Kanak Mani Dixit, Nepalese journalist and reflexively anti-Indian crusade aired his latest grievance on the edit-page of an Indian broadsheet (where else would he be given such hospitality?). The title of his piece is intriguingly revealing: ‘Indian elections: South Asian concerns.’ India should be the bulwark of democracy in a world witnessing its decline, with a passing allusion to countries where democracy is allegedly under some kind of undisclosed threat. Having established his democratic credentials, Kanak Mani Dixit set about listing the grievances of India’s ‘neighbours’. The founders of modern India were ‘M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru (quite so) and hence their cohort, should be raising the standard of social justice and grass-roots democracy, and against right-wing populism. This has not quite been Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record, and hence the concern that another five years would redefine the very idea of India,’ perhaps as a routine punching bag for Katmandu-based India-baiting scribes and political class.
Mr Dixit’s amnesia clearly prevented any recollection on of Prime Minister Modi’s much heralded visit to Nepal, which apparently soured after a devastating earthquake destroyed huge swaths of the country. Indian media reporters on the ground pointed to the administrative incompetence of the Nepali government and administration, of widespread corruption in the distribution of international aid (massive Indian medical supplies were first to arrive in the capital). There followed a cacophony of anti-Indian abuse, of accusations of Indian bullying and imperialism and much else. In Nehru’s time it was constant griping of the Nepali ruling class; in the Indira Gandhi’s era orchestrated demonstrations around the Indian embassy became a feature of populist Nepali politics. The Nepali establishment went a step too far with rent-a-crowd mobsters taking such lawlessness a step too far following false rumours of a Bollywood film star casting aspersions on Nepali womanhood. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vayjpayee lost patience and suspended Indian air flights to Nepal. It took a telephone call from his Nepali counterpart and an expression of regret before normal business was restored.
Kanak Mani Dixit in high dudgeon excoriates the present Indian dispensation for right-wing populism, majoritarianism, smothering intellectual dissent, willful disregard of the country’s multi-layered ethnic diversities, crony capitalism, cultural obscurantism, leading to absurd claims to science and technologies, based allegedly on ancient Vedic texts.
That India is in possession of a substantial lunatic fringe is undeniable. The substantial mainstream, however, counters such nonsensical assertions with laughter and ridicule. Better this, than firing squads or Chinese-style corrective institutions currently in operation (but away from prying eyes) in the country’s Muslim majority province of Xinjiang. Indian justly famed Institutes of Technology, its institutions of science and engineering form an assembly line of scientists and engineers that have carried out unique missions in space. Government funding for such ventures have been, and continue to be, the primary source of these acclaimed endeavours.
An elementary course in economics might educate the Nepali scribe on the true meaning of ‘crony capitalism’. The industrial houses of Tata, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Godrej and their numerous peers, small and medium-sized firms across the country involved in cutting edge technologies should end his absurdist locutions.
Mr Dixit sneers at India’s welcoming response to the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in a small country like the Maldives, perceiving this as an inferiority complex of Chinese heft. India stood firm in the face of Chinese aggrandizement and military threats on Doklan strip (which Beijing claims), along the Bhutan-Sikkim border with once independent Tibet, invaded and occupied by China in 1950.
Mr Dixit seems unaware of Pakistan-sponsored jihadi attacks on Mumbai in March 1993 and November2008 He suggests a reversal by India to the so-called Gujral Doctrine thought up by I.K Gujrarl when minority prime minister of India for a short period in the late 1990s. Its leading feature was surrender to every poli whim and fancy of India’s emanating in the country’s neighborhood; in other words India was enjoined to fear its own shadow. Gujraral is a largely forgotten figure today, his Doctrine long consigned to the dustbin of history.
India-China relationship in logjam
India Foreign Secretary [head of the Ministry of External Affairs, not to be confused with the country’s Minister of Externbal Affairs] Vijay Gokhale paid a two-day visit to China for talks with China’s Foreign Minister and State Counsellor Wang Yi as part of an ongoing diplomatic engagement between New Delhi. and Beijing. That indeed is the correct approach given the unsettling turbulence in the global order. However, the best that can be expected of this dialogue is maintenance of the Sino-Indian status quo. China’s ties with its ‘all-weather friend, Pakistan is cast in stone and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Pakistani identity is rooted in a reflexive anti-Indian psychosis: China perceives India as an obstruction to its strategic goals in Asia, and lands farther afield. For instance, China’s One Belt, One Road project has drawn in numerous powers across Asia, Europe, Africa and some in Latin America. India has not signed up to it as the Chinese juggernaut rolls on regardless.
China’s rise has gripped much of the world; that this been astonishing few would deny. This has been achieved by adroit statecraft, inviting the giants of US industry to invest massively in the country. Lured by attractive incentives US companies transferred their assembly lines to China; and when the goods began to rollout, US retail giants Walmart and Amazon and others carried these XChinese manufactured goods to every corner of the American market at much cheaper prices than ever before. The process adeptly handled, with China also benefitting from infusions of American technology. Add to this Chinese hard work, organization, expert management, and the experience came up trumps. A largely impoverished nation boasts the second largest world economy after the United States.
Thus far it has been an outstanding success story. However, negatives are beginning to surface. The once burgeoning economy has slowed down, although still growing at acceptable international standards.
Despite China’s successes, its rulers govern with an iron fist, smiling and reasonable when they get their way, snarling and fretful when they do not. The polity is an empire: Tibetan and the Uighur peoples are colonial subjects in thrall to the Han dispensation. The empire was the work of conquering non-Han Mongol and Manchu monarchies who the subjected Hans resented as aliens. How ironical that that this imperial heritage should become an article of faith. Beijing is unduly sensitive of criticism of its record in both ethnic minority provinces, one Buddhist, China has been resentful of the Dalai Lama’s presence on Indian soil; they fear deepening resentment of the Uighers and minority Kazaks who are the native inhabitants of Xinjiang. Beijing’s ulcerous anxieties originate with Han repression and not Indian machinations. Talking and acting tough with India is counterproductive, as the Chinese leadership hopefully come to realize sooner rather than later.
Royal Society honours Yusuf Hamied
Dr Yusuf Hamied, a distinguished Cambridge-educated chemist and Chairman of the Mumbai-based Indian pharmaceutical company, Cipla, has been elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in London, for his service to science.
The Royal Society, founded in 1662 is the oldest and most prestigious science academy in world and bosts a roll call of planet earth’s most eminenent scientists, from Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein and beyond. The letters FRS agaist any name is a badge of the highest distinction.
The Royal Society Statement apropos of Dr Hamied reads: ‘Over the past six decades, Dr Hamied has been inbstrumental in the growth and development, implementation and adoption science in indigenous phrma industry in India. He has commercially synthasised many essential drugs by developing patent non-infringing processes in diverse areas, steroids, antibiotics, HIV/AIDS, respiratory and oncology drugs. In the late ‘90s, a major achievement was the novel synthesis of of 3 anti-retroviral drugs and combining them into a single dose therapy, making treatment efficacious and affordable. This resulted in saving millions of lives in Africa.’
In response to the Royal Society tribute, Dr Hamied replied: ‘I owe this privilege to my family, my colleagues at Cipla, past and present, and recognition that scientific knowledge has to be implemented and adapted for the benefit of society
