Sunday, September 10, 2023

G20 Summit in India: Modi's Personal PR Extravaganza?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully transformed routine rotational G20 presidency into an extravagant personal PR exercise this week. The Indian mass media and the general public saw Mr. Modi's face plastered all over the Indian capital. Some analysts described it as the kickoff of  the Indian leader's political campaign for national elections scheduled for next year. As Mr. Modi spoke of "one earth, one family, one future", his right-wing Hindutva allies continued their unhindered campaign of murder and mayhem against the Christian community in the Indian state of Manipur.  Globally, too, Mr. Modi lived up to his reputation of "Divider In Chief" as the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Russian leader Vladimir Putin chose to stay away from the gathering attended by all the western leaders. Both China and Russia stand in the way of the continuation of centuries-old unchallenged western hegemony of the world. 

Modi: Hero of Hatred at G20. Source: India Today

After the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002, Narendra Modi made the cover of India Today magazine with the caption "Hero of Hatred". Modi was denied a visa to visit the United States.  The US visa ban on Modi was lifted in 2014 after he became prime minister. Since then,  Narendra Modi's image has been rehabilitated by the West as the US and Western Europe seek allies in Asia to counter the rise of China.  However, Modi's actions on the ground in India confirm that he remains "Hero of Hatred" and "Divider In Chief" at his core.  A recent two-part BBC documentary explains this reality in significant detail. The first part focuses on the 2002 events in Gujarat when Modi as the state chief minister ordered the police to not stop the Hindu mobs murdering Muslims and burning their homes and businesses.  The second part looks at Modi government's anti-Muslim policies, including the revocation of Kashmir's autonomy (article 370) and a new citizenship law (CAA 2019) that discriminates against Muslims. It shows the violent response by security forces to peaceful protests against the new laws, and interviews the family members of people who were killed in the 2020 Delhi riots orchestrated by Modi's allies. 

 Modi Divider In Chief. Source: Time Magazine

In a  recent piece for Nikkei Asia, Indian journalist Swaminathan Aiyar dismisses Modi's attempts to recast himself as "Vishwaguru", the teacher of the world. Here's an excerpt of Aiyar's piece titled "India's Modi is not the world's guru": 

"Modi's notion of being the world's guru is just as ridiculous as his twisted history of "centuries of enslavement," which has been used to attack India's religious minorities. A guru is nothing without disciples. If India or Modi himself is the world's guru, who are the disciples? The least likely candidates are Western powers which believe, rightly or wrongly, that they are the true global gurus. It might seem that India's disciples would be most likely to come from its geographic neighborhood rather than distant lands. But even a cursory examination shows otherwise. Does Pakistan regard India as a guru? No, it is India's greatest foe. It has allied with China, India's other major foe, to try and put India in its place. No disciples there. What about Bangladesh, which India helped to achieve independence from Pakistan in 1971? There is now little gratitude for India's help, which is accurately viewed as a ploy to split and disempower Pakistan rather than an altruistic move to aid Bangladeshis. Sri Lanka? Many there harbor ill will toward New Delhi in the belief that it supported the development of the Tamil Tiger insurgency when Indira Gandhi was India's prime minister in the early 1980s. The insurgency became a civil war in which up to 100,000 were killed. Hard to find disciples there. What about Nepal, a predominantly Hindu nation? Ever since then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru intervened in a royal power struggle in 1951, Nepalese have viewed New Delhi as an imperial power to be feared. India has on more than one occasion blocked essential supplies to Nepal to try to exert political influence. Nepalese may be Hindus, but they are anything but Modi's disciples" 

Cartoonist Mocks Modi's Answer at the White House. Source: Satish Acharya


President Joseph R. Biden and other western leaders are making a huge mistake by coddling divisive and dangerous Modi.  While the western nations are seeking an alliance with India to counter rising China, the Hindutva leadership of India has no intention of confronting China. In a piece titled “America’s Bad Bet on India”,  Indian-American analyst Ashley Tellis noted that the Biden administration had “overlooked India’s democratic erosion and its unhelpful foreign policy choices” in the hopes that the US can “solicit” New Delhi’s “contributions toward coalition defense”.

Earlier this year, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed New Delhi's unwillingness to confront China in an interview: “Look they (China) are a bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with bigger economy? It is not a question of being a reactionary; it is a question of common sense.”

Modi's India is driven much more by a desire to bring back what the right-wing Hindus see as the "glory days" of India through "Hindu Raj" of the entire South Asia region, including Pakistan. The arms and technology being given to Modi will more likely be used against India's smaller neighbors, not against China. 


35 comments:

Shams N. said...

"You would be hard pressed to find another country with a more dismal global reputation than Pakistan", Time Magazine.

Riaz Haq said...

Shams:

My blog post is about Modi and G20, not about Pakistan.

But since you've brought up the Time magazine article about Pakistan, here's the bottom line according to the same Op Ed by Zachary Karabell:

" Pakistan today may be a case of darkest before the dawn.....Pakistan is on a cusp. We should honor the fact that whichever way the consensus believes it will go, the country is also poised to breakout on the upside. Which path will only be clear in retrospect, but we should pay more attention to the potential of things going right along with the legitimate focus on all that is going wrong".

https://time.com/6279063/pakistans-economic-investment-potential/

Vineeth said...

Everything made sense until I came to the last part.

"President Joseph R. Biden and other western leaders are making a huge mistake by coddling divisive and dangerous Modi... While the western nations are seeking an alliance with India to counter rising China, the Hindutva leadership of India has no intention of confronting China.."

Nations make alliances and partnerships not based on ideals, but on shared interests. India and US are natural partners as long as the rise of China and its aggression on Himalayas and South China Sea threatens their interests. US has after all made alliances with far more autocratic nations to fight the Soviets in the past. So, why would a US alliance with India be any worse than that which they made with Pakistan - a country that pretended to be on the American side fighting against al-Qaeda and the Taliban and yet harboured OBL and Taliban leaders secretly? By contrast, India has made its priorities and red lines clear. It is willing to cooperate with US in containing China (where their interests converge), but not in isolating Russia (where their interests diverge). From what I can see, they have agreed to disagree on that point.

Secondly, India isn't trying to pick a fight with China. That would be foolish considering the disparity in military and economic heft between the two. There may be border disputes between the two countries (with India claiming Aksai Chin and China claiming Arunachal Pradesh), but India's stand is that the status quo on the borders must be respected and not altered by force. India and China are neighbours, and whatever might be their disagreements, countries do not have the luxury to choose their neighbours. Prior to the Galwan incident, India was less receptive to the idea of any military alliance with US or any other power as it feared it would compromise its strategic autonomy. To Modi's credit, he invited Xi to India and engaged in talks to resolve the border issues. (For that matter, he even tried to build a personal relationship with PM Nawaz Sharif at the time.) However, China's recent attempts to unilaterally alter the Himalayan borders has forced India's hand. So yes, India does not desire a war with China, or for that matter, Pakistan. India would do it best to stand its ground against China's bullying and their military buildup on its borders, and will naturally seek to build partnerships with those who similarly feel threatened by Chinese expansionism, but would not start a war over it. That's the sensible thing to do for any country in India's situation.

"Modi's India is driven much more by a desire to bring back what the right-wing Hindus see as the "glory days" of India through "Hindu Raj" of the entire South Asia region, including Pakistan."

- As for any "Hindu Raj over South Asia" thing, I don't see any of the countries other than Pakistan voicing a concern about any such "threat" these days. Yes, India did make the mistake of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in the past, but it learnt the lessons the hard way in Sri Lanka and Nepal. It has normal relations with all South Asian nations except Pakistan. There might be minor irritants here and there (eg: dispute with Nepal over the ownership of that tiny sliver of Himalayan land called "Kalapani"), but nothing remotely bordering on hostility.

"The arms and technology being given to Modi will more likely be used against India's smaller neighbors, not against China."

- That's the same complaint India had with US sales of F-16 parts to Pakistan. They are far more likely to be used in a conflict against India than against some terrorist hideout in the Afghan border.

Riaz Haq said...

