He’s being dishonest and manipulative by exploiting the authority that many regard him as having in order to skew their perceptions about multipolarity. That’s why it’s so important to debunk his false narrative so that the least number of people possible are misled by his lies.
C. Raja Mohan is among the most popular liberal–globalist members of the Indian intelligentsia. Every one of his weekly columns is laced with the suggestion that Bharat subordinate itself to being the West’s junior partner, with he usually argues in one way or another is the only means for containing China after Russia supposedly proved itself to be an unreliable partner. His latest piece titled “India at G7 — myth of multipolarity” isn’t an exception and further confirms that he’s pushing an agenda.
This time Mohan is more pernicious than usual since he attempts to exploit his reputation as a so-called “credentialed expert” to manipulate his targeted Indian audience’s perceptions about multipolarity. He insists that the world is actually bipolar once again, but this time it’s allegedly divided between China and the US. In his mind, multipolarity is nothing but a myth that continues impeding the proper practice of Indian foreign policy to the detriment of its objective national interests.
Mohan’s first argument in support of his claim is to dismiss facts about widespread resentment against unipolarity, which he writes “is wishful thinking about how the world ought to be rather than how it is.” He deliberately omits mentioning that even the New York Times admitted in February that only a little more than three dozen states have either armed Kiev and/or sanctioned Russia, which contradicts his narrative agenda and thus explains why he wouldn’t dare inform his audience about this.
His second argument is simply to dismiss facts about the global systemic transition to multipolarity by downplaying the role of emerging powers like his own country and the EU. Mohan’s worldview is that they’re inconsequential in shaping events, though German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, former US National Security Council member Fiona Hill, and Goldman Sachs’ President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen all acknowledged last week that the world is indeed multipolar, specifically due to the Global South’s rise.
Mohan’s final argument against multipolarity is that it involves “strategies seeking to balance the dominant power”, which he says isn’t observable vis-à-vis the US. That’s a flat-out lie since the Sino-Russo Entente is actively doing just that, as is the informally Bharatiya-led Global South vis-à-vis both China and the US, which thus makes the world tri-multipolar as explained in this analysis here. Regardless of the terminology one employs, all honest observers agree that the world isn’t unipolar or bipolar.
As a so-called “credentialed expert”, Mohan knows this as well, but he can’t acknowledge it since doing so make it much more difficult for him to convince policymakers to subordinate Bharat to being the West’s junior partner. He’s therefore being dishonest and manipulative by exploiting the authority that many regard him as having in order to skew their perceptions about multipolarity. That’s why it’s so important to debunk his false narrative so that the least number of people possible are misled by his lies.
