The Foreign Policy Views of the Indian Right

IN DISCUSSIONS of Indian foreign policy, both in terms of its formulation and its substance, relatively little attention has been given to the role of opposition parties. It is the purpose of this article to set forth and to evaluate briefly the basic foreign policy positions and possible foreign policy roles of two Indian political parties generally termed rightist-the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (Indian Peoples' Party) and the Swatantra (Freedom) Party.1 The former, a lineal descendant of some of the militant Hindu groups which sprang up in the course of the nationalist movement, was founded shortly before the first Indian general elections in I951-I952. It has made significant gains in the intervening years and now has one of the more sizeable groups in the Lok Sabha.2 The latter, a more remote descendant of some of the moderate elements of pre-independence days, was founded in mid-i959 and is now (i966) the principal opposition group in the Lok Sabha, having backed into this position upon the split in the Communist Party of India.3 Those who argue (i) that India's opposition parties are very weak; (2) that remoteness from power leads them to irrelevant, extremist positions; (3) that foreign policy issues have low saliency for the electorate and for all but a small group in any party's elite; or (4) that in any event there are no detailed case studies on which to base reliable judgments, would not, of course, consider this a worthwhile enterprise.4 Such people would repeat Michael Brecher's judgment on foreign policy in the Nehru era, when not only opposition parties but even Nehru's own Congress Party-and even his own cabinet-were dismissed as of little consequence.5 Against this it may be said, however, (I) that in some areas of foreign policy (notably Pakistan), even Nehru was hemmed in somewhat; (2) that divergent viewpoints were never absent-at most the argument holds that

Foreign policy · Political science · Politics · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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