#India is a country of 1.4 billion. But the only face you see everywhere in the capital these days, after 2 days of hosting world leaders for #G20 summit, is that of PM #Modi. From monuments to food, India’s diversity was denied a stage. #G20SummitDelhi https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/11/g20-summit-what-india-showed-the-world-and-what-it


What you don’t see in the videos is also telling. You don’t see the Jama Masjid, one of the most iconic sites in the capital. I didn’t spot any churches. The Taj Mahal, India’s most famous landmark and heritage site, built by the Mughal dynasty that is reviled by the rulers of today, gets only a photo on one of the walls. The Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of Sikhs in India, gets a tiny video clip.



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You see him (Modi) not only at the airport and at the grand venue that was recently constructed to host the summit, but on practically every road, every few feet. Sometimes, two car lengths, at most. It’s a one-man show.


Having spent many of my growing and working years in New Delhi, the changes in the city for this mega event stand out.

Schools and offices were shut for the summit, roads blocked for so-called VIP movement. Sometimes you had to wait 15 minutes to cross a street as police cars barricaded them.

Vendors, otherwise ubiquitous on Indian streets and selling everything from fruits and vegetables to clothes, shoes and household items, were missing the past few days. They need a daily income from their sales to survive – but clearly don’t figure in the Modi government’s agenda to push India as the voice of the long-suffering Global South.

On some streets, there aren’t even the stray dogs that are a staple of all neighbourhoods. They, too, were rounded up.

But if Modi was the hero of the diplomatic extravaganza, monkeys were the designated menace. Life-sized cut-outs of langurs have been put up to scare the monkeys that can run rampage in Central Delhi, which hosts most major embassies and hotels, and is close to the summit venue.

The relatively heavy rain cooled temperatures in the capital but the partly flooded
roads also showed that you may spruce up the city but until you really fix the infrastructure, things are not really going to change.

It’s at the venue, however, that the deep stamp of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – which will stand for national elections next year – was most visible.

The old exhibition halls at Pragati Maidan – which means “field of progress” in Hindi and previously hosted anything and everything from international trade fairs to book fairs and auto shows – have been replaced with a grand new convention centre called the Bharat Mandapam. It’s a Sanskrit name, where Bharat refers to India, while a mandapam is the front porch of a Hindu temple.

Just with that name, the exhibition ground moves away from its secular, humdrum past.

The grounds are supposed to be the biggest exhibition space in the country. And as the official information tells you, there are more seats than the Sydney Opera House. But it’s next to one of the busiest roads in the city and near the Supreme Court of India, so it’s not really easy to get that many people to visit in one go anyway.

Unless the government pulls out all the stops to do just that.

The cavernous, warehouse-like halls have barren grey walls, currently hidden behind large G20 billboards and video clips of the different cultural trips the delegates and their spouses have undertaken in the past year.

The billboards are covered with images of the lotus flower. That is India’s national flower but it is also the BJP’s election symbol. And it is everywhere. Even in the official logo of the G20.

The video clips playing on the walls tell a story too. They show glimpses of Hampi – a UNESCO World Heritage site which was also the capital of a 14th-century Hindu empire – of Khajuraho temples and of the Nathdwara temple dedicated to the Hindu god Krishna’s avatar.

Vineeth said...

Like all demagogues and megalomaniacs, Modi habitually makes a spectacle out of anything that would be considered routine everywhere else - with the sole objective of marketing himself in front of his electorate. And that was the case with the G20 summit as well. How long he can keep up this show in front of people without anything else tangible to show as his achievements remains to be seen. As Abraham Lincoln famously said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people for some time, but you cannot all of the people all of the time". (It also deserves mention that so far Modi got ample help in this self-marketing exercise from the leadership deficit and disarray among the opposition parties, especially the Congress which seems unable to shake itself free from the Nehru dynasty that has long outlived its shelf life.)

But quite often this demagoguery can descend to outright foolish as well. That is the case of the persisting rumours here that the govt intends to abandon the name "India" as a name for the country and to retain only "Bharat" in English as well. (As per the Constitution, both "India" and "Bharat" are official names for the country with the former name being predominantly used in English while variants of the latter name is commonly used in Indian languages.) This is rank geo-political stupidity on many levels when you consider how Jinnah himself was so much against India retaining that name after independence. The ancient Greek name "India" for this land (derived from Persian name "Hindu" for the river "Sindhu/Indus") has a history of thousands of years in Western historiography. An ocean has been named after it, and so is the larger subcontinent. (I have found it often amusing when Pakistani writers were compelled to call the region with the awkward name "Indo-Pak subcontinent", as if other countries besides India and Pakistan in the region is of little significance.) And then there is the "Indian tectonic plate" on which the region sits, and the many native species of animals and birds that bears "India" in their name - Indian leopard, Indian elephant, Indian peacock, Indian rhinoceros etc. Moreover, the name "India" links the country to its 4500-year old civilizational heritage of the Indus Valley, even if most of the river and the IVC now lies in Pakistan after partition.

Besides, there are many countries across the world that keep distinct names in their own language and English, and most people outside of those countries are unaware their native names - eg: China (Zhongguo), Greece (Ellas/Elladi), Japan (Nippon), Germany (Deutschland), Hungary (Magyarország).

However all that reasoning is lost upon the Modi and his bhakts. If there is any argument that can dissuade them from that stupid and suicidal move, it would be that Pakistanis are going to be happy with that name change and would award Modi "Sitara-i-Imtiaz" for it!

Ahmed said...

Dear Sir

I hope you are doing well , thanks for posting this article . Sir according to the author of this article , out of 100% of the total economy of Pakistan , atleast 75% of the economy of Pakistan is unofficial ? meaning that it is informal ( undocumented ) . It doesn’t have any record within the government and financial institutions of the country .

This also keeps the government of Pakistan ignorant about the overall economic activities taking place within the country and this is why the government is not able to collect and keep record of the taxes from this informal economy .

Sir can you pls tell me that out of 100% of the total economy of India , how much of their economy is informal( which doesn’t have record within the government and financial institutions of India ) ?

Thanks

Ahmed said...

Salam Sir

Another important question let’s suppose out of 100% of the total economy of India , 45% of their economy is informal ( unofficial ) and let’s suppose if we make the economy of Pakistan 45% unofficial ( informal ) or undocumented , then how much will be the total GDP of Pakistan and India ? Sir when I say here the total GDP , I actually mean the official record of their economy.

Sir I hope my questions are clear
Thanks

Ahmed said...

Mr Vineeth

Yes their is a possbility that India might use the millitary technology and millitary equipments against its small neighbouring countries eg Sri Lanka , Nepal and Pakistan but pls note that India as a country will face huge resistance from Pakistan millitary and defence as the country as one of the most advance millitary and professional army in Asia .

And pls note that China is sitting on the head of India you can see that in world map , so you think China will remain silent if let’s suppose and God forbid India tries to attack Pakistan and use its armed forces and millitary technology against Pakistan ?

Ahmed said...

Mr. Vineeth

You said :

- That's the same complaint India had with US sales of F-16 parts to Pakistan. They are far more likely to be used in a conflict against India than against some terrorist hideout in the Afghan border.

Comment :

Exactly Sir when Obama was the President of America , Mac Cain who was in the government of America at that time personally visited Pakistan and met General Raheel Shareef and other senior staff of Pakistan millitary and when he was briefed about how Pakistan army conducted operations against the militants and terrorists that entered Pakistan from Afghanistan , he was so impressed that after returning to America , he told President Obama about this . President Obama after learning these facts about Pakistan army and it’s performance decided to give F-16 planes to Pakistan on special subsidery cost . As soon as Indian government learned about this , they started crying . The Indian high commissioner was summoned in Dehli and was called in the government house of Dehli and their he was questioned about why President Obama agreed to give these F-16 planes to Pakistan ?

Pls note that Pakistan has F-16 planes since 1980s , can you pls tell me how many times has Pakistan Airforce used these F-16 planes against India since then ?

And pls note that do you think that Pakistan will attack a country using its airforce which is 4 or 5 times bigger in size and has huge population ? The army , airforce and navy of India is I think 4 or 5 times bigger than Pakistan .


So you think Sir that government t and millitary of Pakistan is stupid that inspite of having such economic crisis and internal issues , they will attack India without realising it’s consequences ?


Thanks

Riaz Haq said...

Ahmed: "Sir can you pls tell me that out of 100% of the total economy of India , how much of their economy is informal( which doesn’t have record within the government and financial institutions of India )"


A combination of demonetization, COVID19 and mobile payments has killed India's informal economy which consists mainly of small and medium businesses. A downside of it is high levels of unemployment in India because the biggest employers are the small and medium enterprises.

