The Indian Panorama

Tag: S Jaishankar

  • Boris,beware the Ides of March!

    Boris,beware the Ides of March!

    • India’s External Affairs Ministers S Jaishankar made a strong statement in the Parliament that set the tone for the ensuing period of Indo-UK relations
    • Jaishankar’s statement came after a question about racism in the UK by an MP Ashwini Vaishnaw
    • Vaishnaw alleged that an Indian student and former president-elect of the Oxford University Student Union was “cyberbullied”
    By Prabhu Dayal

    It is indeed a cause of some concern that some mischievous, anti-India elements in the UK have an unambiguous agenda of pushing their country’s relationship with India on a downward spiral. These include Khalistan supporters and Kashmiri activists who have the backing of Pakistan’s ISI.  A series of unfortunate developments engineered by such elements have been threatening to derail the bilateral relationship.

    On the Ides of March (15th March), India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a strong statement in the Indian Parliament which set the tone for the ensuing period of Indo-UK relations. Jaishankar’s statement came after a question about racism in the UK by an MP Ashwini Vaishnaw who alleged that Rashmi Samant, a student from Karnataka and the former president-elect of the Oxford University Student Union, was “cyberbullied to the point that she had to resign (from the post).” Jaishankar said in his reply: “As the land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never ever turn our eyes away from racism wherever it is. Particularly so when it is in a country where we have such a large diaspora.”

    Through this statement, the Indian government sent out a message that if the British parliament can debate India’s internal affairs, so can the Indian parliament debate the internal affairs of Britain. Thus, the clear message sent by New Delhi to London is that the trend being witnessed in Britain to interfere in India’s internal affairs must be brought to an end or else it will adversely affect the growth of bilateral ties.

    It is indeed a cause of some concern that some mischievous, anti-India elements in the UK have an unambiguous agenda of pushing their country’s relationship with India on a downward spiral. These include Khalistan supporters and Kashmiri activists who have the backing of Pakistan’s ISI.  A series of unfortunate developments engineered by such elements have been threatening to derail the bilateral relationship.

    A quick review of recent events is needed to put matters in the correct perspective. Tension has slowly built up between some British political groups and the Indian Government in regard to the farmers protests in India. When British PM Boris Johnson was slated to come to India in January this year as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations, more than a hundred members of the British Parliament had signed a letter asking him to raise the concerns of India’s protesting farmers in his discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as also the “brute force” employed against them. However, Johnson had to cancel his visit due to the surge in the Coronavirus cases in the UK.  Later, as a follow up of a petition which was started by a UK Sikh activist Gurch Singh and signed by more than 1 lakh persons, the House of Commons had assigned 90 minutes for a debate on March 8, 2021 on matters relating to the farmers’ protests in India.  During this debate, several MPs from the Liberal Democrats, Labour Party and the Scottish National Party expressed concern about the safety of the farmers protesting against the agricultural laws on Delhi’s borders and the targeting of journalists covering the agitation. They made adverse comments against India over press freedom, freedom of speech and domestic values.

    The Indian High Commission in London issued a strong statement against these British Parliamentarians over their comments. The High Commission said that it would “normally refrain from commenting on an internal discussion involving a small group of Parliamentarians in a limited quorum. However, when aspersions are cast against India by anyone, there’s a need to set the record straight.”

    To further underline India’s displeasure, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla summoned the British High Commissioner and conveyed strong opposition to the unwarranted and tendentious discussion on India’s agricultural reforms in the British Parliament. The Foreign Secretary made it clear that this represented a gross interference in the politics of another democratic country. He advised that the British MPs should refrain from practicing vote bank politics by misrepresenting events, especially in relation to another fellow democracy.

    Thus Jaishankar’s ‘Ides of March’ statement in Parliament was a firm signal that the demarche made recently by the Foreign Secretary with the UK high commissioner last week was more than just a passing phenomenon. However, Jaishankar went on to say during the very same statement that “as a friend of the UK, we also have concerns about its reputational impact,” adding “What I do want to say is that we have strong ties with the UK (and) we will take up such matters with great candor when required.” The use of the expressions ‘a friend of the UK’ and ‘strong ties with the UK’ indicates that having made known his displeasure, he perhaps signaled the Indian Government’s willingness to put the relationship back on track.

     Notably, within a few hours of making his statement in Parliament yesterday, Minister Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla held talks covering bilateral ties and global cooperation with Lord Tariq Ahmad, the visiting UK Minister of State for South Asia. The talks assume a great deal of significance in view of the fact that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit India at the end of next month in what will be his first major international trip after Britain’s exit from the European Union and will be part of his efforts to boost the UK’s opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region.

    It is a truism that in diplomacy, overcoming the main threats to national interests must always override other concerns. India’s national interests are threatened by serious challenges such as the ongoing stand-off with China, the unending tension with Pakistan and the Covid-19 pandemic with its resultant slowing-down of the economy. No doubt, at this critical juncture, India can ill-afford a deterioration in its relationship with the UK, but the latter must also realize that the reverse is equally true. Hopefully, the combination of tough posturing and deft diplomacy by India will perhaps be able to put things back on track.

    (The author is a retired Indian diplomat)

    (Courtesy OPOYI)

  • Pakistan offers Lanka $15-mn credit line for defence coop

    Pakistan offers Lanka $15-mn credit line for defence coop

    Islamabad (TIP): Pakistan has sought to replicate India’s offer for security and development cooperation with Sri Lanka during its PM Imran Khan’s two-day visit to Colombo.

