Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have a foreign policy vision? Could he translate it, in a substantive measure, into reality? The answer to the first question is a resounding ‘yes’ and the second, an unfortunate ‘no’. Singh’s bold visualisation of India’s new possibilities ran headlong into a hostile political class, a status quoist bureaucracy, and a foreign policy community stuck in the past.
Indian diplomacy during the decade of Manmohan Singh’s tenure as PM raises larger questions about the relationship between India’s domestic politics and foreign policy and the challenges of reworking elite consensus in Delhi on external relations. Reflections on the Manmohan Singh era could offer valuable guidance to India as it prepares to cope with a turbulent phase in world politics in the second quarter of the twenty-first century.
A careful analysis of Manmohan Singh’s years in office shows that he had an expansive foreign policy vision built around the ideas of regional peace, reconciliation with the global nuclear order, and new strategic partnership with the United States of America. But it also highlights the difficulty in seizing the external opportunities that came India’s way.
