Bloomberg’s Andy Mukherjee published a detailed piece on Sunday about “Why India’s South Rejects Modi — And Why It Matters”. The Indian-born author drew attention to socio-economic differences between the two culturally distinct parts of his homeland in an attempt to smear incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP ahead of the six-week-long national elections from 19 April-1 June. This devious divide-and-rule effort didn’t go unnoticed, however, since many called him out for this plot.
Former Indian Ambassador to Russia and current Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Kanwal Sibal was among the most prominent voices to condemn Mukherjee. He tweeted that “Promoting N-S division is new effort by anti-Indian western lobbies (Bloomberg part of it) along with anti-Modi internal ones to add to caste & minority persecution narratives. Regional differences in prosperity/social ethos exist in western democracies too: Italy, UK, US, Spain etc.”
This comes amidst recently worsening Indo-US ties that were documented in the following analyses:
* 19 September 2023: “There’s A Lot More To The Indian-Canadian Dispute Than An Alleged Assassination”
* 23 October 2023: “The Anglo-American Axis Gave India A Crash Course On The Hypocritical ‘Rules-Based Order’”
* 23 November 2023: “India’s Honeymoon With The West Might Finally Be Over”
* 13 December 2023: “Biden’s Reportedly Planned Snubbing Of Modi Bodes Ill For Bilateral Ties”
* 3 January 2024: “Why Are Western Influencers Fearmongering About Indian-Russian Ties?”
* 28 March 2024: “India Won’t Let Germany, The US, Nor Anyone Else Meddle In Its Internal Affairs”
* 8 April 2024: “American Experts Won’t Admit That Their Country Is Responsible For Fragile Indo-US Ties”
At the same time, India has emerged as a globally significant Great Power, which was documented here:
* 7 January 2023: “India’s Global South Summit Is The Most Important Multilateral Event In Decades”
* 29 January 2023: “Interpreting The Indian External Affairs Minister’s Insight Into Nationalism & Internationalism”
* 2 March 2023: “Towards Tri-Multipolarity: The Golden Billion, The Sino-Russo Entente, & The Global South”
* 7 September 2023: “Referring To India By Its Indigenous Name As Bharat Aligns With The Trend Of The Times”
* 19 November 2023: “Jaishankar’s Article For The Economist Argued Why India Should Be Considered A Global Player”
* 25 February 2024: “India’s Top Diplomat Explained Why His Country Is Doubling Down On Ties With Russia”
* 18 March 2024: “Tri-Multipolarity Should Become The Next ‘Big Idea’ In Russian-Indian Relations”
The contrast between these analytical series makes the West’s latest information warfare motivations self-evident. The malicious narrative pushed by Mukherjee, presumably on his own personal initiative seeing how strongly he feels about the subject as evidenced by his writing, is being exploited by Bloomberg to advance the US’ liberal–globalist agenda of pressuring India on false “values” pretexts. The real reason, however, is to punish the country for its sovereign domestic and foreign policies.
The external exacerbation of identity differences – ethnic, religious, socio-economic, historical, and geographic (both administrative and physical) – within a targeted state with the aim of punishing and ultimately subordinating it is an inextricable characteristic of Hybrid Warfare. Viewed through this paradigm, Mukherjee’s piece is the opening salvo of a new Western Hybrid Warfare campaign that’s expected to increase in intensity across Prime Minister Modi’s predictable third term.
