The Surprising Paris Court Verdict on Marine Le Pen Is A Blot On French Democracy

In a move, startling from a republic that is the supposedly modern torchbearer of Liberte,Egalite et Fraternite, the latest move smacks of a hatchet-job style dictatorship to fix the political arena. Albeit, it was a longish trial, with all the trappings of proper judicial examination and rigour. But is the judiciary in France, along with its now tottering government, infected with leftist bias?

Earlier this week, a Paris Court judge that banned far-right leader Marine Le Pen from contesting elections for five years acknowledged that the ‘embezzlement’ of Euro 4 million of EU funds between 2004-2016, to pay staff in her National Rally party, rather than parliamentary aides, did nor enrich her or her 24 co-defendants in their personal capacity.

The Paris Court judge described the diverted payments as a ‘democratic bypass’ that deceived both voters and the European Parliament, in what seems to many to be judicial overreach.

Le Pen has been fined Euro 100,000 and sentenced to four years in prison, two of which will be suspended, and the other two served under house arrest with electronic monitoring. But her ban from running for office is with immediate effect, even though she can continue to serve as a lawmaker till new elections are called for. If she is corrupt, how do these niceties work?

All but one of her co-defendants received suspended prison sentences of varying severity also affecting their ability to participate in the political process going forward. Le Pen has vowed to appeal the rulings, calling the verdict ‘political death’ for her personally.

Le Pen’s lawyers argued that the distinction between a politician’s work as a lawmaker and as a party member was artificial. Seeming to agree with this position, President Donald Trump said he had not expected a guilty verdict at all from the court proceedings.

But crucially, with Le Pen banned from contesting for five years, unless the appeal overturns her conviction, the focus has rapidly shifted to her protégé the 29 year-old Jordan Bardella, who could well become the National Rally’s presidential candidate in 2027. He may be inexperienced but Macron himself is still in his forties and began his rising political career much earlier.. Bardella called the rulings an ‘execution’ of democracy on X.

Le Pen can contest the elections in 2032, when she will be 64.

The rampant but unproven suspicion from those who support Le Pen and her National Rally Party, is that President Emmanuel Macron and his La Republique en Marche (LREM), may have worked behind the scenes to try and eliminate a formidable challenger from the fray. Marine Le Pen is the leader of the resurgent Conservative movement in French politics.

Could such a partisan ruling on questionable charges happen in India? Well it did. When the Allahabad High Court overturned Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s election, it resulted in the infamous Emergency. Of course, Mrs. Gandhi was the sitting prime minister at the time, with the entire machinery of government at her disposal. Nothing so dramatic has been tried by the judiciary since.

While Indian politics today routinely tolerates virulent opposition, any such move by the Indian courts against the opposition figures, would certainly activate the anti-India lobbies in Europe, America, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and amongst dissidents such as Islamic militants and Khalistanis. They would unleash a massive vilification campaign. They would howl for the blood of the ruling ‘Hindu Nationalist Party’ that is dominant in the NDA. 

Fortunately, in India however, that ship seems to have sailed, because the voting public seems to much prefer the BJP and the NDA in most elections.

But surprisingly, little has surfaced by way of criticism in the European media against the bizarre Paris Court ruling.  Marine Le Pen is being supported, not by all the powers that are proxy fighting Russia in Ukraine, but by the other side.

From around the political universe, most conservative leaders have or are beginning to speak up in support.

Macron must have thought that with the confusion over Ukraine and beleaguered European support for its resistance, he could get away with this subversion of democracy at this time. However, many members of the French public per polls conducted after the verdict see it in terms of independence of the judiciary.  Who was polled however? If you poll the left they would signal good riddance of course.

Will the French general elections in 2027, still two years away, be affected? The Russia-Ukraine War is expected to end well before that. America’s support for the Europeans in NATO has already weakened. Other international fora are also in retreat as America withdraws into its ‘America First’ stance. Can Macron’s France carry its own left-of-centre torch in European politics in 2027?

The public has been showing growing preference for Le Pen’s far-right politics, with her finishing as runner-up to Macron as president in both 2017 and 2022. So, will this suspected skullduggery then work against Macron at the hustings?

 Support for Le Pen came in promptly from Hungary and Russia after the rulings. Both condemned them as an attack on democracy. Victor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister expressed solidarity by posting ‘Je Suis Marine!’ The Russian spokesman said the ruling showed a growing tendency to subvert democratic impulses in Western Europe. Particularly those that were conservative and favoured better relations with Russia.

