By Subhranil Basu Ray
21 Jun , 2016
Non-Alignment has its roots in Mr Jawaharlal Nehru’s foreign policy. However it has undergone change under successive prime ministers, mainly because of the change in Environment and to maintain India’s importance, relevance in the comity of nations.
The pro-Soviet tilt of Nehru and his successors including Indira Gandhi has been questioned by several Foreign Policy experts. They ask the questions – Did India really benefit?
The time span from first tenure of Mr J Nehru till beginning of NDA government in 1998 can be classified as period of Non-Alignment version 1, while Mr Vajpayee’s tenure and Mr Manmohan Singh’s first innings as Prime Minister (UPA-1) saw India follow Non-Alignment version 2 while under Mr Modi it is Non-Alignment version 3.
Non Alignment version 1.0
When Mr Nehru initiated this doctrine the idea was that India should be unaligned with the objective that she would have an Independent Foreign policy. The were two power blocs at that time namely NATO led by USA and Warsaw Pact led by Soviet Union. Joining either of the two blocs would have meant that India would have almost no independence in terms of Foreign policy.
However there were problems associated with this doctrine. India being a newly independent nation was very economically weak. Her defences were weak considering that her arch rival Pakistan was born at the same time by partition of its territory.
Although India was officially non-aligned, there was a marked pro- Soviet tilt in her policies. The tilt was evident in the way Nehru promoted State Undertakings and built the Indian Economy on the Soviet model where the Economy was controlled by a Centralized structure. The Centralized planning structure – Planning Commission resulted in lop-sided development where states having Congress Governments were favoured with huge funds (irrespective of how inefficient and corrupt they were) and others were deprived of it.
The use of public funds to create giant Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) meant that social sectors like Education, Health, Infrastructure spending i.e. Roads. Ports etc suffered when the need for their development was paramount.
Nehru was so complacent that despite several early warning signals of Chinese aggression he and his Defence Minister Krishna Menon kept the Armed forces unprepared as per the Henderson – Brooks Report.
The PSUs themselves were huge inefficient hulks providing employment to some people but could only survive in the protected environment in which they were created.
Defacto Soviet Ally: Did India really benefit?
The pro-Soviet tilt of Nehru and his successors including Indira Gandhi has been questioned by several Foreign Policy experts. They ask the questions – Did India really benefit?
The exact intention behind such a move is not known but one possible motive could be to have a Superpower support in case of a war with rivals.
The Soviets did not provide support in any of the wars that India fought till date except the 1971 war.
The Soviet non-cooperation was starkly evident during the 1962 Sino – Indian war when India needed small arms, heavy artillery to aircraft. The Soviets refused to sell required arms knowing fully well that she was not equipped to withstand Chinese aggression.
Nehru was so complacent that despite several early warning signals of Chinese aggression he and his Defence Minister Krishna Menon kept the Armed forces unprepared as per the Henderson – Brooks Report. He should have been aware that the Soviets would never support India against their Communist ally.
By October 28 1962, the Soviets had refused to supply the promised Mig-21s, signalling that USSR had decided to side with Mao Zedong.
Despite Nehru’s monumental policy failure and that of the so-called Indo-Soviet friendship, Lal Bahadur Shastri started looking to the Soviets for military support and this policy was continued by Indira Gandhi.
Nehru hastily reached out to John F Kennedy to supply arms at the height of Sino-Indian war as mentioned in How Kennedy supported India against China in 1962 war.
He also requested that Kennedy should not ask him to join a US group like SEATO in return for the arms as that would expose his faulty non-alignment policy and the so called Indo – Soviet friendship.
Although India lost entire Aksai Chin in the war and part of Arunachal Pradesh, by the 4th Week, China was aware of the huge quantities of arms pouring into India from USA and Commonwealth countries. China was afraid that USA might join the war on India side apart from the $500 million weapons package approved by it. USA had also warned Gen Ayub Khan of Pakistan against any attempt to capture Kashmir taking advantage of the Sino-Indian war.
The USA was considering the use of Nuclear deterrent against China should the Chinese make deep inroads into Indian territory as stated In 1962, India and US were ‘that’ close to becoming allies in a war against China
Despite Nehru’s monumental policy failure and that of the so-called Indo-Soviet friendship, Lal Bahadur Shastri started looking to the Soviets for military support and this policy was continued by Indira Gandhi.
The Soviets found a good market for their arms in India and were quite happy to create dependence on their weapons by providing subsidy on it. India has to pay for the Soviet subsidies even today to Russia in hard currency.
In Indo-Soviet relationship we can say that the Soviets were the Rider and India was the horse.
The Soviets did support India in the 1971 Bangladesh war but that was because India had purchased large quantities of arms from them and their use was to be against Pakistan.
So the Non-alignment under Nehru was a faulty one in which India became a Defacto Soviet ally which made India dependent on Soviet arms for no good reason. The Soviets were the masters who decided whether to help India or not at times of war. Their betrayal in the 1960′s led to India’s worst ever defeat at the hands of China. However successive Congress prime ministers continued to subservient to their Soviet masters probably due to socialist, left -leaning ideology or for some other reason, which did no good to our country. It in fact harmed the country immensely.
In Indo-Soviet relationship we can say that the Soviets were the Rider and India was the horse.
