by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Arun Kumar,
Book: Open Embrace: India-US ties in the Age of Modi and Trump; Author: Varghese K. George; Publisher: Penguin Random House India; Price: Rs 599.
Donald Trump’s “America First” politics with its anti-Islamism focus and Narendra Modi’s nationalist agenda forged by the so-called “Hindutva Strategic Doctrine” make the two so dissimilar world leaders “natural allies”.
That’s the premise on which Varghese George, US correspondent for The Hindu, has tailored his book to suggest that the Modi-Trump brand of politics would likely continue to shape India and America and their relations long after they have gone.
Like a lawyer’s brief, he has marshaled arguments with painstaking research to back his theory. But in the absence of counter-arguments, it often seems a stretch.
For instance, Trump, he suggests, has sought to make a critical change to the racial politics of America, somewhat like what Modi has done to caste politics in India. And both are also clear about a “global civilizational alliance”.
While previous Indian Prime Ministers, including the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Atal Bihari Vajpayee, sought to package changes in Indian foreign policy directions as improvements, both Modi and Trump keep projecting themselves as changers even when nothing changes.
But unlike Trump, who has spawned “resistance” at home, this prospect of change seen in Modi’s speech to Congress about US and India overcoming “hesitations of history” has united lovers and haters of Obama and Trump in fractious Washington in admiring Modi.
If the Modi-Obama hugs fostered a joint strategic vision to challenge China in the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, his bonhomie with Trump was seen in America as an “open embrace” for resisting “China and setting the global agenda”, says George.
But unlike “greenhorn” Trump, who has no ideological moorings, Modi’s world view must be influenced by what George calls a Hindutva Strategic Doctrine.
This doctrine, according to George, imagines India to be a natural homeland of all Hindus with refugees from other religions seen as “infiltrators”. Trump too has sought to make a similar distinction between Christian and Muslim refugees seeking asylum in the US.
While US-India relations have been on an upward trajectory since the lifting of post-nuclear test sanctions, George suggests Trump and Modi are likely to build a relationship that will bring India and America too close for comfort.
The author also makes a vary valid point that the charge of a Russian hand in getting Trump elected has not only undermined his authority, but an anti-Russian hysteria, fueled by the mainstream media, has also gripped the American traditional strategic community.
Trump and the American establishment undermine each other on relations with Russia and Iran, cumulatively weakening America’s position in Afghanistan as well, he suggests. This has also affected India-US relations.
Interestingly, George recalls how after touring across the US, he and another Indian journalist chose to go to the Trump election headquarters on election day when pollsters, pundits and the press were predicting a Hillary Clinton win.
Apparently, sometimes it takes an outsider to see clearly.
(Arun Kumar was till recently the Washington correspondent of IANS. He can be contacted at arun.kumar558n@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Hassan Rouhani
Tehran : Accusing the US of trying to push India away from Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Washington cannot stop Tehran from exporting oil and warned that no crude will be exported from the Persian Gulf if Iranian oil sales were blocked.
The US has re-imposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, including an oil embargo, after withdrawing in May from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers earlier in defiance of international objections.
Washington had initially vowed to reduce Iran’s oil sales to “zero”, but later backed down and granted waivers to almost all of Tehran’s major crude buyers.
“The US should know (this) that we sell and will sell our oil and it will not be able to block Iran’s oil exports. And it should also know that if it attempts to stop Iran’s oil (sales) someday, no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf,” Rouhani said during a speech in Semnan province’s Shahroud city.
“We will expand our relationship with neighbours, the Muslim countries and the world,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.
He added that the US was trying to push Europe, China and India away from Iran and “spread Iranophobia in the region”.
Rouhani said that “Washington always suffered defeat in its several hostile plots against Iran”.
He added that all countries “condemned Washington’s sanctions on Tehran, the US was defeated in the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague” over the issue.
The Iranian leader also took an aim at Tel Aviv, saying that “the US and Israel cannot tolerate the existence of a powerful Tehran” and added that the his country would never bow to them.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jerusalem : Israel Chemicals company (ICL) filed a $300 million lawsuit on Monday in an Israeli court against US-based technology giant IBM for a failed project.
ICL, a manufacturing company headquartered in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, produces fertilisers including potash, phosphate, magnesium and bromine, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to ICL’s claim, the company decided in 2012 to create a harmonious information platform to process mass data for its constant acquisition of companies and mergers.
ICL claimed that it subsequently adopted the project recommended by IBM and defined it as a strategic one.
“ICL hired IBM services to lead the entire project… but each stage of the project was carried out in a failed manner,” the lawsuit said.
“IBM’s failures have taken various forms, including poor work, lack of knowledge, experience, resources and skilled personnel,” ICL claimed.
According to ICL, it invested nearly $300 million in the project, of which more than $100 million were paid to IBM.
In response, IBM described the allegations as “groundless,” saying it will defend itself “decisively” in court.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The Pentagon will begin sending a backlog of thousands of green-card holders to recruit training, suspending a policy adopted by President Donald Trump’s administration that required more-stringent background checks for some immigrants wanting to serve.
The policy called for green-card holders to submit to and complete a full background check and respond to any concerns before they could go to boot camp which was in addition to standard requirements for green-card applicants, such as biometrics screening, reports The Washington Post.
The change put thousands of people in limbo, as their screening languished and specific jobs within the military promised to them slipped away.
The new directive issued on Monday says that each armed service must comply immediately with a preliminary injunction issued last month in the District Court for the Northern District of California.
Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the services will begin sending the recruits to training this week and will be placed in available slots.
About 18,000 US troops were green-card holders at the beginning of the Trump administration, and about 5,000 joined the military each year before the stricter policy, Pentagon officials have said.
The Marine Corps sent 1,044 green-card holders to recruit training in 2016 and 1,169 in 2017, but the number dropped to 808 in the most recent fiscal year ending in September, according to Pentagon data.
The Air Force sent 567 green-card holders to recruit training in 2016 and 590 in 2017. But that number dropped to 44 in the fiscal year ending in September. About 470 green-card holders are under contract and waiting to attend training.
The Army sent 4,600 green-card holders to recruit training in 2016, and 3,600 in 2017, according to data provided by the Pentagon. That number plummeted to 513 in 2018.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the US and father of the 43rd, who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs, has died at the age of 94 in Houston, his spokesperson Jim McGrath announced.
His death on Friday night came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, reports The New York Times.
The cause of his death was not immediately known.
However, the former leader suffered from a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorised scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined.
In April, a day after attending his wife’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood.
Bush, a Republican, was a transitional figure in the White House, where he served from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years in public service.
A decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the Second World War generation to occupy the Oval Office.
Bush was a skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player who, as President, helped end four decades of Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.
Born into privilege and a tradition of service, Bush was a son of a senator, student athlete, Texas oilman, Republican congressman, national party chairman, pioneering diplomat and spy chief, reports CNN.
After his own 1980 presidential campaign came up short, he served two terms as Ronald Reagan’s Vice President before reaching the pinnacle of political power by winning the 1988 presidential election, soundly defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis.
After losing the White House in 1992, Bush became a widely admired political elder who leapt out of airplanes to mark birthday milestones.
Emphasizing the generosity of his soul, he forged a close and unlikely friendship with Democrat Bill Clinton, the man who ended his presidency.
When Parkinson’s disease mostly silenced him in public, Bush flashed his sense of humour by sporting colourful striped socks.
—IANS
