Modi’s visit will set the tone for India’s engagement with Trump
lies in the US stepping up its effort to push back on recent gains by the Taliban, and signalling a determination to sustain Afghan security and governance institutions. A strong section within the White House has reportedly been questioning the value of this longest running US involvement in active conflict, and arguing against nation building efforts.
Failure to decisively end Taliban attacks and gains has revived talk of a regional approach, and addressing Pakistan’s perceived security concerns. A solution ignoring India’s concerns would not be acceptable to us. What is needed is a clearer message and follow-up action from US to Pakistan on its providing safe haven to Taliban and other terrorist groups.
Despite the challenge that China poses to the existing international order, the preferred option in the US and the West is to continue working for integration of China in the international mainstream, and hoping that political and policy changes accompany economic growth and China works more according to norms of a market economy.
China is encouraged to contribute more actively to stability in Afghanistan, in the global effort against terrorism, and there is concern less at the geopolitical aspects of Belt and Road than at issues of transparency and economic opportunity for all. We will need to get a sense of how the US intends to manage the various dimensions of its relationship with China in the coming critical years, since significant shifts in relative weights in the international system have happened over the past 10 years, especially since the financial crisis of 2008.
The outcome of this visit, and the tone it sets for India’s engagement with the Trump Administration, will have consequences for how India will manage its economic aspirations and security challenges. in the world. The huge range of languages, cultures, religions and practices that live on in this ancient land are what make it so unique and powerful. The fathers and mothers of the Constitution put quotas and reservations in place precisely because they understood this.
And yet, proportional representation of women, Dalits, Muslims and Christians, is too often treated as annoyance. As a necessary evil. Sometimes even worse. When KR Narayanan became the President of India in 1997, Vishva Hindu Parishad president Ashok Singhal claimed he was a “distinctly anti-Hindu” Dalit, and his rise was a “larger conspiracy of the Church to make Rashtrapati Bhavan a bastion of Christianity”. I checked, and it turns out the Rashtrapati Bhavan is still an overwhelmingly Hindu body.
I won’t even get into the barriers and patronising attitudes that women face because it would take up a whole book. But as Swati Chaturvedi summed up on The Wire recently, “when it comes to politics in India, sexism is the norm.”
I’m not saying Britain is perfect. Racism still looms large in the national political debate and Britain is yet to come to terms with its violent and unequal past. And women still make up only 32% of MPs. But by embracing its new identity as a multicultural nation, it is at least changing faster than most.
Equal representation isn’t just a moral good for society, it is essential to maintain trust and stability. It makes the country more secure. For an ancient, culturally-rich and diverse country like India, this task is even more important.