Thursday, March 31, 2022

'Will play till the last ball': Pakistan PM Imran Khan rules out resignation ahead of no-trust vote

A defiant Imran Khan on Thursday indicated that he will not resign from the post of Pakistan's prime minister despite losing the majority in the National Assembly and insisted that he will face the vote of no-confidence which would take place on Sunday.

In a live address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a 'threat letter' that purportedly showed "evidence" of a foreign conspiracy to topple his coalition government. He named the US as the country behind the threat in what appeared to be a slip of tongue.

"...Our policy was not anti-US, -Europe, or even India [...] it became anti-Indian after New Delhi revoked the special status of Kashmir and broke international law in August 2019," said Khan, who insists that the Kashmir dispute remained a big issue between the two countries.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of the country.

'Foreign hand'

Speaking on the "foreign letter", he said, "The United States", Khan said in a slip of the tongue and then stated that "a foreign country" had sent a "threatening letter" which was against the Pakistani nation.

"On March 8 or before that on 7 March, the US sent us a...not the US but a foreign country sent us a message. The reason why I talking about this...for an independent country to receive such a message... this is against me and the country," he said.

"The letter stated that the no-confidence motion was being tabled even before it was filed, which means the Opposition was in contact with them " Khan added.

Khan said that it was an "official letter" that was communicated to Pakistan's ambassador, who was taking notes during the meeting.

"I decided the day I became the prime minister that our foreign policy will be independent, which means it will be for Pakistanis. It doesn't mean that we wanted enmity. When I got the government I said that we will not have any foreign policy that is not in our favour," said Khan according to Dawn.

But the foreign official knew that the ones who would come into power after him would have no issues taking orders from external forces.

"But what is most disturbing is that our people, who are sitting here, are in contact with foreign powers," he said, as he referred to the "three stooges" - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

"Will foreign countries want such corrupt people in power in their states? They are ready to accept such corrupt politicians, but I am not acceptable to them," the prime minister said.

Khan said he will play till the last ball and the no-trust vote on Sunday will decide where the country will go.

'Will play till the last ball'

"On Sunday, there will be a voting held and a decision will be taken on the direction of this country. Somebody suggested that I should resign. I always fight till the last ball. I want the entire nation to see on that day that who sold their conscience.

"There is looted money being used to buy off people, and this is happening before the entire nation. This is a transaction of their conscience, the country and its sovereignty."

"I tell these people who have taken the deals that this will be stamped on you, The people will neither forget nor forgive you. Neither will they forgive those who are handling you. The people will always remember that you sold your country. Through a foreign conspiracy you tried to topple a government that had an independent foreign policy," he said according to Dawn.

Khan needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him. However, Opposition claims it has the support of 175 lawmakers and the prime minister should immediately resign.

No-trust motion

This comes as proceedings of the Pakistan National Assembly were adjourned till 3 April soon after lawmakers met on Thursday to discuss the no-confidence motion against the prime minister.

The crucial session for the no-confidence motion started after much delay but adjourned till Sunday 11.30 am, after members of Parliament demanded voting on the no-trust motion, Geo News reported.

The session was held with more than 172 members from the Opposition benches in attendance.

Addressing a press conference with other Opposition leaders, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Imran Khan again used the Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Asad Qaiser to deffer the proceeding of the no-confidence motion.

"Today, by producing 175 lawmakers in the Parliament we have proved that Imran Khan has nowhere to run," he said. "Now that we have the majority, there is no safe passage (for Imran Khan), there is no face-saving way and there is no backdoor," he said.

The PPP chairman suggested that there is only one "honourable" way out for way for Imran Khan is to resign in a bid to end the political crisis in the country.

Khan has seemingly lost the majority after PTI's allies decided to side with the Opposition. He has reportedly offered to dissolve the assembly on the condition that the Opposition withdraws the no-confidence motion against him.

He has said that if the Opposition doesn't agree to his suggestion, he is ready to face any situation, Geo News reported Thursday, citing sources.

On Monday, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif tabled the no-confidence motion. With this move, Khan became the third Pakistani PM to face the no-confidence motion.

The no-confidence motion was submitted by the Opposition parties on 8 March. The Opposition is confident that its motion would be carried as some allies of PTI have come out in the open against Khan.

No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office. Also, no prime minister in Pakistan's history has ever been ousted through a no-confidence motion, and Khan is the third premier to face the challenge.

With input from agencies

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Explained: The copyright row over pop artist Andy Warhol’s paintings

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a copyright dispute between photographer Lynn Goldsmith and the Andy Warhol Foundation over Warhol’s paintings of rock star Prince.

The Supreme Court will decide whether the pop-art legend, Warhol, violated photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s copyright when creating one of his iconic series of paintings.

The justices have taken up the Andy Warhol Foundation’s appeal of a lower court ruling that his paintings were not protected by the copyright law doctrine called “fair use”.

The “fair use” doctrine permits unlicensed use of copyright-protected works under certain circumstances.

In 1984, Warhol made a series of paintings based on a 1981 photograph that Goldsmith had taken of the pop star Prince.

Let’s find out more about the paintings, the photograph and the copyright case:

Where did it all begin?

In 1984, Goldsmith licensed one of her photographs of Prince to Vanity Fair for use as a reference in an illustration. The photographs was then passed along to Warhol, who used his signature process to create a new version of the original image. The Warhol version of the photograph was then used by Vanity Fair in its print issue and credited it to Goldsmith.

Meanwhile, Warhol also created more than a dozen other versions of the photograph, which came to be known as the Prince Series in the art world.

The Prince Series includes 14 silkscreen prints and two pencil illustrations.

Paintings created by Andy Warhol. Image courtesy: Courtesy of the U.S. District Court/The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Goldsmith has claimed that all of this happened without her knowledge. She came to know about this alleged copyright infringement when Prince died in 2016 and Vanity Fair used one of the Warhol versions for its memorial cover for the singer.

After seeing a version of her work on the cover of Vanity Fair, Goldsmith approached the Warhol Foundation and threatened legal action over copyright infringement.

The Foundation in response sued Goldsmith in federal court, seeking a ruling that it hadn’t violated any copyright laws.

The legal battle- round 1

In 2019, Southern District of New York judge John G Koeltl granted summary judgment in favour of the Warhol Foundation.

