ISSN 2347-1522 Vol. VIII Issue No. 2 March-April 2020 India Foundation Journal Editor’s Note : The Tyranny of the Mob - Maj. Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch FOCUS : India’s Soft Power: An Assessment India’s Soft Power: The Attraction and the Trap - Come Carpentier de Gourdon India’s Soft Power in the US & Impact on Kashmir Policy - Subhash Agrawal Countering False Narratives in the West: Right-Wing Ideology and the War of Perceptions - Rami N Desai Need to Rejuvenate India’s Ancient Geo-Spatial Cultural Heritage - Neera Misra Economy The Indian Road to Serfdom - Kishen Shastry KS Defence and Security Autonomous Aerial Weapons & Platforms - Air Marshal Anil Chopra India’s Economic-Social Legal Structure and its Impact on National Security - Jay Bhattacharjee Book Review Jaithirth Rao’s The Indian Conservative - B Shruti Rao Table of Contents EDITOR’S NOTE The Tyranny of the Mob ................................................................ Maj. Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch 3 FOCUS- INDIA'S SOFT POWER: AN ASSESSMENT India’s Soft Power: The Attraction and the Trap........................ Come Carpentier de Gourdon 8 India’s Soft Power in the US & Impact on Kashmir Policy.............................. Subhash Agrawal 15 Countering False Narratives in the West: Right-Wing Ideology and the War of Perceptions ...................................................Rami N Desai 23 Need to Rejuvenate India’s Ancient Geo-Spatial Cultural Heritage .........................Neera Misra 32 ECONOMY The Indian Road to Serfdom ........................................................................ Kishen Shastry KS 39 DEFENCE AND SECURITY Autonomous Aerial Weapons & Platforms ......................................... Air Marshal Anil Chopra 48 India’s Economic-Social-Legal Structure and its Impact on National Security ........................................................................ Jay Bhattacharjee 59 BOOK REVIEW Jaithirth Rao's The Indian Conservative ................................................................ B Shruti Rao 66 India Foundation Journal, March-April 2020 {1} About India Foundation India Foundation is an independent research centre focussed on the issues, challenges and opportunities of the Indian polity. The Foundation believes in understanding contemporary India and its global context through a civilizational lens of a society on the forward move. Based on the principles of independence, objectivity and academic rigour, the Foundation aims at increasing awareness and advocating its views on issues of both national and international importance. With a team of dedicated professionals based at its office in New Delhi, the Foundation works with partners and associates both in India and overseas to further its stated objectives. About India Foundation Journal The India Foundation Journal, India Foundation’s flagship publication has been in circulation since 2013. The journal is led by an Editorial Board of eminent scholars and leaders from various spheres of Indian public life. The bi-monthly journal covers a wide range of issues pertinent to national interest, mainly focusing on international relations, national security, legal and constitutional issues, Indian polity, and other issues of social, religious and political significance. Over the past few years, the journal has cultivated an expansive readership creating awareness on issues impacting the Indian society, and has contributed towards policy formulation. The journal seeks articles from scholars with the intent of creating a significant body of knowledge with a nationalist perspective and establish a recognised forum for debates involving academicians and policymakers. {2}{2} India Foundation Journal, March-April 2020 EDITOR'S NOTE India The Tyranny of the Mob Foundation he Constitution of India, adopted on 26 November 1949, is perhaps Journal one of the most liberal documents which affirms the idea of India, Twith the Preamble to the Constitution making a powerful statement of intent. The words are indeed stirring and bring out the grandeur of a process of thought which encompassed a set of beliefs and principles that Vol. VIII encapsulated the idea of Dharma and Righteousness and which have, since Issue No.2 ages, been the bedrock of India’s civilisational ethos. The Preamble to the Constitution, when it was adopted, read as under: March-April 2020 WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; Editor LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship; Maj Gen (Dr) Dhruv C Katoch EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all Assistant Editor FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and B Shruti Rao integrity of the Nation; The words SOCIALIST and SECULAR were added by the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976, to make the preamble read as “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic” and the words “unity of the nation” was also changed to read “unity and integrity of the nation”.1 At its very commencement, hence, the idea of India being a