Columns: The Usual Suspects

Columns

India Today, April 19, 1999
April 19, 1999

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Foreign Policy Privatised

The Congress confirms Mao's contempt for India

By Swapan Dasgupta

There are precious few inherited Westminster conventions that India has persisted with. One which has broadly endured is the principle that foreign policy is a prerogative of the Centre and that there is no scope for private enterprise. Of course, there have been dishonourable exceptions. During the Gulf War in 1991, Rajiv Gandhi decided to undertake a crazy, one-man mission to stop the conflict. It may have been well-intentioned but Rajiv quite forgot that it was not the business of the leader of the Opposition to conduct a parallel foreign policy. Needless to add, he emerged from his adventure looking quite silly.

It is still early to judge whether K. Natwar Singh's Congress delegation to China is an innocent encounter with Peking duck and Ming terracotta relics or a replay of Subramanian Swamy's contentious journey to Beijing in 1978, just prior to then foreign minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's ill-timed visit. However, a few points are worth considering.

It is no great secret that a section of the Government wasn't entirely happy with the timing of the visit, coming as it did in the midst of an unresolved domestic political crisis on the one hand and a proposed visit to China by the external affairs minister in May. True, it is not for the Government to veto any "goodwill visit" -- Brajesh Mishra led a BJP team to China in 1996 and the communists are frequent beneficiaries of socialist hospitality -- but convention demands that such expeditions should not be fundamentally at variance with official endeavours. When a parliamentary delegation led by Balram Jakhar was invited by the Jang Group of newspapers to visit Pakistan in February, South Block took care to ensure it was officially blessed by the Nawaz Sharif Government.

The misgivings over the China visit were less on account of any lack of faith in Singh's good judgement than a fear that the Congress is wilfully walking into a Beijing trap. Following the Pokhran blasts, the Chinese have made no secret of their determination to influence domestic politics in India. According to a paper by the Beijing Military Academy, China will use its diplomatic leverage to "not only isolate India on (the) international level and secure western sanctions against India with USA in the lead" but will also "try to exploit India's domestic differences on (the) nuclear issue and target the BJP". The objectives assume a menacing dimension because China has an impressive track record of intrusive diplomacy. Some details of Beijing's undercover operations have recently surfaced in the US and a scrutiny of the pro-China lobby in India is certain to be as rewarding. It is not that the Chinese leadership is evil but that it doesn't confuse self-interest with generosity.

The Congress couldn't have been unaware of this. Yet, there are some in the party who are desperate to tell the world that negotiating with a BJP-led Government is pointless and that Sonia Gandhi is the future. However, until Jaswant Singh is formally replaced by another Singh in South Block, the party should exercise caution. If this Government endures and the minister goes to Beijing in May, he could find Chinese perceptions coloured by unofficial ventures. The Congress may unwittingly end up confirming Chairman Mao's contemptuous aside about Indians lacking character and being "just a bunch of empty words". Not to mention the helmsman's imagery of India as a docile cow leaning on crutches.

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