India will host Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron this week at a series of official events.There’s Bharat and there’s India, the distinction often made between the countryside, comprising largely of India’s rural poor, and the shining India of technology and Bollywood.
There’s also the India that will host David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, at a series of official events starting today. And there is the India that concurrently will host a visit by the reclusive senior despot of Burma, General Than Shwe.
He arrived in India Monday, a day before Mr. Cameron, though with a lot less official fanfare and some protests by civil society groups.
Gen. Than Shwe first visited Bodh Gaya in Bihar, a Buddhist devotional center. On Tuesday, as Mr. Cameron arrived ahead of his official functions, the general was scheduled to meet with senior Indian leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The general’s itinerary on the five-day visit also reportedly includes a stop in the high-tech hub of Hyderabad, probably because Mr. Cameron has dibs on the bigger tech hub of Bangalore, where he is slated to visit Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. as well as tech giant Infosys, among other stops, before he comes to Delhi Thursday, according to India’s foreign ministry.
Rarely can the Janus face of India’s foreign policy imperatives have been embodied in physical form by such drastically different national leaders from such drastically different countries.
Mr. Cameron will see the confident, western-facing India of 8.5% annual Gross Domestic Product growth that Britain, the U.S. and many other western countries are feting in an effort to increase trade and to forge closer ties on security. In addition to investment opportunities for British companies, no doubt Afghanistan and Pakistan will be on the agenda as well as India seeks to stay influential and make sure its concerns are heeded by the coalition that is led by the U.S. and prominently includes Britain.
Senior despot of Burma, General Than Shwe arrived in India on Monday. The general is on a five-day visit to India.Gen. Than Shwe will be discussing border security and was expected to sign a series of cooperation agreements to prevent the smuggling of drugs across the border between India and Burma, as Myanmar is also known.
In contrast to Mr. Cameron, who is coming to India to see what he can deliver for British companies and the British economy, it is India that will be hoping Gen. Than Shwe can deliver something to it: Natural gas that India needs and a closer alliance that will help counter China’s influence in Burma.
Analysts say this all reflects the sense of realpolitik with which India has to pursue its international relations given the delicate situation it which it finds itself in the region.
Brahma Chellaney, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank, notes that India’s policy in Burma “is to augment its role in order to bring about a democratic change in the southeast Asian nation.”
At the same time, Mr. Cameron’s visit will “add momentum to India’s relationship with the United Kingdom that was lost during the Labour government” that Mr. Cameron’s ruling coalition succeeded earlier this year.