UK's decision on Huawei to guide the world towards cooperation

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)" https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-30/UK-s-decision-on-Huawei-to-guide-the-world-towards-cooperation-NFsumOHMsM/index.html and was republished by "China Daily" https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202001/30/WS5e327c7da310128217273b5f.html

Following an extensive and focused assessment and deliberation, the United Kingdom finally allowed Huawei to be part of building its 5G telecommunications network. The “limited role” though prevented Shenzhen giant from supplying core and sensitive parts, the decision is still very significant.

The exclusion of global 5G leader could have deeper repercussions for the UK goal to diversify its supply chain by letting the disruptive entrants such as Huawei to kill the duopoly in the country and achieve the connectivity of the national infrastructure cheaply and quickly.

Going ahead with the world’s largest 5G infrastructure provider will boost up British government commitment to connect 15 million premises to full fiber broadband by 2025 and provide nationwide coverage by 2033 as well as would help to realize its ambition of becoming the world leader in 5G. In addition, the move will remove the barriers to the construction of a faster network in the country costing £5 billion.

Digital infrastructure market has very few top global players – just three, to be exact. What’s more, the Chinese telecom titan is the one that encompasses the two basic advantages required for the implementation of any major infrastructure deal: it tends to be cheaper than the rivals and it is much faster than those.

Shenzhen’s behemoth is the leader in UK fixed access (Full Fiber FTTP) and 4G mobile access market with share of 44% and 35% respectively so it is ideally positioned to accelerate the UK fifth-generation technology drive. British ratification also shut down the economic holes that were threatening to widen over interruption of 5G development plans.

Huawei clearance recouped the estimated permanent losses of up to $11.8 billion to the UK economy besides increase of up to 29% in investment costs for next-generation infrastructure and up to 10.4 million of English descents who could have delayed access to innovative technology.

The authorization rendered a grand reprieve to the several UK telecom providers too who had already started to deploy the Huawei technology in more than 70 cities and earlier warned that any suspension in the rollout of 5G could cost them and Britain economy billions of pounds apart from delaying the deployment by up to five years.

Global market share of Huawei is more than the combine share of the next two largest 5G builders. As British Vodafone, German Deutsche Telekom and Spanish Telefonica all are Huawei clients and have warned that the replacement of Huawei kits could cost billions of euros – British move can embolden the European Union to allow Huawei operate in the region.

US sanctions on Huawei are towing the global telecom providers into a situation where they would essentially sustain huge economic and time losses. Owing to these kinds of diverse convolutions, there has been an increased realization in the European countries that restricting Huawei won’t be doable option for them to mull over.

The UK consent is widely contemplated as a major blow to the US global campaign against Huawei. Britain action followed after its self-established Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, working under the National Cyber Security Centre, found no malicious activity between Chinese government and Huawei.

Defining decision by one of the members of so-called international intelligence sharing group – “Five Eyes” including the US, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – tersely rebuffed Washington allegations that Huawei was involved in spying activities for Beijing or had any clandestine links with China.

Over the period of last 15 years, only 8 companies from all over the world have managed to move up in the global ranking by 70 or more places. Huawei is one of them. It was the fifth-largest in worldwide research and development (R&D) according to the latest 2019 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.

Soon after adding Huawei and its 68 of its affiliates to the US entity on May 16 by the US Commerce Department over national security or foreign policy interests, Trump administration issued a 90-day temporary general license to Huawei on May 22 and later extended it on November 18.

The grant and extension of license, which allowed the American companies to continue doing business with Huawei, was itself a rebuke to the US claims and emphasized that the world’s largest economy wasn’t finding a better substitute to Huawei in the country and it desperately needed to live off Chinese technology.

Despite the US last-ditch caveat to the UK that it “would be madness” to use Huawei technology, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an independent decision as a head of a sovereign country and fulfilled his promise to provide people “access to the best possible technology,” eliminating the risks of fortune losses and lagging behind in global 5G race.

Johnson’s first forceful assertion after Brexit is a rousing guidance for European and other countries. While it would restore the confidence of business investors and capital markets globally, the move will steer the international world to pursue a cooperative and collaborative approach to regenerate the tariff- and sanction-hit global economy.

US should stop its uncalled-for interference in CPEC

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-26/-U-S-should-stop-its-uncalled-for-interference-in-CPEC-Nz0yHmIJBS/index.html

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative, is racing ahead fast and is strengthening one of the oldest and strongest bilateral alliances between Beijing and Islamabad. On top of that, the game-changer economic partnership continues to transform Pakistan’s economy and livelihoods of the country’s people.

A total of 12 power projects, under CPEC, have either been completed or underway with a total generation capacity of 7,240 megawatts (MW) while another nine projects of 6,390 MW are in early stages, attracting a foreign investment of $12 billion. These projects have been largely financed by China through grants and concessional loans.

Only the CPEC energy projects have so far provided low-cost electricity to 33 million Pakistanis besides producing $250 million in tax revenues and creating 10,000 jobs. Therefore amid growing economic turmoil and plunging GDP, the people and government of Pakistan perceives CPEC as a buoyant development plan to reinstate the economy, improve critical infrastructure and open employment opportunities.

Lately, Beijing and Islamabad have decided to develop Pakistan’s city of Faisalabad as a major industrial hub. In this second phase of CPEC, the establishment of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the city of textiles could create nearly 300,000 jobs, draw investment of more than $2.5 billion and lessen country’s reliance on imports.

But the US ignores to spot CPEC in the backdrop of enormous economic benefits to Pakistan and socio-economic development of more than 200 million Pakistanis. Unfortunately, Washington willingly sees the project as its economic rivalry with Beijing and is insisting Islamabad to review its economic alignment with China.

The US ambassador for South and Central Asia earlier this week again urged Pakistan to reconsider its unstinting embrace of Beijing’s trillion-dollar BRI insignia. Addressing a think tank in Pakistan, she recapped her prior allegations such as lack of transparency in CPEC projects, debt burden, and award of contracts to delisted companies in addition to questioning the immunity of CPEC Authority.

In an interview with US news channel CNBC on Wednesday in Davos, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan hit back at her criticism and turned down the US claim that through CPEC; Beijing was towing Islamabad into a debt trap and labeled the remarks “nonsense.” Khan further eulogized China for its resolute economic support for Pakistan.

“When the Chinese came to help us with this Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and CPEC, we were at the rock bottom,” Khan responded when asked if the project was a debt trap. He also thanked China for coming and rescuing Pakistan by pumping in loans that “by the way are barely five or six percent of the total portfolio.”

As Wells broached no evidence to justify her accusations, the attempt appeared to only hurt the profounder China-Pakistan relationship by pecking doubts among the society. But she entirely disregarded that about three-quarter of a century-old friendship between the two countries has firmly interlaced them into a deep and unique rapport of brotherhood and trust.

Over the decades, Islamabad has not only relied on Beijing to help overcome its economic privations but has also consistently thrown its faith on its all-weather ally to put up its point of view on war on terror and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) in front of the international community or to take up the issues in the UN Security Council (UNSC).

While the global world including Pakistan’s closest partners remain tone-deaf on the Indian unilateral actions in the disputed territory J&K, it is China that has become the voice of Pakistan on the global forums. Last week, Beijing once again called a meeting in the UNSC to urge India and Pakistan to seek solutions through dialogue, a demand Islamabad has long pursued.

Beijing has actively supported Pakistan on South Asian country’s endeavor to avoid the Financial Actions Task Force (FATF) blacklisting. Recently Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson emphasized that Pakistan’s political will and visible progress to strengthen domestic CFT (Countering Financing of Terrorism) regime should be recognized globally.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have been dramatically perfected in the past few months over Pakistan’s facilitation of Afghan peace process. But the US should not expect Pakistan to ditch its iron-brother China to placate Washington. Such an act would an axe on its own feet since China is intensely aiding Pakistan to rout employment snags and bridge the development gaps in energy, infrastructure and industrialization.

Chinese embassy in Pakistan strongly responded to the Wells’ tickings-off too. In a compelling reprisal, Beijing’s spokesperson in Islamabad said that China would be more than glad to see the US develop its relations with Pakistan but oppose American intervention in China-Pakistan bilateral relations and CPEC, which created over 75,000 jobs directly and contributed one to two percent to the country’s GDP.

