Had the honour of moderating a knowledgeable panel on the Ukraine Crisis and Lessons for India during the CASA webinar on 13 Mar22. The panel was very good and the Q&A session was interesting.
‘Sir, will China invade us?’ ‘We hear China has increased activities on the border’. Chinese consolidation activities on the LAC have prompted such reactions and fears. Lot of such inquiries from citizens within and outside India. Why? Bodies floating down Ganga, mass graves, lack of oxygen, medicines or hospital beds, botched vaccination program, uninterrupted work on Central Vista - all these have eroded our political capital immensely and seeded such doubts. Our national institutions are being compared to ‘rottweilers’ in the media. Economy? Unemployment figures and stock markets – both rattling up. Strangest combination. Rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. An ominous divergence which bodes ill. Leadership? Kis Chidiya ka naam hai bhai? National level paralysis in responding to the second wave. Erosion in comprehensive national power. Many have never experienced India being so weak. Nor did I for that matter. This frightening experience ...
Does Russia depend on imports for any non-luxury/essential items ? If not, the sanctions will not have the kind of impact that Mr.Pant thinks it will. In any case, it's better for the world to adopt some thing like bitcoin, which is not beholden to any country, as the global reserve currency. This will remove all incentives to provoke war to preserve reserve currency status and remove the means of financial coercion by any one party.
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