The district court concluded that Warhol’s Prince Series was “transformative” because, while the photo portrayed Prince as “a vulnerable human being”, the Prince Series depicted him as an “iconic, larger-than-life figure”.

It noted that an observer would perceive that Warhol’s work has a “different character, a new expression, and employs new aesthetics with [distinct] creative and communicative results” when compared to the Goldsmith original.

Goldsmith then asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to review Koeltl’s decision.

The legal battle - round 2

The Second Circuit overruled the lower court’s decision and sided with Goldsmith.

The New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals found that Warhol's paintings had not made fair use of the photo.

It decided that a transformative work must have a "fundamentally different and new artistic purpose and character," and that Warhol's paintings were "much closer to presenting the same work in a different form."

In December last year, the Warhol Foundation asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Second Circuit decision, stating that it created "a cloud of legal uncertainty" for an entire genre of art like Warhol's.

With inputs from agencies

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Watch: Gujarati folk singers showered with cash; raise Rs 2.5 crore for Ukrainian refugees

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, people from all over the globe have stepped up to provide help to the war-torn country — be it humanitarian assistance from other nations or generous donations by individuals and small groups.

In a similar gesture of empathy, a Gujarati folk singer duo have now come forward to help the war-torn country with their talent.

Recently, a video featuring vocalists Gitaben Rabari and Sunny Jadhav has won hearts online. The two singers can be seen dressed in traditional ethnic clothing and performing popular folk songs in the clip. As they continue to enchant the crowd with their melodious songs, delighted audience members are seen showering them with cash, up to the point that the stage is entirely covered with money. Take a look at the video:

The musicians were in Dallas, USA, earlier this week for a musical event called Lok Dayro, which was part of their big musical tour in the country. The Lok Dayro event has been organised by the Manpasand group.

After the video went viral, Rabari took to social media to announce that one of their events in the US, organised by the Surat Leuva Patel Samaj (SLPS), collected $3,30,000 (approximately Rs 2.5 crore) to aid Ukrainians fleeing their homes amid the ongoing war. Take a look at photos from one of the group's concerts:

This is not the first time that charity concerts have been organised to collect aid for Ukraine. Pop singers Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello recently performed in the United Kingdom to raise money for the war-hit, collecting about £12.2 million, as per reports.

A similar concert was organised in Poland and featured a young Ukrainian girl, Amelia Anisovych, singing her country's national anthem before an audience of thousands. The young girl had earlier gone viral for singing Idina Menzel's Let It Go, while inside a bomb shelter in Ukraine.

Soon after the video went viral, Anisovych fled to Poland. The concert she participated in raised $380,000 for Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), an organisation involved in providing aid to Ukrainians displaced by the war.

 

 



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What is the MQM, the last big ally to leave Imran Khan: A look back at Muttahida Qaumi Movement and its India connection

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Wednesday all but assured the fall of the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government as it signed an agreement with other opposition parties to support the no-confidence motion against the prime minister.

After overnight talks with top leaders of the joint opposition of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Pakistan People’s Party, and Jamiat Ulema Islami (F), the partywithdrew the support of its seven members from the PTI government.

Let’s take a look back at the party that has time and again helped governments to form and what is its India connection:

Who are the MQM and their connection with India

Founded by student leader Altaf Hussain in Karachi University in 1978 as All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organisation {APMSO}, it was the first political party of muhajirs.

Mohajir is a term used in Pakistan for Urdu-speaking Muslims who moved from India to the new country upon partition.

The inspiration behind the APMSO was to highlight the marginalisation of the Mohajirs from Pakistan’s national life after the first few years of independence.

In the mid-80s, the APMSO launched the MQM. In its claim to represent the Mohajirs, the party presented itself against Sindhi elites and the Pashtun population of Karachi.

It claimed to represent the Mohajir community which perceived itself as the victim of discrimination and repression by the quota system that gave preference to certain ethnicities for admissions in educational institutions and employment in civil services.

In its early demands, the party wanted Karachi to be carved out of Sindh into a Mohajir province.

According to the Indian Express, due to its independent-minded leadership, and the party’s popularity among Karachi’s Urdu-speaking middle class and youth, the MQM was accused of conspiring to break Karachi away from Pakistan at the behest of India’s intelligence agency.

Also read: Stepping out of Nawaz Sharif’s shadow: All you need to know about Shehbaz Sharif, tipped to be next Pakistan prime minister

The PPP and MQM fought each other on the streets of Karachi. Through the 1990s, the MQM was targeted by the military, leading to violent crackdowns and bloodbaths.

The support of the Urdu speakers of Pakistan helped the MQM become the third-largest party in Pakistan in the 1990 election, and it continued in this position until 2013.

In a bid to grow out of its ethnic image and present itself at a larger, national stage, the MQM replaced “Mohajir” in its name with “Muttahida” (united).

The party enjoyed its most glorious phase from 1999 to 2008, when General Pervez Musharraf, who was a Mohajir himself, was in power. The party was being controlled by its founder and long-time chief Altaf Hussain from London.

The fall of MQM

The party’s decline started soon after Musharraf’s exit from active politics.

The murder of Imran Farooq, a senior party leader, outside his home in London led British authorities to snoop around Hussain’s home and office, where they found a huge stash of currency. An investigation into money laundering charges was initiated.

It was at this time that a BBC report alleged Hussain’s links with Indian intelligence agency R&AW.

“UK authorities investigating the MQM for alleged money laundering also found a list of weapons in an MQM property. A Pakistani official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants over the past 10 years,” the BBC report read.

The Indian authorities, however, described the claims as “completely baseless”.

According to the Indian Express, a speech by Hussain to followers in Karachi led to large scale violence in 2016, after which the British authorities pressed terrorism charges against Hussain.

He was acquitted in February this year.

Meanwhile, the party at home was divided into many factions.

During the 2018 elections, a breakaway faction of the MQM called Pakistan Sarzameen Party put up its own candidate, while the MQM, which now called itself MQM-P, won just seven seats, an all-time low.

Despite the small number of leaders in the National Assembly, the MQM-P bargained for three ministries and got two to remain with Imran Khan, a coalition that was broken on Wednesday.

With inputs from agencies

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Iran girls pepper-sprayed outside stadium: A country where women can't watch football, travel alone

The issue of women’s rights in Iran was once again the topic of discussion after reports emerged that they were denied entry to a football stadium to watch an international match.

