If Gandhi were a negotiator

As I boarded my flight to Durban I was taken back to my text books in school and the story of Gandhi when he came as a barrister to South Africa. As an Indian negotiation tracker, I wondered how it would be to have Gandhi leading the negotiating team for India or better still, be its Environment Minister. On the first day of negotiations at the Conference of Parties being held in Durban we saw the South African President appealing to the delegates to “embody the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi and N. Mandela in their negotiations so as to find the solution to the challenge of Global Warming”. India publicly showed its unequivocal opposition to a legally binding agreement, and one only wonders if this is a responsible position by India in its position for “equity”. A lack of legally binding commitment is like going for an Exam without grades or a curriculum. The students would show willingness to study but definitely not as much as they would if there was a structure and an incentive. The urgency was reiterated by Granada about the indispensability of any nation and a gentle reminder from them that we are slowly losing time and the will.

As the plenary began, every country underlined its solidarity with the phenomenon of climate change as has been happening for 20 years. We all know the magnanimity of the issue but somewhere along the way we have conveniently lost the plot between corporate lobbying, economic interest and human negligence. As, I saw disappointed faces all around me, I wondered would the crisis be any easier to handle if we had leaders from the past who fought for our rights and freedom. Almost a century ago Gandhi said, “God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West. … If [our nation] took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.”

Isn’t he right?

When I asked Mr. R.K.Pachauri, about how he saw the negotiations, he cited the lack of Science in the negotiations. “The secretariat must include 20 minutes of Science class every day!!”, he exclaimed. The science of climate change and of humanity and logic is losing the battle amidst the negotiation circus.

What would have Gandhiji done?

He was a strong advocate of change that had to begin at the grassroots. He believed that the locus of power must be situated in the village or neighborhood unit. He said that there should be equitable distribution of resources and that communities must become self-sustaining through reliance on local products instead of large-scale imports from outside. In this way each individual would be able to utilize his or her skills and be able to market his or her goods in the neighbourhood. The Indian negotiators support equity but the rest of the message is lost! Painfully.

Gandhi was opposed to large-scale industrialization, and favored small local industries instead. In this way there would be a certainty that each individual would be gainfully employed and able to live a self-sufficient fulfilled life. We see the country going as far away from this slowly.

As India puts the Intellectual property Right issue on the table, I wonder if Gandhiji would have wanted any form of reliance on foreign technology and resources. The freedom movement had started with the burning of foreign good and looking towards “self-reliance” or Swadeshi. Climate change is happening and time is tcktcktck –ing and we need technology to help the vulnerable adapt to climate change but at the cost of becoming dependent on the super-powers to an extent that the United States, EU, Japan, Canada and other developed countries run the talks and their position determines its success. For how long?

Another principle of “Satyagraha” or peaceful protest, analysis, advocacy is what he believed in. And in many ways, I see the civil society doing just this. We have patiently learnt, engaged, and inspired the masses with the nuances of the issue and policy implication. But, there is just the gap of political will.

As India after Gandhi continues to move away from the ideologies of the father of the nation, Will the negotiations ever see a Gandhi again? Or are we convieniently- Gandhi in what we want and forget him when we don’t?