India has a peculiar set of commentators on foreign policy and national security that believes it is a more loyal minder of the nation’s interest than the elected government of the day. They populated print media columns and waxed eloquent on television during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 10 years in office, warning him about the evil designs of Uncle Sam. Clearly, they were so effective that after he took the leap of faith and concluded the nuclear deal with the United States in his first term in office, they paralysed him from moving forward in his second term.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is completing Singh’s journey. He too is being warned by the same lot of patriotic commentators not to get carried away by all the June warmth in Washington DC, and sacrifice India’s national interest. Ah well, at least the columnists get paid for it.
Modi will, of course, ignore all such critics for he knows that the agenda he is pursuing is no different from what so many of his predecessors pursued.