Be a better democracy: The US needs a lot of self-correction but this is what it is finding so difficult to do

A defining trait of a democratic system is its ability to self-correct. Individual freedoms, systemic checks and balances, and ultimately the win-lose electoral processes are all mechanisms that help. So, it is difficult to understand why that self-correction has become so difficult for the United States of America, the proverbial “City upon a Hill” and a beacon of democracy and hope for the world.

India complains about the unfairness of the latest Freedom House index which depicted a steep decline of its democratic credentials, but it needn’t fret. The US, too, has slipped eight points from its 2009 score of 94. Now it is behind Greece and Mauritius.

It is perhaps a sign of the times that last week Republican legislators defended those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6. Representative Andrew S Clyde of Georgia said in a formal meeting that they were on a “normal tourist visit”. Actually the violent mob sought to prevent the certification of the November 3 presidential election and so it was nothing less than an attempted coup, one that was encouraged, if not abetted, by the outgoing president.

Today, 66% of the Republican Party believes that the 2020 election was “stolen from Donald Trump”. Refusing to accept the result of the election has now become the litmus test of a true-blue Republican. Those who disagree are being hounded.

The real illness of the country is racism. As historian Michael Todd Landis has noted, since 1776, “a minority of wealthy white men has always ruled, using legal and extralegal strategies.” White and black Americans arrived in the US at the same time in the 1620s, though the latter came involuntarily. Slaves were formally emancipated in 1863, but it took the social upheavals of the mid-1960s for the blacks to be given the right to vote.

Times of India May 22, 2021

A variety of means such as gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, limiting early and absentee voting, putting discriminatory ID requirements, are used to deny or suppress non-white votes. There are systemic features, too, that are the hallmark of the US-style democracy: Use of an electoral college to block popular outcomes in the presidential election, arcane voting rules in the Senate to kill and delay legislation that benefits ordinary people.

The whole system rests on money, large amounts of it, for fighting elections or lobbying and manipulating the judicial system. The 2020 election cost $14 billion, more than twice that was spent in 2016. The US has fitfully attempted to reform its election spending but Big Money has found a way around all rules and today large donations comprise 71% of total election fundraising and despite rules, election spending is increasingly opaque.

One dysfunction that stands out is the inability of American democracy to deal with repeated mass-shootings. Last year a record 20,000 people died because of gun violence. And 23 million firearms were bought by Americans, a 64% jump over the previous year. Politicians claim that the right to bear arms is to enable citizens to defend democracy. But that was for the 18th century. In the 21st century all we have seen those guns do is kill innocents in ever larger numbers.

There have been heroic attempts to reform the system, but the oligarchs always end up winners. Today’s US has regressed from the mid-1960s when it gave blacks voting rights, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programmes spent money not only to eliminate poverty and racial injustice but to promote education, medical care and transportation. Now, the Republicans’ ideologically-driven agenda looks down on public spending, whether it is on roads, bridges, education, or to give poorer and less-privileged Americans a leg up.

The challenge before the US is not an ordinary one. The world is in the midst of a huge contest between authoritarianism and democracy. As the world’s leading power and, yes, democracy, the US needs, in the words of  Chas Freeman, to show that it is “better governed, better educated, more egalitarian, more open, more innovative, healthier, and freer society”.

Times of India  May 22, 2021

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/be-a-better-democracy-the-us-needs-a-lot-of-self-correction-but-this-is-what-it-is-finding-so-difficult-to-do/

China policy in the works: Unclear if Biden administration will go for ‘semi containment’ or selective engagement

As of now all we have of the US-China policy are words, from President Biden, his aides like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. In his first speech to the Congress at the end of last month, Biden talked tough on China, saying that Washington ‘would stand up to unfair trade practices, subsidies to state-owned enterprises and theft of US technology and intellectual property’. Adding that the US would maintain a strong military presence in the Indo Pacific ‘not to start a conflict, but to prevent one’. But the bottom line was that the competition with China was not only military, but also economic and technological. Biden has repeatedly asserted that the real issue is US recovery and that the way to go is to outcompete China in a range of areas.

