Club of Bombay DISTRICT 3141 THEBulletin of the Rotary Club of BombayGA | For privateTEW circulation only | www.rotaryclubofbombay.orgAY Volume No. 61 Issue No. 12, September 24, 2019 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Friends, Very warm greetings to each of you. Over two months have passed since I took over as President of our wonderful Club, and how time flies! I am delighted to see the great vigour and commitment with which many of our Committees are functioning. Ananda Yaan Committee, Bhavishya Yaan Committee, Child Welfare and the Water Committee need special mention for the work done by the teams in their areas of community services. Our afternoons at weekly meetings have been well spent with interesting speakers organised by the Programme Committee – the most recent one being our guest speaker on September 17th, GET WITH THE PROGRAMME! 2019, Mr. Madhav Nalapat, who shared his views on a very significant topic Professor of Geopolitics, Madhav Nalapat spoke to Rotarians yesterday about the ‘Geopolitics and US, China and India need to accept the shifting world order Power Shifts’ – having the audience enthralled – an afternoon well spent. MADHAV Nalapat, India’s first professor We have enjoyed the Pondicherry trip of geopolitics, is modest about the and the Parsi Nite celebrations thanks number of achievements that follow his to the great work by the Fellowship name. “He is the right person for this Committee. The Fund Raising Committee too has been making all talk – Geopolitics and US, China and efforts to raise funds for our projects, India power shifts. He understands the despite the difficult economic situation. world very well!” said Rtn. Manjeet in his At the District level, too, our Club is introduction. well represented and commendable work is being done by some of our Past Madhav said: “We are talking about the Presidents, particularly, PP Rtn. Sandip US and China, where does India come in Agarwala and PP Rtn. Ramesh Narayan. to the picture? This country is on track to the idea of government mechanism, its function, management, military, security, Introspecting and analysing the issues being the third biggest economy of the that need to be addressed – our Club’s world in terms of purchasing power. China etc. The collapse of the Soviet system membership needs to be increased is, of course, the biggest economy and the removed the only rival to the US system. with induction of more quality and USA is the second-biggest economy. These That rival system was effective, many committed members. We also need three are going to be big for a very long countries opted to go Communist; some to encourage and connect to our time. In that sense, it’s apt to talk about countries like India adopted the Soviet existing members to increase their the three of them.” model which, in my view, was regrettable. attendance at Club meetings and more We demolished the private sector in India so participation in our projects. And “In 1991-92, with the collapse of the in the ’50s when it was more robust than of course, the efforts for fund raising the private sector in Japan or South Korea. should be ongoing, by one and all. Soviet Union, there was talk of a unipolar world. When we talk of a unipolar world, So, the Soviet Union had an impact but it we mean a unipolar idea, too. Idea is collapsed.” TODAY’S SPEAKER: ZULFIQUAR MEMON ON THE EVOLUTION OF WHITE COLLAR President Preeti Mehta CRIME AND THE LEGAL PRACTICE. Service Above Self 02 THE BULLETIN OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY “In media, the leader of the market “This would be a complete “Donald Trump has got it: the day China gets practically 50-60 per cent of total transformation of geopolitics and, becomes number one in GDP terms – advertising. The guy second gets about not unnaturally, people in the US are that is the day China is going to find it 20-35 per cent. The remaining 10 per very concerned about this, especially much easier to break American allies, cent is shared by everyone else. So it is President Trump. I would have been very control or logistics chains, and also very important to come first. You see happy if PM Modi would have chosen American’s financial chains. The Yen all these kids going to KFC, McDonald’s, one or two people from this group at is indeed going to start catching up to making a bee line for Hollywood movies, the PM’s office for key positions. I would the dollar. Thus, the trade war with the listening to American music, wearing like to see people who did something United States is part of the existential denim etc. But, I believe, America is without government support and struggle between two systems. We a quadri-continental country: it has without the exchequer funding them.” saw one with the US and Soviet Union elements of South American, African and in which the US won. That’s it! No Asian culture but some elites believe it challenger in the ring. The reality is, this is entirely European and other cultures has now become a formidable existential do not belong to America, which is not challenge for the US; a large part of US’s true. It is very important to be number economy is based on perception. It is like one in the world because that gives you a bank, consultancy and so many other tremendous soft power and financial service industries. Perception drives power.” reality and itself forms a reality. Once the US surrenders that position and the The US dollar, for example, is the Chinese take over, it will lead to change President Preeti thanks speaker Madhav in perception that will very severely currency used for world transaction. Nalapat for his talk It is much stronger because the US is impact the United States.” a top country. Now, another country recognised, early on, that if you are the “From the American point of view, when top country, you get enormous leverage the people told me about the trade on other countries. So after the short war in 2018, my prediction was that it period, during which Americans felt would last for generations. Then, I went that their system had won, today, a new to China in 2018 and there were reports system has come up in the 21st century that Trump wants the Chinese to buy that is challenging the America-led more soyabean, condos, hotel rooms etc. Rotarians Farhat Jamal, President Preeti system in the manner the Soviet Union Mehta, Jagdish Malkani and Manjeet On the American side, I was very clear challenged them, ’50s onwards. That is Kriplani with speaker Madhav Nalapat that it is going to be a fight to the finish. the Chinese system.” On Chinese side, when I asked about the trade war, they gave me a book to read: “Today, democracies across the world On Protracted War by Mao Zedong. In are choosing strong leaders because it, Chairman Mao wrote, ‘I want two sets they see the effect of an authoritarian of people to be completely eliminated structure on China, which can by from the leadership of our party; one: no means be called a democracy. the ones who do not believe that we are My theory is that China is growing going to win. Anybody who thinks we because of its authoritarian nature. are going to lose should be eliminated. The Chinese communist party has such Two: anybody who believes it is going tight control and that is why it has had Rotarians PP Nirav Shah, Gautam Doshi, to be easy to defeat the Japanese is as double digit growth. In other words, it Anand Parikh and Ashish Jalan dangerous to the party. It is going to be is authoritarianism that has promoted a very long, hard struggle but, make no Chinese growth. Voters are turning to mistake, our side is going to win.’ That strong leaders across the world, whether book was given to me by a very top in Turkey, Russia, the US or India. It is official in China as an illustration of what the China effect. Chinese companies they regarded as having been launched, are taken seriously because the country which is a fight to the finish where it’s is moving up the rankings. It is set to either China or the US.” become number one in any metric. When that happens, the demonstration “This battle will end once the US ensures effect in economics, politics and that China falls too far behind to catch geopolitics will become very profound.” Rtn. Nanik Rupani asks a question up in a generation. I think that is the FACT: Beginning in 1937, hostile articles were published in the Nazi press about Rotary, comparing Rotary with Freemasonry. The incompatibility between Nazism and the international humanitarian organization resulted in two decisions that jeopardised the existence of Rotary in Germany: in June 1937, the ministry of the interior forbade civil servants to be members of the Rotary; in July, the NSDAP’s party court declared the Party and Rotarian membership incompatible from January 1938. SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 THE BULLETIN OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY 03 Rotarians Pulin Shroff, Gautam Doshi, Akhil Sanghi and Rotarians are engrossed with guest speaker Madhav Nalapat’s Mohit Jain breakdown of the world’s changing geopolitical scenario intention of Trump, Peter Navarro break it. The only way to keep China out respond best to that; the stronger the (Assistant to the US President, and is by having an alliance with the Soviet government, the weaker the Indians.