New Delhi: Under the façade of being a messiah of freedom and democracy, the United States is promoting terrorism and dictatorship in the world, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece Organiser has said in an editorial.
“Trade wars and tariffs are new tools of interference and undermining sovereignty,” the editorial said in the backdrop of the Trump administration raising tariffs on India to 50 percent.
“The world is in turmoil. All the promises of ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ liberal world order are proving to be elusive. The unruly world order monopolised by the United States and based on military might and economic exploitation is crumbling down,” the editorial says.
US President Donald Trump on 6 August imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on India as a penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil. The duties are additional to the 25 percent tariff rate announced earlier by Trump.
After the end of the world war, the editorial argued, “it was assumed that the liberal world order had triumphed forever, leading to the spread of democracy, stability and peace across the world.”
However, the situation today is “drastically different from our assumptions”, it says. The American unipolar world is in decline and the international institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation proving to be irrelevant and inefficient, it argues.
“We are witnessing trade wars, unnecessary tariffs, sanctions, and regime change operations. The United States, self-proclaimed messiah of freedom and democracy, is promoting terrorism and dictatorship,” it says.
“China is emerging as a major challenger to the existing system,” it said while underlining the country’s “debt trap” and lack of “credible” stable institutions. “Russia-Ukraine War, Israel-Hamas War and Israel-Iran conflicts are the symptoms of this crumbling international order—the clear sign of this crumbling world order—which was never orderly.”
The RSS has been silent over the Trump administration’s tariffs on India so far, even as its economic wing, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said that no country could “direct” trade rules to another country in a multipolar world.
It also appealed to people to adopt ‘Swadeshi’ products, urging them to boycott goods from US-based companies like Amazon, Walmart and Flipkart (in which Walmart has a majority stake).
There is a concerted attempt by “neo-colonisers” and their domestic agents with vested interests to suppress the cultural resurgence witnessed by India in the last few decades, the Organiser said in the editorial.
“Actions like Surgical Strikes, Operation Sindoor, and continuous assertion to ensure strategic autonomy through prudent foreign policy options are a symbol of the same national consciousness,” it said.
“The forces in favour of the status quo, driven by vested interests, continue to bully the world based on economic and military might. The new assertive Bharat is a bête noire for them. They are using all the neo-colonial machinations to suppress this instinct.”
For short-term political interests, some players within Bharat are acting as agents of neo-colonisers, it stated.
“All proposed globalisations—whether American market globalisation, Islamic religious globalisation or ideology-driven Communist globalisation—are nothing but the forms of colonisation imposing a one-size-fits-all approach across the world,” it further said.
In order to counter the challenges, it said, India “will have to face the competition and conflicts based on the current parameters for which we need to be economically prosperous, technologically advanced and militarily self-sufficient”.
It also draws a parallel between communism and capitalism, arguing that while the independence movement in India was based on the ideals of Swadharma, Swadeshi and Swaraj, “unfortunately, the elite of Independent Bharat lost their resilience and succumbed to the binary of capitalism and communism”.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)