A recent upsurge in insurgent activity in Kashmir likely explains Pakistani and Chinese reluctance to crackdown on internationally designated militant Hafez Saeed and the network of groups that he heads. So does the fact that Mr. Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, an outlawed, India-focused ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim group widely seen as one of South Asia’s dea...
Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto’s letter to Catholics dated May 8, 2019, to “pray for democracy” and exhorting his flock to “defeat Hindu forces” is a battle cry that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party should take to heart very closely. Archbishop Couto is a representative of the most undemocratic organisation in the world and the agent of an alien natio...
Though Uttarakhand had 21,966 protests, the highest number in the year 2016, it was Tamil Nadu with a score of 20,450 protests - at the rate of 47 protests a day - that caught the national attention. The reason was simple: the protests in Tamil Nadu were massive, prolonged and in many cases spontaneous. Of course, one way of looking at it was as vibrant demo...
Ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif kicked up a storm when he earlier this month seemingly admitted that Pakistan had supported militants who attacked multiple targets in Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. Mr. Sharif’s admission, which he has since tried to walk back, put a finger on Pakistan’s controversial policy of selective support of militant ...
Conventional wisdom has it that China stands to benefit from the US withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, particularly if major European companies feel that the risk of running afoul of US secondary sanctions is too high. In doing so, China would draw on lessons learnt from its approach to the sanctions regime against Iran prior...
The recent revelations of financial irregularities at Tirupathi Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara is indeed troubling. Dr. A.V. Ramana Dikshitulu, the former chief priest, who has served the temple for more than twenty years, has come out with a series of stunning allegations that has literally thrown the Tirupathi Tirumala Devasthanam (TTD) Board as ...
In the past, Myanmar and Bangladesh had bilaterally handled the Rohingya issue, making pragmatic compromises. However, the results were temporary as Myanmar never addressed the core issue of Rohingya citizenship status. However, after Rohingyas refugees figures swelled to nearly a million in Bangladesh in 2017, it placed a heavy economic and administrative b...
Rohingya hopes were kindled when the NLD decided to participate in the 2015 elections. However, Aung San Suu Kyi’s politically loaded silence on the Thein Sein government’s disenfranchisement of Muslims prior to the 2015 elections disappointed Muslims including Rohingyas. For the first time, the NLD did not field any Muslim candidate in the election. It ind...
The terms ethnicity, identity and nationality are generally understood to mean the following: Ethnicity: It is related to membership of a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group’s customs, beliefs and language. Identity: The Cambridge English Dictionary defines identity as related to a person or the qualities of a person o...
In addition to racial prejudice, even sheer plagiarism can lead the Nobel Committee to ill-conceived decisions, as illustrated by the life of Professor E.C. George Sudarshan, the great India-born theoretical physicist, who breathed his last on May 14 at his Texas residence in the United States. Sudarshan had published his theory, known as “Sudarshan-Glauber ...
Saudi Arabia’s bitter rivalry with Iran has spilled onto Asian soccer pitches with the newly created South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF) reflecting the kingdom’s bid for regional hegemony, including domination of soccer. Saudi Arabia’s most recent victory on the pitch was evident in the absence in SWAFF, formed by a merger of the West Asian and Sout...
The betrayal of the Pakistan People’s Party (founded by the father of Benazir Bhutto as a Socialist Party similar to PASOK in Greece), former Prime Minister hanged to death by Military dictator Ziaul Haq, was the biggest crime of all. This party no longer represents the workers and peasants of Pakistan; rather it has become a tool in the hands of one faction...
A new Pashtun movement has erupted in Pakistan, mobilizing hundreds-of-thousands of people across the country, with tens-of-thousands attending its public meetings. The state apparatus and the entire ruling class, including all establishment political parties, are trembling at the sight of this huge movement, which originated from the most backward areas of ...
In an interview with Russia Today on the crisis in Europe, French politician Marine Le Pen said, “Immigration is an organised replacement of our population. This threatens our very survival”. Syria’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, supports New Delhi’s view that Rohingyas are a security threat and not a religious problem. Yet, the Supreme...
While political pundits and politicians alike in Washington have been busy as of late in making predictions about imminent crisis in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, reflecting equally which side the US will stand by if a war does break out between the two rivals, a backdoor channel of diplomacy, with Russia providing the crucial support, has also be...
The genetic and cultural similarities between people of West Asia and India can be accounted for by some of the migrations mentioned by Krishna in Mahabharata (2-14). The context was post-Jarāsandha and Krishna suggesting to Yudhishtira to conduct Rajasuya yajna. Krishna narrates the series of troubles faced by his clan (Yadava – Bhojas) on account of Jarāsa...
The Gulf crisis that pits a United Arab Emirates-Saudi-led alliance against Qatar is escalating in discreet but no less worrisome ways that effect major third-party commercial interests and could increase international pressure for a resolution of the dispute. In a major shift away from Saudi and UAE restraint in attempting to force the international communi...
If the Joint Opposition (JO) and the pro-Rajapaksa Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had hoped to break up the ruling coalition through the No Confidence Motion (NCM) against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the gambit failed. The motion could secure only 78 votes against 122 members who opposed it. Twenty six MPs apparently could not make up their mind...
With US President Donald J. Trump scheduled to announce whether he will uphold the international community’s nuclear agreement on Iran [since reneged – ed] and Iraqi elections slated for the same day, May 12 is gearing up to be a day that could shape the future of the Middle East. May 12’s significance lies in what it will mean for the immediate course of th...
Once again the liberal world order’s fairytales about Putin and bad old Russia seem to be unravelling. Prime Minister Theresa May’s “Thatcheresque” warnings to Russia’s president, the Keystone Cops and #hashtags #Novichok and #Skripal, and the reality of chemical warfare are blowing up in Her Majesty’s face as I type this. Meanwhile, billionaire western olig...