@@MaTara01 That's because he reinforces your narratives. Interesting people should always challenge my narratives rather than keep me in an echo chamber where one praises and overestimate oneself an be happy. That's me prefering realism over idealism though, you may have your own preferences in a democracy. For me, switching off to him as as easy as to Gao. Both parrot government lines. Or to give an example at home, ORF parroting the present MEA's talking points sounds exactly like CPR parroting MEA lines during Congress times. One might even ask why S. Jaishankar's son heads the ORF America and Mani Shankar Aiyar's daughter heads CPR. Things are never black & white. Good day. :)
@@tut7345 Thanks for your input. I agree with your views to a certain extent. The whole think tank business is about building or reinforcing narratives; he who pays the piper calls the tunes. Given that the West, the Rest (mainly China & Russia), the Right & the Left are hugely invested in the think tank game, it's about time, India stepped up to put it's own views forward, given that everyone who is anyone in the global arena has an opinion on India. I have very rarely come across think tankers who are truly unbiased - in fact, they have their own echo chambers. Given that in spite of the plethora of think tanks for every economic sector in the West, the tendency of the West to lurch from one self -inflicted crisis to another has been phenomenal. Course correction seems to happen, only post crisis. Somehow all these super -intelligent Western experts seem to miss the obvious,even though the writing on the wall is evident for many in the general population. What do you attribute it to - myopic idealism or hubristic self-belief? Things do seem to be very black and white in the West, particularly, in USA! Contrary to popular belief, on average most Indians are quite pragmatic & have the ability to see through BS. I have my differences with Sameer, Jai Shankar & the GOI's policies/views on many things, but I certainly know that Sameer has far more independence in stating his views than Gao ever has or ever will. In equating both of them together, you are displaying your own bias - I mean ,you must acknowledge that Gao's English is far more painful to follow than Sameer's! And yes, I agree that it is an absolute cesspit of nepotism, when it comes to Indian politics, journalism, publishing, academia, NGOs thinktanks etc. It is truly shameful that Jaishankar's or Tharoor's sons, Aiyar's daughter, Haidar's daughter in law etc. get to secure the plum jobs that they do. Truly disgusting!
@@MaTara01 I am not literally equating them but in the sense than both parrot government hyperbole. Of course the one from a dictatorship will have less of a choice in the matter than the one from a democracy. "Contrary to popular belief, on average most Indians are quite pragmatic & have the ability to see through BS," I'd be less pragmatic on this but no matter however one sees this it remains a point of generalisation with no factual basis. Everyone to the amount of Indian society they have witnessed. Of course things are black and white in the US. What else do you expect from a nation with no actual history/tradition/culture of its people before 1776. Since then and until date things are literally black and white in the US. Yes, think tanks do have biases but to have this level of it is only possible when an organisation is heavily dependent on government funding, or funding from businesses with ear of the government. He literally sounds like a cabinet minister when he speaks about government policies which I see as a problem. I agree that majority of Western IR commentators neither understand India nor are making an effort to. But by orating the way Samir does, we are basically telling them that they are idiots and we do not care what they think. I however, disagree with this approach and believe that they need to be schooled in a more humble and polite manner. Just telling them that they do not understand India or FP from an Indian PoV isn't enough when efforts are not being made to tell them how they can change they way they see India. That's just how I see it, you may see it differently.
