Vajpayee - harbinger of Hindutva-centric nationalistic revolution :::: Bid Adieu 2021 - India's foreign policy striding ahead

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday falls on Saturday, December 25. The day is celebrated as Good Governance Day.  

Vajpayee - harbinger of Hindutva-centric nationalistic revolution

(A headline hunter for years, Vajpayee used to say, "I cannot quit politics because nothing is more intoxicating than to see your name in morning newspapers")

Many years ago, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had aptly penned a few lines giving an insight to his mind: "Chhalna bhare vishwa mein...kewal sapna hi sach hota hae....Mein bhi rota Aas Paas Jab Koi nahi hota hae 

(In this deceptive world, only dreams are your own; I do shed tears at times when I am alone, in isolation)". His detractors used to call him a 'mask'. Media called him a moderate face in the Hindutva parivar.

Foreign policy experts hail him for nuke tests, delivering first speech in the UN in Hindi and orchestrating India's strategic shift towards the United States. This was around 1998, and India was already faced with the US sanctions post-Pokhran adventurism of a leader who had prideof being both a Hindu and a devotee of the Hindutva.

In 1998 when Vajpayee named Jaswant Singh as chief negotiator with the US interlocutor Strobe 

Talbott, Singh was only a deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

Talbott later said said, "While Jaswant rightly harmonised Indo-US relations, as the leader of the

country and the government Vajpayee advanced India's interests".

Often dismissed being soft, the poet-politician knew how to be assertive even in his verses

addressed to Pakistan -

"Isey mitane ki sazish karne walo se kahedo

Chingari ka khel kahatarnak hota hae ……..

(Those who are trying to ruin it, must be told that

to play with fire is a dangerous thing)".

His poems lambasted double standards of the global community and the UN as well.

Kab tak Jammu ko Yun-hi

Jalne denge

Kab tak julfo ki madira Dhalne denge

Maa beheno ka apman sahenge kab tak

Bhole pandav chup chaap rahenge kab tak …..

(Up-till when will you let Jammu Burn, Till when this addiction of lust

continue....Up-till when will the sisters and mothers be raped...

Till when the stake holders (UN/International community) will remain silent)"

The founding president of BJP, when it was launched in 1980 after split from the united Janata Party of 

the Seventies, Vajpayee was a perfect foil to his longtime compatriot L K Advani. 

Patriarch Advani was a forceful speaker with cold logic and argument, Vajpayee was the genius 

orator, a persuasive man with his characteristic humourous style.

"One big difference between Vajpayee and me was his sense of humour. It always gave me complex....

Unke samne mein ek rukha-sukha admi raha (Contrast to his humour, I was always dry)," BJP patriarch 

L K Advani told this journalist on December 16, 2014.

Late Arun Jaitley used to say perhaps the best speech of Vajpayee in Parliament was his homage to

Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sample the strength of the magical wordpower: "Death is certain, body is ephemeral...The curtain has come

down. The leading actor on the stage of the world displayed his final role and taken the bow".

As for me, some of his well known phrases both in Parliament and outside in the 1990s and later would 

be also memorable.

His reported oneliner to Advani in 1992 on the Ram Temple issue, "Advaniji yad rakhiye aap...

Ayodhya ja rahen haen Lanka nahi (Advani please remember you are going to Ayodhya and 

not Lanka)" was as famous as his assertions.

Vajpayee would be also be remembered for his description of P V Narasimha Rao as 

a 'karma-yogi' in Parliament while taking a dig at Rao's now famous oneliner: 

"Not to take decision is also a decision". 

 

Vajpayee's remarks - "sun ney ko aya, nirnay na lena bhi ek nirnay hae" had left even Congressmen

laughing and Rao had to stand up briefly to defend himself.

  

He is certainly celebrated for his pan-India acceptability. For hundreds of BJP workers

and his followers - Vajpayee was also a harbinger of a new Hindutva-centric nationalistic

revolution.

Some years back, Sunil Shastri, son of illustrious Lal Bahadur Shastri, has aptly said,

"Vajpayee ji was the first as Morarji Desai's foreign minister to speak in Hindi in the UN,

today when the Modi government has taken Yoga to the UN and the world community, his

vision has been taken to a logical conclusion".

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Vajpayee's diplomatic creativity should be applied in Indo Pacific : Jaishankar 

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Friday (December 24) hailed former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's foreign policy leadership and said his "diplomatic creativity" is today most suitable for the Indo Pacific.

Vajpayee's friend and compatriot 

"Today, the winds of change are most apparent in the Indo-Pacific. It is there that the diplomatic creativity which Prime Minister Vajpayee inspires should be most strongly applied," Dr Jaishankar said in his opening remarks at the second Atal Bihari Vajpayee Memorial Lecture.

He said Vajpayee's stewardship in foreign policy was witnessed in pursuing new dynamics with the US and his handling of other players such as Pakistan, Russia and China.

"Where the United States was concerned, Prime Minister Vajpayee introduced policy corrections that reflected the end of the Cold War and the new global balance," the External Affairs Minister said. 

At the same time, he said Late Vajpayee kept India's course steady vis-à-vis Russia "despite the turbulence of that era".

"With China, whether as Foreign Minister or as Prime Minister, he sought a modus vivendi that was based as much on mutual respect as on mutual interest. With Pakistan, he strenuously tried to dissuade them from their path of sponsoring cross-border terrorism," he said.

