Opinion | In paying great respect to Gandhi, Indian PM Narendra Modi may have failed to partner with China

By Augustus K. Yeung

INTRODUCTION

At the BRICS summit, expansion was clearly the theme. Its significance and implications have become the talk of the town with observers extolling the vitality and virtues of a rising Global South, and the voice it acquires.

The BRICS+ is forward-looking. It is hailed as a giant step for mankind, the Global South and multilateralism.

Unlike the BRICS summit, the G20 summit hosted by India was handicapped by the missing of two leaders pivotal to summit international, especially Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose leadership has become a much sort-after object of attention.

"Why was Xi missing?" Observers wondered.

Now, we know after the hurly-burly is over, the G20 summit was an orchestrated egoistic show of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was out to hard-sell Indian Hinduism – with the U.S. President Biden as the guest of honor, and the Indian ethnic UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife as young cheerleaders.

The expected luster of a bright and brave new world was nowhere to be seen. Gandhi, the saint, could only be imagined remotely spinning wheels…

Given the colonial vestige and verbiage, I fail to see the spirit of independence, especially with Joe Biden in the background; one feels that India is packed by the UK and the U.S., not in partnership with China.

Is this the new Indian era Narendra Modi has in mind?

India's Ambitious Plan with the U.S. and E.U. to Build a Rail and Shipping Corridor…

G20 leaders paid their respects to Indian Independence leader Mahatma Gandhi as their summit ended yesterday, a day after the group added a new member and reached an agreement on a range of issues but softened their language on Russia's war in Ukraine.

The Group of 20 rich and developing nations welcomed the African Union as a member – part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to uplift the Global South. And host India was also able to get the disparate group to sign off on a final statement despite pointed disagreements among powerful members, mostly centered on the European conflict.

India also unveiled an ambitious plan with the United States, the European Union and others to build a rail and shipping corridor linking it with the Middle East and Europe in a bid to strengthen economic growth and political cooperation.

With those major agenda items taken care of, the leaders shook hands Sunday and posed for photos with Modi at the Reghat memorial site in New Delhi. Each received a handspun fabric that was promoted by Gandhi – during India's independence movement against the British.

Some leaders – including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and last year's G20 host President Joko Widodo of Indonesia – walked to the memorial barefoot in a customary show of respect. U.S. President Joe Biden and others wore slippers as they walked over wet ground spotted with puddles from heavy rain.

The leaders stood before wreaths placed around the memorial, which features an eternal flame and was draped with orange and yellow marri-gold garlands.

The one reserved for Modi identified him as prime minister of "Bharat" – an ancient Sanskrit name championed by his Hindu nationalist supporters that shot to prominence as the summit approached.

Earlier in the day, Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy separately took time to visit and offer prayers at the Akshardham Temple, one of Delhi's most prominent Hindu houses of worship.

Brazilian President took over the G20 rotating presidency at the summit's end…

He, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hopes to rebuild Brazil's standing after a period of international isolation – under far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil, home to the majority of Amazon rainforest, will likely use its presidency to advocate for increased funds for environmental preservation, said a professor of international relations at the Pontifical University of Sao Paulo.

Lula has proposed mediating in the conflict, but those efforts have largely been rebuffed, and its refusal to arm Ukraine has sparked criticism from Western countries. Latin America's biggest democracy is also scheduled to assume the presidency of the BRICS group and host the UN's climate conference in 2025.

In the months leading up to the leaders' summit in New Delhi, India had been unable to find agreement on the wording about Ukraine, with Russian and China objecting even to language that they had agreed to at the 2022 G20 summit in Bali.

This year's final statement, released a day before the formal close of the summit, highlighted the "human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine," but did not mention Russia's invasion directly.

Western leaders – who have pushed for a stronger rebuke of Russia's actions in past G20 meetings – still called the consensus a success and praised India's nimble balancing act. (Source: MDT/AP)

CONCLUSION

The impression one gets is that India is comparable to a hard-working cow, mowing the field with Modi saying, "Farrow no more!" But Modi is being muddy; it seems he is caught in a situation with Russia being its traditional supplier of arms, China as a border "threat" and a potential rival in the Global South, and the hegemonic U.S. as one which has had inherited the superpower of the British Empire, India's former colonial master.

Obviously, the iron shackles of colonialism have not been broken, and that the courage and wisdom are nowhere to be found. India under Modi is still not a free nation, a notch better than Japan, which is doomed to be a U.S. vassal state after Hiroshima.

The U.S. is playing India for a pawn in its grand chess game against China, a neighbor, and a fellow Eastern ancient civilization. Both have no hegemonic ambitions but harbor the philosophy of harmony.

Why can't India boldly work with China, like Brazil, to become a better partner and neighbor rather than to be subservient to, or fall for a fallacious, declining democracy?!

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | Russia has likely proposed North Korea to join three-way drills with China

Opinion | Amid fog of war, is China America's 'friend or foe'?

Opinion | Will BRICS+ be adopting an anti-US attitude under the influence of China