As Prime Minister, he devoted his first Independence Day speech to inviting foreign capital to come and ‘make in India’. Now Narendra Damodardas Modi has used the first Republic Day celebration of his government to demonstrate his government’s readiness to accommodate US demands and blandish his million-rupee pinstripe suit, tailored in UK, that had his name embroidered all over. It seems Modi is however not the first to set a precedent by wearing such a suit. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ousted President, had apparently already worn his name on his sleeves to deny Modi the opportunity to create a world record. Unfortunately for Modi, narcissism and megalomania are also subject to competition.
Observers of Indo-US relations have noted all the ‘right steps’ the Modi government has been taking from day one to impress the US. From decontrolled pharmaceutical prices and US-friendly patent norms announced before and during Modi’s US trip to increased FDI in insurance, easier land-grab policy and vastly reduced food security cover and all such steps taken or recommended on the eve of Obama’s Republic Day visit to India, the Modi government has gone all out to satisfy the Americans. Freeing American suppliers of liabilities in case of any damage inflicted by their reactors on the Indian people has been the latest concession offered during Obama’s R-Day visit. Modi and his men now hope that US will now expedite nuclear and military supplies to India.
Modi and his propagandists would like us to believe that foreign policy is more about the ‘personal chemistry’ among leaders of different countries than about dealing with the global economy and geo-political pulls and pressures. Modi went so far as to say that we need not bother about the text (commas and full stops, in his words) of agreements and joint statements, for the personal chemistry of leaders can obviate or transcend the limits set by such texts. India’s experience from the early Nehruvian years of non-alignment through the Indira era of Indo-Soviet friendship to the current phase of strategic subservience to the US, clearly shows that the text and the fine print are of decisive importance in matters pertaining to the foreign policy, no matter whether the policy is conducted with the near-robotic manner of a Manmohan Singh or the melodramatic exuberance of a Narendra Modi.
As the hype over the so-called Modi-Obama ‘personal chemistry’ dies down, what will really matter are the concessions granted and promised to the US in the nucIear deal and other agreements and the implications in India’s neighbourhood of the growing convergence between Washington’s Asian design and New Delhi’s ‘Act East’ policy. By making Indian insurance companies subsidise US and other Nuke MNCs in case of an accident, and insulating these suppliers from the risk of being sued by victims of a disaster, the Modi Government has rendered Indian citizens more at risk of such disasters. This is because Nuke Corporations that are confident that burdens of accidents will be borne by the Indian taxpayer, are likely to cut costs on safety provisions in reactors.
In the sixty-six years of India’s republican existence, this was the first time an American President was present as the guest of honour at the Republic Day parade. Ram Madhav, the RSS spokesperson turned BJP General Secretary, says that having watched the military parade dominated by old Russian supplies Obama would now feel an urgency to step up American military imports to India. This is the comprador mindset hiding behind the ‘make in India’ slogan that redefines ‘national dignity’ only in terms of US certificates and ‘national interest’ only through the prism of so-called ‘natural’ alliance with the US.
As far as the Indian people are concerned, the Republic Day marks, first and foremost, the anniversary of the adoption of India’s Constitution. Hence it should be an occasion to assess the country’s progress in terms of the rights and liberties of the citizens rather than in terms of the power and achievements of the state. Over the years, successive governments have made it more into a show of the state – marked by a military parade with some civilian adjunct in the form of officially approved glimpses of ‘Indian culture and public life’ – rather than a celebration of common citizens. With the RSS at the helm, the cultural display in this year’s Republic Day parade acquired unmistakable religious overtones, with even a state like Jharkhand represented by temples than its rich history and diverse heritage.
Heightened assault on constitutional rights and liberties of the working people, systematic suppression of dissent and attempted homogenization of India’s pluralist cultural legacy pose serious threats to the essence of the secular and democratic republic proclaimed in the Constitution. Defying the hype and fiction of the ‘Namobama’ chemistry, the time has come for all of us join and win the battle for the essence of the Indian republic defeating the forces of communal division, corporate plunder and comprador capitulation.
