India, the lamb state - Brahma Chellaney

feb 19th, 2007

lamb being led to the slaughter.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yash

http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/02spec1.htm

India, the lamb state - Brahma Chellaney

 

Talleyrand, the illustrious foreign minister of Napoleon and the Bourbons, prescribed one basic rule for pragmatic foreign policy: by no means show too much zeal. In India's case, gushy expectations, self-deluding hype, and oozing zealousness have blighted foreign policy since Independence, constituting the most enduring aspect of the Nehruvian legacy, other than the hold of the Nehru family dynasty over the Congress party and the continued strength of Indian democracy.

Zeal is to Indian diplomacy what strategy is to major powers. India has rushed to believe what it wanted to believe. Consequently, India is the only known country in modern history to have repeatedly cried betrayal, not by friends but by adversaries in whom it had reposed trust.

Reflecting India's decline in its own eyes, however, while one 'betrayal' in 1962 hastened the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, another in 1999 kept Atal Bihari Vajpayee going as if it did not happen despite his public admission that his ' bus to Lahore got hijacked to Kargil.' It was finally the voters who decided they had had enough of Vajpayee


...  this is what keeps indian 'diplomacy' going: delusion and  personal greed. we all saw the unedifying spectacle of 
a)  natwar singh's belated change of heart
b) the accusation by ashok mitra that manmohan singh is the american mole in the indian government.