Shifting alignments, 1977-1999: from genuine non-alignment to Look East

Detail

1. The Janata turn (1977): "genuine non-alignment"

• Context: from 1977, non-Congress governments came to power for the first time. The world around them was also changing fast.
• Non-alignment: India's policy of not joining either Cold War military bloc (the US-led bloc or the Soviet-led bloc), while still judging each issue on its own merits.
• Genuine non-alignment: the Janata Party's promise in 1977 to return to "real" non-alignment.
• The complaint → under Indira Gandhi, India had leaned towards the USSR. The 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was the clearest example.
• The promise → the Janata government would keep equal distance from both blocs.

• Who led it → Morarji Desai was Prime Minister and A.B. Vajpayee was External Affairs Minister.

• A lasting shift: since 1977, every government, Congress or non-Congress, has tried to:

• improve relations with China;

• build close ties with the US.

• Continuity, not reversal: the Janata years did not break with the USSR. Moscow remained a key friend and arms supplier.

2. The two questions that drive public debate

• In popular politics, foreign policy comes down to two questions:
• India's stand on Pakistan;

• Indo-US relations.

• After 1990: opponents often attacked the ruling party for a pro-US policy.

3. The 1980s: muted on Afghanistan, active in the neighbourhood

• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (December 1979): India did not openly condemn its Soviet partner. In the UN General Assembly vote of January 1980 it abstained instead of backing the resolution. Critics saw this as proof that the pro-Soviet tilt had survived.
• Rajiv Gandhi's activism (1984-89):

Year	Country	What happened
1987	Sri Lanka	India-Sri Lanka Accord (July 1987). The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent to the Tamil areas. It withdrew in 1990.
1988	Maldives	Operation Cactus (November 1988). Indian troops stopped a coup attempt against President Gayoom at Malé's request.
1988	China	First visit to China by an Indian PM since 1954 (December 1988) — see below.

• Rajiv Gandhi's China visit (December 1988):
• Effect → it revived ties that had been frozen since the 1962 war [7].
• Boundary → India and China agreed to set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) to seek a "fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable" solution to the boundary question [7].
• Trade → they also set up a Joint Economic Group (JEG) and agreed to widen ties in all fields [7].

4. End of the Cold War (1990-91): from ideology to economics

• Cold War: the 1945-1991 rivalry between the US and USSR, fought through alliances, arms races and proxy wars rather than direct war. It ended when the USSR broke up in December 1991.
• What changed for India:
• Russia → still an important friend, but it lost its global pre-eminence (its position as a top world power).
• India's response → a more pro-US strategy.

• New logic → world politics was now shaped more by economic than by military interests. This changed India's choices too.

• NCERT's verdict: foreign policy is "always dictated by ideas of national interest". Ideology gives way when the national interest changes.

5. The 1991 balance-of-payments crisis: economics forces the shift

• Balance-of-payments (BoP) crisis: a country runs short of foreign currency (mainly dollars) to pay for imports and repay foreign loans.
• Causes in 1991 [4]:
• a jump in the oil (POL) import bill during the Gulf War;
• falling net invisibles earnings (for example, money sent home by Indians working abroad);
• less access to international loans;

• lower inflows into non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits.

• How deep it went: when the new government took office in June 1991, usable foreign exchange reserves were within weeks of running out [4].

• Emergency steps [4][5]:
• Gold-backed borrowing abroad, to show that India would meet all its foreign payments [4].
• IMF loans: SDR 717 million under the Compensatory and Contingency Financing Facility, plus SDR 552 million under the first credit tranche of a stand-by arrangement (a short-term IMF loan with conditions attached) [4].

• Rupee depreciation in two steps, on 1 July and 3 July 1991 [5].

• Link to foreign policy: the reforms that followed (liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation, called LPG) made trade, investment and markets central to diplomacy. This pushed India towards the US, the West and East Asia.

6. Israel (1992): a break with the past

• India recognised Israel on 17 September 1950 but did not set up full ties for four decades [3].
• Full diplomatic relations began in 1992, and both sides opened embassies [3].
• Before 1992 → Israel had only an immigration office in Bombay, later turned into a trade office and then a consulate [3].
• Trade in 1992 → about USD 200 million, mostly diamonds [3].

• Next step → a Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement in 1993 [3].

• Why it matters: this was a post-Cold War, interest-based choice. India had earlier kept its distance from Israel out of support for the Palestinian cause and Arab states.

