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By Alex Lantier

Since the failure last year of the Ukrainian army’s “counteroffensive” against Russia, NATO countries have relentlessly escalated their war with Russia in Ukraine, authorizing the Kiev regime to launch missile strikes on Russia and pledging to send their own troops to Ukraine. An interview with top NATO officials published yesterday in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, titled “NATO land corridors could rush US troops to front line in event of European war,” highlights that NATO plans to escalate the war from Ukraine across Europe.

Examining the Telegraph article puts paid to arguments that NATO’s escalation against Russia aims to defend Ukraine’s borders or European democracy. NATO is preparing a continental war, sending hundreds of thousands of troops for operations along Russia’s entire western border, from Finland to the Balkans. Even if the implementation of NATO’s plans did not immediately trigger nuclear war, which is a very real danger, it would plunge Europe into mass slaughter on a scale unseen since World War II.

Lt. General Alexander Sollfrank, of NATO’s Logistics Command, told the Telegraph NATO plans to take over Europe’s port and ground transport infrastructure, in order to send US troops arriving in Europe’s Atlantic ports across the continent to Russia. In these transport corridors, which NATO expects would face devastating air attacks, local laws would be suspended.

The Telegraph published a diagram of planned “transport corridors” across Europe. Initial NATO plans call for US troops to land in Rotterdam or Hamburg, in northwestern Europe. However, they can also arrive at the western Italian ports of Genoa or La Spezia; in Athens; in the Norwegian port of Bergen; or in Turkish ports. NATO military officers would take over key road and rail infrastructure to send US troops across Europe to the Russian border. The Telegraph wrote:

“NATO is developing multiple ‘land corridors’ to rush US troops and armour to the front lines in the event of a major European ground war with Russia. American soldiers would land at one of five ports and be channelled along pre-planned logistical routes to confront a possible attack by Moscow, officials told The Telegraph. … But arrangements are also being made behind the scenes to expand the routes to other ports to ensure the ground line of communications cannot be severed by Moscow’s forces.

“In these corridors, national militaries will not be restricted by local regulation,” the Telegraph added, “and will be free to transport consignments without normal restrictions.”

These plans for military rule and war are the outcome of Ukraine war planning that has gone on for at least a year, behind the backs of the people. The Telegraph noted: “Logistical routes have become a key priority since NATO leaders agreed to prepare 300,000 troops to be kept in a state of high readiness to defend the alliance at a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, last year.”

Russia has thousands of high-precision ballistic missiles with nuclear or conventional warheads, and NATO expects its “land corridors” would be under relentless attack. “NATO only has 5 percent of the necessary air defences to cover its eastern flank,” the Telegraph stated. Indeed, Sollfrank told the Telegraph that the task of defending Europe’s major ports and transport hubs is all but hopeless.

“With regards to air defence, it’s always scarce. I cannot imagine a situation that you have enough air defence,” he said. “Observing and assessing the Russian war in Ukraine, we have observed Russia has attacked Ukraine’s logistics bases. That must lead to the conclusion that it is clear that huge logistics bases, as we know them from Afghanistan and Iraq, are no longer possible, because they will be attacked and destroyed very early on in a conflict situation.”

NATO therefore plans to disperse US troops across other, unidentified European ports, even before the main ports are destroyed. Given the likelihood that “NATO forces entering from the Netherlands are hit by Russian bombardment, or northern European ports are destroyed,” the Telegraph said, “arrangements are also being made behind the scenes to expand the routes to other ports to ensure the ground line of communications cannot be severed by Moscow’s forces.”

These lines in the Telegraph reveal the mood of criminal recklessness that is spreading over the entire political and media establishment in the NATO countries. The firebombing of Rotterdam by the Nazis and Hamburg by the British air force were horrific imperialist war crimes of World War II. Yet the Telegraph casually mentions these ports’ destruction, without asking the cost in lives, the catastrophic impact this would have on Europe’s economy—or, above all, what could be done to avert an escalation towards such an outcome.

But in response to the rapid fall of their global economic position, as well as explosive social anger at home, the NATO imperialist powers are pressing ahead. They are determined to inflict “strategic defeat” on Russia, force regime change in Moscow, and loot Russia’s vast reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources. Their support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, like their callous indifference to millions of preventable deaths of their own citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a warning that they will not be deterred by the danger of catastrophic loss of life.

Indeed, NATO itself confirmed that it is preparing to act on the plans outlined in the Telegraph, while reporting on its massive, recently-concluded “Steadfast Defender” war game. A May 31 press release from NATO headquarters in Mons, Belgium stated:

“Steadfast Defender was the first large-scale NATO exercise series where new regional defence plans, adopted at the Vilnius Summit, were put into action. More than 90,000 forces, more than 50 ships, more than 80 aircraft flying hundreds of sorties, and more than 1100 combat vehicles from all 32 NATO Allies were involved in the exercise. …
Part one was a maritime-focused live exercise that involved various headquarters rehearsing the strategic deployment of forces from North America to continental Europe. Part two was a multi-domain demonstration of NATO, national and multinational military capabilities across continental Europe.

A further indication that both NATO and the Kremlin expect NATO’s Vilnius plans to be acted upon is the recent surge in Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic. Were US troops to be ferried across the Atlantic for war with Russia, Russian attack submarines could be tasked with launching long-range guided missile strikes to destroy US troop transports before they arrive in Europe.

In April, NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe General Christopher Cavoli testified about Russian submarine activity to the US Congress: “Their patrols into the Atlantic and throughout the Atlantic are at a high level most of the time, at a higher level than we’ve seen in years.” Since then, there have been numerous reports that a dozen Russian attack submarines are patrolling the Atlantic.

The principal danger today is that broad masses of workers and youth are not fully aware of the gravity of the danger, and the urgent necessity of building an international anti-war movement in the working class. The ICFI explained in its recent statement, “Stop the US-NATO escalation toward nuclear war! Unite the international working class against imperialist war and genocide!”:

“28. There is only one way that the spiral toward disaster can be avoided, and that is through the intervention of the working class to force an end to this war. This demand must be combined with a struggle to end Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza. …
29. The working class must use its power to stop this war, which is plummeting toward disaster. The mobilization of this power requires overcoming the gap between the advanced stage of the global political crisis and the present level of mass political consciousness. This solving of this historic problem requires the development of a Marxist-Trotskyist leadership and the revolutionary renewal of the international workers’ movement on the basis of socialist policies.

5 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Justice Markandey Katju

“ Yeh do din ka kya maajra ho gaya
Ki jangal ka jangal hara ho gaya “

The most important outcome of the results of the recent parliamentary elections in India is that the nightmare for Indian Muslims is over.

