Documenting 21st Century - India and the World

  Two months ago, India signed a G7 "2021 Open Societies Statement" about commitment to human rights, Democracy, freedom of expression and other wonderful things. The statement referred to "politically motivated internet shutdowns" as one of the threats to freedom and Democracy. India today is the among the most Internet censored country in the world. Blocking of domains, curbing of free speech on social media, jailing people for criticizing Govt & ruling party on internet, full fledged internet shutdowns in states & cities at various times - all these things are now usual affair in India.  India is now ruled by a totalitarian Govt, an elected dictatorship which is trying to control the totality of things - institutions, media, culture, education and public perception. Internet control is essential to controlling public perception and managing the thought process of people. A free internet is an enemy of dictatorial government as can be seen in nations lik...

Pegasus Spygate is the big story in India and the world these days. In India, its one of the greatest scandals of all time. Illegal surveillance of opposition politicians, journalists, activists, businessmen and all kinds of people has created a storm in India. But there is another dimension to the story which remains untouched so far. To give a very brief summary of Pegasus scandal. Pegasus is a Cyber weapon sold by Israeli company NSO to Governments of "vetted" nations. Entities like NSO are not like ordinary corporations doing usual commercial business with nations, selling their services to anybody & everybody. Companies like NSO are connected to Israeli military establishment & intelligence and only certain specific parties/foreign Governments can avail their services. These vetted parties/foreign Governments are approved by Israeli establishment and Israeli political leadership for commercial businesses.  That means a state like Pakistan cannot do business with ...

  India's Defense minister with Rafale Jet   Rafale Jet scandal is in the news again, this time because of developments in France. France's PNF, prosecutor office dealing with serious financial/economic offenses, has launched an inquiry to look into corruption surrounding Rafale Jet Deal between Indian Government and French company Dassault aviation. Rafale Jet was a 4th Generation fighter plane which India bought in a 2016 deal with Dassault aviation.  The Rafale Jet deal, signed in 2016, smelt of high corruption due to many discrepancies, violations of India's Defense procurement protocols and last minute changes in the deal. I won't go into all the details and only give a brief summary on this. For more details, the following articles are good read (read 1 , 2 & 3 ) . Since 2005, India was negotiating with various global Defense companies for purchase and development of modern fighter Jets. After various deliberations and negotiations, it was decided by Indian G...

India is going through disasters, one after another, without any recovery under the leadership of Modi's BJP regime. The disasters are of many kinds - Economic depression that began even before the pandemic induced slowdown. The pandemic public health crisis itself which has created tremendous humanitarian tragedy in the country. The defense & foreign policy crisis with China & other countries. And underlying everything is the collapse of middle class, massive rise in poverty and sharp decline in living standards of people. The Modi Govt exercised power disregarding constitution, norms, legality and political traditions. It was 'my way or the highway' style of governance. It crushed political opposition, overthrew State Governments of opposition political parties, fired critical civil servants, jailed opposition politicians, independent journalists, activists, students etc. Modi Govt was practically an elected dictatorship. Underlying Modi's dictatorship, there ...