In addition, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have all spoken up in disapproval of the attempt to ban Le Pen from contesting elections. India, that enjoys excellent relations with Emmanuel Macron led France, particularly in the sphere of defence equipment, has been silent on this matter so far.

President Trump called the verdict ‘a big deal’ and said Le Pen was the leading contender. He also likened it to what was done to him in the lead-up to the 2024 elections in America. Others who have already spoken up in support of Le Pen are Italian League Party boss Matteo Salvini and Dutch populist Geert Wilders. Whatever  be the merits and demerits of the case, the timing of the sharp negative verdict raises more questions than it  lays to rest about the state of democratic norms in France.

(1,030 words)

April 2^nd, 2025

For: Firstpost, News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

India Has Reinforced A Mauritius Advantage In The Indian Ocean

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly received in Mauritius for its 57^th National Day celebrations and awarded the country’s highest civilian award during his recent two-day state visit. A large number of MOU’s, numbering eight, were signed. They covered space research, AI, digital health, the ocean economy, pharmaceuticals, ICT, FinTech, Cyber Security and maritime security. India announced a rupee-denominated credit to replace the water pipelines in Mauritius. India has a satellite tracking space station located in Mauritius.

The relationship has just been upgraded to an enhanced strategic partnership with maritime and defence cooperation as its cornerstones. India will continue to extend technology sharing, concessional loans and grants. Prime Minister Modi called Mauritius a bridge between India and the Global South and ‘family’.

The aerial distance between India and Mauritius is 5,247 km. and requires a flight that could take 6 to 8 hours. Its Agalega Islands, north and south, however, are almost half the distance, at 3,000 km from Southern India. This is comparable to that between India and the Maldives (2,200 km), also strategically important to India.

The two Agalega islands, about 25 sq.km. in total area, are 2,500 km southwest of Male in the Maldives where China has made substantial inroads.

India has built a long 3,000 metres runway on Agalega, after an MOU was signed in 2015, and heads of both countries inaugurated it in 2024. A substantial jetty has also been built. Both Mauritius and India deny that The Agalegas, population under 400, dependent mostly on fishing and coconuts, with other supplies coming in by ship, are being developed as an Indian military base. But it certainly helps the marine surveillance of the South Western part of the Indian Ocean both from the air and via radar installations set up by India as in the Port Louis area of the main Mauritius island.

Mauritius has been close to India, even since the British transported a large number of Indians in 1834 to work on the sugar plantations there. Prior to 1810, the French controlled Mauritius and they also took Indians from their holdings in Pondicherry (Puducherry today), and then there were the Dutch before the French. MK Gandhi also stopping by in 1901, and the Mauritius National Day chosen (12^th March) coincides with the start of the Dandi March.

 Mauritius gained its independence from Britain in 1968 and has a population of 1.2 million people, largely of Indian origin. Both French and Creole are spoken on the island. This, in addition to English, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu. Diwali and Holi are celebrated on the island.  

Mauritius has had a defence treaty with India from 1964, and the Mauritius National Security Adviser (NSA) to date is an Indian national.

France, over and above the QUAD countries, also regularly patrols the Indian Ocean Region.

And since 2015, when Prime Minister last visited the island nation, India has done a good deal to ramp up its infrastructure via soft loans and grants of over $1 billion USD. These include a metro system, a hospital, and even a new parliament building presently under construction.

Mauritius is famous in Indian financial circles because a great deal of the FDI (foreign direct investment) into India is routed via the island nation owing to its favourable tax laws and treaties with India. In fact, after Singapore, international companies registered in Mauritius account for the second biggest chunk of FDI. Mauritius, in turn, seeks much greater commercial interest as FDI from other countries, including India.   

Even as China wants to dominate the Indian Ocean with a massive blue water navy, India has strong inherent geographical advantages. Peninsular India not only borders both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal but abuts the Indian Ocean at Kanyakumari.

China has a long way to come from its home bases on the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. However, it has indeed created a number of perches - in Sri Lanka’s largely deserted Hambantota, while India is also prominent on the island, on the Cocos Islands, ironically gifted to Myanmar by India’s then Prime Minister Nehru. Lately, it has made inroads into the cash-strapped Maldives. China has built yet another largely unused port at Gwadar in Baluchistan, now under threat of the latter’s independence movement. Earlier, it had set up a base in Djibouti on the Red Sea. It is currently angling for a port in turbulent Bangladesh as well.

