'Modi won't be an Atal on foreign policy'

Calling off the India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks is an example of how the Narendra Modi government would chart its foreign policy. There will be a marked departure from the approach adopted by Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, claim intellectuals linked to the Sangh Parivar.

Those with an understanding of Modi and his vision of India’s foreign policy suggest experts were wasting their time in trying to search for streaks of a Vajpayee in Modi, particularly when it comes to India-Pakistan ties. They say Modi was unlikely to walk in Vajpayee’s footsteps.

“Atalji carried a different kind of legacy and stature. What Atalji did on the foreign policy front was Atalji-like. But that isn’t expected of Modi,” was how one Sangh Parivar ideologue put it. His advice to experts and media is to not interpret Modi’s actions, either on foreign or domestic fronts, from the prism of policy frameworks that previous governments have put in place.

So, Modi’s much-lauded statesmanlike invite to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc)-member states, as also to the PM of Mauritius, to the swearing-in ceremony of his council of ministers on May 26 wasn’t an example of Nehruvian foreign policy but consistent with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s grand vision of “Akhand Bharat”. According to sources, calling off the meeting made eminent political sense, given the coming Assembly elections.

A veteran, currently associated with a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) think tank, suggested a repeat reading of the party manifesto and also a re-visit to some of Modi’s speeches he made during the election campaign to better understand Monday’s events. “Journalists from the English press loved to describe Vajpayee as last of the Nehruvians and the right man in the wrong party. Modi is the right man in the right party and largely unimpressed by the Nehruvian legacy,” the veteran said.