What Changed After Modi ? - J Sai Deepak

0:01 Namaste. Jai Hind. Bharat Mata ki Thank you. I thank FICCI UK for organizing this event and for giving me an opportunity to present my views from this prestigious platform. I'm grateful to the Nehru Centre, the director, the deputy director for collaborating with FICCI UK for making this possible. I'm grateful for the presence of distinguished members of London, the Indian diaspora Shri Nandakumar Garu or Nandakumar Avare

0:47 the director of Bhavans and for all those who have managed to come on a weekday and were humble enough to actually occupy the steps. Thank you so very much. Means the world to me. You know, the topic of reshaping India's global positioning is a subject on which people can actually write tomes and tomes because I believe that this is the journey of Bharat's rediscovery. Rediscovery of its own sense of self. Both from an external perspective as

1:33 well as an internal perspective. As a country and a society which was under the colonial yoke for close to 100 years, it's not 200 years. If people were to actually go through the dates I managed to share the dates in a couple of speeches when I was here as part of this tour. India as we know it, the entire landmass comes under the colonizer's yoke only in 1847 after the annexation of Sindh. Until then, they're still in the process of annexing Bharat. So, strictly speaking, 1847 to 1947 is the period. Of course, starting from 1757 from the Battle of Plassey.

2:21 I would divide Bharat's journey as the successor state to the Bharatiya civilization as a modern nation-state from 1947 onwards in the following timelines. 1947 to 1975 would be the first timeline that I would look at. 1975 until 2000 or rather 1998 would be the second timeline. 98 to 2004, 2004 to 2014, and 2014 onwards is a different chapter altogether. The reason why I would focus on the first 30 years or so of Bharat's uh independent existence as a republic is that was the time

3:08 we laid the foundations for several of our state institutions. We were presented with certain hard choices because it also coincided with the beginning of the Cold War which presented a particularly ticklish situation for countries of the of the Asian continent, especially the colonized nations or countries which had achieved political independence in the 1940s because they had to choose between one block or the other. And it was in that moment that Bharat as a fledgling nation chooses to actually occupy a center space or a space in the middle which I think was perhaps gutsy and audacious but in hindsight, perhaps was premature

3:55 for the simple reason that you cannot afford to take these kind of positions unless and until you have some economic heft something to offer of value. Nevertheless for a country which was relatively fledgling and and which was still trying to feed close to 36 crores of people out of which the bulk of them were under well well, let's say they were reeling under severe conditions it still had the originality to to take a certain position which said neither the left nor the right, I'll perhaps occupy a space in the middle. But 1947 to 1975, apart from the external challenges that Bharat faced also presented a unique opportunity

4:43 for Bharat from an internal perspective to strength or rather to test the strength of its constitutional democratic framework. A lot of people had actually written off this experiment called India in 1947 because never before had anyone attempted this kind of an experiment where a country which which is in fact a continent that masquerades as a country with this kind of mind-boggling diversity comes together to create a nation-state. And I think we had an equal number of detractors and proponents who were curious to see this experiment either succeed or fail and falter. And I suspect the number of people who wanted it to fail was perhaps more. A lot of people believe that Bharat's

5:29 democratic framework and its constitutional underpinnings are perhaps responsible for its success and its continued existence. I believe that two things went hand in hand. One for good or bad the new elites of Bharat who took over from the colonizer decided to adopt a certain policy of continuity to keep that particular state together. Because that experiment which the colonizer had started had managed to work itself out decently and therefore in 1947, perhaps it made sense to continue with that particular policy of continuity until you had the ability to perhaps hit the reset button.

