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War of narratives in India and abroad

Khatarnaak Khwateen
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The misconceptions about Indian culture, Hinduism and Hindutva have long been spread in the millenials and is being spread continuously as I write this. These misconceptions combined with distorted truth forms the foundations of Western thoughts and actions towards India. Since the western people are partly or wholly unaware about what is actually happening in India and what its past is, their anti- Hindu and anti-India bias is bound to take place.

There are not one but multiple reasons for the above mentioned happenings. The primary is the incorrect explanation of our texts. The western colonizers have interpreted our texts in mostly the Biblical sense and have misrepresented their meanings and defeated their purpose. These incorrect explanations form the basis on which the westerners argue about India. For example there is an ‘eminent’ historian called Audrey Truschkey. She is often unapologetically offended by slight mention of Aurangzeb’s massacres but she regularly eulogizes him. She states and I quote, “Aurangzeb wasn’t really an invader. He was the 4th generation of his family to be born in India and had substantial Rajput blood.” To which a historian called True Indology clarifies that Aurangzeb never considered himself as Hindustani but Turani (Turk). Aurangzeb in fact stated that Hindustanis are idiots. There are many instances where Audrey’s statements are not even backed by citations or facts, but she is countered on her every statement with first-hand evidence from True Indology, till she blocks him. This intolerance seen here is a X factor of the “whatever is left in the ‘left’”. There have been many such instances where TI has been excelling to present facts from first-hand evidences and are often compiled. This encounter with this ‘eminent’ historian is published above.

A video which went viral of her, reeks of her incompetence and delusion, at the same time being intolerant. In this, a passionate Indian man states that after eradicating half the population of the world, their culture, religion and history ‘they’ are bent upon looking into the other natives (Hindus). He passionately goes on to ask if she went through each and every archaeological findings and then came up with the conclusions to which he is booed by the mostly western audience. He is also being pulled continuously by his own friend, who looks like an Indian, himself. (See the video in the link. Given event starts from 1.30).

It is true that between the time, when Columbus reached North America and American Independence, the native population was massacred, and now, we don’t see any Red Indian in America. Official data states that their population have been reduced to 1.6% of the total population of US. Here, certainly, a mirror is shown to her and she responds cunningly, yet laughably. Instead of continuing the discussion, she shamelessly plays the gender card. Since she is a women, she is targeted by ‘Hindu’, ‘Right Wing’, ‘Nationalists’ goons. This, distressingly, is her response to a valid question being asked. She even warned to throw the gentleman out, who wanted an answer for his simple question. His only mistake was his offending way of attack and he didn’t cover his knife with a velvet.

Investigating further, I came across a YouTube channel called “Queer Indian Atheist”. This person goes by the username @AtheistRonnie, on twitter. In the linked video, he is talking to a person called John DelVento, who has no idea of what India is and is just responding unknowingly.

Cut to 16.00 and you will find that Ronnie is comparing Hinduism with Islam and is systematically treating them same. Though to his stupidity, he quotes the Surah-An-Nisa from Quran but fails to quote any of the hymns of the Upanishad from which he claims to find his claim. He also claims to claim his claim from a video whose claims need to be questioned. The video claims to quote a misogynistic quote from every religion. DelVento considered India a nice, happy place and is in praise for the Hindus because they worship goddesses. This to him is new and amazing because the Abrahamic faiths can’t even dare to think of worshipping women. Atheist Ronnie, going forward with his stupidity, misleads the American, who is a celebrity and has quite a big following on twitter and instagram.

The reasons for this anti-Hindu discourse are simple, understandable but to some extent quite complex too. According to me,

  1. Our Dharmashastras are not being taught to us. If the general public would have been educated in them, I won’t even be writing this article.
  2. The “aalasya-pratha” of Government of India, who thinks everything is just okay.
  3. The current millenials who are stuck on extremes where some think that the Mughals were actually our heroes while the others are busy with romanticizing with their self-constructed and quite ‘soothing’ illusions of past memories of Hindu rule.
  4. The general discourse of India being managed by the west. The upper class generally reads and studies about French revolution and American Revolution, which to me is far from any problem. But they act like Nehruvian seculars and when asked about their own Identity, act smart and do not want to be like any of the so called “Saffron Bigots”.
  5. No ‘purvapaksha’ done by the Hindu nationalists who want to counter the current prevelant anti-India narratives with facts. There are some but still they don’t read enough to slightly even understand about the concepts on which to argue upon.

Fundamental changes should be planned and carried out in order to demolish the anti-India narrative. But if these do not happen in the next 5-6 years, it will come as a dead end for cultural unity and prevalent peace in India.

To talk of peace in India, let us go on a different level. The Delhi Riots is a perfect example of how the left works in India, and abroad. During Donald Trump visit when the riots in Delhi started after the so called peaceful agitation of the ‘dadis’ of Shaheen bagh, the liberal media, picked up the story and publicized it under an eye-catching phrase. They termed it as anti-Muslim ‘Pogrom’, by the ‘fascist’ government whose only agenda is a complete massacre of Muslims. This combined with the termed ‘hate speech’ of Kapil Mishra, who is not surprisingly, the member of the fascist BJP, and his “instigation” makes a perfect recipe to publish in the Western media portals. What they seek every time in return is West’s intervention. The gullible people in the west and Arab world, see these manipulative arguments as attack on their religious brethren (ummah) and as a result attack on their religion. Seeing this they make a firm resolve to donate as much as they can, for their religious cause. That accounts to donations being taken in the name of Kashmiri Muslims and in South India, The Church.

The Delhi riot narrative, propped up the Liberal Media outlets, stands completely exposed after the charge sheets filed by the Delhi police in which the conspirator Tahir Hussain admitted that he was unhappy with the CAA, the Ram Mandir and Article 370 abrogation. In his statement, he and his co-conspirators wanted to teach a lesson to Hindus. His colleague, the leader of JNU, and a leftist Umar Khalid has also admitted the same in the charge sheet, filed by the police. Not only this, the Delhi police points to a larger conspiracy and we have to wait till this investigation is complete.

