The second in line of succession to the British throne Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton have arrived in Pakistan for a five-day visit that is being described as their “most complex” tour to date, according to a Kensington Palace handout.
They will travel more than 1000 kms across the country, to Islamabad, Lahore, Gilgit-Baltistan as well as to the rugged border regions to the west, in a trip that is expected to be part-Empire nostalgia and part-hardnosed foreign policy.
No one in Delhi has said a word about the royal visit, which comes three years after William-Kate came to India and Bhutan and included a much-photographed tour to the Taj Mahal, but everyone is clearly watching carefully.
No change in India’s stand
Neither William nor Kate’s bushels of clothing or diamond tiaras, nor their carefully vetted speeches will change Narendra Modi’s views on Kashmir. New Delhi retains a more-than-substantial belief that the British Raj didn’t play totally fair when it came to the Partition of India in 1947.
Remember Mountbatten, the last Viceroy who advanced instead of postponing the break-up of the country by several months, thereby setting in motion the massacres, the blood-letting and an exchange of populations that both countries are still coming to terms with – well, he was a relative of Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip.
So when Mountbatten’s great-grandnephew William is likely to tell his hosts in Islamabad Tuesday night that “you can always rely on the UK to keep playing an important role as a key partner and friend”, Pakistan will cheer, Prime Minister Imran Khan will polish his Oxbridge accent and the red carpet will be brushed to a new gleam.
Also read: Modi-Shah weathered Kashmir storm because West has no moral right to lecture India anymore
British politics & Kashmir
India will, meanwhile, shrug her shoulders and point to the political irrelevance of the British royalty. They don’t count, elected politicians do. But at a time when Britain’s determination to exit or not to exit the European Union has claimed the scalp of one British prime minister and threatens another – Boris Johnson, whose estranged wife is half-Indian, only has two weeks to meet an EU deadline – Delhi knows that in the gathering political shadows at Westminster, it’s not a bad idea to be friendly with the monarchy.
This is because Jeremy Corbyn, UK’s Labour Party chief, has gone out of his way to be unhelpful on Kashmir. At the party conference in Brighton in mid-September, Corbyn called for international observers to “enter” the besieged Valley (at the time under total lockdown) and demand the right for self-determination for its people.
In early September, Labour Party MP Liam Byrne from the Birmingham Hodge Hill constituency led a march to the Indian High Commission, along with several thousand Pakistani-origin supporters, protesting the scrapping of Article 370. Tomatoes and stones were thrown at the building.
Naturally, India registered a strong protest against both the actions. This Monday, 117 British-Indian organisations, including the Hindu Forum Britain, the British Sikh Association, the Jain Network, wrote to Corbyn, warning that his “one-sided” views on Kashmir could damage relations with India.
At least some battle lines are being drawn in Britain. It’s a no-brainer that Labour’s enthusiastic rank-and-file is significantly drawn from the Pakistani immigrant network (London’s mayor Sadiq Khan is of Pakistani origin), which the Labour hopes will help tip the balance when elections are held, sooner than later.
Last time around in 2017, the Conservative Party won 318 seats to Labour’s 262, with the difference in vote share being a little over two per cent, as was the victory margin in about 100 seats. The Labour Party knows that in a tight election, it needs the Muslim, largely Pakistani-immigrant, vote.
Also read: Britain meddling in Kashmir issue has a lot to do with how Pakistani origin people vote
Should New Delhi care?
So, what’s British politics got to do with William-Kate’s five-day visit to Pakistan? And should New Delhi care?
First of all, the royal trip shatters all the illusions about Pakistan being isolated over Kashmir. Modi may have charmed the Indian-American community with his “Abki baar, Trump sarkar” slogan, but America needs Pakistan not only to get out of Afghanistan – an endeavour that is likely to take at least a few years – but also use its influence in the Middle East. In Tehran Sunday, Imran Khan told reporters that Trump had asked him to help initiate a dialogue between the US and Iran.
Second, although the British royals are above Britain’s contested political space and won’t do anything to upset that carefully balanced apple-cart, William’s speech in Islamabad will be seen as feeding into the Labour Party immigrant story.
“We share unique bonds and so it will always be in our best interests for Pakistan to succeed. Not least because of the 1.5 million people living in the UK with Pakistani origin and the fact that the UK is one of the biggest investors in Pakistan’s economy,” Wiliam is expected to say Tuesday night.
All this is, of course, par for the diplomatic course. William-Kate will probably use the exact same phrases whenever they travel abroad. It’s true they have no influence on British politics; it is equally true their enormous influence is derived from the people of Britain who adore their monarchy.
It is in these shadows of power, in the trappings of these conventions that are a palimpsest of both nostalgia and modernity, in the magnificent reach of the Commonwealth – of which India and Pakistan are members – that the British royals excel.
Narendra Modi instinctively understands the power of that image, however fraying at the edges. After all, he has taken great trouble to manufacture his own image, undeniably backed by a huge majority. It is also why he threw a lunch party for William-Kate at the magnificent Hyderabad House in New Delhi when the young couple visited in 2016.