6:16 So, 1947 to 1975 onwards I would see or until 1975, I would see this particular phase of Bharat's history as a as a period which was driven largely by necessity than by choice. And it is during this particular period, several of our state institutions were set up from the Indian Institutes of Technology to the banking sector to heavy industries, so on and so forth which in hindsight might militate against the grain of a capitalistic thought, so to speak but have been significantly responsible for putting together a robust framework which has given employment to a lot of

7:01 people which has also ensured that the state invested in those sectors where private investment was not possible or the return on investment was not guaranteed and three when banks were nationalized there was a huge flak and there was a lot of furore in India at that point resulting in several constitutional challenges before the Supreme Court to the act of nationalization but in retrospect Bharat's nationalized banking sector has also been significantly responsible for shielding it and cushioning it from the sharks from the outside world, especially as the world got more interconnected thanks to globalization of markets. What I'm trying to perhaps say is that sometimes it's easy to get swayed

7:47 by a political lens when you look at Bharat's history, but if you were to look at it in retrospect from an economic perspective, some of those decisions did indeed pay off and help us create a solid, stable framework even if it were sluggish occasionally for us to then open up the market as well as internal as well as external market for private innovation. Now, this is also one of those periods when Bharat perhaps significantly suffered from lack of originality because it followed a policy of continuity both on the social sector level at the education level, so on and so forth. To my mind 1975 to 1977,

8:34 although it's treated as perhaps one of the darkest phases of Indian constitutional history exposed perhaps the brilliant phase of Bharat's democracy for the simple reason that post-1977 when the elections were conducted this country showed that it had the ability to not dissipate under the weight of dictatorship constitutional institutions started responding and pushing back through judgments to preserve the basic fabric of the constitution known as the basic structure of the constitution and people responded in kind to those who had suspended the constitution for 2 and 1/2 years. That was perhaps the time when people should have lost faith both in the

9:19 constitution, in constitutional institutions as well as democracy instead that happened to be one of those instances or milestones when the public's faith in each of these institutions was only strengthened and reinforced. And there is perhaps something to be said about the Indian society and state when you actually look at this particular period because as I've said before Bharat is not held together by a document called the constitution, it is fundamentally held together by civilizational unity and the values which come or emanate from that particular civilization which have made it possible for it to succeed as a constitutional democracy when you look at the rest of the neighborhood around us, it tells you that it's not a document that is responsible for us surviving till date. It is the society that is responsible

10:05 for us continuing to survive as a civilization and as a constitutional republic. Too often, I think, the Western lens focuses on institutions such as constitutional institutions without giving enough credit perhaps to the Indian society. Because if the document called the Constitution were the alpha and omega of ensuring democracy and if it were a guarantor of democracy, then perhaps you should just look at the neighborhood that Bharat lives in. Despite the existence of a document called the Constitution, it's not as if they've been particularly great democratic successes. Therefore, while I don't think that the civilization alone should be given

10:51 credit because at the end of the day the document and the civilization work hand in hand, it appears to be a fairly happy marriage and a fairly good handshake between the document and the society. Most importantly, I do believe that notwithstanding the picture of sometimes chaos that meets the Western eyes, I believe that it is a picture of vibrancy more than chaos where institutions push back against each other to ensure that the balance of power is actually maintained between the three arms or the organs of the state. Along with a fairly free and diverse fourth estate, namely the media.

11:37 So much so that during the emergency, when there was a clampdown on free speech, the judiciary as well as the fourth estate rose up to the challenge to speak truth to power. And that tradition continues till date. 1975 to 1991, according to me, represents perhaps the next phase of Bharat's evolution as a nation-state. Because voices other than the voices that inherited the let's say the independent fledgling nation-state had started emerging on the political scene of Bharat thereby representing a new voice, a fresh alternative, a new thought, and a

12:24 new direction, and a new option for the customer, namely the the electorate or the voter. According to me, 1975 is when the journey began when an alternative to the so-called mainstream political party and political ideology was presented to the public. All this while, while there was a fair diversity of political options, the Achilles' heel for Bharat proved to be the lack of options on the economic front because it continued to follow a closed economy, a licensed raj, so to speak, which did not allow for the growth of the private sector and private initiative, which was unfairly dubbed as

13:09 the Hindu rate of growth. 1991 was a fantastic turning point, although under dark circumstances, when we were actually forced to open the markets. It showed two things. One, that the lack of private innovation until then, or at least the positive private innovation until then, was primarily because of self-imposed restrictions and not because of lack of an innovative tendency within the society. And once you opened it up, I would say 2025 from there was not far off and was not non-obvious for two reasons. One, from 1991 onwards,

13:55 the rate of growth has only jumped and has remained stable and it has not plateaued. Two, with time and with more economic prosperity, Bharat also started asking significant social and cultural and civilizational questions of itself, which it did not have the luxury of asking prior to 1991. What I'm trying to say is perhaps if the experiment of 1991 had been undertaken in the 1970s or even in 1947, perhaps questions of decoloniality and civilizational pride that we're asking of ourselves post-2014 would have been asked at least by the 1960s or latest by the 1970s. Most importantly, on the foreign policy

14:41 front, Bharat has always been accused of not having the ability or the guts to take a position and of being a cat on the fence, particularly on matters of international relations and on geopolitics, saying you don't wish to take a side. And I think to that the current dispensation has given a fantastic answer. Bharat has always chosen a side. It is Bharat's side. We don't wish to be on the side of any particular ideology or a block. >> [applause] >> What has happened post-2014 is it truly tectonic? Is it truly different? What marks it differently from the rest of the faces of Bharat?

15:26 I'm not going to say muscularity. I'm going to say a calm sense of assertiveness. A composed sense of assertiveness. A certain degree of self-assuredness where you know who you are or at least you've started asking yourself the right questions and you're hoping that the right answers present themselves. An explosion of voices on the social front, on those on the social-cultural front. A fairly formidable challenge being presented to the status quo as it existed until 2014 on the world view front and the civilizational front. So, politics, society, and foreign policy, and economics have gone hand in hand since 2014

16:11 where Bharat does not believe that it must necessarily equate politeness with weakness and has decided to operate from the front foot. And has decided to assert itself on the table of big powers. And has confidently asserted that as perhaps the oldest living and surviving civilization, it certainly has a lot more to offer to the global pool of thought as well as to global prosperity with solutions to offer for global challenges such as climate change. In my view, the coming of age of Bharat is represented by the fact that it is no more trying to address the problems at home. It is also trying to address the problems of the world and is presenting the best of options possible

16:57 in a manner that is affordable. Be it health care, be it space research, be it climate change, green technology, so on and so forth. Even in the period post-2014, I think the standout period has to be 2019 to 2025 for a specific reason. Because finally Bharat has decided to turn around and look squarely in the eye at the legacy issues that it has or legacy challenges that it has inherited and has decided to address them one by one. The CAA being perhaps one of those examples. The amendment, not abrogation, of Article 370 being another. I would only request members of this

17:43 this audience this knowledgeable audience to go back and tell people that Article 370 was never abrogated. Abrogation means to excise out or to remove a particular provision from the book. It has never been abrogated. It has been amended because Article 370 continues to exist in the Constitution as it stands. So, the amendment of Article 370, addressing certain civilizational disputes through the forum of the judiciary as opposed to resolving it on the streets or resolving it on the streets, and showing perhaps a way forward for truth and reconciliation through the highest constitutional forum of the land, namely the Supreme Court, with diverse voices populating that particular bench which delivered the verdict on the 9th of November 2019.

18:30 Post-2019, once COVID hit the world, the test of Bharat as a society, the test of Bharat as an economy, the test of Bharat as a polity, all of which were tested, dare I say I think Bharat came out with flying colors. For multiple reasons. One, it managed to offer homegrown solutions to to the perhaps the largest at this point, I think, the largest population in the world. Number two, it showed that it had the wherewithal to develop solutions from within without having to develop on the rather fall back on the West. Three,

19:15 its economy managed to survive that scare. And we managed to secure our borders and defend our borders during that vulnerable period when faced with a challenge on the northeastern border. Five, curiously, the lockdown also presented members of the Indian society with a fantastic opportunity to ask some hard questions of themselves as to who we are and where we come from. And in my view, the Indic Renaissance owes its origins not to 2014, but perhaps to the COVID period, which is when people started seeing an explosion of voices thanks to people having the luxury of consuming those voices on YouTube.

