By Shilajit Kar Bhowmik
Foreign policy was the moot rhetoric of Modi’s campaign in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He grandiloquently emphasised on it and went hammer and tongs to ostensibly pursue it. Domestic issues were upstaged. He banked on the Pulwama terror attack and subsequent retaliation towards Pakistan through the Balakot airstrikes. In the long run, he was crowned as the victor. And now, this rhetoric has failed India as some of its hostile neighbours are asserting their supremacy over us.
Apart from the Ladakh standoff, India’s relations with Nepal have hit a low ebb. It has also consciously or subconsciously unfriended a friend in need like Bangladesh.
There are serious loopholes in our foreign policy and they should be culled out.
The Indian road in the Himalayas, connecting to the border with China, at the Lipuklekh pass was not built overnight and definitely being monitored by the Nepal government. The Lipulekh pass link road also cuts across Kalapani, an area which lies on the easternmost corner of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district. Both India and Nepal lay claim to Kalapani. But Kathmandu raised the issue officially and publicly in November last year when India announced its new political map after the abrogation of Article 370. The new Indian map depicted Kalapani as part of Pithoragarh district. The issue made common cause with Nepal’s pent-up anger against India and the hashtag #BackOffIndia trended on social media.
Precisely, India touched Nepal’s raw nerve in 2015 when it extended implicit support for the blockade on the landlocked country. The country, with one of the world’s youngest populations, treated it as sheer betrayal and indulged in India bashing. India took a very wrong step in supporting the blockade and was seen as ‘playing the big brother’.
Nepal might not be a very strong country to challenge India’s might. But exploiting its weakness is not the way because we are already surrounded by neighbours inimical to our well-being. And expecting overnight assistance from a superpower like US is unrealistic. US always stood by Pakistan during wars and it is substantiated by history.
China is now fishing in Nepal’s waters. It wants to exploit our problem by expanding its suzerainty over the country which we have snubbed as a ‘puny little brother’. To be precise, it occupied and annexed Tibet in 1950. It was squeezed between India and China, thus, forming a barrier. But this barrier was removed after China annexed Tibet. Hence, India’s frontiers were endangered as China came closer to it. This was the beginning of India-China hostilities which was ignored by Nehru in all his impracticalities.
China is using the same old idea. As soon as we asset our hegemony over a neighbour perceived to be weak, it takes advantage. It exploits our neighbour’s frustration and isolates us.
The ruling parties of China and Nepal also held a virtual meeting in mid-June during which they discussed the current political situation and shared experiences mutually on running the party and government. The meeting synchronised with the Indo-Chinese border standoff and increasing tension between India and Nepal. Thus, the meeting was well-timed and aimed at dealing India a blow.
PM Modi is always publicised as a strong, decisive and formidable leader who is always tough against his foes. Indeed, he is so. But that toughness is demonstrated against his political rivals who pose a threat towards his party and power. Now it is time for him exercise that robustness against some external foes who are potential threats to India and its security. But what he did is turning the left cheek despite being slapped by China several times on the right. And that is unbecoming of a leader like him well-known to be dynamic. Moreover, the dissipation of friendship with a predominantly Hindu country like Nepal proves that Modi’s ‘Hindutva’ is going the wrong way.
Speaking of Bangladesh, the bitter truth is our relations with the country have reached its nadir. The people think about India in unfriendly terms. During international cricket matches between India and Bangladesh, the youth looks upon us as a longstanding enemy. Their hostility is clearly reflected in social networking sites where they lampoon us, draw bloated caricatures of our cricketers and allege match fixing. To be more elaborate, when there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan or India and Sri Lanka or India and England or any other country, the cricket enthusiasts of Bangladesh take the side of our rivals. They gloated on our loss during the Cricket World Cup series in 2015 and 2019 as well. Even during the Pulwama attack, this writer came across many Bangladeshis commenting against India on news websites carrying stories on Indo-Pak relations. It is a fact that we are unable to reconcile to it. The haters also never miss an opportunity to hurl profanities at us on Facebook and other social networking sites. One of this writers’ friend in Bangladesh explained in unambiguous terms that those abusers are descendants of Razakars; a group which collaborated with the West Pakistani ruling elite against freedom fighters during the liberation war. These elements are strongly active in every sphere of Bangladesh.
Enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and introduction of NRC update has only added insult to injury. Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, for a long time maintained that CAA and NRC are internal matters of India. But she also added an innocuous statement that CAA was not necessary. And it was a pill-sweetening act. Nevertheless, the masses of Bangladesh are foaming at the mouth. In Feb-March this year, protest marches were staged in the country against CAA, NRC and Modi. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen had to say, “We are a political government. We were elected by people’s votes. India should not do anything so that we have to answer people for their actions.” A wound was inflicted on Bangladesh’s psyche when Abrar Fahad, a student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was tortured and killed allegedly by members of Awami League’s student’s wing last year. The reason? Fahad had posted on Facebook criticizing Bangladesh’s agreement with India allowing us to withdraw water from Feni river for Sabroom in South Tripura. The brutal murder sent shock waves across the country with several students of different universities holding demonstrations on their respective campuses and demanding exemplary punishment for the killers. Thus, we can easily gauge how sensitive our relations with Bangladesh have become in the past few years.
A leading businessman of Tripura shared his experiences in Bangladeshi trains with this writer. According to him, when a Bangladeshi used to bump into an individual from Tripura, he used to leave his seat for the person considered to be a special guest. The Bangladeshi would say to the person from Tripura, “You are not only our guest. You are a beloved friend. Please, have a seat.” But such cordialities have slipped into the past. Presently, they are quite indifferent when they learn about our nationality. This is what the businessman, who is a regular visitor to the neighbouring country for professional matters has stated.
China is now wooing Bangladesh as well. It has provided a huge boost to the country by announcing tariff exemption for 97 per cent of Bangladeshi products with effect from July 1. The announcement was made in June, a month after Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a discussion to upgrade their bilateral relations during Covid-19. Naturally, our neighbours need an alternative if India continues to bully them unnecessarily.
In our personal lives too we must take old friends into confidence in the first place whenever we face problems. Because the attitude of old friends is time-tested and this compels our reliance. This is not to suggest closing ourselves to the possibility of making new friends. But we should not trust the new ones overnight because we are unfamiliar with their principles and policies.
Therefore, India should renew its old ties with friends like Bangladesh and Nepal along with continuance with the US. That would keep us safe and secure.