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:: Editor Speaks : C. Uday Bhaskar |
After Prabhakaran: Will Sri Lanka finally have peace?
The dramatic albeit gory footage of a dead Velupillai Prabhakaran with a bullet hole through his forehead marks the end of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a feared terrorist organisation.
A distracted India ignores crisis engulfing neighbourhood
The firm action being taken by the militaries of Pakistan and Sri Lanka against the Taliban and the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealem (LTTE) respectively over the last week, though deemed to be purely "internal national security issues", have resulted in the biggest humanitarian crisis since the East Pakistan exodus of millions of refugees in early 1971.
Slumdog's triumph: The importance of soft power
"Slumdog Millionaire", the quintessential underdog in this year's Oscars, has emerged as the unexpected winner with eight awards to its credit and the film - which is not an Indian film but definitely about India and its seamy underbelly - has caught the global imagination in an extraordinary manner.
Zardari candour: Beginning of a military-mullah penitence?
The US missile attack that killed up to 27 suspected neo-Taliban militants in Ladha, South Waziristan, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is testimony to the determination of the Obama administration to sustain the current military operations against terrorist hideouts and safe houses where the top Taliban leadership is understood to be ensconced. This attack comes at a time when the Pakistani President Asif Zardari conceded in an interview to CBS news channel that "We're fighting for the survival of Pakistan. We're not fighting for the survival of anybody else.
Pakistan cocks a snook at the world
A court in Pakistan Friday passed an order that freed disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qader Khan from the house arrest that he had been subject to since 2004, when the clandestine nuclear Wal-Mart that he had nurtured for decades first came to light. Global capitals 'regretted' this audacious judicial decision that made light of the grave nuclear transgressions that Dr. Khan had been guilty of - but to little avail. The Pakistani state appears to have succumbed to domestic compulsions and has decided to play up to the gallery and join the chorus that sees the tainted scientist as a national hero.
Pakistan ruling elite caught in intrigue and denials
US vice president-elect Jo Biden made a low profile visit to Islamabad last week - two days after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked his National Security Adviser (NSA) Mehmood Ali Durrani Jan 7.
The CIA-ISI axis: India should have no illusions of US support
India is maintaining politico-diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to comply with its international obligations apropos the Mumbai terror attack of Nov 26. Home Minister P. Chidambaram would visit the US in the course of this week with a detailed dossier that would include "irrefutable evidence" about the involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in the Mumbai attacks.
Hasty military action will jeopardize long-term national interest
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pithy observation that "nobody wants war" should serve as an appropriate response to the acerbic comment made earlier by Pakistani Army Chief, General Pervez Kayani, that Islamabad could retaliate within minutes of any Indian pre-emptive strike on Pakistani territory.
Needed: Revamp of national security apparatus
The multiple terrorist attacks that ravaged Mumbai with the death toll overshooting 180 have led to a justified outpouring of anger and anguish across the length and breadth of the country. India is outraged. Period. This is not the first terrorist attack that India has experienced - Mumbai alone recalls 1993 and 2006 with bitter memories. And tragically this may not be the last, given the ruthless determination of the extremist groups ranged against the idea of India.
Malegaon arrests: Elephant in the drawing room?
Malegaon has entered the tangled lexicon of the Indian narrative on terrorism but with some distinctive and disturbing features about it. This is the first time that a serving officer of the Indian Army has been arrested along with eight others alleged to have links with Hindu militant groups. This has caused predictable anxiety across the country and the spotlight has been turned on the secular credentials of the army. However, the matter is still under investigation and shrill emotive certitude must be kept on hold.
Pakistan's manifold challenges: Can Zardari-Kayani duo deliver?
Pakistan is facing a series of multiple challenges that pertain to its military, economic and fiscal security. A severe balance of payments crisis is on hand, and this was starkly evident on Tuesday with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautioning that Pakistan has just "a few days" to raise billions of dollars in foreign loans.
