The various sides claiming to be the rightful owners of the land of Palestine, or Judea, have their sharp arguments at the ready
Who has the superior right over Palestine or, say, Judea? Hamas per se is an authorised organisation but it does represent the Arab point of view. Just as the Israeli forces are acting on behalf of virtually Jewish sentiment the world over. Who provoked the current clash and why or how, is a matter of detail. If only one side were to get the whole of Palestine, which side has a more valid right to the ownership of that land?
I had an opportunity to discuss this fundamental issue with a few educated Jews as well as Arabs and, believe it or not, also with an Israeli Christian couple when we were visiting Jerusalem a few years ago. The Arab viewpoint was that we have lived in Palestine for centuries and the fewer Jews who were here were treated well by us. There was no tension, no rioting and no fighting. Even when we saw shiploads of Jews arriving in the late 19th century and early years of the 20th, we did not resist. We might not have welcomed them warmly but we took them as people of the Book or ahl al-kitab. They call our first prophet Abraham, we call him Ibrahim; their biggest prophet was Moses, whom we call Musa and respect him. So we were cordial.
It was the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which gave us Arabs a jolt. Britain then was a big imperial power and Prime Minister Lloyd George had blessed the declaration which promised the Jews a homeland, by implication, in the Holy Land. As the 20th century progressed, more shiploads of Jews started coming in. That is when the tensions started between us and the Jews. In due course, we came to know that they were also importing arms and ammunition. That left us no choice but to get military help from the neighbouring Arab countries. After all, Palestine belonged to the Arabs who had been in a majority for centuries; it is our homeland. Where else could we go and resettle, and why should we? Remember our Prophet, riding Barukh the horse, ascended to Heaven to meet Allah the Merciful from Jerusalem and returned at the same place in two days. That also makes the city one of our holiest ones. Until a few decades ago, our namaz used to be read facing Jerusalem. Only recently the mehrabs in the masjids point to Mecca. Above all, the whole of Palestine is ours legally by adverse possession for centuries.
Quite accidentally, soon after listening to these Arab gentlemen, I bumped into a Christian couple at the hotel who claimed that their family always belonged to Palestine and, since 1948, the parents became Israelis. They said they were happy in Jerusalem which should belong to Christians, if at all, not to Muslims just because of the Al Aqsa Mosque which celebrates Prophet Muhammad’s journey to Heaven and back. On the other hand, Jesus, the son of God, was born at Bethlehem, a few miles from Jerusalem. The Lord spent his life around here, preached in Judea, was betrayed and crucified on Calvary Hill. The lady was more articulate and she pleaded fluently. She asked me: “So, you judge, is it an Arab area by right or more Christian? The Jews are nice to us Christians here.”
The several Jews I got to talk to on the subject were clear that they had the first right to Judea. They belonged here before they went to Egypt for employment but, unfortunately, the Pharaoh trapped and enslaved us. When Prophet Moses after long years liberated us, he brought us back to Judea. He was a great soul and wrote the five books of the Torah. In fact, there were no Islam in this world until 14 centuries ago whereas the Jewish right to this land is thousands of years old. Jerusalem was founded by us, we believe. Our temple on the mount was built by our ancient kings but demolished by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. We rebuilt it and it was destroyed by another invader. Now only the mount is there on whose Wailing Wall local as well as visiting Jews pray, often break down and weep.
Please remember that we have no other country that we can call our homeland and go to. We have had to roam all over the world like gypsies since we had no place of our own. Muslims have nearly 57 countries; they have no problem, why harass us with bombs and missiles from time to time? At present, it is the Hezbollah; tomorrow it could be the Hamas and the day after another group. Palestine should have been reserved for us Israelis. That would have averted so much of our suffering, anti-Semitism, pogroms and all that. It has been nice of us to let others stay in Israel and be happy. Half of Palestine is still theirs. “What more, sir?” one of them asked.
When I raised the issue of adverse possession they have enjoyed in Palestine for centuries, the answer was ready and reflex. You mean that because I stole your grandfather’s watch 30 years ago, it is legitimately mine now? You have no right over it? How would you feel?
(The writer is a well-known columnist and an author. The views expressed are personal.)
There’s an urgent need to look at the pandemic in retrospect and, drawing lessons, to plan steps for the future. We must not let our discipline flag
A new viral disease named Coronavirus or Covid-19 which became a worldwide pandemic was hitherto unknown,but emerged so far believed to be accidentally inlate 2019 from the laboratory of China’s Wuhan University’s School of Virology. China came to know of it immediately in November, 2019 but India was notified by WHO in late January, 2020. India’s Lock down was announced late night of March 25, 2020 and came into effect midnight the same day. Parliament was in its Budget Session from January 28, 2020 till March 13, 2020. Five MPs contracted the virus but recovered in due course. However, one Minister become a fatal victim of the virus.
In the research conducted for long, the US military research establishment and India’s Tata Institute for Fundamental Research through its branch in virology located in Bengaluru participated in the Wuhan research to experiment on Bats in Nagaland during 2017-18. The present Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister was a prime mover in the project. As we discovered in the deposition by Ministry officials made to the Standing Committee, the Nagaland Bat Research Project was implemented without formal clearance of the Modi Government. Because of my insistence, the Government agreed to constitute an Inquiry into the irregular Bat research project, especially since Chinese money was paid for research conducted. Such disregard of procedures, necessary for clearance of foreign funded research should never again be allowed with impunity by the Government.
Because the Pandemic emerged In India suddenly, followed by a drastic nation-wide lockdown with just four hour notice through a television broadcastby the Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw the nation into complete pandemonium.There were no vaccines for the entire new virus and deaths were taking in unprecedented pace. People were stunned with the seriousness of the illness that followed. Indians particularly were vulnerable because the majority lacked social protection and easy access to quality health care and had meager productive assets.