Muslims in India are about 200 million i.e. about 15% of India’s total population of about 1400 million ( of which about 80% are Hindus ).

Even before the right wing Hindu party,  the BJP, came to power in 2014 Muslims in India were often victimised, demonised, and discriminated against. But this was usually sporadic, often covert, and temporary, since the Congress and other secular parties kept it to some extent in check, with an eye on the large Muslim vote bank.

After the BJP came to power in 2014 such atrocities and oppression of Indian Muslims increased exponentially, and became overt, continuous, and virulent.

Lynching of Muslims ( on false allegations of eating and selling beef ), bulldozing their houses, beating them brutally for not saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’, arresting and incarcerating them in prison for several years on false and fabricated charges of being terrorists, gangsters, and molesters and seducers of Hindu women, became commonplace. Cow vigilantes had a field day, and Muslims were fair game.

Narendra Modi, the present Indian Prime Minister, had a prominent role in this.

He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, and organized the massacre of 2000-3000 Muslims in that state in 2002.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/satyam-bruyat/page/4/?source=app&frmapp=yes

After becoming Prime Minister of India he regularly oppressed and organized atrocities on Muslims, not only to secure Hindu votes, but even more because it was part of his RSS mindset.

The RSS ( Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ) is a fascist Hindu organization which the British rulers of India created in 1925 as part of their divide and policy, and was the other side of the same coin as the Muslim League, both being British agents.

What is imbibed in all members of the RSS is hatred of Muslims. In his book ‘A Bunch of Thoughts’ ( which is compulsory reading for all RSS members ) a former RSS leader M.S. Golwalkar ( known as Guruji by RSS members) has spouted venom on Indian Muslims, calling them foreign invaders, looters, rapists, gangsters and terrorists,

Modi has obviously read all this, since he had joined the RSS at a very young age, and like all RSS members he has a pathological hatred of Muslims, as became evident throughout his 10: year term as Prime Minister in which in almost all his public statements he denigrated Muslims. Throughout his term of office Indian Muslims lived in fear and terror, like Jews in Nazi Germany.

State and educational institutions were sought to be ‘saffronised’, and science and education perverted

In his speeches during the recent parliamentary elections Modi again spouted venom against Muslims, calling them ghuspethiyas ( foreign infiltrators ) though the truth is that 95% Indian Muslims are descended from Hindu ancestors who for some reason converted to Islam, but were never foreigners, and the remaining 5% too were soon Indianised. His mention of mangal sutra, mutton, murga, mujra etc reveals his low culture

However, in my opinion dark days for Indian Muslims are over.

The results of the recent parliamentary elections show that that BJP has won only 240 seats in the 545 seat Lok Sabha, which is well short of the half way mark of 273. To form a government it will have to take the help of allies, particularly Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, and Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. But these two are reputed past masters in extracting concessions from big alliance partners and blackmail. They will surely demand lucrative portfolios like Finance Ministry, Commerce Ministry, etc where they can make a lot of money. They will also demand special status for their states, and that they should have a say in legislation

This being the situation,  even if Modi again becomes the Prime Minister it will not be the strong Modi with 56 inch chest whom we have known so far, but only a weak caricature and shadow of that figure.

He will certainly not be allowed to torment Muslims as he did in the last 10 years, firstly by his coalition partners, who do not wish to lose Muslim votes, and also by a resurgent opposition, the INDIA alliance

All Indian Muslims are breathing  free.

Justice Markandey Katju is a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India

5 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Hiren Gohain

Several people phoned this morning to say that after a long time they had sound,undisturbed sleep.I had to reply that I too had the same feeling of deep relief.As though a dark pall of cloud had lifted from our mind showing clear and blue skies.A Muslim friend said that for some years past he had been wondering whether he really belonged to the country of his birth,the land where generations of his family lived and died.After the results he felt that it was indeed his country.Very much so.

The poll results have decidedly cleared the miasma of the Modi myth and magic.That some people have asked for his resignation is understandable. For he had been campaigning for months to the neglect of his minimum official duties,and practically in his own own name as an agent of God.It did not gel.Even his own seat  has been retained with a much reduced majority.The latest blunder had been the clumsy attempt to foment anti-Muslim phobia now that the clamour about ‘Vikash’ has met a blank wall of ennui.

The opposition has fought well,though one wished bickerings among members had died down much earlier.For the dismal results of Delhi may well be a fall-out of the ill-tempered barbs of Kejriwal and counters from Congress until practically the last minute.

One notices with pleasant surprise Rahul Gandhi’s patient and open-minded negotiations with various regional leaders for alliance and his skill in patching up rifts in it.The earlier obstinate and unrealistic demand for pre-eminence has given way to a seasoned acceptance of modest fellowship.During the press conference after the results the importance given to alliance and partnership in response to probing and teasing questions from the press revealed the same maturity.Incidentally this maturity was seen in his cameraderie with Akhilesh Yadav,which saw to a stunning collapse in BJP’s hitherto impregnable walls in UP.

Rahul declared in the press conference that the striking performance of the INDIA alliance stemmed from its stout defence of India’s constitution.The common people responded to the calamities of high prices of everything that makes life sustainable and the scorching unemployment.But in a way they had certainly voted for the Constitution,for it is the Constitution that compels the rulers to enable people to live a life of dignity,free from nagging want and demeaning poverty.The cash transfers under welfare schemes are welcome in conditions of severe drought of money,but a life of dependence as a beneficiary surely lacks dignity.Dictatorship and despotism in conditions like those in our country usually follow from a will to suppress such dignity.

The INDIA alliance too has any number of ‘beneficiary schemes’.But while that is necessary as palliative,it hardly meets the basic problem of neo-liberal economy.The latter allows business tycoons to store essential vegetables and staples of daily meals for unlimited periods in expectation of higher prices while their prices soar in open market.Or huge chunks of them may be exported while people starve as these become unaffordable at home.While one cannot think of just snapping out of it recklessly,there has got to be neasures to moderate its heat.

Rahul Gandhi quipped that the Adani-Modi nexus is proved by the rise and fall of the stock market with changing fortunes of Modi regime.Actually it is not Adani shares alone,but ALL shares that mimic the ascent and  decline of the Modi government’s fortunes.For it is basically a government tied up with big business houses.That is neoliberal state in a nutshell.It is geared to the monopolists relentless,maniacal and heartless pursuit of profit to the peril of life and livelihood of the common people, the culture of co-operation and human fellow-feeling as well as the natural environment of all life.

Modi’s speech accepting the results from Vajpeyee Bhavan bore the same characteristics of his histrionics and rhetoric.But the verve was lacking,the long-drawn periods forced and mechanical.He congratulated the people for upholding democracy.

