Necessary Oppositions: Domestic Debates on Iran

Atul Mishra

Atul Mishra is doctoral candidate in international politics at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. read more

For the longest part of the two decades since the end of the Cold War, there were mostly Indian perspectives, rather than debates, on Iran and bilateral relations. Domestic debates on Iran began in 2005 and continued until mid-2008, reaching a crescendo during this period and dissipating soon after. The debates, when they took place, were not about influencing the government’s Iran policy. Rather they were the necessary oppositions that emerged from specificities of India’s domestic politics in which coalition compulsions, parliamentary democracy and ideological differences played their part.