5th edition of the
three-day Raisina Dialogue began in New Delhi on 14th January. Jointly
organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and think-tank Observer Research
Foundation (ORF), Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship global conference on
geopolitics and geo-economics. It is an outshoot of Modi’s grand vision for
India. As a rising power, Modi envisioned that India has its own platform to
organise discourses and shape narratives. External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj launched it on March 1st, 2016. 100 speakers from 35
countries attended the first edition themed “Asia: Regional and Global
Connectivity”. This Indian initiative is an attempt to analyse global
challenges, explore solutions and offer a stable transition into an era of
rapidly changing World order. Five years since its inception, this dialogue has
evolved into a vibrant platform. Current edition brought together 800 participants
from 100 countries including 80 African countries. With over 40% female
speakers, the platform is now lodestar of gender equality as well.
Inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi,
opening session featuring seven former heads of state- Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
Stephen Harper of Canada, Helen Clarke of New Zealand, Carl Blindt of Sweden,
Anders Rasmussen of Denmark, Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan and Hang Sueng-soo of
South Korea discussed on the key themes of 2020 Raisina Dialogue, the global
challenges-Climate change, technology and digital age, democracy and
multilateralism. The panel unanimously rated response to climate change as
dominant challenge of 2020.
Coming close on the heels of de-escalation
of tensions in Middle East, India’s global conference provided a platform for
Iran’s Foreign Minister Zavad Zarif to do diplomacy and put forth Iran’s
perspective on the brewing geopolitical conundrum. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
questioned the need for change in semantics of Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific and
propped up India’s candidature for UNSC permanent membership. On the final day,
US representative and India’s foreign secretary clarified that Asia-Pacific is
a colonial construct, while Indo-Pacific is a global common, stretching from
Kilimajaro to East Africa and doesn’t isolate China. Foreign Ministers from
Maldives, Australia, South Africa, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Uzbekistan, EU,
Czech Republic and Denmark attended the conference. Reflective of India’s
substantial diplomatic rise, in the past five years, Raisina Dialogue evolved
into a vibrant summit by bringing together strategic thinkers from different
countries.
Raisina Dialogue broadly pivots on
tripod of focus on global challenges, engagement with diverse groups and
leveraging global contradictions which is also the foreign policy mantra of
Modi government. India is often critiqued for punching below its weight and
shying away from power. In the aftermath of the slew of iconic legislations,
like triple talaq, abrogation of article 370 and the Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA), India was gripped by orchestrated halo of contradictions. Strategists
who hailed Modi government’s aggressive and pro-active foreign policy launched
scathing attacks on its political decisions. Undermining the accumulated
diplomatic heft and global influence of the past five years, media churned out
editorials condemning government’s political decisions which they rued would
drastically undercut India’s international stature.
After the withdrawal of special
status to Kashmir, marshalling diplomatic corps, through an extensive outreach,
India apprised the countries of the indispensability of terminating the
transient Article 370 for the economic development of the strategically
important Jammu and Kashmir. Deeming complete integration of J&K as an
assault on its larger strategic interests Pakistan initiated an anti-India
propaganda roping in the Western media. Through extensive engagement, India
demolished Pakistan’s attempts to internationalise the issue. Partnering with
the western liberal media that lends platform to the anti-BJP voices, Pakistan
began to tarnish Modi government’s image using epithets like-majoritarian,
fascist, anti-minority, intolerant. Taking a leaf out of Western media’s narrative
that government’s legislation would harm international image and foreign
investment, a tribe of self-conscientious strategic thinkers firmed up
criticisms. An uptick in slanderous campaign against government, raising alarm
over its implications on global perception of India began markedly significant
after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Critics propelled an apprehensive
tenor and created illusionary fear of isolation. Soon, the narrative of hyphenation
of India with an intolerant Pakistan began to find dominate the discourse. A
former foreign secretary, termed CAA as a “self-inflicted goal”.
Article 370 and CAA are
constitutional changes and internal matters of India. Any self-respecting
country can never brook external intervention in domestic affairs. But
strangely, by questioning the democratic functioning of an elected government
and their transparently debated legislations in the Parliament, the lobbyists
are doing a great disservice to nation. Caught up in this quagmire of senseless
narrative peddled by the anti-Modi media, strategists are making hue and cry
over India’s receding international reputation. Giving a religious hue to the
bill meant to offer succour to the refugees who fled religious persecution, the
lobby is perpetrating canards of India stumbling from the global pecking order.
