Decoding Narendra Modi, The Diplomat | News World India

In my previous post, I charted out Modi’s policies and the positive perception he created amongst the NRIs the world over. Having assessed it, the following post will try to perceive and understand “Indian Foreign policies” in most simplistic, non-intellectual way.

ALSO READ: Narendra Modi From An NRI Perspective

India’s Foreign Policy 2004-14 (Pre Modi Era)

Many of us living abroad for many years have been part of Indian Mission’s meetings and parties world over. They were hosted by Head of Indian mission, which in our languages were known as “Imposed Maharajas” and honestly the objective was wine, dine, fund raising for some events the Embassy or High Commission was planning to organize. Many times we were called in by the Consul Generals to help them prepare business reports, which they have to send to Ministry of External affairs.

I remember an incident in late 2013, an Indian lady who was physically abused by her husband went to Indian Embassy for help but had to spend her entire night outside the Embassy gate in Suriname with 2 small kids because the Ambassador was busy in a party and later refused to meet. The shocking part was that this lady was a member of embassy staff on white passport and the Ambassador was well known to her.

During 2004-14 period with few exceptions, forget about ordinary Indians or NRIs, even people like us who have been part of Embassy never knew what the Indian government wished to achieve. India’s approach was more defensive and posting like Suriname, Laos, South Africa, Fiji, Seychelles to name a few were treated as pre-retirement gift or punishment to a senior diplomat.

I am not a diplomat neither do I understand the Government diplomacy but as an ordinary Indian, I think India’s diplomats are not Maharajas on taxpayers money but helping hand for all Indians living abroad. Something, completely missing in last 10 years.

Manmohan Singh has continued the pragmatic foreign policy that was started by P.V.Narasimha Rao and continued by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The most important thing Manmohan Singh missed to understand that from PVNR era to 2004, the world has changed.

In summary, last 10 years we saw a static foreign policy with an approach of one size fits all and the behaviors of Indian diplomats was, “We are Maharajas”.

Disasters like, SM Krishna reading Portuguese minister’s speech at UN as if Portugal has outsourced its speech to Bangalore and Mammohan Singh’s Baluchistan blunder at Sharm el-Sheikh are quite well known. These two events reflect that India’s engagement overseas was just a formality.

During 1st BRICS summit meeting in South Africa, I said that just like our Indian soldiers protect India along the borders in the same vein NRIs and PIOs are soldiers of Indian Diplomacy on foreign soil.

In Last 10 years, Manmohan Singh almost had same number of overseas trips as Narendra Modi till date but other than the Nuclear Deal, which to my understanding is a half cooked dish, were only know for two blunders. In short, Indian Foreign Policy was nothing but “Formality Policy” which ended with disaster like “Dehati Aurat” & Party VP insulting India’s Prime Minister when he was on foreign soil.

India’s Foreign Policy Post Modi Era

So what has changed now? Well a lot and to put it in simple form, it’s “Private Diplomacy” to “Public Diplomacy”.

It’s like you stop jogging in your private gym treadmill and start jogging in a public park. Treadmill jogging is static in nature where as when you jog in a park you are more connected with the world.

Today, when Narendra Modi visits any country, interaction with Indian diaspora is on agenda. Recent election in UK and Canada proved that Indian diaspora is part of local politics and one can hate them or love them but they can’t ignore them.

During 1st BRICS summit meeting in South Africa, I said that just like our Indian soldiers protect India along the borders in the same vein NRIs and PIOs are soldiers of Indian Diplomacy on foreign soil. However the truth was that in India we were always known as “Non Required Indians” and on foreign soil 90% of us were nothing more then tech coolies / cheap educated labor.

Massive public relation is the main reason for the incumbent PM’s popularity on his trips at home and abroad. With the ministers of the current government taking to Twitter, Facebook and other social media, bypassing the somewhat biased fourth estate and directly connecting to the people, they have won people’s trust and popularity by giving them constant updates on where they are and what they have done. This in simple term is called as “Public Diplomacy”.

Foreign Policy don’t change with change in government but the approach do change. It was easy for Narendra Modi Government to continue legacy of PVNR and ABV but the problem was that the world has changed and we urgently need to put our foreign policy on steroids. Many may not agree but participation of NRIs, PIOs acted as steroids and with use of social media platform it was translated into a World Wide event which was never seen before, and that’s called Soft Power which is first step to tell the world that “India has Arrived”.

Narendra Modi is first Prime Minister we have seen who has a clear vision and well defined objectives for his government to achieve with this new proactive Foreign Policy. Even before his government took oath of office, he started working on homework with identified team. As soon as Govt moved into office, the MEA minister started engaging with her counter parts in our neighbourhood and the 4 important factors were well defined.

1. National Security & reactivate buffer zone 2. Investment & Economic relationship to jump start local growth 3. Long term support for India with powerful nation

4. Change India’s image from Snake Charmers to educated young nation

Narendra Modi hit the first “Masterstroke” when he invited India’s neighbours to his government oath taking ceremony. The message was loud and clear, “Neighbours First”

PM Modi with SAARC leaders during his oath-taking ceremony.

Hence the first policy change by Narendra Modi government was to change intangible “Look East Policy” to tangible “Act East Policy”.

