• 19 March, 2024
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Xi is Fine, Blame it on Modi!

Vikram Sood Vikram Sood
Tue, 01 Jun 2021   |  Reading Time: 6 minutes

Time magazine’s latest story is titled “Modi Never Bought Enough COVID-19 Vaccines for India. Now the Whole World Is Paying” (https://time.com/6052370/modi-didnt-buy-enough-covid-19-vaccine/) The story is that Narendra Modi did not buy enough vaccines, so the world is now suffering. The title to the article is a Freudian slip, revealing a particular mind set. The article does not blame China for the pandemic, or Xi Jinping, but it blames Modi. It seems that it is not the Wuhan Virus that is responsible for the crisis nor those who were contributing funds to the research at the Wuhan Virology Institute, but it blames Modi’s failure to buy the vaccine. Modi is thus sought to be painted as the ‘global villain.’ The irony is that the writer is talking about a popularly re-elected leader of the world’s largest democracy.

The bottom line about the charge that Modi did not buy vaccines is that purchases in large quantities would have been from American companies like Pfizer and Moderna. However, the US and UK governments had hoarded vaccines, far beyond their national requirements and refused to share it. There has also been resistance to relaxing the patent regime to enable others to buy the vaccine.

For those who may wish to pursue this a bit more may read this author’s book, ‘The Ultimate Goal (2020)’. The book highlights the pandemic and the role of big pharma companies, the changing equations and price wars for maximizing profits. “Traditional wars on the battlefield will become even more unfashionable. The pharma-industrial complex will be an addition to the existing military-industrial-intelligence-technology complex.”

Given the current comfortable state of India-US relations at many levels, it may not be the official policy to denigrate India but there are surely immensely powerful interests in the US also at work. The idea now is also to shift the narrative away from China and target India. This is because China is far too powerful and there are too many deep western financial and trade entanglements with it and therefore any harsh action against China could rebound on the western corporate interests. This truth is known to both China and the West. So, pick on a country where blame can be fixed to change the narrative. The usual tactics is at play here, create a narrative, and then let events unfold. And narratives do not have to be based on truth but need to have acceptability. Besides, the western world has had the means to build and sustain its narratives of superiority, justify its actions or the righteousness of its causes, through its global dominance of multiple means of communication of the message. One classic and recent example being the way the narrative for the Iraq War in March 2003 was built. The world was told that Saddam Hussein was harbouring Al Qaeda and that he possessed weapons of mass destruction. None of this was true.

 Mike Pompeo, former Director CIA and Secretary of State in an interview with Bari Weiss, an American journalist, on May 19, 2021, made some significant statements.  (https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/did-covid-come-from-the-lab-mike). Weiss started the interview with the question “….do you think that the COVID-19 virus came from a lab in Wuhan?” Pompeo replied “I do and have for quite some time…” In the hour-long interview, Pompeo asserted that Chinese Communist Party had gone into a full coverup mode because all the evidence gathered pointed to “the single direction of this having been a laboratory leak from a place called the Wuhan Institute of Virology”. Pompeo added that when these doubts were raised early last year, “we were accused not only of being a little bit unhinged but of being racist or xenophobic, somehow denoting that the Chinese were lesser than other human beings. Nothing could be further from the truth.” The Chinese used “every available information warfare strategy that they have in their toolkit to knock down the storyline.”

Pompeo goes on to explain how the CCP was operating in the US.  “They are working with something called the United Front. This is China’s external influence operations…. Working something called a Confucius Institute. It seems noble, to learn Mandarin, learn about Chinese culture and life will be better for everyone and maybe you will even get a good job working in a big bank in New York working on Chinese accounts….   The Chinese Communist party working on our college campuses, on our research institutions. What are they doing there? They are providing real money like providing research body grants. So that these professors can do all kinds of different research, mostly in engineering, science, math, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence. They’ll put a couple of Chinese scholars alongside them and then they’ll work together to find a problem and they will steal intellectual property like you can’t imagine and we just looked the other way for so long.” When asked why the Americans were looking the other way, Pompeo’s elaboration was detailed.