7. Look East Policy (1991-92, P.V. Narasimha Rao)

• Look East Policy: India's plan to build economic, strategic and cultural ties with South-East Asia (and later East Asia), with ASEAN at its centre.
• ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations): a regional group of South-East Asian states, formed in 1967.
• Launch: set out by PM P.V. Narasimha Rao. MEA dates it to 1992 [2][6]. It was first aimed at South-East Asia and began with India becoming a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN [2].
• Steps in India-ASEAN ties:

Year	Status	Meaning
1992	Sectoral Dialogue Partner [2]	Talks only in some areas, such as trade, investment and tourism
1995	Full Dialogue Partner [2]	Talks in all areas at Foreign Minister level. Often written as 1995-96, since India first sat in these meetings in 1996
1996	Member, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) [2]	ASEAN's forum for security talks across Asia-Pacific
2002	Ties raised to Summit level [2]	First ASEAN-India Summit
2012	Strategic Partnership [2]	Agreed at the Commemorative Summit, New Delhi (December 2012)

• Act East Policy (November 2014): an upgrade of Look East [6].
• Where announced → at the 12th ASEAN-India Summit and the 9th East Asia Summit in Myanmar [6].
• Wider scope → it covers the Indo-Pacific region, not just South-East Asia [6].
• Focus → connectivity (transport, trade and people-to-people links), economic ties, culture and strategic ties [6].

8. Consensus and leadership

• Broad agreement across parties on:
• national integration;
• protecting international boundaries;

• the national interest.

• Result: foreign policy played only a limited role in party politics. This held:

• even during the decade of three wars, 1962-71 (China 1962, Pakistan 1965, Pakistan 1971);

• even as governments changed after 1977 (exercise 6b).

• Constitutional anchors:

• Article 51 (Directive Principles, Part IV) → the State shall try to promote international peace and security, keep just and honourable relations between nations, respect international law and treaty obligations, and settle disputes through arbitration.

• Article 253 → Parliament can make laws for the whole country to carry out treaties and international agreements.

• Leadership matters (exercise 9):

Leader / government	Mark on foreign policy
Jawaharlal Nehru	Built non-alignment and Panchsheel
Indira Gandhi	Realism; 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty; 1971 war; Pokhran-I (1974)
Janata (1977-79)	"Genuine non-alignment"; reaching out to China and the US
Rajiv Gandhi	China visit (1988); IPKF in Sri Lanka (1987); Maldives (1988)
A.B. Vajpayee	Pokhran-II (1998); Lahore bus diplomacy (1999); Kargil (1999)

• Exercise 5: choose two aspects of India's foreign policy to retain (for example, strategic autonomy and the cross-party consensus) and two to change (for example, slow economic diplomacy and reactive neighbourhood policy). Give reasons for each.

Prelims Hooks

• "Genuine non-alignment" was the slogan of the Janata government (1977). It was meant to correct Indira Gandhi's pro-Soviet tilt.
• India: ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner 1992 → Full Dialogue Partner 1995 → ARF member 1996 → Summit level 2002 → Strategic Partnership 2012 [2].
• Look East was launched under P.V. Narasimha Rao (MEA date: 1992). Act East was announced in November 2014 at the 12th ASEAN-India Summit in Myanmar [2][6].
• India recognised Israel in 1950 but set up full diplomatic relations only in 1992. Trap: recognition ≠ diplomatic relations [3].
• Rajiv Gandhi's China visit (December 1988) set up the Joint Working Group on the boundary and the Joint Economic Group [7].
• 1991 crisis: the rupee was depreciated in two steps (1 and 3 July 1991), and India took gold-backed foreign loans [4][5].
• Pairs: Operation Cactus – Maldives (1988); IPKF – Sri Lanka (1987-90).
• Article 51 (a DPSP) = promote international peace and security. Article 253 = Parliament's power to make laws that carry out treaties.

Mains Points

• Continuity amid change: the shift from genuine non-alignment (1977) to a pro-US tilt and Look East (1991) shows that foreign policy follows the national interest, not fixed ideology. Even so, strategic autonomy stayed constant across governments (GS-II).
• Economics drives diplomacy: the 1991 BoP crisis and the end of the Cold War moved India from security-first, bloc-based thinking to trade and investment-led ties: ASEAN, the US, and Israel (1992) (GS-II / GS-I).
• Consensus vs politicisation: cross-party agreement on borders and integration kept foreign policy out of party contests, even in 1962-71. The trade-off is that it can hide weak public debate on choices such as the Afghanistan silence (1980) or the IPKF (1987) (GS-II).
• Role of leadership: Nehru, Indira Gandhi, the Janata leaders, Rajiv Gandhi and Vajpayee each shaped policy through their personal style. This raises the question of how far the PMO, rather than Parliament, should drive foreign policy (GS-II).