Modi’s Failed Economic Policies: Conversation w/Jayant Bhandari! Part 2

All right, hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends, where truth matters. Very, very, very excited to be with you. It's because I have a great guest that you guys do not want to miss this conversation. So, and I'm not saying it to be Mr. Nice, you guys know where I stand on things. It's just someone I trust. I trust his judgment. He's been around long enough to know how things work. And as I promised you, I will bring Gian Bahandari back to the, uh, to the studio. And here it is. So let me introduce my guest here. Here you are. Welcome, Gian.

Thanks very much for having me again, David Oualaalou.

Of course, of course. I know the community is very, very excited to have you here. So, well, I'm not gonna waste too much time because we got a lot to cover. So I'd like to get your input on so many host of issues. And by the way, guys, prepare your questions for Jayant towards the end. So I'm not going to ask him any question now as far as your questions till the end. So, and there is something I need to share with you as far as I'm going to let you, Jayant, introduce yourself briefly to the community here.

Um, David, I advise a few institutional funds on investing, uh, in the Canadian, American, uh, British Singaporean and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We also invest in some private companies, and I do a fair bit of writing and speaking work on cultural and economic issues.

Incredible. By the way, guys, I have a full description of Janet's bio along with his social media. I follow him on Twitter, I follow him on LinkedIn. I put everything for you in the description. You guys can look it up later on. For now, We're gonna get into the topic now. There is one thing, guys, I need you to know about Jayant. A lot of people think that Jayant criticizes India or whatever because he doesn't live in India. I was just surprised myself when he informed me he just returned from India himself after spending a month. I'll turn it over to you, Jayant, to tell us exactly where the state of India is politically, economically, ethnically, and socially.

So David, I returned to India 3 or 4 times a year. And every time I go to India, the situation of India is worse. People are more unhealthy, the infrastructure is worse, despite the euphoria, and we can talk about the infrastructure. The infrastructure is worse, corruption is worse. And something that I did not know about happened to me this time. I am usually fine. I'm immune to the Indian water. I'm immune to the Indian air. But my throat— something took hold of my throat for about 2 weeks. Wow. The moment I entered India, and it was something very toxic. They are burning things that they did not burn earlier. Now, if you go to India, you will see that everything gets burnt away. The leaves get burnt away, the, the garbage gets burnt away, everything gets burnt away. And it is, um, an anomaly in the human society, India, that it's the only nation on the planet that has its cities as the top most polluted cities in the world, despite the fact that India has not even started industrialization. So this is just such an anomaly, something that we could do a few PhDs on. But it's an extraordinarily polluted country today, and it has not even started industrializing. So I'm always amused when people ask me about the economic growth happening in India, the euphoria to do with India, and I see no sign of it. I see degradation happening across across the country in every way.

And we're gonna get in into the economic data because I found some links from different locations that, uh, what I found very interesting, Giant, is that Western think tanks are hyping up or inflating the numbers. And I'm going to share with, with our community here, and I'll put the link for you guys, by the way, in the description later on. Before we do this, I want to go back to your word about, uh, infrastructure. Uh, you had a posting on Twitter, and I'm going to share it with our, uh, uh, our, uh, community here, and I would like to get your feedback. You know which one I'm referring to, Jayant, right?

Oh, there are so many, David. There are so many. Bridges fall apart, tunnels collapse, the rain— the, the roads get washed away. There are just so many of those.

Indeed, here is one here. Let me make this full screen. And, uh, now where is this bridge here? I don't know if you— that's between Beja and Bakur. What happens?

Well, it's the same story, David, in every infrastructural construction. And if you let me go through the whole story of how every small to big construction happens, I'll take you through it in a few minutes. So firstly, you have to decide a bribe with the government rulers. Usually the bribe used to be about 15% of the revenue that the construction company was going to get. Now I'm told that it is closer to 50%. 50% gets cashed out as bribes to the politicians and local bureaucrats. Um, now, uh, the— even if you're constructing a small bridge, let's say a bridge that's only about 300 meters, it's a small bridge which should take a few, a couple of months at maximum for a Chinese company to put into operation. In India, it will take about anything between 5 to 10 years. While they construct that bridge, they will— there will be no provision for safety. The the workers, the machines, the vehicles, and pedestrians will be all mixed up together. And I'm talking about what happens across the country. Now, several people die in every bridge construction in that country. This is, this, this is an accepted norm in that country, that if a few people die because of a bridge construction, it's no problem. Now do some mental mathematics with what I'm telling you, that it takes 5 to 10 years to construct a bridge. While you lead to the, the disabling mobility of people for those 5 to 10 years, creating chaos and killing so many people. You can do a quick mathematical evaluation how much economic benefit that bridge will bring to the society, and you are probably already concluding, hey, this can't bring in any positive value to the society. Uh, now what happens is that once the bridge is constructed with a year or two, something goes wrong with it. I have seen bridges after bridges, and they are misaligned, uh, they fall into disrepair, and once in a while they just fall into pieces. They just crash.

Wow.

My, you know, people I know always keep this in mind, that when a new bridge goes into operation, they do not use it for a few months because there's, there's so much fear to do with what would happen to that bridge. Now, Indians have no concept of maintenance, so these complex structures will never get maintained. But lastly, um, even the very simple one or two-lane roads that get constructed, which, you know, which, uh, you know, you and I would completely approve of, the problem with that is that after a single rain, virtually all those roads get washed away. Which means that you again doing an economic calculation and you don't have to do a complex Excel sheet economic value contribution of that infrastructure. You immediately realize that there's no value in it. Infrastructure is spent— expenditure in India has a negative consequence on the society virtually every time except for basic dirt road and basic one-lane roads. So, so that is what a typical story of an infrastructure is like. Now let me complete this with one thing. I was in Mumbai early this month, and there was something that shocked me. There are things in India that shock me every time I go to India, and I have been to India at least 100 times in the last 3 decades. You come out of a highway and you had to cross a highway to get into a ram. So you had to immediately cross the highway to get immediately into a ram for another highway. So what were the designers thinking when they constructed the exit and entry? And there were, of course, no signs for exit and entry. These are death traps. I am seriously recommending India that they should stop all infrastructural construction. And in fact, if there are bridges operational, tunnels operational, they should just collapse them now before it takes a heavy toll on the society. The maintenance is something they can never ever do.

