Beyond Media Carnival: BRICS reporting of Diplomacy bridges and Blueprints!

Brazil was the host of 11th BRICS summit held at Itamaraty Palace in the capital city Brasilia, All eyes were on the agenda, this was the second time Brazil hosted the forum bringing together leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.!

The agenda of that summit of BRICS: Economic growth for an innovative future.! It was the first time I was covering such a huge multilateral forum representing India's public broadcaster DD News. I was briefed about the stories that need to be highlighted in interest of India. And I learnt that the New Development Bank, a global financial institution, an initiative created by BRICS, as a start up to bridge the economic growth of the member nations, will now be a full-fledged bank which will be headquartered at Shanghai, but what was important was an Indian heading this bank. KV Kamath from India was designated as the first president of the New Development Bank. K V Kamath, former chairman of Infosys and ICICI bank, has set the details of how NDB can now be a full-fledged entity. And that became my single agenda, chasing KV Kamath for an exclusive one on one. At the venue, there were many grand halls featuring meetings and presentations between delegates of member nations and finding K V Kamath was difficult, and at the risk of missing the other sessions we were assigned to cover. And when we were just about to give up and join the other briefing in the next hall, K V Kamath emerged from a side exit, and it took a few moments to connect and convince him for a one on quick one-on-one interview. Mentioning Bangalore and Infosys struck the perfect chord and set the vibe for the busiest and most chased-after man to set aside and share the moment with us that he would now be in the role of first president of the New Development Bank.

As I watch the BRICS 18th summit hosted by India at New Delhi, this special moment crossed my mind with nostalgic memories.

Why BRICS is important for India is one of the answers we get here. An Indian at the leadership position of a financial body. It is India which is positioning itself as a voice of Global South, and in this context an Indian at this position like K V Kamath represented was crucial. NDB is no mean achievement for BRICS, it is different from IMF as it binds the nations together to sort the short-term economic crisis among the member Nations. It gives equal share of funding to all these nations too.

When we talk about BRICS, the media tends to project the power play between the Nations, especially the Indian Media tends to align the agenda with ‘Sabka saath sabka vikas’, as is the governance mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi . The Geopolitics, the non-American, non-European, jargons take the centre stage. But what should be underlined is the tangible growth across all these nations and the resources and soft power that can make this platform a permanent centre for global inclusive growth. India's huge resources, technology and its unparalleled manpower can be aggressively put at the centre and bind the human growth Index in a way it can be applied to growth of underdeveloped nations in partner countries South Africa and Brazil.

China can shed its own political boundaries and utilize its robust technology infrastructure for manufacturing cost effective consumer technology, affordable healthcare technology and clean energy Infrastructure to handhold the member Nations and Russia can take the lead in defence manufacturing, developing defense systems and help the member nations in creating a defence security aimed at self-reliance in geo -political security. And a country like South Africa can tap all these available benefits from the member nations.

It is defined as trade and commerce between countries but the unfortunate result of this back home, is the allegations of a biased leadership, favoring the growth of certain corporate houses and individuals for political benefits. The analysts debate on News channels debate how all this mutual trade and commerce is making a section of business richer and that is projected as India's growth. The common man thinks it all about Diplomacy and firm handshake photo-ops. Even even though the contribution of the 11 member BRICS nations is over 28 percent to the global economy, the debate on GDP data in India becomes a political tool to hide actual facts. The leadership can utilise the BRICS agenda and answer the critics, in addressing the unemployment growth, poverty alleviation, Education reforms and basic issues like wages for labourers. While a common man seems less bothered to watch media on what it gets to benefit from summits like BRICS or G20, the leadership is well aware that these multilateral agenda can be utilised for political posturing and Geopolitics attached .The BRICS group at every annual summit underlines often repeated one line and easily said agenda that the group works to ensure regional peace and stability to create favourable conditions for regional development, and India as a voice for global South can be unchallenged reality of this ambitious phrase if has the backing of the employed youth, a well-structured education system and the equal opportunities for all. No doubt India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen as an emerging leader from the global South, and he successfully manages to project India as a land of demographics and digital potential, but for this to be more meaningful the gap between the economic reality and the socio- economic realities of the citizens should be more balanced.

Summits Like BRICS are covered in Media with much fanfare and over-deployment of resources, but the missing link is once the summit draws curtains all is forgotten. The BRICS agenda is remembered only when the next summit begins in another country, another landscape location. It is important for media to keep an hawkeye on the agenda and the powerful talking points of the inclusive and collateral growth by dignitaries, throughout the year and report as how the agenda and agreed diplomatic statements are helping the doctors engineers, chefs, labourers teachers scientists in having seamless access to opportunities across the borders at least in the member nations, and how the New development Bank can be tapped for funds to not just provide support to elite and "powerful" corporations to acquire build ports and airports, but equally be accessible to upgrade schools etc, build road network, upgrade government hospitals, create skill development centre etc. That makes the intentions of the leaders meaningful.

Another important and interesting take away from the Brazil BRICS 2019 summit was the Brasilia declaration also discussed and included a project to lay a 34,000 kilometer high speed fiber optics submarine cable system, to link telecom facilities directly between the member nations. It was just unimaginable for me to hear and believe that a 34,000 km cable under the oceans connecting Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa can be built! Well, the latest update on that proposal is that the project is still in blueprint! If it does happen someday the agenda of BRICS and theme of New Delhi BRICS 2026 -Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability will be a living dream and not just a Nostalgia of reporting BRICS summit at Brazil or New Delhi.

Ayesha Khanum is the chairperson, Karnataka Media Academy.