open Society Foundation and other left-leaning organisations during her role with USAID have raised eyebrows among the Republicans, but let us say that was a part of her job, and focus on some other interesting facts.

In a March 2011 article on Samantha Power in The New York Times, Kenneth Roth, the then-Executive Director of Human Rights Watch called her “the foremost voice for human rights within the White House, and she has Obama’s ear.” The views of Roth or HRW on India are well, not so great.

A more intriguing aspect of Power’s life is her perceived proximity to Henry Kissinger, known for his strong stance against India, as well as with the much-discussed George Soros. Both Kissinger and Soros were present at an exclusive gathering in SoHo on 31 May 2016, to celebrate the publication of a book by Cass Sunstein. A week later, on 8 June, Power received the 2016 Henry A. Kissinger Prize from the man himself. Interestingly, Power had strongly criticised Kissinger’s bloody, anti-human rights record in two of her books, including the Pulitzer Prize winner.

Three years before that, in November 2013, when Soros received the top honour at the International Rescue Committee Benefit, Bill Clinton and Samantha Power both lauded him. Samantha Power on Soros: “My first introduction to George was indirect. I met (the late humanitarian) Fred Cuny and heard him describe how he and his patron George Soros were going to single-handedly break the siege of Sarajevo. Humble guys, I thought, modest in ambition. Little did I know.”

Six years after that award night, in November 2019, Power tweeted this in response to Hungary kicking out Soros’ Central European University.

The Usual Sermons

In a September 2019 interview featured in The Guardian, Samantha Power’s new memoir, The Education of an Idealist, is described as having a broader aim: a call to action during a time of despair, as Donald Trump lays siege to what is left of the liberal order at home and abroad. She expressed her desire for readers to get a renewed sense of agency after reading her book and feel empowered to address the pressing problems around them. She also shared her plan to campaign for the Democratic cause in swing states.

Power was in India from 25-27 July 2022. On the 26th, she met with civil society representatives to discuss freedom of expression, speech, identity, and the importance of protecting the rights of minority groups and underscored the continued commitment of the US to work with civil society organisations to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

Then, on the 27th, addressing an event at IIT Delhi, Power said: 

“The headwinds against democratic rule are strong the world over. Within the United States and India, there are forces who seek to sow division, who seek to pit ethnicities and religions against one another, who wish to bend laws, abuse institutions and wield violence against those who stand in their way; we saw this, of course, on January 6 in the United States last year…” 

“But ultimately, what has positioned India as a future development leader has not been its assets but its values… It has been India’s multi-ethnic, multi-party democracy that has allowed it to withstand the challenges… It has been its support for free expression over decades that has allowed injustices to come to light. It has been its tolerance for diversity and dissent that has allowed reforms to take hold and institutions to progress. India’s trajectory has been so strong because – not in spite of – its democracy.”

The Telegraph editorial on the 29th read: “While referencing Nehru and M.K. Gandhi, she (Power) did not mention Mr Modi even once. This was no oversight. Instead, it was a nudge to India to clear the shadow hovering over its commitment to its historical values. But a friend can only hold up a mirror. It is New Delhi that needs to look within.”

On the 27th, Samantha Power also granted an interview to the NDTV’s Maha Siddiqui. Towards the interview’s conclusion, Siddiqui cited Power’s journalistic background to inquire about her perspective on the declining state of press freedom in India, even referencing a case involving a ‘fact checker.’ While Power refrained from explicit criticism, she expressed her viewpoint in a rather verbose manner by highlighting that India’s strength is rooted in healthy debate and criticism and emphasising that President Biden staunchly supports the cause of press freedom.

Uncle Sam

Rewind to November 2010. During his visit to India, President Obama visited the first-ever Expo on Democracy and Open Government on the 7th in Mumbai. The event also marked the launch of the United States-India Open Government Dialogue, aimed at promoting government transparency and greater citizen engagement. It was led by the United States Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, and the Adviser to the Prime Minister of India, Sam Pitroda.

Incidentally, Chopra considers Pitroda, his father’s peer, as his inspiration. In November 2020, Chopra was named a member of one of the Joe Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Teams to support transition efforts. 

Apart from Pitroda and Chopra, other Americans present for the event were Tom Vilsack (Agriculture Secretary, then and now), Samantha Power and Rajiv Shah (then Administrator USAID, now President of the Rockefeller group). At the end of the expo, Samantha Power read out a statement that ended with, “…we announced at today’s expo an initial commitment of approximately $1m to support the work of Indian civil society in sharing their best practices abroad, with a matching commitment of in-kind assistance by Sam Pitroda that will harness India’s technical expertise to assist governments in harnessing technology, improving services, and enhancing democratic accountability. This is precisely the kind of “partnership built on shared values” that President Obama has hailed during his visit to India.” 

Democracy in Danger

Sunita Vishwanath (Hindus for Human Rights) was a panellist in the ‘India on the Brink: Preventing Genocide’ conference, a three-day virtual event organised from 26-28 February 2022 to ‘condemn looming genocide of Indian Muslims’. The participants’ list was big, and the conference was duly covered by The Wire. On a side note, Vishwanath was awarded a ‘Champions of Change’ award in July 2015, by the Obama Administration.

There has been a consistent rise in the media article titles that talk about India being on the brink.

Not to mention, the Gandhi dynasty scion, who never misses an opportunity to talk about erosion or collapse of Indian democracy when abroad.

‘Power’ful Intervention?

India ranks 8th among the countries that are at the highest risk for mass killing in a ranking given by the America-based Early Warning Project (EWP). The EWP has consistently assessed India as high risk since 2017–18, including second rank in 2021-22. Imagine the world’s largest democracy is assessed to have a higher chance of mass killings than Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Zimbabwe, … EWP, by the way, uses the V-Dem dataset, and V-dem is funded by Soros. (Damn!)

Now, amidst the democracy in danger and genocide cries, consider these:

• Samantha Power, the powerful activist-in-chief, holds firm convictions regarding intervention in a country’s internal matters over perceived humanitarian concerns. 
• She has connections, if not friendships, with the usual suspects.
• She created a White House body to identify emerging human rights crises and proactively address them to prevent them from escalating into full-blown genocides.
• She, apart from having a long professional relationship with former President Obama, is also his friend. Obama created a furore in India over his unsolicited advice in June this year: “If the President (Biden) meets with Prime Minister Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India – that’s something worth mentioning.”

In the lead-up to India’s 2024 general election, the spectre of foreign interference is undeniable. India’s pivotal role in the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy is well-established. However, it becomes complicated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolute stand in safeguarding Indian strategic interests and his refusal to succumb to Western pressure.

The United States would rather support a candidate who has expressed implicit or explicit openness to Western intervention. There is a realisation that Modi and the BJP are going to win, but that will not deter external players from attempting to weaken Modi, even if there is no chance of defeating him. Against this backdrop, the timing of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Uzbekistan coinciding with Samantha Power’s visit raises intriguing questions. Is it a mere coincidence, or is it a ‘power’ful signal of what may be on the horizon?

(The article was published on Fanmo.in on October 27, 2023 and has been reproduced here)