The Queen's visit to India
Sir: No wonder the Queen's visit to India has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Such an outcome is highly likely when domestic constituencies are permitted to have more than tangential influence over the formulation of a country's foreign policy.
The government has no real policy on India and Pakistan. It views its foreign poli- cy in terms of building electoral support among ethnic minorities. This approach has left the field open to ethnic pressure groups which, apart from projecting their own nar- row agenda on Kashmir, Punjab etc., have no commonly accepted vision of how best to protect Britain's national interests in the region.
The government's current policy on India and Pakistan is, therefore, not a foreign
LETTERS
policy in its traditional sense, but consists largely of the stapling together of the objec- tives of a few inner-city constituencies. Such a policy, as the Queen's visit has painfully demonstrated, is likely to be coun- terproductive to Britain's standing in international affairs.
Randhir Singh Bains 34 Shere Road, Gains Hill,
Essex
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