Making America Great Again At India’s Expense
Trump scored yet another victory in his quest to “Make America Great Again” after his vague threat to “retaliate” against India, if it didn’t lift its earlier ban on hydroxychloroquine. This move proved to be successful in pressurizing his country’s “junior partner” in South Asia, as it reversed its course.
India previously banned the export of this promising drug that Trump believes is America’s solution to the dilemma that he’s faced with. He is required to choose between the continued closure of his country’s economy out of an abundance of caution to save lives, or its gradual reopening at the possible expense of his people’s safety. This was also explained in the author’s analysis from yesterday about “Hydroxychloroquine & The Hybrid War On Trump’s America”.
Hydroxychloroquine & The Hybrid War On Trump's America https://t.co/daIsHjcXgj
— Andrew Korybko, PhD (@AKorybko) April 7, 2020
India’s public reasoning for restricting the export of this pharmaceutical product was to ensure that its people have enough of it, if need be, which is sensible enough. But then its authorities quickly changed their mind, once Trump made it clear that he’ll go to any extent in order to guarantee that his own people have reliable access to this life saving drug.
Meet The New Emperor Of India
Reacting to the news that India won’t sell this supposed “wonder drug” to America despite Trump having previously spoken about this with Prime Minister Modi, the President told reporters the following:
“I don’t like that decision. I didn’t hear if that was his decision. I know he stopped it for other countries. I would be surprised if he would, because India does very well with the United States, for many years they’ve been taking advantage of the United States on trade… If [Modi] doesn’t allow it, that would be okay. But of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn’t there be?”
Read more: Modi generated migrant crisis has become top threat to India’s corona safety
Less than a day later, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava, told reporters that his country will lift its prior export ban on hydroxychloroquine.
“We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would therefore discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter.”
And just like that, Trump’s vague threats of retaliation defeated India’s multipolar “deep state” faction without a fight, proving just how subservient the Modi government is to his demands.
The Wannabe “Superpower” Is Really Just America’s “Super Poor” Servant In South Asia
India projects itself a wannabe “superpower” but in reality it’s still “super poor”, both in terms of its people’s generally atrocious living standards and also when it comes to its political will to oppose one of the world’s actual superpowers, the US.
This was on full display earlier in the year during Trump’s visit to India where he succeeded in completing that country’s geopolitical pivot towards the US following the agreement that both parties clinched for creating a so-called “comprehensive global strategic partnership”.
It’s unclear at the time of writing whether Trump followed up behind the scenes by specifying exactly what kind of retaliation he had in mind if his junior partner didn’t obey his dictates
It was only natural then that India would bend to the “Emperor’s” demands and reverse its export ban on hydroxychloroquine, after it voluntarily subjugated itself to being his servant in South Asia. Most importantly this was done for the sake of attracting Western companies that intend to re locate their operations from China, and to supposedly “contain” Beijing with American military backing.
If we consider India’s highly publicized purchase of S-400s, despite the US’ CAATSA sanctions threats, it was all but a manufactured drama for maintaining New Delhi’s illusion of “multi-alignment”. The US is aware that these Russian missiles can greatly contribute towards their joint cause of “containing” China.
Why did India concede?
At this point, it’s irrelevant to discuss the influence that India’s multipolar “deep state” faction has on the formulation of that country’s policies. This has become relevant especially when Trump just defeated them with nothing more than just a few words.
The geopolitical principle that India’s incumbent leader hold dear, stands broken after he earlier submitted to becoming the “Emperor’s” servant in South Asia and then subsequently “walked the walk” by obediently complying with his master’s demands and removed his country’s export ban on hydroxychloroquine. This permission was granted without considering if his own people will have enough of this potential “wonder drug”, if need be.
Read more: Can India and Pakistan fight “Corona War” together?
It’s unclear at the time of writing whether Trump followed up behind the scenes by specifying exactly what kind of retaliation he had in mind if his junior partner didn’t obey his dictates. Moreover, one cannot be certain if India was just too scared to defy Trump that it ended up conceding. However, the conclusion is crystal clear, and it’s that there’s no longer any plausible doubt that the country’s government is more loyal to America than to the subjects of their own hoped-for “Hindu Rashtra”, after they decided to endanger their own people’s lives just to save Americans’ during these desperate days of World War C.
Andrew Korybko is a political analyst, radio host, and regular contributor to several online outlets. This article first appeared on “One world: Global Think Tank” and has been republished with the author’s permission. The views in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.