‘Western agencies do not want to accept that India will take independent decisions based on its strategic needs and future’.
NEW DELHI: Amidst verifiable reports from the battle ground that the Ukraine government is being supplied with ammunition from the Pakistan army in its battle against the Russian forces, the Indian intelligence agencies are tracking reports of the “smaller” European countries along with the influential Western powers—who are upset with India refusing to side with the NATO and its allied powers and continuing to buy Russian oil—coming together to push India to take a more anti-Russian stand.
The said reports and inputs come even as the Western power has publicly stated that the Narendra Modi-led government was taking its decision to buy Russian oil based on its long-term energy needs.
However, behind-the-curtain efforts to push India towards an approach that is more allied to the anti-Russia stance, are being attempted at multiple levels that may not have the sanction of their respective heads of state. While India’s refusal to side with either the NATO led alliance or with Russia has been understood and appreciated by the Russians, the same has caused a significant level of discomfort in some camps in the United States and the United Kingdom who see this “neutrality” as a snub to the Western hegemony. According to sources, while much is being written in Western publications and on platforms managed by influential government funded Western think-tanks on how India was doing a disservice to itself by not speaking out strongly against Russia, the same group has been silent on some of the questionable moves that were executed by the same countries which ultimately led to the starting of this disruptive war that has caused damages at multiple levels to economies across the world which are yet to recover from the disaster caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is not about Ukraine anymore. It is about NATO and Russia. The war could have been averted and stopped from becoming so ‘big’ if a former head of a Western country did not influence Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from reneging on his deal to end this war in a deal that was brokered by Turkey. Some in the Western bloc led Zelenskyy to believe that it will get an unending supply of arms and ammunition and financial support. Now the situation has come to this that Pakistan is sending them ammunition. An influential Western bloc believes this is the right opportunity to weaken Russian once and for all by using Ukraine as the battlefield. The Western bloc is in a win-win situation. If Ukraine wins, they will get rights over all its resources, if Russia wins, then also the loss of men, resources and territory will be of Ukraine,” an observer said while stating that this same situation was being exploited to damage the emerging and growing India-US and India-UK ties. “The Western agencies do not want to accept that India will take independent decisions based on its strategic needs and future. And this has made this government unpopular in some influential quarters in London and Washington. If the people concerned in these countries do not accept that India is not going to toe any line that is dictated by a bloc, then they are giving a scope to those powers, who do not want our bilateral ties to become stronger, to come into play and do their acts,” an official source posted in one of these countries told The Sunday Guardian.