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General Election 2004 : NDA Government and Foreign Policy

	March 22, 2004

J.N. Dixit, former Foreign Secretary and Chairman Editorial Board



In general election in a democracy, foreign policy issues are usually of marginal interest. It is

domestic issues, economic policy, and matters related to development which are of concern to

the average voter. The voter responds on the basis of his assessment of which political party fighting the elections is capable of credibly meeting his or her concerns and aspirations.

Foreign policy issues, nevertheless, are of importance in general election in terms of unity, territorial integrity and different dimensions of national survival. It is in this context that one examines the record of NDA rule and speculates on what the main Opposition party, the Congress, hopes to contribute to the country overcoming the inadequacies and contradictions of the present Government’s performance. The views of the Congress Party on foreign policy issues commenced being crystallised since its brain-storming session held in Shimla on July 7 and 8, 2003.

There is much hype about India’s nuclear weaponisation, the peace initiative with Pakistan and forward movement in relations with the US under the NDA Government. The substantive points of critical evaluation, however, are that nuclear weaponisation and foreign policy for which the NDA Government claims credit, were essentially based on the planning and long-term foundations laid by the Congress party in regard to these policies from 1984 to 1996, when it was in power.

An objective and chronological assessment of the Vajpayee Government’s foreign policy indicates that :

- The NDA Government’s policy towards Pakistan has been a record of ambiguities and contradictions. Swinging between “Now we will fight to the finish, now we will make up as peace is very important.” There is no clarity or a structured negotiating stance on the issues at dispute with Pakistan.

Acknowledging the undoubted importance of Indo-US relations need not have led to the kind of submissive subaltern policy which the present government adopted towards America during its tenure.

The focus here is not to indulge in partisan criticism of the NDA Government. As far as I know, the Congress party’s focus is on the future. Its attention is on remedial orientations of India’s foreign and security policies.

The foreign policy challenges which India faces in the foreseeable future are the following :

- The requirement of New Delhi to structure new equations with important power centres of the world after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, because of the disappearance of leverages which India had in fashioning its foreign and security policies during the last 50 years since the end of the Second World War.

- An important dimension of this concern is the creation of a stable and calibrated relationship by India with the US without losing its independence of options in taking decisions on foreign and security policies.

- Managing the prospects of Pax Americana is a major foreign policy exercise to be undertaken by India.

- South Asia constitutes nearly one-fifth of the world’s population. But it also happens to be one of the poorest areas of the world, barring perhaps Africa and South of Sahara. Meeting socio-economic developmental requirements through appropriate domestic and external policies is another challenge.

- Within the ambit of the above concerns, particular attention has to be given by all South Asian countries for ensuring energy security, particularly in terms of hydro-carbons and hydel power. A rational and practical management of energy resources of both these categories, moving away from the narrow political considerations is imperative.

Then there are some fundamental security concerns affecting South Asia. These are consolidating the identities of different countries on the basis of pluralism and religious and ethnic diversities. The challenge is made more complex because there are several nation-states in the region. The religious, ethnic and linguistic characteristics of civil societies in these nation-states overlap each other. These overlappings result in apprehension about respective national identities. The challenge is to resolve the cooperation between the nature of the civil societies and anxieties about consolidating individual national identities, promoting civic nationalism that is integrative rather than ethno-religious nationalism which is separative.

The complexes and aspirations generated by the asymmetry between India on the one hand, and other South Asian countries on the other, in terms of size, population, levels of development, technology and military power have resulted in tensions in inter-state relations in the region. A purposeful effort is required to overcome these tensions. India has a special responsibility in this regard while the other countries need to make an effort to overcome the burdens of history of the last half a century or so.

- Migration of people due to socio-economic pressures born of the land to people ration, is going to be a major problem. Politically south Asia is characterized by different nation-states. However, South Asian land mass is, normatively speaking, one economic region. Structuring cooperative and contentful regionalism is the only solution.

- Establishment of SAARC was an attempt at such regionalism. It has been stalled primarily due to political tension.s The solution, is, therefore, to deal with the political problems in a pragmatic manner to move on to the more desirable and logical objective of regional cooperation.

- Adjusting to the ongoing process of globalization remains an important challenge in terms of security for all South Asian countries. The challenge is made more complex due to the undercurrents of restrictive and acquisitive economic and technology regimes forming part of policies of the major powers of the world.

There are other issues requiring clear policy decisions. The Non-aligned Movement (NAM) lacks unity. The capacity of the Movement to effectively serve the interests of developing countries in a collective manner has disappeared more or less. There is only one sense in which non-alignment remains relevant. And that is India should assiduously retain its freedom of options in foreign and security policy decisions, without being subject to external influences and foreign persuasions to the maximum extent possible.

Nuclear non-proliferation is the second issue which requires a change in India’s approach. There is a shift in international non-proliferation policies. The agenda of the established nuclear weapons powers is not so much comprehensive disarmament and elimination of nuclear weapons, but to ensure an arms control programme on a discriminatory basis only to prevent further horizontal proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

India should clearly emphasise its determination to preserve its nuclear weapons and missile assets. While doing this, New Delhi’s endeavour should be to formulate and project an approach where India assures the major powers of the world that its weapons capacities in no way threaten the security interests of other countries, given its track record as a responsible nuclear weapons state.

Arguing for India’s old proposal for nuclear and comprehensive disarmament would lack credibility given our own acquisition of nuclear weapons. The effort should be to move towards new non-proliferation agreements and conventions taking into account the current realities.

There are reservations and resentment about the US dominant influence in different parts of the world. But the reality is that no individual country or no collectivity of countries has the ability or political capacities to resist American influence effectively. The choice is to confront and resist the US and get isolated in the process. Or to make ourselves a subordinate ally of America, and third, to adopt a strategy of collaborating with the US while developing equations with other major powers to redress the imbalances of its dominance.

While India should maintain its relations with the international coalition on terrorism, in all its political and operational dimensions, we must be clear in our mind that we will have to fight our battle against terrorism on our own, both at the political and operational levels. There should be no expectations that any other country or power would do for India more than general political support to its fight against terrorism.

It must be kept in mind that cross-border terrorism does not emanate from Pakistan only. There are other groups operating in the North East and other states of India which have their origins, even links with terrorist organizations like Sri Lanka’s LTTE. A sustained effort should be made to see that the level of terrorism and terrorist violence is not blindly applied to one religious community or the other, or one caste or the other.

So the macro-level objectives of India’s foreign policy would be to safeguard its security and vital strategic interests. The endeavour would be to form a national foreign policy based on informed national consensus particularly on important issues of development, defence, nuclear security and a stable and secure international order.