GhoseSpot | India has changed and it will be a mistake to judge it by the lens of the past

There is so much happening in our national neighbourhood and around the world at this point that it seems rather ironic that internally we are distracted by petty and avoidable issues like choice of food, violence during festivities, language, and dress codes. Sometimes, one wonders if it is simply a matter of misplaced priorities, or there is a deliberate attempt to keep us bogged down in internal issues when really the time has come for India to play a bigger role on the global stage.

Thus, it comes as a dampener when there is an attempt to pin-prick India’s principled stand on international issues by raising doubts about democracy within the country, minority rights and freedom of speech. Not that these are matters that should not be discussed or papered over. But, blowing it out of proportion and distorting the context is doing a huge disservice to fellow Indians. It is a pity that a class of influential intellectuals who are best placed to highlight the many positives and achievements, especially in a post-Covid world, derive vicarious pleasure in amplifying negative propaganda. They find a platform at international fora and media always ready to run down the emerging powers who challenge the western hegemony.

This requires some deft balancing on part of the government to remain focused on its macro charter while dousing fires at home and managing perceptions overseas. It is in this backdrop we should see carefully calibrated statements of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his visit to the United States for the 2+2 summit this week. Meanwhile, we had a regime change next-door in Pakistan. Meanwhile, down south, Sri Lanka is reeling under its worst-ever economic and humanitarian crisis. Nepal and Bhutan in the north are strapped for foreign exchange. Amid all this India is holding out, which is surely not music to everyone’s ears at home and abroad.

However, the hypocrisy of it all is that everyone who is criticising India’s stand, especially on the Russia-Ukraine issue, would have acted exactly in the same way if they had skin in the game. It is easy to sermonise perched on a balcony, but no responsible government would jeopardise the lives of its people to win an international popularity pageant. Apart from concerns of energy security and defence supply chain, India may have legitimate reservations for not taking a side in the military conflict. The case of Ukraine and NATO may not be as black and white as the United States is making it out to be. Though the detractors of the Modi government in India are loath to acknowledge it, the international diplomatic community understands it. So even if they are peeved, they are resorting to cajoling rather than browbeating India, as they would have certainly done in the past.

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Besides, the world knows India’s utility at these times. Apart from its diplomatic clout and ability to maintain stability in the South Asian neighbourhood (arguably extending up to Afghanistan), if the conflict gets stretched, India would be a contingency source for food grain supplies for many countries. That is why, Jaishankar can boldly say CAATSA is a US law, and it must find ways of dealing with it. On the other side, the Indian government has already hinted that it is willing to up its agricultural exports if WTO norms are relaxed by the West. In an increasingly interdependent world, India’s importance has undoubtedly increased. As a nation, we should be proud of it and not pull ourselves down by internecine politics that, one suspects, is at times also fuelled by external interests. We need to look around us to know the consequences.

That brings us to the point of the stresses and strains that appear in our polity and the surround sound they create round the year. It is easy to dismiss them as growing pangs of democracy and society in flux. It is also tempting to blame certain elements and assign labels such as majoritarianism or dictatorship of the minority (to borrow Nassim Taleb’s expression). People are probably right in thinking that the root of all these lie in electoral politics in one way or the other. Therefore, it may not be a coincidence that such incidents have the uncanny habit of happening in the run-up to elections.

Equally perennial are the rants by a small set of individuals who pillory the government on every action for their two minutes of fame. For them laws of the land do not matter and are conveniently termed as political vendetta if directed at any of their ilk. This favoured lot had in the past got away with impunity skirting regulations and availing financial largesse of the state, international junkets, and foreign sponsors. They make little effort to hide their visceral hatred against the current dispensation for disentitling them from the previous privileges. Bereft of even a pretence of balance, they give the distinct impression of working with an agenda either of their own or faceless benefactors. In an increasingly bipolar world, they have no dearth of takers and some even harbour not-so-secret ambitions of winning the Nobel or similar awards of the Left-liberal ecosystem.

Undeniably there is an atmosphere of conflict and hostility. The opinion is divided as to whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have handled it differently on the domestic front as well in the arena of external relations. Apprehensions are expressed as to whether he is pushing the envelope too much running the risk of a stronger recoil. Others would argue that some amount of constructive deconstruction is necessary to break the status quo and put the country on a higher trajectory forcing a change in the world order. Either way, it would be a mistake not to recognise that India has changed and has the aspiration of the younger generations across geographies, cutting across demography and social strata.

So, it would be a mistake to judge India by the lens of the past. It is no longer about one individual at the helm. The old order now has to deal with a new India which will talk in its own idiom and walk at its own pace.

The message is both for home and the world.

The author is a current affairs commentator, marketer, blogger and leadership coach, who tweets at @SandipGhose. Views expressed are personal.

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