Dwelling at length about the impact of the Prime Minister in India's foreign policy since the advent of the NDA government, former BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav argued that New Delhi has been able to de-hyphenate from other countries and establish stand-alone bilateral relations with others.
“India's de-hyphenation is well established now in world leaders making standalone visits to New Delhi,” Madhav told Prabhu Chawla, Editorial Director, The New Indian Express, and author and senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai in TNIE Expressions, a series of live webcasts with people who matter.
He stressed that the PM by first undertaking a standalone visit to Tel Aviv demonstrated that India can carry her bilateral relations without being weighed down by any other factor.
Yet, he stressed, India continues to support the cause of the Palestinians.
The Indo-US ties have evolved in the recent past to work for the mutual interests of the two countries, said Madhav, a Board member of India Foundation.
Madhav noted that the Democrats in the run up to the US Presidential elections had taken a certain position on Jammu and Kashmir. There is a difference in politics over an issue and diplomacy, he said.
“India is a sovereign country, and there could be a need for an extra effort to remove any misunderstanding on any issue through diplomatic means. In diplomacy, we reach out to each other.”
Emphasising that India is the fifth largest economy in the world, Madhav asserted that the country's profile has gone up by several notches during the tenure of Modi. In this regard, he stressed the importance of India being a member of various international groups, including the Shanghai Cooperation Orgnaisation and G-20.
On China's deep pockets influencing India's neighbourhood, Madhav said Beijing in the recent past had not been able to help elect its nominees to various bodies of the United Nations, which suggested the limitations of the financial power. India and Nepal had several ups and downs in the bilateral relations, he conceded.
Madhav disagreed with the criticism that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar's bureaucratic background and a lack of political grinding could have limiting influence in helming the affairs of the Ministry of External Affairs, which in the past had seen the political luminaries, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pranab Mukherjee in the office.
“Jaishankar has much expertise in foreign relations, and the analogy of him not being from the political background cannot affect the effectiveness of the office of the MEA,” he said, giving the example of Kamal Harris, an attorney, now becoming the US Vice-President.