The war going on here is all about narratives. When their anti-India narrative mixes with their partial study of scriptures, this is what comes out as a result. After realizing this we won’t be surprised about the big game continuing unabashedly against the Hindu society as well as the current Indian state. This has reached to its peak even when a “Hindutva” government is in power, whose definition of Hindutva is a power that ‘resists’. Funnily though, what they are doing is resisting themselves.

The amount of money invested in nurturing Breaking India forces is unimaginable. The Christians are funding to Christianise India. The Islamists, from Arab, and even common people, are funding to Islamize India. The left is funding to make India a Marxist or Leninist state or to at least break it up (This is even written in the manifesto of communist party of India). These powers have their own agents in India, who are acting like their subsidiaries inside the Indian borders. They are here to propagate the literature published by the big powers, and to convince the Indian people about the magnanimity of the respective powers and why India should align with them to achieve success. This is nothing but colonization of a higher level, where the ‘converted’, won’t even feel that he is colonized. The only left outs here are the nationalists and the Hindu wing.

To fight this menace, there has to be an opposition and a tough government, to act for the renaissance of Hindu civilization as a whole. But sadly, I don’t see much effort by the government of India who have been voted to power by these nationalists only. The so called ‘fascists’ are enjoying their seat in the power and the Hindu society is left unprotected from the Global Powers, who are exponentially richer and more intelligent than the poor and delusional Hindu society. The delusion is so in crept that after choosing their favourite leader, the Hindu society sleeps, till the next election arrives. Laughably, Indian society is going on a spree (by sleeping) to kill itself.

The Indian youth needs to see through the fake news and propaganda that is being peddled by the left establishment in India. The so-called pogrom theory is debunked in India but it occupies intellectual space in abroad. The mere mention of “horrendous Delhi anti-Muslim pogrom” in that video by Queer Indian Atheist confirms that. Hence, the youth needs to correctly see the facts, analyse them, do a purvapaksha, of it and then come out with the conclusions. Moreover, they need to have a correct education of Indian history as seen from nationalistic lens and not from a Marxist perspective. They need to be exposed to the 1000 year onslaught of Hindus, by the Christians and Muslims and need to understand who were our National Heroes and the sacrifices they went through, throughout the Indian history. They need to go through facts, excavations and formation and debunking of certain racial theories in order to understand a perfect picture of what India was and conclude, how come it became thus. This conclusion will open their mind, and they will be able to see through the levels of untruths being spread. Otherwise if the delusion continues to exist, it has the power and will be able to completely demolish the foundations of Bharatvarsha and resultantly of the present Indian state that India currently is.

Happy integration day “dear Hyderabad”

SANTBAKS MISHRA
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Happy integration day “dear Hyderabad”

Today when entire UrbunNaxal-Libtard-Islamists Forces are creating wave of hate and misinformation in the name of justice, saving democracy FoE it is not only for showing solidarity to Umar Khalid – The Accused Lord Commander of Anti HIndu Riots 2020″, there is one more fact which they want to hide under the ladder of their chaos. They want to suppress the celebratory voices of those millions of anti-radical Hindu freedom fighters who challenged brutality and injustice which ended with annexation of Hyderabad in the union of India – Thank you Sardar Patel!

Reason for public outrage against Nizam: Mir Sir Osman Ali Khan decided to be free independent princely state, but 85% Hindu majority was willing to join mainland and it was very obvious too, because rule of Nizam was completely partial and humiliating with towards majority Hindu population which was visible clearly. A princely state where Muslim population was not even 12% of total demography, in 1941 a report on the civil service revealed that of the 1765 officers, 1268 were Muslims, 421 were Hindus, and 121 others, presumably British, Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. Of the officials drawing a pay between Rs 600-1200 pm, 59 were Muslims, 38 were ‘others’, and a mere five were Hindus. The Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the kingdom. Quite clearly it was too much of a good thing for so few and the time for its end had come.http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/585/585_mohan_guruswamy.htm

As atrocity and partiality of Islamic ruler was visible in day light, an independent royal kingdom within the democratic sovereign state of India was not less then Leprosy disease. In the words of Sardar Patel “An independent Hyderabad constituted a Cancer in the belly of India.’” Many negotiations failed to lure the Nizam to join Indian dominionas ,day by day dissatisfaction of majority public increased so was the increase in brutality, mass muder, rape loot of Razakars who were unofficial band of murderers of Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (now a days known as All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen). But “Chacha” was still reluctant to use Police force fearing that “Pakistan- 5 time smaller than India” can attack India if Military power is used. But Sardar Patel worked very hard and he had no patience for talks and tolerate atrocities of MIM goons on poor Hyderabad public. Under the leadership of Home Minister Sardar Patel, Indian forces attacked Nizam of Hyderabad and forced to surrender and Hyderabad became part of Union of India on 17 September 1948.

China’s bid to establish a sino-centric order: Challenges to India and the world

Devender Kumar
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China’s bid to establish a sino-centric order: Challenges to India and the world

China with its greater rejuvenation strategy has tried to take over the world. Since witnessing an economic rise from 1980s, it has silently attained growth and observed world politics without taking position on any international issue. By doing so it became the huge beneficiary of the post 1990s globalized world. Even with the rise in terrorist attacks worldwide, Beijing continued to work towards its economic progress but with the subsequent growth and alluring aid to nations in the post 2010 era Beijing has failed to compete with USA in the Hard power and Soft Power assets. With rise in competition with USA, the trade war and Washington DC’s support to countries in South China Sea and joints exercises in Indo-Pacific region has challenged Chinese desired Sino-Centric world. Hence, the Politburo Standing Committee is looking for other options to counter USA and its influence.

China is undermining the established norms under international law in the South-China Sea. The Communists Party of China desires to control the world by outsmarting USA, made it focus on biological and psychological warfare, primarily for four main reasons, first due to failure in competing with USA, Second, due to trade war and influence of USA around the world, Thirdly, to Safeguard interest in South-China Sea and block formulation of power block in support of countries in the South-China Sea and prevent support to territorial integrity and sovereignty of nation against the nine-dash line of China in the South-China Sea. Fourthly, to ensure Chinese hegemony in markets worldwide.