It is ironic if a little frightening that one with patent dictatorial pretensions should proclaim such devotion to democracy.Whatever he means by it.But it IS a vast relief to find that the people have shaken off their stupor to reclaim their ownership of the government,something the preamble to our Constitution so compellingly articulate.

There are many people who think that the alarm about EVMs had been false and groundless. But with the ECI so oddly acting like an agency of the government in power and itself formed in such conditions of dubiousness, there was no guarantee that when everything else of value had been traduced they would not have tried to hack its programming.It was only the vigilance of the people including civil rights activists,IT experts,former bureaucrats,responsible lawyers and former judges,that appears to have deterred miscreants from mischief.

The courts have had their fair share of blame and public censure when they fell far short of expectations in this critical phase of our history.But to be really fair one has to concede that the SC at this crucial juncture acted several times to indirectly inject vigour into the flagging campaign for democracy,as when it swatted the blatant rigging of election of Chandigarh’s mayor,when it blew the whistle on the Electoral Bonds scam,or when it cut down to size Baba Ramdev,whose brazen impunity had left most people incredulous but helpless.

Yes, all of us have tried and done our bit for our beloved country and out cherished Constitution.The next steps must also be taken with a mixture of courage and circumspection.

Hiren Gohain is a political commentator

5 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Nilofar Suhrawardy

Notwithstanding the hype raised about the so-called “Modi-wave,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to win the needed number of seats to form the government on its own strength. At the same time, in all probability, if this party’s campaign didn’t rest primarily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “image,” BJP may not have won even 240 seats. This certainly suggests that Modi’s strategies did succeed but hardly to his and his party’s satisfaction. Where did he err? And which factors weren’t considered by those assuming that he’d return for the third term with a thumping majority?

Clearly, the BJP and its supporters were over-confident about the impact of Modi-wave, which really carried little importance, as results suggest for majority of voters. Certainly, Modi did succeed in dominating media headlines at home and abroad on issues he viewed as important for electoral purposes. But even attention paid by him to his religious-card, particularly regarding the grandiose Hindu temple at Ayodhya, has carried little importance. His party failed to win even from the constituency (Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh), where the temple is situated. BJP has failed to win even 50% of seats from Uttar Pradesh, with the regional party- Samajwadi Party (SP) taking the lead here. In all probability, the voters saw through Modi’s “religious-show” at Ayodhya as his electoral propaganda and thus refused to be blinded by the same. Also, certain reports indicate that Ayodhya-show, paid little importance to grievances faced by people of the area. Undeniably, Modi went overboard in playing this card. Of course, he did gain attention but that rested primarily on manipulated agenda focusing on propagating his image as well as status. But a card of this nature can yield gains only for a limited period. It is likely to collapse if it fails to spell any gains for voters. This is what has apparently happened in Ayodhya and greater part of UP.

Besides, little importance was apparently paid to economic grievances of people at various levels. Younger generation of Indian voters appears to have given substantial significance to this fact. They are agitated by issues such as unemployment, increasing inflation, the hard reality of rich growing richer, poor-poorer and so forth. Modi’s rhetoric, weaving dreams, mattered little for them. With two terms as prime minister, in their opinion, he had been given ten years to fulfil his promises but he had failed them. It may be noted, the extensive display of religious-card by Modi carried little appeal for voters more concerned about their economic problems.

What has perhaps shocked BJP supporters most is that the party has performed dismally in the key state in Hindi-belt, that is UP. It is possible, if the opposition parties had not aligned and campaigned together on a fairly strong note, BJP may have performed better. Over-confidence, resting exclusively on Modi’s image appears to have failed BJP. In quite a few states, opposition parties’ alliance- INDIA-bloc and regional parties’ electoral fight was apparently guided by their campaign against Modi/BJP. Their primary aim was aggressively guided to be united to push Modi-led government out of power. Of course, the opposition parties have fallen short of their target. Yet, their least expected success has at least prevented BJP from securing the needed majority- winning 272 seats in 543-member Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament). Apart from UP, the anti-Modi strategy has also worked in limiting BJP’s success in southern India, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab and several other parts.

Against this backdrop, what can be said regarding opinion polls as well as exit polls predicting a return of Modi with a strong majority? Frankly speaking, these can hardly be relied upon. With India home to numerous political parties and cultural diversities, it is practically impossible to secure a reliable opinion of any group for the political party they may support/oppose. Besides, there is no denying, voters don’t always give their actual opinion on who they support/oppose. Fear prevents quite a few from actually stating the truth about who they support and vote for. So even if these polls (opinion and exit) are actually genuine, there is no guarantee that they are really based on correct data.

In essence, Modi-wave never really existed but a hype about it was certainly promoted through manufactured “news” and manipulated strategies. Voters woke to this hard reality when confronted by their economic grievances not being resolved by BJP-rhetoric resting on Modi-wave. Besides, opposition parties’ decision to give a strong fight to BJP has played a key role in spelling an electoral setback for Modi. This includes the marches undertaken by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, his parties’ seat sharing deal with other parties of India-bloc, joint-campaigns and so-forth. Modi himself was forced to stop making fun of Rahul Gandhi during his election campaigns. Overall, with this being an era of communication-boom, even semi-literate and illiterate voters may be viewed as smart enough to understand political language of leaders in the electoral fray. This is strongly suggested by their viewing Modi’s Ayodhya-card as his electoral card and not religious. BJP’s dismal performance in UP further proves this. Simply speaking, when image/hype about a politician’s “wave” rests primarily on manufactured agenda, it cannot float for too long. It is bound to be pricked democratically and burst like a balloon as these election results indicate. There is nothing surprising about this. Clearly, Indian democracy and secularism is too strong to let such balloons- including communal – float for too long!

Nilofar Suhrawardy is a senior journalist and writer with specialization in communication studies and nuclear diplomacy.

5 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By John P. Ruehl

Despite some Western expectations of an imminent decline in Russian backing for the conflict in Ukraine, akin to the fading public support observed in recent Western conflicts, Russia’s civilians and soldiers exhibit an unwavering determination to sustain their support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing for a two-day trip on May 15, 2024, and was greeted with a red-carpet welcome by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders pledged a “new era” for the Russia-China relationship, building on their “no limits partnership” struck just before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. As Putin’s first foreign trip since winning reelection in March, the visit showcased his and Russia’s enduring stature amid the war in Ukraine.

Despite Russia’s 2024 election being marked by systemic repression of serious alternative parties and candidates and decades of brazen statements about Russia’s “managed” democracy, Putin captured 87 percent of the vote from a record-high voter turnout. Even with some self-censorship and a slight drop in approval, the Russian public still largely backs the war, despite a largely static frontline, the severance of ties with Europe, declines in living standards, and the deaths and injuries of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers. The staggering number of casualties is mirrored in Ukraine, a nation that Putin and many Russians consider a brotherly nation and the mother culture of Russia.

In contrast, U.S. domestic support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began to decline markedly a couple of years after the conflicts began, and predictions of a collapse in Russian public support for the war emerged soon after it began. Yet although the costs of Russia’s war in Ukraine continue to escalate and it appears far from conclusion, several reasons have compelled Russian citizens to continue supporting the war and the President who initiated it.

Opposition to war in Russia faces unique challenges not encountered in the U.S., but convincing a population that war is unavoidable is essential for any government to sustain a war effort. The Kremlin has framed the nation’s military actions as a noble fight to save ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine from a fascist regime in Kyiv—a narrative that resonates with many Russians and the country’s history in World War II. Highlighting growing restrictions on the Russian language in Ukraine furthers this message, while Russia’s excuse that they were answering cries for help in Ukraine echoes their 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Russian media also portrays their forces as minimizing civilian casualties, as Ukraine is accused of targeting civilians in Russia, and Ukraine’s failure to hold scheduled elections in 2024 has been used to question President Zelensky’s legitimacy.

By portraying Ukraine as the mother culture of Russia, Putin has cast the invasion through a historical and patriotic lens. The conflict is framed as an internal matter of reasserting Russian dominance over the ancestral homeland that birthed Russian language, religion, and political origins, against an illegitimate Ukrainian government that currently occupies the country. Russian nationalism can be rallied by invoking ethnic unity, territorial patrimony, and the need to rectify Ukraine’s separation from Moscow, making it easier to dismiss Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Russia has also deflected its violations of the UN Charter against non-aggression by depicting itself as an aggrieved party, forced into war by the U.S.-led West and its vassal states, sentiment reflected in national polls, and supported by notable figures like Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, who in January 2024 stated that Ukraine was under the complete control of Washington. On May 1, 2024, an exhibition of captured Western weapons, vehicles, and equipment since the start of the war opened in Moscow—much like Kyiv’s in May 2022 which showed captured Russian equipment. The Kremlin connects everything to the war—including the recent attack by ISIS in Moscow. In contrast, the American public increasingly began to believe that U.S. leaders had misled them into the War on Terror, particularly the War in Iraq, which it felt could have been avoided.

Russians’ support for the war has manifested as the culmination of decades of “patriotic mobilization” that has taken place since Putin’s first term. The cultivation of nationalist sentiment, pervasive across media, culture, and politics, has intensified significantly since the invasion. The Russian identity is increasingly intertwined with the existential need to protect Russians abroad, shield Russia from NATO, and bolster Russia’s status as a great power.

Preparing and instilling confidence in the Russian armed forces’ ability to sustain a major conflict has been ongoing for decades. Russian forces engaged in counterinsurgency operations in Russia’s restive region of Chechnya in the 2000s and supported a limited conflict in support of two restive regions in neighboring Georgia in 2008. Subsequently, Russian forces seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supported a limited conflict in support of Ukraine’s restive border region with Russia. In 2015, they launched a major military operation to rescue Syrian President Assad in 2015. With relative success in Syria, the significant escalation of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine in 2022 did not come as a surprise. This contrasts with the perceived failures of Western military interventions in the 21st Century, causing domestic confidence in the U.S. military to decline as well as the scale of the military’s operations.

To alleviate domestic concern stemming from severing Russia’s historical connections with Europe, as well as distancing by other countries to comply with Western sanctions, Putin has embarked on a series of foreign trips to show Russia’s resiliency. Visits to Belarus and other former Soviet states in Central Asia and the Caucasus have helped stabilize its regional influence. Visits to Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have served to demonstrate Russia’s enduring influence in the Middle East, while Russia has also hosted dozens of foreign leaders from the Global South, as well as those of Hungary and Austria.

However, Russia’s ties with China form its most crucial bilateral relationship. Despite the power imbalance, Putin’s May visit to China reaffirmed Moscow’s strategic relationship with Beijing. Russia’s capacity to confront the U.S. and collaborate with other major powers offers reassurance that has erased much of the pain of the geopolitical decline that accompanied the Soviet collapse.

Moscow has also aimed to counter any moral superiority by the West in Ukraine by highlighting Washington’s and Kyiv’s support for Israel since October 7. Framing it as part of Russia’s confrontation with the West for a new multipolar world order, the Kremlin hopes to legitimize its policies and broaden Russia’s appeal to the Global South. Following the Nigerien government’s expulsion of U.S. troops in May 2024 and the invitation of Russian forces, images of Russian troops entering the same airbase where U.S. military personnel were stationed further underscored Russia’s assertive struggle with the West and wider geopolitical ambitions.

Furthermore, Russian citizens have been shielded from the economic repercussions of the war through subsidized fuel, food, and other essential resources. Russia’s substantial gold and foreign reserves have helped fund the war and prevented extended currency volatility, while the imposition of hefty penalties on foreign companies considering leaving Russia has deterred many Western firms from exiting or compelled them to pay significant costs.

Russia’s major economic partners, most importantly China and India, have helped maintain stability in Russia’s exports and imports. Western sanctions have also by design not crippled the Russian economy, as preventing Russian resources from reaching global markets would cause prices to spike.

Moreover, the Russian public has also been largely spared from devastation. Ukrainian attacks within Russia have mostly been limited to small flareups in border regions and attacks on energy and transport facilities, and Ukrainian forces are still restricted from using Western weapons. Sabotage attacks in Russia have also risen, but the situation is manageable.

In contrast to Ukrainian citizens, no Russian civilians have been forcefully committed to fight. The 2022 partial mobilization called up reservists, while recent changes to laws have meant Russia has been more easily able to offer generous contracts to annual conscripts soon after their training has concluded. Compared to the forced conscription videos in Ukraine, Russian media can claim it only uses volunteers and those already part of the armed forces.

Russian soldiers who are injured, as well as the families of Russian soldiers who died in service, receive substantial compensation. Though payment is often delayed, the modest backgrounds of most Russian soldiers mean that these funds can be life-changing. The use of prisoners in particularly perilous military operations has also shielded regular Russian soldiers, with Ukraine only considering this practice earlier this year.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed and hundreds of thousands more seriously wounded. This tests the casualties hypothesis, which states that the public’s willingness to remain engaged in a military intervention declines as casualties mount. The Soviet Union’s 10-year war in Afghanistan saw 15,000 Soviet troops killed and eventually helped lead to the downfall of the country, while the deeply unpopular Iraq War saw 4,500 U.S. soldier deaths and saw the Bush administration’s popularity decline considerably.

