EP 226 | Daily Global Insights | Aug 17, 2021 | Global News | US News | India News | Markets

Sree Iyer: Namaskar, today is the 17th of August, Tuesday and Welcome to Daily Global Insights with Sri and Sree. This is episode number 226. In Global News, President Biden addresses the nation. The buck stops with me. We did the right thing. We cannot be there forever. I am the fifth President to preside over this Afghan war and this Afghan war was not about nation-building. These were the salient points, he mentioned in his talk.  Sridharji, Welcome to PGurus Channel, and your thoughts on the presidential address and what did you do find interesting about what he said, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Good morning to everybody. Welcome, namaskar and looking forward to another great day. Mr Biden, at last, came out of his holiday, and he decided it’s appropriate for him to come and spend 15 minutes and address the nation which he did around roughly 3:50 p.m. yesterday East Coast US Time. He made his case, effectively to State, he took the advice. He did what was necessary. He inherited a timetable, which was set by the previous president, namely may withdraw and his observations were, they did the right thing, and they looked at the intelligence input, they looked at the defence input. And as you rightly pointed out that here on this is not about nation-building, we have done our job. And our mission was different. And so, therefore, we decided to move and he expressed extreme surprise that the Afghan army collapses very rapidly without a fight that was not anticipated. Now, he is going to do what is required, not only to make sure that the American citizens who are left behind are protected. But, whatever promises were made to both allies as well as the Afghans who helped on the ground will be met. So this was his case. It looks like in my humble observation. He tried to blame everybody except himself. So he passed the buck. He says, notwithstanding the fact he sent them the buck stops with me, but, the buck did not stop with him. It seems like, you know, he was generous in passing around the buck to everybody.

Sree Iyer: Sir, one observation, he says that this was not about nation-building but according to news reports. There are close to 20,000 Afghans and if you had their families about 50,000 Afghans, who have helped this government over a period of 20 years and they are all afraid for their lives. How is the United States going to take care of these people? If they did not participate in nation-building, then why employ such a high number in your opinion, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, it’s very interesting that these observations have been captured by the media and the media is sparing no second thought for Mr Biden, they’re going after him as you rightly observed. So first and foremost the disconnect, no, the United States was engaged in nation-building, 20,000 Afghans were involved and when you add those families, roughly more than 50,000, people who had promised that they would eventually when us leaves that, you know, they would be given the appropriate support. So, the United States was very much in nation-building, number one.

The second point, which, if I might continue, is that the Afghan forces were not prepared to fight that was his observation, wrong. Afghan forces fought along with the United States Army during the course more than 50,000 people have lost their lives. So, therefore, it’s incorrect to make a statement that the Afghan forces were not prepared to fight, that’s the second disconnect in his speech.

The third disconnect in his speech, if I have to, if I may continue and then I will hand it back to you. The third disconnect in his speech is that the misjudgement of the government, you know the Afghan forces have remained, the head of the government was the first one to flee, along with his deputy and, you know, by indications, he seems to have been stopped. He attempted to flee the country in a helicopter, taking four cars, somewhere, he was caught. So, there has been a complete misjudgement on the part of the administration. And to come in front of the audience’s, the US public, and make a statement of this kind, leaving out some of the key points, which has been roundly criticized by the mainstream media with no exception.

Sree Iyer: A lot of questions are being asked about the promise of Biden’s foreign policy. Senator Lindsey Graham, says, Trump would not have withdrawn from Afghanistan if chaos was going to be the outcome. The former Afghan advisor to the military tells the US handed, everything over to the Taliban when they decided to leave.  Mike Waltz says this is the same Obama team that participated in the Iraq disaster and the playbook that was played out. Jack Keane, a retired Major General, who’s now a Fox Analyst says that the Taliban may have paid out the Afghan Army. He also points out that the factual errors in Biden’s claims that we just went over. Sridharji, the fundamental point here is that there appears to have been some sort of a tacit understanding between the current government or whatever was there and the Taliban because looks like the forces did not put up much of a fight. That is what people are saying, looking at satellite imagery and saying that, look we didn’t see any tank movement. We didn’t see any artillery fall out or anything of that sort. So what really do you think happened there? And what was the basis by which Biden went to withdraw the forces? People are saying that he just listened to intelligence, which turned out to be wrong, your thoughts.

