Indian Defence Review

There is a steady flow of representatives from the Great Western Circus in the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict streaming into India at regular intervals. Quips from the West are continuing but the clowns coming to India are focused on sermonizing although their visual discomfort and the false bravado acquired from being part of the circus does provide some cynical entertainment.   

First it was the White House press secretary Jen Psaki who said that India’s move to purchase Russian oil at discounted price would put the world’s largest democracy on the “wrong side of history”. This, while the EU continues to import US$1.1 billion worth of oil and gas from Russia on daily basis and despite the US Executive order issued on March 8 to ban oil and gas imports from Russia, America imported 100,000 barrels of crude oil from Russia during the week ending March 25.  Apparently, Jen Psaki has got tired of the fake rhetoric of the Biden administration with reports that she is in talks to join the MSNBC news television cable channel based in New York City, quitting the White House.  

Next was US Congressman Ami Bera, a Democrat, whose father migrated to the US from India in 1958. Bera stated, “If reports are accurate and India makes this decision to buy Russian oil at a discounted price, New Delhi would be choosing to side with Vladimir Putin at a pivotal moment in history when countries across the world are united in support of the Ukrainian people and against Russia’s deadly invasion.” The Indian media generally hype the Indian-American connection for the likes of Bera, forgetting they have little respect for India’s national interests.

In the instant case, Bera steeped in western propaganda is only focused on earning brownie points with the Biden administration. He would not bother to analyze how the US forced the Ukraine conflict on Russia, leave aside finding out why India is importing oil from Russia without violating any sanctions, while the US is cheating on its own sanctions by continuing to import crude from Russia.   

Then arrived Daleep Singh, the latest in a long list of Westerners and officials making a beeline to India to persuade New Delhi to side with the US over the Ukraine conflict – overlooking Indian national interests? Daleep Singh is an American economic advisor, who is Deputy Security Advisor in the Biden administration. His great-granduncle, Dalip Singh Saund, was the first Asian American elected to the US Congress.

Daleep Singh has the distinction of being one of the architects of the sanctions that the US imposed on Moscow after Russia launched special operations in Ukraine. So, Daleep shares all the idiocies, discrepancies and thoughtlessness in the hurried sanctions that is making the US run around for energy, America cheating on its own sanctions by continuing to import crude from Russia, dollar in decline and Europe looking at a looming recession.

Daleep Singh, the ‘Sanctions Boy’ was mighty gung ho during his visit to India. He held number of meetings including with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, officials of the Prime Minister’s Office, National Security Council and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, where he sermonized to his heart’s content. For example, he said that India’s current import of Russian energy doesn’t violate any of the American sanctions, but at the same time added that Washington would like to see its allies and partners find ways to reduce their reliance on an “unreliable supplier” (sic). If Russia is an unreliable supplier, why do the US, EU and even Japan continue to import energy from Russia.

It appears that Daleep Singh and his colleagues worked out the sanctions, falling over each other to make these as tough as possible, without due thought about the blowback and US President Joe Biden simply affixed his signatures to them. The other possibility with sanctions being announced in bits and pieces is that Biden was scribbling this himself and the ‘yes men’ brigade was clapping away in unison.

Daleep Singh also said that the US would not like to see any country engaging in financial transactions with the Russian Central Bank. Either these clowns are blind or they can simply not see the writing on the wall now that the Biden administration’s bungle in Ukraine following the American rout in Afghanistan has disrobed the US – no more showing the red eye with ‘Emperor’s Clothes’. Even Iran has stated that it will trade with Russia in national currencies, and so will India.

Daleep Singh then went on to say that the  US doesn’t want to see a “rapid acceleration” in India’s imports from Russia of energy and other commodities prohibited by global sanctions regimes and there will be consequences for countries that attempt to circumvent the embargoes imposed following the invasion of Ukraine. Mr Sanction Boy, energy imports from Russia are not under sanctions other than within the US in the first place, which too Washington is cheating.  And what is this term “rapid acceleration”? No doubt the Biden administration must be watching Daleep’s performance in India but shouldn’t there be a limit to buffoonery?

The most hilarious part was Daleep Singh cautioning India against expecting Russia to come to India’s defence if China were to violate the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since Moscow and Beijing are now in a “no limits partnership”. This indicated Daleep is among the major clowns of the Circus though bigger ones are expected shortly for an institutional dialogue. He obviously does not recognize that the Russia-China bonhomie got closer even before the US forced Russia to invade Ukraine because of the unilateral sanctions regime of the US to promote its own national interests. India knows how to fight China and what outside help it should expect including from Russia and China.

Daleep Singh probably was unaware that China breached the LAC in Ladakh in 2020. But if he was cautioning us against another breach by China, he could have elaborated what help will the US provide to India other than selling arms? Would it impose sanctions on China as imposed on Russia for the Ukraine conflict? If yes, why did the US not do so against China in 2020? Moreover, is the US looking for an opportunity to pump mercenaries and terrorists into India to fight the Chinese, as it has flooded Western Ukraine with over 6500 mercenaries-cum-terrorists? If that is what the US hopes for, will they be borrowed from Pakistan and where will these be inducted – Ladakh, Arunachal, J&K or elsewhere? 

Will America not love an India-China war and sell more arms to India, singing “we support you” from the ringside, considering that historically, the US has always manufactured war and conflicts to destabilize countries and regions to further its own national interests?

Daleep Singh also said that the US wants to broaden the coalition against Russia because “when democracies don’t stand up in solidarity and defend those principles together, the costs and risk to all of us become that much larger” and accused Russian President Putin of violating all the core principles underpinning global peace and security. But the US must look at its own record of arbitrary bombings, invading and ravaging countries and regions behaving like a global autocracy in the garb of democracy.

Witness the US ticking off India for Myanmar’s participation in the BIMSTEC meet in India, which shows that it has absolutely no respect for India’s national interests. No doubt declining hegemony is very painful to the US but it is a self-inflicted injury which the Biden administration appears intent on compounding. It is high time Washington stops sermonizing India on our foreign policy, who to trade with and how. The clowns-in-waiting to visit India should focus on how to ‘improve’ India-US relations rather than bullying like monitors of a primary class in schools.