Why David Cameron's exit will hurt India
British politics has entered uncharted territory and is changing at an unprecedented pace.
There has been turmoil since last week when Prime Minister David Cameron decided to call it quits after being defeated in the EU referendum which he had called hoping to win and silence Tory Euro-sceptics, perhaps forever.
Now he is the one to go by suggesting that he would attempt to "steady the ship" over the coming weeks and months, but that it would be for the new prime minister to carry out negotiations with the EU.
Referendum
Cameron is right in this graceful acknowledgment of his failure. He had asked Britons to vote "Remain" but was defeated by 52 per cent to 48 per cent despite London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backing staying in.
On the other side, the opposition Labour party's leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is also coming under attack from all sides with his critics accusing him of being half-hearted in calling for Labour voters to unite behind "Remain".
The divisions within the United Kingdom are as stark as ever as London, Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to stay in the EU. Scotland voted in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.
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| David Cameron leaves number 10, Downing Street for his last Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, on his last day in office as UK PM. (Reuters) |
Scotland's first minister now views a second independence referendum as "highly likely" after the UK voted to leave the EU by suggesting that it was "democratically unacceptable" that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against its will.
The European leaders have called for the UK "to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible, however painful that process may be" as a delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty.
Remaining 27 members of the European Union would now like to get over this shock as early as possible and not to give the UK any more special privileges for fear of similar demands from other nationalistic parties across the continent.
Legacy
There will be both opportunities and challenges for India as the new European order gets conceived. But in the short term, Cameron's departure will be a significant loss for India-UK ties.
He has championed Indian interests like few British prime ministers in recent years.
The UK is the largest European investor in India and India is the second largest investor in the UK. There are significant historical, linguistic and cultural ties that remain untapped.
But the Labour government's legacy on India was very complex and Cameron's government needed great diplomatic finesse to manage the challenges.
This was particularly true of the issue of Kashmir where the Labour government could not help but irritate New Delhi.
As late as 2009, the former foreign secretary, David Miliband, was hectoring the Indian government that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute is essential to solving the problem of extremism in South Asia.
Transition
Miliband's ill-informed pronouncements and complete lack of sensitivity to Indian concerns raised some fundamental questions in New Delhi about the trajectory of British foreign policy.
Miliband was merely trying to assuage the concerns of Labour Party's domestic constituents, in particular the Pakistani Muslims who form the largest share of British Muslims.
But such an approach has left an indelible mark on the Indian psyche of Britain being on the side of Pakistan.
Cameron's government has made a serious effort to jettison the traditional British approach towards the subcontinent in so far as it has decided to deal with India as a rising power, not merely as a South Asian entity.
Cameron himself made all the right noises when he came to India. He warned Pakistan against promoting any "export of terror", whether to India or elsewhere, and said it must not be allowed to "look both ways".
He proposed a close security partnership with India and underlined that Britain like India was determined that groups like the Taliban, the Haqqani network or Lakshar-e-Taiba should not be allowed to launch attacks on Indian and British citizens in India or in Britain.
More significantly, the British prime minister has also rejected any role for his country in the India-Pakistan dispute.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's successful trip to the UK last year was a reflection of the transformation in India-UK ties under Cameron.
As Britain undergoes a leadership transition, India will be hoping that the new prime minister will build on the legacy of Cameron.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)