India may face common tension before the Lok Sabha elections in May, Coats made that statement as part of the US intelligence community's evaluation of worldwide threats in the year 2019. Coats appear before the Select Committee to present their worldwide threat assessment.
"Parliamentary elections in India increase the possibility of common aggression if BJP stresses nationalist themes," Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, told the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in a written statement.
Coats made that statement as part of the US intelligence community's appraisal of worldwide threats in the year 2019. Coats appeared before the Select Committee to present their worldwide threat appraisal. CIA Director Gina Haspel, who has just returned from a trip to India, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Robert Ashley was also there during the council meeting.
"BJP policies during Modi's first term have deepened communal tension in some BJP-governed states, and Hindu separatist state leaders might view a Hindu-nationalist campaign as a signal to incite low-level violence to animate their group," Coats told the committee.
Coats also warn that growing communal clashes could estrange Indian Muslims and allow Islamist terrorist groups in India to make bigger their power.
He also said that cross-border violence and stressed ties may continue at least until the elections.
"We judge that cross-border terrorism, firing across the Line of Control (LoC), divisive national elections in India, and Islamabad's awareness of its position with the United States relative to India will contribute to stressed India-Pakistan relatives at least through May 2019, the deadline for the Indian election, and probably beyond," he added.
"Political direction resultant from the Indian national election almost certainly wills additional restrain near-term opportunity for improving ties," Coats said.
On India-Chine relations, Coats said the ties may remain tense, regardless of efforts on both sides to manage
Tensions since the border standoff in 2017. "Misperceptions of military movements or edifice might result in tensions escalating into armed conflict," he noted.