Indian navy Captures Bulgarian-Managed Merchant Ship From Pirates, Rescues Crew

The Indian navy recaptured the Bulgarian merchant vessel MV Ruen from Somali pirates, ensuring the safety of the Bulgarian crew.

Indian navy recaptures Somali pirate ship and frees crew

 

Nice to see someone else can play global policeman.

 

Isn't India now the world's most populated country? They need to stop doing business with Russia.

I understand the attraction of India to Russia. After decades of Russian propaganda in India I'm not surprised they remain friendly with the fascist government and leader.

I went to a book fair in Kerala state and it was full of Russian propaganda, much of it in English. Most of it was anti-US crap that I could see thru, but I knew the indians would be interested and believe without access to alternative media.

A few days later I has a good debate with a University student about the same subject.

You have to realize Kerala was and may still be a communist run state. I saw lots of these flags when I cruised the canals...

 

Well, all they have to do is just keep telling the story...

 

Some of the Russian propaganda in India was on target. The books talked about the US role in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, most of which I could agree with. However I didn't agree with the tone and their bragging about the Russian system right when their economy was in free fall.

Sorry for going off topic.

 

Kerala, Bengal,Tripura are three states among the 28 states in India, which had democratically elected a communist government. Nepal is a democratic country as well, which had elected a communist government.

The communists distributed the land held by the feudal landlords among the peasants and poor as part of its land reforms. So they enjoyed a lot of support back then in the early times.

Russia is a democratic and capitalist country at the moment. It has renounced its communist past and has embraced capitalism as well. I have met Russian tourists in India whom I mistook for Americans as they wore western attire and spoke fluent english.

So there is no Russian propaganda, only native communist propaganda against the excesses of capitalism and feudalism.

After the collapse of the USSR, much of Indian communists now retain ties with nearby China, and have supported it. So there is an ideological battle between the left and right in India. The communists are however few in numbers and does not have enough numbers to turn India into a communist state.

They have also suffered reverses in their states such as Tripura and Bengal in recent times which is a sign of their decreasing popularity.

Indian economy has a healthy combination of capitalism and socialism.

Socialism in the past ensured a healthy distribution of resources among the masses, ensured there is not much difference between the haves and have-nots to a large extent,and prepared the field for regulated capitalism without the danger of plutocracy overpowering democracy clandestinely.

Capitalism ensures that the highly competent and skilled gets rich and their due. Socialism on the other hand ensures that the poor and needy gets the necessities of life to emerge as future capitalists themselves through education and work ethics.

India has now embraced capitalism whole-heartedly and is reducing its socialist policies prudently, and is now the fastest growing economy in the world at the moment.

India's Q3 GDP growth at 8.4% sharply above D-Street estimates: 5 key highlights.

 

Hi Skip, hope you are doing well and fine, and enjoying your present adventures in life.


With respect to Russia, Russia has a multiparty system, with the dominant party being Upper Russia. The communist party is the second largest party which has never got numbers enough in elections to rule Russia .

The Russian constitution is democratic, republican and capitalist. However, as you noted, there are differences between that set in the constitution and
reality.

It is important to understand the historical context in Russia in this regard.

The Russians had lived as serfs under a callous feudalist structure and aristocracy for centuries, and later under the communist dictatorship in 1917 till 1990.
The transition to democracy came about just three decades back under an atmosphere of poverty, hyperinflation, corruption, economic mismanagement and so on.

Imho, they needed a few decades of peace and prosperity to get their democratic and economic structure and culture correct and to get over the teething issues, which they have unfortunately not had.

Russian democracy can still boast of the likes of opposition leaders like Boris Nemtsov and Navalny and the recent Nobel Prize winning journalist Dmitry Muratov.

Yes, this itself should give vital hints that American democracy has been derailed by deep state entities and is not in optimal functioning mode.

Democracy in itself is not a holy word as such, and like any government it will be judged by the quality of its decision-making.

Athenian democracy killed Socrates on false assumptions and poor decision-making.

I would say that Socrates would have been alive and well under the cultured and wise Prussian king Frederick the Great, who was known for his patronage of scholars and free thinkers like Voltaire.

Same would go for the benevolent dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was a studious scholar himself and patronised other scholars, scientists, artists and free thinkers and sought their company.

So the quality of any government, including democracies should be assessed by their judgement and decision-making.

Western democracies has shown poor judgement in recent times. For example, the invasion of Iraq on faulty assumptions of wmd which were not found. The invasion which came at heavy costs of expense and casualties highly destabilised the region and created a far bigger monster of ISIS. With its high liquid assets and manpower at its command around the world, it is clearly a far bigger threat to civilization than Saddam Hussein.

Same goes for the Afghanistan debacle in 2021 after 20 years of military operations and trillions of dollars down the drain.

These kind of events obviously would not inspire confidence in democratic leadership at present and shows that there are obvious gaps to be plugged in knowledge banks and decision-making practices.

Yeah, I would say the countries of Europe which has a welfare state and capitalist-socialist structures are better emulatory examples for India. I would say the same goes for the US.

I am sorry that the richest nation in the world still has a growing body of hundreds of thousands of homeless people living on the streets lacking affordable healthcare, housing and education which citizens in other welfare states can access freely or in a subsidized manner.

This itself is used as propaganda by nations opposing the US to highlight its failures as a nation. Rather than building up expensive military alliances to fight other nations thousands of miles away, US can do more for fostering democratic values and freedom by ensuring all its citizens have basic facilities of housing, inexpensive education and health-care as in other welfare states around the world. The US can do more for democratic values by example rather than precept and coercion.

As a well-wisher,I am hoping that American leaders, official and unofficial, can address these issues effectively.

 

On January, the Indian navy had responded to distress calls from a UK oil tanker and an American merchant vessel, rendering fire-fighting services and crew rescue.

Indian Navy helps douse fire on UK oil tanker attacked by Houthis in Gulf of Aden

On 27 January, the Indian navy responded to a distress call from a UK oil tanker MV Merlin Luanda, that caught fire after Houthi missile attack.

Indian Navy's INS Visakhapatnam, a guided missile destroyer, deployed in the Gulf of Aden deployed a team to help fire-fighting on the United Kingdom's merchant vessel. According to Navy provided information the distress call was made on the night of 26 January, Friday.

The captain of the UK merchant vessel praised the Indian Navy for fighting fire on his vessel after it was hit by a missile. He says “The Indian navy went out of the way with its specialised team to help them"

On 18-1-24, the Indian Navy on Thursday successfully rescued the crew of the US-owned vessel Genco Picardy in the Gulf of Aden after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi movement, Reuters reported.

Indian Navy Rescues Crew of US-Owned Vessel After Houthi Attack in Gulf of Aden