Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves all over the world. Since the war began about three weeks ago, there has been an unrelenting influx of haunting images showing widespread destruction in some of the country’s biggest cities such as the capital Kyiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv and several other places, particularly in eastern Ukraine along the Russian border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruthless aggression has forced thousands of helpless Ukrainians to take refuge at underground train stations and bomb shelters to dodge Russian missiles while millions of Ukrainian refugees continue to throng the borders of the neighbouring countries of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania everyday after fleeing their homeland.
 |
| image source : dnaindia.com |
As the world stares down the barrel of a possible third world war, which by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's admission will be “nuclear and destructive”, India’s position as a fence sitter in the face of the Russia-Ukraine war has expectedly garnered global intrigue.
The Indian Government’s stand on the situation has been clear from the get-go. As the crisis in Ukraine unfolded, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialled Putin and appealed for an immediate cessation of violence. He also urged Russia and the NATO group to resolve their differences through dialogue and called for all sides to exercise restraint. However, India has not joined the US-led western bloc constituting NATO to take an anti-Russia posture, naturally because New Delhi does not want to sever its decades-old friendly ties with Moscow.
As the west looks at India in anticipation to preferably take an antagonistic stance against Russia sooner or later, the hypocrisy of the United States and the NATO in the current scheme of things cannot be emphasised enough. As a matter of fact, the west has played an instrumental role in bringing about the perilous situation that now exists in Ukraine by first provoking Russia with Ukraine’s potential inclusion into NATO and then leaving Ukraine in the lurch post the Russian invasion.
The country of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky has been reduced to scapegoats in the tug of war between Russia and the US-led NATO. As Putin continues to relentlessly bomb several Ukrainian cities and capture strategic points, a helpless Zelensky is left with no choice but to urge his countrymen to pick up arms in self-defence against the mighty Russian forces.
 |
| image source : bbc.com |
Zelensky’s frustration at the West has become apparent since the NATO rejected his plea to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, with the latter claiming that it would lead to a broader conflict that could potentially involve the whole of Europe into a direct confrontation with Russia. The Ukrainian President minced no words in calling out the duplicity of the West, asserting that “If Ukraine falls, the whole of Europe will fall”.
The fact of the matter is that if countries such as Turkey, China and Israel can offer to mediate between the two warring nations, it is unfathomable as to why the US, the UK and the western bloc at large have deliberately chosen to neglect the mediation option. On the contrary, the West has only provoked Russia more by imposing a multitude of sanctions to hurt the country’s economy in the long run. However, those sanctions do absolutely nothing in the short run to safeguard Ukraine from the utter devastation and misery received at the hands of the Russian armed forces.
After luring Ukraine into the prospect of joining NATO and the European Union, how do the US President Joe Biden and the Western European leaders justify leaving the country at God’s mercy amid an ever-escalating Russian assault and a heart-wrenching exodus of millions of innocent Ukrainians to safer havens in the neighbouring Eastern European nations? A lesser power like Poland showed far greater courage by announcing that it would give the US its fighter jets for use by Ukraine in retaliation to Russia's air attacks, an offer expectedly turned down by the Biden administration.
More than three weeks into the war and multiple rounds of negotiations between the two sides have resulted in no breakthroughs at all. Ukraine has now woken up and smelt the coffee, realising the hard way that it is their battle to wage while the West continues to just pay lip service.
 |
| image source : defensenews.com |
As Ukraine has been left to fend for itself with the war gaining momentum everyday, President Zelensky’s loss of faith in the west has become evident through his growing skepticism, and more recently denial, about joining NATO. It basically sums up the brutal reality of this unnecessary bloody conflict triggered by NATO’s expansionist aspirations across Eastern Europe.
Therefore, no country or group of nations, especially the western lobby, has the moral authority to preach or cajole India into taking an anti-Russia stand that can potentially jeopardise the grand old alliance between the two nations. On the other hand, the US, the UK and the EU continue to maintain oil and gas relations with Russia despite the sanctions imposed. The EU, in particular, depends heavily on Russia to meet its energy consumption.
India’s position in the national interest
India may have abstained from voting on US-sponsored United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution castigating Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in favour of setting up an international enquiry into the Russian invasion, but New Delhi has certainly not abstained from its humanitarian responsibility towards Ukraine. Since the beginning of March, nearly a hundred tonnes of supplies that include medicines and other relief material have been sent for the internally displaced Ukrainians and those who have fled to the neighbouring countries.
Yet, for the West, a crucial yardstick to evaluate India’s position is based on whether or not New Delhi continues to purchase the Russian oil. On the other hand, the US, the UK and the EU have not decided to completely halt their oil and gas imports from Russia. In fact, the EU countries depend much more heavily on Russia for its energy consumption compared to America and Britain, The European bloc members have been frank in admitting the infeasibility to abruptly cut energy ties with Moscow and letting their economies go into free fall.
The duplicity of the West has well and truly become as explicit as it can get. For the bloc to try to subtly unnerve India by claiming that New Delhi’s continued affinity with Moscow will push the world’s largest democracy on “the wrong side of history” only reeks of its desperation to chase its own strategic ambition vis-a-vis the Ukraine crisis.
The line taken by the Indian Government is one of diplomatic sagacity and completely in India’s national interest. India wants peace restored between the two nations and does not condone Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. But, at the same time, PM Modi is mindful of the extreme significance of the Indo-Russian ties.
 |
| image source : onmanorama.com |
Moscow has been New Delhi’s all-weather friend. Among a plethora of associations between the two nations, Russia has even supported India on the Kashmir issue when the world stood against it. During the 1971 war of liberation of East Pakistan, it was Russia that countered the US and Britain’s two-pronged military support to Pakistan against India.
If the US and the EU have unanimously decided to refrain from engaging militarily in an ongoing war that affects them more directly than it does to India, then they have no business to sermonise or educate India on geopolitical propriety.
India’s neutrality is the best policy to follow under the current circumstances. The Modi government is upholding the country’s age-old tradition of not joining a geopolitical bloc, and rightly so. Moreover, India must take great pride in the success of the Indian government’s Operation Ganga which evacuated more than 20,000 civilians, mostly students, from the Ukrainian war zone.
No comments:
Post a Comment