Congress 'to correct' existing foreign policy

India under the new Congress-led government will be far less willing to toe the US line than it has been under the outgoing government.

Senior Congress leaders indicated that criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies and of US actions in Iraq were on the cards. India has hitherto remained silent on both.

They spoke, however, of "a measured and practical approach" rather than the sort of antipathy to the US that some Left leaders would like to inject into India's foreign policy.

Foreign policy is less of a priority for the Left than economic policies but it is likely to come up in discussions over a Common Minimum Programme over the next couple of days. Former finance minister Manmohan Singh is the party's point man for those discussions.

A key Congress policy maker on foreign affairs made it clear that foreign policy shifts under the new government would not mark departures from the past as much as corrections. India would continue its good relations with various world powers, only be less amenable to dictation.

The Congress leader spoke to Gulf News on the condition of anonymity, since those who are in the running for key assignments have been instructed not to speak to the media.

Criticising some of the BJP-led government's foreign policy decisions, he claimed that a division of the Indian Army had been ready to go to Iraq last summer and that Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had assured the US of it during his visit.

It was only after Sonia Gandhi wrote two letters to the prime minister, on June 5 and June 13 last year, that the government called an all-party meeting and then cancelled the plan to send troops.

The BJP-led government had rushed to promise full support to the US following the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, he added, without asking for a reciprocal promise of support for India's battle against terrorism.

Then, he maintained, the US had "held us back" from attacking Pakistan for a year after the terrorist attacks on the assembly in Srinagar and on India's Parliament.

The Congress leader was fiercely critical of India taking the forefront to welcome the US' decision to abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and initiate a Strategic Defence Initiative(SDI). "We did not even ask what the implications of SDI would be," he added. The SDI, which was initiated soon after the Bush administration took office, envisages an anti-missile shield over the US.

He pointed out that, in being the first to welcome that US decision, India had neglected the potential in Russian President Putin's desire to give India centrality in Russia's foreign policy framework.

The Congress leader held that criticising Israeli policies in Palestine would not damage India's close strategic and economic ties with Israel. "They are not doing us any charity. We pay for what we get from them," he pointed out.

With regard to China, he said the outgoing government had first alienated it by needlessly naming it as a potential enemy in a letter to the US President – which Washington leaked to the press.

Then, he said, the government "overdid the correction." An entire paragraph of a recent joint statement was devoted to describing Tibet as an integral part of China, whereas Tibet had always been dismissed in no more than a sentence in the past.

In a conversation a few weeks ago, Congress leader J.N. Dixit had reacted with anger to government statements crowing over changes in China's website map, which now shows Sikkim as part of India. Dixit is Vice-chairman of the Congress' Foreign Affairs Department and convenor of its National Security cell.

Dixit had held that the changes in China's stand with regard to Sikkim were not new. "Every element was sorted either in Rajiv Gandhi's or in P.V. Narasimha Rao's time."

Dixit is tipped to succeed Brajesh Mishra as National Security Advisor. Natwar Singh is the leading contender in the party for the post of external affairs minister, although Pranab Mukherjee is an alternative. Mukherjee has held the post in the '80s.

Like Mishra, both Dixit and Singh are former Indian Foreign Service officers. However, while Mishra showed a distinct pro-West tilt during his career, Singh was a champion of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Mishra had preferred to resign from the Foreign Service in 1980 rather than accept Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's instruction not to criticise the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan harshly. Mishra, who had been India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, promptly got a UN job.

Ironically, Dixit was India's ambassador to Afghanistan at the time. During the first half of the `90s, he was one of the most powerful and successful foreign secretaries India has had. India built bridges with Israel and South Africa during that period, smoothened relations with China and resisted US pressure to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation regime.