Shashi Tharoor interview: ‘G20 outcome undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph for India … same spirit of accommodation absent domestically’

Your first thoughts on the G20 Summit and its outcome?

Tharoor: The outcome is undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph for India because until the leaders arrived in Delhi, there was considerable doubt as to whether there would even be a joint communique. The differences between those who wanted a condemnation of the Russian war in Ukraine and those who wanted to avoid all mention of that conflict seemed impossible to bridge but the government has managed a very adroit diplomatic manoeuvre in pulling off a successful formula that had seemed elusive for the last nine months. That is very much to India’s credit and can be classified as a success.

On the negative side of the ledger, there are two things that troubled me. One is the complete shutdown of Delhi that caused severe inconvenience and difficulty to ordinary citizens and particularly affected the livelihoods of daily wage workers and the poor. The government’s responsibility is to end poverty, not end the sight of poor people. But the latter seems to have been their priority. My second concern relates to the complete absence of senior Opposition figures other than a handful of chief ministers from the proceedings. The Leader of the Opposition and every other Opposition MP, including members of the committees dealing with foreign affairs, were conspicuous by their absence since the government did not invite any of them to attend any of the events — receptions or the dinner. So, the result has been that the spirit of accommodation that has succeeded at the diplomatic level is completely absent from our domestic engagements. There is no effort to promote conciliation within and the sad thing is that this is happening in a country which advertises itself as a mother of democracy. No other democracy would have excluded the Leader of the Opposition and other Opposition leaders in this way.

What about the tangible outcomes of the summit, including the inclusion of the African Union as a new member and the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor?

Tharoor: The inclusion of the African Union had been agreed some time ago and therefore it was seen as an inevitable outcome. And because it was sort of widely known, that alone would not have been seen as a success. It was definitely a good accomplishment but many countries were behind that initiative, not just India. The other initiatives are also encouraging but a lot depends on their implementation. In particular, questions such as debt, climate relief, and sustainable development. These are issues on which in various summits, not just the G-20, language and pious declarations have emerged but implementation or effective action has been largely missing. So, there is hope that the agreed language will translate into tangible progress but there is little basis in any preceding experience for us to be 100 per cent confident that a declaration will necessarily be followed by action.

The corridor is seen as a game changer and a counter to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.

Tharoor: If it is actually effectively implemented, it could indeed constitute a significant game changer but again proof of the pudding is always in the eating. Let us see it happen on the ground and then we will certainly be able to collectively celebrate it. About the expression of intent, it is certainly welcome.

Did India’s presidency make any difference in your view?

Tharoor: It certainly made a difference to our government in that the government has leveraged the otherwise routine, rotational chairmanship of the G20 into not just a diplomatic triumph but an internal success story. The holding of 200-plus meetings in 58 cities, attempts to make it a people’s G20 by involving civil society, some think tanks, and others, all of this has given the G20 the visibility and a salience both within the country and abroad that no previous G20 Summit ever had. So, to that degree, it has been a departure that this chairmanship has been leveraged or even one could say instrumentalised by the government into an advertisement for itself and it is no accident, I believe, that all of this publicity will play into the hands of those who will be running the BJP’s election campaign in the next general elections. The same could be said about the cricket World Cup coming up. That too will be used to showcase our present government and ruling party. All of this is unusual for a democracy and certainly has not been done by any previous Indian government but it is difficult to argue that the government was not within its rights to exploit the opportunity provided by this occasion and they have certainly exploited it to the hilt.