Diplomatic Strategies ..

I am sure every one might have come across a passing reference of following activities:

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.

Dynasties... Nasty for Indian Politics??

The recent election campaign was a major cacophony against dynasty rule. Political parties wanted to leverage on the fact that one major party has a dynasty which makes the decision for the country. I am no great supporter of Gandhi family apart from admiration of the charm. But when I started thinking I saw a different angle.
Why Rahul Gandhi announced his entry to politics was puzzling to me. He was one guy who was away from the hustle bustle of Indian politcs happily spending his days with a Slovakian girl friend. In politics the Gandhi family always had a curse (reminds of Hound of Baskerville??). Indira Gandhi has been under threat from Sikhs long before she was assassinated. Same is the case with Rajiv Gandhi. Even after three murder attempts he never gave up politics until dead. Till this day there is a constant threat from Sikhs and LTTEs to the Gandhi family, then why should Rahul Gandhi enter Indian Politics? He needs no money, his ancestors gave him much. He needs no name, his family name is enough. He needs no power, he already excercises even from a foreign country. I just feel he is attending a call of duty for the Gandhi family. People respect this tradition specially the rural vote bank. But the urban vote bank (read as the neo-mindsets) scorn at this idea brushing off the idea as a rustic, illogical and outlandish. Let me take up a counter argument against each of this:
World wide, India is not the only country which votes for a dynasty. There are more than 35 countries in this world which have set dynastic rule. In fact even developed nations like UK, Australia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Canada have head of the state as a hereditary position. In fact a referendum in Canada, Australia has shown the popular opinion in favour of dynastic head. Even in US, Kennedy's kith and kin are still governors of states only because of JFK's charm. So this is no rustic idea but an idea which even modern economies practice to date.
In one poll-opinion gathering, people of Rajasthan were asked why they always voted the Scindia Scions (remember Vasundhara Raje is from BJP which strongly opposed the dynasty rule!! ) into power. The rustic vote bank has given a deep cut argument. They said that they have enough money to live for generations. There is no chance that they can be corrupt unlike a new, small time, politician. Now this is what is logic!!
Even this day, where corporates thrive on the principle of professional management, we still have Tata, Ambanis, Birlas ruling corporate kingdoms as dynasty's. Even on global front we have Mittals, Trumps, Hiltons. Why only businesses even movie world is dominated by this. (Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood). So do you still think this idea is outlandish?