Indian Press On India And Israel Funding Pakistanis, Love Jihad Law And Ramayana Tradition: New Age Islam's Selection, 22 January 2021
By New Age Islam Edit
Desk
22 January
2021
• Here’s The Big Exposé About India And Israel
Funding Pakistanis Since 1947
By Naila Inayat
• Free
To Air Views, Ex-Babus Square Up In ‘Letters War’ On ‘Love Jihad’ Law
By Dilip Cherian
• The Ramayana Tradition And Indian Secularism
By Jawhar Sircar
• Imran Khan Gets Squeezed Between Shrinking
Economy And Proactive Opposition
By Shishir Gupta
• Muslim Vote In The State Seems To Be
Consolidating Behind Trinamool
By Sajjan Kumar
• India Must Say ‘Namaste, Biden’, Convince US
To Ease Sanctions On Iran Or Lose Out To China
By Seshadri Chari
----
Here’s The Big Exposé About India And Israel
Funding Pakistanis Since 1947
By Naila Inayat
21 January,
2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
talks his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu | Photo: Manvender Vashist |
PTI
------
Every
political and non-political entity in Pakistan accuses its opponent of being
funded by India and Israel. The reason is simple — designating your foe as the
best friend of your national enemy works like a charm, all the time. So we
shall stop fighting the obvious and see for ourselves how India and Israel
have, throughout history, funded everyone in Pakistan. No evidence is needed so
let’s recreate a parallel history with the help of some publicly available
photographs.
1947 BP
(Before Pakistan): Two Indian men posing as women who used to DM each other on
Twitter find out that they are actually men. Clearly disturbed, @Shabnam420 and
@Sheila9211 broke things off. Their fraandship ended in a jiffy. Hurt by the
betrayal, @Shabnam420 sent out a threat to @Sheila9211: Tere ghar ke samane ek
ghar banaunga, tere ghar ke samane duniya basaunga. Words were spoken. Ghar was
made. And that’s how India made Pakistan.
A
little-known fact is that the woman whose only job it seemed was to laugh at
the poor jokes of desi uncles back in the day, was also conspiring with the
Israelis. Even the Israelis didn’t know what for. But those laughs weren’t for
nothing, after all.
In the 1947
AP (After Pakistan) period, the first military dictator exchanged notes with
the Indian prime minister about the latter’s progress as the high-profile agent
of Israel. Oblivious of the nitty-gritty of the dictator’s services, the prime
minister was told that if he ever wished for a coup d’état against his
political rivals, a helpline will be set up for him because WhatsApp was not
safe anymore. Both agreed. The number 111 was settled upon.
At some
point, Pakistani boys decided to visit their grandmothers in India. But their
trip took an emotional turn when they find out they really love their colonial
cousins and want to stay with them. The condition for the stay was rather
stringent, though. “Drop those guns and stay for as long as you want,” one
grandma told them. The Indian cousins took the guns and sent back the Pakistani
boys with funds of red roses. Rest, as they say, is history.
Special
agent uncle responsible for the 1971 boys had tea at grandma’s and was promised
that good care will be taken of his band. Several years later, as a thank you
note, grandma sends a cousin. He jumped from the sky out of nowhere. When he
meets his Pakistani cousins, he tells them that the “Tea was fantastic”. But
this shy cousin was also heard saying: “I am sorry, I am not supposed to tell
you this.” Still, he was a hit and Pakistan took instant liking to one of their
cross-border cousins. But soon rishta aunties learnt that he was married and he
lost all his charm. He had to be sent back with a carton of Lipton tea bags.
The
infamous Israeli pilot, who was working in connivance with India and is said to
have been captured in Pakistan, has now been discovered. He was converted and
married off and now has more than 100 kids — wait for it — in only two years.
His is a record waiting to be entered in the Guinness book.
A mango man
discovers an Israeli invention, a game called cricket. After threatening the
enemy with a possible nuclear attack, he decides to settle score on a cricket
pitch and take dugna lagaan. But as luck would have it, the mango had
disappeared.
RAW chief
spotted giving funds to the future Pakistani prime minister. Israelis are also
seen in the background celebrating the momentous event in the PM’s life with
apple juice.
Unknown
Indian people arrive in Pakistan to fund and recruit people working in the
sugar mills of the prime minister. Oblivious of what will happen next with him,
the Pakistani PM waves as if there will be no tomorrow.
The
as-of-yet last military ruler from Pakistan bows down to Indian royalty with an
emotional speech — Ek mard ka sir sirf teen auraton ke saamne jhukta hai. Moved
by the gesture, the royalty reimburses the dictator’s travel and lodging
expenses, besides giving free passes for the cricket match being held nearby.
Such a relief to the exchequer of Pakistan.
Two enemy
partners meet outside Kake Da Dhaba. Hand in hand, they make future plans and
exchange nuclear secrets. One loses his job due to his open generosity, the
other remembers how mom said, ‘Mere Karan Arjun ayenge’. The partnership is
still going strong. Our sources say both have now joined Signal app for
security reasons in the wake of what happened to a TV anchor who always showed
special interest in Pakistan.
Never-seen-footage
from Mossad headquarters: Two agents with known and special skills of seduction
being recruited. After all, the next war will be fought on seduction. Nukes can
wait.
Do you also
see what I see? Yes, yellow flowers and two men in the background. As serious
as this looks, one discussed his wide-ranging interest in OTT shows, while the
other waited to say his maan ki baat. Both agreed that keeping calm and blaming
India and Israel was the best thing for Pakistan’s future.
I don’t
know how much you will be convinced by these photographs and what they mean in
the parallel Pakistani universe. But no matter what you believe, do know that
it was important someone settled this India-Israel funding nexus once and for
all. The conspiracy stories of Yahood and Hanood (Jews and Hindus), meanwhile,
will continue till the end of time.
-----
Naila Inayat is a freelance journalist from
PakistanViews are personal.
https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-from-pakistan/heres-the-big-expose-about-india-and-israel-funding-pakistanis-since-1947/589326/
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Free To Air Views, Ex-Babus Square Up In
‘Letters War’ On ‘Love Jihad’ Law
By Dilip Cherian
Jan 21,
2021
Perhaps service rules stopped them from airing their views but after retirement bureaucrats are not bound anymore and can voice their thoughts freely. This has led to the formation of pro-and anti-government groups among retired babus who jump into the fray at the behest of their conscience (or political leaning).
In the most
recent instance, the “love jihad” law legislated by the Yogi Adityanath
government in Uttar Pradesh has triggered a “letter war” between former
bureaucrats, those who criticise the law and those who have rallied behind the
state government. The ranks of the ex-babus have been joined by retired Army
officers, members of the judiciary and others.
Earlier, a
group of 104 retired bureaucrats wrote to Yogi Adityanath, expressing “deep
disapproval” and concern at the use of the “love jihad” law. Noted signatories
included retired bureaucrats like former NSA Shiv Shankar Menon, former chief
of R&AW A.S. Dulat, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat
Habibullah, former principal secretary in PMO, T.K.A. Nair and former Union
health secretary K. Sujatha Rao among other notables.
Now, a
Forum of Concerned Citizens, comprising of over 250 retired officers has
written to the chief minister endorsing the ‘Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of
Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020’ and the motive behind it. In
their letter, the group of former babus and ex-Army officers said that the
legislation rightly provides that marriages done for sole purpose of unlawful
conversion can be declared unlawful by family courts. They termed the letter by
anti-love jihad babus a “politically motivated pressure group” and said that
they don’t represent thousands of civil servants who believe in New India
emerging as the greatest democracies of the world.
One may be tempted
to believe that this is an instance of political battles being fought by proxy!
Cadre
merger
More than a
year after the Centre abrogated Jammu & Kashmir’s special status under
Article 370 and bifurcated the state into Union territories, the J&K cadre
of IAS, IPS and IFoS has been merged with the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram
and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. This allows officers posted in these states
and UTs to work in J&K and vice-versa.
Necessary
modifications may be made in the corresponding cadre allocation rules by the
Centre. The notification issued by the government states that officers
allocated to AGMUT cadre shall function following the rules framed by the
Centre.
Observers
see in the move a message of total integration of J&K with the Centre. It
also solves the Centre’s problem of the reluctance of J&K cadre officers to
serve in Ladakh, as it now creates a larger pool of UT cadre officers. Ladakh,
they say, suffers from a paucity of officers. Due to its harsh climate,
officers are reluctant to serve there. But with the Chinese threat looming, the
Centre wishes to focus on Ladakh’s development. So, clearly, it is as much a
political move as an administrative one.
Mamata’s
big promotion push in Bengal
Political
or administrative compulsion? West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has
promoted 31 IAS officers as secretary and additional secretary in one big push
to bolster the state government’s administration ahead of the Assembly
elections.
With the
BJP making a determined effort to breach her stronghold, the Trinamul leader is
taking steps to strengthen the administrative machinery, which has come under
fire from various quarters. Among the 19 officers promoted as secretaries are
additional secretaries Smita Pandey, Vijay Bharti, Shubhanjan Das, Samir Kumar
Bhattacharya, C.C. Guha, Rajat Bose, Kaushik Halder, N.C. Sarar and T.K. Rudra.
The new
additional secretaries include V. Lalithalakshmi, Sourav Pahari, Mukta Arya,
Devi Prasad Karanam, Shakeel Ahmed, Uttam Patra, Santanu Saha, Nirmalya Ghosh,
Anindya Narayan Biswas and Dipankar Chowdhury.
But this is
early in the poll campaigning and chances of further changes in the state
administration cannot be ruled out as the CM seeks to stave off the BJP’s
onslaught to dislodge her party from power.
https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/200121/free-to-air-views-ex-babus-square-up-in-letters-war-on-love-jihad-law.html
----
The Ramayana Tradition And Indian Secularism
By Jawhar Sircar
21st
January 2021
The shipping channel that was
to cut through Sethusamudram was then put into limbo. (Express Illustrations)
-----
Two recent
news stories about Ram from two extremes of India, Ayodhya and Ram Setu, would
have caught one’s attention. Where Ayodhya is concerned, the Pandora’s box had
actually been opened long ago, in December 1949, when KKK Nair, the
not-so-secular district magistrate of Faizabad, facilitated the sudden
‘appearance’ of Ram-Sita images inside Babri Masjid.
This
cauldron was kept boiling on medium heat and the several non-communal governments
that ruled India and Uttar Pradesh for four decades forgot to turn off the
knob. This furnace was, however, stoked quite vigorously after the new BJP
(born 1980) achieved a pathetic score of just two seats in the 1984 elections.
The Sangh Parivar desperately scoured for an effective weapon when Bhagwan Ram
appeared as a godsend. The fact that his exact janmabhoomi had been destroyed
and occupied by a mosque was just the perfect agenda for the Sangh.
Inadvertently
or otherwise, Rajiv Gandhi’s government actually bolstered the Sangh’s
cause—first in 1986, by acquiescing to the opening of the mosque’s locks and
then, widely telecasting the Ramayan serial over Doordarshan in 1987 and 1988.
Therefore, blaming Lal Krishna Advani for his rath yatra that whipped up
nationwide frenzy in September-October 1990 appears inane. He was only reaping
a ripe harvest. Poor secularism; it died a painful death on 6 December 1992
when the masjid was demolished. What we miss out in this oft-repeated
events-bound narrative is the purport of what Ram and Ramayana really stand
for. By focusing excessively on the symptoms and manifestations, rationalists
and Left-liberal scholars dismiss it all as mythology.
The
inescapable fact is that though the BJP surely gained a lot, it did not invent
Ram or the Ramayana and the associated tradition. This party bothers little for
intellectual callisthenics and is now busy consolidating its position
further—by reaching out to the masses to donate towards the construction of the
temple. After all, the BJP’s earlier campaign in the late 1980s, getting people
to sponsor simple Shri Ram-inscribed bricks for the mandir, helped galvanise
millions to its cause. This was, indeed, a runaway success and the party would
surely love to repeat it now.
