Strengthening mutual ties?

THE recent five-day Indian sojourn of Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Yoshiro Mori cannot be called either a runaway success or a dismal failure. Though well wishers on both sides had hoped for a major breakthrough in the bilateral ties of the two countries, realists were aware that nothing significant would come out of Mr. Mori's visit. But, interestingly, dotcom buffs, at least in India - have gone overboard to claim that Mr. Mori's visit would revolutionise I.T. cooperation between Japan and India as a result.

Mr. Mori arrived in Bangalore with his entourage late in the evening of August 21, visited Infosys and Wipro, the two successful software companies with Japanese connections the next morning, attended a lunch hosted by the State Governor and left for New Delhi immediately thereafter. The two things that impressed Mr. Mori besides the two companies, were the golf course attached to Infosys and the huge crowd that had gathered to welcome him at Wipro and Infosys. The Japanese weakness for golf is proverbial and Mr. Mori even swung his golf club to the delight of the gathered crowd. But, more importantly, Mr. Mori was very much impressed with the crowd that had gathered and remarked that he would have had a landslide victory in the last elections if the crowd was as big as the one that had come to greet him - a candid admission of his difficult times at home.

Before taking up Mr. Mori's apparent need to drum up popularity at home by undertaking some worthwhile visit abroad, a little digression about host Karnataka's unique claims on the visit. The Chief Minister of Karnakata, Mr. S. M. Krishna was quick to point out that Bangalore was the only Indian city other than New Delhi on Mr. Mori's itinerary and that is a testimony to the importance the East Asian giants put on the city. If so, then, what was the significance of the U.S. President Mr. Bill Clinton's visit to Hyderabad and not to Bangalore last November? What about Tamil Nadu's case, which today has easily the best facilities to boost the IT sector? The State's lack of "Royal Visits" is due to a deficiency in the attitudinal make up on the part of the government and want of an aggressive salesmanship on the part of influential and business groups.

It is common knowledge that Mr. Clinton's visit to Hyderabad was not out of any special love of the city for him, but due to the clout the State Chief Minister, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu enjoyed with New Delhi; Mr. Krishna then felt let down. And, now, it had been reported in the media that the Chairman of Wipro, Mr. Azim Premji, with a lot of clout in Japan's IT industry, called on Prime Minister Mori to invite him to visit Bangalore. It is not often that a Japanese Prime Minister meets Indian industrialists for a tte--tte unless there are some extraneous factors. And if someone believes that Mr. Mori did not land in New Delhi first but chose Bangalore because of its importance, they have to be reminded that there is a certain protocol to be observed in all these things. Two heads of State cannot be hosted in the capital at the same time and the President of Maldives, Mr. Abdul Gayum was in New Delhi on the two days Prime Minister Mori was visiting Bangladesh and Pakistan before he landed in New Delhi.

Coming back to the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshiro Mori succeeded Mr. Keizo Obuchi, the man who set off the process of "self healing" in the economy during his short stint of a year or so in office. Mr. Mori's accession to office after Mr. Obuchi was somewhat abnormal and was the subject of some not very flattering comments. In the Parliamentary elections in June under Mr. Mori, the ruling LDP coalition just managed to hold on to power, losing heavily to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Mr. Mori's popularity index was at an all-time low and the beleaguered Prime Minister had to do something abroad to refurbish his image at home. And, the Okinawa Summit of the G-8 countries in July came at a very opportune time for Mr. Mori. Leaders of the G-8 countries adumbrated a Charter on a Global Information Society, which sought to bridge the "digital divide" and enhance the "digital opportunities" between the "IT haves" and "IT have- nots". Mr. Bill Clinton who was in a mighty hurry entrusted the charge of implementing the Charter to Mr. Mori, and what better country can Mr. Mori think of than India to inaugurate the Charter.

Many eyebrows were raised that Japan which is itself in its infancy in IT, should be a prime candidate in the implementation of the IT Charter and that it should start its job with an advanced country in IT like India. Being perceptive businessmen, the Japanese could visualise the benefit that could accrue to its own economy by exploiting Indian's IT talents. But Mr. Mori may be embarking on too ambitious an exercise if he expects ten thousand Indian IT professionals to inundate Japan in the next few years. The "language divide" can be as forbidding as the "digital divide." And, there are other speed breakers such as the big cultural divide, an inbuilt resistance in Japan to accepting foreigners, certain bureaucratic hurdles in the form of rules, regulations and taxes etc. But it goes to the credit of Mr. Mori that he had unshackled the Japanese private sector, leaving them free to invest in India. The Japanese are more interested in a long-term approach to cooperation in the IT sector and hopefully the Indian Government will complement the efforts. But we in India are always in a hurry and are prone to quick fixes. If the IT industry in India wants to exploit the Japanese market potential, Indians should first start learning Japanese, and learn the language to a level of competence to develop software in Japanese. Equally important, with Japan pinning its hopes on the internet revolution to reboot a still weak economy, there are urgent calls for the nation to brush up its English - the initiative of late Mr. Obuchi to give English its due place in education and administration, is yet to take off.

What then, in the final analysis, is the outcome of Mr. Mori's visit? The visit could be hailed as a manifestation of the painstaking efforts made by both the countries to put behind the differences and acrimony following the Pokhran blasts of 1998. The twin obstacles to better bilateral relations - India's nuclear tests and Japan's economic sanctions - have been set aside and a new parameter for global partnership over issues of worldwide importance has been envisioned so as to strengthen mutual ties. The bonhomie generated by the meeting between Prime Minister Mori and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has to be sustained. IT adventure alone cannot keep it going. Those responsible for implementing the summit decisions, written and unwritten, must be imbued and imbibed with a vision and zeal if the two countries are to get together in the future.

N. KRISHNASWAMI

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