Kim Jong Un bets Trump is bluffing on war (Sunday Guardian)

By M D Nalapat

 

Kim will not disarm. Day by day he is increasing preparedness for a war that he will fight without mercy. 

 

What takes place when an “irresistible” force, aka Donald Trump, meets an “immovable” Kim Jong Un will become clear latest by mid-2019. Either the United States will give a pass to the military option and continue with its policy of threats and UN-approved sanctions till then, or there will be war, waged by the US, Japan and, possibly, South Korea, to take out the nuclear and missile assets of North Korea before these become too deadly for countermeasures.

Interestingly, the Korean peninsula is legally still in a state of war, with only an armistice, rather than a peace treaty being agreed upon in 1953 between North and South Korea and their respective patrons. Since then, there have been regular eruptions of tension between the two sides, with the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) cutting across the 38th parallel witnessing testy exchanges between the rival militaries. Although President George W. Bush put North Korea alongside Iraq in his “Axis of Evil” speech, the 43rd US President showed extreme timidity in dealing with the challenge to US, Japanese and South Korean security posed by the steady accretion of the nuclear and missile strength of the Kim family fiefdom. This same Clinton-era action-reaction cycle has been played out repeatedly since the early 1990s, in which North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK) would test missiles and continue with its nuclear weapons research and development, followed by harsh words, but mild (in comparison to those imposed on Saddam-ruled Iraq) sanctions by a clutch of countries led by the US and Japan. The Obama administration did not make any serious effort to give an impression that it was prepared for conflict, with the consequence that the coming to power in North Korea of the youthful and steel-nerved Kim Jong Un in 2010 as the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (followed a year later by being appointed Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces) saw a steep acceleration in the pace of both the nuclear as well as the missile programs.

Their experience with US Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama has convinced the DPRK “leadership centre” that Washington is bluffing when it warns Pyongyang of a possible conflict designed to take out the Kim regime. The only sceptic of such scepticism was Kim Jong Un’s uncle, Jong Sang Thaek, who warned against dismissing the US threat of war as empty, and counselled a slowdown in the WMD program so that international sanctions could be eased and funds diverted to civilian needs. Such advocacy was counter to Kim Jong Un’s growing conviction, that any US administration would be relentless in its enmity to him and his control over North Korea, and hence that any US talk of compromise was only a smokescreen designed to lull the regime into a false sense of security. Such negotiations would ensure that Pyongyang relax its vigilance, and first dilute and then give up its WMD stockpiles, thereby making inevitable the kinetic US-plus intervention designed to take out Kim Jong Un, the way Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were in the past. Videos of the final moments of both have been viewed several times over by Kim Jong Un, and helped make up his mind, by the start of 2013, never to compromise with the US over the DPRK’s missile and nuclear weapons program. Soon after that determination, his still doubting uncle was put to death as a warning to other conciliators, who immediately fell silent, in some cases due to death by firing squad.

KIM IS ‘LEAST’ IDEOLOGICAL

Kim Jong Un is the least ideological of the triumvirate of grandfather, father and himself, who have run North Korea since the Japanese were ushered out of the peninsula by the US in 1945. Since the close of 2012, and especially after mid-2015, the Supreme Leader of the DPRK has presided over a liberalisation of the North Korean economy that puts in the shade all previous efforts at ensuring a less classically communist economic structure. Such moves were half-hearted under his father Kim Jong Il, who did not believe in economic liberalisation, and ensured that the entire economy remained under the grip of the family since taking charge of the country in 1994. The consequence was that relative economic development between the two sides showed a worsening trend for the North, which by the formal close of Kim Jong Il’s regime in 2011 had become an economic pygmy compared to South Korea, now among the most prosperous countries on the planet. Although a decade (1998-2008) of what may be termed an “evening sunshine” policy was carried out by South Korea to placate and cajole the North, these relatively limited opportunities were mostly not taken advantage of by the doctrinaire Kim Jong Il, whose mind remained anchored to the Stalinist precepts he had acquired from the Soviet Union. His son Kim Jong Un was different. Had it not been for the additional sanctions placed on the DPRK since 2013, the North Korean economy would by now have begun to narrow the gap with its southern neighbour. A genuine “sunshine policy” would have worked with the grandson of DPRK founder, Kim Il Sung, in a way not possible under Kim Jong Il. However, after 2013, Kim Jong Un was emphatic that such a policy would have to accept the DPRK as a full-fledged nuclear and missile power, as events in the Middle East and in North Africa during 2011-2013 began in him a deep distrust for any promises made by the US. From that time onwards, the Supreme Leader of North Korea was inflexible in his resolve to ensure that his scientists and technicians mastered nuclear and missile technology sufficient to land a punishing blow to the US mainland, in case of an attack by the world’s most powerful country on the DPRK.

‘PURE NORTH MUST BE THE MASTER’

In an inversion of global perceptions, DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un regards the Republic of Korea (RoC) as a “slave” country, controlled by the US-Japan alliance, despite being allowed to curse its masters in public to “pretend” to its people that it was independent. Despite its lowly economic performance, the Kim cohorts consider themselves to be the “purer” representatives of the Korean race, and hence better fitted to run the entire peninsula, than the elected government in Seoul. Once the DPRK perfects its nuclear weapons and intercontinental delivery systems, the intention is to prod the South Korean authorities to open unification talks “solely between the two parts of Korea” that would establish a government where there would be a “permanent and honoured presence” for Kim Jong Un and his key military and security chiefs. None of this is acceptable to either the US or to South Korea, which would like to see the dissolution of the DPRK regime and its absorption into the RoC on the lines of the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1992. That took place through the surrender by Mikhail Gorbachev of Moscow’s interests in the GDR, a humiliating move that was soon followed by the extinguishing of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) control over what till that time had been the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Kim Jong Un has no intention of allowing his regime to dissolve, or to give up his interest in developing a nuclear and missile deterrent that would be effective against the US and Japan, the two countries he regards as the “enemies of the Korean race”. Interestingly, the leadership centre in North Korea believes that “the Japanese tail wags the American dog”, and that it is Tokyo that is setting the pace for Washington’s hostility towards Pyongyang. Until the second term began of George W. Bush, it would have been possible to de-nuclearise North Korea with minimal damage to either South Korea or Japan, but by the final two years of the second four-year term of the Obama administration, North Korean capacities had (in the estimation of Pyongyang) reached a level where tens of thousands of deaths and many times that number sick and injured would take place in Japan and South Korea, were the US to attack the DPRK. By now, those figures for potential casualties are in the North Korean view be substantial underestimates, and will include US citizens in Japan, South Korea, Guam and the Philippines.

