FOR nearly half-a-century, the 'foreign hand' has been that nebulous threat which political parties float to fit any crisis, across ideological shapes. Few let their imagination run to the nebula though, till Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao did so Sunday, blaming the recent cloudburst and consequent floods in the state to a conspiracy brewed across the shore. Among the first leaders to spot the 'hand' was then prime minister Indira Gandhi – and her suspicions sound not too dissimilar from the current government's. 1. Higher Learning In the early 1970s, while inaugurating a conference of vice-chancellors, Gandhi expressed concern about the “very considerable and subtle” foreign influences working in the country’s institutions of higher learning. “When we talk of foreign influences, there is immediately a feeling that people are coming in to disrupt the government or disrupt the country. And that may be one part of it. But I feel that the more dangerous part is when there is a subtle attempt against our nationalism.” The PM's statement was in furtherance of staunch-Leftist Education Minister Nurul Hasan’s remarks that an important precondition for successful development of higher education was “freedom from external, undesirable and unacademic interference”. Gandhi said some of the interference was due to troubled waters and some due to “deliberate troubling of waters”. 2. India's 'opponents' In March 1976, addressing a public rally in Calcutta, Gandhi told her foreign critics “not to interfere in India’s affairs”. “We don’t care for their criticism, whether it came from the Socialist International (a grouping of parties aimed at promoting 'democratic socialism') or any other organisation,” Gandhi said, adding that “certain foreign powers” always belittled India's achievements, whether “Aryabhata or the Pokhran nuclear test”. She also linked it to the criticism of her government for the Emergency, which was then at its peak. Later, when the Jayaprakash Narayan Movement rose and eventually forced Gandhi to call off the Emergency and announce elections – leading to her defeat – she again blamed foreign forces. Around this time, Swatantra Party leader Piloo Mody came to Parliament wearing a placard saying, “I'm a CIA agent.” 3. Internal disturbances Fast forward some years. In August 1980, having returned back to power, Gandhi was back to seeing “foreign hand”. She claimed to have received reports of such forces behind the riots in Moradabad (where more than 400 people were killed in clashes and police firing) and at other places. Speaking at a meeting of the CWC, she said one might view the “Assam situation” (the anti-foreigner movement in the state) in the same context. She said India had extremely good relations with the Arab countries but there were forces trying to create misunderstanding between India and these nations. Later, in October 1980, Gandhi accused Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq of “internationalising” the riot issue. (The same claim incidentally made by the BJP in the wake of the controversy stirred by party leader Nupur Sharma's remarks on the Prophet.) After she died at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards, in reaction to Operation Blue Star at Golden Temple, son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her with the biggest majority the country has seen till now. Still, when faced with crisis, such as the spate of Sikh bombings in May 1985, he blamed “the foreign hand”, though adding that it was not the only cause behind the attacks. Rajiv also blamed an “invisible” foreign hand for “trying to stall development in India” when faced with Bofors charges. 4. NGOs, and again NGOs UPA PM Manmohan Singh attributed protests against a nuclear plant to “foreign hand”, more specifically NGOs funded by foreign groups. Not just that, when his government – once seen as much too close to “NGO wallahs” - was hit by corruption charges, the Congress hinted at an American hand behind Anna Hazare-led protests. It asked why the US had spoken in favour of an agitation in India “for the first time since Independence”. Under the Narendra Modi government, NGOs and activists, and their funds, have been under constant watch. 5. Agitations The Modi government has blamed the foreign hand for all major protests. When criticism came from high-profile quarters over the farm protests in February 2021– including celebrity pop star Rihanna and climate change activist Greta Thunberg – the PM in a speech in Parliament called the activists andolanjeevi (professional protestors) and parjeevi, and asked the nation to beware of “Foreign Destructive Ideology (emphasising the initials FDI)”. The same month, at election rallies in Assam and Bengal, he linked activists and “international conspirators’’, saying they were out to “destabilise’’ India. He mentioned a so-called “toolkit” linked to Thunberg. During the Shaheen Bagh protests in 2020, a BJP MLA called the demonstration “a global conspiracy” to divide the country.
