UN Resolution Against Russia: India Abstains From Voting
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-02-26 15:23:02
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
As expected, India did tightrope walking when the draft resolution to condemn Russia's military intervention in Ukraine was put to vote in the UN Security Council. India abstained from voting, along with China and the UAE. The US and Albania sponsored the resolution and 11 members voted in its favour. Russia used its veto to kill the resolution.
India withstood pressure from both sides. The US was asking India to come off the fence and vote in favour of the resolution while the Russians wanted it to vote against it. The dilemma before India was that in the spirit of non-alignment and with business, military and other strong relations on both sides of the fence, it could not have done either. Hence, it did the next best and diplomatic thing by abstaining.
But this is one worry avoided. There is another big worry coming up when the resolution will be taken to the UN General Assembly. For one, none of the 5 permanent members have the power to use their veto in the General Assembly. Then, before a larger assembly of the nations, India will have to once again take a stand. If the war continues and if there are heavy civilian casualties, it will become extremely difficult for India to maintain its neutral stand.
The worst part is that, as the Ukrainian President said, the Western powers have left it to Ukraine to repel the Russians alone after promising the moon for aligning with them and joining NATO. He famously rebuffed the US offer of granting him an asylum by saying that "the fight is here, I need ammunition, not a ride." He also said that the most powerful country in the world looked on from distance while his nation was being ravaged by invaders.
While it is clear that India will be hard pressed to take a stand either way and will keep up with the balancing act by once again abstaining from voting in the General Assembly, most other nations are likely to vote in favour of the resolution. Once the Russians capture Kyiv and install a puppet regime that supports them, India will again be facing a dilemma in whether to recognize the said regime or not. These decisions are not easy and India will have to do whatever it takes to protect the interests of the nation.
picture courtesy: un.org
