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| Take public mood along in foreign policy making: CM | | | Munish Gupta
Jammu, Dec 14: Having been a junior Minister of External Affairs at a very young age and batting for Vajpayee’s (his then Prime Minister) Kashmir policy in the Western and the Muslim world, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today that India needs to carve out a pro-active foreign policy instead of being on the defensive, as India is largely seen, particularly in its handling of diplomacy with China.
Omer observed that in today’s times the prevailing public mood has larger bearing on foreign policy formulations than the mandarins in South Block (that houses the external affairs ministry) thinks of. The recent diplomatic ups and downs with China were perhaps at the back of the Chief Minister’s mind as he said, “Indian people are proactive in reacting and expressing their views on the international issues bearing direct and indirect impact on the country”.
Chief Minister was delivering a lecture on “Policy, People and Peace-democratization of foreign policy in Parliamentary Democracy: Canada, India and beyond” at the University of Jammu here today. He said “gone are the days when foreign policy was framed in the South Block in isolation. Now a days we observe direct impact of the peoples’ opinion on foreign policy formulation”, he said.
Omar pointed out that the people in Jammu and Kashmir are all the more live to the development of foreign policy especially vis-à-vis Pakistan and China as the state has its direct impact on the peace and development contours.
“Our democratic institutions, intelligentsia and media actively and openly dwelt on issues like Nuclear Deal, Copenhagen Conference, Environment policy etc. having impact on India. The pros and cons of the foreign pacts and agreements are being extensively deliberated upon in various forums, conference and media. This influences foreign policy framing and helps democratizing foreign policy. The threadbare debates in the Parliament on foreign pacts and issues and the candid views of Members all the more influence the democratization of Indian foreign Policy”, he maintained and said that it is not surprising that foreign issues are becoming a part of regular main stream politics in the country.
Mr. Omar appreciating the University for holding the international conference hoped that original insight having direct bearing on foreign policy will emerge from this Conference. He also wished success for the Conference.
Vice Chancellor of Jammu University, Prof. Varun Sahni said that the nineteen importance aspects of Indian characteristics attribute to the world affairs and specify the Indian national interests. He identified these as, India as a large country, an emerging power, a regional power, an Asian power, a nuclear weapon state, a country with disputed borders, an arms buyer, a target of terrorism, a developing economy, a globalizing economy, a technology driven economy, an energy deficient economy, a liberal democracy, a multi-cultural society, an ancient civilization, a divided and a violent society, a diaspora community and a concern for common.
The Counsellor, Political and Economic Affairs of Canadian High Commission in India, Ms. Julia Bentley, Director, Centre for New Literatures, Culture and Communication, Prof. Posh Charak, Head, Department of Political Science, Prof. Kulwant Kour, Academic Advisor, Prof. Chandra Mohan also spoke on the occasion. The Dean Academic Affairs, University of Jammu. Mr. N. A. Ganai presented vote of thanks.
The 3-day Conference has been organized by the Centre of New Literatures, Culture and Communication and Department of Political Science of University of Jammu in collaboration with Canadian High Commission. Besides the Academicians and reputed educationists representing various Universities and educational institutions of the country, foreign delegates from the Universities from Canada, Australia, America and South Africa are participating in the Conference.
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