Ø Seven
years after the State Department was restructured to ‘de-hyphenate’ U.S.
relations with India and with Pakistan, it is considering a reversal of the
move. De-hyphenating refers to a policy started by the U.S. government under
President Bush, but sealed by the Obama administration, of dealing with India
and Pakistan in different silos, without referring to their bilateral
relations. It enabled the U.S. to build closer military and strategic ties with
India without factoring in the reaction from Pakistan, and to continue its own
strategy in Afghanistan with the help of the Pakistan military without
referring back to India. A proposal to re-merge the office of the Special
Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) back with the Bureau of
South and Central Asia (SCA) that handles India, the rest of the subcontinent
and Central Asian republics is under “active” consideration. The re-merger
proposal is ostensibly timed with the international troops pullout from
Afghanistan.
Ø Gujarat
should give up its persistent efforts to get the controversial Gujarat Control
of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill, 2015, approved by the President. First
moved by Narendra Modi in 2003 when he was Chief Minister of the State, the
Bill has been facing objections on the ground that it contains some draconian
provisions. The Centre refused to clear the Bill three times when the United
Progressive Alliance was in power. The Union Home Ministry has now recalled the
Bill from the office of the President, to whom it had been sent for assent. The
reason appears to be that it wants the Bill to be reworked based on additional
inputs from the State government. The controversial nature of the GCTOC Bill
became apparent after A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as President objected to a clause that
made evidence based on interception of communication admissible in court. His
successor, Pratibha Patil, too declined assent. In March 2015, the Assembly passed
the Bill and sent it afresh to the Centre for presidential assent. The Centre
ultimately prevailed in having the clause that permitted the State Home
Secretary to authorise the interception of telephone calls on his own dropped.
Under the Indian Telegraph Act, State Home Secretaries do authorise telephone
taps, but using power delegated to them by the Centre. The watered-down Bill
was sent last September to the President for his assent. It has been recalled
now, possibly because of fears that President Pranab Mukherjee might refuse
assent again.
Ø President
Fran?ois Hollande’s visit is the fifth such by a French leader to have been
honoured as the chief guest at the Republic Day, more so than any other
country. Equally significant, this was his second state visit (the first was in
2013), a trend that was started by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was
chief guest at the 2008 Republic Day and returned for another state visit in
2010. With corresponding visits by Indian Prime Ministers, this annual summitry
highlights the expanding areas of cooperation and convergence between the two
countries. In recent years, India has entered into more than three dozen
“strategic partnerships”, but France remains the original one. President
Jacques Chirac had a long-standing interest in India and undertook three visits
to India, in 1976, 1998 and 2006, the only leader to have been chief guest at
the Republic Day twice, first as Prime Minister in 1976 and then as President
in 1998. The second visit saw the establishment of the “strategic partnership”
which was tested months later in May when India conducted a series of nuclear
weapon tests. France was the first major power to open a dialogue with India.
Within weeks, Brajesh Mishra (accompanied by the writer) was in Paris as
Special Envoy of Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee. We were received by Mr.
Chirac, who not only gave us a patient hearing, but also responded with a keen
appreciation of India’s security predicament arising from the unbridled nuclear
proliferation that had taken place in our neighbourhood. He designated
Ambassador G?rard Errera as the interlocutor and the dialogue grew in scope as
the French focussed on developing an understanding about our perceptions while
they shared their thinking about the Balkan conflict, the risks of U.S.
triumphalism and the worries about a resurgent nationalism in Russia. Robust
strategic partnership This is the strategic dialogue that became
institutionalised at the level of the National Security Advisers. The agenda
has also expanded to include counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and
cyber-security issues, in addition to the original nuclear, space and defence
related matters. The 57-paragraph-long Joint Statement covers these and also a
wide range of other areas of cooperation — climate change and sustainable
development, economic cooperation, urban development, human resource
development, heritage preservation and cultural cooperation. The terrorist
attacks last year, on the Charlie Hebdo office in January and at multiple
locations in Paris in November, have changed the way France looks at global
terrorism. There is a realisation of vulnerability on account of the alienation
in the French Muslim community. Radicalisation and the growing appeal of the
ideology of global jihad is a real threat. This resulted in a standalone Joint
Statement on counter-terrorism which seeks to do away with the caste system in
terror strikes. If New York, London and Paris were horrific, so must Mumbai,
Beirut and Nairobi be, and the statement makes that point effectively. It
underlines the need for a comprehensive approach, removes any distinction
between al-Qaeda and the terrorist groups targeting India like Lashkar-e-Toiba,
Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen, calls on Pakistan to bring to justice
the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and calls for a dismantling of
sanctuaries and safe havens in Pakistan’s border areas that can destabilise
Afghanistan. A push has been given to the Jaitapur nuclear plant negotiations
by seeking to conclude these by the end of 2016, coupled with the affirmation
that there will be six European pressurised reactors which should help in
bringing the cost to below $5 billion for each reactor. To mark 50 years of
India-France space cooperation, new projects for cooperation between the Indian
Space Research Organisation and the French government space agency, Centre
national d’?tudes spatiales (CNES) have been announced, dealing with
environment and weather monitoring, mapping of water resources and a joint Thermal
Infrared Earth observation mission. The implementation of the announcement made
during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris last April about the
decision to purchase 36 Rafale combat aircraft in a flyaway condition, has been
taken forward by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which freezes the
technical parameters, weapon payloads and lifetime servicing and spares needed.