This is what Princeton economist Professor Ashoka Mody, the author of “India is Broken”,refers to as India’s “lived reality”. Here's an excerpt from Mody's book:

"The grim reality is that, to employ all working-age Indians, the economy needs to create 200 million jobs over the next decade, an impossible order after the past decade of declining employment numbers.1 Right from independence, the Indian economy produced too few jobs. For more than 80 percent of Indians, the informal sector employment became the safety net, where workers idled for long stretches, earning below- or barely-above-poverty wages. Demonetization in 2016, a poorly executed goods and services tax in 2017, and COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 struck hammer blows on the informal sector while creating no new options. Indeed, technology accelerated job destruction, especially in retail and wholesale trade. More Indians just stopped looking for work. Set against this bleakness, many pundits and leaders look back to celebrate and draw hope from India’s high GDP growth rates of the 1990s and 2000s. That celebrated growth, however, was an outcome of unusually buoyant world trade, rampant natural resource use, and a domestic finance-construction bubble. Even as wealthy Indians accumulated astonishing riches, job creation remained weak. The most severe forms of poverty came down, but still afflicted over 20 percent of Indians; another 40 percent lived precariously, ever at risk of falling back into a dire existence. The median Indian lived in that vulnerable zone—and, looking through a government-induced data fog, still lives there. The unchanging problem through the post-independence years has been the lack of public goods for shared progress: education, health delivery, functioning cities, clean air and water, and a responsive and fair judiciary. Along with scarcity of jobs, the absence or poor quality of public goods makes the lived reality of vast numbers."

Riaz Haq said...

Don’t Expect Modi’s New India to Be a Friend to the West
Analysis by Pankaj Mishra | Bloomberg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/11/modi-s-new-india-won-t-be-ally-to-the-west/439e5764-50f4-11ee-accf-88c266213aac_story.html


India is, suddenly, Bharat, and it could be asked, as Shakespeare wrote, what’s in a name? But Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who embraced the Sanskrit name for his country in the same week that he played lavish host to the G-20 summit in New Delhi, is trying hard to project India as a “vishwaguru” (guru to the world). It is time to examine his claims more closely, and also to see the present and the future of his “New India” without comforting illusions.

Take, for instance, the booklet, “Bharat, the Mother of Democracy,” presented by Modi’s government to visiting dignitaries at the G-20. According to it, ancient Hindu sages and kings were partisans of equality, inclusivity, and harmony. Even modern feminism was anticipated by the 5,000-year-old bronze statue of an “independent and liberated” dancing girl.

Such claims are part of an elaborate narrative that is decisively shaping the outlook of many Indians today — one in which a once-dynamic Hindu civilization was ravaged by vicious Muslims and exploitative Westerners.


In Modi’s own account, Hindus were enslaved by Muslim invaders for 750 years and then for an additional 250 years by white British colonialists — a version of history used in India today to justify the degradation of Muslim and Christian minorities, the destruction of mosques and British-built buildings, the purging of textbooks, and now the unofficial renaming of India.

Modi’s own popularity, unconnected to his party’s variable fortunes, stems from what is a potent promise in a country full of humiliated peoples: to destroy the corrupt old political order and, as he put it in his Independence Day speech last month, to ensure a fully modernized New India enjoys a “golden” period “for the next 1,000 years.”

Such millenarian bombast — also echoed in the speeches of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping — belongs to a longer tradition of anti-Western demagogues proclaiming themselves heirs to distinguished ancient civilizations, including the Germans and Italians who sought to build the Thousand-Year Reich and the Third Rome, respectively.

It is a common mistake to suppose that German and Italians Fascists rejected modernity in favor of an idealized past. On the contrary, they pursued, often with help of Western nations they derided as “decadent,” ultra-modern technologies, modernist architectural plans, advanced transport systems and awesome public works. Like Hindu nationalists today, they used mass media, sporting events, and scientific breakthroughs to raise the pitch of collective emotion and project the image of a united and resurgent people.

Of course, since technological and military power still clearly lay with Britain, France and the US, the peoples failing to catch up with the West tried to feel superior to it in the realm of culture and philosophy. Invoking their great ethnic or racial past even as they sought grandiosely to supervise the future of the modern world, they became exemplars of what the American historian Jeffrey Herf has called “reactionary modernism.”

Presenting ancient Indians as pioneering democrats and feminists (also, the world’s earliest plastic surgeons), Modi belongs to this extended family of catch-up nationalists. His nation, too, seeks to blend neo-traditionalism with modernization while measuring itself, with volatile feelings of insecurity and resentment, against a weakened but still superior West.

Riaz Haq said...

Don’t Expect Modi’s New India to Be a Friend to the West
Analysis by Pankaj Mishra | Bloomberg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/11/modi-s-new-india-won-t-be-ally-to-the-west/439e5764-50f4-11ee-accf-88c266213aac_story.html

It is no accident that Modi is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organization that has, since the 1920s, deliberately modeled itself on the organizational structures and propaganda modes of anti-Western authoritarians. Moreover, nine years of BJP rule have confirmed that Hindu nationalists seek to remake Indian society as a forceful civilizational repudiation of Islam and the West.

This won’t change. Those hoping to recruit Modi’s Bharat as a Western ally should consider the plain historical fact that, as the scholar Nirad Chaudhuri wrote in 1954, the most ineradicable aspect of Hindu nationalism is “xenophobia, both personal and ideological.” The sentiment may be muted “when and where the military and political strength of the foreigner” is overwhelming but nevertheless thrives on an “incessant campaign of slander and denigration.”

Thus, there was nothing extraordinary about an Indian official effectively taunting Western countries on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the G-20’s failure to condemn Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Sweeping denunciations of the West as selfish and arrogant, deserving of a comeuppance, are now routine in India. More remarkably, as Modi’s ministerial colleagues as well as social media trolls go after George Soros, India is openly participating, for the first time in its long history, in the global networks of anti-Semitism.

Certainly, neither of the two main commonplaces about the world’s most populous nation — that it is a rising, vibrant democracy or that it is descending into authoritarianism — will seem adequate in the treacherous months and years ahead. More historically grounded analyses will be needed as yet another batch of reactionary modernists rises in the east.

Riaz Haq said...

Can #India Challenge #China for Leadership of the ‘Global South’? India still has a long way to go to be called a great power. Even by its own optimistic estimates, it will not become a developed nation for decades. #Modi #G20 #Hindutva #BJP #US https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/world/asia/india-china-global-south.html

That disparity was clear during the recent summit of the BRICS nations, which include Brazil, Russia and South Africa in addition to India and China. Even after Mr. Modi had spent a year promoting India as the voice of the global south, it was Mr. Xi who received the royal treatment.

In one video of a side meeting, the leaders, including Mr. Modi, all waited as Mr. Xi arrived to shake hands. They remained standing until after Mr. Xi had settled into a much larger seat than theirs — an entire sofa.

“Money talks,” said Ziyanda Stuurman, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group’s Africa Team. “Whether it’s India or the U.S. or Europe, if they are not able to match or be as serious as China with rolling out funding, China will still enjoy this place of leadership.”



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A rising India has moved aggressively to champion developing nations, pursuing compromise in polarized times and promising to make America listen.

For more than a decade, China has courted developing countries frustrated with the West. Beijing’s rise from poverty was a source of inspiration. And as it challenged the postwar order, especially with its global focus on development through trade, loans and infrastructure projects, it sent billions of much-needed dollars to poor nations.

But now, China is facing competition from another Asian giant in the contest to lead what has come to be called the “global south.” A newly confident India is presenting itself as a different kind of leader for developing countries — one that is big, important and better positioned than China in an increasingly polarized world to push the West to alter its ways.

Exhibit A: the unexpected consensus India managed at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend.

With help from other developing nations, India persuaded the United States and Europe to soften a statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine so the forum could focus on the concerns of poorer countries, including global debt and climate financing. India also presided over the most tangible result so far of its intensifying campaign to champion the global south: the admission of the African Union to the G20, putting it on par with the European Union.

“There is a structural shift happening in the global order,” said Kishore Mahbubani, a former ambassador for Singapore and author of “Has China Won?” “The power of the West is declining, and the weight and power of the global south — the world outside the West — is increasing.”

