Why India Abstained On UNSC Vote Against Russia?
Hidden Truth That Indian & Western Media Did'nt Telling You.
You can read my earlier article to understand this war better. Click Here To Read
We will not get into who is right and wrong in this war, this war is getting fought on various narratives but we will try to understand that why India is not with anyone in this war.
India-Russia Relationship (History)
October 1947, Pakistan invaded the independent state Jammu and Kashmir, the king of J&K asked India's help but India can't do anything until the king sign instrument of accession and made J&K a part of India just after J&K become the part of India, the Indian Army started pushing back the Pakistani Army. During this on 1st Jan 1948 India's Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru request UNSC to respect the territorial integrity of India and stop the invasion of Pakistan but Britain intervened and without telling India submits a counter response from Pakistan's side and gets a resolution passed which created UN Commission For India and Pakistan, this is the same commission which puts the provision of plebiscite, when the ruler of J&K signed the Instrument of Accession with India then why plebiscite? this was 1948 now lets move ahead. Read the J&K Instrument of Accession.
In 1961 when we were liberating Goa, US and UK bring another resolution against us but Soviets (Current Russia) vetoed it. In 1962 Iceland bring up the plebiscite in Kashmir issue through a resolution Soviets knocked it down through veto.
In 1965 war US and UK supported Pakistan, Pakistan was using some of the best weapons given by the United States, there was intense fighting going on in Kashmir but Indian Army shocked the world by opening the Lahore Front and UK was silent till the Lahore Front was not open but seeing Indian Army marching towards Lahore UK's PM Harold Wilson wanted to indicate by writing letters to both India and Pak that he will intervene again like before. It is not hidden from anyone that to put pressure on India and for a possible attack the warships of US and UK were heading towards India, this is one thing which any Indian can never forget but not many people know what the west did with India in 1947, 1961, 1965.
During the 1971 war US tried to pass 2 resolutions which could have hurt India badly but soviets veto those resolutions and stood with India.
Apart from this history that time's India and today's India is totally different. India's abstention against vote against Russia is shocking to only those who don't know the history of our relationship. According to Vijay Nambiar who was the India's permanent representative in UN from 2002 to 2004, ‘Russia was the only one who supported India in the P5 or the Powerful Five’.
A big example of the relationship can be seen when during Hungarian Revolution PM Nehru instructed the Indian diplomat to go against the soviet union but our that time's special representatives of UN ignored the instructions of PM Nehru after than Russia abstain when UN was forcing India for a plebiscite in Kashmir. India also supported the Soviets (today's Russia) in their invasion of Afghanistan when India said that soviets troops went to Afghanistan on the request of Hafizullah Amin.
Why India is Abstaining & Current Scenario?
You all need to know this because whatever is happening currently presents a very tricky situation for India because by abstaining this time India is neither helping the Russia or US by voting against the Russians, currently both the allies are important to counters its threats and protects its own interests where our relations with US are evolving we should also not forget whenever it is about securing our interest it was soviet union or Russia who stood with us every time US was always against us.
In today's time if we consider Pakistan and China is looking close to Russia so that we can resolve our issues on LAC through the help of Russia in future. West is desperately trying to bring India on its side because they know only India can mediate and neutralize it but it doesn't look like they have any aim to neutralize the situation because if Russia successfully made Ukraine a buffer zone then it will be the biggest defeat of NATO till date bigger than Crimea and Georgia. But despite continuous and vicious attack on India, India is not moving an inch from its position of neutrality and maybe this position of India can resolve this conflict and this is burning the whole western media where India is getting criticized with full force but many Western Governments have given statements going against their media's narrative that they understand India's stand and its relationship with Russia, but can India maintain this neutral stance for long time?
I think India has become a very important in current geopolitical scenario and India's neutral stance may start hurting India itself if the conflict don't get resolved quickly then India would be facing alot of pressure. Better than any reactive measure we should evaluate Pros and cons of both Russian and Western block and use this assessment as an proactive measure. I am sure the concerned people at the top position of Indian Government are looking into this.
3 Conclusions From This Conflict
Few things gets very clear in this conflict related to international relations and strategic relations.
West again proved that they are not trustworthy and everybody knows the membership of European Union and NATO is not cakewalk, Ukraine was pushed into a war with a false dream and that’s why recently the Ukrainian President Zelensky agreed on NATO fearing Russia and they have put their plans of joining NATO into cold basket and this happened when Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2008 and they welcome this step of Ukraine but overtime things changed and NATO started sidelining Ukraine when they needed the NATO most.
This brings out the second conclusion, NATO is not going against Russia because Russia overlooks supply of half of oil and essential things of European countries. In this conflict the rift between European Countries can be seen very clearly and every country is busy in securing their interests this directly means that a nation cannot become strong from foreign support it has to get itself strong internally, militarily and economically.
Tis brings out my third point which is interrelated with my second point, it can be clearly seen that if other nations are dependent on you economically or by any means then even the most powerful military alliance of the world cannot touch you and Russians understand this very well and this is the biggest wake up call for India that's why India started moving its feet towards it, India is standing tall for its interests and we all have to understand this.
Thank You.
Jai Hind.
Purvam Tomer, OSCP Hacker & Geopolitics Enthusiast.