Why pick fights which we cannot win?

In December 2020, Cairn Energy announced that it has won an arbitration case against the Indian government at the Hague. By a unanimous decision, "The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on Wednesday not only invalidated India's $2.74-billion 2015 tax claim on Cairn Energy, but also ordered it to return up to $1.4 billion in funds withheld, interests and costs to the firm." Earlier, Vodafone Group Plc announced that "it had won an international arbitration case against the Indian government, ending one of the most high-profile disputes in the country involving a $2 billion tax claim". "India has challenged the Vodafone arbitration award in Singapore on December 21," Reuters reported citing a government official. The government's view is that taxation is a sovereign right and, therefore, can ignore the judgement. In which case India should have stated clearly that it does not recognise the arbitration tribunal at the Hague, just as it does not recognise the International Criminal Court which is also situated at The Hague. Vodafone still has business in India but Cairn does not. Hence, it can take tough action against India. "As India is a signatory to the New York Convention, the award can be enforced against Indian assets in numerous jurisdictions around the world for which the necessary preparations have been put in place," Cairn said. "It suffered this damage simply because it transferred ownership of its Indian oil field in 2006 to Cairn India Ltd, to prepare for the local unit's initial public offering. At the time, no tax was demanded. Years later, when Cairn disputed the sudden $4.3 billion levy, New Delhi expropriated its shares in Vedanta Ltd (into which Cairn had merged its Rajasthan oil field), helped itself to the dividends and dumped the stock." On 22 January, I warned that US firms can and do attach properties belonging to other countries. "Just like US oil firm ConocoPhillips grabbed Venezuelan assets overseas to enforce an arbitration award, Indian bank accounts, airplanes and other foreign properties can be seized to collect USD 1.4 billion awarded to UK's Cairn Energy against Indian retro tax, according to a letter seen by PTI." What a humiliation to be compared to Venezuela where people are starving and which is recognised as a failed state. Or, maybe not. "Cairn CEO Simon Thompson in the January 22 letter to the Indian High Commissioner in London, with copies marked to Prime Minister's Office, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the arbitration award is 'final and binding' and 'the Government of India has an obligation to comply with its terms." US e-commerce giant Amazon has won an arbitration award against Indian retail company Future Group which signed a takeover agreement with another Indian giant Reliance. Apparently, the government is thinking of changing rules against foreign e-commerce companies Amazon and Walmart to protect small retail stores. Not the first time. The government changed e-commerce rules in December 2018 after Walmart paid tax of Rs 74.39 billion in September 2018 arising out of its acquisition of Flipkart. Apparently, Amazon's deal with Future Group violates India's Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is now looking into it. Indian politicians and civil servants are accustomed to doing whatever they like to citizens but Amazon CEO Jeff Bazos also owns the Washington Post which supported Joe Biden in the recent presidential election. Perhaps, our great leaders should take a deep breath. Why take on unnecessary fights?