As America’s congressional midterm campaigns gather momentum, politicians from both parties will once again court Indian-American voters, donors and volunteers. They have good reason to do so.

Indian Americans have become one of the greatest immigrant success stories in U.S. history. They are among the country’s wealthiest and most highly-educated communities. They lead Silicon Valley, dominate large segments of the medical profession, head some of America’s iconic corporations like Google and Microsoft and are emerging as an increasingly visible force in electoral politics, with growing influence in several battleground states that could determine control of Congress.

Yet, despite this remarkable ascent, Indian Americans have failed where it arguably matters most for a diaspora: influencing Washington’s policy toward their country of origin — or even preventing a succession of U.S. actions since last year that have disproportionately hurt Indians.

Over the past four years, the U.S.-India relationship has steadily deteriorated under two successive American administrations. The Biden administration in its final days allowed bilateral frictions to accentuate and strain ties, in spite of blossoming relations through the “Quad” framework of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia. U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration has accelerated the decline through trade and energy coercion, tighter restrictions on student and work visas and a more openly transactional approach that is effectively demoting India in American grand strategy.

Taken together, these measures represent the most sustained period of policy setbacks affecting India and Indians in decades. Yet they have........

© The Japan Times