Wow, wow. Let me say thank you here quickly to, uh, Kavasade Fogo. Thank you so much for your super sticker. You wrote, great interview again. Yeah, giant is here. So That's why we're excited. And now let me get to really what's at the heart of this conversation that I wanted to have, and this one has to do with the upcoming elections of— in, in, in the national or parliamentary elections and so forth. I've been reading some articles from different parts of the Western world, including Bloomberg, including Forbes, which by the way, the one in India, including Nikkei in Asia, including the New York Times and so forth. But one of them that triggered my attention, the one that says, and I quote, India's glittering economy lights Modi's reelection path. So my question to you, Jan, as someone who understands India inside out, what did Modi, Prime Minister— I'll give him the proper respect because he's the Prime Minister— What did India achieve for the last 7 years under his, I will call it, questionable leadership, economically speaking?

Yeah, I mean, in a way, huge achievements. The poverty level is horrendous in the country. There is hunger in the country. There's starvation in the country. There is desperation in that country. And the worst of all, there is a moral hazard in that country. Indian mind has been what I call Pakistanized. It has been ossified. It has been— it has become very parochial in the last few years. Hindu fanaticism has increased by leaps and bounds. So if you call these things achievements, which actually BJP and Modi will approve of, they actually want this to happen because they want to make a Hindu country. So they approve of the fanaticism, and that has grown by leaps and bounds. Corruption has gone up by leaps and bounds. And very interestingly, now the mafia actually has become publicly listed companies, and they give direct orders to the bureaucracy in that country. So in a way, a lot has changed in the last 10 years. I won't just attribute that to Modi, this had to come. But that is where India is on. And I think so, that's as I said, the degradation, we are well on a path to a worsening of the situation in India.

Wow. Well, speaking of Hinduism, and again, I am not bashing or judging, whatever. All I've noticed is in when the last since Prime Minister Modi came to power, there have been some change. Into the ethnic tensions inside India with, with sort of focusing on being anti-Muslim and so forth. And again, I am not judging here. All I'm doing is presenting the arguments. I came across some horrific images and I'm gonna share with our audience because I don't shy away from speaking the truth and the audience need to see with their own eyes. What is going on with some Hindu groups. And, uh, here is an image here of a Muslim girl that's been attacked by, uh, by Hindu individuals. Now, my concern with this, or question, is why the Prime Minister is staying silent on something like this.

In your opinion. So, David, uh, you know, there has been violence in, uh, Manipur, uh, in the state of Manipur for the last, uh, year or more. Uh, the Prime Minister hasn't even bothered to make any statement or visit Manipur in all this time. Uh, while, uh, you know, this is what you are showing right now is nothing. You— there are videos of young girls being paraded completely naked and raped in that province in front of hundreds of other women and men of the opposing side. So this, this is nothing unusual anymore. Uh, you know, these men are trying to sound as if they are trying to uphold some superior culture. Uh, what they are is that they are sexually frustrated men who have no jobs. The, the Labor participation rate in India is about 51%. A huge number of people are just not even in the list of labor participation, and even then unemployment is very high. So it's a country where there's no employment growing, and most of the employment that has grown comes from construction, security guard kind of things. So at the end of the day, what you have is extremely Frustrated young men who have no jobs, nothing else to do, and they want to think, imagine themselves as upholding some great civilization on the planet. Now, the images are— you, you are showing is what India looks like. It's just dirt, garbage, frustration, violence, hassles all over the country. Everywhere you can't escape them.

Wow, wow. Well, speaking of unemployment, I'll just— I'll share this with, with all the community here. The, uh, the individual who makes my thumbnails is from India. He's well educated, you know, he got a graphic design degree. I'm very grateful for his help that helps me with the thumbnails and so forth. And I did ask him directly, and he told me, it's like, you know, here we go to college to study, and we want to sort of uplift ourselves economically, but there are no jobs because the government, it's not focusing on creating jobs. And this is why the massive unemployment in, in, in India is reflected through what you exactly said. And this is where I ask the question: is the era of Prime Minister Modi coming to an end, in your opinion?

Oh, the era of Prime Minister Modi is just getting started. Um, he is, uh, he is putting into prison opposition leaders right now. Uh, the day before yesterday, the Chief Minister of Delhi was sent to prison while he is still the Chief Minister. So he is, he is running the state from the prison. Um, and similarly, he is putting, uh, other opposition party leaders into prison for, I wouldn't even say for wrong reasons. He's putting them into prison for corruption. But as I have said, David, every single Indian politician and bureaucrat is corrupt. The only thing, as happens in a computer chip where it runs on zeros and ones, Indian bureaucrat and politician's mind runs on two things. Connections and bribes. So, you know, everyone is corrupt. So what's the big deal about sending opposition leaders into, into prison? And, you know, David, I in the past worked with the BJP, I was closely associated, my dad was good friends with some of the very top leaders of BJP. So I've known these people from very close distance. All these people are corrupt, they, they have actually become much more corrupt than the earlier parties were. But what is interesting that is happening now is that earlier, the opposition leaders were almost never charged for corruption. If at all they were charged, it was only a facade. They, they would not actually be sent to prison. They would not actually be troubled because they all knew that under a democratic system, opposition party would someday come into power. So it's better not to charge other people. And when I saw these people talking, they would say, hey, we fight with each other in the legislature and in the parliament, but otherwise we are good friends. And they were actually good friends. The opposition party and the ruling party, they were good friends because they were all in orgy together to exploit the citizens of the country. So now that was the past. Now BJP is going against the opposition parties. Opposition parties are very fragmented and have been mostly destroyed. But Modi, as Zia-ul-Haq did in Pakistan in 1980s, he's destroying whatever is the remnants of those parties. This tells me that Modi does not even conceptualize the idea of ever leaving his seat. He does not conceptualize the idea of ever sitting on the opposition seat. So the era of Modi is just about to start. It will get far worse with time.

So how come they are issuing the statements from New Delhi that saying the emerging superpower economically speaking? So where is this? Where is this statements coming from? I mean, why are they saying something that is not true?

