Double hypocrisy of two nations

Pusham Azad Babu *

Mr. Francios Hollande, the President of France landed in Delhi to be the chief guest of India's Republic Day celebrations. And it has been followed by the signing of an accord for their highly outstanding business deal of the sale of their high end fighter aircraft, Rafale to India. But this was done along with a sarcastic comment form Mr Hollande, that the jet has been well tested and proved highly reliable in the ongoing war against the ISIS in Syria. This is disgusting on the part of France and shameful on the part of India for reasons we can see vividly—the hypocrisy of the capitalist powers.

The whole purpose of western engagement in the internal affairs of the developing and underdeveloped countries does not simply lie in the hegemonic power struggle between power blocs, where the more intrusion of spheres of influence gets a better flexed muscle to remain a juggernaut and maintain a position in the complex world order. But basically what they have been doing is far more destructive than we can imagine.

They have created ISIS, made the area destabilized and hence the expected product is a direct tremor of their made in terms of terror across the world. This gives them a chance to raise their arrogant colonial spirit of dividing the world into two spheres.. (we) as in the special being( which needs special existence, special life and protection) and (them) as in the others ( which can be meted to any kinds of treatments, just as that of Agamben's homo Sacer, who can be un-ceremonially killed or rendered to live a life without the basic rights of a human being).

And then it's their time to test all their multibillion dollar defense technologies which will be up for sale shortly. They befriend nations, destroy them and again rebuild them. And in the process, despite the various impacts the normal citizens face, their accounts have no scope of a sigmoid curve, rather it's always gain and not loss at all steps and paces. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, West Asia, the Balkan states and where not?

And now when Mr. Hollade has openly claimed the successful testing of their war machine in Syria, India is shamelessly ready to pay for the BLOOD JETS, at an obnoxiously high price of almost 1333 Crores per aircraft i.e. 60000 crores for 38 aircrafts (The Indian Express, 26th January). It's a highly condemnable and foolish move on the part of the Indian government to ink the deal with half cooked decisions, all for a political end to brainwash the people of India and prove a pointless 'Make in India' drama.

The hypocrisy of the Indian government is that while there is a hue and cry of increased indigenization, majority of the different defense labs in the country are struggling for lack of proper funding. At a time when the junked minds of the numerous laboratories should be ideally replaced by fresh and talented young minds which can be produced from the various research centers and universities in the country, ironically the HRD ministry has made its nauseatingly detrimental decision to cut research funding in Universities across the country.

The recent decision by the MHRD to discontinue the existing Non–NET fellowship for M. Phil and PhD research scholars is a stark example. It is an unquestionable example of the government's indulgence in erratic and double standard politics.

Where on the one side they have deliberately tried to put up education for a sale in the name of meritocracy, equality and censure of funding pattern; however deliberately ignoring the dimensions of acute inequality, diversity and idea of inclusivity in higher education. This erratic move with little consideration on the social and economic dynamics of the Indian society could wipe out the fate and wishes of students of the major part of Indian population who belong to the lower economic strata from acquiring higher education.

However on the other hand, the same government is now recklessly hooked in a shopping spree, shelling out billions of dollars in purchasing products which are rolled out form the stakes of well funded, well managed research laboratories and universities of developed nations. This in itself will be a cause of self mortification of the capabilities of universities and research laboratories in our country.

This type of policy only enhances brain drain of prospective scientific talents to better niches offshore. Can't we see here, the hollowness and hypocrisy in the double standard moves of our own government? The failure of the promising but stalled project GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri supersonic jet engine hence does not come to us as a surprise.

Neither does it sound strange that none of the universities of the country even come close to some Chinese Universities when it comes to global rankings in terms of quality, innovation and scientific knowledge production.

It is high time the policy makers and the government in power look out for enhancing the capabilities of knowledge production in our universities through a real check of the dynamics of inclusivity, inequality, socio-economic and quality parameters rather than looking out for a cosmetic overhaul of capabilities through purchased stuffs.

They also have to acknowledge the need for an alternative and sustainable means to pursue developmental and educational projects instead of draining the taxpayers' money of the country just to meet their political ends.

We need to condemn the move of the government making business deals whose origin and networks have elements that oppresses or endures pain to fellow human beings in other parts of the world. We should stop the hypocritical and pernicious politics of the capitalist powers that has engulf the remaining parts of the world.