For a prime minister whose crowning achievement in his first term in office was the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States and members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group — a move that enabled India to end its ‘nuclear apartheid’ and enter a new era in its relations with major powers — and for a PM who has repeatedly been asked by the media what his plans for Pakistan were, it was striking that the media had hardly any questions on foreign policy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Even when he enunciated a new theory in foreign policy — the PM said, “India welcomes the dawn of democracy anywhere in the world”, in response to the only real question on foreign affairs (the other one on Sri Lanka capturing Indian fishermen was only half a foreign policy question, given the obvious domestic political aspect to it) — the media chose to ignore it. What was most striking about last week’s press conference was the lack of any media interest in the PM’s views on the developments in Pakistan and the likely follow-up to the India-Pakistan foreign secretaries-level meeting. Will there be a ‘summit’ meeting? Will the PM go to Pakistan? Has India changed its position and agreed to a ‘resumption of the composite dialogue’, disrupted by the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, or is there a new agenda for the bilateral talks?
This was perhaps the first press interaction that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has had with the New Delhi media since September 2004, his first National Press Conference, where there was not a single question either on Pakistan or on the United States, or for that matter China. What should diplomats and foreign governments make of that? Is it that the Indian government is so focused on problems at home that it has no time for the world? Is it that Prime Minister Singh’s views on the world no longer interest the media? Is it that the media thinks that the PM is so pre-occupied with developments at home that he is unlikely to find time for new initiatives abroad, be it with the US, China or Pakistan? Or, is it that the Indian media is so obsessed with the situation at home that it is not interested in what is happening in the world? The token question on the unrest in the Arab world was the kind of question any reporter would ask, given that the subject is on prime time and on the front page. Not to ask even that question would have been profoundly embarrassing for the media.
Clearly, the media’s disinterest in exploring the PM’s mind on foreign policy is in large part a reflection of the nation’s current pre-occupations, especially with inflation and corruption. It is also perhaps a reflection of the thinking that unless the PM gets a grip on the domestic situation he is unlikely to have the mandate or the energy to undertake initiatives abroad. This is not necessarily true, since politicians often take up foreign policy initiatives as a way of diverting public attention from the mess at home. A grand gesture abroad is a good way of changing the topic at the dinner table. It seems no one expects the PM to walk in that direction.