Oh, by big money, which is at stake”, he said. “There are 3,60,000 Chinese students studying at those universities today. Those students pay full freight. They are carrying a significant financial burden for those educational institutions. So, I remember when we started to look closely at the level of Chinese spying on campuses, I immediately got letters from every major college institution in America from their presidents and from their trade associations saying, ‘Hey be very careful. These students are here. They are noble, they’re wonderful, they just want to learn about the American way of life and oh, by the way, they make up 40% of our operating budget.’

Pompeo also said that he was privy to a lot of conversations with hedge fund managers and businesspeople. Their refrain was that it was true that China was terrible at human rights, stole American intellectual property but China was also unstoppable, was a huge market and Americans now had no choice other than to do business with them. So, in the end they basically said “let us cover our eyes, let us plug our ears and keep the money. What do you want to say to those people…with vested economic interests?” Pompeo reminded that the Chinese Communist party was operating inside American financial institutions, agricultural institutions, in a way that is deeply intentional right to suck this intellectual property out for a purpose. The Chinese have a hold on Hollywood, sports attire industry, and they also attend city council meetings across the country evaluating every official as friendly neutral or hostile when they are not busy stealing secrets from Los Angeles’ innovative energy companies. 

The desire is to shift the narrative away from China and pick a more ‘convenient villain’. In India’s case, this kind of personalised targeting has other motives too. It seeks to demonise Narendra Modi who is seen as a major impediment to western corporate interests in a growing India. Modi’s schemes like Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India have been viewed with suspicion. According to this standard western script, India is a market and resource base, not a competitor or much worse, a rival. It is great if it is a pliable democracy, even a pliable dictatorship will also do, but a strong independent self-reliant democracy is an awkward entity and best prevented.

Regime change in a democratically elected government is not easy. Military coups are impossible, and wars as seen in West Asia, are expensive with results uncertain so the best way is to try and internally destabilize a government. This needs local assistance and we have seen that all too often in recent years, since 2014 but more desperate since 2019. From the JNU and Jamia agitation to Shaheen Bagh to the riots of Delhi; all organized in detail, financed generously and logistics worked out. Leading on to the farmers strike, it shows a combination of various vested interests desperately trying to destabilize the government. In fact, the farmers strike indicates huge financial and logistic support from groups who feel it worthwhile to pursue this and who seem to be well endowed to manage this.

Besides, the Indian economy, buoyant till recently has now taken a severe knock, and will take a while to recover. It certainly suits China if this were prolonged. China, as we all know, has not taken kindly to India for spurning the Huawei attempt on acquiring 5G rights in India. There are many who believe that this was retribution in a frighteningly cruel manner.  Doklam and Galwan were attempts to coerce India into submission on other issues.  Simultaneously, the west with its sluggish economic growth sees the spectre of three Asian economic giants, Japan, China, and India staring at them ten years down the line. Obviously, this cannot be good news, and this must be stopped. The western powers also think that the unintended consequences of supporting Chinese economy since the 1990s to apparently further their own economic interests are now proving very costly.  Therefore, they believe that, there is no scope for repeating the same mistake.

There is no denying that there have been some miscalculations and poor strategies in handling the crisis, apart from the fact that there is a very creaky health infrastructure, which was inherited by the present government and attempts to rectify them had just begun. There is a global government to government declaration of support to Indian efforts, but the pharma world has different yardsticks. Profit not healing is the driving force. Adam Smith and not Hippocrates, is their role model.

 


Author
Vikram Sood was a career intelligence officer and headed the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency. He is the author of ‘The Unending Game – A former R&AW Chief’s Insights into Espionage’ and ‘The Ultimate Goal – A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives’.

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POST COMMENTS (46)

Ron

Jun 22, 2021
Pompeo, the we lied, we stole, we cheated dude? Lmfao. Fort detrick is where the virus came from, if you truly want the truth.

Rangaswamy Raghunathan

Jun 11, 2021
very well explained. Kudos Sir. Keep it up. A word about Acer atsu comments: He seems to be influenced by leftist liberals, without even giving a natural thought to the process of international opportunistic countries. let us assume that if Modi wouldn't have been the leader then who would have. It would have been worse. That this government could control the pandemic in 2 months is in itself a testimony to the good work it is doing. Jai Hind.

