Sree Iyer: Hello and welcome to PGurus Channel and I am Sree Iyer your host, it is episode number 48 of news capsule and we have our guests as always, Sridhar ChityalaJi. SridharJi Namaskar and welcome to PGurus Channel.
Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar, and good morning all.
Sree Iyer: Good morning to you sir, and good morning to all our viewers we lead off with a lawsuit being filed by Texas against Michigan, Georgia and a few other states and then, I can just read the headlines for you the state of Texas filed a lawsuit directly with the SCOTUS, shortly before midnight on Monday, challenging these election procedures in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on the ground that they violate the constitution. Now, what can you tell us about this? And this has appeared in Breitbart for those of you who want to go and read the entire article, but there is a very fundamental point that the state of Texas has raced here, isn’t it?
Sridhar Chityala: It is, firstly I think it’s fascinating because it’s breaking news. Their target is battleground States, probably Arizona included them. The fundamental contention is that there are a common set of rules which forms the basis of the formation of the Federation, that was the consistent set of principles that with unique nuances in each state to be passed. So, the electoral process is one of the most fundamental and salient features of the Constitution. So, what Texas is saying is that when a set of rules has been agreed in the constitution in the conduct of the elections where the rules and process is defined by the state legislature. How in some of these states the judicial and the executive branch can incorporate rules as they go and conduct an election process. If that is the case, then the election process conducted in the rest of the states is not in compliance. So, they raised a fundamental question that these states have violated. So, therefore one should set aside the rules of the election, should set aside the outcome from these states. It’s a very interesting constitutional point, which is now, placed before the Supreme Court. Very similar to the Pennsylvania, that we discussed yesterday as well, which is namely, when Pennsylvania Supreme Court had an opportunity to reset its own decision when an appeal was filed and when that appealed was again declining or rejected, now, they have taken it to SCOTUS.
Sree Iyer: Well, thanks for clarification sir. Let’s take a look at what has been happening in various States the ones that are mentioned in this lawsuit. First off, let’s start with Georgia, Sidney Powell lost her case in a federal court in Georgia, and she has now moved the SCOTUS on that. Sir, why do you think she lost the case in the federal court in Georgia?
Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think there seems to be a consistent pattern which is to say, that the evidence is inadequate and then the counter to that by the state official is the conduct of the elections was in due process and that they certified. So, therefore there’s nothing that is to establish and they have used the faith as a basis to nullify the arguments presented by Sidney Powell. I don’t know whether she’s gone to the SCOTUS, but she’s probably gone to the Supreme Court of the state from the federal court or whether she’s gone to SCOTUS is not clear as yet in terms of where she is heading. But, it’s very clear in the case of Georgia, you have an inconsistent set of things one is Sidney Powell’s case. Then, if you take the case of the Trump’s team, the Trump’s team has asked for the selective audit of the Dominion machines and the forensic analysis of the data that process is still kind of going on. Whereas Sydney is saying the whole electoral conduct itself is incorrect and there are compromises and she has pointed out Doctor Nasa’s data which is to say these servers were potentially connected to China and Iran. We covered this few days ago. When we talk about Sidney Powell, we are talking about, what she is filing across the nation and as it relates to Georgia here, and in the meanwhile, the Trump’s team thing that process kind of goes on.
Sree Iyer: And Judge Alito has moved forward the date for filings in another state isn’t it sir? And that is supposed to be happening in within an hour or so. Can you please update us on what is happening there?
Sridhar Chityala: Okay, I think that this is an extension which we discussed which is namely the Supreme Court refused to accede to the point that, they have and they don’t have the jurisdictional rights with the executive branch in terms of extending the deadline and changing rules in the last minute without the state legislature. Mike Kelly, the Republican be the senator from the local statehouse has filed a suit. So, they have now taken it to the Circuit Court which is headed by the SCOTUS judge, Sam Alito. And that hearing is this morning; it was supposed to be Wednesday. He advanced it by a day and it is this morning, basically contesting this. Whether Alito himself will pass or whether he will say, this requires a wider constitutional bench and must be taken to SCOTUS for the final resolution remains to be seen. The Constitutional pundits basically are of the opinion that we are now in uncharted waters on these specific issues, which is namely can a Supreme Court overrule constitutionally and give the conduct and the electoral votes to be determined by the state legislature. There is the constitutional expenses segment believe that there is a gap that will soon be discovered as these things make its way including the, Texas.
Sree Iyer: Sir, I have a quick question regarding the tweet that President Donald Trump tweeted out yesterday, saying that something big is coming down the line in the next couple of days. Do you think it was this, Texas lawsuit or was he referring to something else, sir?
Sridhar Chityala: It’s impossible to predict the mind of President Trump, but, I have a feeling that it could be, I could be completely wrong. It’s just pure speculation, there is this whole thing about the interference of foreign agencies in countries. There was also this rumours that you have some US forces had raided, the server form in Germany, something in Spain. There was also the specific DOJ case filed from Nevada that the email responses were being sent to Pakistan. There was also this issue that, whether Iranian influence was in Georgia. So, there’s a whole raft of security and systemic kind of issue as it relates to Dominion software plus the whole kind of ownership architecture of dominion. So, it could be something that is related to that on the security side,
Sree Iyer: You know, one wonders if it is within the purview of the powers of the President to ban the usage of a couple of these electronic voting machines for the Georgia runoff, that is going to happen on January 5th. Now, the ballot voting is going to start on the December 14th and whatever be the course corrections and everything. I think the order will have to come down like within the next couple of days and then at least that guarantees that the Senate elections will be on a level playing field will be no hanky-panky. No questions about what happened, who did, what? I’m not sure if three weeks is long enough for the state to be able to not use the voting machine and be able to tabulate them, manually. I have no idea, sir, how big the state of Georgia is, perhaps, you can shed some light, assuming that is what is the President thinking about you, sir?
Sridhar Chityala: I think that we covered it again about, a few days ago, maybe last week. Already greater than 1 million postal ballots have been sought from an electoral roll of 6.7 million now, that’s a pretty big number right? It’s almost 15% greater than 15-16% of it. So, how they’re going to dispense with this within a short span of time in terms of changing the systems, unless there is kind of compelling and beyond doubt evidence, they may come up with an alternate model. Otherwise, all these Dominions systems and software is configured to do the counting process, the validation process and all those kinds of tabulation and the allocation process. So, the only thing that I can think of is maybe a much tighter procedure in terms of making sure that the Republican observers and the Democratic observers are present and there is a much tighter audit process. Other than that, I just don’t know whether there’s enough window of time to change the systemic things.
Sree Iyer: So, thank you for that sir. Let’s take a look at what is happening outside of the United States. First off, India has had a fairly successful Brahmos missile. I guess what I would call as a launch or implementation because now more countries are coming and asking India about the Brahmos missile. We had the Philippines, we had Vietnam asking and then I think Indonesia also was asking and now you have three more countries. What can you tell us about that, sir?
Sridhar Chityala: Well, it reflects three things. It reflects India’s growing stature as a defence power in the region, especially around that whole Eastern and West Asia belt. That’s number one. Number two, the trust that these countries places in India to able supplier and supporter in terms of the National Security of these countries, that’s the second telling point which Prime Minister Modi in Global conference pointed out that world respects India and World trusts India in in in their ability to kind of deliver against whatever is required from a World’s needs point of view, that’s the second point and the third thing is the kind of seismic shift that has taken place in the past four years. Historically the West Asian region or the Middle East as some people refer it is the supplier is the United States but now with India coming in obviously with the tacit support of the United States it’s proving that India has re-tabled and rekindle and established and cemented, with UAE that never was doubt, UAE is one of the top five trading partners of India be it in imports or exports or capital inflows. UAE has been a very strategic partner. I think Saudi from an oil point of view, but now it looks like they’re extending those tentacles as well. Qatar is a very big surprise, Qatar sits on the periphery on either side, but that’s a very big surprise to be a very able and willing partner because Qatar has got a natural gas that has got significant implications to India.
Sree Iyer: Thanks for that, sir. And viewers here is a very big reveal on the 10th of December, that is two days from now, Chicago city council is going to vote on an anti CAA resolution. Yes, you heard that right? We told you, we have been telling you for a long time now, 56 City councils, all Democratic-run have been lining up to try and do this resolution, 7 have already done that. Now Chicago is poised to do this and I hope all those Indian Americans who voted Democrat in the recently concluded elections, you have to hang your heads in shame. We have been saying this for a long time. I have already had a lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi come and explain the reason why this law was enacted. I also had the governor of Meghalaya, a border state come and explain why this was needed and furthermore I had an additional solicitor general of India come and explain the basic, every detail that was used in this CAA law and if those of you who consider yourself to be quite literate, in fact, most Indian Americans think that they know everything that others don’t know anything. The latter part is very true, by the way, not you think that you know everything, fine. But you also are convinced that the other person doesn’t know anything, I think there is an attitude adjustment that is needed. Indian Americans need to understand, What is going on? We are all like frogs, we have been put in a huge cauldron where the water is slowly boiling as long as the water boil slowly, the frog doesn’t realize that it is being cooked slowly until it is too late. I hope this message carries across there is a lot of money being pumped into this.
