Written By Riva Agarwal (Grade 9)
India’s past Prime Ministers include Mr Manmohan Singh. He didn’t speak to his own country’s citizens, so speaking to neighbourhood countries would be a utopian dream. Foreign policy was close to non-existent.
Since Mr Modi has assumed power, he has made one thing very clear. “neighbourhood first.” See Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy case, where India gave $1.4 billion in support and is looking to extend the credit line. In the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, not only did our Prime minister evacuate every last Indian stuck in Ukraine under operation Ganga, but also 13 Bangladeshi nationals, along with Tunisians and Nepalese, winning the trust and support of these countries. In 2019, there was an IAF pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, who, while shooting down Pakistani sites was taken as a POW. Doing the impossible, Mr Modi made Pakistan return him unharmed by threatening them with nuclear explosives.
Western media often slams Mr Modi, and the internet perceives him as a racist. Of course, not everyone can like a Prime minister. However, no matter the hate, the one thing Mr Modi has proven over the years is – he will show India the path to leading globalization, and India will emerge as a superpower. Not just through words, but through actions.
By sitting on the fence with the Ukraine-Russia war, India got an offer to buy heavily discounted crude oil. The Western world slammed India’s stance and urged India to follow the USA’s steps and reject the offer. India, however, justified its stance because India imports a major part of the crude oil, unlike the USA. The trade would happen through a Rubel-Rupee mechanism, instead of Dollars, as Russian oil is sanctioned. This trade will ultimately boost INR’s value. Interestingly, Indian citizens criticized Mr Modi’s stance by saying he doesn’t care for the life of innocents, and instead of supporting India, many Indians shared the views of the Western media. The fact that they completely blindsided that Mr Modi was considering buying cheap oil, was to try and control the skyrocketing crude oil prices to follow. That day did come, and for the past 5 days, there have been continuous hikes in petrol prices. Now, these same people are cursing the government, saying they should have been able to bolster the impact, they should do something for the Indian citizens. The double standards are quite shocking. This deal would be the silver lining for India, even during a war. After this offer, Iran quickly followed suit- they offered India oil through a Rial- Rupee trade, instead of Dollar. Again, the INR value would increase, and India would get huge amounts of energy resources. If the answer wasn’t obvious already, the USA opposes all these deals because the oil trade is meant to happen in dollars, and trade in any other currency backfires on the USA. If every country does this, the value of the USD would fall.
Now, even Japan is investing 3.2 lakh crores (42 billion dollars) in India’s progressing economy, over the next three years. The money will be used to finance private and public projects of mutual interest across sectors like healthcare, infrastructure, power and energy, and rural development. Not only that, but Australia is also set to invest 1,500 cr. in India, and has also returned 29 antiquities to India, from the 9th century.
Then, history was made. India’s exports reached the highest ever at the $400 billion mark when $46 million worth of exports were done an hour in the Fiscal year 2022. It was a result of Mr Modi’s “Aatmanirbhar Bhaarat” policy. Finally, to add a cherry to the cake, Mr Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, applauded India’s foreign policy which puts India first.
All in all, India is an emerging global power, and the biggest reason is Mr Modi’s brilliant foreign policy.
Featured Image Courtesy – Economic Times
