Politics
Why Australia welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi like a rock star
When he touched down in Sydney this week, India’s Prime Minister received a rock star welcome.
But when Anthony Albanese jokingly called Narendra Modi a ‘boss’, chances are the comparison to US rock legend Bruce Springsteen was lost on the visiting frontman’s 20,000 elated fans.
“Most Indians in the public there or in India wouldn’t actually associate Bruce Springsteen with the nickname ‘boss,'” said Pradeep Taneja, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Melbourne.
“I think in India it’s taken literally to mean that the Albanese Prime Minister of Australia was saying that Modi is actually ‘the boss’.”
But for many Indians, including those in the diaspora, their prime minister retains a sort of cult status.
With an approval rating of 80%, it’s no surprise India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader is tipped to easily win a third consecutive term in national elections next year.
But beneath a level of popularity that most world leaders could only dream of is a more complex and divisive figure.
In the years since he came to power in 2014, India under Modi has seen a massive fall in almost all democratic indicators, comparable only to that seen under the repressive policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.
“Many Indians, especially in academia and the media, would tell you that there has been an erosion of civil liberties since he came to power,” Dr. Taneja told the ABC News Daily podcast.
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“It’s something that’s been witnessed in terms of raids on media organizations on think tanks, so there’s definitely controversy around it,” he said.
Modi’s criticisms focus on his particularly strident form of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva, which has been condemned for stoking ethnic tensions, leading to increased Muslim persecution.
In particular, Modi’s response to the 2002 riots in Gujarat state, at a time when he was the state’s chief minister, remains controversial more than two decades later. His critics accuse him of not doing enough to stop the violence that left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.
China’s influence
Even in Australia, protests followed Modi’s visit, with posters calling for his arrest, accusing him of being a “Hindu terrorist”.
But despite being asked about it on at least two occasions, Albanese refused to engage in criticism of the Indian leader.
“It’s not for me to comment (but) India, as a democracy, has a range of views, which is a good thing,” he told David Koch of Channel Seven before responding to a similar question from the ABC’s Michael Rowland, pointing out that India is “the biggest democracy in the world”.
It’s an approach that comes as no surprise to Dr Taneja who says India’s strategic economic importance will make Western countries reluctant to question Modi’s human rights record.
It highlights Australia’s history of prioritizing economic considerations above human rights concerns.
“In the 1980s, when China emerged as a major market for Australian commodities, Australia ignored China’s human rights abuses and entered into economic and trade partnerships with China. “, did he declare.
“But India is a much more open political system than China has ever been, and we had no problem dealing with China.”
According to Dr Taneja, India’s growing economic weight gives Modi particular power in international circles, especially with the United States.
“India can defy the critics regarding the erosion of civil liberties in India because the Indian government knows that India has become almost indispensable to the United States,” he said.
The reason why India is becoming increasingly essential to the United States and by extension to Australia comes down to one word: China.
China’s ascendancy in the region has become of particular concern to Western countries in recent years as tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait escalate.
“When you look at the United States, the European Union and Australia, when it comes to meeting the challenge of China, I don’t think they have a choice,” Dr Taneja said.
“There is no other country in the Indo-Pacific with the weight of India, with the size of India, with the population of India and with the economic potential of India.”
This reality has become even more stark in recent weeks as India overtook China to become the world’s most populous country, with over 1.42 billion people.
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In contrast to China’s shrinking and aging population, Dr Taneja points out that India has a rapidly growing labor force of almost 500 million people under the age of 35.
This, combined with the country’s strong private enterprise culture, puts India in a unique position.
“The challenge for the Indian government is to train them so that this demographic dividend becomes a financial dividend for the economy,” he said.
As Western leaders increasingly pin their hopes on a rising India, the question is whether it will rise fast enough to become more important to Australia than to China.
Dr. Taneja thinks so.
“India is currently growing faster than China,” he said.
“In fact, it is the fastest growing major economy in the world, so it has most of the ingredients for success.
“As long as they remain focused on a market-friendly approach to economic development, there is no reason why India cannot compete with China, in terms of economic clout.
“If that’s the case, then I think India will become an even more important partner for Australia (than China).”
But as it becomes more economically and strategically important to Western countries, Dr Taneja says India will increasingly face pressure to improve its democratic credentials.
“Western leaders say we share common values with India and so for India I think it’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
“Trying to balance the expectations of the international community to be a counterbalance to China, but at the same time to be like us, to be a liberal democracy.”
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