Great! But go beyond India-Pak games

Those criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for inviting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan to the cricket World Cup semi-final in Mohali are missing the wood for the trees.

Consider a counter-factual. India and Sri Lanka reach the final of the tournament. The Indian prime minister says he will go to Mumbai to see the deciding match, and invites the Sri Lankan president as well. Wouldn’t the absence of a similar gesture to the Pakistanis, a match earlier, have seemed glaring?

There are four points to consider here. One, while the debate over whether sport and diplomacy/politics mix is ancient and perennial, there are enough precedents of politicians gate-crashing big sports events. It is normal for presidents and prime ministers to turn up for the soccer World Cup final or an Olympic basketball game.

Two, it is a silly mind that conflates such symbolism with serious diplomacy. Nobody expects the Gilani-Singh meeting to achieve wonders and constitute a breakthrough in South Asian affairs. Indeed, the Indian foreign office has spent the past few days talking down the event, and insisting it is a photo-op and little else. This is true, but far from lessening the need for the invitation to Islamabad, it actually reinforces the idea behind it. What has India lost by making a low-cost, risk-proof diplomatic intervention? A sporting extravaganza often offers such opportunities.

Three, notwithstanding the previous point, it is astonishing that Manmohan Singh only seems to think of marrying a sports occasion with a loud diplomatic statement when it comes to Pakistan, but not any other country. As former diplomat KC Singh pointed out recently, the Indian prime minister could well have flown down to Dhaka for the opening ceremony of this World Cup, the biggest sports event Bangladesh has ever (co)hosted.

Modern politics (or foreign policy power projection) is an astute mix of bread and circus. Singh didn’t get this when it came to the Commonwealth Games of 2010. For years before that event, people were talking about the race between China (hosting the 2008 Olympics) and India. It was clear that international opinion, the media, and domestic middle classes in both countries would make a comparison between China’s and India’s Games. In that sense, the Games were important to showcase India as well as bolster middle India’s (and the middle Indian voter’s) self-perception.

Yet Singh ignored all warnings. He let Suresh Kalmadi and the Organising Committee do what they wanted. He refused to take ownership of the Games project and comprehend (much less admit) that it had a deep political and diplomatic meaning. As an old-school, fuddy-duddy technocrat, he thought this was simply a sports event and would not intrude into the domain of politics. He was, of course, spectacularly wrong.

As such, Singh has been alive to the possible use of sport vis-à-vis Pakistan, but not for diplomatic messaging in any wider context. The Commonwealth Games was a great missed chance. Consider what South Africa managed to achieve by hosting the rugby World Cup in 1995 and then the soccer World Cup in 2010. It sold itself as the “rainbow nation”, a society that had been successfully reinvented after the apartheid years.

Four, sport provides a platform for diplomatic grandstanding but also for delivering a diplomatic snub. China has been alive to this and is readying to severely embarrass India in the coming decade. The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be hosted by either Gold Coast (Australia) or the Sri Lankan coastal city of Hambantota. This was a small town pulverised by the tsunami of 2004, but is now being rebuilt with Chinese capital.

Should Hambantota win the rights to the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Chinese will in all likelihood bankroll and support the preparation. Should they do an efficient job –- and who would bet against it? – they could also make India look foolish in its own backyard. Not only would tiny Sri Lanka have executed a smoother Commonwealth Games than India, it would not even have bothered asking the regional behemoth for help.

What will India do should this happen? Probably adopt the ostrich mudra, bury its head in the sand – and invite the Pakistani prime minister for the next available cricket match.

The writer is a New Delhi-based columnist. He can be contacted at malikashok@gmail.com