For second year in row, Modi mum on foreign policy

NEW DELHI: For a Prime Minister who has clocked significant foreign policy achievements in the past year, Narendra Modi’s second Independence Day address from the Red Fort was shorn of any mention of foreign policy.
This was the second year in a row when Modi passed over foreign policy issues to focus on domestic affairs instead. It was particularly striking because Modi will be traveling on Sunday on his first visit to the UAE, part of a big outreach to the Middle East and the Gulf.
There was expectation that he would use the occasion to talk about terrorism and Pakistan — since the Ufa agreement in July, cross-border terrorism from Pakistan and ceasefire violations have climbed steadily. Moreover, the Pakistan NSA, Sartaj Aziz is expected to visit Delhi next weekend for a conversation on terrorism with his counterpart Ajit Doval.
The Indian government set out the contours of the proposed conversation. In a late evening tweet, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “The only struggle in J&K is against Pakistani sponsored terrorism. This will be the subject of the upcoming NSA level talks.”
This comes up smack against Aziz’s repeated assertions on the subject. Trying to explain the absence of Kashmir in the joint statement at Ufa, he has stressed that he would focus on the Valley and other outstanding issues---a point repeated by Abdul Basit, Pakistan high commissioner to India.
As opposition leader, Modi often plunged into foreign policy during his speeches, such as his famous “biryani” speech. But he has also not gone down the path of Rajiv Gandhi, who from the Red Fort had equally famously declared “naani yaad dilayenge”, or shared his melancholic reflections as Nehru had done after the 1962 war, also from the Red Fort.
Some felt Modi could have racked up the success of the international yoga day as a victory for Indian soft power. It was adopted by the UN enthusiastically after Modi had suggested it last year. And on June 21 this year, yoga was a celebrated form of physical and mental fitness across the globe.
So why did the PM decide to skip any mention of his foreign policy initiatives?
Well, for a number of different reasons. The Independence Day speech is largely his own, though bureaucrats of all shades in his government contribute to it. So it becomes largely a domestic affair, with the PM having a conversation with the nation. Secondly, the foreign policy successes are all fairly obvious ones, and don’t bear repeating, or would invite criticism that he had little to show internally. Third, foreign policy is not a top-of-mind subject for large parts of India, who are looking for more everyday, national issues to be touched upon by the PM.
Fourth, and more important, this was a PM emerging from a bruising, unproductive Parliament session, where both his government and his agenda have been challenged. A low-key speech without the usual Modi fanfare was necessary.