India’s role in a chaotic world

Western countries want Russia out of the G20. China has opposed them. India will chair the G-20 from December 1, 2022. The world is very chaotic. What should India stand for?

The institutions of global governance have failed to unite the world. Summit after summit has mostly produced warm air in an attempt to solve the global climate crisis. Vaccines hoarded by rich countries in the COVID-19 pandemic: Poor countries starve to death. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was already in the intensive care unit from the novel coronavirus pandemic, when rich and poor countries were unable to agree on the same rules, when COVID-19 shut down global supply chains. The war in Ukraine in February 2022 put the final nail in the coffin of a borderless global economy, which seemed to emerge with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

editorial | In between: on India’s role in the Russia-Ukraine crisis

undemocratic architecture

Millions of civilians died in World War II. European cities were destroyed by carpet bombing. The war ended with two atomic bombs set to terrorize the Japanese government, wiping out two Japanese cities and killing thousands of civilians. Never again, the winners swear.

New institutions were established for global governance – the United Nations and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided finance to build economies of all countries to end poverty. to do. However, the victors retained their veto power within the United Nations Security Council to determine when force could be used to keep the world in order, and to limit the spread of nuclear power outside their small circle. to stop because they could not rely on other countries to use it. by intelligence! They also control the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization.

The United Nations General Assembly meets every year – now there are 193 nations strong. It passes several resolutions to address global problems – hunger, poverty, women’s rights, terrorism, climate change, etc. However, “may be right”: members of the Security Council retain their right to reject the democratic will of the assembly when it does not suit them. Global governance is not democratic. If the leader of a member country rejects the resolutions of his parliament, he will be labeled an undemocratic dictator. Armed interventions and sanctions imposed on countries authorized by the Security Council to restore democracy in other countries make a mockery of global democracy.

The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, West Germany, and Canada formed the G7 in 1976 ‘so that non-communist powers could come together to discuss economic concerns, including inflation after the organization at that time. And there was a recession. Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Oil Sanctions’. The European Union was invited to participate in 1977. Russia joined in 1998 – and ‘its inclusion was as a sign of cooperation between East and West after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991’. However, Russia was kicked out in 2014 when it invaded Crimea. China has never been a member.

The rapid expansion of global finance and trade following the Washington Consensus victory in 1991 caused instability in developing countries. Following the Asian financial crisis, the G20 was formed in 1999 with the aim of discussing policies to achieve international financial stability. Russia and China are its members. Now the western countries want to get Russia out of the G20. China has opposed them. India will preside over G-20 from December 2022, or will it be G-19? Meanwhile, India is being pressured by US and UK officials to back its sanctions on Russia. India has so far refused to bow down.

inequalities have only increased

The belief that a smooth flow of finance and trade across national borders would lift people from all poor countries out of poverty and make the world flatter in terms of inequality has failed. Inequalities within and between countries have also increased. Citizens everywhere are reacting. Even in democracies such as the US, there is growing demand for more “socialism” and less limitless capitalism. In Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Russia and even India, strong leaders who put their country’s interests first are seizing power through elections. Donald Trump once did too.

Free market capitalism is not ideologically compatible with a true democracy. Capitalist institutions are governed by the basic principle of ‘property rights’: decision rights in capitalist enterprises are allocated in proportion to the assets owned. Whereas real democracies are founded on the principle of equal human rights. All Western electoral systems—in Britain, America, and Europe—began centuries ago with voting rights limited only to property owners. Universal adult suffrage, in which all human beings have equal votes, whether they are billionaires or paupers, is a recent development in the West. In many Western countries, women and racial minorities were also given Legally equal suffrage only in the last century, and continue your struggle for Actually equality in their societies.

social tension

The rules of governance of capitalist and democratic institutions have always been in tension within societies. Capitalist institutions want to break free from democratic rules to make it easier to do business. Democratic institutions seek to rein in the competing animal spirits of capitalism, red in tooth and claw, in order to create a more compassionate capitalism that makes the world a better place, not only for financial investors, but for all. The imposition of simultaneous free markets and elections in countries “free” from communism or socialism by the US has increased inequalities and increased social tensions and sectarian conflicts, which more elections cannot resolve democratically.

This is the story of Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and even Chile, which were once a demonstration of the Western model of liberal capitalism. When social tensions run high, elections often produce populist socialists such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, or capitalist autocrats such as Vladimir Putin in Russia. The West doesn’t like either type when they stand against the Washington-controlled “North Atlantic” hegemony of the world. However, capitalist dictators like Augusto Pinochet in Chile and monarchies in Gulf/West Asia may be good friends. Even Chinese communists were tolerated as long as they were not a threat to American power.

redistribution of power

The principle of “cumulative causation” leads to accumulation of power in societies. Those who already have more power, whether from more money or more education, will use their power not only to improve the rules of the game – apparently to make the world a better place for all – but to ensure Even so that they remain in power. redistribution of Actually Power within a society must often be preceded by the redistribution of wealth and education, which are the sources of power. Those who have power will resist losing it. This is the natural order. Violent internal revolutions and anti-colonial movements are means of changing power equations, as are armed wars among the rich countries of Europe.

All violence must stop. To prevent violence it is essential that global governance is truly democratic. Countries should not attack each other. But they should be given the freedom to develop their own democracies and economies and not be guided by others. The hypocrisy of undemocratic global dictators using their financial powers to impose sanctions to bring down their adversaries (who are weapons of mass destruction that harm innocent civilians) must stop. The call to take his side from a democratic country like India should also end.

Arun Mara is the author of ‘A Billion Fireflies: Critical Conversations to Shape a New Post-Pandemic World’.