Losing out on the Africa outreach
It’s not just our duty, but also a diplomatic necessity to keep foreign students safe
The government may have moved quickly to condemn what happened in Noida when a mob attacked Nigerian students on the suspicion that they had something to do with the death of an Indian teen. The allegations made against the hapless students ranged from them being suppliers of drugs to cannibalism. This attack is nothing new, African students face daily humiliation and harassment in India from being denied accommodation to ugly racist taunts on the streets. Now that many African countries have reacted angrily and with students from some of them urging others to stay away from India, the government needs to sit up and review how easily the gains made from the outreach programme have been frittered away.
The Modi government had made a concerted effort to engage with Africa and secure a greater share of the lucrative market there where the Chinese have made huge inroads already. However, India was hoping that historic ties and soft power in the form of culture, education and the medical tourism would help in not just creating a positive image of India but also bring investment into the country and open doors in African countries to both the private and public sector from here. In 2013, Africa accounted for 16% of India’s direct foreign investment of $ 13.6 billion and Africa’s FDI in India was $ 65.4 billion. Among the countries which contributed the most are Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco and Libya. African countries have looked to India for help in the IT sector, a strategy which was called marrying African resources with Indian technology. But no African government can take the kind of attacks we have seen against their students lightly and these will definitely impact on India’s image and its trade prospects.
African students coming to India bring in foreign exchange and their experiences will dictate whether others will follow suit. We’ve seen instances of politicians like a former AAP minister play a role in harassing Ugandan students on the assumption that they were engaged in some illegal activity. In enlightened self-interest , the Indian government should see to it that the lumpens who attack African and any foreign nationals are dealt with swiftly and severely. To dismiss these as routine incidents as a minister in Karnataka once did is to embolden miscreants. If India wants to catch up with China, it has to build, project and protect its power through a comprehensive Africa policy. The first step towards that would be to ensure that people from the African nations are welcome in India and more importantly safe. This should be a natural corollary of the Africa outreach..