(The article “Will BJP open its account in Kerala in upcoming general elections?” published in magazine Uday India in May 18, 2024 English edition)
Leading media agencies of India have forecasted that during the 18th Lok Sabha Elections to be held in 2024, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is more likely to win in the state of West Bengal due to a plethora of reasons which include fragmentation of INDIA Alliance, Sandeshkhali incident, land grabbing by TMC workers, violence on Hindu voters in Muslim dominated regions and lastly PM Modi’s visit to the religious site of Matua community in Bangladesh to name a few.
Once known as the business and cultural capital of Akhand Bharat, West Bengal has lost its position as both the administrative and the cultural hub of the country. Still, with a staggering population of 10 crore, it is one of the most densely populated places in the world and sends 42 members to the lower house of Parliament.
So, the spotlight is on West Bengal as its 42 Lok Sabha constituencies will vote in seven phases spread over 44 days, starting with the first phase on 19 April and ending with the final phase on 1 June.
Prepoll Predictions
Many mainstream news agencies such as CNN-News 18, News9Live, India TV, et al have put up pre-poll predictions and they are unanimous on one thing – besides retaining all the 18 seats that were won in 2019, the BJP is going to wrest seats from the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) as well. The only difference in the predictions is in the number of seats that the BJP is going to win additionally this time. The INDIA Alliance is badly divided and has not been able to strike a consensus.
While the TMC decided to fight it alone, the Congress Party has been targeting Mamata Banerjee more than Narendra Modi. So, this election will witness a tug-of-war between a strong BJP vying for the consolidated Hindu votes and its opponents competing to grab the minority votes that will get divided among the INDI Alliance partners.
As such, most opinion polls show the BJP winning a significant number of seats in West Bengal this time. Some pollsters even show the BJP winning 26 seats. According to News18’s Mega Opinion Poll, the BJP-led NDA may win 25 seats, and the TMC will bag the balance of 17 seats. News9Live puts the numbers at 26-16 in favour of the BJP. On the other hand, the India TV poll predicts a closer finish with 21 seats going to the BJP, 20 to the TMC, and one for the Congress Party.
Issues concerning Bengali voters
While BJP is focusing its campaign on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Sandeshkhali horror crimes, Mamata Banerjee is making the withholding of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee) dues by the Central government a major political issue.
TMC has already organized protests led by Abhishek Banerjee along with the party MPs, MLAs, Ministers, and MGNREGA workers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, which was followed by a five-day sit-in. On the other hand, the involvement of three TMC leaders in the sexploitation of Dalit Hindu women in Sandeshkhali village of 24 North Parganas will adversely affect the ruling party in a big way. Furthermore, some TMC leaders have resorted to land encroachments as they consider themselves to be above the law of the state. Hitherto, the TMC criminals had ruled the roost, unquestioned.
Meanwhile, Muslim-majority regions in West Bengal are characterized by massive ill-treatment of Hindus to which the police turn a blind eye because the state’s Home Ministry protects the wrong-doers and criminals of the so-called minority community. The entire female electorate and the Bhadralok (intellectual class) are enraged as the crimes in Sandeshkhali and the human rights violations against the Hindu population in Muslim-majority border districts went unheeded for long.
Lately, with the support of local BJP leaders, Governor CK Ananda Bose, and Hindu activist groups, women in the state have successfully organized protests against their tormentors and assailants. This is going to cost the TMC heavily in the upcoming polls. As a consequence, the BJP will win a majority of seats in Bengal’s urban heartland.
CAA and Matua tribes
In Bongoan, Cooch Behar, Nadia, Howrah, Malda, Siliguri, East Burdwan, and other places of north Bengal, where the Matua settlers (Dalit Hindus who relocated from Bangladesh) reside, the implementation of CAA this year is going to be a game changer as it will bring a significant number of votes in favour of the BJP.
Narendra Modi visiting the Matua Thakurbari Temple in Orakandi during his visit to Bangladesh was a signal of reassurance to the Matua community that he would support their cause. Furthermore, voters choosing ‘Raam’ instead of ‘Vaam’ (Left) is going to benefit the BJP in a big way.
However, to conduct free and fair polls in the Southeast and other border districts of Bengal, the Central government must ensure the deployment of adequate CRPF personnel and Paramilitary forces. Not only the polling stations but entire regions need to be under CRPF protection so that voters can safely reach the polling booths and cast their votes.
In many places, the polling booths may be well-secured and there may be no untoward incidents or violence but voters are likely to be prevented from reaching the polling booths by TMC goons, and their votes may be cast by impersonators. Chances of such fraudulent voting are high in Muslim-majority areas where law enforcement is inadequate.
So, ensuring that actual voters get to cast votes is essential for BJP’s victory. In conclusion, the 2024 General Elections in West Bengal will witness a strong contest with both the BJP and the TMC vying for supremacy. While prepoll predictions suggest a favourable outcome for the BJP, the final result remains uncertain, contingent on various factors including voter turnout, campaign strategies, and the resolution of key issues affecting the electorate.
(The article “Will BJP secure more seats than TMC in West Bengal in 2024 General Elections?” published in ‘Organiser’)
Confident of a win in the third term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his ministers during his latest cabinet meeting held on 17 March (Sunday) to chalk out an action plan for the first 100 days of the next term and also to draft a detailed roadmap for the next five years of what they need to achieve. Elaborating further, the Prime Minister said that the ministers can do so by engaging with officials and secretaries from their ministries to explore strategies for executing their policy agenda and to achieve the intended goals.
Call it optimism, willpower, or part of the meticulous and long-term planning of a visionary leader, Narendra Modi seems to be sure that he will make a formidable comeback as his second term comes to a close. Since Modi became Prime Minister in May 2014… from then until now… his government has had a commendable track record of good governance and service delivery across various sectors. Thus, his tenure hasn’t been that of empty promises. Whatever commitments were made in BJP’s Election Manifestoes have been fulfilled in a timebound manner.
For instance, the NDA government could streamline India’s tax system by implementing GST, target black money circulation and clean up the parallel economy through the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, boost domestic manufacturing through ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India’ campaigns, foster entrepreneurship and digital literacy through Digital India initiative. Modi government has also eliminated corruption in high places, abrogated Article 370 and scrapped 35A, abolished Triple Talaq, rebuilt the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and secured the borders in the Northwest and Northeast.
The BJP-led government’s other notable achievements include cleanliness and sanitation schemes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana aimed at financial inclusion, infrastructure projects like the Sagarmala and Bharatmala initiatives that are aimed at improving connectivity and transportation networks. On the foreign policy front, Modi’s administration strengthened ties with major powers and neighbouring countries. Furthermore, the federal government also focussed on renewable energy expansion with ambitious targets.
Why Modi needs a landslide victory
Now, let us look at why Narendra Modi needs to be given a third term as Prime Minister, and that too with a thumping majority of more than 400 seats. While economic development and security of the country are the top priorities in Modi’s bucket list, some other major challenges need to be dealt with on an urgent basis. For instance, the overall population of the second-largest majority community in India, which falsely claims to be a minority community in our country, is set to explode in a big way, unless brakes are put on their breeding machinery.
So, besides implementing a Uniform Civil Code and Population Control Bill, the political party or alliance that comes to power at the Centre after this Lok Sabha election will also have to redefine what constitutes a “Minority”. It will ensure that the second largest religious demographic component of the Indian population does not unduly get the benefits meant for the real minorities. Furthermore, the high-handedness of the Waqf Board and the sheer arrogance with which they have been encroaching on real estate, too has to be reined in.
Amendment of Articles 25 and 30
When the country was partitioned in 1947, the Constitution that was adopted, was almost entirely modelled on a Western template that assumed that a majoritarian society would hinder or hamper the growth of minorities. It did not take into account the fact that the Hindu society is intrinsically secular and diverse, and will never capitalise on its majority status nor impose itself on the minorities.
This was the reason why a small number of fierce warmongers were able to rule on this gentle giant of a civilization. The fact that the Hindu communities need to be protected, was never taken into account while framing the Constitution. As a result, while concrete steps were taken to protect the interests of minorities, no such efforts were made to protect Hindus because of which the latter were left entirely to their own resources. For example, Articles 25 and 30 are two such provisions that were supposed to ensure that the “minority” religions had the full freedom to proselytise, set up educational institutions, and propagate their religion.
While Article 25 guarantees freedom of religion, it is also indiscriminately used by Christians and Muslims to convert Hindus. Meanwhile, Article 30 allows them to set up missionary schools and madrassas to preach hatred towards Hindus. While missionary schools are foreign to the culture of Bharat, madrasa education is a relic of slavery and is deemed unacceptable in modern times.
Over the last seven decades, these two articles in the Indian Constitution have become instrumental in creating a skewed proportion of educational institutions funded by the taxpayer’s money but affiliated with minority religions. This, in turn, has created pockets all over the country, where Hindu communities are placed at a severe disadvantage, having no resources to save their own faith.
Such government funding for minority religions also meant that entire villages were often lured to convert to other religions that promised them financial assistance as well as social security. The fact that Hindus have become a minority in more than seven states in India, points to the need for steps to be taken to reverse this trend, or at least preserve what is left of the Sanatana Dharma culture.
Due to Article 25, some regressive and primitive medieval practices continue to be observed, such as Halala, Mu’tah, Taharrush, Talaq-e-Ehsan, Talaq-e-Ba’ain, and Talaq-e-Kinaya. Therefore, Articles 25, 29 and 30 should either be amended, revamped, or scrapped to put an end to regressive practices of religious conversions that are vestiges of slavery.
Preservation of heritage and historical perspective
In every continent where the invaders erased the native population, the invasion has been justified by the narrative that the dominant civilization was stronger and hence deserved to replace the natives. Such narratives are in vogue in Australia, America, and some other regions of the world. Bharat has survived the assaults of invaders, but we are still taught history from the perspective of the invader.
For example, there are many tenets of Advanced Mathematics and Astronomy that even universities of Europe attribute to mathematicians and astronomers of ancient India. The Leibniz series that gives the value of π has been renamed the Madhava-Leibniz series in honour of Madhava of Sangamagrama. While European scholars have no qualms attributing the Sine and Cosine series to Madhava, as he discovered them more than 300 years before Newton, students in India have not even heard of such brilliant mathematicians such as Neelakantha Somayaji and Jyeshthadeva.
Our students are ignorant of the fact that Jyesthadeva compiled the first treatise on advanced Calculus in the world, in a work called Yuktibhasha. These are just a few instances to emphasise why the entire curriculum of History taught in Indian schools needs to be revamped to make the youth of Bharat aware of the glory of their heritage and the common threads that bind them. This is something that has been neglected, with the focus being on divisive narratives that have only served to promote strife, instead of pride in Bharat’s glorious past.
Need for a Renaming Commission
Furthermore, there are thousands of reminders or remnants of slavery in the form of name boards of invaders and jihadis that persist in public spaces in Indian society. To reclaim our national identity, there is an urgent need to rename streets, roads, towns, and cities that are currently in the name of Babur, Aurangzeb, Lodhi, Tughlaq, Humayun, Tipu Sultan, Mahmud of Ghazni and others. To rectify historical injustices, these streets, roads, towns, and cities should be renamed after our native and unsung heroes and freedom fighters such as Rani Abbakka Devi, Rani Chennamma, Ahom Kings, Marthanda Varma, and others.
Doing so will symbolize a break from our colonial pasts, promote cultural pride, and foster unity by celebrating our indigenous culture and history. It will also create awareness among Indian youths about the resistance that was put up against colonialism and make them reject oppressive legacies.
Even if it is contentious, this is an essential step for promoting a shared narrative of resilience and cultural authenticity. It’s vital to initiate an inclusive dialogue while ensuring that the renaming initiatives respect the complexity of our nation’s history.
Hence, there arises a need to establish a Renaming Commission through legislative means. This commission would be tasked with systematically addressing and replacing any signage that perpetuates symbols of past colonial or imperial rule, thereby fostering a more culturally sensitive and historically accurate public space.
One Nation, One Election, One Administration
For the country to progress, all wasteful expenditures will have to be slashed. Currently, the process of mobilisation of the government machinery for the conduct of staggered elections to different state Assemblies is a huge drain on the government exchequer and a big distraction in the political calendar of our nation. Hence, there is a need to reduce its frequencies as the electoral process can be simplified and the polling expenses can be reduced to a fraction if elections to both the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies are conducted as a single process at the same time.
It will also help in the unification process of the country and significantly reduce the wastage of funds that can be utilised for development measures. As the One Nation, One Election concept for Parliament and the State Assemblies was in vogue from 1952 to 1967, our country can handle it much more successfully in modern times. Furthermore, India also requires an all-encompassing law that can cancel the citizenship of hardened criminals and thereby make them pay for the damages they inflict on the society, public property, and moral fabric of our nation. Meanwhile, One Nation, One Police is required for effective governance.
Unfortunately, the current bureaucratic structure also dates back to the days of slavery. For instance, the IAS, IPS, SHOs, Tehsildars, and SDMs all are being administered by the state governments according to the whims and fancies of the politicians in power. This is the reason why we desperately need a One Nation, One Administrative Code as it will significantly help in ending the colonial work culture prevailing in our Judiciary and Bureaucracy
Why NDA needs over 400 seats
For passing ordinary bills, the political party in power needs the support of only a simple majority of more than 50 per cent of members. However, to pass a bill that aims to amend the Constitution, a majority of the total membership of the House, and a majority of two-thirds of the members present and voting is necessary.
Meanwhile, Article 108 of the Constitution provides for a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament in certain cases, which can be convened by the President of India when one house has either rejected a bill passed by the other house, has not taken action on a bill transmitted to it by the other house for six months, or is in disagreement with the amendments proposed by the Lok Sabha on a bill passed by it.
Though the BJP-led NDA currently has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, it holds only 117 seats in the Rajya Sabha, which falls short by 4 seats of the 50 per cent majority mark of 121. Considering that the numerical strength of the Lok Sabha is 543 and that of the Rajya Sabha is 245, the BJP-led NDA government would need the support of roughly 526 members if a joint session of the two houses of Parliament is called by the President of India to pass any conflicting legislation.
Given its 117 seats in the Rajya Sabha, NDA would require more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha to reach the necessary threshold of 526 seats so that it can make essential amendments to the outdated Articles of the Constitution and set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it during the Congress Party rule of more than five decades.
Only then our nation will see a massive improvement in the quality of governance as well as rapid progress and development on all fronts. Hence, we Indian voters must give the BJP-led NDA more than 400 seats (out of 543) in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. As such, we need to promote ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar’, as a catchy campaign slogan to create a lasting impression in the minds of Indian voters so that they vote for the BJP-led NDA candidates in their constituencies
(The article “Why should voters give Modi govt a third term with more than 400 seats?” published in ‘Organiser’)
The CAA 2019, recently implemented by the Union Government through new rules, offers a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
The BJP-led Union Government notified the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 rules on March 11 2024, for granting citizenship through certificates of registration and naturalisation. Known as the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, these new rules aim to expedite the giving of citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim immigrants belonging to persecuted minority communities. This includes six different religions, such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Parsis from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, who had entered India on or before December 31 2014.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was initially passed in the Rajya Sabha on December 11 2019 and cleared the lower house two days earlier on December 9. Though the Bill does not affect Indian Muslims or their rights at all, the anti-BJP Opposition camp comprising the Indian National Congress, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, and others unleashed a steady barrage of misinformation campaigns through mainstream and social media in a bid to project it as anti-Muslim. It thereby sparked massive protests in some states, and the Bill has been put on hold until now.
Importance of CAA
With the unveiling of the new rules on March 11 2024, those eligible under the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 can now apply for the grant of Indian citizenship, marking a crucial step towards providing refuge to the displaced minorities from those above three Islamic nations. Thus, the CAA will provide a legal pathway to those belonging to the discriminated and persecuted communities, comprising Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis, to acquire Indian citizenship.
As such, the CAA can be viewed as a natural response and an appropriate means to address the concerns of the historical injustices and exploitations suffered by these displaced communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. It is a humanitarian gesture aimed at offering assistance, asylum, and citizenship rights in India to the vulnerable and persecuted minorities who have nowhere else to turn for refuge. By offering them a sense of security and belongingness, the CAA only provides sanctuary to those in need, thereby upholding India’s tradition of hospitality. The Citizenship Amendment Act also enables India to improve the plight of persecuted minorities while upholding its national commitment to pluralism, equality, secularism, and humanitarianism.
Why some sections oppose CAA
Though the CAA just aims to establish a framework for migrants who might have been considered “illegal” otherwise by providing them with the opportunity to apply for Indian citizenship if they fulfil certain conditions, the Act has faced opposition from some anti-BJP political parties. As part of their vote bank politics, the Chief Ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have threatened to prevent the implementation of the CAA in their states. They have taken this stand purely to appease their Muslim vote banks despite knowing very well that state governments have no scope to block the Union’s move as the Union Government is exclusively in charge of all matters related to granting citizenship, naturalisation, and other rights to immigrants and foreigners.
Furthermore, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a Kerala-based political party, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and its Rules until the apex court delivers its verdict on their constitutionality. Stating that the CAA Rules notified on March 11 create a “highly truncated and fast-tracked process” for the grant of citizenships to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, the IUML claimed in the petition that this move would make operational a “manifestly arbitrary and discriminatory” regime solely on the ground of religious identity.
IUML has also urged the registrar concerned to fix an urgent hearing of its petition.
Meanwhile, Union Home Ministry officials have asserted that the opposition expressed by some Chief Ministers of some states will have no impact on the implementation of the CAA and its rules as the authority to decide on issues related to citizenship vests with the Union Government. Furthermore, as the applications for citizenship have to be filed online, the procedure leaves no scope for the involvement of State government officials or local police.
What the future looks like
Knowledgeable sources say the Supreme Court is unlikely to quash the CAA or grant a stay against its implementation because the Bill became law only after marathon debates in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, where all the relevant points were extensively and passionately considered, examined and analysed thoroughly. Furthermore, the Union Government had made a sound case for its implementation by introducing historical elements into the debate.
Furthermore, soon after the CAA was passed in 2019, several petitions were filed by political parties, Muslim groups, and human rights activists in the Supreme Court challenging its constitutional validity. In response to those petitions, on January 22 2020, the apex court refused to put the CAA on hold. Then again, on May 20 2020, the apex court once again refused to stay the implementation of the CAA while responding to a fresh plea that it was not consistent with the Assam Accord, which was intended to prevent the local Assamese from becoming a demographic minority in their state
(The article “Why is the Citizenship Amendment Act necessary” published in ‘Organiser’)
RBI on May 19 decided to withdraw Rs 2000 banknotes from circulation. However, this decision is not similar to what happened in November 2016. The biggest difference is that Rs 2000 denomination banknotes will continue as legal tender.
On the official website of the US government, there is a page about ‘American money’. The page clearly mentions that the paper currency in the world’s largest economy comes in seven denominations, with the 100 dollar banknote as the biggest. This is followed by a statement that the US “no longer issues” larger denominations, including the 10,000 dollar bill, “but they are still legal tender”. In the circular dated May 19, 2023, issued by India’s central bank, the statement “banknotes in Rs 2000 denomination will continue to be legal tender” is in bolder text.
The reason is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not taken away the legal tender status of the Rs 2000 denomination banknote. This means that the public must exercise refrain before commenting that the decision on Rs 2000 banknotes is exactly similar to what happened in 2016 when the then circulating Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes were stripped of their legal tender status.
Decoding the latest decision of the RBI on Rs 2000 banknotes requires a little understanding of the macroeconomy and the current situation of the world economy. Let’s try.
Inflation and rising interest rates
In the same economy where the 10,000 dollar bill is discontinued but remains legal tender, the inflation situation is literally out of control. The US has recorded a multi-decade high inflation rate, with things like supply chain disruption due to the Ukraine conflict and strong consumer sentiment and spending capacity of members of the public contributing to prices going north. European countries are no different. From the Bank of England to the European Central Bank (ECB), virtually every central bank is on a record-setting spree of raising policy interest rates in a bid to manage inflationary pressures.
It is true that the expression ‘millions are choosing between heating and eating’ has become a political narrative in Britain. At the same time, the other problem is that advanced economies are facing the threat of an impending recession that can create new issues like subdued economic activity and joblessness. During such times, central banks typically favour a dovish stance, which means expansionary monetary policy measures like keeping policy rates low are adopted. By contrast, most central banks right now are stubbornly hawkish, with the interest rate in the US rising with every Fed meeting.
India is a country that subscribes to the globalisation model, and hence thinking that the Indian economy can remain untouched by the dominant global macroeconomic forces is foolish. Inflation in India is high, with nothing but global forces to blame, but in comparison to the situation in the US or other advanced economies, we are still faring better.
Banknotes and inflation
What causes inflation? Excessive money circulating in the economy is indeed one of the biggest factors that stokes inflation. More money creates more demand for goods and services (Indian food delivery company Swiggy recently announced that it turned profitable in record-setting time), which is why central banks hike interest rates during inflationary times so that borrowing becomes expensive. But this can create a new problem because higher rates make borrowing difficult even for businesses, which in turn slows down the economy.
Corporate earnings in the US and elsewhere are under intense pressure. Reason – higher rates are hampering credit growth. Is there any other option that is better than senselessly hiking interest rate in every policy meeting? Maybe yes. The Indian central bank seems to have taken the lead by taking away excessive liquidity from the economy without hiking the policy rate. The Rs 2000 banknote decision appears to have been adopted as a part of the same strategy.
Clean Note Policy
The expression ‘Clean Note Policy’ finds mentioned in the RBI circular, but virtually no one seems to be willing to discuss it in detail. The policy was introduced in 1999, and directives also included the discontinuation of stapling of currency notes/ packets. The only objective is to have clean banknotes in circulation so that the transacting parties do not resort to cancelling the transaction just because the banknote is soiled or mutilated.
It is easy to understand that because Rs 2000 denomination banknotes were not issued after March 2017 — the RBI circular clarifies — the currently circulating banknotes are now quite old and vulnerable to soiling. The solution was nothing but to withdraw these notes. What is different is that the central bank has made it clear that new Rs 2000 denomination banknotes would not be printed and circulated. The members of the public have more than four months to get their 2000 denomination banknotes deposited or exchanged with their banks. Where’s the inconvenience?
Conclusion
No, the decision of the RBI on Rs 2000 denomination banknotes is not exactly similar to what happened in November 2016. A few elements, like there is a deadline to get the concerned notes exchanged, are comparable. However, the biggest and most critical difference is that the RBI has expressly mentioned that Rs 2000 denomination banknotes “will continue as legal tender”. In fact, this statement is repeated four times in the circular so that it is not missed.
There is still some doubt about what the RBI plans to do with the legal tender status after the September 30, 2023, deadline. Still, suppose one looks at what the US government’s website says on higher denomination dollar banknotes. In that case, it seems quite possible that Rs 2000 denomination banknotes would continue to be legal tender even after September 2023, although not to be used in regular transactions by the public.
The RBI seems to have been motivated by two things — one is taking some measure that does not include raising the policy interest rate but still sucks excessive liquidity from the economy, and the second — expressly mentioned in the circular — is taking back notes under the Clean Note Policy. There is literally nothing to panic about. Instead, RBI’s prudence at a time when virtually every central bank of the world is puzzled about inflation and interest rates needs at least some applause.
(The article “Decoding RBI’s decision to withdraw Rs 2000 banknotes from circulation” published in ‘Organiser’)
The collapse of SVB is a big shock to the US earlier, New York-Based Signature Bank met with the same fate. As financial crisis looms large in the West, many countries are on the verge of a recession.
Troubles rarely come with a word of warning in advance. Little did anyone in the United States — the world’s richest economic powerhouse-know that trouble was brewing in their own country’s financial landscape when majority of their media houses were debating the Adani-Hindenburg controversy. First things first. It is a fact that bank collapse is not something to celebrate –even by the staunchest rivals of that country-because these institutions hold the hard-earned money of small businesses and households. The collapse of America’s start-up-focused financial institution, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), is however a moment of inquiry into a lot of things.
Was it bad management of the institution-critics are now saying that SVB concentrated too heavily on startup companies- or are rising policy interest rates in the US to blame? The latter seems more blame-worthy because the drop in the value of SVB’s holding of treasury bonds had dealt a blow to the share price of SVB Financial, which upset the deals that the bank was about to enter into with institutional investors to raise funds. But then, policy rate hikes in the US are widely expected to continue, at least during the first half of 2023, thanks to consistently high prices and a hot labour market.
Now, another big New York-based bank, Signature Bank, said to be serving largely to the highly speculative cryptocurrency industry, has also met the same fate in quick succession. The question is, are more financial institutions, especially regional and small to mid-sized banks, in the US and/ or Europe and other comparable economies under threat? Can the SVB event trigger a wider financial crisis just like what happened when Washington Mutual, considered ‘too big to fail’, was put under the receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2008?
SVB failure exposes vulnerabilities
The US financial system is largely considered fool-proof, with ability to mount immense resilience to unanticipated events like a deep economic downturn or defaults by some big-ticket borrowers. But is it? Impressive-sounding terms like startups, technology companies, breakthrough innovations were all there in the scene where the ill-fated SVB operated. Tech companies like Apple and Microsoft grew their market capitalisation in the post early-COVID-19 global market rally, but these and other big stocks could not sustain the gains when central banks across the world adopted a rigidly hawkish stance last year to deal with record-high inflation in their respective economies.
Underneath the apparently resilient us financial system. Lie Vulnerabilities that started to become visible in 2022 when people realised that cheap money days are over
Underneath what appears to be extremely resilient– either one talks about stocks listed on Nasdaq or NYSE, or future revenues prospects of big American companies like Walmart and Apple, or the country’s economy as a whole — are vulnerabilities that started to become visible in 2022 when people realised that cheap money (policy interest rates were kept at near zero levels in the US, Europe and most other advanced economies until last year) days are over. There are genuine fears that the SVB episode could prompt many depositors–across North America, Europe, and other locations–to withdraw money.
The FDIC insures only a limited amount of every deposit, which is also the situation in most other economies–advanced or emerging–and hence, depositors would not want to be in the same precarious situation as the customers of SVB. A bank run–a scene where a large number of depositors throng the bank to withdraw money, thereby causing the bank to struggle in meeting excess demand–is although not very likely, but nothing can be ruled out considering prevailing uncertainties in the global economy.
A broader fallout?
SVB was not among the top ten banks of America, nor it had a very broad customer base. It indeed has geographically distributed customers, some even in the Indian startup scene, but SVB’s downfall might not deal a major blow either to the global financial sector or the world economy. Banking stocks in the US, Europe and many other markets have been losing value in the aftermath, however being too much apprehensive can only worsen the situation for all stakeholders–bank depositors, equity market investors, financial institutions, the wider industry, and governments.
But there is also this growing fear that at least the advanced economies of the world could be hit in the near term, even if the shock is not as bad as the 2007-2008 financial crisis, which came at the same time when Washington Mutual collapsed. First, the economies of these advanced countries are behaving so abruptly that most predictions on next month’s price inflation or jobs market or wages or consumer sentiment data are proving wrong. Even the equity markets of these countries surprisingly gained in the first month of 2023, after a very bad year in 2022, and then started to pare gains in February.
Second, and perhaps a more powerful force, is the pace at which the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other monetary policy managers in advanced countries have increased interest rates after holding them low levels during the pandemic phase. Rising rates deal a big blow to the value of government bonds, which financial institutions hold as a part of their reserves. Separately, a deeper economic downturn that has until now remained out of the picture might hit in the latter half of 2023.
Conclusion
Troubles rarely come with a word of warning in advance. It is often the short-sightedness of watchdogs, managements, governments, and other stakeholders that trigger a collapse like the SVB event. It is pertinent to recall how the global media–including the BBC, which is gripped in its own Gary Lineker suspension controversy these days–chose to discuss India’s SBI and LIC’s holdings in Adani Group (stocks of which have posted a stunning rebound) and brushed their own problems under the carpet. That said, the solidly emerging economy of India – which has been receiving record FDI inflows over the past years –has nothing to worry. It is in fact time that foreign countries start recognising their own domestic problems instead of meddling in the affairs of others.
(The article “Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: Is West in whirlpool?” published in ‘Organiser’)
When India is attracting foreign investors and becoming stronger day by day, few opposition leaders are leaving no stone unturned to derail India’s path of progress
Mahabharata, the Sanskrit language epic, is also the world’s longest poem. The epics serves as a devotional, religious and philosophical guide, and at the same time, Mahabharata also informs us that even members from the same clan and community can be on the opposite sides of dharma. The fight between the Pandavas and the Kauravas involved no foreigner, with the former fighting for the cause of justice while the latter were driven by greed and revenge.
India of today is also fighting against forces that are from within the country, however, their allegiance is questionable. These forces are using all means — from inciting people to wage war against their democratically elected governments (left-wing extremism) to insulting the country and undermining its unity and democratic fabric on foreign soil (anti-national elitism). The latter was on display when a prominent face of the Indian Opposition recently claimed that “Indian democracy is under attack” while delivering a lecture at a prestigious college in the UK.
But should we worry too much about these negative forces that have always wanted to the keep the country in an alarming state to further their own political and financial goals? The Pandavas ultimately won the Kurukshetra War, but are the good forces winning in today’s India? Let us find out.
Make in India wins support from all quarters
Instead of reeling from the continuous onslaught by opposition parties and their leaders, India is shining brighter, thanks to the across-the-broad backing the country has managed to win from both within and outside. First, the electorate has pinned hopes on a political party that seeks to build a prosperous and resilient country in the least possible time. The election results from northeastern states corroborate the belief that Indians want to be led by upright and ambitious leaders — having traits of Yudhishthira –that prefer good governance and inclusive growth over vested interests and dynasticism.
Second, India is drawing so much support from outside of its soil that the country is soon expected to become the most formidable manufacturing powerhouse in the world. This is no rhetoric and numbers reflect the trust foreign investors hold. Official data informs us that annual foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased two-fold over the past nearly eight years since 2014. Not many in the electorate — who vote for the BJP simply because the party has displayed zero-tolerance for corruption — know that when the world economy was reeling from the Covid pandemic in 2020, India hit its highest in FDI.
From nearly US$82 billion in Financial Year 2020-21 (as compared to just US$45 billion in FY14-15), India again achieved the highest FDI inflows in FY21-22 with nearly US$85 billion. In fact, official data reveals that FDI has grown a massive 20-fold between FY2003-04 (US$4.3 billion)and FY ending 2022. Another stunning achievement was the GDP growth of 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of the pandemic financial year (in contrast to a sharp 24 per cent contraction during the first quarter).
From highest ever exports in FY21-22 to being the world’s epicenter in terms of startups and unicorns, India is shining, thanks to support from both within and outside.
Break outside India
If the ruling party at the centre and in most of the Indian states is preferring the Make in India initiative — supported by elements like reduction in compliance burden and focus on ease of doing business and incentivising of businesses — the Opposition seems to be preferring a ‘Break outside India’ tactic. The recent lecture at the Cambridge Judge Business School was probably an effort in the same direction. Also supporting the evil cause of Indian Opposition parties are a few outsiders like foreign headquartered news agencies and even equity sector market participants that are launching a strike on India’s political and economic integrity.
The Kauravas were no stranger to Hindus and in fact could have gone on to become heroes like the Pandavas had Kauravas also chosen the path of morality and public good. Similarly, many Opposition leaders during the present times are no stranger to Indians, but it is their insatiable greed that is distancing them increasingly from their own people. From creating hurdles in the parliament to misusing the right to approach the judicial system to partnering with some anti-Indian foreign forces, these India’s very own political parties are, in their state of panic and hopelessness, using all means to deal a blow to India’s new growth engine.
The good is winning, yet again
If Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata teach us innumerable good things, probably the greatest teaching is that virtue would always win over vice. Virtue would always find partners (the Pandavas had Lord Krishna on their side), and India’s FDI growth and increase in GDP output and other economic metrics show how the country is finding partners, both from within the country and outside of it, in its endeavour to script the new success story.
There is no denying that the Vision 2047 goal would be achieved under the leadership of right set of politicians. No matter how hard the Opposition tries to stifle the pace and spirit, India’s electorate and country’s foreign-based backers are unequivocally providing the requisite support.
(The article “Irresponsible Opposition crossing ‘Laxman Rekha” published in ‘Organiser’)
The term ‘arm’s length transaction’ is of extreme importance in the financial landscape of the modern world. This aspect of the Hindenburg Research’s report on the Adani conglomerate later, but first, a look at global macroeconomic data. And even before this data, here’s one unmissable comment from the recently concluded World Economic Forum Davos 2023 meeting. “Exceedingly well” – these were the words the Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) used when he referred to India’s present economic progress during the event.
The remarks of the BOJ Governor were seconded by many top global executives, including equipment maker Nokia’s CEO and telecom company Ericsson’s head. In fact, many prominent foreign publications, including CNBC, highlighted how India’s economic progress and anticipated advancements in the near future brought relief during the subdued Davos event that was largely overshadowed by fears of a global slowdown and inflationary pressures cutting across continents.
Bringing India down
Of late, prices have hovered at very high levels in almost every country, including most advanced countries like the US and the UK and emerging economies like China and India. This has eroded the purchasing power of households, which has hit demand and consumption. The housing markets of virtually all developed countries are facing correction both in terms of prices and sales volume. Overall, the US economy contracted during the first half of last year, while that of China was hit by severe headwinds in the full year of 2022.
On the other hand, India is expected to grow at a pace of nearly 6 per cent in FY 2023, which is twice China’s full-year 2023 growth figure of 3 per cent. Undeniably, the Adani Group – which has interests in virtually every major sector, including infrastructure (roads, port and logistics, airports), materials and metals (cement, copper, PVC), energy (renewables) and consumer goods (food and FMCG) – is set to play a vital role alongside conglomerates like Reliance and Tata in shaping the Indian economy and the financial well-being of Indian families in the near to medium term.
According to The Economist, “the (Hindenburg-Adani) episode has also drawn the world’s attention to one of India’s corporate success stories, and a significant motor of the country’s recent economic growth”. This, in fact, sums up the entire controversy
While the world is facing pressure from all sides, which includes a protracted war in Eastern Europe, India has its resilient consumer class and well-placed corporates to power its growth engine. This is probably not something that a few countries, especially sworn enemies like China and its ‘all-weather’ ally Pakistan, would want. Hindenburg Research’s report on Adani could be a possible attempt by a foreign enemy in a bid to derail the country’s growth engine.
Non-arm’s length transaction
The term ‘arm’s length transaction’ can be easily understood with an example from the real estate market. When the parties to a transaction are strangers, the agreed-upon property price is usually what the fair market value is. This is because each party is looking at its own interest and has no vested interest in the other. By contrast, if the deal involves two related parties at non-arm’s length, they can distort the price and manipulate the market. The question is, does Hindenburg Research have no vested interests?
Indeed, the New York-based firm has a lot at stake. It is a short seller, which means it bets on the prices of any particular company’s stock to fall in the near term. There is a famous episode of Hindenburg Research making money by short-selling electric truck manufacturer Nikola Corp’s stock. The firm published a negative report on the company’s tech developments, which led to a significant drop in the market cap of Nikola.
In this case too, by terming Adani Group “the largest con”, Hindenburg Research wants the share price to plummet and to book gains from this event immediately.
The intended outcome was attained when Adani’s stocks dropped sharply in the aftermath of the report, with even the Life Insurance Corporation’s and State Bank of India’s Adani exposure coming under pressure. How far this would go is a wait-and-watch game. However, the report has already done much damage, both pecuniary and non-pecuniary.
A malicious act
A leading publication, The Economist, has gone on to say, “(the Hindenburg-Adani) episode has also drawn the world’s attention to one of India’s corporate success stories, and a significant motor of the country’s recent economic growth”. This in fact, sums up the entire controversy. The report is a direct attack on India’s corporate landscape, of which Adani and other big entities constitute a significant part. While on the one hand, the report leads to direct pecuniary benefits accruing to the so-called whistle-blower that has shorted Adani’s stocks, on the other hand, it can deal a major blow to the country’s growth engine.
Separately, it is an attack that can have a far-reaching devastating impact on all Indian households because both private and public sector banks, in which these households keep their savings, have exposure to the Adani conglomerate. It is in the best interest of the country and its corporate class to fight back using legal means so that the mala fide intent – including Hindenburg Research’s profit by short selling and the bid to deal a blow to India’s economic growth amid a slowing world economy – is exposed.
(The article “Hindenburg Controversy: A Malafide intent to halt India’s economic growth” published in ‘Organiser’)
India, the place where the earliest civilisation began, is indeed a great nation. Politicians – either from the ruling party or the opposition – might sometimes use this ‘great nation’ rhetoric for votes, but it is no overstatement. We are a country where people from multiple faiths, linguistic preferences and lifestyles have lived as a family.
Ahead of neighbours
Resources might not be abundant, for example much of our crude is imported, but exports in Information Technology, textiles and other sectors have always helped maintain a healthy balance of trade. India, unlike nations like Sri Lanka or Pakistan, has never failed to honour any debt obligations. That we are a great nation is no rhetoric. That said, it is also imperative to realise that unless timely measures are undertaken with respect to things like population growth, the expression ‘India is great’ might one day actually become rhetoric.
Looming Population Crisis
No one can deny that our country is staring at a huge population crisis over the coming decades. No Government, regardless of the political party in power, can increase a nation’s resources beyond a certain capacity. If we do not have enough crude, we don’t have it, simple. Yes, we are rich in agriculture, but with unchecked population growth, this ‘abundance’ can soon vanish and become ‘scarcity’. Neglecting the crisis today could prove detrimental to our coming generations.
India has a written, codified law of the land, which we call the Constitution. It lends support to the social and economic development of the country. Any legislation passed by the ruling Government, either Central or of any State, that is not in sync with the Constitution can be challenged in the court of law and declared unconstitutional. Now consider what if our country did not have a written Constitution. Any ruling Government could have come up with a bizarre proposal, say the party in power at the Centre intending to infringe upon the freedom and rights of state legislatures, and it would have easily passed the constitutionality hurdle.
It is true that we would not have survived the whims and fancies of politicians in the absence of a written Constitution. In the same breath, it can be said that any policy action of the Government, unless codified, is no more than a toothless tiger. When you give an option to anyone to abide by a certain good thing, many people would always tend to ignore it. This is one reason why India needs a codified law on population control, just like we have CPC and CrPC, and not any voluntary policy that looks good and productive only on papers. Several attempts to have a codified law to check population growth have faced hurdles by those who term these proposals ‘Islamophobic’ and targeting one religion.
One Law For All
Things like affirmative actions, which benefit any one class of citizens, are debatable. People can say that legislative backing to reservation in jobs for socially and educationally backward classes is unjust for the rest of the classes. But without dwelling on such controversial topics, it is high time to have a productive discussion on legislative backing to population control. This law, indeed, cannot discriminate against any class of citizens, be it on the basis of faith, literacy, or economic status of the household. This is because if it does, then it would take only a few weeks for the court to declare it unconstitutional. This means the argument that a law on population is a tool to target a certain community is inherently flawed.
It is high time to have a productive discussion on legislative backing to population control. This law, indeed, cannot discriminate against any class of citizens, be it on the basis of faith, literacy, or economic status of the household
What is wrong in any law that mandates a family to have no more than two children? We are a civilised society that takes pride in its scientific temper and progressive thinking. If giving the right to vote to all adults irrespective of social and economic status was progressive, if not discriminating against women in matters of education and jobs was progressive, checking unsustainable rise in population is also progressive. After all, any country can have only limited resources, which must be divided among all the citizens. Dividing limited resources among an unlimited number of beneficiaries is simply not possible. It is like a wrong belief that everything is good.
Present State of Affairs
Not only India, but the entire world is bearing the brunt of inflationary pressure at the moment. In the advanced economies of the US, Australia and Canada, prices of non-discretionary goods are at multi-decade high levels. The root cause is demand, which directly contributes to price pressures. And this is when all these nations are not as burdened by population as India. Consider this-a growing population needs a greater number of jobs, for example, many people have joined food and parcel delivery startups.
These people require a motorised vehicle to deliver orders, which is directly contributing to demand and consumption of gasoline. Since the demand is high, prices had to tick up.
No economy, be it advanced like the US or developing ones like India and China, can produce an unlimited number of jobs. A country like India, which has the biggest pool of jobseekers, tends to suffer from joblessness, simply because the labour force is too bulky. Does it make any sense to add even more people to this labour force? When we talk about living standards, why do we fail to consider that India is a country with such a high population that lifting everyone from the clutches of poverty and illiteracy is a very difficult task. The ongoing global economic phase is even more difficult, thanks to issues like the ongoing war in Ukraine, which demands a timely policy action.
It perhaps makes no sense to have any policy on things like fertility rate, crude birth rate and related elements if it is voluntary and has no teeth. Similar to why we always needed a written Constitution or a codified Criminal Law, which have the power to punish any violations, we also need a codified law on population control. This law has to have clear provisions on the number of children a particular family can have, any punishments like exclusion from state benefits in cases of violations, and any exceptions like for tribal people. India, to remain a great nation, has to check its unsustainable population growth because we cannot increase our resources beyond a set limit.
(The article “Why a codified law needed to control population” published in ‘Organiser’)
It is totally wrong to presume that you cannot shape and/ or change the way people perceive you. After all, we all are humans, have comparable traits, have similar weaknesses, and so on. But what is it that causes a difference to the way people perceive any two human beings — or for that matter two societies or nations?
One can say the answer is talent — wisdom or physical strength or artistic genius — but marketing or branding trumps everything else. The reason is everyone is brilliant in her own confined space but to be perceived so by others, your story and journey have to be narrated in an engrossing manner, in a way that builds a powerful, positive image.
It is no coincidence that the world’s biggest economy, the United States, is also the most pervasive brand amongst all countries. Someone who was not a student of history and political science might not know that America’s rise on the world stage dates back merely one century and it was only after World War II that the country surpassed European and Asian nations.
But is it only the United States’ military strength that makes it so dominating on the world stage? The answer is ‘no’ because it is the country’s soft power that ranks it so high. Despite being placed below many nations in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and the Human Development Index (HDI), the US is generally perceived as the best place to live — why?
Branding
Branding is such a big push that it can even lead to false perceptions about any country. Besides, this exercise can be both positive and negative. Apple — a device manufacturer and technology company — sells expensive smartphones and computers, frequently facing flak for overpricing and little value addition in new models, yet it is the biggest and most recognizable brand globally.
India — a country that until a few centuries back contributed the most to the world GDP — on the other hand has regularly been mislabeled as the so-called land of snake charmers. A few months back, one prominent US academician made derogatory comments against Indians and called the country a ‘shithole’. Her comments were widely condemned but they should prompt introspection.
Today, many people across the world perceive the United States as the best country to migrate to, owing in part to very deep cultural penetration of things like burgers, jeans, and Hollywood. Not many would know that a big Hollywood star helped popularize jeans as a symbol of rebellion in the 1950s.
In fact, the US movies industry and news media collaborated to sell the American culture to the wider world. This is why all the crime, be it gun violence or narcotics, hides behind a beautiful picture that portrays America as a country of dreams. India, on the other hand — thanks to the indifference of country’s news media and film industry — has lacked powerful branding.
Brand India
There needs to be no false marketing or misinformation campaign to create a powerful brand, India. That Indian-origin CEOs lead some of the world’s biggest companies and advanced countries are filled with Indian-origin MPs, and even a Vice President (the US) and a Prime Minister (the UK) is a popular narrative. However, what also needs push are our democratic history and rich and tolerant culture.
Even though America claims to be the oldest democracy, it is so when one only considers the modern history of the world. Not many in the same world know that a Greek historian Diodorus has written about independent and democratic setup in ancient India. Sanghas and Ganas were ancient republics in the country, with elected monarchs, and open assemblies comprising both rich and poor.
The problem is that while Americans sold their superheroes like Spiderman to the youth across the world, Indian film industry and media outlets always fell short. Even though Gandhi is a global cultural icon and personalities like Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, and Narendra Modi have fairly wide appeal, India has yet to be identified broadly as a great land by non-Indians.
Virtually every student across the globe reads about Isaac Newton, the English physicist, and Albert Einstein, the German-born physicist. But even in Indian education system, the contributions of Aryabhata — the Gupta-era mathematician who gave the concepts of sine table and calculated the value of pi — are discussed with little zeal.
Bottom line
From Einstein to Levi’s jeans to singer-songwriter Lady Gaga to Apple’s iPhone, it is all about good stuff promoted using effective branding. In India, women have always had a powerful role in the family, yet we are often mistaken as a patriarchal society. The Nalanda University in ancient Magadha (Bihar) was the first ever residential university in the world, yet we are often mistaken as educationally backward.
It is time we recreate the Brand India. This exercise calls for active involvement of the country’s news media and film industry. From giving more space to positive news, including aspects like how the domestic equities market performed better than markets of North America and European countries during the turbulent year of 2022, to making artistically stunning historical movies like RRR can help.
Brand India has the support of the ruling dispensation, but it is the broader media of the country that can bring about a big turnaround in the way non-Indians perceive us.
