Inder Malhotra’s apt comparison of the first three years of Dr Manmohan Singh’s prime ministership with the early years of Indira Gandhi reminds us of a simple but important feature of our polity (‘Between Jawaharlal & Sonia’, IE, May 24). The power and effectiveness of the Indian prime minister have varied with circumstance and the balance of forces within the

ruling dispensation.

Absence of a political coherence at the top, however, has its consequences, as in the current government’s inability to take advantage of the extraordinary performance of the economy and the weakening of the BJP, the principal opposition party, and to pursue a forward looking national agenda.

The real costs of the UPA’s political dithering might, however, lie in the conduct of India’s foreign policy. For, the world does not wait for India to get its act together.

If diplomacy is about seizing the fleeting moments of opportunity to achieve long-term national goals, timing is everything. Inability to act at the right moment implies more than lost opportunities. It involves serious political and economic penalties. Changes in the international context and the shift in the global balance could often mean what is easily done at a particular juncture could become near impossible at another.

Nothing illustrates this better than India’s foreign policy challenges in the mid-1960s. The most important features of the international situation then were the movement towards a detente between the rival superpowers and the affirmation of Chinese power potential. The nuclear arena reflected the changes in the sharpest form. Seeking to manage their nuclear rivalry and define some broad rules of the game for their all-encompassing political competition in the Cold War, Washington and Moscow took the first step of nuclear arms control.

... contd.