Tulsi Gabbard to Head US National Intelligence

In an interesting development Tulsi Gabbard has been appointed as the US Director of National Intelligence by a narrow margin vote in the Senate. Her appointment has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. She will be in charge of 18 intelligence agencies in America. She is the second female after Avril Haines to adorn this post. The position of the Director of National Intelligence was constituted after the gaps in the intelligence in the aftermath of the 11th September 2002 terror attacks. Her nomination to this position faced opposition due to the lack of her traditional intelligence background and having no experience in the government apparatus. There had been criticism of Gabbard due to her earlier remarks that were considered as inclined towards the US adversaries. In fact, her positioning was termed as sympathetic towards Russia in terms of the on-going Russia-Ukraine war. This also included her defence of the now deposed Syrian leader Bashar-al-Assad. Controversy about Tulsi Gabbard did not end here as she invited it for praising Edward Snowden, a security contractor who took refuge in Russia for exposing the classified information about US programs. But she has invited a lot of public attention and interest from policy circles in India due to her inclination towards Indian culture. Especially when as the first Hindu member of the US House of Representatives she took her oath of office on the Bhagwad Gita. Subsequently, she gifted the same copy of the Bhagwad Gita to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York in 2019.She gained a lot of appreciation and attention worldwide for raising the voice for Hindu minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. This made her quite popular in the Indian community in the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on a US visit has met her and congratulated her for taking this important responsibility. Besides this he discussed the India-US friendship with her. While congratulating her for assuming the office the Prime Minister has said in his post on the social media site X that she has been the strong votary of India –US friendship. It must be noted that Tulsi has often upheld Indian positions on various issues and taken Pakistan to task for supporting terrorism. It is pertinent to mention that when Pakistan sponsored terrorists attacked the convoy of CRPF personnel on 14th February 2019 in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred, Tulsi Gabbard took the patrons of terrorism head on and said,” “We stand with the people of India in condemning the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, and send our condolences and prayers to the victims’ families. We must all stand up against these jihadists and their ideology.” Tulsi Gabbard has been an ardent supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She even went to the extent of criticising the US government’s decision to ban his visa in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002.She also upheld his initiative for celebrating the International Yoga Day. She also visited India on his invitation. Keeping in view this chemistry it is hoped that her elevation will surely enable India to put its stance through when it comes to combating the cross-border terrorism and emerging security issues in India’s neighbourhood. Not only that it is also hoped that the aggressive posturing of President Trump in terms immigrants and new tariff policy will be moderated to strengthen the bilateral relations.