G20: South Asia - Old and New Challenges and India's role

 G20: South Asia - Old and New Challenges and India's role

New Delhi 

The G20 Summit and deliberations at different levels offer opportunities to do some stocktaking especially in the context of South Asia.

Experts have often said in the past that South Asia is connected by the common thread of 'misgovernance' or various governance related challenges.

In the contemporary setting of course any discussions on South Asia should start with the crisis in Sri Lanka and could easily end with the mess Pakistan is in. 

Take the clock back to 2016 and one can find how Pakistan contributed by their sinister and terror intent to bring an end to a romanticism of the 1980s called the SAARC.

Among the countries in the region, India is truly an exception

in more ways than one.

The geographical size, the robust economy and also ways and means to uphold democratic

values -- all go in favour of India. In our counfry too we have poorer sections of people but in India it is the faceless

voter who has been deciding who shall govern India. In most other South Asian countries, the

democratic roots have not established the toe-hold. It is still a dynastic run affair though in theory, except Sri Lanka

all other South Asian nations practice parliamentary democracy.  

In Bhutan the King certainly matters.

In India, some years ago the 'angry' voters threw out an alleged corruption-hit and 'dynastic control' regime

and made Narendra Modi - an humble man from an humble family - the country's Prime Minister.

This is where Prime Minister Modi's narrative on 'echo system' works.

This echo system was actually a status quoist and they did not mind doing business with dynasties. They preferred candle lights to hard anti terror strategies and they mocked at Hinduism and even discovered an ill motive phrase the saffron terror. 

At the regional level in South Asia, there is another point of grave concern. The electoral politics

in these countries has somehow turned into a richman's (or woman's) game. This has resulted

in distortion of the electoral system. As a consequence of ths we have perhaps the most 'serious threat'

to the democratic process -- that is the degeneration of democratic institutions.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh the history of democracy has been marred not only by dynastic

politics, but also by interference of the army. In Islamabad, it is certainly worse. Moreover,

Pakistan in order to cover up its failures has shamelessly encouraged terrorism. Hillary Clinton

knew it well that snakes kept in the courtyards do not bite only your neighbours.

Today's Pakistan story is thus a subject of deeper studies and closer scrutiny by G20 as a platform and also some self styled Indian intellectuals and a particular section of India media.

Even in the case of Bangladesh as well as Pakistan, the parliamentary system has not been very powerful

for another reason. In both these countries Parliament always played second fiddle and the executive

powers of Prime Minister acquired many of the trappings of an executive Presidency. This was the situation

with Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan and also with Mujibur Rahman and his daughter Sheikh

Hasina and also under Begum Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh. The interference by military coups

has been another issue. 

Needless to add, India of the 1970s had experienced those gloomy days and dark nights of Emergency

under Indira Gandhi -- but India has taken corrective steps over the years. The right balance of power

has been well nurtured in India between executive, judiciary and legislatures (that is Parliament). The arbitrary

exercise of power by the Prime Minister(s) originate in the weak democratic structures. This should be a powerful

message of G20.

In India, PM Narendra Modi has displayed enough confidence in the strength of parliamentary democracy. Another

missive that can emanate from G20 is that the 'absence'of inner democracy in the political parties is certainly a poor foundation for

democratic governance. In almost all South Asian countries political parties follow dynastic rules. On this score

even India is not an exception.

India's oldest political party, the Congress, has not been able to come out of the dynastic trappings.   

For that matter even a number of regional parties follow the same norms. Only Indian communists

and India's ruling party, BJP, though ideologically following opposite principles have not

allowed 'dynasty' raj. 

In Nepal, the challenge has been unique. There is constancy in 'instability' and therefore the prevailing

democratic order has time and again undermined the authority of a government, a Prime Minister

and also the parliament. Moreover in South Asia owing to dynastic polity and instability, most 

parties in office have remained exposed to corruption. 

On this backdrop, one has to share the anxiety of millions of people that such systems create ground to hate politics and ill-motivated cadres are absorbed and encouraged even to participate in the politics of arson and violence.  

