Current News
Indo-china disputes
-Devansh Mishra
Snow-capped mountains lay on either side. Soldiers were just gearing up. Their boots sank deep into the thick layer of ice below their feet, and they trudged up to the entrance of the Galwan valley. An icy sensation hung in the air around them, as the soldiers marched on to take their designated positions. The exact same thing had happened 58 years ago, and no one would have thought that history was repeating itself. They were laced with firearms, but their nations had agreed that its use was disallowed in order to maintain the peace. A total of 600 soldiers were involved in the incident, and the casualties were many. It was June 15, 2020, and a war started.
A fight broke out in the Galwan River valley on June 15 between the Indian and Chinese forces. It was mostly hand-to-hand combat, but the Chinese troops were reported to use iron rods and clubs too. There were casualties for both the sides, with India losing 20 men (including an officer), and China losing an unknown number of men (including an officer). But this wasn’t the only time peace was disturbed on the Line of Actual Control between India and China this year. The first feud occurred at the shore of the Pangong Tso lake, located at a border between India and Tibet, on May 5 and 11 of this year, with similar events as the latter one. Since this clash between these two nations in May, there are on-going tensions between the superpowers, while attempts for diplomatic resolve have been tried by ministers on both sides.
From China’s perspective, this fight was actually instigated by the Indian forces, when they built "illegally constructed defence facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region", reported The Global Times, a Chinese newspaper. China has made several attempts of trying to occupy land on the Sino-Indian border over the last few months, which ultimately caused these fist-fights to occur. Some experts have discerned that the advancement made by China might also be a show of strength to the world, proving that the COVID-19 crisis is behind them and they are moving forward. China may also be trying to protect its assets in the Ladakh region for future use. Allegedly, India, on the other hand, are responding to these intrusion attempts with just the amount of firepower as China. Although it may be just a reaction to the Chinese advances, Indians have no lesser hand in these fights.
After the melee fights on May 5, India and China seeked a diplomatic resolve, but that didn’t stop subsequent fights, and rather fueled it. Petty disputes kept going on up until the Galwan Valley fight, killing soldiers on either side. This provoked PM Modi to give an address to the nation which was also intended to give a strong message to the Chinese armed forces. On July 5, a meeting between the National Security of India and the Foreign Minister of China yielded some positive results. Both the sides agreed to step 1.8 km back from PP 14, the place where the Galwan skirmish happened, a pact which both parties adhered to.
There have been talks where the general public has appealed to the society to boycott Chinese goods from the Indian side. In the talks, they have strongly suggested the ban of imported goods from China to be the top priority for a strong response to the superpower. However, authorities have confirmed that the trade between the nations will be unaffected even after the border disputes.
India has also seen a social media response to these border fights. Tensions between the Indian government and a Chinese social networking platform, WeChat, where the platform removed PM Modi’s tweets on the subject, saying it ‘divulged in state secrets and endangered national security’. Subsequently, the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok and WeChat, after ordering all e-commerce companies to show a ‘place-of-origin’ of their products. Many Chinese companies faced losses in the millions due the boycott of their goods in India.
Unfortunately, however thrilled I am that TikTok got banned (believe me, it was like a dream come true), it is not the way to respond to a skirmish between two superpowers. If I were to use an analogy, it will be like a mom sending her 2-year-old twins to time-out corners because they got into a fight. It just isn’t the solution to the root of the problem.
The boycott of Chinese goods will not be effective at all. First of all, a large percentage of the world's products are manufactured and developed in China. Even if India boycotts all their goods,which is a big if, it may be a hit to the Chinese economy, but they will end up stabilising in the end. A large 14% of India’s imports come from China, and it will take ages for India to produce a like for like substitute themselves. Besides, why do you want to deprive a nation’s citizens of a good quality product from China to get a lower quality product from someone else, just to sink their economy and get ahead yourself. This world is about moving forward together with global gain and not just personal gain.
Sino-Indian relations have quite rarely been peaceful. Historically, they have made over five treaties with each other to maintain the peace on the border. This time too, the only solution is diplomatic resolutions. Boycott on either side will prove to be futile in the end. War is not the answer for everything, or rather anything at all. As 2020 has shown us quite spectacularly, World War III is just around the corner, which will prove to be the annihilation of the human race. Border skirmishes will just add fuel to that fire. Disputes like these should be avoided and stopped at all costs, otherwise, the extinction of our species is just a one-way road.
school's in
-ananya aaliya
A week after revoking their controversial policy for international students, federal officials of the United States have barred foreign students from entering the country if they are taking all-online classes this semester.
