Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the prominent chief minister of Gujarat, was denied a visa to visit the United State in 2005 after vicious anti-Muslim riots convulsed his state in 2002.Manish Swarup/The Associated Press
As he campaigned in India's recent national elections, Narendra Modi regularly drove around his home state of Gujarat in a convoy that included an SUV outfitted with high-tech signal-jamming equipment. I saw it myself at a campaign stop in Gandhinagar, the state capital.
It was one part of a sophisticated election campaign that paid a lot of attention to modern technology – from Mr. Modi's hologram appearances at rallies to an incredibly well-organized online and social-media campaign that garnered favourable comparisons to U.S. President Barack Obama's tech-savvy campaign in 2008.
But other than winning their elections, President Obama and Prime Minister Modi, polar opposites politically, have little else in common – and now the already-tense relationship between their two countries is about to get a lot worse.
New allegations suggest that back in 2010, President Obama's administration sought a court authorization that would allow the U.S. National Security Agency to spy on Mr. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which was then in opposition. According to new documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the right-wing, Hindu nationalist BJP was one of several foreign political parties targeted by the U.S. – others include Lebanon's Amala, which is allied with Hezbollah, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood – and could not have come at a worse time for U.S.-India relations.
On Wednesday, India summoned senior U.S. diplomats in over the issue and U.S. Senator John McCain, who was in the country to talk about defence contracts, abruptly cancelled a news conference he was set to hold outside India's External Affairs Ministry. The ministry released a terse statement saying it wants an "explanation of the information contained in the press reports, and an assurance that such authorizations will not be acted upon by U.S. government entities."
The revelation is the latest in a bilateral relationship that has been under severe strain, despite attempts at a much-needed diplomatic détente.
Mr. Modi, as the prominent chief minister of Gujarat, was previously denied a visa to visit the United State in 2005 after vicious anti-Muslim riots convulsed his state in 2002. Many human-rights groups allege the riots received the implicit encouragement of Mr. Modi's government.
This visa denial echoed across India throughout the presidential campaign; it was often the only thing foreigners knew about Mr. Modi before he became prime minister. And even though the U.S. pledged to grant him a visa for a planned visit there in September, the slight is still dredged up frequently.
In the run up to the election, however, the diplomatic relationship was battered again by a bitter, drawn out scandal involving India's deputy consul-general in New York, Devyani Khobragade.
She was arrested and strip-searched after being accused of lying on visa forms to bring over her maid, whom she proceeded to pay well under minimum wage.
In India, where it is incredibly common for households to have full-time maids and servants, this transgression received scant attention. Indeed, Ms. Khobragade's perceived ill treatment resonated widely with the Indian public, and her case was doggedly championed by the Indian government, which argued she had diplomatic immunity. In the middle of this, the U.S. ambassador to India resigned, and still has not been replaced.
But those bilateral scuffles might be nothing compared to these new spying allegations. Similar revelations of snooping on a supposed ally between Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Australia and nearby neighbour Indonesia – the giant of Southeast Asia – sparked a long-running diplomatic row that still sours that crucial bilateral relationship.
(Though, to be fair, the impact of these NSA spying allegations may be muted – oddly enough – by the sheer breadth of the NSA's global spying, which included tapping the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.)
It certainly does not help the U.S.'s case that Mr. Modi has pledged to repair frayed relationships in his immediate South and Southeast Asian neighbourhood. Mr. Modi already wooed Chinese investment and received a warm delegation from China where Mr. Modi, as a visiting state chief minister, was once afforded honours reserved for a head of state.
None of this means the relationship between India and the United States is doomed.
Both countries share national security concerns about Pakistan, and both are attempting to maintain order in Afghanistan as NATO forces depart. At the same time, Mr. Modi, who has been known to hold grudges, is an ardent pragmatist in most matters and even invited Pakistan's president to his inauguration.
And 2010 is ancient history as far as modern international relations goes: Mr. Modi may not let even this sort of spat hamper the beginning of his relationship with the world's pre-eminent superpower, or get in the way of the economic growth and development that he campaigned on and needs to deliver.
As Mr. Modi gained momentum, Indian and foreign observers wondered whether he would be able to control fringe elements within the BJP and among India's sprawling right-wing, Hindu nationalist organizations (from which Mr. Modi himself emerged). This may just turn out to be an early case study, since Secretary of State John Kerry will visit India at the end of July.