India

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Yet another shining example of Kerala model of development
Originally published: Peoples Democracy on October 26, 2025 by Sam (more by Peoples Democracy) | (Posted Oct 28, 2025)

KERALA is once again presenting to the world another shining example of the Kerala Development Model. On the upcoming Kerala Piravi Day–November 1, 2025–as the state steps into the 70th year of its formation, Kerala would have completely eradicated extreme poverty. It reflects the CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s distinctive bias towards the poor and the marginalised, which is reflected in both its development and welfare initiatives.

This is in a country in which the issue of poverty eradication featured on the agenda of the Indian ruling classes only about a decade and a half after attaining Independence, through the ‘Garibi Hatao’ slogan which raised in the 1971 general election. It was also the central theme of the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974—1979). However, even forty years after that slogan was coined, in 2011—12, 30 per cent of the Indian population was still reeling under poverty, as per the estimates of the Rangarajan Committee.

BENCHMARKS CHANGED BY GOI
Over the years, successive Union governments have shifted poverty line benchmarks multiple times so that a larger population can be shown to be above the poverty line. The government even adopted the Modified Mixed Recall Period (MMRP) method in the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) replacing the older Uniform Reference Period (URP). This change increased recorded consumption, thereby reducing the estimated poverty rate significantly. For example, India’s poverty rate reduced to 16.22 per cent in 2011—12 after applying MMRP.

Additionally, the Union government has developed its own Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which uses specific parameters and indices that can be adjusted to show better performance. As per the ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index—A Progress Review 2023’, published by the NITI Aayog, the share of India’s population which is multidimensionally poor has declined from 24.85 per cent in 2015—16 to 14.96 per cent in 2019—21. This index is based on the National Family Health Survey data for 2019—21 (NFHS—5). Among states, Kerala has the lowest (0.55 per cent) and Bihar has the highest (33.76 per cent) level of poverty. In NFHS—4, Kerala’s poverty figure was 0.70 per cent.

NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND
Kerala’s recorded poverty rate is a statistically negligible figure. Yet, for the LDF government, no person is negligible; not a single individual is to be disregarded or left behind. It has always been the consistent stand that the benefits of development and welfare should reach every section of and every individual in the society. It is this commitment that led the state government to launch a comprehensive initiative to wipe out extreme poverty from Kerala. The entire administrative apparatus was galvanised into action to ensure the achievement of this historic objective.

Eradication of extreme poverty was a decision taken up by the current LDF government in its first Cabinet meeting, immediately after assuming office as the continuation of the previous LDF government. In pursuance of that decision, a statewide survey was conducted from July 2021 onwards to identify families and individuals living in conditions of extreme deprivation. Over 14 lakh people were engaged in the exercise to identify them. This was followed by field level validation, super check and final confirmation in the grama/ward sabhas. That survey revealed that 1,03,099 individuals across 64,006 families in 1,032 Local Self Government Institutions were living in extreme poverty.

A CONTINUOUS MISSION FOR KERALA
Measures have since been undertaken to eradicate extreme poverty in the state before it completes seven decades of its formation. Individualised micro—plans were prepared for every family, tailored to their specific circumstances. These plans were categorised into short—term, medium—term, and long—term programmes. Immediate services and benefits were provided under the short—term component, while schemes requiring three months to two years for completion were included under the medium—term plans. Under the long—term plans, skill training, support for education, livelihood, entrepreneurship, etc. and housing assistance were provided, to ensure that eliminating extreme poverty is not a one—time endeavour, but a continuous mission.

In the initial phase, all necessary documentation was ensured for every individual. Aadhaar, ration cards, voter ID cards and health insurance were promptly issued or made available to 21,263 families. Simultaneously, steps were taken to guarantee food and healthcare for every family. Food security was ensured through the provision of food kits and freshly cooked meals through Kudumbashree networks. Individuals within the identified families who were suffering from health problems received assured medical treatment and necessary medicines. Special income—generating programmes were designed and implemented for those without regular sources of livelihood.

Ever since 2016, the LDF government is already on a mission to end homelessness and landlessness in the state, through the LIFE Mission and the Revenue Department. Over the last 9 years, around 4.5 lakh houses have been built, and more than 4 lakh land title deeds have been distributed. As part of eradicating extreme poverty too, significant efforts were made to secure safe and dignified housing for those among the identified. An amount of Rs 473 crore was expended for this purpose. Land was also identified and allocated to the landless among those identified, with about 30 acres earmarked for distribution. Every department of the state government played its part, contributing meaningfully toward the realisation of the goal of eradicating extreme poverty.

On November 1, 2025, Kerala would have achieved a milestone that no other state in the country has achieved, by implementing a comprehensive programme that no other government in India ever had the courage or vision to conceptualise. Sustaining this achievement permanently would be Kerala’s challenge in the future. To that end, the entire society of Kerala would have to shoulder a collective responsibility.

https://mronline.org/2025/10/28/yet-ano ... velopment/

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India brings gold home
October 29, 11:00



India brings gold home

India Accelerates Repatriation of Gold Held Abroad, Bloomberg Reports India is accelerating the repatriation of gold held abroad, according to Bloomberg. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is accelerating the repatriation of gold held abroad, a record 65% of which is double the amount held four years ago. Since April of this year, India has repatriated 64 tonnes of gold from abroad . The repatriation of gold reserves is driven by increased scrutiny of national assets following the G7 freeze on Russian reserves in 2022 following the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine . The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is among the world's largest buyers of gold, reducing its reliance on the US dollar and dollar-linked assets. "It is gradually reducing its investments in US Treasury bonds ," Bloomberg emphasizes. KRISTALL ROSTA previously reported ( https://t.me/crystal_book/3359 ) that the freezing of Russian assets has prompted global central banks to hastily return their gold from Western vaults.

https://t.me/crystal_book/18590 - zinc

. Russia's example has proven instructive, so subject countries are working to withdraw their gold reserves from the West, where these same gold reserves can simply be stolen at any moment.
All stories about reliable Western banks have proven to be fairy tales. This process also leads to the dismantling of economic globalism and the weakening of Western economic hegemony, as subject countries reduce their investments in US government debt and transfer their assets either to non-Western banks or prefer to store gold on their own territory.
One can recall how the assets of Libya and Venezuela were effectively stolen in Europe.