(The article “Brand India Needs A Big, Positive Push From Country’s Media” published in “Business World”)
कोरोना वायरस महामारी के राजनीतिक और आर्थिक दुष्परिणाम अब स्पष्ट रूप से दिखाई देने लगे हैं। कुछ हफ्ते पहले, ब्रिटेन की उन्नत अर्थव्यवस्था में राजकोषीय नीति में किए गए एक परिवर्तन ने बॉन्ड और शेयर बाजारों में भारी वैश्विक गिरावट की शुरूआत कर दी थी। देश की नवनियुक्त प्रधानमंत्री ने अपने ‘मिनी बजट’ में बिना यह बताए कि सरकार अपने खर्चे कैसे चलाएगी, टैक्स कटौती का समर्थन किया था। अब, मिनी बजट के विवादास्पद प्रावधानों को वापस ले लिया गया है और उनकी घोषणा करने वाले वित्त मंत्री को हटा दिया गया है।
कई अर्थशास्त्रियों ने कहा था कि दुनिया ने महामारी का मुकाबला अच्छी तरह किया है। इसके बावजूद, ऐसी कोई भी अर्थव्यवस्था नहीं, चाहे विकसित हो या विकासशील, उस अराजकता से अछूती नहीं है। आप कह सकते हैं कि भारत में उच्च मुद्रास्फीति है, लेकिन अमेरिका जैसे सबसे बड़े देश के साथ ही विकसित देशों में स्थितियां और भी बदतर हैं। यूरोप में लोग ऊर्जा की बढ़ती कीमतों के खिलाफ सड़कों पर प्रदर्शन कर रहे हैं। किसी के भी पास चाहे अमेरिकी डॉलर हो या यूरो उसकी क्रय शक्ति कमज़ोर पड़ गई है। वहीं, विवेकाधीन खर्च प्रभावित हुआ है, जिससे विश्वव्यापी उद्योग को एक बड़ा झटका लगा है।
इन सब के बीच, क्या भारत की अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए आने वाले वर्षों में पांच ट्रिलियन डॉलर के सपने को साकार करने का कोई अवसर है, विशेष रूप से साल 2025 तक जैसा कि सत्तारूढ़ दल ने कल्पना की थी? इस प्रश्न का उत्तर केवल सांकेतिक हो सकता है और किसी तार्किक निष्कर्ष पर पहुंचने के लिए राजनीति, उद्योग और सामाजिक-आर्थिक परिदृश्य से संबंधित कई पहलुओं पर विचार किया जाना चाहिए। वैश्विक अर्थव्यवस्था पिछले साल तक बहुत अच्छा कर रही थी, लेकिन इस साल घटी चौंकाने वाली घटनाओं ने दिखाया है कि व्यापक आर्थिक संकेतकों को पढ़ना और मध्यम से लंबी अवधि के लिए भविष्यवाणियाँ करना कितना जटिल हो सकता है।
भारत बनाम विश्व – नीतिगत कदम
क्या भारत अभी अच्छा कर रहा है? आईएमएफ (अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मुद्रा कोष) के एक शीर्ष अधिकारी की हालिया टिप्पणियों पर गौर करने की जरूरत है। इस बहुपक्षीय संस्था की प्रबंध निदेशक क्रिस्टालिना जॉर्जीवा ने पिछले कुछ वर्षों में भारत द्वारा किए गए “संरचनात्मक सुधारों” की प्रशंसा की। लेकिन इन सब पर चर्चा बाद में करेंगे, सबसे पहले यह जानना ज़रूरी है कि बाकी दुनिया की तुलना में देश इस समय कहाँ खड़ा है।
इस कैलेंडर वर्ष की पहली तिमाही तक, सभी शीर्ष केंद्रीय बैंक मुद्रास्फीति को ‘अस्थायी” करार दे रहे थे। महामारी के मद्देनजर, इन बैंकों ने अपनी-अपनी अर्थव्यवस्थाओं को बेरोजगारी और नकारात्मक विकास के गहरे संकट से बचाने के लिए बेंचमार्क ब्याज दरों को लगभग शून्य स्तर पर रखने का विकल्प चुना था। कुछ विकसित देशों ने नागरिकों को इस उम्मीद में कैश ट्रांसफर भी किए कि लॉकडाउन प्रभावित परिवारों को वास्तव में पर्याप्त सहायता की आवश्यकता है। पिछले साल ऐसी कई रिपोर्ट आई कि कनाडा जैसे देशों में लोगों के पास बेहिसाब कैश पड़ा है। नकद सहायता देने और ब्याज दरों को शून्य के करीब रखने का उपाय उल्टा पड़ गया।
स्थिति जल्द ही इतनी खराब हो गई कि इन अर्थव्यवस्थाओं में आवश्यक वस्तुओं की कीमतें बढ़ गईं, लेकिन लोगों को इसका एहसास करने में थोड़ा समय लगा क्योंकि उन्होंने पर्याप्त पैसे जमा कर रखे थे। इसके बाद साल 2022 आया, और विकसित अर्थव्यवस्थाओं की राजकोषीय और मौद्रिक नीति की गलतियों की आलोचना की जा रही है। किराने के सामान से लेकर ईंधन तक, अमेरिका, कनाडा, ऑस्ट्रेलिया और अधिकांश अन्य देशों में कीमतें कई दशक के उच्च स्तर पर हैं। फेड और अन्य केंद्रीय बैंक जो अब तक सुस्त पड़े थे, अचानक जागे और बेंचमार्क ब्याज दरों को बढ़ा दिया जिससे वैश्विक शेयर बाजार में भारी गिरावट आई है।
दूसरी ओर, भारत ने महामारी के दौरान और उसके बाद भी अपना हौसला बनाए रखा। सरकार ने अचानक और वित्तीय रूप से कोई अविवेकपूर्ण निर्णय नहीं लिया। साथ ही, यह सुनिश्चित किया कि लॉकडाउन प्रभावित देश में गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना (पीएमजीकेएवाई) के माध्यम से वंचित परिवारों को भोजन मिलता रहे। जल्दबाजी में नकद सहायता योजना की घोषणा करके देश की वित्तीय स्थिति को खराब करने के बजाय, भारत ने एक स्थायी रास्ता चुना। मुद्रास्फीति के दबाव ने देश को परेशान कर रखा है, लेकिन इन्हें यूक्रेन में युद्ध और आपूर्ति श्रृंखला से जुड़ी चिंताओं ने बढ़ा रखा है। भारत की खुदरा मुद्रास्फीति वृद्धि का आंतरिक नीतिगत उपायों से कोई लेना-देना नहीं है।
भारत बनाम विश्व – जीडीपी विकास दर
राष्ट्रीय सांख्यिकी कार्यालय (एनएसओ) ने बताया है कि वित्त वर्ष 2021-22 में भारत के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद (जीडीपी) में 8.7 प्रतिशत की वृद्धि हुई है। यह किसी भी प्रकार से कोई मामूली उपलब्धि नहीं है क्योंकि औद्योगिक उत्पादन, माँग और खपत सभी महामारी से बुरी तरह प्रभावित हुए थे। न केवल भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था ने अत्यधिक दृढ़ता का परिचय दिया है, बल्कि इसने वित्त वर्ष 2020-21 में कोविड -19 संकट के चरम पर रहने के बाद उछाल के साथ वापसी की है। आईएमएफ के आँकड़ों के मुताबिक, भारत 3.5 ट्रिलियन अमेरिकी डॉलर के साथ दुनिया की पाँचवीं सबसे बड़ी अर्थव्यवस्था है। 3.2 ट्रिलियन अमेरिकी डॉलर के साथ ब्रिटेन अब छठे स्थान पर है।
दुनिया के एकदम विपरीत भारत में एक निरंतरता है। आँकड़े इस बात की पुष्टि करते हैं कि चीन की अर्थव्यवस्था अभूतपूर्व प्रतिकूल परिस्थितियों का सामना कर रही है, जिसमें औद्योगिक गतिविधि बेहद सुस्त है। विकसित देशों का हाल तो और भी बुरा है। अमेरिका और ऑस्ट्रेलिया सहित कई विकसित अर्थव्यवस्थाओं में हाल ही में विकास की दर निगेटिव रही है। अमेरिकी अर्थव्यवस्था में लगातार दो तिमाहियों में संकुचन हुआ है, जिससे तकनीकी मंदी की चर्चा छिड़ गई है। लेकिन इससे भी ज्यादा चिंताजनक बात यह है कि इन विकसित अर्थव्यवस्थाओं के लिए निकट-से-मध्यम अवधि में किसी भी तरह की वापसी की उम्मीद बहुत कम है। यह एक कारण है कि उस वैश्विक शेयर बाजार ने इस साल गिरावट का रुख दिखाया है जिसमें सबसे प्रमुख एसएंडपी 500 इंडेक्स शामिल है।
भारत की अर्थव्यवस्था दुनिया से अलग नहीं है और कोई भी वैश्विक मंदी वास्तव में हमारे देश को भी नुकसान पहुँचाती है। भले ही पिछले साल विकास दर जबरदस्त थी, फिर भी कीमतों में उछाल के बने रहने और भारतीय मुद्रा के अमरीकी डॉलर के मुकाबले मूल्य खोने की समस्याएँ हैं। हालाँकि, मुद्रास्फीति को मध्यम अवधि में प्रबंधित किया जा सकता है और अगर देश मजबूत आर्थिक गतिविधि और रोजगार सृजन को बनाए रखने में सक्षम रहा, तो महंगई इतना नहीं सताएगी। विकसित देशों में, एक तरह का नीतिगत पक्षाघात है। वह भी मात्र इसलिए कि केंद्रीय बैंकों के तरकश में ब्याज दरों को बढ़ाने के अलावा कुछ भी नहीं है, जबकि विश्व की अर्थव्यवस्था का मंदी के दौर में प्रवेश करने जा रही है।
पाँच ट्रिलियन डॉलर की अर्थव्यवस्था
जैसा कि पहले कहा गया है, यह समझने के लिए कि भारत लक्ष्य प्राप्त करने की राह पर है या नहीं, आईएमएफ की रिपोर्ट से ज़्यादा कुछ देखने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। क्रिस्टालिना जॉर्जीवा ने कहा है कि भारत ने अप्रत्याशित रूप से ‘मुश्किल समय के दौरान भी” विस्तार किया है, जिसका श्रेय ‘संरचनात्मक सुधारों” को जाता है। उन्होंने डिजिटलीकरण जैसी पहल की सराहना की है जो भारत के विकास की कहानी को रेखांकित करती है। इसके अलावा, आईएमएफ के एक अन्य पदाधिकारी, पाओलो मौरो ने जोर देकर कहा है कि डायरेक्ट कैश ट्रांसफर ने देश के लिए “लॉजिस्टिक चमत्कार” के रूप में काम किया है। अफसोस की बात है कि वर्तमान सरकार की ओर से व्यापक सुधार का फैसला किए जाने से पहले वास्तविक लाभार्थियों को होने वाले ट्रांसफर में भारी गड़बड़ी हुआ करती थी।
बहुपक्षीय संगठनों और उनके अधिकारियों की ओर से यदि भारत द्वारा हाल ही में किए गए सुधारों को स्वीकार किया जा रहा है तो उसकी एक वजह है। उद्योगों के काम करने की रफ्तार बदल गई है। प्रक्रियाओं के डिजिटलीकरण से अर्थव्यवस्था में दक्षता लाने में मदद ली है। चाहे वह स्वीकृति प्राप्त करने में हो, लाइसेंस प्राप्त करने में, या अनुपालन की रिपोर्ट देने में हो, नौकरशाही जिस प्रकार के अनावश्यक और शोषणकारी प्रभाव दिखाता था, उस पर रोक लगी है। लालफीताशाही एक बड़ी बाधा थी, जिसे अगर दूर नहीं किया गया होता, तो अगले कुछ वर्षों में भी भारत अर्थव्यवस्था के संपूर्ण आकार में ब्रिटेन को पीछे नहीं छोड़ पाता। चीजें अब ठीक हो गई हैं।
सरकार और वित्तीय संस्थानों के पूरे सहयोग से जब तक उद्योग जगत नई-नई चीजों का प्रयोग नहीं करता है, तब तक किसी भी अर्थव्यवस्था का स्थायी रूप से विकास करना संभव नहीं है। उदाहरण के लिए चीन को लीजिए जो एक स्वच्छ मोबिलिटी पावरहाउस के रूप में विकसित हो सकता है। वैश्विक उद्योग नई आर्थिक गतिविधियों की ओर बढ़ रहा है जिसमें स्वच्छ ऊर्जा और कृत्रिम बुद्धिमत्ता जैसी प्रौद्योगिकियां शामिल हैं। केंद्र सरकार के मंत्रालयों और विभागों ने इसे माना है और प्रोडक्शन लिंक्ड इंसेंटिव (पीएलआई) और इनोवेटिव स्टार्टअप्स के लिए आसान और त्वरित फंडिंग जैसी पहल एक बड़े संबल के रूप में काम कर रही हैं।
हम वहाँ पहुँचने वाले हैं
एक खास तारीख का हवाला देना संभव नहीं है जब भारत पाँच ट्रिलियन डॉलर के आँकड़े को छू लेगा। हम 3.5 ट्रिलियन अमेरिकी डॉलर तक पहुँच गए हैं, और सुधारों और नीतिगत उपायों की चल रही गति निर्विवाद रूप से बताती है कि यह सपना पूरा होने की सीमा के भीतर है। वर्तमान में, कुछ व्यवधान हैं, जिनमें विशेष रूप से वैश्विक आर्थिक मंदी, यूक्रेन और एशिया में भी (ताइवान पर चीन का आक्रामक रुख) भू-राजनीतिक तनाव, और राजनेताओं की ओर से देश में खड़ी की जा रही समस्याएँ शामिल हैं। ऐसे नेता करिश्माई प्रधानमंत्री के नेतृत्व में सत्तारूढ़ बीजेपी के मुकाबले अपनी पार्टियों में नई जान फूँकना चाहते हैं। इतना कहने के साथ ही, अन्य किसी की भी तुलना में भारत की विकास गाथा की समावेशिता ही सबसे अधिक मायने रखती है। शासन में पारदर्शिता की कमी, व्यापक भ्रष्टाचार, और क्षेत्रीय और राष्ट्रीय राजनीतिक दलों के निहित स्वार्थों का मतलब यही था कि कुछ साल पहले तक सारे फायदे केवल अमीर और प्रभावशाली लोगों को ही मिलते थे। अंधाधुंध विकास के पीछे भागने से नहीं होगा। समावेशी विकास पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया जाना चाहिए। यहाँ तक कि कतार में खड़े अंतिम व्यक्ति को भी लाभ मिलना चाहिए। आईएमएफ ने शासन में डिजिटलीकरण और पारदर्शिता की सराहना की है, जो इस बात की पुष्टि करता है कि सत्ताधारी दल ने कई चीजों को ठीक किया है। सरकार स्व-रोजगार ऋण और तेजी से स्वीकृतियों जैसी लक्षित योजनाओं के माध्यम से उद्यमशीलता की भावना की एक नई लहर पैदा करने में जुटी है। इससे कोई भी विकास की नई कहानी का हिस्सा बन सकता है। वैश्विक अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए संकटपूर्ण समय और निरंतर भू-राजनीतिक तनाव की स्थिति पर तमाम चर्चा के बीच, भारत चुपचाप और मजबूती से पाँच ट्रिलियन डॉलर के सपने के करीब पहुंच रहा है।
(The article “संकटपूर्ण वैश्विक आर्थिक परिदृश्य के बीच पांच ट्रिलियन डॉलर का लक्ष्य” published in magazine Uday India in October 29, 2022 Hindi edition)
(The article “The five trillion-dollar dream amid a grim global economic landscape” published in magazine Uday India in October 29, 2022 English edition)
Alterations and changes can be a good thing. As human civilization evolved, many aspects of the socio-economic landscape changed. We adopted permanent settlements and developed big metropolitan cities. A change in the form of governance — from absolute monarchy to constitutional democracy — was a critical part of this. We also adopted fiat currencies issued and controlled by central banks. Education and employment have become more organized. These were all, indeed, good things.
But not every change can be termed good. In the quest for rapid growth, nations raced against each other to discover and produce more and more fossil fuels, including coal. Similarly, altering the basics — for example, sweeping urbanization leading to villages and small towns becoming neglected, underdeveloped parts — was not good.
A huge collection of works — both by Indian and western scholars — shines the light on how past invaders altered our basics. These invaders used the caste and class differences of the Indian society, for their own vested interests, and plundered the country and its many temples. A simple search on Google can take one to Wikipedia — a not-for-profit online encyclopedia owned and controlled by a foreign entity — that has multiple pages on how Mughal invaders looted the country of its rich heritage. In an attempt to convert some oblivious Hindus, these rulers demolished their temples and erected mosques.
This was a change that cannot be termed a good thing. Besides, there is a difference between restoration and majoritarianism. The latter is a term used by a news media section against the Hindu majority and anyone who speaks about their justifiable and oft-ignored rights. If there is a call to correct past mistakes, this section, backed by political parties with vested interests, decries the appeasement of the majority faith.
Is correcting the injustice perpetrated over many centuries majoritarianism? No. Instead, it is a restoration drive that must be supported by every true citizen of India, cutting across all faiths. And there is a very strong argument in this favour.
Can you build a resilient structure over lies? You simply cannot. It is truth alone that can bring lasting peace to any society. Unearthing truth is no appeasement, no majoritarianism. It is simply an exercise that any government shall undertake in any country. In the US, there is a growing consensus on putting an end to gun violence. By having allowed anyone to walk into a shopping mall and purchase a gun, the country did a no good thing in the past. Restoration is what they need.
Similarly, India needs to enquire and restore. Alterations in the past, which were against natural law, have to be restored to what is lawful. This exercise not only includes our increased reliance on swadeshi goods but also on finding the truth about our places of worship. A place of worship is as basic to any faith as is a mother to a newborn.
The country’s elected government must take urgent steps in the right direction. Enquiring is no bad thing, and hence we must enquire what lies beneath those mosques that were supposedly constructed not to add to places of worship but only to inflict pain on Hinduism and its followers. And if this enquiry requires the judiciary’s support, it must come without any petition in this regard. Our courts have the power to suo motu take cognizance of subject matters that are of critical importance. Indeed, all this is not possible without the co-operation of non-majority faiths of India, which shall be sought.
Alterations and changes are not always a good thing. And there is something called restoration. If past invaders altered the original nature of places of worship in India, it was unlawful and inhuman. Restoring the real identity of these places cannot be termed supremacy of the majority faith or appeasement. Similar to how we should not have upset the ecological balance to bring quick but unsustainable development, we should not have allowed unjust alterations to survive after we attained self-rule in 1947.
It is time to restore truth — which has become overdue — for truth only can bring lasting peace.
(The article “Truth alone can bring lasting peace and restoring temples is a step in the same direction” published in ‘Organiser’)
(The article “Sustainable Budget” published in magazine Uday India in February 26, 2022 English edition)
First thing first. India is not the only country globally that has a memorial of national importance to commemorate war heroes.
The Cenotaph, in London, England, is the national war memorial of the United Kingdom. Interestingly, Edwin Lutyens, the architect who designed the India Gate, also designed The Cenotaph in the 1920s. Now, you may come up with a legitimate question. Does the United States, the nation that emerged as the most powerful after World War II, have a national war memorial?
The World War II Memorial is the United States’ national war memorial, and it opened in 2004. Yes, you read that right — 2004. The first resolution to build this memorial was passed in 1987, but it became law only in 1993. The then government started a fund-raising campaign, and it is said that Americans donated millions of dollars to help erect the memorial. Now here’s the most interesting part — criticism started as soon as construction began, with the Washington Post deriding it as ‘Soviet-style pomposity’ and a few others comparing the monument’s design approach with Hitler and other tyrants.
Today, millions of Americans every year visit the memorial to simply show appreciation to their martyrs. Here in India, the country that overthrew foreign occupation in 1947 to earn self-rule, the ‘new’ National War Memorial has become more a matter of ridicule by the opposition, less a mark of respect for Indian martyrs.
The narrative of the media is either distorted or misleading. The only headlines a few media houses have published on the subject matter are about moving the eternal Amar Jawan Jyoti flame to the flame at the new National War Memorial. But before we move any further, is it accurate to use the prefix ‘new’ with the National War Memorial inaugurated in the presence of the CDS and all other Chief of Staff in 2019? Is it a ‘new’ memorial or the first?
Now it is time to recall that the India Gate ‘continued’ to serve as the memorial of national significance until 2019. The Duke of Connaught laid India Gate’s foundation stone in 1921, and Lord Irwin inaugurated the monument in 1931. Yes, the same Lord Irwin, India’s viceroy who imprisoned several national independence leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi. Irwin also oversaw the hanging of the three of India’s most beloved martyrs — Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru. India Gate was erected as a memorial to commemorate martyrs of the British Indian Army that served in the First World War.
In 1972, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, added underneath the arch of the India Gate, the Amar Jawan Jyoti, to honour the sacrifices of Indian soldiers in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. This eternal flame, a symbol of nationalism for all Indians, was never allowed to extinguish. But another fact is that Amar Jawan Jyoti was too humble a structure to honour Indian war heroes, who deserved a lot more. In fact, India had yet to have a national war memorial. Many may not know the memorial was first proposed in 1960, yes, six decades back. The Congress-led union government dragged its feet on the issue, and it remained an ‘unrealized dream’ until the BJP-led government assumed control in 2014.
By all measures, terming the National War Memorial, which began in 2017, cannot be termed ‘new’. It is the first memorial of national importance that independent India always deserved; our soldiers always deserved.
Now, the key contention — the merging of the eternal Amar Jawan Jyoti flame with the flame at the War Memorial that sits independently of the colonial-era India Gate.
Was it not the foremost duty of the Indian government to first erect a war memorial and then house it with every bit that marks the valour of our armed forces? Amar Jawan Jyoti flame was the true mark of valour, and it deserved a place at the National War Memorial, not underneath the India Gate, a Colonial-era war memorial. On the other hand, the India Gate is also a monument of national importance, but the taint that was built by the then tyrants is not easy to remove. Nevertheless, the India Gate stands as a tribute to Indian soldiers that abided by their duty regardless of the period or the ruling entity.
The World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and India’s National War Memorial in New Delhi are late additions, but it is never late to do the right thing. And here’s the last important bit. The canopy at the India Gate that will now house a statue of one of the leading nationalists of pre-independence India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, once housed a statue of King George V. India, slowly but gradually is moving toward recognizing and honouring the sons of the land.
Neither the merging of the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame nor the decision to erect Bose’s statue was a political move, and these were both course corrections.
(The article “Merging the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame was a course correction” published in ‘Organiser’)
Balkanization can be the last thing any nation or society would ever want. Home to adherents of all major religions of the world, India is a great nation. The country is one of the most diverse, tolerant, and adaptable to changing socio-economic and political landscapes is a part of virtually every commentary on India.
Before we talk about this diversity and hail it as the single most dominant aspect of the Indian democracy, let us also bring in this discussion a related term, unity. ‘Unity in diversity’ is a popular phrase, which in one sense pits unity against diversity, and vice versa. Looking for unity in diversity may appear as a convincing argument, but it holds little value. Imagine any garden that is home to a variety of flowers. These flowers can add diversity, but one cannot expect all of them to have similar attributes regarding appearance and fragrance. Imagine a jungle with a variety of animals, but expecting all these diverse animals would unify to abide by common law is wishful thinking.
Diversity is multi-dimensional. One dimension of it is that it cannot be eradicated. That’s how the natural forces have made this world. People across the globe would continue to have distinct appearances and colour, which is why calling for the supremacy of people of any one colour is a political gimmick, an unjustifiable and prejudiced demand. The other dimension of diversity is it has to be overcome to a valid extent to safeguard the interest of all.
Humans are not animals inhabiting a jungle. Humans are undeniably the most intelligent beings, from being hunter-gatherers with no permanent settlement to becoming the inventors of airplanes and computers. In a sense, humans shaped the earth by polluting it with plastic and greenhouse gases and enriching it with inventions like wind and solar energy.
Had humans remained diverse (read conflicting) regarding their socio-political thoughts, we could have never made it to permanent settlements. It was essential to have a common code of conduct and its enforcement in letter and spirit to sustain the co-habitation of diverse thoughts and desires.
Consider this. Can you name one country that can boast of no crime ever committed? From evading taxes to homicides, crime is an unwanted part and parcel of any society. In a sense, one may even group a set of criminals with diverse opinions regarding how society shall function. Maybe someone can even give a compelling argument why physically assaulting a man with lesser resources is justifiable. But can we let such ‘diverse’, but at the same time morally wrong, opinions thrive and disturb peaceful and progressive co-habitation?
This is exactly what is at the heart of Hindutva.
A few politicians may disrespect it as a divisive and majority-supremacy seeking political thought, but in essence, Hindutva is a socio-cultural ideology. Hindutva is more than Hindus; it is about the country that we know by the name of Hindustan.
When Vinayak Damodar Savarkar propounded his views on the subject matter, he was not establishing a case for the supremacy of any particular faith. He and many other philosophers and commentators always advocated that the diversity of India, which essentially must be preserved, must not make it a jungle. They believed this was the key to preventing the nation from invasion by foreign powers, a repeat of Mughal and British era atrocities on Indians.
Hindutva, in that sense, improvises on the phrase ‘unity in diversity’. The ideology seeks to instil in all the inhabitants of India, cutting across faiths, a sense of national pride and belonging to a common, beloved, progressive culture. Is it ever possible to make a great nation without all its inhabitants accepting the common constitution and national flag? Hindutva was and is about that one flag, and it’s about oneness.
Decades after its independence from foreign rule, India is ruled by political parties that use India’s diversity to its disadvantage and its own advantage. The clarion call for ‘unity in diversity’ was nothing but rhetorical. In one country, members of a particular faith were treated as mere vote-banks. The rise of regional political parties, which some liberal commentators may call the beauty of Indian federalism, was the outcome of (mis)using India’s diversity regarding faith and caste for own vested interests.
Diversity’s one aspect gifted to humans by nature cannot and shouldn’t be violated. The human race will continue to have people with different appearances and colours, and the equality of all men must always remain at the heart of all development.
The second aspect of diversity, which is about some people’s immoral and unjustifiable wants, has to be defeated at all costs. Consider this. A section of men uses unlawful, violent means to topple the elected government, but can the desire of these insurgents be defended as ‘diversity’? One cannot be so diverse in a country ruled by law that it defeats the law itself. For many decades, India reeled from a few secessionists wanting to establish their own independent nations, from radical left-wing outfits to Islamist terrorists.
Balkanization is nothing but the fragmentation of a region into smaller independent nations. Does India want that? And more importantly, can India afford that to happen?
Hindutva is a call that corrects the flaws in the phrase ‘unity in diversity’. It seeks to pave the way for oneness, cutting across all faiths, castes or any other element that creates a separate identity of people inhabiting Hindustan. Clearly, Hindutva is neither about any religion’s supremacy nor it is a political gimmick. Hindutva is ‘oneness’, Hindutva is ‘true unity’ of Indians by correcting a few diversity flaws.
(The article “Hindutva is ‘oneness’, Hindutva is inclusive development” published in ‘Organiser’)
The problem is not the persistent false narrative of the Opposition; it is the Left-wing media’s tradition of overlooking critical aspects.
In a first-of-its-kind security threat to the country, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were dropped by using drones at an Indian Air Force base in Jammu. Forget terrorists infiltrating in the country to carry out sophisticated attacks on India; this is the age of next-level warfare where drones with kilos of payload can be used to launch a deadly attack.
In the enquiry that followed, it was found that the drones conveniently returned to their original launching site, indeed in Pakistan, after dropping four kilograms of payloads. The IAF base is 14 km from the Indo-Pak border, and this was purportedly the first attack launched against India using drones. This June 2021 incident has been brushed under the carpet by opposition leaders who are decrying ‘threat to federalism’ in India in the wake of the expansion of the Border Security Force’s (BSF) area of operations.
If this was too old to recall, the Opposition must recall a September incident where the BSF recovered at least 6 kg heroin, packed sophistically in six packets and delivered from Pakistan to the bordering Punjab state by drone. Drones have become a big threat to national security over the past few years. These are too small to detect, especially during the nighttime, and they can travel long distances from their launch site.
This was the main reason why the Centre chose to make changes in the jurisdiction of the BSF. Now, this border guarding force can exercise jurisdiction up to 50 km from the international border in the states of Punjab, West Bengal and Assam. In the first, the menace of drug trafficking and substance abuse is alarming, and in the latter two, illegal migrants crossing the international border to enter India is the biggest threat facing these two states’ socio-economic fabric.
What the Opposition misses in its rant against the Centre is the fact that the previous July 2014 notification had allowed jurisdiction of the BSF within a belt of 80 km in the state of Gujarat. The very state has been one of the biggest bastions of the ruling party at the Centre for decades. The latest gazette notification is a sort of acknowledgement of new challenges to national security, together with parity among states. Now, Gujarat also has the same area under the BSF as other states, though some northeastern states continue to fall entirely under the BSF control.
The TMC-led West Bengal State Government minister has reminded the Centre that ‘law and order is a state subject’. This, if true, should ideally make all the Central Armed Police Forces, including the ITBP and SSB, unconstitutional. And for that matter, even the creation of the BSF in 1965 by the then Congress party government should be called into question. When Pakistan attacked Sardar Post and multiple other facilities during the Indo-Pak War of 1965, the Central Government decided to have a specialised agency to guard our borders with Pakistan. By 1971, the BSF had become a formidable force and made it possible for India to help Bangladesh win liberation.
Moreover, the latest notification expanding the BSF’s jurisdiction is a part of a coordinated design to deal with emerging threats. In July, the BSF launched an initiative to rope in the expertise of Indian companies to address the pressing issue of cross-border drone attacks. The BSF Hi-tech Undertaking for Maximizing Innovation (BHUMI) mission will seek cooperation from local partners for drone detection. The mission will prioritise the fight against narco-terrorism and the increasing threat of attacks on security installations.
It is unfortunate that the Opposition continuously sidelines vital elements. Earlier this month, a drone was used to send arms from the Pakistan side into Jammu. This drone carried an AK rifle and a night vision device. If 1965 was the year that called for the creation of a centrally-controlled armed force for border areas, the 2020s is the time to re-think the BSF’s design to fight the next-level warfare.
Lastly, the opposition-ruled states have continually decried the ‘threat to federalism’ ever since the ruling BJP assumed power at the Centre. They seem to have totally forgotten the misuse of Article 365 of the Indian constitution by the Congress-led central governments on more than 90 occasions to topple state governments. The creation of the Central Armed Police Forces was pioneered under Congress.
Another key concern is the synchronised attack on the Centre by opposition-ruled state governments that smacks of vested interests and malafide intent. Who will gain if the enemy nations succeed in smuggling arms and drugs to these bordering states? Who will gain if the unchecked illegal crossing of borders goes on in the states of West Bengal and Assam? These are some crucial questions that call for answers from the respective state governments.
The latest notification concerning the BSF’s jurisdiction is a step in the right direction. It is a timely and calculated measure to tackle new risks facing national security. The Left-wing media and its sponsors in the Opposition are all out to misguide the country on a critical subject matter.
(The article “BSF’s jurisdiction changes is a judicious step in the right direction” published in ‘Organiser’)
Experts say the sentiment on the ground is that the Taliban defeated the US and NATO forces and compelled the world’s most powerful military to cede the region back to the outfit.
Everyone knows American troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan. Everyone knows a deal was struck between the two belligerents – the US military and the Taliban – in 2020. No one, however, knows what America achieved in Afghanistan. Where did the so-called ‘trillions of dollars’ the US spent go? When will the human rights violation on Afghan soil end?
When the US launched the war against the Taliban regime in 2001, the stated purpose was to avenge the 9/11 attacks. American forces quickly removed the Taliban from power, ending the outfit’s five-year rule. The al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, who grew under the protection of the Taliban, was still elusive. It took the American forces a decade to locate Laden in Pakistan and launch a covert strike to kill the man who designed and executed the worst terrorist attack in America. The stated goal was achieved, at least in a rhetorical sense, under the leadership of Barack Obama.
The then-President Obama had increased the number of troops in Afghanistan. In 2011, the US had nearly 110,000 troops fighting against the Taliban and training the country’s legitimate security forces. By 2015, the level of troops fell drastically to below 10,000 before rising again in subsequent years.
The facts are all there in the open. What’s not is what exactly the US was attempting in Afghanistan. The war it started in 2001 was categorically against the Taliban. The outfit was notorious for its adherence to the austere, ultra-radical form of Islam. Men under the Taliban rule were to grow beards mandatorily, and Afghan women had to wear a long robe. Girls were barred from education, and sources of entertainment, including television and music that the Taliban considered ‘Haram’ were banned.
With American troops coming in and toppling the Taliban government in virtually no time, international media anticipated a better future for the region torn by war for decades. In two decades, American troops and their NATO allies killed nearly 85,000 opposition fighters, but the damage on the other side is hard to ignore. The same number of civilians died because of the war, and millions of Afghans were displaced. Over 75,000 Afghan military personnel have been killed between 2001 and 2021, and the number of foreign soldiers who lost their lives while fighting for the US and NATO allies is over 3,500. Tens of thousands of US troops were injured in the conflict.
Undeniably, the costs of the two-decade-long war were immense. Although the US government claims to have spent trillions of dollars in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the war, studies claim this to be in hundreds of billions of dollars. But even that is no mean amount. But what happened? The Taliban could negotiate with its arch-rival on the ground, the US, and extract a deal that only reinforces its presence in the region. Experts say the sentiment on the ground is that the Taliban defeated the US and NATO forces and compelled the world’s most powerful military to cede the region back to the outfit. This is one of the reasons why the Taliban could consolidate its grip over power within a matter of few weeks. The Afghan police and security forces surrendered without even mounting an attack. The Taliban could withstand the US and NATO attack for so long and remain a formidable power in the country is something that weakened the spirits of local rival groups and civilians.
What was the US thinking for all these twenty years? What was the rationale behind the withdrawal of forces at a time when the Taliban is blatantly violating human rights? Has the US considered the fallouts of the resurgence of the Taliban for the region? Does America believe that the threat that the Taliban can wage war against the West or, for that matter, any other country has subsided?
The threat has heightened. The Taliban delegation lately met China’s foreign minister in search of official recognition for the regime in the international arena. China has long been a backer of Pakistan and its terrorist organizations with the same ideological underpinning as the Taliban. China has been supportive of the Taliban advance in Afghanistan to thwart any of US hegemony in the region is a harsh fact.
Both China and Russia are on the same side when it comes to the US. The former is now in the same position as the latter to challenge the American might on a global level. The two countries have been using terrorist outfits in Pakistan and Afghanistan to derail an advance of democracy.
On the other hand, India has been a backer of democracy and an American ally when it comes to fighting Islamist forces. Technically, India shares a border with Afghanistan. This border may lie within the Pak- occupied Kashmir region; however, India has clear sovereignty. It is also an acknowledged fact that the Taliban grew in Pakistan-bordered regions of Afghanistan during its initial years. That was where these radical Islamists found their calling and occupied the whole of Afghanistan in 1996.
The shared ideology of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and other Islamist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram, is the greatest threat facing the world today. Since the sentiment in Afghanistan is that the Taliban could oust the Americans from their soil and regain all the lost ground, this will serve as a force to unite all Islamist forces of the world. These forces are set to find patronage under communist China and its ‘all-weather ally’ Pakistan. Both these nations possess nuclear weapons, and instability in Pakistan can lead to any disaster for the region and the wider world also remains a cause of concern.
In today’s world, which reels under the economic and social costs of the pandemic, the resurrection of Islamist forces is the last thing we need. Every country, developed or emerging, is running a high fiscal deficit to support their respective economies. Military spending will have to be cut as welfare programs need additional budgetary support. In this light, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the sweeping takeover of the country by hardliners must worry all democratic and progressive nations.
PS: Enough controversy was created in the US political circles when a film titled Zero Dark Thirty, which depicted the years-long US effort to locate Osama bin Laden, was released. The Republicans alleged that it was a move to tilt public support favouring Barack Obama, who sought reelection in 2012. Today, former US President Donald Trump has sought President Biden’s resignation over the prevailing situation. As the US evacuates its diplomats after Kabul fell to the Taliban and the western-backed Afghan President’s whereabouts are unknown, it can remind us of the ‘Fall of Saigon’ in 1975 when the US undertook a similar evacuation in Vietnam.
(The article “No, it’s not an end, but a beginning in Islamist Afghanistan, and it must concern us all” published in ‘Organiser’)
The S&P/TSX Composite Index is the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada. Amid high unemployment rate in Canada, and record-high inflation, which has become a cause of worry for the Bank of Canada, the index has scaled record peaks, recently touching the 20,000 mark for first time ever.
Is the global economy recovering with no further vulnerabilities?
Emerging market economies, including India and China, were always the preferred place for institutional investors. India has been a recipient of record investment over the past few years due to healthy GDP growth numbers. But over the past one year, stock markets of even developed countries including the US, Australia and Canada are seeing an unprecedented rush. Has pandemic receded? Has the world population been fully vaccinated and international trade and commerce rebounded?
No. More than half of Australia is under lockdown, and China has been hit by the delta variant in many of its cities. As far as economic recovery is concerned, every central bank is baffled. Joblessness is high but inflation is well above targets. In the US, the Fed is clueless on when to hike rates to suck liquidity to check price rise.
One can recall how the global markets crashed when the pandemic hit. The world’s most watched index, S&P 500, fell in double digits. In India, Sensex and Nifty lost money as panic-stricken investors started pulling money out.
But within a matter of few months, markets not only recovered lost ground but astonishingly scaled new heights. Sensex is at a fresh all-time high. Most analysts are citing two or three factors behind the surge. First, slowly but steadily world cities are exiting lockdowns. Second, global vaccination drive has picked up pace. And third, economic growth in the first quarter of 2021-22 has been better-than-expected in most economies. But all three factors are anything but steady. Cities across the world are entering into new lockdowns, even the US has a very slow pace of vaccination, and economies like China and the US have lately reported weaker-than-expected economic activity.
The rush in global markets including India
The Indian stock broking industry added a whopping 17 lakh new accounts in January 2021. Compare it with mere 13 lakh new accounts in full year 2014, one of the best years ever for the Indian stock market.
Globally, the trend has been the same. Robinhood, a commission-free broker in the US, saw highest-ever app downloads in January. Retail investors, with abundant disposable income, thanks to governments’ stimulus money and pandemic savings, flocked to stock trading in record numbers. In India, individuals that haven’t suffered income loss and saved extra money due to reduced outings and fuel costs looked stocks to create wealth. Every other initial public offer (IPO) is being subscribed to in record numbers Brokers say many of the subscribers in food delivery app Zomato’s IPO were aged below 35. The young, amateur retail investor is parking money in stocks like never before.
Even the hyper-volatile cryptocurrency market is scaling new peaks. Bitcoin soared to nearly USD 65,000 in April. Others like Dogecoin have also surged on the back of favorable stances by multi-billionaires like Elon Musk.
Brokers adding record new users, with a sizeable chunk of young first-time participants, corroborate the fact that amateur young investor is the primary force shaping global stock markets. The wild rally in listed shares and IPO space can be attributed to them. The same is shaping the global cryptocurrency investment space, where assets with no utility are being lapped up by amateur investors.
Concluding
What enabled all this is the easy availability of avenues of investment in stocks. Until a few years back, there was no smartphone app to enable parking of money in stocks, considered as quick return earning place, with a few taps. Today, such apps have proliferated. The perception is that stock market is virtually the only avenue for quick returns as other investment options like term deposits take longer time to yield moderate returns. The cause of concern is amateur investors, mostly very young, who might be ignorant of perils attached with trading. Many are not eying long-term returns in the form of dividend but quick capital gains by buying and selling of stocks.
Even the pandemic played a role in stock market boom by weeding out fear as people lost loved ones to Covid-19 and became psychologically more prepared to take financial risks. They are, more often than not, unaware of how and when to maximum profits or minimize losses. Seasoned institutional investors prudently make such maneuvers at the opportune moment. Investor education is the key. Otherwise, in a landscape where macroeconomic indicators across the globe are weak, young investors may be at a risk of financial loss in stock trading.
(The article “This Global Stock Market Rush Owes To Amateur, Retail Investors” published in “Business World”)
Sovereignty and territorial integrity matter. Sans them, a society is nothing more than a permanent settlement vulnerable to upheavals. Likewise, armed forces and law enforcement agencies protecting the borders and upholding laws of the land within the borderline also matter. Besides social well-being, which is shaped by inter-personal relations, the above-stated elements safeguard the economic and financial well-being of the nation-state and its constituents. There is an ongoing debate whether India is a nation-state or a state-nation. The former implies a nation based on common heritage and ethnicity, while the latter implicit a state where multiple identities co-exist.
Reaching a consensus is difficult, given the abundance of intellectuals in India and their contrasting views. But the debate cannot undermine two main pillars of our social and economic well-being: sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The supreme law of the land, the Indian Constitution, envisages India as a multi-party democracy. For decades after independence from British Raj, the country ran on a single-party model. The electorate backed the Indian National Congress (INC), a group of activists turned into a party of politicians, for a long. The credentials were strong since the INC was a leading force when the British left. The political weight of leaders like Nehru, Patel, and others was heavy. Congress emerging as the only choice of the electorate for long was no surprise since history and, even contemporary politics in the world, tell us that any group that dominates during any nation’s journey to self-rule leads the polls for quite some time.
Over time, however, corruption seeps in. Vested interests take precedence over integrity and fairness. Too much power leads to bad governance, which fuels the social divide and widens the class gap. Promises of inclusive administration and fair distribution of wealth took a backseat. The sovereignty of the nation also suffered collateral damage. Foreign powers, which have and will always seek new territories to extract resources to further their financial well-being, sow the seeds of discontent by using soft and hard power.
The rise of the BJP traces its roots back to the same state of affairs in Indian politics. The then leading political party furthered the interests of one dynasty, and its leaders blindly swore allegiance to this model. The money meant for people never reached them, and when it did, a middleman that enjoyed impunity took a sizeable portion away. A former Prime Minister from the Congress conceded that corruption was rife and only a fraction of money allocated for welfare programs reached the poor.
What Advani attained through his Rath Yatras and dialogue with the electorate was a resurgence of interest in the sovereignty of India. There was a reason people flocked to his public meetings and voted for the BJP during the 80s and 90s. The party that prevailed when India achieved self-rule had turned into a family business enterprise. A democracy, however, can never run as a private entity. 2014 was a decisive year in the turn of events when the electorate overwhelmingly rejected dynasty politics. What followed was a near elimination of the Congress from all Indian states. 2019 Lok Sabha polls were near-unanimous approval for the BJP style of inclusive governance.
But, electoral politics can swing in any direction, and that is the beauty of it. Or, one can say that sharp-witted politicians use populist tactics that can appease voters but radically undermine the sovereignty of the nation. In Delhi and West Bengal state polls, the country witnessed the same brand of politics. The integrity of Indian politicians alone can now save the country from such a regressive and divisive style of politics.
Lately, a dominant face of the Congress in UP joined the BJP. A politician defecting to another party is not new. But what matters is the purpose behind such moves. Many senior leaders of Congress have cited extreme centralization of power in the party that weakens plurality and does not allow conflicting ideas to thrive even when they are in the public interest. That a former Prime Minister was a rubber stamp to the decisions made by the party chief is well aware. State units of the Congress party take directives from the high command in Delhi and from ministers to organization office-bearers. The high command makes direct appointments, which can frustrate those politicians that view politics as public service.
Despite widespread dissatisfaction, many politicians remain loyal to their parties due to old family ties or the clout of the central figure that appears too powerful to be dismissed. In their hesitancy, however, upright politicians cannot notice that the sovereignty of the nation takes a hit when a political party places self-interest over inclusive governance. Corruption not only results in the poor receiving a smaller portion of what is due to them, but it also weakens the military and law enforcement organizations because of paybacks and cuts sought by corrupt politicians and officials.
Consider these facts. Job growth in the world’s largest economy, the US slowed in April 2021 and, the number of jobless claims is still very high. In Canada, one of the wealthy nations, 68,000 became jobless in May 2021 and, the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent. Joblessness among Canadian youth is 16 percent. The only G20 economy that shrunk in the first quarter of 2021 was the UK. Prices are rising at a record pace in all these nations. True, India is also reeling from the economic downturn brought by the pandemic and, the people have lost jobs. But the government is taking measures like fiscal stimulus and increased public spending, and the RBI has also announced relief measures for small businesses.
The reason the BJP could not pull off polls in West Bengal nor performed as expected in the UP panchayat polls was a dent in the party’s image owing to the Covid crisis. But nations across the world are under stress. The only factor that has not led to a decline in approval rates of federal governments in these countries is the support of politicians to ruling governments cutting across party lines. In the US, for example, the debt to GDP ratio has reached alarming levels, but even Republican politicians have thrown their weight behind the Biden-led government. India has touched a 600 billion dollar milestone for foreign exchange reserves, but such feats rarely draw appreciation from opposition parties.
India, more than anything else, is reeling from a conflict of interests. And the sovereignty is being hit hard by these conflicts. Many politicians in opposition parties have the same nationalist ideology as the ruling BJP, but their reluctance is not allowing them to back the inclusive governance of the BJP. It is time they come forward, speak up and stand firm with the righteous.
(The article “Time is now for like-minded, upright politicians to back the BJP” published in ‘Organiser’)
Let’s turn the clock back to 2020. For many months, the world’s top health body, WHO, unequivocally discouraged the wearing of face masks by the general public. The argument was that it would inculcate a ‘false sense of security in the person wearing a mask. In June 2020, however, and after three months of having declared the n-coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, the WHO changed its stance on wearing face masks in public. The multilateral agency, which receives billions of dollars every year in voluntary contributions from member states and has the world’s top scientists and researchers on its payroll, had no clue until June that face masks were critical in containing the spread of the deadly disease.
The largest contributor to the WHO budget is the United States. Indeed, the country that provides funds to the organization to ensure a coordinated response to any health emergency has the right to seek answers. In May 2020, the then US President condemned the WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak and its failure to hold China, the country where the virus originated, accountable. Back then, most experts criticized Trump’s stance, but exactly one year later new evidence has emerged about the unnatural origins of SARS, including how Chinese scientists discussed weaponising coronaviruses and how lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick during the months preceding the initial outbreak.
That was about the WHO, and how the world’s most powerful health body failed in numerous instances. In India, the turn of events has been a little different. The country managed the initial outbreak with exemplary success, with even the WHO country representative, Dr. Roderico Ofrin, praising the Prime Minister, and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on different occasions. He specifically highlighted how India’s massive population was a key challenge, but concerted efforts of the government helped achieve positive outcomes. Dr. Ofrin also specifically mentioned elements like ‘accessibility’ and ‘affordability’ of India’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This was a time when India became the fastest country to vaccinate six million people, outpacing the US and the UK by a big margin.
The picture suddenly changed when the second wave struck the country in April 2021. Within a short span, hospitals across the country were overwhelmed, and from drugs to medical oxygen, shortages of almost every critical healthcare facility erupted. There is a famous expression ‘Rome was not built in a day that underlines how great things need extensive hard work. But the mainstream media in India and elsewhere expected Rome to be built in no time. Indeed, the government failed to achieve this feat. In his recent dialogue with India’s External Affairs Minister, the US State Secretary has acknowledged India’s support to the US during the pandemic and said ‘we will never forget India’s help during the initial days of the COVID outbreak. The critics need to note that even the US failed to build Rome in a day.
Risk management is taught to students in every B-school. It is about how unforeseen and uncontrollable external events can disrupt the organization. India, when the second wave struck, was about to witness the same unforeseen event. The Indian constitution places healthcare in the state list because the drafting committee and the constituent assembly held the belief that healthcare has to be micromanaged and it is, therefore, best to delegate this responsibility to respective states. State governments in India always have a health ministry to oversee the management of health services. From hospital beds to the availability of critical medicines, it was the de jure responsibility of respective health ministers to ensure the best possible health infrastructure.
But conspiracies refuse to die. One can recall how one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates, became the target of COVID-19 conspiracy theorists who promoted an unfounded idea that the pandemic was a cover for some covert plan to implant trackable microchips in humans around the world. The conspiracy theory spread like a wildfire, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was compelled to address the world press and refute the claim. The scale of the conspiracy theory was such that at one time nearly 30 per cent of Americans believed in it, according to a YouGov poll. What’s more? The Italian Parliament even considered a proposal by an independent MP to refer the multi-billionaire to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
Here in India, social media platforms are flooded with conspiracy theories suggesting the culpability of the central government and its ministries during the second wave. Numbers are being manipulated with such flexibility that they are defying all logics and rationality; however, the opposition parties and their social media cells are endorsing them without even considering how it impacts the global image of India. The blame is being pinned on one man considering his image is the cornerstone of the ruling party. The internet has the tendency to love concocted and superficial theories. UFOs are in the news again, and so is Bill Gates for his separation from Melinda Gates. From Bill Gates’ alleged love affairs to Melinda Gates’ desire to replicate the independent woman image of Mackenzie Scott (former wife of world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos), abundant sensationalist claims are available.
However, rationality calls for a little sense. There has yet to be one single drug that can indisputably claim to be a perfect cure of COVID-19. No vaccine in the world has 100 per cent efficacy, and the irony is that India’s covaxin, which was initially resented by the opposition, outshines reputed brands. No scientist or organisation in the world knows what drug would be in demand tomorrow, and hence preparing well in advance is simply not possible. A drug that is being sought today as a likely remedy can lose its pole position tomorrow and even the WHO has a record of changing its stance regularly in this regard. India’s union government never failed, and the subsiding second wave is a testament to how it cooperated with many stubborn state governments to push the vaccine rollout and undertake other health measures.
The debate around what the media must broadcast and publish and what it should not is never-ending. After all, these left and right tilt in any polity date back to many centuries. The US has just proposed the federal budget with spending of over USD 6 trillion. The left media will portray it as a win for the general public, and by contrast, the right-wing media will criticize the high debt-to-GDP ratio besides explaining how it will negatively impact the general public in the long run.
The same international media is even more deeply divided when it comes to reporting India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. From lockdowns to shortages – that is not India-specific but a global scenario – everything is being criticized heavily by the left-wing media. But that is how it is, and that is how it will be, despite data and its extrapolation being utterly misleading and prejudiced. International media, which sidelined all important events to report on the sensationalist Gates divorce story, has a lot of other sensible and truly journalistic things to do. For example, are there any vested interests that are influencing the acceptance and later rejection of a particular drug or vaccine from a certain manufacturer? At the ground level, are government officials allowing unrestricted flow of government aid to affected people? Many lapses exist at micro levels, but the media’s indifference is not letting truth come out in the open.
Rationality calls for a little sense; it calls for looking at the wider picture and then reaching an informed conclusion, one that is truthful and unprejudiced.
(The article “Rebuttal to the International Press on India’s handling of Covid-19” published in ‘Organiser’)
The Central government in our country is perpetually at war against economic offences, year in and year out. At no point of time can it rest on its laurels even after having apprehended a large number of offenders in many big and small offences. Economic offences are committed ceaselessly somewhere or the other by individuals or well-established gangs. The instigating forces behind these unlawful acts are the base human emotions of greed and avarice.
The probability factor of a non-existent fool-proof system gives rise to the surfacing of the human weakness to make money on the sly. The situation is made worse when officials, big or small, who form links in the government’s chain of command, succumb to the lure of money or other temptations or fall prey to threats and render the chain weak. The malady of human weakness afflicts equally the political figures in command of the campaigns and the members of the judiciary.
Stringent Punishments Needed
Unlike in the totalitarian nations like China, where they have a zero-tolerance policy against crimes such as corruption or smuggling and also award summary execution, the system in India lacks stringent punishments. While this may speak well of the democratic system of governance and the high degree of human rights we have, ample leeway is allowed to the accused to get away from punishment in the absence of eyewitnesses or conclusive evidence.
Both the public as well as the honest and upright officials do become dejected and even frustrated when a big-time offender goes scot-free, thanks to his money and muscle power. Consequently, the government can only win battles in the present system, with a victory in the war barely discernible in the distant horizon. The chinks in the armour are capable of making a cynic wonder if the war has actually been lost even before its commencement.
The system is far from perfect but is not entirely bereft of honest political leaders with impeccable integrity and upright officials whose loyalty is beyond reproach. It would, of course, help if the rules are made stringent enough to enable handing out exemplary punishments to the offenders. The term economic offences bring within its ambit a wide range of unlawful acts of commission and omission relating to financial transactions. It includes seemingly simple acts of financial impropriety carried out in one’s daily life due to lack of knowledge of rules and goes on to cover deliberate acts of subversion of the nation’s security.
In simple terms, it all boils down to tax evasion and black money. The term black money does not just mean the vast sums of money stashed away in the overseas tax havens but all the money that is unaccounted and on which tax has not been paid. It includes the small amounts of money that change hands without proper receipts in market places, money generated by bribery, real estate transactions and drug peddling as well as the vast sums generated by smuggling, gun-running and human trafficking, just to name a few. Here, we are not even talking about the counterfeit currency notes printed by the enemies of the nation, although it definitely qualifies to be termed as black money.
Fight on Foreign Turf
In the backdrop of the above being the nature of the offences and the constraints faced by our country, the BJP-led NDA government lost no time in swinging into action to unearth and bring the black money home as soon as it assumed power in 2014. Among the earliest decisions the Union government took on its first day in office was to institute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for this purpose. The SIT was mandated to probe into all the cases of black money. At that point of time, the Swiss authorities had revealed that the black money held by Indians in Switzerland amounted to US$2 billion.
In February 2012, Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had stated that the black money held by Indians in Switzerland and other overseas tax havens was around US$500 billion. However, in March 2018, the government disclosed that this estimated amount had swelled to Rs 300 lakh crore or US$1.25 trillion. That is more than 100 per cent appreciation in black money in a 6-year period! Bilateral agreements were entered into with countries for sharing of information regarding huge deposits of money in foreign banks.
Fight on the Home Front
Furthermore, the Union government has pulled out all the stops to unearth black money within our country. In a daring move to bring black money into the banking system, the NDA government announced in 2016, demonetisation of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, which then accounted for 86% of the total currencies in circulation. As a follow-up, the Income Tax Department came up with lists of people depositing huge sums in bank accounts in the post-demonetisation period.
Subsequently, more than 1.5 lakh cases were selected for scrutiny by the Income Tax Department wherein large deposits were made into various banks across the country by depositors who could not explain the corresponding sources of income. Due to demonetisation, the scourge of fake currency notes that were circulating in the Indian economy also took a big hit. Moreover, demonetization, with the help of digitalization, even managed to bring down the value of banknotes in circulation by Rs 2.93 lakh crore.
Meanwhile, the vengeful Pakistan government, which had allowed the printing of counterfeit Indian currency notes on its soil to be smuggled into India for financing its terror operations in the Kashmir valley, also suffered a massive blow. A huge cache of Rs 7 lakh crore of fake currencies printed in Pakistan, which the Islamic nation had planned to circulate in India, reportedly became worthless overnight. Thus, India struck rich with the demonetisation move!
Our Central government had also announced a window for taxpayers to make a one-time declaration of their undisclosed assets abroad. Separately, two more windows were provided for taxpayers to declare concealed income. All these opportunities were availed of by taxpayers who came clean with over Rs 76,000 crore of undisclosed wealth and unaccounted income.
The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act and General Anti-Avoidance Rules, as well as the Double-Taxation Avoidance Agreement, entered into with Mauritius, have provided the existing rules with more teeth to combat black money and money laundering. As a result of the NDA government’s invigorated drive to boost its anti-black money operations, the number of people who filed Income Tax Returns, saw an increase of 16 per cent in 2017-18 over the previous year.
Pay Up Time The fight against economic offences is still on, and the results are there to see, both in droves and trickles. There has been no letup in India government’s concerted efforts to cleanse the system for ensuring a bigger turnout of the fraudsters and defaulters to face the punishment and pay up. The heat is being kept on with the big time offenders who have fled the shores of India after defaulting on their massive bank loans. It is a question of time before the chickens come home to roost!
(The article “Is Enough Being Done To Fight Economic Offences?” published in “Business World”)
The whole world has become wary of the prospects of their firms being taken over by China with its infusion of money in their slowing down economy and faulty products in their market. India is no exception. With its official notification of April this year which mandates that all countries, sharing a land border with India, would now face scrutiny before foreign direct investments (FDIs) are allowed, the Government of India has sent a strong political message to China.
Why the Economic Offensive
A clarion call for making the nation self-reliant was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12 while unveiling the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Although the call came in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic-related economic package, the subsequent developments, which led to the economic offensive against China, have borne out the truth that the call for self-reliance has much to do with many other regional and international influences as well.
The Indian economy was going through a tailspin last year on account of a downswing, which was primarily due to China’s trade wars with the US. After that, when the Covid-19 virus struck, our nation’s economy suffered a body blow. India is one of the countries that has been severely affected by the pandemic. Apart from the heavy toll on human lives, industrial units came to a standstill, and production levels fell. Thousands of jobs were lost, pushing the affected people to poverty levels. This resulted in the dislocation of thousands of people from urban to rural areas.
The government was hard put to extend a helping hand to the suffering millions with relief measures. It was compelled to divert precious resources meant for the other sectors to the health sector. Then came the unkindest cut of them all when China attacked the Indian troops in the Galwan Valley. To make matters worse, China was found to have been indulging in anti-Indian activities in collaboration with some corrupt political elements in our country. Meanwhile, there is no dearth of the prophets of doom who wax eloquent about how by boycotting China on the economic front, India stands to lose more than China.
Our country does not nurture any illusion of the Chinese economy totally crumbling under the Indian boycott. Territorial integrity or economy, India has stood up to China and convinced the latter that it wouldn’t acquiesce to any kind of pressure. Furthermore, the Middle Kingdom has been made to realise that it has not only lost India’s vast market by antagonising the latter but would also end up as the biggest Covid-19 loser due to the global boomerang effect to the pandemic.
Foreign Investments
By emphasising that foreign investments and technology are welcome, our Union government has clarified that self-reliance does not mean cutting off or isolating the Indian economy from the rest of the world. So, India’s goal of self-sufficiency will actually translate into ensuring a bigger and more important role for it in the global economy. Meanwhile, India was quick to clear the way for welcoming those companies from Europe, the US and East Asia, which are moving out their production facilities from China in the wake of the pandemic.
Japan, the US and South Korea have expressed interest in relocating their businesses from China to India. These three countries are among the top twelve trading partners of India, with a total bilateral trade of US$180 billion. India is reported to be working on developing a land pool of about 462,000 hectares in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to facilitate the shifting of companies from China. This land area is double the size of Luxembourg.
Our Central government is focusing on select sectors such as electronics, electricals, pharmaceuticals, food processing, medical devices, heavy engineering, solar equipment, chemicals and textiles as the focus areas for FDIs. This calls for a whole lot of exercise to refurbish the existing facilities on the ground level like roads, electricity, water and other infrastructural facilities. India government is pulling out all stops to hard-sell the country as a manufacturing hub. Resultantly, 1,000 foreign firms, planning to shift manufacturing to India, are reportedly in talks with authorities at different levels.
Companies Eyeing India
At least 300 of these companies are reported to be actively pursuing production plans. Their preferred sectors are mobiles, electronics, medical devices, textiles and synthetic fabrics. India is generally considered an attractive destination by the international companies for setting up their production units due to its market size and also because it is a hub for exports in the region. Another factor that goes in favour of our nation in preference to South East Asia is the cost difference, which is in the range of 10-12 per cent.
In September 2019, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had already slashed the corporate tax to 25.17 per cent, inclusive of all surcharges and cess. The applicable tax for new manufacturers was brought down to 17 per cent, the lowest in South East Asia. India is hopeful of attracting sizeable foreign investment in the manufacturing sector because of the reduced tax rate and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
In a bid to attract foreign investors, Uttar Pradesh was among the pioneering states to announce reforms in its labour laws. The UP government has exempted industries in the state from all labour laws for the next three years except for the following: (1) Building and Other Construction Workers Act, (2) Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, (3) Workmen Compensation Act; and (4) Bonded Labour Act.
Companies, including big names from logistics, scientific instrumentation, electronic, automobile industries, which already have investments in China and are planning to shift out of that country, are being wooed by the UP government by making changes in its industrial and sectoral policy. According to media reports, over 100 American companies and several South Korean companies have evinced interest in moving their factories to UP.
Japan has announced US$2 billion in financial aid for its companies to enable them to shift their production base out of China. Many more nations could follow Japan, which is expected to benefit India. The Madhya Pradesh government has not lagged behind and has announced a slew of radical measures to liberalise its labour and industrial laws to welcome foreign investors. With India’s Prime Minister calling out for “respect to wealth creators”, it is just a question of time before the other BJP-ruled states fall in line to ameliorate the conditions for foreign investment by cutting out the flab in the relevant laws.
Right Choice
The US, European countries, Japan and Korea, are definitely moving their firms out of China. The chances of these firms relocating to India are very high. With its vast market potential and as it is also an export hub, India is a great alternative location. The political stability, democratic governance and the rule of law that India is known for, combined with its willingness to roll out the required facilities, offer a very congenial industrial and business climate that the international community, which is profoundly disenchanted with China, is looking for.
(The article “The Aftermath Of India’s Economic Offensive Against China” published in “Business World”)
In its days of glory, the landmass of Hindustan had included several of its neighbouring countries with which it is currently sharing borders, to form a homogenous culture. It is home to the Sanatana Dharma and its offshoots of indigenous bodies of eternal religious faith. A unique system of spiritual and religious affinity prevailed among its people who freely moved around and intermingled with each other without any acrimony or animosity. Such an impressive socio-religious-cultural scene strode across a vast area spanning from today’s Pakistan on the West to Myanmar in the East as well as to the Hindu Khush mountain on the North to Sri Lanka on the South, transcending the countless kingdoms in-between.
What was unique about this one-of-a-kind phenomenon was that it was not enforced or imposed on the inhabitants of various communities by the sword or political compulsion. It was a natural and spontaneous outcome of the unity of thought and practices made possible by a mutual appreciation of each other’s right to worship. Religions from abroad that made their way to the shores of Hindustan were embraced with open arms. Those religions were either subsumed by Sanatana Dharma or allowed to take root and grow in Hindustan. There never was any kind of persecution of people on the basis of religion. Nor had there ever been a war waged by a ruler from Hindustan on the outside world in the name of religion. Atheists and agnostics were not discriminated against either.
Gilding a Lily?
Barring about a thousand-year period of subjugation by Islamic invaders and European colonial powers, the people of Hindustan enjoyed a commendable period of religious freedom and communal harmony unheard of in the Western hemisphere. As regards Secularism as a State policy, whoever had heard of gilding a lily?
Communalism and Partition
However, dark clouds of communal strife collected on the horizon on the eve of the country’s freedom. The country was partitioned in the name of religion. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had thus far been part of the freedom movement, chose to align with the Muslim community who he claimed were not safe alongside a majority Hindu community in independent India. He aggressively pushed for the partition of India. A strategically planned attack on non-Muslims was choreographed, which resulted in the killing and perpetration of other atrocities involving several thousands of hapless victims on both sides and destruction of property on a scale unmatched in living memory.
While Jinnah aligned with the Muslims, the Hindus and minority communities of free India were left unrepresented by a leader of stature to espouse their cause. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi chose to play neutral and even tilted the boat by supporting the cause of the newly-formed nation of Muslims. The other leaders of the Congress party were too engrossed in sharing the spoils of independence to champion the cause of the Hindus and other minority communities in Pakistan. The Indian leadership lacked vision and failed to strike a bargain with Pakistan for the mutual exchange of Hindus and other minority communities stranded in Pakistan with the Muslim community that chose to stay behind in India.
Failure of Indian Leadership
The failure of the then Indian leadership (read MK Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru) left the Hindus and other religious minority communities vulnerable to religious persecution in an enemy country that has vowed time and again to dismember India into fragments. Till the BJP-led NDA government came to power in 2014, granting Indian citizenship to the religiously-persecuted minorities fleeing Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had not been a priority redressal measure for the Indian government. This pathetic state of affairs went on for so long that apart from causing untold human misery, the strength of our own people stranded in Pakistan and Bangladesh drastically dwindled over a period of time.
Even now, with the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act by the Parliament to help out the victims of religious persecution of minority communities, we see sections of the Muslim community, safely ensconced in India, quibbling over the Act on communal grounds, indulging in hate politics and protesting against the government. No sooner had the protest started than it degraded into an anti-India campaign. In this dubious anti-national exercise, the trouble-makers enjoy the support of the frustrated Opposition parties, urban Naxals and other break-India forces including enemies from across the border.
Threats of another partition and subversive action against the Indian State and the government are voiced, making the protestors’ ulterior motive abundantly clear. The government is hard put to contain the trouble without prejudice to the law-abiding sections of the Muslim community. The ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits by the Islamic insurgents on the payroll of Pakistan was but a fallout of the dense concentration of the Muslim community languishing under the false notions of ownership of territory and religious superiority.
Anti-Hindu Secularism
State interference in the running of Hindu temples and endless litigations over matters of temple administration have resulted in a trust deficit in the government among the Hindu community over the years. Juxtaposed to the rancour and acrimony felt by the Hindus toward the partisan treatment meted out to them by the State in the name of Secularism, the Muslim community has been enjoying uninterrupted freedom to manage the running of its places of worship and educational institutions. Besides, the Muslims are the beneficiaries of the Sharia-based Muslim personal law in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance rights, etc.
The benefits of preferential treatment accruing to the Muslim community under the garb of Secularism is in stark contrast to the constrictions and unfair treatment suffered by the Hindus. Furthermore, there are reports of an exponential increase in the Muslim population vis-a-vis a relatively stagnant Hindu population. Muslims who are allowed to practise polygamy, are exhorted by their clerics to have more and more children and increase their community’s population contrary to the State’s small family norms that the Hindus willingly adopt. Hindus could not be blamed for worrying about the lopsided demographic changes likely to emerge and their fear of getting reduced to minorities in a couple of decades. The question of the relevance of Secularism as a State policy has been engaging the mind of the Hindus who are convinced that they have been given a short shrift.
The Central government, therefore, needs to take up India’s anti-Hindu Secularism for review to address the apprehensions of the Hindus across the country. All said and done, Secularism is not an ingrained part of the Constitution envisaged by the founding fathers of our nation. It is only an appendage, as the term ‘secular’ was added as an afterthought, to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution by a doddering Congress government in 1976. Stripped of its frills, Secularism stands reduced in realpolitik to a mere gimmick of minority appeasement. The only meaningful alternative to declaring India a Hindu nation would be to make Secularism non-partisan in effect by putting the majority and minority communities on equal footing and making nationalism take precedence over religious supremacy. Anything short of that would be political myopia and injustice to the long-suffering Hindu community.
(The article “Does Anti-Hindu Secularism Call For A Review?” published in “Business World”)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not participate in the Bhumi Pujan ceremony of the Ram Mandir construction at Ayodhya. And the State-owned national broadcaster Door Darshan must not telecast the live proceedings of the ceremony. Both the acts would be violative of the spirit of Secularism that is the guiding principle of the government, enshrined in the Constitution.
These were the vituperative outpourings of the raving and ranting Muslim Opposition and the leftists who were not, in any case, agreeable to the very idea of the construction of the Ram Mandir in the first place.
This is a classic example of how the anti-Hindu Opposition manipulates every issue by introducing a communal twist to it. Be it the enactment of a law, or its implementation, every move by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is applied to the touchstone of the Secularism doctrine. Even earlier, some opposition parties had employed the same tactic to sabotage the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
It derided the Act as a BJP ploy to brand Muslims as infiltrators or illegal immigrants and throw them out of the country as part of their purported communal agenda. Under the ruse of peaceful protest meetings and rallies, they orchestrated violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, which claimed several lives and caused large-scale destruction of public and private property. Vast amounts of money smuggled from across the border were used to fund extensive chaos and anarchy.
Government Maligned
After instigating communal clashes in Delhi, the political Opposition went to town deriding the Union government for its alleged failure to maintain law, order and overall peace. The biggest loser in the bargain was communal amity. Though the insidious act of the Opposition to create a sectarian divide between the Hindus and the Muslims has been successfully thwarted for the present, there is no denying the fact that the threat to communal harmony persists.
Enemy Factor
Fighting communalism is no more an issue restricted to the different communities on the one hand and the government on the other. There are some external agencies involved. These agencies are interested in seeing the creation of more and more theocratic states like Pakistan and Bangladesh in place of a strong and secular India. Our nation’s enemies are hoping to achieve their end-goal by instigating one community against another and creating a religious divide between the communities.
The following window provides a sneak preview into the magnitude of the problem:
Acts of War
The real threat is to the communal harmony and not to Secularism, which the anti-Hindu governments of the past that spoke of ‘Saffron Terrorism’ used as a fig leaf to cover their shame. The days of the soft options like spreading awareness among the public regarding the evils of communalism and the perils faced by Secularism are over. Now is the time for the enemies of the State to be weeded out. Being a State policy, threats posed to Secularism should be treated as acts of war against the State.
The enemies of the nation are working overtime in the mainstream and social media for the subversion of the State. Gross abuse of the right to free expression is rampant. The degeneration of the mainstream and social media, which are public forums for the exchange of ideas, thoughts and useful information into a platform for the nefarious activities of the anti-nationals needs to be arrested forthwith.
Urgent Steps Needed
Unfortunately, the most serious challenge to Secularism springs from the ignorance of the silent majority of the Hindus about the impending probability of their becoming a minority community in their own country. They seem to be indifferent to the irrefutable truth that Secularism is safe in this land only so long as the Hindus remain the majority community.
The day the Hindus become a religious minority in India, their eventual decimation would become a matter of time as it happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh. One does not even have to look too further away for the repercussions of a state where Hindus cease to be a majority. Even a cursory look at the history of Kashmir would show the consequences.