India, on its part, has been modernising its existing ports on both seaboards, building new greenfield and sometimes contiguous ones, including transshipment ports, and setting up state-of-the-art ship repair and ship building facilities.

Some of this has been extended to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well, alongside tourism infrastructure, particularly as some of them, the Nicobar islands, are very near the Malacca Straits, used extensively by Chinese shipping. The Andamans also overlook busy international shipping lanes.

India’s Lakshadweep Islands are just 820 km from the Maldives, and are now being developed by India both as a naval base and for tourism.  The British-American base at Diego Garcia, nominally owned by Mauritius, occupied by  India’s QUAD partners, is roughly 1,796 km southwest of India. The rest of the Chagos Islands, owned also by Mauritius, have just been returned to it. India has been diplomatically assisting this restoration for a long time.

The Indian ship repair and refurbishment facilities are routinely offered to India’s QUAD partners and other friendly countries active in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region). This is very useful for American and European ships operating in the region but far away from their home bases.

India’s ship-building expansion and modernisation includes submarine and aircraft carrier manufacturing, specialised vessels, ones for the coast guard and  last but not least, in-demand commercial tonnage.

All this capacity is developing rapidly, with an eye to bolstering both India’s commercial shipping status, incorporating the use of India-owned and manufactured ships, as well as for military purposes.

This activity is being fast-tracked in response to the rapid expansion and size of the Chinese capabilities, which are also being extended by China to assist Pakistan in our littoral.

The part that the India-Mauritius relationship plays in the stability and prosperity of the Indian Ocean region cannot be over emphasised.

Also, as India marches on towards becoming the 3^rd largest economy in the world, it engagement with the outside world and how it is viewed by it, is also changing fast. This may increasingly take the shape of out-size alliances with friendly countries farther away, and mergers of those countries and regions that are contiguous for mutual benefit.

(1098 words)

March 14^th 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Who can truly argue that life is not a beach?

‘Life is a Beach’ was a phrase invented to denote that it was both good and great to be in a relaxed, warm frame of mind and body. It was a worthwhile aspiration coined to counter the other negative phrase that ‘Life was a Bitch’. The latter, never mind its sexist connotations, was probably brought on by a slave-driving foreman like the infamous Simon Legree in the Harriet Beecher Stowe classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Legree, of course, whipped Uncle Tom to death with a cat ‘o nine tails just because he could. And still Uncle Tom did not complain.

The present top leadership of L&T seems to have stepped right into the proverbial dog poo that an indulgent pet parent neglected to scoop up. And what is worse, the previously obscure Chairman and Managing Director of the group, SNS, short for SN Subrahmanyan from Chennai, trailed his smelly and dirty shoes right into the board room.

Now the matter of his pronouncements on the 90 hour work-week and the even more outrageous one about how long one can stare at one’s wife at home have gone viral on the social and mainstream media. There are many memes. Fellow industrialist Anand Mahindra has posted a picture of himself gazing appreciatively at his own wife in riposte.

L&T, the hoary Indian engineering company now headed by SNS was established by Henning Holck-Larsen, a Danish engineer, along with his fellow school mate and engineer from Copenhagen, Soren Kristian Toubro in 1938. Both the visionary foreigners saw the potential for an engineering-based company in India even before WWII.

The idea for L&T was conceived by the duo during a holiday in the hill-station of Matheran, near then Bombay, and gradually, over their lifetimes, grew into a diverse conglomerate and one of India’s most successful companies.  

L& T is now also doing good work in defence manufacturing, and was previously helmed from 2003, by the legendary and down-to-earth AM Naik, even though SNS was there making his significant contributions to the company from 1984 too.

Naik not only grew the company manifold, turning it entrepreneurial, but successfully staved off a takeover attempt from Reliance Industries. But he never thought it necessary to lecture his coworkers into the necessity of working very long hours beyond the standard 48 hour 9 to 5 week.  

The Tata Group is often thought of as the leitmotif of Indian Industry, culture, and ethics. Some will remember the Homi Mody sponsored TV advertisements for Tata Steel that waxed eloquent on many lifestyle and fun things but ended with the tag line: We Also Make Steel. Many viewers thought it underscored the sheer classiness of the Tata Group.

While comparisons may be thought to be odious, AM Naik, SNS’s boss for many years who took the company to unprecedented heights of profitability and competence did not feel the need to hector his workforce. Personally, he too was a workaholic throughout his career, but that was just how he liked to play it. He did not make it a public virtue or a formula for others to follow, except if you like, by his example.

