Parliament and Foreign Policy Decision Making : Parties, Politics and the Making of India?s China Policy

Parliament in a representational democracy like India is a cardinal pillar of the sovereign will and constitutionally empowered to formulate policies to manage India’s internal as well as external affairs. However, unlike other major democracies, the role of Indian Parliament in foreign policy decision making was apparently reluctant and feeble and restrained itself from playing decisive role in shaping India’s external relations. However , the scenario changed at the beginning of SinoIndian confrontation and the parliament has shown enormous interest on various issues of foreign affairs by questioning, debating and discussing India’s China policy. This changing dimension of Indian parliament on foreign policy decision making needs to be properly studied and analysed and this book is an attempt in that direction. The primary aim of the work is to analyse the changing nature of parliamentary involvement in foreign policy decision making and theorize its influence. The parliamentary debates on China have been meticulously collected and the attitude of the various political parties and statesmen have been systematically analysed to theorize parliament’s role in the making of India’s foreign policy in general and India’s China policy in particular.