The Parliament of India plays a critical role in drafting and influencing the country’s foreign policy. That is what makes KV Prasad’s new book, Indian Parliament: Shaping Foreign Policy, an important read. Divided into 12 chapters, the author covers wideranging topics around policy-making, which include India’s relation with Sri Lanka, nuclear energy debates since independence, policy dictates of single-party governments, and the compulsion of coalition arrangements among others.

As the focus on three major policy debates finds mention in the book, Prasad writes, “Foreign policy and the Parliament is a wide canvas. While the book makes broad brushstrokes on the deliberations across 75 years, the focus is to evaluate the approach on three specific dimensions—security, geoeconomic, and geopolitical/ strategic—from the prism of key decisions that have a lasting imprint on India’s foreign policy.”

The author also mentions how Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress discussed foreign policy issues in the Constituent Assembly and then the Provisional Parliament. One of the key issues was India joining the Commonwealth. He writes, “The question of a free India, which had gained freedom from the British, entertaining the idea of becoming a part of the Commonwealth agitated members. The formulations and deliberations of the government, those in the Assembly and the Congress party, which adopted a resolution, eventually led to Prime Minister Nehru signing the agreement.”

Adblock test (Why?)