#dnaEdit: Neighbourhood first

It is becoming clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is quite serious about improving and strengthening India’s relations with the neighbours. From the point when he invited the heads of governments and States of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) to the swearing-in ceremony of the NDA government on May 26 which he has followed by visiting Bhutan last month and Nepal on August 3 and 4. The PM has struck a warm, personal note in these two countries, and there have been surprisingly enthusiastic responses from the peoples, who lined the streets in Thimphu and Kathmandu. This is something that has not happened in a long time. Modi seems to feel much at ease in the South Asian environs and his rhetoric gets a free play. The Modi persona on the South Asian front is likely to be a highly personalised one, and it gives a fresh turn to neighbourhood diplomacy.

While giving free rein to his rhetorical flourishes while addressing the Nepal Constituent Assembly, Modi has used the Hindu-Buddhist cultural idiom and he seems to have managed to strike a rapport with the leaders and people of the country. There is, however, a need to guard against pitfalls. In the surge of good which he felt for Nepal and its people, Modi did not realise that he was being prescriptive, telling what Nepal could do to improve its prospects and how India could play a role in it. Of course, in talks with his Nepalese counterpart, Sushil Koirala did say that it is for Nepal to sort out its internal differences. There would be some who may argue that the big brotherly — with none of its ominous connotations — approach that Modi adopted was quite appropriate and that he was affirming the fact that India is the larger country and Nepal its small neighbour. That  India as Nepal’s economic lifeline would do everything it can to spur economic growth in Nepal through cooperation in the power sector and in tourism.

The personalised approach of Modi has been successful in Bhutan and Nepal, and it is likely that he would want to retain his personal style and personal voice in his equations with the leaders of Pakistan and Bangladesh as well. Though he may have to be more subtle in telling Islamabad and Dhaka that India remains a big country and it could do much to help them grow economically. In that he would not be too far off the mark either.

The contours of the Modi weltanschauung are emerging, where the Prime Minister seems to feel that India’s primary foreign policy concern should be to focus on its neighbours. This is quite different from the Indian stand in the last quarter of a century and more when successive governments in Delhi felt that India was a big player and the South Asian region is much too small for its strengths to have a full play. Their attitude towards Saarc was one of grudging tolerance and there were even signs of impatience. Of course, India has not made much of a mark on the world stage except pleading for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. It would be premature to say that Modi is turning his back on the rest of the world. He will stay engaged despite the tough stand India has taken over food subsidies at the WTO. Modi’s neighbourhood-first stance could serve as a good push to the dormant Indian foreign policy which has been rather directionless, obsessed as it was with getting things right with the United States and Pakistan, in that order.