Enemies At The Gate - A Sequel

Even those who concede the bias in the Western media refuse to believe that there is a conspiracy. They believe that the social apparatus in America could not be controlled that way.

The article that I wrote and that appeared as the cover-story in ‘Swarajya’ in May 2015 was in the making for a few months in my head, during my morning or evening walks in Singapore. The more I thought about the issue, the more I was convinced that the present BJP government would find it hard to win re-election in 2019. They are playing in a game rigged against them by design. The only way to get re-elected is to act as though re-election did not matter to them.  Paradoxically, that might win them re-election. The article cited loads of luck, wisdom, perseverance, persistence, communications and tonnes of humility as the other pre-requisites.

The long article left two thoughtful people with the impression that I believed in a systematic conspiracy against India in the West. So, regardless of whether I intended it to come out that way or not – and I will come to that in a minute – I have to acknowledge that this is the message that they have taken with them.

Out of fourteen pages – in my manuscript – I dedicate about three and half pages to deal with bias in the media coverage of the BJP government. It includes both India and Western media coverage. Whether the bias, esp. in the Western media, is systematic or entrenched or that it is deliberately orchestrated, yes, I too have struggled with and continue to struggle with this question of ‘conspiracy’. However, on balance, I am prepared to lean on the side of systematic bias bordering on conspiracy theory.

Whether it is in ‘Economist’ or ‘Financial Times’ – the words, ‘Hindu nationalist’ are routinely prefixed before they describe the NDA or BJP or Modi-led government. The most recent example is the joint article by Victor Mallet and Jamil Anderlini in FT on the reactions to Modi in China in the Weibo chat rooms (“Perhaps Mr Modi, whose Hindu nationalist supporters can be equally vociferous…”).

Before last year’s elections, ‘Economist’ even endorsed Rahul Gandhi. The New York Times (NYT) pursues its hostility against the BJP-led government in India with missionary zeal. I will have more to say on NYT later. It happened quite a bit in 1998-2004 period too.

Read carefully the following sentence, for example, in this The Wall Street Journal article:

“Among the issues pushed by Hindu nationalists: limiting affirmative-action-type programs for Muslims, taking a harder line with majority-Muslim neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh and advancing a conservative Hindu cultural agenda”.

There is more on this in my article written for Mint soon after the NDA government took office last year.

It deliberately mixes up domestic and foreign policy matters and conflates the issues at hand. Ending affirmative action programmes that are not means-tested is a fiscal necessity, at the very least. Taking a hard line with Bangladesh on illegal immigration into India and its treatment of Hindus is an action that any self-respecting Indian leader should take. Similarly, dealing with Pakistan as a perpetrator of terrorism on Indian soil and not viewing it as a fellow victim of terror are long overdue. If America were in a similar situation, Americans would expect their government to take these actions as a matter of routine and if it did, neither The Wall Street Journal nor The New York Times will call the US government, “Christian Nationalist”.

However, even those who concede the bias in the Western media refuse to believe that there is a conspiracy. They believe that the social apparatus in America could not be controlled that way.

I have wrestled with this question too and I am going to try to persuade people holding such views, out of them. The American government managed to do that for the war on Iraq. To be sure, there were stray voices that were dissenting. However, NYT, Tom Friedman and several others were on board! The status quo and the establishment have many apparatuses. Recently, I chanced up on an article by my old friend Patrick L. Smith in Salon.com. This article is, in itself, an effective response to the argument that the ‘social apparatus could not be controlled’. It is devastating. Evidently, the social apparatus can be and is controlled. Worse, it is willing and ready to be controlled.

In a different but unrelated context, this article on the Federal Reserve and economists in the US is a very interesting read. Such powerful entities can always find some inconvenient fact to arm-twist members of the public to fall in line, all done discreetly. More importantly, more often than not, they evoke self-censorship and discretion on the part of the ordinary folks without even having to be explicit about their goals.

Those who have not watched ‘The Ghost Writer’ (2010 film starring Pierce Brosnan) should watch it.

The Western media giving prominent space to well-known India-baiters is not coincidence. For the same reason, they will give space to the more rabid elements among Hindus, just to buttress the image of ‘crackpot and dangerous fundamentalists’ that are attached to them.

In the final analysis, I concede that ‘conspiracy theory’ angle is always difficult to substantiate and hence, subject to the risk of inviting ridicule from fellow travellers. Further, I have wrestled with and continue to wrestle with the inference that arguments built on western conspiracy contain an element of ‘these folks in the West operate with clear long-term and short-term goals, strategy, and tactics and hence are omnipotent’. In other words, do I ascribe to them super-normal powers?

The answer to that question of my own is that they try but they may not necessarily succeed always. In the last three hundred to four hundred years, they have succeeded more often than they have failed. Otherwise, with such a small number of men at their disposal, they would not have overpowered populations much, much larger.

By their very nature, Western media propaganda and other forms of subtle coercion will always carry ‘plausible deniability’ to a considerable degree. In fact, that the more reasonable among us are sceptical of these designs and plots is biggest armour for Western agendas. That is because reasonable people, by definition, cannot understand unreasonable goals and cannot even think that such ideas and goals exist.

For many Indians, it is frustrating that India has to defend its right to define itself as a Hindu civilisation while China is now part of G-2, is poised to launch its own multilateral financial institutions and looks set to see its currency become a global reserve currency by October this year. It is part of the game plan of ‘others’ to keep India stuck in the fight to have the right even to define itself.

I do believe that if India gets to a GDP size of USD4.0trn, India will have achieved escape velocity. Already, USD2.0trn is an important milestone and whether Pakistan likes it or not, at USD2.0trn, India is already de-hyphenated.

USD4.0trn is a different league altogether. India will be no. 4 even in nominal dollar terms behind US, China and Japan. That India would leapfrog ahead of Europe will be an important milestone and will redefine many relationships with them bilaterally and in multilateral settings.

Just a matter of minor consolation, on a PPP adjusted basis, in terms of GDP per labour person employed, India was ahead of China up to the year 2001. Only in the last twelve years, (data is not available for 2014 yet), had China overtaken India. This coincides with the period when China’s debt levels surged.

In four years’ time, with a bit of luck (well, India needs lots of it), it could be a different story, happily.

(The author is a co-founder of Takshashila Institution. These are his personal views)