A majority of the respondents firmly believe India cannot go the Sri Lankan way. Nearly half the respondents also disapprove of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir
Putin in New Delhi, Dec. 2021
With nearly 13,000 civilian casualties and an estimated 80,000 Russian troops killed or wounded, the continuing war in Ukraine is considered the most intense conventional conflict in Europe since World War II. New Delhi has trodden cautiously—condemning civilian deaths without naming old strategic ally Russia, and abstaining from UN votes on the conflict. It is walking a tightrope: India wants Russia and Ukraine to resolve the crisis, but its (strategic) interests—energy requirements, as well as the fact that 70 per cent of its military hardware is Russian—have not allowed it to condemn Russia. Forty-nine per cent of MOTN respondents believe that Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine. Sri Lanka, whose economy is in complete meltdown, has India worried, due to its proximity as well as its strategic location. On being asked if a similar fate might befall India, over 57 per cent of MOTN respondents replied in the negative, saying India’s economy was much stronger. A cocktail of bad decisions and the vagaries of geopolitics led to the Lankan crisis—the sudden switch to organic fertilisers, Lankan leaders’ appalling fiscal imprudence, the tourism-dependent economy hit by the pandemic and high oil prices scorching diesel-run power plants. None of this is applicable to India.
On the icy heights of Eastern Ladakh, the Indian military and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have been locked in a border standoff for over two years. Nearly a hundred thousand Indian troops—as mirror deployment to the Chinese concentration—are stationed there. Sixteen rounds of corps commander-level talks as well as diplomatic negotiations have failed to bring complete disengagement. How has the Centre handled the border intrusions from China? ‘Very well’, say over 44 per cent of respondents; 30 per cent deem it ‘satisfactory’. Over 14 per cent say it was handled poorly. Can it be done better? Belligerence is not an option, but India has been ramping up infrastructure, preventing China from making further inroads. Since 2020, India has constructed 2,088 km of all-weather roads to forward areas along the border.
Talks and terror emanating from Pakistan cannot go together. This is India’s stand when it comes to engaging with the western neighbour. India should not talk to Pakistan, feel 56 per cent of MOTN respondents, echoing a similar percentage in January 2022. They have good reasons: The new Shehbaz Sharif-led government doesn’t have a new India policy. Their view on the abrogation of Article 370 and J&K has not changed. Security planners in New Delhi believe there is no credible elected authority to talk to in Islamabad, as the current regime may not last long.