From the platform of the Raisina
Dialogue, S Jaishankar dispelled pessimistic outrage. Encapsulating the essence
of India, he enunciated that India is not a disruptionist, mercantilist or
self-centred power but a stabilising and a law-abiding power. As a steadily
emerging voice of the South, India firmly believes in rules-based order.
Effectively warding off the vicious
anti-India propaganda regarding CAA and article 370, Jaishankar submitted, world
has common challenges- terrorism, separatism, migration. India is facing the
national variant of these challenges.
Every country has its own way of responding to them. It is important
that countries don’t develop a fixated idea as what is best is for others and
judge them. India has inherited some problems. Instead of multiplying them and
passing them off, the current dispensation chose to deal with them.
Retaliating to the western media
driven polarised pernicious anti-India propaganda, who criticised the minister
for snubbing Premila Jaypal, who gave free pass to Pakistani contestations and
whitewashed its cross-border terrorism, Minister countered, “people are
entitled to have opinions and people are entitled to have opinions on other
people’s opinions”. Refusing to kow-tow to the whims of the Pakistani
lobbyists, Jaishankar asserted India’s position on CAA.
He asked countries to introspect
their actions on things like naturalisation (immigration laws) and the pathway
they adopted. India is prisoner of past image but it now trying to get beyond
that. It now wants to be more of a shaper, decider rather than being an
abstainer. In an oblique reference to the lobbyists who perpetually seek
Western approval he reacted, “are we going to define ourselves or let other
people define us?”.
Alluding to the global challenges,
which is the theme of the summit, Jaishankar used the forum to highlight
India’s meaningful value-additions to alleviate them. India’s pioneering efforts
towards Climate change remain underappreciated and Jaishankar supported his
claims citing India’s coveted Climate Actions Tracker ranking. Having acceded
to the Paris agreement and pledged to limit emissions, India is placed in the second-best
category-<2°C
compatible along with Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Philippines and Kenya and
placed below the highest ranked countries Morocco and the Gambia. While developed
countries languished in the insufficient and highly insufficient categories. But
India is yet to make a head start in technology. Its traditional perspective of
technology for economic benefits must transition into analysing it as effective
strategic instrument.
Bucking the prejudiced perception
of India laggard delivery of connectivity projects, in the past five years,
India handled 142 projects and efficiently delivered 53 of them in the
immediate neighbourhood. Besides it refurbished pre-1965 Bangladesh road and
rail networks, waterways, ports, built houses for Sri Lankan Tamils, launched
first petrol pipeline in South Asia between Motihari to Amlekhunj, finished
hydroelectric projects in Nepal and Afghanistan. India has built a big convention
centre in Niger in a record time of 14 months and expediting projects in Sudan,
Rwanda Ethiopia.
Being a vital player, India has
enormous stakes in the region. Jaishankar enumerated India’s relations with
other powers and various stakeholders in the region Succinctly, summing up
Indo-China unique relationship he said, “very rarely in history have two
powers who are neighbours actually gone up in the international order at
approximately the same time. Each one is reaching a new equilibrium with the world
but also each other”. To make the relationship work, both countries must
find accommodation and understanding on key issues. He termed Indo-Russian
relationship as extraordinarily stable and sustained by strong sentiments which
are rational.
In the past few decades, Indo-US
strategic partnership has become most comprehensive with extensive ranging from
G to G (Government), B to B (Business), T to T (technology), P to P (People)
and now B to G. “There’s virtually no area of activity where India and the
US don’t work with each other and deal with other…pick a sector and I’ll show
you something substantive happening in the relationship” he added.
India-Australia relations are poised for big jump. But both countries must step
up in terms of regional and global responsibilities. India is underperforming
with Europe which is largest trade partner, important technology partner and
financial power. India must strike strategic conversations with Europe on
collective and subgroup basis to energise relations.
As the net security provider of the
region, India has signed 16 white shipping agreements, given naval equipment to
eight neighbours and stationed surveillance radars in 6 coastal countries and
conducted 7 HADR Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. As a
responsible global power, India extended line of credit worth $2 billion to 11
countries, trained more than 100 troops, conducted military training teams in
11 countries, and forged hydrographic cooperation with five maritime neighbours
in the past five years. Modi government has painstakingly accumulated enough
diplomatic capital and diligently built a Brand India.
Rebutting the bigoted criticism and
busting the pessimistic nimbus, Jaishankar defined India’s way- “We are a
pluralistic society and a market economy. What has changed with more influence
and greater capacity is that we express ourselves more decisively”.
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