For all such goals China began making a grand strategy for controlling the world by manufacturing a deadly virus such as Covid-19 for derailing the rising economies of the world including India from posing a challenge to China in the long-run ‘to ensure survival’. As also highlight by Dr Li Meng Yan Chinese Virologist, that Covid-19 is a man-made virus developed by the government of China. By doing so Beijing has derailed the world from the path of development and caused huge damage to people in economic, social and political sectors. Moreover, led to suffering, lockdowns, pain, distress, agony and loss of human life, most of which are irreparable.

Beijing in the neighbourhood is following a policy of aggression especially with India on its borders and in the South-China Sea. The skirmishes with India, opposition to Quad among countries such as India, Japan, Australia and USA, is a part of Beijing’s grand strategy to cover-up damage caused to the world by its virus (Covid-19). Since Beijing knows that constant aggressive behaviour would lead to different headlines in the world media and divert the attention of the world from Covid-19 to war for which it finds India as the best option since both are nuclear powers and in the neighbourhood. Hence India’s five points at Russia with the Chinese counterpart Wang-Yi will not ensure peace in the long due to Chinese non-adherence to these points and subsequent others signed in the past. Hence, soon be met with aggression from the Chinese counterparts after receiving bittering public response to China due to its virus through boycotts. Facing such China would unleash terror of psychological warfare to divert the attention.

New Delhi at the present stage needs to sign strong defence agreements with the powerful countries, since India is faced with economic slow-down, health crisis and fall in GDP. Secondly, New Delhi needs to openly criticize China for its virus and damage caused to the world. Formal recognition of the Covid-19 as the Chinese Virus is required since it originated in China, as also declared by USA. Thirdly, India needs to openly support Hong-Kong, Tibet and Taiwan and support their liberation struggle since it’s a principle of Indian foreign policy to support people in their struggle for freedom from a tyrant, hence New Delhi should no longer support the One-China narrative of the Politburo.

India at this juncture should re-look at its Panchsheel agreement with China since Beijing has violated all provisions of it. Beijing’s aggression on borders violates peaceful co-existence principles noted in the agreement, China has also objected to Indian heads of States visits to Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, it has objected to Indian Presidents visit to the state, that is a interference in the internal affairs of the country hence a violation of provisions of Panchsheel.

China has used Panchsheel to ensure non-interference and non-aggression from New Delhi during its journey for economic rise and strengthened Pakistan with Nuclear warheads. Given the danger posed by China the contemporary world needs to counter, co-operate and coordinate in order to fight the danger posed by China to the contemporary world order. Above all, the recently adopted policies by Beijing has potential to ignite a Third World War.

    Pandemic and the changed education

    Jithin.P. Mathew
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    Pandemic and the changed education

    Across the world, COVID-19 pandemic has affected irrespective of their wealth caste or gender. It affected everyone equally from an infant to the oldest person in the world, It has touched everyone negatively and except for business tycoons it gave more wealth well that is very paradoxical. Well coming back to the issue, with the pandemic the education sector also has changed. From the walls of educational institutions students are confined into the screens of mobile phones and computers. In a way they are jailing their thoughts and brain into screens. Apart from giving education, to make someone as a great social being the role of educational institutions is very large.

    But the question is whether that process is happening through the online classes which came as a part of the new normal which many are struggling to cope up with. Online class is obviously an alternative during this pandemic period but how much learning is happening in students is questionable and the authorities are not looking in that part. The research studies already proved that children spending more time in front of screens which emits blue light have the great potential of affecting their overall physical and mental health and during now children are spending a lot of time in front of these screens which is going to create a lot of long run problems. In India, it has been almost 5 months since the online classes are going on. How many problems in matters of mental and physical health are happening in students and what all activities are there to identify these problems well no one has an answer to that and the online classes are going on and on.

    When small children especially upto upper primary use mobile phones and internet there is a big chance of them deviating to the matters which are bad for them because internet is very addictive and it has a lot of bad information as well in it. Parents cannot their children all the time and there is a risk of children misusing their digital devices which they are using in the name of online class. When there is no way of going to the traditional pattern for the learning in the nearby future and even when the children are at home it is debatable that how much time a child is getting to spend with their family when the children have to sit in front of the screens to attend class and after that they have to finish their class works as well and there are complaints raising that the work loads have increased with the online class is turning many students into mental stress which is a bad sign of the current education.

    There courses like engineering, medical fields, lab courses which needs practical learning and with online classes it is not possible and if the online class is going to be for a long run, it is quite confusing how these students will handle the real life situation because they lack experience. When students are writing the exam they are open to the possibility where they can copy answers and this is against the ethical part of education but the students will change into a mindset of thinking copying something is quite okay for a student. All these elements are helpful to decrease the quality of our education. In the Indian context and for example even if the Kerala is standing top in the lists mentioning the educational achievements but at the same time there are people hailing to poor economic backgrounds and for the students coming from these backgrounds hold a possibility of where online classes are becoming a financial liability because to buy the digital devices and to recharge the data packs there is a lot of money involved and there is no such financial aids are not available right now. There is a chance of students taking the money out from the money which they need for the living.

    So the new normal education is paving way to economic instability as well among many families. Because of the above mentioned factor there is a possibility of students stopping their education because they are not able to afford it. So addressing all these issues are the main challenge before the authorities and educational institutes. Online classes create a possibility of changing the students mind into a very narrow one because there exists little social interaction in online class because they are miles apart muting their audio and camera making introverts mote introverts and the extroverts suffering problems of not interacting. It is a weird situation. When all these problems associated with the students are there we cannot shadow the teachers as well. Recently everyone must have seen the video of a teacher getting embarrassed by students just because he could not figure out how a Zoom app functions. It was a sad situation and it was a snapshot of a bigger picture that is surely existing among teachers who are not able to adapt to the new normal.

