A new awakening?
Having the SAARC leaders at his swearing-in has given Modi a head start with neighbours
As the Narendra Modi government was being sworn in at
New Delhi on Monday evening, the excitement had already passed from the
BJP’s unbelievable victory to Modi’s masterly move in heralding India as
a true SAARC leader and scoring a foreign affairs coup even before his
government was in the saddle. This he did through the decision to invite
SAARC leaders for his swearing-in.
That this group
had heads of two troublesome neighbours — Pakistan and Sri Lanka — made
the exercise even more interesting and exciting. As for a full two days
the media speculated on whether Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
would accept Modi’s invitation or not, these questions appeared
ludicrous.
Of course Sharif will come, I told
whoever asked me. Why wouldn’t he? After all the Sharif of today is a
more pragmatic and sober leader than the leader of the late 1990s, who
was so unceremoniously thrown out by a Musharraf coup in 1999.
Lahore bus journey
Soon after the baton passed from the Vajpayee government to the UPA I
in 2004, I heard surprisingly disappointed voices in both Karachi and
Lahore. There was almost a dirge being sung in Pakistan on the future of
Indo-Pak ties. Prime Minister AB Vajpayee’s bus journey to Lahore might
have been reciprocated with a Kargil by the treacherous Pakistani Army,
but the flamboyant, poetry-quoting and ever-smiling Indian Prime
Minister had stolen the hearts of quite a few Pakistanis.
“If
at all India and Pakistan can move towards lasting peace, it can be
only during a BJP prime minister’s reign” is the refrain I’ve heard in
Pakistan over the last two decades. Their reasoning is simple: the RSS
will never allow a Congress-led regime to shake hands with Pakistan.
Well,
after the nightmare of 26/11 unfolded in Mumbai, there was no way a
Congress-led UPA could hold any meaningful dialogue with any Pakistan
government. Forget the BJP or the RSS, the fury in this country and its
people who had watched on their TV screens that horror unfold over three
long days, would allow no dialogue with Pakistan.
A leap of faith
That was the past. Coming to the present, while one mostly heard voices
of horror in the Pakistani media over an impending Modi victory during
the campaign phase, in Karachi, the trade and industry lobby was
actually looking forward to a Modi victory. Well before the results came
out, Majyd Aziz, former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (KCCI), had written: “The buzz in the (Pakistani) bazaars
and in various trade organisations is that there would be a shift in the
Pakistani-specific thinking from Chief Minister Modi to Prime Minister
Modi.”
He had recalled how a KCCI delegation that
had met Modi in December 2011 in Ahmedabad had been assured that the
Gujarat chief minister wanted cordial relations with Pakistan. “He had
even said he was in favour of relaxing visa norms, particularly for
travel to the Ajmer dargah. Advising the power-starved Sindh
region to follow the Gujarat model of development in infrastructure,
drinking water availability and power generation, he had invited
Pakistani industrialists to establish textile units in Gujarat, telling
them the state had sufficient power and all facilities would be extended
to Pak investors.”
So what expectation does he, as a
textile industrialist, have from the Modi government now? “As a
Pakistani industrialist who has a zealous preference for liberalisation
of trade and investment between the two SAARC members, I think India now
has a pragmatic, corporate-minded, focused leader who will not
sacrifice the economy at the altar of parochial or dynastic politics.”
High expectations
Aziz
is willing to ignore the “rhetorical outbursts regurgitated by hawkish
elements within the BJP or its fundamentalist allies”. He believes Modi
has a “game plan ready to make India an economic powerhouse; he has
understood the dynamics of regional economic integration and this was
superbly manifested by his landmark invitation to SAARC leaders to
attend his swearing-in ceremony. A small step for diplomacy but a giant
leap for SAARC trade/investment process.”
How closely
a beleaguered Pakistan is watching the new ministry formation in India
can be seen from Aziz, an ethnic Gujarati whose parents had migrated
from Kathiawar, cheering well before the actual announcement “Modi’s
choice of Arun J and Nirmala S in Finance and Commerce”!
At
one level, it is scary to note that expectations from the Modi regime
are high not only in India but Pakistan too! This is a far cry from
Modi’s “Mian Musharraf” days and a significant example of the huge
transformation in the BJP leader and his swift journey from being a
divisive and polarising leader to the prime minister of a country as
diverse and pluralistic as India.
By a single stroke
and a diplomatic coup in inviting the SAARC leaders, including Sri
Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, sending into a tizzy Tamil Nadu
leaders, particularly Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who despite her
non-NDA status is an ally of sorts, Modi has made a huge symbolic
statement.
One who has travelled in the Indian
subcontinent is surely aware how hated India is among its smaller
neighbours, including Bangladesh which we had, ironically, “liberated”.
All of them call us “big brother”, in other words “big bully”. An Indian
Prime Minister who can change that idiom will surely have his name
etched memorably in history. Forget India and Indians, Modi, with his
overwhelming mandate and such a strong government that is not dependent
on any of its allies, has the unique opportunity of taking entire South
Asia on the path of development and prosperity even while changing the
fortunes of an India that was poised for an economic take-off a few
years ago, before it faltered, stumbled and fell off the global radar.
For
almost a decade now Indians have been waiting impatiently for their
lives to improve; and what ordinary Indians ask for is not much: a
decent education, a decent job, enough food in their homes and the
ability to live their lives in dignity, safety and peace. Hopefully in
all the pomp and glory and triumph of the colourful swearing-in
ceremony, the man who came from a humble background and fought against
all odds to reach 7 Race Course Road, will keep his gaze focused on
these millions of ordinary Indians even while he ends the policy
paralysis that corporate India has been asking for and unshackles the
power of a sleeping giant.
Only then will that giant
really awaken. Just like Rabindranath Tagore said: “Where the mind is
without fear and the head is held high…into that heaven of freedom my
Father, let my country awake.”
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