Srinagar, Oct 4 (PTI): Former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Sunday claimed that India had become isolated amid a “phenomenal change” in the international order, alleging that its foreign policy appeared directionless and lacked morality.
The veteran Congress leader said India “seemed to have been left behind” rather than being part of that phenomenal change.
He further asserted that India needs to make peace with Pakistan and resolve boundary issues with China.
“After the Second World War, 80 years later, the entire international order, that had been set up through the United Nations, is now undergoing a phenomenal change,” Aiyar said while speaking at the 5th Halla Bolle conclave here. “Nobody is asking for us. We try and enter somebody’s table, but I do not think India has ever, in the 85 years that I have lived on this planet, ever been as isolated as it is today,” he added. Aiyar said India’s foreign policy used to be based on morality, but the current BJP government is “confused”.
Claiming that there was a difference between the India of Jawaharlal Nehru and that of the last 12 years, Aiyar said, “The present regime wants to bring about uniformity on the basis of Hindutva.”
“It says that everyone in this country is a Hindu: that you are a Muslim-Hindu, that you are a Christian-Hindu, that you are a Sikh-Hindu, that you are a Jewish-Hindu,” he said.
“So, they are confused in their mind as to what is the Hindustan that they want, and we were clear in our minds as to what is the Hindustan we should seek,” he added.
Asserting that the country was “completely isolated” because there is “no morality left”, the Congress leader said there is only transactionalism.
“(Prime Minister) (Narendra) Modi seems to think that the more times he is hugged by (US President) Donald Trump, the greater is India’s strength. He thinks that Viksit Bharat is the only way of becoming a prominent country,” Aiyar said.
He claimed that the prime minister has no idea that “if you are a good country, then others will follow you”.
“If you are a powerful country, then like China is trying to oust America, you will be ousted. And to oust you, there are a number of countries right around us, beginning with Pakistan, continuing with China, and extending down even into Bangladesh, who do not want you to be a hegemon in South Asia,” he said.
“So that, I think, is the current challenge of Indian foreign policy, and it is not even being addressed by the Ministry of External Affairs,” he added.
Criticising Modi’s visit to Tel Aviv ahead of the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Aiyar said the country’s foreign policy has both lost its morality and sense of direction.
“The Indian prime minister, the successor to Jawaharlal Nehru, goes to Tel Aviv for what? Can’t we buy our arms somewhere else? And who is his host? A man whom the International Criminal Court has declared a war criminal, and against whom proceedings are going on now in the International Court of Justice regarding whether he is a genocidal maniac or not,” he said.
The former Union minister said this relationship is “the proof positive of a foreign policy that has both lost its morality and lost its sense of direction”.
He also asserted that the United States was “collapsing because it was backing Israel”.
“Iran has established that even if it is isolated in the world, it has the inner resilience to stand up to not just bullying, but vicious bombing, which has eliminated its leadership, eliminated about 200 children like these children sitting here in a single attack,” he said.
“Trump claimed last year that after his bombs that finished the nuclear facilities, that Iran was no longer a nuclear power. And today, a year and a half later, he is saying that his biggest objective is to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear (power). He is a lunatic,” Aiyar added.
The Congress veteran said India has “nothing” to offer the world today.
“For the first 10 or 12 years of our independence, we had Gandhi’s message to give, we had Nehru’s message to give. So, it is only if we have something to offer strategically that can form the basis of strategic autonomy. If you want to be strategically autonomous by being a great military power, which is also the greatest importer of arms from outside, you are living in an illusion,” he said.
“You have to have a strategic contribution to make, he said, adding, “We had a strategic contribution, and therefore we had strategic autonomy. Now, we do not have a strategic offer to make, and therefore, our strategic autonomy is an illusion.”
The veteran Congress leader said India has nothing that would enable it to become a transactional entity.
“If we have one very huge contribution to give, and that would be to give South Asia a voice which matters. And for that South Asian voice to arise, India has to make peace with Pakistan. India also has to resolve its border issues with China,” he said.
