Manish Chand | India Writes

Bharat Ratna birthday gift for Vajpayee, Malaviya

December 24, 2014December 27, 2014 - by Manish Chand

It was long overdue. Finally, on a befogged morning in Delhi, there was some cheering radiant news for the ailing leader-statesman as the Indian government decided to confer the country’s highest civilian honour on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a sort of birthday gift as the iconic leader turns 90 on December 25.
A towering political personality, Mr Vajpayee, known for his dazzling oratory, formidable diplomatic skills, and political acumen, successfully led the first non-Congress government for a full five-year term. He headed the first NDA government as the 11th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996, second time for 13 months from 1998-mid 1999, and then from 1999 to 2004.
Mr Vajpayee’s stints as the prime minister saw several path-breaking initiatives in the diplomatic arena. Vajpayee, also a former foreign minister, surprised the world by going ahead with the contentious decision to conduct the twin nuclear tests in May 1998 that made India a formal nuclear power and managed to successfully ride out international sanctions that followed through deft diplomacy.
The bestowal of Bharat Ratna on Vajpayee caps decades of a multi-hued career, and is a fitting tribute, however belated, to an outstanding politician-statesman, who is esteemed and admired by friends and detractors alike.

PBD 2015: Serenading NRIs, on home turf, Modi-style

December 22, 2014December 23, 2014 - by Manish Chand

Madison Square Garden, New York. Allphones Arena, Sydney. After dazzling and ravishing NRIs in high visibility rock-star like shows in foreign lands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to turn on all his charm to serenade over 3,000 NRIs and PIOs on home turf in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. On January 8, Mr Modi is expected to perform a new improvisation of his ‘Song of NRIs’ and will seek to enlist them as proactive stakeholders in the reignited India growth story.
The annual jamboree of overseas Indians looks set to have a new shine next year as India toasts the centenary of the homecoming of Mahatma Gandhi, the most famous NRI, and seek to leverage myriad talents and resources of expat Indians for the larger project of national resurgence. The Modi government, which has made a proactive engagement with the 25-million strong Indian diaspora scattered across countries and continents a key feature of its foreign policy, is bursting with ideas to put its own stamp over the 13th edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) that will be held in Gandhinagar January 7-9.
In the age of visuals, the PBD promises to be a captivating show. It will be a 3D performance in ways more than one. Celebrating Mahatma Gandhi’s historic salt march, a new high-tech museum built inside a giant salt mound will illumine the father of the nation in a 3D image. Prime Minister Modi, on his part, will have his own 3D mantra of Democracy, Demographic Dividend and Demand, with which he charmed the rapturous crowds at Madison Square Garden in New York on a bright Sunday morning.
Get ready for the 3D show in Gandhinagar.

Mapping India-Russia ties 2.0: Five takeaways from Modi-Putin summit

December 13, 2014December 14, 2014 - by Manish Chand

The first annual summit meeting between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin has ended on a high note, with an all-encompassing vision statement that maps out the trajectory of this relationship over the next decade and signals a marked upswing in the economic relationship that seems ready to enter a higher trajectory after years of relative stagnation.

The summit meeting took place against the backdrop of the deepening chill between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis and the deals worth billions of dollars struck between India and Russia have predictably raised eyebrows. In essence, the Modi-Putin meeting underlined that India and Russia are ready to move beyond clichés of time-tested and special and privileged ties to do provide more economic content and strategic heft to the relationship amid rapidly shifting geopolitical realities.
Taking a long-range view, the December 11 Modi-Putin summit has chalked out a detailed and creative template for transforming the India-Russia relationship that was drifting into stagnation and was getting entrapped in predictable diplomatic clichés. The 20 agreements signed during the summit, specially the economic and energy agreements, have huge transformative potential if they are brought to fruition within set deadlines. However, in the end the success of the remaking of the India-Russia relationship will depend on the continued centrality of strategic trust in the overall relationship.

Modi’s Speed Diplomacy: UN declares June 21 as International Yoga Day

December 11, 2014December 12, 2014 - by Manish Chand

India’s soft power got a defining global endorsement, with the United Nations declaring June 21 as the World Yoga Day. It’s also a diplomatic triumph for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had formally proposed declaring an International Day for Yoga during his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 27.
The 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly December 11 adopted by acclamation draft Resolution, A/69/L.17 with a record number of 175 countries co-sponsoring it.

It’s literally fast-track diplomacy for India as the UN declared the Yoga Day barely 80 days after the pioneering idea was mooted by the yoga-practising 64-year-old Indian leader. The declaration has triggered jubilation in India and all over the world, where the ancient discipline of yoga – a union of mind and body – has found a growing number of ardent practitioners and devotees.
In his address at the UNGA on September 27, Mr Modi had made a robust pitch for yoga as the world’s answer to sustainable development and healthy lifestyle that harmonises the mind and the spirit. “Yoga is an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition. Yoga embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day,” Mr Modi had argued.