This whole work-life balance debate has adherents on both sides, but given the number of young CEOs and other young professionals who are dropping dead now, the medical fraternity that says job-induced stress is a killer needs to be heard.

This entire debate was sparked earlier by Narayana Murthy, the now elderly  Kannadiga former boss of Infosys, who appears to have had no life beyond his work, and is extremely proud of it. He asked for a 70 hour-week that he personally followed all his working life. Earlier, he said he has never bothered to read a novel. These men are indeed very successful, very rich, but hardly inspiring. They are more objects of ridicule despite their stellar careers because they may have missed the point of life and living entirely.

This obsession with long hours may also be an Indian thing, because others elsewhere are trying to both cut down their working weeks and trying to retire early. The Japanese company man, now largely extinct in his original form, died from overwork and excessive drinking after hours. They were meant to have lifetime jobs but began to be sacked in droves during the economic downturns through no fault of their own. Strict hierarchy and terms of conduct also took their toll. These same advocates of lengthy working hourse do not hesitate to sack people whenever the bottom line dictates it. Ditto for not paying increments when times are not so good.

If Tata paid all its employees both salary and compensation where applicable when the Taj Hotel in Mumbai was being restored for two years after the ghastly attacks of 26/11, it showed a cultural nobility unmatched by any other business group in India. Those employees who lost their lives, were or would be paid their full salaries and benefits till they would have retired. Their children were or are being educated at company expense.

SNS and Narayana Murthy would do well to learn the obligations of a good company before mouthing off in their bizarre manner like cats who have first swallowed the cream.

Work loyalty, a sense of duty, and esprit de coeur comes amply from the Armed  Forces where people bravely sacrifice their lives for their country. They don’t have to be hectored by fat cat corporate honchos whom nobody can respect for their one-way and graceless view of things like this.

(917 words)

January 13^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

 

Erstwhile Globocop And International Bankroller America Now Wants Reciprocity To Make America Great Again

President elect Donald J Trump wants to ‘Make America Great Again’. This stated ambition and powerful campaign slogan that in Trump’s scheme of things means making America extraordinarily wealthy again, has a great number of moving parts.

In this preparatory period leading up to his inauguration on January 20^th, 2025, he has been appointing a large number of capable loyalists to key positions in his forthcoming administration. That some of his key picks such as his intelligence chief, his FBI director and the office to cut wasteful government spending, happen to be American Hindus of Indian extraction, is remarkable.

Stopping both the wars in the Middle East and Europe is central to his early policy-making along with strong measures to strengthen the US economy. Trump is particularly provoked by the fact that a number of countries including, China, Brazil and India impose steep tariffs on US goods, some as high as 150%. He has made it clear that he too will impose tariffs likewise on imports from such countries unless there are changes in the spirit of ‘reciprocity’.

For the US economy, Trump envisages a revival of American manufacturing, new high tariffs on direct imports from China which enjoys an obscene trade surplus, as well as other countries such as Mexico and Canada that China funnels its goods through, in an attempt to evade the tariffs imposed earlier.

Trump also wants reciprocity from perceived friends in Europe, the EU, NATO, as well as strategic partners such as India, Taiwan, and an economic/military rival like China.  

Allies of America across the Atlantic, the UN and its bodies, and other international institutions such as the key international lending agencies, the World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank have long been used to America footing the lion’s share of the bill for most things. The same applies to the various UN Peace Keeping Forces in the many troubled parts of the earth.

And all this, without any pay-back or reciprocity for America, beyond a perfunctory thank you, and a degree of deferential behaviour from allies such as the UK. It is as if the security of the free world is principally America’s business ever since WWII. Perhaps this is because it maintains a formidable military machine and has massive annual armed forces/armaments budgets to keep its No.1 position. It also maintains the world’s largest covert apparatus in the form of the CIA for the world, and the FBI domestically.

Other NATO allies have long contributed token amounts financially at best, and provided some supporting forces to joint operations. In Trump1.0, the president exhorted all NATO allies to contribute their proportionate share and raise defence budgets to at least 2% of their GDPs. Protecting Europe, including Ukraine, should not be principally an American endeavour according to Trump’s world-view. This has made many allies uncomfortable at the prospect of a free lunch coming to an end. Others are apprehensive about their ability to finance their own security.

