Opposition as India skips Russia resolution vote: 'Stood on same side as China'

 Ukraine crisis: Eleven nations favoured the resolution while China and the UAE, apart from India, skipped voting.

India skipped voting against Russia as a resolution to halt troops in Ukraine was taken up at an emegency meeting at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). While Moscow vetoed the resolution, the US and many other nations used the platform to corner the Kremlin as it continues attack on the Ukrainian capital that has been on edge amid fresh explosions since Saturday morning.

TS Tirumurti, the permanent representative to the UN, said India chose to abstain on the UNSC resolution on Ukraine because the path of diplomacy was given up.

Eleven nations favoured the resolution to stop the war in Ukraine while China and the UAE, apart from India, skipped voting. India’s Permanent Representative to UN, TS Tirumurti, gave a point-by-point breakdown on the reason of abstention. Speaking on an urgent need of dialogue and sovereignity of states, Tirumurti said: “It is a matter of regret that the path of diplomacy was given up. We must return to it. For all these reasons, India has chosen to abstain from the resolution.”

However, some opposition leaders like Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi criticised the decision to skip voting. In a series of tweets, she also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. “Abstain in voting against a war doesn’t make your relationship better but makes your principles weaker against violence&human rights violations.Tomorrow it could be us not getting support against China. Today we stood on the same side as China,that speaks loads about our FP. 1/2,” she wrote.

But she also criticised the UN and other nations for not doing enough for Ukraine to stop the war. Having said that, besides a resolution condemning Russia’s action what is UN’s role going to be to help Ukraine on ground? Ally countries are expressing words of support but have left Ukraine alone to defend&fight for itself. UN will need to relook at its relevance in the NWO. 2/”

Congress’s Shashi Tharoor was another opposition leader to voice his concern. “India says it can evacuate from neighbouring countries, but how can Indian students get to the border? Any help from the beleaguered Ukrainian authorities to facilitate their exit is all the more unlikely after India’s UN abstention. (sic).”

An Indian-American Congressman also urged for India to stand with Ukraine. “In 1962, President (John F) Kennedy stood with India against China’s invasion. It is the US, not Russia, that will stand with India against China’s current expansionist plans,” Khanna tweeted on Friday.

“This is the time for India to stand with the free word (sic) against Putin. Abstention is not acceptable,” said the three-term Democratic Congressman from California.

The Ukraine war is one of the worst that Europe has seen in decades. About 16,000 Indians are also in the country and the government is trying to use alternative routes to bring them back.