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The collapse of the Soviet Union threw our foreign and defence policies into a spin. With great, and invisible skill Mr. Narasimha Rao landed these on their feet. He initiated the first steps for India to "look East". He strengthened relations with Iran. He opened a line to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.... But as a sort of iron-ball tied to legs, Pakistan continued to hold both our foreign and defence policies down. Not just that: even as it continued to send terrorists to kill and maim in India, it continued to be propped by its patrons - the US, China, Saudi Arabia. This immobility is what confronted Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee and his senior colleagues as they took office. They saw that as long as India remained tied down to Pakistan it would not be able to play any significant role in world affairs - that whatever it said even on Pakistan, for instance about cross-border terrorism, was liable to be discounted - "O, that is the usual stuff - just India and Pakistan making allegations against each other." They decided on a many-pronged response: Accelerate growth, in spite of what Pakistan is doing - apart from other things, this will in the end register with the people of Pakistan. Strengthen relations with a number of other countries and regions - Central Asian Republics, ASEAN, others. Ensure continued military superiority so that, should Pakistan lunge at India, it can be roundly defeated. But the backing that Pakistan received from the US and China remained - of course, it also got much succor and morale boosting from countries in the Middle East: but these would in the end be influenced by what the US did. It was, therefore, necessary not just to outgrow and out-gun Pakistan, India had to outflank it. Three judgements, and a set of fortuitous events set the course. The first point was evident: Pakistan is a dependent State. It cannot function without the help of the US, China, etc. The second insight seemed more of a conjecture at the time: while the US today remains transfixed by China, the reasoning went, sooner or later it will begin to see that the main threat to it fifteen-twenty years hence will come from China - it will, therefore, look for possible counters to the growing power of that country.
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