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Manmohan calls for "inclusive globalisation"
Siddharth Varadarajan
| University of Cambridge awards him honorary degree of Doctor of Law |
HONOUR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks at the Senate House after receiving an honorary degree of Doctor of Law, in Cambridge, England, on Wednesday. The university's Chancellor, Prince Philip, is second from right.
Cambridge: If his reassessment of India's colonial past, in his acceptance speech for an honorary degree at Oxford last year, stoked a bitter controversy back home, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh treaded safe ground here Wednesday by speaking of the future.
In his address to the University of Cambridge on the occasion of being awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law, the Prime Minister called for "inclusive globalisation" as a way of ensuring that the gains from economic openness were more widely shared by the rich and the poor. He also touched on the need for reforms in `global governance' since the governance processes of the Bretton Woods institutions and United Nations Security Council "reflect the realities of the world as it was more than half a century ago."
Income disparities
Expanding on themes first raised by him at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana last month, Dr. Singh said the `achievements of the era of globalisation should not blind us to the new anxieties that globalisation has brought in its wake." Personal and regional income disparities had widened as growth was bypassing rural areas in many parts of the world. As for the developed countries, "[their] working classes ... are becoming fearful of the opening of markets" because of stagnation in their real pay.
Among the specific issues raised by him was the "vital" need for barriers to the export of agricultural goods from developing countries to be eliminated. "My appeal is that developed countries should not allow short-term national interests to prevail at the cost of promoting freer trade and combating poverty. The Prime Minister also called for a "more enlightened view in liberalising trade in services and labour-intensive manufactures, in which developing countries are competitive."
Recalls memories
But there was also a personal touch in the Prime Minister's remarks.
Speaking before a select audience of dons and students at the university's ornate Senate House, Dr. Singh recalled his days as an undergraduate at St. John's College. "My memories of my days in Cambridge are deep. I was taught by teachers like Nicholas Kaldor, Joan Robinson, Maurice Dobb and Professor R.C.O. Mathews. I have vivid recollections of the economist Piero Sraffa working at the Marshall Library."
The eminent economists whose names he took — most of whom were either Marxist or heavily influenced by Marxism, social-democracy or Keynesianism — themselves conveyed a sense of how much the university, the world and even Dr. Singh have changed since then with new orthodoxies about the free market replacing the paradigm of state intervention. "Today the world appears radically altered," he said. "A new age of freedom has harnessed to it new technologies that have transformed production and communication ... Prometheus has truly been unbound." And yet, said the Prime Minister, the failure to address the growing gap between the rich and the poor and to provide quality services in health and education to all "is causing resentment and alienation ... and putting pressure on the practice of democracy."
The degree ceremony was presided over by Prince Philip, Chancellor of the university. Shortly after the Chancellor — his train held up by an Indian undergraduate Karan Keswani from St John's and Mumbai — entered the hall in a formal procession, the senior proctor — speaking in Latin — announced the commencement of the proceedings with a ceremonial flourish of his hand.
Favourite colour
The University Orator then made a short speech presenting Dr. Singh to the Chancellor, again in Latin.
He noted that among the great democracies of which India was one, it was very rare indeed for the position of Prime Minister to be entrusted to one who was not a professional politician.
Tracing the academic career of Dr. Singh, as well as his association with Cambridge, the Orator doffed his mortar board when he said that "you may note the colour of his turban" — "mitrae colorem uideritis!" — a reference to the university's blue which the Prime Minister himself said was one of his favourite colours "and is often seen on my head."
The Orator said, "Millions look to this man: they see in him someone of conspicuous integrity; he is, in the words of the Greek poet Simonides, cool and clam, well aware of the justice that serves the state, and a man of healing virtue."
Dr. Singh, wearing the burgundy gown of a Cambridge Doctor of Law, then stood alongside the Orator in front of the Chancellor, took a ceremonial bow and was awarded the honorary degree.
The reception afterwards, allowed the Prime Minister — who was accompanied by his wife, daughter Amrit and her American husband — to mingle with students and fellow academics.
Among those he warmly greeted was Professor Ajit Singh, the eminent Cambridge economist and one-time student of his from his days as a young academic in the Punjab.
To all the young Indian students who came up to greet him afterwards, the Prime Minister had one line of advice: "Study hard, and come home."
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