In the largest democracy in the world, a delegation from Utah sees possibility

HYDERABAD, India — Utah State Rep. Jason Thompson and his wife wandered into a market area looking for his daily soda fix: “We were on a hunt for Coke Zero,” said Thompson.

The commercial area turned residential. The couple kept walking until they heard some commotion.

The Thompsons spotted small buses covered with posters. Little did they know, they accidentally found themselves at a political rally.

“A curtain on the bus opened up on one side and I saw dancers,” Dana Thompson said, adding she was curious. “I pulled Jason back and said, ‘Let’s see what this is about.’”

The Utah state representative estimated several hundred people in attendance ahead of a state election on Nov. 11.

Make politics exciting again?

The Thompsons are part of a Utah trade delegation to India that includes business and political leaders who are traveling to six cities over a span of two weeks. The trade mission was organized by World Trade Center Utah and is led by Utah Senate President Stuart Adams.

Locals gave Thompson and his wife scarves and flyers that featured a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and candidate Sri Lanka Deepak, who is running for the state legislative assembly. Music blared from several speakers as drummers chimed in.

“It was lots of positive excitement and I think that’s why we stuck around,” Dana said. Her husband noted that they were there for at least 20 minutes. “Everyone wanted a picture with Dana,” he said, adding he preferred to opt out.

“It is humbling that the world looked to America as the beacon of democracy,” he said. But, he added, the town halls he and his colleagues hold never seem to produce this kind of energy.

India is the largest democracy in the world with 1.4 billion people. By comparison, the U.S. has a population of 330 million.

India is also a fairly new democracy, having gained its freedom from British colonial rule about 78 years ago.

“It was refreshing to see that enthusiasm and the happiness considering the way America is divided right now,” Thompson told the Deseret News at a south-Indian cuisine restaurant in Hyderabad. The waitress brought several Coke Zeros for the state lawmaker as he continued talking.

“Democracy requires moral order, decency. It doesn’t require agreement, right? And that’s where I think we’re getting it wrong in America.”

He joked about replicating the engaging campaign methods he witnessed on the Hyderabad streets. “We’re going to do square dancing on the back of a flatbed,” he said.

Another thought occurred to Thompson. “We’re here, talking to all these businesses and these young entrepreneurs. The fire and the drive and the light that they have in their eyes to go and find success … ,” Thompson trailed off. “They are following a model of capitalism and democracy, a model that, while imperfect, is beautiful and leads to so much for humanity.”

That energy was undeniable at the many meetings Thompson has attended in the first three cities visited by the delegation — Mumbai, the financial and entertainment capital of the country; Pune, the automotive hub also known as the Oxford of the East; and Hyderabad, the “City of Pearls” and a tech powerhouse.

But there is always an elephant in the room: tariffs, and what they mean for the U.S.-India relationship.

But what about tariffs?

The Indian experts who have spoken to the delegation don’t seem alarmed by the prospect of American tariffs and say these minor tensions will fade away with time.

As the delegation wrapped up their first week in India on Friday, news of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to visit this South Asian country made headlines.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump said his conversations about trade with Modi, the Indian prime minister, were moving forward.

Trump alleged Modi “largely stopped” buying Russian oil, despite Indian authorities denying such claims.

“He is a friend of mine and we speak, and he wants me to go there,” the U.S. president said of his Indian counterpart. “We will figure that out. I will go.”

New Delhi and Washington are still negotiating over the 50% tariffs imposed on India by the United States, while China has managed to strike a deal to lower tariffs.

It wasn’t always like this. In Mumbai, during a discussion with the Utah delegation hosted by the Observer Research Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, Rahul Rawat, a research assistant with ORF, explained that U.S.-India relations have evolved in three parts since India became independent in 1947.

The first 25 years brought a sense of cooperation on education policy as American funding helped set up universities and support research in addition to humanitarian aid.

This was followed by “a period of ups and downs” and a lack of engagement on the policy level despite strong community ties, thanks to the Indians studying at American universities and later settling down.

Rawat described the next chapter as a “seminal time,” where non-linear growth guided policy on the economic and strategic partnership.

“Now, with any such wide ranging and wide encompassing relationship, there is bound to be friction,” he said.

Despite the differences on tariff and visa policy between the two countries right now, Indian and American businesses have managed to coexist, just like two children of arguing parents, said another expert, Srinath Sridharan, a visiting fellow at ORF.

“The water always takes the path of least resistance. We figure out how to make business, despite regulations, despite changing politics or policies,” Sridharan said.

“That is where some of the states (like Utah) are taking the lead in having their own vision under a larger federal vision.”

Utah makes a pitch to India

Guruprasad Sowle, the president and cofounder of Indus International Research Foundation and an advisory board member at World Trade Center Utah, said the U.S., and Utah specifically, is actively looking to India as “an alternative for China.”

“I know it’s a learning curve. I think we’re going about it with cautious optimism,” he said. Sowle considers the tariffs a passing phase, while the presence of Utah businesses exploring India as a potential manufacturing hub for their operations as well as a market shows a path forward.

Utah state Rep. Matt MacPherson in his pitch to the businesses at the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture in Pune on Wednesday said that the Beehive State has “a lot to offer to the world.”

“We are seeking — actively seeking — for policies that will encourage many of our business partners to seek alternatives to China,” he said.

World Trade Center Utah COO David Carlebach made a pitch for Utah, calling it “the most international state in the country,” where many residents have lived abroad for two years to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The second largest non-U.S.-born population in Salt Lake City is Indians. The first is Mexicans,” he noted. “The state was founded by pioneers, and continues to have the pioneer spirit of problem solving, entrepreneurship, innovation, and it’s an important theme for this trip as well.”