Sunanda K Datta Ray: Concert of Asia

WHERE MONEY TALKS

Thursday's speech by K Kesavapany, director of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, at the Asian Institute of Transport Development in New Delhi, made me wonder if India isn't getting too bogged down in the subcontinent.

If we shouldn't take a flying leap out of stagnant south Asia's eternal squabbles into the economic dynamism of the emerging East Asian community? "India faces another tryst with destiny, this time with Asia," was how Kesavapany put it, echoing Jawaharlal Nehru's famous words at that fateful midnight hour.

Geography might appear to be a limitation but look at the United States. Does it remain permanently embroiled with Cuba and Mexico? Its key partners are beyond the Atlantic and across the even greater expanse of the Pacific.

It plays a lead role in NATO. If India emulates that example, albeit on a less grandiose scale, it might find it makes a difference even to what Shyam Saran called "the challenge for our diplomacy" in SAARC.

Now, India oscillates between highs and lows, though, lately, mainly lows. The unloading of an illicit consignment of arms at Chittagong's official jetty causes dismay, King Gyanendra's coup plunged us into consternation, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck's democratic revolution sent spirits soaring.

Doubts set in again when Pervez Musharraf made it clear that with or without F16s "" with now, thanks to George W Bush and Condoleezza Rice "" he would never stop gnawing at the bone of Kashmir. These issues matter no doubt, but they should not absorb the entire attention of a nation of India's size, numbers, human resources, scientific and technological achievements and economic potential.

It is fashionable nowadays to deride Nehru's policies but he was probably the first Indian statesman with an Asian vision. As Kesavapany reminded listeners, Nehru hosted the Asian Relations Conference in March 1947 and was the prime mover behind Bandung.

"We are of Asia and the peoples of Asia are nearer and closer to us than others. India is so situated that she is at the pivot of western, southern and south-east Asia."

How are we to benefit from that strategic location? Improved communication is the obvious answer. Relic of the Raj, the Stillwell Road is again in the news as a possible segment of the future highway of Asia, a path that the motorists took recently to fervent local applause.

Lord Dalhousie's dream of a grand railway from Singapore through India to join the Orient Express line in Europe should be seriously revived. New air routes have been launched but there are still not enough of them. Thaksin Shinawatra's hope of a Calcutta-Chiengmai flight awaits realisation.

North-east India, now viewed as a hotbed of insurgency, could be a vital link in a pan-Asian chain. Ethnically, the tribes are of Tibeto-Burman descent. Assam's Ahoms are of Lao origin. Nagas, Mizos and many of Arunachal Pradesh's 110 communities straddle relatively new international borders.

Geographically, the region is closer to China, Myanmar and Thailand. Assam is more than 2,000 km from New Delhi and more than 3,000 km from Bombay but only 1,079 km from Kunming. Yangon and Bangkok are other close cities.

These factors should be advantages in India's discourse with east Asia. But, of course, the substance of the discourse has to be economic which means the motivation and guidance must be political. With the Chinese and Japanese prime ministers, Wen Jiabao and Junichiro Koizumi, expected in India shortly, there is no doubt that the political dialogue is gaining momentum.

China may be on the threshold of a new proposal to break the deadlock over the border dispute; Japan supports India's case for permanent membership of the Security Council; and Japan's ambassador in New Delhi, Yasukuni Enoki, has spoken several times of a new India-Japan-China partnership. There is also always India's faithful friend, Singapore, to facilitate entry into the 13-member East Asian Community.

Some less enthusiastic ASEAN members may be canvassing for Australia and New Zealand also to be included. But the compulsions of India's high growth rate, burgeoning market, investment opportunities and comparatively low-cost exportable skills will prove irresistible.

Economics is not the only attraction. Some east Asians see India as both ballast and balance. It would stabilise an association that could be rocked by historic differences between China and Japan and lingering memories of World War II, which ended 50 years ago.

India is also seen as a counterweight to the growing economic and military power of China whose conduct across the Taiwan Straits and in the disputed Spratly Islands does not suggest much time for conciliation.

India's expected gains are beyond dispute. Tiny Singapore's $1.2 billion investment is already the third largest in this country, after the US and Mauritius. India is developing similar linkages with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

But the case for integration or, at least, co-operation goes beyond the profit motive to the basic need for what I have called elsewhere the Concert of Asia. Asia has none of the institutional organisations that help to bring harmonise Europe and America. An abundance of regional groupings is no substitute for an overarching pan-continental organisation.

Of course, membership of an East Asian Community would strengthen India's neighbourhood position. More to the point, it would give other Asians the benefit of India's experience.

Most important, democratic India's voice of reason would be heard in continental discussions. As Pranab Mukherjee said of ASEAN's dialogue with Europe, Asia without India is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.