Indian foreign policy is sprightly: Tharoor

Former union minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor said on Tuesday that India’s foreign policy and diplomacy had, over the years, grown leaps and bounds becoming more active in the last few decades.

Launching his latest book, ‘Pax Indica, India and the World of 21st Century,’ Tharoor said someone had once told him that Indian diplomacy was like elephants making love as it was conducted at a high level and one saw the results only after two years. 

“That was when I was doing my thesis. However, there has been a vast change in Indian foreign policy since then as it has become sprightly,” he said, adding that his book aims to break down this journey in detail.

Explaining that landscapes, both political and otherwise, had changed the world over, he said that it was important to recognise that the binary era of the Cold War was over. 

“The current metaphor lies in networked connections around the world. It is the internet era of networked connections,” he said. 

This, he said, meant going beyond one’s association with the Non-Alignment Movement.

“Today India is a member of the United Nations, it is a member of BRIC, of SAARC and also part of the community of democratic nations,” he said, adding that this was also reflected in the fact that delegatiions from Russia and China visit India every year. 

But foreign policy, he said, must always be conducted in such a way that it reflects the country’s best interests. “It is important that such policy looks after our domestic and security interests,” he explained. Governor H R Bhardwaj, who released the book, said Tharoor had not been able to reach his full potential.

Declaring that there was a dearth of quality leadership in politics today, he said Tharoor was among those who were capable, but were being underutilised.