by JOHN CHERIAN
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with (front row, from left) Chad President Idriss Deby Itno, Swaziland’s King Mswati III, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, and African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and other leaders of African nations during the India-Africa Forum Summit at the Indira Gandhi sports complex in New Delhi on October 29. PHOTO/Manish Swarup/AP
The three-day India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) held in New Delhi from October 27 to 29 was, according to Indian officials, the most important event held in the capital since the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had been preparing for more than a year to make the IAFS a grandiose event. The previous India-Africa summits, organised when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power, were in contrast modest affairs with only a small group of African leaders being invited. The first IAFS was held in 2008 in New Delhi and the second one in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in 2011. Only 15 African leaders were invited for the 2011 summit.
This time, 52 African countries were represented. The heads of state of leading African countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were among them. The decision to make it a humongous event that brought the nation’s capital to a virtual halt for two days was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The event was supposed to be held last year but got postponed at the eleventh hour owing to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. A few African heads of state had in fact landed in Delhi to attend the summit last year. Others cancelled their visits at the last minute. Many African governments were unhappy at the way the situation was handled by the Indian government.
The African leaders who were in New Delhi this year for the summit would not have failed to notice the ugly side of domestic Indian politics, which was on full display. Beef, of course, was not on the menu for the visitors. The spouses of the African leaders were taken for a visit to the Akshardham temple in the capital and not to the historical monuments that Delhi is famous for. The present government’s anti-Muslim bias and attacks on multiculturalism are not good advertisements for Indian democracy and pluralism. North Africa is almost totally Muslim. So is much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Modi in his speeches at the summit conspicuously failed to mention the key role of Jawaharlal Nehru in forging relations with newly independent African countries. Nehru, and for that matter Indira Gandhi, remain iconic figures in Africa. Their contributions to anti-colonial struggles and support for liberation movements will never be forgotten on the continent. African nations also continue to value institutions like the NAM, of which Nehru was one of the key architects.
One of the aims of the NDA government in hosting the entire gamut of African leadership was to push India’s case for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. There were no firm commitments forthcoming from the African leaders, who all said that their support would be determined by the stance adopted by the African Union (A.U.). Many African countries are themselves vying for a seat in the Security Council, and there is no unanimity on the issue yet in Africa.
Holding summits with African leaders seems to have become a global trend after China hosted its first mega summit in 2005. That summit signalled China’s growing diplomatic and economic clout in the continent. Today, China is the biggest investor and development aid provider in Africa. Barring a brief hiatus, China has been active in Africa since the 1960s. A 1,800-kilometre railway line connecting Tanzania and Zambia was built by the Chinese way back in the early 1970s. Most African capitals boast football stadiums and key government buildings built gratis by the Chinese government. From the beginning of the last decade, after its own economy started booming, China went full steam ahead in investing in Africa. It offered cheap credit and development aid along with investments. Priority was given to improving the transport infrastructure, which was woefully lacking on the continent. Today, China is building roads and railway networks linking the continent from the north to the south. It is no longer solely a supplier of consumer goods but has become a major source of capital and technology for the developing world. It has so far invested more than $180 billion in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Bilateral trade between China and Africa is estimated to be worth more than $200 billion annually.
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