I have already expressed fears that close to $156 million were being dispensed on to 52 city councils that come to 3 million per city council. I’m also being told that the number is wrong that the number is much higher. Sridharji, do you have any insights into the numbers and what you think is happening?
Sridhar Chityala: I think the numbers that are being floated around, is somewhere between three to five million per council. This is the general number that is being dispensed. Let’s assume even 3 million, you said 156 billion. If you take 5 you’re talking about close to $260 million dollars pumped in basically to prop-up anti-India propaganda. It’s not just the council’s but all major left-wing publications here talk about the discriminatory kind of policy defined as CAA or Article 370 which is special rights and privilege,s National Registry of Citizens NRC etc. So these are the three tentacles that these councils toggle one between the other.
But now let’s take the case, today the news that secretary Pompeo has listed quite a few states and tweeted, PGurus will share that slide, that China, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc these are states which have been listed as States for religious persecution of minorities. This is Republican side. And then, on the contrary, you have the Democratic councils with a potential Democratic president coming in, he is the incumbent right now, he is the president-elect there is a divided opinion, you have already the snippets of Chicago taking up the CAA.
In the meanwhile, you also have a major agitation going on in India and you have few countries propping up with no knowledge of the issues and raising the head, so we are now moving into a very interesting geopolitical phase where the Indian Americans or Indian overseas citizens of those nations, not being cognizant and not being familiar are being part and parcel of this disruptive ecosystem.
Sree Iyer: All I can say, Sir, is that PGurus has a series of articles and videos on this farmers agitation. It is not by Farmers, it is by somebody else we have already explained – what is the rationale behind this? And in my opinion, the Modi government needs a very effective spokesperson. They had one called Syed Akbaruddin, who was India’s representative in the United Nations, I believe, now he is back in India, I hope they pick someone of that person’s calibre, to try and get this messaging out there to Canada, to the United Kingdom, to the United States wherever it is. It is very important that the communications path is open and that India stays ahead of the ball. I can not tell enough times how much we have emphasized that this is a fake narrative. CAA is very humane. In fact, I’m telling you, shame on some of the Senators who have already signed up saying that 5,000 minority members were stuck up in Afghanistan should be given prioritized citizenship in the US and this includes Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, you are all Democrats. And now you have a democratic city council voting against it. Can you at least get your narrative straight for God’s sake? So this is something that needs to be understood by people, Democrats don’t seem to be really all on the line, there is more than one faction inside and this is not good for the country. Even assuming Biden presidency is going to take hold on January 21st, sir. We are running out of time. If you want to add something for this debate, on this topic we can do that and then afterwards we can call it a wrap.
Sridhar Chityala: I think that PGurus has done an enormous amount of work on all these topics with various kinds of experts in each of these fields both legal as well as social. Legal, political, and social pundits have given a tremendous amount of coverage in discussing these specific topics. It seems to be very polarized and vested interests are driving the agenda without neither comprehending the rules nor comprehending the implications that it has to the geopolitics. I think that’s the centre.
My final point in this is, what you call as the squad, the squad game which wanted minister for external affairs called the house to address, which was led by Pramila Jayapal and the vice president-elect right now miss Kamala Harris, if she is now going to become the vice president, what would be the policy thinking that prevails and then the dumbness of the Indian Americans is Modi can take care. How can Modi take care when you elect somebody who is fundamentally and anti? I’m not saying, I’m a Democrat or a Republican, I may have certain views on Republicans, I may have certain views on Democrats and I may choose. But the fact is that when you objectively look at this and assess what people have done, explicitly done. Why would they change when they assumed even more significance of power especially to satisfy that specific piece?
Sree Iyer: So true, sir and much food for thought for Chicago-based Indian-Americans. I can only say that you need to move your councilperson. You have to tell them what is going on. In fact is very very short. It is going to be on the 10th of December and it’s my bet, my contention that more cities will start lining up once Chicago passes this thing. It’s a nonsensical resolution and it’s a waste of taxpayer money in these times of covid. Why is a city council doing this? And if you ask some of these people who are doing this resolution, they say ‘Oh go and have a Republican-run city council passed a pro CAA resolution and then we are even’ that’s a very flippant remark. You have to understand that people have put you in this place for a job. You are supposed to take care of your constituents. Why do you care about what is happening halfway across the world or a matter of that you don’t know, or a matter that some of your Senators have voted against your stand? Why are you making a fool of yourself? Anyway, a lot of questions. I hope some of them at least one of the Chicago-based Indian-Americans forwards is to one of the city council members. Hopefully, they get riled up enough from this conversation to listen and introspect and do the right thing. Thank you very much, sir, Namaskar.
Sridhar Chityala: Thank you, Namaskar. Have a wonderful day.
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