Free speech and criticism in the age of hurting sentiments
How can one predict what will hurt the sentiments of someone or another? Anyone can claim that his or her sentiment is hurt because of some statement or act of another person. Is there a sentiment meter that has been developed to measure how much sentiment is hurt over some social media post or a remark in an interview by random individuals? Is your religion, language, and culture of many thousands of years so fragile that you feel so insecure, weepy and murderous about a remark by a stranger? I wonder how Adi Shankaracharya would have fared in modern-day India if he continued to criticise, debate, and win arguments like he did against various philosophies and religions of his time. Would a Prince Sidhhartha, who criticised the Vedas, ever become Buddha or rot in jail without bail, had he been a citizen of the secular, democratic, socialist republic of India instead of living 2,600 years ago?
In a civilised society, if sentiment is hurt, one would ignore such comments or criticise back. In theocratic autocracies, blasphemy is punishable by death. We are marching there from the light of Buddha, Gandhi, Shankara and countless other great souls. Indian culture was based on free speech and debates. The freedom to criticise, debate, discuss and even mock or deny is what made the Indian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism unique. Had I been born 200 years ago and lived under the King of Cochin or the East India Company, I would have said we are far removed from that classical society and are so near to the witch hunts of medieval Europe or those of Islamic theocracies like Afghanistan. However, since that statement might hurt someone somewhere in these times, and I am scared, I am apologising profusely and sincerely in advance. Everything is perfect, and we are living in golden times.
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Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
India's trade strategy with China will have to rely on a ‘managed rivalry'
Written by Soumya Bhowmick India's trade relationship with China sits at the intersection of economic necessity and national security anxiety. While bilateral commerce continues to thrive in volume, it remains fundamentally distorted by strategic asymmetries. India's widening trade deficit, its reliance on Chinese technology inputs, and Beijing's growing support for Islamabad have sharpened the dilemma facing Indian policymakers: How to engage economically without compromising sovereignty and security. In response, New Delhi is reimagining its economic diplomacy through a 'China-plus-one' playbook — anchored in diversification, industrial policy, and regional recalibration. Bilateral trade remains substantial between the two countries, but it is significantly imbalanced. In FY2024–25, India's two-way merchandise trade with China reached approximately US$127.7 billion, making China India's second-largest trading partner after the US. However, this came at the cost of a record trade deficit of US$99.2 billion — the highest on record — highlighting deep structural dependencies in India's economy, particularly in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors. In light of these dynamics, Indian policymakers have adopted a cautious approach. Under a policy introduced in 2020, all foreign direct investment (FDI) from China and other countries sharing land borders with India must obtain prior government approval. In April 2025, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal reiterated that India 'does not intend to encourage' Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from China. By the end of 2024, Chinese firms accounted for only about 0.37 per cent of India's total FDI inflows. While easing these restrictions in non-sensitive sectors such as solar energy and batteries may be helpful, the prevailing geopolitical climate has stalled such proposals. Instead, India has intensified scrutiny of Chinese technology and infrastructure investments, banned dozens of Chinese apps, and maintained strict regulatory oversight over the telecom and electronics sectors. China's overt support for Pakistan has further deepened Indian scepticism. Beijing's financing and arming of a country India considers a direct security threat has amplified concerns about the strategic costs of deeper economic ties. In response, India has adopted diversification strategies, including strengthening economic partnerships with the United States, Japan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as promoting domestic manufacturing under the 'Make in India' initiative. These measures aim to reduce dependency on any single partner while retaining space for selective engagement with China. This hedging strategy reflects a broader shift in India's foreign economic policy — from passive openness to strategic selectivity. India's answer to the widening trade gap with China is a two-pronged strategy: Build deeper commercial coalitions with trusted partners and turbo-charge domestic manufacturing so that tomorrow's supply chains run through, not around, India. The result is a deliberate 'China-plus-one' realignment that now threads through New Delhi's engagements with Washington, Tokyo, and ASEAN while anchoring at home under the Make in India and Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) drives. This strategy is not just about trade — it is about securing India's place in a reconfigured global production map. Such shifts reflect the growing convergence of commercial logic with strategic alignment. Washington has become India's largest goods-trade partner for the fourth consecutive year, with bilateral merchandise commerce reaching US$131.8 billion in FY 2024-25 — up from barely US$88 billion in 2019 — and resulting in India having a healthy surplus of more than US$41 billion. The new backbone of that relationship is the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), which has already green-lighted joint semiconductor, AI, and space projects and prodded both governments to prune export-control frictions. Tokyo complements this pivot by underwriting supply-chain security and industrial upgrading. More than four-fifths of Japanese firms operating in India intend to expand over the next two years, according to JETRO's latest global survey, by far the highest figure among major host economies. At the policy level, the Supply-Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI), in collaboration with Japan and Australia, has targeted investment in electronics, batteries, and rare-earth processing hubs in India, specifically designed to mitigate single-country dependency. Japan's role is pivotal, not just as an investor, but also as a norm-setter for resilient and transparent value chains. Southeast Asia forms the third pillar. India's two-way goods trade with ASEAN hovers around US$110 billion. Still, both sides have agreed to fast-track a review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement to reduce non-tariff barriers and open services markets. Simultaneously, niche collaborations — such as semiconductor ecosystem talks with Singapore and defence-manufacturing tie-ups with Indonesia — are knitting India into 'China-plus-one' production networks across the region. This eastward economic orientation reinforces India's Indo-Pacific vision and places regional connectivity at its core. External diversification is reinforced at home by the PLI programmes, which now span 14 sectors with approved investments of approximately US$18.7 billion. One headline success is electronics: India has become the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, producing 99 per cent of the handsets sold domestically. 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They signed new agreements on maritime connectivity and security cooperation, signalling intent to re-anchor the Bay of Bengal as a geoeconomic hub. For India, BIMSTEC complements its external diversification efforts by linking its northeastern states to Southeast Asian economies, spurring regional infrastructure, trade, and logistical corridors that sidestep China. Finally, India's evolving engagement with China reflects a strategy of managed rivalry — balancing selective cooperation with strategic hedging. Rather than decoupling, India is recalibrating its economic and diplomatic posture by diversifying partnerships, securing resilient supply chains, and reducing dependence on China, especially as Beijing deepens ties with Pakistan. This marks a shift from reactive diplomacy to a tactically layered approach, where competition is contained without collapsing ties. 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News18
18 minutes ago
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'Backdoor NRC' Push? Why 2.93 Crore Bihar Voters Must Prove Citizenship To Cast Their Ballot
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20 minutes ago
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