June 2, 2023

In previous blog ‘unwritten rules in politics – Part 2’, we saw two rules viz ‘no one is permanent friend or enemy in the politics’, ‘Weaponize the marketing in politics. Now in this blog ‘Unwritten rules in Politics – Part 3’ we will see next 5 rules in politics. I have tried to simplified it through examples. This will be helpful for the youth studying history or politics. Clearly, every country will take charge of their own interest and think and speak in that context only. They will speak in such a diplomatic way where it will not open up their interest. But will try to convince other countries to support them. If any countries are not in favour, then the speaker countries will start blaming such non-participating countries. However certainly will not share their interest. This is how we call it as ‘Don’t show your conditions, but watch and enjoy others’.” Best example is, Russia Ukraine war started in 2022 and continued till 2023. The whole of Europe (except Belarus and few others) is against Russia. If any country is not speaking in favour of Europe, Europe will start blaming them. E.g., India is neither against nor in favour of war and Russia, they are neutral. But since India is NOT against Russia, whole Europe will blame India saying, India is fuelling Russia-Ukraine war. They should stop trade with Russia. On the contrary, Europe is trying to tease Russia and reduce the power of Russia in the world. They along with many other countries, put heavy sanctions on Russia; so that Rus will collapse monetarily & military wise. They are also trying to isolate Russia. Now it is fact that no one wants the neighbouring country as enemy. NATO is trying to add Ukraine in the group, this means enemy will be neighbour for Russia. To eliminate this threat, Rus attacked Ukraine before they join the NATO. Now whole Europe and world is crying out loud for this war. But in the first place, who started war. Indirectly NATO? Now by providing monetary and military aid to Ukraine, who is fuelling the war, NATO and allied countries? Now India is neither NATO country nor EU country nor interested in proxy wars nor interested in commenting on the war. But still EU wants India to respond. Mr. S Jayshankar, External minister of India broke the two faces of Europe. He said, ‘Europe should come out of mindset that Europe’s problems are worlds problems, but worlds problems are not Europe’s problems.’ He also slapped EU saying ‘Europe is the largest oil and natural gas importer from Russia. Look at the numbers, India’s full week’s oil consumption is probably less than Europe’s one day consumption. Now who is fuelling the war?’ On the contrary, when India opens up for cross border terrorism from Pakistan; no EU or western country is interested in commenting in favour of India. Whole world knows Pakistani scientist robbed nuclear papers from EU and created nuclear bombs and also sold those techniques to North Korea. Is any country commenting on that? No. Then why are you expecting India to comment against Russia. Now there are many other reasons why India is not condemning Rus but will discuss only that relevant to this heading. Finally, India is doing the same, they are looking at their own interest. They saved lot of dollars on gas and resold the gas to Europe and neighbours. There can be more examples, you can comment below. Sometimes, in Politics, it is quid-pro-quo. Meaning you give me ‘this’, I will support you on ‘that’. Especially if country is struggling to get monetary help, some other country who has money will come and help this poor country and seek some support or military bases, some trade reliefs, some political support etc. Example, China’s debt trap. China is throwing money heavily on countries like Pakistan, African countries, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Panama, Islands near Australia etc. They say it is to develop infrastructure, trade and relationships with the countries. But real reason is, they want access in the country to some military bases. They seek access to natural resources like mining to get raw materials at cheapest rate. This will help them keep up the production at low and fast rate. So, money for development or access to the land, is the intension of China. Another example is IMF, world bank etc. giving bail out packages. They will analyse the situation of the country and suggest some tax reforms, expenditure cut, opening the economy and other measures to boost economy so that more taxes will be collected and country can pay off the debt and interest. Tax reforms for Bail out. We will see next rules in part 4.

