Countries playing an important role in world politics are making every effort to return to their old golden times.
New Delhi: Politics in India has been heating up on the issue of nationalism during the last few years. Political organizations, which get public support in the name of socialist secular policies, have been terming this nationalism as right-wing and fundamentalist. But how many Indian states or countries of the world are there with their leftist i.e. communist Marxist principles? The liberal economy, which is called right-wing, is also visible in China and Russia. China and Russia, who trumpet in the name of poor labourers and farmers, are leading in exploitation by entering other countries. Similarly, countries playing an important role in world politics are making every effort to return to their old golden times. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violent attempt to restore the form of the Soviet Union that existed 30 years ago. On the other hand, the nationalism of India is becoming more influential than the real democratic power and the world is yearning for cooperation and relations with India.
Not only Ukraine, Europe and America are calling Russian President Putin an expansionist dictator like Hitler. The funny thing is that Russia, America and China have been continuously preparing and attacking to establish their dominance over most of the countries of the world like imperialists. Communism which was spread from Beijing to Prague has now ended with a changed colour on the map. But Russia and China are being driven by the urge for geographical dominance and economic hunger. In the seventies, due to the competition of revolutionary leaders Khushrev and Mao Zedong, the conflict and distance had increased a lot. China was not ready to accept Soviet domination. Now together, they are joining hands for arbitrariness and Dadagiri in the world. This turning point is dangerous for world politics, because Xi Jinping and Putin have arranged to remain in power for almost eternity with paper support from the public and the party.
The shadow of democracy is not visible in these two countries. But on the strength of power and army, common people have been used to face difficulties. That’s why the screams of thousands of people who died from the corona virus in China and its partner Russia, were nowhere to be heard and now Russia does not care about the economic sanctions around the world due to its attack on Ukraine. China does not listen to the voices outside including the United Nations on human rights and other atrocities. The general public seems happy even in this condition. They remain arrogant over the dominion and existence of their nation. On the other hand, after decades of democratic system and elections in America, the public is happy to put in power from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump and now Joe Biden for their economic dominance over the world. Reagan and Trump have never had any connection with the general public. They were accepted only for the expansion of power and capital and for showing their attitude to the world. Despite all the notoriety, Trump is in the mood to claim the presidency in the next election. Journalist-turned-politician Boris Johnson was never in favour of leaving the European Union, but the public chose him for Britain’s separate existence and prefers to stay away from Europe in economic relations with the US and NATO.
In this background, why should anyone bother about the nationalism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP in India? After all, they reached the summit by doing the groundwork for years and are still active in strengthening the roots of democracy. Manmohan Singh was the only leader among the post-Independence prime ministers who did not care about the common voter.
The “accidental Prime Minister” was also represented by his closest aide. He had the knowledge of economic policies and in the true sense, the richest industrialists like Birlas, Tatas, Ambanis, and Adanis flourished during his rule. Credit is going to Modiji.
The interesting thing is that Modi’s policies have started showing more influence than the socialist policies called progressive, because he gave Rs 6,000 to the poor, free food grains, toilets, small houses, fertilizers, seeds, water and electricity to the farmers. By applying the cream of nationalism from above, a large section has joined them.
But it should be appreciated that from Nehru, Indira, Rajiv to Narendra Modi, no government with a huge majority has tried to terrorise any neighbouring country, nor did it try to join any one faction in world politics. That is why, being nationalists, not only America, Russia, Europe, Africa, but also the Islamic countries have started expecting relations and cooperation from India. The biggest proof of this is the prayer of its ambassador in the Ukraine crisis.
The writer is editorial director of ITV Network—India News and Aaj Samaj Dainik.