India: General Election 2014

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to wind up this debate, particularly as it was opened by my noble friend Lord Dholakia, who first took me to India some time ago and from whom I have learnt a great deal about the sub-continent. I thank him for initiating today’s debate and for his loyal and continuing interest in relations between Britain and India. I was glad that the Indian Government recognised this when they awarded my noble friend the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman some time ago. I thank other noble Lords who have participated in this debate.

Perhaps I should first say a few words on the terrible storms that hit India’s eastern coast several days ago. I extend on behalf of the UK Government our deepest condolences to all those who have lost family and loved ones after Cyclone Hudhud hit the eastern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The cyclone caused devastating damage to life and property, and our thoughts are with those who died. The Indian Government are working well to manage the situation, and the UK will continue to monitor the evolving situation there and stand ready to assist where it is appropriate to do so.

The noble Lord, Lord Bach, asked how the British Government see the outcome of India’s election. We all watched as India undertook this massive, open, democratic election, an enormous feat of organisation and a peaceful transfer of power—something which many Governments and states in the world are sadly not yet very capable of doing. More than 500 million people voted and the election saw the Indian people give the BJP an absolute majority in the lower House—an amazing shift. In doing so, the Indian people gave their new Government a strong mandate for reform and economic growth. As I understand it, it was to some extent a vote of confidence in Modi as a reformer more than in the BJP as a party. The noble Lord rightly commented that two recent state elections have further strengthened the position of the BJP. I notice that we debate constitutional reform in Britain. The United Kingdom has still an entirely unitary constitution based on parliamentary sovereignty, but it has always been very good at giving states which were formerly in the empire and Commonwealth highly devolved and federal constitutions, India being a good example.

The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Modi, has made a very good start in office. He has made positive moves, already mentioned, to engage the region such as inviting the leaders of India’s neighbours to his inauguration, and his statement to work through consensus in Parliament is equally admirable. His ambitious plans to develop India, through energy for all by 2020, heavy investment in infrastructure and, importantly, improved governance, will all be key in supporting India’s development. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, mentioned the MPs in the Lok Sabha who have interesting backgrounds. This is not a new problem; it has been there ever since India became independent. We believe that Mr Modi’s plans open up bright new prospects for the relationship between our two countries across the board, including in trade, foreign policy and people-to-people issues. We have made a positive start in engaging the new Indian Government, with the Chancellor, the Deputy Prime Minister and the former Foreign Secretary all having met Prime Minister Modi since the election and through Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to London on 17 October. We have made a total of nine ministerial visits so far, mostly with substantial groups accompanying the Ministers who went. I understand that a tenth will shortly be led by Greg Clark which will concentrate precisely on the areas of research, co-operation and student exchange—I am happy that my wife, as an officer of the British Academy, will be part of that party—talking about the Newton Fund and how we can assist in co-operation between Indian and British universities. We want to build on what we have achieved and our already strong ties with India to bring real warmth to the relationship. We are not letting the grass grow under our feet.

Trade and investment is a priority of the new Indian Government and it is important in driving the growth and development that India wants. India wants to modernise its infrastructure, boost manufacturing and release the potential of young Indians through better education. Prime Minister Modi has also revealed plans to clean up the Ganges, which is of huge significance to the Indian people. By investing in that growth, stabilising prices and developing the infrastructure to improve services and connectivity, he will do much to kick-start the economy across the country after years in which the Indian economy has grown more slowly than its potential.

However, to achieve this, India needs investment. The UK is already the biggest investor among the G20 countries in India, and more Indian investment comes to the UK than to the rest of Europe combined, but there is more that we intend to do. For example, when visiting India in July, the Chancellor announced that the UK will make available £1 billion of export finance to support the development of Indian infrastructure that has a UK element. He also announced, as part of the UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue, a partnership between India and the City of London to work collaboratively in areas such as the potential to float the rupee in London, and opportunities for further raising of capital. We are roughly on track to achieve the Prime Minister’s target of doubling bilateral trade with India between 2010 and 2015, and we will keep pushing to remove barriers for British companies to trade in India and vice versa, and to ensure that we make the best of the opportunities that are available.

