India’s Stance Towards The Dirty Bomb False Flag Accusations In Ukraine Is Balanced

It’s in this rising Great Power’s objective national interests to carefully balance between the Golden Billion and the jointly BRICS- and SCO-led Global South of which it’s a part, which is why it must avoid getting embroiled all serious disputes connected to their ongoing New Cold War. To that end, Delhi always prioritizes diplomacy over partisanship, all with a view towards presenting itself as the most truly neutral major player in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.

Russia and Kiev, which by extension includes its patrons among the US-led West’s Golden Billion, have accused one another of plotting a dirty bomb false flag provocation. The seriousness of these claims can’t help but attract the entire world’s attention, hence why Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh recently discussed them with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu during their latest call on Wednesday. As could have been expected, Delhi’s stance towards this sensitive issue was balanced.

According to the official readout, “Shri Rajnath Singh reiterated India's position on the need to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy for an early resolution of the conflict. He pointed out that the nuclear option should not be resorted to by any side as the prospect of the usage of nuclear or radiological weapons goes against the basic tenets of humanity.” This pragmatic policy of principled neutrality, wherein India neither supports nor opposes any side, is in line with its existing approach.

To explain, it’s in this rising Great Power’s objective national interests to carefully balance between the Golden Billion and the jointly BRICS- and SCO-led Global South of which it’s a part, which is why it must avoid getting embroiled all serious disputes connected to their ongoing New Cold War. To that end, Delhi always prioritizes diplomacy over partisanship, all with a view towards presenting itself as the most truly neutral major player in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.

The grand strategic goal, as explained here at length, is to accelerate the emergence of tripolarity so as to facilitate the aforesaid transition’s final evolution towards complex multipolarity (“multiplexity”). India believes that the present bi-multipolar intermediary phase between unipolarity and multipolarity is disadvantageous to its interests as well as everyone else’s in the international community apart from the American and Chinese superpowers since it’s considered to restrain their strategic autonomy.

It's this paradigm of understanding that drives India’s careful balancing act between the Golden Billion and the Global South, each of which are regarded as being unofficially led by the US and China respectively. Taking one side over the other, which in this context would amount to accusing Kiev or Moscow correspondingly of plotting a dirty bomb false flag provocation, would contradict its principled neutrality and give an edge to one of these New Cold War blocs.

The consequences of doing so would be extremely destabilizing since it would disrupt the emerging balance between them, which could in turn create more international uncertainty that further works against India’s objective national interests. Supporting Kiev would discredit Delhi in the eyes of the Global South and instantly arouse Beijing’s suspicions of its grand strategic intentions while backing Moscow would do the same vis a vis the Golden Billion and prompt some sort of US retaliation.

It's therefore better for India to simply remind everyone that the nuclear option is something that both sides in NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine should refrain from employing. This is a responsible stance that reaffirms its pragmatic policy of principled neutrality, adheres to international law, and avoids inadvertently offending either party’s sensitivities to Delhi’s detriment. It’s therefore commendable, exemplary, and will thus likely be emulated by others across the Global South.