Only one country can be a bridge between “the West and the rest,” Mr. Mahbubani added, “and that’s India.”

At a time when a new Cold War of sorts between the United States and China seems to frame every global discussion, India’s pitch has clear appeal.

Neither the United States nor China is especially beloved among developing nations. The United States is criticized for focusing more on military might than economic assistance. The signature piece of China’s outreach — its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative — has fueled a backlash as Beijing has resisted renegotiating crushing debt that has left many countries facing the risk of default.

Riaz Haq said...

Subramanian Swamy
@Swamy39
If the G20 New Delhi Meeting is considered an organisational success, no one can deny it. But it was an unnecessary expenditure of the State revenue collected from tax payers merely for a two day conference. Finally except a feeble consensus nothing else was achieved.

https://x.com/Swamy39/status/1701565545995485497?s=20

Riaz Haq said...

@suhasinih
Breakdown of how India spent RS.4,100 cr or nearly $500mn on the G20 summit and comparisons to past G20s

https://x.com/suhasinih/status/1701776907430506826?s=20

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Thanks to G20, the capital is all spruced up. But at what cost? This was India’s first ever G20. and we spent a whopping Rs. 4100 Crore. How was the money spent? Watch the breakdown here.

https://www.indiatoday.in/newsmo/video/g20-summit-budget-india-has-spent-over-rs-4100-crore-heres-breakdown-2434521-2023-09-12

Nabob said...

Cut the crap - most countries will die to be allies of USA - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Canada

Riaz Haq said...

Nabob: "Cut the crap - most countries will die to be allies of USA - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Canada"


Henry Kissinger once said, "It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal".

Riaz Haq said...

Narendra Modi is widening India’s fierce regional divides
The southern states feel increasingly oppressed


https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/13/narendra-modi-is-widening-indias-fierce-regional-divides

Narendra modi likes to pull rabbits out of hats. One evening in 2016 the Indian prime minister declared that 500- and 1,000-rupee notes—representing 86% of cash by value—would cease to be legal tender by the end of the night. In 2020 he locked down the country at only a few hours’ notice. So it is hardly surprising that speculation has been running rampant since Mr Modi’s government announced that it is to convene a “special session” of Parliament, from September 18th to 22nd. What trick does he have up his sleeve now?

For the moment the guessing game has settled on two possibilities. One is that Mr Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) will change the country’s name in English from India to Bharat (which is already the name in Hindi). The nameplate Mr Modi sat behind as he negotiated with g20 leaders at a summit over the weekend has added fuel to that theory. The other guess is that Mr Modi intends to reorganise the electoral calendar, so that India’s never-ending carnival of state and federal elections henceforth take place all at the same time, once every five years. In either case the change would serve a project Mr Modi has been pushing from the start: trying to centralise and homogenise a staggeringly vast and diverse country.

Since coming to power in 2014 the bjp has set about transforming India into something more like a European nation-state. That vision involves both strengthening the central government and promoting a pan-Indian, Hindu-nationalist identity. The government routinely emphasises that India is “one nation”, implementing policies such as “one nation, one ration card” (for subsidised grain) and proposing many more, such as “one nation, one uniform” (for the police). The idea of synchronising polls has been on the bjp’s manifesto since 2014. It is known as “one nation, one election”.

In economic matters, the government’s centralising tendencies are mostly very welcome. In 2017 Mr Modi introduced a national goods-and-services tax (“one nation, one tax”, better known as gst) seeking to deepen the country’s common market. It seems to be paying off. Between 2017-18 and 2020-21 the value of interstate trade increased by 44%, more than double the growth in gdp during the same period, according to a study in the Indian Public Policy Review, a journal. The paper’s authors attribute the increase to the introduction of gst and greater economic integration.

Moreover, the government is furiously building highways, commissioning new airports and launching zippy train services to knit Indians closer. The roll-out, over the past decade, of a national digital identity system and of digital payments has assuaged problems that sometimes caused headaches for Indians who travelled outside their own regions. It is getting easier to build businesses that span the country.

Riaz Haq said...

Narendra Modi is widening India’s fierce regional divides
The southern states feel increasingly oppressed


https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/13/narendra-modi-is-widening-indias-fierce-regional-divides


It is plainly in India’s interests to forge a more sophisticated single market. Yet the government’s strident “one nation” rhetoric is causing some other ties to fray. The chief divide in India is between the industrialised, richer south, and the agrarian, impoverished north. The south is made up of five states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana (see map). The north is home to two of the poorest ones, Uttar Pradesh (up) and Bihar. The south is richer, safer, healthier, better educated, and less awful to women and Dalits than the north (see chart). Bihar and up occupy the last and second-last positions when India’s states are ranked according to their scores on the human development index, a measure of well-being.


At the time of the last census in 2011 up and Bihar had 25% of India’s population, to the south’s 21%. The gap has grown. The latest official estimates suggest that in 2022 up and Bihar had 26% of India’s people, while the south’s share had declined to 19.5%. Their economies have also diverged. gdp per capita in the south is 4.2 times greater than in up and Bihar, up from 3.3 in 2011-12. The southern states contribute a quarter of India’s corporate- and income-tax revenues, compared with just 3% for up and Bihar. When companies such as Apple open new factories in India they head straight to the south, home to skilled workers and industry clusters.

Southern alarm bells
Politically, too, the north and south are different countries. No state in the south is ruled by a bjp government, which is seen as a party of the Hindi-speaking north. Karnataka, the only southern state where the bjp had made inroads, voted out Mr Modi’s party in elections earlier this year.

Regional differences are now causing tensions on three fronts: cultural, fiscal and political. Start with culture. The south has long resented what it sees as the imposition of values and language from the north. In 2019 Amit Shah, India’s home minister, tweeted that “if one language can do the work of uniting the country, then it is the most spoken language, Hindi.” In response protests broke out across the south, and even the bjp’s allies in the region distanced themselves from his comments. It is not just about words, explains R. Srinivasan of the Tamil Nadu state planning commission. Southern defenders of language also believe they are protecting a broader political identity, one that supports social justice, gender equality and emancipation from caste prejudice.

Complaints about India’s fiscal compact are growing, too. Though the central government rakes in revenue, states do much of the spending, particularly in crucial spheres such as education, health and welfare. The introduction of the gst weakened states’ revenue-raising powers. In 2021-22, spending by states accounted for 64% of public expenditure, but they raised only 38% of revenues. As a result, states are now more dependent than ever on transfers from the centre. How much they get is decided every five years by the Finance Commission, a constitutional body.

What each state receives varies depending on measures such as its population and level of development. As a result, southern states receive far less from the centre than they contribute. Redistribution across states is a feature of any federal system, a moral duty and, in India, a constitutional obligation. But it is becoming more controversial as state economies diverge. Concerns will probably redouble later this year, when the next finance commission starts working out how it will share revenues for the period 2027-32.


Riaz Haq said...

Narendra Modi is widening India’s fierce regional divides
The southern states feel increasingly oppressed


https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/13/narendra-modi-is-widening-indias-fierce-regional-divides


The third and potentially most dangerous set of tensions relates to political representation. The constitution requires that seats in Parliament be allocated according to population, with a roughly equal number of voters in each constituency and redistricting carried out after every census. But in 1976 the Congress government froze India’s electoral boundaries for 25 years to avoid penalising states that succeeded with family-planning policies. In 2002 a bjp government extended the moratorium until 2026. The south’s share of India’s population has since dropped by five percentage points, while that of up and Bihar has grown by three points.

The result is a misallocation of seats. Going by the 2011 census, the south should have 18 fewer mps in India’s 545-seat lower house than its current 129. up and Bihar ought to gain 14 over their existing 120, according to calculations by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank in Washington. On average, an mp in Uttar Pradesh represents nearly 3m people; his counterpart in Tamil Nadu a mere 1.8m.

The constitutional and moral arguments in favour of redistricting are plain. But the practical ramifications for southern states would be large. If the centre goes ahead with it, warns a prominent figure in the south, “that is the beginning of the end of India as a country…In my children’s lifetime this will not be one country anymore.” In May Mr Modi inaugurated a new Parliament building, capable of seating 888 lawmakers, lending credence to the idea that his party intends to reallocate seats while also expanding the house in order to soften the blow for states that lose out.