According to ISNA news agency and Al Jazeera, women were greeted with pepper spray at the stadium in the city of Mashhad where Iran was playing Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier match.

The issue has once again shone the spotlight on the issue of how women are treated in the country and their continuous struggle for equality.

The football fiasco

Before we take a look at the overall situation, let’s direct our focus on Tuesday’s incident.

On Tuesday evening, Iran took to the field to play Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier match at the Imam Reza football stadium.

ISNA news agency reported that some 2,000 females had bought tickets to see the match. But upon arrival the women were immediately refused entry before stadium security allegedly employed pepper spray to disperse the crowds.

Reacting to the news, Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist and campaigner, has said that she wants FIFA to ban Iran from competing in the World Cup later this year.

She was quoted as telling Daily Mail, "As an Iranian woman, I call on FIFA to ban the Islamic Republic because we, the women of Iran, are banned from entering stadium for 42 years.

"If some Western countries banned women from entering stadiums, what would you do? Then what is different between us and Western women? This is hypocritical that FIFA ignore us.
This is a total betrayal that FIFA do not take a strong action against a gender apartheid regime!"

Iran has barred female spectators from football and other sports stadiums since it was established in 1979. In 2018, after facing pressure and threats of suspension from FIFA and international organisations, they began allowing women at international games. It was only in January this year that women were allowed to attend an international game for the first time.

The FIFA directive, according to an AFP report, came after a fan, Sahar Khodayari, died having set herself on fire in fear of being jailed after trying to attend a match in disguise.

She had reportedly been detained in 2018 as she tried to enter a stadium dressed as a male.

Early this year, women were allowed to watch a football match in the stadium. The Islamic republic has barred female spectators from football and other stadiums for around 40 years. AFP

Iran and women

The ban on women watching matches at stadiums is emblematic of the issue of women's rights in the Islamic Republic.

Various restrictions are imposed on women, including the mandatory hijab and a ban on female singers performing for male or mixed audiences. Moreover, married women can’t even leave the country without their husband’s permission.

Shaparak Shajarizadeh fled Iran in 2018 after being arrested three times and imprisoned twice for defying Iran's compulsory hijab law. In an interview to CNN, she had said that she was officially charged with encouraging prostitution, propaganda against the government and acting against national security, charges she was later convicted on.

She was detained in Gharchak prison — beaten up and brutalised during the investigation, and thrown into solitary confinement.

Women are considered to have half the value of men in various legal aspects, such as inheritance and testimony in court.

Discrimination against Iranian women also extends to other kinds of restrictions that are enforced by religious authorities for being “un-Islamic” or “against women’s values”. Running for president or riding a motorcycle are just two examples of the areas where women face discrimination despite there being no legal ban under the law.

But the nation has also encouraged education for women, who for years now have outnumbered men at universities — a development that has transformed expectations and overturned centuries-old traditions.

Women fight back

However, women in Iran are fighting back against this oppression. Through social media, mobile apps, weblogs and websites, Iranian women are actively participating in public discourse and exercising their civil rights.

Women have been resisting the morality police in Iran through social movements like 'White Wednesdays' and 'My Stealthy Freedom'.

White Wednesdays is a social movement against the law forcing women to wear a headscarf in Iran. Participants post pictures and videos of themselves wearing white headscarves or pieces of white clothing as symbols of protest.

The idea is the brainchild of Masih Alinejad, founder of My Stealthy Freedom, an online movement opposed to the mandatory dress code.

Women continue their struggle for equality without caring about the repercussions, which range from paying hefty fines to even the death sentence.

With inputs from agencies

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Divided on Earth, united in space: The one place where the US and Russia agree to work together

After spending the past year together at the International Space Station, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts returned to a world where the two countries are at loggerheads over Ukraine.

Despite escalating tensions between the US and Russia over Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei caught a ride back to Earth on a Soyuz capsule with Russian Space Agency’s cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.

The Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan where a small NASA team of doctors and other staff was on hand for the touchdown and planned to return immediately to Houston with the 55-year-old astronaut.

While the three space travellers spent months aboard the International Space Station, geo-political equations had changed here on Earth as the US levied strict sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Let’s see how the two countries kept it business as usual on the ISS, despite the escalating strife between them on ground:

US-Russia on ISS

As they landed in Kazakhstan, it was the first taste of gravity for Vande Hei and Dubrov since their Soyuz launch on 9 April last year.

Shkaplerov joined them at the orbiting lab in October, escorting a Russian film crew up for a brief stay. To accommodate that visit, Vande Hei and Dubrov doubled the length of their stay.

Before departing the space station, Shkaplerov embraced his fellow astronauts as “my space brothers and space sister.”

“People have problem on Earth. On orbit ... we are one crew,” Shkaplerov said in a live NASA TV broadcast Tuesday. The space station is a symbol of “friendship and cooperation and ... future of exploration of space.”

According to a report by The Guardian, long before Russia invaded Ukraine, Vande Hei had said that he was going to avoid the subject with his two Russian crewmates.

Despite getting along “fantastically … I’m not sure we really want to go there”, he said.

Threats of “uncontrolled descent”of ISS

The ISS, however, wasn’t untouched by the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

A day after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Russia’s space agency, threatened the US of an “uncontrolled descent” of the ISS from orbit.

“If you block cooperation with us, then who is going to save the ISS from an uncontrolled descent from orbit and then falling onto the territory of the United States or Europe?” he said.

Also read: Ukraine crisis: How US-Russia tensions threaten the International Space Station and why India should be worried

According to a Reuters report, state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti posted a video spoof the following week depicting cosmonauts waving farewell to Vande Hei before Russia's ISS module detaches from the space station and flies away without him to the applause of Russian officials at mission control, leaving the rest of the station sinking lower in orbit.

Rogozin again lashed at the US by announcing that Russia would stop supplying or servicing Russian-made rocket engines used by two US aerospace NASA suppliers.

NASA, however, decided to brush off the provocative comments, saying it would continue to work with all its international partners, including Russia.

“That’s just Dmitry Rogozin,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the Associated Press.

“He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he has worked with us.

“The other people that work in the Russian civilian space program, they’re professional. They don’t miss a beat with us, American astronauts and American mission control,” Nelson said.

Russia-America cooperation continues on board ISS

Despite the differences on the ground, three Russians who arrived two weeks ago and three Americans and one German, who have been aboard since November, still remain on board the ISS.