David Oualaalou, you know, I regularly visit India and I want to I consult companies, I have to be factual, I can't make up data. And when I visit India with people I know, they always tell me that they thought I was exaggerating bad things about India. But once they arrive in India, they realize that the situation in India is far worse than they thought I had conveyed to them. I am clueless. So last quarter, Indian growth rate was 8.4%. According to the Government of India. Now remember, only about 5% of Indians file income taxes. Only about 1.5% of Indians pay income taxes. Close to 50% of Indian economy is the informal sector. So there's so much scope for manipulation of data in the country because there's so much of informal stuff happening in the country. 50% of the economy is informal sector anyway. And, you know, you have to do a statistical correlation to decide how much is this informal sector. But the government of India has destroyed the informal sector while at the same time they, they want to imagine as if the informal sector hasn't really changed in the last 4 or 5 years. So there's all kinds of manipulations happening. You— I can quote you two things. Uh, there's an interview of the ex-chief statistical officer of India, and these people speak partial truth once they are out of the office. He, he talked about, uh, all the manipulations that happens in the statistics of India and how it is exaggerated. And the, the, the chief economic advisor of India just came out making a statement that the implied inflation in 8.4% growth rate of India is about 1 to 1.5%, uh, when the inflation rate is actually— yeah, so they're discu— so they are using wrong GDP deflator when the inflation is about 5 to 7%. Now if you use the real GDP deflator, right away the GDP growth comes down to minimal. And remember, a private investment in India has stagnated. FDI, foreign direct investment, actually has fallen to only 0.5% of Indian GDP. Now forget about all the euphoria and Foxconn investing in India and all these Boeing going into India. Forget about all that. None of that is actually happening. Indian FDI is at its lowest in years. Um, the manufacturing has fallen to its lowest 13% in the last 50 to 60 years. And you can go to the World Bank website and Look, check the data that I'm giving you. There's nothing special about it. So, uh, all the data already tells me that the situation is actually horrible. Um, you know, Foxconn invests a billion dollars in India, uh, and they say, hey, we are now manufacturing 25% of iPhones, um, of the world in India. That's completely wrong. Foxconn is investing a billion dollars to a assemble iPhones, and assembling is something very different from manufacturing. Everything else comes from China or elsewhere. They are merely assembling, and most of the $1 billion or $1.5 billion investment they have, um, promised is only a promise. It's going to happen in the future. Most of the talks about India are always about the future. I ask them what India is like today, what has it achieved in the past, and then tell me with the rate of change, how suddenly you will start changing India into a China kind of country or a first world country. It is never ever going to happen, David.

Well, that's why I hear that statement, Jayant, that, oh, India is going to overtake China down the road. That's like, hold on a second. Based on what? First of all, the infrastructure is not where it needs to be. Second thing, the output, manufacturing output of China far outpaced what China— what India produces. And, and I kind of like, why are they saying something that is not going to happen? So it's almost like feeding lies to the Indian people. The My big concern has always been, believe it or not, I am not from India, of course, as you know, but I'm always concerned about the welfare of the citizens in India. Their livelihood is not improving forward. And I'm like, why? If the government is not serving those people, what's the point?

Yeah, well, David, I initially told you that Indian mind has been ossified, has been made parochial in the last few years and few decades. You know, this guy might be pooping, uh, in the open, uh, looking at his, uh, and might be commenting on social media how India now has a moon mission, uh, and he feels proud about it. He does not even know that he's pooping in the open. He has no access to water or toilets. You know, nowhere in India do you get water supply. There's no 24-hour water supply. Even in the best parts of India, you can get an hour of 2 2 of water supply every day. That's all you get. And most of the people still don't have toilets. In such a country, what the way Indian mind has been ossified, they want to believe what they are told rather than what they see. They see corruption, they see abuses, exploitation, lack of jobs, you know, disappearing jobs. Actually, millions of people have left urban areas and gone to agriculture again, which is very ironic actually if you think through this thing. They have actually left urban areas to go to villages because they can't find jobs anymore. So even those jobs have disappeared from the country. So, but the thing is that India does all these kind of dramas, you know, moon mission and a mission to the black hole or mission to the sun. And yesterday they, um, they, you know, that they threw an aircraft and, and engineless aircraft from the helicopter to test whether they can send unmanned mission to the space. Now, you know, India doesn't have to do this. United Kingdom doesn't do these kind of dramas. France doesn't do it because, you know, US is doing it for all of us. Why should we bother? Yeah.

Wow. That's very, very interesting. I want to share a I want to share a screen with you, Janet, and with our, our viewers as well. And I'd like you to just give me your impression, because the first time I read the article with those numbers, I was just mind-boggling. I said, it can't be. And I'm not an economist, I'm a geopolitical analyst, but at the same time, I can understand when data can be manipulated. So, so here is the screen, I'm gonna share it. And I would like you please to share with us what do you think of this. And by the way, this one coming in from, uh, uh, let me see where I get this one from. This one is from Forbes India. So I'll let you draw your own conclusion. Here is the screen, and I don't know if those numbers are clear enough or not. Full screen. Yeah, now what they're saying is that the third quarter for '24, they're looking at a GDP growth of 7.6%. On '23, 2023, GDP growth was 7.2%, and on 2022 it was 7%. 2021 was 9.05%. Is there any truth to these numbers, Jayant?