Undoubtedly, the Russian government distorts official casualty figures. Yet it is crucial to contextualize Russia’s losses in Ukraine within the context of recent history. The COVID-19 pandemic claimed more than 400,000 Russian lives, far surpassing the casualties in Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Russian public’s stomach in the face of such significant losses may be influenced by the large number of deaths of prominent Russians since the beginning of the war. Across Russian media, the war and its repercussions have shown that even the country’s most influential individuals can be killed and have their assets stripped, contributing to a sense of collective sacrifice amid the conflict.

Amid the chaos of the war, dozens of Russian oligarchs and political figures have been killed in suspicious circumstances both in Russia and overseas, in a public settling of scores, opportunism, and punishment from the Kremlin for disobedience. A day after Russian forces entered Ukraine, the body of Alexander Tyulyakov, a senior executive of Gazprom’s corporate security, was found hanging in his garage. Ravil Maganov, chairman of the board of Russia’s oil giant Lukoil, allegedly fell out of a Moscow hospital window in September 2022. In December, businessman Vladimir Bidenov died of heart problems at the Hotel Sai International in India—two days later his business associate and deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Vladimir Oblast, Pavel Antov, fell out of a window at the same hotel.

While the deaths of oligarchs and politicians may offer some solace to ordinary Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine, there has also been a significant loss of high-ranking military officials. Some, like Lieutenant General Vladimir Sviridov, were also killed in suspicious circumstances. However, the necessity for high-ranking Russian military officials to remain near the frontlines, owing to a more top-down decision-making military structure and the risk of electronic eavesdropping by Ukrainian and Western advisors, contributes to their higher casualty rate.

Alongside hundreds of other high-profile deaths, Russia has confirmed that seven general officers had been killed in Ukraine by 2024, with Ukraine claiming more than 14 had been killed by early 2023. The last time a U.S. general was killed in combat was in 2014 when an Afghan serviceman opened fire on NATO personnel in Kabul; prior to that, no American general had lost their life in combat since the Vietnam War. With this backdrop of sacrifice and solidarity among Russian elites, Russia’s “rally-‘round-the-flag” effect may sustain itself longer than expected.

Russians appear to believe time and demographics are on their side. According to a March 2024 poll by Russia’s Levada Center, after decades of emigration, the share of Russians expressing a desire to move abroad hit a record low, partly in response to many of those wanting to leave having already done so. Nevertheless, Finion, a Moscow-based relocation firm, stated that 40 to 45 percent of Russians who fled abroad had since returned, driven by factors such as cracking down on remote work, visa issues, reduced fears of conscription, and a general desire to return.

And while tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have perished, along with thousands more ethnic Russians in occupied parts of Ukraine, millions of those living in those occupied territories have already been incorporated into the Russian Federation’s pre-existing 144 million citizens. Conversely, Ukraine, with 37 million people before the war, has faced a population exodus compounding already challenging demographics.

By early 2024, the prevailing sentiment was that Russia had gained a fragile upper hand. Victory, though potentially pyrrhic, appears increasingly likely, if loosely defined, in Russia. Yet, as the conflict drags on, sustained by a Russian economy increasingly geared toward the war, the pursuit of victory may wane as casualties and other costs mount. The Kremlin’s anxieties are now focused on Western nations, led by the UK, France, and Poland, allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons in Russia, which would further bring the war home to Russian civilians and internal infrastructure.

While projecting an image of composure to the public, tensions are unquestionably simmering in the Kremlin. Estimates regarding Russia’s capacity to sustain the war in its current state typically hover around two to three years. Yet unwavering support for Putin, coupled with the absence of viable alternatives, may extend his strong personal commitment to the war indefinitely. While Russia appears capable of and determined to continue the war, its uncertain future will continue to test the Russian public’s tacit enthusiasm for it.

Putin’s willingness to continue the war is seen as something to exploit in the West. Western policymakers have witnessed Russia increasingly commit its domestic resources to the conflict, as well as recently shift from calling it a “special military operation” to a war. Steadily increasing Ukraine’s technical capacity to fight a war of attrition will continue to wear down Russia’s Soviet arsenal and deployment of arms abroad, demonstrating the feebleness of Russia’s production and advanced weapons systems. By provoking a Russian defeat, it is hoped a second major convulsion across the former Soviet Union will further reduce Moscow’s geopolitical influence. Russia’s protracted military campaign and the West’s strategy of prolonging the conflict through escalation management will keep exacting a catastrophic toll on Ukrainian lives and infrastructure.

John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C., and a world affairs correspondent for the Independent Media Institute.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja

Leaders who could not Think as Normal Human Beings

Leaders who view humanity less than in equal human status are extremely naive about their own nature of being a human – lacking moral, spiritual and intellectual act of balancing the consciousness“ or engaged in competitive numbers games to elevate their own image in global power and influence over others. They use dynamics of absolutism and aggressive behavior to manipulate the weak and helpless people.

“Man (human being) was created by God in the best possible mould”,  explains the Divine narrative but human diversity is a natural phenomenon and its consequences are far beyond the conception of right and wrong or virtue and vice. People and nations strive to compete for triumph and glory implying varied methods of political power, media propaganda, psychological and other weapons of mass destruction. Ironically, human minds with normal consciousness would not pursue tyranny, aggressive behavior, killings and destruction of other nations, cultures and civilizations.It is the abnormal mind, political power, greed, and hatred and sometimes ethnic supremacy that makes them to act irrationally and abnormally worst than wild beasts.

The living Earth maintains 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen to support all forms of life and technology on this planet. We hold moral and spiritual solidarity as a foundation of the sanctity of life and unanimity of mankind. All human beings are composed of material and spiritual factors to flourish life. If they breathe oxygen and heart beats, God is there. Is there an individualistic psychological, moral and spiritual problem of balancing act with PM Netyanhu and President Joe Biden to act normally for an immediate  ceasefire and peace in Gaza? Both have unique characteristics to be analyzed and reflected for being indifferent to peace and supportive of war on Gaza and killings of almost 36,000 or more innocent people and some 15,000 children and women and reportedly some 14, 000 children and women still buried in various locations of Gaza. If Netanyahu claims  some morality-how treacherous it is used to bomb places of worship, hospitals and make the Gazan civilians starve for several months. Biden in a US Presidential election year and Netanyahu for his own political survival appear to be competing for glory and success by using wrong thinking, wrong methods and for the wrong reasons. Wars and bombing and destruction of mankind do not produce peace and societal harmony, be it in Israel, Palestine or the US.

