New Delhi: It has been more than a month since Russia began its military operation in Ukraine. Thousands have been killed, nearly 4 million in Ukraine have been forced to flee their country, around 10 million have been internally displaced. India's stand on this international conflict has been quite guarded so far given what is at stake. Is the BJP-led government running with the hare and hunting with the hounds? ETV Bharat's Saurabh Sharma tried to decipher the same in an exclusive interview with BJP senior leader and MP, Subramanian Swamy.
The firebrand leader, known for his sharp remarks, had no hesitation in calling Russian president Vladimir Putin a "dictator" who has waged an unprovoked war. "It is an unprovoked attack by a country that was considered a super-power when it was the Soviet Union. After the fall of the USSR, Russia is only a fraction of the Soviet Union. With this military invasion, President Putin has emerged to be the most undemocratic leader. The West led by the United States has been helping Ukraine by supplying arms, much after President Zelenskyy's pleading. Putin is trying to grab the territory of Ukraine and is defying all the international rules and protocols," Swamy said.
Asked about the role of the United Nations in the current situation, the senior BJP leader said that the UN was a place for debates and not for decisions. "I don't think that the UN is a place for serious action. The UN through its peacekeeping forces sends its troops only if a small country has some issue. When it comes to P5 (Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council), they are ineffective. Russia's membership there is also illegal because it was for the USSR. And now, there is no USSR. Even at the UN, it is not listed as Russia but as USSR," he said.
About India abstaining from the vote at the UN several times, the MP replied, "We have been buying weapons from Russia and are spreading the propaganda that Russia has always stood up for India. The fact is Russia has never stood for us because it came into existence only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is an issue of human rights and aggression by Russia against Ukraine. We should have stood by Ukraine."
Recently, the Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi made a surprise diplomatic outreach to South Asia. He had first attended an Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Pakistan where he gave an objectionable statement on Kashmir which was condemned by New Delhi. The Chinese Minister late flew to Kabul where he met UN-designated terrorist Sirajjaudin Haqqani following which he came to Delhi.