According to ICE, these rules apply to “non immigrant students in new or initial status after March 9”. A report that they had made stated that there were around 1.3 million students that held the non immigrant status. Several prestigious universities have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration. “This guidance undermines the thoughtful approach taken on behalf of students by so many institutions, including Harvard, to plan for continuing academic programs while balancing the health and safety challenges of the global pandemic,” said Lawrence Bacow, the President of Harvard.
This new announcement will affect these colleges and the American financial state greatly, as international students taking university courses bring around $41 billion to their economy.
This also puts the safety of these college-age children in question. Several students from India are now left confused as to what to do, and are debating going to school this fall and putting themselves at risk. It has received a lot of backlash from angry students, and institution authorities. President Trump’s statement has been seen as a move to pressurize institutions taking a cautious approach towards school in this pandemic, and is seen as another step in his plan to deport immigrants and the non-citizens of the States, as mentioned throughout his presidential campaign.
The real question is whether this should be a politicized opinion, as this policy is blatantly a lose-lose situation for students, and also a risk of their health. With a death toll of 144k, America is at an all-time high in terms of COVID-19 cases. These statistics deem the United States to be unsafe, and the ICE has put students into a dilemma of what they value more: safety, or higher education.
yemen:
a battleground of famine and war
-shravan h
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has never been as terrible as it is today, with around 1500 lives being taken every month on average. Having claimed over 100,000 lives overall, the Yemeni Civil War has shaped the country into a zone of famine, death, and division that very few of us can imagine. The United Nations has termed the crisis in Yemen as “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” having worse impacts than the deadly bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after WWII. However, it has not received anywhere near the amount of media attention it deserves, and a majority of us have no idea of its cause.
Yemen has historically been a country torn apart by war, but this Civil War has its roots in a crisis from 2011. During a period of anti-Government protests all across the Middle East, the previous leader of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was replaced by the current President Mansur Hadi.
Hadi’s Government has always been weak and ineffective against Islamic extremists, and moreover, most of his security personnel were still loyal to the previous leader, Saleh. This triggered an armed movement orchestrated by the “Houthi rebels,” a group of Islamic extremists loyal to Saleh. These two sides - Hadi’s official Government and the Houthi rebels - have been interlocked in a power struggle since 2014. The Houthis’ plan to take over the Middle East is one of the primary factors that contributes to the violence, as well as Hadi’s stubbornness and idealism.
The United Nations has frequently discussed the various war crimes committed in Yemen, and many countries have condemned the Government and its supporters for their violent, repressive acts during the war. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator categorized the Government-supported, Saudi-inflicted airstrike on the Yemeni city Sa’ada as clearly breaching Humanitarian Law. The Houthi rebels have also bent the rules on various occasions. According to the EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, the Houthis have actively been cutting off transport between Aden and Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen, and have killed at least 50 innocent citizens in Taiz in one year.
The War has had far-reaching impacts, going beyond the Middle East. The USA, UK and Canada have received outpours of backlash for their alleged military support to Hadi, as evidenced by their military deals with Saudi Arabia. Saudi too has been extensively participating in the aforementioned airstrikes, and has played a part in the extensive devastation of Yemen. Western countries are providing military assistance to the Saudi-backed Hadi faction due to their active trade deals and requirement for oil, which is found in abundance in the Middle East.
Its effects in Yemen itself, however, have been devastating. Around 20 million Yemeni citizens are undergoing food insecurity and almost 10 million are expected to experience famine. There have been various examples of airstrikes over Yemeni land that are treated as crimes against humanity. Young children, children of my age, have been recruited by both factions to fight in the war, and nearly 1,200 children died only in the year 2019 as a result, a shocking 61% of casualties being caused by Saudi offensives. Yemen is doing no better on the economic front, with reports predicting that 79% of the country will be in poverty by 2022.
Violence thrives in Yemen to this day, and it has not gotten any more peaceful since 2015. However, there is a ray of hope for Yemeni citizens that may begin bringing the war to a ceasefire. In the past few weeks, supporters of Yemen’s official Government have been facilitating peace talks with their opponents in Yemen, hopefully eliminating a large part of the external violence that has occurred in the country.
Yemeni citizens are incredibly hopeful that these new peace talks will create a unified Yemen where all its people can rejoice and live without a looming threat of war. It is difficult to imagine a future for Yemen right now, but all of us hope the country will become a home for happiness, calm and freedom and a testament to solidarity and peace. Until then, we can contribute by signing a petition to end the famine and the war in Yemen, and donating to the various charities associated with the project.