Closing one eye for free trade
On Monday, Luxembourg's prime minister, Luc Frieden, made a call to India, emphasising the strong collaboration between the two countries. Frieden and India's right-wing, Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi reiterated their commitment to strengthening commercial ties between the two countries. And Luxembourg is far from being the only country in Europe seeking closer ties to India – despite rising nationalism and recurrent human rights violations.
The European Union is likely to reach a free trade agreement (FTA) with India by September. Last June, the negotiators concluded the eighth round of talks with results coming into reach. The talks had already been launched in 2007 but were suspended in 2013 following disagreements on key points. Nevertheless, exports and imports between both parties have been steadily increasing, by almost 90% within the past ten years.
The FTA is supposed to facilitate investment and commerce and reduce duties on import goods and other barriers to trade. Four non-EU European countries already signed such a pact in March, pledging €92 billion in investment over 15 years. In return, India promised to lift import duties on industrial products from Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
While the EU is negotiating the terms of the agreement, Hindu nationalism is on the rise in India. Although the EU is aware of the heightened risk of human rights violations under Modi's government, it doesn't see the need to reconsider the FTA. In India, meanwhile, the climate is getting more uncomfortable, particularly for the Muslim minority. A recent citizenship reform offers a fast track to citizenship only for immigrants belonging to certain religions, excluding Muslims, despite the constitutional right to non-discrimination. The United Nations has criticised arbitrary arrests, police violence and restrictions on the right to freedom of expression in the Muslim Kashmir region.
In a statement, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation called on MEPs to raise these issues in debates about the FTA so that Europe can foster more positive developments in India, for instance, through collaboration in the NGO sector. It is unlikely, though, that India would accept any clauses that could force it to abandon controversial practices – especially as large parts of Modi's supporters are Hindu nationalists who hail him for his protectionist approach to local agriculture. Modi has contributed a lot to making Hindu nationalism mainstream in the past decade.