It is expected that the negotiations of the financial terms will be concluded
in coming months. More significant are the joint ventures (JV) proposed to be
set up between private sector entities in both countries that can provide a
much needed boost to “Make in India” in defence. This should give greater
content to the Agreement on Defence Cooperation, originally signed in 2006 and
now extended till 2026, providing a framework for cooperation in defence
production, research and development and procurement of defence materials.
Among the emerging areas of cooperation are homeland security, cyber security,
special forces like the National Security Guard and its French counterpart
GIGN, and intelligence sharing to tackle the common threats of terrorism and
global criminal networks. Closely linked are concerns about Internet
governance, surveillance by external powers and the dominance of U.S. companies
in this field. Maritime security in the Indian Ocean region is another sector
ripe for greater cooperation, given French presence by virtue of its
territories (the Reunion Islands) for maintaining safety of sea lanes, tackling
piracy and enhancing maritime domain awareness. Business and educational ties
Cooperation in “strategic” areas is growing and the government-to-government
relationship is the principal driver for this. Two areas that have been lagging
are economic and trade relations as well as the people-to-people exchanges. The
Hollande visit has sought to fix these by announcing a range of new measures.
Bilateral trade between the two countries has been languishing at $8 billion,
well below potential. French foreign direct investment has picked up and there
are more than 800 French enterprises operating in India. These include industry
leaders like Alstom, Airbus, Schneider, Alcatel, Total, BNP Paribas, L’Or?al,
Renault, Sanofi Aventis, Veolia, Engie (GDF Suez), Thales, Vinci, etc.
Capgemini, an IT major has a large workforce in India. With a large number of
MoUs signed in sectors like urban development, solar energy, sewage and
sanitation, urban transport including railways, water supply and entertainment,
there appears to be a determined effort to make the business-to-business link
more robust. Dovetailing the Smart Cities initiative is a good move in this
regard. Nagpur, Chandigarh and Puducherry have been identified as three cities
where French technical assistance and funding has also been promised. However,
the challenge will be to develop viable public-private partnerships that can
generate long-term funding and also make the projects self-sustaining in the
long run. An attempt has also been made to energise the people-to-people
relationship by focussing on educational exchanges and skill development which
creates a resource pool as Indo-French JVs generate greater employment
opportunities. The number of Indian students going to France annually is 2,500
while the number of Chinese students is 10 times larger. Allowing larger number
of French youth to intern in enterprises in India and easing visa norms for
Indian students to work for two years after completing their education in
France are steps in the right direction. Linkages between educational
institutions need to be built up as more and more French institutions begin to
offer bilingual courses. Traditionally, the people-to-people relationship has
been driven at the elite level of artists, musicians, dancers, writers and
film-makers as eminent Indians in these fields have engaged with their French
counterparts, but at a popular level, it lacks a buzz. Out of seven million
foreign tourists visiting India annually, the number of French tourists is less
than 3,00,000! Direct air links between India and France are a fourth of those
between India and Germany. An Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced
Research has been in existence for nearly three decades but limited budgetary
resources hamper its activities. It needs to be restructured to permit it to
raise resources from Indian and French industry; for this, the scope of
projects needs to be broadened. Cultural festivals have been a regular feature
but events need to be planned outside the metropolises, taking local calendars
into account. The strategic relationship between the two countries has
developed over the years generating a sense of comfort between the relevant
government agencies. What are needed are initiatives that can strengthen
business-to-business linkages and people-to-people contacts which can, in turn,
provide a broader underpinning to the overall bilateral relationship. The
Hollande visit has rightly sought to focus on these sectors. If these can be
effectively implemented, it will help establish a more balanced relationship
between the two countries, with overlapping networks of stakeholders from all
sections in both societies. (Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat who has served as
Ambassador to France.
Ø After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement in December that all
Japanese citizens would get “visas on arrival”, the government has decided to
extend it only to the business community for now. The government is
actively considering including South Korea in this category. Japan and South Korea are
already on the list of 113 countries whose citizens can arrive in India through
an electronic tourist visa on arrival (e-TV) platform. In December, during
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India, Mr. Modi announced a
liberalised visa regime for all Japanese citizens. Mr. Modi said that Japan had
earmarked a $11-12-billion fund for “Make in India”. At least three Japanese
firms were given the go-ahead in 2015 to set up shop in India.
Ø In a bid to take ties with India beyond the defence sector, Russia is
giving more freedom to its Provinces to engage with Indian States directly.
There is growing competition among Province like Astrakhan, Mordovia, and
Bashkortostan to take advantage of the positive trend in India-Russia ties.
India and Russia had, during the inter-governmental discussion in October 2015
agreed to ramp up bilateral investment from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2025. Bashkortostan which is the
home of a flourishing defence industry has enjoyed cordial ties with India. But
now we are looking at introducing another facet of our state which is home to
the MiG fighter jets.
Ø Even as India prepares for a second mission to Mars, a team of
scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
Mars Society Australia and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow,
will mount an expedition to Ladakh this August to study the similarities of
certain parts of the region’s topography and microbial life to Martian
surroundings.
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