    Pakistan offered Sri Lanka a defence line of credit of $15 million and pitched for the extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Khan made the offer after being received by his counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa at the airport and given a red-carpet welcome accompanied by a 19-gun salute India too has been offering defence line of credit and activating different types of connectivity projects with neighbouring countries. However, New Delhi’s bid to start a container project in Sri Lanka has not borne fruit so far despite an in-person visit by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to wrap up its loose ends. Though Pakistan has supplied arms to Sri Lanka, India has far substantial footprints of security and defence cooperation as well as much greater economic and developmental involvement. “Pakistan is part of the One Belt and Road initiative of China, and CPEC is one of its flagship programmes. And it means connectivity,” said Imran Khan. — TNS

  • Biden-Modi phone call

    The overhang of human rights on strategic ties

    Any new leader’s first lot of overseas visits and phone calls, the latter more so during the pandemic, give a realistically accurate insight into his foreign policy priorities. It is significant that India figured on the first list of phone calls only by the new US Defense Secretary and the NSA. Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke to S Jaishankar after he had touched base with counterparts of several non-G20 countries. If the low ranking in phone calls by US principals to Indian counterparts seemed to suggest that South Asia was not a priority operational theatre for the White House, the anxiety was laid to rest by the wide-ranging topics covered in the Biden-Modi phone call.

    The diplomatic bandwidth Biden has sought to cover with Modi is much wider than the security-defense straitjacket Trump imposed on India-US relations. Understandably, climate change and rebuilding the global economy are back in the mix. Quad, an informal group the US is promoting as a bulwark against China, should now embrace all the three pillars it espouses — political and commercial, in addition to military activity in the Indo-Pacific. Biden reiterated his commitment to work together against terrorism, but there are riders attached. The PM’s fulsome praise for Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha indicates that South Block has picked up signals from the State Department about the new US dispensation’s inclination for reduction in tensions along the LoC and in Kashmir.

    However, the Hindutva brigade’s aggressive response to Western criticism of insensitivity in handling the farmers’ protests failed to impress the White House, which has highlighted Biden’s desire to ‘defend democratic institutions and norms’. Democrats in the past did not appreciate the CAA and the Kashmir lockdown either. With China at the gates, it may be a bit late in the day for South Block to dial down the growing strategic reliance on Washington and walk its path at the same time. The resolution of the protesting farmers’ issues may be a good cue to invigorate Indo-US ties under a dispensation with a penchant to use human rights as a diplomatic tool.

    (Tribune, India)

  • Ahead of Budget Session, BJP leaders meet; Oppn to corner govt over farm laws, China

    Ahead of Budget Session, BJP leaders meet; Oppn to corner govt over farm laws, China

    New Delhi (TIP): Top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders met at Union minister Rajnath Singh’s residence on Wednesday, Jan 20,  to discuss the strategy for parliament’s Budget Session from January 29. The party is preparing to face a belligerent Opposition seeking to corner the government on the farm laws, the Chinese aggression and the leaked WhatsApp messages of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting virtually on January 30. The Opposition’s demands and the government’s legislative plans for the session are expected to be discussed at the meeting. All party meetings are customary affairs before every parliament session.

    A BJP functionary said the Opposition will raise the issue of protests against the three farm laws passed in September even as the government has maintained repeatedly that they benefit the farmers and that the provisions of the legislation were suggested by several parties including the Congress.

    “The Congress has been misleading the farmers by alleging that the laws will benefit cooperates but the truth is that they themselves had made similar suggestions such as abolishing the APMC [Agricultural Produce Market Committee] Act when they were in power,” said the functionary, who did not want to be named.

    Union ministers S Jaishankar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Pralhad Joshi, and Thawar Chand Gehlot were among others who attended the meeting.

    The Congress has said it will raise the issue of Goswami’s chats during the session. The opposition has suggested the leaked messages point to collusion and leak of classified security information. The Congress has accused Modi and top ministers of violating the Official Secrets Act and demanded a probe and action against those who allegedly leaked sensitive information to Goswami.

    BBC apologises for ‘incomplete’ India map after complaint

    The BBC has  apologised for any offence caused and rectified what it termed as the mistaken use of an inaccurate map of India, which had the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir entirely missing, triggering a formal letter of complaint by Labour Party MP Virendra Sharma.

    In a video broadcast about President-elect Joe Biden on BBC World Service entitled ‘US Election 2020: What do countries around the world want from Joe Biden’, the graphic depicting the map of India was incompletely highlighted in red with the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir missing.

    Sharma, who is also chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), termed the action as “deeply insulting” in a letter addressed to the Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Tim Davie, and called for an explanation of the editorial guidelines followed.

    IFFCO ranks first among top 300 cooperatives of the world

    The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has stepped up to 65th position in overall turnover ranking from 125th position in last financial year and now is at the top spot among 300 leading cooperatives in the world, according to an official release.

    The ranking is based on the ratio of turnover over the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

    “It signifies that IFFCO is contributing significantly to the GDP and economic growth of the Nation. It relates the turnover of the enterprise to the wealth of the country according to the 2020 edition of the 9th Annual World Cooperative Monitor (WCM) report published by International Cooperative Alliance (ICA),” IFFCO said. IFFCO with more than 36,000 member cooperatives and a group turnover of nearly 7 billion dollars, it is amongst the biggest cooperative institutions in the world, it said.

    Dr U S Awasthi, MD, IFFCO said it is a proud moment for IFFCO and cooperative as well.

    “A great achievement for all of us in the Indian cooperative movement. At IFFCO, we are always committed to the growth of farmers across the country and strengthening the Indian Cooperative movement. We believe in innovation as it is the key to success. I congratulate everyone at IFFCO and the entire cooperative fraternity of the country for this big achievement,” he said.