BHAVIL GOYAL

Jun 10, 2021
The outbreak source was china with no doubt now sufficeint docuemented proof is available to prove this. The lab is under military control but why it is a research lab so why is it governance. Also talking TIME magazine the pen of the writer at that platfrom is moslty paid and under control. It always tries to build a narrative against India to somehow tarnish the image of modi who is re-elected leader of largest democracy. We cannot deny the fact that there was a crisis in nation but blaming a single person is unjust. The fact that people can blame is a proof of democracy unlike China which claims to be one. Chinese estabishment has a close relatoinship with powerful wester coperates so they cant throw it on China so they did on India. There are events which are now setting up a relaity that justifies the Wuhan lab story which, China has clearly a aggresive expansionaist policy if denied then they use a NBC doctrine (Nuclear,biological,chemical). Better if WHO stops acting like a chinese puppet , it needs a reform admist the way the behaved in the pandemic in favour of the chinese people. At the last in China their army is a armed wing of CCP and not a nationa army. JAI HIND>>

Pavan Kumar Kashyap

Jun 09, 2021
thanx for this tremendous invasive analysis , respected sir

Vishal Devgire

Jun 07, 2021
Very informative article

DRM

Jun 07, 2021
Times magazine has stopped down to such a level, we are ashamed to even take it's name leave alone reading it. shamesless loose characters

Rajesh sadani

Jun 07, 2021
Very true

Digvijay

Jun 06, 2021
This article teaches us that In Geo Politics no one is your true friend, only interests matters.

Manmohan

Jun 06, 2021
Very rightly brought out, the hatred being spread out by the well know foreign media with the help of incorrigble Indian haters. Soon the truth would be out that China has lot to explain about the spread, natural or deliberate, of the virus in the world.

Tadimeti Siva Rama Prasad

Jun 05, 2021
The diseased minds never like tbe truth to comeout such as this key information, to calk a spade a spade-China the master mind this biowar, clandestinely supported actively by both even by certain influential authorities of US&it's non-state actors too. Let them better focus on their own problems, than giving sermons to India, It's Govt&Prime Minister, whi do not want to let India be captive in their hands. Let them not show candles beoire the Sun, for the way India so deftly handled the carona1, and now intensely fighting caroba2. Howevet the problem morevformidable is the one India gets from it's sabotage-savvy

Vivek

Jun 05, 2021
Excellent piece compiled by Mr.Sood. We had led the world in terms of recoveries and normalcy was nearly restored sometime in Feb 2021 with only 9-10K daily cases nationwide. Who knew there will be a new variant that will attack us and only us not other countries! Many critics say Mr. Modi should have increased vaccination but note that both Covishield/Covaxin and in fact even Pfizer vaccine has poor capabilities against this new so called India variant.

Malik

Jun 05, 2021
Great

Buddhadeb Guha

Jun 04, 2021
A good analytical article. Immediate provocation is the global demand about the origin of Covid virus. Still there will be some in our country who harbours pathological hatred for Modi. I am the least fan of Mr Modi. But I have not lost my sense of judgement subjectwise. Pathological hatred needs mental treatment. It's no good like the Time article.

