'Perceptions of India in the West: A note on VajpayeeÆs recent visit to the United States'

 - Dr. Ramesh N. Rao

Does India matter? In the western scheme of things, of global politics, what role does India have to play? How do the media report a visiting Indian dignitary’s visit to their country? What is the perception of the people in that country about India? What do they know about India other than it has one billion people and many of those are poor and live in pathetic little towns and villages which have no sanitation, underground drainage, and running drinking water? These questions will of course get different answers depending upon the country the dignitary is visiting. We cannot lump the West in a single group, though given the reach of global media, perceptions are shaped fairly easily and in a fairly standardised manner.

Prime Minister Vajpayee was recently in the United States: both on an official visit as well as a visit to the U.N. sponsored Millennium Conference. I will describe the outcomes of his visit as well as some of the highlights of that visit.

About three months ago, he was in Italy. Another official visit, but it seemed like no Italians, other than those directly involved with the visit, got to know or cared to know that the head of the government of the second most populous country in the world was visiting their country. An India Today report (June 28th, 2000) says that the two major newspapers of Rome did not even carry a single line about Vajpayee meeting with the Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, or the Italian President Carl Caimpi, or the Pope!

Readers of major American newspapers, the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Los Angeles Times did read about Vajpayee’s official visit to US, and they also read some interesting opinion pieces, many in favour of closer Indo-U.S. relations. However, the television networks, both private and public, failed to take notice of his visit. And most Americans get their news from television. From that point of view, Vajpayee’s visit to the U.S. was a grand damp squib. Even the otherwise sensitive Public Broadcasting Service’s evening news hour failed to carry one report of Vajpayee’s visit. The radio version of PBS, the National Public Radio, did carry some commentary and some reporting of his visit. Nothing to write home about, but at least they did notice. That NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX news network failed to cover Vajpayee’s visit provides a better commentary about the ordinary American perception of India than the official versions, both American and Indian, do. Even CNN carried only very brief reports of the visit. A network that is completely devoted to news failed to see any major importance in Vajpayee’s visit.

In the India Today report it was noted that only a solitary Italian television crew and a couple of newspaper reporters were present at Vajpayee’s official functions, and that they did not have one question to ask the Indian prime minister! Maybe that was good, for if they had decided to ask one question, it might have been about the propaganda the Pope has been indulging in, namely, those alleged "attacks" against Christians. In the U.S., Vajpayee was given the opportunity for a joint news conference but he gave it up because of "health" reasons. That indeed was a lost opportunity, and the excuse was a lame one. Surely, the White House could have arranged for a news conference where the Prime Minister and the President could have been seated and addressed the media, rather than standing and addressing the media. Why Vajpayee did not take the opportunity is best left to speculation, and indeed there has been much speculation, mostly in the Indian media.

Official visits of heads of governments/states are elaborate, complex affairs, and even the senior journalist with "deep throat" connections will be hard put to read clearly the dance that diplomats and leaders dance during such visits. As the media try harder to get at the "truth", officials managing the visit become more savvy in providing their "spin" on the "truth". Scotching rumours, shaping expectations, trying hard for damage control, making sure "faces" are protected before there is a need for "faces" to be saved, spokespersons from both sides engage in language games that are classically Orwellian. Not that there was any additional pressure on Indian and American spokespersons this time, but given the fact that Clinton will be leaving office soon, and Vajpayee is really not enjoying good health, even the ordinary reader of newspapers would have discovered that the spin doctors were put to good use in making the visit seem more important than at least what the American media perceived it to be.

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