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When culture drives foreign policy

The first 100 days of NaMo's government has seen India take a fundamentally different approach to its foreign policy than in the last 60 years...changes which may go on to define the geo-politics of the world.

For Jawaharlal Nehru, socialism to a large extent defined India's foreign policy. From India's alliance with USSR to leading the non-aligned movement, India bonded with countries which were proud of their socialist form of governance. Nehru blindly adopted a 'copy-paste' approach on governance which he learned from these socialistic alliances. These policies had little to do with what India needed. 

Vaypayee's foreign policy was a mix of nationalism and pragmatism. He went ahead with the nuclear tests and later invoked the policy of 'no first use' to blunt any criticism from the west. Vaypayee and to a large extent Jaswant Singh very cunningly used America to ensure that the sanctions imposed on India had little impact on its economy. The Americans virtually paved the way for India to be accepted as a nuclear power in the hope of American companies receiving contracts for nuclear power generation. After the sanctions were waived off , no one in India cared about nuclear power. 

Many in India and abroad fail to understand what drives NaMo's foreign policy. Invitation to SAARC heads of state for the swearing in ceremony, visits to Bhutan, Nepal and now Japan ... all this makes little sense. The west thinks that the goal seems to neutralise China...

What drives NaMo's foreign policy is 'cultural affinity'. NaMo will seek to create a bond between nations whose identity is defined by their culture. To NaMo, what will creates a bond between nations is not economic gains but shared culture, values and beliefs.... such an alliance will always stand the test of time unlike alliances driven by purely economic gains or those based on outdated ideologies such as socialism. 

Next step will be Israel and then on to Germany and yes even China... what will drive our foreign policy for the next 5 years is what has been BJP ideology for the last 30 years - 'cultural nationalism'. 

-Viva






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