Ukraine crisis: India should work for peace

Less Apparent Facts

- It is part of the ambition of the US and its allies to make the world completely unipolar

- The fact that people are fleeing to escape war shows the hollowness of the whole exercise to make Ukrainians fight Russians

- The current narrative conceals many other facts about the great game in Ukraine

- The recent flashpoint has been the US's insistence that Ukraine is a sovereign country and it has every right to join NATO. It may look like quite a lofty slogan, but the intention behind it is evil

The interesting part is that both the Ukrainian and the Russian governments are treating protesters in the same manner. If the Russian government is arresting them, the Ukrainian government has also declared an emergency and will not allow protests against the war

The declaration of the US that it will not participate in the Ukraine war does not make any sense when we observe it encircling Russia. Instead of making Ukraine a militarily neutral zone, the US is militarising the entire region

Everyone knows how the US has been pressuring Ukraine to join NATO since the late nineties. The US administration has been ignoring suggestions from its own specialists on Russia that it would not be in the interest of the US to escalate tensions at the border with Russia

The Ukrainian war is reminding us of the US invasion of Iraq when the US media played a role akin to the armed forces. It helped in preparing the moral basis for war by endorsing and enforcing US lies. It demonised Saddam Hussain and Iraq, and the whole world was out to punish them. For the first time, the war became entertainment thanks to live telecasts by channels like CNN. Suddenly, war became an event. Later events proved that the lies were the basis of the war, and its outcome was a permanent destabilisation of the region.

Is it not the same thing being repeated? But this time, the world may pay a much heavier price than in the past. Like on all other occasions, the Indian media has hardly any other way than to carelessly follow the narrative of the US-led NATO military alliance. It may be strange, but the government is allowing the media to do so even when it goes against the government's stand on the issue. The BJP's propaganda machinery is also endorsing the narrative that portrays the war as a conflict between democratic Ukraine and authoritarian Russia. This narrative cunningly conceals the roles of various players who are largely responsible for escalating the Ukrainian crisis.

However, the chronology hardly supports the narrative. No one is talking about the so-called Ukrainian revolution of 2014 when an elected president was thrown out. The later investigations into the US-backed uprising revealed that allegations against the then President were false and that it was the group of militant right-wingers that had committed violence and killed people. The media never highlighted this fact, and people were allowed to go along with the lies.

The current narrative conceals many other facts about the great game in Ukraine. Everyone knows how the US has been pressuring Ukraine to join NATO since the late nineties. The US administration has been ignoring suggestions from its own specialists on Russia that it would not be in the interest of the US to escalate tensions at the border with Russia. The specialists have constantly suggested that Ukraine should not be pressured to join NATO. In their opinion, this does not conform to the post-cold war situation. The recent flashpoint has been the US's insistence that Ukraine is a sovereign country and it has every right to join NATO. It may look like quite a lofty slogan, but the intention behind it is evil. It has nothing to do with sovereignty or peace. How can a military alliance bring peace or security? Pro-peace civil society in the US and Europe has been opposing NATO and demanding its dismantling. They want it to become a disarmament alliance.

Many in the US and Europe are criticising the US for provoking Putin to go into a full-scale war. They feel that it could have been averted had the US taken proper diplomatic steps and relied on dialogue. Renowned public intellectual Noam Chomsky has pointed out how the Democrats are ahead of the Republicans in war-mongering and advocating strong action against Russia.

Does the role of the US justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Did Putin not have any other option? The big pro-peace protests on the streets of the Russian capital and other cities give the answer. Hundreds of people have been arrested. The peace protests are not limited to Russia. Protests against war are going on in Ukraine as well. The interesting part of the episode is that both the Ukrainian and the Russian governments are treating protesters in the same manner. If the Russian government is arresting them, the Ukrainian government has also declared an emergency and will not allow protests against the war. In both countries, there is an attempt to excite people in support of war. The Ukrainian regime under comedian-turned-politician Zelensky is trying to create a nationalist euphoria and is getting all the attention from the international media. The US and its allies are sustaining this euphoria with arms supplies and financial sanctions against Russia.

However, the fact that people are fleeing to escape war shows the hollowness of the whole exercise to make Ukrainians fight Russians. Those who have stayed on in the country are trying to stop the marching Russian army peacefully, and this counters the argument that military resistance is the only way to fight an invasion. Instead of encouraging people's resistance against the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian government is distributing arms to the people. It is clear that this is just to make this zone a permanent zone of armed conflict. Clearly, it serves the interests of the arms industry in the US and Europe. During this war alone, Ukraine has received arms worth billions of dollars.

The media is just not analysing the dangerous game of making Europe a zone of conflict. The marching of tanks and shelling of cities by the Russian army are getting wide coverage in the western media, but we hardly see any coverage of how the US soldiers are landing in Poland and other NATO countries. The declaration of the US that it will not participate in the Ukraine war does not make any sense when we observe it encircling Russia. Instead of making Ukraine a militarily neutral zone, the US is militarising the entire region. It is part of the ambition of the US and its allies to make the world completely unipolar.

By refusing to take an anti-Russia stand, India has shown its inclination against a unipolar world. But our media is supporting the US narrative. This shows our national dilemma. We must shed off ambiguity and oppose Putin's action as well as the US attempt to militarise Ukraine, which may lead to World War III.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)