1. Ample availability of Bollywood movie CDs/DVDs in Afghanistan. In fact these days all the visitors to the Indian embassy in Afghan can pick as many CDs/DVDs as they need for free.
2. Sudden attention in building Buddhists temples and organizing Buddhist festivals/get togethers. There has been a Buddhist Univ in MP near Sanchi, a Buddhist get-together in Amaravathi, AP, a world class Buddhist research institute near Takshashila, Bihar, Display of Budhist artefacts (including ash remains of Gautam Budha) in Singapore.
3. Indians purchasing Tea gardens and Flori-cultural lands in Africa. In fact this year has been a record year for FDI out of India to Africa for owning these lands.
4. Hosting IIFA (film awards) in countries outside India. The last one was in Colombo, Sri lanka. The previous were in cities including London, Dubai. The next will be in Toronto, Canada.
5. Encouraging Afghan and Iraq cricket teams to play cricket.
6. Issuing a no-Australia decree to Indian student community.
All these events seem to be out of place discrete events characterized by a happenstance. A deep though actually reveals a hidden intent of the activities. Indian is trying to build its clout and doing it in a refined way. These are the hidden intentions and will surprise any budding strategist (me included).
1. Taliban seems to be anti-India. The only way they can veer them towards India is by luring them to a favorite Indian Dessert - The Bollywood flicks. The Afghans like them because they understand the language easily and they can co-relate to the Indian culture unlike Hollywood. Using this as a bait, India is trying to enter their leisure list and eventually their good list. I am sure in a few years from now Afghan entertainment hunger can be satiated only by a diplomatic engagement with India for the flicks to be aired in cinemas. Thats when the fruits are bore.
2. China is trying to lure the Asian economies like Japan, Singapore with their "Mongloid-race" card. The only way India can connect here is at a religious/spiritual level: Buddhism. There is no denial of the fact that the roots of Buddhism are deeply implanted in India and passed to the ASEAN countries via the silk route. Now India is strongly exploring this route by inviting diplomats, leaders to Buddhist spiritual/religious activities. India also hinting at its association with these countries that existed for centuries.
3. China has already built massive projects in Africa. There is no way India can beat it at its scale of infrastructure projects. But it has MEA officials has realised one thing, that once the project is completed Chinese influence on these countries might go down. So the best way to build a clout there and influence is to own up land. Indian tea gardens and flori-cultural lands are already internationally renowned. Now extending them to own up land in Africa and become permanent influencers there is a logical extension.
4. Awareness and acceptance of India as a country with constant presence is thrust by missions like IIFA. People throng to see SRK, Salman, Katrina and leave a mark in their minds. This increases acceptance and tolerance towards India and Indians.
5. Iraq and Afghan cricket teams are constantly engaged by visiting India or India's B-Teams visiting these countries. They are trying to portray an image showcasing India as a Big-Bro who can aid them to get a decent place in the Global eyes.
6. India has passed silently threatened a developed nation to face the consequences if they follow a No India policy. Around 11K seats in the Oz-universities are going vacant this year. That shows a potential loss of for-ex money into Australia. It also indicates how they will fall short of skilled labor in the years to come. This threat is not just directed towards Australia but towards US and UK too. Now we need to see how can Oz-land cope up with this back lag.
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