Their replacements are due in three weeks via SpaceX. Next week, SpaceX will fly three rich businessmen and their ex-astronaut escort to the station for a weeklong visit arranged by the private Axiom Space.

NASA’s shuttle programme ended nine years ago and it has been using Russian flights to reach the ISS. The US had to shell out tens of millions of dollars per Soyuz seat, until Elon Musk’s SpaceX began transporting NASA astronauts to the station in 2020.

With inputs from agencies

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World War ‘Z’: The world after Ukrainian crisis, and India’s role in it

The most ironic thing, in fact the blackest of noir humour, is the use of the letter ‘Z’ in the propaganda surrounding the Ukraine war. It is alleged that this letter is the symbol of Russian obduracy, and therefore worth condemnation, as in the German embassy’s tweet and the Economist’s cover story below.

The irony is because there is an earlier instance when the letter ‘Z’ was banned, in Greece, in the aftermath of a coup there. Thus the title of the political thriller, ‘Z’, (1969, Costa-Gavras), one of the most powerful films of all time, a thinly-veiled retelling of the conspiracy behind the assassination of a leading political candidate in 1963. A magistrate unravelled the mystery and sentenced the culprits to lengthy prison terms for the murder.

The military coup followed, along with the banning of “Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Tolstoy, long hair, mini-skirts, the Beatles, Albee, Pinter, Ionesco, Sartre, Mark Twain (partly), Freedom of the Press, Beckett, Sociology, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, learning Russian, learning Bulgarian, modern mathematics, popular music...”, and the letter ‘Z’, because it stands for ‘He lives’ in ancient Greek. These and more are listed in the closing credits of the film.

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In an extraordinary example of life imitating art which was imitating life, the letter ‘Z’ is now associated with Russia, and banned, along with, unbelievably, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Pushkin, Mendeleev, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Russian diamonds, vodka, oil, gas and so on. This is, literally, incredible.

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In addition, after POTUS Biden’s assertion about defenestrating Russian President Vladimir Putin (although the spin doctors quickly diverted attention), there is little doubt that the Ukraine war has a not-so-hidden agenda: regime change in Russia. In fact, that makes a warped sort of sense, and I compliment my friend Uday B for telling me this right from the beginning of the war, when I (wrongly) thought a negotiated, face-saving settlement could come within a week.

B640

The Deep State has specialised in this for long, and usually with disastrous results for the residents of the country thus ‘blessed’ with regime change. I can, off the top of my head, think of Allende in Chile, Mossadegh in Iran, Hussein in Iraq, and Gaddafi in Libya. Then there’s the ongoing effort against Assad in Syria. The only thing in common is misery, penury, war, war crimes, extreme human rights violations, and masses of refugees. Add Ukraine to the list.

That is why I am alarmed at the sudden attention paid to India by all those ‘experts’ who are shocked, SHOCKED, that India is not unquestioningly getting with the program and toeing the line. The last time a whole queue of snake-oil salesmen descended on India was when the ‘nuclear deal’ was talked up as the best thing since sliced bread. But despite the promises of manna from heaven, the only visible outcome is India buying more US arms.

These good folks are now beginning to show up in India in droves, but the online eagerness has been evident for a while. India is really not all that important to the West, and so the attention is a red flag, and there are only two possible reasons for this Tender Loving Care: a) that they expect to bully India into continuing to be a slave nation, b) that they do not want another powerful manufacturing nation to come up: one China is more than enough.

Thus, the moral indignation about ‘one nation invading another’ in violation of the ‘international rules-based order’, let us remember, did not extend to Pakistan invading Jammu & Kashmir in 1947. Nor did it extend to China invading Ladakh in 2020. NATO, and the Deep State, kept very quiet. On what basis, then, do they expect India to care about something happening in Europe? Ah, European wars are ‘world wars’, of course. Atlanticism rules.

And exactly what has the Biden administration done for India? Not much, but here’s the list of weapons they abandoned in Afghanistan; surely they will be used against India by Pakistan:

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Staggering, isn’t it?

Going back to Ukraine, the US once, long ago, did what appears to be exactly the same thing Russia did: based on dubious excuses, it invaded Mexico and took away half that country’s land in 1846 in the US-Mexican war. China, similarly, expanded from their Han heartland, and invaded Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. These became fait accompli. In fact, China probably views its 1962 attack on India as similar to the US-Mexican War: grab land and “teach a lesson”.

There is also the worrying historical precedent of dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Biden administration appears keen (and earlier, the Obama folks did, too; ask Ms Nuland) to apply the same formula to India, and to balkanize the country. In other words, break it up into tiny little statelets. Official policy by the Democrats, we’ve been told repeatedly, is ‘sub-national diplomacy’, that is, encouraging fault lines.

Interestingly enough, this is precisely what Jinnah wanted as well, according to the book Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history by Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed: dismemberment of India, not just the ‘moth-eaten’ Pakistan he got. So now we have a theoretical understanding as to why the Deep State has consistently attempted exactly the same thing.

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For example, there is the laughable fake news about something that only affected a very small number of people, mostly in Kerala. Others claimed 250 million people took part in the strike, just as 250 million farmers rioted against the farm laws. Yes, exactly like Russia has lost 250 million soldiers in the war already, not to mention 7 generals!

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It is as though there is some vendetta by Democrats and the Deep State against India. They have been going into paroxysms of rage against India lately (yes, even more than the usual bog-standard badgering and abuse by assorted propaganda outfits such as The Economist, New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, BBC, NPR and so on).

As in the old Panchatantra tale of the old Brahmin and the lamb, the rogues are trying to convince Indians that they actually have a dog, not a lamb. They are declaring Modi to be a fascist, and naturally, they’ll explain, a fascist has to be overthrown. Defenestration. Coup. Color Revolution. Endless misery. The end of the Indian Dream of prosperity.

