Modi’s Israel hug kicks ethics out of foreign policy gambit

India’s foreign policy has turned 180 degrees with a full and final goodbye to the Nehruvian global view. Imagine an Indian Prime Minister visiting Israel and making a song and dance about it too!

It is, indeed, a new century with new global realities and challenges. The world has moved on from the Cold War days to the superpower era. Even American global supremacy is facing serious strains. It is a multi-polar world and not a unipolar one.

It needs no lesson that India needs to move on from the days of Nehruvian non-alignment to the days of a neo-liberal global economy. That, it has done steadily; it has also made its mark in the new world. The Congress party, as the author of non-alignment under then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, itself started moving away from the Nehruvian foreign policy framework under another former PM PV Narasimha Rao.

It was a wise decision and much needed to suit our global interests in a new bold world. But the serious question is whether we need to have a complete break from Nehruvian foreign policy values.

What were the basics of the Nehruvian foreign policy framework?

Nehruvian global policy has had two basic principles. First, India, along with few other newly liberated countries, had decided in 1950s not to be an appendage of any of the then two existing global powers - the United States and the Soviet Union. But Nehru himself formed a block and labelled it the non-aligned block. The purpose was to be free in global affairs which was a natural corollary of freedom movements of so many liberated colonies then. So, newly liberated colonies formed their own block under the leadership of leaders like Nehru, Nasser, Tito, etc

The second but no less important ingredient of the Nehruvian foreign policy framework was that foreign policy needed to be grounded in moral values like non-aggression and non-dominance, basically justice and mutual respect. Hence followed Nehru’s strong emphasis on supporting freedom movements around the world, support for the Palestinian struggle against Israel and the South African anti-apartheid movement. It was a serious attempt at demanding equal respect and standing for Asian and African nations. Panchsheel and non-alignment both were essentially based on moral Gandhian values.

The world changed, foreign policies changed, so did we. But is it necessary for a country like India with huge skilled manpower and a vast economy to be a follower of any declining power? Or, for that matter, is it essential to shun our moral standing on the global stage just to be pragmatic?

It is quite evident from Narendra Modi’s jumbled up foreign policy initiatives that the NDA government has taken a complete break from the established Indian foreign policy framework. The way we have embraced American strategic partnership in Asia-pacific region and the South China sea gives the impression that India has entered the US camp. Does it really serve our interest to be a camp follower?

Well, our growing tiff and sort of war of words with China over Sikkim do not auger well for India. The new brand of chest-thumping nationalists may say India cannot be bullied by China. It need not. But does taking up cudgels against China in support for American interests serve our own purpose? Is American business investing in India like it does in China? Not really. We decided to boycott China on its one-belt-one-road initiative without seriously considering its pros and cons.

So, we seem to be on the firm path of becoming an American camp follower. Pakistan did the same for decades and burnt its finger. Thus, we have distanced ourselves from the first Nehruvian foreign policy fundament of making a place for India on the global stage without being any one’s appendage. We are an ancient nation with a great civilisation that needs to flower on its own strengths. But that seems to be thrown out of the window.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing trip to Israel, is also a virtual divorce from the Gandhian and Nehruvian sense of morality as a driving force behind foreign policy. Israel is an aggressor. It has occupied UN-mandated Palestinian territory. It refuses to accept the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel is one state that defies all basic principles of justice and human rights. It is a democracy but a theocratic state too.

No Indian Prime Minister has ever visited Israel so far because no earlier Indian politician wished to lend moral authority to an aggressor state like Israel. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done it.

He wants to make a statement that he wants a complete break from all Nehruvian policy frameworks, which is the RSS and BJP’s position.

Modi is not just the first Indian Prime Minister to go on an official trip to Israel. He is also very keen to make a song and dance about his trip there. It perhaps rubs the wound of Indian Muslims who, because of religious reasons, nurse a grudge against Israel. Jerusalem being the second most important pilgrimage site after Mecca for Muslims, Indian Muslims have a bit of dislike for Israel which occupies the city.

But religious factors have never played a part in India’s policy vis-a-vis Israel. Our guiding compass was our moral position that forced Islamic countries as well as newly liberated countries to hold us in high regard. Modi has written it off with one stroke.

Modi’s Israel trip is the last nail in our moral basis of global relations, something that Sangh policy wonks have been itching to do for decades.