Bharat Karnad, a national security expert, is a research professor at the Centre for Policy Research and a national security expert, is the author of
Why India Is Not a Great Power (Yet).
There is a paradigm shift in India's politics. With his clean reputation, proven track record as chief minister of Gujarat and formidable leadership qualities on display, Narendra Modi seemed the right fit for the prime minister's job, and just the man to turn the country around after the decade-long UPA rule by the modest and tongue-tied Manmohan Singh.
Prime Minister Modi's first term, however, raises troubling questions. How has his strongman persona and social background impacted policymaking? Has Modi delivered on the high expectations to advance India's national interest and security? Has the country's role in the region, in Asia and the world changed, become more meaningful? What has been the effect of Modi's India First foreign policy on neighbours, and with respect to raising India's stock in the world and showing the Indian military has teeth? Especially with regard to the UUS, Russia and China.
Analysing Prime Minister Modi's foreign and military policies in the context of India's evolving socio-political and economic milieu, this book offers a critical perspective that helps explain why India has not progressed much towards becoming a consequential power. Argumentative and thought-provoking, Staggering Forward is a must-read to understand India's foreign and national security policies since 2014.
Essential reading for those who wish to understand India's behaviour as a power on the international stage. Written with verve and directness
Staggering Forward is an unapologetic critique of [PM] Modi's foreign and national security policies, seen through the prism of his "alpha-male" leadership style and its failure to bring either coherence or vision to India's engagement with the outside worldThis is Bharat Karnad at his pugnacious best; as he deconstructs Prime Minister Modi's modus operandi and offers an incisive critique of his security and foreign policies. Provocative and radicalBharat Karnad's book is a scathing critique of India's political leadership, bureaucracy, armed forces, policies, systems and processes. Many of the arguments in this provocative analysis of the nation's strategic and security affairs should carry a statutory warning: pick them up, but handle with care!
