Modi aide cites Palestinian academic to counter Navarro’s Brahmin Profiteering remark
Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Economic Advisory Council, cited Palestinian academic Edward Said to counter Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro's ‘Brahmins Profiteering’ remark
[Palestinian-American Author Edward Said.]
New Delhi: Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Economic Advisory Council, cited Palestinian academic Edward Said to counter Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro's ‘Brahmins Profiteering’ remark.
The White House trade advisor opened a hornets’ nest by linking Mukesh Ambani’s buying of oil from Russia with Brahmins.
“Profiteering Brahmins”
Talking to Fox News in an interview, Peter Navarro also dubbed New Delhi a "laundromat for the Kremlin" and slammed the country's elite for profiteering "at the expense of the Indian people".
"India is nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin...You got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people," he said, alleging that Indian refiners were buying discounted Russian crude, processing it, and exporting it at a premium.
“Before Putin invaded Ukraine, India didn’t buy Russian oil to speak of — very, very small amounts. What happened? Now, Russian refiners provide discounts, India refines it, and then sells it at a premium to Europe, Africa, and Asia. It fuels the Russian war machine”, he said calling Russia-Ukraine war as “Modi’s war”.
“Orientalist Mentality”
Sanjeev Sanyal cited Edward Said’s acclaimed tome “Orientalism” to counter Peter Navarro’s “profiteering Brahmins” remarks.
"This is derived directly from 19th century colonial jibes going back to the likes of James Mill. Edward Said's point about Orientalism is perhaps more correct for India than his original thesis on Middle East”, Sanyal said.
The term Orientalism was coined by Edward Said in his 1978 book. Edward Said, who was born in Occupied Jerusalem, migrated to Egypt after 1948 Palestine War and then to the United States.
Said described Orientalism as a system of thought, scholarship, and imagery that constructs the "Orient" as the "Other" to the "Occident" (the West), and a Western portrayal of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern societies as exotic, inferior, and needing Western intervention, often used to justify colonial rule and reinforce Western superiority.
Russian Oil
Russia, one of the largest oil producers in the world is a member of OPEC+. The country is facing trade sanctions by the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine war. However, India, China and Brazil are doing business with Russia despite the sanctions, as per reports.
The case of India, however, is murkier, as it is reported, Reliance Industries of Mukesh Ambani is importing oil from Russia at a much cheaper rate but the benefits are not passed on to the people. This clearly negates the “market driven rate control policy for fuel” devised by the erstwhile UPA government.
Peter Navarro’s “profiteering Brahmins” barb is being read by many in this context.
[Ahmed Abdullah Faizee is Staff Writer at ummid.com.]
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