By Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan
India’s decision to abstain in a U.N. vote over Libya this time last year has hurt the country’s moral standing. Why vote against democracy?
Last March, India abstained in a vote over enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya, a move that ultimately signaled the beginning of the end for Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. A year later, though, and it’s clear that India gained little from the move – and may actually have done itself some considerable diplomatic harm in the process.
Of course, India has since (reluctantly) voted for a U.N. Security Council resolutioncondemning Syria, and it’s abstention (along with China) ended up meaning little in the grand scheme of intervention in Libya – European assistance to Libyan rebels still changed the balance of power in the conflict, and paved the way for the Libyan rebels to overthrow the Gaddafi regime. And, although Libya is far from stable, the rebels’ eventual victory to a certain extent negated any immediate harm that might have come from India’s reticence.
And yet it’s clear that India’s vote will have long-term consequences for the country’s strategic standing.
Read the full story at The Diplomat