Half a century after his death, VK Krishna Menon still refuses to fade into history. To some, he was abrasive and intolerant of dissent. To others, he was the uncompromising conscience of India’s foreign policy. Love him or loathe him, one truth stands tall: Menon gave India a voice of defiance at a time when most newly independent nations struggled to be heard.
In London, he built networks among intellectuals and policymakers, persuading even sceptical Britons to rethink empire. In New York, at the United Nations, he delivered thunderous speeches that rattled Washington and unnerved London. At home, he drafted the original Preamble of the Constitution and served as Defence Minister, shaping India’s destiny in moments of triumph and tragedy.
Today, as the world slips back into the logic of power blocs—with Washington and Beijing locking horns, Moscow defying the West, and smaller states caught in the middle—Menon’s warnings sound prophetic. His central message, that sovereignty is not a concession of the powerful but a right of the weak, speaks directly to the dilemmas of 2025.
Of course, Menon was far from perfect. His acerbic style alienated allies, and his role as Defence Minister during the 1962 war with China remains a dark stain on his record. Many saw him as arrogant, even insufferable. Yet it was precisely that arrogance—a refusal to flatter the mighty—that made him unshakable in his convictions.
He was a paradox: brilliant but combative, visionary but flawed. Perhaps that is why he remains so fascinating today.
Rebel on the world stage
The Kashmir marathon: In his legendary eight-hour speech at the UN Security Council in 1957, Menon defended India’s stand on Kashmir with unflinching energy.
“We do not accept that the existence of great powers must determine the fate of weaker states,” he declared.
Delegates were exhausted, but the point was unmistakable: India would not be lectured on its sovereignty. The New York Times described him as "a formidable orator with an acerbic tongue".
Taking on the US: When John Foster Dulles justified US arms to Pakistan as a defence against the Soviet Union, Menon delivered the quip that still draws applause: “The world has yet to see an American gun that can only shoot in one direction.” It was the kind of line that made headlines from Delhi to London and earned him the reputation of being India’s sting at the United Nations.
Vietnam, Goa, and nuclear monopoly: Whether it was condemning U.S. intervention in Vietnam, dismissing Western criticism of India’s liberation of Goa as “the last sighs of imperialism,” or railing against the nuclear stranglehold of superpowers, Menon played the role of gadfly, irritant, and truth-teller all at once. The Manchester Guardian summed it up well: “One may disagree with Menon, but one cannot deny his ability to expose the hypocrisies of power.”
The Menon Doctrine: Lessons for 2025
Non-alignment in a polarised world: In Menon’s time, the world was carved between Washington and Moscow. Today it is divided between Washington and Beijing, with Russia pressing from the sidelines. India, like many nations, is pressured to “choose sides.” Menon would have bristled at the idea. For him, non-alignment was not fence-sitting but active resistance to domination.
In 2025, India’s careful stance on the Ukraine war—refusing to condemn Moscow outright while engaging the West—bears the stamp of Menon’s logic: preserve autonomy, do not become a pawn.
Sovereignty of smaller nations: Menon’s insistence that weak states must not be dictated to resonates in Africa and Latin America today. From Ghana resisting US–China competition for its resources to Argentina negotiating IMF debt, the struggle for independence is no longer about flags but about economic survival. Menon’s voice would have been loud in such debates: sovereignty cannot be mortgaged for loans or alliances.
The new faces of imperialism: Military colonization may be over, but imperialism has mutated. Technology monopolies, debt diplomacy, and military bases now enforce influence. Whether it is Chinese “debt traps” in Sri Lanka, US military footprints in the Pacific, or European control over African minerals, Menon’s critique of “neo-imperialism” feels uncannily modern.
Diplomacy with backbone: Menon showed that a developing country could stand tall at the UN without apology. In a world where diplomacy often gets reduced to photo-ops and bland communiqués, his unapologetic bluntness is a reminder that moral courage can matter as much as military might.
Menon’s enduring relevance
Menon was a man of his time—and a man ahead of it. He warned that independence without dignity was hollow, that neutrality without courage was cowardice, and that sovereignty was not to be granted by great powers but asserted by the weak.
As the world in 2025 confronts a new Cold War, the rise of neo-imperialism, and a renewed scramble for influence in the Global South, Menon’s ghost still walks the corridors of diplomacy. His speeches may be history, but his questions are not.
And perhaps that is his enduring relevance: he reminds India—and the world—that the courage to speak truth to power is itself a weapon of sovereignty.
(The author is the ex-CMD of FACT and was the secretary to V K Krishna Menon from 1971-1974)