Masses against War as Wars do not Produce Peace and Harmony

The voices of public consciousness echo across many continents to “ Stop the War in Gaza”,  “Let Palestinians Live”,  and stop the “Crimes against Humanity by America and Israel.”  No wonder who listens to these inner voices of humanity when unabated bombardments are destroying lives and human habitats without any accountability. The ICJ asking for a halt to the war and the ICC threat of the arrest warrants of Israeli leaders went unnoticed.

This weekend, Israeli media reported more than 120,000 citizens in Tel Aviv demanding removal of PM Netanyahu, the end of war on Gaza and safe return of 134 hostages. The center of sadistic gravity and vengeance is PM Netanyahu and his war cabinet and dynamic syntax to command the world is the White House.

Life itself is a trial to people and nations and imbued with a rational choice to be righteous or evil monger on this planet. Are there any lessons to be learned from formative history? Do human cultures and civilizations grow out of the maligned proclamations of rule of law, freedom, justice, cruelty, occupation and conquest of other lands? The Earth is a sacred trust to mankind and is a living organ floating in space by the Will of God andsustains all life and aggressors are warned by the Divine injunction:  “Say! Travel through the earth; And see what was the end of those who rejected Truth.” The emerging wars and destruction of Earth and human habitats across Gaza and beyond are blatant violations of that TRUST between Man and God and call for awakening of human conscience and soul: “Truly Man is to his Lord, ungrateful and that (fact) he bears witness (by his deeds.): 6-7: 100: The Qur’an).

Political Wickedness and Human Nature

Is wickedness part of human nature? Man by nature seems to be a ‘contentious’ being. A rational conflict analysis and search for peace involves listening and learning to divergent viewpoints and finding a common place of reasoning without agreeing or disagreeing to stop the warfare.This shows effective communication and enlightened leadership traits.Why do leaders become aggressive and act like egomaniacs? Simply put, they lack their own mind, intellect and sense of rational being and heavily rely on advisors to make decisions or they fear the unknown to be replaced or their inner weaknesses overwhelm their strengths to act irrationally in situations of crisis.

I asked this question to many distinguished international scholars including Robert Burrowes and Robert (Bob) Kohoeler to know and enlighten the knowledge-based curiosity. Often reason has its limits but knowledge knows no bound and global affairs are a shared enterprise. Professor Robert J. Burrowes and Anita (Australia),need no introduction as scholars and Coordinator of the “Global Non-Violence Peace Movement”:

“Often I wonder, why do people become aggressive and act in inhuman ways that conflict with the Nature of Things.”…. “One view is essentially the concept of “POWER” , late Prof Hans Margenthau was right , ‘absolute power corrupts all the people , all the time.’… Aggressive people THINK of their own EGO (self) being the power (political absolutism),without any accountability,  and that leads
them to commit all types of crimes against fellow human beings.

Robert and Anita Responded: You pose what are really ‘eternal’ questions. That is, you raise issues that have troubled humanity from the dawn of ‘civilization’ if not much earlier. ‘How do we communicate to such powerful people to make them THINK as normal human beings?’ Frankly, I do not believe it is possible to meaningfully communicate with such people which is why I spend no time trying to do so. The reason flows from my answer to another question you pose: ‘why do people become aggressive and act in inhuman ways that conflict with the Nature of Things.’ The second question you posed was one that fascinated me from a young age.  After some 30 years researching it, Anita and I went into seclusion in 1996 to undertake some deep emotional healing. It took 14 years but taught us a great deal.

Bob Koeheler – a Chicago-based well known journalist shared his stance (“A WORLD UNDER SPIRITUAL CONSTRUCTION”): I think the only answer is transcending war!! War begins with — and is not possible without – dehumanization. “These are human animals,” as Yoav Gallant said.

Israeli and American Collaborative Crimes against Humanity and ‘Genocide’

To glance ahead it seems that the Western world failed to see a dreadful tragic history in the making of the end of time and loss of ingenuity to understand the consequences of naive egoism of Israeli leadership making war as an instrument of territorial expansion in the Middle East. Human glory lives in the conception of good and righteousness, not in wickedness and genocidal plans. Rationally arguable conclusion to the war on Gaza was perceivable if there was a unified political-military challenge to the Israeli plans by the Arab-Muslim world. That landscape appears morally, intellectually and politically bankrupt as a scum floating on a torrent of naive puppets and discredited leaders. The American-Israeli collaborative war on Gaza and its immediate consequences made the Western world and all of its institutions shamefully redundant and void in the 21^st century global norms of civility, human rights, freedom, justice and safety of civilians – whereas crimes against humanity are captured in obscure impulses and indecision and deliberate inaction by the UNO and the Security Council. Mocking its Charter obligations, the UN Security Council failed to protect the civilians from terror of daily bombardments of hospitals and places of worship. Peter Koenig (“Gaza: US and the West Support Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity: Understanding the Never-Ending Conflict”, Global Research: 11/06/23), explains:Israel’s PM Netanyahu is a war criminal and should be held accountable for war crimes throughout his PM-ship of Israel, according to the 1945 / 1946 Nuremberg trials criteria. His crimes against humanity, against a defenseless Palestine are comparable to the Holocaust. https://www.globalresearch.ca/gaza-us-west-supports-israel-crimes-against-humanity/5745763

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. 12/2019.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Marwan Asmar

North Israel is burning with more than 15 fires going on at the same time. The horizons of these northern areas are covered with flames and smoke. Gaza’s war had long filtered into these northern areas.

[https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs96/status/1797728386581942688]

Set alight by Hezbollah rockets launched from southern Lebanon, some of which through drones, thousands of acres have been set alight.

The blazes have started to burn Sunday and continued all through Monday night, going into Tuesday morning with teams of Israeli firefighters battling the raging flames that are described as apocalyptic and never seen before.

[https://twitter.com/AryJeay/status/1797680892477087896]

Videoclips of the fires are trending on the X platform showing the extent of the raging flames. All video clips show the rage in the fires that see no end as long as rockets keep coming to the northern Galilee and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Some of the worst hit areas is the settlement of Kiryat Shmona where thousands of Israelis are fleeing their homes.  It is reported six firemen were injured trying to control the fires here. The settlement, situated in northeastern occupied Palestine, had a population of 24,000 settlers.

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1797734847160389743]

Most of them had long been evacuated in the early months of the war on Gaza after 7 October, 2023 because of constant targeting by Hezbollah rockets.

Only 4000 remained but now and with the raging fires, these Israeli settlers are being evacuated quickly.

