Netaji's Legacy

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Netaji's Legacy of 'Political Pragmatism' in Modi's Foreign Policy

The year 2021 marks the 125th birth anniversary celebration of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Legendary Hero defying any ideological as well as material barrier in pursuing goals. Like any legend Netaji was also a complex personality defying any sectarian categorization. From this perspective let us delve into Netaji's legacy followed by the Modi government in foreign policy under the pragmatic leadership of the PM Narendra Modiji. 

If we go through the last phases of life of Netaji Bose from 1937 to 1945, it will be crystal clear that the only 'ism' for Netaji had been 'nationalism' which was guided only by 'political pragmatism'. He was then a leader of national stature craving for unqualified Swaraj or self-governance for India from the iron-hand of the British Empire by any means including the use of force against the British. 

Despite the re-election as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1939, Netaji Subhas had to resign from the post due to a confrontation with Mahatma Gandhi. Subsequently he had to form a new party All India Forward Bloc to realise his dream of Swaraj. 

For him, India's ancient scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita without any sense of bigotry or orthodoxy and Swami Vivekananda's Universalism had been the guiding principles in choosing the optimum path to realize his dreams of Indian freedom. With the announcement of the British Raj to involve the British India as a participant of the World War II, all the stakeholders in Indian freedom movement got into a confusing scenario. At that very moment, Netaji Bose had to use his political pragmatism and cut his own way to make his motherland free from the colonial rules. 

Prior to the Great Escape from the British India, Netaji had consulted so many persons including Veer Savarkar regarding the future course of action and realised that he had to be pragmatic enough to realise his dreams. Then he had to follow the old proverb of 'Arthashastra': 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', which was behind his strategy befriending the Axis Power to get their help for the freedom of his motherland. 

Now come to the foreign policy adopted by the Modi government. Like Netaji Bose, the PM Modiji has been following only 'ism' of nationalism to uphold the national interest in foreign policy-making without any trapping of so-called ideological position. After the end of the Cold War in the last decade of the twentieth century and with the rise of the multi-polar world in the twenty-first century, world politics is now bereft of any ideological war. In this context there is no relevance of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Modi government has rightly acknowledged the present reality by adopting pragmatic foreign policy in choosing right 'partners' to face enemies without 'ideological' bag and baggage. 

The most important feature of foreign policy under Modiji has been the 'non-normative' position taken by India based on 'facts' in international relations to safeguard national interests. The Pak-China evil axis is being countered by the Modi government through seer political pragmatism of politico-militaristic counter-balancing measures. India has been countering the Chinese expansionist aggression in the Galwan episode by taking up optimum militaristic measures in one hand, and partnering with QUAD and ASEAN nations on the other. 

From the national security perspective, the Modi government's approach in foreign policy is so pragmatic that India has been positioning herself as a leading global player by building strong 'partnerships' both in regional and global levels to counter born-enemy Pakistan and it's master China. Not only that India has also resorted to weaponry diplomacy in South East Asian region and Indian Ocean Region by providing Indian weapons and missiles to few nations breaking the glass-ceiling of 'soft' India. 

Soft power, coined by Prof. Joseph Nye in the late 1980s, is actually a type of power accumulated when others perform actions out of natural belief and inclination towards one's cause. We had seen the efficacy of this soft power when Netaji Bose had made a clarion call to Indians in South East Asia to join the Azad Hind Fauj for India's freedom. Following that legacy Modiji has stressed on India's age old 'cultural connect' with the Asian nations, particularly ASEAN nations, banking on Hindu-Buddhist cultural legacy.

In the present multi-polar world, India under Modiji has been using a transformative approach in foreign policy which is based not on any ideology but on political pragmatism as Netaji Subhas had adopted for the cause of the motherland. 

@ Sujit Roy