Donald Trump does not like this long-playing scheme of things, particularly since American debt is now at twice its GDP, and notionally every American citizen is carrying $ 100,000 of this debt. The US dollar is used as a peg for a number of international currencies such as the Saudi Rial. And because it is the main currency of international trade, American sanctions against countries like Russia and Iran have had a strong bite.  Russian assets worth billions of US dollars have been frozen and confiscated. This kind of high-handedness makes many other countries holding US Bonds and other investments apprehensive. It is a reason for seeking alternative trading mechanisms.

At the same time international dollar demand keeps interest rates payable by the US on its gargantuan external debt lower than it might have been. Interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve Bank, which has begun its cutting cycle at long last, have the potential to weaken the dollar, making imports costlier but making US exports more competitive. Rate cuts should also stimulate the US domestic economy as inflation appears to be moderating.

Trump has proclaimed on his own Truth Social platform very recently that he will not allow America to be ‘suckered’ henceforth. Anyone in the expanded BRICS, (read China in the main), that is trying to develop its own BRICS currency to get away from the US dollar in international trade, runs the risk of 100% US tariffs imposed. This would make it well-nigh impossible to sell to the US.

The strong US dollar as the global reserve currency, as well as the currency of choice for international trade has been a basic pillar of the world’s financial system since the aftermath of WWII. India readily recognises this fact of life, and has made it clear at BRICS that it does not support universal ‘dedollarisation’. Coming up with a BRICS currency of its own, if it isn’t the Chinese Renmimbi, not acceptable to India, is not easy, given the sizes and uneven financial state of the BRICS members.  

And yet, the US dollar has declined as a global reserve currency from 71% in 1999 to 59% in 2023, making room for a basket of currencies. The Euro is now held at 20%. Various other convertible currencies including the Yen account for another 19%. However, the Chinese Renminbi as a reserve currency is still struggling at 3%, up from a mere 1% in 2016. This may be a trebling statistically, but is far from where it wants to be.

India, which still does not have a fully convertible rupee, will, and has been trading with countries on a bilateral basis when both prefer to use their own currencies. It has done so notably with Russia, as the latter is working under stringent Western sanctions for its war with Ukraine. India has bought a large quantity of petroleum from Russia at very competitive prices in roubles/rupees, even as it continues to buy oil and gas from other nations using the US dollar.

India imports 80% of its ever-growing demand for oil and gas, and is the biggest international buyer next to China. China too has been using the Yuan/Saudi Rial for its oil purchases lately.

America is fuel self-sufficient, and buys internationally only in order to conserve its own reserves.

Is Trump’s latest threat of 100% tariffs to BRICS likely to be implemented? Are unilateral sanctions actually hastening the reducing influence of the US dollar?

Too many overlapping tariffs are likely to harm American interests by raising domestic consumer prices. In order to keep American interests first, President Trump might have to balance his initiatives in Trump 2.0 and distinguish sharply between friend and foe.

(1,106 words)

December 2^nd, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Canadian Diplomacy Towards India Is A Strange Game

Diplomacy can be a strange game. On the one hand, Justin Trudeau lines up next to Joe Biden and Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in Brazil for a group photo, smiling gamely into the camera. On the other hand the Canadian security agencies accuse first the Indian ambassador and his consular staff in Ottawa, then the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, and now the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of complicity and prior knowledge of the murder of Khalistani terrorists on Canadian soil.

For some months now, indeed from before the earlier G20 Summit in New Delhi a year ago, this has been the refrain from Justin Trudeau’s Canada. Trudeau made public pronouncements accusing India in the Canadian parliament, based on his intelligence reports, rather than proof or evidence. Both he and his foreign minister urged the Indians to cooperate with Canadian agencies in investigations. They threatened to use the pressure of their allies in the G7 and elsewhere.

Since then, despite multiple Indian requests, nothing by way of substance let alone proof has been offered. But the accusations have continued, and become ever more strident. Both sides reduced their diplomatic presence in each other’s countries including at the senior most levels.

Canada has been nominally backed in its hostile agenda by the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence group that has the US, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, in addition to Canada, as they are its members.

India has made a series of extradition requests to Canada to return various  newly-minted Canadian nationals ( mostly of Sikh origin) or other Indians from Punjab and elsewhere who have run away to Canada, wanted in India as terrorists, murderers, drug smugglers, gun runners, extortionists, people traffickers, money launderers and worse. All of this has fallen on deaf ears. The Canadian government is content to allow Khalistanis in all their criminal and extremist hues to run free, employing some of them in their own  bureaucracies and police forces.

