Bangladesh ranks the highest among the countries Indians trust while Pakistan ranks the lowest, according to a recent survey conducted in India. CNN-IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker Survey, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, reveals that while 37 percent of voters feel that relations with neighbours have become better under UPA-2, only 19 percent disagree with the proposition. Forty-nine percent college-educated respondents give a thumbs-up to the government, while 28 percent in this category, however, do not think ties have improved.
Asked which countries should India either trusts a “great deal” or “somewhat,” 48 percent chose Bangladesh, while 46 percent picked Russia.
Explaining the high trust in Dhaka, the former ambassador to Bangladesh and retired diplomat, Deb Mukharji, told The Hindu, “I think this is largely to do with developments in the past five years, where Bangladesh has addressed our security concerns very comprehensively whereas in previous regimes, troublemakers were given support.”
Fifty-four percent of the respondents said India should have “no trust at all” in Pakistan, while only 14 percent said there should be a “great deal” or some trust in the country.
These findings come soon after a poll done by the Australia-India Institute and the Low Institute for International Policy, which said 94 percent of Indians see Pakistan as a threat, while 78 percent see it as a major threat.
But their study also showed that 89 percent believe that ordinary people in both countries want peace.
Public attitudes often did not take history into account, but rather go by “immediate impression and recent past,” he said. “I’m speculating that this could also be a result of a sense of guilt because India has not delivered what it should have delivered on and reciprocated, be it on Teesta waters or the land boundary agreement.”
There is also a growing recognition that Bangladesh has performed well on social indicators. In their recent book An Uncertain Glory, economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze have noted that India has a lot to learn from Bangladesh in human development index.
Russia ranks a close second among partners India should have trust in.
Anuradha Chenoy, a professor at the School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a Russia expert, recounted that this trust had “wavered” after the collapse of Soviet Union. “Sections of the middle class, and the strategic elite, begun having aspirations that they should only go with the US.
But after 10 years of the strategic partnership with the U.S, and its attitudes on a range of issues, there is a renewed faith in old partners, in Russia, and in the South-South framework.”
This, she added, did not mean a reversal to “Cold War politics,” but an “independent foreign policy.”
China draws mixed response in the Survey, in a reflection of the relationship of competition and cooperation New Delhi shares with Beijing. Thirty-three per cent of the respondents felt India should have trust in China, while 31 per cent believed there should be “no trust at all” in Beijing.
-With The Independent input