Nevertheless the team led by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan did a commendable day and night work, brought the incidence down steadily so much so the world began to felicitate India. But this led to celebration, and complacency despite scientists in India warning a second round could come soon which be a new more terrible variant. This did come like a tsunami completely disrupting the medical infrastructure and the disruption feeding on the lack of contingency planning for another more virulent variant. Nations which were praising India earlier now suddenly began sneering at our pathetic situation and referred to the new virus as the “Indian variant”. These countries have been shy to call the original Covid 19 a “Chinese Virus”.
The recent outbreak of second wave of COVID -19 and the oxygen shortages in India have clearlypinpointed the lacunae in the Government administration.The Government however began devoting attention for producing anti Covid-19 vaccine. Despite India being the largest and cheapest producer of vaccines in the world, Modi government began focusing on a foreign imported vaccine produced by a joint venture of Oxford University and Swedish Astra Zeneca. This vaccine did not have clearance in US, EU or even now in Sweden itself, not to mention Denmark and other nations.When it was announced that the Pune based Serum Institute of India SII would get the exclusive contract to produce Covishield, I raised a public protest and also requested for a urgent meeting of the Parliament’s Standing Committee to know why the Bharat Biotech Ltd headed by a husband Dr. Krishna Ella & wife team, both Ph. Ds from the University of Wisconsin USA and settled in India, which could produce a wholly swadeshi vaccine, and much cheaper, was denied the contract.
It was good that at first I got the Union Health Ministry’s full support and then the Prime Minister called an urgent meeting at late night the same day announced the Bharat Biotech would also get the contract to produce Covaxin. Dr. Krishna Ella was one of those rare persons who tweeted thanking me for my efforts. Later the Prime Minister also showed his faith by taking the Covaxin two shots at AIIMS. Today, because of Bharat Biotech we may be able to become self-sufficient by 2021 end. Unlike other foreign vaccines, Covaxin has the best performance as far as the collateral side effects are concerned. Reputed scholarly magazines such as Lancet have praised the Covaxin performance as optimal. According to the lead Editorial of Economic Times dated May 17, 2021, titled : “To Beat Variants, Go Big on Covaxin” and subtitled “It’s found to neutralise all emerging variants,” it is stated that “ With a study in the peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Infectious Diseases, revealing that indigenously developed Covaxin is effective against all known variants of Covid-19, the Government should make increasing its production a chief priority.” This is the second best tribute after the international reputed Lancet praised Covaxin.
Where do we stand today in India in terms of ending the pandemic and returning what we know as regular freedom of life and liberty? The light at the end of the dark tunnel is visible but we can trip again en route to the exit out from the darktunnel? Within the latest variant of Covid-19 peaking around May 15 this year, if our discipline does not flag as it did during mid-March to May first week, as it did as exemplified by pandemonium of election rallies, Kumbh Mela, and sheer indiscipline on the streets, we should be rid of the latest variant induced Covid-19 pandemic.
There is no doubt that the medical infrastructure in India is weak because of the lack of required Budgetary allocation for Health, years after years at less than 1.5 per cent of the total budget. Even the Finance Minister displaying her total lack of application of mind, in her written speech which she read out in Parliament in February this year, that Health Ministry would get an increase of 137 per cent more than last year’s revised estimate, when in fact as pointed out by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, it was barely above last year’s after adjusting for inflation. Such ignorant Ministers are the bane of the BJP government’s governance capability. This needs to be rectified. That is why I had suggested that the Prime Minister delegate by setting up a Crisis Management Task Force to be headed by an acclaimed efficient Minister such as Nitin Gadkari.
We must also rethink the future of our environment and tackle climate change and environmental degradation with ambition and urgency. Only then can we protect the health, livelihoods, food security and nutrition of all people, and ensure that our ‘new normal’ is a better onethan before ever. The scenario is such that it is now a test for those in power and authority who have proclaiming “Vikas” and Aatmanirbhar Bharat to display accountability, responsibility and obligation. The governing process suffered huge turbulence; the governed running helter-skelter; and governance stands truncated.
The author is Member of the Rajya Sabha and Parliamentary Standing Committee for Health and Family Welfare. The views expressed are personal.
New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) 'Has China won' is one of the most vital questions of our time. And the time is not inconsequential here.
We are living in a period of a pandemic which originated in China, killed millions and is still taking its toll, crushed global economy and has brought the world to an existential crisis of an unprecedented magnitude.
So much so that the world has been wondering if the American primacy and the world order, established since the World War II, is over?
After the monumental failure to prevent the ongoing catastrophe, does the US still have the military, economic and above all, the scientific might to call itself as the world's leader? Has its over-dependence on China been pragmatic? Are the US and China equals now? Or have the scales tipped in favour of China?
Among many China admirers, Singapore civil servant and career diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has been making a case that China is an equal of the US and has therefore rightfully earned its spot on the cliff where until now only Washington's flag was hoisted.
Mahbubani, who grew up under 'one man one family rule' in Singapore, is understandably in awe of China. Through his various articles, interviews and his latest book 'Has China Won?', he argues that the world would be better off if both the players maintain balance through this bipolarity.
On the surface, Mahbubani is eloquent in weaving this grand narrative about how China under Xi Jinping has economically, technologically and socio-politically, arrived on the globe. Though at a military level, he concedes that the US remains way more powerful but he insists that the two countries will never compete on that front because it will ensure complete mutual destruction.
In every other arena, he puts China at par with the US and even goes on to justify the Chinese system, and all its excesses - authoritarianism, aggression, expansionism - with every logical fallacy available in the toolkit of courtiers of an imperial power.
Wherever he is not able to provide any justifications for the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) totalitarian functioning, he has spent voluminous amounts of argumentation to establish that the US has been a bigger unscrupulous hegemon. At other places, he repeatedly draws a false moral equivalence between the US and China.
But instead of holding both the US and the CCP accountable for their foreign and trade policies which have wrecked the developing and under developed world, he is urging both the imperialistic powers, with a wink and a nudge to join hands and share hegemonic space with each other.