***

Also Read

Ukraine lessons for India: Being good is one thing, but that’s no guarantee for good image

India’s Russia policy has been spot on so far, but going ahead it needs to break free of the dependence for truer strategic autonomy

Big lesson for India from Ukraine war: There’s nothing bigger for a country than its national interests

As Putin plays Russian roulette in Ukraine, Indian diplomacy treads a fine line

Putin’s Ukraine war: Early military lessons for India from the Russian invasion

How Russia-Ukraine conflict has complicated the already complex geopolitics

Ghosespot | How Opposition slamming Modi government’s handling of crisis doesn’t hold water

Russia’s war in Ukraine: How India’s UN Security Council vote was pragmatic

Russia-Ukraine crisis: Here's what will get more expensive in India if two countries go to war

The meta-narrative about India’s non-involvement in the Ukraine imbroglio

India’s abstinence from UN Security Council vote on Ukraine was the right decision

***

Naturally, a Chinese war against India would just accelerate this trajectory. Quad or not, it is increasingly apparent that Biden would not lift a finger to help. Whether Trump would have is a moot question (probably not, but at least he was paying attention to the Indo-Pacific). But, for some strange reason, after the Nixon/Kissinger duo, it appears to be US Democrats who are more malign towards India than Republicans.

This is a strategic mistake. A solid Japan-US-India partnership in the Indo-Pacific could contain China (Australia doesn’t add much to this; in fact, Vietnam or Indonesia would be more useful in a revamped Quad or Quintent or something). By retreating to the Atlantic, as with AUKUS, the US is proving to India once again that it has to go it alone in the Indo-Pacific.

The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed are personal.

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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Explained: Aphasia, the brain disorder that has forced Bruce Willis to quit acting

Hollywood star Bruce Willis will retire from his acting career because he has been diagnosed with aphasia, a not-so-known brain condition.

The 67-year-old actor’s family, including his wife Emma Heming-Willis and former wife Demi Moore, announced his condition on Instagram on Wednesday, saying it is “impacting his cognitive abilities”.

“With much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him,” his family wrote in a joint statement. “This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support.”
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What is aphasia that’s forcing the Die Hard actor to quit his career which spanned four decades?

Aphasia is a brain disorder that leads to problems with speaking, reading, writing, listening and typing. It can be caused by a stroke, tumour, head injury, or any other damage to the language centres of the brain. Brain infection or Alzheimer’s disease can trigger it, reports the news agency Associated Press.

The disorder is usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain. Speaking problems are common, leading to putting words together incorrectly.

For an actor, aphasia could pose a huge challenge depending on how severe it is, Johns Hopkins University cognitive scientist Brenda Rapp, who works with people with the condition, told AP.

“You can imagine how frustrating it is if you can’t find words, if you can’t organise words into sentences, if you can’t get your mouth to produce the sounds you want it to produce,” Rapp said. “You are still yourself… but you may not sound like yourself.”

What causes aphasia?

It’s mostly middle-aged or older people who get aphasia but it can also occur in children. Though the disease is little-known, America’s National Aphasia Association estimates two million Americans are affected and nearly 180,000 get the disorder every year.

For most, the cause is a stroke that cuts off blood to part of the brain. Without oxygen and nutrients, brain cells die, which leads to difficulty retrieving words.

How aphasia affects speech

There are two broad categories of aphasia: fluent and non-fluent, according to the US National Institute of Health, one of the world’s foremost medical research centres.

Damage to the temporal lobe of the brain may result in Wernicke’s aphasia, the most common type of fluent aphasia. People with Wernicke’s aphasia may speak in long, complete sentences that have no meaning, adding unnecessary words and even creating made-up words. They are unaware of their spoken mistakes, the NIH says.

The most common type of non-fluent aphasia is Broca’s aphasia, which causes damage that primarily affects the frontal lobe of the brain. Those suffering from it often have right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for motor movements. People with Broca’s aphasia may understand speech and know what they want to say, but they frequently speak in short phrases that are produced with great effort. They often omit small words like “is”, “and” and “the”.

Another type of aphasia, global aphasia, results from damage to extensive portions of the language areas of the brain. Individuals with global aphasia have severe communication difficulties and may be extremely limited in their ability to speak or comprehend language, the NIH says.

Willis’ family did not divulge details on a possible cause or the severity of his disorder.

Is there a treatment for aphasia?

Speech-language therapy is used to help patients regain their ability to communicate. The cause of the brain injury, the extent of it, and an individual’s health and age play a key part in recovery.

Aphasia therapy aims to improve a person’s ability to communicate by helping him or her to use remaining language abilities, restore language abilities as much as possible, and learn other ways of communicating, such as gestures, pictures, or the use of electronic devices, the NIH says.

Recent technologies like “virtual” speech pathologists give patients the option to receive therapy from the comfort of their homes. Speech-generating applications on mobiles provide an alternate way to communicate.

According to NIH, family involvement is a crucial component of aphasia treatment. Family members must find the best way to communicate with their loved ones.

Willis has five daughters, three with Moore and two with Heming-Willis.

He started his acting career in the early 1980s but shot to fame in 1988 after his performance as John McClane in the first Die Hard film.

His most popular films include Sixth Sense, Armageddon, and Pulp Fiction. He has been nominated for five Golden Globes, winning one for the ABC series Moonlighting, and three Emmys, winning two.

After the social media post, several actors reached out to Willis’ family. The news of the disorder is heartbreaking, but the family wrote, “As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that.”

With inputs from agencies

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Stepping out of Nawaz Sharif’s shadow: All you need to know about Shehbaz Sharif, tipped to be next Pakistan prime minister

Pakistan is staring at another government change after Imran Khan ‘lost’ the support of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), a key coalition partner of the government on Wednesday.

It appears that Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan will lose the no-confidence vote that was pushed by Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif in the National Assembly of Pakistan. For those who don’t know, under Pakistan's Constitution, a party, or a leader is elected by a majority of the lower house, or national assembly, including of 342 members. Out of this, 172 votes are needed as a majority to be elected. Similarly, 172 votes in a no-confidence vote can oust the prime minister and dissolve the cabinet.

Also read: Imran Khan isn't alone: When Pakistan prime ministers faced a no-confidence vote

On paper, Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and coalition partners have 176 seats in the 342-member Assembly, but on Wednesday the MQM-P said its seven lawmakers would vote with the Opposition, which has a combined 163 seats. Additionally, more than a dozen PTI lawmakers have also indicated they will cross the floor.

On the back of these developments, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Shehbaz Sharif will soon become the prime minister of Pakistan.

We take a look at who he is and his political career so far.

Life and times of Shehbaz Sharif

Shehbaz Sharif is the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. A businessman by profession, he began his political career after getting elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab in the 1988 general election.

In 1990, he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan. However, his term in the Assembly ended prematurely when it was dissolved in 1993.

