Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran in an interview for The Wire, tells Karan Thapar that a consequence of recent developments is that Kashmir has been internationalised and India seems to be getting rehyphenated with Pakistan.
He also said that India’s declining growth is shrinking the country’s diplomatic space and strategic importance. As he put it, the nuclear deal was possible because India was growing at 8-9%. It would not have happened at the current 5% levels of growth. Saran said he is “deeply worried” about this.
In a wide-ranging interview, Saran spoke about the recently concluded India-China summit, India’s diplomatic success in convincing the world that the constitutional changes in Kashmir are an internal matter and the international concern about the lockdown, detentions and allegations of human rights violence.
He suggested that India would have to get used to President Trump’s balancing of India and Pakistan. He also said that’s whilst India was used to western press criticism, we need to find a way of responding to it effectively. He said a lot would depend on whether India can restore normalcy in Kashmir. If that happens, the international concern would largely cease.
However, he said he was more perturbed by the domestic implications of what has happened in Kashmir: could it happen in another state? And what does it mean for the functioning of our democracy and our adherence to the Constitution? He concludes by saying that from a foreign policy standpoint, getting back to 8% growth is critical.
