India embraces soft power — or maybe it’s bakshish power

LONDON — For nearly a decade, China has been steadily buying influence in South Asia, by investing in a so-called “String of Pearls” — a network of ports in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives.

Meanwhile, India has watched with some alarm at the intrusion into its traditional sphere of influence by the country it sees as its main rival.

So the new prime minister, Narendra Modi, has launched a counter-gambit, called Project Mausam — a major project backed by India’s Ministry of Culture which will attempt to reconnect India with its traditional trading partners in the Indian Ocean.

The idea is that India has for centuries shared a common maritime culture, with its sailors using the monsoon winds — “Mausam” means “weather” — to move along the Arabian and African coastlines.

India wants to revive these links as a way of building soft power, to challenge Chinese influence and strengthen its links with trade partners beyond Europe and the United States.

The project has two strands: research on the history and archaeology of the Indian Ocean, and a major drive to add sites across the region to UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

To the casual observer, it all sounds rather vague, and somewhat bureaucratic.

The official Project Mausam website talks grandly about conferences, academic papers, strategic links and understanding national cultures.

The big ticket projects would be the drive for World Heritage status — something that can be very costly for governments.

Germany spent about $150 million between 2009 and 2013 preparing its sites, a sum far beyond the means of countries like Mozambique.

Although India has given few details about its plans since Project Mausam was launched, it seems likely to concentrate on places like Inhambane, a port in Mozambique used by explorers such as Vasco da Gama that was once a major trade hub for pearls, ambergris, ivory and slaves.

Yet there are fears that India’s new zeal for international development could lead to a different sort of competition with China: corruption.

A devastating report by the Sri Lanka Guardian details how China has lavished money on projects dear to the hearts of the ruling Rajapaksa family. Projects include Hambantota Port, in president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home town, a Formula One motor-racing track and an international airport serving only three airlines.

If all that weren’t enough, China has also inducted the president’s youngest son, Rohitha Rajapaksa, into its space program.

“If China is investing money in places like Sri Lanka and huge families are getting benefits out of this, then that creates a political mafia,” Rukshana Nanayakkara of anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International told GlobalPost.

Traditional donors like the US and the UK have safeguards against corruption, and have made it illegal for their citizens to pay bribes overseas, Nanayakkara said. China does not such restrictions.

India has a long history of corruption, with many people paying low-level bribes to police and public officials, documented on sites like ipaidabribe.com. More recently the country has been rocked by high-level political corruption scandals involving allegations of kickbacks to politicians from coal mining companies and cell phone networks.

The concern at Transparency International is that if India was to invest heavily in countries without a robust legal and political system, it could end up actually exporting corruption.

Project Mausam could really turn out to be Project Bakshish.

“India needs to create a certain culture against bribery and corruption. That’s not been happening and it’s really worrying,” Nanayakkara said. “You could increase corruption in other countries as a result.”

“If India was going to start something like [China], they could fall into the same situation and contribute to the growth of corruption. From Transparency International’s point of view, there has to be a large amount of transparency and accountability.”

There are early signs that Modi may change India’s “mera kya” [what’s in it for me] corruption culture.

Modi has talked tough on corruption, promising his supporters that he will take steps to end the corruption culture. He said at a rally in August that corruption was "worse than even cancer and can destroy the country.”

Some observers are encouraged that big government projects seem to be being allocated on merit.

And there has been shock after a major political figure, Tamil Nadu state’s chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa was jailed for four years in September after being found guilty of receiving more than $10 million.

So it is by no means certain that Project Mausam will prompt the same concerns as China’s forays into the Indian Ocean.

To be fair to China, the country has also taken steps to reduce corruption, although three anti-corruption activists were jailed for "cult" activities in June when they staged a protest asking leaders to disclose their assets.

The two countries may be rivals, but neither wants to be crowned as the world’s biggest exporter of corruption.