As India gets into the last stages of the Election Commission-mandated long process of electing a new government, its South Asian neighbours find themselves in various stages of internal trouble. In at least a couple of cases, the troubles could get very serious indeed. The new government will, therefore, have a big foreign policy challenge. It would help if the incoming foreign policy team recognises one central point: that for India?s neighbourhood policy to have enough traction as well as the heft deserving of a regional big power, New Delhi has to build positive stakes. That means building India-financed, India-planned and, if necessary, India-executed development projects. True, this is pretty much impossible to conceive of vis-a-vis Pakistan right now. But India?s other neighbours need not prove so intractable. India has often complained of its neighbours? obstreperousness over bilateral economic relations. But India is guilty of poor imagination and bureaucratic ineptitude as well. Nepal, now suffering a big political crisis and its Maoists finding an ?India? hand, can always point to the Kosi project as an example of India?s poor delivery. The onus is on India as the big power to push and maintain big projects. The fact that India has a non-policy on border area development and infrastructure building is another example of poor thinking in terms of neighbourhood policy. Many of these areas can become transit trade hubs as well as act as exemplars for neighbours.
There?s, in fact, some proof that building stakes works?in Afghanistan, India?s involvement in many projects has given its policy a heft, and proof of that is Pakistan?s discomfiture. It also shows that building stakes will have to come with clever, hardheaded diplomacy, more so because in India?s neighbourhood, China looms large. China has shown it is capable of making attractive offers to India?s neighbours and its record of delivery on big projects is, bluntly put, better than India?s. India also needs to learn from China?s ability to deal with different ruling arrangements in volatile South Asian countries. India, for example, should invest in Sri Lanka big time as the country resolves the Tamil question; differences over that process shouldn?t come in the way of a big commitment. China, just to remind India what the stakes are, is building big projects in and around Sri Lankan president Rajapakse?s local political area of influence. India can?t be big player if its backyard is dominated by others.