And whether President Kovind was correct or not
in publicly giving money for the temple is purely an academic concern. His
predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, invariably transformed into an orthodox Hindu
priest for four days during the annual Durga pujas at his ancestral home, but
he remained, nevertheless, unshakeably secular all his life. An Imam’s son, APJ
Abdul Kalam was proud to be a devout, practising Muslim, but was equally open
to Hindu culture, philosophy and swamis as well. President Kovind’s benevolence
did not, however, create the controversy that some on both sides wished for,
and now it is over to actor Akshay Kumar to lead the campaign.
The other
smaller news recently was that the government has directed the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) and the National Institute of Oceanography to examine the
age of the Ram Setu shoal and determine the antiquity of Ram’s period in
history. This sent me back to 2008, when, immediately after assuming charge of the
Ministry of Culture, I had to get into fire-fighting mode. The ASI’s affidavit
sworn before the Supreme Court that there is no historical evidence of Ram and
the Ram Setu had created a turbulent storm. Two ASI officers were suspended,
and even the prime minister was under considerable attack. But several in the
ASI still insisted that this was the hard truth.
The
shipping channel that was to cut through Sethusamudram was then put into limbo.
A dozen years later, the same ASI and a reputed scientific body are all set to
prove that Ram’s Setu is surely historical.
To hammer
the Ramayana too hard on the anvil of historicity may, however, be misplaced,
as much of faith is beyond reason. This is true for all religions and singling
out any one for ridicule has actually antagonised numerous believers against
secularism itself. This concept has two different mutations. The first is the
Gandhian one that immerses itself into religious belief and idiom, but treats
all faiths equally.
The other
is the Western model that keeps an antiseptic distance from religion, all
religions, and worships rationality. What we forget is that this ideal emerged
at a late stage of history, after centuries of bloody religious warfare and
long-drawn struggles against the Church for constantly stifling reason and
science. The problem with my fellow secularists is that we are so steeped in
Western secularism that we are unable to appreciate that India is totally
submerged in religion.
Where
Hinduism is concerned, its values and moral architecture are built on the
lessons elaborated in the hundreds of stories embedded in the two epics and
elaborated in the puranas. Collectively, they constitute not only a very
federal Bible, they also represent the basic treaty that binds Hindus of
different shades, regions, sects and cults. Almost every thought and expression
is based on the Ramayana or the Mahabharata. In Euclidean geometry, we accept
the point or the line, even when they have no dimension and cannot exist in
space. We do so to gain from the consequential superstructure of knowledge. Our
same West-inspired approach, however, belittles the faithful in India for
drawing comfort from religion and myths.
-----
Jawhar Sircar is a Retired civil servant.
Former Culture Secretary and ex-CEO, Prasar Bharati
https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2021/jan/21/the-ramayanatradition-and-indian-secularism-2252972.html
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Imran Khan Gets Squeezed Between Shrinking
Economy And Proactive Opposition
By Shishir Gupta
JAN 20,
2021
Prime
Minister Imran Khan, who has been facing sharp attacks from a combined
opposition alliance for months, is facing trouble convincing China for
concessional funding of the grand project to upgrade a little less than
one-fifth of Pakistan’s railway tracks at a cost of $6.8 billion. The Main Line
1 project, the costliest projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, had
been reckoned by its proponents to boost Pakistan’s economy and reduce
unemployment.
But there
are serious disagreements between China and Pakistan on its funding that have
led the two countries to repeatedly put off the annual meeting of CPEC’s Joint
Cooperation Committee, its key decision-making body. The committee is jointly
chaired by Pakistan's minister for planning, development and special
initiatives and the vice-chairman of China's National Development and Reform
Commission.
