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A SEISMIC shift has occurred in Indian foreign policy. Nothing has demonstrated the change more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s selection of the firebrand Sushma Swaraj as his external affairs minister. It is as daring a step as the nomination by President Obama in 2008 of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state — a fearless opponent tamed into a feared subordinate.
Since 1947, with a few exceptions, Indian prime ministers felt comfortable with an external minister of his/her choice only when they themselves occupied that post, eg Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi. Interestingly, non-Congress parties had no such qualms. They trusted their colleagues, which is why the names of I.K. Gujral, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha appear later on the MEA’s walls.
The tenure of Gujral saw the enunciation of his doctrine, addressed initially to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives. The two countries prominent by their absence were Pakistan and Afghanistan. Gradually, that doctrine gained acceptance as an aspiration, if not a commitment, by all Saarc countries. It found consummation on May 26, 2014, when the Saarc leaders or their representatives submerged their differences and converged on New Delhi to attend Mr Modi’s swearing-in.
It was more than just a display of regional good neighbourliness. Although an EU-style integration in this volatile area is still light years away, their attendance served as a message addressed to a number of audiences. The Sri Lankans have a Tamil constituency to consider, the Nepalese trade imperatives. Nawaz Sharif decided sagely to go, bearing an olive branch, not a swagger stick.
Unlike Modi, Swaraj has had a smooth ride.
Whatever languages they speak at home, the Saarc leaders addressed their Indian host-public in a common lingua. Each Saarc member had come as an independent state, not from an admission of regional inferiority, and that the word cooperation was not an anagram for hegemony.
Modi’s plebeian coronation took place like many of his political rallies, in the open, on the footpath, except that on this occasion it was on the footsteps of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was a searing summer afternoon. Whoever chose the location had more than the number or comfort of the invitees in mind. The solemnity of such occasions is supposed to override heat exhaustion.
Any complaining attendee would have been well advised to read Modi’s life. It is a supra-Gandhian exercise in self-control and self-abnegation. Modi eats alone, abjures salt and spices, bathes in cold water regardless of the season, and over many months has never slept in the same house twice. He will not be the first sanyasi to enter 3 Race Course Road. He will though be the first to occupy it.
His pilgrimage to New Delhi began in 1967 when, at the age of 17, Modi left his home in Vadnagar (Gujarat) to travel throughout India. He returned unannounced two years later, tasted his mother’s cooking and left again, never to return.
Working his way up as a parachak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he put his party before his own ambitions. His loyalty to it remained unshakeable, despite being ostracised by an ungrateful BJP high command after a particularly successful yatra from Kanyakumari by Kashmir. He was forced to spend years in exile, like Deng Xiaoping, and like Deng, he survived and rebounded, vaulting over his detractors.
Sushma Swaraj has never had to chew such bitter herbs of defeat. She became a state cabinet minister in Harayana at the age of 25. Deftly, she moved up the party ranks, and served in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. In 2009, before she was 60, she became BJP’s leader of the opposition. Live coverage of Lok Sabha sessions gave her irrepressible voice a national reach her opponents now rue.
Experienced in parliamentary procedure (Modi had never seen the inside of the Lok Sabha before his election as prime minister), adamantine in her beliefs, she will be his Chamunda Devi, the Mahisha-mardini sent into the field to battle against the asuras of this imperfect world.
Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh differed often, especially on Pakistan. There is unlikely to be a disconnect between Modi and his external affairs minister. She has made up his mind. Their focus will be radial — on China, Russia and then the US — in that order, with India at its epicentre.
As an adversary, Sushma Swaraj is known to give no quarter. She has conceded an eighth though by having Modi’s speeches translated into Chinese. Her gesture had a Nixonian touch to it. For wasn’t it president Nixon who admitted to premier Zhou Enlai some 40 years ago, in February 1972, that ‘we believe your interest here is far greater than ours?’
The writer is an author and art historian.
Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2014
