India’s leadership aspiration of Global South suffers a credibility gap

Several recent developments indicate that India is gradually losing its leadership of the Global South.

India’s leadership role in multilateral organisations of the Global South, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS, is increasingly weakening. Unless it re-examines its foreign policy, India may find it increasingly difficult to balance its pursuit of ‘strategic autonomy’ and bloc-politics of the Global South. Nearer home, in SAARC, India spent years painting Pakistan as the problem. Now, its neighbours are exploring regional alternatives with China’s help.

When this is considered in conjunction with India’s selective advocacy of the problems of the Global South, it seems that its leadership aspirations suffer from a credibility gap.

India’s abstention on several UN resolutions for ceasefire in Gaza, muted response to Israeli and US attacks on Iran, and unwillingness to take a stand on the Dalai Lama’s succession and the autonomy of Tibet, suggest that it prioritises realpolitik over a principled Global South identity.

If India continues to avoid taking a stand on contentious issues by sidestepping them, its opportunistic and self-serving behaviour is likely to be seen as unprincipled. The nations of the Global South will not stand by it.

Consider, for example, the recently-concluded meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO in China’s Tianjin port city. In the Chinese readout when the meeting concluded, there was no condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack — something that India desperately sought.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wanted the SCO foreign ministers to condemn the Pahalgam attack unequivocally. He reminded them that the SCO was founded to combat the ‘three evils’ of terrorism, separatism, and extremism.

What he got were homilies about good neighbourliness. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told the meeting, “Be friendly and good neighbours. ... To achieve good neighbourliness is to help oneself. Being friendly and good neighbours should be the common practice of member states.” Practical advice which brings no solace to India.

In June, India refused to sign a joint statement of the SCO after it failed to condemn the Pahalgam attack. Pakistan’s presence in the SCO and the backing it receives from China mean that India cannot hope to get the SCO to condemn specific terrorist acts allegedly directed from Pakistan.

Another multilateral organisation where India is losing ground is BRICS. India is scheduled to take over the presidency of BRICS in 2026. This will provide India with an opportunity to recalibrate its role in the group. There are already tall claims of redefining BRICS to stand for  ‘Building Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability’. However, India’s behaviour in BRICS is already under scrutiny.

India’s support for Israel (although it co-signed a BRICS statement condemning Israeli attack on Gaza), its silence on US-led destabilisation of the global trade regime, non-endorsement of a BRICS currency and opposition to the de-dollarisation efforts have led to a loss of credibility. There is disquiet over India’s lack of enthusiasm under the Brazilian presidency of BRICS for taxing the super-rich. India also resisted the Chinese push for expansion to bring in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others into BRICS.

While other BRICS members have reacted to threats emanating from the White House to impose 10% additional tariffs on member countries for being against US interests, India has maintained conspicuous silence.

Now, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has repeated the threat of additional tariffs if India, China, and Brazil continue to do business with Russia. India and China are the top importers of Russian crude. These threats come at a time when India is deep in trade negotiations with the US.

No wonder then that Paulo Batista, former Vice President of the BRICS New Development Bank, has said that India was a “major problem” in BRICS, suggesting but stopping short of saying that India was seen as a ‘Trojan Horse’ because of its close alignment with US interests.

India can argue that it does not believe in being anti-West (as Russia and China would like BRICS to be) but sees it instead as a counterbalancing non-Western bloc. However, that does not justify its moral ambiguity on other crucial issues.

Take the case of Palestine. India’s position has shifted from being explicitly pro-Palestine to leaning towards Israel to the extent that its support for the Palestinians is limited to symbolic humanitarian aid and ritual reference to the two-state solution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first world leaders to express solidarity with Israel after the October 2023 Hamas attack. India subsequently made no real effort or supported UN initiatives calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Global South is also well aware of the burgeoning India-Israel ties — India is the largest purchaser of Israeli arms, and its current rulers want to emulate Israel in more ways than one.

While India walked a tightrope, China asserted its leadership of the Global South, leveraging the Israel-Palestinian conflict becoming an advocate of the Palestinian cause. It hosted representatives of Arab and other Muslim-majority nations to push for a Gaza ceasefire, condemned Israel’s genocidal war as “collective punishment” and amplified the Palestinian cause in BRICS forums. In the UN, China consistently called for Gaza ceasefire and presented itself as an advocate for peace in West Asia.

Even in South Asia, India is sought to be outmanoeuvred by attempts to create an alternative to a dysfunctional SAARC. Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh have mooted the idea of a regional bloc to replace SAARC, focussing on economic integration, infrastructure, and connectivity.

If the bloc comes into being, although that is not certain as of now, it could reshape South Asian regionalism, dividing the countries of the region into pro- and anti-India camps.

One could argue that India’s foreign policy today is shaped by economic pragmatism and the pursuit of strategic autonomy. While it cultivates the US, Israel, and the Western nations, India also wants the leadership of BRICS, SCO, and the African nations. This is projected as navigating and promoting multipolarity.

However, when India does not stand for the interests of the Global South at critical moments, it leads to uncomfortable questions about its consistency and moral conviction.

Bharat Bhushan is a New Delhi-based journalist.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.