@@tut7345 Lots of think tanks parrot government hyberbole or anti-government hyberbole -I certainly can see through it and get the real picture, especially, when it comes to India & a few Western countries because of my lived experience of those countries. I prefer government hyperbole based on facts to outright propoganda based on lies. Facts can be manufactured - it all depends on what questions you ask, what measurements you use etc. - facts can also be twisted or overlooked to suit one's own agenda. As is well known in academia, you can commission & massage research reports on fossil fuels, sugary drinks, medicines, health - everything under the sun - to suit the interest of the donor. Happens all the time. Commission the report to suit your agenda, essentially buying off the scientists - start lobbying the governments - buy a few politicians, journalists & activists off and yoohoo you've bought yourself a few decades of continuous profit. You can dismiss my view on Indians, but the problem is that facts do not always give the full picture - how do you measure the pragamatism of a particular society? It is a formless subconscious mindset thing that cannot be accurately measured. Perhaps, the best & most recent example of this Indian pragmatic vision that I can give you is the success of ISRO's Chandrayaan 3. The facts don't make complete sense when it comes to the continuous success of ISRO, especially, given its budget - to quote Sameer, "price comes to India and dies!" The West doesn't understand polite and humble - that's been tried many times by many countries for the last 7 decades, both by Western allies like Hungary to Western enemies like Iran & non-aligned / multi- aligned countries like India. It only understands hard power & hard capital. It acts purely out of self -interest, irrespective of the democracy/environment/governance/human rights candyfloss narrative it feeds itself & the rest of the world. Everything is transactional & follows the money. EU solidarity & their concern for the rest of the world is much like "haathi ke daant, dikhane ke kuch khane ke kuch"- EU is on thin ice & they know it. And as far as I am concerned, they are idiots, demonstrably so, given the number of debacles that they have fostered in geopolitics, finance, digital & other fields in the past few decades. They've got away only because they are rich & sit at the top table with people who look exactly like them and suffer from the same confirmation bias. Privelege is very hard to part with - charitable feelings exist as long as one's privilege is secure. Words are easy; actions are a lot harder to pull off, especially, in the entitled West, which in its pursuit of individualism & capitalism, has fostered cannibalism by the states of their own people/migrants/refugees et al! Karma does bite back! I don't see why we should give the impression that we care what they think (which comes from a colonial mindset), when quite frankly, we don't care what they think (truly speaking)! We are paying them back in their coin - they'll understand that much better! We just need to tell them - "It's business, dudes! Cut out the BS, please." They've already changed their minds, and that's why India is getting a look in. I mean, there's no other place, where Western capital & corporations can go and reap the kind of rewards that they can in India.
It was a very enlightening conversation, just one small suggestion, microphone quality need to be improved, the voice had less clarity
360p video?? Sir, this is 2023😊
yeah, audio is very bad
Samir sounds like India's future Victor Gao!
He doesn't really. Switching off to Gao is super easy, Sameer is a far more interesting & entertaining speaker! I love his jibes!
@@MaTara01 That's because he reinforces your narratives.
Interesting people should always challenge my narratives rather than keep me in an echo chamber where one praises and overestimate oneself an be happy. That's me prefering realism over idealism though, you may have your own preferences in a democracy.
For me, switching off to him as as easy as to Gao. Both parrot government lines. Or to give an example at home, ORF parroting the present MEA's talking points sounds exactly like CPR parroting MEA lines during Congress times. One might even ask why S. Jaishankar's son heads the ORF America and Mani Shankar Aiyar's daughter heads CPR. Things are never black & white. Good day. :)
@@tut7345 Thanks for your input. I agree with your views to a certain extent. The whole think tank business is about building or reinforcing narratives; he who pays the piper calls the tunes. Given that the West, the Rest (mainly China & Russia), the Right & the Left are hugely invested in the think tank game, it's about time, India stepped up to put it's own views forward, given that everyone who is anyone in the global arena has an opinion on India. I have very rarely come across think tankers who are truly unbiased - in fact, they have their own echo chambers. Given that in spite of the plethora of think tanks for every economic sector in the West, the tendency of the West to lurch from one self -inflicted crisis to another has been phenomenal. Course correction seems to happen, only post crisis. Somehow all these super -intelligent Western experts seem to miss the obvious,even though the writing on the wall is evident for many in the general population. What do you attribute it to - myopic idealism or hubristic self-belief? Things do seem to be very black and white in the West, particularly, in USA!
Contrary to popular belief, on average most Indians are quite pragmatic & have the ability to see through BS. I have my differences with Sameer, Jai Shankar & the GOI's policies/views on many things, but I certainly know that Sameer has far more independence in stating his views than Gao ever has or ever will. In equating both of them together, you are displaying your own bias - I mean ,you must acknowledge that Gao's English is far more painful to follow than Sameer's!
And yes, I agree that it is an absolute cesspit of nepotism, when it comes to Indian politics, journalism, publishing, academia, NGOs thinktanks etc. It is truly shameful that Jaishankar's or Tharoor's sons, Aiyar's daughter, Haidar's daughter in law etc. get to secure the plum jobs that they do. Truly disgusting!
