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

 

Racist America Points Fingers At Tolerant Inclusive India Yet Again

America and its majority White people, descendants of often impoverished immigrants from Europe are unable to shed deep prejudices against its black citizens. Blacks from Africa, brought in as slaves to work the southern plantations originally. Today, 350 years and more later, the innate racism results in a regular stream of unfair arrests and convictions, horrendous murders of young, often innocent Blacks, owing to police brutality and trigger happiness.

America is still subjected to protests, riots, arson, loot, and more loss of lives owing to its divisive ways. But not only is it racist, against Blacks, and increasingly, its Hispanic population, but nurses deep religious biases. It is also rabidly anti-Hindu.

Hate crimes against Hindus, both amongst the Indian-American population and visitors, in so-called easy-going California are greater than those directed at Muslims. This violence is highlighted in a recent report by the California Civil Rights Department. Attacks against Hindus are only second to those against Jews. Muslims come third on the list. Presumably Christians, particularly White ones, are exempt. California may not be representative of the whole country but is certainly one of its most prominent states. And it is not south of the Mason-Dixon Line, infamous for the excesses of the ‘Deep South’ against Blacks.

So every attempt to point fingers at distant India, albeit instigated mostly by people of Pakistani origin or Christian evangelists, fall into the category of brazen and rank hypocrisy. But it doesn’t stop the likes of high officials such as Anthony Blinken, a Jewish Secretary of State himself, from criticising India’s alleged human rights abuses.

Usually, the unfair and mistaken criticism does not come from presidents and secretaries of state, but much lower down the ladder. Though ‘liberal’ Democrat President Obama even used a state visit to India to make anti-India remarks, just before he left for the airport at the end of his Delhi visit.

Most of the criticism comes from fairly obscure lobbies funded by Pakistan’s ISI or China to put out anti-India articles and reports.

The latest report in question, from USCIRF, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, alleged worsening of religious freedom  in India and called for it to be designated a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC).  

The USCIRF features unknowns and dubious people as Commissioners. People such as Mohamed Elsanousi, educated in Pakistan, Maureen Ferguson, a Christian missionary, Susie Gelman, a Jew, another Christian missionary - Vicky Hartzler, Asif Mahmood, a Pakistani national, and so on.

Anthony Blinken is surprisingly quoted as saying - ‘In India we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolition of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities’. That he is endorsing the complaints of reduced operating room in India for American Christian evangelists, a powerful group in US politics, seems obvious. Blinken seems to have tacked on the rest of his sweeping statement for ballast. But the impression he gives is that he endorses the report sections on India.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed the USCIRF report outright. The part criticising India and attempting to spread misinformation was authored by a Muslim Senior Policy Analyst Sema Hasan. The US government, busy improving its engagement with India on multiple fronts, has so far declined to act on the repeated urgings of the USCIRF to declare it a CPC.

It is doubtful whether Hasan and cohorts have any first-hand knowledge of conditions in India. The effort is clearly to malign, using a barrage of false propaganda disguised as a responsible document.

In the recent UN meetings, Tukiye President Erdogan pointedly dropped his mention of Kashmir. This after mentioning it in highly anti-India terms since 2019. This can’t be pleasing to the Pakistanis and others trying to drum up support against India. How many more countries, previously hostile to India, will change stance as India powers its way towards becoming the 3^rd largest economy in the world very soon.

The USCIRF report criticises the Citizen (Amendment) Act, (CAA), probably because it excludes Muslim refugees. Of course, Muslims, including Pakistanis can apply for Indian citizenship by other routes. Singer Adnan Sami did so, and is now an Indian citizen.

The criticism from USCIRF does not however take into account the dwindling Hindu and other minority populations, their deep persecution and worse, in the Muslim majority countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It talks instead of beatings, lynchings, arrests of religious leaders, homes and places of worship demolished in India. It does not balance its reportage with  reports of Muslim vandalism in Hindu temples, rapes, abductions and murders under so-called ‘love jihad’, attacks on Hindu processions in Muslim majority areas, intemperate threats and abuse voiced against Hindus in  public speeches, mosques, on national television. It does not write about the fact that the minority populations, particularly that of Muslims, has grown substantially over the 75 years since independence. It now accounts for nearly 20% of the overall population of India.  Indian Muslims, no second-class citizens, are prominent in various walks of life in India including the armed forces, the judiciary, the election commission, in government bureaucracies, in the corporate world, in parliament and the state assemblies, in municipalities, the arts, popular entertainment including films, and the digital streaming platforms.

