India in the world: Then and now

Narendra Modi has made foreign policy a peoples’ movement, a janandolan, like Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.

- DEEPAK VOHRA

This is a personal story, and any resemblance to any characters dead or living is unintentional.

I joined the Indian Foreign Service on 7 July 1973, and will complete 50 years on 7 July 2023. We walked into South Block, to be reminded of our colonial past and of the challenges we faced. In our training, we were told about an organization based in Washington DC, promoted by the World Bank, infelicitously called the Aid India Consortium, founded in 1958 when India was threatened by a severe balance of payments crisis, with the very real possibility that India’s foreign exchange reserves would be wiped out by the end of the year with incomplete infrastructure and industry projects.

The word “aid” sapped our self-confidence and became embedded in our consciousness, leading us to believe that our survival depended on the goodwill of others and that we were condemned to a life of mendicancy and aid-dependence. We also learnt in detail about the near-famine conditions that India faced in the mid-1960s, when American food assistance saved us from starvation.

I went to Paris in 1975, on my first overseas posting, with US$12 in my pocket. It quickly became apparent that India’s opinion did not matter; we were treated as perennial beggars. On every visit home, I would be asked to bring “phoren” stuff for relatives and friends and friends of friends.

In one of my foreign assignments, we were weeding out old files. There was a cable about the possibility of North Vietnam-US peace talks being held in New Delhi. A very senior officer from my ministry had advised against the idea, as we were a poor nation and did not want to be in the limelight. Our lack of self-confidence was evident.