Nepal’s constitution of September 2015, which triggered a storm of protest in the Terai and prevented fuel and necessary supplies from India entering the landlocked nation for over a month, is set for major amendments under a new coalition crafted by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who secured the backing … Read More
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) annual report 2015 is an egregious assault on India’s dignity as a sovereign nation, especially the tasteless reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the only person who’s tourist visa was revoked by the State Department in 2005 under a clause in … Read More
The whitefly attack on the Bt Cotton crop in Punjab and Haryana, which has decimated almost fifty per cent of the harvest, demolishes the myopic view of the Genetically Modified Organisms industry that introducing a bacterium into plant genes produces disease-resistant high-yielding crops on a sustainable basis. The devastation has … Read More
The Supreme Court refusal to allow the Centre to bulldoze the dubious Aadhaar project by luring weaker sections of society into “voluntary” use of Aadhaar to avail of welfare schemes is welcome. The Unique Identity programme has been ridden with secrecy and deceit since its inception, and must be decimated … Read More
The Russians have arrived in West Asia, with a bang, with airstrikes against the terrorist Islamic State (Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham, or Daesh, in Arabic), giving a new leash of life to the beleaguered Syrian President. Their arrival has strengthened Iran, the sole regional ally of the Damascus … Read More
India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), to be unveiled on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2 for added moral dimension, are keenly awaited across world capitals after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointedly apprised leading western nations, notably the United States, France and Britain, of the third world’s need for access … Read More
The crisis in Nepal could have been handled better by Indian diplomats as the draft of the new Constitution was made public for two weeks in July 2015, to elicit popular opinion. As the overwhelming majority of people favoured a “Hindu Rashtra”, the Nepal government agreed to withdraw the term … Read More
Sri Lanka’s national unity government comprising the United National Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party faces its first major challenge in the UN Human Rights Commission’s report on war crimes committed by both sides in the protracted war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. With President Maithripala Sirisena’s and … Read More
After the abject failure of the constituent assembly of 2008 and the inability to achieve unanimity in the assembly elected in 2013, Nepali lawmakers have understandably opted to end the impasse by voting for a draft approved by the three major parties, viz., Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified … Read More
The Supreme Court’s decision to stay the Rajasthan High Court’s astonishing order declaring Santhara (also Sallekhana) a form of suicide punishable under law gives respite to the tiny Jain community for whom the judgment came as a lightning bolt. It is a setback to the agent provocateurs who, unmindful of … Read More
