Message of PM Modi’s West Asian tour
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour of Arab West Asia conveyed a clear message to his hosts: that India’s policy in the region was inclusive, that it was aimed at strengthening bilateral ties through trade, investment, energy cooperation, improved market access, cultural and educational exchanges and, not least, the well-being of its huge workforce in the Gulf.. In this day and age diplomacy cannot afford to be a zero sum game. Sentiment and the national interest go hand in hand, playing to strengths of each party even as they address identifiable deficits as they go forward.
On his stopover in Ramallah for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, the Indian Prime Minister made it abundantly clear that there was no change in the traditional Indian position that a sovereign Palestine in peaceful co-existence with Israel within secure borders was his country’s goal. Its reaffirmation came at a particularly opportune moment when the Palestinian leadership has rejected any role for the United States as an interlocutor in an overall peace settlement with Israel. President Abbas and his colleagues look to a range of possible interlocutors, from the European Union, Russia to India and other countries enjoying the trust of both the parties.
Mr Modi was accorded an enthusiastic reception at Ramallah from the entire Palestinian leadership on his arrival from Jordan where had been warmly received by King Abdullah followed by fruitful talks on a host of economic and political issues. President Abbas said: ‘We rely on India’s role as an international voice of great standing and weight through its historical role… and its increasingly growing power on the strategic and economic levels.’
The Palestine Ambassador to India Adnan Abu Alhaija told an Indian newspaper that ‘We are very happy when Indian leaders visit Palestine. And this is a very special occasion. This is historic. This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister is visiting Palestine.’ The message is we will treat you as separate entity.
Following his talks with President Abbas, Modi, replying to President Abbas, said: ‘Only diplomacy and farsightedness can set us free from the violence and baggage of the past. We know it is not easy but we need to keep trying as a lot is at stake. We hope for peace and stability in Palestine. We believe a permanent solution is possible with dialogue.’ The Prime Minister was awarded the highest award for foreign dignitaries for his contribution to the betterment of Indo-Palestine relationship.
The two sides signed six agreements worth $50 million, including the setting up of a $30 million super specialist hospital at Beir Sahur. Agreements were also signed for the building of schools, a diplomatic training centre and a women’s empowerment and training centre.
Jetting off to the United Arab Emirates, Prime Minister Modi in a speech at Dubai spoke appropriately of technology, since it is to technology innovation and engineering that this marvel of a city owes its improbable existence in the middle of a desert. Hailing this extraordinary creation to human skill and imagination, the Prime Minister described the city as a ’miracle.’
During his address to the World Government Summit’s plenary session, Mr Modi stressed the importance of assimilating technology, and together with governance make equitable growth and and prosperity for all, a reality. In this regard, he pointed to technology as a transformative agent in the construction of the new India. He told his audience that India was aspiring to acquire a leadership position in Artificial Intelligence, Nano, cyber-security and cloud computing. However, he admitted the scale of poverty and want in Indian was a hurdle that remained to be surmounted.
He said: ‘It is a matter of pride for not only me but also the 125 crore [1.25 billion] people of India that I have been invited as the Chief Guest at the World Government Summit,’ Mr Modi concluded.
The Summit was attended by more than 4,000 delegates from 140 countries. The host was Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Mahtoum, Vice President of the UAE and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. Mr Modi travelled to Oman and Muscat and sealed a strategic partnership with the UAE, including anti-terror cooperation and joint naval exercises in the Gulf.
Wither Congress? Urgent need for credibility
The Congress party is at the crossroads: Having plumbed the depths in the 2014 general election when its seats in Parliament (the Lok Sabha) fell to a derisory 44 from 206, it has struggled since to recover lost ground. It has made some headway, by winning back Punjab and performing well in the Rajasthan municipal polls, may perhaps, hold onto power in Karnataka in the forthcoming State Assembly elections; the party’s cumulative parliamentary seats are likely to increase by 70, in opinion polls are to be believed. Such gains, from the current low base are insufficient grounds of a possible surge, making the party a serious contender for power in Delhi.
The first step on the comeback trail would have to be a gain of at least 100 seats at the next general election in mid 2019. Anything less would rank as failure. As things stand at present, Congress young bucks are proving to be achievers. Its Rajasthan President Sachin Pilot proved his mettle in the local elections across towns and countryside. Indeed, it might be a different ball game if Congress put Mr Pilot’s name forward as its candidate as prime minister, with Gandhi remaining as party President. Their senior colleague Anand Sharma, a competent minister during his time in the Manmohan Singh regime, is a wise and experienced hand.
Congress failure thus far lies in the dynastic leadership of Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia. The latter’s attempts to stitch an opposition alliance against the ruling BJP appears to have fallen on stony ground. India’s experience with patchwork coalitions have hovered between calamity and disaster. On past evidence they surrender under the pressure of competing egos and ambitions.
Moving to Rahul Gandhi: he keeps snapping and snarling on the heels of Narendra Modi day and night, mostly on generalities in hectic schedules with little time think on the big national issues, whether they relate to economics, politics or national security. Does Mr Gandhi have a panel of expert advisors on national issues or, as it seems, does he speaks on the hoof? His best bet is to concentrate on the 2024 general election, to plan and organize for the long haul. The chances of his party making a serious impact this time round looks slim. A solid two-party system at its core is what India’s democracy needs most.
Poland’s state of denial
The Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people was the greatest crime in human history. Its scale and meticulous cold blooded planning make it so. It remains a blot that can never be expunged from the written or spoken word. Alarmingly, that is what the far right populist government in Poland sees to do by passing a law condemning any citizen to a term of imprisonment for questioning Polish society’s innocence in this crime of crimes. Germany which bears prime responsibility for the Holocaust has long accepted its collective guilt and made atonement.
Not so Poland. Its pre-war regime with Colonel Josef Beck, its leading voice, made a deal with Hitler, which backfired when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, triggering the Second World War.
The first act of a sovereign Poland undertook in the immediate aftermath of the First World War was an attack on the fledging Soviet Republic by Marshal Pilsudski’s army. The invaders were driven back to Warsaw, before urgent military help from Poland’s British and French patrons stemmed, and then, reversed the tide. A revanchist Poland, seemingly buoyed by its self-image (promoted in Washington, London, Paris and Brussels), as an outpost of Western civilization has against an uncivilized East, represented by Russia has clearly inebriated Poland’s political class to a point of near insanity. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s Law and Justice Party, bit between its teeth, may be casting a covetous eye on Western Ukraine, which it hopes, as Pilsudski and his ilk had once hoped, unsuccessfully, to incorporate into the fantastical Greater Poland.
Another war on the European continent arising out of a crusade against the perceived Russian infidel would be a disaster beyond imagining. This outpost of ‘Western Civilization’ will have created an inferno many times worse than that of Iraq. The price of folly transcends the praise of folly.
