New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) Congress MP Manish Tewari on Monday said India needs to remain internally cohesive to protect its strategic autonomy, asserting that the country’s cohesion is its biggest antidote
to the external challenges it faces.
The former Union minister said if India wants to engage with the world on its own terms, its strength must come from internal cohesion, and not from anywhere outside.
Tewari made the remarks while speaking at the launch of his new book, ‘A World Adrift: A Parliamentarian's Perspective on the Global Power Dynamic’, published by Rupa Publications, which was released by former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha.
“India, if it has to protect its strategic autonomy, must remain internally cohesive. Pluralism is no longer a luxury which can be taken for granted. India's cohesion is its biggest antidote to the external challenges,” Tewari said.
The Chandigarh MP pointed out that India has an extremely robust democratic tradition and continues to be a beacon amid the changing global dynamics.
“At a time when you have nations which have yielded over, India, with all its problems and contradictions and the kind of politics we have been seeing over the past decade, continues to be that beacon.
“But what worries me is pushing the entire spectre of religious polarisation to an extent where it weakens our social fabric so immeasurably that we are not able to retrieve it,” Tewari said.
“And we think because it gives electoral dividends, we can continue pushing the envelope, but there is a limit to that,” he added.
If India believes that it has a certain exceptionalism in the world today, it wants to preserve and protect its strategic autonomy, it wants to engage with the world on its own terms, the strength is going to come from internal cohesion and not from outside, the Congress leader said, adding that “that is where we need to focus.”
Tewari also claimed that “if at all, there was a post World War-II global order that has completely collapsed”.
“You are living in an orderless world,” he said.
Referring to the India-Pakistan military conflict last May, Tewari said it completely changed the paradigm, and now one can no longer fight the battles of the present with the mindset and weapons of the past.
Tewari also argued that the United Nations needed reforms, and such global institutions were important, and that multilateralism was the way forward.
Former external affairs minister Sinha said that what happened in Venezuela has raised many issues and once again established the imperialism of the world's most powerful democracy.
“Quite clearly, there are threats and dangers, and we have to navigate through these choppy waters with dexterity,” Sinha said.
Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, BJD MP Sashmit Patra, Congress MPs Mukul Wasnik and Vivek Tankha, among others, were present at the event. PTI ASK ARI
