Five Jewels of India : They Shaped the Foreign Policy of India

Since Independence(1947), India has witnessed tremendous evolution in its foreign policy. Different leaders, at different time, carved out a specific policy for foreign affairs which suited India's interest at particular time. India has gone through a long journey of wars, beginning from Pakistan's attack on Kashmir in 1947 to recently Pulwama attack. Leaders and diplomats has been chalking out the policy through out this journey as serve it at best. In this article we will know the five most dominant Prime Minister who played a key role in defining India's Foreign Policy.

Pt Jawahar LaL Nehru: India's first and longest serving prime minister, Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru carved out the foreign policy with specific objective. Newly independent India had the major three objective at the time of independence - preserving its sovereignty, protecting territorial integrity and promoting rapid development. To achieve these objective Pt. Nehru came out with Panchasheel Principles and Non Alignment Policy. After the second World War, world was divided into two fold that is USA and USSR. This was the time of beginning of the cold War era. India under Pt Nehru adopted the policy of Non Alignment as it did not want to lose freedom of decision making. However, India faced a fierce war against China in 1962 which resulted in tremendous loss to India specifically in prestige. At this time, India's Non Alignment Policy was in question as no non aligned country came forward in support of India.

Indira Gandhi: India's first female Prime Minister and daughter of Pt. Nehru, Indira Gandhi devised a policy which was very practical and realistic in nature. Under her leadership, in 1971, India had been able to help Bangladesh to achieve its independence. At this time Indian forces did its best and force to surrender of 90,000 Pakistani troops. Even though USA was there to help Pakistan against India but Indira's tactic agreement for 20 years with USSR helped India to shun off USA. USSR friendship ensured that USA could not interfere in that war. This was also the time when India was getting pressurized to sign the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Under Indira, India conducted first nuclear test at Pokharan in 1974. Thus India indicated the world its desire to make a self dependent policy in matter of national security.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee : In the NDA regime, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India extended olive branch to Pakistan, did another nuclear test and fought an important war of Kargil. Due to nuclear test, India faced sanctions from USA and other parts of the world. Yet, India declared that it would be a nuclear state and would maintain the nuclear arm for minimum deterrent. As USSR had been desolved a decade earlier in 90s, India moved a bit closer to sole Super Power in the world that is USA.

Manmohan Singh : In UPA regime, led by congress, India improved its relationship with all the country in the world except Pakistan. Under Manmohan Singh, India kept the economic factor in defining its foreign affairs. Even in economic crisis of 2008, India sailed itself without much hindrance. In this phase India concluded many free trade agreement with Asian and South East Asian countries. India also concluded nuclear treaty with USA and India USA relations improved tremendously.
On the flip side, this phase witnessed many terrorist attack and Mumbai attack in 2008 was the most brutal one. All these attack raised questions regarding internal as well as external security.

Narendra Damodar Das Modi : After a long ten years of UPA regime, India's democracy demanded  a new and assertive leadership for this country. Narendra Modi became the face of BJP and won two consecutive Lok Sabha election. While during his regime, India has been through a tense relation with China and Pakistan, it has grown a good relation with west. India, under Modi has shown a very assertive action against its security. India has adopted a policy of "tit for tat" under modi which can be seen in Uri and Pulwama attack against Pakistan and in Dokalam and Phang Tso aginst China. Under Modi, India has been playing a dominant role in South Asian region and also has been an assertive vocal in all International matter. However, still India is facing a challenge to carve out a policy for it as it able to balance its relation with west and Russia. As west is important for India against China, Russia too is important for India for its Arms requirements as well as in respect to historical relations.