Taj Mahal is overdone: India must think beyond Delhi and Agra to conduct global diplomacy

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s four-day-long maiden visit to India concludes on May 26. One thing among many that will stick for the longest time are visuals of him, along with his partner Jeanette Rubio and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, standing all suited and booted in the sultry summer heat of 42+ degrees Celsius in the north Indian cities of Agra and Jaipur. While their visit to the Taj Mahal in Agra and Amber Fort in Jaipur was only to explore cultural heritage, with no diplomatic meetings scheduled at either place, one wonders why the visitors would put themselves through the scorching month of May when the country has enough options available.

If it was the desire of the visitors themselves to explore India’s cultural heritage, then there is a need for a major rethink. This is because the Taj Mahal and Agra are way overdone when it comes to India’s cultural heritage, and it is time we, as a nation, go beyond the usual venues to conduct our diplomacy.

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In the last few years, the Modi government has paid special attention to showing visiting leaders a side of India that exists far beyond New Delhi. This includes taking Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US President Donald Trump during his previous tenure, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. PM Modi has also hosted French President Emmanuel Macron in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, going for a scenic boat ride on the river Ganga. There has also been an attempt to host key diplomatic events at venues outside New Delhi, including the famous Mamallapuram summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tamil Nadu in 2019. However, given the sheer geographical expanse of India and its thousands of years of civilisational history, we are still not doing enough to put it on the world map more decisively.

India is the seventh-largest country in the world and one of the rare surviving civilisations from the original six cradles today. By virtue of its geography, it is home to the most picturesque mountains in the north and the most serene seas in the peninsular west, south and east. It also has the incredible Northeast, which is home to pristine natural beauty rivalling the best of global diplomatic hotspots such as the Swiss Alps, Scottish Highlands, or Himalayan retreats in Nepal or Bhutan. Meghalaya, for instance, is literally called the ‘Scotland of the East’ due to its rolling hills, pine forests, living root bridges and waterfalls.

Then there is also a long civilisational history that blesses India with archaeological sites of great importance, including Bodh Gaya in Bihar, the site where Lord Buddha attained Nirvana; the Ajanta-Ellora caves in Maharashtra, which are UNESCO-recognised sites; as well as Odisha, which is home to splendid architecture from the Kalinga Empire era. My own birthplace, Indore, is home to many such marvels by virtue of being the capital of the great Holkar dynasty.

Long story short, India has hundreds of scenic locations with comfortable climatic conditions suitable for its increasing diplomatic appetite. But then why are diplomatic events only hosted in New Delhi and not at these places? This is a sign of an unimaginative diplomatic dispensation that cannot think beyond Delhi. This is despite the fact that taking serious diplomatic business outside India’s capital has more benefits than they are obviously capable of imagining.

First of all, in recent years, India’s steady rise has attracted an overwhelming amount of global attention. This also includes an international media that is always glued to every story coming out of the country. Now, if diplomatic meetings are hosted at venues outside New Delhi, it will almost be like a free PR exercise for the country’s tourism industry. Imagine visuals from the Kerala backwaters or Leh’s monasteries circulating all over the international media, communicating to people that there exists a much more vibrant and diverse India outside New Delhi.

The tourism industry in the country is already operating way below its potential, with tiny Thailand attracting almost as many tourists. In fact, Indians themselves have become very disenchanted with domestic tourism, preferring to spend their hard-earned money on foreign visits. Thus, PM Modi’s call for less international travel can be effectively matched with these out-of-the-box diplomatic meetings at India’s own tourist locations. I am already thinking about how Indians themselves will make a beeline to visit these places, just as they latched onto the endorsement of the humble ‘Jhal Muri’ by PM Modi.

In fact, this will serve a great strategic purpose as well. Currently, the foreign media machinery has completely penetrated India, serving visuals of only its negative side to the rest of the world. This is because of India’s rising power, which threatens the interests of their home countries. Here, India’s emphasis on places outside New Delhi for diplomatic meetings has the potential to bust their own propaganda about the country. I mean, picture this: a single diplomatic meeting in Arunachal Pradesh will not only inform the world about the real side of India’s Northeast but also counter the Chinese narrative on Zangnan, or South Tibet, China’s terminology for what is fair and square India’s own territory. It will also help disrupt the motives of those media outlets that have given a disproportionate amount of attention to the Manipur conflict, trying to project India as an essentially destabilised country.

This will also be a great occasion to highlight and showcase how deep-rooted India’s development is, extending far beyond the urban centres and impacting the lives of ordinary citizens as well. Even Tier-2 cities like Bhubaneswar and Guwahati have been buzzing with excitement and growth in the last decade. It will be an excellent occasion to highlight their infrastructural achievements while simultaneously showcasing their civilisational richness by conducting side events in nearby cities such as Cuttack, Puri, Tezpur or Shillong. They will not only make for interesting diplomatic meetings but also give the world a chance to know India closely and appreciate the sheer scale of its development, which the adversarial media has never bothered to engage with.

New Delhi anyway has a lot going on, with its calendar always cluttered with events of all sorts. Globally, there is a popular precedent for organising big diplomatic meetings outside a country’s capital, including G7/G8 summits in coastal resort towns or sometimes even remote locations like the Bavarian Alps in Germany. India itself organised many side events of the main G20 summit in multiple cities across the country. This not only reduces the scope for disruption to the normal lives of ordinary citizens but also gives the local tourism industry a chance to be on the world map. Not to mention how strongly it reinforces the nationalist narrative of India being a major world power of the future and a vast, diverse yet very well-integrated country.

India is a country known for its great warmth towards the ‘atithi’ (guest). Thus, it is only befitting that we consider the convenience of incoming dignitaries as well as the need for India to put its best side forward while planning future diplomatic meetings.

(The author is a New Delhi-based commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy. She holds a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She tweets @TrulyMonica. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)