India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar is out campaigning for the ruling BJP as the national election season is near its peak. Mere five years ago, he was just another retired bureaucrat who was offered the position of India’s top diplomat by the all powerful Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then Jaishankar has been pretty much calling the shots when it comes to country’s foreign policy.
Many in India but even abroad have come to like him for his extraordinary clarity of thoughts which he also puts in words even if it means embarrasing partners in the West. India’s top diplomat has been quite successful in his dealings pretty much everywhere except in China. Even on Pakistan, Jaishankar, with the blessings of his leader Modi, has steered the foreign policy to successfully corner the ‘terror haven’ to the extent that it might just break up.
But Jaishankar, having the best of relations with Western nations, actually doesnt give up on Russia ties. The Frequently Asked Question during Jaishankar’s tenure as Foreign Minister is ‘why is India buying Russian oil?’ and ‘are you funding Putin’s war machine?’. The West questioned Jaishankar on which of the two camps he belongs to, China led and US led, to which the seasoned diplomat replied that he refuses to buy this narrative and that one sixth of humanity cant be forced to take sides.
Lately, Jaishankar has left the West fuming when he said that Russia actually should be given more options or that Russia India ties have been steady during the best and worst of times.
So while the West did come around to India buying tons of Russian oil, why does Jaishankar continue to express his love and trust for Russia? That is because US and India have not much in common except that they want to diminish China threat. This is all that is driving this relationship.
The repeated heckling of Indian foreign minister Jaishankar on the question of buying Russian oil shows that the West takes its own objective of destabilizing Russia more seriously than worry about the needs and aspirations of Indians. Coz when they questioned India on buying Russian oil, they did not mention that Iranian and Venezuelan oil are also off the market due to US sanctions and India is complying with those.
Jaishankar must have understood quite early after Ukraine conflict began that the Western block is not trustworthy. How does one explain that US had questions on electoral fairness in Bangladesh but not in Pakistan, knowing all too well that this is only going to create difficulties for India.
How does one explain that Indian initiatives like International Solar Alliance, making solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, green hydrogen domestically werent hyped up as friendly, burden sharing moves towards West but India continued to be blamed for purchase of Russian oil.
How does one explain the massive media debate on democratic backsliding in India when the far right is on the rise in US and Europe. Actually a former President is continuing to promise largest deportation of illegals should he come to power.
Sensing the China threat as grave, US has ‘promised’ to share jet engine tech in addition to co-development or co-production of defence items but that is because Modi government refused to make off the shelf purchases from America. Modi-Jaishankar duo know all too well what could happen if India gets dependent on American platforms without having tech to go along.
But now that America is forced to part with its cutting edge tech just to ensure interoperability with Indian forces and discourage purchases of Russian platforms, the democracy backsliding debate has been stoked to make sure that West eventually finds some domestic angle to then begin controlling India.
Very many American diplomats including Nicholas Burns, currently ambassador to China, have said it publicly that US is used to dealing with treaty allies and so India is very different in wanting to not become an ally of the West.
US offering NATO membership to India or Ashley Tellis, the strategic affairs commentator, asking if India would side with US when conflict breaks out on Taiwan, shows that after all it is about China. It is about finding a country who is willing to send in its men to fight with China using American defence platforms.
Jaishankar, quite aware of these expectations, must be thinking in his mind, “isnt US the country under whose watch Pakistan became nuclear capable terror haven that proved instrumental in Soviet disintegration and made Afghanistan a breeding ground for terrorists with global appeal?” He also must be thinking, “wasnt China the preferred destination of US investments till it decided to float BRICS or launch BRI in addition to promoting its own currency in international trade?”.
Moreover, Jaishankar knows US wants help from one and all to once again emerge as sole superpower of the world and so he is forced to look towards Russia which too wants to create a truly multipolar world order.