The
global outreach heralding the ‘might and right’ of India by Prime Minister Mr.
Narendra Modi seems to have halted momentarily, although the grand finale event
is Mr. Barak Obama’s salute at the Delhi Republic Day celebrations of 26th January, 2015. In the scheme of power equations USA still holds
the prime position in India. Although
symbolic this is a welcome event and a lot of behind-the-scene operations are heating
up.
The US-India
bilateral activities have increased - not only that the executive-jets are
shuttling but also that the first and business class tickets are getting filled
up fast. Those gearing up are the bureaucrats and the business house
representatives to kick-up the bilateral trade, business and investments many folds.
There is meek state level focus, a new and cut-to-size Andhra Pradesh making
all the noise while the Bengaluru-Scare still continues, remember Mr. Obama
shunned a visit as it was cited as the city that snatched the American jobs
through the migration of back-office and IT enabled employment. West Bengal is
in the news for wrong reasons as the investment climate especially with respect
to property rights have not settled in that state.
The
following essay has two distinct focuses – firstly the economic/trade related
issues relevant for the President Obama’s visit and the other social policy
perspectives which are essential background for defining the quality of
democracy and rule of law within India.
Economic/Trade Related
Under a continued diversification and strategic
alignment policy of the previous government – remember the ‘nuclear deal-123’,
the USA hopes to build a massive market for its defence equipments to India.
Although ongoing crossover helicopter deals between ‘India and US’ and ‘Pakistan
and Russia’ are indications of winds of change; there are other impediments to
overcome. India’s current inventory is dominantly Russian while Pakistan’s is dominantly
American; a good example is the fighter jet brands they both own. US will
continue to face difficulty in pushing its defence inventory so long as it
continues to supply same or similar inventory to Pakistan. After all no country
would like to face a possibility that enemy country reuses the war-booty against
itself. Further, India’s longstanding policy
that mega defence deals always comes with technology transfers continues; the
French multi-role fighter jets and Israel’s air-defence and anti-tank guided missiles systems deals are the most recent examples.
Although previous technological transfer deals
have yielded little for India, for example the British-Jaguar and French-Mirages
etc, yet the policy is expected to continue in future. The US has so far shown little interest in such riders.
Another caveat; it is difficult for India to
entirely come out of the erstwhile, now defunct ‘non-aligned’ policy even when
US intends to support India’s stake of permanent member at the UN- Security Council. It is also in India’s
interest that a ‘triple-bhai’ or ‘three-brothers’-
policy of ‘India-USA-China’ is pursued, given new geo-political scenario and a
rising Eastern Star namely China. After
all China is the biggest business and investment partner of the USA as well (imported
about $440 billion worth from China during 2013, compare this to only $42
billion from India. India imported about $50 billion worth from China in 2013).
There are
issues with respect to intellectual property rights (IPRs) especially in
pharmaceuticals that is another contentious issues between the US and India. To
be realistic, this issue is not likely to be settled any time soon. A
compromise on IPRs can only be reached with a comprehensive understanding of
the health care market in India. This sector has been the worst and most abused
in India; one cannot expect a breakthrough especially when the international
negotiations are geared towards pricing and cost of medicines with little or no
concern to morbidity and sickness profile and affordability issues.
Agriculture
is in the domain of tripartite negotiations - the world trade organization
being the intermediary. A recent announcement by foreign minister that
India-favourable agreement has been worked out is not convincing. There are 90 million
farming and another 28 million agricultural labor households in India. The
average farm-holding is less than one hectare, most with meagre cultivable
lands barely yielding food sufficient for survival. Given this state of
agriculture, prudent policy has to ensure safety and sustenance of farming
households across India. The US-India partnership in agriculture must therefore
focus on mechanism to mitigate rampant and high incidence of malnutrition amongst
the children and reproductive aged women. Investments in food processing,
packaging and trade in food products will benefit both the businesses and
people within India. Technological breakthrough of ‘no till farming’ as well as
policy agreements to improve agricultural productivity through the use of
genetically modified process are niche areas the need of the hour.
