Chanakyanithi

After hundreds of years of struggle for independence India were liberated from the hands of British and by that time "development" in the form of both human and industry was the prime agenda. Hence Nehru focused less on ideological development for the nation in terms of foreign policy. He believed that commitment to any of the two existing major power blocs in the aftermath of World War II, would not serve India's goals. Thus chosen the middle path – formed non aligned and third world nations which were treated as making international opportunism. Later when Nehru emerged as a good statesman by his successful mediation of Korean War and Congo problem, India was recognized as an active nation involving in international affairs.
But still our foreign policy especially with respect to Pakistan, China, US and Middles East is ambiguous. Our policy is more of re active nature than pro active. The policy of „un intervention‟ has been in our roots since ages. The similar kind of policy was encouraged by Kautilya in his "Arthasastra‟.

“As long as an enemy is not a threat to the nation or our statehood, interfering in their public matters is treated as an invitation for war”.

Making friendship with enemy‟s enemy and friend‟s friend is an old but still valid belief. Making deals with enemy himself such that any kind of voluntary step towards hostility by any one nation can be condemned was widely believed and practiced by Nehru. Hence treaty "Panchsheel‟ was agreed by Nehru and his Chinese counterpart. But even those are violated by Chinese and no action could be taken by either the UN or victim India. Also turning our focus on United States, our policy of business with them is still ambiguous owing to the different ideologies (Socialism, Capitalism co exists in India). As far as Pakistan is concerned, India is to an extent right in not intervening in its recent turmoil. But we failed to send a strong message to eradicate the roots of terrorism. There are ideological issues with a few countries, boundary issues with a few, political, economic and diplomatic issues with others. Hence it requires a country specific foreign policy which has to be reconstructed and integrated with nation‟s overall strategic interest.

Fig: Model for a Country specific foreign policy

Medieval history speaks about imperialism through war and religion. Modern history speaks about imperialism through trade and ideology. But today the world is more complex and integrated. It is the strategy and foreign policy which leads to achieve the long term interest of a nation. Hence through the next half of the essay let us confine ourselves building a foreign policy towards China. China has interests in Africa region obviously for its unexplored natural resources and nevertheless India too entered the region but seen as less aggressive nation. There is a lot of scope for development of relations with the African nations in terms of trade, education, tourism.

India has to improve relations with all the neighboring nations of China- Burma, Thailand, South Korea, Japan (which was highly neglected during Nehruvian era), Philippines, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.
Relationships and treaties for supplying raw material and making them considerably dependent on Indian exports/ imports will be a highly effective strategy for long term. The islands in the Pacific Ocean region help as fuel refilling stations for ships transporting goods and trade material to and from China. Hence no island must be spared for and excellent relationship must be developed through trade and education. This will be helpful to get a support from those nations in times of war by blocking trade- transport areas of China with other nations. For example considering South Korea, there has been a trade of $ 10 billion only and has a lot of scope for improvement. Identifying the basic requirements of the nation and providing them for cheaper costs make the relation stronger and dependable. Japan is a robust nation with strong fundamentals in terms of technology and defense. Also Japan, China and US have very thin relations since ages. India can definitely play a significant role for collaboration between the nations. At the same time high interventionism among their relations may cause India getting crushed and impacted. India should act as a mediator and a leader between developing countries in Asia pacific and Africa regions. Now if we look at existing trade relations with China, majority of our exports consists of iron ore, organic chemicals, cotton and imports are finished and manufactured goods. This kind of trade causes India to reduce its natural resources in few centuries if not decades. This causes India to depend on neighboring nations for natural resources. Hence exports of natural resources has to be reduced to a minimum and local manufacturing development units have to be developed extensively for lessening the dependency on China.
Hence Foreign policy, trade and commerce, defense systems have to move hand in hand internally in India and design country specific policies to suit our long term strategic interests. Considering the question of developing friends, it is only through trade with which the friendship can be tied. Also though intervening in neighbor‟s matters is not in the genetics of Indians, expressing a strong view points, making standing on commitments can be made which make other countries see India as a powerful nation. For example expressing our strong concern over military rule in Burma and arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi kind of issues make India looked a bit polarized and as a leader in the region. Coefficient of influence has to be increased through trade and expressing strong view points on internal matters of a nation, but not through interventionism and war as done by US in Iraq and Afghanistan which lead to excessive military expenditure and slow down of its own economy.

I would like to end with the words quoted by Abdul Kalam

“We develop and test nuclear arms to show case to the world that we are powerful. Being powerful we are not sending a message of war but a message of peace that not to initiate a war with us”.

Is Singh the King ? …….Thoughts of Manmohan Singh

This article is intended to decode 'the insider' of our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Being the Prime Minister of the India I have all the powers to enjoy the nation’s resources and utilize them effectively. Though my supporters hail me as ‘life size’ I candidly encounter my limitations in the form of an arithmetic. Yes, being an economist and changing the balance sheet of the nation I never even imagined myself to fear for the little additions. Perhaps this is the only limitation any democracy can ever get constrained to. Though I gained a holistic view as an economist and even as a finance minister, now I am obliged to think narrowly to sustain the magic figure.

