Narendra modi

President Donald Trump, not someone to let a good insult go to waste, has caused outrage in India after sharing a social media post describing the country as a “hellhole.” Trump did not make the disparaging remarks himself, merely reposting the statement (without comment) on his Truth Social account. The words actually came from the conservative podcast host Michael Savage, as part of an attack on birthright citizenship. “A baby born here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the Savage said. He accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans, and also said that they lack proficiency in English.

Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated today while electioneering, was his country's indispensable man. Prime minister of Japan for much of this century, from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020, Abe's stature on the world stage eclipsed that of other post-war Japanese leaders, just as his time in office surpassed them all. For a taste of the shock of his murder, look back to the surprise and incredulity which met his resignation from office in the pandemic's worst days. Plagued by a debilitating health condition which had earlier caused him to leave office in 2007, Abe concluded he did not have the stamina left to rule.

When the European Union finally made the decision to ban 90 percent of Russia’s crude oil imports by the end of the year, the bureaucrats in Brussels were jubilant. The EU’s adoption of oil sanctions was thought be a big blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who depends on the revenue generated by his country's oil exports to fund his war in Ukraine. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why European officials were so thrilled. The EU imported 2.2 million barrels per day of Russian crude last year, amounting to tens of billions of dollars in profits for the Kremlin every month.

The world’s center of gravity is shifting to the Indo-Pacific. The new global order will be shaped by developments in a sprawling region where interstate rivalries and tensions are sharpening geopolitical risks. Building a stable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific has become more important than ever, but China’s territorial and maritime revisionism, and its heavy-handed use of economic and military power, are causing instability and undercutting international norms. Against this background, the expanding strategic partnership between the world’s most powerful and most populous democracies — the United States and India — has become pivotal to equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific.

In 1975, India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended democracy. The so-called 'Emergency' was largely of her own making, giving her the power to rule by decree. Hundreds of prominent writers and journalists, not to mention opposition leaders, were bundled off to jail. Remarkably, that was all it took for the rest to fall in line. Newspapers stopped printing stories that offended their ruler’s sensibilities. Shivarama Karanth, one of the doyens of the modern Indian novel, took off to ‘compose ballets with lilting music’ in the Canarese countryside. The Illustrated Weekly of India, meanwhile, began running acrostic love letters spelling the name of the premier’s balding, bovine son. How did the representative of organised media react?

With 40 percent of the population vaccinated, a palpable sense of normalcy has returned to America. The young are now getting their turn at the COVID vaccine and in almost every city, restaurants and bars are back in full swing. But while selfies of joyful reunions with older relatives flood social media here, in India, the picture is grim. The country reported world record-breaking coronavirus infection rates for four days in a row. Hospitals in several cities are grappling with severe shortages of beds, medicines and oxygen. For a country widely seen as the pharmacy of the world (India produces 60 percent of the world’s total vaccines), it is a sad irony that just 8 percent of its own population has been vaccinated thus far.

President Donald Trump is not all that fussed, one way or another, about vague concepts like human rights. He prefers realpolitik and semi-feudal pomp; the Maharaja of Queens is set to enjoy plenty of both during his visit to India this week. Indo-US relations are not as sclerotic as they were during the bleak, stagnating, Sovietized Eighties — an era which no one other than the New York Times remembers fondly. Since the Cold War, American presidents have conspicuously sought to align with New Delhi, as a counterbalance to a rising China, and have equally been courted back. The appeal of an alliance is not simply strategic, Indian Americans are the most successful minority community in the US. With Trump and Modi, their bonds look set to grow even stronger.

Looking back on Narendra Modi’s first five years in office as India’s Prime Minister, it’s hard to find good news. Record-high joblessness, a stagnating economy, and continued widespread government corruption. With any other person, this would spell electoral defeat, but not for Modi. This week, the 68 year-old leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power for a second term, outperforming his results in 2014 that led him to power and picking up more than 300 seats in the Indian Parliament. His first victory had been a complete shock. For an almost uninterrupted 60 years, the Congress Party had controlled India and its parliament with a system of patronage and a controlled economy.

'I am a big fan of Hindu… Big, big fan' yelled Donald Trump during a brief appearance at a bizarre charity event in October, blending Bollywood and Americana patriotism. The ‘Humanity United Against Terror’ concert, organised by the Republican Hindu Coalition, was raising money to combat 'radical Islamic terrorism' that specifically targeted Hindus from Kashmir and Bangladesh. A new campaign video celebrating Diwali, in which Trump speaks several words in Hindi, echoes this same sentiment. At first glance this might seem another attempt by the Presidential candidate to rustle up support from minority groups; akin to comments such as, 'I love Hispanics!' while posing with a Cinco de Mayo taco bowl, or asking 'What do you have to lose?