Well, I don't believe it at all for a second, David Oualaalou. My view is that Indian growth rate is currently negative. Now, I know that sounds absolutely crazy given the numbers that are coming out, and in fact, the Q4 number is 8.4% for India, but You know, I see desperation everywhere in the country. There is— there are no jobs available. If I want someone to work for me 12 hours a day, I can pay him something like $3 to $4 for a day of work, and he gets no vacations, no healthcare, no pension, nothing. So that's the kind of desperation that exists in the country. 70 million people have moved from urban areas to villages because they have they can't find jobs anymore in urban areas. Modi has destroyed the economy of the country. Private investment isn't happening. And, you know, construction work is backbreaking. It's not an easy job. Not everyone can do it. You have to be very young to do those things. So I don't know where these numbers come from. I see, you know, when I drive around in the country, I say, hey, you know, there's nothing new manufacturing happening in the country. It is— it isn't any different from what it was, uh, 10, 20, 30 years back. So, so a lot of this is a fake, uh, and even if a lot— some growth is— even if there's some, um, money accumulation happening, I wouldn't say necessarily growth, that is actually going into the hands of politically connected people. And as I said, mafia is now well entrenched in the bureaucracy. Mafia runs administration in at least my province, Madhya Pradesh, they give direct orders to the top bureaucrats in the country. So, uh, you know, and then you can imagine that a lot of money is actually going into the hands of this well-connected 3 or 4% people of the country. The bureaucrats make really good bribes these days. I mean, each bribe can be a few thousand dollars. So imagine in India you earning a few thousand dollars in bribes in cash every day on which you don't have to pay taxes. So, you know, that section might be becoming rich, but 90 to 95% of India is becoming worse off than it was earlier. Wow.

Well, that's why I heard about some emerging billionaires in India. And my first question was, how on earth a billionaire in India, given how the country is? It must have been achieved differently. But again, I'm not here to judge.

So, so David, you know, the— if, if I look at the United States, whether I agree with Elon Musk kind of people or not is a different thing. The reality is that they have become billionaire because they are creative people who have added a huge amount of value to the society. Uh, in India, in every single case, you can be absolutely assured that every rich person is a product of political connections and capability to bribe properly, because you have to bribe properly. If you don't bribe properly, your work won't get done either. So, um, you know, these are not natural elite in India. If they were natural elite, things would have been very different in the country. They have put India on a path to progress. For example, let's just look at the pre- pre-wedding celebration of the son of Mukesh Ambani, which happened a week or two back. They spent $120 million on that celebration. And because Modi had suggested that don't do your celebration outside the country, they brought in foreign artists. They paid Rihanna anything like $6 to $9 million for to perform a show. Now, how does it really matter whether you do your celebration inside the country or outside the country, as long as you're spending the foreign exchange? Now, it is their money. They can do really what they want to do, David, in my view. But, you know, spending $120 million on pre-wedding celebration in a horribly wretched, poor, starved country is, in my view, embarrassing. I'm a capitalist, but I would— I have no courage to spend that kind of money. And lastly, you know, there's so much of show-off in among these rich people. They have massive properties, a fleet of cars to show off. And my rich friends in Vancouver, um, they don't want to buy expensive cars because they say, hey, it would be too embarrassing to drive around in expensive cars. So it's just so ironical that these people are not natural elite in India They are extraordinarily rich because of political connections and capability to bribe, and they, they show off their wealth in a really starved and wretched place.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. Before we move to the next part of the conversation, because I want to talk about BRICS and all that, I'd like to get your, your, uh, your input. If hypothetically, this is just a hypothetical, Janan, if you are asked, how can you turn this around? How can you turn the Indian economy around? Just hypothetically, what's need to be done?

Well, let's put it this way. What if you made me the Prime Minister of India today? What would I do?

Yes.

I would shoot myself. You can do nothing about the country anymore, David Oualaalou. It is too far gone. There's no future in that country because you need a whole bunch of people to run different ministries and departments. And I tell you, David, and this is something I tell people quite often, that, you know, I find Atlanta to be a horrible city, the airport of Atlanta to be horrible. But at the same time, I claim that in one morning, and I literally mean it, in one morning in Atlanta, I can find more rational and sane people in Atlanta airport than I have met in whole of my life in India. That is how unskilled, uh, uh, and unskilled and unprepared Indians are. Uh, that's how deep and wide corruption is in that country. That is how irrational Indians are. How do you find half a million people you need to bring in the top positions of that country to start running the country properly. Every judge is, is on sale in that country. No decision gets made. The only thing that happens is connections and bribes in that country. Now, if you made me the Prime Minister, how would I even start bringing in the change when everyone is corrupt? I can't find 5 people to, uh, man the ministries. So India is too far gone. The only hope would be to bring in half a million or million people from Europe and China and give them administrative positions to run that country. So that would be the only hope. But, you know, even if you are the Prime Minister of India, there's no way you can bring half a million people from China and Europe to run that country because it's still a democratic country. There's a— people think in a certain way. You can't recolonize the country. And that is why My view is, and I'm absolutely sure of it, India will fall apart. It is already fragmenting. Economy will continue to worsen, and this is going to revert back to its dark ages, the, the medieval time, the pre-British times. And you can— you will see that regression happening over the next few years, and you can already see that with the Hindu fanaticism that is grasping the minds and hearts of young people in India. And you can very easily imagine how disastrous it will be for the country.

And correct me, Jayant, if I am wrong. Will I be fair if I say that maybe, maybe part of the problem is that the Indian mentality— and I'm not generalizing here, just something I need to say— the mentality has not sort of rid itself of the colonial era. Does this have to do anything with it?

Well, it has actually become far worse with time. Every day that passes, the Indian mentality has got worse with time. When I was growing up, the bureaucrats and the older people had some class. Now they don't have any class. You write anything against India on social media and there will be 100 people abusing you calling you F-words and abusing, threatening to gang rape your mom and grandmoms and your sisters. And that's the kind of language that has become acceptable and so acceptable that using that language is seen as a sign of class in that country. So really, in real terms, class has disappeared from the country. Intelligence has disappeared from the bureaucracy because English did a fabulous job of selecting intelligent people for the Indian bureaucracy. That is completely gone. The top bureaucrats, I would say, when I meet them— and I have met them recently— I would say, when I'm in front of them, I ask myself if a baboon has a better intelligence than those top bureaucrats. So that's how the level of, uh, Intelligence has gone down in the Indian bureaucracy and politics. The thing is that British brought in institutions and a way of thinking, and the Christianity brought in a way of a cultural moral fabric for the country. And those things have all disappeared and fallen apart with time and under the pressure of democracy, the mass mentality that tribalism, the caste system, all this irrational stupidities have risen to the, uh, to the places of leadership now. So, uh, in brief, uh, things are worsening with time, not have become stagnant, and they will continue to become worse because there's nothing to stop this worsening. Indians cannot make those institutions that the British left behind Indians cannot bring in the checks and balances that the British left behind. They can't even maintain those and they have destroyed everything. So there's far worse things to come for that country.

