At Glover Cottages on Tuesday 5 April, Peter Hartcher, political and international editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, addressed an engaged audience on his impressions of India. He had just been there as part of the Australia-India Walkley Media Exchange Program, funded by the Australia-India Council. He observed that India’s recent growth in some sectors may seem incredible, but the country would seem more credible if its government could better look after its citizens. In a recent speech, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had described India, based on its enormous population, land mass and technological development, as the next super power. To some extent she was right – another  great well-spring of India’s strength was the falling average age of its population, in contract to those of Japan, China and Germany.

Peter Hartcher at the AIIA NSW May 2015

In contrast to China, India was also an established democracy, but that could be either a blessing or a curse. Corruption, nepotism, enormous wealth disparity, and bureaucratic incompetence were holding things back. Could Modi make a difference? His credentials were excellent. As Chief Minister he had managed Gujarat well, although riots during his time and his negative views about minorities had left a bad smell. Nonetheless, he enjoyed enormous national popular support, and was invested with the hope that under his leadership India could break away from its cycle of poverty and corruption. Thanks to falling oil prices, the economy was improving. A scandal over mining leased had been cleared up. Good days were coming. One year into Modi’s term, one could see the cutlery on the table, if not yet the food. Meanwhile, India’s neighbourhood was unstable – a revanchist Russia had invaded Ukraine; China was using its might to cower its south east Asian neighbours; ASEAN seemed split and powerless to resist. But Peter doubted that India would become a whole-hearted adherent to an American-led regional alliance to contain China. Given its development goals and geo-strategic challenges, perhaps democracy was not India’s strong suit. Even such a high-profile American figure as Hillary Clinton had recently questioned whether democracy was necessarily the best way to improve peoples’ lives in all countries.

Report by Richard Broinowski

For an edited video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DBy5KdweBM&feature=youtu.be