Columns
India’s vision for a ‘Commonwealth of Asia’ – where Sri Lanka matters
View(s):
The assurance given by India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to her Sri Lankan counterpart Prof G L Peiris recently that India opposed the UN probe on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, may have indicated to Colombo that the new dispensation in Delhi wanted better ties with its southern neighbour, looking beyond issues that have dogged the relationship in recent years. That message was reiterated, in different ways, by members of a team of intellectuals with close links to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Colombo recently.
Part of the significance of this track-two initiative by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, that invited the delegation, was that it brought to light the larger context, the ‘grander vision’ against which India’s approach to Sri Lanka is being shaped by the new Indian government. In this scheme of things the tremendous hope for ‘better times’ in India, signalled by the BJP’s stunning electoral victory led by Narendra Modi, is inextricably tied up with the stability and prosperity of its neighbours. The views expressed at the panel discussion on ‘India under Modi – Relevance for the Region and the World’ reflected also the complexity of the challenge faced by the regional superpower in its bid to achieve its ambitious goals.
Asia as a region
The importance of the neighbourhood in Modi’s foreign policy template was signalled from the outset in his gesture of inviting the SAARC leaders to attend his swearing in. But it seems the vision goes beyond South Asia. “There has to be a new Commonwealth of Asia,” said Seshadri Chari, who heads the BJP’s Foreign Policy Cell. This meant including all of South East Asia. Asia as a region has the most contiguous topography (“from Ankara to Bali is one straight line”) but this contiguous region is also the most divided in terms of language, culture, religion, civilisational beginnings and systems of government he said. This posed a challenge, one where India and Sri Lanka had a role to play. “Sri Lanka is the guardian of the Indian Ocean for India. India’s security and prosperity depends on security and prosperity in Sri Lanka.”
Dr Chari observed that Asian countries, with the exception of China, failed to re-calibrate foreign policy in response to changes that took place when the Cold War era’s bi-polarity was replaced by a uni-polar world, which is now giving way to a situation of multi-polarity. This was a recurring theme of the discussion.
New global architecture
The architecture of the world had not changed since the end of World War II, said Madhav Nalapat, a professor of geopolitics. The US was the dominant factor, the EU was a secondary partner, and there was no other partner. Whether it was a case of the IMF where voting rights of India and China were lower than those of several European countries, or decision making in the UN Security Council where a majority belonged to one military alliance — NATO, it was the same powers that prevailed. Referring to the recent BRICS summit in Brazil where the alliance’s members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa signed a deal to form a BRICS Development Bank, Prof Nalapat said Modi agreed to having its headquarters in Shanghai in the interests of creating a ‘viable new architecture.’
“In this multi-polar world Sri Lanka has an important role” he asserted. In 2009 Mahinda Rajapaksa did not give in to pressures to ‘give certain individuals one more chance.’ There is a clear message in that kind of independence coming at a time when the unipolar world is on the wane. “Sri Lanka’s independent foreign policy is appreciated by Modi,” Nalapat said.
Economic resurgence
Former Union minister Dr. Suresh Prabhu expressing hopes for a revitalised SAARC said India could be a growth engine not only for itself but for its neighbours. The centrality of economic resurgence to the new dynamic at work in India was highlighted by journalist Swapan Dasgupta too. With a million entering the workforce each month and an urgent need to generate incomes, Modi’s main priority is unequivocally economic, he said. “It’s this very matter-of-fact, urgent business style – very Gujerati. That’s the DNA that will define Modi.”
In relation to Sri Lanka he asserted the importance of the principle that the problems of Sri Lanka are for Sri Lanka to resolve, and that multilateral agencies have marginal or no role in resolving conflicts within societies. None in the BJP team articulated this view more forcefully than Subramanian Swamy, who chairs the party’s Committee on Strategic Action. He said the targeting of Sri Lanka on human rights had gone too far. “We are very proud of your president for decisively finishing a sinister terror organisation that was a threat to our country too” Dr Swamy said, to applause.
Working together in the UN
In the past ten years, policy on Sri Lanka had suffered from a ‘veto’ exercised by the government and principal parties of Tamil Nadu. But election results do not show that people regard this as a major issue, or even a minor issue, he said. The hardliners were defeated, some very badly. Asserting that national interests will supersede state interests in the matter of foreign policy, Swamy urged that Indo-Sri Lanka relations be de-linked from Tamil Nadu and the Tamil problem. “It can be one of the problems, but the major problem is economic development, cooperation and working together in the UN and other places.” Warning that Tamils who are apprehensive should not be allowed to fall victim to those who would encourage them to pick up arms again, he said India as a friend of Sri Lanka would only bring up these issues in private.
India’s foreign policy imperatives as revealed in these several remarks by the BJP stalwarts would seem to bring a perspective on Sri Lanka wherein its internal problems recede into the background somewhat. India under Modi is concerned with bigger ideas, such as ‘creating an Asian personality for the global power structure.’ And in that project, India sees Sri Lanka as an important partner.