4 min readChandigarhMar 15, 2026 11:15 PM IST
Written by Dhruv Noatay
Emphasising that India’s greatest strength lies in the sanctity of its institutions and Constitution, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari said the country’s ability to navigate an increasingly unstable world will depend as much on internal cohesion as on strategic diplomacy.
Tewari was speaking at a discussion on his book A World Adrift, organised by the Punjab Lit Foundation at the Government Museum and Art Gallery auditorium in Sector 10 on Sunday. The conversation was moderated by former Punjab chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh.
Reflecting on India’s role in a shifting global order, Tewari said the country faced a greater threat from within than from external actors. Preserving institutions and ensuring that the Constitution remains sacrosanct, he said, would be crucial to safeguarding India’s future. Half jokingly, he remarked that if parliamentarians simply ensured that Parliament functioned smoothly, “we would have done this country a great service”.
He argued that India could move forward only if it remained politically anchored “in the middle”, warning against extremes in governance or public discourse. For the next two and a half decades, he said, India must focus on consolidation and strengthening its democratic foundations.
Tewari said his motivation to write A World Adrift stemmed partly from witnessing how the global order began evolving rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic, creating a far more uncertain and fluid geopolitical landscape.
Turning to global conflicts, the MP said tensions in the Persian Gulf should not be viewed as a single conflict. “There isn’t just one war playing out in the Persian Gulf; there are multiple wars, and unfortunately it’s not really about the Gulf or the Middle East. This conflict has everything to do with China,” he said, describing the current geopolitical churn as one of the most audacious strategic plays since the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions in 1944.
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Tewari argued that several recent confrontations involving the United States were rooted in competition over resources and strategic influence. He cited the US-Venezuela tensions as an example, saying the dispute had less to do with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and more with access to resources. China, he said, had been receiving Venezuelan crude at prices about $15 below the Brent benchmark, along with access to rare earth minerals and lithium.
He also suggested that US President Donald Trump in his first term had seriously floated the idea of bringing Canada into the United States as the 51st state, linking it to Washington’s efforts to counter Russia’s ambitions in the Arctic region.
The continuing crisis in West Asia, he said, was already putting severe strain on Europe’s energy supplies, forcing countries there to look for alternatives, including reviving gas pipelines damaged during the Ukraine conflict. If the conflict in the Middle East were to continue for another month, he suggested, pressure on energy markets could accelerate efforts to resolve the Ukraine war, as even Russia appeared to be seeking an exit.
Discussing Asia, he said China was unlikely to mount a direct military invasion of Taiwan but could instead resort to psychological or hybrid warfare.
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On India-China relations, Tewari pointed out that China had border disputes with over 15 of its 22 neighbours but had resolved most of them, leaving only a handful, including India. According to him, Beijing found it strategically useful to keep the dispute with India unresolved because both countries were emerging powers and China preferred to keep India under pressure.
He also spoke about what he termed “NAM 2.0”, arguing that the present geopolitical moment resembles the early Cold War era when newly independent countries had to choose between rival blocs. India had then charted an independent path through the Non-Aligned Movement, he said, and a similar approach of maintaining strategic autonomy might again prove useful.
Quoting Chinese leader Chen Yun, Tewari said countries should “cross the river by feeling the stones under their feet”, emphasising that in turbulent times there was wisdom in caution and careful decision-making.