According
to a Nikkei Asia report, Pakistan wants to borrow at a concessional interest
rate of less than 3% - some reports in Pakistani media say 1 % - but China has
offered a mix of concessionary and commercial loans for the project. Pakistan’s
Express Tribune in November said China also wanted additional guarantees before
sanctioning the $6-billion loan due to the country's weakening financial
position.
Pakistan
watchers in New Delhi said the two countries would eventually resolve their
differences over the funding closer to China’s position. But they said the
episode spotlights the growing pressures on PM Imran Khan on the economy front
that would continue to weaken his grip on the country.
A security
assessment by the UN’s department of safety counts the economic slowdown as PM
Khan’s biggest domestic challenge.
“As
economic hardships deepen, the PDM movement is likely to gain broad public
support. If the economic situation is not properly controlled, Pakistan will
face political instability with growing risks of government collapse,” the UN
department’s report said, referring to the campaign against PM Khan launched by
Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of opposition parties formed in
September 2020.
The state
of the economy and an increase in unemployment have been key points in the
narrative put out by the joint opposition that has announced the third round of
protests across Pakistan.
The seizure
of a Pakistan Airlines aircraft owing to a dispute over non-payment of aircraft
lease dues feeds into this narrative over the economy.
“Today
Malaysia has stopped our aircraft in lieu of loan repayment. Tomorrow if any
airport detains the Prime Minister over non-payment of loans…what will happen?”
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said in a recent
video clip.
That the
authorities in Malaysia decided to seize the aircraft is a significant
development and signals the state of play in bilateral relations between
Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur, which was considered to be part of the
Pakistan-Turkey-Malaysia axis before ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad’s exit.
Pakistan’s
relations with countries in the Middle East have also deteriorated as Imran
Khan lay his bets on Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, rather than Pakistan’s
traditional mentor, Saudi Arabia. PM Khan upset Riyadh by his attempt to form
an alternative Muslim coalition with Turkey and Malaysia to an extent that the
Saudis, in an unprecedented move, demanded that Pakistan cancelled its
arrangement for deferred payments for oil purchases and asked Pakistan last
year to repay the loan. Local media reports in Pakistan indicate that there is
a possibility that the UAE too could seek the early repayment of a $3 billion financial
support package announced in December 2018.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/paks-imran-khan-gets-squeezed-by-shrinking-economy-and-proactive-opposition-101611143607130.html
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Muslim Vote In The State Seems To Be
Consolidating Behind Trinamool
By Sajjan Kumar
January 21,
2021
As Bengal
heads for an assembly election, there is growing speculation about the Muslim
voting pattern. The dominant political sense is that the combined weight of
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Abbas Siddiqui, the influential pirzada of
Furfura Sharif shrine in Hooghly, will split Muslim votes. Hence, goes the
theory, that of all the detrimental factors which may prevent the incumbent
Trinamool Congress from returning to power for the third consecutive term, the
role of Owaisi and Siddiqui is most crucial. This assumption is shared by a
majority of both pro-BJP and anti-BJP respondents, as my recent fieldwork and
interactions in almost all the 294 assembly constituencies showed.
This line
of thinking is premised upon three reasonings: One, a significant section of
Muslim voters are as angry with the TMC as different sections of the Hindus;
two, post-Bihar, Owaisi has proved that Muslims are willing to vote for
Muslim-centric parties, especially in constituencies where they constitute an
electoral majority; three, the vacuum created by the Left parties would force
Muslims to choose a new outfit in constituencies with a strong anti-Trinamool
sentiment, leading to split in the Muslim votes.
A close
scrutiny reveals these assumptions as flawed. First, it fails to take into
account the incommensurable specificities of Bihar and Bengal in general, and
the trajectory of AIMIM’s interventions in particular. Second, it assumes the
vast majority of Muslims are gullible souls, who are unaware about the stakes
in the ensuing election and, therefore, likely to be swayed by the allure of
two Muslim leaders. The reality is just the opposite. Muslims across the state
are consolidating behind the TMC even in Muslim-majority areas like north
Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad, where the Congress used to have greater
traction until recently. Indeed, the election will be about unprecedented
Muslim consolidation behind the incumbent rather than a split in their vote.
