Recently we are exposed to a wide ranging debate about foreign policy in India. The different voices are pretty clear. One says we should have the national interest in mind when formulating policy. The other says a policy which is independent and principled is what we need.

Option A supposes that there is longevity in the consensus on what the “national interests” are. Only then you can steer the policy thru the vagaries of international politics over a longer period of time. This consensus implies some agreement on the principles to define” national interests”.

Option B supposes that the debate over what should be the guiding principles of our nation state is over, and hence the pursuit of those principles is what shall guide the policy. It also follows that those principles are definitely in the “national interest”.

Independence in policy I think is if you think about it, a non-requirement. Because in both cases you are pursuing some known results and hence forced to make choices to better the odds of achieving them and tied to those choices. I don’t think no one in their serious mind is thinking of independence in colonial terms still.

Back to our options, now it appears that both options are not all that different in terms of philosophical underpinning and both are different means to the same end. Leaving alone how both options define the principles and interests, I am ideologically drawn to option A, but recently I have been questioning myself.

Are there no principles that India should strive to achieve in this world? Isn't there anything at all should we stand for? Is it the place of nations to stand for something?

Some A team members are going to say…”well, we have to become stronger first to espouse some principles, so we will follow option A and once we become strong we will do some B”. What happens when in pursuit of A, we undermine some of B? Some others will say “There are no principles to stand for”. Would you like that proposition? Because miniaturizing it would mean every town or village is a lawless land.