A train and a resolve: Symbols of hope for South Asia?
History was made in South Asia last week by two seemingly different but yet inter-connected events that could become symbols of hope in a region that has been blighted by terrorism and discord for well over a decade.
Terror in Delhi - will the political leadership be found wanting again?
The multiple terror attacks that struck the national capital Saturday is the fifth such lethal attack since May this year. In the last four months, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad within the country and the Indian embassy in Kabul have been targeted. This begs the obvious question: is the Indian state unable or unwilling to prevent such attacks and protect its citizens?
Asif Zardari as next Pakistani president: Hope and Despondency
Pakistan is scheduled to elect its next president on Sep 6 after the resignation of General Pervez Musharraf from that office on Aug 18. From current evidence, it appears that Asif Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), will emerge victorious in the three-way contest. Given his dramatic rise from what the Pakistan media has characterised as "playboy to first husband" - and later "Mr. 10 percent" - to grieving widower of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari is now a few days away from the highest constitutional office in Pakistan.
Musharraf impeachment: Pakistan on the brink - again?
Pakistan's long troubled politico-military calculus is again disturbingly animated - this time with the impending impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, the former army chief, slated for Aug 11. Many ironies are linked with that date, including that it is the doughty general's 65th birthday and that this matter will be taken up by the recently elected Pakistani legislature a month before the seventh anniversary of 9/11.
A.Q. Khan iceberg continues to haunt Musharraf, Pakistani Army
The twin halos of celebrity and notoriety continue to envelop Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan and this was evidenced in his interview to a news agency on July 4. During the course of the interview, Khan made a startling disclosure when he observed that "North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf".
Management of contradictions key to India-Pakistan stability
The just concluded visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Islamabad (May 20-21), and the tenor of domestic developments in both India and Pakistan over the past week, suggest that many opposing impulses are at play in both polities and that astute management of these multiple contradictions will hold the key to nurturing stability in the troubled bilateral relationship.
South Asian elections, the butterfly syndrome and China
Edward Lorenz, (born 1918) the world famous mathematician who pioneered the concept of chaos theory better known as the butterfly effect, and died on April 16 in Massachusetts, USA, seems an unlikely connection to invoke for the current political dynamic in South Asia ...
Pakistan to get a new Prime Minister: challenges of transition
Pakistan's long awaited tryst with truly participatory democracy has finally begun - but the challenges ahead are daunting. President General Pervez Musharraf has called for the convening of the newly elected National Assembly on Monday (March 24) and the Zardari led PPP, the single largest party in the just elected legislature has finally ended the suspense of who will be the interim Prime Minister of Pakistan. The former Speaker Yusuf Raza Gillani has been nominated to head the government over the other three PPP contenders, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, and Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Chinese lessons for India's Defence Budgeting
China is relating its military capability in relation to the USA, Japan and Russia and this is a logical policy initiative for a nation that has a clear strategic vision of the next 50 years. India does not exude the same degree of determination.
Pakistani retired military officers embark on a mea culpa:
Musharraf on the ropes
In an extraordinary development, unprecedented in the annals of Pakistan's troubled history, almost a hundred retired senior military officers including former Chiefs of Staff met on Thursday (Jan 31) in Islamabad and denounced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf - till recently the Chief of Army Staff - and described him as the "main obstacle to democracy" in the run-up to the February 18 national elections.
Post Benazir Pakistan faces multiple challenges
Sunday, January 6th marks ten days since the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto - the deeply flawed yet highly charismatic - former Prime Minister of Pakistan and her grief stricken country now faces multiple challenges even as Scotland Yard detectives from UK sift through the carnage that accompanied her death in Rawalpindi on December 27th.
Musharraf lifts emergency: more cosmetic than substantive
On Saturday, December 15th, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, now a retired General, dramatically announced the lifting of emergency rule imposed by him on November 3rd...
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