We are a poor cousin to China.

"China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) is throwing itself a party kicking off a month of celebrations today to memorialize its founding 100 years ago. Across China, newspapers and buildings alike have been blanketed in red party propaganda," npr. Where China leads we follow. In March, the Indian government "set up a 259-member high level national committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commemorate 75 years of India's Independence," Economic Times (ET). The so-called Central Vista project in New Delhi, which will have new residences for the Prime Minister and the Vice President, at a cost of Rs 200 billion will be completed by the end of next year, Scroll.in. "China's President Xi Jinping has warned that foreign powers 'will get their heads bashed' if they attempt to bully or influence the country," BBC. "Mr Xi also said Beijing would not allow 'sanctimonious preaching', in remarks widely seen as directed at the US." For India, China is the most dangerous and powerful enemy. "In a historic move, the Government of India (GOI) has moved 50,000 additional troops to its border with China as tensions between the two nuclear-powered countries continue after clashes between the two sides in the Galwan Valley and Eastern Ladakh," Zee News. "As of now, India has about 200,000 troops deployed on the border, representing an increase of more than 40% from last year." "There is scant evidence that the CCP under Xi has aims beyond the use and abuse of power to perpetuate its hegemony,"wrote a critical, yet nervous editorial in the Mint. "Yet, there is an even bigger reason for us to be wary of China. Backed by its tech-enabled military heft, it has revealed a will to supplant liberal democracy globally with its peculiar notions of a stable world order." "In terms of membership, with 91million, it (the CCP) is the world's second largest political party behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India," wrote Ajit Ranade. "The CCP would brook no dissent on the political system. In that, there was continuity and consistency from Mao to Deng and China's current President Xi Jinping." "Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Wednesday said the right of people to change those in office through elections was no 'guarantee against tyranny of the elected' and argued that democracy and its benefits could only be ensured by giving space to both 'reasoned and unreasonable' public discourse," Times of India (TOI). In March, 'US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a 'partially free democracy', BBC, and then Sweden-based V-Dem Institute described India as a "flawed democracy". To that, the Foreign Ministry retorted that India has "robust institutions and well established democratic practices" and does not "need sermons especially from those who cannot get their basics right". We cannot 'bash heads' because we are not strong like China. "History writing has been part of the CCP's activities since the consolidation of Mao Zedong's leadership in the party in the early 1940s," wrote Adrija Roychowdhury. "What also stands out in the history writing project in China is that the same party, over the course of a 100 years of its existence, has approached the history of China and that of its own differently at different moments of its time." The Indian Express. However, "Similar exercises of state control over the past have happened in large parts of the world, including India." "We all read about Karna in the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata says Karna was not born from his mother's womb," Modi said. "This means that genetic science was present at that time," The Print. "We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant's head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery." From facial recognition to identify protesters, Down To Earth, to fingerprinting to pay income tax, India Today, we are a lot like China. Only poorer and weaker.