Enriching insight

The Academy played host to two very eminent speakers in both the Foundation Course and the Phase IV last week: we had Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu and the Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale. The frank and candid conversations between them and the officers really helped everyone in understanding the geopolitics of the northeastern region, especially in the context of the Look East Policy, India's equations and issues with China and the practical steps that could be taken to give greater teeth to our Look East Policy.

First, some interesting facts. Pema Khandu is perhaps the youngest CM of the country, and Vijay Gokhale is the seniormost civil servant – belonging to the 1981 batch. Although the two did not have an occasion to meet, it was interesting to note their perceptions and world views. While Vijay Gokhale gave us a broad overview of India and the world, CM Khandu spoke about the reality on the ground, the 'here and now challenge' from China on the 1500 km long border with 'Tibet China' rather than China – he urges a change in our nomenclature to describe the region.

The Chief Minister also felt that Arunachal was perhaps the finest example of integration with India with every tribe retaining its identity and dialect yet also adopting Hindi as the medium of communication. He put it so well: 'the left and right of the grammar may be different but the manning was conveyed quite clearly'. He convincingly spoke of the need to have a separate cadre for Arunachal Pradesh to ensure institutional memory besides giving an equal and fair opportunity to officers who were born and educated in Arunachal to opt for the state cadre. Under the current dispensation, even officers domiciled in Arunachal were part of AGMUT cade and hardly got the opportunity to serve in the state. Given the fact that in geographical terms, it is one of the largest states in the country – with an area bigger than Bihar, the highest hydro reserve in the country and the longest border with Tibet China – there is merit in the argument. Another point which made a lot of sense was the need to have at least two time zones in the country – for the entire Eastern region, the 9:30 AM-5.30 PM schedule did not make ecological sense. Even in Kolkata, so many daylight hours are lost because from mid-November to mid-February, it is dark from 5 pm onwards and in the case of Arunachal, the dusk sets in even earlier. For a region where the sun rises at 3.30 AM in summers, the best part of the morning is lost if schools and institutions follow the IST. If the US can afford four time zones, we can surely do with two time zones at least!

The Foreign Secretary's address looked at India's role in the world. He was of the firm view that a nation of India's size had to engage with the world in economic, political, strategic and humanitarian spheres and that an inward-looking policy was not the best option. Even as he ably defended India's withdrawal from the RCEP, it was clear that he counted the benefits of globalisation not just for India but for the world as it led to the optimisation of resource use, development of domain competencies and better integration. But he also pointed out that they were major challenges as India was coming of age at a time when most of the developed economies were in the grip of a slowdown; China stood on a stockpile of inventory of manufactured goods, and the US policy was also becoming more restrictive. However, there was also an opportunity on account of Sino US tensions, and India could leverage this advantage. It was also very clear from his address that India is now making national sovereign interest as the prime objective of our foreign policy, and the ideological dispositions that governed India's policy on non-alignment, and staying away from the two power blocs were no longer relevant with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of bipolarity. In fact, we had taken longer to come to terms with the newer institutional arrangements like BRICS, G20, ASEAN and BIMSTEC, making our presence felt on the global stage. He was very appreciative of the Academy's engagement with the training of civil servants from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Maldives – this was a wonderful way of bringing the key stakeholders of the region together for a discussion on issues that made the most difference to lives of people: governance, development interventions and institutional reforms. Gokhale fielded all questions with aplomb – these ranged from India's soft power to our position in the UN, especially with respect to the UNSC, and the involvement of services other than the IFS in the diplomatic outreach of India. He specifically mentioned that gone were the days when ministries and state governments could work in silos – the distinction between foreign and domestic was no longer watertight. States were playing an important role in foreign policy and whether it was the Kartarpur corridor or sharing of Teesta waters or the rehabilitation policy for Tamils in Sri Lanka – Punjab, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were clearly involved. The Look East Policy required the strategic support of all the states in the Northeast. Setting up of Videsh Bhawans in all state capitals also meant that state governments would be engaged with the MEA on a range of issues – from investments in industry and services to collaboration in culture and outreach with OCIs and PIOs from the state.

In fine, it was a week in which officers got a very wide range of inputs which covered the continuum. And, of course, a much clearer perception of the Look East Policy.

Dr. Sanjeev Chopra is the Director of LBSNAA and Honorary Curator, Valley of Words: Literature and Arts Festival, Dehradun.

Views expressed are strictly personal