An enduring mystery of the Ram Janmabhumi court battle is the failure of the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court to mention the testimony of Goswami Tulsidas regarding the destruction of the birthplace of Sri Ram in their respective judgments. The Supreme Court’s 1045-page verdict gathered all evidence regarding Ramlalla’s … Read More
Indian analysts seem indifferent to the threat of India losing the railway line from Iran’s Chabahar port to Afghanistan and Central Asia, and suggest that New Delhi should focus on ties with Arab countries that provide energy security and jobs to millions of Indians. The view that India must choose … Read More
A cursory look at the map would show that Iran, like Pakistan, can join China’s Border and Roads Initiative (B&RI) by both land and sea, giving the latter command over a staggering geostrategic space. By land, Tehran could link Beijing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s emerging caliphate, giving it … Read More
India’s boycott of the Border and Roads Initiative (B&RI) on grounds that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) goes through Gilgit-Baltistan that was part of the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir and hence belongs to India, has been viewed by Beijing as threatening the security of the CPEC. Pakistan is the … Read More
In May 2020, Beijing intruded into Indian territory at some places across the long border, and Kathmandu claimed areas of Uttarakhand where India is building a road to Lipulekh Pass on the Tibetan border, to smoothen the journey for pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. Amidst rising tensions, Nepalese police firing killed … Read More
The unbearable tragedy at Galwan Valley has little to do with territorial claims and is instead a distraction “with Chinese characteristics”, to cover the fact that President Xi Jinping’s flagship project, Belt and Road Initiative, is floundering. At the National People’s Congress in May 2020, Beijing announced a military budget … Read More
The grim impact of the coronavirus, lockdown, cyclones Amphan and Nisarg that lashed both coasts have cast a shadow over the first year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term. Still, it was an eventful year, beginning with the defanging of Article 370, scrapping of Article 35-A, and bifurcation of … Read More
As the highly contagious Covid-19 torments the nation, some “eminent” economists advised the Centre to nationalise all private assets of above-poverty-line citizens (cash, real estate, property, bonds, etc.) to fund their ideas. One doesn’t know if this negates that other great panacea for all economic ills – privatization of public … Read More
As the coronavirus moves remorselessly across the world, and medical experts surmise that it could be with us for another two-three years, its lasting legacy will be pain for those at the bottom rung of society, those marginally above, and those in the middle. With three successive lockdowns India has … Read More
In an interview to German television Deutsche Welle (On April 17, 2020), writer-activist Arundhati Roy accused the Government of India “of exploiting the coronavirus outbreak to inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims”, adding dramatically, “the situation is approaching genocidal”. Given their experience with a democratically elected leader in 1933, one … Read More
