Strengthening relations between the Indian and British bourgeoisie
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to India between February 18-20, 2013 was accompanied with much media hype about “renewing an old relationship”, India’s “incredible growth” and “shared values”.
Strengthening relations between the Indian and British bourgeoisie
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to India between February 18-20, 2013 was accompanied with much media hype about “renewing an old relationship”, India’s “incredible growth” and “shared values”.
Cameron was accompanied by the largest trade delegation ever taken by a British Prime Minister to any country in the world. His entourage included more than 100 representatives from multinationals, small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and universities.
One of the main aims of Cameron’s visit was to boost the investments and business interests of British companies in India. At present, Britain ranks only as India’s seventh biggest export market – after even the Netherlands, and its 21st biggest source of imports. Among European powers, Germany and France are the major suppliers of technology to India.
His visit was also aimed at seeking greater investments from Indian business houses in Britain. The Indian bourgeoisie has been investing in Britain as a springboard to investments in other EU countries. With the uncertainty of Britain’s relationship with the EU, the Indian bourgeoisie is not much enamoured by the idea of investing in Britain.
It may be noted that though the Indian state has already taken significant measures to open up its markets to the inward flow of foreign goods, it has been slow to liberalize its rules on services imports. Britain is especially interested in entering India’s financial markets, a sector where it claims to have a strong competitive advantage, but which India has not yet fully opened up.
Speaking at the Mumbai headquarters of Hindustan Unilever at the start of his visit, Cameron expressed the hope of doubling Britain’s trade with India by 2015. Towards this, both Cameron and PM Manmohan Singh spoke of “reducing barriers to trade” and the British PM promised “relaxation of visa rules”. Cameron emphasised Britain’s strength in service industries and called for relaxing restrictions imposed by India on entry of British companies in the service sector in India.
Cameron announced that Britain wants to help build a 600 mile economic corridor between Mumbai and Bengaluru. Britain will provide £1m towards a feasibility study if the Indian government provides funding to match this. This was touted in the media as an example of the new support from Britain as it ends its direct aid programme to India in 2015.
Cameron’s visit was also aimed at attracting Indian students to study in Britain. Given the drastic cutbacks in state funding for education in Britain in recent years, it is interested in bringing in Indian students who would fund themselves. At a time when tougher visa and immigration regulations have caused a decrease in the number of youth seeking education and jobs in Britain, Cameron announced that there would be “no limit on the number of Indian students that can study in British universities, so long as they have a placement and an English-language qualification”.
Defence contracts were also an important component of the discussions. Cameron was accompanied by representatives of several British or partly British defence manufacturers, such as Rolls-Royce, Serco, BAE, EADS, Thales, Atkins, Cobham, JCB, Strongfield Technologies, MBDA and Ultra Electronics, among others. Cameron pitched hard for the merits of the British Eurofighter Typhoon jets (which had earlier been rejected by the Indian government), after the Indian government failed to finalise a $14bn (£9bn) deal for India to buy 126 Dassault Rafale fighter jets during the French President’s visit to India a few months earlier.
Cameron and Manmohan Singh launched a taskforce to tackle the allegedly “growing threat of cyber crime from China”. This is part of the shrill anti China campaign launched by the US imperialists on this issue.
Another aim of Cameron’s visit was to try to secure the electoral support of the nearly 1.5 m persons of Indian origin resident in Britain. Workers of Indian origin in Britain are an active part of the struggle of the working class and student youth of that country who have come repeatedly on the streets to protest the anti social offensive of the Cameron government which includes spending cuts on health, education and so on. Cameron’s visit to the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre was aimed at softening his anti-immigrant image. His delegation included a number of MPs of Indian origin. There was much talk of Britain and India having a “shared heritage”, “common values”, “shared laws”, a common “democratic set up”, “shared language”, etc.
The capitalist system in India and many of the big monopoly capitalist houses such as the Tatas and Birlas, as well as the Indian ruling circles as a whole, have their origins in the British colonial rule in India. The political system in India is based on the Westminster model and the major institutions of the Indian state, its legislatures, executive and judiciary, its police, armed forces and intelligence agencies, are mostly based on the British colonial institutions. The education system in our country continues, by and large, to follow the system established here by the British and remains dominated by the English language. Many among the ruling circles in India continue to nurture their connections with their former colonial masters. Our rulers have always tried to promote among our people the same kind of thinking that the British colonialists used to promote – that we should look up to the British colonisers for bringing “civilisation” to India and look down upon our own ancient wisdom and heritage. This is the “shared heritage” that Cameron and Manmohan Singh refer to – our colonial legacy, which is at the root of the exploitation, oppression and misery of the vast masses of the Indian people. This colonial legacy weighs very heavy on our people and is one of the major roadblocks to the liberation and empowerment of our people.
The visit of Cameron and his delegation represents the continuing collaboration between the British bourgeoisie and the Indian big bourgeoisie. This collaboration has always been based on the maximum exploitation of the labour and resources of the working class and people of India and of other countries, in the interests of a small minority of the wealthy in both countries. It has brought disaster on our people in the past, and does not bode well for our people in the future as well. The Indian working class and people are opposed to any increased collaboration between the British and Indian bourgeoisie.