Here, it is
important to note that the AIMIM’s victory in Muslim-dominated areas in Bihar’s
Seemanchal region was not a one-election development. The party has been
working consistently since 2015 under the leadership of an extremely capable
leader, Akhtarul Iman, who was two-term MLA from the RJD before joining AIMIM in
2015. In the aftermath of CAA, the JD(U)’s complete loss of face in the
community created conducive ground for the AIMIM in Muslim-dominated
constituencies, where the fear of a BJP victory was absent. Lastly, unlike
Bengal, Bihar has a trend of electing independent or new party candidates in
every election. None of these factors are common to Bengal. The state, being a
“party society”, doesn’t get easily fascinated by new entrants. Though the hold
of the party-society framework is loosening a bit, the prospect of a new party
striking a popular chord with electorate — that, too, among the anxious Muslim
minorities — is as delusional a possibility as the chances of the man-eating
tiger of Sundarbans turning vegetarian.
Muslims are
unequivocally clear as to which party they would vote for and offer the
underlying reasons persuasively. Barring around 10 seats, TMC has emerged as
the preferred choice even among the minorities, who have been hostile to the
party until recently as they fear the coming election will be a bipolar contest
between the incumbent and the BJP. Everywhere, TMC is gaining the minority vote
at the cost of the Left and the Congress. This bipolarity summarily rules out
any flirtation with the new Muslim platform in the state.
In none of
the 20 seats that AIMIM contested in Bihar did its vote share account for the
victory of the BJP. But the erroneous perception that Owaisi led to the defeat
of the RJD-led alliance has already taken hold among the minorities. Thus, an
AIMIM victory in Bihar has a negative connotation among the Muslims of Bengal
who are anxious about its intervention in their state. This has made them more
cautious about not splitting their votes — a factor advantageous to the TMC as
far as Muslim votes are concerned. Finally, the much-hyped Abbas Siddiqui is
nothing but hot air. While the followers of Furfura Sharif shrine are as
numerous in Dijanpur, Malda and Murshidabad as in the south Bengal, they make a
clear distinction between following a religious figure in religious matters
while rejecting him in the political arena.
Of course,
many Muslims, especially the youth, go to listen to him and appreciate the
issues he raises, particularly the ones pertaining to the weaker sections. This
explains why a section of minorities argue that he may end up being a part of
the Left-Congress front wherein his pro-poor rhetoric could be offered as a
justification for the alternative secular alliance. In the final analysis, his
insubstantiality is revealed by the shifting areas of influence one offers in
his support, which start from Hooghly district, then pass through parts of
Howrah and finally stop at South-24 Parganas. A test on the ground reveals it
being nowhere, including the Bhangar assembly constituency where he has a huge
following and Muslims constitute around 80 per cent of the population. This is
where was attacked in August last year, allegedly by the Trinamool cadres,
leading to state-wide anger among Muslims.
Hence,
irrespective of a victory or loss, the TMC is expected to get the highest share
of Muslim votes as community is consolidated behind the party, all these split
theories notwithstanding.
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/muslim-votes-west-bengal-assembly-elections-trinamool-congress-bjp-asaduddin-owaisi-7154937/
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India Must Say ‘Namaste, Biden’, Convince US To
Ease Sanctions On Iran Or Lose Out To China
By Seshadri Chari
22 January,
2021
Amid the
chorus of ‘democracy wins in the US’ and singing paeans for the oldest
President and the ‘first ever woman Vice-President’ of the United States, the
overarching feeling is that ‘Biden is in White House and all’s right with the world’.
Interestingly, with the changeover in White House, a number of social media
‘experts’ have started posting long lists of do’s and don’ts for Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. Some have even sarcastically invoked his ‘Namaste Trump’ event
and ‘Ab ki baar Trump sarkar’ slogan. While these jibes and advices are best
ignored, there is little doubt that New Delhi should, by now, be prepared to
deal with the change of guard in the White House.
