The Hindu Business Line : Representing change

The Indian High Commissioner in Singapore, S. Jaishankar, dwells on the changing perceptions of India amidst economic growth, the Indo-US nuclear deal and terrorism fears..

“There is a belief in Singapore that at a difficult time for global economy, India would still post an impressive growth rate."

Rasheeda Bhagat

S. Jaishankar: "I’d love to be a diplomat in 2040, representing the first- or second-largest economy in the world."

Rasheeda Bhagat

Ask him what he finds is the most significant aspect of his job as an Indian diplomat in 2008, and the very sharp and suave S. Jaishankar, the Indian High Commissioner in Singapore, says he often tries to motivate younger colleagues by asking them to look at what foreign services offers as a career. “I’ve been a speechwriter, adviser to a military force in Sri Lanka (1988-90), part-time unpaid businessman, etc. In this job you can do 10 things at the same time. ”

What he enjoys the most about his job is “the novelty of each new day; when you go to office you don’t know what you’re going to be doing. You are actually living, in a sense, off your wits!”

Changing Brand India

So how has the perception of India changed during his 32-year career in the foreign services? For that, he takes you back in time. “Let’s look at what we were 30 years ago; think of representing India in the late 1970s and think where we are today. To my mind we have come such an astonishingly long way. Either you can be complacent, or even diminishing about it. Or you could say that if I could do this much in 30 years, just imagine what lies ahead!”

Stressing on present-day India’s sense of confidence, and the willingness to take risks and engage with the rest of the world, he says: “Today we are so much more open to looking at our faults and shortcomings. This was not the case 25 years ago.”

We are seated in the plush environs of Singapore’s Suntec City Convention Centre, where the second mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is being hosted. The top brass of Singapore, including Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, is there. But during the different sessions some pretty harsh things are also said about India’s shortcomings which prevent it from becoming a major global player. And (sigh!), the invariable comparisons with China are made.

But, points out the High Commissioner, the response to such negative comments has dramatically changed in the last two decades. “Had all this been said 15-20 years ago, the reaction, I am sure, would have been very negative. People wouldn’t have liked it. Today, there were comparisons made about us which were not flattering, but my sense of the room was that everybody said ‘may be he is right and we should be doing something about it’. Twenty years ago we would have said ‘who is this guy lecturing us?’”

World bullish on India

But at the same time, there was acknowledgement of an unstoppable India, and Jaishankar thinks a lot of that has to do with overseas Indians. He recalls when he was first posted to the US in the early 1980s, “either people didn’t know who Indians were or identified us as people who owned shops or motels. But fast-forward 20 years and see what happens. The average American thinks of an Indian as his doctor, financial analyst or software engineer. So the whole sense of the Indian is that of ‘the technically-skilled Indian’. The world has a much sharper image of our knowledge ability than perhaps we have of ourselves.”

And this is not specific to the US, he says, giving the example of Japan, where he was posted during the ‘Y2K’ period. “After the whole hype about Y2K, every time you crossed Japanese immigration the chap at the counter would think you’re an IT engineer. Every Indian to him was an IT engineer in those days. So skilled Indians have gone out into the world, done well and helped to change the public perception of India.”

Referring to an article written last year in Forbes magazine by Lee Kuan Yew on how democracy is the key to India’s peaceful rise, Jaishankar says that apart from the democracy factor, “the human factor also matters. When an Indian is your tax advisor, portfolio manager or cardiologist, then in a very intangible way, the talent of these people shapes our image. And, of course, there have been agents of change at home as well. So, apart from the economic consequences, the remittances, etc, the world, to use our Prime Minister’s words, wishes us well.”

And this is because “the world is comfortable with us and identifies us with the Indians they are comfortable with.” But the big issue for India now, he adds, is how to “leverage the external environment to boost domestic growth. This is really the big diplomacy challenge today.”

Good time for diplomats

So, is it a good time to be an Indian diplomat today?

“It is a much better time than I’ve ever seen in the last 30 years.”

But having said that, he adds, “you get very quickly used to the good times, but I’d say there isn’t a cap to it, and we are just scratching the surface.” The big debate, he says, is whether India believes that the world is relatively benign and can be leveraged, “or do you believe it’s a malign world and you should circle your wagons and assume a defensive position. Assuming the first, the challenge is how do you find the best practices, build relationships and create the opportunities where you can find assets and values and take them back home.” He thinks the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, which was constantly mentioned at the PBD, “is evidently being seen as emblematic of a changing India.”

Referring to the ADB’s Rajat Nag’s encouraging forecast for India’s future, he adds “While listening to him, I was telling myself I’d love to be a diplomat in 2040, representing the first- or second-largest economy in the world with a $20,000 per capita income!”

On the global financial crisis impacting Singapore and the kind of insulation Asian economies like India, China or Singapore hope to have, Jaishankar says that while those economies which are less integrated or exposed to the world would be more insulated, Singapore had its own views on India. “There is a belief here that at a difficult time for global economy, India would still post an impressive growth rate. Singaporeans follow very closely what happens in India, so there is no information or assessment disconnect. We might think we are slowing from 9 to 7 per cent, but people here say: ‘Oh, you’re still at 7 per cent growth?’ For them that is a big deal. So, some people believe that Singapore should now be paying even more business attention to India.”

From the Indian perspective, there were 3,000-3,500 Indian companies operating out of Singapore, some of them really big. While Tata Steel had acquired NatSteel, companies like TCS, Satyam or i-flex did their Asia-Pacific business out of Singapore. Many Indian companies saw an incentive in having an India-plus production base there, in terms of taxation, connectivity or Singapore providing a “neutral international business platform”.

Career graph

Jaishankar has a doctorate in political science and international affairs from JNU, and this led him to look at a career in foreign services. His first posting was as a third secretary in Moscow in 1979, after which he returned to the Ministry and worked for four years in the Americas division before being sent to Washington in 1985 — a month before Rajiv Gandhi’s famous visit — for a three-year stint.

The difference between this posting and his recent visit to Washington was enormous. “The contrast between the Washington I lived in and the Washington that I now visit is huge. At that time the big issue was the Afghanistan war. From the American perspective we were then on the wrong side of that war. So there was a lot of suspicion of India, despite the commonalities; frankly, those were very tough times.”

From there, he went to Sri Lanka for 30 months; “those were the IPKF years and hence interesting times!” Next he was posted as a commercial counsellor to Hungary in 1990; “the Berlin Wall had fallen and Europe was changing, and so were we. That was the first country where we sold Maruti cars.” This was followed by a three-year stint at home, after which he went as the second-in-command at the Indian embassy in Japan for a five-year posting during which he met the Japanese woman he married. His wife currently works as a consultant to TCS. Next was the four-year posting as the Indian Ambassador in Prague.

In a secure country like Singapore, are there eyebrows raised when bomb blasts happen in India so often, or is terrorism accepted as a global phenomenon?

“I think there is a bit of both; people have seen violence in China, Europe — London, Madrid and etc. But sometimes people do call up and ask ‘Is it safe to go there’ and it is our job to make them see things in perspective.”An avid reader of history and politics, Jaishankar likes listening to music, watching television and, of course, movies. He plays squash three to four times a week.

Ask him about his favourite food and his eyes light up; “actually, I find that with age I am becoming more of a foodie. You eat less but you eat more discriminately, and Singapore is a foodie’s paradise!” He protests mildly when asked to name his favourite cuisine: “This is like asking me what country I like the best… but the bandwidth I would look at is between Chinese and Japanese food.”

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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