Brand
India is in trouble. |#Corruption and rape have put a serious dent in our
shiny global image. That's the conclusion of a new BBC World
survey conducted by GlobesScan Inc. and and the Program on International Policy Attitudes in 25 countries.
Over
the 8-year span that the poll has been conducted, the pollsters
observes, "For the first time this year, those negative views (35%)
slightly outnumber those with positive views of India (34 percent)." The
other country to share this fate is China, whose ratings have plummeted
to the lowest level. This has not been a good year for either the
elephant or the dragon.
“While China and India’s prestige was
enhanced by defying the gravity of the economic downturn, they seem to
be falling back to earth with slowing growth rates and a perception of
widespread corruption. The scandals surrounding the treatment of women
in India may also have had an impact on this year’s findings," says PIPA
director Steven Kull, Director of PIPA. In India's case, this downward
slide is mainly a result of shift in attitudes in North America and
Western Europe.
Police disperse protesters with water canons in Delhi. Reuters.
There
is some irony in this. The Delhi gang rape case was hardly an
exceptional instance of sexual violence in India. What made it
remarkable was the unprecedented popular outrage it evoked. It led to
stricter rape laws and a sustained national debate over the status of
Indian women, modernity, and violence. And these modest but positive
reverberations of the case have kept it in the headlines, both in India
and around the world. Every rape or sexual assault case since has been
covered with greater attention and detail. Yet the impact of such media
interest on international opinion has been negative. We have not become
more violent as a society since 2012, but we are increasingly perceived
as being so.
Similarly, the headline-grabbing scandals also
reflect a positive development. The corruption isn't new, but the
uncovering and subsequent investigation of 2G, Coalgate et al reflects a
new demand for openness and accountability. The UPA response has been
grudging, obstructive and slow, but the government has been forced to
respond nevertheless. There will be consequences, be it in the court of
law or at the ballot box next year. The past two years have finally
revealed the rot hidden by the glossy India rising image. And this is a
good thing for our nation, but not apparently for our global image.
The
first 20 years of liberalisation were hailed as a revolution. Recent
years have revealed that this much touted revolution has been in great
part cosmetic. The medieval mindset, political corruption, crony
capitalism remain entrenched despite a dramatically -- and deceptively
-- altered urban landscape of malls, McDonald's, IT jobs and cell
phones. And it is this harsh reality that we are finally beginning to
face and challenge. However messy, chaotic and unproductive it may look
on the outside, we are a nation looking for genuine progress, unwilling
to settle for the usual sops and minor fixes -- though we may disagree
what that progress should look like.
And right at this watershed
moment, the very global image that buoyed our self-esteem is falling
apart. The question is: Should we care? There is no one answer to that
question. Yes, we should if it affects our economy -- if we lose out on
outsourced jobs, foreign investment, tourism. No, we shouldn't if it is
just a matter of what someone in New York or Frankfurt or London thinks
of us, good or bad.
Public opinion abroad is shaped by news
coverage, which in the case of India has long been defined by
broad-stroke simplified narratives embraced by the foreign press
(prominent and laudable exceptions aside). 'Rising India' replaced
'Backward India' when we opened our markets to foreign investors. With
slowing growth rates, it's now all about 'Regressing India' -- a country
mired hopelessly in the past, unable to move forward. Hence, the
plummeting poll numbers. None of these narratives are entirely untrue,
but they have never come close to capturing Indian reality.
Add to
this homogenised reportage two other factors: one, an entrenched
journalistic bias toward bad news (shared by reporters around the
world); two, the limited India coverage on television and domestic print
editions of international publications.
Moreover, press coverage
has a far greater impact on India's poll numbers than, say, that of the
United States whose global image is linked directly to its foreign
policy actions. The India stories aim to explain us to the domestic
audience, focusing primarily on local or at best regional issues. If
international coverage skews in one direction -- positive or negative --
so does international opinion. It is every bit as fickle and
insubstantive as the India narratives themselves.
The real lesson
of the IPI survey is that foreign coverage has a disproportionate effect
on our global image -- and our own self-image. We attach far too much
importance to foreign publications, getting overly excited when an
Indian makes the cover of Newsweek and unduly unhappy over a sharply
critical opinion delivered by the Economist. We are riveted by this
reflection in a faraway mirror, mistaking it for an image of ourselves.
And in this, we are no different from that guy in New York.