The Principles of Social Engagement:
The
President’s visit to India has multiple dimensions to it. It is not entirely
business, defence, money and national pride. There are a number of other issues
to be confronted during such occasions. Right now, US is reeling under the
accusations of police excesses and indiscriminate killings of black men and men
across many states. As a champion of human rights, Mr. Obama comes out in
public expressing grief and anguish and even pledging federal policy response
to contain such events.
On the
other hand while Mr. Modi carries a baggage of extreme human rights violations
of the past; he seems to procrastinate when a prompt policy protection is
needed to protect millions of minorities especially the Muslims and Christians
of India. In India one do not come across engagement of the PM on situations and
events which are crudest form of human rights violations - undertaken by a set
of well organized groups against other groups of people who are historically
identified as the minority religions of India. The fringe groups often receive tactical
support from the police and security agencies on the one hand and political
system itself on the other. Such events occur so very frequently and often in
proximity to the watchful Delhi administration – the nations capital. A number
of communal riot like situation have happened right in Delhi and immediate
surroundings and the PM is quite as if nothing is happening. Or is it a way to
communicate the characteristics of the newly elected NDA government policy that
such events will continue to happen in times to come.
No one can
accurately gauge the limits of tolerance and perseverance of the minority communities
especially the Muslims and Christens of India. It would be in the interest of
India and also the larger world - the US and neighbouring countries that the
NDA regime over come the historical baggage of misunderstood history and shun
the proxy-cultural revolution that is being unleashed. Note that similar
cultural revolutions in Russia and more recently in China have not shown
positive and people friendly impacts.
Mr. Modi’s
expression of solidarity with Pakistan is gesture to be appreciated; but this
does not compensate for the pain, agony and psychological submission of over
200 million strong minorities of India. Two main processes through which the
subjugation of minorities who have their ideological origins from out of India
namely the Muslims and Christians are: a) The extreme rightwing groups such as
the BHP, Bhajrang Dal and many others initiate hate crimes such as abuse,
physical threat including denying residential spaces and more recently
inter-mixing of youth through the concept of ‘love jihad’ and so on; which get
tactical support from the Hindu cultural bodies such as the RSS. At the political level the BJP the ruling
party and its associates in the NDA besides providing tactical support to the
right wing extremism, they also initiate rudimentary policy changes which can
at best be described as mixing politics with religion in such as way that the
religious minorities gets marginalized and over a period excludes them from
many mainstream public programs including public education system. b) While
such complex group specific strategies take effect often situation turns
violent including extra judicial executions of members of minority communities.
The local police and the security apparatus either ignores completely or
extends nominal support in a manner not to displease and often support the
cause of the extreme right-wingers as well the cultural hegemony of the RSS not
to speak of the ruling class. The behaviour of the police only differs
marginally when the political party orientation or the government changes at
the national level and when the rulings parties differ at the national and
state level administration. One of the largest fallout of such a partial and
partisan behaviour of the policy has been illegal arrests of a large number of
Muslim youth all over the country who are languishing in police stations,
remand homes, judicial confinements and prisons with no bails and even rudimentary
enquiries. Practically all those overnight arrests termed as ‘protective
detentions’ are innocent men who are incapable of arranging huge funds needed
to get bails and judicial redress.
The most recent contentious issue has been the one of religious conversions. While both the Muslim and Christian faiths have been based on the principle of conversions, there are technical reasons as to why it is difficult for someone to become a Hindu as there is no such thing as a Hindu unless one also chooses a caste. Should the Hindu conversions happen, choice must be given to for example to either become a Brahmin or a Dalit with appropriate legal certifications and documentation.
However, a number of socially contentious issues must be left to the people at large to discuss debate and articulate appropriate legally supported solutions. In doing so the government of the day and especially the police and security system must be non-partisan and out of the picture. A durable institutional solution to such problems is to establish an independent ‘equal opportunity commission’ at the national as well at the state levels across India. The EOC would release the elected government and its large policy and security apparatus the trouble of dealing with situations which can be effectively handled by the EOC itself. Note that two of the highly matured and respected democracies of the world – the USA and the UK have established these institutions and with fair amount of successes.
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