India’s concerns about some US foreign policy priorities and its acceptance of the Bush administration’s critical role in transforming ties are not mutually exclusive.

After all, India did not agree with many of Bill Clinton’s foreign policy priorities either. And yet when the Indian PM thanked Bush during his last visit to the US, critics in India went berserk. In a similar vein, notwithstanding Obama’s problematic stands on several issues impinging directly on Indian interests, there is no need for India to be hyperbolic in its concerns. If Obama does decide to go back on some of the initiatives of the Bush administration vis-à-vis India, then it would be as much a problem for broader US foreign policy as it would be for India. He won’t be doing India any favours by engaging India more substantively either. India is a rising power. The US and the world need it as much as India needs them. The visible lack of self-confidence among Indian elites in their nation’s ability to leverage the international system to its advantage will only weaken India. India should assess its interests carefully and learn to stand up for them.  

India’s strategic diffidence is in full display in the case of China, where India has consistently refused to tackle the challenge that China poses to Indian interests. China has upped the ante on the border issue, and its rhetoric on Arunachal Pradesh is getting stronger. More alarmingly, intrusions into Indian territory are getting more brazen. In a recent incident, Chinese soldiers entered 15 kilometres into India at the Burste post in the Ladakh sector along the Sino-Indian boundary and burned the Indian patrolling base. The number of incursions by the Chinese has increased to 213 from 170 reported last year. As usual, India is left to reacting to these actions — actions that do not conform to India’s self-image of an aspiring global power either. 

... contd.