state for Publisher all communities and for all religious groups was enshrined in the Constitution. India Foundation This, of course, applied to citizens of India and not to non-citizens. The New Delhi partition of India, however, happened on religious grounds and Pakistan was created on the basis of religion, as a Muslim state. This left a large E-mail number of Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and other religious minorities in Pakistan, [email protected] who were vulnerable and whose very existence was threatened. Website In 1955, the Government of India passed the Citizenship Act which www.indiafoundation.in provided two means for foreigners to acquire Indian citizenship. People from the earlier undivided India, who had come across from Pakistan as refugees were given a means of registration after seven years of residency for private circulation only in India. Those from other countries were given a means of naturalisation India Foundation Journal, March-April 2020 {3} after twelve years of residency.2 The Citizenship was pending for consideration and passing by the Act was further amended after the Assam Accord Upper House, but lapsed consequent to the of 1985 when the Rajiv Gandhi led government dissolution of 16th Lok Sabha. agreed to identify foreign citizens, remove them With the formation of the 17th Lok Sabha, the from the electoral roles, and expel them from the Union Cabinet cleared the Citizenship country.3 The Citizenship Act was further amended (Amendment) Bill, 2019, on 4 December 2019 for in 1992, 2003, 2005 and 2015. introduction in Parliament. The Bill was introduced n December 2003, the Vajpayee led NDA in the 17th Lok Sabha on 9 December 2019 and government passed the Citizenship (Amendment) was passed on 10 December 2019, with 311 MPs Act, 2003, wherein illegal immigrants were made voting in favour and 80 against the Bill.6 On 11 ineligible to apply for citizenship by registration or December 2019, the bill was passed by the Rajya by naturalisation.4 Their children too were declared Sabha with 125 votes in favour and 105 votes as illegal immigrants.5 The 2003 amendment also against it.7 After receiving assent from the mandated the Government of India to create and President of India, the Bill became an Act on 12 maintain a National Register of Citizens. The Bill December 2019. received support from all sections of India’s polity, Protests have broken out by some sections of with the then leader of the opposition, Dr society on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act Manmohan Singh stating, during the debate in (CAA), mostly by people who are unaware of what Parliament that conditions for grant of citizenship the Act actually entails. Imaginary fears have been to refugees belonging to the minority communities aroused and despite repeated assurances by the in Bangladesh and other countries who had faced government, including by Prime Minister Modi persecution, should be made liberal. himself, that the Act is not intended against any After the BJP led NDA alliance came to power Citizen of India, but is only intended to grant in 2014, a Bill was introduced in the Parliament to citizenship to a small group of people who have amend the citizenship law, to make the non-Muslim faced religious persecution in the Islamic states of migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the protests Bangladesh eligible for Indian citizenship. The Bill continue in some parts of the country. This gives was passed by the Lok Sabha but could not be rise to the belief that indeed, the protests are passed in the Rajya Sabha. It was reintroduced in motivated, with a hidden agenda behind them. the Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016 as the Citizenship It is worth noting that the CAA does not violate (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and was thereafter any provision of the Constitution, as is being referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee on suggested by some. Here, false concerns have 12 August 2016, which submitted its report to the been flagged that the CAA is in violation of Articles Parliament on 7 January 2019. While the Bill was 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The passed by the Lower House on 8 January 2019, it CAA simply defines who can be considered an {4}{4} India Foundation Journal, March-April 2020 immigrant and has reduced the time period of an assurance to the Hindus and Sikhs who had legitimate stay for consideration for citizenship from been left behind in Pakistan due to the division of 11 years to 5 years. A clause has also been the country on a communal basis. This assurance introduced that such people cannot be prosecuted. was also repeated by Mr Nehru, so it is not This in no way is violative of Article 14, which something new. The CAA thus seeks to address a states “The State shall not deny to any person historical wrong and provide some element of relief equality before the law or the equal protection of to a small group of people who have been eking the laws within the territory of India”.