Lamb to the slaughter

Security/Foreign affairs expert, Brahma Chellaney, blames the Nehruvian legacy in Indian foreign policy over the years for the repeated betrayals that India has had to suffer.

Zeal is to Indian diplomacy what strategy is to major powers. India has rushed to believe what it wanted to believe. Consequently, India is the only known country in modern history to have repeatedly cried betrayal, not by friends but by adversaries in whom it had reposed trust.

And its not just Nehru who blundered in his handling of foreign poliy. Atal Bihari Vajpayee too is guilty of living in a fools' paradise...

Vajpayee's fascination with telling the world about the 'greatness' of Indian culture was his rendering of Nehru's moralistic lectures to the mighty and powerful. Like Nehru, he was so enthralled by his own illusions and desire for international goodwill that he could not deal with ill will from India's implacable adversaries. Even in war, Vajpayee declined -- unlike Lal Bahadur Shastri -- to take the fighting to the aggressor's territory, battling the enemy on the enemy's terms and relying on the United States to midwife a 'victory' in Kargil.