PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Recent Developments in Foreign Policy — Part 2

Has the recent Indo-Israeli relationships given a new dynamics to India’s stand on Palestinian statehood?

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 1950 recognition / 1992 full ties → Palestine long read through the anti-colonial prism → Israel closeness changes the voicing, not the position

Route 2 de-hyphenation as the pivot → two independent tracks, one unchanged principle → the new dynamics is one of forum

Body flow

principle intact (PLO 1974 → State of Palestine 1988 → pre-1967 borders + East Jerusalem) → instruments of continued support (US$30m aid since 1995; Modi 2018 Ramallah) → multilateral voice still alive (Sept 2025 New York Declaration vote) → the shift: de-hyphenation = build with Israel, speak for Palestine elsewhere → Feb 2026 joint statement / Special Strategic Partnership drops the two-state formula → Res 2803 conditions statehood → Pant (adaptation) + Gupta (domestic anchor)

Counter-view

Haidar: the calibration reads as ambiguity, not balance → Arab normalisation has lowered the cost of pragmatism → support becomes more symbolic than substantive

Conclusion routes

Route 1 new dynamics in emphasis and instrument, not in principle

Route 2 statehood survives in India’s votes but thins in its bilateral texts — the gap is the answer

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2017, Recent Developments in Foreign Policy — Part 2