Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed charge of his office, the Indian diplomacy has gained dizzying momentum. No longer can the South Block be accused of suffering from ‘policy paralysis’. In a short span of time, the new prime minister has set a scorching pace. His detractors at one time snidely remarked that he loved the Diaspora so much that he was most of the time an NRI. Let’s not be distracted by inanities.
It can’t be denied that he has single-handedly accomplished a dramatic image turnover for India. As Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has written in his recommendatory comments, “The world perceives India very differently than it did two years ago.”
Partisan critics continue to crow that Modi thrives on ‘optics and atmospherics’ but are grudgingly conceding that while it is early to turn in the report card it’s time to take a serious look at The Modi Doctrine.
As MJ Akbar, the Minister of State for External Affairs, has observed in his prefatory piece “…Modi’s vigorous foreign policy is inspired by the central theme of his vision for governance… Every horizon is a defined objective rather than merely nebulous a destination.”
The volume under review titled The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in Indian Foreign Policy is a collection of brief essays, penned not by critics but by scholars, diplomats—Indian and foreign—distinguished NRIs with a sprinkling of unabashed supporters who had been active in his election campaign. The editors are historians, specialists and strategic analysts of repute and have tried to put together a selection that can be useful for researchers and readers alike.
The Finance Minister has commended them generously for accomplishing the task speedily. However, it is difficult to get over the feeling that trying to be first off the bloc some compromises have been made.
Not all contributions display the same academic rigour or nuanced stylistic elegance. Some pieces stick out like a sore thumb. One can’t easily understand what a dated piece such as ‘Cleaning Rivers in India: Experience From Bavaria/Germany’ is doing here. There is a sentence that laboriously tries to connect—“Is India under Prime Minister Modi on the way to the latter (sustainable way of life) by the Clean Ganga programme?”
The article on Mongolian-Indian encounter too reproduces more of well known historical details rather than focus on current concern. Only a few contributors have taken the trouble to enrich their substantial and thought-provoking pieces with references and footnotes while others have been content with 1,200-odd words in conversational manner. Professor Ramesh Thakur, Ambassadors Takenori Horimoto, P Stobdan and Satish Chandra manage to engage the reader in a stimulating manner as they combine narration with analysis and flag points that have significance for policy formulation.
Particularly glaring are the omissions. No Raja Mandala can be usefully mapped that leaves cartographic space occupied by Russia, the USA and the EU as blank. Ditto for the turbulent Arabia. Surely, in Kautilyanesque scheme of concentric circles, Iran and Indonesia are encountered before more distant Central Asian countries.
It’s reassuring to be told that Indian diplomacy under Modi has acquired a ‘go-getting edge’ and that it is undeniably “…increasingly constructive, and outcome-oriented, seeking to position India in a higher international orbit…” but one reigns thirsting for a really energetic debate.
The subtitle of the book arouses expectations that the ‘Modi Doctrine’ prioritises disruptive change over continuity. Modi himself is never tired of emphasising that it is imperative to balance our civilisational values with pragmatism. How one wishes that the editors had convinced the handpicked pool of exceptionally talented contributors to exert more seriously in examining the shifting paradigm!