No Cooperation : Only Competition

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Yuval Noah Harari the best selling historian of the world, in an interview to India Today, passionately advocated  cooperation between nations as the only panacea to fight the Corona menace. But he has been proved wrong.  All efforts by global thinkers and leaders to organise the human order into a cooperative system of humanity have failed in the past. The Country, Bharat that is India which always believed in Basudhaiba Kutumbhakam ( The World is one Family) never could demonstrate  its efficacy in any crisis. The Mahabharat War is a typical case in point. Man by his very nature seems to be a dominating animal allergic to cooperation or fellow feeling. For this failing in man all scriptures, literatures and humanitarian philosophies advise cooperation. Man seeks cooperation, if at all, to tide over a crisis but there too the aim is always individual not universal. In today's Covid 19 dominated world too man does not want to share the suffering of others nor does he cooperate with the fearful to alleviate his suffering. This pandemic is used as  an opportunity by scheming men to control the purse strings of the world to control the political and economic powers of the impoverished  countries. China which gave this Corona to the  world is now overbusy to coronate itself over the world with a world power coronet. China is now trying to browbeat the neighbours and small countries by military might and also fancifully tests the patience of great countries like India.

Globalization today is dying if not already dead. The reason is the obvious rise of rationalistic temper even in the democracies. This has happened primarily to save democracies from the MNC's- Multinational  corporations. People vote for governments not the corporates whose  main aim is      to spread their business and make money. With this in view corporates even influence  voters in small (even big) democracies. Take the case of India. She sends Mangalyana and Chandrayana. But she has not yet produced an Aircraft, not to talk about fighter jets. The country which has produced ICBM's, Agni- Brahmos- Akash, the same country has  come out only in 2019 with Tejas  which holds no  candle to F16's or Raphael. India has not yet produced an assault  rifle like what it imports, AK 47. Even a howitzer is at present  beyond its ken. Even Ganesh, Saraswati icons swarm our markets from China. Our food habits have changed, sartorial  habits have become outlandish. Yet we say India once in history was the golden bird...

In the Corona Age changes in attitudinal dynamics have become fast and furious. Donald Trump won the American Presidential Elections giving the slogan 'America First'. It was however not original. Roosevelt had  given the first cry of America First. The American Dream of the thirties of the last century with the Acres of diamond pride made the post war America rich and prosperous. How could it come? It came not by cooperation with the world powers but by competition in the world market with their local products. The Kentucky Fried chicken, Coca Cola are not Jesus Fish or Manna Dew. Indian Chicken Tikka is more delicious. But a Liberal temper to cooperate  and accept universal variety made the world globalised in many ways. Yet Globalization was a mere economic exploitation of the MNC's of the rich and crafty nations .

We have not yet  entered the post Covid world. If at all we ever attain that stage, we cannot accept  cooperation between nations. The symptoms are now loud and clear. America, whether Trump gets his second term or not will try to avenge China for Corona spread.  Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia and also India, in a more  reticent manner, will endeavour to see the fall of China.  A new kind of strategic partnership will emerge isolating each country from the general good of mankind. A new identitarian  politics will be played by all nations. Trump has already done it  by withdrawing from WTO and now from World Health Organisation. Modi in India has already given  a call, for 'Jan' (individual )to 'jug' (world)', that is from the Indian to the  Universal. For this he has given the call 'be vocal about the local'. Produce here; from toothpaste to fighter jets,  from the halwa to howitzer, from new inventions to space craft. All this mean only fierce  competitions and not cooperation. All industrially rich countries will now try to surround China and checkmate its territorial and super power ambition. It is true that china very cynically tried to exploit the Covid -panic world. Much before China  let the WHO know about the outbreak of  Covid pandemic it was ready with masks, Personal Protection Equipment and some drugs. All Chinese Kits have been rejected by the countries of the world as ineffective and faulty. India too has rejected the Chinese kits. As a consequence China is now trying to use her military powers to subjugate  smaller countries and browbeat countries like India.

In this scenario most oil importing countries will find energy substitutes. India farsightedly has already made advances in the sphere of solar energy. Now today's call for local manufacture. All this will change the topography of the world. If countries which are not self sufficient in oil go in for alternatives the gulf countries will fall. A new Islamic backlash similar to the IS may create mayhem. But the victim will be cooperation . In India the states too will compete with each other. Cooperative federalism will get a shock. The approach by corporates will change. The world may not be a happy place to live in.