Indian Foreign Policy: The Citizen Dimension
1.Resurgent India’s Foreign Policy
India’s dramatic growth since 1991 Economic Reforms; our foreign policy now meshes into the requirements of socio‐economic transformation. It sketches the role that a dynamic India is expected to play in regional, Asian and world affairs. We need to be modest about our achievements in the face of huge domestic challenges of eradicating poverty and lifting our standards of health, maternity and child care, education and food distribution, to achieve a really inclusive society. Every citizen, especially the youth, should be concerned about how India engages the world, and should actively debate external policy issues, the more so in a world where domestic and foreign issues blend into one another, and decisions taken at WTO on agriculture or by major foreign partners such as the EU or the US in relation to our textile exports or BPO outsourcing policy impact directly on our people.
2.
A Changed Role in World Affairs
Economic achievements have produced a changed role for our country in world politics; democracy is one of our strongest assets, even while we do not go around pushing democracy on others. Our role in G‐20, and in Asian affairs is important. A personal view: while our claim to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council is entirely logical, this is unlikely to happen in a hurry because each prospective candidate is opposed by someone, and a global consensus seems distant. But that does not block us from a proactive role in international affairs.
3.
Managing Difficult Relationships: Pakistan and China
How we deal with key neighbors, especially the problem countries, China and Pakistan, should also be of concern to citizens. Diplomacy, that is the modalities through which we communicate with, and manage our relationships with these countries, represents our first line of national defence. We seek peace and tranquility in our neighborhood. China is emerging as a major global player and we are in a situation of both cooperation and competition with it. Pakistan is a state in turmoil; it has also sponsored terrorism against us, and is now itself a victim of the tiger it chose to ride. How we handle both these relationships calls for informed public debate among our citizens, not loud TV debate that is dominated by efforts to generate headlines and sound bytes. Perhaps no country in the world hasas many 24‐hour news channels as India, and sometimes we see the media engaged in creating news rather than reporting on it. This too requires citizen vigilance.
4.
Growing Importance of Regional Diplomacy
In every part of the world, countries have reacted to the end of Cold War and globalization with moves to strengthen cooperation with neighbors, and to seek out new partners for closer engagement across continents. India has done rather well in the latter, if we look to the new clusters of political and economic partnerships, such as the BRICs, IBSA, and the China‐India‐Russia trilateral. We have done less well in our immediate neighborhood, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has done less in terms of regional integration compared with almost all other regional groups. But there seems to be now a new momentum on working with our neighbors, be it Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka. We have missed many opportunities in river water cooperation with Nepal and in neighborhood cooperation with Bangladesh, but the present climate is favorable for real action.
5.
Why Growing Citizen Interests?
Citizens are interested in foreign affairs for several reasons. First, as noted above, globalization has made for greater interdependence among countries. Second, domestic and foreign issues merge into and influence each other. Third, Indians are more aware of the world than before, thanks to the revolution in communications and in information technology. Fourth, with millions of Indians now working and living abroad, as new migrants or as skilled contract labor, more and more families have overseas connections. Hundreds of thousands of Indians work in BPO companies, which are of course connected to global markets. Growing Indian exports also produce new connections with the external world. Fifth, education and culture are major points of global connectivity, via the students that travel aboard, and the cultural influences we both receive and send out to the world.
6.
Some Methods of Reaching Out to Citizens
The Ministry of External Affairs has activated a series of programs through its new Public Diplomacy divisions. MEA is now on Twitter and on YouTube and you have a means of following its activities thorough these new social networks and asking questions. Your generation understands well the value of these new modes of communication and you should check out the new MEA website that gives you all these links. In a word, the government is interested in listening to you on foreign policy issues as never before.
Other countries have worked our even more active means for public communication. Canada runs via its official website a forum that ismoderated by non‐officials, mainly academics and scholars, that invites the public to comment on selected foreign policy issues, and sums up these comments at the end of several months of active discussion. The goal is both to inform public opinion and to solicit citizen views. I hope MEA will soon put into effect such an open forum for discussion.
Other countries have devised their own methods for web‐based discussions with citizens. In all these, the common thread is an urge to reach out and to listen to different views, as never before. As the country’s youth, you have both a right and an obligation to engage in such discourse.
7.
Strengthening Our ‘International Affairs Community’, Making it less Delhi‐Centric
Delhi is not India. We need much greater involvement of our states and regions in national policy, especially in foreign policy. This requires that universities, institutes and thinktanks should be located all across our large and diverse country. For instance here in Rajasthan, you are immediate neighbors to Sind in Pakistan; should not Sind studies be a natural point of focus for you? Should not our Western region also have academic and scholarly connections with the Gulf region and with Central Asia? Our goal should be to engage all our states and regions in a diverse and plural ‘international affairs community’.
8.
A Career in the Foreign Service
Many among the youth have only a faint idea of the role played by the Indian Foreign Service; the IAS, the Police or Income Tax Service are much higher on their radar screens. The IFS is our instrument of external policy, implementing the national foreign policy and representing India across the world. It is a career like no other, and extremely fulfilling. All those that work in the IFS find it a highly rewarding career of public service.
Recruitment is through the Union Public Service Commission’s combined annual examination for the All‐India Services. With greater awareness of India’s diplomacy, you connect directly with deeper interest in the IFS as a career choice. As with all the national services, the competition is severe, but also fair and objective.
You should also be aware that today, among the many career options available, there exist opportunities for manifesting your interest in international affairs through work in global companies, and in Indian companies going global, working for the UN and international agencies, and via international NGOs. Thus a strong interest in foreign affair can become the platform for many other career options as well. You should seek out information on the IFS and on other international career options.
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