We are also, of course, pressing the Indian Government to complete the agreement made in Bali which will enable us to take the World Trade Organization through to another level of opening up trade. We understand the Indian Government’s concern about food security but we are confident that a compromise can be agreed that will allow the world trade round to go ahead.

An important part of our delivery of and success in achieving our aims with India is the strength of the people-to-people links our two nations have, with our extremely successful Indian diaspora—1.5 million people—who contribute to every aspect of our society and have the potential to be a cornerstone in our bilateral relationship. Last week we saw the Indian Government’s flagship regional diaspora conference, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas—I hope I pronounced it moderately correctly—take place in London for the first time. We were honoured to be the host city for this event and it demonstrated the power of the people-to-people links. Equally, things such as the Dadabhai Naoroji awards, which celebrate those individuals who have helped strengthen UK-India bonds and which were handed out for the first time last week at the FCO’s Indian diaspora reception, show how much the diaspora can and does contribute.

Those ties will be highlighted during the centenary of the start of World War I. We will be honouring the more than 1 million Indians who served to defend Europe’s freedom, so that their courage and sacrifice are not forgotten. I was very happy to go to the exhibition on the role of Sikhs in World War I at the School of Oriental and African Studies this summer. I very much hope that my noble friend Lord Dholakia is involved in preparations in Brighton to commemorate all those Indians who were sent to Brighton as wounded soldiers to recover or, in some cases sadly, to die there of their wounds. I speak as a member of the advisory board on the commemoration of World War I, and we want to ensure that the Indian dimension is very much part of our memorial.

The noble Lord, Lord Paul, suggested that we were being a little ungenerous in asking for the Gandhi memorial to be funded by public subscription. I think it is the case that most of the statues he sees in London have been funded by public subscription. I spoke at a meeting of the Chinese community in London last month to commemorate the role of the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I and to launch the fund that will get a public subscription to pay for a memorial. This is the normal way in which these things happen in London. I look forward very much to seeing the Gandhi memorial, we hope in Parliament Square.

We have not mentioned energy co-operation, although the noble Lord, Lord Bach, mentioned climate change. One of the new Prime Minister’s priorities is indeed to improve India’s energy security. Britain is a world leader in renewable energy and we see that as very much part of the partnership in which mutual interest will enable us to go a great deal further.

The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, spoke about the treatment of minorities, both Dalits and Muslims. We all recognise that that remains a severe problem in India and that, indeed, some of those problems overlap into the diaspora community in Britain. We—or, at least, non-governmental organisations—are engaged in this. It is very much a deep cultural issue, as of course is the position of women in Indian society, on which we all need to work, and on which the diaspora community in Britain needs to work, to improve that particular aspect of Indian society.

The noble Lord, Lord Paul, also talked about the problems of corruption, which are of course deep-seated in traditional Indian culture, as they were in traditional British culture until a century and a half ago. Again, we look forward to the new Government working on this. The noble Lord also talked about a slow decline in UK-Indian relations. Well, we are now doing our utmost to reverse that and to ensure that we can build a positive new relationship with the new Government.

Finally, there was mention of the relationship with Pakistan, and with other neighbours. We are of course actively concerned about the relationship between India and Pakistan; that, too, is a relationship which overlaps into the United Kingdom. We welcomed the invitation for the Pakistani Prime Minister to attend Mr Modi’s inauguration, and we shall do everything that we can to encourage that relationship to unfreeze, which is certainly what it needs to do.

This has been a very useful debate. I hope that I have made it clear that Her Majesty’s Government see the election of the Modi Government as an opportunity to strengthen relations with India and for India to grow, reform and change more rapidly than in recent years. We look forward to cultivating that relationship over the coming years.

Committee adjourned at 4.42 pm.