A Canadian political party with over 20 seats in parliament and populated by ethnic erstwhile Sikhs that back the Khalistani movement is allowed to retain considerable influence in mainstream politics, both as a supporter (now from outside the government), of the ruling Liberal Party, and also the opposition Conservative Party. So much so, that a recent rally of Khalistanis demanded that Whites and Jews should return to Europe leaving Canada to its ‘native’ Khalistani population.

In India meanwhile, a large number of Sikhs are saying the Khalistanis are not Sikhs at all and have no business to masquerade as such. The Khalistani alignment with Pakistan’s ISI and Chinese intelligence agencies have nothing to do with Indian Sikhs, and indeed the overwhelming bulk of Canadian Sikhs.   They should not be allowed to use Sikh symbols without any permission of the Sikh Panth in Amritsar, and many of the Khalistani publicity seeking antics and pronouncements are deeply offensive to the majority of Indian Sikhs.

Their frequent attacks on Hindu temples in Canada, Australia,Britain and elsewhere are condemned by the Indian Sikhs who regard Hindus as their brothers in the faith, with many Punjabi families contributing one or the other child into the Sikh faith.

So if the Canadian backing of the Khalistanis residing on their soil is an attempt to balkanise India alongside Pakistan’s ISI, the Chinese intelligence agencies, elements of the deep state in the US,the CIA and others in the Five Eyes, they are bound to fail.

One of the main reasons apart from the shallow support that the Khalistanis enjoy in Canada and elsewhere, is the huge popularity of the Modi government largely identified with Hindus. The BJP/NDA is not only the dominant political party in government in India, but the prime minister’s personal popularity is palpable both in-country and around the world.

It is not only the Indian diaspora that celebrates the Modi phenomenon wherever he goes, but leaders around the world too, in the G7, the G20, BRICS and elsewhere.

Trudeau meanwhile is steadily losing popularity in Canada because of his ineffective handling of the economy, high prices, rising unemployment, a redundant immigration policy, his political mistakes vis a vis both China and India, and his obdurate backing of a Khalistani movement that has no chance of success.

A constant upping of the ante by accusing the Indian home minister and the prime minister is probably a sign of his desperation. India meanwhile is unperturbed, and refusing to over react to these Canadian provocations. It is able to see good relations with Canada from a longer-term perspective beyond the rule of the Justin Trudeau government. Most of the bilateral trade between the two countries continues undisturbed and the investments of te Canadian pension funds in the Indian stock market are more or less intact. There has been some selling in line with FPI selling in general but nothing more marked.

The Trudeau government has more immediate issues. It will have to pass its budget through parliament in February 2025, and face a general election in or -before October 2025.

The election of Donald Trump in America is probably worrisome for him as the former is not known to be a Trudeau fan. America under Trump will likely not support Trudeau’s bizarre politics with regard to India. India can afford to ignore Trudeau and wait out this unusual brand of diplomacy.

 (887 words)

November 20^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Obituary

 Largely A Silent Operator, Ratan Tata Bows Out At 86

Born in December 1937, in pre-independence Bombay, Ratan Tata, the great grandson of the founder Jamsetji, died on October 9^th, 2024, also in Mumbai.

Qualified as an Architect from Cornell University in the US, he joined the Tata Group in 1962 on the shop floor at Tata Steel. At the age of 54, he was handed the top job of Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons, its main holding company. This was by the legendary JRD Tata, who got it approved by the board of Tata Sons, in 1991, when his own health began to fail. Like Ratan, who never married, JRD, though married, was childless.

The year of Ratan’s takeover proved to be both stellar and probably fated. Because it was in 1991 that the PV Narasimha Rao government with Manmohan Singh as finance minister, unshackled the Indian economy, and the Licence-Permit Raj was finally ended. Ratan Tata was able to grow the Tata Group manifold, unfettered by government restrictions, able to invest abroad, taking the turnover from USD 4 billion to USD 100 billion today.  Ratan Tata succeeded in taking a storied but largely domestic company international, largely via a series of audacious acquisitions rolled out at an increasing pace.

And yet, the key to the profitability of the Tata Group under Ratan Tata lay in the revival, expansion and taking public of Tata Computer Services (TCS), in 2004. This was soon after the Indian IT story took the world by storm. Companies like TCS and Infosys became well known in the US and Europe and changed the global image of India. But now we are in the age of AI.

Ratan Tata stayed at the operational helm till 2012, when he turned 75. He continued thereafter to chair the two main Tata trusts Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Ratan Tata Trust which he had controlled since the passing of JRD Tata in 1993. These two trusts together own 66% of Tata Sons and Tata Industries, the other holding company in the group, and wield enormous influence.

Now these two trusts will most likely go to another Tata in the chair, probably Noel Tata, 67, his half-brother. Noel also has three children who bear the Tata name, all in their thirties, and who work in the Tata Group in various capacities presently. Noel Tata is already a trustee in both the trusts.

Ratan Tata returned to operational control over the Tata Group and Tata Sons briefly in 2016, after the ouster of Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons. This after Ratan Tata had picked Cyrus for the job after great deliberation four years earlier. The detailed reasons about why the falling out happened are not known to the public, and since Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash in 2022 himself, there will probably not be any new information either.

The present Chairman of the operating companies and Tata Sons is N Chandrashekharan, again hand-picked by Ratan Tata from his earlier perch heading Tata Computer Services (TCS). Chandrashekharan has proved to be a very competent manager of the group, and the former architect of the rise of TCS. For the near future, he is likely to stay in place.

Ratan Tata is credited with consolidating the group in the early years after his takeover in 1991. It had drifted into near autonomous units headed by powerful satraps such as Russi Mody whose father had also been Chairman of Tata Sons. There were a clutch of satraps Ratan Tata had to bring to heel, and he did it with his trademark determination and his reputation as a quiet operator. Thereafter, he set about increasing the shareholding of the holding companies in various operating companies to obviate the threat of any hostile takeover. Next, he decided to charge royalties for use of the Tata brand name. After this period of assertion, Ratan Tata became the undisputed leader of the Tata Group and set about a great deal of expansion and diversification. He was also mindful of the Tata values of integrity and trust at all times.

Ratan Tata was very fond of dogs, always keeping a pair of German Shepherds as pets for years, adopting and also looking after strays, providing them dog shelters and letting them sit in the lobby at Bombay House, the Tata HQ and the Taj Mahal Hotel, the group’s flagship hotel. Recently, he set up a hospital for animals, particularly dogs.

In recent years, Ratan Tata also invested in a slew of Start-Ups, partially to encourage young entrepreneurs but also with an eye to potential profits as they develop. A few of his bets paid off handsomely before he passed away. It goes to show that his business instinct was operating well till the last.

Ratan Tata was highly respected nationally and internationally, earning state honours. In his home state of Maharashtra, he has been accorded a state funeral and a day of mourning in his honour. Jharkhand, where Tata Steel operates from, has also declared a day of mourning.

There will no doubt be legacy issues given his many philanthropic activities, the interest in the arts, research, aeroplanes, aviation, with Ratan Tata being a pilot like JRD before him, and India’s progress in aatmanirbhar defence manufacturing in which Tata plays a part. But it will also be interesting to see how the Tata group changes on its way to becoming a trillion USD group in an age when India is to become the third largest economy in the world. This is a far cry from both the world of JRD Tata and his successor for the most part, but something to do them proud.

 (945 words)

October 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

 

 

Congress Is Front Stage And Centre In Fomenting Anti Modi Government Tropes

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used to invoke ‘the foreign hand’ as an external interference every now and then. It was designed to stir up nationalist sentiment. But in those days, she probably wasn’t aware of the fifth column that operated in her own corridors of power, with high officials and politicians on the payroll of the KGB and the CIA amongst other covert services.

But we know now that her government of nearly two decades was thoroughly riddled with informers, foreign spies, moles. So much so, one wonders why? Was it because she apparently ran a strong government with a leaning towards the Soviets?

What is the scenario in 2024? We have a cheer-leading foreign agency in the form of the Congress Party now. But it is bumbling and gauche. Earnest as it tries to be, the pathetic thing about its open vitriol and lies is that it routinely falls flat on its face. The desperation is writ large. Nothing it does seems to  resonate with the Indian public beyond its band of the already converted. Even the minorities, their traditional vote-banks, have spread out to back other horses in the Indi Alliance.

This issues ominous portents about its prospects in the forthcoming Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections. Their better showing in the 2024 general elections in June seems to have also come at the expense of their allies - a fact that they are now openly grumbling about. Some are saying the Congress is plain arrogant and predatory, and is out to decimate the regional parties.  

