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Politics of Planned Development
Do you agree with the statement that “the foreign policy of independent India has pursued the dream of a peaceful world” ? Support your answer with any three suitable arguments.
Yes, we agree with the statement. Suitable arguments for this are:-
(i) The foreign policy of independent India vigorously pursued the dream of a peaceful world by advocating the policy of non-alignment, by reducing the Cold War confederation and by contributing human resources to the UN peacekeeping operations.
(ii) India did not join either of the two camps during the Cold War era. India wanted to keep distance from the military alliances led by US and by the Soviet Union against each other.
(iii)During the Cold War, the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact came into existence. India advocated Non-alignment as the ideal foreign policy approach. This was a difficult balancing act and sometimes
the balance did not appear perfect.
(iv)In 1956 when Britain attacked Egypt over the Suez Canal issue, India led the world protest against this neo-colonial invasion. In the same year, when the USSR invaded Hungary, India did not join its public condemnation. Despite such situation, by and large India did take an independent stand on various international issues.
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“In the early years of Independence, two contradictory tendencies were already well advanced inside the Congress party. On the one hand, the national party executive endorsed socialist principles of state ownership, regulat ion and control over key sectors of the economy in order to improve productivity and at the same time curb economic concentration. On the other hand, the national Congress government pursued liberal economic policies and incentives to private investment that was justified in terms of the sole criterion of achieving maximum increase in production. ” — Francine Frankel
(a) What is the contradiction that the author is talking about ? What would be the political implications of a contradiction like this ?
(b) If the author is correct, why is it that the Congress was pursuing this policy ? Was it related to the nature of the opposition parties ?
(c) Was there also a contradiction between the central leadership of the Congress party and its State level leaders ?
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