Overflying India

All the nervous swadeshi activists of the Sangh Parivar and the anti-globalisers of the leftover Left can now relax and fret and fume a litt...

All the nervous swadeshi activists of the Sangh Parivar and the anti-globalisers of the leftover Left can now relax and fret and fume a little less. Contrary to their fears that the outside world is out to invade and exploit India, nobody seems to want to do us in or even step in. Certainly not many from that dreaded land of cultural and economic imperialism!

According to a Gallup poll conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in India, a majority of American businessmen surveyed from among the top US multinationals, the Fortune 500, nobody is planning any big ticket investment in India. Most of them plan to invest modest amounts of around Rs 5 crore each just to flag their presence here. While only 5 per cent of those polled had plans of investing more than Rs 500 crore, an equal number were planning to wind down their operations in India and quit. So much for all the concern about western multinationals waiting to raid and ravage India. Thank you very much, they say, there8217;s more action in China. And off they go. If US investors find India difficult to do business in, American tourists are also voting for China with every holiday dollar.

A survey conducted by the travel website iExplore.com shows that China has improved its ranking as a travel destination for US tourists from 16 in 2000 to numero uno in 2002, while India8217;s rank has slipped precipitously from 7 to 23 in the same period.

Of course it is 9/11 and all the war talk in the sub-continent that has done it, as iExplore.com informs us, but it is also true that China has done more to attract tourists than we have. Neither American investors nor tourists want to flood India and yet our swadeshis and anti-liberalisers are worrying themselves sick that the US is out to recolonise us!

Among the factors contributing to China8217;s ascendance this year in the travel charts is the plug being made by tour operators for getting a last look at the glorious gorges on the Yangtze that are going to be flooded by the Three Gorges dam. Curious, isn8217;t it, that while American environmentalists protest against the dam, US tourists are rushing in to get a last view and China8217;s tourism is booming.

India has its Medha Patkars and Arundhati Roys blocking dams and getting Americans to shed tears, but few want to vacation in Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat, not even the environmentalists!

What a pity. Admittedly China and India are two different planets but it is worth considering the contrast. There are more card-carrying communists in Beijing alone than in the whole of India, but Beijing gets more US investment and tourists than the whole of India. Time to understand why.

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China may still talk about fighting imperialism and may still rail against globalisation, but it has decided to open its doors wide to both investment and tourists with world class facilities. The sooner we do that, and keep the rhetoric where it belongs, the better.