The message sent out by Blinken and Sullivan is that the goal of the US policy is not to contain China, and that Quad is about an ‘affirmative agenda’ which involves upholding international law and human rights, as well as promoting strategies of development and mitigating climate change.

The comprehensive review of a new US policy towards China is still being worked out, and it's not clear whether the Biden administration will follow Trump’s policy of selective containment, or craft a new one of selective engagement. The problem is that Biden must write on a palimpsest that is not exactly blank. The US-China tariff war, US sanctions on certain technology categories, Hong Kong developments, threats to Taiwan, eastern Ladakh faceoff, are realities that a US President cannot ignore. As it is, the mood in the US is very anti-China, and Biden has to worry about being outflanked on the issue by Trump who retains an iron grip on the Republican Party which will do its best to wrest away the House of Representatives from the Democrats in the off-year elections in November 2022.

Whatever be the political imperatives, the US has to consider the ongoing economic costs of Trump’s ‘semi containment of China’. In a recent article, former US diplomat Chas Freeman noted that the US farmers have lost most of their $24 billion Chinese market, US companies have had to cut profits and wages and raise prices for US consumers, and almost no jobs have been re-shored back to the US. By 2025, the US can expect job losses topping 3,20,000 and a GDP $1.6 trillion less than what it would have been otherwise because of its China restrictions.

Biden has repeatedly asserted that the real issue is US recovery and that the way to go is to outcompete China in a range of areas. Even the Interim Security Guidance issued by his administration notes that to be strong abroad, ‘the United States [needs] to build back better at home.’ Biden has unfolded a plan whereby this can be done, but so divided is the US polity that he is likely to face an uphill struggle in trying to get the Congress to appropriate the money needed to repair the decaying US infrastructure, raise federal spending in R&D and education.

The US travails are there for all to see. The grip of racism in its political culture is only matched by the obstinate refusal by significant sections of Americans to accept that in their society today there are people — minorities, women, the poor — who need a leg-up. In the present situation, as Freeman puts it, the US needs to show that it is ‘better governed, better educated, more egalitarian, more open, more innovative, healthier, and freer society’.

Biden is not seeking conflict abroad, leave alone with China. But the poison pills left behind by the Trump team are like landmines scattered around the landscape. For example, the use of the word ‘genocide’ for the persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. What is happening in Xinjiang is unacceptable and a gross violation of human rights, but it is not ‘genocide’ of the kind the Nazis conducted against the Jews. If Xi Jinping was actually presiding over such an act, how could the US, or for that matter the world community, have normal relations with China?

But the Democrats find themselves pushed by the Trump positions. Last year, the Democrats removed the phrase ‘one China’ from their election platform. And Biden became the first President, since the US recognised the People’s Republic of China, to invite the Taiwan ambassador to his inauguration. Last month, the US announced that it was easing restrictions on official US contacts with the Taiwan government. Not surprisingly, Chinese actions and rhetoric around Taiwan has become more belligerent. In his confirmation hearings in the US Senate, Admiral John Aquilino, the Biden administration’s nominee for the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, has said the danger of the Chinese use of force against Taiwan ‘is much closer to us than most think’. This cannot but have the most catastrophic consequences for China itself, and by extension, the rest of the world.

But Biden accurately sees the challenge of China as being economic and technological. Militarily, actually, the US remains far superior to China, which today accounts for 30% of the world’s manufactures, and has become the largest consumer market. American, or for that matter Japanese and European prosperity, depend, in some measure, on stable ties with China. For that reason, Biden would much prefer a strategy of selective engagement. One that will seek to build the strongest possible coalition of friends and allies to push Beijing in the right direction.

The Tribune May 11, 2021 

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/china-policy-in-the-works-251010

EU Summit Focuses on COVID, But No Breakthrough on IPR Waiver

Beyond the nice words and solidarity for India’s COVID predicament expressed by the European Union leadership, the most significant outcome of the India-EU summit of Saturday was the decision to relaunch the talks on a trade and investment treaty.

