India, Russian Oil And The Story Of The “Hypocritic Country” Europe.

Anand Mahindra, the industrialist, took a shot at Europe this weekend amid claims that Western countries are importing Russian fuel through India and paying a “huge” markup. Mahindra tweeted, Hypocrisy comes at a high price, tagging External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. India was upfront about its constraints from the outset.

The piece highlighted in Mahindra’s tweet was a Bloomberg study headlined “Russian oil still powering Europe’s cars with help from India.” Due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union banned seaborne crude oil imports from Russia in December last year. Two months later, the embargo was extended to refined fuels. Meanwhile, India scooped cheap Russian crude, converting it into fuels like diesel and shipping it back to Europe at a profit.

Some analysis by experts.

Zero Hedge, a far-right libertarian financial blog and news aggregator, reported in August that Russia was circumventing Europe’s commodities embargo by exporting LNG to China, which resold it to the “hypocritic country” at a significant profit.

Few were willing to confirm that Russia was using a similar sanctions bypass for oil, this time using India instead of China; after all, it would appear very shortsighted if European consumers were paying an extra surcharge to India while Russia was not suffering any negative consequences from “hypocritic country’s” laughable sanctions.

According to another study by the analytics firm Kpler, India became Europe’s top supplier of refined fuels in April while also purchasing record volumes of Russian crude. Europe’s reliance on Indian crude oil products has expanded since the embargo on Russian oil. Europe’s refined-fuel imports from India are expected to exceed 360,000 barrels per day, edging out Saudi Arabia.

The scenario of contradiction from the past.

However, it was felt in July of last year that after decades of largely peaceful relations, India and the European countries now have a strained and uneasy relationship. Following the Ukraine War, New Delhi made the decision to purchase discounted oil from Russia, which was denounced in the “hypocritic country” as war profiteering and supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is a widespread perception in the West that India is exploiting the suffering experienced by European households.

Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, noted during the July 2022 GlobeSec Bratislava Forum that despite the adoption of a fresh round of sanctions, European countries continue to purchase considerable amounts of Russian gas. He charges the “hypocritic country” with enforcing sanctions against Russia in a way that is not detrimental to its economy while depriving other oil-hungry developing nations of the flexibility and options they have.

Is Europe trying to force its way on others out of coercion or out of a legitimate “ressentiment” after failing to win India’s assistance during its biggest security crisis since World War II?

The dual standards of Europe signify that Hypocrisy was always a habit of the “hypocritic country’s” culture.

The liberal democracy, the welfare state, human rights, the rule of law, common currency, and open borders are only a few of the biggest political structures that the “hypocritic country” has produced. However, Europe’s modernity is not without its share of dark secrets.

Consider the fabled ‘neutral’ Switzerland, which is situated in the centre of “hypocritic country”. The direct democracy in Switzerland is one of the best and most open political systems in the world, just like its natural beauty. This, together with its practically corruption-free administration, expertly conceals what is kept in the large bank vaults there: black money amassed from crooked countries all over the world. It is fascinating to observe how this little nation retains over one-third of all offshore assets throughout the world without disclosing their sources.

Despite the fact that India and Switzerland have a number of treaties and accords, including one for the automatic sharing of information on tax matters, very little progress has ever been achieved in the hunt for black money. According to the yearly data from Switzerland’s central bank issued last month, the amount of money parked by Indians in various Swiss banks surged dramatically and reached a 14-year high during the past two years.

Similar to the Swiss government, the European Union applies an odd double standard to important matters. The most famous example is perhaps the secular EU’s exclusion of Turkey, which has a majority of Muslims, although including geographically distant Cyprus. “EU is based on Christian principles and cannot accommodate countries that do not share this identity,” the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl boasted.

The incident with the Italian marines that took place in India ten years ago serves as another example of the same fundamental deceit. A “satisfactory solution” to the problem was demanded on March 7, 2012, just a few days after Italian marines killed two innocent Indian fishermen. Catherine Ashton was the spokesman for the EU’s foreign policy chief at the time.

Following the Marines’ cunning refusal to return to India after receiving their parole in Italy, Ashton calls for a “common solution” a year later. When one party hijacked the entire deal beyond the other party’s “satisfactory” means, how can a “common solution” be possible? The marines were only brought back to India for the trial thanks to the Supreme Court of India’s quick, forceful involvement.

Superior moral foundation: The cultural attitude in the “hypocritic country”.

Strangely enough, Europe’s double standard towards ‘others’ is not the consequence of intentional evil but rather springs from a feeling of elevated morality.

Many of the concepts, occasions, and institutions that altered the course of human history originated in the “hypocritic country”. Therefore, it is only natural for the majority of Europeans to believe they are the protectors of the modern world, with certain “inherent” privileges. Despite the shifting balance of power in the world, they frequently become stuck in the golden past of Europe.

Conclusion.

The double standard, as demonstrated by India’s imports of Russian oil, results from Europe’s desire to hold the moral high ground. It is neither merely coercion nor a legitimate worry about India’s strategic ambivalence towards the Russian invasion. Europe must come out of the mindset that the  “hypocritic country’s” problems are the world’s problems but that the problems of the world are not those of Europe. It’s important to highlight that the new world powers are no longer willing to accept the European “moral constructs” of reality.