| Sreemoy Talukdar brings you the essential cheat sheet on foreign affairs covering India and the world |  | | In a week of fervent diplomacy, we kick off with some disturbing news from UK, where reports have emerged of Hindu-Muslim clashes and attacks on Hindu places of worship and articles of faith. Elsewhere, Iranian women are taking on the theocratic rulers of the state in an extraordinary act of bravery via anti-hijab protests, EAM Jaishankar is on a diplomatic blitzkrieg in the US, the British queen has been laid to rest while beleaguered Putin has declared he will recruit more soldiers, sparking an exodus of Russians. | | TOP FIVE NEWS UPDATES | | India condemns violence as temples targeted, saffron flag burnt during Hindu-Muslim clash in UK | | Over the weekend (and even spilling over on to this week) disturbing events of violence involving the Hindu and Muslim communities were reported from the UK, prompting the Indian government to respond. "We strongly condemn the violence perpetrated against the Indian Community in Leicester and vandalisation of premises and symbols of Hindu religion. We have strongly taken up this matter with the UK authorities and have sought immediate action against those involved in these attacks. We call on the authorities to provide protection to the affected people," read a statement issued on Monday by the Indian high commission. According to Leicester police, 47 people have been arrested so far, with one 20-year-old sentenced to 10 months in prison. The details of the incidents that took place over the last weekend in Leicester, and then on Tuesday at Smethwick town in West Midlands, as well as the chronology of the events, are still not clear. However, multiple reports in British mainstream media, Indian media and social media paint a disturbing picture. The Hindu community — despite largely being at the receiving end and having their places of worship violated and articles of faith desecrated — have also suffered the ignominy of a skewed media narrative, false equivalence and noxious 'both-sidism'. There are many reasons for this distortion, chief among them is the perennial scare of British law enforcement agencies or media of being accused of Islamophobia. Guardian reports that "a demonstration on Sunday took place in response to an unplanned protest of Hindu men on Saturday, who marched through the city. The febrile atmosphere has been aggravated by videos circulating online over the weekend showing a man pulling down a flag outside a Hindu temple on Melton Road, Leicester, and another video of a flag being burned." India Today cites a video circulating in social media that shows "a man, clothed in black, atop a building, pulling down a saffron flag while onlookers cheered him on. The temple was targeted in the presence of the UK Police." On Tuesday evening, reports BBC,"about 100 people gathered outside the Durga Bhawan Temple in Smethwick, West Midlands… Fireworks and missiles were reportedly thrown in the direction of police, however no injuries were reported. An 18-year-old was arrested on suspicion of possessing a knife. West Midlands Police said it was aware of a planned protest over an event at the Hindu Cultural Resource Centre." Adds India Today, "videos shared on social media showed a large crowd of people marching towards the Durga Bhawan Hindu Centre on Spon Lane. Many were heard raising slogans along the lines of 'Allahu Akbar'. A report in Firstpost gives more details of the violence and intimidation suffered by the British Hindus over the weekend as well as on Tuesday. Charlotte Littlewood, a research fellow at Henry Jackson Society who has been following anti-Hindu attacks in Leicester and Birmingham, in an interview with GB News revealed that "there were threatening messages from Islamists suggesting they wanted to 'clean' Hindus from Leicester just like they 'did from Kashmir", according to a report from Opindia. | | Jaishankar calls for 'immediate cessation' of hostilities in Ukraine at UNSC meeting, takes a dig at China | | Addressing a meeting of the UN Security Council on atrocities committed in Ukraine, external affairs minister S Jaishankar expressed India's "profound concern" over the trajectory of the Ukraine conflict — Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently announced a partial mobilisation of 300,000 potential combatants — and called for "immediate cessation of all hostilities and a return to dialogue and diplomacy." Calling the nuclear issue "a particular anxiety", Jaishankar said, "The trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of profound concern for the entire international community. The future outlook appears even more disturbing. The nuclear issue is a particular anxiety. In a globalized world, the impact of the conflict is being felt even in distant regions. We have all experienced its consequences in terms of surging costs and actual shortages of foodgrains, fertilizers and fuel. On this score too, there are good grounds to be worried about what awaits us. The global south, especially, is feeling the pain very acutely. We must therefore not initiate measures that further complicate the struggling global economy and that is why India strongly reiterates the need for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and a return to dialogue and diplomacy. Clearly, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized, this cannot be an era of war." The minister also took a dig at China (without naming the country) for continuing to put a spanner in the global efforts of listing dreaded terrorists at the US. Jaishankar arrived in the United States on Sunday on a 10-day visit. His first week of intense diplomatic engagements involved "more than 50 