The idea of synchronising India’s many elections is also causing worry. The government’s critics insist that holding all polls at the same time would reinforce the advantages that national parties enjoy over regional ones (such as those that run most of the southern states). Regional parties, which have limited resources, would struggle to fight both national and state-level campaigns at the same time. The bjp counters that the current system, which sees a handful of states go to the polls every year, is broken. It paralyses policymaking, forces political parties into non-stop campaign mode and costs a fortune for parties and the exchequer. Having simultaneous elections would be cheaper and lead to better governance, say supporters.

Analyses of past elections have produced conflicting answers about whether harmonising polls will change how people vote. Any new policy would have to make provisions for state governments losing the support of their legislatures and collapsing in the middle of electoral cycles. And it is unclear whether Mr Modi would be able to push through the constitutional amendments this plan would require.

Since coming to power nine years ago, Mr Modi and his party have fulfilled many elements of their agenda, from turbocharging infrastructure upgrades and raising the country’s global profile to revoking the special constitutional status of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu & Kashmir and building a temple to the Lord Ram in the northern city of Ayodhya. The mystery session of Parliament next week may be about simultaneous elections (an old pledge), about changing India’s name (a newish obsession), or about something else entirely. Whatever the agenda, the great magician must be careful not to saw the nation in half.

Riaz Haq said...

India’s Poor Paid for G20 With Homes and Livelihoods Halted

More people will be left homeless and unemployed than before India decided to host the G20 Summit in Delhi.

https://www.newsclick.in/indias-poor-paid-g20-homes-and-livelihoods-halted


The range of distress caused to the poor by the preparations for the G20 summit has been widely reported all year. Since January, over 3 lakh of the capital’s poor have been displaced, while other cities that hosted G20 events reported more evictions and displacements. The lives of India’s poor are jeopardised in the process of urban ‘beautification’ projects meant to please visiting foreign dignitaries and other attendees.

Eighty per cent of Delhi’s workforce is employed in the informal sector, and 15% of its population lives below the poverty line. The city and central administrations, which prepare the capital for summits, have repeatedly behaved with contempt towards its poorest residents. Walls were constructed to hide the city’s poverty and poor residents during the Commonwealth Games in 2020. And in 2023, slums and shelters for the homeless were razed to make way for dazzling optics for the G20 Summit.

The city allocated a expense budget—Rs 1,000 crore—to prepare for this Summit and related events, choosing to chase away the poor rather than work towards poverty reduction. Slum settlements and shelters for the homeless were pulled apart or concealed and demolished with no alternative arrangements made for residents. In effect, more people have been left homeless and unemployed than before India decided to host this event. Homes were declared encroachments and bulldozed, roadside vendors were evicted, and lakhs whose voices are never heard were further destabilised. The brilliant lights of the newly-decorated city darkened lives—and the coming effective ‘shutdown’ of a large and prominent section of the city will worsen the situation.

When a city as large and economically diverse as Delhi is brought to a halt, people are likely to face challenges, significantly more so its weaker and disadvantaged sections. Of the ways in which the poor are affected, the easiest to identify is the loss of daily wages, for instance of the hawkers in parts of the city that are being subjected to near-total lockdown during the forthcoming summit.

While the lockdown may officially apply to sections of the city, roads passing through this crucial area will out of bounds during the days of the G20 programmes. It is bound to affect thoroughfare, having a ripple effect across the city.

Most of Delhi’s poor residents—over 49 lakh people, according to a 2022 estimate—work in the informal sector. They rely on daily wages to support themselves and their families. Any disruption in normal economic activities results in a substantial loss of income, making it difficult for families to meet basic needs. Many poor might find it impossible to stock up on essential food items to provide them with two meals a day when they are forced not to work. This is what leads to food insecurity and hunger for those who live from day to day.

Further, road and office closures can disrupt access to essential services such as healthcare, education, and social support. Vulnerable populations may find it challenging to access medical care or emergency services during this period. Even a short shutdown can have lasting economic consequences for poor individuals and the local economy. Job losses and income reductions during a shutdown can create financial struggles that persist after normal economic activities resume. It’s a fact that today’s food is tomorrow’s work energy: a poor worker who goes hungry today will not have the energy to work tomorrow, perpetuating poverty beyond the days when work was unavailable, and pushing families deeper into poverty.

SAMIR SARDANA said...

BIDEN SAID NOTHING ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHAI-STHAN IN G20 !

Y ?

IT WAS THE IMPORT DUTY ON APPLE AND DRY FRUITS ! CHAIWALA HAS CUT IN HALF THE IMPORT DUTY ON APPLES AND DRY FRUITS !

Y ? TO KILL KASHMIRI FARMERS !

CHAIWALA SPENT 500 MILLION USD ON G20 + THE BLOOD AND SWEAT OF KASHMIRI FARMERS !

AND WHEN UNCLE JOE LANDED IN US = HE SAID THAT HE MENTIONED "HUMAN RIGHTS" TO CHAIWALA IN PRIVATE !

KILLING FARMERS IS THE PEY HOBBY OF CHAIWALA !

ONLY JUSTIN KNOWS THE WORTH OF CHAIWALA

THE NEWS IS THAT JUSTIN STOOD UP TO CHAIWALA AND REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE CHAI STORY AND DHOKLAS !

JUSTIN SUPORTS THE K CAUSE !

A TRUE FOLLOWER OF JESUS !

IN FACT JUSTIN SAID THAT CHAIWALA STATEMENTS ARE INTERFERENCE IN CANADA AFFAIRS !

THE SECOND K - KASHMIR SHOULD ALSO SHIFT TO OTTAWA ! dindooohindoo

AND THEN COMES MANIPUR ORGANISATIONS AND OTHER NORTH EAST FREEDOM FIGHTERS !

BIDEN AND EU HAVE TO NOTE THE WORDS OF MRS INDIRA GANDHI - THE BEST INDIAN PM OR KING OF EMPEROR !

“I cannot be cowed down by the cow worshippers.”

CHAIWALA HAS TO BE WIPED OUT !

SAMIR SARDANA said...

ON THE DAY AFTER G20 - 2 MILITANTS IN ANANTNAG KILLED 4 ARMY MEN ANS 1 DIG OF KASHMIR POLICE

OFFICERS ! 3 OFFICERS KILLED BY 2 MILITANTS !

THIS IS THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AND TRAINING AND TACTICS !

THE 2 MILITANTS ALSO,ALMOST SHOT DOWN A CHOPPER ! THE INDIAN ARMY COULD NOT EVEN EVAC THE WOUNDED OFFICERS !

THEY SAY THAT THE ARMY LEADS FROM THE FRONT !

Y ?

THAT IS Y IT TOOK 70 HOURS, FOR THE HINDOOS, AND THET ARE STILL CLUELESS !

WITH OFFICERS KILLED - THERE IS NO STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL DIRECTION, TO THE OPERATION !

WHAT KIND OF TRAINING DO THESE OFFICERS GET ?

OR IS THE AIM OF CHAIWALA - TO GET INDIANS KILLED - SO THAT PANWARI BANIA ZEE AND ABP CAN RILE UP THE MASSES ?

JUST LIKE THE G20 SCAM !

70 HOURS HAVE EXPIRED SINCE 4 INDIAN ARMY MEN WERE KILLED !

THE HINDOO BINDOO HAVE STILL NOT CAUGHT THE 2 MILITANTS !

IT WILL THE GREAT ESCAPE,LIKE MAST GUL IN KASHMIR ! AT THAT TIME, THE INDIAN ARMY COMMANDER, WAS ON SITE AND MAST GUL ESCAPED !

SAME THING HAPPENED WHEN PNS SUNK INS KHUKRI IN 1971 ! THE INDIAN NAVY LAUNCHED THE BIGGEST SUB HUNT SINCE WW2 AND THE PNS SUB ESCAPED !

THE HINDOO BINDOO ARE USING CHOPPERS AND HERON DRONES AND THEY STILL CANNOT EVEN LOCATE THE 2 MUJAHIDEEN ! IT IS JUNGLE WARFARE !

NO DRONES OR SATS CAN WORK IN JUNGLES ! THAT IS Y JAMMU WAS CHOSEN !

