On Jan. 23, the Pakistan Election Commission cancelled the visit of a delegation to New Delhi in a sign that Islamabad intends to escalate the ‘Cricket Row’ in which all 11 Pakistani cricket players in the IPL-3 auction of Jan. 19 were quietly boycotted. Pakistan Chief Election Commissioner Justice Hamid … Read More
Is New Delhi suffering Elite Fatigue Syndrome? This is a Designer Disease, which initially afflicted the Secular Brigade. Like all contagions, it is fast infecting the Hindutva Brigade, at least those sections that struggled to reinvent themselves as ‘secular under my saffron skin’ when the BJP-led NDA pulled the patronage … Read More
A fourth generation descendant of Tamil indentured labour, P. Uthayakumar, HINDRAF legal adviser and secretary general, Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP), has returned from New Delhi’s Pravasi Bharatiya Divas jamboree to face trial for ‘sedition,’ a charge made by the ruling United Malay National Organisation regime. Advocates Uthayakumar and M. … Read More
New Delhi must end the doublespeak on Jammu & Kashmir and inform the Indian people if there is a covert understanding, under American aegis, to unravel the northern state bit by bit and surreptitiously cede it to Pakistan. A leading national daily on Saturday reported a ‘strong’ Indian reaction to … Read More
BJP mumbles and fumbles It is amazing that despite RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat declaring Kashmir “a non-negotiable issue” with Pakistan, as it was an integral part of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party was unable to transcend petty differences with the J&K National Panthers Party and support its call for a … Read More
Union Defence Minister A.K. Anthony’s decision to withdraw 30,000 troops from Jammu & Kashmir on grounds of an alleged improvement in law and order is fraught with risk and reflects dangerous vacillation regarding this critical border state. The announcement coincides with renewed unrest over the CBI probe into the Shopian … Read More
Switzerland’s recent vote against the construction of minarets as part of mosque architecture in that nation symbolises a frontal return of Christianity as the Western world’s default religion and culture, and a corresponding downsizing of the discourse on ‘secularism’ and ‘multi-culturalism,’ which gave Islam an opportunity to seize political and … Read More
The brouhaha over the leak of the Liberhan Commission Report, submitted six months ago after 17 years and an expenditure of Rs 8 crores of taxpayer money, has come at a time when the Indian Judiciary is making the news. First there was the unseemly wrangle over Supreme Court judges … Read More
Omar smells the coffee On Tuesday, 24 November 2009, Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah indicated a sudden retreat from the brinkmanship of ‘dialogue’ aimed at giving unstated concessions to separatists and secessionists, by asserting that the security situation in the State is “not yet conducive for moving the … Read More
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has clearly lost the plot. His irate but innately vacuous tirade against cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar has not only failed to bolster his shaky status as regional satrap, but reflects sadly upon how far the Sena has drifted from its avowed goal of protecting Hindus … Read More