It's also worth noting the continued growth in the percentage of gold in the international reserves of constituent countries, amid the declining role of the dollar. This is observed in Russia, China, and India. This is, among other things, a characteristic sign of preparation for future iterations of the global crisis.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/10156455.html

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Trump & India’s Changing Response to Terrorism
November 24, 2025

Two weeks have passed since the Red Fort attack in Delhi and the Indian response against Pakistan has been muted, unlike after an earlier terrorist attack in April, reports Betwa Sharma.


Indian soldiers at the Red Fort in Delhi in January 2024, site of the terrorist attack on Nov. 10, 2025. (Joe Lauria for Consortium News)

By Betwa Sharma
in Delhi, India
Special to Consortium News


When terrorists killed 26 people in Kashmir on April 22, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded with missiles and air strikes against Pakistan, which he blamed for the attack.

On Nov. 10 a Kashmiri doctor blew himself up in a car near the 17th century Red Fort in Delhi, killing 13 people in a fresh terrorist attack.

This time India’s response has been different.

Back in April, Modi didn’t waste time before blaming Pakistan for the murder of the 25 Hindu tourists and a Muslim guide in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Lashkar e Taiba, a militant group based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to The New York Times and the U.S. State Dept., though the group later denied it.

Modi first expelled some Pakistani diplomats, suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and visas (but not of Pakistani Hindus). Then, after giving Pakistan two weeks to take action against the militants, India launched Operation Sindoor –- air and missile strikes against nine targets of named terrorist groups inside Pakistan’s Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

India claimed to have killed a large number (80 as per news reports) of militants, while Pakistan says non-military targets, including a mosque, were struck, killing 31 civilians and injuring 57. A four-day conflict ensued with cross-border missile and drone attacks with an hour-long dog fight of fighter jets, according to Pakistan.

At least 21 civilians — Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, including five children – lost their lives in India during the four-day conflict. As many as 40 civilians, including 15 children, were killed in Pakistan.

The air strikes didn’t exactly work in India’s favour: U.S. President Donald Trump claimed credit (disputed by India) for brokering peace after four days of escalation (one of the eight wars he boastfully claims he’s stopped).

Pakistan seemed to walk away with the upper hand, even though India had been the victim of the terrorist attack. On top of that, the U.S. appeared to be drawing closer to Pakistan, while its relationship with India was in trouble.

In the months that followed, India-U.S. relations took a turn for the worse because of India’s continued strategic relations with Russia, its unwillingness to fully align itself with Washington over Ukraine, and India’s warming towards U.S. adversary China, despite Beijing’s alliance with Pakistan. U.S. strategy has been to keep India in the anti-China camp. The U.S. then imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian goods.

Trump’s intervention in the four-day conflict was humiliating for Modi, who tries to portray himself as a great foreign policy leader. It was also a boon to his opposition. Trump claiming to have made peace was not a good look for Modi or India, and made a mockery of Modi’s overly effusive hugging of Trump in public as U.S.-India relations then plunged to their worst in decades.

Caution Instead of Retaliation


Indian Army Paratroopers issued during 2022 Army Day parade. (Indian Army/Wikimedia Commons)

Now India is faced with a new terrorism crisis after the Red Fort attack.

Modi had made it clear after the April attack that any future terrorism would be treated as an act of war, with no distinction between the attackers and those who back them. This pledge of tough, decisive retaliation, which could include military action, was widely seen as a shift in the country’s counter terrorism doctrine.

So it is notable that the government this time has initially responded with a more measured tone. The mainstream media and the right-wing ecosystem, which echo and amplify the government line, has too.

Two weeks have passed since the Red Fort attack, and the Indian response against Pakistan has been muted. It seems that Trump’s intervention has had its effect on Mod

Even with evidence mounting against Jaish-e-Mohammed, another terrorist group based in Pakistan, that it was behind the Nov. 10 attack, as well as a far more sinister plot to deploy small rocket and drones against crowds, the Indian government has so far held back from making accusations against Pakistan.

Devising a terrorism policy regarding Pakistan has always been tricky, and no Indian government has succeeded. The idea of treating every terror attack as an “act of war” plays well with the domestic audience, especially Modi’s base, but it’s nearly impossible to enforce in South Asia’s complex neighbourhood.

India can’t launch airstrikes every time, and the international community was clearly uneasy about the escalation of armed conflict between two nuclear-armed neighbours last spring.

This time, Pakistan goes unmentioned, leaving Kashmir itself in the crosshairs.

Turning Delhi’s Ire Against Kashmiris


India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, viewing the Himalayas in March 2025. (Prime Minister’s Office/ Government of India/ Wikimedia Commons/ GODL-India)

Since the airstrikes in response to the April attack seemed to turn global opinion towards Pakistan and against India, and with no real strategy to deal with terrorism besides the hubris of launching air strikes against Pakistan each time, the Modi government is focusing retaliation on Kashmir and the people who live there.

Authorities have launched a sweeping crackdown in the territory, detaining and questioning thousands of people, and blowing up the home of the terrorist doctor. The moves have disproportionately hit innocent families and drifted into collective punishment.

