Diplomatic capital

One of the prime achievements of the Indian democracy is its friendly and peaceful relations with other nations despite the hostility of some of them towards India. In this regard, the contributions of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru cannot be ignored. It is really intriguing that Mr. Modi, who initially invested so much efforts in reaching out to world leaders, is prepared to antagonise them all with highly regressive laws like the CAA which his government later justifies as ‘internal affairs’. (Editorial page, “The new worry of depleting diplomatic capital,” Jan. 2). India’s earlier policies of ‘panchsheel’ and non-alignment, though framed for the Cold War era, are as important now as before.

P.J. Thomas,

Kottayam, Kerala

If Pakistan alone is opposing certain things happening in India, it can be brushed aside easily. However, now the situation seems to be somewhat different, as even lawmakers in the U.S. and U.K. are voicing their concerns to varying degrees, the latest one being about CAA, and this cannot be brushed aside easily. Consequently, how far and how long Indian diplomatic machinery need to work for effective damage control is unpredictable. It is the time for doing some serious cost-benefit analysis, in the context of external affairs, of pursuing certain myopic agendas — leaving aside the constitutional validity of CAA.

A. Venkatasubramanian,

Tennur, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu