Had a live discussion with Mr Sree Iyer on the current state of affairs in Pakistan. The discussion was based largely on my article Wolf at Pakistan's Door. The Q&A session was very interesting.
This is a follow up of the first review @ https://palepurshankar.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-corona-combat-review-of-situation.html General We are now into Day 10 of our lockdown. Midway point of Phase 1 of the battle with the Chinese Virus. Approaching Phase 2 shortly. Critical times ahead. Time for a review of the situation. The PM has spoken to us today. He has just told all of something very important. India is with Indians and Indians are with India. Though we are isolated we remain collected in this fight. Have faith. Economic packages have been rolled out for the poor and for taking care of the common man as well as the industry. At this point of time, I guess that is what the government can do, and it has done that. If the need arises more will be done. I am confident of that. At least for the needy. Overall, we are winning it where superpowers, wannabe superpowers, have been superpowers are losing / lost it. The collective response of India has been simply fantas...
I think Pakistan will focus on one thing to get its economy out of bankruptcy. It will export workers. On a per capita basis, Pakistan already has among the highest rates in the world of sending abroad laborers. The key for Pakistan is then to find places that will receive the workers. The answer is obviously GCC countries where it will find vacancies for Pakistani workers at the expense of Indian workers. There are 8.5 million Indians living and working in GCC countries. If half of the Indians in GCC countries do not get their visas renewed then 4 million Pakistanis will be able to move to the GCC and send back remittances to save the Pakistani economy.
ReplyDeleteFor Pakistan to pull this off they will need to switch gears in international messaging. Instead of talking about human rights abuses in the Kashmir Valley to Arab countries who don't care because Kashmiris are not Arabs, Pakistan will move on to making loud noises about the BJP and Indian government blasphemizing against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Nupur Sharma will still be around so it will not be hard to pin blasphemy on Modi and India. The Western media is also giving the Pakistanis fire support.
Thats a great analysis!
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