The politics played by a woman beside me, the strategies of the advisors, comments by the opposition parties are always making me admit the truth that I am just an economist. Any populist measures I propose in the committees are being reviewed by worthless apes and amended to fit their desires. Cleaning the system should start with keeping the house in order first. The day when I sworn as an esteemed Prime Minister of India, the largest democratic republic, I reassured myself that I will be committed to nation building. There were many issues and committees were formed by my team to address nation’s external and internal issues. Some of them being infiltration, drafting India’s foreign policy, trade development issues with US and Russia, agriculture, power, education, infrastructure etc and not to forget clean governance. Today after completing a term successfully ( if I can put in the words of our most powerful woman ) I sadly realized that again the reports related to the same problems are on my table.

Three years hence in 2014, I will be hailed in the Congress plenary for completing a decades rule. But for what ? Is it for protecting the number 272 again and again ? or is it for articulating the words thrown by the God Mother ?. after spending decades of my life in politics, now I realized the importance of Lord Krishna’s words; As per Bhagavad-Gita any cheat /devil can be dealt with illegal means to curb it. The intention is important and the means with which we attain the end goal is not always important. Now I can play politics by clubbing with the like minds across the nation to achieve my goal. I contacted an educated and intelligent MP from the south to raise his voice against the scams eating the telecom department. Thankfully he is instrumental in accomplishing the task assigned to him. I made arrangements with the supreme court Justice to quickly act in the issue and involve in every aspect of decision making by the government so that my own people don’t screw it by covering the issues. In almost a similar fashion, my crew is successfully bringing out each scam which filled the pockets of several bureaucrats and politicians.

But as I think like a typical politician “ after me what ?”, I realized that the system needs to be changed and a parallel system has to be constructed to monitor the democracy of the nation. I say the democracy of the nation since it is the excessive democracy that is protecting the culprits from punishments. Caste , religion, region etc is being used to get away from punishment and if questioned the fundamental right “Right to speech” is badly used to escape. Hence after critical thinking and wide consultations I realized that there is still one Gandhian, a living legend in our generation. Our team secretly met him and requested him to go for a Fast until death. We are confident that youth in India definitely joins him and media for its selfish ends try to inflate the scene as much as possible. This is the point I rely on as of today. Now that under the pressure from media, signs of revolt by the young generation who are the prosperous voters in the next 2014 elections made my party men fear for it and would agree to accept the recommendations and bills. In a similar way there are many issues to be dealt with in the nation and I am optimistic to see developed vote bank by next general elections. I say developed vote bank because it is the voters attitude that has to be changed. Leaders will change according to voters. Finally at 79 yrs I learnt that politics and development are similar words and they have to be dealt politically.

We, The people of India .......

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into..............

Is it a political sin committed by the ruling UPA or the lacklustre nature of Indians that caused the coalition to still rule the nation ? Indeed Corruption has become a mundane word in our vocable.It has become a daily dose of news which occupies the major share of the show time in TV Channels. The so called The Man with integrity, The party with secular image, The leaders with sovereign attitude are things of past if at all they existed any time. The series of scams that hit the UPA govt almost every other day in last 1 year neither marred the image of the congress party nor its leadership.It has severely dented the faith of middle class in the bureaucracy if not democracy.

The recent Cash for Vote scandal ( on which BJP has fought in the House many times) brought out by wikileaks, 2G scam, CWG, in action on Madhu Koda, Bofors case, letting free the culprits of Bhopal Gas tragedy, very slow and sensitive judicial system which is still not in a position to punish terrorists in hand, worst handling of telangana issue and specifically Kashmir issue etc are the clear indicators that the time has ripen for the people to take action. The govt in rule UPA II has done many political sins to form the govt and especially to remain in govt. It does not have a moral right to stay in the govt any longer. A stringent action against the corrupt is to be taken added to the establishing of an Independent body to take charge of corruption issues. For example Lokayuktha, Jan lokpal bill has to be formed immediately.If one looks at the middle east, Pakistan, Burma there is a strong rebellion attitude bursted out of all the citizens on the govt system and rulers. Thankfully today we have enough reasons to come on roads and protest. But We, The people of India are very much interested in Fundamental rights than fundamental duties. The uneducated slum dwellers does not understand the intricacies of corruption and the educated fools are content with what they are.

My anguish is not on the political leaders but on the people of India for not even bothered about the implications. While a few think why to pay taxes as it goes to politicians' pockets, some think to leave the nation and settle abroad and some others got the Chaltha hein, hum kya karengey, aam admi attitude. The only thing any one can do is support the clean parties with clean image and leaders with long term vision. Utilize the Right to Vote, Right to information acts which the same govt has provided. Realize who the real leader is and follow them. Don't just read the news papers as they publish - since most of the space in local media is bought by politicians. Try to develop an ideology, be it left / right / center. Learn to spend the time first on understanding issues. The dangerous part is we are satisfied with what we have and not bothered about our taxes. We may learn that our rulers are better than Middle east's and thats why less protests are seen on roads. But We Indians are far behind the middle east nations in not being responsible for the nation. This is a fact....!