Narendra Modi has made foreign policy a peoples’ movement, a
jan andolan, like Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.
This is a personal story, and any resemblance to any characters dead or living is unintentional.
I joined the Indian Foreign Service on 7 July 1973, and will complete 50 years on 7 July 2023. We walked into South Block, to be reminded of our colonial past and of the challenges we faced. In our training, we were told about an organization based in Washington DC, promoted by the World Bank, infelicitously called the Aid India Consortium, founded in 1958 when India was threatened by a severe balance of payments crisis, with the very real possibility that India’s foreign exchange reserves would be wiped out by the end of the year with incomplete infrastructure and industry projects.
The word “aid” sapped our self-confidence and became embedded in our consciousness, leading us to believe that our survival depended on the goodwill of others and that we were condemned to a life of mendicancy and aid-dependence. We also learnt in detail about the near-famine conditions that India faced in the mid-1960s, when American food assistance saved us from starvation.
I went to Paris in 1975, on my first overseas posting, with US$12 in my pocket. It quickly became apparent that India’s opinion did not matter; we were treated as perennial beggars. On every visit home, I would be asked to bring “phoren” stuff for relatives and friends and friends of friends.
In one of my foreign assignments, we were weeding out old files. There was a cable about the possibility of North Vietnam-US peace talks being held in New Delhi. A very senior officer from my ministry had advised against the idea, as we were a poor nation and did not want to be in the limelight. Our lack of self-confidence was evident.
Fast forward to the 1990s, when we were retrained to seek foreign investment in India. By the turn of the millennium we were looking for overseas assets that Indian companies could buy. In 2003, sick of hectoring and “sanctions” by even the tiniest country in Europe, we decided to stop accepting foreign aid. Our self-confidence soared.
With our generous assistance to over 150 nations, we became net donors instead of recipients. In all my postings as ambassador—Armenia, Georgia, Sudan, South Sudan, Poland, Lithuania—I have seen the demand for Indian scholarships under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme and the quest for India’s soft loans.
In one interesting case, an African head of state came looking for a concessional loan—he went back with twice of what he wanted. In 2010, when India’s Finance Minister dubbed British assistance to India as peanuts, England and its chamcha-beneficiaries in India went mad, with furious media and political debate on why the aid was being continued when India preferred the French fighter jet Rafale to the Typhoon, which is partly manufactured in Britain.
In 2014, a tsunami hit India and the world. It is called Narendra Modi. For his first swearing-in, he invited all SAARC heads of government. They came.
The second swearing-in in 2019 included Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, and Myanmar. All ASEAN leaders were invited for our Republic Day Parade in 2019. They came. Foreign Heads of State line up to visit India.
Foreign policy was considered something esoteric and abstruse, conducted over secret meetings with liberal spiritual flows that the aam aadmi would never understand. We joked in the early days that diplomacy consisted of protocol, alcohol and T.N. Kaul (then Foreign Secretary). Narendra Modi has made foreign policy a peoples’ movement, a jan andolan, like Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. Our middle-aged female house help asked me seriously if Narendra Modi was now the Pradhan Mantri of 20 countries!
Everyone in India talks of G20. Modi’s hug-plomacy, like everything about him, breaks old moulds and produces instant bonding. I am privileged to serve as Special Advisor in three African nations, and one of my principals told me that it is impossible not to like Narendra Modi with his transparent humility and sincerity.
Another one asked me half sincerely if we could give them Modi Sahib on wet lease for two years to transform their country, as they have chosen India as their role model. With a broad smile I responded: “yehi hai right choice baby.”
Nations vie with each other to honour him, including several Arab countries, which tended to support Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. When he addressed the leaders of 14 small Pacific Island nations in Port Moresby recently, he thanked them for accepting his invitation, and said they were big nations. Three of them, of which he has not visited two, conferred their highest national honours on him. India has moved from being a permanently developing country to the ranks of the largest economies.
Just a few days ago, a respected American public affairs company, Morning Consult, ranked Modi first among 22 world leaders with a 78% approval rating. Anthony Albanese was fourth with 53% and Joe Biden seventh with 42%
At 72, I am old enough to remember that we were evicted (despite being invited) from the 1969 conference of Muslim nations in Morocco that led to the formation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 50 years later, in March 2019, we were the Guest of Honour at its Foreign Ministers’ meet in UAE.
