American govt. officials, think-tankers and their desi sepoys have been hard at work for the last few weeks, trying to browbeat Bharat into toeing the Western position over the Ukraine crisis.
The line being peddled is that Russia is violating the post-WWII ‘rules-based’ international order, and Bharat needs to shed its neutral stance and condemn Russia unequivocally if it wants the West to ‘continue supporting’ Bharat’s rise.
The demonization of Vladimir Putin as a sort of Dark Lord in Western mainstream media (MSM), which has been proven time and again to be a thinly veiled propaganda arm of the Western liberal establishment, is obvious. So let’s leave that MSM rhetoric aside and ask what is Putin’s concern vis a vis Ukraine?
Two tweets by defense analyst Brahma Chellaney succinctly explain the current situation:
And declassified documents show that Western leaders had repeatedly given assurances to Russia that NATO would not expand East.
Simply put, Putin has put his foot down on ceaseless US-led efforts to bring Ukraine into its sphere of influence and turn it into “some kind of antipode of Russia, some kind of anti-Russia” as he put it recently. He believes that Ukraine and Russia have a historical unity, shared spiritual and cultural roots that tie both nations together, and hence they should be partners not foes.
Chellaney has also correctly diagnosed the way Pakistan has been used by the West against Bharat and to pursue its own geopolitical interests in Central Asia.
Even after the much-hyped thaw in US-Bharat relations during the Vajpayee years and the post 9/11 ‘war on terror’, US still continues to treat Pakistan as a trusted partner.
Another line of thought we are hearing a lot is this – if war breaks out and West sanctions Russia, this will push Russia into a tighter embrace with China, which will work to Bharat’s detriment. Some European commentators have also chimed in that Bharat risks the progress made in EU-Bharat collaboration if it doesn’t openly condemn Russia.
So while the West demands Bharat prove its ‘loyalty’ by siding with them over the Ukraine crisis, they sidestep when asked what they have done to prove to Bharat that they are reliable, trusted partners? Have either USA or EU condemned or sanctioned Pakistan for its policy of terror against us, for its genocide in the 1971 Bangladesh war, or for its continued ethnic cleansing and persecution of its Hindu minority?
Did EU condemn China for its aggression on our northern border and for the Galwan valley clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed?
This is what EU said after Bharat briefed them on China’s aggression during the 15th EU-India summit: “We support all efforts for a peaceful solution..the relationship between the EU and China is complex. We need to tackle different issues and topics….China and India are both important to the bloc.”
And this is exactly what Bharat is saying now on the Ukraine crisis: “India wants peace, issues resolved through talks.”
