India’s stand on Ukraine war is sad

It is less than a month since Russia declared unilateral war on Ukraine by land and air. What the world has seen is the unbridled destruction of Ukraine, a democratic nation, by a heavily armed, nuclear-armed power and a veto-holding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. In other words.Russia.

This UN status was obtained by Russia as an uncontested residuary legacy of the Soviet Union, of which Russia and Ukraine were large parts; The Federation of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) opened in 1988–91 in 15 countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

a lot of resistance

Ukrainians are resisting the Russian advance to capture the capital, Kyiv, by displaying sheer nationalism and courage, and with the welcoming support of developed Western nations.

Despite this situation today, Russia is nowhere near its stated goal of conquering largely unarmed Ukraine.

It should be painful for the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, that his army, despite carpet bombing and disruption of civilian facilities and battering Ukraine for more than four weeks and causing widespread destruction, managed to capture any major city in Ukraine. Has not happened. This is the brave fighting spirit of the people of Ukraine.

The mere fact is that Ukraine, a recognized nation and a UN member-state, has been invaded by a permanent member of the top Security Council, in violation of the UN Charter. India cannot crawl for the goodwill of Russia. But at least India should condemn Russia’s invasion and illegal aggression.

Mr. Putin’s continued refrain, that he wants “de-Nazification” of Ukraine and that Ukrainians are pro-Nazi, is unbelievable as Ukraine adopted Nazi Germany in the 1940s to avoid genocide in Ukraine, which Joseph It was to avoid the genocide committed by Stalin’s Russia. 1930-40s. In addition, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jew and his father suffered a lot during Hitler’s occupation of Ukraine.

ICJ’s Wrap

Another blow to Russia’s reputation has come from the International Court of Justice. Following a recent hearing, the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) directed Russia to stop the war immediately, stating that the ICJ is “deeply concerned by Moscow’s use of force in violation of international law”. ICJ judges voted 13-2 in favor of the decision.

Justice Dalveer Bhandari, an Indian judge at the ICJ and a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, also voted against Russia despite the Narendra Modi government’s votes on the same issue at other international fora. The Ministry of External Affairs immediately rejected Justice Bhandari’s vote, with a spokesperson saying judges at the ICJ “vote in their individual capacity”. This is stupid! A judge sitting in a court cannot be a representative of the government.

a harmful attitude

The most reprehensible examples of human rights atrocities in the 21st century – those perpetrated by the Russian military – have also exposed the United Nations and the Security Council to their ineffectiveness. Clearly, the United Nations is in need of a restructuring after nearly 80 years past its existence – and mostly one of helplessness.

What is more sad today is India’s stand. India, despite its large geographic size and population, refused to criticize Russia’s 19th-century war in Ukraine, especially since the Russian military was disrupting civil society and killing innocents. has been

explained | Not taking sides: India and Ukraine on conflict

Combined with its votes in the United Nations, India, by its reticence to take a stand for democracy, affects not only its relations with the democratic nations of the West, but also its Quad partners (i.e., the United States of America, Australia). ) also creates panic. and Japan).

India has become vulnerable to a potential large-scale military adventure by China and the risk of alienation, and help and support from traditionally democratic nations.

Non-democratic nations other than Russia, such as China, North Korea and Venezuela, are either already hostile to India for other reasons, or (India’s) unlikely to stand with India on other international issues of public concern. Is.

Part of the problem for India stems from its attempt to run and hunt with the rabbit in foreign policy. Thus, the flip flops on Afghanistan, Nepal, BRICS, Quad, Iran, and now Ukraine war, initiated by Russia, reduced India’s reputation to a level far below its ‘Military Strike Hard Power’ and ‘Massive Population Soft Power’. but has been devalued.

brix resolution

As this author presents in an article in this daily titled “The Status of Ukraine, India’s National Interest” with the leaders of the five countries at the 2021 BRICS meeting in New Delhi, In other words., India, China, Russia, South Africa and Brazil, India introduced a resolution that was unanimously passed in its New Delhi Declaration (Article 22 in the XIII BRICS Summit, September 9, 2021). The main demand in this resolution was that the five BRICS nations were opposed to the unilateral use of force against any state, to resolve all disputes by peaceful means, and against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. expressly rejected the use. , But despite the political hypocrisy of Russia and China, India remained invincible.

Another blatant violation of an agreement between Russia and Ukraine is revealed in an explainer in The Hindu on February 27, 2022, “When and how did Ukraine abandon its nuclear arsenal?”. When Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it had the world’s third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Publicized data showed that Ukraine had about 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads, 176 ICBMs and 44 long-range strategic bombers.

In 1994, Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum of Understanding with Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. According to the memorandum, these three veto-holder permanent members of the UNSC agreed to respect the “independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and existing borders of Ukraine”. But Russia has now welcomed this treaty commitment since March 2014 when it occupied a part of Ukraine, i.e., Crimea.

If India is to play a role in international affairs, let alone hopes of being a world leader, the Narendra Modi government has a moral duty to at least restore India’s international credibility; It should raise the issue of tearing down written agreements like Hitler, not to mention the defiance of the 2021 BRICS resolution, directly by Russia and indirectly by the India-proposed proposal by China.

In fact, India’s reputation on this issue is now viewed very adversely at the international level. The much-talked-about Prime Minister’s label put on him by his fans in India has faded away.

In the context of US President Joe Biden calling Mr Putin a war criminal, India looks pitiful as if the government is under some extra-political compulsion. However, the Indian nation needs to know the truth.

Subramanian Swamy, a PhD in economics from Harvard, has been in Parliament six times. He was also the Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce and Law and Justice