A second failure in the mid-1960s was the inability to recognise that China had begun to alter the international distribution of power. Although China was then in the middle of a self-destructive Cultural Revolution, its 1964 nuclear test had signalled the emergence of China as a great power.

Today China demonstrates daily its determination to convert the new-found economic strength into strategic leverage around the world and not the least in India’s neighbourhood.

The near sickening debate in New Delhi on the relationship with the US is matched by a total silence on what the rise of China might imply for India’s regional and international interests. The UPA government’s reluctance to fashion a timely and credible response to China’s rise could turn out to be hugely expensive for future Indian governments.

While the Congress governments four decades ago had to fight a war with China and two with Pakistan, the UPA government inherited an opportunity to resolve long-standing problems with both the neighbours. Two years later, we might well conclude that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh let the big moments slip away in finding answers to the Kashmir question with Pakistan and in resolving the boundary dispute with China.

Indira Gandhi of the 1960s must be exonerated from her foreign policy vacillations because she had to confront an extremely difficult internal situation that included famine and dependence on food imports. With the economy now on a roll and a world never so benign to India, from the UPA’s own analysis, there will be no excuses for Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for persisting with a feckless foreign policy.

... contd.