Non Alignment version 2.0
The arrival of the NDA government under Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1998 heralded changes in economy and Foreign policy. His government speeded up the Economic Liberalization and Free market reforms. China had adopted Economic Liberalization since 1978 and dumped the Communist Economy model long backbit was maintaining only the Communist political structure. Since China was growing rapidly and ahead in free market reforms the government of the day had to pay attention to the economy which was growing at the Hindu rate of growth thanks to the previous inept Congress governments. It also tried to broad base the Foreign policy by balancing out the pro-Soviet tilt. India’s relation with western countries led by USA had taken a severe beating because of the spurious non-alignment, erroneous policies of Congress PM’s and they were unwilling to cooperate with India even on minor issues.
Russia is increasingly becoming a Chinese Satellite nation and India needs to maintain distance from it. Russia needs India more than vice-versa…
In a short span of time Mr Vajpayee and his ministers were able to convince USA that India was ready to do business on equal terms without preference for any bloc or country. The foundation laid during his regime led to a long-term beneficial agreement for India i.e. India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement although it was actually signed during Dr Manmohan Singh’s regime.
Non Alignment version 3.0
There is a famous saying in Foreign policy circles which says “There are no permanent friends or foes in International relations but only permanent interests of a nation”.
This means that friends or foes may change over time but a nation’s interest is more or less permanent.
Some analyst say that India is moving from non-alignment to multi-alignment and is aligning with both USA and Russia.
This is a flawed observation as Russia is not a Superpower any longer in the 21st century and therefore India doesn’t even need to think of aligning with it leave alone do it.
Moreover Russia is increasingly becoming a Chinese Satellite nation and India needs to maintain distance from it. Russia needs India more than vice-versa; it wants to sell arms to India in order to keep its economy afloat. Arms sales as we know is a hangover of non-alignment v1 when Mr Nehru and other Congress Prime minister’s made India dependent on Soviet arms and tried to mislead the Indian public by talking about Indo-Soviet friendship when there was none.
USA is the opportunity because it is still a Superpower, the only Superpower in the world and the largest Economy in the world. It never tried to grab Indian territory or act in a manner that would reduce India’s influence in Asia.
Tenets of new policy
What are the tenets of this new policy being pursued by Modi Administration?
If we were to follow the statements of Hon’ble Foreign minister, secretary and other experts the following are the main tenets of this policy:
Align in the face of grave existential threat or great Economic Opportunity.
Maintain a foreign policy conducive to achievement of first Objective i.e. Mitigation of existential threat or availing of Economic Opportunity.
So which is the existential threat or the Economic Opportunity we are talking about.
The threat is obviously the one from China. We all remember 1962 right? Even those of us who were not born at that time like me feel the deep scars that the war left on the nation. Since then China has become more ambitious, it wants to convert South China Sea into its private Lake and also rule the Indian Ocean to the detriment of India. This apart it also wants to grab India’s Arunachal Pradesh and a slice of Jammu & Kashmir.
There is no doubt regarding the fact that China is an existential threat to India.
Which is the Economic Opportunity?
USA is the opportunity because it is still a Superpower, the only Superpower in the world and the largest Economy in the world. It never tried to grab Indian territory or act in a manner that would reduce India’s influence in Asia.
The naysayers are either Leftists or Left-leaning intellectuals like in Congress party who don’t have any objection to Alignment but their objection is regard to the fact that Alignment is with USA and not a Communist nation.
On the other it helped with arms and manpower in 1962 when India faced existential threat from China.
Meaningful Alignment
Now that we have understood which country is a grave existential threat and which one is an great Economic Opportunity, the time is now ripe for a meaningful alignment.
I stress on the word meaningful because there is a deep strategic purpose underlying this alignment which serves the country interests in a befitting manner. This is quite unlike the alignment with the Soviets in the 1950′s when neither India nor the Soviets needed each other, but Mr Nehru foolishly pushed India into it with the disastrous consequences that we saw in 1962.
Although India has not aligned with the USA it has taken baby steps in that direction by negotiating the LSA which will be signed in due course.
There are some naysayers who ask” Why should India abandon non-alignment when it means sacrificing India’s Independent Foreign policy.”
These people need to answer a few questions:
Why they didn’t have any objection when India was aligned to the Soviets?
Is Independent Foreign policy more important than Independence and survival of the nation?
Can a nation following non-alignment not give it up if that suits its larger interest?
The naysayers are either Leftists or Left-leaning intellectuals like in Congress party who don’t have any objection to Alignment but their objection is regard to the fact that Alignment is with USA and not a Communist nation.
Therefore we should ignore such objections. They are not in the country’s interest but in the interest of Communist nations like Russia, China.
…a very wise decision of the Modi Administration to become an US ally as it will help India fulfil its critical needs in areas like power, technology and defence equipment.
Conclusion
Thus it is clear that India’s alignment with the USA and its allies is with a deep strategic purpose which serves the nation’s interest in the best possible manner. We have seen examples of that in the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement of 2005. India is able to import Uranium for its power generation needs as a direct consequence of it. Countries like Canada, Australia are ready to export Uranium due to the NSG waiver granted to member countries. Now even more interesting things are going to happen like NSG membership, Wassenaar Agreement and Australia Group membership, all with the support of USA.As I write this piece, India has applied for NSG membership and has won membership of Missile Technology Control Regime(MTCR).
It is therefore a very wise decision of the Modi Administration to become an US ally as it will help India fulfil its critical needs in areas like power, technology and defence equipment. It is only after India fulfils its basic needs that it can hope to become a developed nation economically and only then the road to become Asian Superpower becomes wider and smoother.
President Barack Obama has characterised the India-US relationship as a “defining partnership of the 21st century”, while Modi has termed the partnership as a “natural alliance”.
Indeed the world has hardly seen such a kind of partnership which has so much benefit in store for each of the partners.
© Copyright 2016 Indian Defence Review
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