| There was much debate in India this week over how to react to the terror attack in Israel. Is this a time for ambiguity? Does saying ‘we stand with Israel’ at this hour amount to being unmindful of Palestinian cause? Vir Sanghvi tackled the ongoing whataboutery and lack of nuance in public debate and wrote: “To condemn Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11 was not to approve of America’s often dubious role in Middle Eastern politics. To condemn ISIS is not to endorse the invasion of Iraq.” The across-the-board support for Israel is valuable in providing it with the necessary time to plan and execute the reaction to Hamas’ barbaric attacks, wrote Joseph Rozen. But the window of opportunity for action will close over time. So, Israel should not waste it – get the world to denounce any attempt to compare Israel and Hamas, work towards the release of hostages, exclude Hamas as the reigning organisation of the Gaza Strip moving forward. But as Israel sets out to avenge the violence on its people, it also needs to find the political imagination to marginalise the monster it helped create, wrote Praveen Swami.
Is the Western world hypocritical when it comes to India? The government and the foreign policy commentators are calling out Western hypocrisy more often than not these days. Even as India is getting closer than ever before to the Western bloc. Rajesh Rajagopalan wrote that without this hypocrisy, liberal societies of the West are unlikely to partner with India. And if India held true to its anti-Western, postcolonial, “Global South” values, it wouldn’t partner with the West either. As with all international partnerships, the India-West equation is a partnership of convenience, not of shared values. It might be better to acknowledge this shared hypocrisy once and for all.
Here are two really strong Ground Reports. Vandana Menon travelled to the emerging new growth hub of Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu where India is making the latest iPhones for the world. From a site known for assassination and mourning, the town has transformed into what can potentially be a strategic counter-weight to China. Geopolitics has reached the factory floor.
We all know about the Kerala sanitation workers who won the lottery. But what have they been dealing with since? Tina Das brings us a story of what followed the cheers and celebrations.
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