India: foreign policy

India’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) hasn’t entirely been consigned into oblivion, even though the cold war is now a distant memory and that chapter has been closed for over two decades now. But NAM's legacy lives on in the realm of India’s foreign policy: the country remains ultra sensisitive to any kind of foreign intervention, and is loath to dabbling in the affairs of foreign countries, even if the restraint comes at the cost of blatant disregard for human rights violations elsewhere.

Being the biggest democracy in the world and certainly one of the most promising ones in the developing world, India brings with it the expectation of playing a meaningful role in global geo-politics. Then there are economic reasons as well, and there are many instances where economic intervention by India could have helped to strengthen bilateral relationship and boost trade ties. Unfortunately, India has proved to be a laggard in seizing such opportunities. India's record on overseas interventions show that barring its bold stance on Sri Lanka’s genocide, the country has largely been a fence sitter in global affairs, even in such cases where there have been enough grounds for intervention on account of blatant human rights violations. For instance, the failing of IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) to thrash out a solution to the ongoing Syrian muddle, which has resulted in deaths of 80,000 civilians and displacement of another 4 million, cannot be more unfortuitous. As a prominent non-partisan grouping of countries, the IBSA members could have made a difference but their voice was submerged largely because of India’s apathy to push through a hard stand against Syrian tyrant Bashar Al- Assad. In Myanmar too, India just paid lip service against the human rights violation, and was always cautious about not offending the country's ruling junta. It showed a similar apathy to the mass homicide in Zimbabwe and failed to even release a critical official communiqué against the despot Robert Mugabe. The reasons for playing such a shrinking violet can be many: from India's long-held NAM baggage to its fear of inviting foreign attention in Kashmir.

Despite such failings India’s foreign policy largely goes unchallenged, as it is neither an electoral issue nor is there any public participation in its foreign policy discourse. Of course, human rights watchdogs and global powers like the United States have been prodding India to take up a more proactive role in global affairs, but the country has betrayed a lack of confidence in shedding its inhibitions and outdated shibboleths. It's high time for India to stand up and be counted as an active participant in global affairs.