Sridhar Chityala: I think it’s an interesting set of questions that you’re bringing forth. I know, Mr Jack Keane, retired, Major General of the US Army has pointed out that, maybe the Taliban has paid out and basically they said, they did. Now, the other side, the adjacent media report that also points out is that many of these Afghan forces were given get tacit support, that some logistical support will be provided, as they take on the Taliban forces or the Taliban gorillas or whatever you want to call, Jihadist, terrorist or gorillas or the Taliban. So they were prepared to you know, provide tacit support. So they said the other set of claims that are coming out when the United States withdrew, they basically will do without the tacit support. The Afghan Army said you can give me all kinds of equipment and so on. I still have that not fought the wars, all the stuff that I have done is on the basis of the US having logistical support that being the deterrent, we were able to go in and you know, fight a battle. So, it looks like the US may have readied on the tacit commitment that was given to the Afghan forces. So this is kind of concluding observations on this, you know, on one hand, you say the Civil War or the other hand, you are saying after forces you fight with Taliban for what does that constitute that one. The 1b to that is all governments have been conducting negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar. Qatar being the formal headquarters of the Qataris, that’s where they have been camping and the Taliban have been conducting their activities. So you have on one hand conducting negotiations, and then you are saying, hey, you know, the only negotiation that was going on there is basically to say that they would be a transitional government comprising of both Taliban and the mainstream Afghans which is namely a sort of a coalition power-sharing arrangement, but having said that you can tell the Afghan Army go and fight them if they don’t, you know, if they don’t agree to the transitional government, it doesn’t work. So the Afghan forces, why would they be motivated? On one hand, these fellows are telling me to work with them to be part of the government. On the other hand, they’re telling me, pick up my arms and fight and shoot them to protect yourself. It doesn’t work. So, therefore, what did the Taliban do? Taliban proved everybody wrong, nobody except this. Taliban Proved everybody wrong. They’re issuing messages from domestic and they are issuing messages from Qatar. They basically saying we’ll come back, you know, Allah has given us victory and we will now serve the people, that’s the message. Today’s message, we’re giving amnesty to all women, women form the government. The summary is what people are saying is the truth. The truth is, this particular Administration has a miserable foreign policy, doesn’t matter whether it is Africa, doesn’t matter whether it is Afghanistan, doesn’t matter, whether it is, Syria doesn’t matter whether it is, Iraq, doesn’t matter as to what is happening in ASEAN and the South China Sea. It has no foreign policy. There is a loss of loosey-goosey stuff that is going on that is the overarching problem that the United States faces, which is the reason why Mr Rick Scott is saying is he competent to run and be commander in chief of the US Army?

Sree Iyer: And in related news Lloyd Austin, the US Defense secretary says that he has no intention of resigning. The Taliban will not get access to the reserves in the United States, says the United States official. First off, sir, so, whatever, the snafu that happened, someone in the United States government has to bear responsibility for this. And if it is not the Secretary of Defense, who in your opinion, should be that person’s or should that be Mr Joe Biden, he should say that, now, I’m not feeling too well. I will step down and make way for the vice president. Your thoughts, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: He has answered the question, the buck stops with me. So therefore he was found to be incompetent. He must go.

Sree Iyer: So this is our opinion because we are looking at the big picture. Also, viewers should draw their own conclusions. You should look at who was at the helm of Affairs when the Benghazi Massacre of United States officials happened in Libya and you will know how the continuity is being proven again and how disaster again, strikes at the foreign office. At least 7 dead in chaos at the Kabul Airport, as the US troops struggle to maintain order. Many of you may have seen this video where people were clinging onto the plane and they all fell from a high to death. Very, very sad. The United States evacuates 800 people aboard, a single C-17 jet amidst chaos in the Kabul Airport. Sridharji, on one side we are seeing the western Embassy saying that they are going to take their people out, on the other side we’re seeing the Russian and Chinese Embassy saying that they are going to stay put. So what is your take on the ground on this? And why these two differing opinions about the safety of the consulates?

Sridhar Chityala: Let me just wrap the previous segment in one, one other important point and then we will respond to this. Al-Queda exist in some form or the other apparently in all provinces. So, there is the footprint of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in all provinces and they’re already having a dialogue with the Taliban. Okay. So this is an important data point that has been ignored or left out which again these retired generals those who have knowledge of the on-ground situation in Afghanistan have pointed out. Again, many Indian media, which is mainstream media is also pointing out this the rationale being that it causes tumultuous circumstances from a security point of view in the region.

