Lecturing India about imaginary ‘human rights’ and ‘communalism’ and dangers to democracy has been the favorite political habit of politicians, media, and the elite in Western nations. Unsurprisingly, some politicians of Indian origin pretend they are better at lecturing India than their white compatriots.
In a recent manifestation of this phenomenon, Indian American lawmakers Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and others gave a demonstration of how to lecture India in ‘the correct way’.
So honored to sit on a panel with some of my fellow Indian American members of Congress at the 2024 @IA_Impact Summit!
Representation matters, and it’s so great to work with groups like @IA_Impact to lift up our Indian American community. pic.twitter.com/Sz7kFMPFJx
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) May 16, 2024
Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Shri Thanedar, and Ami Beria were attending the “Desis Decide” Summit of Indian American Impact. During a panel discussion moderated by Zohreen Shah of ABC Network, who asked them about PM Narendra Modi’s relations with the Muslim community, Khanna started a lecture on how lecturing India is ‘not the correct approach’.
Ro Khanna said that lecturing India on democracy doesn’t achieve much because the EAM Dr Jaishankar just doesn’t take it like previous ministers did. His sad frustration with Dr Jaishankar rejecting the lectures and sermons coming from USA was evident when he said, “India was colonised for over 100 years. So, when we’re having a conversation about human rights, and you’re having a conversation with (External Affairs Minister S) Jaishankar or someone else, you have to understand that just coming in from a perspective of lecturing India. When they say that we’ve had colonial powers lecture us for hundreds of years is not going to be productive.”
Ro Khanna, who is also co-chair of the Congressional India Caucus, lectured further elaborating on how to lecture India in a better way. He advised a new strategy, adding that while lecturing India about the flaws in its democracy, the USA should first admit to flaws in its own democracy.
Ironically demonstrating how condescension and sanctimony in the Western colonial mindset works, Ro Khanna, said, “Having a conversation (with India) saying, here are the imperfections in our democracy, what are the imperfections in your democracy, and how do we collectively advance democracy and human rights, I think is a more constructive approach.
Khanna appeared unaware of the fact that the whole world knows how exactly US ideas of ‘democracy’ work and what kind of bombardments and wars happen when weaker countries with oil reserves do not agree with the USA’s ideas about flaws in their democracy.
Rep Pramila Jayapal, who is usually found in every single anti-India lobbying group, joined in, saying USA should not ‘lecture’ India, but instead, should criticise India just like it criticises the Chinese government for the alleged treatment of Uyghurs. USA’s stand on the Uyghur issue with China is rather hostile, way beyond ‘lecturing’ zone, but Jayapal probably thinks all Indians are stupid and she is the only smart person in the room, so she added some refined sanctimony in her statement, on how the partnership with India is important for the USA, because of the regional and global dynamics and an economic point of view.
Essentially, Jayapal insinuated that despite being aware that partnership with India is critical for the USA, India should be willing to accept lecturing and more lecturing from the USA from politicians like her, because they love lecturing India and they consider it their moral duty to be able to lecture India.
Now we know why Dr Jaishankar refused to even meet her.
Agreeing with whatever Ro Khanna said, Rep. Ami Bera added, “You see what is happening with the freedom of the press. You are not seeing a viable opposition party, or the opposition is being dismantled. A vibrant democracy must have these things, freedom of the press, freedom to push back, freedom of speech. I hope you don’t ever see a second Trump presidency, but if that happens, you would see our democracy survive the first time, push back and survive. I hope the democracy in India survives”.
Bera pretended to not be aware of what the whole world is watching: How the Biden government collaborated, used Federal institutions like FBI to control social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to silence, gag and de-platform political opponents, raided Trump’s residence, and use every possible means to stop him from contesting elections. The democracy they love to lecture so much about was being torn to pieces with stolen ballot boxes, corruption, and how their compliant media worked in harmony to suppress stories of the Biden family’s involvement with Burisma, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and much more.
Ro Khanna loves to lecture India, it is just that India doesn’t care much about his sermons
The last time Ro Khanna made news in India was when Rahul Gandhi was expelled from the Parliament after his conviction in Gujarat. He tried to pass some very highly worded lectures about democracy. He was duly reminded by Indians that his grandfather supported Indira Gandhi’s emergency and was a part of it.
When presented with facts, Ro Khanna acted all indignant and tried to claim otherwise, citing family anecdotes. But records from Indian parliament archives proved that Khanna’s maternal grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar had indeed voted in favor of Indira Gandhi’s emergency.
Earlier, Khanna has been visibly trying too much to endear himself to the Left-liberal lobby in the USA and India, claiming Hindutva is all biased and discriminatory and had even tried to support the politically motivated ‘farmer protests’ in India back in 2020.
Pramila Jayapal has been trying to lecture India for years
As for Pramila Jaypal, she has been a part of every single anti-India lobbying effort in Washington DC. During PM Modi’s US visit in June 2023, Pramila Jayapal, along with US Senator Chris Van Hollen had sent a letter urging President Joe Biden to “discuss the need to protect human rights and democratic values in India during his meeting with PM Modi.”
The letter, signed by 75 members of the US Congress, was wholeheartedly supported and cheered by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party back in India. The Democrat US Representative from Washington 7th district is known for her anti-India and anti-Hindu bias.
She had taken a controversial stand against the Indian Government’s decision to abrogate Article 370. Following her resolution, MEA Jaishankar canceled his meeting in 2019 with a group of United States lawmakers following their refusal to exclude anti-India Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from the delegation that was scheduled to meet him.
USA and its nasty habit of delivering sermons to every country in the world
The dominant political and media elite of the USA, and to an extent, the collective Western world, loves to play the role of delivering sermons. Perhaps a racial remnant from their past as colonisers and missionary zealots, they consider themselves the divine messengers who are in the world to teach pagan heathens how to live correctly.
While beneath the veneer of all these sermons lie subtle threats, deep behind all this lecturing is the classical US mentality of exploitation and extraction. When faced with weaker nations, their foreign policy involves bombs and war. With nations that are too difficult to intimidate via bombs, the USA engages subtler means of regime change, sanctions, political interference, and endless lectures on ‘democracy’.
From Venezuela to Ukraine, Afghanistan to Gaza, Libya to Syria, conflicts and crisis scenarios all over the world are more or less different stages of how this particular American hobby of ‘lecturing’ manifests itself.