’Tis the season to make lists, and a list shall be made. We tend to see each year as extraordinary, and in some senses, each year is. But in a broader sense, 2014 was merely another year in a long chain of human triumph and misery. Wars have been waged, marvelous things have been invented, disease has broken out, and people have fallen in love. Nonetheless, ...
Ever since the BJP’s ascension to power, attempts have been made to eulogise Nathuram Godse as a sterling patriot who committed an outrageously bold act in national interest. Hindu nationalists are understandably eager to present an alternative perspective to the momentous event whose consequences haunt them till date. True to style, the Hindu Mahasabha...
It is abundantly clear that the United States needs India more than the latter needs the former. The US has forged strategic partnership with India in the region of its particular geopolitical interest – the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean. One of the main intentions of Washington is to checkmate Chinese ambition in...
Peace and development in India is possible, if there is peace and stability in the immediate neighbourhood. India, being the major economy in South Asia is of course the main driver of growth in the region with its output of about 70 per cent, but the performance of other countries in the region is the contributing factor. Notwithstanding the continuing glob...
The capital’s Assembly elections have emerged as an uneven three horse race, with each party determined to better its previous record. With barely a dozen days left for polling, it would be foolish to hazard a guess as to the outcome, but some points deserve mention. Contrary to media hype, elections to the semi-state of Delhi do not count for Prime Minister...
The year 2014 brought in momentous changes to Indian politics; it’s a year of Modified India. The year gave the nation a government led by a party with a full majority after a gap of three decades. It is also the first majority government for a party that claims to have roots in Hindu nationalism, a first decisive political victory for an ideological group i...
The Middle East is one of the most volatile regions in the world - it is no stranger to upheaval. The 2009 uprisings in Iran and the brinksmanship of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government were followed by the chaos of the Arab Spring, the spillover of the Syrian conflict into Iraq and a potential realignment of the US-Iranian relationship. Unlike recent years,...
When President Obama meets with Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi in a few days they must look beyond the nuts and bolts of technological and security cooperation to bring into focus an Indo-American responsibility to act coherently on a broad set of critically important global...
The House of Saud now finds itself in times of extreme trouble. Their risky oil price war may eventually backfire. The succession of King Abdullah may turn into a bloodbath. And the American protector may be musing a change...
The murders of cartoonists who made fun of Islam and of Jews shopping for their Sabbath meals by Islamists in Paris last week [Jan 7 – Ed] have galvanized the world. A galvanized world is always dangerous. Galvanized people can do careless things. It is in the extreme and emotion-laden moments that distance and coolness are most required. I am tempted...
The announcement of Washington’s restoration of diplomatic relations with Havana prefigures that of relations with Tehran. The United States has not abandoned its imperialist ambitions and these two states have not renounced their revolutionary ideals. However, pragmatic, Washington acknowledges that Cuba and Iran will not be defeated by diplomatic isolation...
The edifice of world post-1991 order is collapsing right now before our eyes. President Putin’s decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at the Charlie festival, gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long as it stayed the course. Not anymore. Russia broke...
Recent political developments in Sri Lanka have drawn the attention of South Asia and the world. The credit rightly goes to the people and political spectrum of Sri Lanka for dislodging a despotic and arrogant Mahinda Rajapaksa from power in a bloodless ballot box coup. Rajpaksa’s exit is expected to usher in process of further democratic reforms in the...
Hindu secularists have infinite capacity for self-deception. Even when reality stares them in the face, they manage to convince themselves that there is really speaking no problem at all, things will eventually sort themselves out and, in any case, there is no reason for them to worry - or act.
Faced with Islamic separatism, gangsterism and jihadi...
Delivering the inaugural address on Jan. 3 to the 102nd Indian Science Congress at the University of Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has placed science and technology at the forefront of his diplomatic engagement with other nations, because “a nation’s progress and its human development are linked to science and technology.” Identifying science ...
It is becoming clear to more experts on debt in the trans-Atlantic banking system that the outrageous mid-December power play by which Wall Street banks forced Congress to grant FDIC insurance to their commodity and credit derivatives was directly linked to the oil and gas price collapse. This outrage in Congress may lead to the government bailing out Wall S...
Integration of South Asia has become a dream for some skeptics after the last SAARC summit at Kathmandu. They believe that SAARC’s march towards a common customs union and an economic union and then to a monetary union would continue to remain a distant possibility for all times to come. The SAARC Free Trade Area (SAFTA) already in operation has not met with...
One thing is common to mullahs, missionaries and Marxists: when they are given a dose of their own medicine, they cry foul. If you join (or are made join) their fold, you are exercising your basic right to freedom of thought, belief and conscience. If you leave their fold and return to your roots, you are reviled as an apostate or renegade. If feasible, appr...
