From G20 to Vaccine Maitri, how India's foreign policy remain at the pinnacle of BJP's 2024 campaign

Foreign policies rarely get much attention in the national elections around the world when bread and butter issues usually decide the vote in ballot boxes. However, things were different in India.

After the BJP-led NDA managed to garner over 290 seats in the parliament, PM Modi elucidated India’s prowess on the global stage. While addressing the party workers at the BJP headquarters, the Indian prime minister mentioned how “India is providing solutions to global problems”.

Here’s a look at how foreign policy remained at the centre of the BJP’s campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

India’s diplomatic achievements at the centre of election rallies

Addressing a charged-up gathering in Uttar Pradesh on May 22, the Prime Minister mentioned that “When India speaks in the global forums now, the whole world pays rapt attention. When India makes decisions, the world tries to match its steps,” the prime minister exclaimed which was followed by thunderous applause.

Throughout his 75-day jam-packed campaign rallies, the prime minister insisted that the “world is amazed” by India’s economic growth story and promised that India will become the third-largest economy in the world.

“Today India is providing solutions to global problems. We have seen during the pandemic how India’s vaccine capacity helped the world during a crisis situation,” the prime minister stated while addressing his party workers hours after the election results were out.

“From climate change to food security, whatever issues the world is facing, India considers it a responsibility to work on these issues. India considers providing stability and diversity to the global supply chain and this is why India is embracing everyone as ‘Vishwa Bandhu’,” he said, adding that a “strong India will be a strong pillar to a strong world”.  

PM Modi’s focus on India’s demographic, economic and political rise on the world stage is seen as a new factor in Indian politics. Initially, the parties had ultra-focus on local issues with themes like “Gareebi Hatao” or “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”. Hence, there have been significant reasons why the BJP relied on India’s diplomatic achievements in the 2024 polls.

How India navigated through summits and wars 

One of the key highlights of Modi’s second run as the PM was India hosting the G20 Summit. The event which concluded at Bharat Mandapam saw leaders from around the world. From UK PM Rishi Sunak visiting Akshardham to US President Joe Biden standing beside Modi at Rajghat, all the visuals from the summit indicated that the world is keeping a close eye on India.

With India’s efforts to bring back its citizens from conflict-stricken areas or its pursuit of ensuring that the African Union becomes the permanent member of the G20, New Delhi emerged as the “voice of the Global South”.

In an interview with Japanese news outlet Nikkei Asia in March, Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar praised his country’s “exceptionally steady” relations with Moscow. India, he added, “will not hesitate to contribute to efforts toward dialogue and peace.” During his time, India navigated through two wars, ensuring that it got what was best for its growth.

Being the world’s most populous state, fifth largest economy, second largest military force and biggest arms importer, the India of today stands as a more confident actor on the world stage than ever before. Hence, all these feats became one of the major reasons why the BJP decided to keep foreign policy as an integral part of their electoral campaign.

Past records support the present endeavours 

In February 2019, just two months before the country went to the polls, terrorists attacked a convoy of Indian paramilitary forces in Pulwama, Kashmir, kicking off a brief, high-stakes standoff between India and Pakistan.

The PM Modi administration’s response to this fatal attack was a surgical strike. The airstrikes in Balakot, Pakistan helped create a nationalist fervour that helped the BJP’s 2019 election campaign.

According to polling data from the IANS and CVoter, satisfaction with the BJP central government had a 15-percentage-point bump in the weeks following the attacks in Pulwama and Balakot. While the Pulwama attack was unpredictable, surgical strikes were one of the factors why BJP won over 300 seats in the 2019 polls.

Hence, presenting India as a resilient global figure helped the BJP in its campaign in the past.

Impact of the results

It is commonly believed that this year’s election came with good news for everyone. While BJP continued to remain the single largest party, Congress and the INDI Alliance gave a tough fight back. With NDA garnering 292 seats in the parliament and the INDIA bloc garnering 234 seats, it is safe to say that every move of India will now be intensely deliberated.

While both sides agree with the promotion of multi-polar diplomacy along with some other core foreign policy issues, there have been instances in the past when the two sides took different stances on certain foreign policy issues.

Let’s take an example of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. While India as a nation believes in the two-state solution, PM Modi administration’s close ties with Israel and India’s stance on the war have been criticised by the Opposition. In October, the Indian National Congress’ former party chief Sonia Gandhi said that her party “strongly opposed” India’s abstention on the UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict. The opposition leaders also conducted meetings with the Palestinian envoy to express solidarity.

Hence, it will be interesting to see how the new parliament with a robust opposition will tackle the ongoing global crises.

With inputs from agencies.