@@MaTara01 I am not literally equating them but in the sense than both parrot government hyperbole. Of course the one from a dictatorship will have less of a choice in the matter than the one from a democracy.
"Contrary to popular belief, on average most Indians are quite pragmatic & have the ability to see through BS," I'd be less pragmatic on this but no matter however one sees this it remains a point of generalisation with no factual basis. Everyone to the amount of Indian society they have witnessed.
Of course things are black and white in the US. What else do you expect from a nation with no actual history/tradition/culture of its people before 1776. Since then and until date things are literally black and white in the US.
Yes, think tanks do have biases but to have this level of it is only possible when an organisation is heavily dependent on government funding, or funding from businesses with ear of the government. He literally sounds like a cabinet minister when he speaks about government policies which I see as a problem.
I agree that majority of Western IR commentators neither understand India nor are making an effort to. But by orating the way Samir does, we are basically telling them that they are idiots and we do not care what they think. I however, disagree with this approach and believe that they need to be schooled in a more humble and polite manner. Just telling them that they do not understand India or FP from an Indian PoV isn't enough when efforts are not being made to tell them how they can change they way they see India. That's just how I see it, you may see it differently.
@@tut7345 Lots of think tanks parrot government hyberbole or anti-government hyberbole -I certainly can see through it and get the real picture, especially, when it comes to India & a few Western countries because of my lived experience of those countries. I prefer government hyperbole based on facts to outright propoganda based on lies. Facts can be manufactured - it all depends on what questions you ask, what measurements you use etc. - facts can also be twisted or overlooked to suit one's own agenda. As is well known in academia, you can commission & massage research reports on fossil fuels, sugary drinks, medicines, health - everything under the sun - to suit the interest of the donor. Happens all the time. Commission the report to suit your agenda, essentially buying off the scientists - start lobbying the governments - buy a few politicians, journalists & activists off and yoohoo you've bought yourself a few decades of continuous profit.
You can dismiss my view on Indians, but the problem is that facts do not always give the full picture - how do you measure the pragamatism of a particular society? It is a formless subconscious mindset thing that cannot be accurately measured. Perhaps, the best & most recent example of this Indian pragmatic vision that I can give you is the success of ISRO's Chandrayaan 3. The facts don't make complete sense when it comes to the continuous success of ISRO, especially, given its budget - to quote Sameer, "price comes to India and dies!"
The West doesn't understand polite and humble - that's been tried many times by many countries for the last 7 decades, both by Western allies like Hungary to Western enemies like Iran & non-aligned / multi- aligned countries like India. It only understands hard power & hard capital. It acts purely out of self -interest, irrespective of the democracy/environment/governance/human rights candyfloss narrative it feeds itself & the rest of the world. Everything is transactional & follows the money. EU solidarity & their concern for the rest of the world is much like "haathi ke daant, dikhane ke kuch khane ke kuch"- EU is on thin ice & they know it.
And as far as I am concerned, they are idiots, demonstrably so, given the number of debacles that they have fostered in geopolitics, finance, digital & other fields in the past few decades. They've got away only because they are rich & sit at the top table with people who look exactly like them and suffer from the same confirmation bias. Privelege is very hard to part with - charitable feelings exist as long as one's privilege is secure. Words are easy; actions are a lot harder to pull off, especially, in the entitled West, which in its pursuit of individualism & capitalism, has fostered cannibalism by the states of their own people/migrants/refugees et al! Karma does bite back! I don't see why we should give the impression that we care what they think (which comes from a colonial mindset), when quite frankly, we don't care what they think (truly speaking)! We are paying them back in their coin - they'll understand that much better! We just need to tell them - "It's business, dudes! Cut out the BS, please."
They've already changed their minds, and that's why India is getting a look in. I mean, there's no other place, where Western capital & corporations can go and reap the kind of rewards that they can in India.
Sameer deconstructing India/Bharat for Americans, ABCDs (American Born Confused Desis), CDs (Confused Desis) & JCs (Just Confuseds)!! Wonderful discussion, awful acoustics, though.