Ends 

G20: India's ties with Latin America and Caribbean nations

(India's relations with LAC nations have improved a lot. The 'soft power' angle
cannot be underestimated either. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had played a salutary role
in bringing rebels Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to the negotiating table to accept a peace deal.)

New Delhi 

Latin America has been an area of diplomatic weakness for India. New Delhi's relations with Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations have been mostly stunted. 

To some the ties were also notional because the 'dictionary' meaning of the word 'stunted' is suggested to be ---- prevented from growing or developing properly. But lately there is a change in the entire approach.

Under the Modi government, the India-Latin America ties received a boost in terms of trade. Mr Modi
certainly took personal interest in expanding India’s footprints in the region. 
There were high level visits starting from 2014 and also in 2016 and in 2018 and in subsequent periods.
But the relations between both the regions can improve a lot and thus the G20 Summit and other deliberations will provide a good opportunity to
do so. There is another element, the focus has traditionally been on the larger and economically important countries
such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.
There is also another issue vis-a-vis the absence of Preferential Trade Agreements with many countries.
Historically speaking, of course, the Latin American countries too held a stereotypical view that holds India 
as the land of charm, mystique and intrigue.  According to experts, a salutary move for 'strategic understanding'
came in 2000 during the Vajpayee government when India took up 'FOCUS LAC' move. But it had come
through the Ministry of Commerce chiefly from the trade angle.

Thus, there is a need to 'correct' things and where corrected steps have been taken, there is need to give these

more push. 

Latin America as a term connotes 20 sovereign nations -- thirteen in south America and seven in the central region.

Then there is the Caribbean region. These countries have been for long under European influence. The Spanish

influence was across all of central and South America. There was also Portuguese rules in Brazil. Indeed these countries

are independent for close to two centuries except the case of Cuba. In the words of prominent DMK leader Murasoli

Maran, who served as Commerce Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, "The America's (US) fetish for the region came down,

but its vice-like grip over the region's economic fortunes did not subside to the extent it could have".

But the changing dynamics have brought in transitions over the years nevertheless. Hence the scope of India- Latin America

and Caribbean region has shot up to around USD 45 billion and more from what was once stuck at USD 200 million in 1991.

However, according to experts New Delhi's neglect of the region was telling maybe.

India's essential understanding of the complexity of the region has been agonizingly superficial and 

sanguinely simplistic. But now even that 'knowledge' is improving. As stated earlier, some steps were taken

during the stint of Vajpayee as India's Prime Minister and Jaswant Singh as the foreign minister.

India's joining the UN-established and Wasgington-suggested Union Nations Democracy Fund was a momentous

occasion. Under Vajpayee again the then Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a path-breaking initiative 

was taken in 2002 when President Luiz came as the chief guest for the Republic Day parade.

Brazil required New Delhi's support vis-a-vis pharmaceutical business and the world's largest anti-HIV 

programme.

After Vajpayee gave a green signal, Luiz snapped on links with Washington. This marked the most opportune moment for Indian pharma majors to enter into the region. That NDA-I regime had taken another mission calling it IBSA -- India, Brazil and

South Africa Dialogue. This was an initiative for human capacity building and best practices

framework sharing framework for multilateral cooperation. 

New India and New Diplomacy :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a knack of trying different games at different times. He had aptly enunciated

his foreign policy with an idea of 'No Country Left Behind'. This also changed the game and ministers

were encouraged to visit these smaller countries. We could appreciate the fact in the process that the LAC countries

are 'strategic natural resources'. 

India’s Information Technology sector has seen a vast expansion in Latin America ranging from 

Costa Rica to Argentina. We now have the 'import oil' policy from Venezuela. 

Lithium will be vital for the future as a source of clean energy and Latin America houses over

nearly 60 percent of global stocks.  

At the G20, it will also be a great occasion to highlight PM Modi's fascination for LAC countries

long before he came into the engine room of India's foreign policy -- that is the PMO.

As Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi had pushed 'GRULAC' -- Gujarat's own initiatives with the region.

It was a refreshing development that a provincial Chief Minister was doing business with a neglected

region like LAC when many of these countries participated the Modi-launched unique stage the Vibrant

Gujarat so enthusiastically.

ends