Time is running out for India.

Western diplomats sense a drift under the UPA, whose national aims and goals are missing or hazy in the foreign-policy realm. “Under the NDA, there was a definite sense of direction,” said a Western diplomat. “With the US especially, there was rapid and concerted cultivation of friendship.”

The best thing under the NDA, according to diplomats, was follow-ups. The chain of relationship-building went systematically higher up, first the foreign secretary, followed by the foreign minister, sometimes the NSA, Brajesh Mishra, intervening with a visit, then L.K.Advani going, as the number two person in government, capped by the prime minister, then A.B.Vajpayee. “There was great cabinet synergy,” said a diplomat. “There was team work.”

Under the UPA, it is each to his/ her own, but it is worst between prime minister Manmohan Singh and Natwar Singh. Natwar Singh does not keep the PM in the picture about foreign policy, keeps all the flowing knowledge to himself, and operates the foreign office like a fiefdom.

At least when J.N.Dixit was NSA, the prime minister had a handle or a fix on the more sensitive areas of foreign affairs, relationship-building with the US, China, and other powers, nuclear policy, calibrating ties with Pakistan, handling the neighbourhood, and so on. Till Dixit was alive, Natwar Singh resented his authority, and Dixit’s too-eager successor, M.K.Narayanan, is a policeman who does not understand foreign affairs or strategic issues.

As diplomats who are concerned about India say, the Cold War is over, and every great and middle power is on its own. Every country is pursuing relations that best suit their interests, but India among the major emerging powers is hopelessly floundering. In a fractured internal polity, a disunited government or a cabinet at war can survive, and there is no threat to the UPA, but India is in a terrible mess internationally. The PM has to seize control of the government, it is the desperate hour, and stamp his authority on defence, foreign policy, nuclear and economic issues. He should exercise his right and privilege to sack those in the cabinet who undermine his authority.

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