by Moiz Mannan
For 10 years running, the Congress-led UPA government in India hosted the annual conclave of non-resident Indians, but nobody ever mentioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh except in the media reportage of his opening day speech.
This year, in the run-up to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas itself, there is hardly a passage written or spoken on the event that does not feature the indomitable Narendra Modi.
His detractors may have dubbed him as the “NRI PM” taking a dig at his frequent foreign travels since taking over as Prime Minister, but the fact remains that tough Uncle Sam too had to make an embarrassing U turn by rolling out the red carpet for a man once refused even a visit visa.
At a time when coalition politics was being considered inevitable, the massive mandate which the ‘Modi wave’ evoked from the world’s largest democracy (and consumer market) in the 2014 general elections appeared to have ignited a new-found love for him among world leaders.
It is not surprising that a galaxy of world politicians, businessmen, diplomats and professionals have agreed to attend the 2015 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to be hosted by Gujarat for the first time as well the Vibrant Gujarat Summit that would follow. It is hard to imagine, for example, what the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon will do at a global investor’s summit? Yet, he has said he’ll be there.
Riding on the back of his domestic electoral popularity, Modi basked in glory at overflowing NRI gatherings, most notably at the historic Madison Square Garden in New York City and Sydney’s Olympic Park.
Again, his critics say they’re not surprised because 30 percent of all overseas Indians come from his home state, Gujarat. Their claim is that Modi is popular only among the wealthy NRIs in the developed countries. Bes that as it may, Modi has made it clear in many ways that now he is not out to win any popularity contests, but to push forward his agenda.
The man is a politician and obviously the agenda would include strengthening relations with influential and resourceful NRIs who have helped his party and him in the past and would do so in future. But, in the larger context, Modi also knows how weighed down he is now with high expectations of an electorate that voted for a clean and assertive administration and effective development measures.
Now that he doesn’t need to look for votes for the next five years, he has to test his popularity with NRIs in terms of meaningful and substantial involvement with his schemes and programmes. Already, for example, he has sought NRI help in the Clean Ganga initiative. Similarly, India’s basic infrastructure in terms of roads, power, health and education is crying for aid.
NRIs have made India the top remittance recipient in the world, but in terms of investment in the home country overseas Chinese have left us light years behind. It is this area where the Congress-led government failed miserably. Why? Mainly owing to a trust gap as big as the Grand Canyon. The corrupt and tardy political set-up was, in fact, the reason why many chose to flee India in the first place.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas became a meaningless annual ritual. Modi has other ideas. He knows that what can work is only his own image as a go-getter, a man in control as a friend of investors. He is not new to NRI relations. He’s done this as the Chief Minister of Gujarat with initiatives such as the Vibrant Gujarat Summit every two years since 2003.
Besides seeking investment, Modi is also aiming to use the event to find allies in Indian origin political leaders in different countries for the sake of diplomatic support as and when needed. For the first time, this PBD has a session dedicated to foreign politicians of Indian origin.
We’ll have to wait and see how far these initiatives go. What’s certain, though, is that this PBD seems to be more about Modi than the NRIs themselves.
The Peninsula