This practice of demolishing homes, widely dubbed in India as “bulldozer justice,” is often deployed against Muslims by hard-right leaders in some states run by Modi’s BJP party. The tactics are in defiance of the Indian Supreme Court’s clear ruling that demolitions without due process are illegal and cannot be used as punishment.

The number of those detained after the latest attack varies from 1,000 to 1,500 apparent suspects.

How many of these arrests were conducted in violation of due process and the rule of law simply isn’t known because authorities have stamped out a free press in Indian-controlled Kashmir in the five years since the Modi government rescinded the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and demoted it to a union territory.

That brought it directly under the control of the central government. Until Aug. 5, 2019, J&K was India’s only Muslim majority state.

Decades of Strife


Daimler Armoured Car of the Indian Army on road patrol in the Jammu & Kashmir state on the strategic Baramula-Uri road, 1948. (Unknown/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan at Partition in 1947, is a land of breathtaking beauty and bitter conflict. Divided into Indian and Pakistani-administered areas, it has been the cause of three wars and a long-running Pakistan-backed insurgency that in the early 1990s forced the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits (a Hindu minority in Kashmir), causing possibly the most serious human rights crisis in independent India.

The insurgency has fueled repeated attacks on security forces and government institutions. On the Indian side, the region remains one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world.

Over the decades of the long-running conflict, successive Indian governments have been cagey about their keenness to suppress news of the extent of the conflict and human rights violations. Still, local newspapers thrived, and some critical reporting existed until J&K came under central control in 2019.

In the past six years, critical voices have been silenced. Kashmiri journalists have been arrested under terror-related charges. Many no longer want to take a byline, and people are too afraid to speak with reporters, even anonymously. Much of the mainstream media in the rest of the country largely parrots the government line.

Information in the Indian media on government actions taken in Kashmir comes almost entirely from official briefings. Outside of what the government discloses, the true scope of operations remains largely unknown.

All this is in stark contrast to the progress and mainstreaming of Kashmir that the Modi government promised when it rescinded J&K’s autonomy.

Instead of the promised development, integration, safety and security, Kashmiris find themselves more marginalised than ever, and the region remains extremely insecure as unemployment and drug use soars.

A Harsher Strain of Militancy


Pahalgam is a hill station in Kashmir. Mountain trails run northeast to Amarnath Cave Temple, a Hindu shrine and site of the annual Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage. (Nawr’n k/Wikimedia Commons)

The attack on Hindus in the tourist and Hindu pilgrimage town of Pahalgam in April was among the most gruesome attacks on civilians in Kashmir.

The terrorists, three Pakistani nationals, according to survivors, singled out men to recite the Islamic declaration of faith and shot those who could not.

It is worth noting that in the history of the Pakistani-backed militancy since the killing and expulsion of Kashmiri pandits in the early 1990s, and instances of civilian killings (such as Sikhs in Chittisinghpura in 2000, Kashmiri Pandits in Nadimarg in 2003, and Hindu civilians in 2006 in Doda, Jammu), recent militant attacks have, for the most part, been aimed at government and security personnel rather than civilians and tourists.

That changed after 2019, when a harsher and more unpredictable strain of militancy emerged that targeted and killed migrant labourers from other states.

The Collective Punishment Of Kashmiri Muslims

The turn to blaming Kashmiris instead of Pakistan for the latest attack has had the effect of riling up Hindu extremists in the rest of India to blame all Muslims, especially those from Kashmir.

Amid open calls to boycott Muslims, a disturbing act of communal intolerance was caught on camera in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, where Kashmiri traders often sell their wares. In the footage, a Hindu woman tells an elderly Kashmiri shawl seller to go back to Kashmir because Hindus will not buy from Kashmiris.

In the days following the deadly Nov. 10 Delhi attack, the newsroom where I work in India received many pitches from reporters describing how Kashmiri Muslims were gripped by fear of reprisals, eviction, and violence.


Muslims in Kashmir have become the target of the central government. (From Portraits of Kashmir 2018/ r Nagarjun/Wikimedia Commons)

It says something about how familiar this pattern of hatred toward Kashmiri Muslim students and professionals living and working in different states has become, and how reliably it intensifies after a terrorist attack, that we ended up telling the reporters we’d covered it before, most recently after the terrorist attack

“We are stuck. We can’t go outside, and we can’t go home. Even booking a cab to the airport feels like risking our lives,” a 22-year-old Kashmiri, studying in Chandigarh, Punjab, said three days after the April attack. “I feel like a prisoner here, just because I’m Kashmiri, just because I’m Muslim.”

At a time when Islamophobia is running high in India, Kashmiri Muslims, in particular, are prime targets of bigotry and abuse because they come from a region defined by decades of resistance and bloodshed.

They are called terrorists or terrorist sympathisers after a bomb goes off. Every new attack fuels the demonisation and deepens their social, economic and academic marginalisation.

In a reprise of incidents reported in April, the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association said there last week there was a revival of profiling and aggressive questioning from landlords. WhatsApp groups were flooded with hateful messages, forcing some students to leave schools at the cost of disrupting their studies.

Like in the past, some will choose safety over education and never go back to complete their degrees. Their parents will insist on their security. Others will decide against seeking admission to begin with or give up their seats in colleges outside Kashmir.

The fact that a doctor was behind the wheel of the car that exploded in Delhi on Nov. 10, and that the government is calling it a “white-collar terror module” only reinforces the narrative that it’s not just the usual militants; everyone, including the most educated, is a terrorist.

?In a stark example of the psychological strain gripping Kashmir, a middle-aged, dry fruit seller set himself on fire after police detained his son, refusing to allow him to meet him.

He later died of his injuries.

The son had been arrested as an alleged co-conspirator in the Delhi attack.