The only mistake China seems to have made with respect to its relations with the US, from his perspective, is that before Xi Jinping's ascension, the country did not have enough centralised control in provinces to address the concerns of American investors.
Part of the mistake was that China displayed hubris, following the subprime crisis in the States. America is facing a working class crisis (the Trump phenomenon), according to him, only because the US wasted nearly $5 trillion on wars in the Middle East since 9/11.
The problem with his argumentation is that he selectively chooses his facts. The fact is that from the end of WW-II in 1945 till post-9/11 War on Terror, the US has spent massive amounts of funds on dozens of prolonged wars and conflicts in Korea, Lao, Vietnam, Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, Gulf, Somalia, Afghanistan etc.
Yet, there was no such working class crisis through those military interventions as it has been since the US outsourced its manufacturing to China in the last two decades. Also, how will the post-9/11 $5 trillion expenditure compare with the billions spent on all those conflicts and wars, after adjusted for inflation, is a moot question.
China benefited hugely from the US capital and technology after opening up its economy under Deng Xiaoping. But in that process, the US working classes suffered due to China's illegal export subsidies, tariffs, quotas, manipulation of and undervalued currency, piracy, theft of intellectual property, predatory pricing, dumping and protectionism.
Consider the fact that the US domestic manufacturing sector was predominantly run by the baby boomers. After China became the hub of manufacturing, the US began importing Chinese manufactured goods massively and the skilled labor in the American manufacturing turned jobless.
The new jobs created in the US were mostly in service sectors driven by technology which required new skills. As a result, the working classes in the US, remained unabsorbed. However, the US weapons manufacturing continued to retain jobs including those of the working classes.
Additionally, in the last three decades, while the US lost jobs mostly in the manufacturing sector to China, the exports and dollar-led growth in China was used by the CCP to create significant differential and domination in all the areas from rare earth elements to the agricultural sector.
The West knew importance of rare earth in semiconductors, IP in digital economy but it never leveraged knowledge to create firewalls. With the rise of the West, the world saw opening up of universities to international students, access to key defence industries, unmatched access for foreigners in Silicon Valley, NASA etc.
Mahbubani may boast about Tsing Hua or Peeking universities or Chinese Science academy, Huawei, ZTE employing foreigners in 5G/6G research but he is unable to prove that upward journey of China thus far is as open and as superior in purpose for the rest of the world.
The world will always be open to better leadership but not self-centered and consumed power. If anything Chinese people are seeing their hard work and sacrifice, enabling the power and wealth corridors of Beijing consolidated in the hands of few.
The US assumed China's economic liberalization would lead to democratization of its state and society. However, that did not happen. Instead, one party rule has transformed into one man rule in China. The speed and scale at which China acquired control over key knobs of frontier technology demonstrates that this power will go far beyond than the worst of Western imperial powers have ever attempted.
At a political level, Mahbubani has gone beyond any other cheerleader of China in academia. One of the bottom lines of his argumentation is that while the CCP wants to merely rejuvenate the Chinese civilization, it has no missionary zeal to convert everyone into Chinese and take over the world. The conclusion is flawed.
In 2018, Xi Jinping fortified his position in the constitution, to a degree not seen in the country since Mao, by making himself China's President for life. At the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress in October that year, while articulating modern China's aspirations as a global power, he argued that his regime was a model for governance that other developing countries should adopt.
He was clear that he believed in the superiority of the Chinese system and not the world order established by the West.
Not only does Mahbubani defend the closed and authoritarian Chinese political system, but he argues that democracy should not be the end goal in a society if the alternative structures can provide social and political cohesion. He wants the world to believe that the Chinese people (who have not known anything better) under the CCP are voluntarily in agreement with its tightly controlled system and are happy.
The Singapore academic believes that it would have been easier for America to accept the rise of another power if China were a fellow Western democratic power, especially a fellow Anglo-Saxon power. But then Mahbubani does not tell us why China finds it hard to accept the rise of India as another power in Asia, apart from itself.
He, however, insists that the US and China should look at similarities rather than differences. One of the similarities, he argues is that the national interest of both societies is to improve the well being of their respective people.
Although this is common to all countries but he, in this particular case overlooks the fundamental nature of the world and international relations where each state will always act in its own interest first.
Also, the national interests of the US or overall West, involve much more than just the well being of their people. In the last 400 years or so, the West has been at the forefront of scientific inventions and innovation.
China under the native Ming and Qing dynasties, did not have much to show off. All its recent forays into science and technology, is an outcome of globalisation and the world created by the West in the last four centuries.
The only name China really has earned for itself in the last three decades is in copying technology and manufacturing cheap products.
Mahbubani fails to tell his readers and viewers how the US institutions, their transparency and accountability remain superior to those in the Chinese system. To him, the Western values of freedom, free speech and expression, free press, electoral democracy, public opinion and the power of common man to defeat an elected dispensation through one vote, is trivial.
Nor does he think it is of any importance to consider why the developing world looks upto the West and not to China even as the Dragon has established its muscle and might in the last three decades. There is no insight in his pro-China campaign into why soft power of the Western culture remains the greatest appeal for the young across the world.
We proudly state that India is a secular State, but are we actually not communal?
For several days the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been going on. We in India have seen on YouTube rockets being fired by Hamas, which are often intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome, and the demolition of buildings in Gaza by the Israeli Air Force.
What do Indians think about all this?
About 80 per cent Indians are Hindus, and about 16 per cent are Muslims. Almost all Hindus, including the so called ‘intellectuals’ among them (academics, mediapersons, professionals like lawyers and doctors, writers, etc) support Israel in this conflict, and almost all Indian Muslims support the Palestinians. Only the so-called ‘liberals’ among the Hindus support the Palestinians, but these would be hardly five per cent of all Hindus. The rest believe all Muslims everywhere in the world to be trouble-makers and terrorists.
This is because despite the Indian Constitution calling India a secular country, the truth is it is highly communal. Most Hindus are communal, and so are most Muslims. This I can say from personal knowledge. When I am with my own relatives, and they are sure no Muslim is around, they often spout venom against Muslims, who are perceived as fanatics and anti-national. When a Muslim is lynched in India most Hindus are indifferent, and some even happy. One terrorist less! In fact, it is because most Hindus are communal that the BJP, which claims to represent the Hindus, won the parliamentary elections in India in 2014 and 2019, and came to power. Thereafter, polarisation of Indian society on religious lines has grown exponentially. No doubt the recent farmers agitation in India cut through caste and religious lines, and the ongoing pandemic has been a reverse to the BJP which is being blamed by the people for not properly handling it. But these are temporary phenomena. Once they are over, the country will again revert to the old status.
The truth is that secularism is a feature of industrial society, as in North America and Europe, but India is still semi-feudal, and most people here are strongly religious. The religious divide between Hindus and Muslims was fanned up by the British rulers by their policy of divide and rule (see my article ‘The Truth about Pakistan’ and BN Pande’s ‘History in the service of Imperialism’ online), and continued even after Independence in 1947 by some vested interests, particularly after the BJP came to power in 2014.
Some people claim that the recent elections in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the BJP and/or its ally (like the ADMK) suffered a reverse, shows that the BJP is on the decline. I do not agree. A few carefully engineered communal riots will neutralise this trend.
Unless India becomes a highly industrialised country, communalism will thrive in India. To end communalism, a radical transformation of Indian society is required, which is only possible by a mighty historical united people’s struggle, culminating in a revolution, but this is as yet nowhere on the horizon.
(The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court. The views expressed are personal.)
( Courtesy PIONEER )
In an increasingly globalised world, there is greater civilisational, social and ethnic self-consciousness. But cultural identity is what is most meaningful to most people
India has seen an uprising of religious consciousness, pride, assertiveness and aggression in recent years like never before. The credit or blame is reserved for the BJP generally, though now prominent parties like the AAP, TMC and Congress are also seen as following suit.But is rise of religious and civilizational identity particular to India, or is it a global phenomenon of our times? From Islamic nations to Europe, from Brazil to Philippines the phenomenon seems to be taking shape.Three decades ago, the American political scientist Samuel Huntington made such a prophesy for our times.
The post-Cold war world has changed fundamentally, so he wrote. The world has never been multipolar and multicivilizational before -- while being so interconnected - in the entire human history. The most important distinctions between people in this new world will not be ideological or economic but cultural; most important and dangerous conflicts will occur not between rich or poor but between people belonging to different cultural entities.End of Cold war has led to global resurgence of religions around the world, involving intensification of religious consciousness, rise of fundamentalist movements,escalating ethnic conflicts and ethnic cleansing.
Huntington identifies another significant phenomenon taking place in the post-Cold war world: the relative decline of the western power. East is on its way to equating with the West. The US and UN are unable to suppress bloody local conflicts and rising China is increasingly assertive. Asian civilisations are expanding economically. Economic growth creates basis for enhanced military power and political influence.As the power and self-confidence of non-Western societies increases, they assert their own cultural values and reject those imposed on them by West. Most notable cultural resurgence is happening in Asia and Islamic nations generated by their economic and demographic dynamism.
The multi-civilisational world and rise of religions: Huntington writes empires rise and fall, governments come and go, civilizations remain and survive political, social, economic, even ideological upheavals. The great religions are the foundations on which great civilisations rest (Confucianism, Hindu, Islam, Judeo-Christian).The 20th century ideological conflict between Liberal Democracy and Marxist Leninism was only a fleeting, superficial historical phenomenon, a temporary aberration in the centuries-old human history. History of the world has been the history of civilizations, and conflict between them. Religion is the most important factor in determining civilisation.
The most salient cause of religious revival is the process of social, economic and cultural modernization which has disrupted longstanding system of identity and authority. In an increasingly globalised world, there is greater civilisational, social and ethnic self-consciousness — because people define themselves by what makes them different from others. Cultural identity is what is most meaningful to most people.
In this new world, local politics is the politics of ethnicity; global politics is the politics of civilizations. The rivalry of superpower is replaced by the clash of civilizations. Global politics began to be reconfigured along cultural lines: civilizational identities are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and conflict. Present day conflicts between West and China, West and Islam, cohesion and unity of Islamic nations, China and Islamic connection against West, Turkish and Iranian support to Azerbaijan in conflict can all be explained on the basis of this theory.
Is western liberalism universal? Most non-western nations take offence to the West’s sitting as the jury on the level of democracy and freedom in their governing systems- while the non-western world can never judge the west.Huntington questions the imposition of western liberalism on the non-western world: its universalism. He states that western assumption that the only river of civilization is our own and all others are either tributaries to it or lost in the desert sand is an egocentric illusion of the West.Universalism justifies western cultural domination over others by making other societies ape western practices and institutions. What west calls universal, others see as imperialism. It increasingly brings West into conflict with other civilizations, most seriously with Islam and China.
He states major differences in political and economic development among civilizations are clearly rooted in their different cultures. East Asian economic success as well as difficulties in achieving stable democratic political system, has its source in East Asian culture. Islamic culture explains failure of emergence of democracy in much of Islamic world. Japan and India are the only two civilizations which had a class system paralleling that of the West; why only two non-western societies to sustain major democratic governments. The recent coup in Myanmar, dictatorial regimes in Russia and Turkey despite their proximity to the West, failure of West to import democracy to Iraq, Afghanistan, North African nations after Arab Spring can be understood by Huntington’s theory.
Huntington dismisses Fukuyama’s End of History theory that predicts victory of western liberalism over all other ideologies.The collapse of communism in Soviet Union doesn't necessarily mean that other societies will import the Western ideology of liberal democracy - this underestimates the non-western culture’s creativity, resilience and individuality. This thinking is rooted in Cold War perspective, that liberal democracy is the only alternative to communism. There are many forms of authoritarianism, nationalism, corporatism and market communism (China) that are alive and well in the world today. More significantly there are religious alternatives that lie outside secular ideologies.
Modernisation and Westernisation: Huntington questions that modernization essentially needs westernization. No one political ideology or set of institutions -- elections, civic associations and other hallmark of western life — are necessary for economic growth. Non-western societies have modernised and can do so without adopting values, institutions, practices of the west. Gulf nations and East Asian economies are the living examples of this in our times.
In fundamental ways the world is becoming more modern and less western. Modernisation strengthens cultures adopting it and reduces relative power of the west. At individual level, modernisation breaks traditional bonds and social relations, creating crises of identity to which religious provides an answer.
Decline of the West: The challenge that the west faces is not just economic but more importantly to its political influence and liberal value system. The greatest challenge comes from Islam and China, that embody great cultural tradition very different from West and in their eyes superior to it. Throughout the history when a civilisation’s power has expanded, it has always used that power to extend its values, practices and institutions to other societies. The era dominated by western ideologies is over, new era will have multiple and diverse civilizations interact, compete and coexist and accommodate with each other.
Second generation indigenisation phenomenon is taking place all over the non-western world. In 1960-70s pro-west governments and west-leaning (often western educated) leaders were threatened by coups and revolutions; in 1980-90s they were increasingly in danger of being ousted by elections. Electoral competitions are won by most popular appeals of ethnic, nationalistic and religious character.
Another challenge that the West faces is the democracy paradox: democratisation conflicts with westernisation. Democracy is inherently a parochialising, not cosmopolitanising, process. As non-western societies take to democracy, or deepen democracy, they seek to assert their own value systems and rebel against the western diktats, often a change from friendly dictator to unfriendly democratic regime for the west. Regionalisation will be the central trend in post-cold war global politics. The US is not likely to have the military capability to manage regional contingencies.
The author is a public policy analyst and a lawyer. The views expressed are personal.
( Courtesy PIONEER )
Are we on the right path to addressing the pandemic? Do we have the right people on our right side?
One of the most prominent scientific voices of the COVID-19 pandemic, virologist Shahid Jameel has resigned as the head of the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia (INSACOG), the scientific advisory group coordinating the country’s genome-sequencing work. The scientific body advising the Union Government on the epidemiological and virological aspects of handling the COVID pandemic is the poorer by the surprise resignation of the virologist. He chaired the INSACOG that the Government set up this January to use genetic sequencing to track the emergence of the COVID variants. The consortium first detected the deadly Indian variant, B.1.617, in February itself and shared the findings with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the Health Ministry in early March. It stated that the variant may cause a spurt in infections across the country. The consortium found out that B.1.617 had two mutations, called E484Q and L452R, that could transmit faster and escape antibodies as well. The Health Ministry made this information public on March 24. Responding to a query by the Reuters news agency about the lack of a more robust response from the Government to the findings, Shahid Jameel said: “I am worried that science was not taken into account to drive policy. But I know where my jurisdiction stops. As scientists we provide the evidence, policymaking is the job of the Government.” He may not have been mending bridges with his well-known candour. Jameel continued to follow the Indian strain and regularly inform the Government.
On May 13, he wrote a signed article in the New York Times, critical of India’s response, specially about vaccination. “India should vaccinate with far more than the two million daily doses now….In India the virus was mutating around the new year to become more infectious, more transmissible and better able to evade pre-existing immunity….The timing and scale of the third wave would depend on the proportion of vaccinated people, whether newer variants emerge and whether India can avoid additional super-spreader events, like large weddings and religious festivals….….” Jameel gave no reason for quitting the post, but he may just have reached the end of the long rope. Previously, Dr Gagandeep Kang, another scientist and the only Indian woman to be elected as Fellow, the Royal Society of London, resigned as the executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute. She is also the vice-chairperson for Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, a global consortium facilitating promising vaccine candidates for COVID-19. Kang was also the head of the National COVID-19 task force constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research for a similar purpose, but disbanded within a month. She is also known to speak out her mind. It is high time that the scientific task force is headed by virologists —with the bureaucrats handling the execution side.
( Courtesy Pioneer )
ontrary to what the critics might say, we have a nation that is strong enough to accommodate all the viewpoints
Lately, several observers of democracy, the Freedom House of the US, V Dem based in Sweden and the Democracy Index of the UK, have commented that India may be moving towards an electoral autocracy. Such a conclusion is extremely unfair and positively damaging. Evidently, these agencies and others are unable to appreciate India having a strong Government. While the American establishment, especially the Pentagon, would like a viable ally against the expansionist China, these so-called liberals prefer to see India as a permanent Third World Society.
Do they realise that India has a dominantly Hindu ethos which is intrinsically an epitome of freedom? Anyone who believes in the phenomenon of karma is a Hindu. Whether he/she is a whole-time worshipper or an agonistic, it enjoys or suffers the fruit of his karma. No god sits on judgement over any individual or his/her community; there is no anticipation of a doomsday or an end of the world. Anadi-ananta, or there is no beginning of life and no end, according to Hindu scriptures.
Karma is reminiscent of physics, which says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every action by an individual, whether virtuous or vicious, is spontaneously recorded by the grand nature or its celestial computer as well as its reaction or bhagya. There is no single judge, nor only two alternatives for the individual, namely heaven or hell.
Any assertion of a single god resembles Deductive Logic which asserts a premise namely so and so is my God and He is the only God. The corollaries that emanate from the premise are flawlessly consistent. In sharp contrast, Hinduism is a specimen of Inductive Logic. Herein lies the freedom intrinsic to Hinduism. To illustrate this contrast, say, four Hindus happened to meet somewhere and discuss the subject of roses. The person from the north may say that roses are red. The southerner could assert that he has seen only white roses. The easterner may express serious disagreement and insist that the roses in his region are only pink. The person from western India may say you are wrong; roses are always yellow. After half an hour of animated argumentation, each would say: Possibly in your parts of the country, there are other colours of roses. Someone else would propose: Let us agree to disagree, and request that we exchange samples of all four colours.
A member of an Abrahamic or western background, in such a controversial situation, may well declare that roses are always red; the rest must be other flowers or, perhaps, weeds. Just as a Jew is a Jew, the rest are gentiles. That is where conflict and war begin. Prophet Abraham, when he first saw a vision, said God told him to prove his bonfires by sacrificing his own son Isaac. When he was about to obey God and behead Isaac, the Almighty told him to stop and sacrifice a goat instead. The western religion was thus born in violence; Prophet Moses had a much more violent experience when he freed the Israelis from the clutches of the Egyptians and brought them to Judea.
Again, Jesus Christ, the “son of God”, was brutally crucified, more violence.
When we went to Jerusalem, one morning the guide took us all to the foot of the Calvary Hill on the top of which Jesus Christ was was crucified. There are 14 stations, or stops, to the top of the hill where now is the Church of Sepulchre; the “son of God” was buried therein. At the time, I was too weak to climb all the distance. To please my wife and cousins, I said I would climb to station two and sit down and wait for them to return from the top. However, a magnet in the air drew me on and on. I went up all the 14 stations. I am not a Christian nor have been to a missionary school. So, I climbed to the top of the hill and returned without feeling any great extra weakness or fatigue.
In the deductive religions, there is limited scope for spirituality beyond the scriptures and places of worship. As a result, the believers tend to unite communally and fight in order to fulfill themselves collectively in the service of God. Whereas, the inductive Hindus are dependent on individual karmas and have no pressure to unite to serve society and, in turn, God. In the bargain, they unite only in the face of severe collective danger. In the bargain, they believe they are peace-loving and in the eyes of others they might seem deficient in courage. But those who believe in the deductive approach have their histories littered with violence and war.
As early as the ascension of Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD, the Caliphs initiated the conquest of the Middle-East, including Morocco in the west, to Iran in the east. The Moors of North Africa invaded Spain in 712 AD and reached Poitiers in France soon. Historian Ian Morris, in his book WAR, calls it the “Five Hundred-Years War” but it was actually longer. Eventually, Britain alone conquered one-fourth of the world.
(The writer is a well-known columnist and an author. The views expressed are personal.)
( Courtesy PIONEER )
K S Raju Legal Trust to move UN to recognize genocide of Hindus and Sikhs, Kerala Governor, Chief Minister Punjab, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Addl Chief Secretary Tamil Nadu Dr Jagmohan Raju, and filmmaker Harvinder Sikka address
K S Raju Legal Trust organized a virtual session to celebrate the 400th birth anniversary of the 9th Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur ji.
Speakers from three different religious backgrounds addressed the webinar including Governor of Kerala Shri Arif Mohammad Khan, Art of Living founder Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt Amarinder Singh.
In his opening remarks the moderator of the session, Dr Jagmohan Singh Raju, Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of Tamil Nadu lamented that UN has conveniently ignored the genocide perpetrated on the Indian populace over centuries ignoring acts of violence against non-Abrahamic religions like Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.
He also appealed to commemorate Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom day as a ‘Day of Commemoration in memory of the Hindu and Sikh victims of Genocide and Holocaust.
All the speakers referred to Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom a unique example in the world when he stood against the oppressors to condemn forcible religious conversion and persecution of people from a different religious beliefs.
Shri Arif Mohammad Khan, Governor of Kerala in his presidential remarks referred to Guruji’s sacrifice which epitomized the values that the Sikhism has imbibed over the centuries believing in the oneness of mankind.
Quoting extensively from Guru Granth Saheb, Vedas and Indian ethos that have been time and again proven by the Sikhs through their acts and firm belief in ‘sarbat da bhala’, Kerala’s governor recalled how Sikhs with miniscule presence in the state rallied from across the country and abroad to help the flood victims last year.
What better way to demonstrate the religious tolerance and oneness can be better displayed when the foundation stone of the world’s most sacred place of Sikhs, the Golden temple, was laid by a person of different religious denomination.
Capt. Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, recalled the long association his family had with the Gurus who visited Patiala, a legacy that is being carried forward by renovating all those places where Gurus visited under the “Charan Chho” project.
He informed that nearly 103 such places in Punjab have been identified which are not only being preserved to keep the future generations in touch with their great heritage and the values that Sikh Gurus promoted, besides undertaking a massive forestation efforts as part of celebrations with planting of 60 lakh saplings under current anniversary celebrations of Guru Tegh Bahadur and 75 lakh were planted earlier during Guru Nanak Dev’s 500th celebrations.
Guru Saheb stood for secularism and he was a universally acknowledged spiritual leader and was rightly called, ‘Hind di chaddar’, he said.
His government is preparing several programmes to commemorate the occasion which had to be postponed because of the pandemic and once the situation eases our endeavour is to spread the message across the globe, Capt Amarinder Singh said.
Besides renovating the jail in Bassi Pathana where Guru sahib were imprisoned, his universal message of one humanity and religious freedom shall continue to be promoted.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar began his address with “Waheguru ji ki khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh”, and said that Guru Tegh Bahadur taught a powerful message to the world that you should not forsake those who believe in you.
The exemplary role that Sikhs have always played during any crisis is reflection of the teachings of the great gurus that they have imbibed into their lives, Sri Sri said. They have learnt the lesson that as human you cannot be a back-bencher or shy away from one’s responsibility as a human to help those in need, to stand up and act.
And the greatest truth, Gurudev said, is not to be carried away ever by the arrogance and pride of power, but stay humbled and standup for truth.
Later, reputed filmmaker of “Nanak Shah Faqir” and “Raazi”, Harvinder Singh Sikka, in his expression of gratitude considered the opportunity as a Divine gift for being a part of such discussions which revealed many unknown facets of Sikh history, including Maharaja of Patiala’s interaction with the Sikh Gurus that need to be documented and shared.
