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By:

Akhilesh Sinha

25 June 2025 at 2:53:54 pm

India's multi-align diplomacy triumphs

New Delhi: West Asia has transformed into a battlefield rained by fireballs. Seas or land, everywhere echoes the roar of cataclysmic explosions, flickering flames, and swirling smoke clouds. et amid such adversity, Indian ships boldly waving the Tricolour navigate the strait undeterred, entering the Arabian Sea. More remarkably, Iran has sealed its airspace to global flights but opened it for the safe evacuation of Indians.   This scene evokes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's memorable 2014...

India's multi-align diplomacy triumphs

New Delhi: West Asia has transformed into a battlefield rained by fireballs. Seas or land, everywhere echoes the roar of cataclysmic explosions, flickering flames, and swirling smoke clouds. et amid such adversity, Indian ships boldly waving the Tricolour navigate the strait undeterred, entering the Arabian Sea. More remarkably, Iran has sealed its airspace to global flights but opened it for the safe evacuation of Indians.   This scene evokes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's memorable 2014 interview. He stated that "there was a time when we counted waves from the shore; now the time has come to take the helm and plunge into the ocean ourselves."   In a world racing toward conflict, Modi has proven India's foreign policy ranks among the world's finest. Guided by 'Nation First' and prioritising Indian safety and interests, it steadfastly embodies  'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' , the world as one family.   Policy Shines Modi's foreign policy shines with such clarity and patience that even as war flames engulf West Asian nations, Indians studying and working there return home safe. In just 13 days, nearly 100,000 were evacuated from Gulf war zones, mostly by air, some via Armenia by road. PM Modi talked with Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian to secure Iran's airspace for the safe evacuation of Indians, a privilege denied to any other nation. Additionally, clearance was granted for Indian ships carrying crude oil and LPG to pass safely through the Hormuz Strait. No other country's vessels are navigating these waters, except for those of Iran's ally, China. The same strategy worked in the Ukraine-Russia war: talks with both presidents ensured safe corridors, repatriating over 23,000 students and businessmen. Iran, Israel, or America, all know India deems terrorism or war unjustifiable at any cost. PM Modi amplified anti-terror campaigns from UN to global platforms, earning open support from many nations.   Global Powerhouse Bolstered by robust foreign policy and economic foresight, India emerges as a global powerhouse, undeterred by tariff hurdles. Modi's adept diplomacy yields notable successes. Contrast this with Nehru's era: wedded to Non-Aligned Movement, he watched NAM member China seize vast Ladakh territory in war. Today, Modi's government signals clearly, India honors friends, spares no foes. Abandoning non-alignment, it embraces multi-alignment: respecting sovereignties while prioritizing human welfare and progress. The world shifts from unipolar or bipolar to multipolar dynamics.   Modi's policy hallmark is that India seal defense deals like the S-400 and others with Russia yet sustains US friendship. America bestows Legion of Merit; Russia, its highest civilian honor, Order of St. Andrew the Apostle. India nurtures ties with Israel, Palestine, Iran via bilateral talks. Saudi Arabia stands shoulder-to-shoulder across fronts; UAE trade exceeds $80 billion. UN's top environment award, UNEP Champions of the Earth, graces India, unlike past when foreign nations campaigned against us on ecological pretexts.   This policy's triumph roots in economic empowerment. India now ranks the world's fourth-largest economy, poised for third in 1-2 years. The 2000s dubbed it 'fragile'; then-PM economist Dr. Manmohan Singh led. Yet  'Modinomics'  prevailed. As COVID crippled supply chains, recession loomed, inflation soared and growth plunged in developed countries,  Modinomics  made India the 'bright star.' Inflation stayed controlled, growth above 6.2 per cent. IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas praised it, advising the world to learn from India.

Sacred Provocations

A recent video of Muslim women offering namaz within the grounds of Pune’s iconicShaniwarwada fort palace-complex has ignited needless controversy amid the festive Diwali season. Built in 1732 by Peshwa Baji Rao I as the seat of the rapidly expanding Maratha power, its stone ramparts once echoed with the ambitions of empire. Three centuries later, they again now echo with the shrill sounds of political theatre.


Shaniwarwada, after all, is not a mosque. It is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). It is a relic of Maratha pride, not a site of prayer. Within hours of the video surfacing, it became a hotbed of political opportunism.


BJP Rajya Sabha MP Medha Kulkarni marched in with Hindu activists and ‘purified’ the spot with cow urine. Predictably, the Opposition, especially the Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party condemned Kulkarni’s act as “polarisation ahead of civic polls.”


The question here arises is what business did anyone have offering prayers - of any faith - inside a heritage fort? The Shaniwarwada is not a mosque, not a dargah, not a shrine. To perform religious rituals there is unwarranted provocation.


The choice of this site, and the timing of this act – around Diwali – deepen suspicions as to whether the incident was part of a conspiracy to fray Pune’s social fabric ahead of the civic polls?


Those who performed it knew the symbolism. They knew this act would ignite controversy, particularly in a city steeped in Maratha history. And they also knew how the responses would be framed. That any objection would be branded as ‘communal.’


Imagine, for a moment, the reverse. If a group of Hindus were to perform an aarti in Delhi’s Jama Masjid, or chant mantras within the courtyard of the Taj Mahal, how swift and ferocious would the outrage be? There would be editorials decrying ‘Hindu aggression’ and bemoaning ‘the death of pluralism’ and self-anointed secularists demanding apologies. Yet when the sanctity of a Hindu-associated monument is challenged, the same voices urge restraint, tolerance and ‘context.’


This asymmetry corrodes the very idea of equal respect among faiths. It is visible not only in the response to Shaniwarwada but in the debates that have gripped the country in recent years — from the Sabarimala controversy, where the centuries-old traditions of a Hindu temple were mocked as regressive, to the repeated defacement or trivialisation of Hindu symbols in art and media under the guise of ‘creative freedom.’


Just ahead of New Year’s Day on 2018, the provocative ‘Elgaar Parishad,’ organised by an alliance of self-styled ‘progressive’ groups, had used the same Shaniwarwada as a stage for open provocation and grandstanding, sparking caste tensions that led to the Bhima Koregaon riots.


The government must therefore treat this incident seriously. This was not a harmless act of personal worship. The administration must investigate and punish those who authorised or instigated this calculated attempt to provoke or polarise.

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