Wow. Well, at least I remember, at least when what's his name, Atal Bajpai. I remember at least for Mama Han Singh, India wasn't where it is today. It was still not up there, but at least with their leadership, to a degree, they were trying to move their country forward. I mean, I used to really read up the stuff that Atal Bajpai would put out, and there were some competent people. And in comparison to what I'm seeing with Prime Minister Modi, with this, you know, nationalism mindset, it's dragging the country down forward. And again, I I just, as an observer looking from outside in.

So, well, let's make— so up to, up to, up to Manmohan Singh and, uh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there was some class. There was a, there was class in the politics. Now tell me, tell me, David, have you ever heard Modi giving a public, um, a Q&A with journalists? And your answer is no, because Modi has no intelligence to handle journalists. So that's the kind of situation India is. He only gives monologues. He is not an intelligent person. It's just that time and situation has elevated him to a position of power. What he is, is that he has no empathy, and that is putting it very mildly. Because he's ruthless, he has risen to a position of power. He's the person who left his mom, who left his wife for power. He is power hungry and he will sacrifice everything for power, but he is not intelligent enough to carry that power.

Would it be fair to categorize him as a demagogue?

Well, of course, every Indian politician is a demagogue. I have known these people from close distance. But Modi is the ultimate in this, but combined with the fact that he, uh, he is, uh, not intelligent at all.

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So let's move on to BRICS. I'd like to get your inputs about BRICS, given that, uh, uh, first of all, there are, there are so many facets, uh, or, or so many themes regarding this topic, but I'm gonna focus on the key ones. The first one I want to focus on is on the financial aspects. I'm sure you're aware, Jayant, that BRICS wanted to move forward with its currency, right? India has objected to that. What do you think, in your opinion, the objection of India is based on, given that it will benefit from that as well?

Well, Indian mind is very parochial and It's very interesting to look at the border of India. India is probably the only major country in the world with closed borders with virtually every country. The smaller countries, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Maldives are the countries India bullies, and it does not have open exchange of border. The road borders are mostly closed. There's a huge border with China, but most of it is closed. If I wanted to go from China to India or India to China, it's not possible through land. So that's how closed Indian mentality is. They don't want any exposure to the outside world. Now, the thing is that whatever you do, there are only two currencies when it comes to BRICS, the US dollar and yuan. So I don't even see any significance in BRICS Because at the end of the day, the only currency of significance— if you look at the quantum of currency used for international trade among currencies of all these countries, the only currency that works is yuan. India wanted to— you know, India has been wanting to buy oil and arms from Russia, which is apparently a very good friend of India, using Indian rupee. And Russia basically said, no, we won't use accept Indian rupee because it's toilet paper. It is useless. Yeah, you can't buy anything with those rupees. So, you know, it's only the size of India that gives some significance to the Indian rupee. Otherwise, it is— if that size wasn't there, Indian rupee is no better than, you know, currencies of Zimbabwe or Congo. They are unexchangeable currencies. Um, so in, you know, And again, Indians can't work well with anyone. They, they fight with everyone because they want an upper hand in everything. But look at the Indian economy. I mean, per capita GDP of India is about $2,600. That doesn't give you any upper hand. You are starving basically at that kind of GDP per capita.

Wow. And now with this The expansion of BRICS. I'm sure the, uh, the upcoming summit is going to be in Russia, is going to be held in October, uh, 2024 of this year, and the Russians, uh, the Russian Federation will take the chairmanship for that. And of course, Russia, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has been calling for expanding BRICS. To my knowledge, there were about 30 countries on the list. No, How will India manage this growth? That it's because India is not— I don't know, I don't know what role India plays in BRICS. I do not know. All I know is that this expansion of BRICS, if BRICS wants to become a heavy hitter on the global stage, it's gonna have to get rid of the dead weight. I do see, and again, this is my opinion and I don't shy away from saying it, I do see India is the weak link inside the BRICS. Will I be wrong in this assessment, Jayant?

Well, I called India a nobody country. No one cares about it except to pay lip service to it. I go to investment conferences, David, and, you know, throughout the conference, no one talks about India, but in the closing panel, they talk about how euphoric they are about what's happening India. You ask them how much they are investing in India personally, and they say, hey, not, not yet, we will start to invest eventually. So, you know, India is always a country of the future. People pay lip service to India for political correctness, but India is a nobody country because it does not have intelligent bureaucrats. Indian bureaucrats are focused on bribes and connections, as I said. I don't give much importance to BRICS, to be honest. There are only two countries in BRICS, one is China and one is Russia. India is a nobody country, and other countries are there because they are not invited to any other forum. So why not just participate in a forum of, uh, you know, to claim to their own, uh, countrymen that they are a part of this elite group? Now, this is no elite group. There's no commonality of values within BRICS. The only commonality is that they want to go against the US dollar. But the US dollar is the supreme currency right now. It will continue to be a supreme currency. And the people who, uh, who don't like US dollar are already using yuan for trading. Russia is using yuan for trading. Saudi Arabia has a swap agreement with China. So China is doing pretty much everything that BRICS promises to do anyway. So I don't even see any significance of BRICS except as a facade to fool the citizenry of South Africa, for example, or other countries who want to show that they have been invited to some elite group, which actually is nothing but Russia and China.

Wow, wow, very, very interesting. It's just because some, some individual has been calling for, well, maybe time to replace India with, let's say, Indonesia. Malaysia, Iran— well, Iran has already been invited now to BRICS and so forth. So that was the reason why I wanted to ask that question. Now, second thing I would like to know, given your background in investments in gold— you deal with gold, is that correct, Jayant? Right.

Well, not necessarily. I look at a lot of mining companies for sure, but I consider mining companies to be different from commodities they represent, because commodities is a different business and mining is a different business. But I still take a lot of interest in gold for a different reason, because I think fiat currency is fiat currency. It's paper money which, which has no inherent value of its own.

