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Love Thy Neighbour

Whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be able to bring good days for the people of India, will only be known after his stint of 5 years as Prime Minster is finish and the public gets to analyse the effects of his rule. however, a very important aspect requires to be touched upon when we talk about the initial days of his being in power.

And this aspect is of India's foreign policy. During the last decade of UPA's rule, the government's focus remained on re-establishing India's relations with USA. I am not able to remember any other country which India engaged as actively as it did USA. And most importantly the UPA government completely ignored our neighbours. The result: India lost its status of first among the equals in the Indian sub-continent. Our relations with Sri Lanka soured owing to the issues of Tamils. We lost the importance in Nepal and Bhutan because of our big brother, arm twisting attitude. And these two countries started getting closer to China. Our relations with Pakistan are still sour. We have still not been able to resolve water conflicts with Bangladesh.

Our government forgot that if a region is termed a Indian sub-continent, it is because India has been bestowed with a responsibility of ensuring the development of the entire region and helping these small countries who look upon India as an elder brother.

Now when we come back to Mr. Narendra Modi, and we see some of the steps taken in the foreign policy area, we notice three acts:

1. Inviting the heads of governments of all the neighbouring countries to his Swearing-In ceremony.

2. Choosing Bhutan as the destination for his first foreign Visit.

3. First visit to Nepal by an Indian Prime minister after 17 long years.

The first one was a political masterstroke because it sent a message to the world that the new government in India wants a cohesive and friendly Indian Sub-Continent. Sending the invitation to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif forced him to accept it even though their Army was against it. It sowed the seeds for friendly bilateral talks between the two nations.

The second action sent a message to the world that India gives priority to its neighbours and a there will be a change in the foreign policy where emphasis will be laid on increasing India's presence in the neighbourhood and at the same time checking the rising influence of China in the region.

The third one is I believe the most important step taken by Mr. Modi. This is because, India and Nepal apart from being neighbours also share a history of closeness and relatively open borders. Now being ignored by India for a long time, Nepal started getting closer to China and its borders also started becoming gateways for terrorists to enter into India. Hence, with this visit and a promised aid of $1 Billion, Mr. Modi sent across a message to the public and government of Nepal that India still is concerned about the development of Nepal.

So by analysing these few steps taken by PM Modi, we can hope that India's status in its neighburhood and in the world would sure rise and and a message will be sent to the world that India is now taking leaps from being a country asking for help to being a country helping in the development of other countries.

A good start indeed and we can say that Modi Government has started with a Bang in the field of foreign relations.

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