One point that troubles me which, I must mention. We had mentioned Diego Garcia in the original draft and ultimately in the negotiations you had to drop that. I know the reasons for it. Possibly Shri Lanka pleaded. ‘If you mentioned Diego Garcia, the Conference which was going to be held, America may not attend. I think this is diplomatic wisdom. Sometimes you agree to that. But for those who had the two drafts compared, India dropping the reference to Diego Garcia was rather disturbing. It was disturbing to me. I must confess this thing and this was one point which we noted in the final draft.
Ultimately, what are the principles on which the foreign policy of a country is to depend? According to me, there are two criteria. One is the enlightened national interests. Second is the geo-political realities. If any country is not consistent with these two principles, if they do not keep the national interests in mind and if they forget the geo-political realities, it cannot survive in the present world. This is a very cruel and complicated world. It is not a easy and simple world to be explained away in simple moral terms.
We inherited Gandhiji’s principles, we respect Gandhiji and we still call ourselves the children of Gandhiji. But Gandhiji was a wise man and a very practical man. He was against the use of arms. He was the most peaceful man But when the army had to be sent for the protection of Kashmir, he said, ‘Go and send army.’ He was a practical man who knew how the nation was to be led.
If there are any moral issues in the world today, there are two issues. One is the peace and war issue and the second is the issue of poverty in the world. These two issues are moral issues. Ultimately, what we do for our internal policies, on these two moral issues, I think Gandhiji would come and certain bless us if we try for these two moral issues. And I think, through our non-alignment movement, we are doing that, through our non-alignment movement, we are serving the cause of peace and, through our new economic order, we are trying to meet the other ones.
As far as the factual situation is concerned, one must say that it is no use merely talking that had Gandhiji been here, what he would have done? It is very difficult for anyone to tell. So, if Gandhiji had been here, perhaps, the world would not be in that bad condition, as it is today. Possibly, that would have happened. We cannot say about it. Gandhiji was a very practical man. He never said that India should not have army. He was against violence. But he never said that we should not have army for India. He said that independent India should have the army to protect its borders.
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was telling some of us when we met privately that if there was any trouble or any persecution against the Pakhtoon people, he would advise the Government of India to send army across Pakistan. Not that he lived to do that. Nor are we going to do that. We would never have done it. His complaint was that we did not do what Gandhiji wanted us do. This was the complaint of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan which he pubilcly made in this country. That is not the issue. If at all you have to judge the foreign policy, it has to be judged on the basic two moral issues. These are the two issues on which you can judge our foreign policy. If our foreign policy serves the interests on these two moral issues very perfectly and very legitimately and within the limitation of the country in one’s power, it is well and good. This can work wonders. That is very true.