Ajay Prasad

Jun 04, 2021
Correct

Acer Atsu

Jun 03, 2021
Mr Sood does a disservice to his alma mater by publishing fanboi propaganda which does not suit somebody with the lineage of one of the most excellent external intelligence agencies in the world, our RAW. Some thoughts from my side on his grade school level paper. ".... It seems that it is not the Wuhan Virus that is responsible for the crisis nor those who were contributing funds to the research at the Wuhan Virology Institute, but it blames Modi’s failure to buy the vaccine. Modi is thus sought to be painted as the ‘global villain.’ The irony is that the writer is talking about a popularly re-elected leader of the world’s largest democracy." $$-- Mr Sood here is happy in calling it the Wuhan Virus while our country rightly protested on the India variant naming and which has been recognized by the WHO also. Neither it is the China/Wuhan Virus, nor is it the India variant. "The bottom line about the charge that Modi did not buy vaccines is that purchases in large quantities" $$-- Where is the lie in this. Mr Modi was less interested in doing his primary day job which is protecting the Indian people and more interested in claiming credit in Jan/Feb 2021 when India escaped the first wave relatively unscathed. Forget Pfizer.Moderna, a responsible government would have pressed Serum Institute to greatly expand their production, even funded them (SII was crying out for 3000 crs for the same). A responsible Mr Modi would have started mass vaccination with Covishield from Dec-20 and not have delayed the vaccination drive until BBL Covaxin was ready so that he could score brownie point on a desi vaccine. A responsible Mr Modi would have prevented the Kumbh superspreader event. Hell, the Kumbh was supposed to happen in 2022 per its 12 yr calendar but Mr Modi did not push back when the pandas wanted it pulled back for "astrological reasons". A responsible Mr Modi would not be bragging about how large his crowds were in WB when people were literally dropping dead in hospital parking lots in Delhi. Mike Pompeo, former Director CIA and Secretary of State in an interview with Bari Weiss, $$-- Pompeo is a dick and Bari is a hard right shill. Bringing something from Bari Weiss into the conversation makes your arguments not worthy of considering, if that was not the case earlier. "The desire is to shift the narrative away from China and pick a more ‘convenient villain’. In India’s case, this kind of personalised targeting has other motives too. It seeks to demonise Narendra Modi who is seen as a major impediment to western corporate interests in a growing India. Modi’s schemes like Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India have been viewed with suspicion. $$-- Mr Modi is directly responsible for the current state and rightfully deserves all the brickbats. The Indian econmony was already in a slide for many consecutive quarters before the freefall instigated by Covid. His incompetence in anything other than demagoging was just hidden under the surface but has been laid bare by Covid. He is probably the greatest threat to India's rise in current times. Regime change in a democratically elected government is not easy. Military coups are impossible, and wars as seen in West Asia, are expensive with results uncertain so the best way is to try and internally destabilize a government. This needs local assistance and we have seen that all too often in recent years, since 2014 but more desperate since 2019. From the JNU and Jamia agitation to Shaheen Bagh to the riots of Delhi; all organized in detail, financed generously and logistics worked out. Leading on to the farmers strike, it shows a combination of various vested interests desperately trying to destabilize the government. In fact, the farmers strike indicates huge financial and logistic support from groups who feel it worthwhile to pursue this and who seem to be well endowed to manage this. $$-- None of the above events have happened in a vaccum and all have been instigagted by Mr Modi's policies. Incidentally none of those policies were needed from a National Security Standpoint but all of them were done for political reasons. $$-- CAA/NRC does not address anything from legal/security standpoint but was done for his political personna of remaining the Hindu Hriday Samrat. $$-- Delhi riots was a scripted, producted, directed by the BJP. so much so that Delhi High Court judges were transferred overnight when they demanded FIRs to be filed. $$-- Farmers protest would not have taken place if the laws were amended with consultation if at all necessary. Passing with a voice vote in the RS without division when it did not have the numbers. Mr Modi has perverted the constitution and democracy, something which the author credits India has having. "There is no denying that there have been some miscalculations and poor strategies in handling the crisis, apart from the fact that there is a very creaky health infrastructure, which was inherited by the present government and attempts to rectify them had just begun." $$-- Ah, 7 years after the current God-Emperor assumed power, we are still talking about legacy. Forget 7 years, why was nothing done to beef up the health infra from April-20 to now. Why was the benefit from the original lockdown wasted away by Mr Modi. $$-- Forget China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have fared better than us in this both medically and economically. $$-- The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that the problem exists. We have to acknowledge that Mr Modi is the problem plaguing India. If we dont do this, then he will continue doing the work which India's enemies want. Hell Xi must br praying day and night that Modi leads India for many more terms, going by Modi's performance over the past 7 years.

RAMPRASAD

Jun 03, 2021
Excellent article sir. Very insightful. God bless you

Pankaj Khare

Jun 03, 2021
Well said sir

Chetan Bachhav

Jun 03, 2021
Good Analysis

Manjunath N K

Jun 03, 2021
Why this information cant be spread with little aggression in all known platforms.

Ivar

Jun 03, 2021
Rather far fetched and looking to explain away the Indian Govt's abject failure to gear up for the 2nd wave and not ordering any vaccines till Jan 2021 was a big part of it. All sorts of conjectures are being passed of as a analysis. A disappointing article.

Bhabagrahi

Jun 03, 2021
India should have Global news broadcast, like bbc or aljajira etc ..

Gautam Dave

Jun 03, 2021
Quite analytical and informative.

