Trump versus ‘China Joe’
GS Paper III
Topic: International Relations
Mains: corona virus effect on global politics
What’s the News?
As the US presidential poll due in early November became a two-horse race with the Donald Trump’s reelection campaign greeted the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, with an attack and accusing him of standing up for China.
Background:
- As the US becomes the largest victim of the coronavirus — over 22,000 dead and counting — the question of China’s role in triggering the pandemic has inevitably become a major domestic political issue, which cuts across the divide between Republicans and Democrats
- The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the United States’ dangerous dependence on China for pharmaceutical and medical supplies (especially antibiotics).
- The economic repercussions of the coronavirus reveal the dangers of allowing one country to have a near monopoly on global manufacturing.
- The Trump campaign argues that Joe Biden, democratic nominee is shielding a China, which kept the world in the dark about the coronavirus.
China has replaced Russia as ‘the foreign hand’ in American politics:
- Thanks to the bitter legacy of Partition and the accumulated grievances since then, India and Pakistan are considered forever the “foreign hands” in each other’s domestic politics.
- Those who deal with India’s other neighbours know how the “foreign hand” of India is always the first factor to explain any internal development.
- But in the last few years, we have seen the politics of “foreign hand” infect most developed states.
- Russian interference in West: Russian interference in the domestic politics of the West is born out of Russian political resentments being channelled by President Vladimir Putin. And that Russian investment in the dark arts of disinformation and social media manipulation has come in focus.
- ‘Russian collusion’ was seen as a reason behind the unexpected victory of Donald trump. The intense polarisation of US politics around the Russia question has had a powerful impact on foreign policy.
- Western interference in Russian politics: Moscow certainly had a political incentive to poke into the domestic politics of the Western world. After all, the Obama Administration was touting the virtues of the internet in forcing open Russian politics dominated by Putin.
- U.S Decreasing obsession with Russia: To the naked eye, it would seem Russia with its GDP of $1.6 trillion can hardly pose a challenge to the US that stands at $22 trillion. Yet, the US political debate was obsessed with the “Russian threat” and it prevented Washington from even limited cooperation with Moscow based on self-interest. Russia also clouded the US establishment thinking on the nature of external challenges confronting it.
- Rising China becoming a challenge for U.S : As the virus and China move to the top of the US domestic agenda, their impact on Washington’s relations with Beijing is bound to be significant. And unlike Russia, China is far more central to the US economy and a powerful political challenger to America’s global leadership.
Conclusion:
When domestic contestation overwhelms foreign policy discourse, there is no knowing where it might lead to. What we do know is that China has replaced Russia as “the foreign hand” in American politics.
Disingenuous and no antidote
GS Paper II, III, IV
Topic: Right to information, transparency and accountability
Mains: Fake news- A threat to democracy in the whole world
What’s the News?
The Central government made a claim, on the eve of April 1, April Fool’s Day, that “fake news” alone is responsible for the untold misery and loss of life of migrant workers after the lockdown.
Fake news:
- Fake news refers to the fictitious articles / media that are deliberately circulated in the internet with the aim of deceiving the readers.
- Fake news is a menace not only because it is usually motivated by an intent to deceive and misinform but also because it may induce people to act on the information.
- It also has an impact on the election process, pushing the pattern to shift towards one side.
Government response to Mass Exodus:
- The government’s response to the mass exodus was uncoordinated, where initially there was abject confusion, then the States reportedly provided vehicles to ferry the workers, and, finally, the States were directed to seal their borders. The human loss was incalculable.
- The newspapers continue to report that food and shelter are still not reaching many of the migrant workers. These criticisms certainly deserve a response.
- The government cannot be permitted, by the artifice of “fake news”, to bypass the criticism that it should have planned better, coordinated between Centre and State governments, and been clear in strategy and communication.
Effect of Fake News on U.S elections (2017):
- There was a hue and cry in America about the influence of fake news in US Presidential elections of 2016 between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
- Later it was discovered that certain cyber attacks were carried out on the US which had source in Moscow. Some stolen information was collected thereafter and carefully disseminated in order to undermine the legitimacy of the political process of US.
- The aim was sow discord and the aid the winning of the Republican candidate Donald Trump.
- Evidence of fake news which made headlines include ‘Hillary sold weapons to ISIS’, ‘Pope backs Trump’ etc.
