The evolution of India’s foreign policy – Part VI

Vishwanath Pratap Singh and his National Front formed a minority government on December 2, 1989 with outside support from Bharatiya Janata Party and the communists from the left. This was not a viable government to begin with. Just the opposition to Rajiv Gandhi was not enough reason to hold these disparate groups of over-ambitious politicians together for long. He lost the vote of confidence in the Indian Parliament on November 10, 1990 and resigned as the 10th Prime Minister of India. Chandra Shekhar with just 64 MPs staked the claim to form the government; he had the tacit support of Rajiv Gandhi, the leader of the opposition. Just like his mother in 1980, Rajiv Gandhi withdrew his support to Chandra Shekhar government on June 21, 1991. Just like the Janata Party (1977 – 1980) this non-Congress experiment barely lasted for 18 months. India was sending bad signals to the world community about the resilience of its opposition parties and its democratic institutions.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by Politburo in 1985 in the Soviet Union. He came with a new idea of “Glasnost” (openness) and “Perestroika” (restructuring) and a determination to dissolve the oppressive Soviet Union. Gorbachev pulled out his troops from Afghanistan and ended the “Cold War”. This distant development changed everything for India. The left-leaning mandarins in Delhi were left like orphans and had no fall-back positions. India’s foreign policy drifted for the next few years as the socialist India was pushed into unchartered waters. Neither V P Singh nor Chandra Shekhar was a born-again ideologue like the Nehrus. They both cooperated with the United States of America during the first ‘Gulf War’ and were willing to expand trade and commerce. American establishment was also directed to move forward kicking and screaming under Reagan and Bush.

India’s foreign policy post Rajiv Gandhi looked a bit more humble in terms of its immediate neighborhood, except Pakistan. Prime Minister V P Singh pulled out the discredited IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) from Sri Lanka and extended a hand of friendship towards Nepal. Pakistan as usual was the spoiler and managed to have bad relations with 10 Prime Ministers of India. Relations with China were moving slowly but in the right direction. The most important post independence relationship for India with former Soviet Union was on a more realistic level. India for the first time started looking to develop bilateral relationships with European Union and Japan. The Indo-US dialogue was moving forward as America was looking at the subcontinent with renewed anxiety about the developing nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan.

Rajiv Gandhi at this time was hell-bent on playing dirty politics. He lambasted Prime Minister Chander Shekhar for allowing the refueling of American aircrafts at Bombay airport for the Persian Gulf. Had he been the Prime Minister at that time, he would have done exactly what the Indian government was doing. But morals have never been the virtue of Nehru-Gandhi family. They are all political animals and would do just about anything to gain power. It was not long before Rajiv Gandhi withdrew Congress Party’s support to the Chander Shekhar government and plunged the nation once again into a costly general elections. This irresponsible action by Rajiv Gandhi was very damaging to India’s relations with the US led coalition against Iraq since Chandra Shekhar government was negotiating billions of dollars from the IMF and World Bank. Mercifully President George H W Bush understood the Indian government’s dilemma and did not make an issue out of it. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 by LTTE at a rally while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.