The India Way

In his article “What is India’s Foreign Policy Vision?” Sumit Ganguly, a renowned Indian-American academic, comments on Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s book, The India Way. Ganguly says, “Jaishankar attempts to sketch out how India should forge a foreign policy in a world where China’s rise and assertiveness are changing the contours of global politics. It also sketches a pathway for India to deal with significant and novel forces in international politics - especially resurgent nationalism and a rejection of globalization. The Modi administration has not evinced any enthusiasm for India’s erstwhile attachment to the doctrine of non-alignment. Nevertheless, Jaishankar suggests that the policy served India’s interests well during the Cold War years. Apart from its tilt towards the Soviet Union from the early 1970s to the Cold War’s end, non-alignment had long outlived whatever might have been its utility. Unfortunately, someone as astute a practitioner of Indian foreign policy as Jaishankar cannot forthrightly bid goodbye to the anachronistic doctrine of non-alignment. At best, the only novel guidance he offers is that India should clearly define its national interests and pursue them with vigor”.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar presents an articulate and strategic face of the Modi regime. His visionary perspective of Indian foreign policy enabled New Delhi to take advantage of its leadership role in BRICS, SCO, and G-20. When the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi confidently predicted on the occasion of August 15, 2024, Independence Day speech delivered from Red Fort, New Delhi, that by 2047, India would be the world’s first largest economy, it reflected the vision and perseverance of the Indian leadership despite the ugly face of Modi regime tainted with communal violence targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Why is the world not taking note of India’s massive human rights violations in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and its exclusive mode of governance by patronizing religious persecution is not difficult to gauge? The world looks at India’s massive economic growth, its surge in per capita income, foreign exchange reserves, and its excellence in information technology.

The façade of India’s foreign policy and its so-called ‘great leap forward’ must be analyzed from three angles. First, commitment, clarity, and coherence in Indian foreign policy focus on achieving the vision for a better and more powerful country. Right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru till today, India has not pursued a policy to run the country by obtaining foreign loans and aid and, on the contrary, followed a policy of self-reliance. As a result, India is now the world’s 5th largest economy, and it is projected that by 2027, it will be the world’s 3rd largest economy.

Since 1947 till today, India has not lost an inch of its territory and, on the contrary, has expanded, which is evidence of its foreign policy run by leadership for which the country comes first and not the perks, privileges, and benefits of the elite. India may conceal its motives for pursuing future foreign policy goals and objectives. However, in the 2019 elections in India, Narendra Modi made it clear in the BJP manifesto that Article 370, which had given special status to J&K, will be revoked if his party returns to power. On August 5, 2019, the BJP government implemented its election manifesto and repealed Articles 370 and 35-A, which gave special status to J&K and absorbed it into the fold of the Indian Union. In 2024, it is yet to be seen what the road map will be in foreign policy, particularly vis-à-vis its only western neighbor, Pakistan.

Secondly, the much-projected third term for Narendra Modi would also mean stability in its foreign policy domain because it is expected that Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will continue as Minister of External Affairs with his age-old vision to transform his country as a great power. It would also mean pursuance of a hardline stance against Pakistan and augmenting efforts to exert pressure on Gilgit-Baltistan. This fact has been narrated by India’s defense minister, Raj Nath, several times. It would also mean India’s persistent efforts to isolate Pakistan and to strengthen its ties with its neighbors, barring China and Pakistan, and at the same time to keep the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in limbo.

When Pakistan is economically fragile and politically chaotic with centrifugal forces active in Balochistan and elsewhere, New Delhi gets an impetus to pursue its plan to weaken its western neighbor further. Finally, even if there is a paradigm shift in Indian elections and Modi loses in polls, the next regime will not abandon strategic objectives that remained focused during the ten years of the BJP regime. What matters is that whoever is in power in New Delhi’s foreign policy would largely remain unchanged.