Oil from the Indians
The gods of commerce can be pretty mischievous at times. Consider the recent proposal by the Indians to offer us petrol at a much reduced rate than we are currently getting from the middle-east.
The Indians? Cheaper than the special Opec rate that we get from our oil-rich Muslim brethren? It is as if the ideal geographical position that our nation’s ideologues keep waxing strategic about has been turned in over its head. One component of it, at any rate.
It is not just oil that the Indians have to offer us. There is talk of importing electricity as well.
There is bound to be some hypernationalist fury here, with some histrionics about what we have been reduced to. But there really is no shame in this. Didn’t the Indians, a decade and a half ago, express interest in purchasing electricity from us when our grid had a surplus?
The lobby opposed to this would be espousing other concerns, valid ones. Energy insecurity, for instance. By increasing our oil dependence on India, they would ask, aren’t we setting ourselves up for a critical shortage were the relationship to be strained, as it is usually is now and then?
True, but this also shows how effective commerce can be as an instrument for creating peace. To incentivise the pursuit of normal relations. Cheaper onions are what the Indians want. The price of this staple product actually has, in the past, become an election issue in India, specially the north. There are interests there as well that wouldn’t want to upset the apple-cart. And it’s not just onions where we can have an edge.
Just the way generals have a notorious predilection for fighting the last war, we also need to be sure we are not looking at things from prism better suited for the economies of yore. Those paradigms cannot possibly apply to the integrated, globalised, connected world of today. Yes, states can, and should, shield their citizens from braving the elements. But not at the cost of the economic growth of those very same citizens.
When you have surplus of what India has a shortage of, you sell it to them and when India has surplus of what is in short supply in Pakistan, you buy – Duh!
Don't worry, in spite of this simple economics, you two can still hate each other to your heart's content.
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