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/11/24/t ... terrorism/

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IS THE US USING PAKISTAN AGAINST INDIA? BEARS DANCE IN DELHI



By John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with

For this week, ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in India on December 6, I am in meetings in Delhi. Here is our first conversation with Sandeep Unnithan and Chakra News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHh0aXP1SA4

https://johnhelmer.net/is-the-us-using- ... -in-delhi/

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Unions in India demand immediate withdrawal of new “anti-worker” labor codes

After a five-year suspension due to united opposition by trade unions in the country, the Narendra Modi government suddenly announced the implementation of the unpopular labor codes last week.

November 24, 2025 by Abdul Rahman


Protests erupt across India against the recently enacted "anti-worker" labor codes. Photo: CITU

Workers across sectors and regions in India have taken to the streets to oppose the extreme-right-wing government’s decision to implement four new labor codes. The protesters have deemed the codes anti-labor and demanded their immediate withdrawal.

In several cities, workers took out protest marches and burned the copies of the labor codes. Unions and progressive groups have warned of larger protests to oppose the legislation.

The four labor codes in question were adopted by the Indian parliament in 2019. Yet their implementation has so far been suspended due to the strong opposition by all major trade unions in the country. In a surprising move on Friday, November 21, the far-right Narendra Modi-led government notified that the codes would advance.

In a barrage of press releases since then, the government has defended the codes, calling them an attempt to simplify the laws which have been in existence since the British colonial days and a move to “inclusive and sustainable labor empowerment”.

However, in a joint statement issued on Friday, a joint platform of the Central Trade Unions (CTU) called the government’s decision to implement the codes a pro-corporate move and a “deceptive fraud committed against the working people of the nation”.

“The arbitrary and undemocratic notification of the four so-called ‘labor codes’ defies all democratic ethos and has wrecked the character of the welfare state of India to rubbles,” the CTU statement adds, demanding their immediate withdrawal.

Trade unions claim the new codes will weaken unionization, the right to collective bargaining, and restrictions on working hours, to benefit corporations. Unions have vowed to intensify the struggle against these codes.

CTUs will also join a nationwide protest call made by the farmers on November 26, to push for the withdrawal of the codes, among other demands.

Government is trying to mislead the workers
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of the largest trade union federations in the country and a part of the CTU, also condemned the government’s move alleging that it is trying to mislead the working class in the country by falsely portraying them to be in their interest.

In reality, the codes “constitute the most sweeping and aggressive abrogation of workers’ hard-won rights and entitlements since independence, aimed at facilitating corporate exploitation, contractualization and unrestrained hire and fire,” a CITU press release on Saturday said.

Among other things, the government’s press releases claim the codes were brought in order to unify 39 different laws enacted to protect the working class in the country, such as the Industrial Disputes Act and Factories Act, among others.

The government also claims to provide universal social security for all workers and minimum wage coverage, among other benefits through codes.

It provides for a floor national wage, longer shifts in factories and night shifts for women, claiming it will guarantee minimum wages and women’s empowerment.

CITU’s press release, however, makes a point-by-point rebuttal to the government’s claims, pointing out that these codes actually strengthen the employers’ control over workers by weakening their right to collective bargaining and other such rights.

The new codes allegedly weaken the protective institutions (such as labor commissions and labor inspectors) created after years of struggle, legitimize contractualization with the “fixed-term” provision, and paves the way for the government to withdraw from its roles and responsibilities as executive of the labor laws.

The new codes turn the government into a mere facilitator between the employers and the employees which, CITU claims, would make fighting for workers rights difficult.

Codes eradicate labor rights
Trade unions and left parties have claimed that in order to protect corporate interests the Modi government has defied basic democratic norms and institutions in the country and made an arbitrary decision to eradicate rights which were won after generations of sacrifices.

Opposition parties claimed that the Modi government has adopted an arrogant approach in implementing the codes. It failed to conduct proper consultation with all the stakeholders, and sidelined all political opposition in the country in the Parliament while passing the law.

“The government ignored every major objection raised by trade unions. The codes were pushed through Parliament without the opposition present, making a mockery of democratic process,” CITU reiterated in the press release.

CITU proclaimed that “the four codes are an instrument of corporate driven labor market deregulation, aimed at destroying job security, suppressing the right to strike, dismantling labor inspection, expanding contractualization and fixed term employment, weakening unions and collective bargaining.”

The so-called universal social security for workers claimed by the government is nothing but a way to limit “social security to token schemes” it said.

The objective behind all this is “a mad drive of minimization of labor cost and dismantling labor rights,” CITU claims.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued a statement supporting the trade unions’ demand for the revocation of the labor codes.

“The government’s claim that the labor codes will boost employment and investment is completely baseless. The codes are designed to leave labor unprotected in the face of the onslaught of capital. Their aim is to lure national and international capital by ensuring that all meaningful regulations covering various aspects of labor rights will be nullified,” CPI (M) said in the statement.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella group of farmers unions in the country, also condemned the new codes in a statement on Monday. It called the codes the “most regressive labor reform since the independence” of the country in 1947.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/11/24/ ... bor-codes/

[blindpig]

How CIA Secretly Triggered Sino-Indian War
Posted by Internationalist 360° on November 25, 2025
Kit Klarenberg


The 1962 Sino-Indian War: More than borders—CIA covert ops reshaped India’s path

Decades of determined US efforts to foment antagonism between the vast neighbours have come spectacularly undone, due to the sheer weight of geopolitical reality.

From October 20 – November 21, 1962, a little-remembered conflict raged between China and India. The skirmish damaged India’s Non-Aligned Movement affiliation, firmly placing the country in the West’s orbit, while fomenting decades of hostility between the neighbouring countries. Only now are Beijing and New Delhi forging constructive relations, based on shared economic and political interests. A detailed academic investigation, ignored by the mainstream media, exposes how the war was a deliberate product of clandestine CIA meddling, specifically intended to further Anglo-American interests regionally.

In the years preceding the Sino-Indian War, tensions steadily brewed between China and India, in large part due to CIA machinations supporting Tibetan separatist forces. For example, in 1957, Tibetan rebels secretly trained on US soil were parachuted into the territory and inflicted major losses on Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army forces. The next year, these cloak-and-dagger efforts ratcheted significantly, with the agency airdropping weapons and supplies in Tibet to foment violent insurrection. By some estimates, up to 80,000 PLA soldiers were killed.

Mao Zedong was convinced that Tibetan revolutionaries, while ultimately US-sponsored, enjoyed a significant degree of support from India and used the country’s territory as a base of operations. These suspicions were significantly heightened by Tibet’s March 1959 uprising, which saw a vast outflow of refugees from the region to India, and the granting of asylum to the Dalai Lama, their CIA-supported leader, by New Delhi. Weeks later, at a Chinese Communist Party politburo meeting, Mao declared a “counteroffensive against India’s anti-China activities.”

He called for official CPC communications to “sharply criticise” India’s premier Jawaharlal Nehru, stating Beijing “should not be afraid of making him feel agitated or of provoking a break with him,” and “we should carry the struggle through to the end.” For example, it was suggested that “Indian expansionists” be formally accused of acting “in collusion” with “British imperialists” to “intervene openly in China’s internal affairs, in the hope of taking over Tibet.” Mao implored, “we…should not avoid or circumvent this issue.”

Ironically, Nehru was then viewed with intense suspicion by the West due to his Non-Aligned commitment and broadly socialist economic policies. Thus, he could not be trusted to support covert Anglo-American initiatives targeting China. Meanwhile, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev considered Nehru an important prospective ally and was keen to maintain positive relations. Simultaneously, the Sino-Soviet Split, which commenced in February 1956 with Khrushchev’s notorious secret speech denouncing the rule of Joseph Stalin, was ever-deepening. Disagreements over India and Tibet only hastened the pair’s acrimonious divorce.

‘A weapon’

After months of official denunciations of Nehru’s policies toward Tibet, Beijing’s information war against India became physical in August 1959, with a series of violent clashes along the countries’ borders. Nehru immediately reached out to Moscow, pleading that they rein in their closest ally. This prompted a tense meeting in October 1959 between Khrushchev, his chief aides, and the CPC’s top leadership, at Mao’s official residence. Khrushchev belligerently asserted to his Chinese counterparts that their confrontations with New Delhi and unrest in Tibet were “your fault”.

The Soviet leader went on to caution about the importance of “preserving good relations” with Nehru and “[helping] him stay in power,” for if he was replaced, “who would be better than him?” Mao countered that India had “acted in Tibet as if it belonged to them,” and while Beijing also supported Nehru, “in the question of Tibet, we should crush him.” Assorted CPC officials then, one by one, forcefully asserted the recent border clashes were initiated by New Delhi. However, Khrushchev was highly dismissive.

“Yes, they began to shoot and they themselves fell dead,” he derisively retorted. A Soviet declaration of neutrality in the Sino-Indian dispute a month prior also provoked anger among the CPC contingent. Mao complained, “[the] announcement made all imperialists happy,” by publicly exposing rifts between Communist countries. Khrushchev et al were again unmoved by the suggestion. Yet, unbeknownst to attendees, they had all unwittingly stepped into a trap laid by the CIA, many years earlier.

In September 1951, a State Department memo declared, “The US should endeavor to use Tibet as a weapon for alerting” India “to the danger of attempting to appease any Communist government and, specially, for maneuvering [India] into a position where it will voluntarily adopt a policy of firmly resisting Chinese Communist pressure in south and east Asia.” In other words, it was believed that supporting Tibetan independence could force a Sino-Indian split. In turn, the Soviets might be compelled to take sides, deepening ruptures with Beijing.

This strategy informed CIA covert action in Tibet over the subsequent decade, which grew turbocharged when Allen Dulles became CIA chief in 1953. A dedicated, top-secret base was constructed for the separatists at Camp Hale, the US military’s World War II-era training facility in the Rocky Mountains. Local terrain – vertiginous, replete with dense forests – was reminiscent of Tibet, providing ample opportunity for insurgency practice. Untold numbers of militants were tutored there over many years.

At any given time, the CIA maintained a secret army of up to 14,000 Tibetan separatists in China. While the guerrillas believed Washington sincerely supported their secessionist crusade, in reality, the agency was solely concerned with creating security problems for Beijing, and resultantly inflicting economic and military costs on their adversary. As the Dalai Lama later lamented, the agency’s assistance was purely “a reflection of their anti-Communist policies rather than genuine support for the restoration of Tibetan independence.”

‘More susceptible’

Come October 1962, the CIA’s Tibetan operations had become such an irritant to China that PLA forces invaded India. Washington was well aware in advance that military action was imminent. A telegram dispatched to Secretary of State Dean Rusk five days prior to the war’s eruption forecast a “serious conflict” and laid out a detailed “line” to take for when the time came. First and foremost, the US would publicly make clear its “sympathy for the Indians and the problems posed by the Chinese intervention.”

However, it was considered vital to “be restrained in our expressions in the matter so as to give the Chinese no pretext for alleging any American involvement.” While New Delhi was already secretly receiving “certain limited purchases” of US military equipment, Washington would not actively “offer assistance” when war broke out. “It is the business of the Indians to ask,” the telegram noted. If such requests were forthcoming, “we will listen sympathetically to requests…[and] move with all promptness and efficiency to supply the items”:

“The US is giving assistance…designed to ease Indian military transport and communications problems. Additionally, the Departments of State and Defense are studying the availability on short notice and on terms acceptable to India of transport, communications and other military equipment in order to be prepared should the government of India request such US equipment.”