India is on a roll. When the Chinese virus hit, we responded very quickly to a request for medicines from the US—its President tweeted that India had been great. Despite our own shortages, we gifted millions of doses to dozens to badly-affected nations. Our reputation skyrocketed.
As per Invest India, foreign investment in India since Independence has been close to US$1 trillion, with half coming in the last 8 years from over 150 countries in more than 60 sectors. Foreign Direct Investment in India has been growing and in fiscal 2022 crossed US$85 bn for the first time. Capital is a coward, and a glutton, and will only come where it feels safe and can fatten itself.
India does both. Remittances from NRIs in 2022, who are part of the spectacular India growth story, have crossed US$107 bn, the highest ever, exceeding World Bank estimates.
2,400 years ago Chanakya had said that if an idea was not implemented in time, then time would ensure that the idea failed. Victor Hugo said 170 years ago that no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come! India’s time has come.
I have never felt taller as an Ambassador of India. In interacting with other nations, there is a world of difference between being a seeker and a giver of assistance. The latter induces a magnificent high. While the (dis) United Nations makes speeches that no one listens to, we are the respected leaders of the Workers’ Union (G77) of 135 developing nations and of the Management Club (G20) of leading economies.
As the youngest nation in the world (in terms of demographics), we have walked the talk on tackling the virus, fighting climate change, spearheading recovery through free and open waterways, obliterating international terrorism, managing critical technologies.
I first did a commentary for All India Radio and Doordarshan in 1971. I heard our leaders make grand pronouncements. In 2022, I heard a Prime Minister give us a concrete target of being a developed nation by 2047. The nation was electrified. We are seeing the craziest infrastructure binge in India’s history (roads, railways, airports, ports).
I have been in diplomacy for 50 years and counting. Did someone ask me about the success of Indian diplomacy in recent years? Led by an outstanding minister, Indian diplomacy has scaled new heights.
Both the belligerents in the Russia-Ukraine conflict want India’s help to resolve the matter. During the 2015 Nepal earthquake our relief supplies were airborne within 8 hours, and in January 2023 we rushed to help the people of Turkey and Syria when earthquakes devastated their lands. When we were reeling under the mutated Chinese virus in 2021, the world rallied to our support.
Our External Affairs Minister was told by many of his counterparts that they would like to help if they had the ability to do so. In early 2021 we had another Berlin moment. For those who are too young to know, in mid-1948 when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin, the United States and the United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin.
In 2021, the UAE lit up the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, with our national colours and the message “Stay Strong India”. In moments of severe and unprecedented national crisis, people need reassurance, not unnecessary finger pointing and name calling and political tribalism.
There should be no pessimists in foxholes during times of acute emergencies. The world understands and appreciates this. New technologies are emerging every day that India uses for the benefit of humanity—our superb CoWin platform is but one example, as is the magnificent digitization of the Indian economy. We are happily sharing this with the world.
When we mainstreamed Kashmir into the great Indian family in 2019, only a couple of nations supported our Western neighbour who compulsively opposes every progressive step that we take. “Study one country right now…India”, Bill Gates says, “things are really exploding there and innovation…is phenomenal.”
As things seemed headed to a stalemate, we drafted the Bali G20 communique to the resounding applause of all sides. In Sydney, the Australian Prime Minister remarked that even the legendary American singer Bruce Springsteen did not attract so many people. Narendra Modi, he said, is “The Boss”, referring to the moniker earned by Springsteen who was entrusted with collecting his band’s earnings and distributing them.
2023 is a seminal year for Indian diplomacy. For the first time, we will host the largest gathering of powerful world leaders in September 2023, besides several other summits.
I have tried to understand what causes a national renaissance. It comes when a nation has self-confidence, self-esteem and self-reliance. India has all three now. India has come of age on the international stage. I have been 6 feet 2 inches for 50 years. I am now six inches taller and need new trousers.
Many of my foreign friends want to know if we can share the secret of our mantra of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas”. Did our ancient sages not say that the world was one family? The focus is on One.
Chak de, India!
Ambassador Dr Deepak Vohra, is Special Advisor to Prime Minister, Lesotho, South Sudan and Guinea-Bissau; Special Advisor to Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils, Leh and Kargil.