India's rise on the world horizon

In the narrow narrative of domestic politics marked by minority versus majority controversy whipped up in the name of 'secularism,' a distorted projection of the strong governance of Prime Minister Modi as a symbol of 'authoritarianism' and a deliberate attempt to misinterpret nationalism as the promotion of 'Hindutva,' what stands out in bold relief is the rapid advance India has made internationally to get an unprecedented recognition from the world community as a major power influencing the issues of war and peace. This is a major development.

One can recall the regime -- preceding the arrival of Modi on the national scene -- when corruption was at its peak, policy making was at its weakest and development was subordinated to communal politics. A telling illustration of this was the Indian response to 26/11 when the government of the day meekly accepted the US stand that the horrendous attack on Mumbai was the doing of 'non state actors' in Pakistan and that the Pak army could not be blamed for it -- this all was meant to ensure continuance of the Indo-Pak dialogue in which the US was interested for its own strategic reasons.

Prime Minister Modi embarked on a number of people-related projects as a part of his 'development for all' mission and launched a massive infrastructure development programme -- some of it catering to the dual civil-military use -- but his image soared when he invoked India's sovereign right to deal a blow to the external adversaries, suspended talks with Pakistan on the grounds of cross border terrorism and sent a clear message to the US that the American policy of hyphenating India and Pakistan and making a distinction between 'good terrorists' and 'bad terrorists' would not do.

In the wake of current developments in the Pak-Afghan belt posing a major threat to India, Ajit Doval, our NSA, hosted the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan, at Delhi on November 10 -- to discuss the Afghan scenario in its totality. India invited Russia which has been with the Central Asian Republics - all of whom including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazhakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan also positively responded to India's invitation. Both Pakistan and China though invited stayed away. India did well to invite Iran as well. The Shiite country might be having problems with the US and Israel, but the fact that Islamic radicals harboured extreme hatred towards Shias puts Iran and India on the same side so far as the Taliban was concerned – and this is of strategic significance for India. The conference adopted the 'Delhi Declaration' that reaffirmed the commitment of the participating countries to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and counter 'radicalisation' to ensure that Afghanistan would never become a safe haven for global terrorism.

The Biden administration is currently focused on dealing with the Communist dictatorship of China in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere in the face of the express intent of President Xi Jinping to make his country the second superpower – in the process it seems to be overlooking the Sino-Pak strategic partnership that had become a notch deeper since the emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US needs to have a closer look at the significance of a Communist regime and a country standing by Islamic radicals, coming on the same side politically in the emerging 'Cold War' between the US and China. The conference of the NSAs hosted by Ajit Doval has precisely drawn attention to this. Policy makers in the US do seem to be taking cognisance of the duplicitous play of Pakistan in the 'war on terror' and also analysing the implications of the Sino-Pak collaboration for the emerging geopolitics. India is playing its cards well in dealing with the Pak-Afghanistan belt on the one hand and countering China's aggressiveness both on the border and on the marine front, on the other.

It goes to the credit of Prime Minister Modi that he has in a short span of time elevated India to the position of a major power that has a say in global issues of economic cooperation and security. This has largely been made possible by a combination of policies that drew upon bilateral relations resting on mutual economic and security interests free of any ideological baggage of the past, assertion of India's sovereign strength in handling any adversary and demonstration of political will in taking hard decisions. This has enabled the Modi government to respond to Chinese aggressiveness on the LAC with a matching defence build-up, actively associate with Quad to show its solidarity with the democratic world's geopolitical moves against a hostile Communist dictatorship and send a message to Pakistan –through the surgical strike at Balakot – that any act of mischief against India will be severely punished. Prime Minister Modi has done remarkably well in establishing India's credentials as a believer in world peace, international cooperation for economic development and human welfare, at various forums addressed by him including the UN General Assembly, G20, SCO and even Quad.

India's call for a joint fight against terrorism has been combined with the initiative on vaccination against Covid - this has already been acknowledged by the world - and cooperation in the field of technology for economic advancement. Modi's leadership has taken India's image forward internationally in spite of the disruptive politics that its opponents have taken to, at home.

(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)