The Haryana electorate has, on its part, soundly rejected it, causing the Congress to snatch defeat from the jaws of a widely expected victory in the exit polls. In J&K too, it fared poorly, and the winning National Conference (NC), its pre-poll partner, is disappointed. The likely NC Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was quite capable of forming the government with the help of a few independents. Congress was more or less superfluous with its 6 or 7 seats. It was a warning that it should not expect to determine any of the policies.

After the BJP won a majority on its own, with 48 of 90 seats in Haryana, the prime minister gave his customary and congratulatory speech to the victorious organisers, managers, and workers at the BJP HQ in New Delhi. The help received from the RSS was also acknowledged and praised in various quarters. This win gave the BJP an unprecedented third consecutive term in Haryana.

Prime minister Narendra Modi, halfway through his speech, also used it to thoroughly castigate and flay the defeated Congress Party and its leadership. Amongst a slew of substantial accusations, he spelt out how the Congress Party and its leadership is aiding and abetting a foreign conspiracy to malign and target the present Government of India.

It is well publicised that Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader who is the present Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been hobnobbing with members of the George Soros organisation and its satellites during his frequent trips abroad. This suggests possible funding as well. George Soros has vowed to bring down the Modi government and what he calls other ‘authoritarian’ governments. A billionaire short-seller that famously shorted the Bank of England in the past, Soros is an elderly Hungarian Jew bristling with a great deal of malice. Somew say he is  a willing instrument of the American deep-state including the CIA. Rahul Gandhi seems to have no difficulty whatsoever collaborating with Soros.

In addition, the entire Gandhi family has signed a secret memorandum of understanding and cooperation with the Chinese at their embassy in New Delhi. The Chinese have reciprocated by investing in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which has Sonia Gandhi as its Chairperson. Does China also fund the Congress Party?

In his recent visit to the United States Rahul Gandhi falsely stated Sikhs in India could not wear their turbans and practice their religion in peace. His ridiculous statements, condemned by many prominent Sikhs in India, were endorsed by Khalistani terrorist elements abroad. These included Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen, who regularly threatens violence against Indians, with apparent immunity and protection from the Americans. India has, in contrast, been accused of trying to murder Pannun on American soil. Again, such elements are Rahul Gandhi’s friends.

The Congress Party routinely incites India’s other minority population including the sizeable Muslim population, Christians, the evangelists that are working with them and in states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab, the North East and Andhra Pradesh, against Hindu gurus, the RSS and its affiliates, the BJP, and the Modi government. Rahul Gandhi himself regularly attacks Prime Minister Modi with a torrent of ineffective lies and slander. The fact that his family is renowned for its storied corruption and its pogrom against the Sikhs in 1984, makes splitting the credibility beam difficult.

When Rahul Gandhi is abroad, he is seen conferring with Pakistani activists, those who are against the Indian hold over J&K, other Islamists, elements with links to the ISI, far-left politicians in Britain, and so on. He aptly illustrates the adage that any enemy of the Modi administration is my automatic friend. And yet, for what he alleges is an authoritarian regime,  he is not arrested for sedition when he returns, time after time, after yet another propagandist turn abroad.

This negative bent of mind is largely thought to be fuelled by the Gandhi family’s bitterness at having been kept out of power at the Centre by the electorate for over a decade now. It demonstrates the considerable toxicity abroad, seething with anger at imaginary wrong-doing. The Congress anger is also palpable in parliament, and on the streets here in India. Why is there no popular revolt amongst the farmers, the poor, the Muslims, they seem to be asking in despair?

To some extent the forces opposed to a ‘Hindu majoritarian’ outlook buy into every lie about intolerance, minority bashing, destruction of institutions, cronyism, lack of opportunity, joblessness, rising inequality, communal law-making, and faked economic data.

However, despite the money and expertise poured in, they cannot seem to unseat the ruling dispensation or engineer regime change as elsewhere, most recently in Bangladesh. This is because the Indian electorate is not convinced, and democracy is thriving in India via its stellar Election Commission. The Indian military is strictly apolitical and a coup is unthinkable.

Congress, on its part, doubts the veracity of the EVMs whenever it suits it. It would even have it that India’s growth rates, lauded by the world, are in fact, not true. When we become the third largest economy in the world shortly, the Congress Party is sure to disbelieve and denounce it.

Fortunately, the people of India, unlike some of its friends abroad, do not believe the Congress Party. Now even portions of the opposition INDI alliance are joining in with their disbelief at the farcical goings on led by its crazed joker in chief.

(1,159 words)

October 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee