Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted an invitation from President Emmanuel Macron to visit France between July 13-14. This visit holds special importance as PM Modi is the guest of honour at the prestigious ‘Bastille Day Parade’ scheduled for July 14.
The Bastille Day Parade, held annually in Paris, is a grand military spectacle that commemorates the historic French Revolution. It showcases France’s military might and pays homage to the country’s national pride.
To further enhance the significance of this year’s event, an Indian tri-services contingent will participate, symbolising the growing bilateral ties and shared values between India and France.
PM Modi's visit to France & UAE. Official Indian announcement: pic.twitter.com/cIacL4f8UW
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) July 12, 2023
Being invited as the chief guest for the ‘Bastille Day Parade’ is considered a signal honour. The last foreign leader to receive this distinction was former US president Donald Trump in 2017, underscoring the significance of PM Modi’s presence.
Enhanced bilateral relations, defence deals between France and India
This visit presents a valuable opportunity for both India and France to strengthen their strategic partnership and explore avenues for further collaboration in various sectors, including defence, trade, and technology.
One of the major highlights is the signing of deals worth over ₹90,000 crore, which includes the procurement of 26 Rafale M aircraft (22 single-seater versions and four double-seater trainer versions) and three Scorpene submarines. These are expected to strengthen the defence capabilities of the Indian armed forces.
France ranks as the 11th largest foreign investor in India, with a total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) contribution of $10,389 million from April 2000 to September 2022, highlighting the robust economic ties between the two countries.
India clears second Rafale Jet deal with France.
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Has PM Modi done the unthinkable?- Here's @ShivAroor's take.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to France holds immense significance in strengthening the bilateral relationship, enhancing defence capabilities, promoting economic cooperation, and fostering strategic ties between India, France, and the European Union.
As an emerging global power, India’s participation in the Bastille Day Parade highlights its growing influence on the world stage and signifies the deepening ties between the two democracies.
Leftist media-politician nexus planning to play spoilsport
Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Paris, the leftist media-politician nexus had begun unveiling its sinister plans. French news outlet Mediapart, which has a notorious history of planting fake stories, posted a vicious piece on the 2016 Rafale deal involving India and France.
“As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who signed the deal, prepares to attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations as guest of honour, documents obtained by Mediapart reveal how Modi’s billionaire friend, Anil Ambani, boss of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, which was handed a lucrative contract as a condition of the Rafale sale, directly solicited the intervention of then economy minister Emmanuel Macron and finance minister Michel Sapin in a bid to escape a 151-million-euro tax claim against his French subsidiary,” it claimed.
It must be mentioned that in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mediapart published several misleading reports on the Rafale deal. As such, it comes as no wonder that the publication is now trying to stifle India’s new defence deal with France by reiterating the same claims over and again.
The Supreme Court in December 2018 had declined to order a probe into the Rafale deal. Consequently, in May 2019, the apex court dismissed review petitions against its previous verdict. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had also concluded that the Indian Government had not overpaid for the Rafale jets.
A leftist French newspaper by the name of Le Monde has been influencing public opinion about the Modi government by making false insinuations about India’s democracy and religious freedom.
“India’s democratic regression,” the paper published a propaganda editorial piece on April 24 this year. It lamented the supposed removal of chapters on Mughal history in Indian textbooks and claimed that a concerted attempt was underway to turn India into a Hindu theocratic State.
While calling for foreign intervention, the article said, “Attempts to suppress the media, harassment of opponents and minorities, manipulation of the justice system, educational revisionism: Modi’s record speaks for itself.”
“This makes it all the more regrettable that countries that claim to defend democratic values prefer to remain silent so as not to upset a regime that is asserting itself in the new global geopolitical order,” it further added.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Le Monde resorted to vulture journalism and exploited the deaths of Covid-19 patients for political narrative building.
“Narendra Modi’s lack of foresight, arrogance and demagoguery are obviously among the causes of a situation that today seems out of control and requires international mobilization. The Prime Minister, after having, in 2020, paralyzed and traumatized his country by decreeing brutal confinement, abandoning millions of migrant workers, completely let his guard down at the beginning of 2021,” it had claimed.
It is thus obvious that Le Monde will not let go of any opportunity to sour the Indian Prime Minister’s State visit to France. A similar disinformation campaign about India, PM Narendra Modi and his politics is led by another French newspaper named Libération.
In a recent piece, it claimed, “In a context of democratic regression and the rise of the far right, making Narendra Modi the guest of honour on our national holiday, a few months before the Indian elections, is a major fault of Emmanuel Macron…”
The leftist newspaper labelled PM Modi as ‘far-right leader’ who is supposedly leading India on a ‘virulent path of Hindu nationalism.’ It also lamented the decision of the French government to invite him as a guest of Honour for ‘The Bastille Day Parade.’
Libération has been unabashed in its all-out effort to present a distorted version of the Indian government to the gullible French readers. Earlier, it tried to undermine India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by suggesting that Kashmir is a ‘contested piece of land.’
The French paper also cast aspersions on the revocation of Article 370 in the Valley and accused the Modi government of promoting ‘pseudo-normality.’
“Ultra-militarised and repressed since the brutal abrogation of its autonomy in 2019, Kashmir hosted a G20 meeting this week. The opportunity for Delhi to promote tourism and a regained pseudo-normality,” it had said.
Besides media outlets, leftist politicians are also likely to play spoilsport. A prominent French politician by the name of Clémentine Autain had previously made unsolicited and uninformed comments about the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
“The RSS is a Hindu nationalist paramilitary group, whose early leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and which has been repeatedly accused of stoking inter-religious hatred and committing acts of violence,” she had claimed in April 2021.
“Attacks against religious and ethnic minorities have also increased under the current government of India, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an offshoot of the RSS,” Clémentine Autain had brazened it out.
Interestingly, her comments were republished in an article by a popular, anti-India activist with ties to Khalistani terrorists, Pieter Friedrich.
Riots in France and media narrative
Protests and unrest ensued in Paris suburbs after a teenager was killed by a police officer on 27 June. The 17-year-old named Nahel M. was a delivery agent. He was stopped by the police and was asked to show documents while he was driving when he tried to flee the scene, during which shots were fired.
One of the bullets hit him in the chest, and he died on the spot. The instruction to stop was issued under a routine traffic check. The victim was previously convicted of failing to stop at a signal as well as driving without a license. The accused official was detained on suspicion of manslaughter.
Despite the government’s repeated calls for calm and increased policing, the saga of violence, loot and unrest continued. The government cracked down on the rioters, arrested 3400 of them and conducted fast-track trials.
Conclusion
The response of notorious leftist publications and politicians have been alike. They tried to downplay the mayhem on the streets of France as ‘democratic protest’ and accused the police of committing brutalities on protesters.
The State visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Paris for ‘Bastille Day Parade’ thus makes him vulnerable to malicious propaganda by this ecosystem. False analogies between the situation in India and France are likely to be drawn.
PM Modi will be accused of following in the footsteps of French President Emmanuel Macron and clamping down on dissent.
