Outsourcing foreign policy<\/p>\n
The utterances of Trump have never been contradicted by Modi and the external affairs ministry. Unequivocally such remarks are nothing but an egregious affront on India and its people and so are unacceptable. There is no such ugly precedent during the tenure of any other prime minister before Modi.<\/p>\n
The humiliation has been compounded beyond measure when it was revealed that the Indian Embassy in Washington hired a US lobbying firm SHW Partners LLC, led by a former adviser to US President Trump, for an annual fee of $150,000 to provide support to the Indian government on US policy matters including arranging meetings, phone calls and email exchanges with officials from the US State Department and the National Security Council. The firm also helped coordinate senior-level visits by Indian officials to Washington DC.<\/p>\n
Nehru\u2019s vision<\/p>\n
Such outsourcing of India\u2019s foreign policy and diplomacy has no parallels during post-independence period when the architecture of our foreign affairs was shaped based on Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s vision brilliantly articulated in his article \u201cA Foreign Policy for India\u201d written in 1927, twenty years before India was liberated from colonial rule on August 15, 1947.<\/p>\n
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In that article, Nehru wrote in the beginning itself that \u201cTo some of us in India it may appear a foolish waste of time to indulge in fancies about a foreign policy for India.\u201d And yet he asserted for an independent foreign policy when he wrote: \u201cWe must understand world movements and politics and fashion our own movement accordingly. This cannot mean that we have to subordinate our interests or our methods of work to those of any other country or organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those articulations of Nehru expressed as far back in 1927, to underscore India\u2019s might and majesty two decades before our independence have been shattered by the Modi regime by scripting a foreign policy not to protect our national interest but to keep Donald Trump happy. Nehru\u2019s vision that Indians would not subordinate her interests or her methods of work to those of any other country or organisation always remained central to India\u2019s foreign policy right since our independence. That has now been upended.<\/p>\n
It is worthwhile to quote Nehru who wrote that India should not \u201c\u2026.expect any help from outside or slacken our efforts at home\u201d and added that \u201c\u2026 we should gradually train a body of men and women who can be relied upon to serve Indian interests abroad when the power for doing this comes into our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The power came to the hands of Indians in 1947 and India\u2019s interests have been served well by successive prime ministers. But Modi has emerged as an exception in weakening India\u2019s foreign policy and its stature at the global level.<\/p>\n
On February 10, 1947 in a message Nehru wrote, \u201cIn a world where there are still so many bloodshot eyes we have to be clear-eyed and while being practical must also keep our ideals in view\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nehru\u2019s usage of the words \u201cbloodshot eyes\u201d in the world of 1947 assumes greater salience in the context of Donald Trump\u2019s humiliating statements and so the imperative need Nehru underlined to remain clear eyed resonates today to salvage India\u2019s image and stature.<\/p>\n
People count in foreign policy<\/p>\n
On October 19, 1954 in a conversation with Mao Tse Tung of China, Nehru said, \u201cThere is no reason why Europe or the Americas should be considered the pivots of the modern world and Asia should be ignored. Asia is inevitably going to be one of the big centres of international affairs in the future and the sooner this is recognised and given effect to the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mao asked Nehru why India was not following America which possessed so much strength and wealth the latter answered, \u201cIndia was not afraid of any country in the world. The one thing that India\u2019s great leader Mahatma Gandhi had taught Indians was not to be afraid and it was this fearlessness that enabled Indians to win their freedom from British imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also read: In 2026, India\u2019s Biggest Policy Challenge Will be Dealing with the US<\/a><\/p>\n He went on to assert that \u201c India was not afraid and followed her own policy, what she considered right and just.\u201d He claimed that slowly Western nations had to realise that it was not so much money that counted and proceeded to add, \u201cBoth India and China together had about 1000 million people of the world and human beings counted.\u201d<\/p>\n Mao agreed with Nehru and said that human beings counted the most.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Modi, who repeatedly boasts about India\u2019s human resources and its population of over one billion, has caved in to the dictates of Trump, compromising India\u2019s foreign policy to such an extent that it has hurt the people and the image of our country. India\u2019s image can now only be salvaged by anchoring the foreign policy on Nehru\u2019s vision which has always upheld India\u2019s stature in global affairs.<\/p>\n S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.<\/p>\n This piece was first published on The India Cable \u2013 a premium newsletter from The Wire \u2013 and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article went live on January tenth, two thousand twenty six, at fourteen minutes past ten in the morning.<\/p>\n