Taking the obsession too far
Count on the foreign office to breathe a sigh of relief, at last, over India’s rejection at the NSG. The worst thing our politicians can do now is try and sell it as an achievement of our own diplomacy; which it was not. If anything, the FO of years gone by would have learnt some valuable lessons from the way the Indians have conducted their diplomacy since Modi came to power. And the NSG lobbying was particularly telling. Modi himself led the charge, forging not just diplomatic but also crucial trade ties as he shuttled from continent to continent.
Pakistan, on the other hand, got the advisor to PM on foreign affairs to make one or two phone calls to a handful of foreign ministers as the PM lay recovering in London. Needless to say, if NSG didn’t require unanimity of decision over inclusion, India may well have bagged the prize. And Pakistan, just like its lament over being left out by the international community on matters of terrorism, would just have played the victim again. In truth, we are just playing, or trying to play, catch-up with India. And, quite surprisingly, despite lagging visibly, and embarrassingly, behind, the PM still does not see the need of appointing a full time foreign minister.
It’s not just with India that our foreign policy has failed us. We are registering novel lows with Afghanistan and the US as well. And things are not too good with Iran either. Still, when India, Iran and Afghanistan signed the Chabahar port agreement, because we would not play along with the neighbourhood, our security and bureaucratic elite cried ‘stabbed in the back’ instead of undertaking a long overdue sobering evaluation of our foreign policy weaknesses. Yet it is against India that we continue to measure ourselves. And, clearly, we have fallen behind, at least in diplomacy and foreign policy.