Yeah, well, the reason I'm asking this, just for my— for viewers to know, just for you guys to know the background for Giant regarding go. This is the reason why usually I'll share with you some news about the gold. I did some advertisement for some companies, Canadian companies, for gold. They reached out to me, and usually, uh, to me, I do advertisements if it's of benefit to my viewers also to learn from. So, so my, my question to you, uh, John, is the idea that gold prices are going up as of today. I just read yesterday that it's going up. What is the significance of that and how that could impact the financial market, global financial markets moving forward, in your opinion?

Well, firstly, gold is, uh, no one's liability. You can— if I own gold, I can exchange it for other products anywhere in the world. It's something that has a lot of value in a very small amount of space. Gold was— has been historically seen as currency, a monetary— has monetary value. It is called precious metal because it has its monetary value. And I think it's incumbent upon people to look at gold because everything else they own, particularly fiat currency, can go down to zero in no without knowing that it went down to zero. I have several friends who— whose bank accounts have been frozen. Uh, banks just come out of nowhere, brokers come out of nowhere, and freeze the bank accounts and brokerage accounts, or ask these people to close them. So what is happening, we don't know. You should have something physical in your pocket, in your control, that you can use in in days of desperation. And that might come anyway because all the fiat currencies have a very high inflation rate, and inflation rate is entrenched in the, in the economy. So all the fiat currencies have lost values. Even the US dollar, which is supposed to be the one of the best currencies on the planet, has lost 99% of its value or so in the last 100 years. So So fiat currency loses its value continuously. Not everyone can invest in the stock market or is clever enough to understand where to preserve his property, his net worth. Gold becomes an important part of that portfolio.

Can the same thing be said, for example, about Bitcoin? I mean, we noticed the prices of it going up.

Well, so, you know, I, I think a lot of things to do with Bitcoin are what I like. The one thing is that it's not under the control of the government. People can do exchanges without having government involved. It is protected because of the blockchain. So I like a lot of things to do with Bitcoin. But my problem with Bitcoin is that it is not backed by anything. Suppose if Bitcoin had 30 ounces of gold behind every Bitcoin, then I would feel more comfortable about it. The problem is it is just zeros and ones in the cloud somewhere. So I don't own Bitcoin, and I give it zero value personally.

Wow. Well, I do own some, so should I be concerned?

Well, I'm just giving you my views. You know, I'm a hard money guy. I want my money to be represented by something hard, not by something like zeros and ones, which actually are— which is not real value. And you can't unpack it. You know, if I own copper, for example, I can unpack the value in a way that I can— you know, it has industrial usages. If suppose Bitcoin value goes down to $5,000 a Bitcoin, you will say, hey, only $30,000 worth of energy went into producing that Bitcoin. The problem is I can't say, hey, let's unpack it and create $30,000 worth of energy from that Bitcoin. It isn't going to happen. But whereas with other commodities you can unpack it because they have industrial usages. If the price comes down, the, the, the price comes, uh, comes down, mining will stop, and the price of those things will go back up again. So I think, uh, the problem with Bitcoin is you can't unpack the energy that went into producing those Bitcoins.

Interesting. What, what about CBDC, uh, Janet? What do you think the government's gonna be doing moving forward?

Well, uh, you know, it failed in Nigeria for sure. Uh, I think it will fail in, in most of the third world countries. And I hope they fail because it's a, it's a horrible idea. Firstly, the, the job of managing monetary economics shouldn't be in the hands of the government anyway. If you go to Hong Kong, the currency bills are not printed by the government, they are printed by the local banks. And Monetary Authority of Hong Kong matches every Hong Kong dollar it has with US dollars. So it is a fully backed currency. Now it's backed by a flawed currency, but it is, it's still fully backed currency, which means that they can't, they don't really have the authority to print money at leisure. Um, you know, they can't manipulate their currency. Uh, so, so, um, I prefer monetary economics to be in the hands of private individuals because the problem is if I have CBD, uh, My problem with the bank accounts already is that I'm fearful about the control governments and bank bankers have over my money in those bank accounts. With CBD, governments can actually control what I use that currency for. They can say, hey, you can't buy these 5 things, and it becomes already a problem for me. So I don't want to go to that stage, and I hope it fails.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. All right, guys, well, I want you to prepare your questions. We're gonna ask a giant few questions here. So if you will be kind and just put Q before, so I know it's question, not a statement. And before, before I get to question, giant, where can my viewers find you? Where can they find your work and so forth?

My, my website is giantbandari.com, and virtually everything I go goes on there. I also tweet using Twitter handle, uh, @GiantBandari5.

Yes, I do, and I did put this for you guys in the chat box, so you should see it, uh, you should see it right. Actually, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it for you right here, guys, on the screen, so you'll see it right there on the chat box, and I'm gonna add the banner for it. So this way you guys know it's for Jan's Twitter account. I follow him on Twitter, uh, if you want to check him out on Twitter, on LinkedIn. And again, I'll put the link for you in, in the chat box later on. So, all right, let's take a few questions from the audience. I— this is, guys, here is why I was so excited to have Jan here, because I know he's someone I can take his word for what he's saying. You know, and you know, I've been around long enough to know. I, so I've been around, so, uh, and, and I know you won't be able to hear this kind of information elsewhere. And this is not about promoting the channel, whatever, it's beside the point. It's about the facts and the truth. Because as I told you, I've been reading the articles about these upcoming elections in India, and all of them saying the economy is booming, India is going to take over the world economically. So, and now you are able to hear it directly from a source who, by the way, Jan has been just been in India and saw the things with his own eyes. So, all right, let me take a question, or I'm gonna scroll all the way up here quickly and go all the way down, see if there's any question. Just type it again at the end if you could, and I'll see it. I'll start from, uh, from there. Okay, let's take one question. I'm gonna ask you the first question, John. Where do you see the world economy moving forward, that now we are shifting into a multipolar order?

Um, well, I'm very excited about East Asia. I think Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan are doing a lot of good things. They have very limited or none social internal problems. And, you know, I flew to India later last month from China to India. There is no more direct flights from China to India, which is so crazy. India has stopped giving visas to Chinese citizens as visitors, and India has stopped all direct flights from China. China. Now, even when two countries fight, you continue, uh, citizen-to-citizen communication and you continue business with them. But India has cut down all those things. Um, so, uh, and China— Indians can go to China. I think East Asia is doing a lot of things right. These countries will continue to progress. I was in China and I, you know, my eyes don't see the problems that the media talks about happening in China. And there is indeed fear, uh, in among young people in China. I've talked with them. But at the same time, I see so much improvement happening in China. I'm extremely bullish about it. I continue to be very bullish even about Japan, which is again not liked by the international media.

