Stemming the rot

Failure of our Pakistan and China policy needs to be recognised by the new government and effective corrective measures taken.

It took about three decades for the people of India to elect a government with a crystal clear majority in the Lok Sabha. Coalition politics in India has erected so many obstructive structures in formulation and implementation of foreign and national security policies that rise of India as a major global player was about to culminate in a downfall but the Indian electorate acted in time to begin the reverse process.

India’s relations with the United States had hit the deepest pit, China’s border manoeuvres had almost embarrassed Indian government, lack of reforms had made foreign capital take flight from the Indian market, agreements signed on setting of nuclear power energy structures had become hard to execute and relations with neighbours had soured due to regional political gambits. 

Victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party with a clear mandate is actually the result of vast popular expectations that the next government in New Delhi would stem all kinds of rot the country was confronting, including in the arena of foreign affairs. The key linkage of foreign policy with domestic policies in this age of globalisation is economic policy and performance. Indian economy is already deeply coupled with the global economy. 

The first priority of the new government thus should be developing an economic strategy that would not only revert to the impressive growth rate of the economy but also promote jobs, bring down inflation and empower the poor. An innovative set of economic reforms aimed at inclusive growth and maintenance of socio-economic justice will not necessarily conflict with inviting foreign investment and acquiring foreign technology and best management practices. 

However, the intricate relations between politics and economics need to be carefully handled, while devising an inventive foreign economic policy. Trade and investment are one of the best means of forging friendship and cooperation with other countries and bridging trust deficit and fostering confidence between unfriendly countries. But political differences, historical disputes and past animosities with neighbours make it arduous to execute economic policies. The economic growth stories of the United States, China, Japan and many other countries provide lessons of stable and peaceful neighbourhoods as a vital requirement to attain economic successes. 

India’s China policy has been guided by the belief that economic ties will help create a propitious political setting to address the complicated territorial dispute. However, Chinese border incursion in the recent past is an unmistakable signal that this strategy has not worked. India’s desire to adopt a similar method vis-à-vis Pakistan has not fructified due to Islamabad’s obstinacy. At the same time, India’s political initiatives and composite dialogue processes have not led to any durable détente with Pakistan.

Need for recognition

Failure of our Pakistan and China policy needs to be recognised by the new government and effective corrective measures taken. Innovative thinking on devising new strategies aimed at permanently burying the hatchet with Pakistan is urgently called for. Peace with Pakistan is integral to India’s national stability and regional peace, which in turn can partly ensure economic growth. 

Policy analysts are, of course, aware of the knotty and intractable disputes with Pakistan. The immediate response to any suggestion regarding Indo-Pakistan relationship is incurable pessimism. A new government with a clear majority should invest good brains to overcome historical hindrances to dealing with Pakistan. Mere lip services and platitudes will just not work. 

A close neighbour with nuclear weapons, historical grievances against India, weak economy and polarized society deserves the top priority by the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi who aspires to replicate the Gujarat economic success story all over India. 

The next most valuable item on the foreign policy agenda should be India’s relations with China. India and China are natural rivals. Their size, demography, historical accomplishments and current ambitions to be major global players cannot but make them competitors. But there are seasoned major powers whose diplomacy would naturally seek to take advantage of Sino-Indian differences. Handling a rising superpower along India’s border in ways that would minimize tensions and complement India’s economic growth should get more time and energy from Prime Minister Modi’s national security team.

India’s relationship with the US should get the third place in the priority list. It is not because of less significance of this bilateral relationship but because a structure of strategic partnership with the United States is already in place. Ever since the prime ministerial leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, there has been a very positive trajectory of Indo-US relations. The two countries have walked a path that seems irreversible. 

The recent hiccups in the relationship since the Devyani Khobragade episode and the usual political and economic differences between the two that occur between any two friendly countries need repair. Narendra Modi as prime minister in any case will not be in a hurry to rush to Washington, simply because president Barack Obama has invited him hours after his landslide electoral victory.

 American pragmatism was promptly at work, as indicated by Obama reversing almost nine years of the State Department’s policy to ostracise Narendra Modi. But Indian pragmatism demands that Modi conducts his America policy from Delhi for the time being.