Former British Prime Minister David Cameron released his memoirs on Thursday, in which he revealed that former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh planned to take military action against Pakistan if another Mumbai-type terror attack occurred.
David Cameron, who interacted with Manmohan Singh as prime minister, described him as a ‘saintly man’.
Cameron, recalling one of his many visits to India during his time in office, writes:
I got on well with prime minister Manmohan Singh. He was a saintly man, but he was robust on the threats India faced. On a later visit he told me that another terrorist attack like that in Mumbai in July 2011 and India would have to take military action against Pakistan
The memoir titled ‘For The Record’ is a chronicle of 52-year-old Cameron’s personal as well as professional life. Cameron visited India three times as prime minister from 2010 to 2016. He resigned in the wake of the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union.
On his approach to India, Cameron writes:
When it came to India, I argued that we needed a modern partnership – not one tinged with colonial guilt, but alive to the possibilities of the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy
Like the United Kingdom-United States relationship historically described as ‘special’, Cameron writes that he did not want it to be the country’s only special relationship, but wanted to carve out privileged partnerships with India and China. He wanted a ‘new special relationship’ with India.
Cameron about Modi’s 2015 visit writes:
There were several ‘moments’, including the largest-ever gathering of the Indian diaspora in the UK at Wembley Stadium. Before introducing Modi, I told the 60,000-strong crowd that I envisaged a British-Indian entering 10 Downing Street as prime minister one day
The roar of approval was incredible. And as Modi and I hugged on stage, I hoped that this small gesture…would be a signal of the open-armed eagerness with which Britain approached the world
Writing about his visit to Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar in 2013, Cameron writes:
For a long time, friends and colleagues in the British Indian community had encouraged me to go to the Golden Temple in Amritsar
This holiest of Sikh sites had been the scene of a massacre in 1919, when British Indian Army soldiers fired upon a peaceful public meeting, killing hundreds of people. No serving prime minister had ever been to Amritsar, let alone expressed regret for what happened
I wanted to change both those things, and would do so after the trade mission – the largest in UK history – I would lead to India in February 2013. Ahead of my visit there was an internal row about whether I should say ‘sorry’.
Apologizing for Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, he writes:
But ultimately, I felt that expressing regret for what I described in the memorial’s book of condolence as ‘a deeply shameful event in British history’ was appropriate. I knew what it meant to British Sikhs that their prime minister had made that gesture, and I’m glad I did so
Soon after being elected Conservative leaders in 2005, Cameron initiated his ‘India doctrine’. He would visit gurdwaras and appear at Indian community events, including those by religious leaders visiting from India, such as Morari Bapu.
Writing about the Indian community, he says:
Many of Britain’s most successful business leaders and cultural figures are from the Indian diaspora community and would be our greatest weapons in that endeavour. I was proud to have many of them, like Priti Patel, Shailesh Vara, Alok Shama (sic) and Paul Uppal, on the Conservative benches in the House of Commons
Referring to memoir, Jitesh Gadhia, an Indian origin member of the House of Lords, said Cameron’s positive legacy with India should not be drowned out by Brexit. As someone who had the privilege of working closely with David Cameron, his efforts to build a modern partnership with India deserve more charitable treatment from historians.
He also said that throughout his tenure, Cameron did more than any other holder of his office to reach out proactively to India, as an emerging superpower, and to recognize the outsized contribution made by over 1.5 million members of the British Indian diaspora.
