PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche Presents Global Stratetic
Overview To Select Indian Audiences
Dec. 10, 2001 (EIRNS)—Amidst meetings with high ranking Indian leaders during his Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 visit to India, U.S. economist and Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. keynoted an EIR seminar at the India International Center on Dec. 3. The invitation-only session was attended by 35 persons, among them former national cabinet ministers, high-level economic advisors, key intellectuals, and selected journalists.
LaRouche's presentation was entitled "Growing Global Crisis: The World Needs a New Monetary System." The entire seminar will be published shortly in EIR magazine, and be made available on LaRouche's websites.
The EIR seminar was opened by Prof. Devendra Kaushik, retired head of Russian and East European Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, now president of Maulana Azad Institute for Strategic Studies in Calcutta. He called LaRouche "one of the most powerful thinkers of our time, for whom economics is not a subject of money and finances, but a commitment to the General Welfare and the Common Good." Prof. Kaushik also welcomed Helga Zepp-LaRouche and her "tireless campaign for the idea of the Eurasian Land-Bridge."
In his presentation, LaRouche stressed the importance of learning real history, in particular learning from the fight to create the sovereign nation-state, the key achievement of the European Renaissance in the 15th century. He then discussed the "American system of political economy," and its impact in Europe, Japan, China and Russia during the 19th Century. The key achievement was the building of railway systems, such as the Trans-Siberian, as the basis for inland economic development. It was to counter this that British geopolitics was founded, he said.
This approach to economics demands a new approach to education, LaRouche said, based on re-creating the crucial discoveries made in history—a vital issue for India, with its huge population and problem of underdevelopment and poverty. LaRouche laid out the importance of long-term planning for investments in infrastructure, transportation, energy, water management, education, and universal health care. India must emphasize infrastructure, water management and power supply, with the nuclear high-temperature reactor as the appropriate technology for power generation there. Public credit is required for investment in new industrial technologies, and machine tool investments. All this requires long-term thinking: "No government is thinking, unless it thinks 25 years ahead. We must choose the road for the future. Think like a parent, who fosters the development of a child for the future."
In his closing remarks, LaRouche emphasized once again, that "the present global financial system is finished," and must be superceded by a "New Bretton Woods" reorganization. The Eurasian Land-Bridge is the right development perspective. The nations of East and Southeast Asia need a rapid infusion of technology, based on long-term credit at low interest rates for great infrastructure projects, and with Russia serving as transmission belt. We can bring the nations into the new system—"if not, we are headed for a new dark age."
Helga Zepp-LaRouche delivered a report on the Eurasian Land-Bridge. This idea was developed in 1989-92, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now, with Chinese infrastructure planning, and with Vladimir Putin as President of Russia, the Land-Bridge is no longer an idea, but concrete steps are underway to realize it. "We have come to India, this time, to help the Indian elite to recognize that a renewed effort is necessary. The present crisis can be used to put the Eurasian Land-Bridge on the agenda," she said.
In the discussion at the seminar and in the rest of the LaRouches' many meetings—which included a seminar at the School for International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University—India's leading university, their hosts stressed how much their presence in India was appreciated: "Do not let another 18 years pass, before you come back to our country!"
Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche met two former Prime Ministers of India, Chandra Shekhar and I.K. Gujral, and leading officials of the present government. On Dec. 5, they were officially received by India's President K.R. Narayanan.