DELAY WILL INCREASE CASUALTIES

Just as every year that passed after Hitler’s occupation of the Rhineland in 1936 steeply increased the potential casualties in the event of a conflict with Germany, the delay in taking military action against Pyongyang that has been palpable since the period in office of President W.J. Clinton, is making certain that the number of those killed, wounded and rendered sick in the event of war with North Korea will rise to levels that are already almost unbearable so far as South Korea and Japan are concerned, and will, before the close of 2018, be for the US. Each of the three US Presidents placed most of their hope on the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership ensuring that the DPRK finally surrender its nuclear stockpiles, and in order to incentivise Beijing, ensured a steady flow of concessions to the People’s Republic of China. The second stage was to work through the UN to ensure that sanctions got imposed on North Korea that would (it was expected) force the Kim regime to reverse course. Interestingly, in practice, such is the same policy being pursued by President Trump, in case his tweets are disregarded. In reality, given China’s essentiality as a base area for the North Korean economy, it is under no threat even from a fully weaponised North Korea. Nor is Russia, the “steadfast historical friend” of the Kim family. At the same time, a DPRK made immune from retaliation through its nuclear arsenal would be able to ceaselessly harass the US and Japan the way nuclear-armed Pakistan (another ally of Beijing) does India, thereby weakening both and diverting their attention away from Beijing and towards defence against North Korean asymmetric warfare. Indeed, the greater the DPRK menace, the more important it would be (in the traditional Washington calculus) to placate Beijing in order to incentivise it to prod Pyongyang into “better behaviour” with the US and Japan. Such has been the theory and practice since Bill Clinton’s tenure in the White House.

SANCTIONS BACKFIRING

The behaviour of the “International Community” (i.e. the US-led alliance) towards North Korea meets the classic definition of insanity, which is to repeat an activity over and over again in the expectation that it would generate a different result. The reality is that since 2001 and the US attack on Afghanistan, Pyongyang has diversified its sources of cash and vital components, not for civilian, but for military use. Through various means such as counterfeiting, smuggling, cyber scamming, cybercurrency, hacking and sale of services to criminal and rogue players, the Kim regime has ensured that there is a sufficient flow of funds for the WMD program and its delivery systems. The more the sanctions lever gets used, the greater the resort of the Kim regime to such underground activities. Paradoxically, such a shift has decreased, rather than enhanced global security, especially because the sanctions causing them have not been able to appreciably affect the North Korean WMD program, including its nuclear component. The DPRK regime leadership core believes that “Koreans are not Arabs”, by which is meant that Kim Jong Un will not wait in a catatonic state the way Saddam Hussein or to a considerable extent Muammar Gaddafi did before their forces were attacked in 1990, 2003 and 2011 by a US-led and a French-led coalition, respectively. The DPRK leadership intends to build up military, especially WMD capabilities, and if necessary, “to strike first before an imminent” US-led attack. This willingness to go to war if an attack by the other side is calculated to be imminent, introduces yet another strand of risk and uncertainty into the Korean peninsula calculus, making even the most casual public remarks by US or Japanese leaders capable of triggering an armed response that from then onwards will follow a pre-determined escalatory logic that early on escalates into the WMD stage.

MASS SLAUGHTER IS KIM’S TARGET

The sending back of Otto Warmbier in a severely damaged condition may have been as a human “technology demonstrator” of what the North Korean regime is capable of, should it unleash its chemical or biological arsenal. According to elements north of the 38th parallel, the life support systems of Warmbier were removed soon after he reached the US, “because of the realisation that the damage to him was too extensive and permanent to permit anything in the way of (what may be called) a human life”. In both South Korea and Japan, the DPRK is known to have embedded human vectors, who can get activated to spray biological agents in populated areas once a conflict begins. Since 2015, Supreme Leader Kim has “given priority to setting up such networks in Canada as well”, so that these may enter the US easily, if needed. While efforts are ongoing to create agent networks in the US that are similar to those already operational in Japan and South Korea, these seem to be some years from achieving criticality. Once Pyongyang develops enough nuclear and missile capability to render a US attack merely a theoretical possibility, the forecast is that North Korea will facilitate “asymmetric warfare” vectors within the US and Japan, the way Pakistan is active in India. Just as nuclear-armed Islamabad regards itself as safe from significant retaliation from Delhi, so will Pyongyang over Washington and Tokyo, once the capability to ensure mass slaughter within the continental US gets perfected and demonstrated by the DPRK, a stage that technical personnel in Pyongyang expect will take place “well before the middle of 2019”, no matter the UN sanctions imposed on North Korea. Stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons have been added to since 2013 under instructions from Supreme Leader Kim.

Either the US will have to learn to render minimally toxic its co-existence with North Korea (an option that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un does not extend to Japan) through ensuring what may be termed a “Midday Sunshine” policy towards the Kim regime, or it will have to learn to live with a succession of taunts, jabs and pinpricks the way India has had to ensure with Pakistan, once Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 declined the offer of the Soviet Union to jointly attack that country and destroy its military capabilities. The other option is war, well before mid-2019 (after which stage it will be too late, without horrendous loss of life, including on the west coast of the US).

BLUFFING OR NOT?

It is now up to President Trump and his national security establishment to demonstrate in practice that they are not bluffing when they warn Pyongyang to disarm or face war. And if they are, to reach out to Supreme Leader Kim, rather than continue with a failed policy of sanctions that only drives North Korea into yet more toxic behaviour, often clandestinely. Kim Jong Un will not disarm, and day by day he is increasing preparedness for a war that he will fight without mercy. This is a war that he is seeking to prevent, not through surrender of WMD, but by crossing the threshold into nuclear and missile capability to hit cities within much of the continental US. Whether Donald Trump is serious or not when he talks of war is, as yet, unclear. What is beyond doubt is that Kim Jong Un is wholly serious when he says that he will continue to develop WMD capability, no matter what the cost in sanctions. And that if a war comes, he will unleash on the US and Japan (and South Korea, if Seoul joins forces with Tokyo and Washington) the full range of nuclear, conventional and asymmetric assets that he has built up at an accelerating pace since 2013, the year when he reached the definitive finding that compromise on the nuclear issue was no longer an option.

The unthinking rush to vengeance against a miscellany of Arab despots by George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Nicholas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande has created a crisis in the Korean peninsula that may lead to the world’s first nuclear war since 1945.

Source: http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/12233-kim-jong-un-bets-trump-bluffing-war 

Needed: A pro-growth ‘Gujarati’ Union Budget (Sunday Guardian)

By M D Nalapat

 

Had Gujarati wisdom been fully applied and tax rates brought down substantially, both revenue collection and the number of taxpayers would have risen.

