By Dr.Sawraj Singh
The fourth BRICS summit just started in New Delhi. From the first summit in Moscow, ten years ago, the world has come a long way. The western-dominated unipolar world is facing a severe crisis, and the dual trends of the West’s decline and the East’s rise are becoming very clear. While the West is facing decline in its share of the world’s GDP, trade, global foreign reserves, and contribution to the economic growth, the East is rising.
BRICS is becoming the central axis of the emerging Eastern alliance. While Brazil is geographically not a part of the East, yet the core of BRICS is formed by Russia, China, and India. Therefore, in essence this alliance can be called the Eastern alliance. Moreover, the word East here can also be used metaphorically to emphasize that this emerging alliance wants to challenge the western domination. The joining of South Africa, the largest African economy, really gives it a global character with representation from Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. The traditional third world (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) has joined the most powerful European country to challenge the American hegemony.
BRICS is becoming a formidable force. It has more than 40% of the world’s population, about 20% of the world’s GDP, more than 15% of the world’s trade, about 75% of the world’s foreign reserves and more than 50% of the world’s economic growth. Not only are these statistics very impressive, but they will continue to change in its favor and the West’s share is going to continue to decline.
The present, western-dominated unipolar world order under American hegemony is based upon inequality, hypocrisy, and double standards. The western countries do not respect sovereignty and independence of the other countries. Under the pretext of human rights, the western countries are blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. They are neither sincere nor dedicated to the cause of human rights; their only motivation is greed, such as securing their oil supply or looting the natural resources of the third world countries.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, India has practically deserted its policy of non-alignment and joined the western alliance, particularly the most reactionary forces in the West: the U.S. and Israel.
Whereas India should be working for changing the present, western-dominated world institutions such as the UN, IMF, and the World Bank, it is actually helping to maintain the status quo. The two recent Indian votes in the UN showed that India has not taken principled stands. First, the vote on Syria, where the western countries are inciting violence and terrorism to push the country to a civil war, which can eventually lead to a change in regime and installation of a pro-western puppet government. Second, the vote on Sri Lanka; again India voted on the side of the western countries and against not only the third world countries, but against all of its neighbors. The vote on Sri Lanka can have the impact of further decreasing India’s influence in South Asia, with China continuing to increase and consolidate its influence in South Asia.
India has to seriously reconsider its policy of tilting toward the West and alienating its natural allies. Such a policy cannot be in the fundamental interests of the Indian people. We sincerely hope that the fourth summit of BRICS will act as an eye-opener for India to see the obvious, that the West is declining and the East is rising. India’s alliance with the US and Israel is not only wrong from the point of view of principles, but is also wrong from a practical point of view. History has proved repeatedly that nations and countries have suffered tremendously by joining the wrong alliances. India is the founding member of BRICS, and the future belongs to BRICS. India should give up the declining forces and join the rising forces such as BRICS.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