By dragging CPEC into the discussion, Wells, as a matter of fact, forthrightly compromised the basic US agenda of greater stress on expanding economic partnership and bolstering political engagement between Pakistan and the US in the aftermath of Afghan conflict, humanitarian crisis in J&K and Iran-US standoff.

The uncalled-for interference in China-Pakistan bilateral affairs also forfeited the other important intent of her arrival to promote trade and investment and the advancement of the shared vision of both countries’ leadership “for a long-term, broad-based and enduring partnership.”

If the US is truly concerned about Pakistan and people of the country, it should resolutely back CPEC and boost its trade and investment with the terror-hit country that has suffered billions of economic losses and lost thousands of lives due to Washington’s war on terror in Afghanistan. Maybe, it could counterweigh Pakistan’s sacrifices to some extent.

Why a tariff-free phase two deal should be the pressing priority?

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-19/Why-a-tariff-free-phase-two-deal-should-be-the-pressing-priority-NnUCWebbt6/index.html

At an event in the Peterson Institute for International Economic Washington, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on Friday that the phase one deal between China and the US would carve the uncertainty that paled the global economic growth but won’t eliminate it.

She further recalled Fund’s previous forecast that projected the global trade tensions to shave 0.8% or $700 billion off international economic growth, about one-third of which was due to tariffs and the rest resulted from slowdown in business investment. Georgieva underscored that the deal was only an interim solution and the impact on investment was there on the cards.

Trade and investment are the vital components of the international economic system that relentlessly lurks in the twilight if any of the critical organs cease to function efficiently. That was the case when in a stream of diplomatic rhetoric; the US President Donald Trump unleashed a trade war with China about two year ago.

As a result of pervasive use of tariff sledgehammer – the international trade writhed, import costs whizzed radically, investors became leery of business investment, capital markets blunted and millions of farmers befell prey amid the protracting trade frictions between the two world’s largest economies.

Tariff guns didn’t discriminate between wealthy and poor nations and beaten up all in chorus including Americans. The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in August estimated American GDP to roughly shrink by 0.3% in 2020 over tariff-elicited increased domestic prices alongside declining purchasing power of the consumers.

As the phase one deal will still leave a vast majority of the Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods in place, the business investment – threatened by uncertainty over future barriers to trade and their perception of risks associated with investment in the US – are likely to be affected heavily in the coming months.

Though the extensive and exhaustive negotiations between the two high-fliers economies would at least unwind the growing anxieties across the international trade and prevent the global economy to bleed for the time being, yet the specter of business investment is even now represents a gloomy picture as Georgieva pointed out.

So, there is an urgent need that both China and the US quickly set off a new round of talks, phase two dialogue, about revocation of existing additional tariffs to rejuvenate the investors’ confidence and to relocate the international economy on the economic recovery mode without more ado.

Immediate consultations on the phase two trade deal, designed for tariff reversal, are in the interest of the Trump administration that faces the looming presidential elections in the US. While the move would revivify the purchasing power of the ordinary Americans, overburdened with a loss of $580 in average household income, the US president can gain a lot politically to stem a second term by withdrawing tariffs on Chinese imports.

Trump should actively pursue a phase two deal with China also because the stimulus to the business investment would cast out the forthcoming downward pressure on the US economy, providing him an opportunity to create thousands of new jobs in an election year. He can of course boast of his achievements in the public just before election canvassing gets into a full-blown boom.

Manufacturing is one of the sectors where he can start from. Like others, the US trade row with China has emphatically impaired the US manufacturing sector. The chafing relations were primarily held responsible for the contraction of American manufacturing activity that dropped to a reading of 47.2 in December, the lowest since June 2009. It was also a fifth straight month of retrenchment.

Tariff hits by Trump on Chinese goods have proved fairly counterproductive for the country’s manufacturing sector. Albeit the US collected some $46 billion in duties from the US companies importing products from China however the country’s factory output was stalled and the new employments in the sector were leveled off.

Prevalence of the US tariffs provided very little respite to the American manufacturers who contributed more than $2.4 trillion to the US GDP in the third quarter of 2019 and employed about 12.9 million workers as of December. A phase two deal can do a charisma to their prosperity.

