Former minister of state for external affairs and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said India undermined its own leadership of the G20 by not managing to get finance ministers of the member countries to agree on a communique in Banglaore last weekend.

In an interview to journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news portal, Tharoor said: “India undermined its own leadership of the G20 in order to placate the Russians. And, indeed, the Russians issued a statement thanking India for its ‘constructive role’ in not using the word ‘war’. Now, this is getting absurd.”

The news agency PTI had reported from Bangalore on Friday that “host India wants the geopolitical tension to be referred to as a ‘crisis’ or a ‘challenge’ while the US and other western nations want nothing short of ‘war’ to go in the communique” that was to be issued on Saturday evening.

“This is really something which India ought to be embarrassed about,” Tharoor said in the interview, contending that the Indian team should have explained to the Russians that they had to give in on the word “war” to bring about a consensus so that everyone could have a statement to sign on as was the case in Bali last year at the G20 summit.

“This was an example where India’s nerve failed.... Not having an agreed communiqué is a bigger failure for a chairman than having a communiqué with a word that displeases a friend.”

No communique could be issued after the first meeting of G20 finance ministers as Russia and China were opposed to the inclusion of paragraphs condemning the Russian aggression on Ukraine. Instead, a “Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document” was issued in which the Bali communique’s paragraphs on the Russia-Ukraine war were included with a note that Russia and China opposed their inclusion.

According to Tharoor, India could have told the Russians that as the Chair, New Delhi has to be attentive to the wishes of the majority of delegates who want to say that the war should end.

Further, he said, India could have told the Russians that “we will ensure that there is no condemnation of you, we will ensure there’s no sanctions proposed, we will not have you named in person”. But to say there’s a war in Ukraine and it ought to end is bromide; it’s motherhood and apple pie. For god’s sake, don’t stand in the way. Why we failed to do that is to my mind an absolute setback for the kind of Indian diplomacy I’ve been used to seeing....”

Pointing out that India used to have a reputation of punching above its weight, Tharoor added: “We were not a considerable force either economically or militarily throughout the 1950s and early 60s but people listened to us. We were involved in a whole lot of issues mediating crises far far away from us because we had that kind of moral stature, the reputation for sticking to principles, Today’s India is sadly a very, very far cry from that. Not only are we not punching above our weight, we are actually punching far below the weights that we like to boast about having acquired in the last decade or two.’’

He expressed apprehensions of this stance jeopardising India’s interests if China forcibly takes any part of Indian territory. “It may be very difficult to drum up support and sympathy from the very countries who are feeling let down by our choice of vocabulary as well as our lack of principle and firmness on taking positions that could have upheld India’s own interests while at the same time upholding the principles we have always stood for.’’

Moreover, he expressed apprehensions about how much Russia can be of use to India in such an eventuality. “We are vulnerable now in terms of our need for a country like Russia which is becoming more and more — thanks to its war — a junior partner of China which is our adversary. So we are now locked ourselves into a corner that is less and less favourable for our strategic posture. I don’t expect Russia to support us against China if we are in a conflict anymore because they need the Chinese far more than they need us.

“We haven’t asked ourselves enough tough questions about the consequences of the stand we have taken so far. It’s been an expedient stand; I agree we have not suffered in the short term but how long is it sustainable?’’ Tharoor wondered aloud, underscoring that the Ukraine war had exposed India’s strategic vulnerabilities in a tough neighbourhood.