INDIA

PEPE ESCOBAR—New Delhi’s priority – embedded deep in the Indian establishment – may be containment of China. Yet Putin and Xi – fellow BRICS and SCO members – are very much aware that Modi cannot at the same time antagonize China and lose Iran as partner, and are deftly working on it.

Each year in January Bangladesh hosts the three day Bishwa Ijtema festival. It is held at Tongi beside the river Turag a short way north of Dhaka. This is the worlds third largest gathering Muslim pilgrims with up to 5 million attending. To transport this number of people, the Bangladesh Government puts on for free special trains. The grossly overcrowded trains create a spectacular sight. However despite what has been written elsewhere, this is not the usual state of affairs on Bangladesh Railways. Regular trains are crowded and some passengers ride on the roof but nothing like the festival trains. The video shows trains taking pilgrims to the festival in the morning and returning back to the city at the end of the last day.

ANDREW KORYBKO—Russia’s public realization about India’s affiliation with the “China Containment Coalition” gives Moscow the right to tacitly “tilt” its own “balancing” act in directions that New Delhi might not necessarily feel comfortable with, seeing as how its Indian “friend” is doing the same in regards to it when it comes to “containing” China at the US’ behest.

PETER KOENIG—Under close scrutiny, the BRICS don’t stand the test they subscribed to in their first summit in 2009, in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009, and under which they were legalized and officiated in December 2010, when South Africa joined the club of four, to make it the BRICS. At this point we are down to Russia and China – R and C are left as viable partners of the BRICS. They are also the founders of the SCO.