Articles

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Several years ago, when we were initiating dialogue with the PDP to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, I had the occasion to talk with a senior leader of that party. In response to my statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen on the progress and development of […]

China now has teeth to fulfill its longstanding desire to reunify Taiwan Authoritarians have a common trait—legacy-seeking. The reunification of Taiwan is one such legacy successive leaders of China since Mao have been seeking. “If we can’t reunify China the right away, we will do it in a century; if not in a century, then […]