An inadvertent depoliticization of foreign policy under a career diplomat-turned-minister has led to a major erosion in India’s decision-making role in international affairs. Never before has an Indian Foreign Service officer been directly inducted into the Union cabinet as external affairs minister without previous experience in domestic politics. Jaishankar, the first such IFS officer, is also the longest-serving foreign minister after Jawaharlal Nehru. Given complete freedom to manage diplomacy since 2019, he has largely chosen his trusted IFS cadre to navigate the most complex international conflicts. He remains India’s most traveled foreign minister. He has made 150 international trips to 87 countries.
Moreover, his being an envoy to both the US and China could not compensate for the lack of linking domestic preferences to diplomacy. Unlike the long line of political heavyweights who shaped foreign policy with electoral mandates and domestic instincts like Swaran Singh, PV Narasimha Rao, Pranab Mukherjee, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Sushma Swaraj, unfortunately, Jaishankar operates without that political base. Historically, foreign ministers brought coalition realism, party networks and public accountability to the table. Rather, Jaishankar’s bureaucratic precision, though articulate, has created an isolated echo chamber disconnected from raw energy dynamics.
Despite PM Modi’s direct calls with Trump, Masoud Pezeshkian, Benjamin Netanyahu and Gulf leaders, and India’s BRICS presidency, Tehran chose not to entrust New Delhi with mediation, citing India’s overt leaning towards Israel and the US. What explains this astonishing reversal? Diplomats failed to convert Modi’s powerful outreach into a diplomatic dividend. And BJP stalwarts dealing with foreign affairs see Jaishankar as emblematic of the problem. He is brilliant in protocol and multilateral forums, but politically embarrassed, lacking the electoral legitimacy and raw political instinct required to nurture PM Modi’s “huglomacy” style of diplomacy.
