Modi starts off with signal to neighbours

Whatever the final benefits of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s invitations to the heads of Saarc countries to attend his swearing-in ceremony, it appears at first sight to be a clever initiative that can also be seen as one that keeps hope afloat. There are, however, some who feel that it must not be seen as a precedent which Mr Modi’s successors must follow if they are to signal their intention to project goodwill in the region.

It is unclear how carefully thought out Mr Modi’s gesture is. This emphasis on style at a time when the substance vacuum is yet to be fulfilled — since the incoming government is yet to assume charge — runs the risk of giving the impression of trying too hard to please.

Though Mr Modi is still an unknown quantity on the national stage as far as his policy thinking goes, from what can be adduced from his track record he is not given to empty gestures, even empty rituals.

A gesture of this nature cannot be deemed policy, although such a gesture may potentially embellish a policy that has marked itself out as being successful. It may be remembered that Prime Minister I.K. Gujral desired good neighbourhood ties and sought to create the impression of going the extra mile, but the “Gujral doctrine” is best left in the archive of the forgettable. Our neighbours offered him no respite if it did not suit them to do so, although they did not fail to make polite noises.

Those who thought up the scheme of inviting leaders of neighbouring countries might ponder that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had publicly invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend his swearing-in, and made effusive references to India. Subsequently, his government did not succeed in moving meaningfully on bilateral relations. Indeed, some of the most bitter tracts in India-Pakistan relations, of which Mr Modi made clever use in his campaign speeches, are from the Sharif-Manmohan era. Had Dr Singh seen it fit to attend the ceremony to which he was invited, he might have been rendered even more vulnerable than he was on India-Pakistan relations.

The relationship with each one of our neighbours has a distinctiveness on account of geography, history and all the rest. With some of them, relations have regrettably got mired in the dynamics of domestic politics.

Mr Modi will no doubt deal with complex issues according to his own light even if his hangers-on seek to leave their mark.