Softly suicidal

IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence

Can we Indians afford a soft and timid state any longer?

Chomping on a burger, laced liberally with ketchup, Richard D’ Aveni looked a corpulent sight, a few years ago in a five star coffee shop. A tenure professor of Dartmouth College and a conservative to the core, Richard could make you wince with dismay while holding forth on how America must ruthlessly project its power – even at the cost of “collateral damage”. The now famous Thomas Friedman book about the flat world and the Goldman Sachs report on the BRIC economies had already been published and Richard was on a long journey of discovery into the ‘next big boy of the global arena’. I didn’t agree with most of what Richard said; but one statement of his still resonates when I pick up a newspaper or watch a so called erudite TV show. Taking a huge swig of Coke, Richard had witheringly remarked that Indian policy makers must change their negative and timid mindset. “Do you want to forever remain the Mexico of China? were his words that still haunt me.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a token flying visit to a recent meet of East Asian economic powerhouses to fly on again some place else, Richard’s ‘Mexico’ warning kept coming back to my mind. The simple brutal fact is that India is on verge of losing the eco, energy and geo-strategic war against China. Even though Indian policy makers bend over backwards to please the military junta in Myanmar – lucrative oil & gas exploration rights and access to strategic ports is given to China. Even as Left leaders and ‘progressives’ of all hues pursue more and more minority appeasement, Iran simply throws India out of a pipeline deal with Pakistan. And as mentioned earlier in the column, even the famed lobbying skills of the richest Indian in the world Lakshmi Mittal couldn’t help India beat China in gaining access to oil and gas fields in central Asia.

In various set ups like ASEAN and APEC that represent the most dynamic economies of the world, the Indian presence is barely tolerated as a guest without a voice while China has since long secured a seat on the high table. India still struggls with a flawed free trade agreement with Thailand, China has already become the largest trading partner of east Asia. The day is not far off when it challenges the United States in the region. Modern nation states earn the respect of peers on two counts – grudgingly because of military power and reluctantly because of the ruthless use of economic power. On both the counts, Indian policy makers have so far exhibited unbelievable timidity. Or have they made up their minds that India will become to China in the 21st century what Mexico is to the United States?

Sutanu Guru

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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