The
relationship between the two ‘estranged democracies’ has witnessed its own
share of highs and lows since India’s Independence. However, the India-US ties
have remained sufficiently insulated over the years against major instabilities
that arose during leadership changes in both capitals. Significant on part of
New Delhi will be to visualise the road map that the Biden administration will
sketch at a time when the US is seen as experiencing the worst kind of racial
schism, and an aggressive China is weaving its web across the continental and
maritime realms through the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) connecting Eurasia
and the Indo-Pacific. What’s also uncertain is Washington’s post-pandemic
economic and security architecture, which is set to evolve from unknown
frontiers.
What Would Drive The India-US Relationship
The India-US
relationship hinges on three aspects that both countries need to recognise —
the domestic compulsions of the two democracies, the regional factors, and an
emerging post-pandemic global order. All three factors are subject to
geopolitical dynamics. Unlike India, the US does not have a socio-culturally
and politically heterogeneous ‘region’ to deal with. The Trump era witnessed
troubled relationship with neighbouring Mexico more due to domestic political
compulsions than any dogmatic or ideological differences.
According
to news reports, Biden’s Secretary of State-designate Antony Blinken, during
the confirmation hearing is reported to have said the new administration will
engage with Israel and the Arab States before reviving the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Barack Obama had signed with Iran, and Trump had
walked out of.
Even though
the US State Department was convinced that the JCPOA was working and had
limited Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, Trump unilaterally revoked the
deal and imposed sanctions on the country. Biden has indicated reviving the
US-Iran deal but only if Tehran agrees to comply with the provisions. Tehran
has been advocating a hard line just to bargain for the revocation of the
sanctions and tide over the economic crisis. Here is where New Delhi gets
involved. The earlier US sanctions on Tehran (1979, 1987, 2006 and 2018) left
New Delhi with little options to carry on trade with Iran and use its ports.
And India’s forced withdrawal resulted in facilitating China’s entry in the
region and Beijing striking trade deals with Iran because unlike New Delhi, the
latter was under no obligation to respect US sanctions.
It would be
in India’s interest to convince the new occupant of the White House that
sanctions as a foreign policy tool have seldom worked to achieve the desired
objectives. Besides, New Delhi has already begun working out limited
engagements with Iran on Chabahar port, which is vital for India considering
the China-Pakistan axis and the proposed US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden and China
The US
National Security strategy document released in 2017 clearly recognised “India
as an emerging leading global power and stronger strategic and defense
partner”. The threat of a ‘not so peaceful rise’ of China has brought some kind
of strategic camaraderie between India and the US. But New Delhi should not
forget that the US has its own trajectory of relationship with China, based on
its national interest. Even at the height of the US-China trade war, exactly
one year ago in January 2020, Trump inked the Phase One trade deal, obliging
China to commit to buy an additional $200 billion worth of American goods and
services by 2021, and crack down on business practices that the Trump
administration had termed objectionable.
Biden’s
China policy will have far-reaching consequences for the region, especially for
the emerging Indo-Pacific structure that has become the new theatre of power
contestation between Washington and Beijing. The Cold War posed serious
constraints for India pursuing the non-aligned path with the US, insisting on a
‘if you are not with us you are against us’ policy. In the changed
circumstances, the two democracies will have to understand each other’s
constraints, work towards building a coalition of democracies, and include
States that are committed to freedom of navigation and a free, open and
rules-based world order.
Closer
home, unlike the US, India is China’s neighbour and the challenge is to work
out an anti-access and area denial strategy, taking into consideration China’s
growing sphere of influence in our immediate and extended neighbourhood. Tibet,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Afghanistan are waiting for solutions probably to be
found in the strategic partnership between India and the US. The challenge is
how far the Biden administration will go when it comes to antagonising China
while standing firm with the core principles of freedom, human rights and
democracy.
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Seshadri Chari is the former editor of
‘Organiser’. Views are personal.
https://theprint.in/opinion/india-must-say-namaste-biden-convince-us-to-ease-sanctions-on-iran-or-lose-out-to-china/589902/
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