Mohamed Zeeshan

Opinion | Why India’s coronavirus vaccine failure should humble its foreign policy

At a time when India needs all the help it can get from the world, its insecure, aggressive posturing is bizarre and counterproductive

India should focus on building its state capacity, and its foreign policy should make the world a partner in that effort rather than deny its challenges

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Relatives attend to a Covid-19 patient at the Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, in India on May 11. Photo: Bloomberg

Mohamed Zeeshan

Published: 9:15am, 19 May 2021Updated: 9:15am, 19 May 2021

Not too long ago, India was positioning itself as a vishwaguru – or global leader – as it produced and supplied vaccines for the rest of the world. In a matter of weeks, that narrative has fallen apart.

The inadequacies of the Indian state have been brutally exposed by a second wave of Covid-19. India has had to reverse its approach of not accepting foreign aid as it struggles to rein in the worst public health catastrophe in its post-independence history.

It is hard to see how India can procure enough vaccines to inoculate its own people in time, let alone export vaccines to the world. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened vaccinations to all Indians over 18 on May 1, many states have delayed the roll-out of that programme over a crippling shortage in vaccine supply.

India’s vaccine diplomacy drive has accordingly come to a screeching halt. Not long ago, the Quad came together to boost India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity in a bid to compete with China’s export of vaccines. But New Delhi has not exported any vaccines in a month and that vacuum has been filled by Beijing. China has already exported some 240 million doses around the world.

So far, India’s foreign ministry has tried to compensate for these shortcomings with “wolf warrior” diplomacy – an overly defensive and insecure foreign policy that presents the world and the global media as the enemy gleefully waiting for India to collapse.

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India has sent undiplomatic letters to foreign newspapers for their reports on the government’s mismanagement of the pandemic. In a recent meeting with top diplomats, India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made countering the “one-sided narrative” in the world media a priority.

Opinion | Why India’s coronavirus vaccine failure should humble its foreign policy

At a time when India needs all the help it can get from the world, its insecure, aggressive posturing is bizarre and counterproductive India should focus on building its state capacity, and its foreign policy should make the world a partner in that effort rather than deny its challenges

At a time when India needs all the help it can get from the world, its insecure, aggressive posturing is bizarre and counterproductive

India should focus on building its state capacity, and its foreign policy should make the world a partner in that effort rather than deny its challenges