One blogger pointed out that 12 to 13 kilometers of the Galilee and Kiryat Shmona belt are burning despite the nine fire-fighting teams who are fighting round-the-clock to put the fires out. The fighting crews were later invreased to over 30 according to the Times of Israel.

The paper said the fires led to several major road in the Galilee area.

[https://twitter.com/SprinterFamily/status/1797724165002420514]

Israel’s Iron Dome is unable to deflect the incoming rockets from southern Lebanon as they are being launched in bundles and firemen are unable to put the fires out because of the wind changes.

Israeli extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says its is time for “all of Lebanon to burn” in response to the fires triggered by Hezbollah. He had long long been calling for the invasion of Lebanon and the destruction of Hezbollah in its entirety.

Dr Marwan Asmar writes from Amman, Joran, covering Middle Eastern affairs and he blogs at https://crossfirearabia.com.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Prabhat Sharan

Behind the electoral din and cacophony of the corporate media drum beaters, a spectre in raiment of flames leaping out onto the skies, from the fields on fire continues to haunt the ruling powers.

Irrespective of the outcome of the election results, the peasantry-adivasi populace like the mythical bird Phoenix will continue to resurrect itself from its own ashes across the Indian sub-continent much to the discomfort of rulers.

The spark that set the hay on fire in the granaries of the country in 2020-21 was the passing of three contentious farm bills through clandestine corridors where parliamentary procedures for the past one decade, are used for cosmetic purposes to gloss over the practice of illiberal democracy.

After a long spell of blustering and bluffing, the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was on its knees and for once found its empty rhetorical flourishes and damage control barbs boomeranging.

The veneer of BJP’s condescending intransigence and paper courage was in smithereens and fluttering like dry autumn leaves in the breath of old wizened farmers smiling with the chill of the cold wind and squinting eyes in the glassy blazing breeze of Delhi.

The bellicosity and contempt for people while pushing anti-people policies whetted and crafted out in the boardrooms of corporate and big business houses, vapourised in front of the rage and fury of farmers hailing from the granaries of the country.

Political parties in opposition although reduced to a deflated punching bag for the corporate media the ruling BJP led NDA was forced to withdraw its contentious bills.

This was the first of the salvo emerging out of the sharpening of class differences in a nation where for the past several decades identity politics replaced class based polity.

Interestingly, a bourgeoisie political party like Indian National Congress which had ushered in Thatcherite economic policies during early nineties, this time round rather than over focussing on identity politics made class-rooted issues connecting it with the agonies of subaltern and marginal population as its main campaigning plank.

This turnaround by a bourgeoisie political party primarily stemmed from witnessing the massive show of strength of peasantry class.

The peasantry class irrespective of the class and stratification that it is riddled with for the past several decades has been looking  into the eyes of an abyss from where the only exit was the door to death.

While the lines between propaganda and truth has gotten blurred in recent years thanks to the round-the-clock tom tomming by the corporate media concomitant with carpet bombing of twisted loaded messages purported as facts but designed to tap the deep seated biases, prejudices and fears of Reichian ‘Little Man,’ the peasantry class has somehow kept its voice of dissent and anger alive.

As tiller Kashinath Jobane, in the All India Kisan Sabha’s (AIKS) ‘Long March’ from Nashik to Mumbai in 2017 remarked: Yes. We are living a lie because it is on the mirage of hopes we are living. But even the city dwellers are also living the same lie”.

As former Nashik bureau chief of national daily Times of India and columnist Rakshit Sonawane commented “You cannot set the hay on fire if it is damp.  If it is dry then a single match can set the entire field on fire. This is what is happening in the rural area where farmers have become a dying breed because of the lop-sided policies of the government”.

Of course the privileged city dwellers are known for their indifference towards their fellow being sufferings but the carapace of neo-upper urban middle-class for once started seeing dents in their conscience despite their rationalisations and justifications for police excesses against the protestors.

And 2020-21 agitation was not the first time that the farmers had raised their voices against the anti-agrarian policies but what was in earlier regime a ‘push,’  during NDA rule this push turned into a ‘shove’.

Sinking reality of agrarian policies

Ironically most farmers in elections had voted heavily for BJP hoping that the promises doled out to them would be implemented.

With expectations high, the sinking of stark reality into one’s mind takes time but when such revelation does dawn, it comes as a “slap on the hopes.”

And the farm bills specifically plotted out to increase the stranglehold of the corporate and mega business houses over agriculture sector was the last straw. It has left the farming community in a room with no-exit with massive rise in the input costs.

Noted scholar, documentarist and cultural activist who has spent over four decades in country’s hinterlands studying agrarian issues while talking to this writer once commented that the situation facing the farming community in India, “is extremely complex involving a lot of factors including the politics of water.”

Elaborating on the issue of water politics, Nadkar pointed out that “Marathwada in Maharashtra is reportedly a drought-prone region but the aerated and carbonated and beer manufacturing companies have an endless supply of water while the agrarian community has to beg even for drinking water.”

However, water politics is just one of the symptoms plaguing the farming community. “The input cost has been increasing over the years and with over 40 per cent of farming community comprising small land holding owners, landless labourers, and tribals involved in share cropping or cultivating on lease land, the loan waiver will in no way benefit the cultivator. As per the Swaminathan Commission Report recommendations the MSP should 50 percent more than the actual input cost.

“Moreover, since early nineties there has been a tectonic shift by successive governments from agriculture to industrialization. From rural areas to urban areas. Not that the farmer earlier lived an idyllic life but today even a big landholding farmer is facing the sting of this paradigm shift. And alienation is high.”

Increase in agrarian protest after NDA

While it is true that hinterlands have always been witnessing agrarian protests and many a time even violent uprisings, the fact is that the farmland mass struggles have increased.

The corporate and mega business houses were tired of earlier Congress led UPA’s vacillation and snail-speed over the implementation of policies designed to increase their profits and hold over public goods and public land and thus helped BJP gain ascendancy.

But even if the ruling power manage to come out of this cauldron, the simmering subterranean rage would certainly keep on erupting and history shows, “Tyrants often fall because they do not know their limits.” (Paul Woodruff, Ethical Philosopher)

This is an updated article that was written on Dec7/2020 for a news portal. The article was removed after a couple of days.

