A Big Country And Other Countries

I recalled the dictum enunciated by Walter Wriston, the legendary Citibank chairman, who told my class at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy: “Countries don’t go under, they just roll over”. India must be wary about becoming their cat’s paw.The most significant development of this century so far has been the rise of China as an economic powerhouse, with its military not lagging far behind. Speaking to Singapore’s foreign minister Geo Yeo in July 2010, then Chinese foreign minister Yang Jeichi, responding to criticism about China’s assertiveness, just said: “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact. There is no L’embarrass des richesses, but a poverty of clarity.

Jawaharlal Nehru (Photo PTI)Much as we would like to exalt Jawaharlal Nehru as the founder of modern India’s foreign policy, like all other major countries our policy too derives its basis from one man, France’s Cardinal Richelieu, who enshrined national interest as the only guiding principle to conduct affairs with other nations. With Bangladesh too, we have rapidly descended from being the liberator to the neighbourhood bully. He also specialises in the Chinese economy Afghanistan is no longer the glacis on which the war for India will be fought. Raison d’état. Richelieu rejected the notion that policy should be based on values and sentimental considerations. The paramount power’s paramount interest, as far as India was concerned, was to keep the goose that laid the golden egg healthy and well. We see this manifested in New Delhi’s policy responses to the current situations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or the Maldives — with more muddle than meddle.

Lord Curzon of Kedlestone, who was Viceroy of India (1898-1905) and later Britain’s foreign secretary (1919-24), is still regarded by many of our foreign policy elite as the man who outlined India’s grand strategic vision and its focus on fixing borders. Hence they should remember this song from the 1970 Manoj Kumar film Purab aur Paschim:Koee jab tumhaaraa hriday tod de,/ Tadapataa huaa jab koee chhod de,/ wholesale mold Spring Tab tum mere paas aanaa priye,/ Meraa dar khulaa hai,/ khulaa hee rahegaa, tumhaare liye.But our inherited Curzonian vision and now a little bit of American induced notion of containment are pushing India into a confrontationist posture with China