Rajagopalan is right that multi-alignment is a fair weather policy that has obvious downside risks in case of serious conflict. On the other hand signing on to the american block fully could make us an easy target for everyone from China and Russia to Iran that wants to impose costs on the americans. Neither choice is free of costs. Multi-alignment has atleast one big thing going for it, there is a broad domestic consensus around it.
I love reading Rajagopalan's writings. Blud always manages to look past the government bullshit. His paper on evasive balancing brilliantly calls out India's non alignment policy.
Strategies keep changing with time. Non-alignment was the best way in those days. Maybe multi-alignment is better today, but things will change with time.
Multi alignment is probably worse than Non-Alignment. Because multi-alignment is seen as undependable by any block. Everyone realizes immediately that India is unprincipled and insincere and temporary. It cant be depended on any issue. So its value reduces drastically. Its a short term policy and attitude; and other powers too go into a short-term approach with India. No feeling, no trust, always on guard. Dishonesty and extracting advantages based on the global situation can definitely deliver benefits in the short-term. Shouldnt bank on it. But global situations are temporary and can change quickly. And gaining an untrustworthy & over-smart image might be damaging in the long-term. Exposed before everybody on all sides.
It is better for India to do what it is doing, which is multi alignment. If India swings only to the West, it will push Russia closer to China and China has a border with India and is causing problems with India. Another point is that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially with foreign relations and dependency.
As an Indian American, it’s clear India should side with US. There are so many good genuine ppl in America. There are a lot of conspiracies about America but it’s not true
