Soft power can make us a global leader: Shashi Tharoor

KOLKATA: India's soft power remains its biggest strength in being a global leader but strict visa rules has dented the country's image abroad, writes former union minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor in his new book.

"Today's India truly enjoys soft power, and that may well be the most valuable way in which it can offer leadership to the twenty-first-century world," says Tharoor in " Pax Indica" which discusses India's international relationships.

Observing that soft power has grown naturally on the country's soil, he says India benefits from the future and the past - from the international appeal of its traditional practices (from Ayurveda to yoga, both accelerating in popularity across the globe) and the transformed image of the country created by its thriving diaspora.

According to the Congress MP, who switched over to politics in 2009 from being a top diplomat in the United Nations, India has however not been able to fully leverage its soft power because of its "inability" to exploit its own democratic traditions of freedom.

"India's inability to promote and leverage its soft power in the world will receive a major boost only if and when the country's visa policy is thoroughly re-examined and, ideally, revised," the best-selling author of books like "The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone" argues.