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| Edited By: Shastri Ramachandaran |Source: DNA |Updated: Dec 02, 2014, 05:00 AM IST
If the best that Narendra Modi’s spin doctors could do to underscore his success at the recent SAARC summit was to boast that he stuck to a simple vegetarian meal while Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif feasted on halal meat, evidently there is little else to crow about. Beyond a point, hype becomes counterproductive.
SAARC has been a non-achiever and the 18th SAARC summit in Kathmandu was no exception. Given SAARC’s record, no one expected substantive outcomes at this summit either. Hence, lack of tangible results is neither surprising nor disappointing. No one expected Modi to fire up SAARC or turn it into a star performer. Thus, claims that this SAARC summit was a “success” because it was a “successful outing” for Modi, because he occupied centre stage in Kathmandu, because he set the tone, because he was one up on Sharif, because …, because …, only serve to emphasise the opposite.
SAARC has not been a life-changing force in South Asia. This does not mean that it is useless or should be wound up. It is as useful or useless as the UN, or, for that matter any other regional or international forum.
SAARC has its uses. Otherwise, SAARC observer countries, such as the US, China, the EU, Japan, Iran, Australia and South Korea would not be pushing hard for a greater role in this eight-nation grouping. In fact, some observers, like China, want full membership.
New Delhi is opposed to China assuming a larger role — in any form — in SAARC. Much to India’s discomfiture, the more New Delhi sets itself up against China’s role, the greater the support China gains for expanding its influence within SAARC. And, Modi, much like Manmohan Singh, seems helpless in containing China’s growing power within SAARC and over SAARC member-nations. Except for India, no other member (or observer) is opposed to China’s membership or enhanced role in SAARC.
India is isolated on this issue and engaged in a losing battle. This is a failure of both policy and strategy — not any particular party or Prime Minister — that may haunt India for a long time unless it accepts the challenge represented by China in SAARC and deals with it in a manner that redounds to India’s credit.
China has been looming large over SAARC for some years now. At the 2011 summit in the Maldives, where the issue of its aspiring status could no longer be brushed aside, SAARC settled for a “comprehensive review” of its engagement with observer-states, including the prospect of dialogue partnership.
Far from going away or being shelved, the issue of upgrading China’s status, contrary to New Delhi’s expectation, has only become more challenging. India was seen as opposing elevation of China’s status because this was proposed by Pakistan. In Kathmandu, Pakistan was joined by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the growing clamour for China, among other observers, to be granted a larger role. It can no longer be viewed as a case of all-weather friends Pakistan and China acting in tandem against India. Besides, none of the other observers such as the US, the EU, Japan or Iran have opposed an elevated role for China.
New Delhi’s assertion that there is no proposal for “expansion of SAARC” ignores the drift favouring greater engagement with observer nations, including China. The Kathmandu Declaration explicitly proposes “productive, demand-driven and objective project-based cooperation in priority areas as identified by member-states”.
Like the US, today, China is everyone’s neighbour. Like the US, China, has effective proxy players. China would be the elephant in the room at every SAARC summit. New Delhi has to accept this reality, and re-think and re-strategise for India to prevail as the cornerstone of SAARC.
The author is an independent political and foreign affairs commentator
