By Inder Jit
India’s image in the West shines brighter than ever before. Goodwill for the country is clearly on the upswing. This is the broad impression of a seven-week visit to Europe, which took me West Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Britain and Yugoslavia, where I joined the President, Giani Zail Singh, on his State visit to Greece and Poland. Increasing admiration for our people and democracy is not limited to West Germany from where I reported last. It extends equal to Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, Edinburgh, Belgrade, Athens, Warsaw and Cracow, the native home of the present Pope. As in Bonn, India is considered “a great and stable democracy”, which has met repeated challenges successfully and proven its mettle. In fact, every capital visited including London, appeared eager to strengthen its friendly ties with New Delhi. Industrialised countries are today looking desperately for new pastures. India offers “a fantastic market with an unrivalled potential.”
There was appreciation everywhere of success achieved by India in economic development — and importantly of the pragmatic policy of liberalisation introduced by Mr Rajiv Gandhi then. However, it was felt that a lot more remained to be done for India to take off. Liberalisation had been limited mainly to imports of computers and some high tech items. Happily, a record number of foreign collaborations (about 1,000) had been cleared during the past year. But the outlook still left a great deal to be desired, particularly in the fields of industry and communication. Experts on India pointed out that Japan had in the same period cleared some 5,000 collaboration agreements and paid $2 billion for import of technology! There was urgent need for the Government and the industry to work hand in hand and eschew the path of confrontation. Japan’s basic success lay in the fact that the country functioned essentially as “Japan Inc.” — a well-integrated single organisation. Frequent changes in the Indian Cabinet, especially of Ministers holding key economic portfolios, baffled observers even as they lauded Mr Gandhi and his policies.
India’s image in the West shines brighter than ever before. Goodwill for the country is clearly on the upswing. This is the broad impression of a seven-week visit to Europe, which took me West Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Britain and Yugoslavia, where I joined the President, Giani Zail Singh, on his State visit to Greece and Poland.
Our country is no less appreciated for its role in global affairs. Non-alignment was denounced by John Foster Dulles as “immoral”. But today it is warmly appreciated in the European capitals. Even countries that are members of NATO or of the Warsaw Pact see it as a positive force for peace and for the survival of the world, which today hovers on the brink of a nuclear disaster. Austria and Sweden are known to be neutral. But top authorities in Vienna and Stockholm emphatically told me that their countries were not passively neutral in the traditional or Swiss sense of the term but “actively neutral”. Explained top Foreign Office spokesmen in almost identical terms in the two capitals: “We may not be members of the Non-Aligned Movement. But we are not fence-sitters. We, too, judge global issues on merit and take a stand.” In fact, Austria attended the NAM summit at Harare as an Observer and Sweden as a Guest. Non-alignment, let it be remembered, is the projection of a country’s independence at home to independence abroad.
The NAM summit figured prominently in discussions in all the capitals visited and, more especially, in the frank and useful talks which Giani Zail Singh had with President Sinan Hasani and Prime Minister Mikulic of Yugoslavia, President Sarzetakis and Prime Minister Papandreau of Greece and President Jaruzelski of Poland. All five foreign dignitaries warmly praised Mr Rajiv Gandhi for his leadership at Harare and wished India every success as head of the Africa Fund. They also requested Mr. B. Shankaranand, Minister Accompanying, personally to convey their felicitations to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi for his “dynamic leadership”. In fact, President Hasani candidly told me at his state banquet for Giani Zail Singh in the glittering Federation House: “Your Prime Minister played a key role at Harare. Much of its success is due to him.” This feeling was voiced earlier by Mr. Lazar Mojsov, Vice-President of the Yugoslav Presidency, during an hour long talk I had with him a day prior to the Giani’s arrival. Mr. Mojsov, formerly Yugoslav’s successful Foreign Minister, is due to take over as the country’s President in mid-May next year.
There was appreciation everywhere of success achieved by India in economic development — and importantly of the pragmatic policy of liberalisation introduced by Mr Rajiv Gandhi then.
Beograd, as Belgrade is called by the Yugoslavs, lays great store by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi in further strengthening the Non-Aligned Movement and giving it the required moral thrust as originally envisioned by NAM’s three founders: Nehru, Tito and Nasser. Belgrade has no illusions about the state of the movement and its global clout. The Movement has grown more than four-fold in the past 25 years. It has today 101 members as against 24 at the first NAM summit in Belgrade in 1961. But its basic strength has not grown four-fold. If anything, the Movement enjoys much less influence today since the quality of its non-aligned membership has got greatly diluted and so also its adherence to fundamental principles enunciated jointly by Nehru, Tito and Nasser. NAM, to mention but one point, has failed to do anything actively to end Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, one of the founding members of the Movement, even as it has set up all manner of committees and commissions for other issues. India’s Chairmanship of NAM has, no doubt, succeeded in putting the Movement back on the rails. However, much still remains to be done.
