An Evening With Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Author, Politician, And Former International Civil Servant
When I was Chairman of Parliament’s External Affairs Ministry, the position from which I was defenestrated after five years in 2019, I always proudly articulated our tradition, that political differences stop at the water’s edge. That there isn’t a Congress foreign policy or BJP foreign policy, only an Indian foreign policy and Indian national interest. Although, I think the BJP undermined this principle by abandoning the permanent convention under which the committee was always chaired by Member of Parliament from the Opposition by deciding to replace me with the BJP MP, I still hold to this conviction even though there are aspects of Modi-governed foreign policy in the last six years that are not easy for many to swallow as Indians, rather, as his and the BJP’s foreign policy report has largely been a tale of much activity and few results. But that is a different topic, and we can
get to that if interested.
You asked me to speak about India’s image in the world today. India’s stature in the world has never been lower. It gives me no joy to say this. Even as an Opposition MP I would like my country to be held in high regard
globally as a thriving democracy and as an example to the world how to manage diversity in a free and open society. Instead, I knew that for some time now the world is troubled by the image of an India that it is seemed increasingly bigoted and intolerant, one that is wilfully driving sectarian wedges between its people particularly as I said with one minority and being overtaken by intolerant majoritarianism that has no appeal to the world outside.
Every major newspaper abroad whether on the rights like The Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times or on the left like The Guardian or Washington Post has published critical editorial about India in the last couple of years. And
the drumbeat of daily reporting as well as the columns is relentlessly negative about India.
India, as I have often said, derives a lot of strength from its soft power from being seen as an attractive country in the world, a country that countries admire. I still remember travelling through the Gulf countries as a UN official in 2004 and seeing the astonishment and admiration of the Arab Ministers, the officials I was meeting, at the site of an election being won by a party headed by a woman political leader of Italian descend and Roman-catholic faith, who then made way for a Sikh to be sworn in as Prime Minister by Muslim President in a country with 80% Hindu. I was able to say to them that this is not India trying to impress the world, this is just the way India is. That sort of admiration that we got, the soft power we gained from that kind of celebration
of diversity is lost to us today.
I have often said that India needs to strike a balance between its hard power and soft power because it is not the country with a bigger army that wins anymore but it is the country that tells that better story. At the moment, the story that Mr. Modi and his colleagues in the Government are pitching to the world looks less and less convincing with every passing path.
ROTARIANS ASK: Last weekend our Club visited three villages that we supported by providing light and water through solar lamps. The farmers told us, jo sarkaar nahi kar paaya woh aap log ne kiya. So, what has
happened, why are our villages forgotten? Why are we not able to lift them up?
Rural areas are where the votes are and logically that is where you have to devote your resources. I come from Kerala where villages are given special attention from governments of all parties and as a result there is a very less visible difference in the standard of living between the villages and cities. I have actually seen this because my parents come from villages. I have been able to see transformations in rural India. But I accept the proposition that you just advanced; there are many parts in India where the villages are neglected and it partially maybe the perception that because the villagers are less educated and less demanding that the politicians feel a lesser obligation to satisfy their wants. It may partially be that we may have a bias in our politics to be keeping people poor and building hoax in the name of their poverty rather than delivering services to them that could make them aspirational. That is changing but that may be part of our historical legacy and there is finally, of course, the cynical argument that one hears from people that politicians are all for corruption and the tax payers’ money is not reaching the beneficiaries. All these reasons are partially true.
ROTARIANS ASK: It just makes sense that instead of running around in rallies and the money spent on election times, if the same money is spent to bring up the village, they will 100% vote for you.
Quite possibly. In Kerala, I am proud to say that my majority has come from the rural parts of my constituency which I have paid a lot of attention to.
ROTARIANS ASK: Why has the relationship between PM Modi and President Xi Jinping unravelled so spectacularly that we now have a hostile boundary between India and China for first time since the 1962 War?
There are no good answers to this question. In all fairness to Mr. Modi, he started off with Chinese relationships; it is the country that he visited three times as CM of Gujarat, he may even had some illusions about China’s willingness to be friendly with India, so he actually invited President Xi Jingping very early in his tenure and gave him a lavish welcome in Ahmedabad. And, as we know, promises were made of billions of dollars in 2014 but they were never received. Not only was that amount watered down but there was an embarrassing sight over there of impressions by the PLA audaciously while Xi was on Indian soil. So, I think it is difficult to blame Mr. Modi or the Indian Government for this.
I think the Chinese clearly had begun a more assertive phase in their policies in the overall region, they had been quite aggressive to many of their neighbours and tough on their domestic areas. So, we have not done very well on our end of the bargain either because of the mismanagement of the military standoff in 2017 where, unfortunately, the Chinese consolidated their presence in the Himalayan Plateau that overlooked our Siliguri corridor but also as a position to use that part to attack India in the event of war. Then we, of course, have the ongoing Chinese encroachments across the LAC, deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. So, have we failed to safeguard the bilateral relationship, I am afraid we really have to say that. Because in his election campaigns in 2014, Mr. Modi had constantly berated the GOI for not being to do anything about the Chinese incursions on the frontier. Two years later not only has he the same failure but also has unfortunately misrepresented the nation by claiming that there were no Chinese incursions. This has not been a good example. In hindsight, it was made clear that the Congress had actually managed to preserve a working agreement with the Chinese which has now collapsed sadly. I still would blame China for this state of India, so, China’s actions have not been friendly at the same time we have not shown any great aptitude in dealing with them effectively and denial is no answer at all.
Now, the Foreign Minister is saying that there is a problem and the Chinese will have to look at the consequences of their actions unless they reverse them and the Chinese are showing no signs of reversing them. So, I see a rather sinister process by the Chinese where they are undertaking minor military incursions in order to create small-scale military setbacks in India: take a few square kilimetres of territory from here and there, from locals for tactical purposes, then declare peace, both sides will announce mutual disengagement, but the Chinese will not withdraw; the Chinese will always end in a better position than the time it began. That is what’s been happening and that is what is going to happen next time. With several episodes as such, none of the episodes will get out of hand totally. China will consolidate the LAC where it wants it so, that it is more in its favour. That is their long-term plan. The Chinese always say that the border should be left to the future generations to settle; this increases China’s relative economic military and geo-political strength vis-a-vis India. So, all these instances are keeping India off-balance presently.
ROTARIANS ASK: How India is going to meet China’s threat, particularly when China has become more powerful than USA; Afghanistan is ruled by Taliban, where should India go from here? We are not in a good place with China. So, when talking objectively about taking the country forward, it seems to me that we would need a mixture of fairly tough and uncompromising stands on India’s side on things that are non-negotiable for us.