NEXT WAVE IS DRONES! THE ENTIRE ARMS AND AMMUN AND FUEL DUMPS OF THE INDIAN ARMY AND PARAS IS MAPPED OUT ! THEY ARE SITTING DUCKS FOR DRONES !

DRONES CAN BE BOUGHT AND USED BY NON STATE ACTORS !

DRONES ARE GETTING FASTER,LIGHTER,STEALTHIER AND WITH BIGGEER PAYLOADS ! THE RIGHT WEIGHT OF A MUJAHID IS LEAN AND MEAN = 60-65 KILOS !

DISASTER IS INEVITABLE !

Riaz Haq said...

India Keeps Pulling the Plug on Its Digital Economy

https://www.wsj.com/world/india/india-keeps-pulling-the-plug-on-its-digital-economy-c320a6b6

Online sellers and ride-hailing drivers count the cost as authorities cut off the internet more than in any other country

When Indian authorities shut down the internet across a remote northeast state in May, Amy Aribam said it wiped out the more than $9,000 in monthly revenue for her home business selling saris online.

Four months later, Aribam is back online but the internet remains down for many, and the women who weave her silk and cotton saris by hand are suffering. “We couldn’t communicate with our customers,” Aribam said. “Our business is completely online.”

Indian authorities said they pulled the plug to stop the spread of rumors as social unrest erupted in Manipur, a state governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. India’s government has increasingly shut down the internet to respond to a range of problems, including political upheaval, fugitives on the loose and even cheating on exams.

Nine years after Modi was elected, the world’s most populous democracy leads the world in internet shutdowns, according to tallies by digital-rights groups. Last year’s 84 cutoffs in various parts of the country exceeded the combined total for all other nations, including Iran, Libya and Sudan, New York-based digital rights group Access Now says. Since 2016, when the group began collecting data, India has accounted for more than half of all internet shutdowns globally.

The outages have disrupted the lives of tens of millions of people in a country where inexpensive mobile data and government efforts to facilitate mobile payments have catapulted vast numbers of consumers into the digital age in recent years. About half of India’s 1.4 billion people are now online, increasingly dependent on connectivity to communicate with friends and family, shop online, pay utility bills and more.

Digital-rights advocates say the shutdowns disproportionately affect the poor, often making it harder for them to collect food subsidies and wages through rural employment programs. They also lead to job losses, hamper online transactions and discourage foreign investment. That damps economic growth and disrupts startups and U.S. e-commerce companies, researchers say.

The prime minister’s office and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Web shutdowns in India between 2019 and 2022 cost more than $4.8 billion in economic activity, according to London-based Top10VPN, which tracks global outages. More than 120 million people in India were affected last year, the group says.

The U.S. has expressed concern even as it increases cooperation with India as a strategic counterweight to China. The State Department said in a March human-rights report that restrictions on internet freedom included authorities’ repeatedly blocking the internet, particularly during periods of political unrest.

In 2015, the year after Modi was elected, he promised to build a “Digital India” connecting the country’s masses. “Digital connectivity should become as much a basic right as access to school,” he said.

Riaz Haq said...

India Keeps Pulling the Plug on Its Digital Economy

https://www.wsj.com/world/india/india-keeps-pulling-the-plug-on-its-digital-economy-c320a6b6


The number of internet users in India has risen to 692 million from 350 million since 2015, according to digital consulting firm Kepios. But government efforts to bolster connectivity are undermined by the government’s shutdowns, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia policy director at Access Now.

“How can you have a ‘Digital India’ with all these shutdowns?” he said.

Among citizens most affected are those who deliver food and groceries or work for ride-hailing services. They typically can’t fulfill orders or pick up passengers without access to their companies’ apps.

Tofeeq Khan, a 32-year-old Uber driver who lives on the outskirts of New Delhi in Haryana state, said he was unable to work for about two weeks last month due to an internet shutdown, imposed during violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims. Authorities said the action was needed to stop the spread of misinformation and to prevent mobs from organizing.

Khan, the sole breadwinner for his parents, wife and two sons, said he lost more than $300 of income, leaving him unable to pay his sons’ school tuition, buy groceries or make payments on his car loan.

“I feel like a mountain of hardships has fallen upon me and my family,” he said. Uber declined to comment.

In March, authorities in the northern state of Punjab, home to more than 27 million people, cut mobile internet and text-messaging services for several days while police sought a Sikh separatist who had called for an independent Sikh homeland. The shutdown was intended to stop his supporters from expressing support online or coordinating escape plans.

In 2021, authorities cut off the internet in Rajasthan state, home to about 80 million people, for up to 12 hours to maintain law and order and prevent what they feared could be cheating on an exam for those seeking coveted jobs as government-school teachers. Copies of exams sometimes spread online before they are administered, and students have been caught using banned devices during exams.

The shutdown response has grown since then, with exam-related outages in several more states, according to the Software Freedom Law Center, India, a group that advocates digital freedom. Last year it filed a public-interest lawsuit, arguing the shutdowns are arbitrary and illegal.

The Muslim-majority region of Kashmir is subject to the most shutdowns. Indian authorities last year cut internet access there 49 times, according to Access Now, more than half of the national total. The restrictions began in 2019 on the grounds that they were needed to maintain public order ahead of New Delhi’s decision to strip the region of its special status. Local businesses say the region’s economy is ailing.

“Earlier the shutdowns were in response to trouble, but now they are being used in preventive ways,” said Namrata Maheshwari, Asia Pacific policy counsel at Access Now.

It is unclear that the blocks assist in ending social upheaval or stop cheating, she said, and they often create anxiety among friends and family who find themselves in the dark, or unable to work.

In Manipur, the internet cuts came during violent clashes between two ethnic groups that killed more than 100 people.

Aribam found an expensive workaround for her sari business. Her brother, with whom she runs the business, flew more than 1,000 miles to New Delhi several times over the months, carrying bags stuffed with the garments. He stayed in a hotel and sold them online using the hotel’s internet connection.

“My family and I can survive during this difficult time because we are privileged in some ways,” she said. “However, the weavers who live hand to mouth are finding it difficult to make ends meet.”

SAMIR SARDANA said...

G20 !

AND DAY AFTER CLOSURE,4 ARMY MEN KILLED IN ANANTNAG,BY 3 MUJAHIDEEN !

AND 110 HOURS ARE OVER,AND THE VANAR SENA OF CHAIWALA,HAS NO CLUE !

NOW THE KASHMIR MUJAHIDEEEN HAVE THE PERFECT FORMULA !

AND THE MUJAHIDS HAVE BLOWN APART THE VANAR SENA,AND THE NOTHERN ARMY COMMAND AND THE IDF AND MOSSAD AID TO THE HINDOOS !

THIS COULD HAVE EASILY HAPPENED IN DELHI,ON G20 ! AND THAT IS Y CJHAIWALA LOCKED DOWN DELHI, FOR 7 DAYS ! HE KNOWS THAT HIS VANARS,ARE INEPT AND IMPOTENT !

THIS IS THE WORTH OF THE CHAIWALA AND HIS "BHARAT" ! THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD HAS TO NOTE !

CAN THESE HINDOO COWARDS AND WEASELS,BE NATO PARTNERS,WITH NATO AND US,AGAINST PRC AND RUSSIA ?

CHAI-STHAN IS A BANANA REPUBLIC !

THE FREEDOM OF KASHMIR IS NIGH ! THEY HAVE 1 WORKING FOOL PROOF FORMULA !

DESTROY THE POODLES OF CHAIWALA AND THEN RUN TO THE DENSE,THICK JUNGLES !

BEFORE THAT STOCK WEAPONS,IEDs,EXOLOSIVES,RPG,MANPAD,MEDICINES AND FOOD IN BURROWS AND CAVES ! RPG ABD MANPADS ARE FOR CHOPPERRS !

SLECT VANTAGE HEIGHT POSITIONS SO THAT THEY HAVE CLEAR LINE OF SIGHT ADVANTAGE ON VANAR SENA OF CHAIWALA

CHOOSE THE DENSEST FOREST WITH THICKEST FOLIAGE AND CANOPY.CANOPY IS FOR DRONES AND SATS WHO TRACK THERMAL AND IR SIGNATURE AND DIFFERENTIAL IR SIGNATURES ! THE SIGNATURES SHOULD DIFFUSE AND THE HUMAN THERMAL SIGNATURE OF THE MUJAHID SHOULD DISSIPATE - ELSE CHAIWALA IAF OR ARMY AVIATION WILL USE NAPALM AND MISSILES ! DIFFERENT FOLIAGE EMIT VARIED THERMAL AND IR SIGNATURES FOR SATS AND DRONES TO CAPTURE !