Chernobyl has made Europe sit up and has created consciousness of the havoc that a nuclear war or even a nuclear mishap could cause. In this context, the six-nation five-continent initiative at India’s instance came in for special mention. Athens and so also Belgrade and Warsaw favour some “operationalising” of the six-nation initiative in which both India and Greece are involved. Various ideas for follow-up were thrown up during the talks. It was proposed that the six nations should send a delegation to Washington and Moscow to impress upon the two super powers the urgent need to resume the Reykjavic Summit. Or. to send a communication on behalf of the six to the US President, Mr Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mr Gorbachev. Or, to convene a summit of the six to emphasise the importance of a new constructive move in the present delicate situation. In Stockholm, top authoritative sources agreed that the time had come for the six nations to even act as an honest broker for bringing about disarmament. Perhaps, Mr Rajiv Gandhi could sound Mr Gorbachev on the suggestion during the latter’s visit to New Delhi next week.
Economic issues no less dominate thinking and talk in Europe where various countries are now trying hard to enlarge their slice of the global trade. India, as I said earlier, is seen as “a fantastic market with an unrivalled potential”. True, we are stated to have still some 40 per cent of our population living below the poverty line. But even 400m of our 750m constitute one of the best markets in the world. All three countries visited by the President expressed an earnest desire to enlarge the area of economic cooperation. In Belgrade both India and Yugoslavia frankly admitted that they and Egypt had done precious little to implement the Tripartite Agreement signed by them some 15 years earlier to increase economic cooperation.
The Yugoslav President, Mr Hasani, candidly agreed with me that all talk of South-South-cooperation would be meaningless if close friends like India and Yugoslavia were unable to step up trade and other economic ties between them. Fortunately, representatives of the three countries have now agreed to meet in Cairo at an early date to strengthen tripartite cooperation between them.
The President’s tour of the three countries was timely and useful. In fact, it was the first ever visit by the President of India to Greece, a country with which it has many historical and emotional ties. We missed meeting the Prime Mr Papandreau. However, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Kazolos Papulious, described the visit as “very successful” and the results “very, very good”. He added: “Now a new chapter has been opened. There are tremendous possibilities of cooperation, even in the technological field… Not necessarily highest level of technology, but technology which can be absorbed. An example? We have gone for production of Jeeps with your Indian firm of Mahindra & Mahindra. The project is coming along well. It marks the beginning of such cooperation…” Jeeps are shipped to Greece in a knocked down condition and assembled by a joint venture Company with an overseas equity participation by Mahindra & Mahindra of 55 per cent. Consignments of eight jeeps each have been exported already to Italy, West Germany, Sweden and Spain. Two Jeeps were shown to the President at his hotel in Athens since he was unable to visit the pioneering plant at Orchomenos on the road to Delphi.
Formal visits by heads of State have their built-in limitations, as seen by me from the ringside over the past three decades and more. (It was my privilege to accompany India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, to Malaysia and Indonesia in 1958 — and subsequently to accompany Dr Zakir Hussain to Yugoslavia and Hungary in 1967 and Mr Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to Indonesia in 1974.) Much of the time is spent during these State visits in pious platitudes. Nonetheless, these visits have their use and are known on occasions to have contributed to strengthening understanding and bringing the two countries closer. Dr Zakir Hussain’s visit to Belgrade and Brioni and his talks with President Tito three years after Nehru’s demise proved to be a shot in the arm for non-alignment. This time, too, Giani Zail Singh appears to have helped to bring closer not only New Delhi and Belgrade but also New Delhi and Athens and New Delhi and Warsaw. Aided by interpreters, Giani Zail Singh made his meetings with the three Presidents and two Prime Ministers both cordial and purposeful. Indeed, a rapport which should be helpful to New Delhi was also established in all the three capitals.
Economic issues no less dominate thinking and talk in Europe where various countries are now trying hard to enlarge their slice of the global trade. India, as I said earlier, is seen as “a fantastic market with an unrivalled potential”. True, we are stated to have still some 40 per cent of our population living below the poverty line. But even 400m of our 750m constitute one of the best markets in the world.
Giani Zail Singh was at his best throughout the tour. He was full of earthy humility, robust commonsense and good humour. On informal occasions, he often departed from the official text, which enabled him to win friends instantly as, for instance, at a delightful function of the Indo-Polish Friendship Society in Warsaw. (An attractive Polish girl performed Kuchipudi, another girl read out an Urdu ghazal and a young man recited Iqbal’s famous poem: Saare Jahan Se Achcha..). Interestingly, the Giani recalled that efforts to forge friendship between the peoples went back to 1939. That year, an Indo-Polish Cultural Society was established in Calcutta with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore as Honorary President and Dr S. Radhakrishnan as President. The Society in Poland has 17 branches and 5,000 members. Popular interest was aroused whenever any function took the Giani among the people. All in all, the visit added up to mini Festivals of India in the three countries and helped promote a favourable image. It is now for New Delhi to take advantage of the goodwill generated to strengthen economic, cultural and other ties. — INFA