As predicted, the Sino-Indian conflict prompted Nehru to urgently reach out to Washington for military aid, a significant policy shift. Much of New Delhi’s political class duly adopted a pro-Western line, with calls for a review of the country’s Non-Aligned stance reverberating widely throughout parliament. Even Communist and Socialist parties that hitherto rejected any alliance with the US eagerly accepted the assistance. The CIA’s Tibetan operations had triumphed.

As a May 1960 Agency National Intelligence Estimate noted, “Chinese aggressiveness” toward New Delhi over Tibet had fostered “a more sympathetic view of US opposition to Communist China” among India’s leaders. This included “greater appreciation of the value of a strong Western – particularly US – position in Asia to counterbalance” Beijing’s influence regionally. However, the CIA noted how, as of writing, “Nehru has no intention of altering India’s basic policy of nonalignment, and the bulk of Indian opinion apparently still shares his attachment to this policy.”

The Sino-Indian War changed all that. A December 1962 Agency analysis of the conflict’s “outlook and implications” hailed New Delhi’s “metamorphosis”, which the CIA forecast would “almost certainly continue to open up new opportunities for the West.” The country was judged “more susceptible than ever before to influence by the US and the UK, particularly in the military field.” Conversely, the War had “seriously complicated the Soviet Union’s relations with India and aggravated its difficulties with China”:

“The USSR will place a high value on a continued close relationship with India. While its opportunity to build up lasting influence in the Indian military has virtually disappeared, it will probably continue to supply some military equipment and to maintain its economic ties with India.”

Subsequently, New Delhi began assisting Anglo-American intelligence gathering on China and became actively involved in CIA wrecking activities in Tibet. The Sino-Indian War’s spectre hung over relations between the two nations for many years thereafter, and border clashes occurred intermittently throughout. Now, though, as Donald Trump bemoaned in September, India appears enduringly “lost” to Beijing and its close partner Russia. Decades of determined US efforts to foment antagonism between the vast neighbours have come spectacularly undone, due to the sheer weight of geopolitical reality.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2025/11/ ... ndian-war/

******

After Decades, India Warms to the Taliban
November 26, 2025

The enemy of my enemy is my friend: as Afghanistan fights Pakistan, India opens ties with the Taliban, reports Betwa Sharma.


Herat City, Afghanistan, 2018. (Alimosavisam, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

By Betwa Sharma
in Delhi, India
Special to Consortium News

For much of the world, Afghanistan is synonymous with 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, suicide bombings, IEDs and the long American war. But for Indians, the story begins long before that.

The ties — historical, cultural, emotional — run deep. The ancient Silk Road connected India and Afghanistan for centuries. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, came from Afghanistan.

For Indians, whose land had been forced into colonisation, Afghanistan’s enduring resistance to foreign rule — be it British, Russian or American — has always been compelling.

Then, there was Kabuliwala (the man from Kabul), Rabindranath Tagore’s short story of a dry fruits seller from Kabul, Abdul Rahman, who arrives in 19th-century Calcutta and forms a gentle fatherly bond with a little girl.

The 1960s Hindi film adaptation and its iconic song, Aye Mere Pyaare Watan, sung by the Kabuliwala about the pain of being far away from home captured the nation’s heart and imagination.

There has been a steady flow of Afghan refugees coming to India. Afghan students pursue higher education at Indian universities, and Bollywood music remains hugely popular among Afghans. Even amid the current wave of heightened Islamophobia in India, Afghan refugees have generally remained unaffected.

When I visited Afghanistan in 2013, I used to get this question a lot: are you Indian or Pakistani? When I said ‘Indian,’ the stiffness of the Afghans would evaporate, and they would immediately show me the Bollywood songs they had on their phones.


Inside of a bread shop in Kabul, 2013. (Betwa Sharma)

At the time, many Afghans were tired of what they saw as Pakistan’s interference in their country, turning Afghanistan into a hub for militant and terrorist activity after the Pakistan and U.S.-backed Mujahideen’s victory over the Soviets.

But Afghanistan still wasn’t safe for Indians. The very reasons ordinary Afghans felt warmly towards India made the Taliban wary of New Delhi’s growing influence and repeatedly targeted its embassy and consulates.

Afghanistan was once home to small but thriving Hindu and Sikh minority communities, who were successful as businessmen and traders and active members of society. But many of them left over the turbulent decades, especially under the Taliban, when Hindus were ordered to identify themselves by wearing yellow markings on their foreheads or a red cloth.


Afgani woman at job training center, Kabul, 2013. (Betwa Sharma)

In the years after the 2002 U.S. invasion and the displacement of the Taliban, India invested nearly $3 billion in humanitarian assistance and infrastructure development — constructing a dam, highways, power transmission lines, and the Parliament building — along with projects in health, education, irrigation, and agriculture, and the construction of schools and hospitals.

This was in stark contrast to the situation two decades earlier, when India virtually had no diplomatic contact with the first Taliban regime — a government infamous for its brutal restrictions on women, public executions in football stadiums, the destruction of the priceless Bamiyan Buddhas and for turning Afghan territory into a hinterland for Pakistan’s military and intelligence project of Islamist radicalisation and terrorist training.


Taliban fighters in Kabul, 2021. (VOA, Wikimedia Commons)

In 1999, India faced one of its most traumatic terror incidents when Pakistani terrorists hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 with 190 passengers on board, eventually forcing it to land in Kandahar.

With little leverage and the Taliban controlling the area, India was forced to release three high-profile terrorists in exchange for the hostages. The Taliban then allowed them safe passage to Pakistan, and they went on to mastermind further attacks.

