Round The
World
New Delhi, 3 August 2018
Modi’s African Sojourn
ENLARGING THE EMBRACE
By Dr D.K. Giri
(Prof. International Politics, JMI)
Prime Minister Modi’s
three-nation sojourn in Africa was innovative. He announced to open 18 new
Indian Embassies across Africa; enunciated a 10-point approach to tackle
African problem through joint initiatives, as well as spelt out climate change
and extremism as examples of common challenges that should be addressed. All of
this is praiseworthy, but “the devil lies in the details” and implementation,
which is a nagging deficit in India’s approach.
In the five-day
African tour, Modi’s first leg was Rwanda, covered in last week’s column, followed
by Uganda and the last South Africa, to attend BRICS meeting. The Ugandan visit
came two decades after an Indian Prime Minister went there and Modi’s address
to its Parliament was the ‘first’ by an Indian head
of government. Obviously, Modi managed to rekindle the spirit of friendship and
cooperation between India and Uganda after the very bitter memories of
persecution of Indians by the infamous dictator Idi Amin Dada in 1970s.
The ceremonial
colourful African-style welcome extended to Modi underlined Uganda’s
willingness to embrace India and the invitation to address their parliament
signified the salience they accord to their engagement with India. On his part,
Modi as expected paved the way for our diplomats and business houses to make
inroads into resource-rich Uganda. He reminded his audience at Parliament,
India-Uganda business community and the Indian diaspora that India and Africa
constitute one-third of world’s population, and hence they should have a
commensurate share in world governance and resources.
Importantly, while lamenting
that Africa has 60 per cent of arable land but produces only 10 per cent of
global output, he promised that India would contribute to modernising Uganda’s agriculture
system, provide $200 million line of credit for energy infrastructure,
agriculture and dairy sectors, plus invest more in their health sector.
Lauding resource-rich
Uganda as the ‘pearl of Africa’, Modi praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
Museveni for restoring peace, harmony and sanity after the dictatorial regime
of Amin that spread hatred, bloodshed and disruption. Museveni has been the
President since 1986 and was involved in the resistance movements against Amin
and his predecessor Milton Obote.
The visit was also
used for recalling India’s role in building Afro-Asian solidarity, commencing
from Bandung, Indo-Asia in 1955, and prior to that, Mahatma Gandhi’s work in
South Africa on peaceful and non-violent resistance against oppression, and
racism, which became a beacon for the whole Africa. In fact, as a part of 150th
birth anniversary of Gandhi, Modi promised to build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at
Jinja, Uganda which has a prominent Gandhi statue. The Centre would be a
store-house of Gandhian teachings on humanity and techniques for small-scale
livelihood generation.
In all, India and
Uganda signed four agreements in defence, visa exemption for diplomats and
government passport holders, cultural exchange, and a material testing
laboratory. New Delhi support for Ugandan development would cover sectors like
capacity building, HRD, skill development, innovation natural resources,
tourism etc. Museveni particularly sought permission for its national Airlines
to run from capital, Kampala, to Mumbai and drew attention to their persisting
trade deficit with India.
Modi’s last leg of
the tour was South Africa to attend the 10th edition of BRICS
Summit. The two countries have deep historical links mainly through Mahatma Gandhi.
Incidentally, this is the 125 year of Gandhi episode at Pietermaritzburg
railway station. Recall, it was here he was thrown off the 1st class compartment
bag and baggage for refusing to leave it, even though he was entitled to travel.
But the apartheid South Africa did not let him and it was this incident that
prompted Gandhiji to stay on for 21 years fighting for civil rights.
Subsequently, India
played a big role in fighting against the apartheid regime and 25 years ago
both countries established full diplomatic relations. In order to commemorate
these links, Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to build a
Gandhi-Mandela Centre for specialisation on artisan skills. Since Gandhi,
Indian agricultural research and education numbering 1.5 million, three per
cent of South African population have been an integral part of South Africa.
On business, three
MoUs were signed on IT, defence, and exploration and use of the outer space. Both
leaders agreed to deepen the contacts and continue to collaborate
internationally. Finally, Modi moved on to the stage of the BRICS Summit: ‘BRICS
in Africa Collaborations for inclusive growth, shared prosperity in the 4th
Industrial Revolution’. The other leaders included Chinese President
Xi-Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Michel Temer,
South African President as well as Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, and
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who at the end came out with 102-point
declaration, which included a preamble and four sections.
The second section
was about strengthening multilateralism, reaffirming global governance and addressing
common challenges; the third covered issues like strengthening and
consolidating BRICS collaboration in international peace and security and the fourth
talks about partnership for global economic recovery, reform of economic and
financial global governance institutions and the 4th Industrial Revolution.
Finally, the last section was about people-to-people cooperation.
A glance at the
intension shows the usual cooperation argument. Nothing new about it! But the
focus of BRICS in Johannesburg was Africa. That was significant if BRICS, in
unison, engaged with Africa in its development and growth effort. It will mean
something for both Africa as well as BRICS. But like the European Union, which
has common adjectives in foreign and economic policy, disintegration into
member States following their economic and trade agreements, BRICS is doing the
same.
China is arguably penetrating
into Africa as it came after India, which is also sloughing to consolidate its
position. So, in a sense, China and India are competitors in Africa not
collaborators as BRICS would envision. So like many summits, whether the BRICS
resolutions will evaporate into thin air as member States’ compete and collide
with each other, is a question? Another being how South Block pushes and implements
Modi’s promises made on this visit. Good Luck India and Africa relations!---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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