In 1997, he became the chief minister of the politically important province of Punjab. A military coup in 1999 deposed the government, forcing Shehbaz and his family to spend years in self-exile in Saudi Arabia. He returned to Pakistan only in 2007.

He was appointed the chief minister of Punjab for a second term after the PML-N's victory in the province in the 2008 general elections. He was also nominated as the PML-N president after his brother Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding office. In 2013, he was once again elected as chief minister of Punjab, making him the longest-serving CM of the province. He served his term until the party’s defeat in the 2018 polls.

In 2018, after losing the elections to Imran Khan, he was nominated for the office of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly by one 111 Members of the National Assembly and has been serving in the post since then.

Sharif’s controversies

The younger Sharif has not escaped corruption allegations or controversy that have dogged his elder brother.

In 2003, while still in exile, Shehbaz was charged with ordering the police in 1998 to kill five religious students suspected to be involved in terrorist acts. He refuted the allegations and said they were politically motivated.

The Sharif brothers returned to Pakistan in 2007, but Shehbaz was barred from running in elections a year later as the murder charges lingered. He was acquitted in 2008.

Controversy once again caught up with Shehbaz in December 2019 when National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seized 23 of his properties, accusing him and his son, Hamza Sharif, of money laundering. He was arrested on charges that he had accumulated assets worth Rs 7,328 million in connivance with his co-accused family members.

In April last year, the Lahore High Court released him on bail in the money-laundering case.

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif with his brother Shehbaz Sharif. AFP

Shehbaz as an administrator

Shehbaz has been called an efficient administrator, and a Bloomberg report had once stated that he slept only four hours each night, while dedicating the rest of his time to work.

The report added that the younger Sharif also had the ability bulldoze through Pakistan’s ponderous bureaucracy and complete infrastructure projects in record time.

As Punjab chief minister, he was known for his love for infrastructure development and heavily invested in the construction of transportation systems, which included mega projects like inter-city rapid transport systems, highways, and rural road development. Under his rule, the Orange Line, the first of the Lahore Metro was initiated but is yet to be completed.

He also paid special emphasis on education in the province. Alif Ailaan, a non-profit, reported that under his rule, Punjab's education system had outperformed all other provinces.

Moreover, during Sharif’s second term, particular attention was given to the grievances of women of the province, including setting up the Punjab Commission on Status of Women (PCSW).

Political future

Another thing that bodes in Shehbaz's favour is that he is seen to have a less prickly relationship with the military than his brother.

Shehbaz also has good foreign ties, he has accompanied the elder Sharif on foreign trips, particularly to China. He also shares a good relationship Turkish president Recep Ergdogan.

With inputs from agencies

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Explained: What happens when superyachts of Russian billionaires are seized?

The UK on Tuesday seized its first superyacht of an unnamed Russian businessman as per the sanctions it has imposed upon Russia.

According to a report by the BBC, the £38m yacht named Phi belongs to a Russian businessman who is not currently sanctioned but has “close connections” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the UK has introduced a number of sanctions against Russian individuals and businesses.

Also read: Fleeing sanctions, Russian oligarchs seek safe ports for superyachts

The bright blue yacht, which was built in the Netherlands, features an "infinite wine cellar", a fresh-water swimming pool and penthouse apartment on the upper deck.

According to the report, UK officials boarded Phi in Canary Wharf, east London on Tuesday. The vessel was in London for a superyacht awards ceremony and was scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

The yacht was detained under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

While Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said “the ship won't be going anywhere for the time being," let’s take a look at what happens after a superyacht is detained:

Assets of Russian billionaires, including their superyachts, are in danger of being seized under the various sanctions imposed against Russia.

According to a report by Independent, several such superyachts have been seized by European governments, including billionaire Alexei Mordashov’s £45 million boat Lady M and a £444m boat - one of the world’s largest yachts - owned by businessman Andrey Melnichenko.

Both of the mega yachts were seized by authorities in Italy.

What happens when superyachts are seized?

When a country seizes a superyachts it does not gain ownership of it, rather it means the boat simply cannot be used or sold by its billionaire owner.

Deciding what to do with the superyachts, and who gets the proceeds, is likely to be more challenging and could begin court battles that may drag on for years.

Even though laws vary by country, legal experts believe the current sanctions only allow the authorities to be the custodians of these superyachts.

Benjamin Maltby, a partner at Keystone Law, told CNBC, “we’re in uncharted water, the situations we’re seeing now have never really occurred before.”

Under the sanctions announced by the US and EU countries, the assets of the Russian elite who "enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people" and "aided Putin" in his invasion of Ukraine will be "frozen and their property blocked from use".

Hence, the frozen assets remain the property of the oligarch, who can neither use it or sell it.

For example, Mordashov and Melnichenko will continue to be the legal owners of their yachts, however, they will be docked at Italian shores and cannot be used.

For a government to actually take ownership of an asset, a building or a yacht, it will have to first prove that the particular asset was either used as part of a crime or bought with the proceeds of illegal activity.

Stefan Cassella, former chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section in the US attorney's office in Maryland, says that the government “has to prove both the crime and the connection,” as per the CNBC report.

Proving a specific crime by the oligarchs and tying the assets directly to that crime, may almost be impossible, legal experts say.

"The oligarchs could reasonably argue 'I acted within the laws that were in place in Russia and in Europe, '" Maltby said, as quoted by CNBC.

"There has to be clear evidence of criminality,” he added.

The superyacht frozen in a legal limbo also needs to be maintained and repaired from time to time, which adds another dimension of confusion to the current sanctions.

Even though the authorities may ask the oligarchs to pay for the maintenance, the owners can rightfully refuse. Even if they agree to pay, the authorities may also find it impossible to collect funds since they are not allowed to conduct any financial transactions with sanctioned individuals.

With inputs from agencies

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Imran Khan isn't alone: When Pakistan prime ministers faced a no-confidence vote

Is this the end for Pakistan’s Imran Khan?

The Pakistan prime minister’s fall from grace is all but certain as reports state that a key coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), has switched allegiance ahead of a parliamentary no-confidence vote that could be held as early as this weekend.

The debate on the no-confidence motion is due to start Thursday, leaving Imran Khan scrambling to keep his own Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members on side — as well as a slew of minority parties.

