Indian analyst says BRICS summit was failure, questions Modi’s diplomacy
Ajai Shukla says India’s distancing from China undermines BRICS cooperation
New Delhi: Senior Indian journalist and editor of The Principal India, Ajai Shukla, has sharply criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the 2026 BRICS summit, saying India’s reluctance to work closely with China has limited the grouping’s potential and exposed weaknesses in New Delhi’s foreign policy.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Shukla made the remarks while speaking on a programme hosted by Haider Hayat Khan, where he questioned the practical gains India had achieved from BRICS and criticised what he described as the Modi government’s preference for projecting diplomatic symbolism over securing substantive outcomes.
Shukla said BRICS had failed to deliver meaningful benefits for India, despite the BJP government’s repeated claims that Modi had emerged as a global leader. He argued that the summit largely became a platform for ceremonial engagements, photographs and speeches rather than producing concrete economic and diplomatic gains for India.
He also questioned India’s approach towards China, its largest economic neighbour, saying that avoiding closer economic and technological cooperation with Beijing weakens trade and development opportunities within the BRICS framework.
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The Indian analyst further criticised New Delhi’s foreign-policy positioning over Russia and Iran, arguing that Modi’s approach had exposed contradictions in India’s claims of pursuing an independent foreign policy. He said developments involving Russia and Iran demonstrated the constraints facing New Delhi as it sought to balance relations with major global powers.
Shukla also linked Modi’s approach towards Iran during the BRICS summit to concerns about Russia and China, saying New Delhi could not afford to ignore the positions of the two major BRICS powers.
He questioned the repeated projection of India as a rising global power against the backdrop of domestic economic and employment concerns. Shukla pointed to unemployment and the availability of very low-paid jobs as evidence of a gap between the government’s international image-building and conditions faced by ordinary Indians.
His comments came amid wider criticism of the Modi government’s handling of the BRICS summit and its efforts to project India as an influential global power. Reports also highlighted public inconvenience in New Delhi caused by extensive security arrangements, road restrictions and measures around the summit venue.
Shukla’s remarks have therefore brought attention to questions over whether India’s BRICS diplomacy under Modi is translating its international visibility into concrete economic, technological and strategic gains, particularly at a time when cooperation among major emerging economies is increasingly shaped by relations between China, Russia and other member states.KMS