Now that the heat and dust kicked up during the 102nd Indian Science Congress has died down, it is time to introspect, not just on all those controversial subjects, be it interplanetary travel in “aeroplanes” during vedic times or building an “air plane” by an Indian prior to the feat of the Wright brothers et al. The Science Congress had an exclusive sessi...
India’s most prestigious agricultural export - basmati rice - is in danger of being banned in the European Union and other GM-sensitive markets as consignments were found tainted with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in November 2014. Experts at the UK-based GM certification firm, Cert ID, feel the contamination is intentional as the more expensive...
Animal Rights Activists are celebrating the Supreme Court of India’s recent ban on Jallikattu as if it is their greatest achievement. But the reality is Jallikattu was already dying a natural death and the ban was just the last nail in the coffin.
People of Tamil Nadu had already lost all hope and were reconciled to the fact that Jallikattu is set to die....
On the night of December 31, 2014, the Indian Coast Guard intercepted and neutralized a boat filled with explosives that had come all the way from Karachi in Pakistan and intruded into Indian waters. This operation is a telling example of the India’s new resolve and determination to keep the country safe. After many years, the national security establishment...
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11 Jan 2015
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With just days to go for the Pongal celebrations, there has been heavy uncertainty prevailing in Tamil Nadu on the fate of Jallikattu, Manjuvirattu and other temple festivals of the State. The people of Tamil Nadu, particularly the southern region, have been anxiously waiting for the Central Government to take steps to overcome the oppressive and unjust ban...
Naveen Patnaik may face a difficult challenge if the revival of the Congress party takes place at this juncture when he is engulfed by a series of scams – from MineGate to CoalGate to land and housing scam to relief scam to the new Ponzi scam. He knows well that at present the BJP will not disturb him much as the Modi government at the Centre could seek the ...
The US and Western Christian nations have made clear their foreign policy objectives in Asia. The focus of Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic faith and the State of Vatican is also Asia. Asia is seen as having the greatest potential for the expansion of Catholicism. When the Church declares the Third Christian Millennium as “a great harvest of faith wi...
Circa 2014 was assuring for India’s foreign policy. There was a number of incoming and outgoing visits by heads of government and heads of state. India’s interaction with powers like the US, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea took place in this year. There was a gap in the activity at the top level in April and most of May due to the election proce...
The Sunday Times (Plus) of December 21, 2014 carries a review of a Book entitled ‘The Black Prince’s Chapel’ by Sagara Jayasinghe (Vijitha Yapa Publications, Price: Rs. 2450) under the subheading ‘The architect inspired by the Black Prince’s chapel’. The reviewer states: “The church of Our Lady of the Gate of Heaven in Telheiras, Lisbon goes down...
On December 4, 2014, Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Prakash Javadekar, made a startling statement in the Rajya Sabha: “There is no scientific evidence to prove that genetically modified crops harm the soil, human health and the environment”. This statement was made apropos the controversial decision of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee...
In the upcoming snap Presidential election in Sri Lanka slated for 8 January 2015, President Mahinda Rajpaksa’s defeat looks imminent, sans rigging. A formidable rainbow coalition of the opposition under the leadership of joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena is firmly in place. Sri Lankans’ disenchantment with corruption, rising cost of living,...
Any narrative on Sri Lanka would be incomplete if India’s overwhelming influence in Sri Lanka is not considered. It comes from India’s huge geographic size, economic strength and global political influence from times immemorial. After the British colonial power exited from South Asia, independent India’s dominance gave rise to anxiety among sections of Sri L...
Undermining Sri Lanka
Take the case of another South Asian nation, Sri Lanka. The United States did not come out directly against Colombo during the bloody battle that the Sri Lankan Army fought in 2009 to eliminate the Tamil Tiger terrorists, who had carried out 26 years of a violent secessionist movement in northern Sri Lanka, while being endowed with hug...
During the past five decades, like some other poorer regions of this world, the nations of South Asia have been mere spectators watching global politics unwinding and undergoing phase changes. Since the end of World War II, global political power has been monopolized by the premier Western nations, most of whom were former colonial powers much-derided by the...
If it were not for the fact that the lives of some 45 million people are at stake, Ukrainian national politics could be laughed off as a very sick joke. Any pretenses that the October national elections would bring a semblance of genuine democracy of the sort thousands of ordinary Ukrainians demonstrated for on Maidan Square just one year ago vanished with t...
Publicly released excerpts of the report of the Senate Committee on the CIA’s secret torture program reveal a vast criminal organization. Thierry Meyssan has read for you the 525 pages of this document. He found evidence of what he has been saying for years.
Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on December 9, 2014, released an ...