India needs to increase parliamentary interaction with other countries to create an all-weather group of interlocutors, senior diplomatic sources have said.
The role of parliamentarians for cultivating their counterparts in other countries was taken up recently by President Yoweri Musaveni of Uganda, who urged Vice-President Hamid Ansari last week to address the gap by sending more Indian lawmakers to Africa.
“Diplomacy is about contacts and exchanges. We hope the mechanism of dedicated parliamentarians for various countries will be restored (to its earlier intensity). India is known as the biggest and possibly the oldest one, democracy with a parliament at its core. More interactions will mean more possibilities and tools that can serve any “bad weather” moments in bilateral ties,” said a senior Ambassador, who revealed that India has not answered his country’s desire for parliamentary exchanges.
From 40 to just one
There were more than 40 parliamentary groups during the UPA rule which have dwindled to just one on China, at present. The other groups like the one on Taiwan are yet to be formalised. Mr. Ansari and President Pranab Mukherjee have been taking delegations of MPs along during foreign trips to familiarise them with various regions.
The group on China was started in 2014 by BJP MP Tarun Vijay. However, with the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure, Mr. Vijay is now running a similar group under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
One area where the parliamentary delegations have crucially fallen short is Africa which used to receive a large number of visits — the issue that figured during Mr. Ansari’s visit to Rwanda and Uganda.
Role in shaping opinion
“Parliamentary interactions came up for discussion and a point was made that there was not enough of it. In consultation with the Speaker of Lok Sabha, we will work out on how to fill this gap. MPs play an important role in shaping opinion and in lending support to government policies,” Mr. Ansari said.
The number of inter-parliamentary exchanges have fallen under the present government as India has not continued many such groups with partner countries. “The MPs should know issues a bit better,” said Mr. Ansari highlighting the need for meetings between Indian MPs and their counterparts elsewhere, especially in Africa.
D. Raja of the CPI urged the government to send multi-party delegations of parliamentarians to Africa, Latin America and multilateral organisations. “Previously, a delegation of MPs used to visit the United Nations every year. As far as I know that kind of visits have been discontinued which is a loss,” said Mr Raja, highlighting that the world is curious about Indian democracy.