India & Russia: Arc of Friendship, in Changing Times

December 10, 2014December 10, 2014 - by Manish Chand

From frontier areas of science and technology, space, defence and nuclear power to hydrocarbons, trade and investment and cultural synergy, the relations between the two countries are truly all-encompassing and comprehensive. And in the forthcoming presidential visit, the two countries will be heralding a new phase in their multifarious ties through a compelling joint vision statement.
What makes the India-Russia relations special and privileged? And will they retain their unique lustre amid cunning calculations of shifting geopolitics? On this count, the answer is a resounding yes, despite some recent developments like Russia’s contentious decision to sign a defence pact with Pakistan. But the overall picture remains overwhelmingly positive. For what imparts the India-Russia relations its enduring relevance and strength is the sheer range of collaboration in strategic sectors and an identity of perspectives on leading regional and global issues, underpinned by a common belief in mutipolarity and an inclusive world order.

Russia’s military pact with Pakistan in long-term interest of India, assures Putin

December 10, 2014December 11, 2014 - by Manish Chand

Russia’s military pact with Pakistan has triggered a wave of anxiety among India’s diplomatic-strategic establishment about the future of the much-touted special and privileged partnership between the two strategic partners. But Moscow feels such concerns are a gross-misreading, with President Vladimir Putin assuring that the pact with Pakistan was mainly aimed at counter-terrorism and underlined that it will only serve the long-term interests of India and Russia.

Putin power for India-Russia ties: New vision, with diamond sparkle

December 6, 2014December 10, 2014 - by Manish Chand

The intricate machinery of time-tested India-Russia relationship is set to hum with a new decadal vision of this crucial partnership and get an added diamond sparkle in economic ties when Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his first annual summit meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi December 11. Ahead of the visit, India has struck an upbeat note on the future trajectory of the relationship and hoped that President Putin’s visit will be “a landmark event” and is “expected to provide a fresh impetus to the existing excellent bilateral relations between our two countries.”
Diamonds are forever, and will cast their radiance on the forthcoming presidential visit as Mr Putin is set to attend a diamond conference in New Delhi, with the larger plan of making India into a major global diamond hub.
President Putin’s first visit to India under the new dispensation in New Delhi is, therefore, poised to be substantive and all-encompassing, reaffirming the pivotal place both countries occupy in each other’s strategic calculus amid the vagaries of international politics. The messaging from both sides is distinctly upbeat.

Messaging behind Modi-Sharif handshake: Keep guessing!

November 27, 2014July 25, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It may have lasted for a minute. But in the end, it was the warm handshake between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif that will remain the most enduring image and the most tweeted photo of the 18th SAARC summit in Kathmandu.
The ringing applause that followed the handshake between the leaders of India and Pakistan and the beaming faces at the end of the Kathmandu summit on November 27 said it all. In the end, despite the official disclaimer that the SAARC is not about India and Pakistan, it was clear that the eight-nation regional grouping can only take off if that handshake translates into a meaningful dialogue between the two estranged neighbours of South Asia.

In a sense, the hype about the Modi-Sharif handshake, with television news channels hysterically speculating 24×7 about a possible meeting between the two leaders which did not happen, also ironically underlines diminishing expectations about the India-Pakistan relations that remain eternally enmeshed in mutual recriminations and the thick fog of suspicion.

New energy in SAARC: Summit salvaged as India, Pakistan PMs smile

November 27, 2014November 27, 2014 - by Manish Chand

In diplomacy, a seemingly impossible situation can change dramatically in a few hours’ time. And so it was with the 18th SAARC summit. The jamboree of the South Asian leaders was dismissed till last night as a no-show till some fresh air and spirited talk among leaders at a resort town outside the mountain city of Kathmandu reversed the gloom and doom narrative, with SAARC signing a potentially defining pact on sharing electricity.
As the curtains came down on the two-day SAARC summit, the optics of the summit had changed radically, with the leaders of India and Pakistan warmly shaking hands after the leaders unanimously adopted the Kathmandu Declaration that outlined a reasonably doable agenda for intensifying multifarious cooperation across the spectrum.
India, which was looking visibly disappointed at the stalling of the three SAARC pacts on energy, road and rail connectivity by Pakistan, heaved a sigh of relief with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finally going along with other SAARC leaders to give his assent to the pact on creating a regional power grid.
In the end, it was the relaxed and informal interaction among leaders at the retreat at Dhulikhel, an idyllic resort town located nearly 30 km away from the capital Kathmandu, that did the trick. The view of the majestic Himalayas may have helped clear the air.

Amid China’s SAARC embrace, India flags off Enhanced South Asia policy

November 27, 2014November 27, 2014 - by Manish Chand

Amid China’s moves to deepen its foray into the region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repositioned India in the leadership role in the SAARC, with a clear message that India will move ahead with regional integration, with or without SAARC. In fact, India’s ‘enhanced’ South Asia diplomacy is set for a major upsurge with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay travelling to the country early next year and Mr Modi planning bilateral trips to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the coming months.
Refreshingly, India is unfazed by Pakistan’s negativity and is set to galvanize its South Asia diplomacy by backing words with deeds. This enhanced South Asia policy will be reflected in a spate of two-way visits.
Apart from accelerating commerce and connectivity with South Asian countries, India will also be looking to deepen strategic and security ties with South Asian neighbours, which has acquired a new urgency with China deepening its footprints in India’s periphery.