Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (born January 9, 1955), the Indian Minister of External Affairs, recently shared his experience in dealing with immense pressure as a diplomat with others at an event in Australia. According to the seasoned diplomat, he has always stressed on three Cs – Contact, Chemistry and Credibility – to improve India’s ties with different countries.

According to Dr Jaishankar, the first two Cs are the basic tasks of any diplomat as they have to keep in touch with the maximum number of foreign officials and to maintain cordial ties with them. However, credibility has become the most important aspect of diplomacy in the 21st Century. This particular quality of a diplomat encourages others to take her/his words seriously.

Dr Jaishankar, the second longest-serving External Affairs Minister of India after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the first Prime Minister of the South Asian country who simultaneously held the post of External Affairs Minister throughout his 17-year premiership), tactfully revealed his greatest strength in Australia. He hinted that his toughest challenge was to create an aggressive nationalistic narrative of Indian diplomacy in order to elevate Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s prominence at the global stage. It may be noted that Dr Jaishankar’s promotion from Foreign Secretary to External Affairs Minister in May 2019 surprised many as he was not a politician. Also, he did not have fluency in Hindi (an official language of the Government of India, alongside English). However, he won Prime Minister Modi’s unconditional trust mainly because of his efficiency as the Indian Ambassador to China (2009-13).

Since becoming the External Affairs Minister, Dr Jaishankar has tried his best to take the third C to an unprecedented level, something none of his predecessors had ever done. He has worked tirelessly to create a different image of India, prompting a number of World Powers to consider the country as a reliable strategic partner in South Asia. With this, he has emerged as the most important member of the Modi Cabinet.

Dr Jaishankar, who has a Doctoral Degree in International Relations from New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where he specialised in Nuclear Diplomacy, has created a wonderful diplomatic narrative by mixing the Indian history, cultural glory, myths and post-truth politics with emotional, as well as fiery, nationalism. He has also promoted this narrative everywhere, from Europe to the US and also from the Global South to the neighbouring countries. He has beautifully portrayed the image of India’s strength across the globe while maintaining a delicately balanced diplomacy. Thus, he has taken the lip service (another crucial part of diplomacy) to a new height, amidst geopolitical crises and wars.

The main aim of the narrative crafted by Dr Jaishankar is to reject the Western hegemony in global diplomacy. He has done this quite carefully so that his narrative would not have a negative impact on Western assistance and partnership in areas, such as economy, trade, investment, technology, space research, environment and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Without disturbing these areas, he has made an attempt to create a completely different style of diplomatic narrative. Dr Jaishankar has rightly realised that India needs its own narrative to reinterpret International Relations, without getting influenced by the Western prism. He has repeatedly claimed that the centre of gravity of economic, as well as political, affairs is gradually shifting from the West to East. Hence, one has to change the (diplomatic) culture of the 20th Century in order to complete the entire process.

Be it the 2023 G20 Summit in India or the Modi Administration’s Europe policy, Dr Jaishankar has always called for a shift in the centre of political gravity. He has made clear that India and other Developing Nations would no longer dance to someone else’s tune, stressing that the West should stop acting as the guardian of Global South. When the US and its Western allies advised India not to purchase crude oil from Russia, Dr Jaishankar reportedly said: “If you are looking at energy purchases from Russia, I would suggest that your attention should be focused on Europe… We do buy some energy which is necessary for our energy security. But I suspect, looking at the figures, probably our total purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon. So, you might want to think about that.”

Dr Jaishankar continues to work tirelessly in an attempt to create such a different narrative of diplomacy even at the age of 70. It seems that his narrative will offer an alternate development path to Global South in the coming days.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das