Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vladivostok as the Chief Guest at its Economic Forum is of seminal importance. India’s Ambassador to Russia, D.B. Venkatesh Verma denotes: ‘Russia’s Far East is a priority for us, a priority for Russia... You can expect some major announcements on how India-Russia relations are going to be diversified. And cooperation in the Russian Far East will be a major component of that diversity.’
India’s 70-year relationship with the Soviet Union/Russian Federation has long been the hub of its external relationships, without which the wheels of the country’s strategic autonomy would have come off. Relations between the two sides have been a seamless robe of trust and understanding, surmounting domestic crises both in India and in Russia.
V.P. Menon, principal aide to the redoubtable Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, in his reflection on the significance of the Pakistan-sponsored tribal invasion of the Kashmir Valley, wrote: ‘Srinagar today, Delhi tomorrow. A nation that forgets its history or its geography does so at its peril.’ The last line is impregnated with a timeless wisdom.
Russia is the pivot of Eurasia, its sword and its shield against hostile intruders from West and from East, in the last century, most notably, Nazi Germany: India is its fulcrum, its land frontier to the north and Northwest runs parallel to that of China and Pakistan, its principal neighbours and adversaries.
Dr Ashok Parthasarathi, an astrophysicist, once Scientific Adviser, in a Republic Day newspaper article in January 2010, entitled, ‘From Russia with love, as always,’ provides a comprehensive list of critical Russian military and industrial aid, of nuclear power and much else down the years, and of critical intelligence inputs to keep India ahead of the game with those who wished her ill. One may add too, Moscow’s existential support to India during the East Pakistan crisis, leading to the India-Pakistan war in December 1971 and its outcome - the emergence of a sovereign Bangladesh and the shift in the regional tectonic plates of power and influence. It would be well to recall that the Nixon-Kissinger administration and Maoist China were the closest of collaborators in their bid to keep their military client in Islamabad alive as a restraining thorn on India. The foolhardy US administration dispatched its nuclear-armed Seventh Fleet to the Bay of Bengal to browbeat India, but shadowed by Soviet nuclear submarines, called off the misadventure before events went out of control. The wisest statesmanship is to move on unshackled to the past as India and the US have commendably done, yet to ignore or forget its lessons is an invitation to peril, whatever its shape or form.
That said, a postscript on the uncertainties and pitfalls of the current international order should bring into wider focus the obstacle in the West’s deepening crises with Russia, as their fallout has a significant impact on India as well.
The October Revolution of 1917, which brought the Bolsheviks to power in Russia – a world historical event like the French Revolution of 1789 - was perceived as a threat to the established European world order, as was once the case with France.
Contemporary Russia may have ceased to be Communist and Soviet, but the Soviet legacy was one of epic economic, social, scientific and military transformation, catapulting Russia to global superpower status. The new Cold War ignited by the United States and its European allies is driven by geopolitical considerations, as much the Old, obscured partially by the unyielding epiphanies of faith. Kipling’s Great Game in the nineteenth century appears to be a mutant infinitely more dangerous with nuclear weaponry, and a looming Armageddon.
The uni-polar world of America’s Manifest Destiny is clearly unfit for contemporary purpose; a genuine multi-polar substitute will be an unworkable parody without Russia’s active participation and support. The dilemma for the West is broadly similar to that confronting Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The brilliant English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper made a memorable observation [The Last Days of Hitler, p 57]: Nazi Germany was prepared to underwrite the sanctity of the British Empire in exfor strict British non-interference in Continental affairs; a reduced France would be guaranteed survival as an imitation Croatia. ‘But the offence of Russia was the existence of Russia.’ Operation Barbarossa, the 4 million-strong invasion of the USSR, complete with tanks and aircraft, designed to exorcize the ‘Asiatic, Jewish, Bolshevik’ ghoul. Hitler, Goebbels and the German General Staff proclaimed triumphantly an astonishing victory after a fortnight’s campaigning, with a decimated Red Army in headlong retreat. The subsequent struggle was a draining Titanomachia for the Nazi conqueror. Among the many ferocious battles of the greatest war on planet Earth, Stalingrad stood out as the point of no return for the Nazi adventurer: Homeric, horrific, it ranks surely as a battle without peer in the annals of the pre-Atomic age. The tables turned, the Red Army marched into Hitler’s capital, Berlin – to strains of the Third Reich’s Gotterdammerung. Baiting the Bear has always been a hazardous undertaking. It still is.
A step too far
Brexit is turning out to be the irresistible force and the immovable force of British politics, a phenomenon like no other in living memory. Under Theresa May, government was paralysed as she journeyed back and forth to Brussels talking interminably with EU leaders and nothing but platitudes on possible solutions that remained stubbornly elusive until her last day in office.
Her successor Boris Johnson starting with a new broom, brought in fresh faces into his cabinet, promising Brexit without a deal, if required by October 31. He then prorogued Parliament until mid-October, and all hell broke loose. The Speaker of the House of Commons was appalled by the decision, and so were significant numbers of hitherto Johnson loyalists in the Tory party. Business too expressed disapproval, with appeals to the High Court. Widespread demonstrations across Britain remind the powers that be that the civilised public are not an endangered species, as they appeared to be in America. President Trump’s sworn, unflinching support to his chum Boris Johnson appears to have had no effect in tilting the scales in his favour. Mr Johnson’s defence that MPs blocking the No-Deal Brexit will make it more likely to weaken Britain’s negotiating position has been dismissed as specious by growing numbers of his critics in Parliament and outside, increasingly concerned by the possible catastrophic economic impact on the British economy, and consequently on British living standards. With a majority of one in Parliament, the Prime Minister’s mandate hangs by a thread. The story looks certain to run – and run.
Indian sports women make waves
The national spotlight turned on P V Sindhu’s trium in the World Badminton Championship at Basel, and deservedly so. Hima Das has won gold in running at internal events, and Mary Kom did so in women’s boxing. Indian women’s cricket, too, has come of age, reaching the final at Lord’s not so long ago, and losing a pulsating encounter to hosts, England. Now comes news of 18 year-old diminutive Mumbai-born Jemimah Rodriquez smashing a century in 51balls in a T20 league match to guide her side, Yorkshire Diamonds to a thrilling one wicket victory, remaining 112 not out at the end.
‘It feels great to achieve this feat. Every cricketer dreams of such a moment. I still can’t believe what happened...I want to stay focused and keep doing the hard work,’ she told an Indian reporter. ‘The league has given me the opportunity to play alongside the best cricketers in the world.’ She received calls from family and friends back home.
Jemmiah made her international debut for India in February 2018 against South Africa. Her dedication has been exemplary, hence her career promises to be one to watch in the coming months and years.
A postscript: it is worth mentioning the role of Indian women scientists in India’s space ventures, and in military missile development. The operation’s chief of the country’s intercontinental missile happened to be a woman. Closing the gender gap is still work in progress, but significant progress has been made, is being made.
