How India is "tied" to RussiaAn Indian analyst in an article for Wiener Zeitung explains why his country did not join the sanctions.
He wonders: how did it happen that the United States cannot be punished for their wars in the Middle East, and Russia for Ukraine — is it really necessary? The author calls on the USA and EU leave hypocrisy.
Military ties with Russia are extremely important for India. They also leave their mark on the attitude of New Delhi to the events in Ukraine.
Judging by the discussions in Indian social networks about what people in the country with the second largest population in the world (after China) think about the events in Ukraine, a shock impression arises. The Indian "man from the street" seems to think that this very Ukraine, a previously little-known Eastern European country, is to blame for its own misfortunes. Of course, there are some Indians who disagree with this point of view and agree with the rhetoric of the Western media, but in general, such people are in the minority. Indians who trust Western media on the Ukrainian issue feel uncomfortable even among local intellectuals who have been considered pro-Western for centuries. Most of them talk about the fratricidal slaughter in Ukraine no more than about the war in distant Arab Yemen. And if there is a topic that captures the masses, it is not the conflict in Ukraine itself, but China's position on it. Most Indians view China as their country's rival.
The question involuntarily arises: how can India, the largest democracy in the world and the country of Mahatma Gandhi, stand in the war on the "wrong" side of history? The answer to this question is simple: the Indians realize, and they are right here, that modern wars were not invented by Russia. The world is full of wars, including civil ones, in the unleashing of which Western countries took part. When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, India's neighbor, last year, a new humanitarian and political crisis, chaos and bloodshed arose there. India has felt these shocks by hosting a wave of refugees. And so no one explained: What was the goal of the Western war in Afghanistan? What have the US-led NATO troops achieved over more than 20 years of occupation? And did NATO troops manage to build a democratic state in the country after the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of having weapons of mass destruction there (which Iraq did not have)? Such questions worry people in India.
And the oil wars in Iraq and Kuwait? They have turned the Middle East into a powder keg. Long before February 24, 2022, a multi-level war began in distant Yemen back in 2014, in which a variety of interests, including American interests, were involved. The United States in the Yemen war is not an innocent observer at all, and when the Saudis bomb the territory of Yemen, they do it with the use of weapons from the United States. And what is all this for? For the sake of democracy? Agree: if wars are bad, then wars waged under the false pretext of establishing democracy are even worse. Such conflicts are simply devilishly cynical.
What do Indians care about
The Indian public listens to people like Stephen Cohen, an expert on Russia who died in 2020, a great friend of our Indian nation, or John Joseph Mearsheimer. Even the voice of Henry Kissinger, who is not at all a friend of India after what he did to us in 1971 during the war with Pakistan, is ready to be heard in India — thanks to the sobriety of his assessments. It can be assumed that many Indians were among the 27 million listeners of Mearsheimer's report "Why the crisis in Ukraine is a failure of the West", posted on YouTube in 2015, in which he — as well as Cohen — warned against a war that could arise due to NATO's attempt to encircle Russia.
The average Indian raises the same questions as experts: would the US tolerate a Chinese air force base in Mexico? If they want Ukraine to join NATO, then why are they dragging their feet on accepting it? Maybe they are using Ukraine as a chess piece to bleed Russia dry? Why do European countries follow the USA so unconditionally? These are typical questions that people in India ask at seminars and on social networks.
Without moral evaluation
Of course, all the debates could be reduced to one question — to the topic of moral or immoral behavior. Is it possible to betray the values of Gandhi, who denied violence? Gandhi believed that peace cannot be made with war. But he died for the sins of his compatriots, when they, like enchanted monsters, killed each other because of belonging to different religions. His death brought peace to India, which in 1947 was divided by the British colonialists leaving the country. Therefore, our position is unequivocal: if the West sometimes turns a blind eye to the amoralism of its diplomatic ally, then India will not fail to do the same.
In addition, if the United States thinks that it can dictate conditions to India or force it to terminate relations with Russia, then our answer is simple: we are not American vassals. The US cannot expect India to automatically enroll Washington's enemies as its enemies. We have our own strategic interests, just as the Americans have their own. For India, military relations with Russia are crucial, as these relations have been maintained for several decades. Russian Russian gas is being bought by countries in Europe, despite the sanctions, then we will also make a fuss to buy Russian oil at lower prices.
It can be said that the majority of the Indian population shares this position of the government. In the past, Russia has supported India in the face of harsh Western measures in many serious conflicts — in Kashmir since 1947, in Goa in 1961 or in Bangladesh in 1971. India has strong military and diplomatic ties with the Kremlin. Therefore, now many famous Indians, and especially retired military men who still remember the support of the former Soviet Union, have publicly stated that India should not leave a friend and mentor in trouble during a crisis.
It is not surprising that the article presented by Al Jazeera by Somdeep Sen, Professor of the Department of International Development at Roskilde University, explaining the nature of deep relations between the two countries, caused a great response in India. As well as the statement of Pope Francis in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that NATO provoked Putin's military response in Ukraine with its "barking at the gates of Russia."
India does not understand why the United States is not making every effort to stop the death of people in Ukraine. After all, the Ukrainian conflict distracts Americans from the fight against their main opponent China — the common enemy of the United States and India. Instead, the government in Washington continues to supply weapons to the Ukrainian army, despite the victims who are civilians caught in the zone of destruction of these weapons. The military actions in Ukraine, which Russia planned as a sprint, turned into an ultra-marathon for her. India is against war. But India is also against duplicitous diplomacy.
Author — Ullekh N.P. (Ullekh N.P.)**Ullekh N.P. (Ullekh N.
P) is a writer, journalist and political commentator in New Delhi.