- All these are suspected to have driven the poll towards Trump despite the hatred that he generated amongst Americans due to his comment on banning the entry of Muslims to the US or building a wall between Mexico and US.
Fake News in India:
- Earlier this year a major news studio in the country doctored a video of a protest in JNU to raise doubts on the legitimacy of the educational institute. This video was further propagated by another mainstream news channel on primetime television without verification. This led to a national furore that culminated in a public thrashing of students inside court premises by lawyers and a gaping divide in public sentiment.
- The fake videos that are currently circulating in the Kashmir Valley (originating from both sides) showing gruesome attacks on the Army as well as inhuman repression of the civilians in order to rouse passion, may soon look like harmless pranks. With the arrival of the new and highly sophisticated fake videos, the situation can quickly go out of control.
Fake News effect on democracy:
- People’s faith in social, print and electronic media reduces which could affect the benefits of these Media.
- It can lead to violence between two or more communities thereby creating enmity and hatred between them.
- It can disturb the social fabric of the society and tensions among communities persists for long times.
- It reduces the tendencies of cooperation between different communities.
- Political parties try to gain political advantages by polarizing the voter’s mind which further intensifies the tensions between different sections of society.
- Politics of development takes back seat and communal tendencies emerge in politics.
Fake News as an antidote of opposition of failure of government:
- By branding criticism as “fake news”, governments draw on the consensus that fake news is pernicious, obviating the need to respond to the content of the criticism.
- Used in this way, the phrase “fake news” is used as an antidote to any opposition or critique.
- Where governments are criticised for causing suffering among their people, the suffering is instead attributed to the menace of “fake news”.
- For example, after the precipitous announcement of lockdown, the government has been criticised for failing to anticipate the exodus of migrant workers; failing to make advance provision for food, shelter or salaries; failing to communicate with State governments to formulate a coordinated approach before the lockdown; and failing to communicate with the public regarding what migrant workers should do in view of the lockdown.
Way Forward:
- No government should be permitted to hide behind the assertion of ‘fake news’ to abdicate responsibility for its actions.
- Legal news organizations too are unaware of the manner of verification and reporting they are supposed to undertake.
- They are so highly concerned with increasing their own ‘trending’ contents ahead of the others that they let the news goes unverified.
- The only way to combat this issue is to increase the commitment of the journalists through proper education and values.
- Social media websites should be made accountable of such activities so that it becomes their responsibility to have better controlling restricting the spread of fake news.
- Government should take active measures for promoting awareness among people about fake news and their consequences.
- One of the most innovative ways suggested is to challenge the news spread through social media through an equal overflooding of true news through conventional media. This will be possible only if the journalists stick to their practices and avoid faking of news.
Staying at home on planet earth
GS Paper II
Topic: Government policies
Mains: Effect of lockdown on migrants and non-IT workers
What’s the News?
From India and China to the United States, from Norway and Denmark to South Africa and Argentina, governments have told their people to stay at home, to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Migrants caught in impasse:
- Governments around the world assert home as a place of safety and shelter. This idea assumes that one has a viable home in which to stay put, that food and fresh water are accessible, that survival doesn’t require one to leave or flee.
- In recent weeks, many countries have seen a surge in domestic violence. And lockdowns at national and regional borders have caught millions of migrants in an existential impasse.
- The coronavirus may ravage densely packed refugee camps around the world, but people have nowhere else to go.
- The United States is turning refugees away now at its own borders, without giving them the chance to appeal for asylum.
Pandemic revealed:
- This pandemic underscores the stark inequality growing in the world.
- The pandemic tells us that the right to housing, to shelter and habitat, is an urgent and essential one, for human beings and the countless other creatures we share this planet with.
- Securing this right will help to avert the ecological crises to come, and we may find ourselves at home in the world once again.
Work from home strategy:
- The work from home strategy is well established in the IT sector, but it won’t be easy to adopt for the manufacturing sector in the wake of COVID- 19, due to various infrastructure bottlenecks.
- In case of non-IT sectors most of the employees work on desktops and organisations have not provided laptops.
- The tools used to perform business operations are not accessible from outside the network without VPN access.
Conclusion:
The new-age concept of work from home is hugely irrelevant for the micro, small and medium enterprises ector, which is already reeling under various other challenges in the last three years due to measures like demonetisation, GST implementation and general economic slowdown.