 

The governance system in India remains locked inside a time warp keeping its responses anchored to the period when the Union Jack flew over what is now Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, increasingly the people of this country have willy-nilly acquired the skill-sets needed to adapt to a world pervaded by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Such a world may mean that only around 20% of the population will be directly involved in managing AGI and AI-assisted systems, while much of the rest of the population provide services and commodities to the (AGI and AI-directing) fifth of the population. We are already seeing such a transformation from goods to services in some of the better shopping malls in the metro centres, where outlets selling commodities are steadily getting replaced by movie theatres, health spas, children’s play areas, games arenas, food outlets and video play consoles. Such an economic system requires those earning higher incomes to spend a goodly proportion of such takings, so that others share in their wealth. An example is the wedding industry in India, which involves millions of individuals serving up music, entertainment, temporary facilities and much else to the families of the bride and groom. Given the reality of officials having relatively low income levels (as compared with the commercial sector) going together with high dollops of power and discretion (especially those belonging to the IAS, the IPS, the IRS and other elite administrative cadres) in post-1947 India, to expect governmental corruption to get eliminated is unrealistic. Since 2004, the smaller than needed doses of economic reform that were carried out since Narasimha Rao have been reversed, such that massive boosts in administrative discretion and intrusion took place while Manmohan Singh was legally in charge of the Central government. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel believed that practically every individual in the civil service had integrity and a desire to improve the lives of the citizenry in general, so that it was safe to transfer huge tranches of discretionary and disciplinary authority to them. This assumption and practice has continued since the Sardar’s time, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Income-tax officers, for example, have been given freedom and powers on a scale unprecedented in post-1947 India, and they have, therefore, been busy sending tax notices and raiding several times more individuals that was the case under Finance Minister Jaswant Singh. However, such exertions have resulted only in a moderate rise in the number of registered taxpayers, from 3.65 crore to 4.07 crore, with actual income-tax contributors this year remaining at around 2 crore. Had Gujarati wisdom been fully applied and effective tax rates brought down substantially, both revenue collection as well as the number of taxpayers would have risen by several times more than is the case now. Empirical evidence shows that reductions in tax rates have invariably led to more than proportionate increases in both taxpayer base as well as collections. Narendra Modi has been celebrated across the globe as a maestro of economic administration. He needs to take authority back from his officials to ensure that the 2018-19 Union Budget breaks away from those witnessed since 2004 by lowering effective tax rates substantially. 

The Union Government has launched a “War on Cash” since coming to office, so that such transactions in key economic job creating sectors appear to have been substantially reduced. However, the structure and mechanics of administration still result in substantial amounts of undeclared cash. For example, since high GST rates were fixed on several items, more service outlets than before are offering customers the choice of paying in cash, thereby getting a price reduced by the quantum of GST that would otherwise have been levied. At the same time, those establishments that honestly declare their incomes and require the same from their customers are witnessing a fall in business. Many High Net Worth individuals are now celebrating the marriage of family members in locations such as Rome or Bangkok, away from the radar of the tax authorities. Increasing amounts of cash have been moving illegally outside rather than getting invested or otherwise spent in India. North Block’s obsessive search for every rupee of available revenue is having the effect of dampening spending. Not declaring taxable income is of course wrong, both legally and ethically. However, it would be unrealistic to expect either this evil to vanish in a short period or to believe that the official machinery is such as to reduce leakages to low levels. Had that been the case, around Rs 550,000 crore of the 86% of currency made illegal on 8 November 2016 would not have dared to return to the banking system, whereas in practice almost all the banned currency returned for conversion. 

The forthcoming Union Budget needs to be finalised with Gujarati practicality, and must ensure a red carpet to investment and consumer activity, on the correct premise that a higher velocity of circulation of money will ensure that some tax gets paid somewhere and somehow in a way impossible if much of potential spending were driven overseas or extinguished through police methods. A “Gujarati” budget would cut taxes and make compliance simple, thereby ensuring that a climate of optimism and growth replaces the present atmosphere of dread of official excess. The 2018-19 Union Budget will shape the remainder of Prime Minister Modi’s term in office and must bear witness to the Prime Minister’s innate pragmatism and pro-growth instincts.

Source: http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/12212-needed-pro-growth-gujarati-union-budget

President Trump will trump his foes? (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical Notes From India | M D Nalapat

THE Washington Establishment — otherwise known as the Beltway – got it completely wrong on Donald John Trump, the 45th President of the United States. They belittled his talents and magnified his faults, continuing to believe that the candidate who unfairly deprived the real (although “complaisant”) challenger Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party nomination would win the November 8,2016 elections. The Clintons remain the most formidable political family in the US, and have their tentacles in much of the Federal bureaucracy, because of the way in which they operate to promote the careers of loyalists and blight the fortunes of those opposed to them.
The only Washington group that could pose a challenge to the Clinton mutual support system are those Beltway residents who have married spouses of Chinese origin. These spouses form a formidable club of sisters in the capital of what is still the most influential country on the globe, and work ceaselessly to protect the interests and careers of those of their husbands who have found themselves in a rough patch. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, is among the most prominent of those who have married ethnic Chinese, and in his case, his Taiwanese wife Elaine Chao is every bit as famous as he himself is, being a member of past and even the present Cabinet of the US President.
Ms Chao has strong connections with the Chinese diaspora across the world, a pool of immensely successful individuals who are being tapped by Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure the success of his epochal Belt & Road Initative. It may be mentioned that the Clintons are close friends with several top notch individuals in the Chinese diaspora, exactly as they are with leadership elements in the Indian diaspora. The Clinton code is to “help those who help”, which is very different from those politicians who greedily accept help from others but decline to reciprocate in the slightest. The Washington Beltway staved off an embarrassing probe into the wy in which it is meshed with the Clintons by ensuring that all investigations into the Clinton Foundation were stopped, even as the enquiry to dig up evidence which could lead to the impeachment of President Trump has continued at high speed. Special Counsel Robert Mueller knows that Watergate Inquisitor Kenneth Starr became an object of ridicule when he failed to engineer the removal of Bill Clinton, and wants to avert that fate by being the first Special Counsel to ensure the successful impeachment of a US President.
The entire Beltway (led by the Clinton cohort) has been working on overdrive to ensure that bits and pieces of “evidence” get discovered that collectively can get used to build up a case that Trump was what Hillary Clinton accused him publicly of being, a “puppet of Vladimir Putin”. A charge that is monstrous in its mendacity but believed by millions across the globe because of the communications network of the anti-Trump establishment. Across the world, chancelleries refused to believe that Trump would win, and since November 8,2016 are being told by the Washington Beltway that “it is only a matter of months” before Trump quits through impeachment, a process that will begin only if the Democratic Party secures a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, or if Special Counsel Mueller can meet the expectation of his admirers are cook up a credible case of obstruction of justice and treason against Donald Trump. Ironically, what Putin is being accused of doing in the 2016 US elections is exactly what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did to several countries during her tenure, when social media and street power was promiscuously used by the Obama administration to ensure the harassment if not the defeat of those leaders who refused to obey the wishes of the Washington establishment. Hillary Clinton crossed a red line when she, together with the Soros and Omidyar Foundations ( both of which are very active in South Asia ) engineered the defeat of the Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President, replacing him with a mafia don similar to the mafiosi types that the Clinton administration backed in Moscow after Mikhail Gorbachev ensured the fall of the Soviet Union through his blind belief in his ability to survive the destruction of his party the way Chairman Mao was strengthened after the Old Guard of the Chinese Communist Party was eliminated during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
From then onwards, Russian-speaking Ukrainians worked in cyberspace to slow down Hillary Clinton’s rise to power. They were joined ( without each other’s knowledge) by Democratic Party loyalists upset at the underhand way in which Bernie Sanders had been deprived of his victory over Hillary Clinton. The two streams ensured a series of setbacks in the Clinton campaign, all of which it is now Mueller’s task to pin on the shoulders of Donald John Trump, even through the current US President was not in this toxic loop in the slightest. Meanwhile, Trump is working to fulfil his poll promises, unlike so many other politicians. Ignoring poll numbers, Trump has cut taxes and blocked entry into the US for those he sees as being less than committed to the values of the world’s most powerful country.
The mist and fog of disinformation against him may combine with some of the elitist policies of Republican House and Senate members to reduce their number in 2018, but overall, it will remain a daunting task even for Robert Mueller to create a lethal conspiracy out of the mass of hot air that is all the circumstantial evidence he has to work on. The odds are that Trump will last his term, and if the Clintons continue to dominate the Democratic Party, will win a second term. The way in which Hillary and Bob Clinton are keeping the Trump banner afloat gives the reason why the US President has let both off the hook so far as the funding of the Clinton Foundation is concerned.

Source: https://pakobserver.net/president-trump-will-trump-foes/

International Forum on One Korea 2017 (Global Peace Foundation)

Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat (M.D. Nalapat) is Director, Geopolitics & International Relations, UNESCO Peace Chair. Also Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian and Itv network (India), Vice-Chair of Manipal University’s Advanced Research Group, and Director of the Department of Geopolitics, Manipal University. He has been the Coordinating Editor of the Times of India and editor of the Mathrubhumi. His message was presented in the opening plenary, titled: "Vision for Peaceful Reunification and Multi-Sector Contribution Mapping" with the theme of "Leadership toward Peaceful Korea Unification". 

For more information about the forum's topics, speakers, and sponsors, visit: http://1dream1korea.info/forum/

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpi4Z9oxlgM 

Robert Mueller cannot overthrow President Trump (UPI)

By M D Nalapat

The Washington establishment got it completely wrong on Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States.

They belittled his talents and magnified his faults, continuing to believe that the candidate who unfairly deprived the real (although "complacent" ) challenger Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party nomination would win the Nov. 8, 2016 elections.

The Clintons remain the most formidable political family in the United States and have their tentacles in much of the federal bureaucracy because of the way in which they operate to promote the careers of loyalists and blight the fortunes of those opposed to them. The only Washington group that could pose a challenge to the Clinton mutual support system are those Beltway residents who have married spouses of Chinese origin. These spouses form a formidable club of sisters in the capital of what is still the most influential country on the globe, and work ceaselessly to protect the interests and careers of those of their husbands who have found themselves in a rough patch.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is among the most prominent of those who have married ethnic Chinese, and in his case, his Taiwanese wife, Elaine Chao, is every bit as famous as he is, being a member of past and the present Cabinet of the U.S. president. Chao has strong connections with the Chinese diaspora across the world, a pool of immensely successful individuals who are being tapped by Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure the success of his epochal Belt & Road Initative.

It may be mentioned that the Clintons are close friends with several top-notch individuals in the Chinese diaspora, exactly as they are with leadership elements in the Indian diaspora. The Clinton code is to "help those who help," which is very different from those politicians who greedily accept help from others but decline to reciprocate in the slightest. The Washington Beltway staved off an embarrassing probe into the way in which it is meshed with the Clintons by ensuring that all investigations into the Clinton Foundation were stopped, even as the inquiry to dig up evidence which could lead to the impeachment of Trump has continued at high speed

Special Counsel Robert Mueller knows that inquisitor Kenneth Starr became an object of ridicule when he failed to engineer the removal of President Bill Clinton and wants to avert that fate by being the first special counsel to ensure the successful impeachment of a U.S. president. The entire Beltway (led by the Clinton cohort) has been working on overdrive to ensure that bits and pieces of "evidence" get discovered that collectively can get used to build up a case that Trump was what Hillary Clinton accused him publicly of being, a "puppet of Vladimir Putin" -- a charge that is monstrous in its mendacity but believed by millions across the globe because of the communications network of the anti-Trump establishment.

Across the world, chancelleries refused to believe that Trump would win, and since Nov. 8,2016 are being told by the Washington Beltway that "it is only a matter of months" before Trump quits through impeachment, a process that will begin only if the Democratic Party secures a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, or if Mueller can meet the expectation of his admirers and cook up a credible case of obstruction of justice and treason against Trump.

Ironically, what Putin is being accused of doing in the 2016 U.S. elections is exactly what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did to several countries during her tenure, when social media and street power were promiscuously used by the Obama administration to ensure the harassment if not the defeat of those leaders who refused to obey the wishes of the Washington establishment.

Hillary Clinton crossed a red line when she, together with the Soros and Omidyar Foundations (both of which are very active in the Indian subcontinent) engineered the defeat of the Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president, replacing him with a mafia don similar to the mafiosi types that the Clinton administration backed in Moscow after Mikhail Gorbachev ensured the fall of the Soviet Union through his blind belief in his ability to survive the destruction of his party the way Chairman Mao was strengthened after the Old Guard of the Chinese Communist Party was eliminated during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

From then onward, Russian-speaking Ukrainians worked in cyberspace to slow down Hillary Clinton's rise to power.They were joined (without each other's knowledge) by Democratic Party loyalists upset at the underhanded way in which Bernie Sanders had been deprived of his victory over Hillary Clinton. The two streams ensured a series of setbacks in the Clinton campaign, all of which it is now Mueller's task to pin on the shoulders of Trump, even though the current U.S. president was not in this toxic loop in the slightest.

Meanwhile,Trump is working to fulfill his poll promises, unlike so many other politicians. Ignoring poll numbers, Trump has cut taxes and blocked entry into the United States for those he sees as being less than committed to the values of the world's most powerful country. The mist and fog of disinformation against him may combine with some of the elitist policies of Republican House and Senate members to reduce their number in 2018, but overall, it will remain a daunting task even for Mueller to create a lethal conspiracy out of the mass of hot air that is all the circumstantial evidence he has to work on.

The odds are that Trump will last his term, and if the Clintons continue to dominate the Democratic Party, will win a second term. The way in which Hillary and Bill Clinton are keeping the Trump banner afloat gives the reason why the U.S. president has let both off the hook so far as the funding of the Clinton Foundation is concerned.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/Voices/2017/12/26/Robert-Mueller-cannot-overthrow-President-Trump/9371514293256/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

2G verdict may transform Rahul’s luck (Sunday Guardian)

The 2G verdict, when juxtaposed with what seems a contrary SC judgement, has introduced a further layer of complexity in a practical understanding of legal system.

 

 

The 2012 Supreme Court judgement cancelling 122 telecom licences, including denying the allocation of spectrum to eight companies, altered the telecom industry in India, ensuring that a handful of companies would carve up the market rather than the several dozen that would have survived, had even a third of the 122 licencees followed through on their successful applications . Given Comptroller & Auditor General Vinod Rai’s calculation of “presumptive” spectrum value, it was politically (and almost certainly legally) impossible for the Central government to auction spectrum at less than a steep price. As a consequence, the few telecom companies still left in India’s domestic market have much less funds to improve their services and infrastructure, with the consequence that telecom services in India are way below most other countries in standards. Broadband speeds are at sub-bullock cart level, a factor that the officials tasked last year to prepare a roadmap for the demonetisation of currency ought to have factored in before rushing ahead with such a hugely consequential measure. They also ignored such issues as the fact that a change in the size of currency notes would require a time-consuming recalibration of ATMs, or that the exclusion of cooperative banks from the currency exchange mechanism would severely hurt the rural sector, where such banks are found in far greater profusion than standard commercial banks. After the Supreme Court’s 2G verdict, both domestic as well as foreign investors realised that any policy would become final only after a lengthy legal process that might take a decade, if the parties concerned were lucky, and several decades if not. Of course, the judicial system in India, manned by some of the finest judges in the world, would still have the discretion to take a relook at past verdicts, no matter what the efflux of time. This means that any government policy would have a legal Damocles sword hanging permanently over its implementation.

When the Supreme Court cancelled the telecom licences given by Telecom Minister A. Raja, it was assumed by the public that evidence of misfeasance was discovered. Interestingly, it would appear from the labours of the CBI that Raja operated with complete autonomy within his ministry, as neither the then Finance Minister or Law Minister have figured in CBI or ED investigations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been found to function in a bubble independent of the PMO, and therefore ignorant of what was actually taken place within “his” government. Five years after the SC verdict, the CBI Special Court has come up with the finding that the CBI and the ED have failed to discover any misdeed by Raja or by anybody else in the 2G matter. Those whose intellectual faculties are below the elevated level of those at the top of the legal profession—whether such worthies be on the bench or the bar—are bemused as to how different the CBI court’s verdict seems from the SC’s, especially because the Supreme Court is the apex of the judicial structure. The 2G verdict, when juxtaposed with what seems a contrary SC judgement, has introduced a further layer of complexity in a practical understanding of the country’s legal system, to add to the many collectively making the processes of justice in India more ponderous and complex than any in other major democracies. It must be said, however, that the CBI judge has shown his independence from the agency by writing out a judgement that blames the CBI and the ED for extremely shoddy work, especially during the past few years, when it was expected that both would function with greater efficiency than before. Judge O.P. Saini has even pointed to lapses within the PMO, and in such detail as to make it mandatory for an investigation to get carried out as to why these occurred. Of course, it is well known that our agencies are masters at creating “false guilt” (through concocting and misrepresenting evidence against those they target) or “fake innocence”, in which they ignore facts that establish guilt and instead come up with a bag of alternative facts designed to protect the wrongdoer from prison. Television anchors routinely holler out that “the CBI must be brought in” despite even such examples of Keystone Cops-style defective—sorry, detective—work as the Aarushi murder case, thereby establishing that in India, hope springs eternal, while experience very quickly gets buried the way facts are in several investigations.

When the Supreme Court cancelled the telecom licences given by then Telecom Minister A. Raja, it was assumed by the public that evidence of misfeasance was discovered. 

BJP spokespersons are distinguished by their command of the arcana of law, and the culling out of highly technical legalese to explain situations, especially political and policy setbacks. They are now pointing out that the CBI court is but a lowly link in the chain of justice in India, and that appeal after appeal will follow. However, so far as the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are concerned, it is unlikely that any other court judgement on the 2G matter will come before the elections, which means that the corruption plank the BJP used with such skill against the Congress Party in the 2014 polls has suddenly become much shakier. Narendra Modi has, for close to two decades been blessed by luck, including since taking over as PM, such as by the crash in world oil prices. Judging by recent events, it would appear that some of that good fortune is starting to migrate to Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Source: http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/12129-2g-verdict-may-transform-rahul-s-luck

PM Modi adulated by Indian media (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical Notes From India | M D Nalapat

IN 2010, when the Sunday Guardian weekly was launched by the eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani and the accomplished editor M J Akbar (who is now Minister of State for External Affairs in the Modi Council of Ministers), there were very few newspapers and magazines that were sympathetic to Narendra Modi,then Chief Minister of Gujarat. At that time, Ram Jethmalani was among the very few distinguished names in India who were openly in favour of Modi becoming the BJP nominee for the Prime Ministership of India, this despite a close friendship spanning four decades with L K Advani, the then front-runner for the role. Even business houses were chary of being openly identified with Modi.
When the Sunday Guardian brought out a 20-page special supplement in 2011 that showcased exactly why Narendra Damodardas Modi would make an excellent Prime Minister, several of the business houses now fawning over Prime Minister Modi refused to give advertisements for the special issue. They were clearly nervous of attracting the ire of Sonia Gandhi, who would have frowned against any friendly portrayal of a political leader whom she attacked on a daily basis, even going to the extent of calling him a “Merchant of Death”. However, It must be said that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) under Modi worked with the efficiency of clockwork, which is why Modi enjoyed an all-India reputation for effective governance. After the 2014 victory of the BJP in the national elections, a small social media group clustered around Modi rushed to claim credit for the victory.
The fact is that they were irrelevant in the final result, which was 70% caused by the extreme unpopularity of Sonia Gandhi and 30% by the image of Modi as an effective CEO of his state. This unpopularity was why your columnist had stated in 2011 itself that the Congress Party would be well advised to hand over the presidentship of the party to Rahul Gandhi, and even the Prime Ministership. Had Rahul taken charge at that point in time, and presented to a youthful nation a fresh set of faces in the Union Cabinet, the score of the party in the 2014 polls would have entered three digits. Indeed, now that Rahul Gandhi has finally overcome the obstacles placed in his path by senior leaders of the party anxious that they continue to hold the reins of power through the continuation at the top of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party has abruptly emerged as a challenger to the BJP in a way that it was not from 2011 onwards. Indeed, from 2013 onwards, it was obvious that the party would cede power to a BJP led by Modi in the coming polls.
This columnist had forecast 300 Lower House seats for the party in the polls, and despite often poor selection of candidates, that level was almost reached. However, since then it has been a slow downward slide,such that it is becoming likely that the government which comes to power in 2019 will be a coalition. Should the BJP not substantially improve the quality of governance and its delivery to the people, the way would be open for the Congress Party led by Rahul Gandhi to reach around 130 seats, thereby giving it a chance at leading the next coalition. The BJP needs more than 220 seats to succeed in forming a coalition government, about 90 more than what the Congress needs. However, in a change of mood that is nothing less than spectacular, the overwhelming bulk of the media in India have recognized in Modi the qualities for which Sunday Guardian had batted for him all the years that it has been published.
Television channels compete with each other to adulate the very individual whom they used to vilify while he was Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat. Most spew venom against Rahul Gandhi, calling him names and casting doubt on even his intellectual competence in a manner that shows the depth of their admiration for Modi. As for newspapers, almost all the columns are devoted to showing how wonderful Modi is and how terrible Rahul is, each newspaper competing with the other to show that it is the staunchest advocate of Prime Minister Modi. It has been a bit bewildering for those at the Sunday Guardian, to find themselves in a crowd where till 2013 they were almost alone in their defence of Modi and their confidence that he would make an excellent Prime Minister. As indeed he has. The problem facing the Prime Minister is not that he has done an outstanding job since 26 May 2014. He has, despite the fact that several of his ministers are way below average in their capacity for administrative excellence, while the fact that Prime Minister Modi has retained almost all the civil servants who were favourites during the Sonia-Manmohan era has affected the speed and quality of delivery of results.
Although Modi comes up with innovative ideas, his may be compared to a military where Airman Modi conducts deadly bombing runs on obstacles to growth through his relentless push for better standards and implementation, but thereafter the Ground Force ( comprising of his top officials and ministers) shows themselves to be less than effective in taking advantage of the superb initial effort put in by the Prime Minister. Among the problems is that the officials around Modi are mostly Old School, and rely on other Old School friends to fill top jobs. To take the example of the Finance Commission, the Chairmanship of this has gone to a superannuated civil servant who in his political avatar switched from Congress to regional parties and now to BJP, all the while enjoying the cool shades of power. Although highly regarded by several corporate houses for his friendly mien, Nandu Singh has not thus far shown much of a capacity for innovation.

 

Source: https://pakobserver.net/pm-modi-adulated-indian-media/

Don’t confuse Wahhabi mores with Sanatani (Sunday Guardian)

By M D Nalapat

 

Use of state power to enforce outdated preferences on diet, dress, lifestyle and in other ways of the populace has resulted in a weakening of the liberal ecosystem.

 

The quintessential quality of Sanatan Dharma is its openness to the adoption of differing options and concepts, its acceptance of diversity and an emphasis on inclusion, rather than exclusion. In contrast stands Wahhabism, a doctrine enunciated in the 18th century by Abdel Wahhab, a resident of the Nejd region of what is now the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The exclusivist and dogmatic tenets of Wahhabism are in contrast to the spirit of Islam, which places stress on “Ijtehad” or self-reflection. The believer is encouraged to exercise his or her own mind in interpreting doctrines, so that they reflect the realities of the day, rather than get tethered to situations that are outdated and irrelevant. As Maqbool Jafri writes, “The Almighty has put our brain in the skull and not in our ankle. The positioning of the brain at the top of the body signifies the value and importance of the mind. ” Those responsible for the recent government order blocking condom advertisements from appearing on television between 6am and 10pm have clearly not utilised their minds while taking a decision that reveals an imperviousness to current needs, and this in the name of “Bharatiya sanskriti”. In fact, such retrogressive thinking is an insult to India’s traditionally liberal ethos. Sex is certainly taboo in convents and in monasteries, but is it the contention of the drafters of such an order that the whole of India should be a giant version of such cloistered locations? Given that sexual activity will take place, even by the young, what is needed is to ensure that they are given knowledge of, and access to, methods that keep such activity disease and consequence-free. In other words, that folks should be given information about the need for condoms, including through primetime television advertising. Thanks to an absurd censorship order, such information will no longer be easily available to the overwhelming majority of individuals. This despite their needing such information to ensure both population as well as disease control. 

There are leaders in South Africa who call for the avoidance of prophylactics by the local population, a cry that, if heeded, will result in a sharp rise in the incidence of AIDS as well as other diseases related to sexual activity. However, none of such misguided individuals went so far as to ban condom advertisements in the manner now done in “modern” India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi traverses the globe seeking to enhance the image of our country. Such deeds get undercut by the retrogressive measures that unfortunately have been occurring in India even after 26 May 2014, and that too in such profusion as to generate sniggers at the very mention of India in global fora. 

Passing an order first and doing any thinking of consequences afterwards seems to have become the distinguishing mark of the bureaucracy, even in the new dispensation. The way demonetisation was implemented, liquidity got choked and millions lost their jobs as a result. A year later, cash has come back, although many of the small-scale and service outlets closed because of the 8 November 2016 withdrawal of 86% of the country’s currency remain shuttered. The GST, as finally announced in a midnight ceremony in Parliament, contains a plethora of rates and variants that make nonsense of the claim that it is a single tax. Not to mention the fact that the hyper-high 28% and the elevated 18% rate are certain to boost inflation and reduce economic growth. In another example of impulsive decision-making, the meat trade was banned with immediate notice, only to be permitted again after havoc got created in markets and homes across the country. As for Aadhaar, who will compensate those whose numbers get stolen or otherwise misused for a transaction in any of the many activities in which it is being made mandatory? Those responsible for Aadhaar should be made personally liable for every loss caused by defects in design and implementation, including safety and secrecy issues. However, in reality, many of those responsible get moved to higher responsibilities. India remains a country whose politicians reward failure and penalise success. After seeking to force all bank depositors and cellphone owners to get linked to Aadhaar, the deadline for such a move has without explanation been put off to 31 March, and even this may not be final. Instead of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”, a bureaucracy given too much power and freedom may inflict the country with “Minimum Governance and Maximum Mistakes”. It is time for Prime Minister Modi to snatch back control from the hands of UPA-era bureaucrats, so that he can ensure the same standard of efficacy as was visible when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. 