Now to respond to your other point, it is more a deterrent rather than there is a fear. For example, China has come out and stated that it is conducting its operations business, as usual, it is business as usual, that’s what they’re saying. So they’re conducting and they have not evacuated anybody, on the contrary other people like EU, and even India have started to evacuate basically fearing, what kind of circumstance or what kind of Direction the Taliban government can take based on the past experiences and past inferences. There’s nothing that says tomorrow, they come in and they’re going to have a major kind of, you know, change of opinion. But what is causing alarm amongst the many Western governments, including the United States is that there is no transitional government. There is not even 15-20% of the transitional government from any of the past regimes, which is the civilian government as opposed to the present format under which the Taliban operates. So this is the reason why one set of people are evaluating and the other set of people are continuing to stay. Probably Russians are also staying back as well.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed. They are and Russian the embassy further claims that the Afghanistan president fled with cars and helicopters full of money, you mentioned this in the initial statement. Afghanistan chaos caused by hasty US withdrawal says China, another Embassy, which is staying put.  This is very, very interesting information coming out of Afghanistan since we already touched on it. Let’s go to the next topic here, the US defeat in Afghanistan is a chance for lasting peace says Iran. All the neighbours are starting to weigh in. Threats exist, in Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq – Al Qaeda and ISIS are very much present say US Defense Experts. So, all these different nations, now, what has the US given rise to? When they pulled out of Afghanistan in such a hasty manner, looks like now they may have spawned not one, not two, but five caliphates all of whom are now going to start jostling for power and say that I am the original caliphates. And I am the one that everybody else should be listening to the 61 Islamic nations of the world. Sir, your thought this seems to be like a khichadi of magnitude, not imagined before.

Sridhar Chityala: Many people have seen some of the comments in our Daily Global Insights section. Why are we touching Africa, we should only focus on the United States and India right now. I’m specifically responding to this comment, which has come from a couple of people. The reason is the main danger is not just in Afghanistan alone. The main danger is in these two flashpoints. We already named one, which is called the triple “I” Iran, Iraq, Israel is a flashpoint. Then you have, you know, Syria, Lebanon is another flashpoint, then Africa’s Sahel region, which we have pointed out you have right from you know, West Coast, to East Coast, you know, Mali, Burkina Faso and Algiers goes all the way across to Somalia, Nigeria and Eritrea and so on. So you have a whole swag of issues cropping up there. Then, now you have  Afghanistan you know, adjacent to Iran, so therefore now you mentioned five caliphates, we don’t need to say anything. Please go and do your own research and figure out what is going on across these zones that we mentioned, and you googled yourself and find out, you know, were all the people. And I think some of the names were listed, by Sreeji. So you can go back and take a look. So we have a major Flashpoint emanating, remember the United States and until from and to some extent Bush Administration had put these conditions, but they were partially lifted under Obama reinstalled during the Trump Administration, now lifted, which is the only specific countries, you can go and look at those countries which were identified as potential areas of risk from visa and grant of entry to people. So, the reason why we are touching all this, you have one big issue called the China issue. Then, you have a second big issue called these mini territorial battles and the third is the lurking caliphate and terrorism emanating from the various flashpoints that we have been covering in DGI.

Sree Iyer: And as if this is all not enough, the thoughtless way in which many illegal immigrants are allowed access into the United States, has now started to raise its ugly head. These people were not tested for Covid and now are seeing states such as Florida, most of the south in the United States because see this is an unfettered, unregulated entry and we think it was about half a million. We don’t even know the number. Nobody is willing to part with the numbers and then as if it wasn’t enough that they allowed them unfettered access. They took them, they bust them all over the country. They also flew them all over the country. This is a disaster of gargantuan proportions that the Biden Administration has committed and then they go and ask the vice president to tackle it and the vice president is not there to be seen. So I don’t know what is going on, Sir. Let’s hope that the control comes back on this stuff. This is madness in my opinion.

Japan, Thailand and other nations are continuing to battle Covid-19 problems as the Delta variant cases keep rising. Sridharji, why is this, you know, shooting in the foot phenomenon that Biden Administration did in the first three months of his presidency?

Sridhar Chityala: I think, without mincing words. They seem to have three-four objectives. One of the objectives is the stimulus programs, they need to justify the stimulus programs. The stimulus programs, we will show you in the markets chart should have ended in the first week of December with the last tranche of 995 billion, so they need because many Democratic-led councils and governments are bankrupt. Republicans were steadfast in, not permitting the Covid money to be used to retool and put capital into the balance sheets of totally inept, inefficient administration’s. I’m not suggesting the only blue. They can also be red having. So, they didn’t want the money to be going. They said states, you fix your problem as to be appropriate, that’s number one.