To make matters worse, the TFR (Total Fertility Rate) of Hindus is nowhere near compared to the Muslim community. Which only means that the Hindu community, in numbers, is growing at a much slower pace. Furthermore, both these Abrahamic faiths practise conversion without any check by the local governing bodies or the state governments. The NDA government should, therefore, implement the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and also impose a strict ban on conversions.
(The article “The challenges to ‘Secularism’ and the need to implement NRC to preserve it” published in ‘OpIndia’)
While the onslaught of Covid-19 and the frenetic activity it generated are behind us, India should lose no time in getting ready for the great leap forward. Our country should resist the temptation to continue to bat for a regional role in the future events of a virus outbreak or similar exigencies that would call for emergency redressal measures on a global scale. It should make up for the lost time and forcefully bid for global leadership in the new world order, as it has been aspiring for that role since long.
This would call for the globalisation of its heretofore regional leadership initiatives like SAARC and Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Program, which is restricted to developing countries. It will enable the much-needed sharing of information and assistance among the countries across the world. India stands to benefit from its participation in the global endeavour to collectively address issues that challenge humanity or threaten the stability of the world order.
Nation Building
While India is gearing up to play a more crucial role, we, the people, should not shy away from addressing the immediate task of nation-building. Only a powerful India would be in a position to measure up to the expectations of other nations across the world. The external threat to our country’s territorial integrity is among the foremost of the problems that are crying for a lasting solution. Enough lives, territories and resources have already been lost. The longer it takes to find a permanent solution to India’s border problems with its neighbouring countries, higher the cost our nation will have to pay in terms of the adverse impact on the morale of its citizens and loss of resources.
Heartening indeed was the experience to witness the entire nation rising like one man to stand behind the Central government to take on the external enemy during the latter’s recent incursions into eastern Ladakh. The goodwill of the people should not be allowed to dissipate. Furthermore, the strength and resolve of the armed forces should be bolstered by providing them with the much-needed wherewithal. To the credit of the nation’s current leadership, the ignominy of our soldiers fighting in summer clothes, with paltry firepower, on high altitudes in bone-chilling cold and returning home in body bags is now a thing of the past.
Moreover, the Indian Army has already been given a free hand to take on the enemy without having to look over their shoulder for clearance from a doddering political leadership, lacking empathy, back home. We are now required to consolidate on the gains of the new-found morale of our armed forces, which had never been so upbeat as during their recent engagement with the Chinese Army. The Union government should pull out all the stops to upgrade the available weaponry and equipment, befitting the stature of a modern professional Army.
The Narendra Modi government is indeed seized of the matter and is not allowing the bitching and bickering of the political Opposition to prevent the sourcing of modern weaponry and equipment on frivolous charges and false accusations of corruption. Some of the recent deals made with friendly countries like France, the USA and Russia for defence procurement are cases in point. The Central government is also complementing its efforts in this direction by boosting the indigenous production of the defence requirements. Bridges of friendship are being built with like-minded countries like Australia to stop a hegemonic China in its tracks in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
‘One India’ Policy
Besides securing its borders, our country has to reaffirm to the world community about its resolve to safeguard the whole of India, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and border states like Arunachal Pradesh, which are coveted by the enemy countries. India should show its commitment to a ‘One India’ policy. This calls for a firm and resolute foreign policy, the success of which depends on diplomacy and international cooperation to end the threat of power politics of our enemy countries. The worldwide political atmosphere in the post-Covid-19 era would offer India the most congenial ambience and milieu to forge its ‘One India’ policy.
Internal Security
Of equal importance is the bolstering of the internal security mechanism. During the recent crisis period of external aggression, India took various steps such as prohibiting Chinese apps on Social Media, clamping down the import of Chinese products and shutting the door on Chinese companies like Huawei, the global service provider of information and communications technology. Now, necessary preventive measures to forestall the breach of cybersecurity should also be put in place.
Tracking the Enemy Within
Sensational disclosures of the Congress Party entering into an MoU with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and receiving substantial sums of funds from the Chinese government through its Embassy and some Chinese companies in India for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation during the UPA rule have come to light. The first family of the Congress Party has been accused of receiving undue hospitality from the Chinese government. The matter is currently under probe by an inter-ministerial committee. The nature of the allegations could not be any more serious.
The possibility of the involvement of the Sonia Gandhi family and the erstwhile UPA government in the violation of national security cannot be ruled out. There is also an accusation against the UPA government that it was planning, under external pressure, to surrender the Siachin glaciers to Pakistan. There is already a panoply of allegations regarding the UPA government’s complicity in the many scams and scandals rampant during its 10-year rule. The investigation of these scams and scandals has to be swiftly carried forward to its logical conclusion both for the sake of natural justice as well as for restoring people’s faith in democracy and the rule of law. The NDA government should not be found wanting in expediting legal action in these matters.
Expelling Infiltrators
Illegal immigrants who have found shelter in some states which are ruled by anti-BJP political parties should not be allowed any further leeway. The Union government should forge ahead with implementing CAA and NRC and ensure the expulsion of the infiltrators. This is a matter of absolute urgency. The time that has already lapsed on account of lack of political will on the part of the erstwhile UPA government and the anti-BJP parties in some of the states has caused irreparable damage to our nation’s resources as well as to the law and order situation in the country.
Boosting Economic Growth
The Indian economy, which has been on a downswing, has to be put back on the growth path as early as possible. It will send the right signals to foreign companies contemplating to shift their operations to India. Rehabilitation of the farmers, traders, SME owners as well as those who have lost their jobs due to the closure of industrial units, needs to be taken up on a war footing. Last but not least, prioritisation of the tasks ahead is imperative, and their implementation should be taken up with a benign attitude to ensure that no issue is left out or excluded. And that by itself is no mean task!
(The article “India’s Post-COVID Priorities” published in “Business World”)
Even as the Indian National Congress (INC) inherited, by default, the reins of power from the British in 1947, it went about making mistake after mistake. The combined weight of these mistakes has resulted in the party ending up in the political doghouse.
The first mistake it committed was allowing Jawaharlal Nehru to become Prime Minister instead of its own choice of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The party acquiesced to the whims of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who backed Nehru. It displayed a lack of political sagacity by failing to keep in its fold patriotic freedom fighters like Subhas Chandra Bose.
In fact, Bose had to resign from the post of the Party President due to the manipulations by MK Gandhi and his coterie in the Congress Working Committee. After that, Boseformed an independent party by the name The Forward Block and fought for India’s freedom from outside the Congress umbrella. This was the second mistake. The third mistake was allowing Nehru’s daughter to succeed him, thereby paving the way for the perpetuation of a family rule. The party has lost all its credibility after being bogged down under far too many scams and scandals. Now, there is no tall leader to steer it clear of the impending disaster.
Inept and Inefficient Leadership
Be that as it may, during its 55-year long rule, the Congress governments suffered from inept and inefficient leadership. In matters of foreign and defence policies, the Congress leadership was notorious for not taking a nation-centric stance. Nehru was, in particular, given to flights of fancy and romantic visions about India and its neighbours.
He believed in his ability to trade-off magnanimity with peace from neighbouring states. Instead of winning wars with belligerent neighbours and keeping India’s territorial integrity intact, he kept seeking admiration and accolade of the international community with his lofty speeches and platitudes for peace.
Army in Disarray
He even questioned the need for an Army for a peace-loving nation like India. The Army was neglected, and the leadership of the armed forces denigrated. There was the meddling of political leadership in the armed forces, and sycophancy was promoted. There was no procurement of weapons or equipment. The Army was rocked by corruption scandals. Shockingly, during those days India’s intelligence services were in a shambles.
Foreign Policy Fiasco
Nehru’s ceaseless espousal of non-alignment had no traction in international politics. With all his talk about peaceful co-existence between nations and the Non-Aligned Movement in a bi-polar world, Nehru wanted to make a mark for himself as a statesman par excellence. In the bargain, India’s foreign policy was left in tatters. He was busy sending members of his family and coterie as Ambassadors abroad more to promote his image than to win friends for India. One of Nehru’s biggest foreign policy blunders was his not insisting on a One-India policy in return for the One-China policy that he readily agreed to.
Pakistan
When the Pakistani marauders invaded Kashmir in 1947, the Indian Army successfully repelled and pushed them back at the request of Maharaja Hari Singh, who was willing to accede his State to India. Instead of insisting on its unequivocal accession, the Nehru government granted the State special status under Article 370 of the Constitution. The grand gesture backfired, and Kashmir became a nest of vipers, where anti-nationals of all hues and shades and terrorists took sanctuary. When the Indian forces were on the verge of a complete victory, Nehru needlessly appealed to the UNSC and went for a ceasefire.
This was both unnecessary and uncalled for. Now, only 55% of Kashmir is with India. To make matters more confounded, Pakistan ceded some territories of the occupied Kashmir to China! Nehru crowned his mistakes with an offer of a plebiscite on Kashmir in the UN. Apart from lack of sound judgment, these actions betray a muddled-up mindset and a lack of imagination and the perils of distancing oneself from the ground reality vis-a-vis a hostile neighbour. The Congress governments, which succeeded the Nehru-led government, never displayed any sign of lessons learnt from past mistakes.
We have had several wars, conflicts and military stand-offs with Pakistan over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism during the Congress rule without any conclusive resolution of the problems. This was primarily because every time India’s action was in the nature of a knee-jerk reaction, and there was a lack of political will and defence preparedness. Subsequent to the ceasefire at the end of the 1965 war, India and Pakistan signed the Tashkent Agreement. In terms of the Agreement, India returned the Haji Pir Pass, which had been won from Pakistan. All that Pakistan did to reciprocate was to promise an end to the hostilities. It did not even keep this promise. This dealt a heavy blow to our diplomacy.
Similarly, the Simla Agreement that we had with Pakistan at the end of the 1971 war that culminated in the liberation of Bangladesh brought to the fore another bungling at the negotiating table by our political leadership. The Agreement called for, among other things, the exchange of POWs between the two countries. Whereas India returned all the 96,000 Pakistani POWs, Pakistan reneged on its commitment and returned only 617 Indian POWs, holding back 54, who are still languishing in Pakistani jails, if alive. This was an unimaginable fiasco after a splendidly fought war. The sheen of the military victory was lost to the muddle headedness of the political leadership of the day.
China
The India-China war of 1962 was an unmitigated disaster that brought India to its knees. Apart from being caught totally unprepared, our Army was in no shape to fight, with hardly the necessary weapons and equipment available. India had to seek help and aid from other countries. This was the same China in whose favour Nehru had sacrificed Indian candidature for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. India has ever since been unsuccessfully lobbying for the seat, with China vetoing India’s nomination, year after year. All this could have been avoided with a little pragmatism and farsightedness on the part of Nehru.
In the aftermath of the recent Chinese attack in the Galwan Valley in Tibet, an inter-ministerial probe into a sensational exposure about an alleged nexus between Congress and the Chinese Communist Party has been instituted by the government. The allegations range from the signing of an MoU between the two parties in Beijing in 2008 to the acceptance of large sums of money and favours by Congress from the Chinese government. The veracity of the allegations and the extent of damage caused to our nation will determine the future of Congress Party.
In the aftermath of the recent Chinese attack in the Galwan Valley in Tibet, an inter-ministerial probe into a sensational exposure about an alleged nexus between Congress and the Chinese Communist Party has been instituted by the government. The allegations range from the signing of an MoU between the two parties in Beijing in 2008 to the acceptance of large sums of money and favours by Congress from the Chinese government. The veracity of the allegations and the extent of damage caused to our nation will determine the future of Congress Party.
(The article “A saga of mistakes: Misadventures and policy fiascos of Congress governments of the past” published in ‘OpIndia’)
Is it possible for someone to “gang up” against a group? Though it may be perceived as impossible, yet that is precisely what is happening in today’s global scenario. A single country has practically ganged up against the rest of the world! Despite being the second biggest world economy, it has been noted for blatantly practising unethical means, including war, to secure its end goal of establishing unchallenged supremacy in global politics. This rogue communist country believes that no price is too high nor any means too unethical to reach the seat of commandeering the world affairs. Seen through the prism of international perceptions, it could, therefore, be truthfully stated without an iota of prejudice that China has verily achieved the mission impossible.
All Time Low in Relations
China has already hit an all-time low in international relations. The litany of charges by the peace-loving free world against China is practically endless: human-rights violations, ruthlessly suppressing political dissension, ethnic cleansing, refusing civil liberties to the people of Hong Kong, rejecting Tibetans’ right to self-determination, coveting an independent Taiwan, grabbing by force swathes of territories from unwary neighbouring countries and laying claims on places and areas that are part of established nations. Furthermore, China has also been bullying and lording over the South China Sea and the East China Sea where it has made many a territorial claim, openly supporting international terrorist groups by extending financial assistance and weapons and training them to subvert the stability of nations like India, which are competing with it in the economic sphere.
In addition to the above, China has been single-handedly responsible for bringing about the global economy to a near collapse. The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in China and its worldwide spread was the trigger point. More than the outbreak of the pandemic, it was the mishandling of the killer virus in ground zero that turned the world against China. The rogue nation’s secretive ways of concealing the truth about the origin of the virus and its audacious refusal to cooperate with the other countries to reach the heart of the problem in order to come up with a cure clinched the issue.It became more and more apparent with the passing of time that there was much steam in the conspiracy theory that the novel coronavirus was man-made with the intention of using it as a weapon against the prevailing world order. It was obvious that the Chinese world view was grossly at variance with the existing world order. It is no wonder, therefore, that the world is seeking to establish a new world order where there would be a distinct delineation of China’s place in the international affairs in the post-Covid-19 era. Suffice it to say that China has painted itself to a corner.
US-China Relations
In the past, the US and China were engaged in disputes focussed on trade imbalance and the technology front that triggered trade wars, with the fallout of escalation of tariffs. Now they are fighting on more fronts ranging from the origin of the novel coronavirus to Hong Kong to the South China Sea to race for supremacy in the military and artificial intelligence field. Earlier, the US had special arrangements for preferential financial treatment for Hong Kong. Now with the tightening of the Chinese control over Hong Kong, the US position of special arrangements is becoming opaque, if not downright murky.
International experts have expressed concern over fears that the US-China relations are in for the darkest chapter yet. The US has accused China of stealing intellectual property and violating tariff and subsidies set down by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the World Trade Organization. It has staked a claim for retribution against China for the disastrous consequences to its economy caused by the pandemic. Several countries have joined the US in making similar claims.
Trade analysts and political observers believe that China may prefer the re-election of President Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden. The re-election of Trump is likely to be followed by more bluster, threats and higher tariffs, whereas the election of Biden may throw up uncertain times ahead. President Trump is known to have sent in the past his traditional European allies into a tailspin by openly criticising them with his America First policy. However, he may still be expected to carry their support in the matter of arraigning China for recalcitrance.
Japan-China
Japan has disputes with China over the Senkaku Islands in the South China Sea and Ryuku Islands and the Air Defence Identification Zone and the Exclusive Economic Zone in the East China Sea. In the wake of the Galwan Valley incident precipitated by China, Japan has initiated a legal process to change the legal status of the Senkaku Islands. This, together with Japan’s participation in the Quad talks with the US, India and Australia, has angered China.
Japan has expressed concern over the recent sighting of a submarine, suspected to be Chinese, close to the Japanese territorial waters. It has also spoken about the need to raise awareness about China’s intentions and capabilities, citing references to China’s actions in Hong Kong and the South China Sea and military action along the India-China border in Tibet. In the given circumstances, Japan is considering the acquisition of pre-emptive capabilities to strike down anti-missile launchers.
Britain-China
Britain’s relations with China started deteriorating when the former offered the political dissidents in Hong Kong citizenship rights following the Chinese clampdown on Hong Kong. The relationship took a further hit when Britain joined the chorus for a free international probe into the origin of the novel coronavirus. Britain has since banned the Chinese tech giant Huawei from bidding for expansion of the 5G network. China has warned of repercussions. Meanwhile, Britain is bracing for a crippling cyberattack as happened in Australia recently.
NATO
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has recently stated that the increasing influence of China in geopolitics has led to a shift in the global balance of power. He has also warned that China was coming ever closer to Europe’s doorstep, which must be fought together by the NATO allies. It is evident that China is fast losing friends, besides the US, in Europe too. Already in the diplomatic doghouse of many a country, China’s sole lifeline in international relations is dependent on its economic and trade ties. With its expansionist agenda becoming more and more pronounced, it is a question of time before China is totally cut off from the international community and gets branded a pariah state.
Stretched to Tether’s End
Besides the growing political dissension among the intelligentsia, divisive fissiparous tendencies within CCP coming to the fore and secessionist forces waiting to break away from the stranglehold of the totalitarian regime, China is facing a new threat. How long can a friendless China sustain its economy before it succumbs to the combined pressure by a realigned and fast-emerging new world order in the post-Covid-19 era is a moot point that now demands serious consideration.
(The article “China versus Rest of the World” published in ‘Organiser’)
The Congress-CCP nexus and the proximity of the Congress first family to top Chinese leadership do not add up to any good for our country. Unfortunately for the CCP, the Congress Party is not in power currently
India has learnt the hard way that there is much more to a war than a flare-up of hostilities and shootouts between two nations at the border. The face-off between India and China in Ladakh seemed to be only a diversionary tactic by the Chinese leadership to tighten its grip on the military-political structure of the state. However, from the developments that have recently unfolded, it is obvious that there has long been a deep-rooted evil design hatched to destabilise India, which was perceived as posing a serious challenge to China’s aspiration for regional superiority and global dominance.
Motivation – Trouble at Home
Despite the seemingly strong grip that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is having on the country, China is quite unstable. There is a growing sense of disaffection and disenchantment toward the establishment on the part of the civil society. The disastrous handling of the Covid-19 crisis by President Xi Jinping has weakened his position both among the people and the party. Voices of protest by doctors, scientists, scholars and students are increasingly heard.
Western intelligence and media reports point to CCP being faction-ridden. Jiang Zemin of the Shanghai faction and Hu Jintao of the Beijing faction are at the vanguard of the dissenting factions, waiting to upstage Xi Jinping. There is a likelihood of secession, that too by seven provinces of the country, wanting to establish themselves as independent nations. Although all these look a long shot at present, snowballing momentum of political developments point towards cracks in the establishment and a stark possibility of a breakdown of the Middle Kingdom in the near future.
Low Hanging Fruit Option
One of the few options available to President Xi Jinping for tightening his hold on the power structure is to score political points by launching a few successful military campaigns. Being in command of the world’s biggest standing army throws open the opportunity to wage a war at will on beleaguered neighbouring countries that are preoccupied with tackling the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic on top of a slowing-down economy. Although China has kept theatres of war open on many fronts, what better place to start with than India, which has been found on several occasions in the past a lame-duck military target?
India has, however, never been more prepared for a war than now. The Indian Army has never been more upbeat, what with the country having acquired in the recent past modern weaponry, equipment and the full backing and support of a stable and strong government. It has been long since the nation bade farewell to non-alignment and embarked on the path of pragmatism in pursuing reinvigorated foreign and defence policies not only in its self-interest but also in the interests of regional peace. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has been vigorously pursuing the path of building up bridges of friendship with like-minded nations facing a common threat from China.
Resultantly, a closer understanding has been reached with countries like the US, Japan and Australia in giving shape to a Quadrilateral Defence Alliance for keeping an aggressive China at bay in the South China and East China Seas. Military pacts have been signed with Australia for the maintenance of peace in the Indo-Pacific Ocean region. India is no more a pushover that China was accustomed to bullying in the past. So, now China feels the need to subvert India’s stability by orchestrating a political upheaval.
Sinister Game Plan
Even as India-China face-off in Ladakh was staring our nation in the face, how the territorial integrity of India had been traded off in the past by some unscrupulous elements for pecuniary gains came to light. The Congress Party started criticizing the Modi government vehemently and accusing it of soft-pedalling the issue allegedly in connivance with the Chinese government to the detriment of our nation and its Army. Given the prompt action taken by the Union government in empowering and permitting the Army to thwart Chinese aggression effectively, the Congress Party’s flagrant and despicable anti-government stance was clearly incomprehensible.
Why such a vitriolic attack on the Central government when practically the whole nation was behind it? Why attribute motives and demoralise the Army? Was it merely a cheap political gimmick for the sake of opposing the ruling party? Or was it the tip of a more sinister gameplan to jeopardise India’s security and integrity? Fortunately, skeletons started tumbling fast out of the Congress closet. The nation woke up one fine morning to see the photograph of Rahul Gandhi signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of Central Committee of the CCP in the presence of Sonia Gandhi and the then Vice President Xi Jinping in 2008.
Conspicuous by his absence at the signing ceremony that took place in the Great People’s Hall in Beijing was then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Till the photograph was leaked by the BJP to the mainstream media, our nation had no information about this development. Nor are the details of the MoU known even now. The MoU was allegedly about exchanging information and promoting exchanges at every level. What does it all boil down to? Were India’s secrets shared with China? What was the extent of the damage caused to our nation?
It would be pertinent to recall that during the rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), all important government documents found their way to Sonia Gandhi, who was the de facto Prime Minister. How come the UPA rule provided level playing field to extrajudicial authorities, namely Sonia and Rahul Gandhi? On several more occasions, Gandhi family members were seen enjoying the hospitality of CCP – like during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and their secret meetings at the Chinese Embassy in 2017 during the Doklam crisis.
Furthermore, when Rahul Gandhi visited Kailash Mansarovar in 2018, the Chinese Ambassador was present when Rahul departed from Delhi. To make matters more confounded, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, in which Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are members, received vast amounts of funds from the CCP through Chinese Embassy in Delhi as well as from Chinese companies in India. What were the services rendered? A probe by an inter-ministerial committee has been ordered by India government to investigate into the matter. The Congress-CCP nexus and the proximity of the Congress first family to top Chinese leadership do not add up to any good for our country. Unfortunately for the CCP, the Congress Party is not in power currently. But the Congress Party is still striving to discredit Prime Minister Narendra Modi at any cost and sneak back, as power brokers, to the cosy comfort of CCP’s largesse. If the sacrifices by our soldiers and the territorial integrity of our nation were to be damned in the process, so be it. That seems to be the gameplan of the Congress Party. Meanwhile, the international community’s litany of charges against China now includes one more dark and grave exposé – infiltrating the government of a friendly country and plotting to subvert its stability by bribery and other unethical means.
(The article “India-China Face-off in Ladakh and the nexus between CCP and Congress” published in ‘OpIndia’)
There is no other country in the world like India, where millions of people practising different religions live in near-perfect communal harmony. No doubt, there have been occasional ripples in the still waters of communal amity. There is, however, peace and quiet by and large. How has this been feasible? This is primarily because the Constitution guarantees one and all the fundamental right of freedom to worship and practise a religion of one’s choice.
Tolerant Hindu Community
More importantly, the majority Hindu community has, to its credit, been ever so tolerant, in keeping with its ethos of Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava or equality of the end goal of all the religions. At the time of the country’s partition, the majority community was at the receiving end of fire and brimstone from the hardcore elements of the Islamic community who demanded a separate homeland for Muslims. Unfortunately, even after migrating to the newly-founded Pakistan, the hawks did not relent and pursued their anti-Hindu agenda. They consolidated their hatred for India and went about systematically targeting the minority communities of Indian origin in their own country.
