BJP’s Politics on Students in Russia-Ukraine Conflict

By
TDI
-
509
Russia Ukraine

Asad Ali

A three-way propaganda war broke out over the rescue of stranded Indian students from Ukraine. With thousands stranded and one killed, Indian students in Ukraine are the focus of a propaganda tug of war.

Both Russia and Ukraine issued statements promising to protect Indian students and blamed the other side for endangering them. Although Russia made statements alleging Ukraine for holding Indian students hostage.

Russia also accused Ukraine of using these students as human shields preventing them from leaving for Russian territory.  Russia alleged that 3,000 Indian students were kept hostage by Ukrainian forces.

On one side, both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of using Indian students as a human shield in the ongoing conflict. Meanwhile, Indian pupils are angry about BJP’s rescue efforts and overall approach to the conflict.

Russia claimed that its military is doing everything possible to protect strained Indian nationals. The Russian defense ministry also stressed that it offered to return the students to India from Russian territory in its military planes.

At the same time, the evacuation of students is also being used as an opportunity by BJP to pat the Modi-led BJP government on the back. Operation Ganga, the Indian government’s mission to rescue students, has even made its way to the UP election campaign, with Modi raising it during multiple public speeches in the state.

PM Modi even met with a group of students as part of a televised interaction. Four Union Ministers went to countries bordering Ukraine to oversee the evacuation drive. Videos of them taking part in rescue efforts and students being received in India by ministers are being pushed on social media by BJP. Modi’s nationalist clad is vehemently using the issue of strained Indian nationals as a political tool.

This public relations blitz around rescuing students is not limited to BJP. Tamil Nadu government announced it would send its rescue team to countries bordering Ukraine.

However, many students and some opposition members have contested the government’s claim that it has been able to provide adequate help to get students back. Opposition members have shared videos of distressed students in Ukraine who complain that the Indian government has not helped them.

Several students have questioned the public-relations drive by the Modi government, especially its claims to have rescued them. “Indian government is publicizing bringing back 1,000 Indian students,” a student who had left Ukraine right before flights stopped said.  All these efforts are focused on the Western border of the country. The student also asserted that what about thousands of students in eastern parts of Ukraine?

Another student complained about a mismatch between PR and actual work on the ground by saying that officials are giving us roses at the airport. But when these students were stranded at the borders, nobody came to rescue them.

 

In a rare move, the Indian MEA rejected claims made by the government and media seen to be sympathetic to it that Russia had stopped the war for six hours on India’s request to evacuate students.

In short, Russia’s attack on Ukraine has thrown Indian foreign policy into a tizzy. Forced to choose between two friends, US and Russia, New Delhi has leaned towards Putin. It has, till now, assiduously abstained from any UN vote that criticizes the Russian invasion.

To a large extent, Modi’s foreign policy stance is driven by pragmatic factors concerning India’s self-interest. Given India’s precarious security situation (the country is in an armed stand-off at its borders with not one but two nuclear powers), its weapons must supply chains remain operational. It is estimated that as much as 80% of the country’s military equipment is from Russia, a legacy of the Cold War.

These global permutations hemming in India are bad news for BJP, given that the party has used foreign policy to pump up Modi’s image domestically for the past seven years. Under Modi, foreign policy has been transformed into a mass, popular and electoral tool.

Examples include a joint appearance with former President Trump in a stadium full of supporters to use 2019 airstrikes in Pakistan as a key campaign plank for the Lok Sabha elections.

Given that the space for India to maneuver is tight at the moment, it is unlikely that Modi will be able to repeat the tremendous foreign policy moves of the past. In fact, in Uttar Pradesh, PM is pushing that the evacuation of students from Ukraine was due to India’s enhanced stature across the world under his leadership.

Compared to the 2019 confrontation with Pakistan, it is a somewhat strained point that engendered passions.

The constant criticism of the BJP-led government from foreign commentators will also hurt Modi, who has managed to project his image as a statesman admired by the world. Last week, BJP even propagated the fallacious impression that Modi single-handedly convinced Russia to stop its campaign for six hours to allow Indians to be evacuated from embattled cities in Ukraine.

This idea was an idea denied publicly by even the Ministry of External Affairs.

India’s abstention has been interpreted as a provincial response from an incapable, third-world country. It is a troubling trend, given the claims by BJP that Modi has transformed India into “vishwaguru,” whereby the entire world looks up to for guidance.

Even as they blame each other for harming Indians, Russia and Ukraine have also offered help to bring Indian students back to safety. Russia has said that it is trying to organize an urgent evacuation of Indian students “through the humanitarian corridor along the shortest route to Russia.”

Based on information received from Russia, Indian authorities asked students in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to move to three safe zones. The Russian ambassador-designate to India, Denis Alipov, has also promised that Russia would coordinate details with India and keep it informed about developments.

Ukraine has also claimed that it is committed to helping Indian students. However, it is using the problem of stranded Indian students to ask Russia to stop its offensive. In its statement, Ukraine said that helping students would not be possible without a Russian ceasefire.

“Attempting to arrange evacuations through cities subjected to Russian bombing and missile strikes is extremely dangerous,” it added. Meanwhile, Indian students have alleged that the Ukrainian authorities are not cooperative.

Students have, in fact, even said that they were assaulted and not allowed to board trains by Ukrainian armed forces. However, Ukraine has denied allegations of any discrimination.

This narrative war between Russia and Ukraine aims to garner Indian support. Till now, India has abstained from voting on all three resolutions at the UN on the Russian invasion.

Two of these resolutions criticized Russia’s attack, and one resolution asked for a special UNGA session to discuss the crisis. Thus, India’s stance has implicitly tilted towards Russia.

The safety of Indian students has, in turn, become a critical issue over which Ukraine and Russia are now fighting to win over New Delhi.

Previously, hinting at India, among other countries, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN had said that governments should have voted against Russia to end the war for the safety of their citizens in Ukraine.

*The writer is an independent analyst based in Islamabad. 

*Views expressed in this article are writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the institutions