The third edition of 'The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in India’s Foreign Policy’ was launched at the India House, London on 29 November. The book is a compilation of essays, with contributions from analysts and practitioners, spanning across different nationalities and specialisations.
The Acting High Commission of India, Dinesh K Patnaik gave the opening remarks followed by a panel discussion and interactive session with the editors of the book Dr Anirban Ganguly, Director of Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Research Foundation and Dr Vijay Chaithaiwale, Head, BJP Foreign Affairs Division. The third panellist was Shishir Bajoria, Chairman and Managing Director, IFGL Group and the discussions were moderated by Manoj Ladwa, Founder and CEO, India Inc, India Global Business Magazine.
The academicians, diplomats and media personnel present wanted to discuss about the demonetisation drive by Modi – however, that topic was contained and more emphasis was laid on how much India has changed under the leadership of the present Modi government – which is what the book is about.
Dr Chaithaiwale introduced the contents, stating that it has touched upon strategic, tactical, cultural and defence issues. “What makes this book credible is the fact that out of the twenty-one-people involved in writing and editing the book, eleven of them are not attached to the party at all, they are professionals” said Chaithaiwale.
In Modi’s Doctrine, the authors discussed how the government has been taking initiatives to tightly integrated India’s domestic and foreign policies. Modi’s diplomatic engagements in the past two years focussed on building stronger ties with countries like Isreal, Iraq and the UAE; and has built on international collaborations to make progress with his Made in India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Skill India initiatives.
Chaithaiwale gave anecdotes of how this government is different to the previous governments. A person had planned his honeymoon without checking his wife’s passport that had expired during that time. He tweeted Modi about his dilemma and with a picture of him sitting alone. Modi tweeted back asking him to get in touch with the PMO’s office and renewed his wife’s passport within an hour. Shishir Bajoria said that “his twitter missions became proactive and that has helped businesses. Businesses between the UK and India has gone up,” said Bajoria.
Under this government inflation has been contained and successes in getting Foreign Direct Investment has helped businesses. Modernising the railways and activating the airfields in India will hugely help Indian businesses reach smaller towns across India, as per Bajoria. Referring to Modi’s initiatives to stop corruption Bajoria said “you need a leader to have the guts to take such drastic steps.”
The third edition has added chapters on Pakistan and China (that were missing from the previous editions) and Modi’s diplomatic and tactical engagements with India’s neighbours. “ Modi will not be a hard-liner with China,” said Ganguly. “He has encouraged companies like PTM, where China has a 40% share to invest in India. He also emphasised the need for collaborating with China in safeguarding the Indian Ocean and the South China seas.”
There has been no mention of India’s relationship with UK in the book since it was written before UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May’s recent visit. Ganguly however said that the expectations for improving trade is not very high, considering UK’s policies post BREXIT are still evolving so “taking businesses to the next level will need clarification from Britain.”
“There have however been pragmatic discussions about issuing visas to high skilled workers and student – to prevent them from moving to locations like Canada, Australia or the US,” he said.
He also said that the relationship between President Trump and Modi is bound to strengthen the Indo-US relations. He spoke about Trump being pro-Modi with the statement he made during his electoral campaign ‘Apki bar Trump Sarkar.’ “Besides, Trump has some good investments in India,” laughed Ganguly.
Ganguly mentioned a chapter in the book on Indo-Japanese relationship, reiterating the fact that it is of co-strategic interest to India; since the Japanese own most of the major nuclear energy companies. He spoke about Quadrilateral Naval exercises and strategic dialogues between Singapore, Japan, Australia and India that have gone off well.
CB Patel, Editor/Publisher of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar while complimenting the panel and the writers for so much positive inputs raised his concerns and said that all goodie goodie comments heard so far is very welcoming but such an intelligent panel should also raise some issues like any possible fault lines in this matter.
Ganguly responded by stating that the tremendous energy by the Modi government must be matched by improving delivery. That has not yet happened. “The time for rhetoric is over. FDIs have to come in by the summer of 2018, otherwise there will be a problem,” he said.
“The change in Modi’s perspective towards Pakistan and the South East has been radical. Last year there were discussions, meetings and peace initiatives between the governments; but after Pathankot and Uri incidents there have been no talks. Engagement with Pakistan in multi-lateral forums is vital – a back channel is missing and that is key,” signed off Ganguly.
