India sure has got its interests to protect when it comes to Russia and that has been the reason why India earlier abstained from voting on a resolution at the United Nations seeking to declare Russian annexation of captured Ukrainian territories invalid. It does not end there, after abstaining, PM Modi rang up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling him that there cannot be any military solution to the matter and that India was ready to contribute to any peace efforts. It is clear here that India is trying hard to secure its interests by somehow making peace talks between the two sides possible, which will secure not only its interests but will also enhance its image as the peacekeeper globally.
But back home, the picture changes. India is entirely focused on strengthening its defences, upgrading its military apparatus and infrastructure to an extent that it now has stepped on to the process of ensuring indigenous defence production in a bid to become self-reliant: like we saw INS Vikrant and the indigenously made Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) inducted just a few days back. An image of a peacemaker overseas, discouraging military actions, and solutions, in the west and Europe and arming itself against obvious enemies back home.
India has a clear policy that it is following these days even though there is a total shift in its foreign affairs where India is ensuring that it is seen as a strong, capable, and key player in geopolitics—something, in which it has succeeded in a great way. At the same time, building up military infrastructure, particularly with the vision of becoming self-reliant in defense production, is somewhat linked to having global importance, and at the least, regional dominance, in the years to come. There is surely an apparent contrast between the two sides which India is presenting, but in reality, both the contradictions are complementing each other in one way or the other. While the defence build-up sends a strong message to China and Pakistan, it also strengthens its global image of being a strong and capable nation. Lastly, concerning self-reliance, India is aiming to add more to its kitty when it comes to global relevance by minimizing the reliance on other nations, such as Russia: that’s what would usher in a new era of global politics for India.