THEN SET UP BOOBY TRAPS IN THE JUNGLES - WHICH IS AN ANCIENT TOOL ! TO KILL,MAIM AND SLOW THE CHAIALA VANAR SENA !

SET UP IEDs ON THE ROADS INSIDE THE JUNGLES

LAST IS - TO SELECT SITES IN JUNGLES - WHERE PATH WAY TO THE HIDEOUT HAS MOIST AND LOOSE LAND - WHICH WILL BE OF USE IN MONSOONS !

THESE 7 COMMANDMENTS WILL ALLOS UZAIR KHAN AND COMPANT TO RETURN BACK TO AJK,LIKE MASTGL

THE GREAT ESCAPE !

WHAT WILL CHAIWALA DO WHEN THE PLA,TALIBAN AND PAKISTAN ARMY DO A JONT LIBERATION OF KASHMIR ?

SAMIR SARDANA said...

THE SPIRIT OF HARI SINGH NALWA,BANDA BAHADUR AND ZORA SINGH AND GURU GOBIND SINGH HAS BEEN REINCARNATED !

IT IS JAGMEET SINGH ! THE TRUE KHALSA ! IN CANADA !

THESE ARE HIS GOLDEN WORDS !

"Today we learned of allegations that agents of the Indian Government murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a Canadian killed on Canadian soil.To all Canadians, this is my vow.

I will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice, including holding Narendra Modi accountable.

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 18, 2023

"INCLUDING CHAIWALA" ARE THE KEY WORDS ! SAMIR SARDANA

TAKE CHAIWALA + AMIT SHAH + PAHADI BABA AJIT DOVAL TO THE ICC ! THEY ARE CRIMINALS !

THEY ARE SCUM !

JAGMEET SINGH USED THE RIGHT WORDS HUKUMAT E HINDOOOSTHAN ! THAT IS THE WORD !

"NOT INDIA" !INDIA DIED THE DAY CHAIWALA WAS PM !

SAMIR SARDANA said...

HE SPIRIT OF HARI SINGH NALWA,BANDA BAHADUR AND ZORA SINGH AND GURU GOBIND SINGH HAS BEEN REINCARNATED !

IT IS JAGMEET SINGH ! THE TRUE KHALSA !

THESE ARE HIS GOLDEN WORDS !

"Today we learned of allegations that agents of the Indian Government murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a Canadian killed on Canadian soil.To all Canadians, this is my vow.

I will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice, including holding Narendra Modi accountable.

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 18, 2023

INCLUDING CHAIWALA ! SAMIR SARDANA

TAKE CHAIWALA + AMIT SHAH + PAHADI BABA AJIT DOVAL TO THE ICC ! THEY ARE CRIMINALS !

Riaz Haq said...

If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences
Western countries have for too long acquiesced to the Indian government’s abuses

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/09/20/if-india-ordered-a-murder-in-canada-there-must-be-consequences

For years, India objected to Western strategists lumping it together with its violent and chaotic neighbour in the phrase “Indo-Pakistan”. Now recognised as a fast-growing giant and potential bulwark against China, India claims to have been “de-hyphenated”. Yet the explosive charge aired this week by Justin Trudeau suggests that diplomatic recalibration may have gone too far. Canada’s prime minister alleges that Indian agents were involved in the murder in Vancouver of a Canadian citizen sympathetic to India’s Sikh separatist movement. India has long been accused of assassinating militants and dissidents in its own messy region; never previously in the friendly and orderly West. And while India calls the victim, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a terrorist, he had rebuffed Indian allegations that he was linked to separatist violence.

India denies everything. But Canada is reported to have shared intelligence about the murder with its allies in the “Five Eyes” intelligence pact. None appears to have questioned it. Shortly after Mr Trudeau levelled the charge in Canada’s parliament, America and Britain released cautiously supportive statements, urging India to co-operate with a Canadian probe. The assassination, by two unknown gunmen outside a Sikh temple in June, follows a recent spike in both Sikh separatist activity and at times heavy-handed Indian suppression of it.

The squabble, which has involved tit-for-tat expulsions of Indian and Canadian diplomats, could escalate. Mr Trudeau faces domestic pressure to reveal evidence of Indian involvement in the killing. A criminal investigation is under way. The Canada-India relationship, already blighted by Indian suspicions of separatist support in the 770,000-strong Sikh diaspora in Canada, has grown worse. America and its allies will hope the rot stops there. Yet even if it does, they should consider this a warning-shot against the government of Narendra Modi—and their own eagerness to overlook its too-frequent abuses.

On its own turf it has muzzled the press, cowed the courts and persecuted minorities, even though none is a threat to it. The alleged assassination in Canada, too, appears gratuitous as well as wrong. The movement to create an independent Sikh nation (known as Khalistan) led to the killing of tens of thousands of people in India in the 1980s and 1990s, but has since been not much more than a talking-point in the Sikh diaspora, even as India’s ability to police it by conventional means at home has improved (see Asia section).

Riaz Haq said...

If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences
Western countries have for too long acquiesced to the Indian government’s abuses

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/09/20/if-india-ordered-a-murder-in-canada-there-must-be-consequences

Making martyrs of separatist leaders is a gift to their beleaguered cause. This might be considered typical of an Indian government that, for all its recent swagger on the world stage, remains dogged by feelings of insecurity. It is a feature of India’s rapid rise. The country is almost invariably weaker than its leaders publicly proclaim, yet stronger than they privately fear—and that mismatch is a recipe for miscalculations of this kind. Mr Modi, a probable shoo-in for re-election next year, should know that confident countries entrust their security to the rule of law.

India’s Western friends cannot count on that, however. Hitherto reluctant to condemn Mr Modi’s excesses, they have maintained a fiction that their partnership with India is based on shared democratic values, not interests. This has laid them open to charges of hypocrisy. It also seems likely, in the light of Mr Nijjar’s demise, to have emboldened Mr Modi. If the investigation confirms Indian involvement in this crime, it is time for a tougher line. Strategic partners do not air all their dirty linen in public, but nor do they murder each other’s citizens. Canada’s allies must join it in making that clear to Mr Modi.

Riaz Haq said...


Aatish Taseer
@AatishTaseer
So, in retrospect, the G20 was an event where the leaders of Russia and China were not present, while the leader of the free world accused Mr Modi (the host) of extrajudicial murder in Canada. Truly, surreal!


https://x.com/AatishTaseer/status/1706124856843002230?s=20

Riaz Haq said...

India had been riding a geopolitical high. But it comes to the UN with a mess on its hands

https://apnews.com/article/india-canada-killing-united-nations-d4e5dbd2acbca4f34ad003f673655eb0


NEW DELHI (AP) — The Group of 20 Summit, hosted by India earlier this month, couldn’t have gone better for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His pledge to make the African Union a permanent member became reality. And under his leadership, the fractured grouping signed off on a final statement. It was seen as a foreign policy triumph for Modi and set the tone for India as a great emerging power.

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was expected to seize on India’s geopolitical high in his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday. But circumstances have changed — quite abruptly — and India comes to the General Assembly podium with a diplomatic mess on its hands.

On Monday, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau made a shocking claim: India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh Canadian citizen in a Vancouver suburb in June.

Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of links to New Delhi, which India angrily rejected as absurd. It has been a free fall since: Each expelled a diplomat, India suspended visas for Canadians, and Ottawa said it may reduce consulate staff over safety concerns. Ties between the two once-close countries have sunk to their lowest point in years.

“In the immediate term, this will bring New Delhi back down to Earth. It has a crisis that it needs to work through, quickly but carefully,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute.

TENSIONS WERE ALREADY SIMMERING
On the last day of the G20 summit, Trudeau posed and smiled with Modi as world leaders paid respects at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. Behind the scenes though, tensions were high.


Trudeau skipped an official dinner hosted by the Indian president, and local media reported he was snubbed by Modi when he got a quick “pull aside” instead of a bilateral meeting. To make things worse, a flight snag saw him stranded in New Delhi for 36 hours. Finally back in Canada, Trudeau said he had raised the allegations with Modi at the G20.

