India’s Foreign Policy Is Built on Opportunism, Not Ethics

India’s global projection as an emerging superpower is carefully crafted through calculated diplomatic engagements, high-profile events, and relentless public relations campaigns.  Nevertheless, behind this smooth facade hides a foreign policy full of inconsistencies, hypocrisies and a certain loss of morals and standards. The refusal of New Delhi to honor justice, human rights, and regional peace and unity distinguishes a foreign policy that is more optical than ethical as the country drifts to appeasing the west alongside sinking deeper into the major power blocs.

Another naked instance of India having unprincipled diplomacy is the Indian position on Palestine. After years of historic backing of the Palestinian cause, India in the recent past has shifted direction to establish closer relations with Israel and this can be attributed especially to the defence and intelligence aspects of the relationship. This change has been open under the governance of Narendra Modi. In 2017, Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, whereas he did not go to Palestine, which is seen as another step away of India towards a pro-Israel policy. India has since been absent during various condemnations of Israel aggression, and the Gaza war of 2021 and the current ongoing genocidal Israeli attacks on Gaza since 2024 25 are some of the resolutions and voting India has not participated in.

When the world human rights committees such as the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have marked the Israeli actions in Gaza as one of an apartheid and ethnic cleansing, it is an indication of the moral sacrifices India is making in order to make strategies. Its silence at the humanitarian disaster in Rafah – when the thousands of Palestinian civilians were bombed in refugee leagues – was deafening but rather complicity. The country that styles itself the defender of the Global South and the ideals of non-alignment, India has proven more than once that it is unable to take sides with the oppressed on the occasion when it would mean upsetting its armed or economic allies.

This hypocrisy continues with its actions in South Asia where India has mostly assumed a hegemonic stance, which has compromised mutual trust and partnership in the region. It has adversely impacted its relations with nearly all of its neighbors because of the coercive and dominating policy of New Delhi. India led a diplomatic crisis in Nepal, by publishing new political maps in 2019 that also incorporated the territory of Kalapani, which both countries had been claiming. In Sri Lanka, India has been trying to create a counterweight to Chinese interests by exercising an economic hold and investment in ports without regard to sovereignty issues. The cases, which have led to developing resentment, include cases, such as river water sharing and killing of people on the border region by the Indian security forces with Bangladesh, a country that used to share warm relations with India.

Rather than promoting peaceful co-existence, India is turning into political isolation and use of the hardline rhetoric toward the neighbors, especially Pakistan. New Delhi has denied on several occasions of reinstating bilateral dialogue and has instead cited terrorism as an excuse yet ignoring international calls of dialogue. However, ironically, it still trades and does diplomacy with nations such as China- even after violent confrontations on the battlefield at Galwan valley and repeated incursions of the Chinese borders. Such a selective foreign policy practice exposes the hypocritical nature of the foreign policy of India: it is not principled to act morally indignant unless it is beneficial to do so.

The fact that India is at the international tribunals is presented as a good manifestation of maturity in the field of diplomacy, yet its actions in such tribunals discuss a different scenario. Playing the ‘host nation’ during the G20 Summit in 2023, India tried to position itself as the connector between the West and the Global South. But it used the summit in order to nurture the domestic politics such as hosting a meeting in the contested region of Kashmir which is a provocating illegitimate activity as per the international law. This action was a stunt that not only contravened provisions of the UN Security Council but also selective application of diplomacy to validate Indian annexation of Jammu Kashmir in 2019 which was a unilateral move that most critics of human rights and other watchdogs found objectionable.

The eagerness of India to pose itself a peacebuilder and at the same time the deliberate attempt to undermine the rights of the Kashmiris and deny them the right of self-determination is one of the most transparent demonstration of hypocrisy in its foreign policy. As they preach non-interference and respect in international forums, India is militarizing Kashmir with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed and rolls down independent media as well as jail political leaders in large numbers. However, it would like the global community to believe that these activities are about its own internal affairs something handy to help it get out of this trouble.

More lukewarm, it is in its relationship with United States where another kind of self serving diplomacy of India can be realized. As Washington tries to offset China, India presents itself as a very vital partner. India, in its turn, has obtained the silence concerning the human rights violation in India, especially on minorities. Attacks on Muslims, the emergence of Hindu nationalism and the restriction on the freedom of the press in India are issues regularly featured by American think tanks and media. Nevertheless, these concerns cannot easily be translated into actual policy, or into multilateral activities, due to the strategic role played by New Delhi in the West. The West slams its eyes and India returns using the same tactics by assuming foreign-political stances, which are in line with the US geopolitical interests, at the cost of decades old principles.

The opportunism of India is also evident in inconsistent stand that the country takes over international conflicts. India has scoffed at condemning Russia on the issue of the Ukraine war because of strategic autonomy. However, this pretended impartiality is not impartial: India has never been reluctant to take the U.S. sides in other international disputes whenever it suited its economic or military interests. Be it on climate justice, not speaking on the western interventions deep in the heart of the Middle East or not submitting to international inquiry to war crimes, India has rarely been committed to the rules-based international order that it does not gain.

As a matter of fact, India foreign policy represents the interests of an elite ruling stratum that is more contended with prestige and power than justice and peace. It has allied themselves not based on principles but on armed trade, economic consideration and geo-political interests. This means that its authority in matters of morality/humanitarian is increasingly becoming compromised, especially among people in the Global South who are not fooled by the fancy words and are fully aware of the hypocrisy.

India’s rising status may be real in terms of economic weight or diplomatic access, but its foundation is weak where it matters most — in values, consistency, and justice. No amount of marketing can hide the fact that India stands more as a beneficiary of global power politics than a principled contributor to global peace.