    In a person’s life a teacher creates a great impact like the parents and that is why we say “Mata Pita Guru Daivam” in the Indian context. But because of the online class during this pandemic period there is no face to face interaction and there is a wide possibility of cutting away the connection between teacher and a student which is not at all good for the over all growth of a student as well as for a teacher and this is not about learning but also about the personal growth too. With the pandemic we must think about the changing education as well because there should be a good education for the people who are supposed to lead the world tomorrow. Let us all hope that this bad time shall too pass and there will be more bright future where children will again taste the joy of going to schools and colleges and where they will dream and talk without the masks and fearing another person.

    India, and sustainable development

    chivukula
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    India, and sustainable development

    Coronavirus has damped down the numbers a bit, as far as economy is concerned. However, the epidemic is a short term consideration; looking at the long term, there is a good chance that we are at a point that will be remembered as the starting of quite a bit of growth. Targets have been set, the government and the people are working together, and all are hoping for a bright future. This is the perfect time to educate ourselves on sustainable development, and factor in the advantages of sustainability into our business calculations.

    There has been a lot of discussion for a long time now, on preserving the environment and developing industry in a way that doesn’t damage nature. Social values and natural resources should be protected from the tendency to greed that humans sometimes are subject to. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2015 came up with a set of seventeen goals set to be achieved by the year 2030. These are called the SDGs, or Sustainable Development Goals. They cover a range of topics, from energy production to poverty, agriculture to industrial development, economy to human safety.

    These goals are meant to give direction to our thinking in terms of medium and long-term policies. To provide a practical basis for judging progress in these goals, the UNGA defined a set of targets for each goal. These provide a numeric value to compare a region’s situation with its past, and judge the effect of decisions. There are a total of 169 targets of all goals combined. Here, I list three goals and some of their targets, which I believe present great opportunities for India to lead the world in sustainable development, and to ensure that in the future progress is not dampened by damage to resources. I recommend the reader look up other goals too.

    SDG #2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
    It has become a cliche that agriculture is the backbone of India. In any case, agriculture is the backbone of the whole world – food is the basic human need. In India, a majority of farms are small-scale, so farming methods are usually less automated. This matches well with the fact that India is a labor-intensive economy – there are plenty of people available to work, and consequently plenty who need employment. One of the sustainable growth targets (target 2.3) for this goal is to “double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers“. This is in resonance with the situation in India, and any progress in that direction will give a boost to a large proportion of our population.

    Another target under this goal is to maintain the genetic diversity of domesticated animals. This is very relevant to India, because we have a rich tradition of domesticating and utilizing the resources generated by the cow. The number of breeds of cow that are domesticated in India has came down quite a bit during the previous century, due to foreign rule and poor domestic policies after Independence. I think it is time for a revival, so that the cow goes back to being the economic powerhouse that it has the potential to be, justifying its sacred position in our society.

    SDG #6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
    Indian waterways present quite an underutilized opportunity. The current government has been working to develop freight transport over the riven Ganga, which is a great initiative. Several projects of linking rivers are being undertaken. This links up with the previous goal – good water management ensures availability of water for irrigation, which increases agricultural output. Further, linking of rivers also acts as a system for flood management, providing a path for rising water to distribute itself more equally. That is what target 6.5 of this SDG is about – “implement integrated water resources management at all levels“

    The project Namami Gange that began in 2014 was an excellent initiative to clean the riven Ganga. Among many other initiatives, sewage treatment facilities were built to make sure that water discharged into the river was cleaned of most pollutants. This is the topic covered by SDG target 6.3 – “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials…“. Just like the previous goal, in this case too Ganga is sacred to our culture. Let us not only give her the respect but also make use of the invaluable resource she offers to us.

    SDG #7 – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
    This goal is my personal favorite. Our country is blessed with the natural systems supporting all ways of clean energy generation. The Himalayas provide a great opportunity for hydroelectric power generation. One of the highest dams in the world – the Tehri dam – is located on the Bhagirathi river in Uttarakhand. The western plains of India, especially the Rann of Kutchch, are a great place for wind turbine farms, as is the Malabar coastal plain. A large part of the Deccan Plateau receives dependable sunlight throughout the year, which is conducive for solar power generation. These and other methods of renewable power generation should be utilized to the maximum.

    India is a participant in the international program for production of nuclear fusion energy. Our country contributes both in terms of manufacturing and research. The SST-1 (Steady State Superconducting Tokamak – 1) is a nuclear fusion reactor at the Institute for plasma research at Gandhinagar. Nuclear fusion power is a great opportunity for continuous, reliable, renewable enrgy, and in the next quarter to half century, exciting new developments can be expected in this field. SDG target 7.2 is about “increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix“, and India is a proud contributor in that direction.

    There are many other goals in which India’s contribution will align significantly with her economic interest and well-being. Industrial infrastructure development, with focus on de-centralization, is worth a mention. Our progress towards these targets deserves highlighting, and the distance we are yet to go deserves covering. Overall, our progress is most beneficial to us if we remember that the end goal is human happiness – both material and spiritual – and comfort and longevity of life. That perspective is necessary to keep in mind while thinking about development. The world that this thinking will result in, is captured well by the projected social and economic scenario SSP-1, a description of a future where

    The world shifts gradually, but pervasively, toward a more sustainable path, emphasizing more inclusive development that respects perceived environmental boundaries. Management of the global commons slowly improves, educational and health investments accelerate the demographic transition, and the emphasis on economic growth shifts toward a broader emphasis on human well-being. Driven by an increasing commitment to achieving development goals, inequality is reduced both across and within countries. Consumption is oriented toward low material growth and lower resource and energy intensity

    Shared socioeconomic pathway – 1

    While this may sound utopian, it is a template worth keeping in mind while thinking about economic policy.