Sikhism, more than a religion, began and still is, a way of life, remarked Harvinder Sikka.
Somehow, the States and the Union Government are passing on the impression that it has been unable to meet the challenge of the virus
Thoughts of prospective troubles hardly come true, and most people die of visceral fear of spectre or something that doesn't exist. "Ninety per cent of our problems are caused by our own thoughts," says Hilda de la Rosa, a South African popular author and motivational speaker. She says, entrapped in our thought processes, we find it arduous to extricate ourselves from the thinking pattern we have imbibed over years. Unaware of the facts about morbidity and mortality due to Covid or otherwise, most people are caught with the fear psychosis that is taking a larger toll than the pandemic itself.The predicament has shaken people of all description. The pandemic 2.0 is hitting Indians with greater intensity and virulence but a sensible and broader perspective can reduce the hype and assure the implications of the current crisis are not as dismal as being made out.
Certain mystery shrouds the resurgence of Covid 2.0 with new strains. True, the plateauing of Covid cases in India by last fall led to public and government complacence about continuing risks. And the the government toned down restrictions. As the going seemed manageable, shops,restaurants, wholesale and retail markets, malls,schools, public transport, businesses and public establishments tended to function normally.Export of jet fighters, plans to lay 75,000+ stations to charge electric vehicles, supply of domestically produced Covid vaccine to 87 countries and medicines to over 150 countries meant progression towards a vibrant economy and making of "atmanirbhar" nation. Naturally, the Indian buoyancy and optimism was not palatable to arms, oil, and pharma lobbies,as theycould lose huge businesses in India; apropos of 5-billion-dollar PPE and masks deals alone came to a naught in one shot, oil companies were next. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who repeatedly said and meant 'desh nahi lutne dunga, desh nahin bikne dunga' was a common enemy who would not bend like Donald Trump of the US. For the global business magnates to flourish in India, Modi's downsizingwith the aid of domestic disgruntled elements appeared the only option. To support them was neighbouring China. Possibility of China-sponsored biological war behind the abrupt rise in Covid cases in India bypassing the neighbouring countries with identical life style during April 10-15 cannot be ruled out. Accompanying this was the opposition's refrain of failure of Modi government to deal with Covid, enthusiastically supported by Western media.On April 20, international media showed'large scale' cremations and highlighted deficiencies in Indian health care sector. Strangely, at this hour, Pakistan also offered to help India.
The anti-government chorus was endorsed by UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore on May 4: "The tragic situation in India should raise alarm bellsfor all of us." Most recent is the editorial in the medical journal Lancet summarily undermining the government's efforts in dealing with Covid;the vindictive portion being, "Modi's actions in attempting to stifle criticism and open discussion during the crisis crisis are inexcusable". The statement suggesting the government "own up to its mistakes" is the tone of a hardcore political adversary and in bad taste, unbecoming of a medical publication. Reports about Chinese instigations behind the sordid coverage and observations on India's handling of Covid shall be revalatory.
At home, during Covid 1.0, the Opposition decried lockdowns for its adverse implications on livelihoods. In second wave, after States were allowed to decide at their own level, they chose lockdown. They also criticised the efficacy of vaccine, then took it one by one. The purpose was creating a public impression that government is unwilling and unfit to manage Covid crisis, something not in national interest.
Ambiguity in identifying the precise aetiology, genesis and manifestations of Covid 2.0 further tends to destabilise the poise of lay public. The doctors find it expedient to classify routine health issues as Covid in keeping with trends. The head of a prestigious health facility,Dr Arvind Kumar of Medanta, Gurugram: Consider any one of symptoms like sneezing, headache, fever, throat soar, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of smell or taste, skin patches, body ache as Covid case unless proved otherwise, and begin with self-isolation without wait for lab reports - even negative reports with either symptom must be treated as Covid. Such precepts further down the already diminishing morale of the patient and his kith and kin that needs bolstering in the nerve breaking era we are passing through.
As for the numbers gamein Covid, national morbidity and mortality data across states in specific time frames are subject to wide fluctuations because transmission of Covid is multifactorialin nature involvingthe vision of the governmentad thestrict measures it takes to control the pandemic including health facilities.Thus,it shall be naïve to pronounce judgement on the performance of the governance based on infections and death data of few days, weeks or even months; policies and actions take long to show results. Taking the Covid data of April 28, 2021, though numerically India witnessed largest daily deaths (3647) compared to USA (954), Germany (320), France (344) and Italy (344), the deaths per crore population turns out to be mere 26 for India and 29, 38, 48 and 57, respectively, for these countries (source: worldometers.info). Thus, the narrative that India is worst hit by Covid smacks of foul play to tarnish the image of India.
Doctors are not knowalls in health matters but in a few weeks after Covid 2.0, how do they presume that all non-Covid diseases have eclipsed altogether. Based on 2017 data, World Economic Forum analysis revealed 25,270 daily deaths in India, second to China at 28,036. The estimated global annual death toll for tuberculosis of all kinds in 2019 stood at 14.18 lakh and 79,144 in India; for HIV-related diseases the annual death toll was 5-9 lakh globally and 69,000 for India in 2017. These figures shall not be significantly different for 2020 and 2021. A fair, comparative assessment of quantitative changes in morbidity and mortality in pre-Covid and it a time frame shows that the Covid death toll as reported is misleading and ignores mortality from classical diseases. The actual Covid toll is not of the level we are told to make out.
The fear against COVID is largely visceral. It is the spectre of COVID that is the real threat, and not the virus itself. The virus with a life of around seven days is an issue only in about three to five per cent cases where specialist handling is required. We are undergoing times when each section of country has to lend a helping hand. Let us face the facts squarely, keep our peace and hope for the best.
The author is a blogger at www.bluntspeaker.com and writes on health, spiritual, and social issues.
( Courtesy PIONEER )
Despite reverses, the nation needs to keep reminding of the goal ahead: Keep ourselves healthy
On April 19, at a virtual event organised by the All India Management Association, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar fielded a question from industrialist Sunil Munjal about India exporting or donating vaccines without first satisfying the domestic demand. The Minister said: “So ask yourself this question — can I go around and say ‘guys, keep your supply chains flowing towards me and, by the way, the end product of the supply chain I am asking you raw material for — vaccine — but I am not going to give you the vaccine’. If you get into this, why are you exporting at all; then someone else will ask why am I exporting to India and that is so shortsighted and only really irresponsible, really non-serious people will make that argument and, by the way, there are some around as you would have noticed.” What he did not tell Munjal was that the vaccine doses donated by India, that is, given free to several foreign countries, were only 10.75 million out of a total 66.37 million doses shown as “Made-in-India vaccine supplies” on the Ministry of External Affairs website. A substantial part of it, 35.79 million doses to be precise, are commercial and licensing liabilities of the two vaccine manufacturers, the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. Another 19.86 million doses are vaccines sent abroad because of the agreement the manufacturers had signed to obtain raw materials for producing the vaccines.
The last two types of supplies were tagged along with the free doses supplied. The vaccine diplomacy of New Delhi, called “Vaccine Maitri”, began on January 21 and lasted till April 16. In this period, India had supplied abroad all the vaccine it possibly could and the rationale for this comes from no less a person than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. At the inaugural Raisina Dialogue on April 13, he said: “…this year, despite many constraints, we have supplied vaccine to over 80 countries. We know that the supplies have been modest. We know that the demands are huge. We know that it will be a long time before the entire humanity can be vaccinated. At the same time, we also know that hope matters.” During this period, doses were sent to 95 countries across the world. Now comes the part where the Government did not do what it was supposed to do during this period of “Maitri”. On May 11, the cumulative doses given to Indians stood at 17.51 crore and no more orders were placed in this period even though shortages were being reported. In early May, the Government said it was still to receive 23 million doses from its previous order and placed fresh orders of around 160 million doses. These orders, for May, June and July, are supposed to be met by July. The manufacturers have their own compulsions meeting the orders in time and the vaccination drive awaits vaccines, free or paid for, in the meantime.
(Courtesy PIONEER )
In these pandemic times, do we remember that we had a time filled with the zest for life, ambitions and hope? Where is it now?
It was the summer of the 71. Agra, my hometown, was flooded. Our house, on a higher ground, was a bit less affected; nevertheless, water had entered the ground floor and we were perched on the top. As the rescue boats went by, we children were busy floating paper boats as playthings. They were, though inanimate, like our aspirations and thoughts. The boats, of course, couldn’t do a long course. But our imagination did. Those days we children had so much to do, so much to learn from the life around us that there was never a dull moment. Indeed! , for the children who spent their childhood around 50 years back, they had a childhood quite different from the current crop.
Innocence! That’s was all we had. The world around us was our playground. It was all real; there was nothing virtual about it. Yes, we children knew so little about everything else that was not in our immediate vicinity. But that was fun, exploring on our own and enjoying every bit of it. Unlike now, the phones were unheard of. We had wired phones instead, which we made with a thread and two matchboxes.
But the connections they provided were pretty strong. The parents at that time were different, too. They hardly cared what the child studied at the school unless a complaint from the school came in. They would often forget the standard in which their child studied. The only day the father would come into the picture was when you got your annual report card.
And his only concern was that if the child was promoted to the next class. Else, the ear-twisting took place. That was more or less summed the early education. Playing I Spy or Hit&Run was the best pass time. Children’s extracurricular activities involved spreading papads and chips in the sun. The packaged chips would come much later. Eating out meant having golgappas at the street vendor. Of course, the kulfiwala occasionally announced his arrival with a bell and we ran to have it.
Entertainment was hard to come by. We waited for the circus to arrive in town and made plans to go see it. We watched it with disbelief, often replicating the feat and hurting ourselves back at home. The melas were again something that we looked forward to. The charm, of course, was the merry-go-round and the giant wheel. It made us dizzy but then enjoyment doesn’t come cheap.
Those were the years of innocence and ignorance alike. As we grew up, we realised how little we knew about anything, yet we had learned so many lessons of life that stay with us forever. The parents did not care about the studies of their children; they cared about their health and so saw to it that the children ate everything cooked at home. The kids, too, contributed to the household chores willingly, or unwillingly in my case, but learned that anyway.
The elderly were no pariah either. The granny would tell endless ghost stories and we believed them all. For us, there was a ghost on every peepal tree, and the djinns, churails and dayans were watching us when we returned late. Caring for them came naturally, partly out of affection and partly out of greed for stories and money that the parents refused. There was a close bonding with them. They became part of you.
Now that when I see my kids growing, I realise the children and their childhood have undergone a sea change. They are informed but not innocent. They can get you the information you might have not known till your graduation. They don’t play with matchboxes or waste time decorating Janmashtami models. They are always with their gadgets. They play with them or, rather, live with them. Life has turned virtual. It is a digital degeneration of sorts where you know a lot yet you are rudderless as the framework that comes with human interaction is missing. The pizza-burger generation is more about flaunting its feat rather than enjoying it. The pictures of restaurants and places visited on the trip find floating on Instagram and Facebook. They might not see churails and dayans but have demons in their head which tell them to seclude them from the rest. You won’t know if your child is at home because he is too much engrossed with the mobile that he needs no one else.
Last year in the monsoon, I told my young daughter how we floated paper boats in the puddles. She said that she did not know how to make one. I was excited as she showed some interest. I said, I will make one for you. I made one, gave it to her, and asked her to set it afloat. Fifteen minutes later, she was with her phone again, chatting. I asked whatever happened to the boat she was supposed to play with. “It sank,” she said with a flat face and submerged into her phone again.
(The writer is a columnist and documentary film-maker. The views expressed are personal.)
( Courtesy - IANS )
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