The evolution of India’s foreign policy – Part III

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi defined India’s foreign policy like no other politician before her. She was not diffident of openly supporting the repressive regimes of the then Soviet Union, Cuba and any other communist country. She was not much enchanted by the communist China. She projected a robust national defense policy thereby keeping an expansionist China grounded in reality. Indira Gandhi fantasized being the leader of the ‘Non-Aligned Movement’, a group of losers founded by her father Jawaharlal Nehru, former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. She destroyed India’s financial infrastructure as she was extremely ideological when it came to economic policies. Indira Gandhi and her socialist friends around the world eventually faced national bankruptcies!

Pandit Nehru was a delusional democrat where as Indira Gandhi was an authentic autocrat. She split the congress party in 1969 when she couldn’t get her way and formed an alliance with the left parties to stay in power. Mrs Gandhi signed a security pack with the Soviet Union and then went to war with Pakistan in 1971. She demolished Pakistan and won independence for Bangladesh in 1971. Indira Gandhi signed a peace agreement with Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after a long summit in Shimla. She agreed to return 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war without any concessions from a defeated Pakistan. She lost the golden opportunity to reunite Kashmir and settle the Indo-Pak border dispute once and for all. She might have given a secret assurance to the Soviet Union in that regard and sealed India’s fate!

Mrs Gandhi defied America in every which way and in 1974 India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test. Domestically, her electoral victory in 1971 General Elections was struck down by the courts and she was unseated as the Prime Minister of India. Instead of obeying the law of the land, Indira Gandhi decided to defy the law and imposed a ‘State of Emergency’. She was being advised by her younger son Sanjay Gandhi who had scant respect for the law in any case. The entire world was shocked by her illegal rule and she consolidated her power my putting all the opposition leaders in jail. Mrs Gandhi had converted India into a banana republic. India lost the reputation of being an authentic democracy like the United States or Europe. Indians have to live with this blemish for the rest of their lives!

During the emergency, the independent press was censured and all descent was muzzled. The remaining media was reporting what Indira Gandhi and her goons wanted to hear. She and her son believed the reports and called for elections under international pressure. Mrs Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi and her party was soundly defeated by an angry electorate. My wife and I went out and voted against her. This is the only time we have voted in an election. Janata Party came to power in 1977 thus ending the 30 year long and torturous rule of Nehru-Gandhi family. Morarji Desai became the prime minister and Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Minister of External Affairs. This was the defining moment for Indian democracy and also the role of the Ministry of External Affairs. Vajpayee became the first independent voice!