Diplomacy is not a game for amateurs, but for hardened professionals who master the art of converting failure into success. The recent episode in which Pakistan outmanoeuvred India in the global battle of perceptions makes this truth painfully, even humiliatingly, clear. Well-spoken and well-turned-out diplomats turned semi-politicians like S Jaishankar may have delivered intellectually superior speeches that win applause in think-tank halls, yet they have failed to secure for India its due status in the global order.
Jaishankar may dazzle seminar rooms with erudite eloquence, but on the world stage he is not taken seriously precisely because he lacks the domestic political mandate that only an elected leader can command. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally engaged with over a dozen world leaders in a frantic push for de-escalation, Islamabad, long dismissed in New Delhi as a “failed state” harbouring terrorists, has stolen the global spotlight.
The opposition has seized the moment, launching a blistering assault on the government’s foreign policy, accusing career diplomats of playing safe, visibly aligned with the West, and forever angling for a better posting and squandering India’s hard-won stature as the voice of the Global South. The charge is stark: insulated from domestic political realities and wedded to a rigid, pro-West tilt, these career diplomats have left India sidelined, while Pakistan’s Field Marshall Asim Munir brokers talks from Islamabad.
An unintended depoliticisation of foreign policy under a career diplomat-turned-minister has led to major erosion in India’s decision-making role in international affairs. Never before has an Indian Foreign Service officer been inducted straight into the Union Cabinet as external affairs minister without previous experience in domestic politics. Jaishankar, the first such IFS officer, is also the longest-serving external affairs minister after Jawaharlal Nehru. Given full freedom to manage diplomacy since 2019, he has largely chosen his trusted IFS cadre to navigate the most complex international conflicts. He remains India’s most-travelled external affairs minister. He has undertaken 150 international trips across 87 countries.
In addition, his being envoy to both the US and China could not compensate for the deficiency in connecting domestic preferences with diplomacy. Unlike the long line of political heavyweights who shaped foreign policy with electoral mandates and domestic instinct like Swaran Singh, P V Narasimha Rao, Pranab Mukherjee, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Sushma Swaraj, unfortunately, Jaishankar operates without that political grounding. Historically, external affairs ministers brought coalition realism, party networks and public accountability to the table. On the contrary, Jaishankar’s bureaucratic precision, while articulate, has created an insulated echo chamber disconnected from raw power dynamics.
Despite Prime Minister Modi’s direct calls with Trump, Masoud Pezeshkian, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Gulf leaders, and India’s BRICS presidency, Tehran chose not to entrust New Delhi with mediation, citing India’s overt tilt towards Israel and the US. What explains this stunning reversal? Diplomats failed to convert Modi’s powerful outreach into a diplomatic dividend. And hardcore BJP members dealing with foreign affairs see Jaishankar as emblematic of the problem. He is brilliant on protocol and multilateral forums, yet politically emasculated, lacking the electoral legitimacy and raw political instinct required to fuel Prime Minister Modi’s signature ‘huglomacy’ style of diplomacy.
Jaishankar marathon travels to dozens of countries may have earned air-miles, but have failed to forge the close, personal relationships with global leaders that Modiplomacy demands. He has handpicked Indian ambassadors and high commissioners to key nations who mirror his own cautious, protocol-driven style rather than the aggressive, outcome-oriented approach displayed by Pakistani diplomats.
Despite India holding the BRICS presidency at present, other member nations are clearly not in line with its restrained approach. Iran has pressed for stronger condemnation; China and Russia have taken overtly pro-Tehran positions; and Gulf members are hedging. Jaishankar’s diplomats openly feel that he and his carefully-chosen vague stance have pushed India deep into the pro-America camp. This tilt has eroded the very reputation as a neutral and powerful nation that Modi had painstakingly built over a decade. Jaishankar always accompanies the Prime Minister on foreign trips. Along with the privileged cadre surrounding him, Jaishankar has effectively insulated the Prime Minister from reaching out directly to other stakeholders like opposition leaders, business voices, military strategists and regional influencers who could have injected the domestic political realism Modi’s global connectivity requires.
As a fatal consequence, it has alienated traditional partners in the Global South and even within BRICS, leaving India isolated precisely when its leadership was most needed. Pakistan’s mediation coup has ‘re-hyphenated’ India with its neighbour in global perceptions, something New Delhi has fought for years to avoid.
The hour of reckoning has arrived. Pakistan’s improbable rise as mediator in a conflict touching India’s closest partners is not a fleeting embarrassment. It’s the brutal verdict on a decade of depoliticised diplomacy that has hollowed out India’s global leverage. What was meant to be Modi’s crowning achievement positioning India as vishwaguru, a civilisational bridge-builder for a fractured world, now risks becoming a cautionary tale of untapped potential.
The time for introspection is over; the time for surgery has arrived. Modi, who still commands the trust of the Indian voter and his party, must now reconstruct the foreign policy establishment with the same ruthlessness he once applied to domestic politics. The system needs an infusion of strategic thinkers who combine diplomatic expertise with deep roots in domestic politics, economic realism and hard-nosed geopolitics. Political interlocutors with business acumen, battle-tested military strategists, and public intellectuals unafraid of challenging conventional wisdom should be moved to key capitals and policymaking posts. India’s diplomats must be judged not by the elegance of their cables or the polish of their panel appearances, but by hard metrics: narrative wins, investment flows and strategic leverage secured in crisis.
Jaishankar’s 150-country marathon and dozen-plus US visits must be audited line by line not for mileage, but for the friendships, concessions and access they failed to deliver. The choice before India is existential. Either she reclaims foreign policy as the sharp instrument of national will and domestic realism, or watches from the sidelines as lesser powers rewrite the rules of the 21st century. Vishwaguru cannot be proclaimed; it must be earned through a diplomacy that is politically rooted, strategically audacious and ruthlessly results-driven. India’s destiny as a true pole in the multipolar order hangs in the balance.
Read all columns by Prabhu Chawla
Prabhu Chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
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