The integral part and its consequences

by Waheed Ur Rehman The Government of India has always maintained its position and stand on Kashmir as an “Integral Part”. The term “Integral part” was originally coined in response to international clamor on the issue of Kashmir as a bone of contention between India & Pakistan, by the Parliament of India, to announce to [...]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Chasing the mirage on Raisina Hill – can we bridge the civil military divide?

The last 7 years have been unusually tumultuous for civil-military relations in India. The period has been marred by unprecedented scandals affecting the image of the Armed Forces (Sukhna, Adarsh, dal ghotala etc.), agitations by former defence personnel over pension grievances and an avalanche of public writing and media discussion on matters pertaining to the [...]

Read full story Comments are closed

Is the Pakistan Army brave enough to make peace?

By Sunil S Sometime in the early morning hours of April 7th, a massive avalanche completely wiped out the Pakistan Army’s battalion headquarters (BHQ) at Ghyari. An estimated 150 jawans and officers of the 6th Northern Light Infantry regiment’s High Altitude Acclimated (HAA) reserve company were buried under 80 feet of snow there. All hope [...]

Read full story Comments { 5 }

Dissecting political acceptability

by Shashi Shekhar, Offstumped Consider this scenario of a Prime Minister speaking in Parliament: “I have spent decades doing this but today I have been at the receiving end of much personal criticism” “I thank the mere four parties that stood by me including the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal despite everyone else ganging [...]

Read full story Comments { 3 }

What the 2012 Pune Muncipal Corporation elections tell us

by Amit Paranjape (@aparanjape) I was a voter and an interested citizen observer on the sidelines of the recently concluded Pune Municipal Corporation Elections.  I think they may provide some representative case-studies on issues/learnings for local election issues in many other pockets of urban India. The Pune local elections are now over and in a sense, [...]

Read full story Comments { 1 }

The Iran conundrum – Indian choices predicated on the wrong premise?

by Somnath Mukherjee There has been the usual flurry of commentary from the commentariat in the latest round of tension around Iran. Not incorrectly, much of it has been focused on how India cannot be sitting on the sidelines, as it were anymore. It is when the analyses dive a little deeper do the nasty [...]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Indo-Bangladesh relations – collateral damage of UPA’s political issues

by Somnath Mukherjee The editorial today in the Indian Express captures some element of the damage to India’s relations with Bangladesh caused by Mamata Bannerjee’s caper over the Teesta river treaty. What it leaves unsaid is the severe damage to India’s neighbourhood outreach strategy in general this has done. Its somewhat ironic that Indian governments [...]

Read full story Comments { 1 }

Should we stop buying Iranian oil?

A 6-day sojourn through oil and gas-rich Arab countries in the past week by China’s premier Wen Jiabao has drawn global attention to tensions over fresh Western sanctions against Iran and its consequences for energy security in Asia. The European Union and the United States are pushing major importers of Iranian oil such as India, [...]

Read full story Comments { 2 }

20 years of Indo-Israeli relations – a rare policy bright spot?

by Somnath Mukherjee For a government that has been (rightly) pilloried for policy paralysis, the celebration of 20 years of establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel is a rare occasion for the UPAII to claim a degree of coherence in policymaking. First up, and perhaps most encouragingly, there has been no squeamishness in “celebrating” the [...]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Army Chief’s date of birth – much ado masking the real issues

by Somnath Mukherjee The press, both print and electronic has been abuzz with the date of birth issue over the last couple of weeks. Politicians, never to be expected to let go of opportunities to get into the limelight, have jumped in. On the issue specifically, it is really much ado about little. Disputes over [...]

Read full story Comments { 0 }