Apar GuptaWhy did Bill Gates do a long interview with the Prime Minister weeks before a general election? Was he not aware of its use as a form of political propaganda?
Let me flip this question and answer it from the perspective of our Prime Minister’s historical courtship of silicon valley and how best I understand the nature of this relationship. Here both draw benefits from each other as much as they often experience friction.
Months after inaugurating the “Digital India” programme in July 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, did a roadshow in Silicon Valley in September 2015, announcing that, “technology is advancing citizen empowerment and democracy that once drew their strength from Constitutions”. This public speech opened with a nod to the Chief Executive Officers of Adobe, CISCO, Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm whose attendance was marked by their first names. The next day he separately met Zuckerberg and memorably broke down and cried at Menlo Park recounting adolescent hardship and memories of his mother.
As centralised power and a chokehold over institutions has grown within the Prime Minister’s chair as much as the size and depth of our market, the visits have been more inbound. Over the past decade most tech CEOs have done pit stops in India with elaborate public communications in meetings with the Prime Minister. This is irrespective of litigation in courts, deep disagreements on regulation and the tremendous erosion of the historical neo-libertarian notions of silicon valley.
In the last decade as India has looked to regulate and provide what is referred to as, “guard rails” on big tech, the BJP and the Prime Minister continues to court, exploit and control online platforms and their leadership for political benefit. This includes the political propaganda of national development through digitisation. A form of modernity that is marked by rapid change than carefully looking at rising social inequality.
To me it is far too simplistic to term the “big tech” and government relationship as adversarial.
Yes, it is, but it is not it’s defining nature. In my humble opinion, it is codependency.
Here foreign firms require political support (rather than being true believers in the PM or the Bharatiya Janata Party) in a weak rule of law society to enjoy market access. The ruling party in turn recognises it and uses it to advance its political interests (as also it’s policy objectives). The reality is that these are sophisticated entities that enjoy a close and layered relationship. It’s a partnership to maximise self-interest.
Aside: Here’s what came off late former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s interaction with Bill Gates on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in 2002-2003.
“I would like to narrate an event that took place in Rashtrapati Bhavan a few months back when I met Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft. While walking in the Mughal garden, we were discussing the future challenges in Information Technology including the issues related to software security. I made a point that we look for open source codes so that we can easily introduce the users built security algorithms. Our discussions became difficult since our views were different. The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions. Further spread of IT which is influencing the daily life of individuals would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietory solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open source software need to be built which would be cost effective for the entire society. In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people. I2IT has to play a major role in this national mission.”
This article was first published on The Wire on March 31, 2024.