G-20 proclaiming one world; explosive whistleblowing

India is absolutely up front, worldwide. It was so buddy with the United States of America that Biden not only clasped hands firmly with Modi when receiving him some time ago in Washington DC but also put his arm round the Indian’s shoulders. Modi was given a red-carpet welcome though he was refused a visa to the US years ago when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat due to religious violence in his state. Besides becoming one of the top economic powers of the world, India landed the Chandrayaan 3 in the South Pole of the Moon – a dark area with no sunlight falling on it.

G20 Summit

And another feather in India’s cap: India is hosting the 2023 meeting of Heads of State of the Group of Twenty (G20) in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.  The attending Presidents and Prime Ministers will meet at the Bharat Mandapam International Convention Centre. The theme of the summit gathering is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which means ‘The world is one family’. It is a Sanskrit phrase found in Hindu texts stating the Vedic tradition of accepting all human beings living on earth as belonging to one family. The theme of the G20 is similar: ‘One earth, one family, one future.’  Seeing the current state of the world of course, the inevitable comment is that we are far removed from the G20 theme.

   One of the strongest leaders who shatter the meaning of the stated goal of the Group is Vladimir Putin who has informed India that he will be absent.  He dared not attend the BRICS summit recently in South Africa due to the warrant against him filed at the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He will be represented at G20 by his Foreign Minister Seigei Lavrov. Also believed to be not attending is Chinese President Xi Jinping who will be represented by Premier Li Qiang. A growing alliance is strengthening itself between China and Russia with China being one of Russia’s biggest importers of oil and other commodities.

   President Biden attends the major economic summit with the intention of promoting clean energy transition, the fight against climate change and increasing the capacity of multilateral banks to fight poverty.  Macron, Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier, Trudeau, Australian Anthony Albanese, Fumio Kishida, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia are some of the other leaders in India as of today.  Some are invited like the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The Canadian PM expressed regrets that the Head of Ukraine has not been invited this year.

   It would be interesting to hear and see how Rishi Sunak is greeted in New Delhi when he arrives this weekend. He looks smart Indian and probably has close relatives in India apart from his parents-in-law and wife’s people.

Another Indian politician?

   This ambitious Indian is across the Atlantic.  Vivek Ramaswamy is causing ripples if not waves in the presidential sea in the US of America by presenting himself as a Republican candidate to internally contest Trump and in the Party run, Biden. One hopes, even over here so far away from the States, that Trump will be debarred from contesting. He will never withdraw on his own accord; no conscience in the man to make him step down.

A friend sent me an article by Surinder Kaur titled “White Evangelicals aren’t sure about Ramaswamy. But for Indian American Christians, he is a no-go” which opens thus: “At 38 years old, Vivek Ramaswamy stands out among his fellow Republican presidential candidates for his age alone. The self-made billionaire has further set himself apart by saying he would ban social media for children, proposing to raise the voting age to 25, and espousing controversial views on 9/11. But when running a party with a strong evangelical Christian wing, perhaps his most unique characteristic is his Hindu faith, which Ramaswamy has proudly discussed.”

   He grew up in Cincinnati and attended Catholic schools, his parents having migrated from Kerala. He says he has read the Bible multiple times. His wife, Dr Poorva Tewari, otolaryngologists and assistant professor at Ohio State University, believes her husband can change the world. He is a billionaire having gone into the pharmaceutical business with his Roivant Science establishment.

Truth revealed?

Cell phones have been awash (or should it read ‘invaded’, ‘intruded into’?) by clips and comments on Channel Four documentary on the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019. Cassandra supposes almost everyone has seen the video introducing the C4 documentary which has a shaven headed Niranjala …. weeping over her husband and three children killed in the Easter Sunday attacks. She laments they were her world and thus the message she has nothing at all to live for. There are many Niranjalas still mourning the wantonly wasteful and cruel killing of their innocent loved ones on Easter Sunday  2019 in three  Roman Catholic churches and three five star hotels. A foreign businessman and his wife lost three of their four children at breakfast at the Shangri La Hotel. How utterly cruel and dastardly criminal to target people in prayer and happy holiday makers at breakfast. The LTTE massacred Muslims in a mosque in Kattankudy and bombed the Dalada Maligawa and shot at the Sacred Bo Tree in Anuradhapura.

   Accusations have been made pointedly at those who supposedly wanted and positively promoted destabilizing the country with fear and insecurity by means of eight bomb blasts killing around 290 and maiming 500. And thus, after four years, a whistleblower is said to have blown the mystery of the hidden hand behind the Easter carnage; spilled all the beans. There had to be a mastermind or persons of power who wanted the country awash with insecurity; otherwise would his eminence Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith keep levelling this accusation. We in our usual way have just pushed that tragedy away and go about our daily grind. Not so westerners who lost loved ones in the Easter Sunday massacre. They may press for getting to the bottom of the supposed conspiracy and see that justice is meted out.

   There will not be a single person in the entire world, of course barring relatives and suckers, who will not rejoice if those guilty will be finally caught, accused and punished for the killing of nearly 300 people and injuring 500 and causing so much suffering in the minds of all others who mourned then and still feel for the victims of the Easter bombs. If you cause suffering, you have to suffer in this life itself, in addition to having your bad karma follow you through Samsara.

Relief bringing rain

The receding monsoon has brought some relief to our parched land, but has it rained over the worst sun-dried areas of the country? Cassandra was glad to read in this newspaper a couple of days ago an expert’s views on the prevailing drought and methods of conserving water like rain water harvesting.  He mentioned also the benefit and need for desalination plants in Sri Lanka, which Cass has written about in previous articles, purely from a mere observer’s point ofview, but sensible.