George Soros is an influential man. Rich, old and dangerous, in the words of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Soros wants to reshape the world according to his left-leaning beliefs and convictions, while also enriching himself substantially in the process. A 20th/21st century equivalent of the ancient marauders, Soros is into spreading democracy—just as the looters and plunderers were into spreading civilisation once—as long as he can make a bundle of money in the process, even at the cost of social and economic chaos that his actions may cause in his target country. The problem is, when a country is ruled by democratically elected people Mr Soros dislikes, he immediately declares them as not being democratic and a fit case for removal from power. Mr Soros has long decided that India may be a democracy but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not. He has committed himself to the removal of Mr Modi and has even invested $1 billion for the “restoration” of democracy in India. Accordingly, he declared at the Munich Security Conference last week that the Hindenburg report on Gautam Adani has weakened Prime Minister Modi’s hold on the federal structure of India and “democracy” is about to be restored in India—in other words, the Opposition parties of Mr Soros’ choice will come to power in India soon. What strikes one in this is his ignorance of all things electoral in India. He does not understand that every charge hurled at the Prime Minister will be measured by the voter on the scale of his/her personal experience. The majority of voters believe the Prime Minister to be one of India’s tallest leaders ever, who is not only a man of strength and impeccable integrity but is also bringing real changes for the better, while also making India take its due place globally. Attacking the Prime Minister’s character has boomeranged on politicians such as Rahul Gandhi, whose Chowkidar Chor Hai campaign flopped so badly in the 2019 elections that the Congress was relegated nearly to the margins. When the Opposition stoops to making such wild charges it is seen as devoid of issues to take on the Prime Minister. It seems some people who are part of the Soros ecosystem have convinced him that casting aspersions on the Prime Minister has dented the latter’s popularity to such an extent that he is about to lose his chair. No wonder in Munich Soros was exulting—as much as one can exult in a frail, nonagenarian voice—about “Mission Accomplished”. It seems not to have occurred to him that India may not be following his script, which became obvious from the manner in which the Indian economy weathered the Hindenburg storm—with complete resilience. Some credit for that resilience should go to the government as well. The obvious question here is: is the Hindenburg report a product of Soros’ ecosystem?
Those who have started scraping the surface of Soros’ ecosystem are daily publishing eye-popping information about this man’s reach in India—from among individuals, to media and NGOs. The common thread among all these front people and organisations is their obsessive hatred for the Prime Minister. A lot of things are falling in place about the sudden coordinated attacks that are taking place, proving that $1 billion goes a long way in carrying out influence operations. The most problematic in this is India’s main opposition party’s—India’s Grand Old Party, the Congress—alleged relationship with the Soros ecosystem. To give just one example, it is unfathomable why the vice president of a Soros organisation, Open Society Foundation, should be walking shoulder to shoulder with Rahul Gandhi in the latter’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. The same man was seen with the protesters during the anti-CAA trouble and during the farmers’ stir as well. Why is it that both Rahul Gandhi and Soros are convinced that Adani as a campaign issue is the way to the Prime Minister’s downfall? It was interesting that Jairam Ramesh rushed out to protest against Soros’ Munich comment as soon as news broke, saying Indians were able to decide their own elections and did not need outside help. Was his an attempt to distance Rahul Gandhi from Soros, knowing that the BJP would make an issue of the Congress leader’s alleged connection with Soros? Ramesh is right that Indians will not tolerate any sort of foreign influence in their elections. And this is where Soros has played his cards wrong. By thinking he was adding heft to the Opposition’s campaign on the Adani issue, he has handed on a platter a weapon to the Prime Minister and his party—that the Opposition is so desperate to come to power that it has come down to seeking help from outside of the country.
A lot is at stake, the foremost being India’s reputation in a year that the G20 summit will be held in India. Let’s hope that Soros’ chest-beating will make the government more vigilant about all the influence operations that he and like-minded people have launched and will launch throughout the year until the elections. In fact, the government needs to be extra careful to ensure that there is no turbulence, either financial or social, aimed to destabilise the India story, which is what George Soros and Co are targeting for.
