Former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid at an event at the Bangalore International Center in Bengaluru on Sunday. | Photo credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.
Former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said that ongoing conflicts around the world are affecting India, but the government is unable to tell its allies that their actions are hurting India.
In a discussion on “Has Trump 2.0 taken over India’s foreign policy? Rethinking India’s role in the new geopolitical context” here, Mr. Khurshid said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Iran-Israel war and what happened in Gaza and Palestine have an impact on India.
“Now, if we can’t even tell our friends that something is wrong, and we believe that it is wrong and that the wrong is hurting us too, then what is the use of friendship,” Mr Khurshid said.
He added that there is no consultation and communication between the government and the opposition, which was a common practice for all previous prime ministers. “It was a standard practice that whatever you did, you projected a single voice to the whole world, which was the joint voice of the opposition and the ruling party. That is not happening now. There is no consultation or communication. You don’t even discuss in parliament. You don’t know what the government is thinking and doing. The government takes a position and they show that they don’t want to divide,” he added.
Former foreign minister Nirupama Menon Rao said that India’s relationship with Iran is a civilized one and that India should have spoken up a little more and regretted the sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka on March 4.
“India, being the largest country in the region, has always talked about being the guardian of the Indian Ocean, and I’m talking about the current government talking about those terms. So when the tragedy happened, we could afford to say a little more,” she said.
“The American view of India is much more unsentimental than it has ever been, and Trump’s tariffs demonstrate that. They see tariffs as a panacea for all ills, but it goes beyond that, it really hurts people, it does damage, it hurts our economies,” she added.
Asked about India’s image in the neighborhood and whether it still has friends, Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Editor, The Hindu, said that India is surrounded by neighbors who are constantly in some kind of trouble.
She said India’s neighbors have a deep sense of admiration for India and it is seen as an example of certain values such as secularism and pluralism. “There is a deep sense of admiration in each of our neighbors for what India has become, and equally it was a sense of admiration for values that they themselves did not necessarily have. Secularism and pluralism were seen with admiration even in the very Islamic Pakistan and Bangladesh,” she said.
She added that many of India’s neighbors have majority populations and dominant religions, but the fact that India remains secular is admirable.
“I still believe that India is a deeply secular country, a country that respects pluralism, but I think there are questions now about our nature of pluralism. They are asking again about our democracy, a point of admiration when you had a military dictatorship or another kind or quasi-authoritarianism next door, even though they were very popular in their countries, they still look at India and look at the electoral processes with pride,” she added.
Published – 15 March 2026 19:51 IST