official engagements including bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral meetings at the high-level session and on the sidelines", and the minister also participated in the high-level 77th session of the UN General Assembly. He also addressed an interaction at Columbia University with professor and former Niti Ayog vice chair Arvind Panagariya and is slated to address world leaders from the UNGA podium on September 24. An MEA statement says "upon completion of the 77th UNGA related engagements, EAM will visit Washington D.C. from 25-28 September for bilateral meetings with US interlocutors. His program includes inter alia, discussions with his counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken; senior members of the U.S. Administration, US business leaders, a round-table focused on S&T and interaction with the Indian Diaspora." | | Iranian women erupt in anger, burn hijabs, chop off hair as protest swells over Amini's death | | An extraordinary thing is happening in the theocratic state of Iran. What initially started as anger against Iran's 'morality police' forcing women to wear hijab and maintain a strict dress code — and the consequential death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amin who refused to abide by the strict dress code — has now transformed into rarely expressed ire against Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Amini was arrested by the morality police last Tuesday, accused of wearing tight trousers that contravened the republic's obligatory Islamic dress codes for women, Tehran police confirmed on Monday", says Financial Times in a report, adding, "while Iranian officials have denied she was killed while in detention, suggesting a heart attack put her in a coma for four days before she was released, her death has sparked calls for the abolition of the strict dress codes." The surveillance footage of Amini's death was released by Iranian police and it shows "the woman suddenly collapsing on a chair while she was talking by a female police in the police station". It triggered protests on scale rarely seen before, led mostly by hundreds of women who burnt their hijabs, chopped off their hair and gave anti-government slogans. A BBC report says "the protests, now in their seventh day, have reached 80 other cities and towns." "Thousands took to the streets Tuesday night, with videos of protests emerging from dozens of towns and cities -- ranging from the capital Tehran to more traditionally conservative strongholds like Mashad. Footage shows some protesters chanting, 'Women, life, freedom.' Others can be seen setting up bonfires, scuffling with police, or removing and burning their headscarves -- as well as destroying posters of the country's Supreme Leader and shouting, 'death to the dictator', says a CNN report. According to latest figures by Associated Press, the clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters have killed at least nine people since the violence erupted over the weekend. To prevent protests from spreading, Iran's biggest telecom operator largely shut down mobile internet access again Thursday, said Netblocks, a group that monitors internet access, describing the restrictions as the most severe since 2019. | | As Britain bids farewell to its longest-serving monarch, successor Charles faces a daunting task | | On Monday, Britain bid a tearful farewell to its longest serving monarch, queen Elizabeth II. London-based Financial Times newspaper said: "Queen Elizabeth II has completed the journey to her final resting place at Windsor after a momentous state funeral at Westminster Abbey, as world leaders joined Britons in mourning the country's longest-serving monarch. The queen was laid to rest with her late husband Prince Philip at a private ceremony at the King George VI memorial chapel at Windsor at 7.30pm on Monday, drawing to a close 10 days of national mourning. The royal family confirmed later on Monday evening that the burial had taken place." While prime minister Narendra Modi didn't attend the funeral, India presence was marked by President Droupadi Murmu, who was present on the occasion along with other global leaders at Westminster Abbey on Monday. "The President arrived at Gatwick Airport in London on Saturday to attend Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral at the Westminster Abbey. Upon her arrival, she offered tributes to Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall in London, where the queen's coffin was lying-in-State." BBC says about "100 presidents and heads of government joined the 2,000-strong congregation at the abbey - as well as US President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, there were French President Emmanuel Macron, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan." Here are some notable pictures from the event that, according to the BBC, was watched by "a peak audience of around 28 million viewers, making it one of the country's biggest ever TV events." Associated Press says that now King Charles III faces the task of preserving a 1,000-year-old monarchy that his mother nurtured for seven decades but that faces an uncertain future. The challenge is immense. Personal affection for the queen meant that the monarchy's role in British society was rarely debated in recent years. But now that she's gone, the royal family faces questions about whether it is still relevant in a modern, multicultural nation that looks very different than it did when Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952." | | Russians protest, rush to flee country as Putin announces 'partial mobilisation' of reservists for war | | In Russia, president Vladimir Putin, plagued by recent losses in the battlefields of