Prabhat Sharan is a Senior Journalist with interest in social, human interest, working class, wild-life conservation, philosophical and literary studies.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By R. Umamaheshwari

Beyond all the games of numbers and predictions in the context of the electoral season (that continued rather long into peak summer), is the question of who won and who lost?  And I choose to write of winning and losing from a different perspective. Irrespective of the final numbers (many of us – who read the newspapers still – dreaming of waking up to hope-filled headlines in the papers of 5^th of June, on the World Environment Day), here are a few things that already won. I begin with a simple example. A young post-graduate student in a small village in Himachal Pradesh where I used to live would regularly send me messages expressing her anguish, whenever the so-called ‘Whatsapp university’ hate-speech forwards made appearance and had some of her own cousins and neighbours in a trance. She would write, “inko kaise samjhaayen; yeh sab andhbhakt hog aye hain” (trans. How does one explain to them; they have become blind devotees). This is a ‘victory’: a young literate woman in a village increasingly polarised, who can see the truth and worry for the country’s direction, while still being a consumer of the same ‘Whatsapp university’ system.

Independent journalism secured a big victory, too, this year. YouTube became the alternate medium for a more diverse representation of truth and facts, based on on-the-ground reporting by several YouTubers and independent citizen journalists. We saw and heard people with faces and names that would never enter TV studio debates. Of course, you also had those among the “Creators Awards”-gang, who became state P.R. machinery overnight. But the number of likes and subscriptions for the real reporters on the ground increased by leaps and bounds, as the electoral battle intensified. As they say, “you cannot fool all the people, all the time.”

The epithet “Godi media” entered cultural consciousness and that represents its wide acceptance among people, which I would call another ‘win’ for a new understanding of the state-media nexus. Many prior stalwarts of TV channels that had mushroomed (alongside globalisation and opening of new markets) realised over the last few years that shareholder-tied news journalism cannot remain free. Many have now transformed into YouTube and social media journalists. The fact that YouTube allowed for (at least in the election context) multiple and plural voices to be seen and heard, made it a rapidly growing commercial enterprise; for it to grow, the plurality of content on it will have to remain. Yet it was a major victory for democracy that the unpaid advocates for freedom of speech found their space in it with likes and subscribers crossing the million-mark. It is a major victory that many people, fed up of consuming the vitriol and shouting matches on TV channels, found means to express themselves through social media countering even the hate campaign. Comedy, parodies, spoofs and memes, too, found space on the internet.

One of the major victories, politically, has been the agenda set by the INDIA alliance partners via their manifesto, which focussed on the well-being of the last person as being tied to the well-being of the nation, which forced the BJP to tweak its own election messaging, even while it led them back to their own original slogan: the Muslim, as the enemy.

Yet another victory has been the clarity we got regarding the political leanings and consciousness of cine stars in India.

Another win – if only in a skewed sense – was (this went rather unnoticed) poster (“postcard” forwarded by Whatsappers) that Yogi Adityanath issued in the midst of the hate speech debate surrounding Modi, wherein he stated: “I respect Allah…”(the latter part was the problematic, which I shall come to, but even to start the poster with those three words was huge for Yogi) “as much as a Muslim respects Lord Ram”; “I give the same respect to the Quran as a Muslim gives to the Gita or Ramayana”… and so on. The problematic? The respect would be conditional. So, this was a poor take on Mahatma Gandhi’s “I am also a Muslim, a Christian a Buddhist, and a Jew…”

In a sense, this may be seen as a victory for the agenda set by the INDIA alliance on secularism, that led to this messaging. Religious discrimination cannot go too far in this country, beyond a point, if winning an election is the target.

Another victory was that the Supreme Court stood its ground on justice in many cases, asking the right questions, scrapping the electoral bonds, seeking answers from ECI, releasing Kejriwal on bail, etc. And it was the victory of advocates who fought for the Constitution of India to be upheld.

Who lost? Or Who will lose or who will have lost? For one, the idea that the Election Commission of India was a fair referee. So many hate speeches, violations of the code of conduct, etc. went past without any disqualification, especially if the wrongdoings were by the BJP and its allies.

Another loss that the BJP needs to take into cognisance, is its identity as a Party. That they upheld candidatures of even people accused of (proven) sexual offences and assault. That they had only one singular face for campaign across the country: Modi became bigger (it seems) than the party named BJP, just like the poster of a taller Modi leading a shorter child Rama. Nobody can recall the BJP candidates even as he asked people for votes for Modi and not the candidates. Federalism in the true sense has also had its losses (with BJP trying to topple duly elected governments in different states, before the Lok Sabha elections). Another loser tactic was for BJP to hire truly mediocre YouTubers for PR and PR firm heads (such as those called out during the MeToo movement).

TV channels (mainstream) and the highest paid anchors lost their face for a lot of people on ground. Some TV anchors were booed and shouted out from places where they went (sometimes alighting a helicopter) to. Their true faces – as stooges of those in power – came out stronger than ever.

Finally, irrespective of whether the BJP loses or wins, this electoral battle will still be a spiritual and moral victory for the idea of India in its vibrant united opposition (after a long time) having stuck together through thick and thin with one secular and progressive agenda; in the fight for freedom of thought and expression exemplified by the comic Shyam Rangeela (whose candidature was rejected) aiming to fight for a principle (that there was a possibility of it, had the EC not played spoilsport); in candidates like Kanhaiya Kumar (and in the context of Lahaul and Spiti, in Himachal Pradesh by-elections, Anuradha Rana) without hefty bank balance or advantages of class or powerful lobbyists.

Who will have won, ultimately? The people of India, who have the staying power to fight and those – in the now-established independent media – who will stay the course, no matter what the outcome of the current battle. And this victory is the sweetest of all: speaking truth to power as a matter of principle. At another level, a new social and political consciousness has percolated at the ground level and irrespective of who wins and who loses, this consciousness is hopefully likely to bring about a change in the kind of acceptance of ‘news’, as well. And people are likely to get more creative with the use of social media, when their voices are otherwise stifled in democracies.

R. Umamaheshwari (independent historian-journalist) is author of From Possession to Freedom: The Journey of Nili Nilakeci (Zubaan Books)among others.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents Collective

After ruling for 10 years India’s right-wing Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to make a decisive majority in India’s 543 member parliament. As per the latest trends BJP is leading in 240 seats, 30 short of a simple majority. However, the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is leading in 290 seats, just over the majority mark. However, the equations may change as the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) are leading in 234 seats. Independents and other smaller political parties are leading in 19 seats. One can not rule out the possibility of one or other political parties in either of these alliances switching sides and forming a government.

The results are a huge setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had campaigned for 400 seats for BJP in this election. He had asked the voters to give him 400 seats in this election so that he could make necessary policy reforms without hindrances of alliance partners. However, BJP’s tally was reduced to 240 seats, making sure that the next government in India would be a coalition government.

Indian National Congress is the second biggest party with 98 seats.

BJP got a huge setback as it could secure only 38 seats in the decisive Uttar Pradesh where there are 80 seats. Samajwadi Party won 41 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

4 June 2024

Source: countercurrents.org