Isolationist? Modi's multi-alignment foreign policy 'designed by colonial, imperialist powers'

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*

After independence, India became the architect of the  Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which refused to join the warmongering, imperialist, and colonial power blocs in both their regressive and progressive forms. The idealism of the NAM revolves around principles of egalitarian coexistence, solidarity, peace, and harmony. 

Under India's leadership, NAM successfully united nearly 120 countries to oppose all forms of imperialism and colonialism during and after the Cold War. Newly independent Asian, African, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries adopted NAM's principles as part of their foreign policy to maintain independence from European colonialism and American imperialism. These policies were central to pursue independent economic and development policies focusing on people, peace and collective prosperity. 

India played a major role in transforming NAM into a united international movement against colonialism and imperialism, promoting an independent path of peace and development opposed to capitalism. NAM served as a platform for solidarity against all forms of colonial and imperialist wars, conflicts, and the polarisation of people and the planet. 

However, this principled movement has been undermined by directionless Hindutva street politics, which, in the name of upholding national interests, pursues a doctrine of multi-alignment or multi-vector foreign policy. Such an isolationist policy, pursued in the name of national interest, serves neither the interests of India nor those of the world.

Narendra Modi, the poster boy of Hindutva politics and the Prime Minister of India for a third term, continues to spend considerable time on foreign trips, engaging in public displays of affection by hugging foreign leaders and staging well-choreographed meetings with the Indian diaspora. A coordinated crony-capitalist media campaign portrays Modi as a global leader during his foreign trips. 

However, under the guise of protecting national interests, Modi and his government align with reactionary, Zionist, warmongering, and imperialist powers. In this way,  Modi has not only undermined India's national interests and the idealism of its foreign policy but has also tarnished India's NAM image as an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist leader among Asian, African, and Latin American nations.

The Hindutva supremacist politics and the carefully curated machismo leadership of  Modi have damaged India's relationships with its immediate neighbours and friends abroad. These neighbouring countries either distrust or fear India's dominant policy positions. 

Modi and his supercilious Hindutva politics are fundamentally responsible for creating this situation in the neighbourhood. The Hindutva leadership, with its myopic vision, has failed to consolidate the global goodwill India once enjoyed due to its historic anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-war positions in world politics. 

There is an abundance of goodwill still exists for India and its people wherever one visits. However, Hindutva politics and its leadership have failed to identify and consolidate this goodwill by aligning with Zionist, colonial, and imperialist regimes in the name of national interests. 

There is no greater national interest than the goodwill of the people. Hindutva politics undermines this goodwill through its supremacist politics of hate. The ignominious Hindutva leadership and their myopic politics has ruined NAM, its relevance and significance in shaping world politics in the path of peace and solidarity.  

Colonial and imperialist powers in America and Europe have long sought to undermine  NAM and its collective strength to weaken countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Arab world. India was their best bait. Ultimately, Hindutva leadership has allowed Americans and Europeans to dismantle NAM, with India adopting a multi-alignment foreign policy. 

Hindutva leadership and its myopic politics has ruined NAM, its relevance in shaping world politics

This so-called doctrine of multi-vector foreign policy is an isolationist approach designed by colonial and imperialist powers to divide nations under the guise of national interest, thereby controlling their states and governments and hindering their ability to take independent positions in global politics.

The interests of India and its people can be consolidated through the revival of NAM as a collective foreign policy strategy aimed at deepening democracy, peace, solidarity, and shared prosperity. 

In contrast, multi-alignment and multi-vector foreign policies serve neither the interests of India and its citizens nor those of global peace. Friendships and long-term collaborations are not formed by following self-interests. It is formed on the basis of common idealism and long-term interests. 

The Hindutva led Indian foreign policy significantly affects Indian working masses in their everyday lives, especially when oil prices rise due to imperialist wars in Europe and the Middle East. Therefore, India needs a mass movement against the directionless Hindutva foreign policy to reclaim its anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-war foundations, as shaped by the  NAM. 

Reviving NAM is crucial for countering the rising imperialism led by America and Europe. India and its citizens must play their historic role in reclaiming “peace and solidarity” as the core of their foreign policy and restoring NAM as an international peace movement.

Modi follows an individual-centric foreign policy shaped by his crony capitalist friends and his leadership comfort zone, influenced by the reactionary ideology of Hindutva politics. This Hindutva ideology and its European origin is concomitant with its Eurocentric values in politics which undermines the principles of NAM for deepening relationships with Yankee imperialism and racialised colonial Europe. 

These forces can never be trustworthy allies of India and its people. American and European leadership primarily represent the interests of their corporations and global capitalism, showing little concern for their own countries and citizens. Why would these countries and their ruling elites ever uphold the interests of India and its people?

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*Scholar based in UK