Unfinished, urgent business

IT IS HARD to remember a week in which India has been more publicly humiliated on the world stage than the one just ended.

- Tavleen Singh

First, came the fifty percent tariffs on Indian imports to the United States imposed by our Prime Minister's ex-best friend. Then came comments from Donald Trump's Trade Adviser that were ugly and untrue. Peter Navarro declared that the war on Ukraine was 'Modi's war' because India was 'profiteering' from it by continuing to buy Russian oil. The Big Bully in the White House is too scared to take on China, so it is India that he chose to unleash his attack dog upon.

In the face of this biased and unwarranted public humiliation India has chosen so far to maintain a dignified silence. Well done, India. But now that Trump has stabbed us in the back and made a mockery of the Hindutva enthusiasts who were so in love with Trump that they organised elaborate Hindu rituals to celebrate his second term, what should we do?

Well, for a start, we need to spend much more time on comprehensive economic, judicial, educational and agricultural reforms than on bringing about the Hindutva cultural revolution. Far too much time has been wasted on deciding what people should eat, drink, love and wear. And on how they should worship. It turns out now that we do not have the luxury for a cultural revolution until we get our basics right.