Tripura News
Home > Tripura News
Agartala Doctrine : appropriate response' advocated for neighborhood
TIWN
TIWN
PHOTO : TIWN / Pic credit Subhendu Ray
New Delhi / Agartala, Feb 26 (TIWN): Speakers including former foreign secretary Shyam Saran have endorsed the 'Agartala doctrine of appropriate response' for handling India's neighborhood.
Launching the ' Agartala Doctrine" Proactive Northeast in Indian foreign policy" edited by veteran journalist-author Subir Bhaumik, Saran said the book is right in stressing the role of states in influecing national foreign policy and in stressing on reciprocity as the key to a neighborhood policy.
"We can't expect a small cabal in Delhi make foreign policy and expect all to follow it. Frontier states is beginning to play a crucial role in Indian foreign policy , for right or wrong reasons. And we dont need tit-for-tat but we need appropriate response as argued by Bhaumik. Friendship must be recirprocated as much as hostility needs to be countered," said Saran .
Veteran journalist-author from Northeast Sanjoy Hazarika supported the idea and alluded to Tripura's lifting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act when it was no longer needed as an example of appropriate response.
Scholar and former Tripura police chief K S subramaniam warned against 'jingoistic nationalism' that he said can again spur separatist forces . " We must handle our neighbours appropriately. Separatists in Northeast are waiting for India and China to fight , so we must resolkve the border issue and improve relations with China," he said.
Author Bhaumik detailed tiny Tripura's role in boosting the Bengali movement in erstwhile East Pakistan and in launching more than 20 trans-border attacks using surrendered militants during the Khaleda Zia regime.
"India neither needs the American Monroe Doctrine nor Gujral doctrine of unilateral magnanimity. The country needs the Agartala doctrine of appropriate response to handle the neighborhood and if we cant handle the neighborhood, India will never be a major power," Bhaumik said.
Bangladesh high commissioner Syed Muazzem Ali, who jointly launched the book with Shyam Saran, stressed on connectivity between Bangladesh and India's eastern and northeastern states as the key to improving bilateral relations.
"The India-Bangladesh relation is now the key to the success of regional cooperation in South Asia, what with initiatives like BBIN," he said.
Add your Comment
Comments (0)
More Tripura News
- Lok Sabha Poll : RO visits Strong Room at Umakanta Academy
- BJP leader Kajal Das was arrested after a Video reeled Viral on Social Media during an Attack on the Presiding Office on East Tripura Lok Sabha Poll day
- Hotel manager was attacked by youths centering power-cut
- 1 critical after road accident in Bishalgarh By-Pass road
- Power outage rattles public lives across Kailashahar : Protest for water continues
Special Articles
Sanjay Majumder
Anirban Mitra