Report of the Australia-India Institute - Beyond the Lost Decade John McCarthy, AO Sanjaya Baru Gopalaswami Parthasarathy Maxine McKew Ashok Malik Christopher Kremmer Report of the Australia India Institute Perceptions Taskforce Beyond the Lost Decade 1 e Australia India Institute is funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education formerly known as the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Copyright: Australia India Institute 2012 ISBN: 978-0-9872398-3-9 2 Report of the Australia-India Institute - Beyond the Lost Decade Report of the Australia India Institute Perceptions Taskforce Beyond the Lost Decade John McCarthy, AO Sanjaya Baru Gopalaswami Parthasarathy Maxine McKew Ashok Malik Christopher Kremmer 3 The views, findings and recommendations of this report are the edited product of the collective deliberation of a group of independent analysts. The report does not represent the views of the Australia India Institute. Neither should it be read as reflecting the views of specific participants, authors and/or the institutions with which they are affiliated on issues canvassed in the report. 4 Report of the Australia-India Institute - Beyond the Lost Decade Contents From the Director 4 Taskforce Members 5 Executive Summary 7 An Indian Perspective 10 An Australian Perspective 31 Recommendations 66 5 From the Director of the Australia India Institute In the three years since it began work, the Australia India Institute has quickly established itself as an important centre for the study of India and hub for dialogue and research partnerships between India and Australia. Based at the University of Melbourne, the Institute hosts a growing range of programs that are deepening and enriching the relationship between our two great democracies. What is the state of relations between Australia and India? How do the two peoples and nations view one another, and how are these perceptions being formed in the era of rapid, global communications? In recent years, unforseen problems have strained relations. What have these conflicts taught us about ourselves and how we view each other? And what practical steps can stakeholders take to ensure that public debates around the relationship are better informed, less emotive and more focused on the key issues of concern to our two nations and peoples? In September 2011, the Australia India Institute’s Perceptions Taskforce was formed to provide answers to these questions and make recommendations on how to respond to the challenges. The taskforce brought together Indians and Australians with decades of experience in diplomacy, public policy and media. On December 4, 2011, the six taskforce members met in Kolkata to share their views against the backdrop of major economic and geopolitical shifts in the Indo-Pacific region as we enter what Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called ‘The Asian Century’. This report, Beyond the Lost Decade, discusses the key issues arising from this process and presents them from Indian and Australian viewpoints. It draws conclusions and proposes recommendations for action that the Taskforce members believe will create more robust Australia-India ties. The problems of the past reflected our different histories and social and political realities. But our interests are converging and people-to-people ties and economic and security cooperation will grow. At times provocative, but always insightful, this report is a must-read, not just for policy-makers, but anyone with a stake in closer relations between Australia and its Asian neighbours, especially India. Amitabh Mattoo 6 Report of the Australia-India Institute - Beyond the Lost Decade The Australia India Institute’s Perceptions Taskforce Members Dr. Sanjaya Baru is the Director for Geo-economics and Strategy, International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) London. Prior to his appointment he served as media adviser to the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh (2004- 08). Dr Baru is a former Editor of Business Standard newspaper (2009-11), and Chief Editor of The Financial Express (2000-04).He has also held professorships in economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (1985-86) and the University of Hyderabad (1979-1990), and has been a member of the National Security Advisory Board of India (1998-2001) and the India-ASEAN Eminent Persons Group (2011-12). His publications include Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance (Routledge, 2006) and The Political Economy of Indian Sugar (Oxford University Press, 1990). Maxine McKew is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow with the University of Melbourne and works as an advisor on education for the not-for-profit group Social Ventures Australia. After a long career in broadcast and print journalism, she was elected to Australia’s Federal Parliament in 2007, defeating the sitting Prime Minister John Howard in his own seat of Bennelong. Maxine served in the Rudd Labor Government (2007-2010) as Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood, and later as Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Regional Development and Local Government. Gopalaswami Parthasarathy is Visiting Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. As a long serving and distinguished diplomat he served as Ambassador of India to Myanmar (1992-95), and as High Commissioner to Australia (1995-98), Pakistan (1998-2000) and Cyprus (1990-92). He also served as Spokesman, Ministry of External Affairs, and Information Adviser and Spokesman in the Prime Minister’s under the late Rajiv Gandhi (1985-90). He is the co-author with ex-Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Dr. Humayun Khan of Diplomatic Divide, a book which explores the issues that divide India and Pakistan. John McCarthy, AO is national president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He has served as Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam (1981- 83), Mexico (1985-87), Thailand (1992-94), the United States (1995 to 1997), Indonesia (1997-2001) and Japan (2001-2004). He has also served in Damascus, Baghdad and Vientiane, and as High Commissioner to India in 2004-2009. From 1994-95, he was Deputy Secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. He holds a Masters degree in Arts and a Bachelor of Law, and is a barrister-at-law. Mr McCarthy is now Chair of the Australia-India Council and Co-convener of the Australia India Dialogue. 7 Ashok Malik is a columnist who writes for leading Indian and international publications including the Times of India, Hindustan Times, Tehelka and YaleGlobal Online. He focuses on Indian domestic politics and foreign policy, and their increasing interplay. He was co-author with Rory Medcalf of a paper, India’s New World: Civil Society in the Making of Foreign Policy, published by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney. His book, India: Spirit of Enterprise, encapsulating the story of the growth of India’s leading private sector industries and their role in the Indian economy, was published in 2012. Christopher Kremmer is the author of four books on the history, politics and culture of modern Asia including The Carpet Wars, Bamboo Palace, and his personal history of India, Inhaling the Mahatma. A former foreign correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age, he served two terms in New Delhi (1990-93 and 1997-2011) and also in Hanoi (1993-95). He contributes to The Monthly magazine, and teaches Communications Law and Ethics at the University of Western Sydney, where he is currently completing his doctorate. 8 Report of the Australia-India Institute - Beyond the Lost Decade Executive Summary After a lost decade of nagging tensions and bad publicity from 2001 to 2011 the Australia-India relationship is on the mend. Recent research suggests a dramatic improvement in perceptions of Australia in India since concerns about the safety of Indian students triggered a media firestorm in 2009-10. Indians once again rank Australia as a top ten country; a well governed, business, tourist and student-friendly destination, researchers say. Yet the relationship remains brittle, and bold initiatives are needed to consolidate progress and chart a course towards deeper ties. Three factors underpin optimism: India’s growing demand for energy, and Australia’s capacity to provide it; the rise of China, which encourages both nations to protect their interests by consulting more closely on regional security issues; and Australian efforts to reform its international student program to avoid a repeat of recent quality and security issues. Yet the Taskforce warns that initiatives taken to date fall short of those required to convince Indians that Australia means business, while Australian stakeholders lack confidence in India’s capacity to progress ties rapidly. New measures to build trust and improve perceptions of each other in the fields of education, diplomacy, media and security are called for. They include: • Doubling the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s public diplomacy budget to A$10 million per annum; The overseas television broadcaster Australia Network to retain close links with DFAT but funding and editorial responsibility should rest with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. • A new Indo-Pacific or Australasia Division within India’s Ministry of External Affairs as part of an expedited restructure of the ministry. • Extending post-study work rights to international students enrolled in courses at TAFE institutes and other reputable vocational training establishments, the sector in which most Indian students have traditionally enrolled. • Training Australian school teachers in the Hindi language in anticipation of it being added to the Australian Curriculum before the end of this decade. • As an act of goodwill, extending to December 2013 the visas of Indian students caught up in changes to regulations following the student crisis of 2009; and tasking the Australian Institute of Criminology to undertake more 9 research into racism and crime, including the events that affected Indian students in 2009-10.