Number two, this policy agenda is coming back from the Obama time, which is the harmonization of 11 to 12 million immigrants or illegal immigrants and many of the enforcements that took place during the Trump regime, again, we have shared the data in Daily Global Insights, the net impact during the four years of Trump regime, the number of people who came in and the number of people who went back because of the tighter enforcement policies and the border wall was being constructed and ICE having the specific rights. The net impact was 400,000 people coming into the United States under various harmonization programs. In the last 4 – 6 months, we have given the data up until June-July, we have 1.19 million people have come in and close to 1 million people have been apprehended. Why? Because they found success, whichever way you want to call it, they found success in the election battles in terms of… We don’t know, maybe that is still to be proven. Sree Iyerji has written a very good book and people should read the book and you can draw your own inferences as to how the election was conducted. So they have a multifarious agenda around this illegal immigration. Remember, Cubans are being sent back. But those who are from Central American countries like El Salvador, Mexico, etc are being allowed to come in. So you seem to have a different political stand including vice president madam visited these countries and supported near $400 million in aid to these countries. She feels that will help in the development of these regions and prevent illegals to come in. Again, she went on to say it is because of climatic conditions, these people are trying to flee these places which are very, very unpleasant in terms of a person of vice president’s stature making these types of observations. This is all one can infer, Sreeji, and I think you have as much research and data in your book. These are some of these salient features as to why these flood gates have been opened.

Let me finish, the worse, which again we have shown in Daily Global Insights that has been shared by some of the media, many of these illegal immigrants are being located and sent to various states. The governors are not aware, the counsellors are not aware, the mayors are not aware, the local administration is not aware, the school districts are not aware, the police are not aware. None of the people who manage the basic administration process from the ground up to the state level is unaware of when will these people land? They are being sent by buses. They are being sent by other forms of transport. Some of them even have been carried in Planes. None of them is tested and they are all located. They feel they have no obligation to report as a part of a federal structure. So what you’re now seeing is this explosion. What you are seeing is a rise in covid cases in many of the states. We will cover that in a minute in states like Florida, Texas, etc. Florida has shot up to the number two position. Number one is, obviously the Californians, they carry almost 35% of the active covid cases. Number two is now Florida. Fortunately or unfortunately, number three and number four still are Virginia and Maryland. Number five is Texas, which naturally is the habitat for all this first protocol of landing immigrants. Arizona is also making its way up notwithstanding the fact that it is not so densely populated. So these are all the things that one can infer. You can look at the data. You don’t need to listen to our words, but when you look at the data and it will become evident.

Sree Iyer: Let’s take a look at United States News h. House moderates reject Pelosi’s simultaneous vote proposal on the spending bill. Sir, this is something that DGI – Daily Global Insights has been emphasizing for a long time that this kind of reckless spending is going to blow up on the basis of tighter elections for the Democrats. Now, you are seeing that the moderates, I suppose it is a Manchin. Looks like he wasn’t pacified by all the sops given to him, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Manchin is from Senate. So you have house representatives who said ‘ hey, you can’t hold our infrastructure budget to ransom with this other budget item. Therefore, pass the infrastructure bill so, at least the benefits and employment begins to flow in the states because many of these people are in border states or borderline constituencies. They want money to flow in for life projects and that has been bipartisan acceptance and many of the projects, that we have listed seems to make sense in terms of the infrastructure.

Sree Iyer: Pardon me. I was looking at something else. Border Patrol takes on all the counterfeit covid vaccination cards from China. So now China is printing fake vaccination cards, sir.?

Sridhar Chityala: They are. There are images of the mail arriving plus the images of the CDC stamped covid forms. We will publish it in the PGurus article. It is really astonishing. Yes. They have seized a number of them. We will share the data with you and we’ll also do the images of the CDC forms.

Sree Iyer: Alexandria Cortez – AOC and Cory bush plead with the Democrats and Biden to open the floodgates for Afghan migrants, not to lose a moment of opportunity to bring them in and support them. Sir, this is the kind of stuff that they should not be talking about. This is way above their perception grade. And, I thought for a change, these progressives are kept their mouths shut. But, there you go again, they have started making noises.

