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Most Indian media carry these days the news with screaming headlines to expose the evil intents of China to intrude into Indian borders in the remote and barren Himalayan region that does not sustain human habitation. Since the messy and fiercely bloody clash in the Galwan Valley in the Indian attempt to beat back the intrusion in Indian Territory by the Chinese army contingent ended in blood spilling on both sides.

Leading experts of the United Nations have urged upon the Government of India to release the activists who have been arrested in the last few months for their protests against the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the country. The experts in their statement issued on June 26, have termed the CAA as discriminatory to the Muslim community of India and have called for investigation into instigators of violence.

Between, say December 25, 2019, and June 23, 2020, world crude (brent) oil prices have fallen by nearly 37 per cent. They had fallen by over 60 per cent between end-December and mid-April, but there has been some price-recovery since then; even so, the decline in world prices till June 23 has been quite dramatic. In India however, over this very period, petrol and diesel prices have been going up sharply and are now higher than ever before; in fact diesel prices have increased even more sharply than petrol prices and the difference between the two has largely disappeared.

Nationalist elements have called for a ‘boycott China’ movement in the wake of Chinese border incursions in Ladakh. But it is clear that independence from China would take a bigger struggle than India’s freedom movement for deliverance from the colonialists.

Most commemorate Emergency on June 26 as a reminder of the bleak 21 months when democracy was derailed. Actually, the Emergency came into effect on June 25 at 11:45 pm when the then President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, signed the proclamation even though he was alerted by his secretary that it would be constitutionally untenable. The President is expected to act on the advice of the council of ministers. Indira Gandhi’s cabinet met next day at 6 pm as a formality.

The clash at the Galwan river valley which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, including the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, has understandably roused the anger of people in India. The incident was shocking and condemnable as it happened after the June 6 meeting of senior military commanders of both sides where an agreement was reached on de-escalation and disengagement at various points on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). There is still much which is unknown about the circumstances that led to the physical clashes between the Indian and Chinese soldiers on the night of June 15. The government has done nothing to clarify matters.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi had achieved a rare political mile stone of a clear mandate for the election symbol Lotus in the 2014 election. After six years and ten months in the office he delivered on his promise, the equality of life to all by simplification of food intakes, the exterior appearances, the social outlook and closed hearts to social relations. Under the impact of the 75 days of locked down life, every family learnt to survive on similar kind of food intakes without the market eateries contributions, apparels without pressmen removing creases, without outside or even in house entertainment. The cynics may claim he could not deliver better economic conditions, so he brought time line forward to equalize life style of everyone by imposing the lockdown on national life as an essential part of the combat with the pandemic corona infection.

During the Chinese revolution, progressive forces of the world lent every possible support to it. At that time, it was widely believed that most of the Chinese people consumed opium and were always in a stupor. Additionally, the country’s economy lay totally shattered. It was said that the people in China went to the market with a bag full of currency note and returned with a pocketful of goods. It was the Communist Party and its dynamic leader Mao-Tse-Tung who were trying to give a new lease of life to the Chinese people. After the conclusion of the 30-year revolutionary march a new government assumed power. The progressive and liberal people all over the world celebrated the epoch making event. The Chinese revolution aroused great hopes among the people who were still struggling to free themselves from the clutches of imperialists. They expected (now People’s Republic of) China to help them, if not materially, at least morally.

Our hard experiences teach us lessons. But, India hasn’t learnt its full lesson from the State of emergency clamped by the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi on 25th June 1975, to save herself from disqualification after the historic judgement of Allahabad High Court. After the emergency was lifted, the 44th Amendment to the Constitution of India diluted the rigors Art 352 and cognate provision Art 353 and Art 359 that had wreaked havoc during the emergency. But still, these trimmed provisions can pose danger to constitutional democracy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a new lease of life to his much fancied Make in India programme by calling for Atmanirbhar Abhiyan as a means of giving a push to the Indian industry in the period of the pandemic and as also in the post-Covid period. Atmanirbhar movement is not new to India.