It has been more than six months for the ongoing Ukraine conflict and the end is nowhere near. The way this conflict has unfolded over the months, has exposed United Nations’, or in a broader purview West’s hypocrisy once again. Although, I was eager to include the Indian elite intellectual, pseudo-secular class along with country’s major Media houses and Journalists, however, for some reasons they have so far refrained from floating their opinions on this conflict. But I do want my fellow Indians to follow this conflict seriously and ask some questions to themselves and to the others I mentioned above.

Why do I want Indians to pay closer attention to this Ukraine Conflict even though its miles away and has no noteworthy or worth mentioning affect on the country?

Several decades ago, a country invaded an independent Kingdom and forced that kingdom to accede with its neighbor on the south to protect itself from the invading forces. The way that conflict was looked at, perceived and dealt with is very different from the way Ukraine Conflict is being perceived and dealt with by the west and the UN, even though the underline tenets of the conflict are the exact same. Rings a bell?

I am talking about Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir in 1947 forcing Kashmir’s then King Hari Singh signing the instrument of accession with India to save Kashmir from the invading forces which lead to first India-Pakistan war.

India’s then Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru along with Lord Mountbatten escalated the issue to the UN, which “resolved” the conflict by drafting United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 that had a three part solution. First of which was Ceasefire, meaning the two sides stop fighting and stay put at the places where they were at that point in time. This gave birth to what we call Line Of Control (LOC). There has been multiple ceasefire violations and even full fledged wars, but the Line has remained pretty much the same. This lead to a map as shown below:

Now my simple and straightforward question one is, why is UN not pushing for Ceasefire and Line Of Control in Ukraine? But is instead pushing countries to take sides and win the war? If we follow the UN Resolution 47 it is possible to end the conflict right now. The current status of the two sides is shown in the Map below:

The Line Of Control (LOC) should be at the edge of Russian Advances or Russian Control. Which would still lead to 20% of Ukraine Administered by Russia or in other words Russia Administered Ukraine and it should be called as a disputed area. I have not invented anything new (look at the first map, it was called Indian Administered Kashmir). Isn’t this the exact same solution provided by the UN and accepted by the rest of the world in case of Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir? As a matter of fact, Chinese invasion lead to Line of Actual Control (LAC).

I do blame Jawahar Lal Nehru to accept these lines in the first place, but here we are talking about the hypocrisies of the rest of the world.

In fact quite an irony, Russia is pushing for plebiscite referendums as recommended by UNSC in 1947, but the UN and the West is calling it a “Sham” now, however in our case it was the one and only solution. Till this date there are people, groups, parties calling for plebiscite vote in Kashmir. So, my simple and straightforward question two is, why is West running away from annexation vote in Ukraine but has always entertained the idea of annexation vote in Kashmir?

Britain likes to draw lines, Durand Line, Radcliff Line, McMahon Line, etc. (the names before the word ‘Lines’ are British Lords who drew the lines, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (Afghan-Pak border), Sir Cyril John Radcliffe (India-Pak Border), Sir Arthur Henry McMahon (TIbet-India Border). Why don’t just draw one more line in between Ukraine and Russia and call it a disputed land forever? What’s the problem in that?

Oh, that does not work here, because its very close to your home and directly affects you; And Kashmir wasn’t? Yeah, that’s I believe is exactly how you define Hypocrisy.

Moreover, the list of hypocrisies don’t end here. The US, the UK, the UN and most of the Europe have been since March 2022 trying their level best to isolate the invader in each and every way possible. Russia has become the most heavily sanctioned country in the world. Over 1000 companies have curtailed operations in Russia, Russia was not invited to Queen’s funeral, International Olympics Committee (IOC) called to excluded Russia and Belarus from all the sports, and the country has been excluded from a variety of sports including Winter Paralympics, Athletics, Tennis, Formula1, International football etc. and many more . EU commission is pushing for stricter Visa regulations and as a matter of fact, the EU foreign ministries agrees to scrap Russia Visa deal.

However, when it comes to Pakistan, I hear the exact opposite of what is being said and done in context to the Ukraine conflict. I hear arguments like “Art and Entertainment has no boundary“, “Trade and Commerce should never be stopped“, “Isolating Pakistan is not a solution“, “Cricket should be thought of as a means to bridge the gap“, so on and so forth. India hasn’t still stopped playing Cricket with Pakistan, let alone ask other countries to not play, which by the way Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI), can do whenever it wants. Ukraine’s president is not thinking about being politically correct when calling out Russia. In fact, why shouldn’t Ukraine award the title “the most favored nation” to Russia as India did to Pakistan? Or Europeans should be ready to call themselves hyper-nationalist bigots.

It’s not that invading Kashmir was Pakistan’s only offence, Pakistan did the same with Baluchistan, did even worse with East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh) where the country literally slaughtered around three million civilians and raped more than four hundred thousand women. Pakistan’s contribution towards terrorism in the form of Good Taliban and Bad Taliban is well known worldwide. And still, the US, the UK, the UN and Europe still conducts business with the nation, still invites the country in various events. Why? So, my simple and straightforward question three is, why is West not willing to isolate Pakistan but is so eager to isolate Russia?

Do the lives of civilians our part of the world less important than the lives in Europe? And even after all this, they have the audacity to ask India to choose sides. Diplomacy and foreign affairs is a two way street. Isn’t it?

These are my three questions that every Indian should be asking to themselves and others.

Thanks for taking out time and reading the article. If you enjoyed the article and find some merit in it, please do share it with your family and friends. Also, please follow my blog if not done already, so as to get the notification of my next post which will talk about the role of the USA’s foreign policy in creating chaos in the rest of the world.

Also read:

• Can Taliban 2.0 get Kashmir for Pakistan?
• ASAT, ABM and the shifting Nuclear Paradigm