What are the main differences in the foreign policy of Nehru and that of Modi?
After the successful hosting of 9th Asian Games in 1982 at New Delhi, Indian capital hosted another mega event in March 1983. India invited all global leaders to attend 7th NAM (Non Align Movement) Summit. Since India was the founding member of NAM under PM Nehru, Indian government of Indira Gandhi used this NAM event to be a global event just like recently PM Modi hosted G20 Summit 2023 on September 9-10 in a grand style.
Just like recent G20 2023 event by PM Modi at newly revamped Pragati Maidan, elaborate expenses were made to beautify New Delhi in March 1983 which hosted 190 plus country leaders or their senior representatives. Cold war era was at its peak that time and India invited both NATO (western block) and Warsaw pact (Soviet block) countries along with all developing countries. This was an excellent opportunity to show India’s leadership among third world countries and Indira Gandhi completely dominated this global meet. The Vigyan Bhavan main hall was full with 1200 international delegates and all annexure halls had various meets and press conferences. The international coverage of this NAM 1983 event was also good just as seen recently for G20 2023 meet where all international media, including western and Chinese media, hailed India’s hosting of G20 2023.
But there was a big controversy during NAM 1983. India did not invited two countries – South Africa and Israel to this global event. The reasons are easy to understand. South Africa was then an apartheid state which was blacklisted by many countries. India considered Israel an aggressor state which illegally took Palestine land. USA which is a close ally of Israel, protested India’s decision of not inviting Israel and didn’t participate in NAM 1983 event officially which strained India-USA relations further. India USA relations reached rock bottom during Indira Gandhi era. But what is the reason for India’s anti-Israel and pro-Palestine stand since Nehru era?
Gandhiji followed Musl!m appeasement policy throughout Indian freedom movement era as seen regarding his support for Khilafat movement, Moplah riots of Kerala, Noakhali and other Bengal riots, Direct Action Day Calcutta riots etc. A part of that strategy was blindly supporting Palestine by PM Nehru since independence. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi continued this flawed policy as part of vote bank politics while Palestine always supported Pakistan on Kashmir. So, congress always gave higher priority to vote bank politics over national security issues. Needless to say, congress era (Indira, Rajiv, PVNR and Dr. MMS) saw high level of communal riots, bomb blasts, act of terr0rism and jeh@di crimes.
India’s foreign policy of Israel-Palestine issue under congress was something similar to current policy of Malaysia which recognized Hamas despite their recent sudden attack on Israel. Malaysia will always support terr0rist organisation Hamas just for domestic vote bank and Islam!c brotherhood policy. Same is for Indian congress’s jeh@di foreign policy which was initiated by Nehru. In the 1950s and 1960s, it suited India to be seen as ‘Gandhian’ ideology of anti-colonial and pro-Palestinian. This ensured India would get access to Arab oil and Pakistan would not get the support of the Arab world on the question of Kashmir. But the reality is Arabs always offered India oil as per international price and refused Asian discount (but gave discount to rich western countries) and supported Pakistan on Kashmir. In 1947, India voted against the partition of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly. India was the first non‐Arab state to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. India was also one of the first countries to recognize the State of Palestine in 1988. India rewarded Palestine leaders with peace awards, cash awards and aeroplane to fly across the world as part of appeasement. All these are part of disastrous Nehruvian foreign policy of friendship with hostile and useless countries which are communist and Islam!sts. On the other hand, while India recognized the creation of Israel in 1950, they did not establish diplomatic relations until 1992 under PM PVNR, and previous Indian governments mostly kept dealings with Israel under wraps keeping Arab concerns. India was also the first country to recognize communist (PRC) China.
Fast forward to 27 October 2023, India was among the countries that did not back a U.N. resolution calling for a ‘humanitarian truce’ in Gaza and abstained. Indian PM Modi who made a famous statement to Russian President Putin ‘this is not time for war’ regarding Ukraine-Russian war, didn’t made similar comment and never asked for ceasefire even after a month of Hamas-Israel war. India is clearly taking Israel’s side in the ongoing Gaza war. Only a few hours after Hamas launched its assault on Israel on October 7, PM Modi was one of the first world leaders to respond and denounced the ‘terrorist attacks’ and declared that India ‘stands in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour’ in a statement posted on X (Twitter).
Even though Modi has always publicly supported Israel since taking office in 2014, this was the first occasion that such a pro-Israel response had been made without being followed right away by a balancing statement. Modi much later supported UN resolution of ‘two nation theory’. India’s abstention on the U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire is rooted more in foreign policy considerations than domestic politics as pro-Israel rallies have been a regular occurrence in India.
Indian media is has also taken a pro-Israel stand and projected Hamas’s attack on Israel was unprovoked, Hamas fired over 5,000 missiles on Israel, Hamas massacred hundreds of Israeli youth attending a music festival, Hamas kidnapped hundreds from Israel, Hamas dismembered and burnt its victims on camera, Hamas fighting using females and kids as human shield, Hamas using hospitals and religious shrines for stocking war materials, Hamas belief system is based on hatred, racism and bigotry and Hamas is terr0rist organisation which has no place in a civilized world.
India this time around has taken a much stronger pro-Israel stand than is typical during Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. What has changed within the Indian government is getting rid of Gandhian and Nehruvian ideologies. Majority Indian people are now supporting Israel’s aggressive war against Hamas as they had bad experience of jeh@di terrorism in India over last three decades.
Finally PM Modi is rectifying another Nehruvian foreign policy blunder regarding middle-east conflict. Modi is moving away from communist and Islam!st countries. Modi is improving relation with Israel which supported India during 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999 wars. Modi is also improving relations with USA which opportunity was missed by Nehru and USA subsequently drifted towards rival Pakistan.
India and the US reiterated that both countries stand with Israel against terrorism and further called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians as part of India-US joint statement after the 2+2 Ministerial meet in November 2023 in New Delhi. The Ministers unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism, and the use of terrorist proxies and logistical, financial or military support to terrorist organizations, which could be used to launch or plan terrorist attacks, including international attacks. India and the United States reiterated their condemnation of the 26/11 Mumbai attack and the Pathankot attack and called for bringing the perpetrators of these attacks to justice. The Ministers also called for concerted action against all terrorists, including through designations of individuals affiliated with groups that are listed by the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee, such as Al-Qa'ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Ministers emphasized the importance of upholding international standards on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, consistent with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
Clearly, Indian foreign policy under PM Modi changed considerably from Nehruvian appeasement based foreign policy. India’s relations with Israel and USA is at its best phase now.
Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner
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