IN a swipe at the instances of Western criticism of India regarding protests, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said one should look at pictures from American campuses on their television screens. “We got a lot of lectures about how to deal with public every time there’s an agitation in India. I invite you to see the television pictures today on the screen. What they preach, what they practice, what is their agenda, what is their objectivity, or lack of it?” Jaishankar said. The minister was just playing the diplomatic ‘Uno-reverse’ game; and it’s a rare one too. A lot of US colleges have become protest sites. Thousands of students are rallying for Gaza. They are accusing the US Government of supporting a ‘genocide’ and they have been met with a crackdown.
Hundreds of protesting students have been arrested, in some case quite violently. Normally India wouldn’t react to something like this, but this time, New Delhi has broken that trend. It has some advice for the White House: “Democracies should display understanding in regard to other democracies. After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.” There is no room for doubt here. India is clearly talking about the US, and the language is worth noting. New Delhi has not criticised America’s handling of the issue, nor has it expressed concern. Instead, it has served a reminder to Washington. India understands the need for public order, but it wishes the US understood it too, in the Indian context. It’s a significant policy change. It doesn’t weaken, or change, the bilateral relationship; but it sends a message. The US was gripped by the Black Lives Matter movement and there were protests and riots in US cities. But New Delhi said nothing. European capitals criticised the US, comments came from China; yet nothing from India.
India does not make unsolicited comments, and reacts only when it is targeted or defamed. Like, when US reports questioned freedoms in India, or, when rights agencies talked about Indian secularism; India hit back. But this is different. US college protests have nothing to do with India. The students are calling out Joe Biden. Yet, the ministry has reacted. The message is clear: India is the mother of all democracies and it does not need certificate from others testifying its democratic credentials. For instance, Jaishankar talked about the Western coverage of India’s elections. “We get advice from the Western press; if they criticise our democracy, it is not because they lack information, it’s because they think they are also political players in the election games that are being played,” he said.
It’s time India bluntly told the self-proclaimed champions of democracy in the US and elsewhere that unsolicited comments are not welcome and they will get a taste of their own medicine if they do not desist. In fact, at a time when India is going through the world’s largest democratic exercise, such an unconcealed onslaught amounts to ‘political hitjob’. There are indications that these India-baiters in the West are being patronised by some elements of the ruling establishment in these countries. New Delhi is right in showing them the mirror. True democracies must understand and respect fellow democracies.