The US chooses to take a blinkered view on occasion officially, probably to pander to its internal lobbies. The problem is with the anti-India portions of the media, academia, and the think-tanks that have made a profession of distributing lies.

Is it any wonder that the MEA dismisses such reports with the contempt it deserves?  

America would be better served if it took the mote out of its own eye, as the Bible advises, and use the clearer vision to set its own fractured house in order.     

(959 words)

October 4^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Modi At 74 Marks Three Decades At The Top

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first top leader of enduring durability who has come from humble beginnings. He is the first prime minister to emerge from state leadership ever in India’s history after independence. Once a provincial leader, Narendra Modi burst onto the sophisticated political constructs at the centre with the first thumping majority in 30 years. This, for himself, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), that he heads.

Over the decade from 2014 to 2024, he has emerged as a charismatic, respected, and visionary global leader, much sought after in international fora including BRICS, ASEAN and many others.

If India is invited routinely to the G-7 gatherings as a guest, it is due in no small measure to Modi’s stature. The G-7 is reckoned to be the gathering of the most powerful countries in the world, including all five of the permanent UNSC countries who possess a veto.

Modi is counted as the leader not only of an India soon to become the 3^rd largest major economy in the world, behind only the United States and China, but also as a sponsor of the Global South. During the year-long leadership of the G-20 that India enjoyed recently, Modi was instrumental in bringing in the countries of the African Union, more than 50 in number, into the G-20. And this, with unanimous backing from the others. The G-20 became G-21 thereafter, with a view to creating a more equitable world.

While the G-21 grows in importance, the influence of the UN and its general assembly has waned, due to factionalism, an overweening influence of China, financial problems, and other complications.

The elevated stature for Narendra Modi has come, unlike so many others from the emerging economies or indeed the dominant West, without benefit of an expensive Western education, or the backing of a rich and influential family.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi marks his 74^th birthday today with fifteen years as CM of Gujarat, and a decade as PM at the centre, all the while without the slightest taint of corruption. This, is itself is a rarity in the world of politics. He has consistently enjoyed popularity ratings in the 70 plus percentile, both while at state, and at the centre. This is a phenomenon perhaps no other global politician has matched.

Mao, Castro and Stalin, may have claimed such levels of popularity, or even higher, but they did not operate in or run democracies. Their God-like personality cults were manufactured by their own state machines.

On his birthday today, Prime Minister Modi is working hard as usual. He is inaugurating 26 lakh PM Awas Yojana houses at the slum area of Gadakana in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Odisha has recently elected the BJP to rule the state. After interacting with some of the beneficiaries there at Gadakana, he will go to the Janata Maidan in the city to officially launch the Subhadra Yojana, under which Rs.10,000 will be given to over 1 crore poor women every year, in two equal instalments, for a period of five years.

The marked difference in this as well as all the welfare schemes launched during the Modi decade at the centre, is the phenomenon of direct benefit transfer, digitally, into millions of newly created bank accounts. A revolution has taken place in banking the unbanked, and the consequent removal of middlemen and rent collectors.

In addition, Prime Minister Modi will unveil railway projects worth Rs 2,871 crores and highway infrastructure projects worth Rs 1,000 crores today.

 Prime Minister Modi and his team, mainly National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar are said to be working hard behind the scenes to bring about an end to the Ukraine-Russia War. Other interlocuters suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin are Chinese President Xi Jinping, his staunch ally, and current chair of the G-21, the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But of the three heads of government, Prime Minister Modi enjoys the trust and backing of both sides, including President Joe Biden of America and Vlodymyr Zelinsky of Ukraine. Bringing about a cessation of hostilities in Europe will have profound consequences for the whole world.

