POLITICS-FIJI: Chaudhry Visits ‘Home’, But India Can Do Little

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 22 2000 (IPS) - Ousted Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhry got a hero’s welcome in the land of his forefathers, but analysts here say there is not much India can do to help him.

Gaily dressed village women in the hamlet of Bhu Jamalpur, thronged to catch a glimpse of the man who was in world news headlines when he and his cabinet were held hostage in the Fijian capital for nearly two months.

Bhu Jamalpur, in India’s northern Haryana state, bordering Delhi, was the home of Chaudhry’s grandfather who was taken from there to Fiji by British colonial rulers early in the last century.

The senior Chaudhry was one of thousands of indentured Indian farm hands sent to work on sugar plantations in the former British colony in the Pacific.

Chaudhry’s visit last week to the dusty, low-income village, which is said to have changed little since his grandfather left it, seemed far removed from his stated mission of “seeking support for the swift restoration of democratic rule in Fiji.”

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee assured Chaudhry of New Delhi’s diplomatic support.

“We will continue our efforts and intensify international efforts in this direction,” said Vajpayee after meeting Chaudhry who is in India on a 10-day visit. Chaudhry will be in India till Aug. 26 and hold another round of talks with Indian leaders.

Chaudhry’s visit was not official, but a civic reception was organised for him in Delhi, with top Indian government leaders present.

Sporting a large cloth turban, presented him by Delhi’s mayor, Shanti Desai, Chaudhry explained to the audience, speaking in the Hindi language, that his People’s Coalition government was more than fair to ethnic Fijians.

“We do not want to go on winning elections only to be forced to step down,” Chaudhry, Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister told the audience, which included India’s Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani.

He said he was confident that New Delhi would not hesitate to impose sanctions against the present regime in Fiji.

“We have chalked out a cohesive plan of action which we think ought to be followed by the international community,” Chaudhry told reporters. He added that the plan had support in New Zealand and Australia.

India, he said, could help as a “respected member of the international community with influence in the Commonwealth and at the United Nations.”

He said the Sep. 15, Commonwealth ministerial group meeting in New York was crucial since the United Nations had left it to that body to tackle the Fiji crisis.

However, analysts here doubt New Delhi’s ability to use trade and economic sanctions to help Chaudhry.

Despite the large Indian diaspora in Fiji, India has such negligible economic and political relations with Suva that any sanctions would have only symbolic value, they point out.

India’s best bet would be to use influence with Australia. “Australia, unlike India possesses the economic and political leverage to affect the conduct of Fiji’s leaders,” says P.R. Chari, director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.

Chari thinks that Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh’s advocacy of indirect pressure on Suva through Australia and New Zealand, can work better than the deeper and wider sanctions that Chaudhry is insisting on.

However, New Delhi first has to normalise ties with Australia, which were severely strained after the Indian nuclear tests in May 1998. But analysts here see Indo-Australian relations as being on the mend.

According to Chari, the most compelling reason for tougher international sanctions, is the prospect of Indian-Fijians fleeing in large numbers to Australia.

Chaudhry said this has already begun with continuing attacks on Indians in Fiji and the “interim administration” providing no help at the refugee camps where they are now sheltering.

Ethnic Indians comprise 44 percent of Fiji’s 800,000 people and dominate the sugar economy. But they cannot own land. Nor do they have security of tenure on the farms they hold on 99-year leases, which are due to expire.

Fiji’s 1997 constitution did away with a seven-year-old constitutional ban on people of Indian origin holding high office. However, the 1997 constitution still barred Indo-Fijians from owning farm land.

Chaudhry’s plight has also put Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in an awkward position because of domestic Indian politics.

The BJP contested the national election, promising to enact legislation to prevent people of foreign origin from holding high office in India.

The move was aimed to embarrass chief BJP foe, the main opposition Congress party and its leader, the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who is now the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.