Well, I am excited too because I'm gonna be heading out to Asia sometime soon, and I didn't decide yet to which countries I'm gonna go to because I want to see things with my my eyes because I can't trust the media here for what they're saying. So I'll take first question from, uh, uh, Hernie Hill. Question: India's relations with Nepal, how good or bad?

Well, um, you know, as I said earlier, India wants to bully every person who is weaker, and this is the psychology of Indians. They like to bully anyone weaker. If you are from the lower caste or if you are a minority group, they want to bully that person. That reflects in the Indian government as well. Indian government has historically bullied Nepal and Maldives and Bangladesh, and that didn't— that bullying did not work out very well with Pakistan. Not that I'm in favor of Pakistan in any way, but coming back to Nepal, Nepal is the only Hindu country on the planet. It. And because this is a Hindu fanatic government, they should have kept closer relationship with Nepal, but that didn't happen because the bullying mind dominates their conduct with Nepal. When Nepal had an earthquake, you know, 10 years back or something, they, they stopped— they closed the border, stopped supplying, letting oil go through petrol go through the border because Nepal gets its, uh, energy from through India, or used to. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, you know, slowly and surely India has destroyed its close relationship with Nepal, and Nepal has slowly and surely goes into the hands of China because they think they probably have come to a conclusion that they have better reliability of relationship with China than they have with India. Today, Indian Prime Minister is in Bhutan, and I think the situation will be the same with Bhutan. Bhutan came into the Indian influence of a sphere because China was in a very bad shape— Cultural Revolution, the Long March kind of things that were happening in China. India was seen as the country to be a part of. Bhutan came and joined hands with India And my suspicion is that Bhutan is, uh, slowly inching towards joining the Chinese, uh, influence. But it will be very hard for Bhutan to do so because Bhutan is dependent on India completely right now for energy, for a lot of other things. But slowly and surely, I think Bhutan will go that way. Again, Nepal will continue to go on the side of China, as Maldives has recently done.

Well, speaking of Bhutan, I did the video here for my community during the visit of the foreign minister of Bhutan met with Mr. Wang Yi to establish diplomatic ties, and India did not like that. So that goes exactly with what you said, because India does not want to see Bhutan going to China. And the Maldives end up kicking India out, asking the military to leave, and they left. Just because I had some of my contacts check that for me, and they did indeed inform me that Indian military has left the Maldives. So it was just a matter of time, no more or less. It is question from Amir John. John, what do you think about nationalism trending in most countries, including India? What do you think about this trend? Because it is dividing people.

Yeah, you know, nationalism can be there because of certain commonality of moral values you uphold. Um, you know, I can, I can call myself a very nationalistic American or a very nationalistic Canadian because I uphold certain values of liberty, freedom of speech, a certain moral way of conduct. And if that's what my nationalism means, I can feel very patriotic about it. I actually feel great about a lot of Western countries and the values they hold. Indian nationalism, however, is, uh, without foundations. There's no value structure below Indian nationalism. All of Indian nationalism comes from hatred towards its neighbors and its minorities. So you can unify people to a certain extent through hatred for other people, but it's not a sustainable unification because you come together in hatred. You are— the emotion is of hatred, not of construction. So eventually, even if you win that war or battle with the other guy, you will still be left with hate, and you will then fight among each other. Uh, which is actually very common because, um, you know, when it comes to Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Muslims fight. When it comes to within Hindus, the subgroups fight. There's a caste system, there's regional fighting between Hindus. Similarly with Muslims, the Shia, Sunni, and all kinds of people fight with each other. So hatred as nationalism, hatred as a unifying factor is, um, illogical. It's not sustainable. It does not lead to progress and growth.

Very, very interesting. Uh, another question from TT, which is very interesting. You know, Jan, a lot of people do not know what does India export to the rest of the world, literally, uh, as far as product.

You know, I'm, I'm looking around your background and my background, and virtually everything, or at least half of everything that I see, must have come from China. Um, the, the India exports nothing. India exports, uh, now a lot of refugees to the US. It is one of the largest refugee supplier crossing the border from Mexico. Uh, I, I'm thinking hard, you know, rice, um, you know, which is a natural product, not a man-made product in a way, uh, rice, um, really not much, you know. Everyone I talk— this is what I always ask people that you say India is an export-oriented economy, India is booming, and I say— and they say China is a paper tiger, and I say, hey, let's assess what is in your environment which is Chinese and what is in your environment that is Indian. And the answer is yes, my microphone is— comes from China, my laptop comes from China, my monitor comes from China, but what comes from India, maybe my underwear, but even that is more likely to be from Bangladesh.

Wow, it's the truth, is the truth. Here is a question from Cosmo Ray. Good to see you, by the way, Ray. A question: India and Pakistan water rights fight. He said, giant's opinion please.

So a couple of months back, um, the police from, uh, and I could be mixing a few things here, but, uh, police from Andhra Pradesh, a state in India, walked over into another province, Telangana, and opened the gates of the dam because the dam of Telangana wasn't supplying water to Andhra Pradesh. So they had— they physically, hundreds of policemen crossed over the border to do this. In Manipur, there have been fights between the Assam Rifles, which is a part of the Indian Armed Forces, and the local police. Now, both under the control of exactly the same government, but still they fight. Indians cannot come to a resolution. I cannot sit across with an Indian and come to a rational discussion and negotiation. And even if we come to something, if we sign a contract, the other party is invariably going to renege on that, that contract. And that is why when I— that is why when I talk with my clients, I always say, if you invest in India, make sure that within the contract the arbitration is out in London or out somewhere outside India, and there's a collateral outside India to get access to in case things don't work out. Let's come to water issue between India and Pakistan. These people— and Pakistan is just the other side of India, it's that they are the same people, the same mentality— you can't really have a rational discussion with them. The concept that runs through their mind is might is right. They can't discuss with each other based on rationality and, and moral values. So they can't sit down together and discuss anything can't, and if they come to a contract, they will not honor it. As I rightly, as I said, even the two states within the country cannot honor each other's contract, and the government cannot enforce it. So what makes you think that India and Pakistan can ever have a water agreement, and if there is a water agreement, it would be honored?

