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23 April 2013 08:17 pm - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The debate about the ‘emergence’ or ‘re-emergence’ of India as an important player at the world stage goes on the one hand. On the other, the Indian state is confronted with a major challenge, as regions (provinces) are asserting their rights and able to influence the foreign policy discourse. In addition, critics point out recent setbacks of Indian foreign policy in the Maldives and to a certain extent in Sri Lanka as signs of its non-arrival at the international arena since Indian foreign policy retains its primary focus on South Asia. Now, it is pertinent to investigate as to how India negotiates its foreign policy making challenges, especially towards its neighbour Sri Lanka..jpg)
The geographical reality of India with its South Asian neighbours enhances its power projection capabilities despite China’s increasing defence budget and modernising military. Further, India’s military relation with Sri Lanka is expanding, which includes joint military exercises, sharing intelligence and training, although China provides military hardware to Sri Lanka.
The role of states in foreign policy making is in a quandary. The growing financial independence of states in the Indian union, and their ability to influence, especially, foreign economic policy making has been a significant development in Centre-State relations in the last two decades. The Indian constitution disallows any regional participation in foreign and security policymaking process, and they remain exclusively Union/Centre government’s prerogative. The increasing participation of regional political parties in coalition governments at the Centre has brought their concerns to national focus. The Central government resolved the dilemma through resorting to the same number game. DMK was a major, long-standing coalition partner. DMK has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha, and it reduced the strength of the ruling alliance to 224 after its pullout in the Parliament, where the magic number for a majority is 272. Nevertheless, the Union government secured outside support of parties such as the Samajwadi Party (22 members) and Bahujan Samaj Party (21 members) to tide over the crisis. The constitutional debate over states’ role in foreign policy making is continuing, yet the Union government retains the final say in the decisions..jpg)
The possibility of the US repeating any such acts against India has reduced significantly. Moreover, India, as a seeker of a permanent seat in a reformed UN Security Council, ought to support democractie movements and struggles for human rights around the world, certainly in its backyard, to strengthen its claim. Therefore, India’s vote against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC was a well-calculated decision.In the final analysis, the Indian state has been able to navigate and make appropriate foreign policy choices despite increasing domestic challenges to its authority. Further, India’s decision to support the resolution indicates its willingness to be proactive and take a stand on a sensitive issue in South Asia. However, whether India would assume a more assertive role in its neighbourhood is a moot question.
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