What now in India?
POLLING results indicate that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will become only the second Indian leader to win re-election after serving a full five-year term. Even though the election was fought primarily on domestic issues, the result has enormous implications for our region.
India's new-found foreign policy direction is built on the back of a booming economy. GDP more than tripled since 1998. Despite global woes, India will grow at an impressive 6% to 7% this year.
When Dr. Singh became prime minister in 2004, New Delhi saw that a relationship with America was filled with opportunity rather than just threat. Not because they are natural allies, but because strategic interests coincidereinforced by oil diplomacy, the war on terrorism and the presence of more than a million Indians in the US.
India realises that it cannot achieve its due role in the region and globally without American cooperation. Only its improved power can restrain Pakistan's adventurism and contain China's increasing influence in the region. Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral said that normal relations with America were regarded as a momentous breakthrough.
India, however, does not want others to see the relations with the US as a sacrifice of its option of policies. Rather, it considers the relationship as a partnership to achieve a dominant role in the region and globally. India, being a large country with resources, does not consider co-operation with America as subservience.
The signing of a nuclear agreement with the US has been a landmark decision by the Congress-led government. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, India's defence ministry has earmarked $ 2 billion annually to build 300 to 400 weapons over the next 5 to 7 years. The US has openly discussed the sale of naval vessels, combat aircraft, patrol aircraft and helicopters to India.
India's relations with Russia continue robustly. India has begun constructing a 37,500-tonne aircraft carrier that will fly MiG-29 fighters, joining the navies of big powers in such capabilities. It also plans to lease two nuclear submarines from Russia.
India has consolidated its economic relations with China. Bilateral trade was boosted from $18.7 billion in 2005 to $20 billion by 2008. India seeks to be a major player in computer software and bioinformatics in the same way that China is in the area of hardware. The future of business, according to some analysts, will be shaped between Bangalore and Shanghai.
India is strategically located in the middle of South Asia and the ocean that hugs it, the Indian Ocean, reaches out to the sands of Egypt to the Straits of Malacca.
Surrounded by unstable statesPakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and MyanmarIndia stands as a beacon of democratic stability. India's rising economic power and political stability is likely to shift the geographic distribution of global power in Asia and force a restructuring of western-dominated international bodies, right up to the UN.
The democratic government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is well poised to have meaningful and constructive relations with the newly elected Congress-led government. India appears to be more comfortable with the non-communal policy of the Awami League. Sheikh Hasina's landslide victory in the December election demonstrates that people voted for "bread and butter" issues and rejected the ideology of Islamic-based parties (as Indonesia did last April).
It is highly desirable that India should pursue the "Gujral doctrine" (not based on strict reciprocity) in its relations with Bangladesh to create an environment of trust and confidence so that the perception of India as being an arrogant "big brother" disappears.
The outstanding issues with Bangladesh need to be resolved through meaningful dialogue. In the past, India sought to negotiate a single issue on a bilateral basis, without appreciating that it was connected with other issues and therefore did not admit an easy solution.
An integrated approach to all bilateral issues is imperative, rather than addressing issues piecemeal or sector-wise. Furthermore, India needs to view the issues of energy, water resources, transit and global warming through the prism of regional cooperation.
Bangladesh wants to establish mutually beneficial relations with India and if India is able to create a suitable environment by resolving prickly bilateral issues, it will be much easier for the Sheikh Hasina government to carry the people in developing a range of political and economic relationship with India.
Both countries need to make the same political, bureaucratic, intellectual, educational, cultural and media efforts to focus on each other's positive features. Often, some sections in the media in both countries highlight negative images of each other.
Given the right spirit and the desire to live together in cooperation, there is no reason why relations between the two countries cannot be friendly.
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