Small eyes? Eyes that don’t even open?

A racist comment, certainly. In this shallow wolf-warrior diplomacy, the PM is well aware -- there is a big and powerful elephant in the room: China.

By N R Mohanty

Why can’t India look China in the eye?

Why is it that our prime minister needs to make racist comments: “small eyes”; “eyes that don’t even open”? 

Russia and Pakistan recently announced some specific agreements that  highlight a new chapter of economic cooperation between the two countries. It has been a subject of intense discussion in a section of the mainstream media — both ‘legacy media’ and social media.

Some are asking, and very seriously: has Russia, a long-time trusted friend of India, betrayed us by entering into such  an agreement, that too, immediately after a bitter military clash between India and Pakistan?

Some are upping the ante: it’s time India should boycott Russian products and services just as it has done so with Turkey which  supported and supplied arms to Pakistan to launch an offensive against India.

Journalist and author, Urmilesh, a close friend since  our JNU days, asked for my reaction to this development in a discussion on his YouTube channel. I said, “India is not tied down  to Russia; it’s seeking to forge close relationships with the USA and Europe which have imposed severe sanctions on Russia. So Russia is within its rights to build bridges with our bitterest enemy, Pakistan.”

Can India decide to do a Turkey to Russia? I believe, given the long-term military and  economic linkages between the two countries, it’s India which would suffer more -- if it chooses to break away from Russia. 

It’s simple. India is simply not in a position to take on the big powers. See the case of China. India is seething at a country like Turkey which supplies just over 4 per cent of Pakistan’s arms imports. But China, which today supplies an overwhelming 81 per cent of Pakistan’s armaments, almost 20 times that of Turkey, is not in India’s line of fire.

Why?

This is because India knows that China is an economic powerhouse; boycotting Chinese goods will dent China at the margins, but that step would cause a serious convulsion in the Indian economy.

India attempted that foolish step after the Galwan clash in 2020-21. It banned the TikTok -- a symbolic action indeed. However, when it came to mainstays of the economy, the Indian government in Delhi just could not push through the boycott call since a large section of our industry instantly revolted.

If we procure spare parts, chemicals and other goods from non-Chinese sources, then the prices of our products would go up from 50 to 100 per cent, they said. The Indian Automobile Association was quite vocal about it. Other big and medium business entities were equally outspoken. Hence, predictably, the Indian government quietly retreated after making a high-pitch spectacle of teaching China a befitting lesson. 

That explains why, after Operation Sindoor, India has quietly sidestepped any attack on China, which is Pakistan’s prime benefactor, and, instead, has picked on a minnow like Turkey with whom our economic and strategic relationships are extremely marginal. 

Well, Russia is not in the same league as China in the current circumstances. Its economy is on the wane, ravaged by Western sanctions, and the Ukraine war. But it still remains a potent military power for India to trifle with.

After all, in our recent clash with Pakistan, it’s the S 400 missile defence system imported from Russia and Brahmos missiles, jointly manufactured with Russia, that stood us in good stead. Therefore, India just cannot keep away from Russia, without endangering itself.

Urmilesh asked me if the Russian proposal of an India-China-Russia Trilateral could be a feasibility. I said that all the three countries are in the BRICS, but it has gone nowhere. In fact, these five major non-western economies were mooting the idea of an alternative mode of payment to bypass the dollar, but when Donald Trump warned of dire action in case of such an eventuality, India was the first country to chicken out.

India and Russia can co-exist, but China is the elephant in the room. China has grown so powerful, both economically and militarily, that India can cohabit with it only as a satellite nation, not as a co-equal. America is China’s only rival, but China has already overtaken the US as the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP); many defence analysts believe that China’s military prowess has now surpassed that of the US.

When such a powerful country is prowling in our neighbourhood, India has chosen the right path  to silently suffer rather than make a big noise about it. Remember, even after the Galwan clash in which 20 brave Indian soldiers faced a horrific death by a Chinese ambush, both our PM and defence minister made inflammatory speeches, but never dared to take the name of China. 

The PM never ever uttered the ‘C’ word.

For instance, the other day, our PM tried to point the attack on China, not by saying so forthrightly, but by making a roundabout racist comment. He pooh-poohed the people with “small eyes”, “eyes that not even open”. Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, well-known journalist and author, who hails from North-East  India, roasted him in an open letter in The Wire, saying that it doesn’t behove the stature of an Indian prime minister to deploy such racist language about any community, whether Indian or not.

Hence, what can our PM do? He can direct his jingoistic rhetoric naming Pakistan, and yet again now in election mode, but he has no spine to do so against China. So he has to resort to innuendos -- racist or otherwise.

Indeed, that is the sordid saga of our version of wolf-warrior diplomacy!

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NR Mohanty is a journalist/commentator, and teacher. He is former editor, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times, Patna, and former Director, Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication (JIMCC), Noida/Delhi.