Veteran journalist and geopolitical expert Fareed Zakaria said that India would benefit more if it were to be more solidly aligned with the West, with the USA.
Addressing a session at India Today Group’s Conclave Pop-up: Election Special, Fareed Zakaria said, “India would benefit enormously if it were more solidly aligned with the West, with the free world, with the democratic world. And it would reap enormous rewards technologically, in commercial terms, but also culturally.”
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“I worry sometimes that the path India is on will leave it not with the enormous freedom of manoeuvre which everyone thinks about, but will leave it stuck in a no-man’s land,” he added.
Zakaria said that with the multi-aligned foreign policy, India is “missing the opportunity to hitch itself to the fastest growing, most powerful, most technologically advanced country (the USA) in the history of the world, which is offering that relationship to India on a platter.”
India needs America more than America needs India, Zakaria argued.
He criticised the “Nehruvian pride” and the non-aligned policy of the past and said, “India decided to stay aloof. South Korea, Japan, Taiwan picked sides. India had higher per capita income than South Korea in 1950. Today, South Korea’s per capita GDP is 35 times India’s.”
“It is the opportunity cost that I am talking about,” Fareed Zakaria said.
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