The talks had been stalled since 2013 because of differences on issues such as market access for European products, mobility for Indian professionals and geographical indications protection.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi represented India at the summit, which was held in this format involving the entire EU leadership for the first time. The summit was hosted by Portugal, the EU was represented by the 27 EU leaders, as well as its apex leadership – Charles Michel, the President of the European Council and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

According to Michel, the two sides have now agreed to launch negotiations on “mutually reinforcing agreements on trade, on investment protection, and on geographical indications.” Whether or not these succeed is another matter given the uncompromising attitude of both sides on some key issues.

Despite Prime Minister Modi’s appeal, no common ground was found on the issue of waiving Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related to COVID treatments and vaccines.

Last week in a surprise move, President Biden had said that the US was willing to consider a waiver, but a day later German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly opposed the waiver. Under WTO rules, such a move would require consensus that can only be worked out by extensive negotiations.

Even so, assuming the waiver is provided today, the facilities for making vaccines could easily take more than a year to be established. This would not be able to address the emergency the country confronts today.

Focus on Fight Against COVID

A major focus of the joint statement issued after the meeting was the fight against COVID-19 in the wake of the pandemic’s surge in India. Leaders expressed their solidarity with New Delhi and pledged cooperation.

Urgent shipments of oxygen, medicine and vital equipment worth 100 million  Euros had already been organised by 15 member states under the EU’s civil protection mechanism.

The two sides also took up the longer term issue of global cooperation on creating more resilient medical supply chains, vaccines and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, as well as ensuring universal and equitable access to vaccines.

Another area of interest was the importance of addressing the issue of climate change and fostering green growth. Both sides reiterated their commitments to the Paris Agreement and the need to strengthen the steps to mitigate climate change.

As part of this the two sides agreed to cooperate in deploying renewable energy, promoting energy efficiency and collaborating on smart grid and storage technology.

Widening EU’s Connectivity

Underlying the summit were the increased tensions between the EU and China. So, not surprisingly, a fourth major development was related to the connectivity partnership which will expand the EU’s connectivity initiative to enhance digital, energy, transport and people to people connectivity.

The initiative emphasized the importance of widening cooperation in third-world countries and regions, notably in Africa, Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific in the area of digital, energy, transport and people to people connectivity.

But so far, its connectivity activities have been focused nearer home in the Balkans and the Caucasus.  The EU already has a connectivity partnership with Japan and now it is seeking to expand to the Indo-Pacific

Last month, the EU announced its new Indo- Pacific strategy which seeks to promote ‘regional stability, security and sustainable development” in the region. It sought to address the increasing tensions on trade and supply chains, as well as political and security areas.

The strategy will be based on “upholding democracy, human rights, the rule of law and respect for international law.”

The very last paragraph of the Joint Statement issued after the meeting on Saturday is a long winded sentence which says that the two sides are committed “to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific space”. No one can doubt that the unstated target of the statement was the People’s Republic of China.

Equally significant is the reference to the new dialogue between the Indian Navy and the erstwhile European Union task force combating piracy in Somalia EUNAVFOR Atlanta in relation to the Indo-Pacific.

All this sounds nice in a terms of joint statements and declarations, but it should be clear that a significant gulf still separates India and the EU on many key issues. A trade and investment agreement will not come easily. Likewise, approaches to climate change will vary, IPR issues will not be easy to overcome.

Perhaps, the most important divide could be on the issue of human rights. Though India and the EU have committed themselves to resume their Human Rights dialogue, they will not find it easy to bridge their different perspectives on various issues ranging from religious freedom, to freedom of the press and democracy.

The India-EU meet has taken place when the regional and global situation is fluid and tense. Last December just after the US elections, the EU had arrived at a far-reaching trade and investment agreement with China.

But subsequently, the EU has been drawing closer to the US with both imposing sanctions against China for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Beijing’s counter-sanctions have led to a suspension of the ratification process of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) , which could have otherwise come into force in early 2022.

In this situation, the EU is seeking to strengthen ties with India which it sees as a like-minded entity which is democratic, believes in multilateralism and is ready to work with its agenda on connectivity, Indo-Pacific, climate change and dealing with the COVID pandemic. India cannot replace the value of China as a trade partner, but can serve a useful function as a hedge of sorts.

