The Biden administration and India are evolving a delicate balance at the centre of which is China on how New Delhi reacts to the Russia invasion of Ukraine
The Iran Conundrum, Trumpian Dilemma and the Shifting Sands of West Asia
Ray Takeyh, senior fellow for Middle East studies at the CFR believes that the West could have got much better dividends without this war. He says that Araghchi had tabled proposals that called for the suspension of uranium enrichment for several years before allowing it to then resume at low levels. Linda Robinson, CFR’s senior fellow, also feels that there will be mass American casualties if special forces are deployed. Already Arab States are upset with these joint operations with Israel. The consensus among CFR experts is that Trump’s ambitious objectives cannot be achieved merely with joint assaults by air or sea.
Custodial Killings with no Judicial Remedies: A Sad Tale Across Two Punjabs
Was this the legacy that the great freedom fighters from Punjab – or extend that logic to rest of India and Pakistan where custodial deaths are common – would have wanted their land and its future generations to inherit? As if the breakdown of the country and its gory partition with a divided Punjab were not enough to torment them in their graves, wouldn’t this thought leave them completely shattered and desolate: this divided land is united in its conviction to perpetuate the very colonial mindset they fought.
Bangladesh's Recent Election was Neither Free nor Fair
The Interim Government arranged extensive state protocol and privileges to the government-sponsored party, National Citizen Party (NCP), parties close to IG like Jamaat e Islami (JI) and their alliances, almost as if they were the government themselves. Similar privileges were given to the BNP and its allies. But no such facility was extended to the JP.
Competitive Populism vs Economic Development: When Forests are Monetised to Fund Revenue Expenditure
A democracy that is cutting down forests for votes risks mortgaging its ecological future for an electoral present. Welfare is essential; appeasement is corrosive. The difference lies in fiscal discipline, transparency and respect for citizens, who are not beneficiaries, but are owners of the republic. If we do not draw that line now, next year’s burden will demand another forest.
More on Perspective
A film on Kashmir reignites old wounds
Beyond the number of deaths and whether to define the Pandits’ barbaric displacement as genocide, this is a chapter of contemporary Indian history that has received woefully inadequate media and scholarly attention, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor
The medicalisation of death: Isolation of the dying is cruel
"The unbalanced and contradictory picture of death and dying,” tells the tale of a society lost in modern medicine and unmindful of where this is taking us, write M.R. Rajagopal and Jagdish Rattanani for South Asia Monitor
Rahul Bajaj was a visionary, an industrialist who promoted Gandhian values
He used his annual presence in Davos to make a convincing tour de horizon of the great strengths and resilience of the Indian economy, writes Amb Bhaswati Mukherjee (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Cooked meals for the poor in India: An idea whose time has come
If the rural poor can be given a basic ‘thali’ at subsidized price, they will not only get proper food but do away with the drudgery of cooking, writes Anil K. Rajvanshi for South Asia Monitor
Film on Godse’s killing of Gandhi: Falsehoods galore
The real motive behind murdering Gandhi was that he was for inclusive nationalism, the dream of revolutionaries, and for his attempts to work against untouchability and caste inequality, writes Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
'Learning from Ghalib about the world we live in': Cross-border collaboration around shared couplets
This unique India-Pakistan collaboration developed into this latest venture, “Thinking with Ghalib: Poetry for a New Generation”, a collection of 30 couplets with translation and commentary, write Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole for South Asia Monitor
Can the subcontinental deadlock be broken?
If the meeting of Indian and Pakistani officials—expected to take place next week as per a report in The Hindu– comes through, it will be a departure from the recent past as formal dialogue has remained frozen for almost two years, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor
Historic changes at India Gate and their significance
The Amar Jawan Jyoti -- an upturned rifle with a helmet customarily marking a battlefield grave -- amounted to nothing short of a poor apology for a war memorial at India Gate
South Asia's divisive politics: Modi election speech stirs up an 'artificial' boundary issue between India and Nepal
India’s position on the boundary issue is “well known, consistent and unambiguous”, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said, days after political parties in Nepal stoked a simmering territorial dispute in Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned road construction in Lipulekh at an election rally in Uttarakhand state
No travel ban; instead India offers vaccines, life-saving drugs to Africa
Even as most countries began slapping travel bans on African countries, India has offered support for Africa to combat the newly-emerged Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic, including through supply of vaccines, life-saving drugs, PPE kits, gloves and ventilators
Cross red lines at your own peril in Pakistan: Message to opposition and media
The Asma Jahangir Conference in Pakistan last week sparked a somewhat balanced and much-needed discussion on the issues concerning the country
Rising above hate, a Hindu businessman and a Sikh gurdwara offer prayer space to Muslims
In a country known for its traditional inter-faith tolerance and harmony, one of the headline news for the last few months has been how groups of right-wing Hindus, supported by local leaders of India's ruling BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been obstructing and protesting against the offering of namaz in public places by Muslim citizens in Gurugram, a satellite city of capital New Delhi
Decoding Pakistan NSA Moeed Yusuf's refusal to attend India-hosted regional conference on Afghanistan
On 15 August 2021, the day the Taliban seized power militarily in Kabul, the world watched with trepidation the scenes of an ignominious end to the twenty-year-long efforts of the US to prop up a democratic government there
A Middle East Quad? Scope for synergies, but divergences over Iran
Within the new Middle East/West Asia Quad, there is space for trilateral economic cooperation between India, the UAE and Israel
