The comments of America and Germany on India’s internal affairs are both unnecessary and against diplomatic decorum. It is natural for India to register objection to such political statements. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has rightly said on such behavior that this is his old habit, which he is unable to give up. America and some western countries have been making such statements earlier also. Right now Lok Sabha elections are to be held in India. Although western countries keep saying that they support democracy, their actions are just the opposite. Saying such things on the occasion of elections actually shows their intention to interfere in the democratic process. This is not done only by their governments. They have such organizations, which they call non-governmental organizations or civil society groups, whose only job is to find out the shortcomings of other countries. Many times fabricated and false things are also said. Those things are also widely publicized and broadcasted by their media. The only mentality behind this is to put pressure on those countries through such maneuvers.
India has friendship, strategic partnership with these countries and there is a good amount of trade, but the kind of statements that keep coming in between, cannot be called the behavior of friendship. We should understand this properly. For example, let us look at the case of terrorist Pannu living in America. Many things were said about him by America, but they ignore the fact that Pannu is a terrorist. They should make it clear whether they are with or against terrorism, separatism and fundamentalism. No matter how many cases of human rights violations there are in those countries, they do not discuss them.
If you look at the reports of organizations like Transparency International, Human Rights Council etc., be it racism, apartheid, other such practices, in any list you will find first the names of western countries, which allegedly call themselves democratic. The whole world knows the condition of democracy there. Everyone knows what happened during the transfer of power in America in the last elections. There are approximately 97 crore voters in our country. Be it assembly elections or Lok Sabha elections, the transfer of power takes place peacefully.
Today India is a rapidly emerging country. The economy is remarkably dynamic. The command of the country is in the hands of strong leadership. This is causing problems to these countries and creating a kind of frustration among them. Western countries should come out of the white mentality of considering themselves special. They should understand that the twenty-first century is not the century when western countries spread colonialism and imperialism across the world. No country is perfect in every way. There are flaws in the system. If a country is genuinely concerned about another country, if there is a genuine reason, then there is an established process to put it forward. But finding shortcomings in a country and showing its institutions as bad on meaningless grounds is not right in any way. Doing so is objectionable and an attempt to do politics in internal matters. Western countries use this tool-kit in a very systematic manner.
In fact, the autonomy of Indian foreign policy is being eroded by the western countries. They do not like that we buy or trade oil from Russia or any other country despite their refusal. They also do not like that India expresses its views on international issues without any involvement. India has today emerged as the voice of the Global South. This voice is actually against the developed western countries. This is also causing inconvenience to them. Their mentality is to keep countries like India under their influence and follow their wishes. To create this pressure, he has made comments on the occasion of elections. Be it the issue of Arvind Kejriwal or anything else, it is an internal matter of India.
It is the job of our courts to decide what is right and what is wrong. The conduct that America and Germany have done is called ‘Grayzone Warfare’, in which an attempt is made to create an atmosphere against a country by spreading a desired narrative. My advice to the government is that they should prepare a list of cases of human rights violations and anti-democratic activities within those countries. Whenever any country makes wild allegations about us, then in response we should also speak about them publicly and ask what those countries are doing about these shortcomings. Foreign Minister Jaishankar has also said that if such activities are not stopped, then those countries should be prepared to hear very harsh answers.
We should adopt an aggressive attitude in this regard. Those countries are still under the illusion that the world should run according to them. That is why they are getting worried that why many countries are leaving them and standing with countries like India. A few days ago, a letter was sent to Pakistan by the US President, in which full cooperation and support has been promised. After all, all this is being done against the interests of India. It is also true that due to geopolitical circumstances the West also needs India’s support. This is also their compulsion. But they should also see that nothing will be achieved by adopting an adversarial attitude with India. India should also think whether we have friendship with western countries or something else. A friend points out the shortcomings of a friend, but this behavior cannot be called friendly. Sometimes at the government level, sometimes with the help of media, sometimes through institutions, and sometimes through their parliaments, western countries want to create pressure by commenting on India and its institutions. Strong resistance to such attitude is necessary.
(These are the personal views of the author.)