THE NEW INDIAN ORDER

It seems India’s foreign policy is adrift in the high seas in an increasingly transactional global disorder

- Malay Mishra

It is not quite clear whether the disclosures of CDS Gen Anil Chauhan on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore to the international media on 31 May or its later reiterations at a lecture in Pune regarding attrition levels of India in the 4-day conflict with Pakistan were a gaffe or a strategic leak. Like many things which remained obscure or loudly proclaimed by the media giving a perception advantage to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, this also shall remain a puzzle.

The government’s snap decision of sending out 7 multi-party delegations to over 30 destinations in all directions except for its own neighbourhood, to sensitize foreign governments of the menace of terrorism emanating from Pakistan failed to have the desired impact mainly because terrorism is a global issue and every country’s terrorism has to be tackled through counter-terrorism by the concerned state, Pakistan, being a non-permanent member of the UNSC on the other hand got to manipulate the resolution moved against terrorism deleting mention of the Resistance Force (an offshoot of the banned LeT) which perpetrated the killings in Pahalgam, and instead bagged two prize assignments, Chair of the Taliban Sanctions Committee and vice Chair of the UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee.