Sending out the wrong message

It is in poor form for Opposition leaders to criticise the government on foreign shores

In 2017, on one of his first visits outside the US after two terms in the White House, to India to speak at a conference organised by this newspaper, President Barack Obama refused to be drawn into commenting on his successor Donald Trump, despite events back home providing him with enough motivation and ammunition to do so. Politicians from many other countries do the same, preferring to keep their domestic political rivalries just that — domestic. It is almost as if there is a universal (and unwritten) code on how politicians should behave when they travel abroad. Their criticism of the government (or rivals) back home is muted; and they always talk about their country and its achievements with pride.

The clinching argument on why domestic politics is wasted on foreign audiences is that they do not have a vote. (HT Photo)

After all, anyone travelling on a country’s passport can be seen as its ambassador. As the late Winston Churchill once said: “When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticise or attack the Government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.” He said this in 1947, when Labour was in power in the UK, and added that while “speaking to foreigners I have even defended our present Socialist rulers, and always I have spoken with confidence of the future destiny of our country”.

This isn’t just about good form. It is about leaders ensuring that their comments while travelling abroad do not hurt their home countries either perceptually (reputation) or materially (attractiveness as a destination to study or do business).

It is in this context that recent comments by the Indian National Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, need to be seen. This time, the comments were made in Colombia, South America, but Gandhi has made similar comments elsewhere before, including in the US and the UK. Speaking at a university in Medellín earlier this week, Gandhi seemed to suggest that India was seeing a “wholesale attack on the democratic system”, and that large-scale corruption is rampant in the country with “three or four businesses taking over the whole economy….”

This is not to suggest that the government’s record is blemishless or that it is beyond reproach. Nor is it to suggest that the Opposition should not criticise the government. It is the Opposition’s job to oppose the government of the day. They can choose to take the high ground and attack policies or they can choose to go low and get personal. They can even unleash troll armies on social media. All of this is their right. But when leaders travelling outside a country criticise the government back home, they are allowing their domestic politics to override everything else. Indeed, portraying India as a flawed democracy where there is no rule of law, and where corruption is rife is not a good message to send about a country that will soon be the world’s third-largest economy, and which has, over the years, and through the work of successive governments, including some headed by Gandhi’s party, the Congress, managed to pull hundreds of millions out of poverty, built an IT industry that is world-class, and nurtured institutions of the sort that aren’t commonly found in the developing world. And it is definitely not a good message to send about a country which is a thriving multi-party democracy — several opponents of the current political hegemon, the Bharatiya Janata Party, are in charge of important states — and where the transfer of power, both in states and at the Centre, has always been peaceful.

Then there’s the clinching argument on why domestic politics is wasted on foreign audiences: They do not have a vote.