Samuel
Johnson famously said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” The
two prime ministers in the photograph below would claim to be patriots both.
The scoundrel part should be left to your judgment, but it is obvious that both
of them cannot claim to be patriots at the same time.
These
two prime ministers came up with a deal a couple of days ago that no one in
India is talking about. Even the Indian
government, uncharacteristically, is not trumpeting about it. The UK government
announced the day before yesterday that it sealed a deal with India in which
Indians will make a one billion pound ($1.39 billion) investment in the UK
creating 6500 British jobs. In addition India will open its market doors wider
by reducing tariffs not only on British cars and British whisky but also on
British apples and pears.
It
looks curiouser than Alice’s Wonderland. India lost 7.25 million jobs in April
alone. Actually Tens of millions of Indian jobs have been lost during the
pandemic and during the Modi misrule. And Indian moneybags facilitated by the
Modi government are going to invest more than Rs 10 thousand crores in the UK
creating highly paid British jobs! On top of that India will also hurt the
interests of Indian producers of apples and pears (also of cars and whiskeys)
by lowering tariffs on British goods. What is India gaining out of it?
But
if you think about it, it is not so surprising. This is a government that
spends tens of thousands of crores on a new central vista, a new parliament and
a new house for the Prime Minister at a time when thousands are dying due to
shortage of oxygen and of hospital beds. This is also a regime under which its
favourite corporate houses have registered fattest profits ever during the
worst humanitarian crisis that India is groaning under.
This
Prime Minister not only helps corporate houses to amass mountains of wealth in
an India where people are losing jobs, facing unimaginable hardships – many are
on the verge of starvation; where cremation pyres are spilling on to the roads
and burning 24x7. He also helps them take that money to safe houses on foreign
shores – invest in rich countries and create jobs there. Can he qualify to be a
patriot, even if one ignores Samuel Johnson’s reference to being a scoundrel?
How
anti-national this government and this Prime Minister can become? And why is
this Indo-British deal not being talked about here in India?"
