DEFINING RELATIONS: State Planning Board Vice-Chairman Prabhat Patnaik speaking at a seminar organised by the V.K. Krishna Menon Study Centre for International Relations, University of Kerala, in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. — Photo: S. Gopa kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The struggle for a democratic development trajectory requires, of Indians, a struggle against the shift in the nation's foreign policy towards the US and the Israel, State Planning Board Vice-Chairman Prabhat Patnaik has said.

The shift in India's foreign policy would be in tandem with a shift in the nation's economic policies towards neo-liberalism, he said. Mr. Patnaik was inaugurating a two-day national seminar on `India's foreign policy: emerging trends in the new century,' organised by the V.K. Krishna Menon Study Centre for International Relations, University of Kerala here on Monday.

Foreign policy is an outward expression of the political economy of a country. During the time of the Non-alignment Movement (NAM) the Indian bourgeoisie approved of a particular path of development. That was the time when almost every item of daily use was imported. Now, the change in economic policy and foreign policy is the change in the attitude of the bourgeoisie. Now the Indian upper class is siding with an imperialist US and with neo-liberal economic policies that are against the interests of the peasants and the poor, Mr. Patnaik said.

"The peasant suicides and the agrarian crisis in the country are but symptoms of this shift in attitude and polices," he said.

For capital to operate anywhere, it requires the protection of the State. "In fact capital cannot do without the State. If you have national capital it will play within the ground rules set by the State. If you have global capital then we need a global State — an entity that protects capital over a global terrain. But then, as such, a global State is not there. What is there is a surrogate State.

A lot of States acting together under the leadership of a country such as the US. The Indian State is trying to become part of such a surrogate system to promote the interests of global capital," he said.

"Even in first world countries such as the US, there has been no rise in real wages over the years.

"The plight of the third world countries is worse. This is bound to invite global protests. What would be required is a global stabilising system to handle the protests and facilitate global capital to keep functioning. One worrying fact is that periods of economic hardship are times when communal fascism gets strengthened," Mr. Patnaik pointed out.

One justification that is normally given for India's pro-US and pro-Israel shift is the TINA factor in foreign policy; the argument that since US is the only dominant force now it makes sense to join forces with it.

However, even if the US were the only dominant imperialist force there is no reason why a country such as India should join the bandwagon of a dominant, imperialist power, he said. Kerala University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Ramachandran Nair presided over the inaugural session.

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