NEW DELHI: "India’s foreign policy has been individualized as Modi’s foreign policy, which may have a disastrous fallout for the country," said former External Affairs Minister and now vice-president of the All India Trinamool Congress Yashwant Sinha amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He also proposed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi act as a mediator between the two warring nations to end the military conflict.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Sinha said, “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasts, more often than not, of making the country ‘vishwaguru’. Now, with the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, it's the right time for the Prime Minister to step in as a mediator to end the ongoing bloody conflict and show the potential to become vishwaguru.”
Reacting against India’s move to abstain from voting against Russia in the UNSC, Sinha said that such an ‘imprudent’ decision by the Modi-led government may isolate the country during challenging times in the future.
“As a fallout of this, India may not get support of other countries if the Chinese challenge us,” Sinha remarked.
“The UN has lost its élan. It is each one for itself. India should be prepared to meet the Chinese challenges because nobody will come to our help in case of hostilities,” he cautioned, speaking in the context of India's decision not to vote against Russia in the UNSC recently.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician further said, “A point to ponder is what would a much-maligned Nehru have done today in the Ukraine crisis?"
Describing the US-dominated NATO as an ‘ineffective and paper tiger’ amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Sinha said, “After Afghanistan and now Ukraine, the US has been proven as not a dependable ally. India should take a lesson from these two situations and beware. India claims to be a friend of Russia, so it should immediately start mediating to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. What is the meaning of friendship if one friend cannot tell the other how wrong he is?" Sinha asked.
Sinha added that democracies were made weak and ineffectual globally while autocracies have gone on the rampage.
On being asked about a potential move to form a Third Front, Sinha categorically said, “Any Third Front would not be very helpful to the opposition.” Lashing out at the BJP, Sinha said the divide and rule policy of the central government is not only creating a division in society but also creating an atmosphere against the Constitution and social fabric of the country.