If China and the US would rescind tariffs on each other goods, millions of manufacturers in the country would be able to import cheap components from China and hence would be in a position to increase the US exports to China and the world over apart from generating more job opportunities.

Beijing has already committed to ramp up billions of dollars of manufactured goods from Washington. If tariffs are reversed, China’s purchase of auto, auto parts, machinery, electrical equipment, pharmaceutical products, medical devices and other manufactured goods would expansively shore up the key US manufacturing sector.

For more than 18 months, China-US trade tensions have rounded up global economy and decelerated its growth, roiled the financial markets and dismantled supply chains worldwide. Only a tariff-free phase two trade deal can bring back them all from the brink of collapse.

Afghanistan and top US priority

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2139348/6-afghanistan-top-us-priority/

In December 2014, the former US President Barrack Obama formally ended the 13-year US combat mission – Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) or the war in Afghanistan – claiming that the longest war in American history had come to a “responsible conclusion”.

First African American head of state forthwith announced to launch the ongoing non-combat campaign, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS) as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission (RSM), to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces and institutions and conduct counter-terrorism operations against remnants of al-Qaeda.

After Trump’s 2017 Afghanistan strategy, to launch hostile military campaign on Afghan Taliban and rebuke Pakistan, backfired and since Washington was bursting to chuck out Kabul – the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appointed Zalmay Khalilzad to a newly created post of Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation in September 2018 to oversee the looming peace talks with Afghan Taliban in Qatar and hold consultations with Afghan, Pakistan and other regional governments.

Khalilzad frequently trekked to Islamabad and exhorted the Afghan-adjacent country to use its influence in brining Taliban to the negotiation table for a political settlement in the battle-scarred republic. In September, Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford arrived in Pakistan to retune the stained US-Pakistan diplomatic and military relations.

The influx of large number of top US political and military officials in Pakistan and the subsequent Trump’s letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan – which sought Islamabad‘s assistance and facilitation for a political settlement in Afghanistan – underscored Pakistan’s pivotal role in brokering peace dialogue between US and Taliban and eventually provide a willowy exit to the world’s most powerful military from Kabul.

Perceiving that the peace and stability in the devastated land was a shared responsibility, Islamabad responded earnestly and afterward played a pivotal role in persuading Taliban to kick off a peace dialogue with Washington started in Doha, Qatar within next few months.

Pakistan role in facilitating Taliban-US talks was greatly appreciated by the US. In its 2019 report to the Congress, the US Department of Defense (DOD) admitted Pakistan’s active patronage for Afghan reconciliation and its contributions in bringing Taliban to the negotiation table. The report further acknowledged that Pakistan security forces were fighting and conducting counter-terrorism operations against US-designated terrorist organizations ISIS-K and AQIS in its territory.

Unfortunately, all Pakistan’s concentrated, hardcore and peacemaking efforts were tainted after Trump busted the peace talks with Taliban through a cascade of his tweets on September 8. While the US president accused the armed group for building “false leverage” by continuing their attacks – in truth, American forces assumed the very same pugnacious maneuvers to strengthen the US bargaining position.

Amid extensive peace talks, the US dropped 613 and 753 weapons in the months of July and August respectively in Afghanistan – higher than many months since OFS/ORS was started in 2015. US Commander in Afghanistan General Austin Miller’s remarks that America had “dialed up” military pressure on Taliban “to shape the political pressure” and keep them on the negotiation table was a brusque confession that the US wronged the Afghan civilians for its strategic interests.

Again Afghan civilians fell prey to the offensives from either of the sides and their casualties increased 42% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019 to reach a total of 8,239 including 2,563 killing for January to September 2019. Pro and anti-government forces were approximately equally indictable for the sharp rise in Afghan civilian fatalities.

It is hence pretty pellucid that Afghanistan is no more on the US foreign policy’s top priorities agenda. Indeed, it had decided to leave war-torn country in 2014 when it ended OEF and initiated OFS/RSM. Ex-National Security member riposte to SIGAR the same year “Your job was not to win, it was to not lose” gave a clear-eyed view of the US backdoor withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan.