Also read: Explained: Why things don’t look good for Pakistan's Imran Khan as he faces biggest political crisis

On paper, the PTI and coalition partners have 176 seats in the 342-member assembly, but on Wednesday, the MQM-P said its seven lawmakers would vote with the Opposition, which has a combined 163 seats.

More than a dozen PTI lawmakers have also indicated they will cross the floor, although party leaders are trying to get the courts to prevent them from voting.

This is not the first time in the history of Pakistan’s democracy that a prime minister has faced a vote of no-confidence, but Imran Khan could be the first to be ousted through one.

Infamously, no prime minister in Pakistan’s history has ever completed their full term, either. Should Khan survive the upcoming vote, he might still have a shot at doing so.

We take a look back and see how history is repeating itself.

Benazir’s no-confidence vote

Pakistan’s first no-confidence motion was brought against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1989.

On 2 November 1989, Bhutto heaved a sigh of relief after barely defeating a parliamentary motion of no confidence that would have brought down her year-old government.

The no-confidence motion was brought in by Nawaz Sharif. The Opposition at the time had contended that the prime minister devoted too much time to partisan politics and that she was too headstrong to listen to her allies.

Of the 237 members of Parliament, 107 voted to support the motion of no-confidence, 12 short of the 119 needed; 125 voted with Bhutto, and five were absent.

Following her victory, she was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times, “I think it is time for reflection. Reflection by the government and by the moderate opposition. The no-confidence motion should have given everyone food for thought.”

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the then opposition leader in Parliament, and Nawaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, said that the number of votes cast against Bhutto constituted a moral victory for the Opposition.

Benazir Bhutto was the first Pakistani prime minister to face a no-confidence motion in November 1989. AFP

2006 — another no-confidence vote

The Opposition also filed a no-confidence vote against former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the second time in Pakistan history back in August 2006, which was not successful as Shaukat Aziz won.

The Opposition needed 172 votes in the 342-member National Assembly to pass a no-confidence resolution against Shaukat Aziz, but they only got 136, while Shaukat received 201 votes.

Aziz, a career banker, was elected prime minister in 2004 after securing 191 votes in the 342-member National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament.

The no-confidence motion was brought against Aziz on the basis of corruption allegations. However, Aziz had refuted the claims, saying the Opposition was indulging in "negative politics."

"My hands are clean," he had said after the vote, adding that he had always respected the Constitution and worked for the supremacy of Parliament, the rule of law and to strengthen democratic institutions in the country.

Imran’s no-confidence vote

On 28 March, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif tabled no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been accused of mismanaging the nation’s economy.

Also read: Pak Opposition moves no-confidence in Imran: How Pak PM could lose his chair

Khan, 69, came to power in 2018 with 176 votes. He now requires votes from 172 lawmakers to remain in power. His PTI has 155 members in the 342-member National Assembly. Khan’s major allies seem to be looking the other way, while many party members are revolting against him, giving more confidence to the opposition parties that they can dislodge the government.

With inputs from agencies

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Explained: Is there any truth to Russia’s claim about Hunter Biden funding Ukrainian bio-labs?

United States president Joe Biden put the world on edge after his unscripted remark, saying his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. The White House was quick to backpedal after the global reverberations from the comment, but it was not enough to placate the Kremlin. Now five days on, the focus has shifted to Hunter Biden, the American president’s son, and his connections to war-torn Ukraine.

The allegations are rather explosive, involving bio-labs and whatnot. Russia claims to have evidence and American far-right has bought into the narrative. We get behind the truth.

The Russian story

On 24 March, RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, published a story headlined “Biden’s son funded American bio-labs in Ukraine”.

“Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca investment fund financed the Pentagon’s military biological programme in Ukraine, said Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Russian Armed Forces,” according to the RIA Novosti report.

Kirillov also alleged that the labs were part of the American plot to study the natural immunity of the population to identify the most dangerous pathogen for people in the region.

RIA Novosti carried a flow chart released by the Russian defence ministry that shows not only Hunter Biden’s involvement but also the role of financier George Soros in the alleged “bioweapons labs”.

The story was called picked up by RT, a state-controlled television network. “The incoming materials allow us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects. Attention is drawn to the involvement in the financing of these activities of structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund, which is headed by Hunter Biden,” said Kirillov, according to RT.

According to him, the fund has resources in the amount of at least $2.4 billion. “At the same time, the fund has a close relationship with the main contractors of the US military department, including Metabiota, which, along with Black and Veach, is the main supplier of equipment for Pentagon bio-labs around the world,” he added.

Kirillov said that the Los Alamos nuclear centre, where the first American atomic bomb was developed, was one of the scientific curators of the Pentagon’s military biological programme in Ukraine.

The reports are alarming but one does not need a reminder that the Russian state media toes the Kremlin line.

Is there any truth to these allegations?

Russia’s charges are difficult to believe. For starters, the US and Ukraine have signed a treaty never to produce biological weapons.

“The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price had said earlier this month.

There are no bioweapon labs in Ukraine, but bioresearch facilities which work toward strengthening public health measures in the country with the assistance of the US, says mainstream American media.

According to a report in The Washington Post, Hunter Biden was not financing the labs. In fact, he was not part of a decision to invest in a company at the centre of the Russian allegations; he did not profit from it as he was kicked out of the investment firm over cocaine allegations, and the company made little money from its tiny bit of business in Ukraine.

What about the firm Metabiota and Hunter Biden’s connection to it?

A US-led project the Cooperative Threat Reduction programme helps former Soviet states like Ukraine to transform old Soviet labs into state-of-the-art biological facilities. The work is undertaken by various American firms, which received a contract from the Pentagon. Metabiota is among one of the subcontractors that did the work in Ukraine. It received an investment from a private equity firm with connections to Hunter Biden, The Washington Post report says.

The other US firm Black & Veatch, which finds a mention in the RT story, were hired by the US defence department to enhance disease diagnosis. Both Metabiota and Black & Veatch have “performed a variety of training, renovation, and equipping projects competitively awarded by the Cooperative Threat Reduction programme to support Ukrainian critical human and veterinarian public health infrastructure needs. The work has always centred on improving the health, safety and well-being of the Ukrainian people”, Andrea Chaney, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency spokesperson told the newspaper.

However, The New York Post published a story that said that Russia’s assertion was based on truth, according to the emails they reviewed, which were allegedly recovered from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

So does Hunter Biden have no connection to Ukraine?

