Hold it right there. The civil liberty to make insinuations about Indian democracy without adequate evidence connecting GOI to the hacking, all while camping in India, seems to be intact.
Must I remind of more pressing concerns closer to home - the backsliding of democracy in the global north being just one of them. Indians seem to be rather happy with how their democracy functions, so perhaps the ‘concerns’ are unfounded. Or planted to simply to disrupt.
With only 39% of Americans and 31% of Brits satisfied with their respective democracies, an inquiry should be opened into the curtailment of civil liberties which contribute to the abysmal figure. 70% of Indians rate their setup favorably. Learn a thing or two from us, perhaps?
You can start with transparent elections, and maybe follow it up with improving FoE, especially online. The very platform we are writing on has been active in stifling genuine freedom. Learn to hold firms accountable. Or will that subvert a much larger agenda?
If the West is interested in partnering with India on the basis of ‘shared values,’ it must pull up its socks. We hold democracies to high standards in light of the success of our own. As of now, the US and UK are falling woefully short.
Economic advancement and quality of democracy are two separate matters. I know, it’s tough after centuries of wealth accrual, largely on the back of slavery and colonial loot, to learn what freedom is from the once colonized.
Hence, neocolonialism.
Thankfully, this is the kind of pushback that will come in waves.
Shouldn’t this be an indictment of the Democratic Party’s campaign? Or is it just one of the dozens of dubious ‘rankings’ used to whitewash America’s ineptitude? A brazen display of callousness towards the 625,000 dead is in line with their pattern of coverups post disasters.
Egregious human rights violations in foreign lands are also papered over with high rankings on ‘human rights’ and ‘freedom’. That the US is a tinpot democracy with a dark cloud hanging over the ‘20 election result makes any of its claims farcical. America survives on advertising
What’s more disgraceful about this racist ranking is that developed countries like Japan, Taiwan and Singapore that have performed far better with a tenth of the death rate, are placed behind. And the very fact that China figures on the list is atrocious.
A) Support a toolkit ‘activist’ who was given a script to interfere in Indian democratic proceedings.
B) Celebrate child abuse, joining the parents and the international activist machinery to manipulate a kid diagnosed with Asperger’s, OCD and selective mutism.
Pendency is the merely the symptom. The archaic collegium system is the root problem. It elevates to positions of influence individuals who willfully ignore common sense at the expense of judicial capacity building. After all, nobody likes to share power.
While the optionality gained by not ratifying the UNCLOS lends the US substantive maneuverability in any effort to exert global maritime dominance, the recent events appear far less “provocative” than what we see vis-à-vis traditional allies like Japan and South Korea.
The Japanese and South Koreans have seen US warships just 12 nautical miles from their coast (as opposed to India’s 130 miles). Unbounded by UNCLOS, and with a formidable naval fleet, they will continue to dominate the seas and project power even against regional allies.
The main sticking point is the publicity the US has given to its actions. As I have mentioned before, the US’ inclusion in the Quad is as much about FONOP in their favor and securing their geostrategic interests as it is about unilateral power projection in the Indo-Pacific.
That the @UN may well be complicit in human rights abuse by handing over the names of Chinese dissents to the CCP speaks volumes of how money power can help a state with a dubious HR track record, capture an intergovernmental body.
In 2019, a @UNDP event which was meant to have a photography exhibition with images of HH the Dalai Lama and artist Ai Weiwei was canceled under Chinese pressure, according to Swedish government officials.
Cancel culture is not just limited to denying India a seat at the UNSC.
Despite being acutely aware of the CCP’s chequered history, the UN plans to set up a big data research center in Hangzhou. The aim - to collect vast sums of international data for the seemingly innocuous cause of achieving sustainability goals.
This article discusses how temple grounds are used for the UK’s vaccination drive.
It states “...studies show that minority groups have higher vaccine hesitancy,” without mentioning that the Indian community is as likely as any other enthnic group to take the vaccine.
Why is @cnni hiding the details? When a Hindu temple is organizing a vaccine drive, why is the community grouped with other ‘South Asians’ and people from beyond who take the average anti-vax rate amongst ethnic minorities to a level higher than of the average population?
@NadaMBashir, is there any reason why a community-wise breakdown is not provided in this article? Is it to create a false equivalency between British Indian attitudes towards the Covid vaccine and those of other ethnic groups? Why is a Hindu temple used for monkey-balancing?
The ‘H’ in ‘Hindi’ is meant to be capitalized. But we let that pass because we get the point being made, right?
That aside, ungrammatical English is used by a large base of Indians for whom English is a second, third or even fourth language. It cuts across party lines.
A fraction of the population is educated in the English medium, and a sliver of them are taught well in the chaste form. Many of the same “trolls” referred to voted for the Congress or regional parties in the past. How else did the BJP’s vote share increase over the years?
Now on to the narrow base and the colonized mind. A small, English-speaking group penned (and revised) the ‘idea of India’. An overwhelming majority laid the concertina wire of English to protect the hallowed colonial halls they inherited, from the subaltern masses.