Under the NDA-BJP rule, Indian foreign policy, after decades, adopted a pragmatic approach. There was a perceptible improvement in Indo-US relations and for the first time, the US accepted India as a strategic ally, if not a partner. The Indo-US joint military exercises and strategic cooperation on terrorism is an acknowledgement of India’s status as a key regional power. A dogmatic and pathological anti-US policy of the Left Communists (LC) will not only mar the improving Indo-US relations, but will compel the US to shed its even handed policy in the Indo-Pak dispute. Given the messy Iraqi invasion and the factor of Pakistan as a key ally in the Islamic world, in US strategic perception, amidst mounting anti-US sentiments, any Cold War inspired approach will impair Indo-US relations and will adversely affect the peace process with Pakistan. Anti-US policy may even isolate India and affect its growing relations with the ASEAN, a crucial area of strategic importance for India. The realities of a unipolar world cannot be wished away and India does not have the economic and military clout to usher in multipolarity in the present world order as glibly touted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the LC axis.

The relationship with Israel will also be under the scanner of the UPA-LC dispensation. It is not the support for a Palestinian State – a fact even accepted by Israel – that is the issue. Rather it is the hostility towards Israel to justify friendship with the Palestinians that reflects the perversities of India’s West Asia diplomacy.

Israel has emerged as a key and second largest supplier of hi-tech and inexpensive defence equipments, after Russia, like AWACS, hand pagers, guns, radars, etc. Any stoppage or slowdown of such supplies or recession of such contracts in the pipleline will adversely affect the level of preparedness of the Indian Armed Forces. During the Kargil invasion, and Operation Parakram, Israel had promptly responded by supplying the required ammunition. Therefore dubbing Israel as “guilty of State terrorism” by the CPI’s A. B. Bardhan, appears to be a disturbing percursor of the pressure the LC axis intends to exert in relations with Israel. The Common Minimum Programme (CMP) states “that traditional relations with West Asia will be given a fresh thrust” and the assertion of “decades old commitment to the cause of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own” is a none too veiled threat to downgrade the relationship with Israel, if not jettisoning it.

Any reversal to the Nehruvian foreign policy on West Asia under the new External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, himself a relic of the Cold War – would be unrealistic. The Arab bloc cannot be a counter balancing force in the UPA-LC’s perceived quest for multipolarity. Further, if India has to play a positive role consistent with its geo-political status and emerging regional Asian power, it will have to adopt a parity in its relations towards both Israel and the Arabs. The traditional friendship with theArabs continued even under the NDA-BJP rule but that should not mean singling out Israel for step-motherly treatment to revive a failed dogmatic policy. Both India and Israel have built mutually beneficial relations based on shared values of democracy, free society and joint fight against the scourge of terrorism. The growing relations ought not to be affected or sacrificed on the altar of ideological dogmas.

Mr. Nitin Raut is a lawyer, and a member of the Editorial Board of Freedom First.