India has no time to waste on partisan electoral politics
Our very able and brilliantly realistic external affairs minister has candidly admitted recently that the world is in turmoil and India will have to be on its toes constantly for quite some time to cope with emerging challenges in the international arena.
Much of this turbulence has been generated by the election of Donald Trump as POTUS. Trump has lost no time in making it clear that he expects every one—allies, friends, neighbours—to bend down on their knees. Keep ears pricked up not to miss the master’s command to heel and follow silently. Jostling has already started to elbow out competitors who are eager to curry favour with the great autocrat who is projecting himself as the saviour of an America in decline.
MAGA has little space for anyone who is not white, Christian and affluent. To make matters worse Donald Trump has delivered a mortal blow to multilateralism and demolished in a blink what had been accomplished in decades to avert catastrophic climate change or forging partnership to combat virulent viruses that can decimate humanity.
India, the nation with the largest population in the world, has reasons to be deeply worried. Our prime minister’s visit to the US has finally taken place and we are being assured by patriotic analysts that despite the less-than-euphoric optics, foundations have been laid for mutually beneficial relationship in future. It is difficult to share this sense of satisfaction.
This shouldn’t be misconstrued as criticism of either the prime minister or our diplomats. What shouldn’t be glossed over is that just before PM Modi’s bilateral visit the Presidential Executive Order had put in place measures of punitive tariffs that offered no relief to India. The Indian prime minister has managed to win some respite as serious negotiations are scheduled to take place in next six to eight months to restore the balance in Indo-American trade.
However, not much space for manoeuvring is available to India. We will be constrained to import more oil and gas from the US and this is bound to impact our strategic relationship with Russia and already shrunken ties with Iran. There is a limit to arm twisting that Trump can risk with China and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the two will cut a deal at the cost of the rest to protect and further their vital interest.
Mishaps at home have at the same time taken some sheen off India’s shinning image as a resurgent nation and emerging IT superpower, largest manufacturer of life-saving vaccines, striving to share cutting-edge research in solar power generation and having unmatched know-how in infrastructure development. Unfortunately, stampedes at the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj and the New Delhi railway station have created doubts about our capability to harness science and technology to improve people’s lives and usher in a better future.
Not long ago we took pride in the large pool of skilled manpower we could deploy to meet the growing needs of developed countries with small populations. The pictures of illegal immigrants being deported back in handcuffs and fetters or falling prey to ‘recruiting agents’ to unwittingly become canon fodder in wars in distant lands have exposed the ugly and painful reality.
The development has passed by a large section of underprivileged youth and not enough employment has been generated in past decades to hold them back and work at home in Amrit Kaal. At the same time, we ourselves are faced with a flood of migrants through porous borders posing a threat to our security and social fabric. Ironically, in our case, building fences hasn’t resulted in making good friends of neighbours.
India only a year back appeared perched to take off in a trailblazing trajectory after the interruption of Covid-19. From space exploration and rocket science to IT and biotech and disaster management, our prowess and promise had made India a powerful voice of the Global South. From nonalignment of the 1950s and 60s, the country had moved to multi-alignment and not one but many strategic partnerships.
The country was poised on the threshold of becoming the third largest economy in the world and was wooed by every one from Japan and Australia to Arabs and Israelis, Europeans and Latin Americans. Now it appears that we were lulled into complacency by fair-weather friends and encouraged to change multiple mirages. Once POTUS cracks the whip or the other Big Man Xi frowns, the tune changes.
It’s time to step out of the echo chamber and have a reality check about the size of the Indian market that no one can overlook and quality of indigenous scientific research and the quality of Indian (university and school) education. Blurring the lines between mythology and history, superstition and science and the knee-jerk reaction to blame all our failures on relics of colonialism or foreign conspiracies can only aggravate the problems. No time to waste on partisan electoral politics, global conquest via one-day cricket.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com