The government’s current political dissimulation stems from its past inability to prevent the domestic debate from being framed in terms of two false propositions. One is that India’s “independent” foreign policy is under attack from Washington. The other is that Indian diplomacy should not run against Muslim sentiments at home.

The first question, although trivial from an analytical perspective, gained salience amidst the US debate on the nuclear deal with India. With sections of the US Congress choosing to make Iran a test case for India’s non-proliferation credentials, the critics in New Delhi have had a free run raising the bogey of an independent foreign policy.

Ideologues in both Washington and New Delhi, however, missed the simple questions about India’s self-interest. Why in the world would India want Iran to acquire nuclear weapons? And by what logic would India sacrifice its own nuclear interests for the sake of Iran?

Further, the Iranian nuclear weapon programme is no longer a bilateral contest between Washington and Tehran. It is between the UNSC and Iran. Welcome to the world of multilateralism, with the full participation of China and Russia in the sanctions against Iran.

Linking Indian diplomacy to Muslim question at home represents the awful but enduring tradition of vote-bank politics, of which the entire Indian political class has been guilty. It also insults the intelligence of the Indian Muslims by suggesting that foreign policy tokenism could be a substitute for addressing the many real domestic political concerns they have. Worse still, the talk about Iran and the Shia vote in Uttar Pradesh in the capital’s political circles ignores the principal consequence of Tehran’s nuclear ambition — the erosion of Gulf Arab security.

... contd.