Having succeeded in nearly decimating the target groups, they shifted focus to fomenting trouble in India. How they planted, bred and nurtured hatred for Hindus in the mind of the gullible sections of the Indian Muslims that resulted in the ethnic cleansing and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir is history. There have been flashpoints of communal strife in parts of the nation during the rule of Congress and their allies. Furthermore, infiltrating Jihadi elements and agents of the Islamic State, who were on the Ghazwa-e-Hind mission, resorted to brainwashing and converting frustrated Indian youth to the Break-India cause.
Hindu Community Let Down
Hinduism was maligned by pseudo-seculars, and there was even a baseless theory of Saffron Terror floated by the then Home Minister of the erstwhile UPA government. Tukde Tukde gangs started appearing and spouting venom against the Indian nation and its sacred signs and symbols like the national flag, national anthem, etc. These ragtag anti-national groups have been working overtime to make misguided students turn hostile to the very concept of patriotism. They received support in no small measure from partisan and communal elements among the intelligentsia, failed artists, pseudo-secular and liberal political elements as well as sold-out sections of the mainstream media (MSM). Pakistan was slowly and steadily making headway in its nefarious design of destroying communal harmony in India.
Trouble Ahoy!
An instance of the academia turning to stoke communal fires was recently witnessed when troublemakers used the sanctum of a seat of higher learning – the Jamia Milia University in Delhi – to attack police personnel and unwary bystanders and destroy public and private property during the anti-CAA protests by Muslim women and children with a sprinkling of non-Muslim supporters at Shaheen Bagh. From the pro-Pakistan slogans raised, it was evident that the protestors had the blessings and active support of Pakistan.
Trouble spread to North East Delhi where communal elements tried to bring the life of the local residents to a standstill. When pro-CAA residents tried to resist the trouble makers, the latter resorted to pre-planned violent attacks. There were random killings, brutal murders, arson and wanton destruction of property. All this was done on the pretext of the Muslim community feeling insecure and being targeted by the majority community over the new citizenship law. Inflammatory speeches were made by communal leaders about an alleged conspiracy by the BJP to victimise the minorities through legislative measures and turn the nation into a Hindu Rashtra. Evidently, there were Pakistani footprints all over.
Majority Response
The peace-loving majority across India are in no mood to allow communal passions to spread. They don’t want an imbalance in the majority-minority equation or demography. Nor do they want a free rein by blood-thirsty separatist mobs on the lines of partition. The sane elements in the minority community have been trying hard to prevail over the zealots with little or no avail. So, now it is for the government to act. Our nation has been a mute witness to instances of rabid Muslim clerics and advocates of extremist political ideology spouting poison through speeches exhorting their herd to rebel, revolt and fight for another Pakistan. Unruly behaviour and violent activities have become the norm on Fridays after mass prayers.
Places of worship are being turned into training grounds of a militant mindset in the name of service to their own religion to be rewarded with lucrative enticements in paradise. The immature and the gullible who are soft in the head fall prey to these manoeuvres. The places of mass congregation of the minorities and their religious schools also serve as meeting points and hiding places of militants and terrorists who are on the run. Although intelligence outfits and security agencies get credible tip-offs of anti-national activities, a police raid of these places becomes well-nigh impossible in the absence of ironclad proof or evidence because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
Constitutional Guarantee Misused
Article 30 of the Indian Constitution upholds the right of the minority religious groups to establish and organise educational institutions. Religious education is imparted in these institutions, which are funded by dubious sources. There are reports of brainwashing of youngsters who are taught in the name of religion to hate and convert Hindus through whichever means possible. Young women become easy prey of the foot soldiers of love jihad and are trafficked to war-torn areas in the Middle East to be pushed into sex slavery. Young men are radicalised and talked into joining and serving IS either within the country or at the theatres of war like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.
Abrogation Necessary
Hence, there is a strong case for the abrogation of Article 30, which is being misused by the minority communities to poison young minds in the educational institutions run by them. An aggressive militant agenda is pursued in these institutions to push the cause of Abrahamic faiths, promote proselytisation and love jihad and other anti-Hindu activities. Hindu children studying in these institutions are effectively turned against their own religion. Peace-loving people all over the country are becoming more and more restive over the separatist agenda of the fundamentalist elements in the name of religion.
So, it is high time that the Central government formulated a muscular policy to deal with the issue of communalism and its inevitable fallout. It makes no sense to allow the minority communities to promote anti-Hindu religious propaganda in the educational institutions run by them when children of the majority Hindu community are denied basic religious education in the absence of their own community school or elsewhere in the name of Secularism. This causes a reprehensible imbalance of equation between the communities. Abrogation of Article 30 of the Constitution is a vital move in the State’s war against the fundamentalists used as a cat’s paw by Pakistan and the other external enemies to destroy our nation.
(The article “Time To Review Or Abrogate Article 30 Of Indian Constitution” published in “Business World”)
(The article “अवैध मुस्लिम बांग्लादेशी घुसपैठियों से भारत की आंतरिक सुरक्षा को खतरा” published in UP Dainik Bhaskar, June 28, 2020)
(The article “विकृत भारतीय इतिहास का पुनर्लेखन ज़रूरी” published in UP Dainik Bhaskar, June 23, 2020)
Illegal Immigrantion is a ticking time bomb of serious demographic changes and communal clashes in India, as proved by the recent anti-CAA protests across the country. Massive illegal immigration of Muslims from Bangladesh is a precursor to the strident demand for a separate Muslim State.
Independent India has seldom seen such tough situations as it is currently experiencing. While being engaged in an all-out war against the Covid-19 pandemic and an economic downturn, our nation also faces a threat on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China over Ladakh. Meanwhile, Nepal’s recent aggressive posturing over its borders with India has only added cause for concern. Furthermore, Pakistan continues to be as irksome and annoying a neighbour as it has always been.
As such, India is required to mobilise all its resources to emerge victorious on all these fronts. This is indeed an unenviable situation for a nation, aspiring to emerge as a key player in the fast-evolving new global order. Aside from the challenges enumerated above, what ails India the most? It is the ticking time bomb of serious demographic changes and communal clashes, precursors to a strident demand for a separate Muslim State likely given the massive illegal immigration of Muslims from Bangladesh.
Threat to Internal Stability
The illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh infiltrate into India either to create trouble for our country or for employment opportunities. In either case, they are not welcome and are subject to apprehension and deportation. This is provided for in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was legislated by the Indian Parliament soon after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and before the outbreak of Covid-19. Frustrated Opposition parties like the Congress Party, Indian Union Muslims League (IUML), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) ganged up to scuttle the legislation which had already successfully cruised the legislative process in the Parliament.
For the sake of their political survival by appeasing the Muslims community, the Opposition parties tried to settle scores with the BJP, on the road after failing in the Parliament. Their nefarious mission was readily supported by anti-national elements like the jihadis and die-hard clergy as well as Urban Naxals, Break-India gangs, unprincipled Bollywood celebrities, and other enemies of democracy of all hues and shades. Muslim women, young students and children were misfed wrong information and brainwashed into believing that they would be deported from India on some technical grounds or some other reason such as non-availability of a citizenship document or their inability to supply information about their parentage, etc.
They were provoked into becoming foot-soldiers of a movement of street protests and vociferous rallies, drawn out on narrow communal lines. Such misguided people were even paid a daily allowance to make their time spent in raising slogans and giving vent to emotional outpourings and vituperative attacks against the government, the BJP and the RSS, worth the while. Soundbites of women expressing grief and agony over the perceived injustice brought upon them by the CAA were telecast and given wide publicity to enlist wider public support at home and sympathy abroad.
Counter Measures
To counter the canards spread and the false propaganda orchestrated, the Modi-led NDA government repeatedly asserted its position that not a single bonafide Indian citizen would come to grief because of CAA or any earlier legislation or the ones to be enacted in the future. At the same time, the Union government has been unequivocal about segregating the chaff from the grain. The illegal immigrants unlawfully staying in India will be apprehended and deported as per the law of the land.
Despite the huge uproar at various flashpoints in different parts of our country, including the national capital that had the dubious privilege of witnessing communal clashes which claimed quite a few lives, including those of some security officials, and damage to public and private property, the government has not relented in implementing the CAA. This kind of political unrest, instigated and orchestrated by the anti-national elements is an unfortunate reminder of the humongous human tragedy of unmatched proportions, which had marked the partition of the country in 1947.
It is also a sad forewarning to possible recurrences of such tragedies if the demands of the protestors, nay their paymasters, were not met. It is noteworthy that the slogans raised in the anti-CAA protests included a demand for a separate Muslim country on the lines of Pakistan. It is redundant to state that a large number of Muslims in India is peace-loving and is inimical to damaging either the harmonious social fabric or territorial integrity of the nation.
Nevertheless, the fact that the recent incidents pointed towards a growing number of anti-nationals rallying around enemies of democracy to cause irreparable damage to the nation cannot be ruled out. From where did the anti-nationals spring? India has always had its fair share of hardcore Communists and Urban Naxals that propagate in favour of a people’s revolt against the establishment in the name of class struggle. Additionally, we have been witnessing the emergence of die-hard jihadi elements that are active in recruiting new entrants to the cause of Ghazwa-e-Hind, the ultimate Islamic conquest of India.
In States like Kerala, ruled by the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, with a strong Islamic movement enjoying the state patronage, and the nearby States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a section of the youth is successfully brainwashed and turned into becoming the foot soldiers of the Pan-Islamic movement. In the rest of the country too, die-hard clergy take over the propagation of the dubious cause among the Muslims who live in self-imposed isolation.
Add to the above, the thousands of illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, that are happy to join the nefarious cadre, for a pittance and assured-stay in India. The resultant rag-tag grouping of anti-nationals is a highly explosive cocktail, waiting for a signal from their paymasters to foment communal trouble, capable of breaking the nation. In some Indian states, especially in the northeast, illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh add up to such a disproportionately large number that the locals feel overwhelmed by these outsiders.
According to a written reply by Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs tabled in Rajya Sabha in 2016, around 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are staying in India. They are spread practically all over India, like Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, Telengana, etc, working as cheap labour in factories and other commercial establishments and as household servants. It is not possible to have their precise State-wide distribution, as per the MoS.
Go Back They Must
Given their appearance, they easily merge with the local populace. In the absence of authentic travel documents like Passport, and other bonafide documents like Aadhar Card, Driving Licence, PAN Card, Ration Card or Voter’s Identity Card, it is practically impossible to pin them down to their nationality. But a large number of them manage, as has been noted, to obtain fake documents for a price from corrupt officials in non-BJP-ruled States. However, the Central government is determined to weed them out by implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across all the Indian states.
Although it is a long haul, the BJP is committed to identifying the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and deporting them, no matter how arduous the exercise. Although there is stiff resistance to this move by some Opposition parties like the Congress, the CPI(M) and the TMC, the NDA government is bent upon seeing the exercise through as it is a must for the very survival of our country. There can be no compromise when it comes to fighting an existential crisis.
(The article “Illegal Muslim Immigrants from Bangladesh Pose a Serious Threat to India’s Internal Security” published in ‘Organiser’)
(The article “Should Distorted Indian History be Rewritten?” published in magazine Uday India in June 13, 2020 English edition)
China’s unbridled hegemonistic ambition has led to its landing in the doghouse in the new world order. As the epicentre of one of the greatest threats to humanity, Communism is likely to fall apart under its own weight.
Communism is on borrowed time. Its epitaph has long been ready. It is already discredited throughout the world. History has witnessed its ignominious downfall in several countries where its writ once ran large with impunity. Bastion after bastion of Communism crumbled and crashed into the oblivion of history and the statues of its high priests were unceremoniously pulled down the pedestal much to the delight of the cheering crowds of onlookers. Not because it failed to deliver but because it miserably failed even to take off.
All these happened within less than a century of its appearance on the political horizon as a bright star of hope. Communism has been well and truly exposed for what it always stood for – an antiquated political system wherein one human is as good as another, both mere humanoid in the scheme of things of the system. There is no room for human sentiments, religion, spirituality, love for land, or attachment to a value system in preference to the party ideology. Communism is a vast wintry wilderness where no life form of political or humanitarian aspiration can grow.
Bare-Face of Communism
The ugly, soft underbelly of Communism reveals that it is enforceable only by brute power, with no people’s will or popular support required to prop it up. No opposition from any external political forces or dissent from within is brooked. Power springs from the barrel of the gun. Human lives are an expendable commodity – nothing more, nothing less. However, the eternal truth is that power can never be exercised for long over freethinking people by external forces.
A long-oppressed people in the erstwhile Russian empire ruled by the Czars by divine right or the Serbs of its East European hinterland could, no doubt, be easily won over by the charm and appeal of a refreshingly new theory that advocated an egalitarian society. There was, however, no way people could be kept under the jackboot of Communism for long, simply by being fed anti-Capitalist propaganda. The human spirit yearns for freedom and liberty, and it aspires for expression of free will even during the harshest of times.
It was exactly this indomitable spirit of humankind which had led to its experimentation with Communism as a political tool to explore the possible conversion of its aspirations into tangible results in the first place. Later, people were dismayed to discover that they had burnt their fingers with experimentation that proved too expensive and foolish. Besides, there was no way a man can be expected to give up on the cherished values and sentiments that had been held dear by humanity for so long for a few empty promises and hollow words of political sagacity by the powers that be.
The individual was neither a party to the dispensation of power, nor had he any say in the running of the state. A mere cog in the wheel in the state machinery, he was replaceable, with nary a shred of feeling or appreciation. The much-dreaded midnight knock at the door was a constant irritant in his mind. Life in a far-away concentration camp where he was forced to toil till his last breath was factored in his psyche, with no room for mercy or clemency. It was like a system where all were for the state and the state for none. You worshipped a false god that promised you no boon nor granted you a favour.
If you developed bourgeoisie virtues like love for the land, family or sentiments like individual freedom, liberty, nationalism or patriotism, then you did so at your own peril. According to Communist leaders, the Capitalist society was to be abhorred, and its symbols shunned. Their fake propaganda tried to emphasize that democracy was poppycock, not worth the paper it was written on.
The Evil Soviet Empire
In the erstwhile USSR, which was the pioneer of Communism and the front runner state and flag bearer of the state of the peasant and the proletariat, chewing gum and jeans had not even been heard of by the apparatchik. Those were only for the privileged offspring of the First Secretaries of the party. All one was expected to do was to work for the state just to get his share of stale bread and cabbage soup and go to bed on an empty stomach.
Then wake up next day and join long lines of hopeful, nay, wishful customers outside the state-run supply stores only to be greeted by rows after rows of empty shelves. Sliced bread? Sliced cheese? What was that? Crib and be reported upon. There was no room for privacy. Nor was there any scope for ventilating one’s grievances. Big Brother was watching. Such was the life of a comrade citizen in the premier Communist state.
Finally, the inherent flaws of the system started showing signs of cracking up from within. No amount of bids to wallpaper over the cracks could help the exposure of the bankruptcy of the state to sustain its security forces or the all-powerful intelligence outfit any longer. There was no question of locking the stables after the horse had bolted. Then dawned Glasnost and Perestroika! Finally, the curtains fell over the sprawling evil Soviet empire!
Whipping a Dead Horse to Life
Now, how do you re-enact elsewhere the sordid drama that had failed in Europe and Asia? It is well nigh impossible in this age and times of information revolution to try to fit people into the straightjacket of Communism. China and North Korea are the last outposts of a dreaded political system of a bygone era. China, which has thus far sustained itself on the sheer strength of brute power unleashed on its own people, is evidently a bogus Communist state. In reality, it is a Capitalist state that operates under the camouflage of Communism. It is building up its forex reserves at a furious pace and keeps accumulating assets throughout the world.
Covid-19 Will Emasculate China
So, now the question is how China will fare in the post-Covid-19 world? The global tragedy unleashed by the Coronavirus pandemic has brought to the fore the flaws in the Chinese system and the great dissent growing within the party and disaffection for Xi Ping, who is known for nurturing an unbridled ambition to continue in power beyond 2023. Western intelligence reports reveal that a revolt by at least three factions is brewing within the party and there is an imminent possibility of the disintegration of the country into seven independent states. With the development and production of the right vaccine, Covid-19 will hopefully become a thing of the past. But the question is, how will that impact Communist China’s future?
Will Beijing’s apparent success in tackling the Covid-19 virus enable China to gain global pre-eminence? Most definitely not because world’s big powers, led by the US, have already started making concerted efforts towards holding China responsible for the outbreak of the global pandemic and the consequential economic ruination of many a country. Furthermore, China hardly has a friendly country either in its neighbourhood or elsewhere on the globe. Its unbridled hegemonistic ambition has led to its landing in the doghouse in the emerging new world order, and it is now seen as the epicentre of one of the greatest threats to humanity. The tragic Covid-19 pandemic will have to go and, with it, Communism is likely to fall apart under its own weight, sooner than later.
(The article “Will Covid-19 Global Tragedy Spell the Death of Communism?” published in ‘Organiser’)
Education, awareness and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) are some of the key factors which can constitute the basis of the program necessary to bring about women’s upliftment and empowerment across the country.
Indian women have traditionally enjoyed tremendous respect and recognition in the society. Vedas and Puranas contain several verses and accounts that give us an insight into how women in ancient India were accorded the highest respect and dignity. Ramayana and Mahabharata have women of outstanding qualities and traits as principal characters. In fact, these epics are about the downfall of mighty kings who paid with their lives for committing the audacity of dishonouring women of exemplary character. Sita, Kunti, Draupadi and Savitri were some of the eminent women who led illustrious lives as empowered women in the days of yore.
There were women rishis who were held in high esteem. There are certain rituals in Sanatana Dharma, which cannot be performed by men without their wife by their side. Honouring of women of sterling character and outstanding qualities gradually triggered the practice of worshipping of women deities. The exalted status of women continued down the line in history. In royal households, there were talented women of extraordinary intelligence known for taking important decisions. Even in humble households, women were free to voice their opinions, which were factored into while making important decisions that had far-reaching implications.
Loss of Sheen
Unfortunately, the glory of the Indian woman lost its sheen over a period of time. The invasion of Bharatvarsha by alien marauders and European colonialists had a terribly adverse impact on the position of women in our society. Women, who were till then in the forefront of practically every walk of life, had to be kept under the wrap in their own interest. They had to remain anonymous to safeguard their own honour and that of their family. When the life and reputation of the people were at stake, women who constituted the driving force of successful family life and were the custodians of the culture of the land had to be protected from the enemies.
The continued practice of restricting the scope of a woman’s freedom to the sanctity of home for indefinite periods of time resulted in the permeation and crystallization of corrupt practices in Indian society. Women were heard and not seen in the public domain. They did not, however, hesitate to rise to the occasion when circumstances demanded their active role. Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi and Rani Chennamma of Kittur were classic examples of such exceptions to the rule of women keeping a low profile. Even in such a constricted atmosphere, the Indian mother vindicated her mettle by contributing to the grooming and the raising of brave men like Chhatrapati Shivaji.
During the Mughal rule and the British colonial era, the phenomenal Gurukul system of Bharat withered, which marked the extinction of our ancient formal education system. It was the women at home who took charge of the task of educating their wards from the treasure trove of religious and cultural information and knowledge. Love for the land, devotion to Dharma and service to humanity were instilled in the minds of the young men who would grow up to become brave warriors and strive to liberate their land from the clutches of the occupying forces. History is replete with instances of unsung and faceless women being the sources of inspiration for successful men.
Women Surge Ahead
The advent of Independence heralded the dawn of a new era. Women who had participated in the freedom movement were moulded in the image of the Bharatiya N?ri known for her penchant for age-old traditions and conventions, and a low profile. The post-Independence women were quick to emerge from the shadows of those of the past. The opening up of new vistas in both academic and career opportunities whetted women’s appetite for parity with men in all walks of life. Women started breaking one glass ceiling after another with a regularity and rapidity unimaginable in their mother’s time.
Emboldened by the Constitution, which not only guarantees parity between genders but even encourages positive discrimination by the State in favour of the fair sex, more and more women started making a mark for themselves in practically every public domain. Free India has had a woman Prime Minister and several women holding high offices of cabinet ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors and any number of legislators. The Narendra Modi government has displayed an avid interest and strength of conviction in implementing schemes and programs for women’s welfare such as ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ and ‘Ujjawala’.
The landmark abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A effectively brought the discrimination of the Muslim women in J&K to an end. The abolition of the reprehensible practice of Triple Talaq also brought cheer in the life of Muslim women nationwide, who had all along been subjected to discrimination in the matter of marriage and divorce. These two legislative measures were no less than a surgical strike against a historical imbalance and an injustice to women on the pretext of an unjustifiable religious practice dating back to medieval ages. Consequently, a section of Indian women who had thus far remained voiceless in free India has been empowered and set on the course of further development along with the other women of our country.
Brainwashed and Misled
A lot more good work still needs to be carried out by the BJP and the Central government for the upliftment of women who are caught in the cobwebs of ignorance and gender imbalance. Such women are not familiar with the scope, application and importance of the ambitious legislative measures already undertaken by the BJP-led NDA government or that are in the pipeline. The CAA, NPR and NRC are cases in point. The nation has been a witness to some ignorant women with a ghetto mindset being misguided and instigated to turn against the government and the State by communal elements and anti-national forces having a divisive agenda.
These women are brainwashed to believe that their religion is in danger at the hands of the Modi government, and they would be evicted from India on the basis of their religious identity. We have witnessed sit-in protests on the streets of Delhi by such groups of women since mid-December last year, which they eventually called off a few weeks back. Those protests sparked still more protests that degenerated into communal strife, claimed scores of lives and damaged public properties during acts of killings, arson and loot. A spectacle as far removed from the strides in the nation’s progress and self-development made by the truly empowered women, as it could get.
Awareness and Empowerment
Evidently, the protesting women were used as a front by the anti-India forces for creating a rift between the majority and the minority communities. The mobs, which rule the streets during communal clashes and their instigators, should not be spared. They should be dealt with as enemies of the State. The women, who play into their hands, should be debriefed by the authorities with an awareness program. This is by no means an easy task. Education, awareness and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) are some of the key factors which can constitute the basis of the program necessary to bring about women’s upliftment and empowerment across the country.
(The article “Woman’s Empowerment And Women Protesting On The Streets” published in “Business World”)
India and Iran could move on with a bit more of understanding of each other’s domestic and global political compulsions and the need to work together.
Iran has lately been hit by a double whammy of a monumental health crisis and an unsavoury turn of events in its bilateral relations with India. What makes the situation particularly awkward for Iran is its utter helplessness in tackling the crisis without help from India, which it had subjected to harsh criticism barely a month ago.
Iran Sounds the Alarm
Reeling under a severe attack by the deadly Novel Coronavirus, Iran is under lockdown. The country has reported a loss of upwards of 2,234 lives as on March 26. The figure keeps mounting, with thousands of infected people not getting medical assistance and care. Its casualty figure is the fourth highest in the world after China, Italy and Spain. A number of its senior politicians, including its First Vice President, and officials are among those infected.
With sweeping sanctions imposed by the US against the nation over its suspected nuclear program in place, the Iranian government has reported how its efforts to fight the health crisis have been severely impacted. President Hassan Ruhani has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi a letter of appeal seeking India’s help in his country’s hour of distress.
