Two weeks ago, in a surprise move, Russia launched a large-scale military operation inside Ukraine, causing a geopolitical disruption. The Russian military intervention in Ukraine has altered the strategic dynamics, making countries adopt prudent ways to deal with the ongoing crisis.
India, as a responsible global power, has so far taken a nuanced stand on the Ukraine-Russia crisis considering its own strategic interests. India has abstained from voting on the US-sponsored United Nations resolutions that “deplores” Russia in the strongest terms, with New Delhi saying dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes.
The Indian government has called both parties to adhere to UN Charter and international law while asking them to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. In fact, for the first time in seven decades, India has taken an independent and balanced position on a critical issue. Ever since the clashes broke out, the Indian government has made it clear that Western countries cannot force them to take a stand that compromises their national interest.
Some in the west, including a few within India, view this as a pro-Russian stand and often claims that India has a ‘moral’ compulsion to stand with west-backed Ukraine and not its time-tested ally Russia.
However, this decision does not tantamount to supporting any side. On the contrary, it means that India will not take anyone’s side in an ongoing intra-European conflict and wishes to see it resolved through dialogue and discourse. For India, the evacuation of its stranded citizens in Ukraine has been the greatest priority in this hour of crisis and has been working to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn country safely.
In fact, this neutral stand of the Indian government has yielded good results, with both Ukraine and the Russian government are actively helping the Indian government to evacuate its citizen despite the absence of any ceasefire agreement. Perhaps, India is the only country in the world that has managed to bring its citizens back home safely within two weeks of the military intervention.
However, a certain vested interest within India is now dispirited after realising that the Indian government can take its own decisions to protect its strategic integrity and cannot be bullied by the west to blindly accept the diktats issued by them, as was the case in the past. These vested interests are now making all efforts to persuade the United States, another strategic ally of India, to act against the Indian government for its alleged support to Russia.
On Friday, controversial far-left ‘news’ outlet NDTV did something similar to persuade the United States government to take a firm stand against the Modi government for abstaining from voting on a US-backed UN resolution targeting Russia.
NDTV news anchor Sreenivasan Jain was caught pleading with the United States representative desperately to be ‘disappointed’ against the Indian government’s supposed ‘fence-sitting’ in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia clashes. Speaking to Patricia Lacina, the chief of the US mission to India, Jain told the US diplomat that India had taken a stand that was contrary to the US interests.
.@OnReality_Check | “We understand that the relationship that India has with Russia is very different from the relationship that the US has with Russia,” says Patricia Lacina, chief of the US mission to India, on India-Russia relations.pic.twitter.com/5qjXP8PRK3
— NDTV Videos (@ndtvvideos) March 4, 2022
The news anchor asked whether there was any sense of disappointment within the Biden administration after India, one of its strategic allies, as it abstained from voting on the US-backed resolution.
However, to Sreenivasan Jain’s disappointment, Lacina did not want to make any unnecessary comment on India’s stand on the current issue but insisted that the US did not believe India is in “Russia’s camp” on the Ukraine war. The American diplomat said that America understood that India’s relationship with Russia is “very different” from the US relationship with Russia.
Interestingly, the United States has also been consistent in its position regarding India’s approach to the Ukraine-Russia crisis. The Biden administration has time and again repeated that India’s relationship with Russia is “distinct” from that the US shares with the latter and that they have no problem.
“India has a relationship with Russia that we certainly don’t have. India and Russia have a relationship, including in the defence and security sector, that we don’t have. And again, we have asked every country that has a relationship, and certainly those countries that have leverage, to use that leverage in a constructive way,” the state department had reiterated last week.
Despite the United States of America making it clear that it cannot dictate India anymore, the left-liberals are desperately attempting to goad the west to make an intervention and command the Modi government to take decisions even at the cost of India’s national interest.