The US finds virtually no ally to rationalize its drone strike in Iraq

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)" https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-07/The-U-S-finds-no-ally-to-rationalize-its-drone-strike-in-Iraq-N3GJBPTobu/index.html and was republished by "China Daily" https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-07/The-U-S-finds-no-ally-to-rationalize-its-drone-strike-in-Iraq-N3GJBPTobu/index.html

Being the biggest economy and purportedly the predominant military might of the world, the international community expects the United States to add thrust to the global economy, utilize its universal influence positively to resolve regional conflicts and make an important contribution for the peace and stability the world over.

Unfortunately, the US has completely loathed behaving like a dynamic and responsible state and blinded by power and rage, has continued to perversely rattle the global peace efforts by its provocative and threatening tones and aggression on the weaker nations in the name of securing American lives and national security interests.

The history echoed as after killing the head of Iran’s elite Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force Qassem Soliemani in a drone strike, the US President Donald Trump accused him for “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel” while parroting the same hoary claim that Soliemani had targeted, injured and murdered hundreds of American civilians and servicemen.

By assassinating the Iranian top military leadership, Washington is ostensibly preparing to reenter into the Middle East, from where it had formerly gestured to pull out. Though Trump murmurs that he does not want a regime change or war with Tehran, the deployment of thousands of additional troops in the Persian Gulf nullifies his contentions. The US had hitherto invaded Iraq twice to make the Baghdad its strong foothold in the region and is now again baiting the impoverished nation for its sham strategic goals.

Unlike previously, when Washington used to employ such tactics of attacking sovereign countries and killing their leadership to legitimize its hostility and forge multilateral military alliances – this time, nations across the globe rebuffed to buy the US impression of misconception about Iran.

Trump’s adverse action has been strongly disapproved by the international world as a whole and even by the US allies and domestic American political gurus and Congressmen. While Iraq considered the step as “aggression” – China, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Britain and others showed a very serene and objective approach and urged the sides, the US in particular, to exercise restraint that could otherwise entail grave consequences for regional peace and stability.

Americans, which were one-voiced on September 11, are now slating Trump for not taking the Congress on board for airstrike in Iraq. Following her statement about Trump administration’s “provocative, escalatory and disproportionate military engagement” that put American citizens, military personnel and allies in danger – the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to introduce and vote on “War Powers Resolution” to limit the President’s military actions regarding Iran.”

Trump’s rival presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders urged Congress to reassert its constitutional responsibility over war while and furious Senator Chuck Schumer endorsed Sanders and planned “to fight him (Trump) tooth and nail” on starting an endless war. Many American also took to the streets to denounce the strike.

The US military conducted the operation in Baghdad so covertly that even its closest ally the UK, which has 400 troops in the Middle East to work alongside the US, and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were out of loop as well. Neverthless, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab official response after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s tweet about recognizing the continuing aggressive threats posed by the Iranian Quds Force resounds the US ordaining attitude to its handiest partner.

Pompeo made such as effort to influence Pakistan and phoned the country’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa presumably to seek Islamabad support. But Pakistani military head emphasis on maximum restraint and de-escalation as well as the assurance “We will not allow our soil to be used against anyone” blow up the US intent to inflict disturbance in the Middle East.

In a telephonic conversation with Iranian foreign minister Jawad Zarif, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister termed the US act a “military adventurist” that goes against the international relations. He pressed Washington to pursue the process of dialogue and asserted that China is ready to play a constructive role for peace and stability in Western Asia.

China has also backed Iran’s Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE) that is furthered by Tehran as an important forum of dialogue and political negotiations among the region’s nations based on no use of force, settling crisis peacefully, respect each other’s sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of other countries.

But all the fused international voices of peace negotiations and restraint seem to have no impact on the US as Trump continues to escalate the situation and push the region into yet another bloody war. After bragging about two trillion dollars of military equipment acquisitions, Trump issued a “legal notice” that the US would strike back in case of any Iranian reprisal, “perhaps in a disproportionate manner.”