Whether it be Nitish Kumar seeking to convert Bihar into a teetotal state, or Vasundhara Raje trying to reduce freedom of speech in Rajasthan to the North Korean level, the frequent use of state power and repressive law to enforce outdated preferences on diet, dress, lifestyle and in other ways on the entire populace has resulted in a weakening of the liberal ecosystem needed for growth. Our politicians have certainly won freedom for themselves in 1947, and their lavish lifestyles make this obvious, but such liberation has yet to reach the people, who remain shackled and crippled by laws, administrative practices and regulations that ought to have been discarded a century ago. Any candidate interested in winning elections in 2019 needs to understand that the people of India, especially the young, will no longer tolerate being directed and dominated by colonial-style practices. The people seek the freedom that is inherent in a genuine Sanatani system. They are chafing at the Wahhabi-style proscriptions and prohibitions the people are being bombarded with on an almost daily basis, and their patience at such practices is almost at an end.

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/12047-don-t-confuse-wahhabi-mores-sanatani 

Iran, not North Korea, IS UK’s target (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical Notes From India | M D Nalapat

China and India are the fastest-growing major economies in the world, and together ensure a huge amount of business for the United Kingdom. However, flights by domestic (i.e. non-UK) carriers from these two locations usually are made to land and takeoff from Terminal 4 of Heathrow, which is possibly the worst. There are, of course, exceptions. Air India apparently lands in Terminal 2, while British Airways seems to have almost a monopoly over Terminal 5. December 10 was not a good day for flights coming into and out of London. The weather made it difficult to operate flights,and many were cancelled. However, the Jet Airways flight from Delhi to London has the advantage of taking off at lunchtime, so that a night’s sleep is not lost either in catching an early morning flight or onboard the aircraft.
The flight landed safely and on time at Heathrow. For most, once outside the aircraft, it may take more than two hours to finally get in front of an Immigration counter, so slow and long are the queues of visitors. Those travelling Business Class are fortunate, for they get to use the Fast Track facility, which is much quicker. It must be said that the British people, no matter their ethnicity, are usually polite and friendly, and so it was at the Immigration counter, where those in charge worked efficiently to ensure that the lines got cleared as quickly as it was possible in an era where terrorism is a constant presence. Indeed, several of the bridges of London now have metal railings on the side of the walkway, so as to prevent a terrorist from running over pedestrians the way it happened on the very bridge this columnist crossed on foot to reach an office close to where he had been earlier.
Even on the walkways, there were obstacles placed, so that a terrorist in a car or truck would not be able to go very far along the pedestrian walkway of a bridge before being stopped by two concrete obstacle placed side by side, leaving space through them only for those on foot. However, terror groups are adept at finding out new ways of fulfilling their ghastly task, and recently there have been situations in London where motorcycle riders have sought to grab wallets and other valuables from nearby pedestrians and thereafter make good their escape. Overall, however, good policing and a comprehensive intelligence network have ensured that London remains safer than Paris, just as in New York, where the New York Police Department (NYPD) lives up to their reputation for excellence. A reasonable degree of personal safety is among the reasons why so many individuals from across Asia settle down in London, acquiring houses and businesses there. These days, the greatest influx seems to be the Chinese, who are coming across in large numbers. They are followed by those from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, especially Qatar, whose citizens have bought several of the architectural landmarks of the city, as also such favourites of the tourist as Harrods.
Meeting those conversant about the situation in North Africa and West Asia, it was clear that within that region, it was Iran that was the target of suspicion, despite its having signed the nuclear deal a year ago and thereby placing all its nuclear facilities under hugely intrusive international inspections. In contrast to the rhetoric against Iran, complies about Wahabbism were few, although of course that was recognised as a danger. Many of the Arab countries have managed to keep the Wahabbis at bay, among them being Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood under Mohammad Morsi was removed from office and replaced by General Abdul Fatah al Sissi, who is much more of a moderate in theology and has taken steps to reduce the influence of Wahabbis in the country. Within the GCC, the UAE and Bahrain are far more liberal in the theologies they support than Qatar. The big change is Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammad has publicly called for an end to the two centuries of domination of Wahabbis over several of the institutes of the country, and through these to the rest of the
world. Giving women the right to drive or sanctioning the opening of movie theatres may not seem like much progress in the rest of the world, but in Saudi Arabia, such edicts constitute a revolution.
However, goaded by the very countries that signed the nuclear deal with Iran, the Crown Prince is being prodded to take on Iran, perhaps even through a war such as was fought in the 1980s between Tehran and Baghdad. It may be remembered that during the 1939-45 global war, the UK and the US assisted the Soviet Union against Gerrnany, even though they were anti-thetical to the Communist Party. This was a sensible move in the context of the need to defeat Hitler. In much the same way, however unpleasant the Iranian regime may be to Riyadh, it would be better to avoid a confrontation with the largest Shia-majority country in the world, and focus is read on ensuring that Wahabbi influence in Saudi Arabia diminish and disappear.
Among the factors responsible for the two front battle that the Saudi Crown Prince is waging must be included the goading of the US and other NATO partners, who have been encouraging Riyadh to confront Tehran, the way they promoted the war between Iran and Iraq in the past, when Saddam Hussein was in charge of Iraq. The war immensely strengthened the religious zealots in Iran and weakened the rest of civil society, besides causing losses on an almost unbearable scale. In London, Enemy Number 1 is Russia and Enemy Number 2 Iran. Far better would have been for NATO to concentrate on the battle against Wahabbism being waged by moderate Muslims across the world,and in dealing with the problem posed by North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

 

https://pakobserver.net/iran-not-north-korea-uks-target/ 

US, Japan and South Korea conduct military drills (CGTN)

Aegis warships from the US, Japan and South Korea will conduct a computer simulation to follow ballistic missiles using radar and exchange intelligence with each other. Tensions have surged on the Korean Peninsula after the November 29 launch of the Hwasong-15 ICBM, which the DPRK claims could deliver a "super-large heavy warhead" anywhere on the US mainland. Pyongyang has described the exercises as US President Donald Trump “begging for a nuclear war.” Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Japan, Australia and India are meeting in New Delhi. Can the US break the vicious cycle on the Korean Peninsula with new alliances? We turn to our panel to find out: Rong Ying, Vice President of CIIS, China Institute of International Studies; Sharon Squassoni, Director and Senior Fellow, Proliferation Prevention Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Yuki Tatsumi, Senior Associate and Director of the Japan program at the Stimson Center; Madhav Nalapat, UNESCO Peace Chair and Director of the Geopolitics and International Relations Department at Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Pc3sTipVo&app=desktop 

Only communalists oppose the Ram Temple (Sunday Guardian)

Far from destroying communal harmony, the temple would substantially calm the roiled waters of inter-religious strife in India.

 

 

From his 1919 backing for a revivalist campaign for the survival of the Caliphate in Turkey, to the close of his life, when he insisted on handing over a vast sum of money to the very Pakistan that was at war with India, Mahatma Gandhi was true to his saintly nature in turning the other cheek and much more at every blow received. Who but the Mahatma would advise the British people to open the doors of their houses to Hitler, or tell the Jews that it was best that they calmly accept what the Nazis had in mind for them, as by doing so, they would “transform hatred into love”? Many Jews did indeed accept their fates without protest, but the hatred that was so manifest in Nazi minds for the Jewish people only seemed to grow with each sacrifice of several hundred thousand of some of the most gifted individuals on the planet. And so it proved with communal relations in India. Rather than flock to the Congress Party and abandoning the Muslim League, more and more Muslims joined the Muslim League. With every effort at appeasement by the Congress leadership, it was M.A. Jinnah who became stronger and more determined on Partition. Eventually, despite his superlative inner qualities, the Mahatma failed to keep India united. Appeasement of the fringe failed to extinguish that exclusivist tendency, and instead, empowered it to a level where a small but intransigent segment of the Muslim community set the direction and the pace of events involving the community as a whole. Much as has been taking place in India since Jawaharlal Nehru and his successors (including A.B. Vajpayee) turned the concept of secularism upside down by enforcing a discriminatory set of edicts on Hindus, even while retaining such British-era atrocities as state control of temples.

In the present era, where evening entertainment is increasingly composed of watching talk shows on television, we see those who insist on purdah and on triple talaq, and who mourn the fact that the Wahhabi version of Sharia law has not yet become mandatory in India, get presented not as the pallbearers, but as the torch carriers of secularism. This despite the reality of the tactics of Nehruvian secularists having failed in their decades-long mission of seeking to keep India united. 2004-2014 was a period when India was ruled by Sonia Gandhi, who was a zealous enthusiast of Nehruvian secularism. This columnist predicted several times that such zeal on her part would lead not to a dimming of communal flames in India, but in their vigorous perpetuation, and so it has proved. Despite this, however, every day some “opinion maker” or the other insists on continuing with the very policies that have over nearly a century severely damaged the societal fabric of the subcontinent of India.

Through newspaper opeds, television appearances and interventions in the courts, Nehru-model secularists decry efforts at building a temple dedicated to Lord Ram at the site of his birth. They even debunk any notion of his existence, despite multiple historical proofs to the contrary. For them—in effect—the history of India began around a millennium ago, while what came before that was simply myth and legend. Fear that the courts may decree that a Ram Temple be constructed at the site where the Babri Masjid stood till 1992, has alarmed them, as in their view, such a temple would bring the “death of secularism” in our country. They are wrong. It is they who have, by slow degrees, been choking to death genuine secularism in India, by justifying and adding on to practices and decrees that are suffused with a discriminatory intent. Far from destroying communal harmony, such a temple would substantially calm the roiled waters of inter-religious strife in India. A similar act of divinely inspired grace and accommodation on the part of the Muslim community in India in the matter of handing over the original sites of the birthplace of Lord Krishna at Mathura and where the Kashi Viswanath temple stood (before it was destroyed) would diminish to vanishing point any latent impulses at communal hatred on the part of the Hindus of India. But for that to happen, the Muslim community will need to take back the veto that has long been exercised over their decisions by the small minority of Wahhabis within their midst, who oppose any act of grace and beneficence, any deed of mercy and compassion, and who constantly seek to poison inter-religious harmony in India, of course in the name of secularism.

Where in the priceless tenets made available to humanity by the Prophet Muhammad has it been said that it is an act of piety to erect a mosque atop the smashed edifice of a temple? Indeed, a case may be made that offering prayers within a structure built atop desecrated idols is a certain pathway to hell in the afterlife. Gestures of conciliation and reconciliation are what keep the peace in societies. An act of such surpassing nobility as handing over the Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi sites by Muslim brothers and sisters to the Hindu community, and subsequently building mosques elsewhere that would rival the finest in the world, would strengthen secularism in the country in a way such that it would be impossible for Hindu exclusivists (and there are indeed such) to any more gain traction. Once the Ram and Krishna places of birth and the original site of the Kashi Viswanath temple be restored to their former glory and significance, any effort (very often ISI-funded) by Hindu groups to seek to alter the status quo in respect of any other existing mosque should be met with police bullets.

Those seeking to put off to eternity the building of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya are wrong in their assumptions. Far from damaging secularism, such a temple would strengthen its roots and ensure communal harmony based on the reality of a common ethnic and cultural DNA between Indian and Indian, no matter the faith each subscribes to.

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/11898-only-communalists-oppose-ram-temple 

A new channel for mutual understanding (China Daily)

By M D Nalapat

Thanks to President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the CPC has placed emphasis not just on government-to-government contacts but also interactions between the CPC and the political parties of other countries.

On this front, Xi is moving ahead of several other world leaders, who focus on only government-to-government talks and justify it by claiming that the foreign participants in such talks also belong to a political party, and that is what diplomacy is all about.

However, the reality is, although many of the top office-bearers of political parties in several countries may not be privy to information relating to the government, their contact with the people is often deeper than senior ministers. And given this fact, very often those working at the organizational level in political parties have a far better understanding of the ground realities than those who occupy high-level posts in the government.

Xi is placing emphasis on gathering knowledge about the ground realities in different countries and, in the process, ensuring that the CPC both as a political organization and a governmental machinery knows the facts not just from foreign government sources but from political parties as well.

Only through a correct understanding of the geopolitical realities will Xi be able to give shape to the global vision mapped out in the Belt and Road Initiative, which is a grand project taken up by China. That is why it is essential to ensure each country involved in the Belt and Road Initiative sets aside its differences and cooperates with the others so as to make the initiative's operation smooth.

History tells us that the "zero sum" game forced upon countries by the major powers in the previous centuries did not yield mutually beneficial results, so China has to convince every country that its participation in the Belt and Road projects would lead to a "win-win" outcome.

The recently concluded 19th CPC National Congress represented a historical "coming of age" of not only China but also the Chinese people, and graduating to the front ranks of the international community. Indeed, in the first half of this century, China, the United States, Russia and India will become the most significant powers in the world.

But along with these four powers, the lesser powers as well as smaller countries will be critical to the success of the Belt and Road Initiative. There is an effort by those opposed to China's peaceful rise to portray the proceedings of the 19th Party Congress as reflecting a "great power" mentality that would pose a challenge to other countries.

So special efforts need to be made to make India a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, particularly because the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor component of the initiative has created a controversy in India. Ensuring that New Delhi's concerns are addressed and the second-most populous country get the same access to the benefits from the Belt and Road projects as the biggest would go a long way toward convincing India to join the initiative, as the US and Japan, in different measures, have indicated they may participate in it.

At a time when the US, and to a certain degree the European Union, are moving away from globalization, Xi has emphasized that China remains committed to globalization and free trade. And the numerous party-to-party dialogues initiated by the CPC are meant to ensure that political parties across the globe understand that China remains committed to the policy of global peace and development.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201712/08/WS5a29de55a3101a51ddf8d9b6.html