Drafts And Windmills

There are few surprises in an Indo-European Union summit: two prime minister-led teams sitting across a long table for the fifth time to go over with a fine toothcomb a draft that has taken both sides over a year to prepare before signing it. But when prime minister Manmohan Singh walked up to the dais at a press conference in the Netherland foreign office in The Hague on November 8 with Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and European Commission president Romano Prodi, something had changed forever: India entered an exclusive club of five other countries (USA, Canada, Russia, Japan and China) with which the EU has a 'strategic partnership'. India had risen in EU's estimation from a minor trade partner into one of its six most important global allies.

Few in the local media seemed interested in this change of equations between India and the EU, caught up as they were in the burning story of the day: the arrest of 10 suspects in the assassination of Dutch film-maker, Theo Van Gogh. A staunch opponent of what he called Muslim extremism, Van Gogh repeatedly declared his belief that the integration of Muslims into Dutch society was failing, and predicted a 'culture war' in the near future.

If not quite war, his murder—allegedly by a young Moroccan immigrant—has sparked off a situation alarming enough to compel both prime minister Balkenende and the Amsterdam mayor to issue appeals "to show restraint and not jump to conclusions too hastily". His domestic problems may explain why Balkenende looked a little fragile and vulnerable compared to the gravely composed Manmohan on the dais. The tables had distinctly turned since the Lisbon summit two years ago, when India felt the heat, hard put to explain its human rights record in Gujarat as well as Kashmir. As one senior Indian official pointed out, not without some complacency: "For the last five or six years, with the growth of communalism in India, the world was beginning to see India as part of the mess in South Asia. India had lost its moral stature, but now once again we are the only country in this region able to claim that we are a multi-cultural, plural democracy."

It is not an empty claim, as Balkenende himself pointed out at the press conference: "If one were to draw a line from Brussels to New Delhi, India and the EU are two poles of stability with a lot of instability in the areas in between, from the Balkans, the Middle East and Afghanistan."

That India's stature has undoubtedly gone up in the last six months is something that Manmohan also stressed in his opening speech at the summit, declaring the 14th general election as "the largest exercise of popular will in history". In fact, one of India's biggest selling points at this summit was its multi-cultural democracy. That, and its "one thousand years of experience in dealing with the Muslim world." For the predominantly Christian EU, with the prospect of its 15 million Muslims going up fifty-fold whenever Turkey joins in, there is a dawning realisation that India can teach them a thing or two about living in a multicultural society.

Nor was this the only moral ground to be reclaimed. The Indian side was also able to impress their EU partner with their expertise in conducting elections, helping Afghanistan hold its recent elections and also its willingness to train poll officials for Iraq's election in January.

India, by all accounts, faced no serious hurdles in this summit. Not even over Kashmir. "We talked at some length on Kashmir," foreign minister Natwar Singh later told reporters on board the plane to India. "We explained to EU about the Indo-Pakistan dialogue in the last five-and-a-half months, that the talks were going on the right lines." The Indian side indicated that talks could progress further provided Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf kept his promise on stopping cross-border terrorism.

Certainly, Manmohan Singh did not seem in a mood to tolerate any impertinent questions on Kashmir. When asked by a local reporter on the deployment of forces in Kashmir, his reply was sharp despite the bland and almost meek way it was delivered: "Jammu and Kashmir is a part of India and the deployment of troops (there) is not a subject for discussion."

Manmohan, according to his aides, was not that enthusiastic about this summit, relieved when a foot infection forced the Dutch prime minister to postpone the visit by a month. But once he reached The Hague, he seemed bent on his mission: selling India to the world. On the very evening he arrived, he agreed to speak at a reception for NRIs and Surinam Indians, telling them not to neglect their janmabhoomi for their karmabhoomi. Speaking with unusual passion, he said: "India is open for business...you have my assurance that there will be new opportunities in India."

The NRIs—some of them travelling from across the Netherlands to hear him speak—were sceptical, of course. But even the most hardened businessmen among them could not conceal their pride in a prime minister who, as one IT ceo, Ram S. Ramdas, pointed out, "one need no longer blush for". He spoke their language, and they were ready, if not to act, at least to listen.

The EU leaders may see in Manmohan, as Natwar Singh pointed out, "a world-class economist", but for Manmohan, "economics is politics and vice versa". It is his burning conviction that unless India attracts foreign investment, there is no hope of solving poverty. That drives him to work so relentlessly. When a journalist asked him why he was driving himself so hard refusing to stay even an extra night at The Hague after the summit, he replied, "Because there is so much work to be done at home".

Even the Air-India crew were not immune to his quiet charm. Manmohan "is the sweetest prime minister we ever served. He is so unassuming, at the most he will ask for a special meal of plain dal, chawal and roti." While boarding the flight back home those accompanying the prime minister noticed that his trousers fell an inch short of his ankles. Someone suggested, "Either they've shrunk or he has grown in stature."