India to the Fore
There is nothing surprising about the appeal. India has vindicated its acumen in the medical and scientific domains while addressing the virus problem. It has taken a swathe of proactive measures to tackle the virus outbreak in the country. Besides, it has already demonstrated its readiness to play its global leadership role by setting up a ten million dollar Emergency Fund for use by SAARC countries and a rapid response team of doctors and specialists to fight the virus in the region.
Immediately after the breaking out of the virus in Wuhan, India rushed 15 tonnes of medical supplies to China. In the case of Iran, it is noteworthy that its appeal for help comes closely on the heel of that country’s shocking criticism of India made only days earlier over the violent incidents that had rocked Delhi.
Critics in a Bind
It was a matter of cold comfort for India that no Arab state had criticised India over the Delhi incidents, CAA or Kashmir. As such, criticism from Iran, which was a leading supplier of oil to India till sanctions were imposed, was like a bolt from the blue. Referring to the violence in Delhi, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted, “The hearts of Muslims all over the world were grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India”. Khamenei also advised India to “confront extremist Hindus and their parties and stop the massacre of Muslims to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam”.
India responded in kind with a terse statement urging its critics not to make irresponsible comments and not be influenced by a selective and unsubstantiated narrative in the matter. Earlier, India had summoned the Iranian envoy in Delhi to lodge a strong protest over comments made by Foreign Minister Zarif. Ironically, the Ayatollah had stated in his letter to Prime Minister Modi that the Coronavirus “knows no boundary and claims victims without political, religious, ethnic, and racial considerations”!
A blatantly anomalous situation caused by Iran’s unsolicited advice on what was purely a matter of India’s domestic concern on the one hand and that country’s fervent appeal to India for urgent help to tackle the crisis on the other! The unintended upshot of the anomaly was Iran’s tacit acknowledgement of India’s capability in the medical and scientific domains and its humanitarian approach to the other countries in distress. Thereby, Iran clearly ended up in a bind.
Why the Criticism?
What had caused the unfortunate reaction of Iran to a matter that was purely a domestic affair of India? What were its ramifications? The Ayatollah had referred, in his tweet, to a world of Islam. Evidently, it was a takeoff on Iran’s presumptuous conviction that it was the supreme leader of the global Muslim community. In reality, however, the community spread all over the globe is riddled with schism and polarisation. Iran’s self-importance of looking upon itself as the forerunner of the Islamic countries in a world of realpolitik was further borne out by the talk of “India’s isolation from the world of Islam”. In any case, the purported massacre of Muslims was a totally baseless and misleading hype in a scenario where the victims were not from any particular community or religion.
As Home Minister Amit Shah pointed out in the Parliament, those who were killed in the disturbances were all Indians, and there was no question of segregating them into religious categories. The loss was that of the Indian nation and not of any particular faith. The composite religious culture of our country was the real victim.
To refer to the incidents as an attack on a specific community was a reprehensible attempt to belittle the timeless socio-religious ethos of India. Iran’s move aimed at asserting its self-importance as a global leader, albeit of a particular community, lacked credibility and boomeranged when India squarely dismissed the criticism.
The irony of the situation, followed by the subsequent health crisis in Iran, which caused that country’s reaching out to India for help, is borne out by the implicit acceptance of India’s global leadership by Iran, though the latter was keen to get that status for itself on fallacious grounds. On its part, India demonstrated its political commitment to the welfare of its people living not only on its own soil but also in, among other countries, Iran by repatriating the stranded Indians. Besides, it is working on the Iranian request for assistance to contain the virus outbreak.
Irritants
The bilateral relations of no two countries could be without irritants and grey areas of uncertainty. India-Iran relations are no exception. Iran has always been known for its tough-as-nails decisions in matters affecting international affairs on the basis of its religious orientation. It has been critical of India’s Kashmir policy, which suits Pakistan. Stoppage of Iranian oil imports by India as a sequel to the US sanctions has not gone down well with Iran.
There was an attack in 2012 on an Israeli diplomat in India by what seemed were Iranian elements with ties to the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Following the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani of Iran in Baghdad, anti-US protests, by the Iran-influenced local Shia community, broke out in Kargil and to some extent in Delhi. This shows that the Iranian influence on the Shia community in India is increasing and could become a full-blown irritant, if unchecked.
Scope for Improvement
There is, however, a silver lining to the cloud. The two sides agreed, during External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s visit to Tehran in December last year, to accelerate work on the strategic Chabahar project. The project is considered a gateway to golden opportunities for trade with the Central Asian nations by India, Iran and Afghanistan. Surely, India and Iran could move on with a bit more of understanding of each other’s domestic and global political compulsions and the need to work together.
(The article “India-Iran Bilateral Relations At Crossroads” published in “Business World”)
The modern Indian universities may be characterised as the training fields of those scholars whose ambition for the future lies in a career in politics rather than in spheres related to academics.
Universities are no new phenomenon in post-Independence India. Throughout its chequered history, India had been known for its seats of higher learning such as Nalanda and Takshashila, where a wide spectrum of subjects, ranging from Buddhism to Vedas, Philosophy, Grammar, Logic, Metaphysics, Medicine and Astronomy, was taught. There was a truly secular spirit of imparting and imbibing of knowledge. These universities offered plenty of scope for an exchange of thoughts and ideas between the teachers and the students, and also had fora for debates and discussions on religious and secular subjects. The students had different religious and cultural backgrounds, and they hailed from several countries.
They had access to an ample sphere of knowledge and vast field of reference – classrooms, well-stocked libraries and a broad spectrum of cultural ambassadors who constituted the scholars. The resultant milieu was an impressive juxtaposition of a rainbow of ideas that contributed to a unique cultural mosaic. And yet, these institutions remained just educational, absolutely free from all kinds of socio-political irritants that was capable of marring the academic environment. In today’s context, it would be very pertinent to state about these universities that they truly practised social distancing from contentious political activism.
Decline of Glory
These centres of academic excellence started declining in quality and importance when their premises were torched and scholars attacked by alien invaders. There was a disquieting interregnum of void in the continuance of institutions that imparted higher learning and Indian studies under the country’s occupation by Islamic rulers and European colonisers. In the changing environment, the society was torn asunder by a conflict between the aggressive and proselytising alien religions on the one hand and the Indian culture that had flourished under the benevolent and secular Sanatana Dharma on the other. It was an uneven fight, heavily loaded against the latter. The frenetic bid by the educational institutions to stay truthful to the secular Indian ethos and culture was a lost cause.
Impact of Alien Rule
After India obtained Independence, unfortunately for its people, the powers that be at the Centre commissioned a set of historians known for their proclivity to the Mughal and British rulers, to write the history books taught in schools and colleges. These historians made fleeting references, at best, to the brave Indian kings who had fearlessly fought the invading armies. This was a despicable act of treachery not only against the brave Indian men and women who had courageously fought to defend their motherland but also against Indian nationalism, which was sought to be obliterated by the alien invaders.
Misgovernance and Corruption
Additionally, bad foreign policy decisions and failure on the defence front led to multiple wars with neighbouring countries in which our government ceded swathes of territories to the enemy. After 60 plus years of freedom, the nation’s economy was far from satisfactory. Scams and scandals at high places rocked the nation. All this resulted in a loss of face for the nationalists who were hoping during the freedom struggle that Independence and self-rule would usher in prosperous times ahead for the nation. Much to their dismay, the minority religious groups were pampered with special concessions and privileges at the cost of Hindus, who are the original inhabitants of this nation.
Vote bank politics became the norm of the day and the chosen plank of electoral politics in the hands of unprincipled political parties. One of the primary concessions granted by the self-serving politicians to the minority religious groups was the right to run their own schools in which the respective religion of the groups was taught, and Hinduism spiked in the process. Hinduism was hampered and disabled from being taught in schools in the name of Secularism. This led to a situation that was in sharp contrast with the happy state of affairs which prevailed in the ancient Indian universities.
Training Fields of Marginal Scholars
The modern Indian universities may be characterised as the training fields of those scholars whose ambition for the future lies in a career in politics rather than in spheres related to academics. Such scholars and like-minded members of the faculty join forces with political parties fully involved in electoral politics. These elements seldom talk of a proactive role for themselves in nation-building. Instead, they come to the fore whenever some acts or events of perceived injustice incite them. Then they resort to agitations against the establishment.
Lucrative Political Career
Two such instances were over the execution of Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon, both of whom were proven terrorists convicted by the Supreme Court. Protests broke out in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad University over their hanging. Apparently, the protesting groups thought they knew better than the apex court of our country! In the JNU protests over the hanging of Afzal Guru, a students group tried to carry out a protest march despite the cancellation of permission granted earlier by the university authorities. They were opposed by another students group which attempted to thwart the rally. Ugly scenes ensued. Outsiders who were neither students nor had anything to do with the varsity were spotted at the march.
Furthermore, inflammatory speeches were made, break-India slogans, as well as statements praising the terrorists, were raised and Pakistani flags waved. Protesting student leaders were arrested by the Police and cases invoking sedition laws filed. Such student leaders were and continue to be given undue prominence and publicity by the meddlesome media. All the unwarranted attention and media glare make these student leaders readily abandon their academic career in a bid to carve out a lucrative career in politics with the blessings of a bunch of political parties known for their suspicious bonafides in the context of national integrity and clean politics. On the occasion of every national and state election, such student leaders are seen campaigning against the ruling party.
When protests broke out recently against the legislation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), both JNU and AMU became hotbeds of trouble into which dissenting students and faculty members threw themselves headlong with gusto. There were unsavoury scenes created by protestors who resorted to violence both within and outside the varsity premises, thereby necessitating police action against them. The protesting students knowingly or unknowingly became a party to a larger design by some failed and disgruntled political parties in the Opposition, which want to disrupt orderly public life and hurt national interests. The student leaders allowed themselves to play into the hands of these political parties which function as handmaids of the nation’s enemy countries and jihadi elements.
Ban Imperative
Inflammatory speeches, anti-national slogans and insults heaped on the symbols of our country’s honour and integrity such as the national flag and national anthem on the varsity premises are highly despicable. The sanctity of the universities should not be allowed to be sullied or degraded for any reason whatsoever. Universities should not be permitted to become hotbeds of anti-national activities. Furthermore, as political activities vitiate the atmosphere of learning by serious-minded scholars, active politics on the university premises must be summarily banned. Only such strict measures will help reclaim their sanctity as centres of higher education and academic excellence.
(The article “Should Active Politics Be Banned In Academia?” published in “Business World”)
Democracy will not be allowed to degenerate into anarchy by the determined people and the Government of India.
In a cruel twist of history, Indian Independence did not bring in its wake freedom from a prolonged sense of slavery and subjugation. What resulted at the end of a century-old back-to-back rule by bloodthirsty warlords from the Arabian and Central Asian wastelands void of culture, and European colonial rulers with a loot-and-exploit agenda was a badly-battered social and cultural fabric that cried for urgent tending. In reality, what awaited the nation was supreme indifference on the part of a smug political dispensation to the need for rejuvenation of the collective psyche of the society that had plummeted to the bottom of the pit of despondency.
People had lost their temples in the thousands as well as unquantifiable cultural treasure during alien invasions and were languishing in a mood of spiritual despair. Instead of being administered a soothing balm of solace and succour, they were told by their new masters that the factories and dams that were being built in modern India were their new houses of worship. This was, in essence, a signal from the powers that be that it was futile for the people to wistfully look back in time and hanker after their rich spiritual and cultural past.
They should, instead, brace for a sterile future marked by a materialistic and corporeal climate of development. Furthermore, the curious case of the Westminster style parliamentary democracy wedded to the Soviet-style Socialism was sold to the people as a sure-fire formula of success needed by our nascent Republic. The subsequent fiasco of Socialism vis-a-vis realpolitik in a world of geopolitical tectonic shifts proved that the political successors of the bygone colonial masters had grievously erred in the task of rebuilding the nation.
State Fails People
What had evidently been overlooked was the historical truth that the princely states and territories of the pre-Independence India had remained united by a common chord of religion and culture even before they were strung together to form the modern Indian nation. It was this unique factor which had been the underpinning of the credo of unity in diversity that was gloated over by practically every Indian politician worth his salt. What was the contribution of the State to sustain the common factor of religion and culture? Zilch.
People from all over modern Indian state and beyond in the landmasses that had earlier formed part of Akhand Bharat of the past had been getting together and congregating from time to time in the name of the unifying force of the timeless Dharma symbolised by the temples. This was equally true for the ones that were destroyed by the alien invaders as well as the others that survived the onslaught.
The modern Indian state did not, however, deem it fit to take pro-active steps to strengthen this unifying force of our divergent society. Nor did it facilitate the task of the resurrection of the destroyed temples by the Hindu community on its own without the state’s participation or intervention, by mobilising its own resources. On the other hand, the State only impeded the majority Hindu community’s claim of its due space in the social and cultural domain aimed at reclaiming its past glory.
Pandering to the Minority
Successive governments pandered to the minority communities and turned their back on the majority Hindus. All this happened in the name of Secularism, which was added to the Constitution as an afterthought in the 1970s by the then Congress government under Indira Gandhi. The Hindu community’s inability to resist the machinations of the unprincipled and power-hungry political parties that camouflaged themselves under Secularism caused it a loss of more and more political ground and clout. This development gave way to more and more assertion and dominance by the minority communities both at the macro and micro level politics of the country.
They enjoyed privileges and benefits in the form of subsidies, personal law, right to run educational institutions, etc. Another factor that tilted the balance in favour of the minority communities was the freedom of propagation of religion which has often ended up being misused for the conversion of people to the minority communities by dubious means. Since Hinduism hardly affords any scope for conversion to its fold, the freedom to propagate religion is a redundant and meaningless exercise for the Hindus.
Pseudo-Secularism
In such a heavily overloaded political atmosphere, pseudo-Secularism practised by successive pro-minority governments that had preceded the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, ruled the roost. The hardcore elements of the minority communities with a hidden political agenda just got more and more emboldened to the point of dictating terms to political parties and through them the government of the day.
With the ascension of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre, these elements started feeling threatened. The political and social reform measures ushered in by the BJP, such as the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution, abolition of the abominable medieval practice of Triple Talaq, introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), etc and the active role of the government in ending the Ramjanmabhoomi legal dispute, dealt a series of blows to the misplaced sense of superiority assumed by the hawkish minority elements.
Unholy Alliance
Besides losing much of their political power and clout, for the first time, the clergy and other hardcore minority religious elements faced the prospects of losing their hold over their flock. Furthermore, it was becoming more and more difficult for them to incite and radicalise their naive and gullible followers in the face of the government’s awareness campaign. In their tirade against a progressive government, they found allies in the jihadi elements infiltrating into the country from across the border, urban Naxals and other break-India forces.
We Shall Overcome
The recent anti-CAA protests launched by the minority communities with the abetment of the disgruntled Opposition parties are a glaring example of an ongoing bid to subvert the political system by anti-national elements. These protests were orchestrated to undermine the upbeat mood of the nation and thwart the resurgence of nationalism. Religion was pitted against inclusive growth and development, which is the hallmark of the current political ideology that has triumphantly come to the fore in the nation’s struggle against pseudo-Secular and divisive forces.
Women and children were introduced as frontline soldiers in the protests that degenerated into flashpoints of communal riots. When humanity is struggling hard to come to grips with an existential crisis following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, communal groups with a medieval mindset are engrossed in desperate attempts to derail our Union government’s valiant bid to defuse the crisis. There is an attempt by the unholy alliance of anti-India forces to aggravate the crisis and turn it into an opportunity to strike at the territorial integrity of our nation by dividing the people on communal lines.
Nothing could be more reprehensible and alarming. Our nation is currently fighting the double whammy of the Covid-19 outbreak as well as the enemies of the State. However, we have every reason to be optimistic as India has the capability, resources and the political will to overcome the challenge and emerge stronger. Democracy will not be allowed to degenerate into anarchy by the determined people and the Government of India.
(The article “Degeneration Of Indian Democracy Into Anarchy” published in “Business World”
Politics involves criticism, sometimes justified and sometimes unfounded. Rationality, on the other hand, involves fixing accountability. The adverse impact of COVID-19, the infectious disease that originated in the Wuhan city of China, is out in the open. Recalling a time when the world halted as it is currently is not easy. Passenger airplanes are grounded in most of the parts of the world, cities are under lockdown and the engines of economic growth- people- are confined to their homes. These are, as they are calling it in most of the debates on coronavirus, unprecedented times. The global political leadership has found a consensus on helping each other at this time of need. Indeed, this is a welcome step. But should it end here? Most importantly, should a country or agency, directly responsible for such vast spread of COVID-19 owing to its intention or negligence, escape retribution?
The world is an open society today. Borders have diminished, thanks to the globalization wave. We in India have at least one product in every household that comes from Chinese factories. The US and Europe is dependent on pharma goods shipped from India. In such a scenario, where every country is profiting from export of goods and services, any lapses on the part of any constituent of this global supply chain must be brought to book. Data suggest China is the top supplier to India, US, European nations and many other regions. The king of global supply chain is in fact the one that disturbed the flow. And the disruption has been such that the global economy is staring at a recession that is set to upset lives of people across the world.
Is China’s culpability a mere conspiracy theory?
One can easily disregard China’s guilt in fueling the spread of coronavirus as a figment of imagination of overenthusiastic conspiracy theorists. This, however, will not serve any purpose. Consider this. Hundred Chinese scholars have written an open letter decrying ‘politicization’ of coronavirus pandemic. They have stated that China, like other countries, is a ‘victim’ of virus and countries must cooperate than point finger on someone. China’s crackdown on activists and human rights lawyers is in the news and we shall discuss this later in this article. The need for these hundred scholars to persuade the international media, political leadership and civil society to change course arose as things are becoming increasing upsetting for China.
Taiwan, the island state over which the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or China claims sovereignty, had in as early as December 2019 warned the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the ‘suspected human-to-human virus transmission’ having originated in China. Of course, China was quick to deplore this revelation, however, Taiwan countered by bringing in the public the document that it shared with WHO. This single piece of evidence can be enough to bring China as a party in the International Court and begin a comprehensive and unprejudiced trial over the blameworthiness of the communist nation. President Donald Trump has unequivocally stressed upon the need of investigating both China and WHO for their role in coronavirus becoming a global crisis from being a local outbreak.
In this light, we have to understand that China’s culpability is to be determined with respect to whether the country could have acted in the desired manner so as to save the global society and economy from such widespread disorder. Nobody here is suggesting that the coronavirus pandemic finds its origin in release of a biological weapon gas that was being readied in any Chinese laboratory. What is rather being suggested is that the global community has to act responsibly to fix accountability and reach to the bottom of the allegations that are coming from reliable sources.
What are these voices?
That China has been under one-party rule since decades is a subject that has drawn praise and criticism from various quarters. The phenomenal economic growth of the country under communist rule has been attributed to centralized control of country’s affairs. As a rule, the common man steers clear of having any opinion on the standards of governance, let alone any condemnation of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of Communist Party of China. But all this could not silence voices of a long list of critics who have advocated for greater transparency in China’s political affairs. Let’s know how these voices have laid bare the guilt of China in plunging the international community into darkness. Li Zehua is one name in this list.
A former employee of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster CCTV, Li, began reporting facts about the Chinese politics in 2018 through his channel, Disobedience TV. A proponent of free speech, Li, has suddenly disappeared from the scene, thanks to his demand for an investigation into the coronavirus crisis. Li went to Wuhan and was regularly urging the youth to stand up to the might of the CPC before he discovered that ‘two large guys’ were at his door. Since then he is missing.
The most prominent name in the list is that of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was one of the first responders to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan and then turned into a whistleblower to let the world at large know how China inflicted all the pain by downplaying the emergency. Wenliang was employed with the Wuhan Central Hospital and understood in the very beginning that the infection wasn’t any regular flu but was pretty similar to SARS. It was on December 30, 2019 that Li had shared his concerns over various forums regarding likely resurgence of SARS. Had his warning been heeded at the higher levels, the pandemic would have been nipped in the bud. But Chinese authorities acted in their usual manner and charged the young doctor with ‘making false comments’. The charges are akin to inciting the public and the police arrived at his door to warn him. Li eventually lost his life only a month after this. He is said to have contracted the disease while working in the hospital.
Another university student, Zhang Wenbin, who was highly critical of the communist party, has also gone missing. In his video, Zhang demanded that Xi Jinping must resign from his office. He cited many of the CPC failures in governance and talked at length about his gradual disenchantment with the party owing to how the government was silencing democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan. There is a growing chorus of voices that have demanded his release as he is believed to be in detention.
The UN and China
The United Nations had a big and definitive role to play in the current state of affairs. WHO, a specialized agency of UN, is also under scanner for its siding with the Chinese authorities instead of responding to the outbreak of a deadly disease in an unbiased manner. The agency, which was expected to be proactive in its role as a first responder to such calamities, was barely active before January 24, 2020 when it duly acknowledged human-to-human transmission of COVID-19. Countries including India had spurred into action much before March 11 when WHO recognized the disease as a pandemic. The guiding force that was being looked upto by various countries, both developed and developing, was literally siding away with China in delaying a targeted, wide-ranging action plan to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Consider this now. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who has remained outspoken on how minorities’ interests are being sidelined in many parts of the world, has not voiced his opinion on the treatment of Uighur Muslim population of China. There have been many ground reports from reliable news outlets on how this section of population is being confined to camps and their human rights being violated by the Chinese administration and ground level authorities. In the wake of what has happened and citing WHO’s failure in its response to COVID-19 pandemic, US President Trump has announced that his country’s financial contribution to this agency has been halted.
A Case for China’s culpability
Unambiguously, there is a strong case against China. And this cannot be marginalized as any ‘conspiracy theory’. The supplier of a variety of goods to all other countries, whose factories have now shifted to mass producing face masks and sanitisers, cannot and should not be spared of a legitimate enquiry. Where are the activists and rights lawyers who have gone missing in China after having questioned the government’s role? Was the WHO, advertently or inadvertently, siding with China’s stance on the spread of coronavirus beyond the borders of the communist nation? Should disruption in global supply chain not be attributed to China’s inaction during the early phase of outbreak? Who shall be held accountable for a looming danger of many countries plunging back into poverty and losing any socio-economic gains made in past decades?
The US, European countries and other players including India, Japan and South Korea have much to deliberate. At this present time, all countries are battling the spread of the deadly virus and are left with little room to initiate any comprehensive inquiry into the role of China in making a local outbreak a global pandemic. Once the dust settles, they have to forge an alliance and hold the culprit accountable for its misdeeds. Rationality so demands.
PS: There is little data to this day about any link between the outbreak of n-coronavirus in Wuhan and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that is in close proximity to the seafood market of the city. It is for this reason why it will be premature and superficial to discuss this. Yet, President Trump has been talking much about this lately and an interesting development is The Washington Post’s revelations based on info acquired from diplomatic cables. It says that diplomats had warned the US about safety concerns at WIV. That the lab was undertaking research on bats and it could likely result into a SARS-like pandemic was also indicated by these officials. More comprehensive information on this is awaited, and hence this can be debated at length later.
(The article “China’s Culpability Is Real, It’s Not China’s Criticism” published in “Business World”)