Ukraine, decreed that 300,000 reservists will be drafted to support its military campaign in Ukraine. The announcement was made by its defence minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday. Reuters says Putin had ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two in an early-morning television address, saying the additional manpower was needed to win a war against not only Ukraine but also its Western backers. The decree published on the Kremlin's website said the call-up would apply only to reservists with previous military experience. Associated Press reports that despite Russia's harsh laws against criticizing the military and the war, protesters outraged by the mobilization overcame their fear of arrest to stage protests in cities across the country. Nearly 1,200 Russians were arrested in anti-war demonstrations in cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info. Associated Press journalists in Moscow witnessed at least a dozen arrests in the first 15 minutes of a nighttime protest in the capital, with police in heavy body armor tackling demonstrators in front of shops, hauling some away as they chanted, "No to war!" The Russian president also issued veiled threats to go nuclear. He warned West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. "If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people - this is not a bluff," Putin said in a televised address to the nation. While Putin said he wasn't "bluffing", that is exactly how the West chose to treat his threat of using nuclear weapons. Speaking to reporters at the UN on Wednesday, the EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell added: "We will not be intimidated, we will continue our full support." Meanwhile, Associated Press reports that large numbers of Russians rushed to book one-way tickets out of the country while they still could Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reservists for the war in Ukraine. Flights filled up quickly and the prices of tickets for remaining connections skyrocketed, apparently driven by fears that Russia's borders could soon close or that Putin could later announce a broader call-up that might send many Russian men of fighting age to the war's front lines. | | | | | | | | | | TOP ANALYSES OF THE WEEK | | Years of Muslim-appeasement has brought UK to a precipice | | Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra writes in News18 on anti-Hindu attacks in Leicester that the United Kingdom has nothing but its united resolve of pampering Islamists to blame for the mess it finds itself in. | | Criticism of Islam isn't bigotry | | Brendan O'Neill writes in Spectator on Iranian women's stunning acts of bravery against a theocratic state that "the protesters in Iran need our support and our solidarity. In order to give them that, we need to get over the idea that criticism of Islam is bigotry." | | Modi didn't rebuke Putin at Samarkand | | Former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal writes in Economic Times that prime minister Narendra Modi's remarks to Vladimir Putin "were by no means a "rebuke" to Putin, as mischievously propagated by western commentary." | | Putin's losses are also a setback for Xi | | Gideon Rachman argues in Financial Times that Russia's losses in Ukraine is also a major strategic setback for China. | | India is slowly drifting away from Russia | | Professor Happymon Jacob of JNU writes in Foreign Affairs that "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has quickened the evolution of a more definitive realignment, with Russia and China drawing closer and India drifting to the West." | | India needs more warships to counter China | | Harsh V. Pant of Observer Research Foundation and Yogesh Joshi of National University of Singapore write in Foreign Policy that while India has just commissioned its first indigenously built major warship, it will need more to challenge Beijing on the high seas. | | Xi strengthens PLA's western theatre command | | China watcher Jayadeva Ranade, president, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, writes in The Tribune that Chinese president Xi Jinping is strengthening further the PLA's western theatre command that was operationally responsible for the intrusions in Ladakh in April 2020. | | Biden is cynically weaponizing democracy | | Arta Moeini and David Carment of Institute for Peace & Diplomacy write in Unherd that US president Joe Biden is cynically weaponising democracy to achieve domestic political objectives at home and hegemonic designs abroad. | | I2U2 should deepen economic and tech cooperation | | Mohammed Soliman, non-resident scholar with MEI's Cyber and Egypt programs, writes that the I2U2 nations (India, Israel, US and the UAE) should deepen their economic and technology cooperation on critical tech such as semiconductors, drones, anti-drone technology, data processing, AI, decentralized finance, and the crypto industry. | | India treated British queen's death with indifference | | John Reed writes in Financial Times that Indians have — by design, policy and the passage of time — moved well clear of the shadow of the British empire, even if many Britons still choose to see India through that prism. | | PODCAST | | Does India's foreign policy lag behind expectations? | | In this episode of the State of Asia podcast, C Raja Mohan of Asia Society Policy Institute speaks to host Nico Luchsinger on challenges to find balance among multiple great powers in Asia, on why the effect of India's foreign policy seems to lag behind expectations, and on why criticism from Western countries on the state of India's democracy is misplaced. | | | | Copyright © 2022.Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. | |