    Justice N Kirubakaran lambasts ‘glorification of suicides’ and payments of competitive solatium over NEET in TN

    Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
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    Justice N Kirubakaran lambasts ‘glorification of suicides’ and payments of competitive solatium over NEET in TN

    At long last, it would appear that a judge of the Madras High Court, Justice N Kirubkaran, has made bold to come down heavily on the Media, particularly the vernacular one, both electronic and print and the politicians for heartlessly glorifying the suicides of young children, seemingly seeking to meet the maker scared of clearing NEET exams, to become a medical Doctor. The Judge has said in strong language that this trend of paying competitive solatium to the families of the dead must stop, as it  suggestively may be eulogizing the unfortunate acts of these innocent children.

    Tamil Nadu, Tamil Media and Tamil Nadu politicians of all hues have been notorious for far too long ‘to fan the flames of this dangerous game’ as Cho Ramasamy, the legendary Editor of Thuklak called it. Whenever the workers of  the Dravidian parties immolated themselves or on occasions such as this, when young children sadly ended their lives, the politicians tom tommed it, to extract maximum political mileage, purportedly shedding tears, which is the saddest part of each of these happenings. No party has risen above this despicable conduct.

    The learned judge deserves commendation for calling the bluff of the so called Oodangangal which indulge in ideological food fights of the cacophonous kind, houting into our drawing rooms, across the channels on our idiot box, for their self-serving causes. The Judge is justified in  the acerbic choice of language for the Media and politicians  are not seen to be empathetic to the losses suffered by the families. If they were, they would not make a song and dance of it, but be seen to be counseling the families or quietly helping them to overcome the grief  or devising plans as the late Prof. P V Indiresan, Madras IIT, conceived and kept shouting from roof tops, which no one cared to listen.

    It is singularly unfortunate that NEET which has come to stay, has become an issue to beat the ruling dispensations, be it at the State or the Centre, totally, totally ignoring or avoiding the reality. Truth is that that both State of TN with AIADMK and Centre, with BJP at the helm, may be happy to give a  NEAT burial to NEET. And mind you, they have been unable to see its demise not for want of trying, but for the steadfast perseverance from the top court, to see that NEET did not go.

    How did NEET come about? Who can forget the controversial manner in which NEET was sent packing when the late Chief Justice Altamas Kabir wrote the controversial lead judgment, with a brother judge on July,19,2013, (and which judgment was leaked before its pronouncement on the very date of  his retirement, as alluded to in a  brilliant piece by then advocate and now Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan in Bar & Bench). The 35 page dissent of Justice Anil R.Dave, stood out like the famous H R Khanna dissent in ADM Jabalpur, for its honesty and integrity. And the Supreme Court entertained a review petition, recalled the 2013 verdict, and referred the matter for rehearing and rest as they is history.

    The Supreme Court is fully alive and aware of the collusive and conspiratorial tendencies of the educational institutions with deep pockets, and the vested interest of the political class in many such institutions. The apex court was keen and willing to take the sledgehammer approach to ensure that NEET became a reality, in the larger interest of nation. Medicine is too critical a course for national health and well-being and merit could never be sacrificed and NEET was one way of giving it the priority it was crying for.

    It was the Supreme Court that whipped NEET  as a Pan India phenomenon. Attempts were made by several States to stymie it but Supreme Court was not buying it. Tamil Nadu kept beseeching the Modi 1.0 and a resolution was also passed in the State Assembly. Modi 1.0 obliged with an Ordinance only to be nixed by the top court. Let us be very clear on the legal and constitutional plane, which alone matters and not the political or sociological.

    NEET is a Supreme Court mandated reform. It is backed by the supremacy of the judiciary, as an institution and power of the Constitution under Art.141 as law of the land. The apex court has expressed the larger purpose behind NEET on more than one occasion and unless the politicians are dumb, deaf and mute, they should and would be aware of it. They would not care because it does not suit their political agendas. But, if they had the least bit of concern for the lives of the young children they should stop this glorification of the suicides as Justice N Kirubakaran has said, in painful anguish.

    It is most unfortunate that gullible rustic population in the rural and semi urban areas are falling for the media and politicians’ propaganda that NEET needs to go. And when Tamil Nadu, notorious for its politics and cinema mix, gets a few stars to join in, it can be deadly. The families of the children may genuinely believe that the politicians are responsible for the NEET regime and that if they got together as one, it will go.

    Sorry, it is a totally false premise/promise. Tomorrow, if the TN Assembly were to meet there could and would be a unanimous resolution urging the demolition of NEET. That would be easy with no possible dissent. Or our representatives may even go beyond and enact a law giving the boot to NEET. Or it is possible even in the monsoon session of Parliament. It must be a piece of cake, to pass such a resolution condemning NEET or enacting a law to delegalise NEET. That is not the point.

    The reality is that any such resolution or law from the TN Assembly or from any other State or from Parliament will not matter. Any such law would be unconstitutional in the wake of settled NEET dispensation whose case has been argued not once but many, many times and all arguments against it dumped into the dustbin of history. But the Media and politicians refuse to see the truth and reality and continue the fan the flames leading to avoidable loss of lives of young children.

    It is particularly galling to see it all play out in TN, the way it is. Even today political parties are vying with one another offering to legislate against NEET. They cannot. They know it. But they would not admit it. For the gullible voter needs to be led  up the garden path. It needs to stop. It does not behove the ‘glorious tamil culture’ as the media and the politicians’ always display on their sleeves,  to glorify such suicides and pay solatium too, which has opposite and  adverse impact on the gullible and uniformed. No, they cannot get rid of NEET, for the ruling dispensations in TN & Centre, may come and go,  the law as laid down by the Supreme Court is here to stay and NEET is not going anywhere, now or ever. For, it is meant to serve the bigger and larger national cause and not parochial interests the Media and political class in Tamil Nadu, are hell bent on inflicting on us We The People.    

    (Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan- Author is practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)

    Digital service delivery will bolster an Atmanirbhar Bharat

    Vedang Vatsa
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    Digital service delivery will bolster an Atmanirbhar Bharat

    With the unprecedented rise of data usage favored by one of the lowest data prices in the world, more of the Indians commenced exchanging data over the internet and gave rise to a boundless opportunity for the next wave of Information Technology to flourish in India.

