Topic 1 : What makes the India-France ‘strategic partnership’ tick
Context: The partnership, which is now moving from government domains to commercial and civil spaces, reflects maturity and resilience
Introduction
- The French President, Emmanuel Macron, was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day this year, making it his third visit to India, after his 2018 state visit and last year for the G-20 summit hosted by India.
- Coming within six months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on July 14, 2023, as the chief guest at France’s Bastille Day, it is clear that the two countries do share a ‘Strategic Partnership’ that is special.
Origins of strategic convergence
- In 1998, French President Jacques Chirac established India's first Strategic Partnership, stating that India's exclusion from the global nuclear order was an anomaly.
- The partnership was tested when India conducted nuclear tests in May 1998 and declared itself a nuclear weapon state. France was the first country to open a dialogue with India and support India's claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
- India and France have valued strategic autonomy in their own ways, with India adopting non-alignment. France, a founding member of NATO, withdrew from its integrated military command in 1966 due to reservations over the U.S.'s insistence on subordinating French nuclear deterrent to NATO.
- After the Cold War ended, both countries began to embrace multipolarity, with France's Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine describing the USA as a "hyperpuissance" and advocating for multipolarity.
- France, as a resident power in the Indian Ocean, chose India as its preferred partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Both France and India share a common trait of ‘civilisation exceptionalism’ and pride themselves on their ‘argumentative intellectualism’ but have wisely refrained from preaching to each other. Though part of the western world, France, as a non-Anglo-Saxon nation, found it easier and more natural to engage with India on equal terms.
Building the partnership
- The nuclear dialogue, established in May 1998, has evolved into a strategic dialogue focused on counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing, and cyber-security issues.
- It has also addressed global challenges such as climate change, reform of multilateral development institutions, and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
- On the defence side, six Scorpene submarines have been built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, with technology transfer from the Naval Group.
- Joint exercises between navies, air forces, and armies were instituted in 2001, 2004, and 2011, respectively. The government-to-government agreement for 36 Rafale aircraft has helped build up India's aerospace industry.
- During Mr. Modi's visit to France last year, an announcement was made regarding a further acquisition of three more Scorpenes with enhanced features of air-independent-propulsion and 26 Rafale M aircraft for India's new aircraft carrier. Negotiations are expected to be concluded by the end of 2024.
- Mr. Macron's visit led to the conclusion of a India-France Defence Industrial Road map, with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. and Airbus agreeing to set up a final assembly line for H125 civilian helicopters and C-295 military transport aircraft.
- Collaboration between Safran, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, and its Gas Turbine Research Establishment is being stepped up for designing, developing, and producing an aircraft engine for India's fifth generation aircraft.
- Akasa Air has signed a $5 billion agreement for over 300 LEAP-1B engines to power its fleet acquisition of 170 Boeing MAX aircraft.
- Cooperation in the space domain began in the 1960s with French assistance to set up the Indian launch facility at Sriharikota.
- The strategic dialogue has restarted this cooperation, with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES) now working on joint missions.
Broadening and deepening the partnership
- The challenge for both countries has been to take the partnership out of the government domains into the commercial and civilian spaces.
- As a result, joint working groups on a range of subjects covering agriculture, environment, civil aviation, IT and telecom, urban development, transportation, culture and tourism have been set up over the years.
- One of the success stories has been the growing number of Indian students going to France for higher education.
- The operationalisation of the Young Professionals Scheme under the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement will help.
- Last year, the University Grants Commission revised rules regarding foreign universities setting up campuses in India.
- Sorbonne University, established in the 13th century, is globally renowned, and has had a campus in the United Arab Emirates since 2006. A campus in India should be identified as a priority objective.
- There are nearly 1,000 French companies in India including 39 of the CAC 40 (‘the most influential benchmark of performance in the French economy’) while nearly 150 Indian businesses have established a presence in France.
- In the past, Indian companies saw the United Kingdom as the entry point for Europe. Post-Brexit, France is an entry point for Europe and Francophonie!
Conclusion
- ‘Strategic Partnership’ does not require convergence on all issues but sensitivity so that differences, where these exist, are expressed in private and not publicly. This is where India-France ties, nurtured over the last quarter century, reflect maturity and resilience.
Topic 2 : What is needed from a Governor is reticence.
Context: A gubernatorial incumbent such as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, ought to remember that airing his views in public is out of place
Introduction
- Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has been criticized for interpreting historical events leading to India's independence.
- Despite his background in historical studies, Ravi, a physics student and former member of the Indian Police Service and Intelligence Bureau, has strayed from his constitutional duties and interpreted historical events, causing controversy.
- This decision has raised questions about the credibility of Governors and the integrity of their constitutional duties.
Governor’s views
- There has been no indication from Mr. Ravi that he has made a detailed study of India’s national movement which, under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership, aimed at the comprehensive transformation of a feudal, largely obscurantist and hierarchical society along with the achievement of freedom from British colonialism.
- All the great leaders of the national movement played their part in this noble enterprise. In any event, it is intrinsically wrong for any constitutional authority to play up the role of some and denigrate that of others.
- Governor has been reported as saying that the Quit India movement made little impact on the British decision to leave India.
- Instead, it was insecurity felt by the British at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose forming the Azad Hind Government and its army (INA) and in 1946 by the Naval Mutiny and the Air Force Rebellion.
Clarification!
- Under criticism for his assertions and views, Mr. Ravi clarified that he had the ‘highest respect’ for Mahatma Gandhi.
- He emphasized the importance of Indian soldiers' loyalty to the British Indian armed forces as a key pillar of their rule in India.
- Historians of the national movement acknowledge that the Indian National Army (INA) and naval mutiny shook British confidence in the loyalty of Indian members of their army in India.
- After World War II, Britain's economic weakening and international situation prevented them from pursuing armed action to retain their rule in India.
- Ravi was correct in praising Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's contribution to achieving independence.
- Despite ideological differences among freedom movement leaders, none denigrated Netaji or the INA.
- Bhulabhai Desai led the defense of Prem Kumar Sehgal, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, and Shah Nawaz Khan at their court martial at the Red Fort in 1945-46.
- Katju's unpublished biography of the INA trial highlights the intense and indescribable excitement in the country due to the trials.
- He believes that the Indian National Army trials were the definite cause of the withdrawal of British rule in India in August 1947, as the British discovered it was impossible for them to continue.
Conclusion
- It is obvious that Mr. Ravi feels that Netaji was not given due recognition for his contribution to the country’s Independence by the Congress party because of Jawaharlal Nehru and his successors, and that this lapse has now been corrected. It is Mr. Ravi’s right to feel so.
- What is not open to him while holding the office of Governor is to make his views public. Governors are also not expected to make comparisons, howsoever indirectly, of the impact of the actions of different leaders of the national movement. What is needed from Governors is reticence. As a former civil servant, Mr. Ravi should certainly know this.