Browse Articles

Waziristan: Forgotten Lessons
21 October 2009
How the Pakistani Army has forgotten lessons learnt by the British Raj in fighting the Waziris and Mehsuds of the Frontier.

SRI LANKA: India Speaks Up For Embattled Tamils
28 January 2009
As humanitarian agencies warned of a major crisis unfolding in Sri Lanka, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a quick dash Colombo to extract promises concerning the safety of some 250,000 ethnic Tamils trapped in fighting between separatist rebels and government troops. Mukherjee, who flew into Colombo on Tuesday afternoon, returned on Wednesday morning after a crucial meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.

INDIA: Delivers Diplomatic Ultimatum to Pakistan
5 January 2009
India’s Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday that his government has delivered a dossier to Pakistan containing evidence of the involvement of Pakistanis in the Mumbai massacre -- an act that strategic experts say amounts to an ultimatum to bring the perpetrators to Indian justice.

SURVEILLANCE: Is this where we are headed?
1 January 2009
The Mumbai terror strikes have put enormous pressure on the government to make our country more secure. This requires vastly increased surveillance and tight security controls at every level. It is hard to say at this point whether our government can actually introduce any or all of these measures, but they are necessary in order to protect our citizens. Many of these steps will have a direct impact on our daily lives.

INDIA: Seeking China's Support in Dealing With Pakistan
30 December 2008
As the Pakistani government digs its heels in against India’s demands for action on the suspected masterminds of the November terrorist strikes in Mumbai, the Indian foreign policy establishment is looking to China and other regional powers, besides the United States, for support.

The Mumbai Attacks: US Policy Dilemma
10 December 2008
The initial reaction of most US security analysts to the Mumbai terrorist strike was to blame Indian Islamists for the Mumbai terror attacks. This was astonishing given that no initial evidence suggested the involvement of homegrown terrorists. Yet, many US analysts jumped the gun and insisted the terrorists had no connection with Pakistan. The International Herald Tribune (IHT) quoted Christine Fair, a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, as saying: "There's absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it." How an expert sitting in the United States could speak with such authority on an event thousands of miles away was intriguing to say the least.

Dealing with Pakistan: Outrage Cannot Help
01 December 2008
The public mood in India is undoubtedly anti-Pakistan and the central government is under considerable pressure to make Pakistan pay for the Mumbai outrage. The normally measured Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh talked about the involvement of external elements responsible for the Mumbai attacks. The question of course is how to punish the Pakistani Army and the anti-Indian groups that it covertly supports?

Is it time for India to join US war in Afghanistan?
21 September 2008
check date Hafiz Muhammad Saeed might have attained notoriety in India for being the chief of the terrorist organisation called Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, but in his home country, Pakistan, Saeed purports to be a professor and the head of a peaceful, proselytising organisation called the Jamaat ud Dawa. His latest claim is that India will be sending troops to Afghanistan as part of the Indo-US nuclear deal. This move, according to him, is part of a wider conspiracy launched by India, Israel and the US "to destroy Pakistan's defence".

India zooming to energy crisis in a spanking SUV
19 August 2008
The pace of construction along the new expressways, leading off from New Delhi, is truly impressive. Block after block of glass and metal office complexes and malls are continually rising in the capital's expanding suburbs, like resplendent symbols of an emerging India. Yet, they cannot entirely be admired. For, behind the lustre is another terrible reality: There is little or no electricity to power them. The glass and metal building has become a paradigm in emerging India: choice of inappropriate technology, coupled with complete disregard for the real cost of energy.