The Quint, May 10, 2021

https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/eu-summit-focuses-on-covid-but-no-breakthrough-on-ipr-waiver#read-more#read-more

It’s complacency, not conspiracy: RSS general secy’s remarks will only encourage a culture of evading responsibility

The statement issued by RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale cautioning that ‘destructive anti-Bharat forces’ could exploit the second Covid wave to ‘create an atmosphere of negativity and distrust’ is, to put it politely, tone-deaf. Just what he means about being ‘cautious of conspiracies of these destructive forces’ is not clear, unless he is pointing fingers at those who are criticising the handling of the pandemic by the government.

There is no doubt that we confront an extremely serious crisis that has bred an atmosphere, to use his own words, ‘negativity and distrust’. But what did he expect? People are right now running from pillar to post for oxygen cylinders, keeping relatives alive in makeshift gurneys outside hospitals and cremating their loved ones post-haste in makeshift crematoriums.

They are in a negative mood, and yes, they have begun to distrust the State which has let them down. Hosabale’s response to all this seems to focus more on what ‘anti-Bharat forces’ may be up to rather than the travails of the ‘Bharat vasis’. All this is even more remarkable because Hosabale (67) has an ABVP background and is well educated and was expected to be a modernising force in the outfit since he is one of the few in the higher echelons of the outfit to have worked in a front organisation like the ABVP.

Instead of worrying about destructive anti-Bharat forces that could take advantage of the situation, Hosabale would have done signal service if he had led the process of introspection as to where things went wrong. The RSS has a big equity in the BJP government. It is perhaps the only organisation which the government will listen to in the present circumstances. See how Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan fobbed off the advice offered by former PM Manmohan Singh.

Such an exercise would reveal that complacency, bred by overweening arrogance, was the major problem. Responsibility for this rests on both the Union and the state governments, but more on the former because it guides issues under the Disaster Management Act. There must be some explanation as to why the government ‘experts’ did not anticipate this second wave, since such waves were occurring around the world.

It would be evident, too, that there were spectacular acts of carelessness. Running a multi-phase election campaign which featured mass rallies was not the acme of common sense. Hosabale wants people to show ‘self-restraint and discipline’ but that advice could have been better directed to PM Modi and Home Minister Shah’s electioneering. As for the states, Uttarakhand took the prize in permitting the Kumbh mela. The erstwhile RSS pracharak and CM Tirath Singh Rawat made the extraordinary claim that ‘Ma Ganga’s blessings are there in the flow’ that would protect the devotees. Ganga Ma did not oblige either the devotees or Rawat himself.

Hosabale’s remarks will only encourage a culture of evading responsibility. Some of this extreme attitude can be seen, for example, in the response of UP CM Adityanath to reports that patients and hospitals are struggling to find and maintain oxygen supplies. Reportedly, Adityanath has asked officials to take action under the National Security Act, seize property of people who spread rumours. He has asserted that the problem is not shortage of oxygen, but black marketing and hoarding. All this has an echo to the 1970s when shortages of food and consumer items were ascribed to hoarding. The quality of policing in Adityanath’s bailiwick is evident from the fact that 94 of 120 orders on the NSA were quashed by the Allahabad High Court in the period between January 2018 and December 2020.

A more proactive government could have anticipated the second wave and unrolled a vaccination programme at the highest possible speed. Instead, the government dawdled and diverted the effort by boasting of their success and busying themselves exporting vaccines. The government experts could not have been unaware of the scale of the task the country would have had in vaccinating a country of 1.4 billion.

Yet, no effort was made to put down extra money to speed up things, create more lines for vaccine production and construct storage and distribution networks and oxygen plants. Indeed, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla was criticised for drawing the attention of the government to the issue of planning and guiding vaccine manufacturers for procurement and distribution of the vaccine. India also did not cater for the possibility that the AstraZeneca vaccine may develop problems and that would have left India high and dry. Ignore for a moment the fiasco about unrolling the indigenous vaccine on August 15.