At the end of the day, the William-Kate visit to Pakistan will hardly cause any ripples in the Ravi river or change the destiny of the country. But it will be compared (with the previous visits of UK royals), certainly followed and definitely remembered for what it did, didn’t or could have achieved.
Perhaps, the happy ending in this story is that it took place at all.
Also read: Imran Khan wants to forge Iran-Saudi peace — goal Pakistan has failed to achieve in 48 yrs
Any time British no brains nowadays.
Like any other article from Jyoti, this article does not have any substantial points to make. Such Royal visits are part of the routine cultural exchanges and we cannot have much political significance attached to it, beyond some interest in glittering photographs. That UK ( and in particular its Labour Party) is partial to Pakistan is not a news for India but extent to which it went against India recently on Kashmir is definitely a sore point and are bound to affect our relation with UK unless UK does something special to make amends. That UK hardly matter in international politics is also given and as rightly said above by Rajan in his comments, it attracts disproportionately high number of unskilled people from Africa and South Asia than the skilled ones. Main attraction of UK is its valuable real estate and a place where everyone in the world likes to come together for holidays. Due to its demographic structure, in next 20 to 40 years, its population will be more of South Asian origin (within that, muslim majority) and therefore, its politics may change drastically. Original Brits, who have been anyway pushed out of main cities due to high real estate prices, will get further marginalized. Over the years, it being a member of UN Security Council will be questioned as it will be seen more like a (bad version) Singapore of West or ( a very good version of North Korea or Pakistan- two most dangerous nuclear powers of the world). Nevertheless, London has its own charm ( as a good version of Bombay for us Indians) and despite its overtly anti India stand, many Indians are going to be there as students, workers, doctors, apartment owners and tourists. Anyway, Modi is not going to be bothered about this visit but she has used this occasion to pen one more article.
Britain is a third rate power, makes nothing of value, no innovation, is of no value to India at all . It’s populated with unskilled Islamic immigrants and Nigerians and its major cities are now complete ghettoes. Britain was a fourth rate power in 1970, when Harold Wilson begged to be admitted into the EEC. Now, fattened on European money and innovation, out of the ICU, it triggered Brexit and is now on its road to perdition. Britain’s feudal culture and poor skills reflect in the rubbish it makes , from Jaguar to Rover, terrible quality issues. Britain can never out farm the French or out Engineer the Germans. In fact, today, there is no core competency that Britain brings to the table. Israelis makes great Radars and weapons, French avionics and digital signal processing is superb, Russian airframes and low cost is well known, American cutting edge technology is widely admired. There will never be a British Apple or a Google or Alphabet or for that matter even a Samsung. Britain attracts the worst immigrants from India, uneducated and unskilled Punjabis and Gujaratis. A fitting match for the UK. As India’s digital economy grows and Maharashtra and a South India grow further( all together, five Dravidian states pay 85 percent of India’s direct tax), the UK will be marginalised further…..Narendra Modi knows this, and he knows India has no future with the UK, it can provide nothing of value for India, just play a little mischief now and then with their Islamic friends
“the magnificent reach of the Commonwealth”. Seriously? United Kingdom is a country that can hardly reach it’s own constituents viz. England, Scotland, Wales & N. Ireland leave alone the rest of it’s erstwhile colonies. The Commonwealth is nothing more than a creation for Raj apologists to revel in Empire trivia. As for the royal visits, give them a break, they too need to get out of their country to more exotic places.
The writer of this article is missing one important dimension: Royal Family’s internal family politics. There are reports of two boys not getting along very well. The younger one has just been to South Africa with his celebrity wife to ‘retrace the footsteps’ of his late mother. The older one is doing the same; Diana was Imran’s friend and had strong Pakistani connections, having been to the country on multiple charity trips.
There are two important points here, the second one being assumption: (1) the royals have NO influence on the politics, but this tour clearly indicates that the British wariness with radical Islam has reached its peak. They just want to make peace now. The British, unlike mainland Europeans are historically more flexible in their diplomacy and tactics; (2) Modi perceives Britain as a minor player on International stage.
The coverage is Western press subtly hints the motivation for this “most complex royal tour” is to improve relations with a Muslim country having security issues, and whose diaspora is more integrated with their country of origin, less with their new home. A mild examples: “Earlier this month a senior royal aide said: “What happens in Pakistan matters on the streets of the UK. It’s one of the most important relationships that the UK has.” (Tom Davidson reporting in Mirror, 14 Oct. 2019). The word that requires highlighting is “the streets”. Remember London Bridge terrorist incident.
One can only hope that those 117 associations are not acting at the behest of the High Commission. The relationship between the diaspora and the Indian state needs to be managed with care and sensitivity, not losing sight of the fact that they are foreign citizens who have sworn an oath of allegiance to their new country. Even Akshay Kumar would now have to curtsy to the Queen. Events like the one at Houston are at the Outer edges of that sense of propriety.
Why you pessimist you dumb
Since a Print reader accurately placed you as a foot soldier of the troll factory, I no longer take your interventions seriously. The language could do with improvement, lekin ten bucks per tweet mein Shakespeare toh mil nahin Saket.