Two of the three released were Masood Azhar, who then founded Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, which has carried out the most deadly attacks in India; and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who orchestrated the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in January 2002.

A New Day

In an unexpected realignment that few could have imagined 30 years ago, India is cautiously engaging with the Taliban while Pakistan and Afghanistan are in a seriously tense situation, exchanging artillery fire and airstrikes along their border.

To counter Pakistan’s footprint in Afghanistan, India is prioritising strategic interests over the regime’s brutal oppression of women.

Last month, many Indians were stunned to see Afghanistan’s foreign minister show up in India. The complexities of the relationship became instantly clear when his first press conference was attended exclusively by male journalists.

Horrified that the Indian government had allowed this, and worried it would set a dangerous precedent, India’s women journalists pushed back, forcing a second press conference with Amir Khan Muttaqi in the Afghan embassy in Delhi.

This time, they sat in the front row, a historic sight at a time when women have been erased from public space in Afghanistan.

Muttaqi claimed that 2.8 million girls are enrolled in schools in Afghanistan, even as his regime bars girls and young women from attending secondary and higher education.


Traffic jam in Kabul, 2013. (Betwa Sharma)

According to UNICEF, 3.7 million children aged 7-17 in Afghanistan are out of school, 60 percent or 2.2 million of them are girls. If the ban continues until 2030, over four million girls will have been deprived of education beyond primary school.

Muttaqi’s visit saw India upgrade its Kabul mission to a full embassy and create a new trade committee to deepen economic engagement. The Afghan foreign minister encouraged Indian investment in Afghanistan’s mineral, infrastructure, and energy sectors and he pledged that Afghan soil would not be used by anti-India militants, while warning Pakistan against destabilising cross-border moves.


Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi, Afghanistan Minister of Commerce & Industry.
(Creative Commons ASA 4.0)

Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban government’s commerce minister, then visited New Delhi for a five-day official visit that ended last Sunday, five weeks after Muttaqi’s visit. The aim was to deepen bilateral trade ties.

As the trip was ending, another deadly cycle of cross-border violence flared once again along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

A suicide attack this month in Peshawar, blamed by Pakistan on Afghan-based actors, killed three security personnel on Monday. This was followed by an airstrike in Khost that the Afghan government says killed nine children and a woman.

Relations between the two countries have soured since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with each accusing the other of harbouring militant groups that carry out attacks and violate sovereignty. Rising tensions culminated in deadly border clashes in October, leaving people dead on both sides.

For decades, India–Pakistan cricket matches were battlegrounds where national pride and geopolitical rivalry spilt onto the pitch. But now, Afghanistan-Pakistan contests are also tense, most notably during the 2022 Asia Cup when there were aggressive on-field exchanges between the players and clashes between fans.

During his visit to India, Azizi, the commerce minister, made several recommendations to improve Afghan-India trade: establishing dry ports in the vast Nimroz province in southwest Afghanistan to improve trade logistics and ease cargo processing; offering a five-year tax exemption for new Indian industries, very low import duty on raw materials and machinery, and setting up Indian spice production factories and pharmaceutical investment in Afghanistan.


Chabahar port. (Creative Commons, ASA 4.0)

But perhaps the most significant recommendation was proposing the use of Iran’s Chabahar Port on the Oman Sea, which would allow landlocked Afghanistan access to the sea while bypassing Pakistan.

It would dramatically reduce Afghanistan’s reliance on Pakistan’s ports in Karachi and Gwadar for imports and exports and would give India and Afghanistan a direct connection. Though owned by Iran, India has run the port since 2018.

Sunni Taliban and Shia Iran have had a fraught relationship, so a suggestion to rely on the Chabahar Port signals a shift from sectarian alignment to economic pragmatism for both sides.

India has long practised realpolitik, placing strategic, economic, and security interests above human rights concerns. Now, with Afghanistan, it faces the moral dilemma of engaging a regime that has systematically denied women education, mobility, and basic dignity.

So far, the country shows few qualms. Media coverage has been largely celebratory rather than critical, and public opinion appears indifferent, mainly focused on one-upping Pakistan and safeguarding national security.

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/11/26/a ... e-taliban/

[blindpig]

Hundreds of thousands protest anti-labor legislation in India

Farmers joined the factory and public sector workers across the country on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the historic Delhi protests which had forced the extreme right wing government to withdraw anti-farmers laws

November 28, 2025 by Abdul Rahman
Farmers November 26


Farmers with SKM protest on November 26, 2025. Photo: Kisan Sabha Haryana

On Wednesday, November 26, hundreds of thousands of workers and farmers across India came out in a mass protest against the Narendra Modi government’s so-called anti-people policies. One of the primary demands was the withdrawal of the four recently-implemented labor codes widely considered as detrimental to basic labor rights won after generations of struggle and sacrifices.

Workers in coal mines, railways, ports, refineries, cloth mills, banks and several other sectors staged protests and organized rallies throughout the country to express their opposition to the labor codes.

Joining the workers were thousands of farmers, who staged protests at hundreds of local, district and state administrative headquarters in solidarity with the workers and to push for their joint charter of demands.

The call for the farmers’ protest was given by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a collective of farmers’ unions, to mark the anniversary of the launch of their protests in Delhi in 2020 against the three farm laws which the Narendra Modi-led government was forced to withdraw a year later.

Central Trade Unions (CTUs), a joint platform of the country’s major trade union federations, joined the call with the demand of the repeal of four labor codes notified last week. It has called the new codes “deceptive fraud” on the working people.

At several places protesters burnt the copies of the notification to implement the codes.

