Today war and war games are not confined to land, sea and water only. The new age warfare uses all the means other than kinetic as the impact is many times more and at a minimalistic cost and the best thing is that your hand in the game and intentions are hardly seen by masses and millions. This may sound poetic but is the reality of today’s times we live in. Nowadays adversaries use their cloud and your own manpower, systems and processes to work against you, this is very similar to virus attack which manipulates our own cells to make more copies of the virus itself.
Let us look at the recent past when Elon Musk goes to his Twitter handle to complain that the Indian government is not supportive of Telsa coming to India.
This conceptually is an oxymoron under the leadership of PM Modi. The story starts to unfold immediately as all non-BJP or opposition-ruled states jump the gun and start rolling out red carpet (on twitter) for Musk and Tesla, without understanding or politically choosing to ignore the story and real intentions behind the game being played.
Let’s go a few years back when Musk was contemplating starting a factory in India (Bangalore) or Beijing. He had towering hopes, expectations and was lured into China. The point here is that he chooses China over India, a fair enough business decision. CCP follows a three-stage trap model or doctrine of entrapment, dependence, and end game.
During the years 19 -20 his sales sky rocketed and were all time high, which increased his networth. Tesla started exporting cars made out of China to the world over and all the things looked great and at this point in time Chinese dream seemed to be bigger that American dream.
Q1 2021 sales are all-time high and things look hunky-dory going great guns and champagne and celebrations were in the air. At the end of Q1 2021 suddenly Chinese regulators discovered some flaws in seat belts and autopilot of the vehicles and Tesla was directed to bring back or call back all the units. At the same time car ran into some issues in American and European markets as well but not the same issues. Q2 2021 (April to Jun) resulted in a sharp drop in Tesla sales the world over and a hit a big-time roadblock in China. Worth mentioning at this point in time 30% of the global sales of Tesla were coming from Chinese Markets hence stage two of the CCP model had reached. Resulting in a huge fall in share prices, personal net worth, and valuation of Tesla as such. This was much higher than 30% drop in sales.
If we run a quick scan here Tesla was exactly walking the same path as of NIKE; history repeats itself.
Now Musk had realized his dreams of net-worth and fortunes were heavily dependent on the Chinese markets and therefore the CCP. In Q3 2021 July he started praising CCP and supporting their initiatives on Cryptocurrency, which took the world by storm. We in India have had quite a few debates on our Nation TV on this and I have been a panelist as well. After his obedience to CCP and General Sectary XI, suddenly Tesla’s fortune takes a U-turn and all the issues disappear from the Chinese regulators and the sales started to boon again and from an all-time low of 18000 units to 32000 units to 56000 units per month; the story continued till December end 2021. The other side of the coin is that today 50% of sales come from China. So as you see today Tesla’s global sales are decreasing but increasing in China, hence the end game is near.
What is the end game? Indian Automobile sector is a flagship arm of the Indian Manufacturing sector and contributes a whooping 7.5% to the Indian GDP. Needless to say, it creates millions of jobs, and contributes to tax collections and overall wealth creation. Suddenly Musk whose existence is now dependent on Chinese markets and CCP starts the Twitter war as I mentioned above.
Let’s decode it further, Musk wants to import a 100% made-in-China car to India and is complaining about the import duty, which is in the tune of 100%. The reason for that being the promotion of manufacturing in India and also protecting the automobile industry and this is done by all countries in the world as our mantra is Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make India which all other global brands are doing and benefiting. Musk wants a special reduction in duty. Now the question arises, why? Why for him? What makes him so special? Why should India have a differential policy for Tesla?
We are an equal opportunity business hub for all. Musk knows this well, so do non-BJP ruled states, question is why and what finally? Opposition parties want their states to be been seen as pro business and somehow show PM Modi as in opposition of that. They all know import duties are uniform they are not different from state to state, the ideas here is to use this opportunity as a political tool to create dissonance. Imagine what TMC did to TATA NANO, now the same TMC is rolling out red carpets to Musk??
If the Indian government allows this for Musk then we need to allow it for all as simply anybody can go to a court of law and get this done. Hence why should people or any global brand manufacture in India? Anyway, Tesla has a lot of dead inventory in China sitting. Hence we are letting India become a dumping ground rather than a manufacturing base this is like opening floodgates of disaster.
The final stage will be if ever this was allowed when sales will reach an optimal number or cross the threshold CCP can sponsor Tesla to drop prices in India and at that point of time struggling, Automobile industry will get a decisive body blow. This one single move timed well can be the end of the automobile industry in India and associated jobs and benefits.
The fact remains with the multi-billion Indian EV Market, Musk needs India and not the other way around. Political pawns and economic terrorism will and is being handled and dealt with in India by the government of the day, let there be no doubt around it.