The US government, for example, put down serious money in six different vaccine projects since early 2020. The sense of purpose has been evident from the fact that it has managed to fully vaccinate 29 per cent of its population so far, while India’s figure is just about 1.6 per cent. Given India’s well-known capacity as a vaccine producer, this should not have been the case. That it happened is an administrative failure.

The Sangh Parivar will be the net loser in trying to push critics of the government’s ineptitude into the category of anti-nationals. It is this kind of attitude that probably led to this crisis in the first place. When you believe that everything that you do is right and all critics are motivated by some sinister desire to undermine you, you are unable to see the problems till they hit you in the face.

Tribune APril 27, 2021

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/its-complacency-not-conspiracy-244671

US COVID Aid to India: What Lessons Can We Learn From This Crisis?

The issue of US medical assistance to India came to a dramatic end with everyone from President Biden downward issuing statements pledging immediate help to India which has been more than overwhelmed by a severe second COVID-19 wave. The US President  and Vice President Kamala Harris’s responses came through tweets on Sunday, 25 April, promising additional support and supplies to deal with India’s national emergency.

There should be no doubt that this was the handiwork of President Biden himself and a decision taken on national security grounds, based on US interests in maintaining close ties with India.

Why President Biden Came Into the Picture

The US policy till last Thursday, enunciated by the State Department spokesman Ned Price, was that no help could be expected at this time because “The United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective… effort to vaccinate the American people.” American officials had at the time said that the US would “give the matter (of assistance to India) due consideration”.

Indeed, Price had gone on to say that it was not only in the interest of the American people that this happen, but also in the interest of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinated.

The reason why the President came into the picture was because he is needed to waive the US Defense Production Act (DPA) which he himself invoked in February 2021. This prioritises American supplies of raw materials for vaccines for US buyers. Under the Defense Priorities and Allocation System Program of the DPA, there are restrictions on 35 categories of items which are needed by Indian manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine. These include reagents, plastic tubing material, nano-filters, bioreactor bags that were identified by the Serum Institute of India (SII) for use in making the Covishield and Novavax vaccines.

The backlash in India and among Indian-American politicians in the US forced the US to reconsider. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan took up the task of untangling the issue that had been roiling Indo-US relations for the past month or so.

At the end of the day, the decision was taken on strategic grounds as well as humanitarian concerns.

The Aid US Will Provide to India in its COVID Fight

The operational details of the US decision were provided by National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne who said that the US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, had spoken to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval earlier on Sunday, 25 April, and the US was working “around the clock” to help India. The US had, first and foremost, identified the sources of specific raw materials urgently needed for the Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine, and these “will be immediately be made available for India.”

In addition, the US also announced that it would provide supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to treat COVID patients and help protect front-line health workers.

The NSC statement also noted that the US Development Finance Corporation(DFC) is also funding an expansion of the manufacturing capability of Bio E company, whose COVID vaccine developed with Baylor College of Medicine in Texas has just got the go-ahead for Phase III trials.

With the US’s help, BioE will be able to produce at least 1 billion doses of its vaccine by the end of 2022. In a move reminiscent of the days it assisted India’s public health programmes in the 1950s and 1960s, the USAID will work with public health advisers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to expedite the mobilisation of emergency resources for India through the Global Fund.

There have been calls by Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna to do more, such as give India the American stockpile of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine. As part of its strategy to combat the virus, the US has contracted for and stockpiled different vaccines. As of now, Covishield has not yet got approval in the US and so its stockpiles are idle. In the meantime, the US has enough stocks of other vaccines like the ones made by Moderna and Pfizer to vaccinate all its people.

Lessons for India

There are lessons India needs to learn from this episode. First, on the importance of being clear-headed about your goals. After its initial fumbles, the US clearly planned the path ahead beginning April 2020. It systematically funded as many as 7 vaccine programmes under its Operation Warp Speed and put up USD 8 billion or so on programmes which were taking different routes to make a vaccine. This was a deliberate move to promote redundancy and ensure that the Americans would get a vaccine in no time.

Experts have said that the speed with which a COVID vaccine has emerged is a wonder of modern science, since it usually takes years to get a vaccine working.

