BY D.C. PATHAK
INDIA presently is in the midst of efforts by the Narendra Modi Government to reach a new high in building international relations, maintain domestic peace in the face of a planned attempt of hostile forces within and abroad to push the country towards a serious communal divide and establish once again - in the run-up to the next general election - the image and strength of India as the world’s largest democracy. India’s Presidency of G20, the challenge posed by the rise of minority politics at home and the concerted campaign of opposition parties including the regional entities against the ruling dispensation, all cumulatively add to the need for effective and firm governance in the country in the pre-election year.
Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy initiatives have enhanced India’s image abroad and have also delivered on trade and economic relations, but the regime seems to be facing an increasing challenge in the area of internal security and stability because of divisive and disruptive politics at home and the organised attempts of anti-India forces within and outside of the country to build a narrative that India was moving towards an authoritarian, majoritarian and non-secular rule. Since the Modi Government’s development agenda is in full swing and its schemes for the less privileged have also made an impact, the Opposition was taking to finding fault with the democratic content of the present dispensation at the Centre and alleging misuse of coercive instruments of the state by the regime to selectively run down the leaders of other parties. India however, is used to the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ asserting itself in all critical situations and there is little doubt that in a national poll, people would make a sound judgement on the integrity of the Modi Government, its political will in safeguarding national security and the sincerity of its efforts to develop the country economically.
India has made its G20 Presidency an event with a difference- its motto ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘World is one family’ setting the note for a global mission that India wished to pursue on this forum. On the initiative of Prime Minister Modi various international conferences in the run-up to the G20 Summit in September are being held at different locations across India to give the visitors a feel of the vastness, cultural richness and development, of this country and to spread the awareness among the people here, of the big strides India was taking to make its presence felt international.
Three distinct features of G20 attract attention - the rise of India as a major power in the world with considerable influence on issues of global peace and development, the continuity of the policy of bilateral relations extended to a multilateral format that guaranteed mutually beneficial outcomes for both security and economic advancement and the designing of G20 events in a manner that would promote domestic growth. India is already the leading power in South Asia and the G20 presidency has provided it with an opportunity of gaining the leadership of the South by propounding the cause of the less developed countries across the entire range of issues from economic support to an equal say in environment protection. Nine of the twenty G20 members and as many as seven of the nine invitees represent the South and India has done well to have deliberations on the specific matters of concern affecting them.
G20 meetings being held in Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir convey among other things, India’s assertive answer to China and Pakistan who had been raising a dispute about these territories. The domestic scene in India has for some time been subjected to communal divide, regional centrifugalism and politics of allegations about the style of functioning of the Modi Government. During the Modi regime forces in the Opposition have constantly accused the former of promoting ‘majoritarianism’ for pushing the country towards Hindu rule and tried to build a narrative- in many cases in conjunction with anti-India lobbies abroad - that the minorities were feeling ‘unprotected’ under the present Government.
The failure of an individual State Government on the law and order front in any case of targeted public violence against individuals was unfairly blamed totally on the Centre - in disregard of the fact that the State was autonomous in handling crime and order in the Constitutional scheme of things. The threat to the internal security and stability of India is aggravated by the propaganda offensive of Pakistan alleging that the Muslim minority here was unsafe under the Modi rule and the attempt of that country to raise this question at the Organisation of Islamic Conference(OIC) on the plea that Muslims of India were part of ‘Ummah’ to which the entire Muslim world particularly Pakistan stood committed. Pakistan, supported by China, has voiced its opposition to the abrogation of Art 370 by the Indian Parliament, at the United Nations and implicitly projected Kashmir as a ‘Muslim issue’. India has taken appropriate measures on diplomatic, political and domestic fronts to counter the narrative floated by the adversaries. In recent years, the communal divide has been exploited by anti-India forces within and outside of the country to foster faith-based militancy to foment terrorism in India and enlarge the ambit of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir as well by injecting a religion-linked motivation.
The pro-Pak lobbies in India and abroad have continued to abstain from naming Pakistan for cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and have in fact joined hands in fomenting Muslim separatism by alleging that the Modi Government was deviating from the democratic path, by voicing opposition to the current policy of ‘no talks with Pakistan’ and by even deprecating the advocacy of nationalism by the present regime. Ever since the Sino-Pak axis has become aggressive against India, external threats to India’s internal security had multiplied- the two hostile neighbours were using their potential to fish in the troubled waters of India.
The pre-election year is crucial both for testing the rise of India as a global power and evaluating the Modi Government’s success in governance at home. The presidency of G20 and the dynamic framework in which its international conferences had been planned would certainly equip India with unprecedented potential as a world power, make it the fastest growing economy, a tourist destination of repute and an attractive market for investment and would also reaffirm its democratic foundations. Pakistan and China, the two hostile neighbours, would engage in putting down India’s image as a self-supportive, secular and peace-loving democracy. However, the reform-oriented, growth driven and welfare-minded rule of Prime Minister Modi is moving ahead along a nationalist path, undeterred by the distracting narratives built by anti-India forces within the country and outside.