As Modi tries to disown Nehru

A CURSORY glance at Wikipedia shows that Pakistan has had as close a relationship with Uk­­raine as India ever had, or possibly better, including vital defence ties. In fact, in the late 1990s, shortly after gaining independence, Ukraine sold Pakistan 320 Ukrainian T-80UD main battle tanks in a deal worth $650 million. According to the Kyiv Post, the deal literally saved Kharkiv Malyshev Tank Factory from bankruptcy.
According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute databases, from 1991 to 2020, Ukraine completed arms contracts with Pakistan with a total value of nearly $1.6 billion. After war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, Pakistan continued to support Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”, which is the precise phrase Prime Minister Narendra Modi used as he hugged President Volodymyr Zelensky in widely televised images on India’s behalf in Kiev on Aug 23. On the other hand, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, during an earlier visit to Pakistan, thanked the country for supporting Ukraine’s stance on its sovereignty and security. India’s ace TV journalist Karan Thapar has quoted a host of things that Zelensky told Modi or said of him that breached diplomatic courtesy.
As with India, Pakistan has also been mostly consistent in abstaining on UN resolutions on Russia and has avoided criticising Moscow. So what did Modi do or say in his much-hyped meeting with Zelensky which takes the story forward? What was the point of departure?
In the absence of a clearer official explanation, one is tempted to see the tight hug of Zelensky as a sweetener for the following day’s defence talks with the Pentagon team in New Delhi. The two sides upgraded their defence ties on Aug 24, with China in the crosshairs. The package of deals, including intelligence and surveillance support, would have perhaps looked rather odd in the backdrop of the globally watched embrace Modi was locked in with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
In this context, recent events may be deemed instructive. Regardless of the explanation available in official quarters in Pakistan — and allowing for accepting that two events that otherwise looked intertwined were not actually linked, as is so unremarkably claimed — Imran Khan was forced out of power after meeting Putin in Moscow after Russia attacked Ukraine. Likewise, in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wajed was evicted from power and luckily found sanctuary in India days after visiting Beijing.
Another foreign trip of Modi that raised eyebrows in Delhi, although it went largely unnoticed elsewhere, was when he was barely sworn in for a third term. Inexplicably, he dashed off to Rome. The ostensible purpose was to join an audience of Global South invitees to watch the spectacle of a G7 summit. Of the other invitees, not everyone found the time or saw the need to show up.
There were two clips from the Modi visit that offer a telltale record of the spectacular non-event. One was shown by TV channels close to the prime minister. The other found its way to regale followers of YouTube news channels. The clip played on TV showed a selfie of Modi and his Italian host, Prime Minister Georgio Meloni, in which he grinned from ear to ear with a likeness to Peter Sellers playing Hurundi Bakshi in The Party. Meloni, on the other hand, had the time of her life by inventing a name for the clip — “Melodi”.
The other video showed Modi looking impatient behind a screen, waiting alone to be escorted to his car. Busy Italian officials appeared more focused on the arriving and departing G7 leaders. Here, too, an explanation for the visit has not been easy to figure out. The last trip to Rome by a Pakistani leader shows up a troubling fact for India. It was president Pervez Musharraf in 2004, who signed off the trip to Rome with a declaration with the host, both agreeing to oppose the expansion of the UN Security Council membership, a not so oblique reference to India’s aspirations. If Modi succeeded in changing the Italian stand before or after the Meloni clip, he would deserve to be applauded for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Modi has been slammed at home by political critics for allegedly posing for photo-ops dressed as diplomatic gain. Adding to the problem is the towering presence of his bête noire, Jawaharlal Nehru, on the diplomatic firmament. Modi was hosting senior African leaders at the start of his first tenure as prime minister. He gave them a long spiel about India’s historical ties with Africa. It was left to the visitors to remind him of Nehru’s legacy in befriending and embracing newly independent countries everywhere.
It was thus that Modi’s party manufactured a TV ad promoting him as a diplomatic heavyweight during the parliamentary polls. A girl, overwhelmed by the alleged return of Indian students from Ukraine, confides to her father: “Usne jang rukwa di, Papa!” (Modi managed to stop the war, father — to pull out the stranded Indian students from Ukraine.)
The video was an unwitting reminder that it was not Modi who had the confidence of warring rivals to suspend hostilities, but Nehru who had successfully, and creditably for India, helped end the Korean war. India Today magazine went gaga recently. “The crucial role played by the country’s first PM is an interesting chapter to revisit as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Ukraine amid the devastating Russia-Ukraine war. The world has expectations that India, an assertive and diplomatically mature nation, could play a role in bringing about an end to the Ukraine-Russia war.”
In the early 1950s, the magazine recalled, “India played a crucial role in the peaceful resolution of the repatriation of prisoners of war, addressing a big humanitarian challenge in the armed conflict in the Korean peninsula. Seventy-five years later, an Indian Prime Minister is visiting a war-torn nation at their invitation — this time, it’s Ukraine in the West.” Well!
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
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Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024