Why India’s Foreign Policy Consensus Has Been Demolished

Prameyanews English

Published By : Prameya News Bureau | October 04, 2022 IST

Sutanu Guru Executive Director, C Voter Foundation In 2008, a bedraggled and desperate BJP led by L. K. Advani broke India’s foreign policy consensusby opposing the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Now, the desperate & bedraggled Congress has completelydemolished it.The Foreign Minister of India, S. Jaishankar has been getting a lot of praise and applause for theforthright, blunt and non nonsense manner in which he has been dealing with diplomats fromdeveloped countries in the West. At the same time, he has also faced an avalanche of stridentcriticism from what is known as the Congress or Lutyens or Khan Market or Nehruvian ecosystem.Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and NATO allies led by the United States imposedharsh sanctions on Russia, there has been relentless pressure on India to stop buying oil & gas fromRussia. Jaishankar has politely and firmly pointed out in European capitals that it is in India’s nationalinterest to get cheap oil & gas from anywhere and no sovereign nation can be expected to sacrificeits strategic national interest at the altar of some nebulous “noble cause”. In May 2022, Rahul Gandhi went to London to take part in an “Idea of India” program. There, Gandhislammed the Indian foreign service and pronounced: “I was talking to some bureaucrats fromEurope and they were saying that the Indian foreign service has completely changed, they do notlisten to anything. They are arrogant… There is no conversation,". Jaishankar, figuratively speaking,was quick on the uptake. He sent out a tweet in response that said: Yes, the Indian Foreign Servicehas changed. Yes, they follow the orders of the Government. Yes, they counter the arguments ofothers…It is called confidence. And it is called defending national interest. No, it's not calledarrogance”. The Khan Market “Gang” (though quite a few members have given up on the CrownPrince) erupted in fury at this public ticking off of Rahul Gandhi by someone who was “encouragedand given promotions” as a diplomat during the 10 year UPA rule. For them, it was nothing short oflese majeste .As a matter of fact, Jaishankar has been in the crosshairs of Congress acolytes ever since he washandpicked by Narendra Modi to become Foreign Minister. In November, 2019, during a visit to theUS, Jaishankar point blank refused to interact with a Senate Panel because it insisted that thevirulently anti—India Congresswoman Pramila Jaypal would attend the meeting. Senior SenatorElizabeth Warren did not take kindly to this defiant gesture by Jaishankar. Suspended IndianCongress part spokesperson Sanjay Jha picked up the gauntlet and posted a tweet: “India’s ForeignMinister has hugely embarrassed India. What a pathetic response by S. Jaishankar. A sharp rebukeby of all people Elizabeth Warren who could be the next president of the United States. Thisgovernment is a joke. It has made India an object of ridicule”. There is no space here to repeat all thechildish and churlish barbs hurled at Jaishankar since he firmly told Rahul Gandhi where to take off.Suffice to say that paid up members of the Khan Market gang are now convinced he is India’s worstforeign minister ever. Forget Jaishankar, the Congress ecosystem has been reflexively slamming India even when it comesto contentious issues like terror, Pakistan and China. When the Indian armed forces deployed fighteraircraft to enter Pakistani airspace and destroy a terrorist camp in the aftermath of Pulwama inFebruary, 2019, the ecosystem demanded proof. The same was done after the successful assaultinside Pakistan occupied Kashmir after the Uri terror attack in 2016. And when the Indian army lost20 soldiers during a border clash with China in Ladakh with an undisclosed number of Chinese killed,the ecosystem slammed India rather than China. Ironically, the same ecosystem did not even raisean eyebrow during the tense Indo-China military standoff at Doklam near Bhutan in 2017 whenRahul Gandhi visited the Chinese Ambassador and had dinner with him. Nor were any eyebrowsraised in 2007 when Rahul and Sonia Gandhi signed an agreement with the Chinese CommunistParty in Beijing. There is no issue, no event, no initiative and no foreign policy gesture of thegovernment that the Congress ecosystem doesn’t routinely slam.This is a far cry from the 1990s when the Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narashima Rao deputed AtalBihari Vajpayee and Farooq Abdullah to defend India’s human rights record at a time when terrorismin the Kashmir valley was at its peak. To be fair, it was the BJP that first broke India’s foreign policyconsensus. The NDA government led by Vajpayee had started the process of concluding a nucleardeal with the United States. Strangely, when Dr. Manmohan Singh was ready to formally sign, theBJP noisily opposed it in the Parliament. The Left, of course, voted against the deal in 2008 alongwith the BJP. In the ensuing Lok Sabha elections of 2009, the BJP was humiliated and the Leftdecimated.Liberal pundits presume that the average Indian voter is a simpleton who doesn’t understand or careabout foreign policy and national interest. They should look at the fortunes of the Left in Indianelectoral politics. Poverty, unemployment and exploitation of workers s still rampant in India. Yet,the Indian voter wouldn’t touch the Left with a barge pole, forget about voting for it. The Left ispaying the price for consistently adopting positions that the average voter instinctively senses isagainst India’s national interest. By hurling absurd allegations against Jaishankar, the Congressecosystem is in danger of travelling down the same path. About the Author: After his master’s degree in economics, Sutanu Guru has been a journalist for more than 30 years in media outlets like Times of India, Economic Times, Business Today, Business World, Business India & others. Currently, he focuses more on research and writing. DISCLAIMER This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write-up have nothing to do with those of prameyanews.com.

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