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By:

Akhilesh Sinha

25 June 2025 at 2:53:54 pm

External involvement in Chandranath’s murder

Political and Geopolitical forces behind the killing in West Bengal New Delhi: The 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections have not only signaled a new trajectory in Indian politics but have also stirred ripples in global geopolitics. The unprecedented victory of the BJP in the state brought to light events that reveal how the long-standing cycle of political power struggles and violence is now emerging in a new form. The most alarming manifestation of this shift came late Wednesday night with...

External involvement in Chandranath’s murder

Political and Geopolitical forces behind the killing in West Bengal New Delhi: The 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections have not only signaled a new trajectory in Indian politics but have also stirred ripples in global geopolitics. The unprecedented victory of the BJP in the state brought to light events that reveal how the long-standing cycle of political power struggles and violence is now emerging in a new form. The most alarming manifestation of this shift came late Wednesday night with the murder of Chandranath Rath, personal secretary to senior BJP leader Shuvendu Adhikari. Chandranath Rath, a veteran who served 15 years in the Indian Air Force, was closely working with his family friend and senior BJP leader, Shuvendu Adhikari. His killing is more than an isolated personal attack and it signals a disturbing new dimension of political violence. Historically, electoral violence in West Bengal has targeted the workers of losing parties. This time, however, even the leaders and workers of the winning side have fallen victim. The implications of this violence extend beyond the state's borders. Following the BJP's landslide victory in West Bengal, the activity of anti-India elements in neighboring countries has intensified. Bangladesh and Pakistan have expressed concern over the party's victory, while China and the United States are also closely monitoring its implications. This highlights that election results in border states now carry geopolitical significance far beyond local politics. For decades, West Bengal and Assam have been treated as strategic zones in broader geopolitical games, with external forces allegedly attempting to maintain unrest in these regions over the past seven decades, like Jammu-Kashmir. Investigations into Chandranath Rath's murder indicate a pre-meditated conspiracy. The assailants used advanced Glock 47X firearms, suggesting that the plot was not confined to local planning alone. The crime occurred just 60 kilometers from Basirhat, near the Bangladesh border, which strengthens the likelihood of external involvement. Violent History History shows that violence and muscle power have always been intertwined with West Bengal politics. From the "Khaddo Movement" of the 1960s to slogans like "Dam Dam Dawai," political action was often synonymous with coercion, intimidation and murder. During the Left Front era, strategies like "scientific rigging," booth capture, and leveraging local goons became commonplace. Later, the Trinamool Congress inherited these structures and kept them under its control. Today's events demonstrate that this system remains alive. Border Dynamics The complexity of border areas and communal dynamics further complicates the scenario. In constituencies along the West Bengal and Assam borders, Muslim candidates secured victories, while regions adjacent to West Bengal in Bangladesh are represented by members of Jamaat-e-Islami. Groups like Jamaat-e-Islami have long pursued anti-India agendas, and their influence can be seen in electoral outcomes across these areas. The BJP's recent victory, and the violence that ensued, draw attention to geopolitics. The President of the United States congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking an unprecedented acknowledgment of a state-level BJP win. In contrast, Pakistani and Bangladeshi media have reacted with alarm, while discussions in Bangladesh's parliament highlight concern for the Muslim communities in these regions. Local outbreaks of violence further underline that West Bengal is no longer merely a domestic political theatre, however, this is a hub of geopolitical activity, where external forces seek to keep unstable and chaotic. This cycle of political violence extends beyond individual acts. It has become a complex mix of administrative inefficiency, local political rivalry, and external interference. The immediate presence of DGP Siddh Nath Gupta and CRPF DG Gyanendra Pratap Singh at the crime scene underscores the gravity of the situation. Chandranath Rath's murder is not merely a personal tragedy but a broader political and societal security challenge. The events echo the 1970s when Naxalism emerged in West Bengal, eventually spreading across India's "Red Corridor." Rath's assassination makes it clear that politics in West Bengal is no longer limited to electoral competition or local governance. The incident lays bare the intertwined realities of political violence, international geopolitics, and social security concerns. If the current trends continue, West Bengal may evolve into a region sensitive not only to national politics but also to global strategic interests.

The New Manhattan Project

Biotechnology is the next frontier, and China seems to understand that better than America does.

In 1942, when America launched the Manhattan Project, it assembled the best minds of the age behind a single, world-altering goal: to harness atomic power before Nazi Germany could. The project was secretive, urgent and in the end, decisive. Today, a new race is underway - not for the atom, but for the code of life itself. And this time, it is China, not America, that seems most determined to win.


The implications are vast. A report from America’s National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology spells out the danger with clinical precision. Biotechnology is becoming the foundation of military, economic and technological power. Biology, long the domain of academic obscurity, is being fused with artificial intelligence to create weapons, cures, crops and capabilities once relegated to science fiction. Whoever leads in this domain, the Commission warns, will shape the future of geopolitics. Right now, that leader looks likely to be China.


The stakes are arguably higher than before, encompassing not just weapons systems, but the fundamental building blocks of human health and capability.


China’s ambitions in biotechnology are no secret. As early as 2017, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) declared biotechnology a ‘priority frontier’ in its national strategy. It has since poured billions into synthetic biology, gene editing and precision medicine. Its doctrine of “Military-Civil Fusion” ensures that civilian biotech breakthroughs can be swiftly commandeered for military use. The result is a system in which no clear line separates cancer research from battlefield enhancement. Such blurred boundaries recall the Soviet Union’s Cold War practice of embedding military applications into every scientific frontier.


The Commission paints a picture that would be comic if it were not so chilling: a future in which China fields genetically engineered soldiers, augmented by machine intelligence, in ways that make drone swarms look quaint. America’s disarray stands in sharp contrast. Its once-commanding lead in biotechnology, built on decades of public investment and private innovation, is now imperilled by political paralysis, funding cuts and bureaucratic drift.


History offers a cautionary tale. Britain, after inventing the steam engine and the spinning jenny, frittered away its early technological lead through complacency. The United States risks making the same mistake with biotechnology.


The report notes that China is not simply innovating but also manipulating markets in familiar ways. Through state support and aggressive pricing, Chinese firms have undercut competitors abroad, forcing closures and consolidations. It is a playbook borrowed from semiconductors, rare earths and solar panels and one that Western policymakers despite repeated warnings have proven slow to counter.


India offers a glimpse of how such tactics unfold. In 2022, it slapped anti-dumping duties on Chinese pharmaceutical ingredients to protect its fledgling biotech sector. Few others have been so bold. America’s biotech supply chains remain dangerously reliant on Chinese firms. One need only recall the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when mask shortages exposed the fragility of American medical logistics to imagine the consequences of similar dependencies in far more critical biotechnologies. In a future biological crisis, supply chain vulnerability could mean the difference between resilience and capitulation.


The Commission thus advocates not merely investment, but protection: a $15bn surge into biotechnology over five years, a new national office to coordinate efforts, tighter controls on Chinese access to research, and the rapid expansion of allied supply chains.


Of course, such measures will not come cheap. Nor will they be universally popular. Free-market purists will bristle at industrial policy; libertarians will balk at restrictions on academic exchange. But the uncomfortable truth is that biology, like physics in the 1940s, has become a theatre of power politics.


China appears to have learned the lesson of the Manhattan Project that in a world of transformational technology, the first mover wins and often writes the rules. If America wants to avoid becoming a client state in a biopolitical order shaped in Beijing, it must relearn the art of urgency.

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