    The stepwise formulation by the government played a prime role in ensuring the spread of internet usage as a means of deriving services and enriching the country to become a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. A robust channel of receiving feedback from the people, MyGov, with more than 1crore users, has ensured the active participation of people to maintain Digital India as a people-driven approach. Active involvement of technological advancements in governance and decision-making is the way forward for Digital India.

    A clear vision of the Digital India program has stimulated the efficiency of digital service delivery by ensuring development at the grassroots level via the formulation of 796 digital villages and more than 3.6 lakh functional common services centers offering digital access points for the delivery of essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, education and agriculture services, apart from the host of B2C services to citizens in rural and remote areas of the country. The ease of service delivery via Digital India has paved the way for the long-term vision of being ‘Atmanirbhar’. It has also been reported recently that the number of internet users in rural India has surpassed that in urban cities.

    One of the core pillars of Digital India has been on training the youth for employment opportunities in the IT/ ITES sector. The world’s largest digital literacy program, PMG-Disha, has already trained around 3crore candidates. Transformative reforms like JAM (JanDhan, Aadhar and Mobile) trinity have ensured the plugging of system-wide leakages by facilitating the direct benefit transfers worth more than 11 lakh crores, directly into the bank account of beneficiaries. Not only this but an instantaneous and secure mode of financial transactions is now within the reach of all with UPI experiencing a radical growth crossing ₹2lakh crore amount of transactions last year. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) of India Post Payments Bank has brought banks to the doorsteps of the villagers and poor. Since its launch, more than 1.17 Crore AePS transactions have been carried out in which around 95 lakh transactions have taken place during COVID -19 lockdown.

    The future of technology-driven Atmanirbhar India can be the corollary of the large asset of Digital India that we have built for many years. While making data-based informed decisions and policy developments, it is imperative to safeguard the data privacy of everyone and ensure the relevance of this new gold. Agile and technology-driven activeness, with public-private involvement, has helped more than 10 crore users to be aware of the current pandemic using mobile apps like Aarogya Setu, Chatbots on various platforms and vernacular content for people all around the country via MyGov. With the active participation of mobile app developers to submit around 7000 entries for the government’s app challenge, there can be an optimistic way-forward to an APP-Nirbhar backbone that may offer a coherent model of service delivery via the involvement of the citizens.

    Why so much cry by the Congress Party on loan taken by PM Modi from Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – the Chinese Bank?

    Akshaan Gupta
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    Why so much cry by the Congress Party on loan taken by PM Modi from Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – the Chinese Bank?

    Congress Party accused Modi Government, who took two loans totalling Rs 9,202 crore from a Beijing-based multilateral development bank in the thick of the border standoff. They lashed on to Modi Government on the borrowing taken from AIIB, despite Chinese troops who killed 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley on 15 June 2020.

    The basic fundamental of AIIB being a Chinese Bank is incorrect. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia. Headquartered in Beijing, which began operations in January 2016 and has now grown to 102 approved members worldwide. India as the second-largest shareholder with 7.6% as the voting rights with China having 26.8% voting rights. India has invested in the shares of the bank. So what’s the issue when Modi Government borrows money from AIIB?

    Read the Members of AIIB here.

    AIIB’s senior management team includes Dr. D. J. Pandian who oversees all sovereign and non sovereign lending in South Asia and South East Asia. He is also responsible for the end-to-end management of the Bank’s project pipeline in these regions, from identification to implementation. From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Pandian served as AIIB’s Chief Investment Officer. Further, Sameer Kumar KHARE is one of the directors in AIIB who is an Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance in India.

    Why was the loan taken?

    On 8 May 2020, AIIB approved a loan of USD 500 million (Rs 3,681 crores) to support India’s efforts to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 by strengthening the preparedness of the country’s national health system. The project was funded by AIIB’s Covid-19 Crisis Recovery Facility created to adapt to the urgent financing needs of the Bank’s members impacted by the pandemic. Further, On 19 June 2020, AIIB had approved a USD 750million loan (Rs 5,521 crores) to India to assist the government to strengthen its response to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on millions of poor and vulnerable households. The loan is Co-financed with the Asian Development Bank, the budgetary support will go toward bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the Indian’s health care systems.

    This is not the first time India has taken a loan from AIIB. On 15 November 2019, AIIB had approved USD 500 million for Mumbai Metro, which is expected to fast-track work on Mumbai’s suburban railway network, improving the safety and daily commute of millions of passengers across the city. The funds will contribute to a quadrupling of Virar-Dahanu Road corridor (64 kilometers) to provide an extension of the suburban railway service to connect peripheral areas with Mumbai. The project will also see the construction of a new suburban railway corridor between Panvel and Karjat localities (28 kilometers) to cater to commuters in the area under rapid urbanization and population growth

    On 3 May 2017, The Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a loan of US$160 million in support of the Andhra Pradesh – 24×7 Power for All project in the Republic of India with the objective to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

    More than two million people living in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, India, stand to benefit from an improved road network connecting them with markets, schools, and other services after approval was provided by the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for a USD455-million loan. This project brings AIIB’s total commitments in India to USD 1.769 billion. The project aims to construct and upgrade more than 6,000 km of all-weather roads connecting around 3,300 rural habitations in Andhra Pradesh. In addition to improving transport links to facilitate the delivery of agricultural and farm goods to markets, all-weather connectivity is also expected to result in better health and education outcomes. School attendance rates, especially among girls, are expected to improve.

    Approximately 1.5 million rural residents in Madhya Pradesh, India, stand to directly benefit from improved livelihoods, education, and mobility with the USD 140-million loan approved by the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The project, cofinanced with the World Bank, aims to improve rural road connectivity and management for residents of 5,640 villages who use the rural roads for daily activities. Livelihoods of the rural population will be improved by expanding income earning opportunities through better farm-to-market road connections. Moreover, more children are expected to enroll in higher education programs and school attendance is expected to improve. The road maintenance pilot under the project will employ more women, contributing to gender equality and income generation.

    Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a loan of US$329 million to build access roads to approximately 4,000 villages in all 33 districts of Gujarat, India. Insufficient road connectivity into these villages limits their ability to access healthcare services, bring their goods to market and access transportation for their children to attend school. This project will construct and upgrade district and farm-to-market roads for the villagers and provide approaches to educational institutions, schools, and hospitals. The upgraded road access is expected to have a positive impact on women and girls by improving school attendance rates for girls who currently drop out of school due to a lack of access to all-weather roads

    Hence, the Congress party without knowing the facts starting accusing PM Modi for the loan taken. In fact, the loan taken is for the welfare of the poor and helping them to survive in this difficult days of Pandemic. Congress party and the youth congress members have only one agenda to mislead the people.

    To China’s ignominy: The hope of an adamantine India

    Samved Iyer
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    To China’s ignominy: The hope of an adamantine India

    Prologue
    It is not appreciably understood by the Indian proletariat — not in the Marxist sense — that the Chinese are remarkably adept at collecting intelligence in general and perpetrating information warfare in particular. Therefore, I would make an impassioned appeal to my ever-so-delicate liberal friends who assume absolute deference in the presence of their contemporaries from powerful nations, to not conform— as is their wont — to the seemingly logical repudiation that shall be forthcoming in the unlikely event that this periphrastic essay of mine gains a degree of prominence. Liberals across the world squandered not a moment in refuting suspicions that the extant Coronavirus pandemic was a biological weapon that, owing to a serious aberration, broke out — as if they are intimately familiar with the endeavours of China’s Ministry of State Security. Such liberals are blessed with a heart that beats for sempiternal humanism and globalism — a positive sentiment with which I concur, yet often adhered to by them to so great an extent that it is often inimical to national interest. China respects strength and not the magniloquent internationalism professed by liberals.

    What I shall pen in this essay emanates from whatever I have learnt from a few analysts — military and civilian alike — who are only too glad to educate us benighted masses on national security. None of my assertions owe their provenance to my personal imagination. The substance of my essay shall not be the specifics of the military skirmishes or the profundity of the geographical region in question, but the overarching reasons behind China’s aggression, or more accurately, Xi Jinping’s personal aggression reflected in his stance against India.

    Main Topic
    The reason behind China’s aggression is demonstrably simple. It is not fearful of India. It is prodigiously fearful of India. The fear emanates not on account of India’s military strength — China’s leviathan industrial capacity would anyway ensure that it out-builds and out-manufactures India in the event of a war — but on account of India’s refusal to be a pawn on Xi Jinping’s political chessboard.

    Pandemics have emanated from China in the past, but the world forgave it and moved on. However, COVID-19 has led to a general sentiment of hostility from across the world against China. Nations have cancelled contracts with Chinese companies; the United Kingdom shall no longer entertain Huawei participation in 5G infrastructure and already looks for a coalition of countries, India included, for building such infrastructure. The same is likely to hold true for Japan and the United States. India has banned several Chinese applications, causing a substantial loss to Chinese companies. By banning TikTok, for instance, India has set a precedent for other countries.

    The hostility from the world has been deleterious to Chinese interests. Thus, analysts are given to understand that Xi Jinping presently faces opposition within the Communist Party of China. Some contend that there has been a letter in circulation amongst party official circles expressing discontent with and distrust in Xi’s leadership. Such information is usually not available freely on the internet — analysts receive such information from their sources abroad. This makes public-domain corroboration almost impossible. Yet, should the letter in circulation be of unimpeachable veracity, it would be a phenomenal incident given the absence of Freedom of Speech and Expression in China.

    At any rate, it would be expedient for Xi to protect his office. Supposedly, the lives of its former leaders are never blissful. The Chinese do not view former presidents with kindness. Once they retire, they live restful yet severely restricted lives. Xi would indubitably efface into oblivion. It is in his best interest to remain firmly entrenched on his throne.

    Appearing dominant on the international stage is a classic statesmanship ploy intended to protect political interests at home. Thus commenced the extant aggression against India — historically a ludicrously naïve nation, lost in the labyrinth of lofty ideals. Casting serious cynicism over the intellect of its leaders is the fact that they could somehow never understand a rudimentary tenet: a nation can afford lofty ideals only when its economic and military foundations are strong.

    With the ascension of Prime Minister Modi to power, India’s demeanour underwent a change. Though not with the requisite frequency, India hesitates no more to employ military force in order to punish the misanthropists who just cannot live and let live. It commenced with the surgical strikes in September 2016, when India avenged its martyrs by inflicting twice the damage. It progressed to airstrikes in February 2019, when India inflicted inordinate damage on Pakistan’s terror infrastructure. Yet, military action against Pakistan really provides no foundation for Indian rodomontade, for despite Pakistan’s grandiosity, it can really not afford a major confrontation against India. China was the real challenge. Presently, India has proven that it does not fear even China.

    Xi’s plan backfired monumentally. China’s loss was many times that of India’s. To the further ignominy of China, India managed to recapture some of the territories lost in the 1962 war, employing out of all forces, the Special Frontier Force that consists mostly of Tibetans. This sends a very subtle message that India could endorse the movement for Tibet’s independence, though India may never publicly take such a stance. For all we know, India might not even have dedicated intelligence resources to do the same, but symbolism matters more than we would like to admit.

    Then we have the forthcoming U.S. presidential election. In the analysis of Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, there has not been a president in the past two to three decades of whom the Chinese were positively terrified. It is no secret that Donald Trump has a proclivity towards mercurial demeanour. He is entirely capable of announcing a paroxysmal policy against China promptly on his Twitter account. His volatility is a source of consternation for China. The prospect of Donald Trump winning the election is alarming to China, which is why, as Abhijit contends, the Embassy of China in the U.S. is exacerbating the Black Lives Matter (BLM) sentiment by means of funds.