20:03 Don't you think so? And post 2020 if anything Bharat has shown the confidence not just to succeed but also to absorb failures. And that I think is the true test of confidence. 2024-2025 in particular and perhaps the last 1 year has shown that Bharat has finally developed the confidence to go it alone when it comes to important decisions whether or not the world supports it. >> [applause] >> It has tried to play by the book when it comes to resolving certain outstanding issues namely Kashmir which according to

20:49 us is not a dispute. It may be a dispute in the minds of someone else but not us as far as we are concerned. It has chosen to abandon the good boy approach because clearly it has not paid off. And therefore it has said that we will resolve this matter on our own terms in a manner of our choosing at a time of our choosing and we will not hold back anymore. >> [applause] >> In my view while having taken the decision Bharat has actually acted with a certain degree of restraint and maturity. It has meted out the lessons that were meant to be delivered to the aggressor.

21:35 And it decided thus far and no further. And three it also decided to showcase its homegrown strengths in addressing that particular problem. From being perhaps the largest importer of arms and ammunition from the smallest of countries it has now declared its ability to sell weapons to the biggest of nations and to the most powerful of nations. Should that be a matter of pride? In the world of a realist absolutely yes. Perhaps in a pacifist utopia the answer could be different but we don't live in

22:21 a pacifist utopian world. And therefore I am certainly proud of the fact that Bharat has decided to showcase those abilities and has decided to actively engage with the rest of the world. The other thing that I think is is of importance which I think people are beginning to sit up and take notice is that this country is is is or rather this society has chosen to redefine certain terms and is not going to accept the glossary of definitions that has been bequeathed to it by the West. From definitions of development to definitions of democracy to free speech and whatnot. I think Bharat is evolving its own lexicon.

23:10 While showcasing the fact that Bharat has the ability to occupy the table of big powers and engaging with modernity with a certain degree of confidence it has also shown the rootedness to rediscover its roots and strike a balance between tradition and modernity without giving up one for the other because one tells you where you come from and the other decides where you will go. Both of them are equally important and both of them have to go hand in hand. So I think exciting times are ahead. The one aspect of Bharat's economic rise which I think is seldom given credit for

23:57 by international platforms is the digital trifecta that it has come out with and the success with which it has been received by not just the urban population or the semi-urban population but even the rural population. I can't think of any other jurisdiction or any other country where at this scale the UPI or Aadhaar or any other layer which is meant for digital payments would have met with this kind of resounding success. What that also tells you is that the the myth of snake charmer was never true in the first place.

24:44 Because the native intelligence of the average Bharatiya has always been underestimated by the outsider. And too much of importance has been given to the ability to speak in Queen's English or the King's English. We finally have a head of state who's comfortable speaking in a Bharatiya language ON INTERNATIONAL PLATFORMS. >> [applause] >> WHO HAS THE CIVILIZATIONAL confidence to actively pitch for its soft power from the highest office of the land, highest executive office of the land.

25:33 I don't think you should judge Bharat's success by the success of its metropolitan cities or the English-speaking elites. You should perhaps go to the tier two and tier three cities and you'll realize the sheer confidence of people coming from those parts of the country who don't or who cannot string a sentence in English and they don't need to and they still speak the language of innovation, entrepreneurship and building of private capital. That I think perhaps is where the actual Bharat story lies. As part of this journey according to me what stands out and which is a crucial element of Bharat's foreign policy and perhaps even the domestic policy is that there was a point when India's diaspora were perhaps treated like

26:19 destitute. Who did not feel the connection from the Indian state and who did not ever know whether the Indian state would stand up for them and reach out to them in times of trouble. But since 2014 I think a switch has been flipped on that front. And I can confidently SAY >> [applause] >> THAT THE DIASPORA the diaspora feels more Bharatiya since 2014 is much more confident straddling both the boats in terms of dual identities and three knows that the mothership is constantly looking out for them in the event of trouble or otherwise and four the mothership is conscious of your

27:05 strategic presence and value which has been according to me underused until 2014. So perhaps if you look at it from a panoramic perspective 2014 onwards I think the stars have aligned to herald according to me the Bharatiya age. It will take some time because the challenges are not small and the challenges are not small even in terms of magnitude forget just the numbers. But according to me that's a very good thing. I don't think Bharat should hope for a meteoric rise because then the fall would be equally meteoric. Bharat should aspire to address its problems step by step.