Abhishek Koted

Jun 03, 2021
good analysis

Sujatha

Jun 03, 2021
Well said

Sujatha

Jun 03, 2021
Absolutely correct

Dr. Rohtash Singh

Jun 03, 2021
Fully justified explanation, and thanks a lot for enlighten the issue

Utkarsh Tiwari

Jun 03, 2021
From ancient times to modern day, from animals to the world of men, they all have one thing in common, the driving force for their actions are always the same, territories and desire to rule the masses. Human species have come top on the food chain and now the only strong opponent left to defeat is the man himself, that shows why the world and the countries like china and america are doing the things that one would find unreasonable to do otherwise.

RC PATIAL

Jun 03, 2021
An excellent analysis on the current India bashing at home and now from outside aswell the reason economics of gains and more gains.Shame to those indulging at the cost of human lives of poor developing nations, The theme for India’s Chairship for 2021 BRICS meet held virtually by MEA on 01 June 2021 was "Continuity-Consolidation-Consensus’. Wonder what has been the outcome inview of the above and importance being given by India to QUAD and future of BRICS Continuity for India ?

Purushottam Sharma

Jun 02, 2021
Very intelligent analysis by a very knowledgeable personality. God bless Shri Vikram Sood and bestow more power to his pen!

K. Raghuram

Jun 02, 2021
As an Indian Abeyance, I can tell you the author is spot on with his analysis. The American deep state and a lot of corporate America is entwined with the Chinese communists, and cannot be trusted. Notable exceptions are people like John Chambers, ex-CEO of the networking equipment giant Cisco

Sandeep

Jun 02, 2021
Great article.. please also record a interview with him major gaurav arya sir or vaibhav singh.. They will exploit our weakness.. power is solution.. we should target and expose western media.

Shubham Kumar

Jun 02, 2021
At this Time we need to Make a World level Media agency like RT Reuters Aljajira etc .

Harsha Krishne Gowda

Jun 02, 2021
Sir, Thank your for your service

Vandana Dangwal

Jun 02, 2021
Very informative

Bisht

Jun 01, 2021
The author, who is an authority on international matters by virtue of his lifelong working carrier in this field, has explained the internal and external designs against our country in a language very easy to understand even for a comman man. It's the need of hour that all such authorities and knowledgeable citizens come out without any delimma and attack forcefully and aggressively on the devils working against our nation. We need undertake a strong intellectual fight promptly every time. My salute to author. Jai Hind

VIVEK MEHROTRA

Jun 01, 2021
Fully agree with every word in this article. I have been a witness to many of the western attitude that Vikram Mentions in this article.

P C Bhandari

Jun 01, 2021
Excellent article by one of the finest Intelligence head of the country who understands the nuances of the politics and art of psywar propogada at the behest of India's adversaries. Indian growth and democratic governance is an eye sore to them and Modi is being targeted for enabling corrupt dispensation back to power to make India dance to Masters tunes. The writer's book is a must read to understand this powergame of our adversaries.

kundan kunal

Jun 01, 2021
always a pleasure reading his thoughts. expecting more such articles in coming days from him.

Col P G Roy

Jun 01, 2021
All indians irrespective of any devide must get united here and now not only to shoot down such Anti Modi Anti India spread of western paid media but now high time to get aggressive and explode all the follies of the west which was the main contributor for such an epidemic

Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Veteran)

Jun 01, 2021
A well thought out & succinct article. I had written a piece on the origin of the biological weapon over an year ago, much before it became a pandemic. I have been studying CCP & China for many years now. It is their standard operating procedure to divert attention while undertaking a nefarious activity. The pain is not yet over, rather it has just begun.

Govinda Kapoor

Jun 01, 2021
You are doing a great job.

Rahul Raj

Jun 01, 2021
I agree

Deepak Singh

Jun 01, 2021
Informative...

Ankit Singh

Jun 01, 2021
Explaining the current global scenario in simple words. Thank you sir! Sir, is India doing something to counter this narrative? Acc. to you what could be the possible way forward?

soniya tyagi

Jun 01, 2021
Thank you sir for writing this information.

roney

Jun 01, 2021
sir absolutely well told... it's all to destabilize india's internal politic and tieing us into our nation to not rise globally taking this pandemic as a advantageous stance. jai hind🙏🇮🇳

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