    Needless to say, India must maintain its obdurate stance against China. This should, so far as ideals go, set a precedent for future governments. Our nation was previously acclimatized to philosophizing our ignominious acceptance of Chinese aggression as commitment to peace. Future governments must be compelled to take a stance in favour of India’s national interest. Here is hoping for a much more adamantine India; implacable with regard to its security.

    India – the last impediment in China’s road to world dominance

    mehul
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    India – the last impediment in China’s road to world dominance

    China has long harboured the dream of becoming a global superpower. But, it was not until the late 1990s, that it found the way towards this dream – manufacturing. With the advent of globalisation and more and more countries opting to push manufacturing outside their respective boundaries, China saw this as the perfect opportunity to put itself on the world map and establish itself as the world’s factory. Slowly, but steadily, it started expanding its economic and political footprint across the world, especially in Europe and the Middle east. China currently is the biggest trade partner of several countries in these regions, overtaking the US. Even the US heavily depends on China for finished goods, importing over $ 560 billion worth of goods from China in 2018 only. Thus, China, which contributed a meagre 3% of global manufacturing output in the 1990s, now controls almost 30%.

    This kind of economic footprint and control over the global supply chain gives China leverage over a lot of countries. Add the Chinese debt diplomacy and projects like BRI to this, and you get countries that have no option but to surrender to China. Now, this plan works well only if China has complete control over manufacturing and supply chain. China feels threatened by anyone that tries to position itself as an alternative to China, even in the smallest of the terms. We have seen that happening with Vietnam and Taiwan and how China has been bullying these nations. But these are very small countries, incapable of challenging China on the global front, all by themselves.

    The only country that stands a good chance against China is India, and China knows it too well to ignore it. That’s why during the UPA rule, China practically bribed the Gandhis to get India to join the RCEP negotiations and also tried to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with China. FTA with China would have spelled death for the Indian manufacturing and we would have surrendered to China even without a fight. Nothing much changed for a few years even after Modi came into power in 2014 since the NDA govt also kept a positive attitude towards the Chinese establishment. During that time, PM Modi was mostly focused on countering Pakistani narrative against India and improving India’s relationship with the world vis-à-vis Pakistan.

    But, all changed with the arrival of the Wuhan virus and the pandemic that has gripped the world since. The Wuhan virus affected the supply chain of goods from China and the entire world started to feel the heat. China saw this as a golden opportunity to fasttrack its race to world domination. Taking advantage of the grim economic situation, China started acquiring distressed companies in the US and Europe, raising alarm bells across the world. But, the world didn’t have an alternative yet, till India arrived. PM Modi saw this as an opportunity to raise India’s stature in the world and give a major push to manufacturing in India. India, with its past record in services and recent success in the electronic and mobile manufacturing, could become an answer to the world’s overdependence on China. But, China didn’t like it, not one bit.

    All the recent events on the Indian border with China point to the growing insecurity in the Chinese establishment regarding India and its growing might. The Chinese feel that the only way to counter this was to show to the world that India is no match for China. They felt the need to demonstrate that  China can punish India any time it wants economically and militarily. To that effect, long before the Galwan valley faceoff, the Chinese troops steadily started increasing its presence along the Indian border from March- April 2020. The plan was to block the movement of Indian troops and challenge them to a fight. A skirmish with the Chinese that causes heavy Indian casualties would affect the morale of India and its troops and send a message to the world that India is not stable.

    In fact, Galwan was not supposed to be a one-off incident, rather a part of such small incidents that would “show India its place” without an actual war. However, Galwan turned out to be a big misadventure for China because they didn’t expect the Indian response to be so powerful and brutal. The effect it achieved was the opposite – the Indian troops stood their ground, beat the Chinese black and blue and also showed the world that India can stand up to China, if threatened. The message from India was clear – We don’t intend to start it and we are capable enough to finish it.

    China was taken aback by the Indian response, so much so that it still has not recognised the casualties it faced in the skirmish that happened in Galwan. India had done the unexpected. But, the Chinese are not the ones who give up without a fight. China’s plan of world domination is threatened for the first time, because if the world rallies around India, the Chinese dream is over as we speak. China needs to show to the world that there is no alternative to China and for that it has to make India fall on its knees. And there’s only one way to do that – war.

    Whether we like it or not, China is preparing for it for a long time and has a head start. India needs to be militarily, economically and politically prepared for a war with China in the next few months if it does not want to repeat a 1962-like situation. There are a few steps in my opinion that India needs to do in the short, medium and long term.

    Short Term ( 0 – 3 months )

    1. Kickstart QUAD at the earliest with Australia, Japan and the US. It can act as a big deterrent.
    2. Start procuring or manufacturing ammunition, rifles, tanks, etc needed in case a war breaks out.
    3. Creating infrastructure to make sure we can transport ammunition, food, clothing, etc to the possible places where the war can start, e.g., Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Make arrangements to protect this infrastructure that provides supplies to the border areas
    4. Mobilise Tibetan soldiers. Be ready to open another front on the Tibetan side in case the war starts.
    5. Expand Ladakh scouts and similar groups in Arunchal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
    6. Make sure the western border with Pakistan is unaffected by the war on the eastern front, because Pakistan will most likely jump into it.

    Medium Term ( 3 – 12 months )

    1. Militarize the islands in the Indian ocean and the Andaman sea, especially the Andaman and Nicobar islands
    2. In case of war, we should be prepared to block the Chinese shipments that pass through the Indian ocean.
    3. Be ready to capture Chinese islands in the south china sea, if the situation prevails.

    In case the war gets averted, India will need to take some measures to strengthen and modernize its navy and the air force for the long term. At the same time, we need bold labour and land reforms to project ourselves as a viable alternative to China by reducing time to set up manufacturing plants in India and making it easy for foreign companies to partner with Indian firms.

    The year 2020 has been a defining year for the world in many ways, courtesy China and the Wuhan virus. China aims to achieve global domination in times when the world is reeling under a virus produced in China. India is the only impediment in its otherwise perfect plan. What happens between India and China in the next 6 – 12 months will determine the world order for the next 50 years. The world will take a stand, but India needs to make sure that the world can rely on India.

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