Zeeshan Haider
Narendra Modi is known world over for his signature hug.
No matter how awkward it looks to a viewer, Modi would never hesitate to give a warm embrace to a foreign leader, be a guest at home or his host abroad.
The first generous display of this warm embrace was made by him at his inauguration as prime minister in his first term in New Delhi in 2014.
He warmly opened his arms to the leaders of India’s all neighboring countries in a public manifestation of his “Neighborhood First” policy.
Through this policy as well as through his body language, he tried to give out an impression to the outside world that he would try out regional integration and connectivity as his top priority by easing tensions with the bordering countries.
But about a year and half through his second term, he has done exactly the opposite.
Except for Bhutan, India presently has strained relations with all of its neighbors.
During major part of their over 70 years of history, relations between Pakistan and India have been uneasy but they have been at their lowest ebb since Modi-led BJP government came into power.
Ties with China have mostly remained tense but there have been rare skirmishes at their border but their armies recently fought their most violent clash in nearly five decades in Ladakh’s Galwan area in which at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
Tensions are still high running with both sides reported to be engaged in the military build-up in the area despite their army commanders’ agreement on de-escalation.
In neighboring Bangladesh, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is considered a pro-India politician.
Her pro-India leanings could be trace back to India’s war with Pakistan in 1971 when Indian army intervened in in support of the secessionist movement led by Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujaib ur Rehman, in the then East Pakistan. That intervention culminated in the emergence of East Pakistan as an independent country — Bangladesh.
But Modi’s Hindu radicals-dominated government even angered Hasina-ruled Bangladesh by pushing a controversial citizenship law through the parliament last year offering swift Indian citizenship to Hindus and non-Muslims communities from Bangladesh and other Muslim countries in the region to protect them from their “persecution” in those countries.
Bangladesh rejected Indian allegations as “non-sense” while two Bangladeshi ministers cancelled their official visits to India in protest.
A serious row has also been brewing with Nepal since Modi government showed the disputed Kalapani territory as part of India in a map released last year. The tiny neighbor invited India to dialogue to arrive at an amicable settlement but New Delhi arrogantly rejected the offer, forcing the Nepalese parliament to approve a map that shows Kalapani as well as Lipulekh mountain pass and Limpiyadhura – two other disputed areas with India — as part of their country.
Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli recently accused India of conspiring with his political rivals to oust him from power in apparent retaliation for pushing the new map through the parliament.
Interestingly, a similar political turmoil apparently backed by India also erupted in Sri Lanka in 2018 causing fissures in the ruling coalition over how to accommodate Indian interests in the wake of Colombo’s growing economic ties with China. The unity government eventually collapsed because of these differences.
The Indian media has constantly been blaming China for its troubles with its small neighbors.
New Delhi has always considered South Asia as its sole sphere of influence and has ruffled its feathers at any move challenging its dominance in the region.
China has traditionally enjoyed strong economic, defence and geostrategic ties with India’s main rival, Pakistan.
The development of Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar deep sea port in Baluchistan and then construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor – the first flagship project under China’s landmark Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – caused much consternation in New Delhi.
Beijing lured the other South Asian countries under the gigantic initiative and poured in billions of dollars for the development of infrastructure in these small countries which have increasingly grown wary of India’s bullying behavior.
Bhutan is the only exception which did not accept the China’s offer.
India itself has an outdated infrastructure and could not match China’s huge investment in its neighborhood and that’s why it is increasingly feeling threatened by Beijing’s expanding political, economic and strategic clout in its vicinity.
The Indian leadership should accept the reality that they could not challenge Chinese economic prowess at regional as well as at global level.
Therefore, it needs to shun hegemonic behavior with its neighbors and constructively engage them in talks on the basis of mutual respect to resolve bilateral disputes in an amicable manner.
That is the only way to steer the poverty-stricken South Asia towards the path of progress and development. Otherwise India would stay entangled with disputes with its neighbors which would not just hamper the regional integration and connectivity but would also balk at the India’s ambition to become a major power in the region.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad
