Tarun Chugh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the US Congress on June 22. This will be the second occasion that PM Modi will address the US Congress. India’s G20 Presidency has brought the global focus on the country, as the country has become a voice of the Global South.
The world order is in a flux. The global humanity is facing a host of challenges and they require urgent attention. Disruptive technologies, financial inequity, healthcare access, climate change, pandemic response, global response, energy transition are some of the issues currently at the top of the global agenda. India has shown leadership in all the global issues, including advocating peace efforts in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
India in the last financial year registered 7.2 per cent GDP growth. India has once more come out as the fastest growing economy in the world. By becoming the fifth largest economy in the world, India is being sought after by the developed world. India has regularly been taking part in the G7 meetings. Indian economy in fact is bigger than four of the G7 countries. Thus, India is being accorded a pivotal position in the global economic affairs.
It must also be mentioned that Indian voice on issues such as Climate Change is heard with all seriousness. By forming International Solar Alliance, India has shown the roadmap for clean energy transition to achieve the goal of the net zero emission. At the same time, India raised the voice of the Global South and the poor countries strongly in the Hiroshima Summit of the G7 meeting.
At such a juncture, it’s important to keep a tab on the Indian political leaders and their responses to prepare a collective response for the country on such global challenges. In the matters of international affairs, India for decades has had a consensus stance among the political leaders to speak in one voice. This unity served the national interests of the country well in times when India faced challenges.
Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke for India when he was abroad as an Opposition leader. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi needs to know that when he attempts to belittle PM Modi during his foreign visits, he actually ends up harming Indian interests.
The Opposition needs to introspect if it has been able to do constructive role in responding to issued which are of grave importance. By falling for the greed to spread disinformation, the Opposition does more harm to the Indian interests, and even harms credibility in people’s eyes.
India came out with two vaccines when the world was battling the Covid-19 pandemic. PM Modi made it clear that the Indian vaccines are for the people of the world. When the developed world was stocking the vaccines, India was sending them to the poor countries who could not have bought costly doses of the multinational companies. India not only vaccinated own population, but also provided the protective shields to millions of people world over. Even during the pandemic outbreak, the Opposition could not play constructive role. The Opposition had run a campaign against India’s vaccine diplomacy. But India won the hearts of the people all over the world, and the goodwill gained now serves the national interests of the country.
Opposition for the sake of opposition makes for bad politics. Parliamentary committees provide platforms for the members of the opposition parties to become equal stakeholders in formulating response of the country on key challenges.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one such disruptive technology. AI is being widely debated in parliaments of the developed countries. The Opposition in our country should also come forward and share their views on the issue which can be considered by the government.
On global issues, it’s desirable that India should speak in one voice. When PM Modi would address the US Congress second time in his tenure as the prime minister of the country, the world will be looking at him with hope that India will be able to provide solutions to several challenges faced by the global humanity. The global hope from India is also because the country rushed foodgrains to countries which faced acute hunger crisis after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. PM Modi, in equal measures, told both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the diplomacy is the way out of war.
The record FDI flow in the country shows that the world truly believes in the Indian economy. The trained Indian manpower is being sought after in the Middle East, Europe, the US, and Australia. Emergence of India as a global power is also being welcomed by the people all across the world, as they know that India has always positively contributed for the global humanity. This calls for the Opposition parties to sit back and reflect and also introspect.
(The author is the national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party)
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