Hunter Biden was a director on the board of Ukraine energy firm Burisma while his father was the Obama administration’s point man on US-Ukrainian relations. AFP

Hunter Biden did work in foreign countries including Ukraine and China for which he was paid large sums of money. This was at a time when his father Joe Biden served as the US vice president. The US justice department has an ongoing criminal investigation into these dealings and potential financial crimes. The probe into Hunter Biden’s finances was launched in 2018, but he claims that he learnt about it only in 2020.

During the 2020 election campaign, the father-son duo was frequently accused by Trump about wrongdoings in China and Ukraine.

The New York Post had published a report in October 2020 about an alleged email in which an adviser from Burisma, a private energy company in Ukraine, thanked Hunter Biden for inviting him to meet his father Joe Biden. The correspondence was part of a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop, which reportedly belonged to Hunter Biden. The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, the store’s owner had told the Post.

Hunter Biden was a director on the board of Burisma while his father was the Obama administration’s point man on US-Ukrainian relations. He was one of several foreigners involved with the company, according to a BBC report.

Hunter Biden joined Burisma in 2014, and remained on the board until April 2019.

When asked about the investigation against him in April 2021, the US president’s son told the broadcaster CBS, “I’m co-operating, completely. And I’m absolutely certain, 100% certain, that at the end of the investigation, that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”

What the US far-right has to say

Now, a year on, as US slams Russia over the Ukraine war, the spotlight is back on Hunter Biden. The Russian media “bio-labs claim” found a willing audience in the US far-right. “It’s clearly a case where the US government has been lying; it has mounted a disinformation campaign, if you will, designed to cover up what it is doing," said Fox News host Tucker Carlson during his show on 24 March.

A QAnon follower on Twitter gained thousands of retweets with a thread posted on 24 February, the day of the invasion, claiming that Russian airstrike targets included “US installed bio-labs”.

Old Russian tactics

However, there’s nothing new about Russia’s claims to US-funded bio-labs. It something the Kremlin has been accusing America of since 2011. “When it comes to the bio-labs, this is an old canard,” Scott Radnitz, an expert on post-Soviet Russia and an associate professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, told NPR.

He said that the narrative only exploded after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“There’s this narrative that’s been pushed by Russia at least since 2011, about US-funded laboratories that in fact do research on diseases. They’re part of a defense department programme to support public health research in post-Soviet countries. And Russia has always been suspicious of these labs — putting out misinformation, asking insinuating questions through official channels,” Radnitz said.

With inputs from agencies

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Wang Yi’s Delhi visit: India plays tough, ball now in China’s court

After almost two years of military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Beijing, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit, has reached out to New Delhi to revive bilateral dialogue.

One simply cannot ignore the timing of the revival of talks, especially when the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, was visiting India to announce an investment worth $24 billion. In quick succession, the Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, announced a $15 billion investment to intensify ties between the Quad nations. It does, however, imply that Quad is here to stay, and that in the future, it will be more than just a counterbalance to China's growing assertiveness in the region, but also an opportunity to discuss development, vaccines, technology, climate change, and supply chain management, to name a few topics.

When it comes to Chinese aggression, it is clear that India will stand its ground and, if needed, will align based on matters of national interest. Even after 15 rounds of commander-level discussions between India and China, the talks are still inconclusive. With Wang’s visit, it is an indication that Beijing is ready to compromise. Earlier instances of such compromise were seen in the Doklam standoff when the Chinese political bureau jumped in to de-escalate the situation.

It is to be noted that with Moscow caught up in a conflict with Ukraine, Beijing would certainly not want to rely on Pakistan, which is already facing heat with its economy in shambles and the uncertain future of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Moreover, countries such as the UAE, Iran, Israel, and the United States show their alacrity to engage and commit to investment with India, which speaks volumes about the growing stature of India’s foreign policy in the international order.

***

Also Read

Wang Yi’s Delhi visit: He came uninvited, was snubbed, and returned with actionable points

Wang Yi’s visit to India: New Delhi should tread carefully as friendship with China can wait

***

This brings us to the question: Why does Beijing wish to engage with New Delhi now? There are two reasons for that.

First, while the formation of the Quad was aimed at safeguarding joint security interests in the Indo-Pacific, it promoted a shared consensus, which was brought out through the joint statements about the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, as it had broader implications in the region. With New Delhi pursuing an independent policy on the Ukraine crisis and all the other members accepting the difference, it says a lot about the matured democratic partnership that appreciates dissent yet works together towards being partners for development and cooperation.

Second, China wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China for the BRICS and RIC summits being held there. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in New Delhi earlier this week. But he was royally snubbed, and conveyed in as many words that standoff and good relations couldn’t go together. The visit was aimed at bolstering the diplomatic initiatives led by China to bring India-China ties to normal enabling it to successfully conduct the BRICS and RIC summits.

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have become even more crucial with the ongoing pandemic, geopolitical upheavals, and the international landscape's evolution, especially for global governance and the evolution of international order. The BRICS summit without the participation of Prime Minister Modi would be a non-event as Beijing's wish to continue bilateral relations by turning a blind eye on the Galwan is a proposition which New Delhi won't negotiate with. While China has consistently argued that "some forces have tried to create division between the two Asian countries," it completely forgets its own deeds on its borders.

In addition, many countries in the Indo-Pacific were becoming concerned about the Quad's rise as a military alliance. It led to China banding up with Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, making many heads turn with their naval drills in the Indian Ocean. With Russia shifting its focus to the Ukraine conflict, Iran offering oil to New Delhi and Pakistan facing regime change threats, Beijing understands that it is getting into a tight spot.

At this point, we see that China is becoming warier of the Quad members' developing cooperation. While China claims it cannot be contained, and it is right, it forgets that other powers in the region are now setting the terms of engagement and India is stirring this response. Even before, history has seen that India isn't shy of walking alone, but with the ongoing crisis and increased assertiveness by China, New Delhi wouldn't shy away from using its years of goodwill among nations to challenge the bullying power.

The great game of diplomacy has begun. The ball is now in the Dragon’s court: If it wants Prime Minister Modi’s presence in the two summits in China, it must first pull its soldiers back from the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The sooner it is done, the better it is for peace and prosperity in the region.

Yuvraj Pokharna is a Surat-based educator, columnist, and social activist. Arpan Chakravarty is Honorary Assistant Director Strategy at Alexis Group. Views expressed are personal.

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