Sridhar Chityala: I think that if you tell the progressives like Jayapal, Ihan, Rashida and AOC and so on, they would like to create a mini set of countries in each of these 50 states of United States. So we need to have mini Somalia, mini Afghanistan, mini Iran, mini Syria or mini Central American Republic’s to be replicated across the United States. That seems to be the agenda. They don’t understand that the United States has got a 28.5, I’m not going to count the 3.5 that is going to happen. I’m not counting the deficit even otherwise that’s going to come in. It is roughly about $900 billion in the 2022 budget. So we’re probably getting close to $29.5 trillion. They’re not satisfied. There are certain Nobel Laureate Economists who seem to think we’re not going to be alive to pay. So, therefore, keep on borrowing money. And what do you do? You add the interest cost and then you borrow more money. So, therefore, that is the spirit of the new thinking or the new normal that is prevalent in the United States.

Sree Iyer: In India news. We will help Afghan partners Hindus and Sikhs to come to India, India hosts the UNSC session and presides over the meeting on Afghanistan. Afghan students in Indian varsities fear for their lives and seek visa extensions. Viewers, I want to emphasize this again. India’s leadership at UNSC is only for a month. Half of that month is already elapsed. Let’s hope that India makes the best use of the remaining 15 days or 14 days of whatever is left to try and get some clarity on the Afghan situation. Sir, your thoughts. This is something that is logical. But how much, do you think the anti CAA resolution that got passed, thanks to the egging of some organizations in the United States, slowed down the implementation process of CAA  in the Indian government.

Sridhar Chityala: I think, the Indian government always is cognizant of its image as it tries to build its profile. How much of it has contributed towards the slow down? It certainly has. It seems to have slowed down. The only thing that one can say is that the law stands. I think the law is being contested in Supreme Court, but they are very steadfast on three things. One is the article 370 stands. They are steadfast on the CAA. Only the National Register of Citizens is the only one that’s left pending if I am correct. But the other two things stand. I think they’re going to execute it, especially the CAA they will enforce and execute because it affects a number of states, especially the eastern states, most notably Assam. So I believe that they will move forward. But has it slowed? Ya, to some extent it has.

Sree Iyer: Saudi Aramco in advance discussions with Reliance Industries to invest $25 billion and take a 20% stake in the RIL oil unit. Rural India outpaces demand and consumption relative to urban areas. Afghan situation will impact trade with India, but it’s not a big number. India now reaches record vaccine targets. It appears on course to reach its October-November target. We’re going to put up the covid numbers. Let us start with the numbers that you talked about for California. Because we need to start doing this thing quickly, sir. We’re already in our 31st minute. So can we have the chart for the US, please? Thank you. Sridharji, take it away.

Sridhar Chityala: This is the US chart now. So the US chart basically will show you that the active cases have jumped quite dramatically. The active cases are at 6.778 million. Please keep that number and go back and check what we have been saying. 6.778 million of which the active cases in California is 1.88 million. Florida, which is at number two is at 572,000. Marland is at 459,000. Washington state is about 263. Texas is about 238. So you can see the numbers. I’m talking about the active case numbers are substantive in number and the number you 6.77. So what does this mean? This simply means that the Delta variant is very active in the United States. It has forced the CDC and the US Administration to almost get ready to approve a booster dose. The booster dose will be given eight months after vaccine 1 and vaccine 2 are complete.

Sree Iyer: If we could have the world chart, please.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes, in the world chart, the United States as usual leads in terms of the active cases with 6.778 cases. Go back and if you see the chart you will see the United Kingdom which was roughly around 800-900 cases now gone to 1.3 million active cases. That is 400,000 cases which is equivalent to, whether you accept Indian numbers are not, is equivalent to the total active cases in India. Compare the population in UK with the population of India. Then, you have Spain, which has moved 650. Iran is now to 600, Brazil is 550. Actually, Brazil has done a terrific job. It was number two, number three, depending on the day but they have been able to contain it quite well, and they are now in the 500s. Russia, which was also in the big numbers, which are seen deaths has come to 550. France, surprise again, you see the agitations that they don’t want vaccines is at 450,000. Turkey is at 421. So India is in tenth place with about 376,000 cases. Take a look at the numbers. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc, The reason we have been reporting this is there are rising cases in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the ASEAN region. This also shows that the Delta variant is active and the numbers are rising in terms of the active cases.

Sree Iyer: Thank you very much. Can we take a look at India numbers, please?