Wow, wow, wow. Another question from, uh, MD Shahid Hassan. Question: India is developing military and naval hardware. How strong is it?

Well, uh, so India does not make its own rifles really, um, because they, they are more likely to blow up in your face if they, uh, start supplying those rifles to the armed forces. Uh, Indian fighter plane project Tejas has been, uh, in the works for the last 6 to 7 decades. It has cost, uh, a massive, massive amount of cash. And they recently inducted those planes into the Indian Air Force. The Indian Naval Force refused, declined to accept those planes. And recently they had a crash, which crashed into the civilian area, killing some people. And the only reason the pilot was saved was because the pilot seat was con— was made by a British company, and the British company actually advertised that event. Uh, so I don't know what military and naval hardware you're talking about, uh, because Mr. Hassan, uh, you know, India has a— India makes nothing. It does not make chips. It does not make, uh, from what I know, cannot manufacture even today the heads of boil ball point pens. It just simply does not have a manufacturing background. Indian manufacturing is 13% of the GDP. 1-3%. Wow. Wow.

Uh, Roberta, I'll take 2 more questions, guys. So I'll take this one here. Roberta Marcos, uh, question: Is Mr. Modi an influential world leader who can stop Russia-Ukraine war or Middle East war?

Um, well, uh, Indian government actually claims, and this is all official, that Modi was able to call Zelensky and Putin within a few minutes and ask them to stop the war so that Modi could evacuate Indians from Ukraine when the war started. Now, uh, you talk with the Indians who were stuck in Ukraine, they said they got no help. They actually got assistance only when they had crossed over to Poland. So, uh, you know, India— India— Indian government lies through its teeth. They make things up. They want to make Modi look— look— Modi is himself— I think he himself, and at least his party, calls himself Vishwa Guru, the ruler, the, the leader of the world. Indians have an impression that what we call WhatsApp University people who get all these social media clips on WhatsApp, in their view, Modi, you know, Biden thinks about Modi when he wakes up, Putin thinks about Modi when he wakes up. And my understanding from whatever I have seen is that no one cares about Modi. He's a non-entity. India itself is a non-entity. There's no future, the hope of Modi ever becoming an international leader. I mean, this is the guy who cannot even address a group of journalists. He have never taken a conference with the journalists in the last 10 years, which, which is raised eyebrows for something like that.

So, uh, one more question after this one here, guys. This is from Hong Wan. If Modi wins a third term Will the West call it a win for democracy? And will Biden call him a dictator?

Well, there's no if, right? There's no if about it. Modi will win the election. He has a super majority of support already, and he's destroying whatever opposition parties exist anyway. So Modi will win the election, and he will have won democratically, although he will have played around a bit by sending the opposition leaders into prison. Uh, will Biden call him a dictator? No, because Biden needs votes of Indians living in the United States, and they are swing votes in many states in the U.S. today. So, uh, so they have no courage to call a spade a spade anymore. Uh, you know, even Trump will not do so. Uh, Trump, uh, claimed himself to be the best friends of Modi at one point of time because he wanted the votes of Indians. Unfortunately, we live in a democratic world where heterogeneity results into minority becoming the swing vote, which must be catered to. And that is the problem everywhere. And Indians are increasingly becoming a significant force in the Western countries, particularly in Canada. But Biden will not call him a dictator. Wow.

And I'll do my last question here. I'm sorry, I can't pronounce the name there. Will India focus some efforts on helping the poor, something like China poverty alleviation drive?

The simple one-word answer is no. They actually enjoy exploiting the poor people. I tell you a very interesting example from a very senior bureaucrat who I used to wine and dine with in New Delhi when I worked there. He used to tell me that he enjoyed his whiskey, high-quality whiskey, only when the other person did not have the same whiskey. So he wanted— he— this— that you, you cannot understand the sadistic mentality of Indian bureaucrats and politicians unless you have spent enough time with them, and I have spent enough time with them, I used to puke after meeting these people, how sadistic they are. So no, they don't want to help the poor people. They actually want to oppress and exploit them, and they derive a sadistic pleasure from it. So even if it's not helping them, they would still like to worsen the situation of poor people. But moreover, the poor people don't understand anything. They are so unconscious in a way that despite that they are exploited by these people, they will still end up going to vote for exactly the same people who exploit them.

Wow, wow, wow. Well, Giant, I don't know how to thank you, man. I truly, truly appreciate you. And on behalf of the entire community here in my channel, We say thank you to you. Thank you for carving out time for us. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and thank you for the truth. You know, I know I'm gonna, I'm gonna be reading the comments. Uh, it's, it's like what that individual wrote, uh, someone who wrote a comment way back because she watched your, your video, and she said, and I quote, those who are saying in the comments that Jayant Bahndari lives in Canada and has done nothing to India Do you think he could even if he wanted to? Which is exactly what you said. If you were to be the prime minister, the system is so corrupted to the core. So, so I can't thank you enough, and I truly, truly appreciate you carving out time for me. And I look forward to next time. If you can just wait for me, I'll talk to you offline after I say bye to my community here. Once again, thank you very much, Jared. All right guys, I hope you find it— I mean, I mean, to me, to me, that's, that's mind-boggling when you hear the truth, you know. And again, I, I've, I've known Giant for now. Now I did my own research about the guy. He's good, he's solid, you know. And usually, you know me by now, I will invite guests that you're gonna learn from because truth matters and you need to know the truth. So we are so grateful for him I will bring him again to the show. He moves around the world a lot with his investment work and so forth, so he's a busy man. But usually he was kind enough when I emailed him, answered me right away, and I was very, very excited to have him. So, so I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. I'll be doing live tomorrow at about 12:15. I will be talking about Kazakhstan and, uh, Qatar, uh, the $17 billion investment. So I want to give you some insights on this. As always, remember, geopolitics impact your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.