When Dr Manmohan Singh lands in Addis Ababa for the second India Africa Forum Summit that begins in two weeks in the Ethiopian capital, three years after the first tentative meet in Delhi, the marked difference between India’s “soft power” and China’s headlong rush into becoming the continent’s go-to country for infrastructure is
certain to excite debate again. Delhi’s scramble for a piece of the African pie has shown none of the urgency exhibited by Beijing, which has steadily expanded its footprint by building roads, bridges, airports, parliament buildings, and mammoth stadia deep inside Africa.
The gleaming new main road that runs through Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, from N’djili international airport, past an endless sea of shanty towns, riddled with refuse is needless to say,Chinese. It will be the platform that President Joseph Kabila will use to jump start his re-election campaign later this year.
India’s concerns over Chinese inroads into countries it considers its strategic partners in the African Indian Ocean rim, such as Mozambique, the Seychelles as well as Madagascar and Mauritius, with whom India has defence agreements are factored into its emerging Africa policy, linked as these sea-lanes are to India’s energy security. A radar surveillance station in Madagascar to monitor shipping was inaugurated in July 2007, underscoring the importance of the Indian Ocean to New Delhi’s backyard. Similarly, India wants to lease a Mauritian island that can monitor the shipping lanes of the Mozambique Channel, an important route for goods being transported between Africa and India.
India’s naval presence in the waters off Somalia and Gulf of Aden and the rescue of dozens of vessels hijacked by Somali pirates is clearly a projection of its military force beyond its immediate borders. Safeguarding the $50 billion worth of Indian imports and $60 billion of exports that pass through the Gulf of Aden is paramount.
Therefore, while China’s overshadowing of India may be a matter of choice or simply because India does not have the resources to even diplomatically counter the Chinese, the strategic objectives by the two countries widely seen as the colonial powers of the 21st century, are achieved differently. As Jairam Ramesh, Union minister for environment and forests said at the 2008 Delhi summit: “Unlike China, which goes all out and exploits resources, our strategy is to add value.”
India has no intention of repeating the uncomfortable publicity that foreshadowed the construction of a presidential complex in the Ghanaian capital, Accra which cost $50 million to build, and that some reports indicate remains unoccupied. It would rather send teachers to impart education in English to former colonies where Portuguese, French and Afrikaans is still the lingua franca. It’s focus remains SMEs rather than big ticket projects.
Its main Africa connect in fact comes from the two million strong Indian diaspora, who are of Indian origin but African in spirit, speaking the local languages and wired into the political system and society. In providing employment to hundreds and thousands of Africans in their many businesses – sadly, though only one India media house exists in Johannesburg, when there is room for so much more- they provide the strongest gateway into a continent where Mahatma Gandhi, the tried and tested mantra trotted out by successive friendly African governments is fast fading as the image that binds the two. Today’s agent provocateur for change is spelt out by the economist prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh whose armoury is reinforced by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Ambanis, Mittals and Kiran Mazumdar Shaws.