'Agartala Doctrine' a solution to policy paralysis?

The Agartala Doctrine that focuses on pro-active but positive engagement with neighbours has fitted in well with India's Bangladesh policy since Indira Gandhi to Manmohan Singh and may be a useful complement to Narendra Modi's neighbourhood policy, says a new book.
The proposed national doctrine draws on Tripura's long proactive history of handling its neighbourhood. Differing from both the Monroe doctrine of dominance and the Gujral doctrine of unilateral magnanimity, it is rather based on the idea of "appropriate response" and has grown out of the line of action chosen by Tripura's chief ministers from Sachin Singh to Manik Sarkar.

Journalist Subir Bhaumik, who has edited "The Agartala Doctrine: A Proactive Northeast in Indian Foreign Policy," published by Oxford, makes a strong pitch for this doctrine as a possible line of action for states in Indian foreign policy.
"By his visits across the SAARC countries, Modi has stressed the need to strengthen India's relations with its neighbours. In a way, Modi unwittingly has practiced the 'Agartala Doctrine' of appropriate response with Pakistan so far. He invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony but did not hesitate to ask Indian security forces to respond in full measure to provocations on the border," he writes.

The book draws on contributions from scholars and diplomats, journalists and specialists with known expertise in the northeast and its immediate neighbourhood, its foreign policy, and the emerging process of regional cooperation in Asia.
In the book's foreword, former Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni writes, "We want northeast India to connect and reach out to the Bay of Bengal, the High Seas and the Deep Sea Bed. The India-Bangladesh maritime boundaries issue has been resolved and both nations can join hands to create a 'blue economy' that will benefit our peoples. Northeast India, so long nearly land-locked, will be a major beneficiary when that happens."

In his introductory essay "Agartala Doctrine: The 'Tripura

Line" of Appropriate Response in Foreign Policy," Bhaumik says how Indian states have become more assertive on foreign policy issues, especially on those that concern them directly over the past few decades.
"Two recent examples of how states could significantly influence foreign policies are obvious. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's stiff opposition forced the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to back off from signing the Teesta water-sharing treaty during his Dhaka visit in 2010. She also blocked the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement until Singh's successor Narendra Modi managed her support with a federal package to rehabilitate those who might move to her state after the swap of the enclaves with Bangladesh.

"Down south, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa sought to appeal to her Tamil voters incensed by the 'gross human rights violations' in Sri Lanka's Tamil dominated Jaffna region. Not only were Sri Lankan delegations, including junior cricket teams, forced to pack up and leave Tamil Nadu on scores of occasions but Jayalalithaa's pressures forced Manmohan Singh to cancel his Colombo visit during the Commonwealth Heads meet in 2013," Bhaumik writes.
According to him, the 'Agartala Doctrine' appreciates the spirit of the 'Gujral Doctrine' that provided a five-point roadmap to build trust between India and neighbours, to promote solution to bilateral issues through bilateral dialogue and to remove immediate quid pro quos in diplomatic relationship between India and her neighbours.

The Agartala doctrine, he says, emphasises the most on that part of the Gujral Doctrine that says no country in South Asia will allow its territory to be used against a neighbour.
"In view of the long history of 'insurgent crossfire' in the region (Tripura was victim of insurgent movement aided and abetted by Pakistan and later by Bangladesh but its own territory was used by Indian agencies to promote the Shanti Bahini guerrillas in CHT). And it is here that the Agartala Doctrine stresses on 'appropriate, proactive and befitting, if not always reciprocal, response'," he writes.
"There is no place in the 'Agartala Doctrine' for Mamata's strident opposition to the Teesta water-sharing treaty or the Land Boundary agreement with Bangladesh or Assam's regional groups' opposition to the Land Boundary Agreement or the xenophobia reflected in the Mizo regional responses to the Chin migration issue in Mizoram or the perpetual Bangladesh-bashing witnessed in Assam by various groups on the illegal migration question," Bhaumik argues.

"It is incumbent on states and the Centre to work together to block illegal migration and for local parties not to thrive on the politics of select vote-banks but it is also incumbent on them not to disrupt social peace and economic growth by perpetuating a culture of violent movements. That is the essence of the Agartala Doctrine," he says.