Act East Policy

From the very beginning the Modi led govt made it ample clear that India would focus more and more on improving relations with ASEAN and other East Asian countries as per India’s ‘Look East Policy’ which was formulated during PM Narasimha Rao’s govt in 1992 for better economic engagement with its eastern neighbours but successive govt later successfully turned it into a tool for forging strategic partnership and security cooperation with countries in that region in general and with Vietnam and Japan in particular.

Neighbourhood First Policy

Within “Act East Policy” framework, the first step taken by Narendra Modi government was to put “Neighbourhood First” on fast track.

Invitation to Pakistan Prime Minister to attend Narendra Modi government oath was a great gesture and diplomatic coup by India, which Pakistan lost. Other than Pakistan and to some extent Bangladesh, the common binding factor for neighbourhood nations is BUDDHA and I call it “Buddha Circuit”.

The common factor,“Buddha” & “Pashupati Nath” were used by government to break the glass ceiling with it’s immediate, small but very important neighbours. Some see it from religious angle but for me it was business and India’s interest.

India’s immediate need is to restore it’s buffer zone from national security point of view. We all know that Pakistan agencies use these nations to launch proxy attacks in India. This could be arms, economic or drug based attacks and without winning trust back from these nation, it’s impossible to control it. Supporting these nations in their individual growth will help to reduce china effect on them. We have seen Chinese frustration during Nepal Earthquake.

With the ministers of the current government taking to Twitter, Facebook and other social media, bypassing the somewhat biased fourth estate and directly connecting to the people, they have won people’s trust.

Act East Policy Achievements:

Let’s look at the countries Modi has visited.

1. Bhutan 2. Japan 3. Nepal 4. Sri Lanka

5. Bangladesh

Bhutan
Modi visited Bhutan at a time when China was eyeing Bhutan. Bhutan is highly dependent on India and shares a border with China. Also, Bhutan is an amazing source of clean hydroelectric power.

The previous Prime Minster ignored Bhutan. This led to Bhutan’s increasing tilt towards Beijing. This would have been dangerous because it would lead to more of China’s influence on our borders and especially at the “Chicken’s Neck” (formally the Siliguri Corridor, a narrow strip of Indian territory connecting the northeastern states to the rest of India.”

To prevent this, Modi visited Bhutan first. This, coupled with the fact that Modi visited a small nation first, instead of biggies like USA or EU, boosted Bhutanese pride and they were much more welcoming to him. His visit there was a success. And it ensured that Bhutan remained a staunch ally of India.

Japan
Modi has had cordial relations with Japan since his days of being a Gujarat Chief Minister. Needless to say, this visit was a huge thumping success. Japan is also a country, which has built itself repeatedly after earthquakes.

I don’t remember the exact figures, but they were certainly in the range of tens of billions of dollars in investment. Also, Japan would help India in building its smart cities and high speed rail network.

Nepal
Modi visited Nepal at a time when the country faced political turmoil. He offered to renegotiate the Indo-Nepal Friendship treaty. This visit came after a long hiatus. The visit was of limited benefit. However, Modi visited the country again during the SAARC summit. The importance of Nepal can be understood from a point that IC-814 hijackers boarded the plane in Kathmandu and the country is now under Maoist influence. However the earthquake did create some rift between both nation and that too because of unprofessional Indian media and it will pass with time as foreign relations is not an event but process.

Sri Lanka
Narendra Modi was the 1st prime Minister in 28 years to visit Sri Lanka, a country that has huge strategic importance to India. Last time, Manmohan Singh was supposed to visit but he cancelled due to “Coalition compulsion” threats.

During Modi’s visit many agreements were signed from rail network to power but Sri Lanka’s biggest natural harbor, at Trincomalee, was the salient focus of Modi visit and was not covered by media or writers probably due to lack of their ability to understand long term strategy.

Trincomalee is inner harbor bay on east coast and it gives natural protection to harbour and being on the eastern coast it will help Indian ships to refuel with an eye on South China Sea. This is a strategically located port for Indian Navy.

Bangladesh

Apart from all the political noise from Congress Party and Pakistan what Narendra Modi achieved from Bangladesh was long-pending Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).

Modi persuaded West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to accompany him, which former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had failed to do, is sign enough of his commitment. It is a complex issue where political will is now evident and one must give some time for the process and procedures.

Modi trip not only set clear direction to water dispute but also the question of illegal Bangladeshi. LBA was a major step all Bangladeshi welcome and witness celebration carrying Indian Flag with pride and honour. I met few Bangladeshi who own grocery stores, barber shops in downtown Johannesburg, they told me “Your Modi restored our Bangla Pride. If you meet him, say Thank you.”

In short, PM Modi’s visit to Bangladesh has set the tone for future cooperation to bring two countries even closer.

Modi also visited Australia, Brazil and USA, but they were due to either UN, G20 or BRICS summits and not state visits specially to that country.

In next post, I will cover Indian Ocean and other policy initiative. My objective is not to write about every nut and bolt but to highlight the strategy and strategically important initiatives.

(Dr. Gaurav Pradhan is Chief Information Officer, Data Scientist, Digital Strategist & Advisor, Key Note Speaker based out of seattle and is ranked in the top 10 Global CIO. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of News World India.)