India's foreign policy

There is certainly something wrong with India's foreign policy. This was clearly evident late last year after India's crushing defeat at the United Nations General Assembly, when only two nations backed New Delhi for vetoing the nuclear test ban treaty, and the country's subsequent routing by Japan (142-20) in the race for one of the rotating non-permanent seats in the Security Council.

One factor that goes against India in New Delhi's attempts to exert itself internationally is the country's obsession with the past, when it was at the forefront of the largely Third World Club of non-aligned nations and enjoyed special ties with the Soviet Union.

Also, the "self-certification" of India's virtues is another trait that is not helping the country's cause. Self- certification, a frailty not confined to the Foreign Ministry, was evident in the weeks preceding India's veto of the nuclear test ban in Geneva last August.

Indian commentators, politicians and bureaucrats stressed how committed New Delhi was to eliminating nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. That is why, they argued, India would not sign the test ban treaty unless it was linked to a time-bound total nuclear disarmament program. India, they said, would not be a party to half measures.

Foreign Minister I.K. Gujral described the five major nuclear nations (United States, Russia, China, France and Britain) as "sinners" and hoped to convince other countries of the validity of India's stand.

Clearly he did not succeed, for when Australia, much to New Delhi's consternation, proposed a global vote on the vetoed test ban treaty at the U.N. General Assembly last September, only Libya and Bhutan backed India.

Yet, India's elite still could not gauge the depth of the country's new isolation. Commentators blamed the machinations of the United States and other Western countries for the debacle.

A threshold nuclear state that carried out its first and only nuclear test in 1974, India steadfastly refused to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty unless it was linked to total nuclear disarmament. Worse, it vetoed the draft and even sought to block its passage to the U.N. General Assembly as a resolution.

In short, New Delhi did all it could to reduce the painstakingly negotiated draft document into little more than scraps of paper. Curiously enough, it was India that co-sponsored the test ban treaty with the U.S. in 1993.

Clearly, India's foreign policy needs greater consistency. And the foreign office needs to change its world view and tone down its confrontational attitude.

While most states moderated their positions in Geneva to reach consensus, India hardened its stance. Obviously, New Delhi has to learn to become more accommodating and not treat foreign policy as a "morality play", to use the words of former finance minister Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms.

But with the present Indian elite in the foreign office, those changes are not likely to come easily.

-- The Nation, Bangkok