THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 11 May 2020 (What’s in a NAM? (Indian Express))

What’s in a NAM? (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International
Prelims level: Non-aligned movement
Mains level: Reasons behind to renewed the engagement

Context:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video address to a summit of the non-aligned nations last week has generated criticism as well as commendation. Both sides, however, miss the recent evolution of the Indian thinking on the NAM.

Renewed interest:

• External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken frequently about India’s stakes in the so-called “Global South”.
• He was invoking a term that refers to the entire developing world and not just members of the NAM.
• The minister has talked about consolidating long-standing political equities that Delhi had created in the NAM and the Global South over the last many decades.
• The new interest is not a throwback to seeing the NAM as an anti-Western ideological crusade.
• Nor is it a pretence of valuing the movement but treating it as a ritual to be performed every three years.

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Attention:

• But why has a routine speech by the PM on promoting global cooperation in combating the coronavirus gotten so much attention?
• One reason is its billing as Modi’s first address ever to the NAM.
• After all, he had skipped the last two NAM summits, at Venezuela in 2016 and Azerbaijan in 2019.
• Critics of the NDA’s foreign policy convinced themselves that Modi had no real attachment for the non-aligned legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru.
• For the traditionalists, Modi’s engagement with the NAM was a welcome return to roots.
• For those who see the NAM as a political dinosaur, Delhi’s renewed enthusiasm for it seems like a regression. But a closer look at the Modi government’s foreign policy actions reveals a three-fold rationale for intensifying engagement with the NAM.

New cold war:

• Those who say the NAM is a relic of the Cold War must also acknowledge that a new Cold War is beginning to unfold, this time between the US and China.
• As the conflict between the world’s two most important powers envelops all dimensions of international society, India has every reason to try and preserve some political space in between the two .
• In the last few years, Delhi paid lip-service to the NAM but devoted a lot of diplomatic energy to forums like BRICS.
• Given the Russian and Chinese leadership of BRICS, Delhi inevitably began to tamely echo the international positions of Moscow and Beijing rather than represent voices of the Global South.

Conclusion:

• Finally, as a nation seeking to become an independent pole in global affairs, India could do more with forums like the NAM in mobilising support on issues of interest to Delhi.
• An independent Indian line backed by strong support within the NAM can make a big difference to the outcomes of the impending contentions at the World Health Assembly later this month on reviewing the WHO’s performance during the COVID crisis.

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Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the NLC India Limited, consider the following statements:
1. It is a ‘Maharatna’ Public Enterprise under the Ministry of Coal.
2. It was incorporated in 1956 and is headquartered in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer...................

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Mains Questions:
Q1. What is NAM? What are the reasons behind to renewed the engagement with other countries by India?