O P I N I O N S

Guest Column
Towards ending the stalemate with US
At the outset, Modi may wish to reassure the US business community that he is not inattentive to their concerns. Now that he is firmly in the saddle he can signal that he will start to tackle economic reform.
Sumit Ganguly
Since President Obama’s mostly successful visit to India in 2010 the Indo-US relationship appears to have stalled. In India the disappointment stems mostly from a perceived lack of interest on the part of the Obama administration in addressing a series of Indian concerns about Pakistan and Afghanistan (especially as the US and International Security Assistance Force drawdown nears) and an apparent lack of willingness to focus on new and bold bilateral initiatives.

Touchstones
Why not indigenous fairytales for our children?
Schools are still perpetuating the Disney-pop version of Cinderella and Snow White. One day we may regret that we did not read our own children’s literature, but by then, it may be too late.
Ira Pande
After a long hiatus, I am going to write of a book launch I recently attended. For some time now, I have stopped going to these book ‘events’ as they are more popularly called because they focus more on the atmospherics than on the substance of the book.

ground zero
How India should deal with new Chinese duality
Modi can be both deft and firm on foreign policy issues. He seems aware that engaging with China helps him get a better deal with the US and Japan even while he puts pressure on Xi when he shakes hands with Obama and Abe.
Raj Chengappa
India had never quite seen a Chinese President like Xi Jinping in the recent past. On his just concluded three-day visit to India, his first as China’s boss man, Xi was a far cry from the stern, stiff and Mao-jacketed leaders.

Guest Column
Towards ending the stalemate with US
At the outset, Modi may wish to reassure the US business community that he is not inattentive to their concerns. Now that he is firmly in the saddle he can signal that he will start to tackle economic reform.
Sumit Ganguly

Since President Obama’s mostly successful visit to India in 2010 the Indo-US relationship appears to have stalled. In India the disappointment stems mostly from a perceived lack of interest on the part of the Obama administration in addressing a series of Indian concerns about Pakistan and Afghanistan (especially as the US and International Security Assistance Force drawdown nears) and an apparent lack of willingness to focus on new and bold bilateral initiatives.

In the US, a pervasive sense of disappointment and even a degree of ennui has set in with India. The disappointment stems from a host of Indian decisions and choices. The nuclear liability Bill that the Indian Parliament passed made it all but impossible for US firms to invest in the Indian market. India chose to give the multi-billion dollar Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft to France despite intense American lobbying. Worse still, a series of economic reforms remained on the anvil but with little willingness to act on them.

With Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the United States there is a distinct possibility for pushing for a course correction. Obviously, a single visit cannot swiftly take the relationship out of the doldrums. However, it is possible to put some wind in its sails if both sides take cognisance of its significance.

Modi may have already made an initial nod to US concerns even as he refused to address the question of agricultural subsidies under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation. This gesture involved the dramatic expansion of India’s capacity to deal with questions and issues surrounding intellectual property. This was a non-trivial matter as a range of US and other foreign firms had expressed grave misgivings about India’s intellectual property regime.

What might Modi now address while in the US and what issues might he press his American interlocutors on while in the country? At the outset, he may wish to reassure the US and particularly its vast business community that he is not inattentive or oblivious to their concerns. His initial budget, passed weeks after his assumption of office, may not have provided them much hope or comfort. However, now that he is firmly in the saddle he can signal that he will start, in short order, to tackle long-neglected matters of economic reform. For example, to demonstrate his seriousness about reform he could offer some prospect of overturning the fraught and problematic legislation that allows retroactive taxation.

In another arena he might express some clear interest in working with the US to co-develop new defence technologies. For years, if not decades, India has sought joint production arrangements with the US in the realm of military technology only to be rebuffed or offered capabilities that it did not especially seek. However, the US has now evinced an interest in the co-production of a new anti-tank missile. Should Modi step up to the plate this project could become the platform for expanding the scope of defence cooperation.

Yet it would be unreasonable for Prime Minister Modi alone to make a series of unilateral gestures. The US, too, should address a number of Indian concerns ranging from commercial issues to those of regional security. One subject that has dogged Indo-US relations in the recent past has been the level of access of Indian professionals, especially in the information technology sector, to the American market. Though a contentious issue in American politics and especially with elements of his support base, President Obama could demonstrate some leadership in this arena. He may even be able to elicit some cooperation from his recalcitrant political opposition on this otherwise vexed question. Some willingness on his part to address this issue would do much to improve the current tenor of Indo-US relations.

