Russia-India ties to remain close - Alexander Kadakin

[Reviewer21]

Alexander Kadakin, Russia’s ambassador to India, and Kanwal Sibal, former India’s foreign secretary and ambassador to Moscow, share their views on the impact of the impact of BJP’s victory.

How do you think the outcome of this election will change Indian politics? Where is India going?

Alexander Kadakin: I do not foresee any fundamental changes because with all these inherited problems of the social ills and sometimes inefficiency India is steadily moving towards acquiring the status of a super-power in the making. I the last decade the GDP growth in spite of the ups and downs has been not less than 5 percent, at times touching the plank of 9 percent. The scale of the national ballot is impressive indeed. In a country of 1.2 billion citizens and nearly 1 million polling stations voting process of 9 stages lasting almost a month, you can easily imagine how great the event has been. We have every reason to congratulate the friendly nation on this success. As to your question, according to the incoming results, the former major opposition power, the BJP, is returning to the helm with the prime minister candidate Mr. Modi. We highly respect the verdict of the people of India. As far as Russia-India friendship and strategic partnership go, we do not know foresee and don’t expect any policy change whatsoever. We shall march ahead. This relationship is deep-rooted in a broad national consensus in the two countries. We have had an exceptionally productive experience of cooperating with the party coming to power – the BJP. And it was during BJP previous winning that the historic declaration on strategic partnership with Russia was signed by President Putin and then-Prime Minister Vajpayee.



Do you think now we will see a correction of the extreme pro-American slant?

Alexander Kadakin: First of all, I would not agree with you that India has been pro-American lately. In my view, it is wrong because India is a future super-power, a great power in the making, and has the freedom of selecting and choosing friends and it is absolutely normal for such a global players like India to have good relations with the US, as Russia wants to have good relations with the US. And I would not qualify Indo-American relations as a tilt towards the US or pro-American actions.


To what extent do you think this election can change US-Indian relations and do you think there can be a personal chemistry between president Obama and Prime Minister Modi?

Kanwal Sibal: The fact that Modi’s visa was cancelled in 2005 and even when Europe and the EU changed its approach to Modi, the Americans didn’t do so, we certainly had a negative feeling, especially considering the reason for denying him the visa. He has been the most proceeded man in terms of inquiries and cases and special investigation units and legal processes and the Supreme Court has said there is nothing that Modi is guilty of. So, for the Americans to believe that somehow their own judgment on Modi’s accountability in 2002 superior to the decision by the Supreme Court is arrogance. They have been denying it but I think it will affect the personal chemistry.



Do you think it is likely that election of Mr. Modi will cause trouble in the relations between the majority and 100 million strong Muslim minority of India?

Kanwal Sibal: No. First of all, the Muslim minority is 160 million. But the latest polls are showing that 43% of Muslim minority has voted for BJP. Yesterday I saw a figure, which said that 9% at the national level of Muslims have voted for BJP. The new phenomenon is that the younger group of Muslims, a lot of them have voted for Modi because they also want to enter the mainstream and enjoy the fruits of development and they are tired of communal politics played by both their own leaders as well as the Congress. So, there is a change but you are right in saying that there will be some concern in some circles and this concern will be fed by interested invested groups to say that Modi is bad news for the Muslims. But Modi has repeatedly said that “for me the most important thing is the constitution of India and I will work under the base of constitution and I am not going to make any distinction between any community”.

Russia-India relations to remain close - diplomat - News - VoR Interviews - The Voice of Russia: News, Breaking news, Politics, Economics, Business, Russia, International current events, Expert opinion, podcasts, Video

 

[Tshering22]

It is natural that we will continue our strategic partnership with Russians as always. The India Russia strategic treaty was signed under the BJP government when Vajpayee ji was ruling India.

In fact, Putin will find it much more easier to navigate and deal with India considering that we have an total majority government and that the style of governance political experts believe, is going to be quasi-presidential under NaMo. A lean mean cabinet that can actually do things faster than a bulky laggard one. Somewhat similar to what Putin has back in Russia.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Next 5 years are going to be exciting, I hope.

 

[GR!FF!N]

Do you think now we will see a correction of the extreme pro-American slant?

the answer of this question is nice.but barely most members willn't like it and it'll be the center of "Entire Trolling Period"..