Man of the world

After two years of 'achhe din', the Narendra Modi-led NDA government's primary claim to success appears to be the robust foreign policy espoused by the prime minister. Fifty-seven per cent of respondents to the India Today-Karvy Mood of the Nation survey believe that India's foreign relations have improved.

In the past two years, Modi has travelled abroad more than 50 times, visiting 42 countries including the US, UK, Russia, France, China and Germany. Closer home, his directives have led to an increase in cross-border diplomacy; media reports dubbed this a 'neighbourhood first' policy. Developing India's more than two-decade-old 'look east' policy, the NDA's proactive stance-including renaming and reorienting this policy to 'act east'-has led to a number of diplomatic coups.

The NDA's foreign policy is designed to enlarge India's global footprint. To this end, there is increased engagement with countries that are essential to India's interests. Despite the broad pillorying of Modi's frequent travels, there is a method to the madness; as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace put it: '[they] are in fact anchored in the astute recognition that India's domestic success is inextricably linked to how it can shape its external environment to national advantage.' These visits, as foreign minister Sushma Swaraj clarified recently, are meant to further India's strategic and commercial interests, to open up business opportunities, or, in the case of prime minister Modi's upcoming visit to Vietnam-the first by an Indian PM in 15 years-meant to tap a potential strategic Southeast Asian hedge against an assertive China.

In either case, politics is mostly about perception. In that regard, the Modi government has been undoubtedly successful. Forty-eight per cent of respondents felt that India's relations with the US had significantly improved since the NDA government came to power. (Modi's own relationship with the US has vastly improved as well-from being denied a visa in 2005 to being called a 'partner and friend' by Barack Obama in 2015.) Closer home, the perception remains that the NDA's foreign policies have been a success, despite mixed results on the ground. China, which remains a geopolitical challenge for every government in New Delhi, was recently successful in blocking India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This underlines the fact that, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam notwithstanding, India and China are still at loggerheads on a number of issues. Even so, almost half the survey respondents felt that India's relationship with China has improved since the NDA came to power.

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