As India heads to the United Nations, the allegations have “thrown cold water on India’s G20 achievements,” said Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research.

India has long sought greater recognition at the United Nations. For decades, it has eyed a permanent seat at the Security Council, one of the world’s most prestigious high tables. But it has also been critical of the global forum, partly because it wants more representation that’s in line with its rising soft power.

“The U.N. Security Council, which is the core of the United Nations system, is a family photo of the victors of the Second World War plus China,” Jacob said. India believes “it simply does not reflect the demographic, economic and geopolitical realities of today,” he added. Others in the elite group include France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

In April, Jaishankar said India, the world’s most populous country with the fastest growing economy among major nations, couldn’t be ignored for too long. The U.N. Security Council, he said, “will be compelled to provide permanent membership.”

The United States, Britain and India’s Cold War-era ally Russia have voiced support for its permanent membership over the years. But U.N. bureaucracy has stopped the council from expanding. And even if that changes, China — India’s neighbor and regional rival — would likely block a request.

INSTEAD OF THE UN, INDIA MAKES SOME END RUNS
Kept out of the U.N.’s most important body, Modi has made sure that his country is smack at the center of a tangled web of global politics. On one hand, New Delhi is part of the Quad and the G20, seen as mostly Western groups. On the other, it wants to expand its influence in the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Russia and China dominate.

The deft juggling of the West and the rest has come to define India’s multipolar foreign policy.

Riaz Haq said...

India had been riding a geopolitical high. But it comes to the UN with a mess on its hands

https://apnews.com/article/india-canada-killing-united-nations-d4e5dbd2acbca4f34ad003f673655eb0


Its diplomatic sway has only grown over its reluctance to condemn Russia for its war in Ukraine, a stance that resonated among many developing countries that have also been neutral. And the West, which sees an ascendant India as crucial to countering China, has stepped up ties with Modi. By doing so, it looks past concerns of democratic backsliding under his government.

In the immediate aftermath, the first reaction from Canada’s Western allies — including its biggest one, the United States — was tepid. But as the row deepens, the question likely worrying Indian officials is this: Will the recent international fiasco jeopardize its surging ties with the West?

After an initial muted response, the White House has intensified its concerns. “There’s not some special exemption you get for actions like this, regardless of the country,” security adviser Jake Sullivan said. On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was deeply concerned about the allegations and that “it would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation.”

While there’s been no public evidence, a Canadian official told The Associated Press that the allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada — including intelligence provided by a major ally. On Friday, the U.S. ambassador to Canada confirmed this, saying information shared by the intelligence-sharing ‘Five Eyes’ alliance helped link India to the assassination.

At the United Nations, where he held a news conference and meetings but will not be speaking for his nation on Tuesday, Trudeau told reporters that he doesn’t want to cause problems but said his decision was not made lightly. Canada, he said, had to stand up for the rule of law and protect its citizens.

For New Delhi, the U.N. meeting may present a possible opportunity. Indian and Canadian diplomats could meet on the sidelines to try to lower temperatures with a potential assist from Washington, Kugelman said. Canada’s delegation chair, Robert Rae, is delivering the country’s remarks 10 spots after India.

Riaz Haq said...

The eruption of war in Israel and Gaza is a dark reminder that buried conflicts – like India’s disputes with Pakistan and China – can erupt at any time.
By Chietigj Bajpaee


https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/the-israel-palestine-conflagration-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-indias-global-ambitions/


the most recent developments in the Middle East show how unresolved disputes have a tendency to flare up. In this context, tensions with Pakistan (and to a lesser extent China) remain a constant thorn in India’s global ambitions.

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Claims of a “new Middle East” have been quashed as the “old Middle East” has returned with a vengeance: The devastating October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have been followed by unprecedented Israeli attacks on Gaza and the resumption of prolonged Israel-Palestine hostilities. This has also called into question the future of diplomatic initiatives such as the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, the Saudi-Iran resumption of diplomatic relations earlier this year, and efforts to facilitate a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

What does this mean for India? Beyond the Modi government’s unequivocal support for Israel (which is arguably more equivocal at the level of public opinion, given India’s longstanding support for the Palestinian cause) the latest hostilities in the Middle East hold lessons for India’s global ambitions.

Recent years have seen India raise its voice on the world stage. India’s G-20 presidency strengthened the country’s credentials as the voice of the Global South. New Delhi is offering Indian solutions to global problems, ranging from climate change and sustainability to digital public infrastructure and global health. India has spearheaded new connectivity initiatives, from its rebranded “Act East” Policy in the East to the India-Middle East-Economic Corridor and I2U2 (India-Israel-UAE-U.S.) grouping in the West.

Despite the growing polarization of the international system following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India has been courted by all major poles of influence. It is a member of both Western-led initiatives such as the Quad and non-Western initiatives such as the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization.



Undergirding these developments are India’s impressive achievements, ranging from its space program marking a global first to surpassing the United Kingdom in GDP and surpassing China in population. Projections China in population. Projections hold that India will be the world’s fastest growing major economy in 2023; it is on course to surpass Germany and Japan to emerge as the world’s third-largest economy by the end of this decade. Meanwhile, the Indian government has just announced that it will submit a bid to host the 2036 Olympic games.



But the most recent developments in the Middle East show how unresolved disputes have a tendency to flare up. In this context, tensions with Pakistan (and to a lesser extent China) remain a constant thorn in India’s global ambitions.

All it would take is another high-profile terrorist attack on India, followed by the mobilization of both countries’ militaries, to erode investor confidence. This would undermine India’s ambitions to emerge as an engine of global growth, a global manufacturing hub and a beneficiary of the push to de-risk or decouple supply chains away from China. It would also challenge the government’s credentials as the “chowkidar” or watchman/protector of India’s interests, just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “Mr. Security” reputation has been tarnished by the recent Hamas attacks. As such, despite India’s success in de-hyphenating its relationship with Pakistan, the unresolved Kashmir dispute and relations with Pakistan remain a key challenge to India’s global ambitions.

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan beats #India 38-18 in #UNESCO vote for executive board vice chair. This also comes at a time when India has been projecting itself as the ‘voice’ of the ‘Global South’ — low- and middle-income countries in #Africa, #Asia and #LatinAmerica.

https://theprint.in/diplomacy/pakistan-beats-india-38-18-at-unesco-vote-global-south-may-have-sided-with-it/1867290/

Islamabad's candidate secured the post of vice-chairperson of the UNESCO executive board. India’s defeat contravenes decades of its diplomatic policy approach to such elections.
KESHAV PADMANABHAN

New Delhi: Pakistan beat India with more than double the votes to secure the post of vice-chair of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) executive board last week. While 38 members of the 58-member executive board voted for Islamabad’s candidate, only 18 voted for New Delhi’s representative, and two countries abstained.


The executive board is one of the three constitutional organs of UNESCO — a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information. The other two are the general conference and the secretariat.


India was elected to the UNESCO executive board in 2021 for a four-year term till 2025. Pakistan was elected earlier this year for a four-year term that will end in 2027.

India’s defeat in this vote contravenes decades of its diplomatic policy approach to such elections. “India’s policy has always been to stand in elections that are winnable. If the election is deemed risky, then full efforts are made to ensure India’s victory,” an individual familiar with the matter told ThePrint.

This also comes at a time when India has been projecting itself as the ‘voice’ of the ‘Global South’ — a term used to refer to low- and middle-income countries located in the Southern Hemisphere, mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. While the election was held by secret ballot, that India received only 18 votes suggests that these ‘Global South’ countries may have largely sided with Pakistan, since they form the majority of the board members.

The bureau of the executive board consists of 12 members — the chairperson, six vice-chairpersons and the five chairpersons of the permanent commissions and committees. The key roles played by the bureau include setting the agenda and allocating time for executive board meetings. The vice-chairperson has no decision-making powers.

All members of UNESCO are grouped into six regional electoral groups, and each such group is represented by a vice-chairperson. This latest election won by Pakistan was for the vice-chairperson of Group IV, which includes Australia, Bangladesh, China, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

On 24 November, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan had posted on X, stating that Islamabad was elected as vice-chairperson with “overwhelming support”.

India’s permanent representative to the UNESCO is a political appointee, Vishal V. Sharma, a former independent director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) as well as former officer on special duty to Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister.