India shouldn’t be defensive about its domestic politics: Jaishankar

Jaishankar also said that it is important to look back and introspect on the decisions taken, and keep correcting ourselves to set the foreign policy right. “It is very important for us, after 75 years of Independence, to introspect about… because often, we tend to think that the decisions which were taken, were the only decisions that could have been taken, which may not be entirely true. So, I think, this exercise of the roads not taken, they need not be hypothetical, they need not be hindsight. Often, In fact, we had situations where issues were debated…and I think, it’s important to look back, keep looking back, keep refreshing, correcting ourselves… I think, that’s one way really about getting foreign policy right,” he said.

On Free Trade agreements, he had a word of caution. “We are now in the middle of some fairly serious negotiations with some fairly serious partners. But again, one reads about that it is going to happen. It’s the last leg, it should happen by Diwali. Why are we holding back? I hear this naysayers narrative coming back. Why isn’t India quickly signing up with the UK? Nobody says why isn’t the UK quickly signing up with me? So, somewhere it is like we have to make that accommodation. We are the people who are holding back and we should speed it up because every FTA and every open step is an achievement in itself.”

“Now FTAs have a use… I’m not at all in denial, I think… but FTA is at the end of the day, for a country with the per capita income that we have, for a country with the small producers that we do. I would very, very judiciously consider the merits and the risks of an FTA. Because at the end of the day, exposing every decision of an FTA is exposing millions of people, their livelihoods around them… it is something where really the future of our society, the lives of people, the livelihoods of people hang in balance. And we need to take that very much into account,” Jaishankar said.

Kumar, who is currently Dean, Strategic & International Initiatives at O P Jindal Global University, said that the book — which has been published by Harper Collins — is about explaining to the world why Indian negotiators are difficult and come across as naysayers in international negotiations. Kumar spoke about the Jindal university’s journey in the last 15 years.

The launch was attended by several serving Indian diplomats, including Deputy NSA Vikram Misri, Secretaries in Ministry of External Affairs Saurabh Kumar and Dammu Ravi, Professor (Dr) C Raj Kumar Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, many former Indian diplomats including former Indian envoy to Pakistan and Canada, Ajay Bisaria, former Indian sous sherpa at G20 J S Mukul, German ambassador Philipp Ackermann, Russian ambassador Denis Alipov and others.