Opinion: In realm of diplomacy, Congress always proactive

In the Post-War period, when India had attained Independence, the fledgling nation was put to test, as the country had to face eversomany crises on the global scene. At the height of the Cold War, there were crises galore, like the Korean War, Suez Canal Crisis, Hungary, Bangladesh Liberation War, Maldives Coup Attempt, which was successfully foiled by Rajiv Gandhi in a swift operation and Sri Lankan crisis, in all of which, India acquitted herself with dignity and respect.
The BJP regime has not acquitted itself with grace and dignity in dealing with crisis situations. Despite the Saffron Brigade’s contempt for NAM, it has not been able to move away from it; though it did make clumsy attempts to dilute it.
In the Morarji Desai Government in 1977, when RSS men held key posts, Atal Behari Vajpayee was Foreign Minister. He made a determined attempt to dilute Non-Alignment Policy, by raising the bogey of Genuine Non-Alignment, which was a euphemism for its Pro-US stance.
Moshe Dayan Secret Visit During the Janata Party regime, Israeli Minister Moshe Dayan made a secret trip to India. That Government had no guts to openly invite the Israeli Minister.
On the other hand, when Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao established diplomatic ties, he held a breakfast meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and took him into confidence and only later signed the file.
During the IC 814 plane hijack, the nation witnessed the sad and sorry spectacle of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh escorting dreaded terrorists to Kandahar in 1999 under the Vajpayee Government. There were eversomany plane hijack incidents but never was such an ugly spectacle witnessed.