"President Putin’s statesman-like outreach to the West, his philosophical understanding of its challenges, problems and mindset, his leader-like formulation of the new global order and the need to understand its needs and some of the hard truths he conveyed, must attract the attention of thinking minds across the world. Especially those engaged with the new (global) order that is seeking to take shape," said Dr. Ganguly.
"Among the many striking and thought-provoking remarks and arguments that President Putin made, was one that was particularly striking. Speaking of the Eastern philosophies, he argued that these always encouraged a ‘searching for the harmony of interests’ as opposed to a conflict of interests," he stated.
Ganguly described the Russian President as a "global leader" for reiterating that Moscow didn't consider the West as an "enemy". He noted that Putin once again called for "collective addressing" of common challenges facing humanity such as social inequality, demography, food insecurity and climate change among others.
"While the West spoke of the ‘end of history’, President Putin argued, not only did history not end, but it entered a new phase. This new phase [questions] the global minority that wants to preserve its dominance," Dr. Ganguly quoted Putin as saying.
Quoting one of India's leading public intellectuals S Gurumurthy, Dr. Ganguly said that the "one-size-fits-all model thus was an agenda to destroy traditional societies and turn them into market societies.
Dr. Ganguly noted that after decades of dragging its feet on imposing the 'one-size-fits-all approach', the UN was forced to finally abandon the idea in 2013 amid criticism of UN-led developmental programmes for failing to take into account the cultural settings of different countries.
"President Putin candidly observed that the world does not tolerate a deafness towards the uniqueness of others. That uniqueness has to be recognised and given space, otherwise, the exercise will be a futile one, it will only be a dialogue of the deaf. The world today cannot afford a hollow, aimless, artificial dialogue of the deaf," Dr. Ganguly noted.