India recently celebrated 75 years of existence. In the process India has focused its foreign policy around arc rival Pakistan and whom India has always dominated. Today things are a bit different, thanks to US President Donald Trump who has opened all doors to Pakistan. Since then the foreign policy is on a slide and there is no friend in need.
A lot of water has flown in the Ganges. But the challenge before us is how to
blend these old norms with contemporary interests. The questions that arise are, what norms
we are going to build and this is where the synthesis of the old norms with the new requirements lie.
In 1971, India had forged a treaty with the USSR, then a big power and then faced war with Pakistan, who has since Independence, fought four wars with India starting with 1947, 1965, 1971 and1999. The USSR has always stood by India in all crises. Since its inception, Pakistan has fomented terrorism at every opportunity, India has displayed a very strong leadership since Independence. India always maintained no first attack policy even when the country became a nuclear power,
India has always maintained a non-aligned policy. We cannot take this side or that side but always maintained a close relations with the USSR/Russia. Whenever in crisis, she had always found support from the ever reliable USSR/Russia. In foreign policy, statesmanship matters, displayed by Indira Gandhi or other prime ministers. [
Rahul Gandhi had, in the Parliament, said that Pakistan and China should not be brought together and the government has done that despite the entire opposition was standing behind the government. You require, in the foreign policy, sharp farsightedness.
India has survived several terrorist attacks, the worst being the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which several people were killed and India approached the world community with proofs of Pakistan involvement who not only put Pakistan on Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a terrorist financing watch dog, list but also declared it a terrorist state, which is breeding terrorists. In 2011, US also faced one of the worst terrorist attacks of the century, the terrorists with links with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia crashed two planes onto World Trade Center’s twin towers in Manhattan.
This year, in the Kashmir region, the world famous tourist spot Pahalgam was attacked killing 26-28 innocent and honeymooning tourists were killed rendering the women as widows. The world sympathised with India who acted in self-defence by hitting 21 terrorist locations inside Pakistan. Now was the time for the External Affairs Ministry to come into action and gather sympathies from the world. But, on the contrary the world not only stood by Pakistan but also helped the country get vice-chairmanship of UNSC anti-terrorism body. It also gained IMF and World Bank funding instead of holding accountable for the killings.
The External Affairs Ministry was found lacking in its efforts to muster enough support and sympathies for the losses. And, not even a single country stood by India despite the tall claims put forward by the Prime Minister of 56″ chest and heroism. There are also some lessons which we must draw from our past experiences of setting up norms. The first lesson is that we cannot really set the norms or sustain them unless we have built up both military as well as economic capabilities. Diplomatic capabilities we have always displayed and displayed very, very effectively.
Second lesson which we need to draw from our past experiences is how can we harmonize and synergize the voice of the South with particularly our neighbours, and there is a reference to the Neighbourhood First Policy, which again has lots of challenges, particularly in the context of Pakistan and China. So far as India is concerned, because the world looks at us, not simply by our words but by our practice.
