PM pursuing personalised foreign policy to restore Nehru’s vision in intl relations

New Delhi, Mar 18 : The Congress Party on Sunday criticised the foreign policy of Narendra Modi government and said the Prime Minister has pursued a ‘personalised foreign policy’ and resolved to restore the vision of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in international relations..
The resolution on foreign policy adopted at the 84th Congress Plenary here, while charing Prime Minisetr Narendra Modi of pursuing a personalised foreign policy, said, the foreign policy engagements and PM’s visits abroad have been reduced to being purely transactional.
The resolution, which was earlier moved by its senior leader Anand Sharma, said the Congress will strive to restore the vision of the Jawaharlal Nehru on the foreign policy .
He said the Prime Minister is always saying that nothing has happened before 2014, which is an insult to the people of this country.
“We will throw out this government that has destroyed the foreign policy”, Mr Sharma said.
Attacking the Narendra Modi government, the resolution said the diplomacy must have depth and gravitas. “Grand events and photo opportunities cannot be a substitute to effective diplomacy”, it said.
The resolution further said there should be credibility and a ring of sincerity in India’s International engagements.
“India has long enjoyed international respect as a country deeply committee to multilateralism and a rule based world order even while zealously safeguarding its vital interests”, it added.
The resolution also said an urgent need to re-calibrate equations with the US, arrest the slide in relations with Russia and improve communication and trust with China.
Stressing on the significance of Nehru’s vision on foreign policy, the resolution said his vision laid the foundation of a foreign policy, which had the objective of enhancing India’s engagment with all regions of the world and to find its rightful place in the comity of the nations.
The resolution also condemned the trend of the PM running down his predecessors on foreign soil.
‘the Prime Minister’s tendency to disparage its predecessors and diminish India’s achievements since independence, has undercut India’s own credibility abroad”, the resolution said.
Criticising the BJP Government, the resolution added that the foreign policy has always been marked with continuity with the backing of a strong national consensus. But, “the BJP government has disrupted it, and its ill-advised actions have unravelled the national consensus. the government is carried away by its own propaganda, and has mismanaged India’s relation with major partner countries”, the resolution blamed.
Foreign policy of Narendra Modi government is confused and bereft of focus and direction, it added.
“A rapidly transforming and uncertain gloabal landscape demands a carefully crafted national security strategy”, said the resolution and added that “India should remain committed to concerted international cooperation for curbing terrorism”.
The foreign policy resolution also criticised the Narendra Modi government for its foreign policy towards neighbouring countries and said “never before in Indipendent India’s history, has the country been so diminished in its immediate periphery”.
The resolution warned that this policy will have significant implications for any meaningful role that India aspires to play in Asian region and the World.
“We have created spaces in our neighbouring countries through episodic engagement, which has allowed other powers, in particular China, to engage themselves”, it added.
It also pointed out the developments in Maldives Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka and said these are a matter of serious concerns.
“Relations with India do not become a factor in the domestic politics of the countries in our neighbourhood”, it said.
Unless Inida is able to manage its neighbourhood effectively, it will be unable to play any credible regional or global power, the resolution said.
The resolution criticised the Modi government’s policy on Pakistan and said, while “confronting cross-border terrorism with a robust security response, has enjoyed across the board national consensus”.
However, the resolution blamed that it is being undermined by the government by making policy towards Pakistan a divisive domestic issue.
“It needs mention that under the Congress led UPA Government, the long standing India-Pakistan hyphenation in international perception was successfully removed”, it said.
There is a danger of that hyphenation being revived as a result of renewed international focus on Indo-Pak tensions, the resolution said.
It also blamed that the BJP Government has no roadmap and its Pakistan policy has been a disaster.
It also advocated that India’s approach to China must not only be marked with pragmatism, but also realism.