The various work streams covering over 200 meetings in 50 cities leading up to the summit in September 2023 are almost nearing the end. Common Indians – students, entrepreneurs, civil society members, academicians – participate in events and contribute to the global agenda. The events organised all over India are providing forums for foreign delegates and Indian locals to interact. In other words, G20 is present not only on Twitter, but also on LinkedIn.
There was a time in the 2000s when there was a vigorous debate on India’s “strategic culture” or the lack of it. Many theories were posited, such as how India was too poor to have a defined strategic culture; how Indian leaders have always focused more on internal cohesion; how Hindus are generally selfish and inward looking; how we are not sophisticated enough to understand the nuances of other cultures etc. The debaters were mostly think tank snobs. (Their ability to explain, leave alone predict global events have been laid bare in the last decade or so.) That era is over.
In all the festive gala, it is easy to lose sight of the high-level thinking behind making G20 a people’s event. “Professor” Modi is orchestrating events and is also offering a master class in foreign policy through a sort of flipped classroom method. He is not only making Indians think of their place in the world, but also think for the world.
The participants are presented with opportunities to research, think, listen and interact with foreign visitors. It would have triggered curiosity to learn about various countries, cultures and issues. Citizens, especially youngsters from now on will be more curious and have intelligent takes on international events and our foreign policy movies. When PM Modi held the G20 mace with pride last year when it was passed from Indonesia, he would have perhaps mapped all of this in his mind.
This giant “chintan shivir” complements the diaspora outreach of the last 9 years. The rapturous crowd of friends, relatives and fellow Indians on TV make us feel connected to lands beyond India. Add this to our booming economy and cultural awareness through media, we get global Indian citizens. A self-confident Indian will not only think about India’s place in the world but her own place in the scheme of things to contribute and to benefit from. The behaviour change is subtle, important and created deliberately.
PM Modi has brought his pracharak expertise of movement building to foreign policy too. His deep philosophical understanding of human nature through long years of organising and experience of governing are helping him to weave together the tapestry of events that not only places importance on the outward focus of India as a participant of a global event, but also as an inward focus of capacity building of citizens.
In his mantra of “reform, perform and transform”, he has explained that transformation can come only through “jan bhagidhari”. Only a leader who thinks of politics and governance from the plane of society, aka “social politics” , can deliver deep and sustainable social change. Man-making, the ideal of Swami Vivekananda is put to practice through government programs!
The G20 mela is a far cry from how events related to foreign affairs were conducted previously. The usual elites gather in five star hotels in Delhi and dish out platitudes. It was as if only the elite could think about, opine on and find meaning in the utility of foreign policy. Now, democratisation of the event has raised possibilities of teasing out recommendations that are richer and more diverse. The common prosperity of G20 countries is better served through “deliberative democracy”. The process that has yielded the recommendations will not be lost on the other leaders of G20.
The spillover effects of PM Modi’s general approach of making foreign policy egalitarian on BJP and the bureaucracy are evident. The “Foreign Affairs” department syncs up with the bureaucracy to organise events outside India. There are “party to party” contacts from political parties of other countries. The way the BJP prepares manifestos too has followed the ground-up approach in the last two general elections.
The bureaucracy has become more proactive in looking for investments and strategic partnerships. Babus have realised that PM Modi will explain initiatives to people and they will be held directly accountable. Further bureaucratic reform will be good to see – such as an IFS office getting deputed as a District Commissioner or an investment promotion officer in a state getting to work in a foreign embassy etc. The EAM should seize the opportunity of having a creative thinker as his boss.
PM Modi has shown everyone involved in foreign affairs on how an outsider with original thinking can offer more creative ways of generating impact. Hopefully the foreign policy thinkers in India will learn new lessons from the process and think of their role in the ecosystem. Hope they shun group-think. Hope they spread out, travel far and wide in India and speak about frameworks to think about International Relations and Foreign Policy to the general public, especially students. Hope they write more in local language newspapers, and, in general, increase their social utility.
PM Modi is teaching International Relations to Indians in his own way. Not from the Peloponnesian war as it is taught in copy-cat textbooks. But by empowering Indians to be active participants in the affairs; by egging them to think about and read and wonder how it will be useful to them and the society. There are things to be learned from the pedagogical style as well!
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