An Unwanted Past

There are clear signs that India prefers BRICS to SAARC.

Just a fortnight before it was due to host a summit that represents its ostensible coming of age on the global stage, India pulled out of an event that for it was the detritus of an unwanted past. The BRICS grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is India’s bold effort in league with like-minded countries, to step up to the world stage and bridge the power deficits emerging in the transition from a unipolar architecture. That clearly is where India wants to be, the kind of company it wants to keep. The West represents the apex of power aspirations, but Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa—which with India make up the BRICS grouping—are good company to keep, while awaiting a permanent place at the high table.