The doctrine of claps
DC Debates PM abroad high on theatrics, less on substance
Shehzad Poonawalla Vs K.G. Suresh
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Shehzad Poonawalla: A frequent flyer miles scheme
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Modi offers e-visas to the Chinese but moves slowly on strategic development of assets along the Sino-Indian border and fails to confront the Chinese over PLA arming Pak Rangers along the LoC
Narendra Modi celebrated the completion of his first year in power whilst he was on foreign soil. For 52 days in his first year, which is roughly once a week, Mr Modi travelled abroad, across 19 exotic destinations ranging from Bhutan to Brazil, US to Japan, clicking selfies and embracing the sights and sounds on offer, like typical Indian travellers do. Poor external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was forced to stay out of these junkets.
This itinerant behaviour prompted Rahul Gandhi to take a pot-shot at Mr Modi, asking the Prime Minister to utilise his short visit home to meet farmers in distress. While former Prime Ministers also travelled to many countries, the moot question is not about who clocked more “frequent flyer miles”, but what was gained from each foreign visit. While travelling to the US, Manmohan Singh inked the historic Indo-US nuke deal, which Mr Modi’s party opposed then but have now done yet another U-turn on it!
Crores were spent in organising Mr Modi’s event at Madison Square Garden, but his visit to the US, as an RTI reveals, did not translate into a single memorandum of understanding (MoU) being signed! Not to mention that Mr Modi’s pal “Barack” gave him some friendly “mann ki baat” on how he must ensure India remains a secular nation. Truly, a first for the largest democracy in the world to be lectured on religious rights by a US President, who also used an Indo-US joint presser platform to launch a diatribe against India’s oldest ally — Russia.
In Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Germany and other nations there was nothing new on Mr Modi’s agenda except for implementing and taking credit for the rich legacy created by the United Progressive Alliance government. So the civil nuclear deal for uranium talks of which began between former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Dr Singh, were sealed with a “selfie” by Mr Modi and Tony Abbott. The only “achievement” Mr Modi can be credited for while he was abroad is the churlish criticisms he heaps on opponents while on foreign soil, dragging domestic politics into the international arena. Recently, he said that Indians were ashamed of being born in India until he became Prime Minister.
China, it was marketed in September 2014, would invest $100 billion. President Xi Jinping, who shared the swing with Mr Modi even as People’s Liberation Army troops intruded into Ladakh, met that promise with only a $20 billion commitment, which hasn’t materialised till date. They have shown little interest in resolving the border dispute too. When Mr Modi reached out to the Chinese by joining their social media platform Weibo (Twitter is banned in China), the first message he was greeted with was, “South Tibet aka Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China”. Little is expected out of MoUs worth $22 billion signed between India and China on Mr Modi’s latest trip. China, on the other hand, provokes India by pumping in $46 billion in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that not only secures their energy assets from West Asia but strategically encircles India with its Maritime Silk Road.
Mr Modi’s foreign visits and policy have shown weakness and lack of direction and hardly live up to his 56-inch chest rhetoric. He offers e-visas to the Chinese but settles for stapled visas from them for our own citizens. He moves slowly on strategic development of assets like roads along the Sino-Indian border and fails to confront the Chinese over PLA arming Pakistani Rangers along Line of Control. L.K. Advani had once called Mr Modi a brilliant “event manager”.
Mr Modi’s foreign visits are mere PR events that he uses to tide over his domestic failures and shore up his image. But foreign policy, as he will soon realise, is not about showmanship, it’s about statesmanship.
Shehzad Poonawalla is a lawyer-activist and founder-member of Policy Samvad
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K.G. Suresh - He’s acting East and linking West
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Narendra Modi’s visit to 16 countries in the last one year has been able to convince the international political, business and strategic communities of India’s immense potential as a global engine of growth
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s decision to buy 36 Rafale jets in ready to fly mode during his recent visit to France, he fulfilled a long-pending demand of the Indian Air Force for a modern fighter jet that was stuck for decades in a protracted acquisition and negotiation process. If India and France signed a deal for the Jaitapur nuclear plant during Mr Modi’s mission “Link West” in Canada, the country’s biggest producer of uranium, Cameco, signed a $280 million, five-year deal to supply uranium to fuel Indian nuclear reactors.
Mr Modi’s visit also generated business worth 1.6 billion Canadian dollars and saw the signing of 16 commercial agreements between vari-ous Indian and Canadian companies. Notwithstanding the irritants in the relationship with China, includ-ing the festering border dispute, the huge trade deficit and the ever-growing proximity bet-ween Beijing and Islamabad during Mr Modi’s recent visit Indian and Chinese firms signed 21 agreements worth more than $22 billion in areas ranging from telecom, steel and solar energy to films.
More importantly, pending a resolution to the boundary dispute, India and China have decided to set up a hotline between the military headquarters of the two countries. Following Mr Modi’s visit, South Korean major Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and public sector undertaking Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, are joining hands to build warships. Another Korean firm, Samsung, would be collaborating with Cochin Shipyard Limited to make liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers.
Similarly, during his India visit, in response to Mr Modi’s US visit, US President Barack Obama announced a slew of initiatives that included $4 billion in loans from US banks, $2 billion for renewable energy projects in India and $1 billion from the Exim Bank of the US for project financing. India’s engagement with the US also helped secure its interests on food security in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and advance the negotiations on its Doha Development Round on reducing trade barriers.
While many questioned the logic of the Prime Minister visiting far-flung Mongolia, what the critics failed to appreciate is the subtle message it sent to China.
With a massive mandate, Mr Modi during his visit to 16 countries in the last one year has been able to convince the international political, business and strategic communities of India’s growing stature and its immense potential not as a market but as a global engine of growth. If the prompt response to crises in the Maldives and Nepal served to further the nation’s image in the comity of nations, the United Nations General Assembly declaration of December 11 as International Yoga Day is undoubtedly a recognition of India’s growing soft power.
Mr Modi’s emphasis on good neighbourly relations, beginning with the invitation to South Asian leaders to attend his swearing-in ceremony, followed by his first foreign visit to Bhutan and later on to Nepal, Sri Lanka and now the historic land-swap deal with Bangladesh proves beyond doubt that Mr Modi’s visits abroad are high on substance. Thanks to his efforts, India today has a far more friendly neighbourhood than ever before. Apart from disentangling the knots which tied up India in the past, “the speed and resolve, rarely seen in India’s external engagement”, as minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj put it, has helped rebuild partnerships across the world.
Mr Modi’s pragmatic, economy-centric Neighbourhood First, Act East, Link West and Indian Ocean outreach policies, besides NRI outreach, have ensured that the “Modi Doctrine” would get India its due place under the sun.
K.G. Suresh is a senior Delhi-based journalist
