New Delhi, September 28, 2022 (PPI-OT):A UK-based news agency has exposed India’s hypocrisy by saying that New Delhi “is articulating its position against the Ukraine war more robustly to counter criticism that it is soft on Russia, but it still has not held Moscow responsible for the invasion and will not alter its policy on importing cheap Russian oil and coal”.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the news agency, Reuters, in a report said, “In their first in-person meeting since the Feb. 24 invasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Vladimir Putin earlier this month that ‘today’s era is not an era of war’ – the clearest position New Delhi has taken on the conflict.
“Our stand is very different. It is not blindly supporting Russia. We have certain cooperation lines going with Russia, which we have to keep going. Defence is the most important thing, but petroleum also. Fertiliser imports have also gone up. The point is, if we get energy cheap, we buy it,” the Reuters quoted P.S. Raghavan, chairman of India’s National Security Advisory Board and a former ambassador to Russia, as having said.
Interestingly the Reuters went on to add, “From being a marginal player, Russia has become India’s third-biggest oil supplier since the war, with purchases jumping about 10-fold from a year-earlier because of cheap prices. The value of India’s coal imports from Russia, meanwhile, has risen four-fold during the same period.”
Raghavan while talking to Reuters explained the India’s hypocritical view in these words: “We have some benefits from dealing with Russia, and we have an economic advantage,”. “So let us do that. That is what we are doing and that does not mean that we are good with everything that Russia does.”
“India at this point of time has no intention of totally breaking with Russia,” said another analyst Nandan Unnikrishnan, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi.
“The bridge to Russia is not one that is going to be destroyed very soon, but what will happen is that maybe the traffic on that bridge may get reduced,” he added, referring to India’s drive to diversify military imports and promote domestic production.
“As the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side are we on,” Jaishankar said at the U.N. General Assembly without mentioning Russia. “India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.”
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org