I will always be anti-war. I protested when Afghanistan was attacked by the USA long ago, even when I was shocked at what Bin Laden did on 9/11. Ditto Iraq and the lies about WMD. In fact, I remember being aghast at realising how much the CIA controls who will run which country in Latin America. I remember seeing an actual sitting president being kidnapped and exfiltrated to the US to stand trial. I have protested Israel’s apartheid regime that has breached every international law regarding occupation. I have written against Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen just as passionately as the drone strike by Yemen that killed civilians in the UAE. I have been against Obama’s drone policy in Pakistan. And I have been disgusted with the way North Korea treats its own people, just as much as how China treats its (specifically the Uighurs). I have raised my voice in support of Black lives as well as Dalit ones. I have opposed in my own way the imperialist policies of the USA and the recent expansionist acts of both, NATO and Russia, not to mention the sabre rattling and encroachment by China in Taiwan and North and East India.
So, my natural instinct was to oppose this war too, in which it is still unclear who the real aggressor is. And no, this isn’t a war between Ukraine and Russia. This is between the USA (via NATO) and Russia, which is looking to stave off what it sees as the thin end of the wedge as it smarts under its reduced status internationally and tries to regain the glory lost in the last century. Notwithstanding any of this, I stood opposed to what Russia is doing in Ukraine.
Why am I telling you all this? Because those who are indulging in whataboutery by asking me where I was when the USA did this or Israel did that are missing the point that I was against those wars and killing then, as I am against this war now. There is no inconsistency. That is why indeed I have lauded India’s neutral stand on it because we have consistently steered clear of being arbitrators of other people’s conflicts, right from independence, and this is based on principles from which our policy flows and has stood the test of time.
Nevertheless, I felt compelled somehow because of social media to have an opinion, and was being pushed this way and that by friends from both camps who think that just because we have access to a publishing medium, our thoughts and commentary count. I have no doubt it matters in some small way. But I was a bit averse to forming a firm opinion just yet before the data is out. That said, I was indeed mulling coming down on one side or the other, which would be perfectly fine in a democracy where the individual citizen may have a personal stand that could differ from the government’s stated position in an international forum.
But after reading the racist shit white journalists are saying about the Ukraine crisis I am even more convinced that India, by following a policy of non-interference and abstaining, did the right thing. Indeed, not my circus, and most definitely, not my monkeys.
I have come to realise that this is a war between two groups of white Europeans. One of them has literal Nazis being armed and trained within their borders and the other is led by an actual retired(?) KGB officer who believes in threatening the world with nukes.
Why should we bother about any of the two parties except for how it affects us? I mean, and I have written about this a few days ago, we have enough shit of our own (and our regime’s) to worry about. Plus, we have a monster inflation looming ahead. We have China nibbling our territory. And we have Indian citizens stuck in conflict zones. This is apart from the endemic problems we are saddled with: hunger, health, education, employment, literacy, justice, equality, financial freedom, corruption (including the moral kind), and our propensity to fall for woo and cults of personality.
हमे फुरसत ही कहां है इन झमेलों में पड़ने के लिए?