Sridhar Chityala: In India, we focused very specifically on vaccines because that number is very critical. It’s amazing to see India across the 553 million marks and something that they have been aspiring for, of which dose 1 is about 431 million and the dose 2 is about 122,. When I said dose 2, these are people who have been given both dose 1 and dose 2. So when you combine those numbers, you have at least one dose is about 553 million. The number that has been targeted is somewhere around 800 to 900 million. It will help India to combat the next wave of Delta variants should it come. The rate of vaccination is now around 7-8 million a day and that again augurs very well. Yesterday, 8.72 million people have been vaccinated. It is a remarkable number. Even if they sustain between five and six million, you are talking about a hundred and twenty million vaccines in a given month. July was 75 million I’m told. Then, when you take a look at August, September, October, November, you would have added to 400 million dose-1 vaccines proportionately increasing dose-2. Getting these dose-1 vaccine numbers close to about 700-900 million number which, I think, crosses the threshold of 70%, the universe of India is 1.08 billion people. The population may be 1.3, but 1.08 million. So 70% is somewhere around that 700 million number. So again, what we wanted to point out is that the numbers do add up. The numbers look very promising to attack and tackle the covid situation.

Sree Iyer: Let’s take a look at markets now. Markets rose on optimism across all indices. Sridharji, take it away. I have the markets’ bitmap on the screen now.

Sridhar Chityala: The markets went up yesterday. It was down 100 points, went up 100 points based on three factors. The retail sales will be up and there’s a comfort factor now emanating. Yes, there is going to be the Delta variant but as is the case that the United States will address the Delta variant. Basically, there’s also been an uptick in the progression of the vaccination numbers. So we saw the markets going up yesterday.

Dow went up by 110 points. S&P went up by 11 points. S&P is an all-time record, we will cover that in a second. The good news is the oil charts. If you take a look, Brent is at 69 and crude is at 67. Well, again, if you take a look at the 10-year, it has dipped by 9 basis points. You only see 0.2, but we have been covering from 1.35 when you look at the Daily Global insights. It has come to 1.26 which effectively means that people can borrow at a lower cost.

The cryptocurrencies continue to do well. They have passed the two trillion. Yesterday, they were down by about $365 in Bitcoin. Ethereum was down by about 40.87. So the markets today are down close to 200 points in anticipation of the retail sales.

S&P, now, that this particular chart we have shared similar charts. If you take a look at the March 23rd S&P number, it was 2237. Today, it is around 4479. It has doubled. Now you can see the v-shaped recovery or the v-shaped curve that is reflected in the S&P charts.S&P chart represents the market index of about 500 companies. We have reported, over 80% of the companies have had positive earnings. Positive earnings are driven by three factors. One, it is driven by the pent-up demand. Two, it is driven by the nobility of the system and third, low-interest rates, which drive the earnings of the companies. This is an important chart, again, for people to notice that the stimulus that was given during that period enabled the v-shaped recovery. February to April is the time frame when the covid hit the market dramatically at that point in time. The cash infusion, one single infusion was given and then there was progressively 3 successive smaller and then culminating in December an infusion of $900 billion. The market is recovering. This begs the question of why you need $3.5 trillion. There is some agreement on $560 billion, which has been extended to $1.2 trillion or $1 trillion in infrastructure budget. The calling for additional stimulus is unwarranted and this chart shows the numbers.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed. The book that you were referring to, Sridharji, is my new book ‘Who Painted My State Purple?’ And with your permission, sir, I will pick up that screen now. Just give me one second. So it is up there now, it is available on amazon.com as an e-book. Viewers can download this and read it. It’s a story of fiction and you will find a lot of things that you perhaps may have skipped or may have not given a lot of attention on how the 2020 elections played out. We do hope that you support our effort and Sridharji certainly has been very helpful in giving me some reference points and then trying to also go over the script and helping me with some of the grammatical edits and so on.

Sridharji, thank you once again for taking this time out to share your thoughts on what is happening around the world. Viewers, we will be back again tomorrow. Same time. Same place. Do support us. At the beginning of our webcast, please like and share it. That helps us to gain more acceptance across all the social media platforms. We are also going to have some other ways in which we can get this data over to you. We will share those things in the next few episodes. Thanks for joining. Namaskar.

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Again, we had an extended session with a wide range of things with Afghan being the topmost topic.

Sree Iyer: Thank you, sir.