September 2009

Recent developments in Pakistan relating to Hafiz Saeed, the founder-leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa-cum-Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been cautiously welcomed by India.
On September 16, the police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered two cases against him in Faisalabad for glorifying jihad and soliciting funds for it. The cases were unconnected to the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008. But what is significant is that for the first time cases were filed against him by the Punjab Government (…)

The last two weeks have provided both mirth and melancholy. First melancholy. The aged and respected Minister of External Affairs, S.M. Krishna, and his junior colleague are unceremoniously asked to vacate their five-star abodes. That they were inflicting no burden on the taxpayer is besides the point. In our hypocritical political set-up ostentatious austerity has to be seen, not practised.
How were this Ministers dealt with? The Finance Minister, a man of wisdom, vast experience (…)

Power is the sole purpose of politics in India. Without power, parties crumble. The implosion ripping the BJP apart shows how comprehensive the crumbling can be. It is easy to say that the BJP’s self-destruct is its internal affair. But there are two reasons why it should be every Indian’s affair.
First, the BJP was the only national formation that rose to challenge the Congress which inherited its all-India mantle from the independence movement. For our nascent democracy, the (…)

The following is an enlarged version of an article that appeared in The Hindu (September 17, 2009). It is being reproduced here, with due acknowledgement to The Hindu, in view of the exceptional significance of the contents of the article and for the benefit of our readers. —Editor This article’s aims are:
a) to correct inaccuracies in articles on Pokhran-II in August 28 and 30, 2009 of The Hindu.
b) to elucidate my conclusion that the yield of the second fusion (H-bomb) stage of the (…)

A small number of Englishmen (about two lacs) ruled India, a vast country with a population of 400 million. How could they do it? Their strategy was military control and creation of vested interests bound up with British rule. The princes and zamindars were given privileges and they wanted the British to rule India. After a few decades of the Great Revolt of 1857, the British became pro-Muslim to convert them to support British rule. Wavell considered Muslims loyalist like princes. (…)

With his eight-month presidency seemingly weakening, United States President Barack Obama struck. A familiar pattern in his political career is repeating. His decision on September 10 to scrap the plans of his predecessor, George W. Bush, to build a land-based anti-missile shield in the heart of Europe overlooking Russia’s western borders may appear justifiable, but is nonetheless a stunning national security reversal.
It was to be a missile defence system of unproven technology, (…)

Once again China has appeared on the radar screen of Indian security. Although officially the Indian authorities have so far denied any knowledge of Chinese troop concentration all along the far-flung frontier, the fact that for over two weeks now a Chinese patrol has dug in at about seven kilometres within the Indian territory at a strategic point in the Arunachal Pradesh, can hardly be dismissed as just an accidental intrusion, innocently undertaken. Those who have been following the (…)

The media these days are full of stories of the Chinese Army’s violation of India’s northern borders. Of late it spoke of violation in the central sector. I live in a border town in this sector. Before one believes these stories of violations, one should have an idea of the border topography. The border, not surveyed and not demarcated yet, for it to be accepted by both sides, runs along the highest ridges, across which it is impossible to see. A newspaper story quoted a villager seeing (…)

As China approaches the 60th anniversary of Communist rule, the issues that have challenged its internal consolidation are once again taking centrestage. While the country has been showing remarkable economic progress and has also taken on a regional leadership role, in terms of balancing its internal problems China will remain a critical region to watch. Barely two months after the outbreak of ethnic violence in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, another spate of violence that erupted (…)

Displacement has become a leading source of discontent and impoverishment in India and many other developing countries. In the case of some vulnerable groups like tribals, it is perhaps the leading source of poverty and discontent resulting in widespread violence in several places. Thus policies which promote large-scale displacement not only increase poverty, these are also a threat to peace and democracy.
Unfortunately it has been taken for granted by many senior policy-makers that (…)