27:51 And that also means that it presents a fantastic economic opportunity for the rest of the world because this growth story will not conclude in 5 or 10 years but will go on for at least 35 to 40 years. >> [applause] >> And this model of development I think is going to be an important lesson because every time a country or a state chooses the path of meteoric rise on the economic front nature pays the price. And therefore Bharat's ability to consume and digest gradually will also be a lesson in terms of sustainable development and consumption with restraint. That I think is going to be one of the biggest lessons that Bharat's rise will will will have for the rest of the

28:36 world. Finally to all the publications here and broadcasting corporations here and the other side of the Atlantic I have a subtle message or perhaps a not so subtle message. You don't need to teach us diversity. >> [applause] >> You don't need to teach us free speech and you certainly don't need to teach us the value of democracy. These are values >> [applause] >> which we take for granted and we have grown up with. If anything Bharat shall hopefully be in a position to teach the rest of the world

29:23 the ability to coexist with multiple identities including perhaps diametrically opposite identities or belief systems. That I think will be the the lesson that Bharat will have to offer. But the path to that particular destination is not going to be easy nor not not do I see that happening anytime in the future in the near future at the very least. I think this will take at least 25 to 30 years. Between now and then, I suspect this will be a particularly volatile age, where Bharat's resolve and will to reach its own goals will be tested by everyone who is interested in watching it fall, fail, and falter. This will be the time

30:10 when indices of free speech and democracy will be used against us. Our models of development will be questioned. The fundamental values which we hold dear as a civilization will be called into question and ridiculed and mocked. And we will see the veneer and facade of sophistication go aside, and the true colors come out. The true colors will emerge. And I suspect they will emerge in your adopted homelands. So, perhaps you must steel yourself and build stronger bonds with the mothership, and stand your ground here, because you

30:55 have contributed to the growth of each of your adopted homelands with confidence, and with conviction, and by being model law-abiding citizens, you have no reason to worry. You should not be worried. If anything, I would only urge members of the diaspora to actively work with organizations such as VC UK to strengthen your roots, to make your voices heard in all platforms, and to make sure that your presence in public spaces and political spaces are not pixelated. If anything, it must only rise and increase. Because when the good people keep silent and stay aside, we know who will take over.

31:41 And therefore, I think Bharat has an obligation, and Bharatiya diaspora has certainly the obligation of ensuring that the first world apparatus remains in the hands of law-abiding people, and not those who wish to subvert those values, use those values to further the voices of tyranny and fascism of any hue or any shade. With this, I invite the audience to participate in this Mahayana call, Bharat. Contribute to the best of your abilities. Make sure that you become ambassadors of the Bharatiya story in letter, spirit, and action.

32:29 And make sure that successive generations continue to remember that the umbilical cord goes back to Bharat. And there must be mutual investment from the state, the Indian state, into its diaspora, and the other way round. This is the time for us to come together to present a united voice as Indians, as Bharatiyas. Should we fight fratricidal language wars at this time, or indulge in divisive identity politics at this point, the propagandists will get away. And perhaps that portal that has opened

33:16 in the annals of time to finally carve out the Bharat story and to usher the age of Bharat, we would have lost it, and perhaps for good. So, we should perhaps act with a certain sense of urgency, with a certain sense of purpose, and make sure that we do not let this opportunity pass. And importantly, for youngsters in the diaspora, I would urge you to take an active interest in Bharat, as well as in your adopted homelands, and try and present Bharat story in your respective spaces, and therefore the diaspora has an obligation to create the fallback

34:02 mechanisms in terms of institutional mechanisms to ensure that your children don't feel isolated and alone in college spaces and school spaces. Because that's where the problem starts, and then it continues. Assume for a moment that you're patriotic and you still have faith in Bharat, and you continue to associate yourself with the Bharatiya identity. The investment of the opposite side is in the mind spaces of your children. Because that is the battleground. That is the all-important battleground, because they know for a fact that perhaps they have lost the narrative of the present, therefore their investment is in the future. It's in tomorrow. So, I think with this sense of vigilance and sense of purpose purpose, I think we

34:47 must act. I'm open to questions. Jai Hind. Vande Mataram. >> [applause] >> Yeah. >> [applause]