US President Donald Trump’s remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought time to meet the former by asking, “Sir, may I see you,” and Modi not rebutting this claim, amounts to inflicting humiliation not just on Modi himself but on India as whole. The implication is clear – it was a submissively asked question. Trump also claimed that the Modi regime’s decision to substantially reduce its purchases of Russian oil to address Washington’s concerns reflected Modi’s actions to “make me happy.”Outsourcing foreign policyThe utterances of Trump have never been contradicted by Modi and the external affairs ministry. Unequivocally such remarks are nothing but an egregious affront on India and its people and so are unacceptable. There is no such ugly precedent during the tenure of any other prime minister before Modi. The humiliation has been compounded beyond measure when it was revealed that the Indian Embassy in Washington hired a US lobbying firm SHW Partners LLC, led by a former adviser to US President Trump, for an annual fee of $150,000 to provide support to the Indian government on US policy matters including arranging meetings, phone calls and email exchanges with officials from the US State Department and the National Security Council. The firm also helped coordinate senior-level visits by Indian officials to Washington DC.Nehru’s visionSuch outsourcing of India’s foreign policy and diplomacy has no parallels during post-independence period when the architecture of our foreign affairs was shaped based on Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision brilliantly articulated in his article “A Foreign Policy for India” written in 1927, twenty years before India was liberated from colonial rule on August 15, 1947.In that article, Nehru wrote in the beginning itself that “To some of us in India it may appear a foolish waste of time to indulge in fancies about a foreign policy for India.” And yet he asserted for an independent foreign policy when he wrote: “We must understand world movements and politics and fashion our own movement accordingly. This cannot mean that we have to subordinate our interests or our methods of work to those of any other country or organisation.”Those articulations of Nehru expressed as far back in 1927, to underscore India’s might and majesty two decades before our independence have been shattered by the Modi regime by scripting a foreign policy not to protect our national interest but to keep Donald Trump happy. Nehru’s vision that Indians would not subordinate her interests or her methods of work to those of any other country or organisation always remained central to India’s foreign policy right since our independence. That has now been upended.It is worthwhile to quote Nehru who wrote that India should not “….expect any help from outside or slacken our efforts at home” and added that “… we should gradually train a body of men and women who can be relied upon to serve Indian interests abroad when the power for doing this comes into our hands.”The power came to the hands of Indians in 1947 and India’s interests have been served well by successive prime ministers. But Modi has emerged as an exception in weakening India’s foreign policy and its stature at the global level.On February 10, 1947 in a message Nehru wrote, “In a world where there are still so many bloodshot eyes we have to be clear-eyed and while being practical must also keep our ideals in view”.Nehru’s usage of the words “bloodshot eyes” in the world of 1947 assumes greater salience in the context of Donald Trump’s humiliating statements and so the imperative need Nehru underlined to remain clear eyed resonates today to salvage India’s image and stature.People count in foreign policyOn October 19, 1954 in a conversation with Mao Tse Tung of China, Nehru said, “There is no reason why Europe or the Americas should be considered the pivots of the modern world and Asia should be ignored. Asia is inevitably going to be one of the big centres of international affairs in the future and the sooner this is recognised and given effect to the better.”When Mao asked Nehru why India was not following America which possessed so much strength and wealth the latter answered, “India was not afraid of any country in the world. The one thing that India’s great leader Mahatma Gandhi had taught Indians was not to be afraid and it was this fearlessness that enabled Indians to win their freedom from British imperialism.”Also read: In 2026, India’s Biggest Policy Challenge Will be Dealing with the USHe went on to assert that “ India was not afraid and followed her own policy, what she considered right and just.” He claimed that slowly Western nations had to realise that it was not so much money that counted and proceeded to add, “Both India and China together had about 1000 million people of the world and human beings counted.”Mao agreed with Nehru and said that human beings counted the most.Prime Minister Modi, who repeatedly boasts about India’s human resources and its population of over one billion, has caved in to the dictates of Trump, compromising India’s foreign policy to such an extent that it has hurt the people and the image of our country. India’s image can now only be salvaged by anchoring the foreign policy on Nehru’s vision which has always upheld India’s stature in global affairs.S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.