By Swapan Dasgupta
The UPA Government, it is now grudgingly admitted by
its best friends and most avid supporters, suffered grievously on account of
its failure to communicate. For nearly three days, or at least until a senior
BJP leader stepped in to counter a wave of needless speculation and
misconceptions, was in serious danger of allowing Narendra Modi’s swearing-in
ceremony on May 26 to be hijacked by those who had their own version of what
the change of government meant.
Let us be clear on one point. The objective behind
the invitation to leaders of the neighbouring SAARC countries (and to
Mauritius) was two-fold. First and most important, the invitation to neighbours
was primarily to showcase a stupendous democratic achievement. India has reason
to be proud that the world’s largest festival of democracy, involving nearly
700 million voters, was successfully conducted. The election may have been
bitterly contested but its outcome, leading to a change of government, was
accepted with grace. Yes, there were some notables who seek to shift the
goalposts with retrospective effect. But their churlishness tells us more about
them than the efficacy of a system that has endured since 1952. India’s
bi-partisan commitment to democracy warrants broadcasting to the entire world,
and especially the troubled neighbourhood. The Americans celebrate the
inauguration of their Presidents. India too is well deserving of a more austere
celebration.
In India, the custom is for an auspicious event to
be celebrated by not merely the family but with the entire neighbourhood. The
logic of the swearing-in follows the same custom: neighbours must also join in.
Secondly, there is an overtly political message that
Prime Minister-designate Modi has sought to send both internally and
externally. It is that India is witnessing more than a mere shift from the
Congress-led UPA to the BJP-led NDA. What is being heralded is a completely new
style of politics whose contours will become more and more evident in the
coming days. For the moment, Modi is merely setting the first of the many new
precedents he will set.
There is a third dimension of Modi’s swearing-in
ceremony which is being wilfully understated but is at the same time clearly
understood: that India is at the very centre of South Asia. Critics may call it
imperial assertion and suggest that this is Modi’s recreation of the Imperial
Durbar of 1911 but no one deny that, modified to 21st century
realities, the suggestion isn’t entirely untrue. Indeed, the more enlightened
among India’s neighbours are mindful that an economic resurgence of India will
impact their countries positively. India has always been the elder brother of
the region and the successor regime of the mighty British Empire.
Unfortunately, overcome by its internal incoherence, the Manmohan Singh
Government shied away from the karta’s role and conceded valuable political
space to a large eastern neighbour. To reclaim our inheritance will naturally
involve building domestic capacity and reinforcing India’s civilizational
reach—something that won’t and can’t happen overnight. But at least Modi has
issued a clear statement of intent.
It is important to bear in mind that the importance
of the swearing-in ceremony is potentially rich in symbolism. However, this is
not to suggest that Modi will live up to the journalistic cliché of ‘hitting
the ground running’ and use the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to engage
Nawaz Sharif in a discussion on the Siachen heights. Many of India’s diplomatic
correspondents and, for that matter, diplomat-politicians, have been terribly
underworked in the course of an election campaign where neither foreign policy
nor the commodity that passes of as ‘strategic vision’ got even a casual
mention. Their irrelevance in the cut-throat world of democracy is, perhaps,
lamentable. But that is no reason why they should now proclaim their own
relevance by discovering hidden ‘nuanced’ meanings in the invite to SAARC
leaders.
Narendra Modi wasn’t elected by the people of India
to devote the energies of his government in the thankless and perhaps
unrealisable task of rediscovering lost brothers on both sides of the Radcliffe
Line. That could well be the agenda of some English language TV channels who
were dreading their loss of influence but Indians elected Modi to improve their
lives and create more opportunities for Young India. In the cloistered world of
Delhi it is often easy to live in a bubble and lose the central political plot.
The Vajpayee Government devoted disproportionate time and energy in trying to
effect an enduring peace with Pakistan, with disastrous consequences in Kargil.
It is definitely a priority to strive for a
tension-free neighbourhood. But expectations in that direction have to be
tempered by the realisation that Pakistan must first resolve a larger
existential dilemma that confronts it. India can merely wait for its resolution
and, at best, do nothing to jeopardise the process. For Modi, economic
diplomacy aimed at building domestic capacity must remain at the centre of its
foreign policy. If India prospers and becomes an economic power centre, the
neighbourhood will automatically benefit. That is something the present regimes
in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal understand. Pakistan,
unfortunately, is confused about its priorities and its future course. That’s a
situation India doesn’t have the capacity to alter.
On Monday, the focus will be on the team that Modi
has chosen to help him transform India. The foreign leaders will be there to
honour India’s democracy. But they are the embellishments. The real substance
will be found elsewhere.
Sunday Pioneer, May 25, 2014
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