In addition, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that 75% of the border disputes with China have been resolved, with every expectation that the 25% remaining issues along the LaC will also be shortly resolved. This sounds near miraculous given the border skirmishes at Galwan and Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang area. This favourable development has been corroborated by the Chinese as well. There is an anticipation that the remaining 25% of the border issues that China calls legacy issues from the time of the UPA government, including the encroachment within Indian territory in the Depsang Plateau, may be resolved, by the time Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping meet at the BRICS Summit in October 2024.

Easing of border tensions with China will be nothing short of a diplomatic breakthrough, clearing the way to renewed engagement on multiple issues between India and China. It will also weaken the Pakistani threat and levels of terrorism it sponsors against India.

The India-China standoff at the LaC has vitiated the atmosphere for the last decade, eroding trust between the two countries, and resulting in other powers exploiting the situation for their benefit.

With regard to China, many issues remain, of course, such as its attempt to dominate the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the immediate areas around peninsular India. There is also the belligerence displayed by China in the East and South China Seas, and towards Taiwan. The attempt to dominate most of South East Asia on a near unilateral basis is also problematic. A change of policy may now be in the works, because China is in considerable economic trouble.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent behind the scenes diplomatic initiatives with China may result in enhanced and visionary cooperation between India, China, and Russia, rewriting some aspects of geopolitics and multilateralism.

One is already mooted - an initiative in Space to build a nuclear power plant on the moon for a future human lunar colony. Will North Korea join in too?

An easing of India-China tension will not only increase Mr. Modi’s and India’s stature in the world, but afford Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government greater leverage in negotiating with America and the West over various issues. These include trade, defence cooperation and technology transfer. It might also reduce pressure and the subversion from the Western deep state to weaken Modi’s hold on power, and isolate Russia and China from India.

Other international initiatives include the efforts to create new transport corridors to Europe via West Asia as well as Iran and Russia. These promise greater ease of doing business, despite temporary setbacks from the Israel-Gaza War, the troubles from Houthi/Somali pirate attacks in the Red Sea, and the bottlenecks at the Suez Canal. This after a ramping up of trade cooperation with the UAE, Israel, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt with some free trade agreements amongst them.

A number of free trade agreements (FTAs) are in the works in Europe, and one with non- EU Europe that includes Switzerland, has already been concluded.

Prime Minister Modi’s 74^th birthday coincides with 100 days of Modi 3.0 and the work that is ongoing. The continuity of three consecutive terms has provided stability and a commendable GDP growth rate of around 7% per annum. Infrastructure development, defence, aatmanirbhar  armaments manufacturing, with exports to the US, Armenia, the Philippines. There are new initiatives in electronics manufacture under the China plus one programme, electronic chip-making with huge domestic and export potential. More development of the automotive sector, improvement in agricultural practices, massive infrastructure development, indigenous nuclear power plants. These are just some of the benefits of the Modi decade as well as the 100 days.

Work being done on the Wakf Bill, the Uniform or Secular Civil Code, progress towards ‘one nation, one election’, are all pathbreaking in nature and will all see the light of day during this term till 2029.

There is an enormous amount that needs to be tackled yet. The reform of the overburdened judiciary is a case in point.

Religious tourism, probably the biggest driver of all in India, has been set alight by the transformation of Ayodhya which is receiving many more visitors than Varanasi now. Mathura, Ujjain, the Char Dhams, Vaishnodevi, the ongoing renovations at Varanasi, are all initiated for the first time.  

The endless visionary aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are far ahead of his predecessors in the job. Combined with his extraordinary and single-minded appetite for work, it makes for an unstoppable combination. For the first time, most slogans, it is seen, turn into reality. It is entirely credible that India will be a prosperous developed country of nearly 1.7 billion souls by 2047, our centenary year. Our potential will be realised.

If today, our time has come to restore India to the glory it once had in ancient times, there is no better person to see it on its way. We are fortunate to have such a selfless and dedicated leader. India, that is Bharat, owes Narendra Modi a debt of gratitude.

(1537 words)

September 17^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee