Covid vaccination : Indians embraced the science when it really mattered, while millions in the West did not

This article was published here in The New Indian.

A couple of months ago, US based medical researcher Dr. Faheem Younus tweeted on the spread of black fungus in India. “Use of cow dung as a ‘COVID Cure’ could be causing deadly black fungus disease  (mucormycosis) in India,” he said, before adding, “I can’t prove it but it’s highly likely.” A scientist at the University of Maryland, Dr. Younus is a prominent voice that people  everywhere have come to trust on issues related to the pandemic. Indeed, a few months later, when an Indian journalist scored an interview with this expert, her channel introduced Dr. Younus fondly as “World’s Covid Guru.”

While it is always encouraging to see scientists engage with the public, the tweet also exposes a disturbing reality.  The targeting of Indians, particularly Hindus, by means of cultural prejudices, is now mainstream. As Dr. Younus might have said, I can’t prove this, but it’s highly likely.

Could a reasonable individual, a scientist, be led to believe that vast numbers of Indians are covering themselves with cow dung in hope of curing Covid? Yes, because that is what the media has been saying all around the world. Since the pandemic began, the global media has tried to project Indians as embracing a number of unscientific practices, particularly related to the cow. The Western fascination with (and contempt for) the special place of the cow in Indian society is an old one. And this was as good a time as any other to feast on those prejudices. The messaging was clear. Indians (read Hindus) are an unscientific people. They are superstitious and they live in the dark ages.

There is no doubt that such coverage got an additional boost due to the liberal media’s partisan hatred against the Indian Prime Minister. In a nation of 1.3 billion people, there are always going to be half a dozen people who will do something stupid. Or just attention seekers, who know exactly what the media comes looking for in India. The media picked up these instances, exaggerated them beyond all reason and made it appear as if these were the norm. By using a variety of weasel words such as ruling party supporters, Hindutva activists and the like, they managed to connect it to the Prime Minister. Or they could just twist an incident outright. For instance, the Prime Minister requested people at one point to light diyas and bang thalis to raise a cheer for India’s Covid warriors. By carefully choosing your words on this as well as the sentences around it, you could make it appear as if the Prime Minister said that banging thalis would put an end to the virus. A foreign audience would fall for this.

But what do the numbers say? Are Indians really an unscientific people? As on date, India has provided nearly 105 crore doses of vaccine.  By the beginning of October, 71 percent of Indian adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Healthcare workers strode out to the remotest parts of the country. They braved floods, crossed rivers on foot, climbed mountains and made it across deserts to deliver the vaccine. Everywhere they went, they were welcomed as heroes. Each dose was recorded in a central database, and a downloadable certificate with QR code provided on the spot with jaw dropping efficiency.

And how is the United States doing, for instance? The White House had set an official target of 70 percent of the adult population to receive at least one dose of vaccine by July 4. They missed the target. The figure of 70 percent was reached only in early August. In other words, India which reached the 70 percent threshold in early October, is two months behind. That sounds pretty good for a country with a per capita GDP that is roughly twenty times less than that of the United States.

How did the vaccination program in the United States slow down to a crawl? Because of vaccine hesitancy. The Americans turned science into political football. Because Joe Biden is the president, the people who oppose him are refusing to take vaccines. Apparently, they would rather die. Now, President Biden has instituted a nationwide vaccine mandate. But many people still prefer to quit their jobs rather than take the vaccine. There is an online marketplace now for those seeking religious exemptions from the vaccine mandate and its humming with activity. There is even a black market where people are spending hundreds of dollars to get fake vaccination certificates. All this, instead of spending a couple of dollars to get vaccinated and save your own life. Who is unscientific now?

The United States is not alone in this plight. There have been massive anti-vaccine demonstrations all across the western world, in France, in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Some of the most violent protests happened in Italy. In Australia, the protesters clashed with police on the streets. The police had to use pepper spray and rubber grenades.

Nothing of this sort has happened anywhere in India. In other words, the Indian people embraced science when it really mattered. Today, the Indian walks around with head held high because the nation has achieved the landmark figure of 1 billion vaccine doses. Most ironically, the same global media is attacking India for taking too much pride in achieving this milestone. In a world where western countries have to use riot police to subdue anti-vaccine protesters, they should have bigger things to worry about.

So how do you explain the absence of a significant anti-vaccine movement in India? As with so many things about India, will the liberals ascribe this to the veneration of the cow? Or will they give the credit to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for unifying the people behind the science? Don’t hold your breath.

As a matter of fact, this is not the only sphere where Indians have shown a remarkably scientific attitude towards the world, ahead of most other democracies. Like everyone else, we need coal and fossil fuels to keep our economy running. But nobody in India, whether on the left or the right, doubts climate change. There is no organized movement to deny climate change or its effects. Neither is there any public resistance to teaching scientific facts such as evolution in schools.

How can Indians be so religious and so scientific at the same time? The average liberal mind, which cannot think beyond binaries formed in the West, is not equipped to handle this.  They cannot understand how Hindus live in harmony with nature and the people around them. They are never itching to divide the world into enemy camps of “believer” and “non-believer.” That is why they do not turn things such as vaccines, climate change or evolution into absurd purity tests. If the liberals were to admit this aspect of Hinduism, it would open up uncomfortable questions about Abrahamic religions and what secularism means in the Hindu context. It is easier to take the intellectually dishonest route, to make jokes about ‘cow worshipers’ and to reinforce prejudices. Especially, when the latter can be financially so rewarding and provide a position of prestige within the global media ecosystem.

Right now, the world is passing through a collective test of basic IQ. Are you willing to take a vaccine and save your life with a couple of pin pricks? It is really not that hard. And yet, a shocking number of people in the West are failing it. The much maligned Indians are coming out on top.

Watching Priyanka Gandhi try to build UP Congress is like watching Sanjay Gandhi build a car

I have never taken Priyanka Gandhi seriously as a politician. I keep repeating this like a mantra, because I am very proud of this. She was a dud right from that day in January 2019 when Congress suddenly announced her as General Secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It made every Congress Pidi in establishment stand up on their hind legs and applaud. After all, nothing can bring out the deep seated slave mentality of media and intelligentsia than a new member of the Nehru Gandhi family. And this one did have a nose like …

Anyway. I remember the headline in one of their doormat newspapers the next day. It showed the two siblings side by side, with “How’s the josh, bro?” written in huge letters. For some reason, their family retainers were quite obsessed with using this line. One of them even made a video lecturing Modi and Yogi. In it, he asked: how will it be if Priyanka greets thousands of youth in Uttar Pradesh with the line “How’s the josh?” And if they roar in reply, “High, ma’am.”

LOL

So now Priyanka Gandhi is back in Uttar Pradesh, waking up just in time for the election. And she thinks she can rebuild the party in these short few months.

There are two parts to that thought, and both of them are equally ridiculous. First of all, can you really rebuild the Congress in 4 months, that too in a giant state such as Uttar Pradesh? Second, even if there was a way to rebuild the party in that much time, what makes her believe she has the talent to do it?

Ha! Priyanka Gandhi is not Amit Shah. And even Amit Shah took a good 9 months to build the BJP in Uttar Pradesh between late 2013 and early 2014. Or as President Biden might have said, to build back better.

But the flatterers of the Nehru-Gandhi family would never tell her that. They have talking about her in divine terms since the day she was born. After all, she has that nose…

And so, in 2021, we have Priyanka Gandhi self-assuredly coming up with all sorts of schemes to win back Uttar Pradesh. And right on cue, the number one liberal news portal is talking about how clever her scheme is. If you want to see what bootlicking is, go read that article. That article is written by a professor, by the way.

What is Priyanka’s big idea? She says she will reserve 40% of tickets for women. In itself, there’s nothing objectionable about that decision. Our politics certainly would be better if we had fair representation of both sexes. The problem is that most people, including women of course, are much smarter than Priyanka Gandhi. And so they are not inspired by desperate gimmicks of a party that has no presence in the state.

You know what the flatterers will say here. At least Priyanka’s intentions are good. No, they are not. Because, people see that she should not even be in the position she is in! Who is Priyanka to talk about any other kind of privilege, when everything she has in life is because of her own privilege?

The other day, one of these flatterers posted an image of Priyanka on Twitter, along with 3 young women, smiling and proud. The flatterer added — see this stance, now what will Yogi do?

That is the quality of feedback the dynasty is getting. Take those young women aside and ask them if they feel inspired by Priyanka Gandhi. The answer will almost certainly be no.

Of course, this works in the BJP’s favor. The dynasty wants this to be seen as Priyanka’s election, which is why they are fighting separately from the Samajwadi Party. If Congress had brought its 5% or so votes into the SP’s basket, it might have been a real headache for BJP. But now, they can breathe much easier.

Of course with 325 MLAs and two term anti-incumbency at the Center, the election cannot be easy. But luckily, the BJP couldn’t have asked for a better chessboard. The BJP, BSP and SP all contesting separately and Cong splitting another 5% of the anti-BJP votes.

Most BSP voters would know by now that Mayawati has no chance at all. This is where BJP has been so successful. They have positioned themselves as “second choice at least” of every Hindu caste group. This means that a Hindu will typically vote BJP unless there is some direct caste or regional loyalty standing in the way. If a Dalit (or specifically Jatav) voter cannot have Mayawati, they would vote for BJP. Same with Yadav voters, actually. They may be voting SP because it is still a viable option. But that’s caste specific loyalty. If that Yadav voter from UP gets into a train and arrives in Mumbai, their vote would likely go to BJP. Do you think they would vote for Shiv Sena? This is what I mean by “second choice at least.”

This means that as more and more of BSP voters feel disillusioned about Mayawati’s chances, they will shift to BJP. And why not? The BJP has been courting Dalit voters very directly for 7 years now. The old caste based suspicions are at an all time low.

Anyway, I digressed. Let me get back to the incident I mentioned in the headline of this article. Priyanka Gandhi is falling for the age old Nehru dynasty pitfall of believing the flatterers.

Sanjay Gandhi was fond of the good things in life. Like any spoiled rich kid, he loved cars. But a love for cars is not the same as having the talent to actually make a car. But the flatterers never told him the difference.

And so it was that Sanjay Gandhi went abroad to learn how to design cars. Of course, a college education was too much for him to absorb and he flunked out. He then wanted to do an internship with a big automaker (if I remember correctly, it was Rolls Royce). But big automakers typically like to have talented people on the shop floor. No problem. He paid them to be their apprentice! And after that he came back to India to build a car for the masses.

Again, it was all too easy. Indira Gandhi arranged the land for Maruti (no real relation with today’s Maruti Udyog, a totally restructured organization long after Sanjay’s exit), after getting a military facility out of the way. She got her government to invest in Sanjay’s idea. When asked to clarify, the Prime Minister replied that Sanjay is young and we should encourage youth! Yes, the Prime Minister putting public money behind her son’s ideas is how you encourage young people…

And of course, there were private investors too, especially later on, during the Emergency. Who hadn’t heard of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act? Amazingly, the private investors were not very interested in getting their money back.

So it was all coming together for Sanjay Gandhi. Except for one bit. The car didn’t work. His mother even arranged for rave reviews — in particular Khushwant Singh declared it a big success. But the car still didn’t work. And it never hit the roads. Reality is harsh.

That’s what is happening to Priyanka Gandhi right now. They have told her she is capable of rebuilding the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, that too in under 6 months. They have provided the photo-ops and the gushing media coverage. The only thing they cannot provide is voters who are inspired by a dynast with nothing to show for herself.

Kashmiriyat has been distorted by Islamism and it is time for reform

A lightly edited version of this article was published on News18 here

 

On April 9, 1962, a young black man by the name of Roman Ducksworth Jr. was heading to the town of Taylorsville, Mississippi to see his wife who had just given birth. A white police officer stopped the bus and was enraged to find Ducksworth on board. At the time, blacks in the American deep south were expected to travel in a separate section at the back of the bus. The police officer shot Ducksworth in the chest, killing him on the spot. Such incidents used to be common. In 1967, when a black man in Natchez, Mississippi was promoted to a position in a rubber and tire company supposedly reserved for whites, the Ku Klux Klan murdered him by placing a bomb in his truck.

The case of Virendra Paswan  is quite similar. He had traveled from Bihar to make a living selling golgappas in Kashmir. Earlier this month, terrorists found him and shot him dead by the side of the street. On October 8, terrorists attacked a school in Srinagar. They lined up the teachers, searched their identity cards to pick out the two of them who happened to be Hindu or Sikh, and shot them dead. The current wave of killings began around the end of last year, when 65 year old Satpal Nischal was murdered. His crime? He had acquired for himself a domicile certificate after the abrogation of Article 370.

There are obvious parallels between the current situation in Kashmir and the racist violence in the American south at the time of desegregation. The south fought a war of secession from the United States over slavery, but lost. While slavery was abolished, they kept its spirit alive by severely limiting the rights of blacks for nearly a century. These were the infamous ‘Jim Crow’ laws.  They mandated racial segregation, keeping black people out of white spaces everywhere, from schools, colleges and universities to buses and swimming pools. In the 1950s, when the US Supreme Court began striking down these laws, there was widespread resistance. There were riots over black students trying to enroll in white colleges, black people moving into white neighborhoods or simply just trying to ride at the front of the bus. These troubles lasted for nearly twenty years. Southern governors swore to resist. Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever, they declared.

Sounds familiar? That is because the so called Gupkar alliance of leaders from Jammu and Kashmir has a very similar demand. Because Article 370 was India’s version of Jim Crow laws. It was an apartheid law that allowed the state of Jammu and Kashmir to discriminate against women, tribals and any other Indian deemed to be from a “non-native” background. Even the Gurkhas who had lived in the region for a hundred and fifty years, were not spared. Even members of the Valmiki community from Punjab, who moved there on invitation from the state government, as well as their descendants, were treated as outsiders with no rights. 

Whose interests did the apartheid regime of Article 370 actually serve? It preserved the virtual monarchy of the Abdullahs and the Muftis, the two leading dynasties in the valley. And the interests of the rest of the ruling class consisting of their friends, relatives and close associates. Do not forget that there is a racial element to all this. The leaders of the Kashmir valley are Ashraf or upper caste Muslims. The Ashrafs are descended from the Persian and Turkic conquerors who came to India in the 11th and 12th centuries, as opposed to local converts or Pasmanda Muslims, who are treated as lower castes. In the politics of Kashmir where these leaders make a big deal out of who is an insider and who is an outsider, this is a hidden, deeply ironic and deeply hypocritical subplot. In fact, until the abrogation of Article 370, the only state languages in Jammu and Kashmir were English and Urdu. The local Kashmiri and Dogra languages were added to the list only last year by an act passed by the Modi government.

While the leaders of the valley have issued “ex-officio” statements against the killing of “outsiders,” they have not condemned the underlying sentiment that drove these killings. You could say that they even pandered to these sentiments, subtly or otherwise, by accusing Indian security forces of committing equally heinous acts of murder. In fact, they have been raising the political pitch against outsiders for decades now, and even more aggressively in the last two years. Again, there are are obvious parallels with southern state governors in America in the 1960s, who vowed that blacks would never be allowed to share public space with whites. Their excuses are also disturbingly similar. States’ rights, they say. In both cases, it is bigotry and dehumanization of the other, cunningly packaged as part of the right to self-determination.

This brings us to an issue that we must acknowledge, however prickly it may be. The leaders of the Kashmir valley are not just speaking their minds on Article 370 and the revenge killings of outsiders. They are also veterans of electoral politics. When they speak, they are also tapping into popular sentiment. In other words, this sentiment exists, and it is very real. Just like the racist white majority sentiment that used to dominate the southern United States. 

What is Kashmiriyat and what place does it have in our modern democratic India? Like every other other group of people in our country, the people of Kashmir have a right to be proud of their cultural identity and their history, and they justifiably are. But if cultural pride turns into supremacism, if it leads to prejudice, hatred and violent reprisals against others, then something has gone badly wrong. It is not enough to condemn the violence. One must look within. The onus is on the society itself to rescue its cultural pride by flushing out any build up of cultural hatred. The principle would be the same if it were applied to any other region in India, whether Bengal or Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra.

As India modernizes and integrates more, there are anxieties about cultural identity everywhere. In fact, these anxieties have been playing out right since 1950. There has been violence and bloodshed as well. But it is only in Kashmir that the violence has been on such a scale, and sustained for so long. There are three reasons for this. The first is Pakistan, of course. The second is Article 370, which allowed Jammu & Kashmir to remain an apartheid state right until 2019. This puts them almost seventy years behind the rest of the country. The third reason is that the sense of cultural identity in Kashmir, or Kashmiriyat, has been distorted by Islamism.

This is the reason we have seen ISIS flags in Kashmir. This is why we have seen young Kashmiris look up to Turkey’s Erdogan and Erdogan trying to return the favor by foolishly meddling in our internal affairs. Is Erdogan of Turkey an insider but Virendra Paswan from Bihar an outsider in Kashmir? Of course not. Not even a terrorist would be foolish enough to believe that. The problem is that the so called Kashmiriyat has been hijacked by Islamism. 

The problem is further complicated by the now structural alliance between liberalism and Islamism all over the world. As a result, the obvious parallels between Jim Crow laws in America, apartheid in South Africa and Article 370 in Kashmir are ignored. As the West gets ready for a reckoning against systemic racism, the issue in Kashmir is projected before the world as one of self-determination. Fifty years ago, southern politicians in the US pushing for racist segregation laws would have welcomed this approach. Another hundred years before that, American states which wanted to keep slavery would have welcomed it too.

Quite perversely therefore, it is often the liberal media that takes the lead in framing the Kashmir issue as one of self-determination. There was even a video some years ago, showing a prominent member of  ‘civil society’ prompting a youth to change his words and say that he was fighting for Kashmir, instead of fighting in the name of religion. Since then, Islamists have matured in this embrace of  ‘civil society.’ They have learned to play to the media gallery, framing their talking points in a way that will help their overground allies make their case for them. 

In the early 1990s, the Islamists already terrorized most Kashmiri Hindus into leaving the valley. And so, during the current wave of killings, they have been careful enough to speak only of insider and outsider, instead of mentioning religion. This has helped their allies to shade the issue, and make it appear as a reaction to the abrogation of Article 370. It is already shocking that anyone would sympathize with an apartheid law such as Article 370, but this is worse.

What is the remedy here? In the US in the 1960s, the federal government passed a number of laws that ensured voting rights and civil rights for members of the African American community. In particular, state and local authorities trying to enforce racial segregation had their powers stripped away by the federal government.

In India, the abrogation of Article 370 has been a similar beginning. Equal rights have now been given to all communities, including women. Gurkhas and members of the Valmiki community have been granted residency status. Kashmiri and Dogra have been included as state languages. A portal has been launched to allow displaced Kashmiri Pandits to reclaim their properties, which are now being identified by authorities across the valley. There will now be a new delimitation of constituencies, which will allow  fair representation for the Hindu majority Jammu region. The new Assembly will also have reserved seats for members of Scheduled Tribes. Also note that after the abrogation of Article 370, the 2018 Supreme Court judgement against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code now applies to Jammu and Kashmir. This means that LGBTQ+ individuals in the state are now free to live their lives any way they want.

No wonder then that the enemies of freedom and modernity are very angry with what the Indian state is doing in Kashmir. As mentioned before, our task becomes more complicated because of the structural alliance between global liberalism and Islamism. Ironically, those who claim to speak for freedom have chosen to take the side of the most regressive forces in the world. 

There are times when a society must confront the evils within. Those are times when cultural pride must be rescued from ego, and reform declared a priority. When the Indian state began in 1950, we confronted our age old evils of casteism and sexism. We embarked on radical reforms to achieve social justice for marginalized groups. Unfortunately, Kashmir was left behind and precisely because of Article 370.  For Kashmir, the moment has finally arrived. The abrogation of Article 370 is a rebirth for Kashmiriyat.

