The problem with India’s multi-alignment stand

Context:

China’s recent mediation efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis have once again spotlighted India’s approach to conflict resolution. 

India’s views in resolving the conflict:

• India has increasingly used varied symbolic instruments of power to enhance its soft power appeal. 
• India had expressed India’s solidarity with Ukraine while extending support for peace efforts.
• The Prime Minister had publicly told Russia that “today’s era is not of war” — a remark that seemed to be a reprimand to Moscow.

Nationalist Idea & Soft Power:

• Nationalist ideas have influenced the Indian state, contributing to their further proliferation in society and polity.
• The contemporary salience of Vishwa Guru image, which builds on historical trends in India’s political thought seeking to emphasise the distinctiveness of the country’s cultural ethos and civilisational values, also highlights the unique nature of ‘soft power’ in foreign policy debates.

Issues:

• Lack of Soft Power: In a recent speech, Mohan Bhagwat had said that if India had been adequately powerful, it would have stopped the Ukraine war. 
  • This narrative assumes that a powerful Indian civilisational state will stand for global peace and stability.
• Discomfort: While New Delhi’s seemingly evasive position in the Ukraine war underlines India’s traditional discomfort in viewing its national interests in binary terms as well as Russia’s military and geopolitical importance for India’s military preparedness.
• Clash of Political Philosophy: India has no revisionist motives like China. India’s views on sovereignty converge with a universally acceptable Westphalian notion and thus clash fundamentally with the communist China’s political philosophy of ‘might is right’.

Pursuit of Multi-Alignment:

• The regular Modi-Zelenskyy interactions is India’s rising stature and recognition of its unique position in the emerging global order, despite western criticism of India’s continued energy imports from Russia and export of excess refined Russian fuel to the European market. 
• Pursuit of multi-alignment may have given India some diplomatic space in Ukraine conflict.
  • However, it may not be sufficient for India to try to play the role of a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.
  • India currently lacks the material resources to match the extent of China’s economic and military potential.

Conclusion: 

• India must ensure that refusal to condemn Russian belligerence and continued increase in the import of Russian fuel is not interpreted as a pro-Moscow approach. 
• While India’s ties with Russia are likely to be on a downward spiral, the piecemeal distancing from Russia will take a bit longer as New Delhi struggles to find some manoeuvring space in the emerging nexus between Russia and China.                                                                                                                     

News Source: The Hindu