Is SAARC relevant to India?

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, SAARC, is a regional intergovernmental

organization and geopolitical union of South Asian nations. The idea of SAARC was envisaged
by then president of Bangladesh Mr. Zia-Ur-Rahman in 1980 which finally was set up in 1985
with seven members, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Today
SAARC consists of eight members, with Afghanistan joining it only in 2007. SAARC member
nations cooperate on range of issues from Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and
Population Activities, economy, poverty elevation, Telecommunications, Science, Technology &
Meteorology and culture to encourage people-to-people contact. It was motherhood and apple pie
idea, with more than 20% of world population living in SAARC nations it can serve as a great
market place for cooperating economies; being the fastest emerging economy of the world and
most robust among SAARC nations, India had a golden opportunity to make the most out of it.
However, today the question is how effective SAARC is, in Regional Cooperative mechanism and
what future benefits do the countries have?
It has come to notice that SAARC has just become a symbolic regional forum with little prospect
of strengthening regional cooperation. Sadly, even after 30 years of its establishment, South Asia
is still one of the worst economically integrated regions of the world. Its is a geographically
cohesive region where India is a rising economy and if India succeeds it can bring all round benefit
for the smaller countries as well.
But it is observed in past few years that SAARC nations, being part of other groups like BIMSTEC
(Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), BCIM Forum
for Regional Cooperation (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar), South Asia Sub Regional
Economic Cooperation, seem to have given up on SAARC. They dont realize that Sub-
Regionalism, if done in robust way could lead to strengthening or regional cooperation process
and SAARC could walk on the same lines as APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) or TPP
(Trans-Pacific Partnership) which are the leading trade cooperation of the world. When compared
to these regional groupings SAARC seems to underperform, with intraregional trade of SAARC
accounting to just 5% of member countrys trade. SAARC nations once decided to reduce the intra
SAARC tariff costs to zero by 2016 however, that hadnt happened so far due to of lack of
unanimity amongst SAARC member nations.
As an initiative India, in 2011, reduced its duties for LDCs (Least Developing Countries) in
SAARC one year in advance than other nations but this move was not reciprocated by rest. As a
matter of concern for all countries, bilateral issues were primarily kept out of SAARC as they
might act as impediment to welfare of the whole group.
The fact, that in its 32 years of existence SAARC failed to hold 12 annual summits for political
reasons both at internal and bilateral levels, is a bad sign for the cooperation. To add to it, while
different regions of the world have arrived at monetary union, SAARC is still struggling to come
up with free trade agreement. The last successful summit of SAARC nations in Kathmandu lead
to an agreement on rail, road and energy, to be endorsed by all eight members of SAARC but only
one, energy could be signed. While SAARC Consortium on Open and Distance Learning couldnt
see the daylight, the other program SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme is running selectively for
now. Members are not able to put their act together, the reason being obvious that one member,
Pakistan is impeding the progress towards more cooperation and trade practices. It thwarted the
SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement), it is not clear on terrorism or connectivity as well.
Pakistans stand on terrorism is ambiguous, making it difficult for SAARC nation to trust it.
Today India is focusing ardently on its foreign policy with the vision of improving regional
economy, employment generation and developing infrastructure at national as well as international
level. Apart from Pakistan, all SAARC nations seem interested to move ahead on mutual
cooperation as was apparent from 18th SAARC summit held in Kathmandu in 2014. With the
mutual boycott of last SAARC summit, that was to be held in Islamabad over the issue of home
grown terrorism in Pakistan, SAARC nations have shown the solidarity and unity it shares over
issue of public concern. Also, an unwritten dictum was set that countries are beginning to continue
cooperation among SAARC nations minus Pakistan. Thus SAARC minus Pakistan is poised to
progress faster and share greater mutual benefits.
Having said so, it is imperative for India to have a bonhomie with all remaining SAARC nations
for its own prosperity. In past India had had contentions with Bangladesh over water distribution
and land which seems to be settled now; also, India had issues with Nepal over trade practices and
with Sri Lanka over Tamilians-Sinhalites. Thus, it is in benefit for India to walk hand-in-hand with
its neighbor as China has an eye over each of the neighbor country to India, which if not checked
upon can lead to a grave situation for India.
We could say SAARC is relevant today if we talk about economic cooperation, though not utilizing
its full potential, but for rest it is not. For any country to emerge as an international leader, India
is likely to be one, it is necessary that it has an influence on economic and cultural prosperity in
its region. For India, it is good to remain a part of SAARC as of now and take advantage of stalwart
leadership at centre to lead the SAARC to put all its process into project made. Also, SAARC
nations must ensure that all the processes are multifarious in order to bring civil societies, private
sector and communities together and focus on maximum governance.