Anti-drug laws to farm laws to UAPA: How liberals declared everything as “draconian” in Modi era

Here for example is Shekhar Gupta, writing today in The Print:

“It is so unique, draconian, impractical, ineffective, exploitative and prone to misuse that to use the familiar description for laws would be an insult to the ass.“

So many adjectives in one sentence. What would make a veteran journalist such as Shekhar Gupta to abandon all the basic rules of good writing, not to mention those of decency?

Shekhar Gupta is writing here about the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act. A law which has been around since 1985 but whose name most Indians would never have heard of until last month. Who knew that this law has always been such an existential threat to the Republic? And therefore, all of a sudden, it is time for all of us to panic. The headline of Shekhar’s article is no less alarmist: NDPS is a weapon vengeful state could use on you or your kids.

Did somebody say draconian law? Have you noticed how every law is ‘draconian’ these days? Everything is draconian, everything is genocide.

Consider this. There is the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, or UAPA. Since 2014, there has been no end to the laments about just how draconian this law is. Which is weird, because public records show that it was enacted all the way in 1967.

What about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)? Draconian. What about the National Register of Citizens (NRC), first promised by Rajiv Gandhi as part of the Assam Accord? Also draconian. What about the three new agricultural laws passed by the Modi government? All draconian.

There have been anti-cow slaughter laws in many Indian states since the 1950s. But what about cow protection laws enacted by BJP governments in some states? All draconian. The first anti-conversion laws in India appeared in the 1960s. But if a BJP government enacts any such law today, it is draconian.

You can disagree with this or that provision in some law, but you can’t miss the pattern of exaggeration here. The 2002 riots in Gujarat were among the few in India to be ever described as a ‘genocide’ or a ‘pogrom.’ Did anyone refer to what happened under Rajiv Gandhi as a pogrom? Yes they did, you are probably thinking. That is because you are probably thinking only about the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. Did they ever talk about the Bhagalpur riots of 1989? Some 1000 people perished in those riots. And unlike the Gujarat riots, nobody knows exactly how many. There has never been a single conviction and nobody knows the name of the Chief Minister of Bihar under whom those riots happened.

Even to this day, all media descriptions of the Gujarat riots deliberately leave out the mention of the Godhra carnage. Or worse, they plant conspiracy theories about who was behind the carnage, despite the fact that the culprits have been definitively convicted by the High Court years ago.

Why? Because acknowledging the Godhra carnage would go against the narrative they want. Compare to “farmer leader” Rakesh Tikait sitting at the Press Club some days ago, coolly dismissing the lynching of 3 BJP workers at Lakhimpur Kheri as a natural reaction. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha then proceeded to suspend Yogendra Yadav for a month because he dared to visit the family of one of the BJP workers who had been lynched. Wonder who is draconian here, and who are the humanitarians.

The exaggerations hit an all time high last year, when liberals demanded foreign intervention against the Indian government for using water cannons to push back “farmer protesters” from the barricades. As it turns out, water cannons are used routinely in democratic countries around the world. They are used every week in India somewhere or the other. But in the hands of Modi government, the water cannon was suddenly an instrument for violating human rights.

You can argue about whether the state should be using water cannons. You can argue about whether we need a law such as UAPA. But you cannot miss the fact that our ‘civil society’ began making an issue out of this only after 2014.

And don’t forget the judicial system. Every common person in India knows that you cannot commit contempt of court. But that’s only because they are common people who have to stay within their limits. All of a sudden, you can pick up any newspaper or turn on any TV channel to see that contempt of court is rampant. Why? Because the most privileged in our country are not getting bail on time, preferably over the phone. As much as 67 percent of India’s prison population consists of under-trials. There are 4.5 crore cases pending in Indian courts. The Indian judicial system is a mess. But now it is okay to say that. What changed?

You have to suspect whether the real problem here is that liberals are having difficulty conceding the legitimacy of the Indian state, ever since the people chose Narendra Modi. And quite literally so. Soon after the 2014 election, you might remember a wave of liberal outrage against our first past the post voting system. How dare Modi come to power with 31% of the vote? What about the other 69%? After 2019, how dare Modi form a government with 38% of the vote? What about the other 62%?

Now, Modi did not choose our voting system. Modi did not make Sonia Gandhi come to power in 2004 with a mere 26% of the vote. In fact, Modi’s 31% in 2014 is the highest for any ruling party since 1991. Since its birth, the Indian Republic has used the first past the post voting system. Three generations of the Nehru dynasty have won the PM post and have been awarded Bharat Ratnas under this system. But that was different then, because it wasn’t Modi. Because it is BJP & Modi now, suddenly it is all bad.

It is all bad. The anti-terror laws, the anti-drug laws, the citizenship laws, the agricultural laws, everything. The first past the post voting system is bad. And water cannons are a human rights violation.

This pattern of undermining the Indian state extends beyond drug offenses, sedition, or CAA or NRC. What about someone who was convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993? Do you remember the headline “And they hanged Yakub“?

What is the end goal here, if I may so ask. If you reject everything from anti-drug laws to the voting system to the conviction of terrorists by the Supreme Court, what is left? Are you advocating for anarchy? Please clarify this. Because I assure you that it is not funny at all.

FATF grey list : Erdogan chose enmity with India, now Turkey joins Pakistan among failed states

Suppose that a group of people of various nationalities are gathered at one place. Suppose they begin discussing world affairs and the subject of Pakistan comes up. You can guess how they would treat the views of the Indian guy at the table. Some of his points might be valid, but you have to take his views with a bucket of salt. After all, he is Indian. You can’t expect him to be truly objective when it comes to Pakistan. Everyone knows that we are arch enemies.

Of course I could always sense this skepticism, when among colleagues or friends in America or Europe. But there is one thing I would always tell them, because I genuinely believe it. Half the problems in the world can be solved if people listened to India. I know it sounds self serving because I am an Indian. But I maintain that this fact is objectively true.

Consider this. Suppose that the west listened to us and announced a global boycott of Pakistan. Not just today, say decades ago. Half of all the bad thing that have happened in the West would never have happened. When there is a country that is unnecessarily trying to poke India, you can be sure that country will soon be a basket case.

You must have seen the news. Turkey is now on the watchlist for terror funding. Turkey joins its ‘brother’ Pakistan in receiving this high honor.

What else has gone wrong with Turkey? Well, pretty much everything. The Turkish economy has collapsed. Inflation is close to 20%. The Turkish currency is in crisis. It has been in crisis for years now. Do you know that Turkey’s GDP today is actually LESS than it was 10 years ago? Imagine that. Ten years and they haven’t grown even one bit.

And Erdogan wanted to be the new era Caliph…. rofl

I remember the late 2000s. They used to talk of Turkey as a rising economic power. A star in the MENA (Middle East & North Africa region). Turkey had an application pending to join the EU. A lot of people accused the EU of xenophobia for not letting Turkey in. Some even said that the EU would pay in the long run for not letting in what would soon be the most vibrant economy in the region. You can only laugh at this today.

Go back 2 years. You will find the Turks aggressively mocking India. Their leader Erdogan leading the charge against India over Kashmir. How did that work out for Turkey? Can you believe that the Turkish Lira today is worth half of what it was 2 years ago? Yes, that’s right. It is worth HALF.

Of course, it is not like India did this to Turkey. We are not that powerful yet. What I am saying is that the itch to go against India is a symptom that a country is about to go off the rails. And that is exactly what happened to Turkey.

And now Turkey is on the fast track to being branded a global sponsor of terrorism, just like Pakistan. Oh the plight of Erdogan, the great emperor, who wanted to rule a Caliphate stretching from Spain to Kashmir.

Also remember that back when Erdogan began picking fights with India, the liberal class in India developed a sudden fetish for all things Turkish. Right on cue, including one very intellectual and very liberal superstar. Soon there were articles in India describing how Indian audiences were falling in love with Turkish television and movies. The messaging was clear. Turkey is a great cultural superpower. We should all look up to Turkey.

I remember reading one of these puff pieces myself, on one of these news portals. The headline was something like “why Indians are going gaga over Turkish soaps.” Inside, the piece quoted like 10 Indian people who were apparently great fans of Turkish culture. And like 8 of the 10 names in that piece were …. you can guess.

Anyway. If you asked people ten years ago to name a modern democratic society from the Islamic world, they would probably have pointed to Turkey. Look how that worked out for them.

They have moved on from Turkey now. Their new favorite? Bangladesh. Yes, it is absurd to compare Indian economy to the tiny economy of Bangladesh. But why would absurdity stop our liberal commentators who used to go gaga over Turkey until a year or so ago? Just wait till the next superstar goes off to Bangladesh to showcase what a heaven it is over there.

Sheikh Hasina is emboldened too. Instead of apologizing, she cheekily tells us that India should not do things domestically that will make Bangladeshis angry. And the same class that was fascinated with Turkey is now fascinated with Bangladesh. It will end the same way as well.

Zomato, Fabindia, farmer’s protest, superstar’s son: what recent controversies taught me about the liberal worldview

Canceling people online is easy. In fact, that is probably what Twitter is for. In fact, if we did not cancel people online, what would the modern left do with all that free time? We go online to cancel people. It is what makes us better than all those who came before us, from Lincoln to Roosevelt, or even J K Rowling.

So imagine my surprise the other day when I discovered liberals raising their voice against this great internet tradition.

Economic terrorism? Those are some really strong words against people who merely trended a hashtag calling for boycott of a clothing brand.

If they are economic terrorists, what do you call a group of people who have now blocked the highways around Delhi for almost a year? The damage they have caused to industry and the livelihoods of people is in the thousands of crores. They say that unless the government accepts their demands, they will block road and railway traffic for as long as they like. For that matter, they organized a nationwide “rail roko” only yesterday. So what do we call these people?

I know. We can’t say anything to them. Even if they storm the Red Fort on Republic Day and plant their own flag. Even if they bring their own religious police and execute a poor Dalit farm laborer in full Taliban style, we cannot say anything to them. We must grovel before them. We must address them as “annadata,” the form of address that zamindars have always demanded from the peasants who toil on their land. That’s liberal privilege.

Let us examine more closely why the folks who trended the hashtag were angry with Fabindia. They were objecting to the term “Jashn-e-Riwaz,” which they felt was a rebranding of Diwali. All around the world, what you call something is a big deal. Because names are markers of identity and culture. If you take our names away, you are wiping out our identity. These days, even pronouns are a big deal. So why would liberals think it is too much for a group of people to trend a hashtag against what they considered to be a renaming of Diwali?

Okay, so Fabindia says that Jashn-e-Riwaz was not a reference to Diwali at all. I will take them at their word. If you can think of any other festival, celebrated around this time, that the accompanying photo seems to suggest, please let me know. In any case, this article is not about Fabindia, but about the online reactions on all sides.

Now let us see what happened here. This is from yesterday.

Apparently, some customer service representative at Zomato told someone that all of us should know at least a little Hindi. Along with that, she also quoted a longstanding myth from the Doordarshan era that Hindi is our “national language.” The customer, who apparently was based in Tamil Nadu, was not happy.

So what about the folks who were so outraged by this remark that they started trending #RejectZomato on Twitter? Anyone calling them “economic terrorists”? Never. Like those who called for a boycott of Zomato, the folks who called for a boycott of Fabindia were also anguished about their identity. One group was anguished about linguistic identity and the other about religious identity. What is the difference? The difference is liberal privilege.

What do we learn from this? There is identity politics and then there is identity politics. There is the identity politics that helps liberals win votes and there is identity politics that makes liberals lose votes. The two are treated differently.

Was the customer service representative wrong to say that everyone should know a little Hindi? Absolutely, yes. But was she some kind of govt functionary or big corporate executive? Not at all. She was a small time employee, making a humble living.

But liberals had no mercy on her. They wanted her to be fired. That too at this time of the year, just before Jashn-e-Riwaz.

Could the liberals not forgive her for making a mistake? Of course not. Because words like “mistake” and “forgiveness” are applied to the sons of superstars. Not some customer service representative who makes a few thousand rupees a month. I don’t know if superstar’s son is guilty or not. I suppose courts will decide. But I have seen liberals falling over themselves talking about “mistakes” and “forgiveness.”

As for the customer service representative, how rich and powerful is her dad? I am guessing not very much. So she has no luxury of making mistakes. She deserves no forgiveness.

We have now reached the single most important principle of modern liberalism. Browbeat those who have no power, but always grovel before the strong.

Sheikh Hasina is playing fast & loose on the genocide of Bangladeshi Hindus

In the year 1938, as well as for most of 1939, there was someone who was passionate about making peace. In fact, his pleadings for world peace were so effective that they were almost a legend. Every time he would bite off a piece of some neighbor such as Czechoslovakia, or swallow one of his neighbors whole, such as Austria, he would talk of his commitment to peace. And it usually worked, in that it managed to fool everyone else.

That man was Adolf Hitler.

Okay, so Sheikh Hasina isn’t quite the same as Adolf Hitler. But we live in an era of exaggerations, so why not? The template is the same. Become the loudest voice against exactly what you are trying to do. Take a look at this.

But also don’t forget what is really happening.

Ah, the mob! With a mind of its own, always undirected by anyone and enjoying zero political patronage. The mob always does the job that leaders who need to show their face on the world stage just can’t.

This year, they did not allow the Hindus of Bangladesh to celebrate Durga Puja. In nearly a dozen districts of Bangladesh, they attacked and destroyed Durga Puja pandals. They attacked even ISKCON temples and murdered devotees inside. In each case, their aim was exactly the same: smash the idols and kill the idol worshipers. No, they did not care that ISKCON worships Krishna and those in pandals were worshiping Durga. Note that Shri Krishna, born in present day Uttar Pradesh, is always seen with his cows. On the other hand, eminent intellectuals such as Amartya Sen define their Bengaliyat by who worships Durga. But the mob in Bangladesh did not ask whose god is from the much maligned ‘cow belt.’ The mob came for the idol worshipers.

Meanwhile, neighboring West Bengal celebrated the annual Durga Puja festival with great pomp and show. Some Durga Puja committees even made idols of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. After all, she stopped the cow belt outsiders this year. She deserves all the devotion she can get. They say that Durga Puja is just a cultural festival. In fact, it is a festival for all Bengalis, by which I mean all the Bengalis who live on this side of the border, where it is still 70:30. Across the border, not so much.

Where do you think Sheikh Hasina stands on all this? Or let me put it like this. What do you think a veteran politician, with 17 years of experience as Prime Minister under her belt, is likely to do? Is she going to side with the community that has 90% of the votes or the community that has 8% of the votes, especially in light of projections like this?

She is going to go out and tell the world that she is all for secularism and harmony. And on the inside, she is going to give a free hand to Islamists to wipe out the Hindu minority. On both fronts, she is being extremely effective right now.

On the domestic front, you know that Hindus can protest all they want. But everyone knows it is a lost cause. Just ask the Bihari laborers fleeing from Kashmir right now. Once the demography shifts, it is basically over.

On the international front, Sheikh Hasina already has it made. The tactical alliance between liberals and Islamists worldwide will protect her reputation. All she had to do was go up to the podium and denounce the anti-Hindu violence for the record. The global liberal media did the rest. They declared her an icon of secularism and progressive ideals. In fact, they will make this another occasion to bash up India’s reputation.

See? Sheikh Hasina spoke up against anti-Hindu riots in a dozen districts of Bangladesh. Remember the time when some drunk guy threw a stone at a church window in Navi Mumbai? Why can’t Modi condemn that?

Frankly, the hard part for Sheikh Hasina is to maintain a neutral expression while facing the camera, instead of bursting into laughter.

All over the world, the Hinduphobic template has been set by the left. They have marked out the Hindus as global villains. They have marked Hindu culture as something to be “dismantled.” The global liberal complex just rescued the reputation of the Taliban. Guarding the reputation of Sheikh Hasina is almost too easy for them.

And so they are on the job. They put disclaimers against the anti-Hindu violence in public and in private, they follow it with much glee. Along with that, they turn the issue on its head. Instead of asking questions to the government of Bangladesh, they ask questions to Hindutva forces in India.

Sheikh Hasina is sensible and secular, they say. She is the one who keeps radical Islamists in check.

I began by mentioning Hitler and how he came to be known for his appeals for world peace. Actually, there is more. When there were allegations that Hitler was putting Jews in camps, the New York Times correspondent reported that the Jews were being so well treated that they were actually gaining weight during their stay in these camps. Back in the day, the New York Times would tell readers around the world that Hitler is actually a moderate. That Hitler is the man who can keep the radicals in the Nazi party in check.

Look who put curbs on “zealous Nazis,” even “rebuked” those who discriminated against Jews.

Sound similar? Now please go open the New York Times for your daily intake of ‘liberalism.’

The illegal and unconstitutional Republic of Singhu is now a fully functional dictatorship.

I have heard of the Indo-Pak border, as well as the Indo-China border. But if you have followed the news at any point during the last twelve months, you would have heard of this mysterious frontier known as “Singhu border.” Where exactly is this Singhu border?

That is how it all began. In Nov 2020, a group of so called protesters, originating somewhere in Punjab, began to smash their way across Haryana towards Delhi. When they arrived, they set up their camps on the highways and cut off all access to Delhi. It was a spectacle. India’s capital was suddenly under siege. And folks on all sides of the political divide began to call it “Singhu border.”

Yes, it was an innocuous term to begin with. It had probably already been in use by locals, to refer to the border between Delhi & Haryana. But suddenly, like Doklam or Siachen, everyone in India came to know about “Singhu border.”

This is not an isolated example. Other terminology commonly used for military deployments, was soon in use. The protesters said they had arrived with “rations” to stay all winter and more. As if there is no rice, wheat nor dal available in Delhi. As if grain to feed the protesters has to be carted all the way from Punjab. But it fed into the mentality that the protesters are troops of some kind, who need to have supply chains and stores in order to stay put in hostile territory.

Go watch the coverage at the time these protests began. Folks getting on their tractors and caravans to report as if on some kind of border conflict. How many people in this caravan? How much food are you carrying? How do you plan to stay warm? How long do you think you can stay put?

The answers were in a similar tone. This or that group of farmers is doing “kooch” they said. And we swallowed it. If someone died anywhere for any reason, they were declared “shaheed.” We let these assertions go by unchallenged. If the protesters were delusional, we all reinforced it.

The government pampered them by letting them set up a no-go zone right outside Delhi. That was the biggest mistake of all, right on the lines of Shaheen Bagh. The folks at Shaheen Bagh had their own illegal security forces and even some kind of “passport control.” I can only assume there was something similar happening at Singhu “border.”

Soon, their language became even more militant. Every Republic Day, the Indian Army marches down Rajpath with a show of tanks and fighter planes. The folks at Singhu border wanted to parody this with their own “tractor march.” Riding their tractors as if they are pretend tanks, they entered Delhi. There they plowed into police forces, trying to crush them under their big wheels. They should all have been arrested then and there.

Incidentally, at the time, I had written an article explaining that a tractor may feel like a tank just because it is big and loud, but it is not. I had noticed a number of viral videos showing the tractors overturning as people tried to ride them at reckless speed. A tank is very stable; it has a low center of gravity. A tractor is quite the opposite. It has a high center of gravity and is therefore prone to overturn if you try to ride it like a fool. But who needs physics when you have ‘liberalism’? Or a hereditary zamindari that comes with caste based political clout. And mafia like control over hapless farm laborers from poorer states and backward sections of society.

Anyway, I digressed. The storming of the Red Fort on Jan 26 should have been a watershed moment. It should have led to a spate of arrests and immediate folding up of this so called movement. It did not. The government let it pass.

What do we have now? We have exactly what you would expect. The illegal and unconstitutional Republic of Singhu is now a fully functional dictatorship. All law is martial, enforced by a fanatical religious police. And we have a poor farm laborer, a Dalit executed in full Taliban style, limbs chopped off and strung up publicly to bleed to death. Like the new Taliban, these protesters understand the power of the internet as a medium. So they made sure that the gruesome killing was captured on video and put up on social media. That is Indian liberalism today.

All they want is an “inclusive” society, for they are “country boys” enforcing their ancient “code of honor.” No, I am not talking of the folks at Singhu. I am talking about how the head of the British military recently described the Taliban.

This brings us to the question of religion and what role it played in the so called protest and in the setting up of the illegal Republic of Singhu. From Day one, it was clear that the protests had a very clear religious dimension. The so called leaders of this so called movement welcomed this religious dimension. They celebrated it. They played the religion card enthusiastically to win support for their cause. They didn’t think twice about their supporters overtly displaying their support for Bhrindanwale. Even after their supporters stormed the Red Fort and planted a certain flag, they never once disavowed the religious card.

Religion and agricultural laws. It is the liberals who wove the two things together. And very explicitly so. Today when there is a horrific crime at the spot, the so called leaders of this movement cannot escape blame by pointing fingers at some religious sect.

Let’s ask this. Who brought the members of that religious sect there to guard the protest site? If the protesters saw themselves as civilians like the rest of us, they would have depended on the police to maintain law and order. But they didn’t. They saw themselves as an invading army out to seize hostile territory. That’s why they brought everything with them, from food supplies to their own armed forces, and presumably their own system of law.

Listen to the mediapersons talking to people at the spot. The protesters refer to the particular religious sect as the “fauj.” And they describe what happened to the poor laborer as a “sazaa.” Nobody challenges them on these assertions.

The liberals set up this illegal republic and its religious police force. They cannot excuse themselves now by blaming some religious sect. If Indian liberalism depends on armed religious police to make its case, then the gruesome murder of Lakhbir Singh is part of that liberalism.

There is also a message here for city dwellers, social media influencers, or anyone else who might be caught up in the sentimentalism around these protests. The image that these people have tried to project is that they are simple farmers, trying to protect their traditional way of life from the ruthless forces of modern capitalism.

In reality, these protesters are rich landholders who sit at the top of a brutal village hierarchy. These protesters did not jump out of some idyllic painting of village life, showing a man plowing the field with a pair of bullocks or a woman carrying a pot of water on her head. They protect a ruthless system that locks people into strict roles based on how they are born, into caste based and gender based roles. Look closely and you will realize that the man plowing the field might have wanted to become a doctor. The woman carrying the water on her head might have dreamed of becoming an engineer or a scientist. But the system that the zamindars follow does not allow for such hopes and dreams. Just see what they did to a poor Dalit farm laborer they suspected of stepping out of line, becoming a “government agent.”

Who can set the people free? Modern capitalism. Yes, modern capitalism, for all its faults, is what sets people free from the brutal feudal system. Remember the 1991 revolution? It was nothing less than a rebirth for the Indian nation. Everything around us is better today because of that moment. Who weakened the shackles of gender and caste? Who set our dreams free? It was modern capitalism.

But that revolution did not touch the agricultural sector. These three new agricultural laws are a way for economic reform to touch the lives of 55 percent of Indians who depend on agriculture. No, they don’t have to flee from the villages. They don’t have to live dismal lives in big city slums because they know even that is better than being a serf in the village. But the zamindars don’t want change. They want the old system to continue. They want everyone to live and die within the old informal system. Because it works for them (and only for them).

You know the word ‘annadata’ is an old form of salutation in the villages. Those who actually work the land had to use this salutation to address those who own the land. If they didn’t show the zamindars enough respect, the poor laborers used to risk being thrashed. That is the system the zamindars want to keep. That is why they have gathered at Singhu, demanding that we address them as “annadata.”

Go back and watch the video again, if you dare. Look into the eyes of poor Lakhbir Singh, begging for his life. And tell me now: which system do you like better?

The way liberals grovel, they have no right to call anyone else a “bhakt”

“This Navratri, a Gauri’s son is put in jail.”

Exact words from a liberal. And he wrote the same thing in two different languages, just so that the masters would notice.

I said this on Day 1, when everyone was telling us this was a big story. How big? So big that multi-million dollar media houses would not dare to name the superstar whose son had been picked up by the Narcotics Control Bureau. I said on that day itself that I have no interest in this story. Celebrities around the world get into trouble with drugs now and then. Basically, this happens anywhere you have a group of rich, spoiled people with more success in their lap than they can handle and/or deserve. So why should India be any different? And why should anyone care?

Initially, liberals appeared to be on board with this kind of thinking. Who cares if some rich 23 year old has drug issues? Let the law take its own course. We have much bigger things to worry about in our country. Some of them even floated the accusation that the BJP itself had been pushing the media to make a big deal out of this story, in order to take some of the attention away from the violence in Lakhimpur.

Then, the matter began the unravel. The foot soldiers of liberalism didn’t even suspect what their masters were up to.

All of liberal glitterati, led by Bollywood, began to grovel. So did the media, even the sepoys of the Washington Post and New York Times posted in India. From what I gather, even foreign newspapers are getting in on the story. India is “intolerant” because someone with a Muslim surname isn’t getting bail fast enough in a drug related case. That is how insane things are.

Now, the purpose of this post is not to complain about such morons. The purpose of this post is to ridicule them for groveling in front of some 23 year old who has achieved nothing in his life.

Okay, maybe he is young. Maybe he did something wrong. Or maybe he didn’t. I have no idea if he is guilty. I told you I have no interest in the case. My question is this: why are you liberals rubbing your noses on the ground in front of him? Whether he is guilty or not, whether he is young or not, we can all agree that he has achieved nothing in his life. Then, why grovel?

We all know the answer to that. They are groveling in front of him because his dad is rich.

They know that the rich parents must be aggrieved at what their son is going through. They know that the parents, however rich they may be, are emotionally vulnerable right now. So they prostrate before the rich dad at this time. Their fond hope: rich dad might remember their groveling, and at a later date, toss a lakh or too at them. Daddy has so many contacts that he can click his fingers and get these people gigs that might change their lives. And so they grovel before a 23 year old.

All of them, they grovel. Bollywood starlets, producers, journalists, columnists, so called public intellectuals, all…

And THAT is Indian liberalism. Pathetic and disgusting. With no moral fiber, no ideology. Not a bone of intellectual honesty nor self-respect anywhere in their body. Just a wiggling mass of worms, a disgusting jelly like blob of bootlickers.

And these people call others “bhakts.”

No, I do not even want to bring PM Modi into this discussion. He is Prime Minister of India, who worked his way up from a tea seller. We should not even compare him to some 23 year old who has done nothing in his life.

But think about this. If the liberals can grovel like this in front of some rich actor, think how these people grovel in front of real power. Think about how they groveled before the big business houses or political monopolies of old. Think how they groveled at the feet of the dynasty when they ruled for four decades straight.

Try this right now. Go to the Twitter timeline of any liberal right now. You will find something or the other from them about how great this 23 year old guy is. Now think how easy it must be to buy off these people with some scholarship or some third rate honor from an American university, a free trip to some Western country, or perhaps even an expensive watch or maybe even a ride in an expensive car.

Yeah, these intellectuals are out to ‘dismantle’ Hindutva alright… These intellectuals say they are out to speak truth to power. Ha! When they are turning tricks on every corner in the hope that some rich actor will toss them a dime…

Yes, there is sycophancy everywhere, including among BJP supporters, but nothing like this. See if you can get BJP supporters to compare some 23 year old accused in drug related cases to “Gauri’s son.” You can’t. Because BJP supporters, whatever their faults, are people of conscience. The BJP has a million faults and so do its supporters, but the so called “bhakts” are putting their conscience first. In fact, whenever the BJP veers towards sycophancy, such as organizing a grand welcome for PM on his return from the UN, you see “bhakts” quivering with embarrassment.

On the liberal side, there is no such thing. For them, a 23 year old with a rich dad is reason enough for them to rub their noses on the ground. There is no conscience, no honesty and no self-respect. There is only a desperate competition for crumbs…

Coal crisis: How global media is attacking India to reduce China’s embarrassment

The following is a headline from the UK based Financial Times newspaper on Oct 6

Notice the phrase “China and India.” But why? As the article itself would admit:

“As of October 3, India’s 135 thermal power plants had just four days’ worth of coal stocks, down from 13 days on August 1, the power ministry said on Tuesday.“

In other words, the “crisis” hasn’t even happened yet, at least by the time of the writing of the article. So how did the Financial Times work out that there is a crisis in “China and India”?

Okay, four days is not a very long time and maybe you cannot fault the Financial Times for looking a bit ahead. We will come to this. But first let us note the similar spate of articles about India’s looming power crisis in global media. Here is the BBC:

“Brink” of an unprecedented power crisis. So it hasn’t happened yet. And here is Al Jazeera on Oct 6.

Again, pay close attention to the exact words. India “faces” a growing crisis. So it hasn’t happened yet. But we already have the Financial Times, BBC and Al Jazeera warning us about what is going to happen. See the level of concern for India. See how much they love us and worry about us. Isn’t it touching?

Now, is there a problem with coal supplies in India at the moment? Absolutely. The Central government is having non-stop meetings with state governments, coal suppliers and all stakeholders to keep the supply chain from breaking down. Many mines have been flooded due to monsoon rain. In the international market, the price of coal (as with energy in general) has shot up massively. Power demand is surging with the economy showing a strong recovery. The festival season is here as well. A perfect storm. And so, Coal India is ramping up production, BCCL is racing against the clock. Basically, it is all hands on deck.

But the blackouts haven’t happened yet. We are on thin ice, but we are getting by. You cannot deny that.

Then why is the international media so interested? Why are they circling like birds of prey, eager to pick India apart?

Am I being too prickly here? Isn’t the media just doing its job, picking up early on a big story that literally affects hundreds of millions of people?

Yes, I would have said that. But only if I noticed a similar eagerness in the media to pick up on the much bigger and actually ongoing (instead of “looming“) power crisis in China.

In China, things are bad. When a power crisis happens, the usual thing is for factories to be shut down first. Household electricity supply is always given top priority. But in China, the trouble spread from factories to people’s homes at least two weeks ago. In many provinces across China, the government is switching off household power during the day, advising folks to make do with sunlight. Power supply at night is not guaranteed either, and people are learning to live with flashlights and generators.

The factory shutdowns in China have already impacted global supply chains. There are reports that the government in China is giving some preference to suppliers of the biggest name brands such as Apple and Tesla, just to maintain some appearance that things are fine. But you can’t fool everyone. Goldman-Sachs has already cut its GDP forecast for China. In other words, all the things that happen in the late stages of a crisis have already happened. Unlike India, where the crisis is still “looming.”

So how did the global media, if it was ever doing its job, miss the crisis in China? Why are they only talking about it only now that the blackouts are in plain sight, the factories have come to a halt and the GDP growth cuts have already been measured? Why didn’t they panic a week in advance like they did for India?

Show me all those articles in BBC and Al Jazeera and such warning about China months ago, counting down from a week before the crisis. I tried to find such articles dated from June, July or August. Considering how big the Chinese economy is and how vital their manufacturing is for the world, you would have expected the global media giants to be hot on their trail for the biggest story of the year.

I didn’t find anything. The closest I came was this story in Bloomberg on Sep 16, when the crisis was already running deep in China.

Did you notice the exact wording of the headline? And don’t miss the line below it: China poised for winter power deficit despite preparation. Be scared. Be very scared.

The most incisive observation I came across in recent years was this line I read somewhere: the pandemic didn’t change the world, it only revealed who is really in charge.

Maybe you are thinking: but India is a democracy. We are not China, where the only news that leaks out is how global factors are to blame for the problems in China. And how people should get ready for a crisis, despite preparation by dear leader Xi Jinping. In contrast, everything about India is in the open, despite what Freedom House says.

In that case, how about the United Kingdom, the home of the BBC?

Ah, the military. On the streets of a free country, distributing fuel to citizens. The first sign of a thriving first world nation, right?

No, this is not some British version of NREGA to give dignity to their soldiers with nothing to do after the surrender in Afghanistan. This is a full blown crisis. In many British cities, up to 90 percent of petrol pumps have run dry.

They say the crisis is not one of fuel itself, but of truck drivers. Apparently, these truck drivers used to be mostly migrants from poorer European Union countries. And now they have all gone home. Also apparently, there was no way to predict this crisis even four days before it happened…

Right, BBC?

So the global media couldn’t see the crisis coming in China. And when it came, they found themselves reminding people everywhere that dear leader Xi Jinping has been preparing for this. And that it isn’t his fault anyway, but the fault of everyone else. They couldn’t even foresee the day when the military would be needed to keep British people supplied with fuel.

But they have been on high alert about India. They have been looking out for us for weeks now.

One final thing. In this global energy crisis, where are our saviors? Where are our visionaries and our revolutionaries? There is another Friday coming up this week. I suppose a school strike might be in order. No Fridays for future to save us now?

I know, I know. How dare I ask…