The end of the age

Forget about foreign policy, the US is the only country that ordinary Indians look up to

Mohun Guruswamy Delhi

The post Second World War bipolarity in international politics and the post-colonial awakening were the dominant influences on India's foreign policy till the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. Not only did Soviet-style communism collapse, but also the promise of a brave new world in the newly-freed nations had by now largely dissipated. Except for India and a handful of nations, power in most of the erstwhile colonies has lapsed into the hands of various types of dictators and despots. Even India, the world's largest democracy, is not exactly an advertisement for it, but it presumably can still be counted to be among the ranks of governments for the people, by the people and of the people. The superpower contest between the USA and the late USSR, and the post colonial awakening also largely shaped India's domestic agenda. India's experiments with socialism and rejection of what was deemed to be western capitalism were entirely due to this. I remember a Russian diplomat arguing with me that it is not possible to be a patriotic Indian and still be anti-Soviet. Indeed it often seemed so.

When policy choices are to be made on such so-called idealistic considerations, the options are few and the course quite clear. Thus when Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in 1956 India was very vociferous in its criticism of neo-imperialism. But when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary the same year to depose a communist regime that sought to strike a more independent course, India remained muted. Then India has the peculiar situation of repeatedly sponsoring China's admission into the UN, and to the permanent seat in the Security Council, even as Mao's China after occupying Tibet had begun to contest India's proclaimed borders with Tibet. India continued doing so even after the 1962 war and after hostility to India became an integral part of China's foreign policy. That was indeed idealism. The Chinese on the other hand have shown their proclivity for realpolitik by opposing India's inclusion into an expanded Security Council. In this their one-time opponent turned champion and now once again opponent in world fora, the USA, and China are united. And who but China is the USA's largest trading partner? Once again proving that ideology has little to do with how nations conduct their business.

Ideological predilections also often put blinkers on India's eyes. In mid-1991 after visiting the Soviet Union, I sent the new prime minister (PM) a note suggesting that the USSR was on its last legs and fast descending into economic chaos. India's then ambassador in Moscow was sent this note for comments. It happened that the ambassador was visiting Delhi about that time and he kindly invited me for lunch at the India International Centre. What I got in addition to the lunch was a long lecture about the eternal nature of communism and the Soviet Union, and as to how the Red Army, described by him as the vanguard of the revolution, would protect the revolution and the unity of the Soviet Union. He also diplomatically chided me for unnecessarily spooking the PM with impossible scenarios. I still recall noticing Inder Gujral was also having lunch in the same dining room and thinking about how appropriate the setting was for a rap on the knuckles and a long lecture of this nature. This was despite what happened to Iraq in Kuwait earlier that year.