As opposed to putting itself accountable to the international community on its uncalled-for offensive, the US haughty attitude is greatly brazen and deplorable. While it should be using the global diplomatic forums to ease the tensions with Iran, it is trying to create more critical mess in the conceit of its military prowess and hegemonic posture.

9/11 terrorist attacks on the US were indubitably the horrific incidence so the global community fiercely condemned the incursions in unison and unanimously backed the US war on terror. But this time, the US is the aggressor – not a victim – which deliberately ripped up the international laws, violated the sovereignty of an independent country and exterminated a serving Iranian army general, therefore is finding virtually no ally to rationalize its drone strike in Iraq.

The lurching Indian economy and protests

By: Azhar Azam

*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2128797/6-lurching-indian-economy-protests/

India has been one of the fastest growing major economies of the world over the past few years that allowed it to lift millions out of poverty. As the country’s growth dropped to 4.5% in the second quarter of the year – lowest in six years – IMF called it to it to take urgent policy actions to address the current downturn and return the economy to a high growth path.

IMF forecast coincided with Moody’s and Fitch estimates that condoned Indian GDP growth to decline considerably to 4.5% and 4.6% respectively in FY2020. Owing to the global and domestic economic slowdown, some seven million people are threatened to be trapped in the poverty in the South Asian country.

Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should be wakeful of New Delhi’s imminent economic crunch while it was preparing to contest 2019 national elections. The saffron brigade, therefore, didn’t rely on the wonted election jingles of shoring up economy, introduction of public welfare projects and creating vast job opportunities.

Hindu nationalist party instead deliberately focused on the contentious issues such as annulment of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), enactment of Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and the construction of Ram Temple to stir the religious sentiments of predominantly Hindu Indian population.

The truculent manifesto paid off prolifically and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) claimed a landslide victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 353 seats and became the only non-Congress government to regain power in the political history of India.

Massive public support spurred BJP to cash on the strong nation’s backing and it forthwith pursued to keep Indian folks obsessed with its querulous pre-election program and additionally to make them distracted from the sickening country’s economy.

Ignoring the international resentments, BJP has so far repealed the autonomous status of Muslim-dominated J&K and Ladakh in violation to the Simla Agreement with Pakistan; published the latest version of National Register of Citizens (NRC) that excluded nearly two million people in Assam; pledged to roll out NRC across India by 2024 and snatched a verdict from Indian Supreme Court to build Ram Temple in place of Babri Mosque in Ajodhya town of Utter Pradesh.

With economic woes simmering in the off-sight, Indian parliament recently passed another controversial legislation Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 – which excluded only Muslims and permitted Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to obtain Indian citizenship. BJP argued since these minorities were undergoing persecution in the three countries, it was its moral obligation to shelter them.

Meanwhile, it was highly irrepressible for BJP to mask the deteriorating Indian economic indicators that continued to pinch hard the mass population of more than 1.3 billion. The fall in consumption, slackened private investment and three-year high 8.5% unemployment rate shake up the overwrought Indian people and they hit back at BJP’s divisive move of CAA legislation and showed their anguish in nationwide protests and the country’s State Assembly elections.

Just within a few months of regaining absolute power, Indian citizens doled out some serious blows to the Modi administration as his BJP conceded a huge lead to the trilateral opposition alliance in Jharkhand. BJP contested on 79 of 81 seats in the Indian eastern state and could win only 25 as compared to rivals’ 47. It was BJP’s fifth consecutive defeat in Indian state elections.

Back to back thrashing conquests are alarming signs for the BJP government. Where the protests revealed that people had quickly rejected any sectarianism or religious divide in India, the large majority of Indian also overruled any political ambitions to thrive at the cost of their economy.

This is something the global economies can learn learn from. Public gripes in India – also fueled by onion crisis and rising inflation touching three-year peak of 5.5% – again shed light on the importance of the economy that though may be eclipsed for the time being over sporadic public emotions but can never become dormant completely.

New Delhi’s consistent Muslim-fixated debatable actions have put the United States, a close Indian ally, in an awkward position that has been very vocal about Chinese discrimination of Muslims in its Xinjiang autonomous region. While Washington has bitingly criticized Beijing over its treatment of minorities, the world is yet to see something substantial on New Delhi from the Trump administration and American Congressmen.