Modi Govt lacks vision on foreign policy: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi kicked off his first official visit to the UK since taking over as president of Congress with an address focussed on his foreign policy vision of India at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, which earlier this year played host to the Prime Minister’s speech on Indo-Pacific policy.

During the speech the Congress President called for a re-evaluation of India’s approach to China, as the country sought to strike a balance between China, the West and Africa. “We can’t ignore the fact that China is our neighbour,” he said. “The opportunity is there is an Indian way of doing things that is completely different to the Chinese way or the America way…we have our own ideas that are old, tested by non -violence and listening…we specialise in reducing confrontation,” he said.

He used the opportunity to attack the government’s approach to foreign policy, arguing that it lacked strategic vision, and would fail to gain momentum without unifying the country or solving the job problem. “You can’t run a foreign policy based on hugs,” he said. When “divisions” were created between people “you are reducing India’s power, he said. “You carry all those people together you punch at maximum weight.”

Reiterating his attack on the government’s approach to job creation that he had made in Hamburg earlier in the week, Mr. Gandhi, also attacked demonetisation, arguing it had failed to serve medium-sized businesses in the way that would have been needed to revitalise the economy and the formal jobs market.

During the discussion, Mr. Gandhi took questions from senior fellows at London-based think-tanks as well as from US and UK foreign office officials. He acknowledged the difficulty India confronted when it came to Pakistan. “Pakistan is a number of institutions. Which institution do you talk to? Some are hostile to India. Some are attacking India. We are not going to talk to them.” It would be impossible to “pull out a solution” while Pakistan remained unstable and with competing voices until then. Until that time the most India could do was make sure “they can’t do damage.”

Asked specifically about what could be done to lend greater power to the MEA, Mr. Gandhi called for the organisation’s monopoly to be broken, to enable it to be open to a far wider section of society. “if you look at something not scaling in India look at the monopoly that is happening.” He also repeatedly made his past accusation that the RSS was attempting to capture India’s institutions and “change the nature of India” in the way no party had done before, likening them to the Muslim Brotherhood. “What is under attack is the idea there can be millions of different voices in our country.”

He accused the Prime Minister’s Office of having a monopoly of the MEA, and that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had been left with nothing better to do than “get people visas.”

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