By Air Cmde TK Chatterjee(retd)
That Indian prime minister was invited to be the guest of honour at the Bastille Day parade on 14 July was widely acclaimed in India, but surprisingly not in France. There were far too many worries expressed in print and visual media about the ‘illiberal democracy” and “authoritarian regime” that governs India today. These alleged drawbacks in governance and the supposedly state sponsored discrimination against minority communities in India made some French socio-political experts question the justification behind inviting the Indian prime minister at a French national event like the Bastille Day. As a result of these caustic comments, an Indian daily humorously headlined on 15 July “French fry Macron over Modi”.
The idea behind this article is not to examine the state of democracy in India. That is for the Indians in India, or elsewhere, to decide. This article questions the right of the French columnists, and the French media which allows such ill-informed opinions, to question the government of France for having invited India as the guest of honour on the 14th of July.
But first thing first. A prime minister is only symbolic, it was India that was invited. After 60 years of successful strategic partnership between India and France, it was a legitimate and well-timed gesture on part of the French government and a graceful acceptance of the invitation by the government of India. There may be people in France who are unhappy with the current prime minister of India because of the way he runs his government, but that is totally an internal matter of a sovereign country. A nation does not look at another nation through a narrow prism and decide how to deal with it diplomatically. The macro picture that the government of France has considered while deciding to make India the guest of honour is right because a sound relation with India is mutually beneficial, probably more for France than India, since it is India who is usually the buyer and France, the seller.
An opinion piece in Le Monde states: “”After eating a hundred mice, the cat goes on a pilgrimage.” This Indian proverb perfectly illustrates the context of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France.” A visit to France is not a pilgrimage, it is just a business trip for the PM of India. It is sad to see such a distasteful comment coming from a country that benefits immensely from the economic growth of India.
Another one says: “India, which has always had a large population, has never given priority to education or healthcare. It has under-invested in two of the areas that had ensured the enormous success of China and South Korea in the past, and of Vietnam today.” This coming from a country which has a population and geographic area less than a state in India, which has been a coloniser; and not a country that has been colonised for almost a millennium, with an independent history of only 75 years, like India! While all credits to the French healthcare system, I wonder what they would have done if they were to administer that system to a population of a billion plus. Just 70 odd millions are getting difficult to handle as seen from the recent binge of riots. Education in India may not be as good, but Indians are, and the fact that quite a few of the world’s biggest enterprises are run by Indians, born, and bred in India, is proof. In the middle east it is the Indian born, Indian bred professionals that run most businesses and enterprises for the Arabs, in a perpetual competition with the first world progenies. If these commentators had paused to see the relative growth of countries in south Asia who achieved independence at the same time, maybe they would not question India’s wisdom in investment for its own people.
The same article states further: “The leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strived to stifle Indian democracy, choosing a path of muscular “illiberalism.”” How can this be allowed to be said in a country whose own government uses a special allowance in its constitution to pass a controversial bill like the pension reform, without a parliamentary debate and vote, which resulted in months of protests? Did that not stifle French democracy? Did Indians comment on it in any forum? No. These self-assumed positions of moral high ground are detrimental to mutual relations between sovereign nations. It is a fact that editorial boards of French media must comprehend.
A lot of sympathy seems to be floating around about the state of minorities in India. A cause that has been attributed by many authors as the reason for accusing the government of France of making a mistake in inviting India as the guest of honour. At least France should not have commented on this issue, since the Indian government is represented in Paris by a brilliant diplomat, who just happens to be from a minority community. There is no religion-based discrimination in any educational institution or workplace in India, it is against the law; on the contrary, there is a reservation policy for the backward classes. To be honest, countries like France are not on the same page with India on this issue. They first need to have a head of state and chief of the armed forces from a minority community before they can comment on India. Additionally, in India religious events like Eid-al-Fitr’ Eid-al-Adha, Christmas etc are national holidays, along with main religious occasions of all minority communities. France has none even though the Islamic component of their population is almost in double digits.
It is a well-known fact that in geopolitics there are no friends or enemies, only interests. India is a big and growing market for a lot of export-oriented countries, like France. India’s geostrategic location forces it to invest heavily in defence, and France being a prolific exporter in defence sector, French companies like Dassault, Thales, Safran, DCNS etc all benefit appreciably. Airbus has just received the mother of all orders from an Indian airline – 500 aeroplanes. Besides defence there are a lot of other sectors where India is a trustworthy buyer of goods, services and technology and France a reliable supplier. Trade is the strongest bond that binds nations. India and France are thus bonded and the invitation to the Bastille Day parade is a recognition of this strategic partnership.
Political parties, their ideologies, governments, and Prime Ministers are mere transients in the history of a nation. Attaching too much mischievous attention to them can be counterproductive. Instead of vitriolic criticism of Modi, BJP, RSS etc by the columnists, of which the French population has very little knowledge, had they seen the positive side of India’s growth in the last 75 years from an impoverished nation to the about to be the fourth largest economy and the projected ascent to the high tables of this world order, their time and effort would have contributed better towards the relationship between the two countries and benefitted their own nation. It is just disappointing to get lectured on human rights by the media of a country which has just seen the biggest ethnic riots of the last 20 years. It is not by accident that both Biden and Macron did not raise the human rights issue with Modi.
Bastille Day has come and gone. The Indian armed forces marching contingent and the IAF aeroplanes gave a fitting display of their professionalism, further reinforcing the existing bonds. Indo-French strategic relationship has stood the test of time and can only grow further, with Modi or whoever, and despite commentators in the French media.
The author is an Indian Air Force Veteran.
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