Russian diplomacy was at its effective best when a foreign ministry spokesperson in Moscow blamed the US for trying to interfere in the Indian elections—an obvious wedge in the warming India-US bilateral relations. For once, India didn’t have an answer.
On Thursday, during the weekly briefing, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson evaded a direct response to a question seeking India’s reaction to the Russian position.
All Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson, could say was that it was grossly wrong for any foreign power to interfere in India’s elections and that such an effort could never be successful.
Significantly, in a recent interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had alluded to foreign interference in the ongoing polls. He had said: “I can see that there is an attempt by some in the world to influence our elections. They are not just giving their opinions but are trying to influence our polls. But they will not be successful.”
It is not easy for India to directly confront the US because of the former’s role as one of the principal nations that is at the forefront of a US-led effort to counter China. There is also an ongoing India-China border dispute that has worsened after a still continuing military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
At the same time, India is historically heavily dependent on Russia for much of its military equipment.
All said, diplomatically, India has maneuvered with finesse in the Ukraine conflict, a position that has won accolades in the strategic community.
On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova had dived into the simmering controversy between India and the US by directly accusing the US of interfering in the ongoing Indian parliamentary elections.
The latest Russian position can be seen as an effort to drive a wedge between a growing camaraderie between the US-led West and India especially when it came to countering China.
While many European nations see Russia as a primary threat, the US sees China as the biggest challenger to the US prime hegemonic status that it has come to be after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR.
Saying that the US’ mentality stems from “neocolonialism” and is “the mentality of the colonial period”, Zakharova said: “This does not only apply to India. The reason is the desire to unbalance the internal political situation in India in order to complicate the general parliamentary elections taking place in the country. Of course, this is part of interference in India's internal affairs."
The Russian spokesperson also accused the US of not having presented any “reliable evidence” of the involvement of Indians in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and in the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun ‘murder plot’.
On the recent criticism of India of curbing religious freedom in a report the US State Department body, Zakharova called it “disrespectful to India as a country and a state”. She said: “…regular unfounded accusations by the United States against New Delhi of violating religious freedoms are a reflection of the United States’ misunderstanding of the national mentality, the historical context of the development of the Indian state and disrespect for India as a state.”
On Monday, three Indian Navy warships—INS Delhi, Shakti and INS Kiltan—berthed in Singapore as part of the operational deployment of the Indian Navy to the hotly contested South China sea.
India will participate in one of the largest naval war games called RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) which will take place in and around Hawaii from June 29 to August 4, 2024. Dozens of warships, submarines and thousands of sailors from 26 countries will participate in the exercise. Among others, the core component of RIMPAC includes the US-led western bloc countries.