Dr Jaishankar further said, all this, of course, was underpinned by his belief that India must develop deeper strengths at home. "This found expression in the exercise of the nuclear option as it did in the economic modernization that he presided over."

The Minister said as of contemporary settings, "We are looking at a complex set of transformations that are simultaneously underway. The Indo-Pacific is witnessing both multipolarity and rebalancing. It is seeing great power competition as well as 'middle power plus' activities."

Thus, he said the orthodox politics, including territorial differences, are in sharper play, side-by-side with currencies of power like connectivity and technology.

 "In fact, no other landscape illustrates better the widening of our definition of national security". Dr Michael Fullilove of Lowy Institute delivered this year's Vajpayee Memorial lecture.

Speaking about Dr Fullilove, the External Affairs Minister, said, "in many ways, he has been the voice of Australia on the key strategic debates underway, especially relating to the Indo-Pacific. He writes prolifically and I would particularly recommend his 'Rendezvous with Destiny'."

Bid Adieu 2021 - India's foreign policy striding ahead amidst balanced walk

New Delhi 

(Of course in an extremely polarised world, Task navigating has been a guiding theme for New Delhi 
and one also ought to be careful that one does not get 'caught' in the possible cross fires.
That balancing has been done well to a large extent.)

The season of festivity and anxious moments over Omicron and protest in 

northeast that’s carrying India through the chill of winter marking the end of circa 2021 

will be also known for being immensely challenging in diplomacy and geo-strategic realms.

Afghanistan-in-turmoil since mid-August,  coinciding with India's Independence Day, of course

has been the most pressing challenge for India, its neighbourhood and all the key global

stakeholders in circa 2021.

The challenges are far from over. This has been also a year when India managed new friends

such as the United States and also the 'old friends' like Russia while dealing with muscle flexing

from China.

Closer home in the region, Indian foreign policy, whose engine room remains steadfastly with

PMO under the captain of the ship Narendra Modi, focused on strengthening bonds with established

allies and friends such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

In the extended neighbourhood, the ASEAN got its due importance and so did the latest geo-strategic theatre

called the Indo Pacific--- where India has close association with global players like the US, Australia and Japan.

 

In October, at the virtual 16th East Asia Summit, the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea, terrorism and the situation in Korean Peninsula and Myanmar were discussed.

 
PM Modi also reaffirmed 'ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific and highlighted the synergies between ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).

India has maintained its focus on QUAD factor - engaging with the US, Australia and Japan. But a crucial strategic turning point in 2021 has been the 'new military alliance' between Australia, United Kingdom and the US - calling it the AUKUS.

Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla said AUKUS will not make a difference in the status and functioning of QUAD.

But it is also a fact that the AUKUS means supply of nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia and the scrapping of a diesel-powered submarine supply deal with France. Paris was certainly upset about it.

Task navigating has been a guiding theme for New Delhi and one also ought to be

careful that one does not get 'caught' in the possible cross fires.

That balancing has been done well to a large extent.

In December itself, there was a diplomatic 'litmus test' for Prime Minister Modi and also 

Russian President Vladimir Putin as they met in person in Delhi for the 21st India-Russia 

Annual Summit.

There had to be a right balance as Russia is now seen closer to China and New Delhi is now a firm and 

committed friend of the United States.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has, however, said that while there was unanimity 

on many issues on Afghanistan between India and the US, New Delhi was not taken into confidence 

on "commitments" made by the Taliban at Doha talks. 

"....When I say levels of concern, the commitments which were made by the Taliban at Doha, the US knows it best. We were not taken into confidence on various aspects of that," Dr Jaishankar has said.

The India-Russia relationship finally leapfrogged to a new realm with the two sides holding a game changer '2 Plus 2' Dialogue. in Delhi.

Putin called India “a great power, a friendly nation, and a time-tested friend,” and for his part, PM Modi said that despite the emergence of different geopolitical equations  “the friendship between India and Russia has been a constant".

The India-US ties could not be better. 

Statesmanship, mutual benefits and strategic significance decide foreign policy

ball games. Now, the US has added India's very own Diwali as a major

 'Soft Power' perhaps to change the global equations altogether.

On the Afghanistan front, the US has found itself at the receiving end for obvious reasons.

"...those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive;

will not forget.  We will hunt you down and make you pay," Joe Biden has said.

NSA Ajit Doval too has been a busy man helping the Prime Minister in running and steering the

foreign policy engine room. 

His counterparts from Russia Nikolai P. Patrushev and Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani of Iran among

others attended the 'Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan' on Nov 10.

The Foreign Ministers meeting of Central Asian countries was another milestone for Delhi.

The deliberations coincided with the OIC meet in Islamabad.

In the eastern sector, on Dec 22-23, Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla visited Myanmar in what is seen

as an important engagement as he raised crucial matters like the Manipur ambush.

This year marked an important calendar year for India-Bangladesh relationship. While PM Modi visited Bangladesh in March, President Ram Nath Kovind in December was in Dhaka in December.

In the words of MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi - "India-Bangladesh Maitri forged in shared martyrdom during the Liberation War, has traversed a 50 year journey towards scripting Shonali Adhyaya (golden chapter) in bilateral relations". 

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