On 11 and 13 May 1998, India conducted the Pokhran-II nuclear tests. It was under the auspices of the then PM, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The development in Ukraine shows us why that daring decision by Vajpayeeji was not just correct, but it has become the very foundation of modern India.
Post Pokhran, puppet nations of the west jumped into action to denounce India.
Lest we forget, a bit of history:
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1172 was tabled with the Security Council on 6th June 1998. The members who voted against India were Bahrain, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Gabon, Gambia, Japan, Kenya, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Sweden, UK and USA.
Attending to speak against India were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, and UAE. A reminder, it was Sonia Gandhi in opposition who made a speech undermining India. The signs of the anti-national mentality of Congress exposed and recorded in history.
Interestingly, look at the list of those anti-India countries in 1998. Amazing that in 2022 most of them are now supporting Modi’s India.
Twenty-Four years later, the same United Nations has come up with a resolution to condemn Russia for invading the Ukraine, and India abstained. Every Tom, Dick and Harry across the world piled in to either condemn India for abstaining, or in trying to figure out why India abstained.
Do I know why India abstained? Probably. However, rather than tell you, let’s see if we can consider the many competing issues that go into making such a decision.
India should always have a long memory. Many nations over the past 7 decades have in one way or another shown anti-India tendencies. Some have changed their attitude and can now be considered closer partners (e.g., Japan, UAE, UK, Russia etc). Though there are some who continue to support the anti-India rhetoric. And then you have those nations who change their colours to suit their own agenda (e.g. USA and many EU nations).
India should also remember who stood by them during the 1971 war against Pakistan. When the USA openly assisted Pakistan by bringing their war machine to their aid, it was Russia that came into the arena to stand by India.
When it comes to Kashmir, how often have we seen western nations either sit on the fence or openly support Pakistan! Whereas nations like Russia have remained steadfast with India.
India has many threats stemming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Bangladesh. As such, PM Modi (BJP) has to make difficult decisions keeping in mind that his first and only responsibility is to India. It is easy to jump on a western opportunistic bandwagon against Russia and collect some brownie points for self-gratification. But it takes a true leader to take action that is in the interest of his own nation. And PM Modi excels in this regard.
In 1994 the western world (including Russia!) convinced Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons with a promise that their borders would remain sovereign. Had Ukraine kept the nukes, maybe today it would not be fighting to remain an independent nation?
The cat is now out of the bag. Many nations will now attempt to secure nukes at any cost. The lesson of Ukraine is simple, you cannot trust the world to come to your rescue. It exposes the failure of the western world that exercises duplicity for personal gain at the expense of the freedom of others.
As someone once said, “Your pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes great because of your pride in it”.
Indians must not judge India and its action via the duplicitous and morally bankrupt metric of the west.
