Modi’s Agenda at G20: Showcasing India’s Growth and Hiding Dark Realities

Per Olav Ødegård

Commentator in VG. Former foreign journalist and correspondent for VG in the USA. Writes mostly about international affairs.

GREETINGS TO THE PEOPLE: Narendra Modi waves to his supporters at an event on August 15 in New Delhi to mark the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Photo: SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP / NTB

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes leaders of the world’s major economic powers at the G20 this weekend. He wants to show them a bright picture of India and hide the dark sides.

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This is a comment. The commentary expresses the writer’s position India, which hosts the G20 meeting, is experiencing economic growth that surpasses that of China. President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping are notable by their absence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to appear as the leader of the “Global South”, with countries in the southern hemisphere that have traditionally had less economic and political influence. India is an important counterweight to China’s growing influence for the United States, and the country cooperates with both the United States and Russia. Modi leads a Hindu-nationalist government, and the situation for religious minorities in the country has worsened under his rule. The BRICS cooperation, an attempt to build an alternative world order, faces internal contradictions and insufficient cooperation. The distance between democratic and authoritarian countries is deeper than before. Despite economic growth, economic inequality is a serious problem in India, with over 40% of wealth creation between 2012 and 2021 going to the richest 1% of the population. Show more

Modi has a long list of boasts. India’s economy is growing faster than all the other major powers in the G20, including China. Now India has also become the world’s most populous country. Modi is high up. Recently, the country carried out a successful moon landing.

India currently holds the chairmanship of the G20 group and Modi has a clear plan for what he wants to achieve. He wants to be the leader of “The Global South”, which is a term for developing countries and emerging economies in the southern hemisphere, which have traditionally had less economic and political influence than the rich countries of the north.

In India, great powers from both the north and the south meet. US President Joe Biden is coming, in addition to the leaders of other major Western countries that are also part of the G7 group.

TRIO IN OSAKA: Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping pose for the photographers at a G20 meeting in Osaka in 2019. Photo: SPUTNIK / Reuters / NTB

Two heads of state do not appear. Vladimir Putin, who is internationally wanted for war crimes in Ukraine, is staying at home as expected. More surprisingly, China’s President Xi Jinping is conspicuous by his absence.

Xi does not give a reason, but relations between India and China are very strained.

Xi has no interest in playing second fiddle when Modi raises the bar at the G20 summit. China and India compete economically, militarily and even in space.

Only the United States has a larger defense budget than these two. On the disputed border between China and India, particularly bloody battles have sometimes been fought.

MOST POPULAR: A poster in New Delhi says that Narendra Modi is the most popular of a number of world leaders with 78 percent support. At the bottom is Joe Biden with 40 percent. Photo: Manish Swarup / AP / NTB

Modi and Xi were recently in Johannesburg, South Africa, where five major powers in the so-called Brics group tried to carve out an alternative to a US-led world order. It is unconvincing, but considering the different interests China and India have.

Xi will not even visit Modi. It doesn’t get any better if, for next year’s Brics summit, they expand the group with dictatorships such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt. There will of course be no fair world order with such actors. The internal contradictions mean that Brics cooperation will not be the effective counterweight to Western influence that some of the participants would like.

Modi is pragmatic. He has maintained good relations with both Moscow and Washington, DC. He buys oil on the cheap in Russia at the same time as he increases trade with the United States. For the US, India is a very important partner, as a balance to China’s growing influence.

Biden is disappointed that Xi will not attend New Delhi. The G20 meeting in India could give the two leaders a rare opportunity to meet face to face.

SAME CLUB: President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Brics summit in Johannesburg in 2018. Photo: MIKE HUTCHINGS / Reuters / NTB

The G20 meetings provide the economic superpowers with a forum to manage the world economy. Sometimes it has been useful, as in connection with the financial crisis in 2008/09. Today, it is far more difficult for the great powers to agree on anything of importance.

India’s motto for the G20 meeting is One Earth, One Family, One Future. That’s not how the world looks.

Relations between China and the US have gradually deteriorated. Vladimir Putin burned all bridges to the West when he went for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The gap between democratic and authoritarian countries is even deeper than before.

The Indian host is working equally hard for the G20 countries to agree on a joint declaration in New Delhi. The problem is that neither Russia nor China will accept a text that distances itself from the war of aggression against Ukraine.

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SOUTH: A pedestrian passes a portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Photo: SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP / NTB

Nor does India appear as a family with a common future. There is a stark reality that Modi is hiding.

Modi heads a Hindu nationalist government. The situation for religious minorities, Muslims and Christians, has become far worse during his reign. They are exposed to incitement, violence and abuse.

India is also characterized by shocking economic inequality. From 2012 to 2021, over 40 percent of the value created went to the richest one percent of the population, according to a report by the humanitarian organization Oxfam earlier this year. There have been fewer extremely poor people than before, but one in ten Indians still have to try to survive on an income of less than NOK 17 a day.

The participants of the G20 meeting will not see the dark sides of the Indian society. New Delhi has undergone extensive “beautification”, with statues, fountains and planting. Slums have been demolished and street vendors chased away.

Narendra Modi would like to speak for the poor countries. But India’s poor are not to be seen by prominent guests.