For: Ram MadhavRecent killings alarming but political discourse has shifted to development What is the objective of the Union government in Jammu & Kashmir? Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has summed it up beautifully: “The objective is not to buy peace but establish it”. Terrorism, separatism, violence and anti-national activities of civilian and political activists have plagued the state […]
Ram Madhav
China’s Western Horizon – Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia
In the year 1990, Deng Xiaoping, the supreme leader of the Communist Party of China, had issued a 24-character dictum in Chinese. Translated into English, it meant: “Observe calmly; secure our position; Cope with affairs calmly; hide our capabilities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership”. After […]
The Middle Path
In the evolving power dynamics worldwide, India must return to Asian centrality and non-alignment The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a witty, genial, and colourful person. In the US, recently, to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Johnson cheekily told his bête noire in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron, to “donnez-moi un break” and “prenez un […]
To save democracies and warn autocrats, the political will of citizens is key
It was the undaunting spirit of the people of India in democratic values and institutions that was responsible for the restoration of democracy in 1977. That political will of the masses is the only guarantor of the survival of democracy, and also a warning for future authoritarians. Leaders must strive to uphold that power, not […]
Taliban Government: A 21st-Century Cold War is Taking Shape
The fall of Panjshir after the Pakistan Army’s midnight operation with choppers and drones marks a sad turn in the resistance movement in Afghanistan. In the absence of any material or moral support from world powers, the Panjshiri resistance forces could not hold on to their capital. Still, they vowed to continue their fight against […]
There is still hope for Afghanistan
The Taliban may appear powerful today but their greatest weakness is that the Afghans, including a majority of Pashtuns, are not with them. They remember the cruel Taliban rule in 1996-2001 when women were subjected to inhuman atrocities, the country’s cultural heritage like the Bamiyan Buddhas was destroyed, music was banned and political opponents and […]
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America
Timothy Snyder, Housum Professor of History at Yale University in the USA, is a recognized authority on authoritarian ideologies and their ability to undermine and nibble away at democracies. He has authored several books, the recent being a short educative essay titled “On Tyranny – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century”. In his book “The […]
Attempt to whitewash Moplah atrocities is latest case of Communist schizofascism
Fascists are known for blatant distortion of history. Communists are one step ahead. They not only distort history with impunity but blame their opponents as fascists. Stalin blamed Jews as fascists. Brezhnev called the entire capitalist West as fascist. In India, the nationalists are fascists for them. Talking of distorting history, Stalin demanded that 1941 […]
Overcoming the partition of the minds
Three major partitions happened in the world in the second half of the 1940s. Germany was partitioned into the Eastern and Western blocs in 1945, followed by India into Hindustan and Pakistan in 1947. Finally, Israel was created by partitioning Palestine in 1948. Germany’s partition was temporary. The Berlin Wall, constructed in the early 1960s […]
Beware Zombie Democracy
India needs to be wary of the new authoritarianism creeping across the world DISASTERS, NATURAL OR MANMADE, have consequences. A hundred years ago, a pandemic came riding on the devastation caused by World War I, leading to the destabilisation of the world order of the new nation-states. The Great Depression of the 1930s had added […]