Ways in which Politics was played – Part 2 Some Unwritten rules in Politics are – In last blog ‘Unwritten rules in Politics – Part 1’, we saw how ‘divide and rule’ policy is used by the politicians historically. Now there are many other examples however it is practically not possible to cover more examples in a single blog. In this blog ‘Unwritten rules in Politics – Part 2’, we will see next two practices followed widely by the global politicians. Let’s begin. Remember there is ‘no permanent enemy or permanent friend’ in politics. It is clearly everybody’s own interest but no friendship matters. In a simple corporate world, e.g., you will clearly see your good friend competing with you. No matter how hard you helped the friend in the past life. That friend, needless to say, is going to beat you because he has personal interest in it. Though you will remain friends forever. Russia and China’s relations are somewhat on the same path. Both are communist countries; they are against western world and are nuclear capable powers. But when it comes to business, both will negotiate on their own terms. In fact, China claims Vladivostok, eastern city of Russia which is on the bank of Pacific Ocean, as their territory. Of course, Russia laughs at the statements. The bottom line is, Russia is not China’s permanent friend though they are not enemies at the moment. There can be clash anytime in future if situation worsens. China will want to defend and acquire territory of Russia and vice versa. Iran is not friend of India but when it comes to purchasing oil/gasoline, Iran is willing to sell and India is willing to buy it. Now interesting thing is there are sanctions levied on Iran, still India trades with Iran. India doesn’t care about sanctions because they will see their own interest. Iran never opposes India on any platform in the world because they know India is one of the largest importers of oil from Iran. Many examples are there, you can think of and comment below. I feel, the second biggest job in the world is marketing. Marketing for products, services, intensions, requirements. It changes perception of the people. It, politely insists people to buy the ideas of marketer. Marketers are real influencers. Marketing is a bigger terminology which covers many things. Like, advertising, sales (follow-on sales, vertical horizontal sales, maintenance sale, services sales), after sales, after market sales, joint sale and many more. Politics is even bigger than marketing and stands at number one. In fact, Politics includes the whole world. Meaning everything, except God, comes under marketing. Sometimes God is also made a part of politics, that’s a different story. Politics weaponizes marketing. Weaponizing marketing could be unwritten rule which we will discuss below. When I say politics weaponizes marketing, I can say that intense marketing is used to create, play and ponder politics well. Simply, whatever you want the world to digest, start marketing it. Start making narratives, run it in media discussions, use print media, videos, news media, press conference and messages. Also, keep in mind the timing of such marketing, building the narratives. Short marketing or even over marketing might ruin the agenda. It is like pressurizing the customer went in the restaurant, insisting him to try the new dish or dish which is not so good in taste or made very early in the morning and was waiting for customers, by building narratives around it. The waiter simply insists customer to try the ‘so-called’ authentic dish made in some famous sausages and decorated with vegetables and served with some cheese dump or sauces.  Real life example, Pakistan building narrative around Kashmir an integral part of India. It says the Kashmiri people are facing human rights violations. They are immensely under pressure of government and Police and army force etc. Narratives like ‘Article 370’ has been removed completely from Kashmir and so people have lost freedom etc. The fact is, article 370 was giving freedom to only specific group and they were using it to eliminate the blockages in their idea of freedom. But now after removal of article 370, the same freedom is extended to the rest of the part of Kashmir and Kashmiri people. Earlier, no person was able to buy the land in Kashmir if he is not belonging to Kashmir. If Kashmiri girl use to marry anyone from the rest of India, she was losing the right over ancestral property in Kashmir. At the same time if girl marries any Pakistani person, her property rights were kept intact. Around over 100 thousand Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) were killed or threatened to be killed if they were not leaving the Kashmir. All these narratives reduced Hindu population from the Kashmir region. Their intentions were to increase such population which will support Pakistan and Kashmir will become part of Pakistan even if a voting takes place. Reality would have been that, actual Kashmiris would not even vote or threatened to Pakistan over India. Now the article is no more in existence, all the rights of all people are reserved and now anyone can do business in Kashmir from any part of the country or even world. If Kashmir is facing sever human rights as per Pakistan’s narrative, 10.5 million people would not have visited Kashmir as tourists from all over country and world after removal of ‘Article 370’. Kashmir is on the track now and is earning both, attention of tourists and money as well. Migrant Kashmiris are returning home happily. Terrorists entering India crossing the border from Pakistan are being neutralized indiscriminately. If they are surrendering then they are being given chance to restart life from scratch by doing jobs or studies etc. For a second, if we assume Kashmir should be part of Pakistan, what the beggar Pakistan will feed Kashmiris without enough Money, when already there is energy, food, petroleum crises? They are already begging to IMF and world