Stressing on the need for setting up a South Asia textbook board to keep a check on ‘hate topics’, strategic experts on Wednesday urged India to lead the region in all aspects and not behave as ‘Big Brother’ .
Speaking at a conference organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, experts from India Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh deliberated on mutual perceptions and inter-state relations.
“India is more popular in Afghanistan than the Afghanistan government but it has been reluctant in extending full cooperation to the war-torn country. The policy of India towards Afghanistan was never independent,” said Dr Davood Moradian, director general of Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies.
India’s reluctance, Moradian said, is reflected in the fact that it does not cooperate on security and defence issues with Afghanistan. Besides, India is obsessed with Pakistan said Moradian adding, “India has to be more proactive in its regional policy and divorce itself from Pakistan’s appeasement.”
Dinesh Bhattarai, former ambassador from Nepal, lamented that Nepal was never made a part of the economic dynamism of the South Asian region.
“People in Nepal perceive India as Big Brother, who always wants Nepal to be unstable for its own strategic depth in the country,” said Bhattarai, adding, “If perceptions are deteriorated to misperceptions,
it can create havoc.” He further said that India has to help Nepal in the tight rope-walk between China and India.
Meanwhile, Veena Sikri, former Indian ambassador, suggested that biased textbooks in different countries in the region have to be shunted from the curriculum. “To ensure sustained cooperation in the region, we have to start bringing change at the grassroots,” said Sikri.
Taking a dig at the Indian government for its inconsistent policy towards Bangladesh, Ashique Rehman of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, said, “India must remain sensitive towards bilateral relations and resolve all water and border issues.”
Prof Partha S Ghosh, fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, in his presentation urged the South Asia countries to forget the complex baggage of individual histories and reconcile for better regional future.