Beyond this commercial concern there is a vital strategic issue that is looming on the horizon in South Asia. This involves the pace and scope of the US military drawdown in Afghanistan. As the inevitable draws closer it is evident that the Taliban is becoming bolder and more willing to behave in increasingly aggressive ways. There is little or no question that their supporters across the border in Pakistan have granted them sufficient rein to step up their activities. President Obama is understandably preoccupied with a host of other crises ranging from Central Europe to the Middle East to West Africa. Nevertheless, he can ill afford to neglect another potential disaster that could result in the event of a precipitate US departure from Afghanistan. Until the recent past, thanks to Pakistani objections, the US had sought to limit India’s role in Afghanistan. However, today it may well wish to reconsider such a policy especially as Pakistan seems to be caught in a vortex that threatens public order and regime stability.

This brief discussion, obviously, is not a complete checklist of issues that confront Indo-US ties. They nevertheless constitute a useful starting point for placing the relationship on a more secure footing.

Sumit Ganguly holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilisations at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Touchstones
Why not indigenous fairytales for our children?
Schools are still perpetuating the Disney-pop version of Cinderella and Snow White. One day we may regret that we did not read our own children’s literature, but by then, it may be too late.
Ira Pande

After a long hiatus, I am going to write of a book launch I recently attended. For some time now, I have stopped going to these book ‘events’ as they are more popularly called because they focus more on the atmospherics than on the substance of the book. This is perhaps why they have become the haunt of those who are least likely to read books and come largely to hear and be seen. Some are delighted when they are featured in Page Three the next day, getting their book signed by the author.

A refreshing deviation from these tiresome rituals was the HarperCollins launch of Daman Singh’s book on her parents, titled rather austerely ‘Strictly Private: Manmohan and Gursharan’. It was held, not in some five-star hotel but in the modest precincts of the India Habitat Centre on a humid and sultry evening. Familiar with the security rituals of the NSG and terrified of being strip-searched, I decided to carry just a pair of reading glasses. I needn’t have worried, as it turned out, because although they did check the names of invitees against a master list, guests were allowed in without problems. The hall was already full and as far as I could make out, there were no politicians and ministers (present or ex). Manmohan and Gursharan slipped in so quietly that it was only when the audience rose to its feet that I registered their arrival.

Daman Singh’s book on her parents, Manmohan and Gursharan, is honest.

The publisher introduced the author Daman Singh, the second of Manmohan Singh’s three daughters. Humorous and restrained, Daman kept the narrative focussed on the life of her parents and their times. Those who had come hoping to find yet another titillating account of the goings-on between the PM and 10 Janpath must have been a trifle disappointed to hear this. The last two books written on the ex-PM were the subject of endless debate and gossip for months. This is why it is refreshing to read Daman’s account of her father’s career from a lecturer in Panjab University to the Prime Minister of India because it is also a parallel account of India’s trajectory from a socialist state to a liberal, globalised democracy. Her father’s role in the Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank are important precursors to his elevation as the Finance Minister and reveal a story that has a purpose.

That night I decided to flip through the book largely because it has a big chunk devoted to Manmohan Singh’s early years and his stint as a lecturer in Panjab University. There is also a separate chapter on Chandigarh that portrays the city when its landmark institutions, such as the University and the PGI, were being created from scratch. For those who never knew it then, the account took me back to our first years there when we came as a young couple in 1972. As I read of the effect of the Partition on educational and cultural institutions, like the university and museum, I understood fully what a mammoth task it must have been to relocate them in a new and arid landscape. How much India has changed from those black and white days, when we had not been hit by the tsunami of consumerism! Reading of those years brought back so many memories of bureaucratic and university life that I found it difficult to detach myself from the huge wave of nostalgia the book unleashed. Names that one had merely heard of were brought alive as I read of how the Vice-Chancellor, AC Joshi, persuaded young scholars like Manmohan Singh to leave comfortable perches in Cambridge to come and help in rebuilding a broken land.

In the hurly-burly of politics and the hysteria generated by an excitable media, we often lose the plot. Readers are nudged into uncritically accepting facts based on opinions made by others who often further their own agendas aided by a pushy marketing team in the background. Books on political subjects written by journalists often suffer from blurring the line between fact and rumour. In some cases, self-important boasting can distort the text. This book is, like the couple it portrays, an honest account of an honest life. I have enjoyed the story because I knew and respected that kind of life. Sadly, I see few traces of that kind of selfless dedication now among teachers or bureaucrats.

As I grow older I find myself drawn to biographies and impatient of novels that are more style than substance and have very thin story-lines. In any case, I have decided that I will confine my reading of fiction to non-English language writers. Having spent the greater part of my life reading and writing in English, I have turned more and more to reading Hindi and am astounded at the sheer brilliance of some of the novels I have come across. I am sure this is equally true of other Indian languages as well. Translation is one way of bridging that gap but believe me there is nothing as satisfying as reading a text in its original language.

Instead of discovering the joy of folk tales and poems in our native languages, however, I find schools still perpetuating the Disney-pop version of Cinderella and Snow White. One day we may regret that we did not read our own children’s literature, but by then, it may be too late.