George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire said he will commit $1 billion to start a global university to “fight nationalists”, whom he referred to as “authoritarian governments” and climate change, calling them twin challenges that threaten the survival of our civilization. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros pledged to fund a university project to battle the erosion of civil society in a world increasingly ruled by “would-be and actual dictators” and climate change.
Launching an attack on global leaders, Soros expressed grief that the world’s strongest powers – the United States, China and Russia under President Vladimir Putin – were in the hands of would-be or actual dictators and stated that the ranks of authoritarian rulers continued to grow.
In some good news for the anti-Modi industry, who can now expect funds for their tirade, Soros also claimed that the “biggest and most frightening setback” was in India, as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “creating a Hindu nationalist state.”
He said, “Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback occurred in India where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship”.
By making false claims, Soros said that the Indian government has imposed punitive measures on Kashmir, a “semi-autonomous Muslim region”, and peddled false information stating that government was threatening to “deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship”.
Perhaps, Soros was mentioning about the Citizenship Amendment Act, which the Modi government passed in the Parliament to provide citizenship to those persecuted minorities belonging to six non-Muslim religion from three neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
However, Soros in hurry to foul mouth India did not comprehend facts on the new Citizenship law. There are no provisions in the entire legislation which either demands any Indian to prove their citizenship or submit their documents. Addition to this, the objective of the legislation is to grant citizenship to persecuted people and not to take away the citizenship of any particular group of Indian citizens, especially Muslims. And if Soros was talking about NRC, the rules of NRC have not been notified yet and there is no reason to fear-monger as Soros did.
Interestingly, The nationalist government of Hungary that strongly opposes the influx of refugees into the European Union has been at war with George Soros for quite a while. Last year, the Hungarian government made it mandatory for NGOs that received funding from abroad to register with the state, a move that was seen to be targeted towards Soros which did not go down well with the European Union. The Hungarian also passed legislation titled ‘Stop Soros’ in a crackdown on illegal immigration. In December 2015, Russia banned two foundations funded by the progressive Jewish-American philanthropist George Soros, claiming they posed a “threat to national security” and were undermining the Russian constitution. It is thus, a known fact that Soros has interfered in the internal affairs of various countries across the world through his NGOs to achieve his political objectives.
It is also pertinent to note that while George Soros claims to “fight authoritarian regimes”, he met terror-state Pakistan PM Imran Khan after the Howdy Modi event in Houston.
Further, targetting the US President in Davos, he said that Trump was a “conman and the ultimate narcissist” but said the current surge in economic strength for the US may have come too soon for the US leader as he faces re-election later this year.
Soros also claimed that humanity was at a turning point and the future would determine the fate of rulers like President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping as well as the world itself.
“Taking into account the climate emergency and worldwide unrest, it’s not an exaggeration to say that 2020 and the next few years will determine not only the fate of Xi and Trump but also the fate of the world,” Soros said in his address.
Expressing particular alarm over China, Soros said President Xi Jinping had broken with Communist Party tradition by concentrating power around himself, with the Chinese economy losing its previous flexibility.
While Xi Jinping “became a dictator as soon as he gained sufficient strength” his “success is far from assured” as demographics caused by the one-child policy work against China.
Soros added that most troublingly, Xi was seeking to bring into existence “a new type of authoritarian system and a new type of human being who is willing to surrender his personal autonomy in order to stay out of trouble.” “Once lost, personal autonomy will be difficult to recover. An open society would have no place in such a world.”
The Open Society University Network, an international grantmaking network founded by businessman Soros, will offer an international platform for teaching and research. The university will be launched through a partnership of the Soros-backed Central European University and Bard College, said the 89-year-old said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“As a long-term strategy our best hope lies in access to quality education, specifically an education that reinforces the autonomy of the individual by cultivating critical thinking and emphasizing academic freedom,” Soros said.
He described the plan of the Open Society University Network (OSUN) as “the most important project of my life” and would be an international platform for teaching and research that existing universities all over the world would be able to join.
Soros claimed that the university would seek to reach out to “places in need of high-quality education and in serving neglected populations” such as refugees, prisoners, the Roma and other displaced peoples like the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
“To demonstrate our commitment to OSUN, we are contributing one billion dollars to it,” said Soros in his traditional annual Davos address. He also said that he was looking for “far-sighted partners” who “feel responsible for the future of our civilisation”.