Several other groups such as the agricultural workers, student unions, women organizations, and other civil society groups joined the protests in solidarity with the farmers and workers calling the Modi government’s move to enforce the labor codes a part of its “systematic assault” against the people.

The protesters also opposed the sectarian approach adopted by the ruling Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling it an assault on the country’s secular constitution.

November 26 is also celebrated as the constitution day in India. The BJP government which came to power in 2014 has been accused of promoting majoritarian ideas and failing to protect the rights of the country’s religious minorities.

Farmers also questioned the government’s failure to fulfil its promises of a legal minimum support price (MSP) for the agricultural products among others. The promises were part of the agreement the government signed at the time of the withdrawal of the farmers’ protests in 2021.

Resistance to anti-people policies
Almost half of India’s total population is involved in agriculture. Farmers have been complaining about lack of enough income from agriculture as the prices of their produce is not rising despite a rise in the cost of production largely due to neoliberal economic policies adopted by successive governments.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers have commited suicide due to the economic distress in the last few decades and millions have been pushed out of agriculture without any alternative means of livelihoods.

Farmers have been demanding a legal MSP based on the formula of C2+50% (total cost of production + 50% profit) for years. Instead of addressing this demand, the Modi-led government has tried to introduce big corporate interests in agriculture despite the fact that the majority of farmers in India are small-scale producers.

In Wednesday’s agitation, farmers also demanded the withdrawal of all cases filed against farmers arrested or facing charges during the 2020-21 agitation, withdrawal of attempts to raise electricity charges through the installation of smart meters, and adequate compensation to the millions of flood affected farmers in Punjab and elsewhere.

One of the key demands raised by the farmers in the agitation is also related to scrapping of trade agreements signed with the UK earlier this year and a proposed trade agreement with the US. It is speculated that these agreements will open the country’s agriculture sector for foreign imports further deteriorating the condition of farmers.

Assault on hard-won rights
Workers claim that the Modi led government has enacted the labor laws to appease big corporations who want to minimize the cost of labor by exploiting the situation created due to destruction of the agriculture sector and lack of proper alternative employment opportunities.

Though the Modi government passed the new codes in 2019 itself, it has been unable to implement them due to strong resistance by the trade unions across the political spectrum. The government had pushed the laws forward using its majority in the parliament without conducting any debate or proper consultation with stakeholders.

Unions claim that the new codes would systematically weaken all the rights achieved by workers through generations of struggle including their right to collective bargaining, limited working hours, and basic social security.

The codes, namely on wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions erode the power of both the unions and protective institutions and leave the workers at the mercy of their employees, unions claim.

A statement issued by Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) last week also claimed that the new codes will increase retrenchment as the minimum number of employees for layoff and closure. Any workplace which has less than 300 employees does not need necessary prior government permission to carry out mass layoffs now. This will lead to easy hire and fire as more than 90% of Indian workplaces employ less than this number.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/11/28/ ... -in-india/

*****

Putin’s Trip To India Comes At A Mutually Opportune Time
Andrew Korybko
Dec 04, 2025



It’ll strengthen their complementary balancing acts for averting disproportionate dependence on the American and Chinese superpowers amidst the global systemic transition to complex multipolarity.

Putin is on his first state visit to India in four years after having last visited what Russia considers to be its special and privileged strategic partner in December 2021. It was assessed here at the time that they sought to lead a new Non-Aligned Movement (Neo-NAM), the essence of which India pioneered via its “Voice of the Global South” platform in early 2023. The purpose is to counteract Sino-US bi-multipolarity trends by midwifing tri-multipolarity as the stepping stone to complex multipolarity (multiplexity).

In simple English, this means Russia and India jointly helping relatively smaller-sized countries balance between the American and Chinese superpowers, but Russia was soon thereafter compelled to initiate its special operation that resulted in a proxy war with NATO. Throughout the course of the Ukrainian Conflict, Russia moved so close to China that those two can now be described as having unofficially formed an Entente, but India helped Russia preemptively avert disproportionate dependence on it.

This was achieved through its large-scale purchase of discounted Russian oil and reprioritization of the North-South Transport Corridor through Iran for scaling their real-sector trade. Despite mixed reports about whether it’s complying with recent US sanctions to curtail the aforesaid purchases, India remains committed to averting Russia’s disproportionate dependence on China out of fear that this could lead to China coercing Russia to curtail arms exports to India for resolving their border dispute in China’s favor.

The US’ unexpected pressure upon India under Trump 2.0 is intended as punishment for not subordinating itself as the US’ largest-ever vassal, but it had the unintended effect of reminding Indian policymakers of how Russia never pressured their country, thus adding renewed impetus to expanding their ties. It’s within this context that Putin is visiting India, which also comes amidst the renascent Russian-US “New Détente” set into motion by Trump’s 28-point Ukrainian peace deal framework.

US pressure upon India might soon abate if policymakers come to appreciate its pivotal role in Russia’s balancing act vis-à-vis China. This arrangement serves their country’s interests by averting the scenario of Russia becoming China’s raw materials appendage for turbocharging its superpower trajectory and consequently becoming a more serious rival in shaping the emerging world order. Passively facilitating Russia and India’s shared tri-multipolarity vision might accordingly be seen by the US as advantageous.

Putin’s trip to India therefore comes at a mutually opportune time since it’ll strengthen their complementary balancing acts for respectively averting disproportionate dependence on the Chinese and American superpowers. This will help each reach better deals with them by improving their negotiating position while advancing the global systemic transition to multiplexity, which contextualizes what Valdai’s Fyodor Lukyanov meant in describing their ties as “a template for a post-Western world.”

https://korybko.substack.com/p/putins-t ... a-mutually

Poor Little Andy, what with Fu Manchu hiding under his bed and all...

Boo!

Of course communists see nothing wrong at all...