Contrast this with India’s dependence on the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine, which fortunately for us, was to be manufactured by Serum India Ltd. The second Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech has announced its interim trial results last week and these of course, remain yet to be officially certified.

Had any or both of these projects failed, India would have been left high and dry and scrambling to import the vaccines from the Chinese or the Russians, since the Americans have been restrictive about exporting not just their vaccines, but the raw material that goes into making them.

It may be recalled that the first Quad summit on 12 March involving the leaders of US, India, Japan and Australia had announced a major partnership to boost the production of COVID vaccines. The plan is to produce upto 1 billion doses by 2022 and it envisages India being helped to ramp up its vaccine manufacturing capacity, with financing from the US and Japan, with Australia being involved in logistical issues.

The Quint APril 26, 2021

https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/india-united-states-president-biden-modi-govt-covid-19-emergency-crisis-aid-vaccines-raw-materials-ppe-diplomacy#read-more

A medieval society? Instead of coping as a coherent democracy, we have had to revert to family and jati networks

The resurgence of the Covid pandemic has been a bonfire of vanities. As 2021 began, the country’s narrative was relentlessly positive and even triumphal. The ruling party’s national office bearers’ meeting in February 2021 hailed the victory of the country over Covid “under the able, sensitive, committed and visionary leadership” of the prime minister. Since the home front was fine, the ministry of external affairs embarked on an ambitious programme to sell and give away Indian vaccines with a view of winning friends and influencing people.

In the face of this massive calamity, the political leadership has been leading from behind. It called off the Kumbh in Haridwar after the akharas walked out, and political rallies in West Bengal were curtailed only after the high court demanded that the Election Commission act.

Hubris will always extract a price. There are facts on the ground that no amount of the customary government spin can blind us to – the scramble to get oxygen cylinders, people dying in hospital parking lots, crematoria burning the dead through the night. Unlike the first round, the ill are around you in almost every locality and so are those who have passed away.

There is desperation in the air, as may have been felt by the populace of a plague-hit city in olden times – you are on your own. Instead of coping as a coherent, democratically governed society, we have had to revert to family and jati networks. States refuse to give other states oxygen and the Centre’s technique is spin and more spin.

Instead of managing the crisis, the effort seems to be on managing the news. Government spokespersons have patted themselves on the back for working to ensure increased beds and oxygen supply, attacked Maharashtra government’s misgovernance, and singled out the Gandhi family for spreading misinformation.

In March 2020 certain “experts” advised the government that a brutal lockdown would finish off the virus. Since then Clouseauesqe characters have been running the show in the country. Decisions have been fitful. The PM can be faulted for electioneering in the time of Covid, but the many decisions he took were presumably on the basis of the “expert” advice. These very advisers failed him and the country again by ignoring the possibility of a second wave.

Policy did not go wrong; there was no policy. There was no effort to forecast the path of the pandemic, to plan for contingencies like the one we confront now, no effort to create stockpiles of drugs, oxygen, a fool-proof testing regime, and an infrastructure for rapid mass immunisation. Ever wondered why countries like the US and Canada have purchased vaccines far in excess of their population? It is because they have planned for the contingency that some vaccines may flop and others hit production roadblocks.

After the fiasco over rolling out an indigenous vaccine on Independence Day 2020, the “experts” decided that we, the pharmacy of the world, would supply vaccines to all and sundry even before inoculating our own vulnerable population. Just as the second wave got underway around March 20, we had vaccinated some 44 million people and exported 60 million doses. In terms of our 1.4 billion population, we had provided a paltry 3.3 doses per 100 persons, compared to Brazil’s 6.4 or the EU’s 13.1.

The current situation tells us that our governmental system – whether it relates to public health or the police – is just a thin veneer on an otherwise medieval society. That veneer is now wearing thin, whether it relates to civil society, law and order, and now in the breakdown of the public health system. And this is in the national capital. The plight of the people in the remoter parts of the country or even mofussil towns can only be imagined. But for that we still have the spin.

The Times of India April 24, 2021

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/a-medieval-society-instead-of-coping-as-a-coherent-democracy-we-have-had-to-revert-to-family-and-jati-networks/