IDR Blog
Understanding the Article 370
The recent suggestion of the Gujarat chief minister and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at a rally in Jammu that the nation should debate the usefulness of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that grants special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir has caused a hue and cry in the political circles. It has...
Nepal's democratic hopes, Indian and Chinese interests
Nepal’s efforts to establish a parliamentary democracy have had their difficult and almost hopeless phases for the last decade where political fault lines accentuated since the assassination of King Birendra. The country will hold elections on November 19 if all goes well. China may be unable to match India’s economic and political...
China cashing on India’s Sri Lanka woes
Even as the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was finding it hard to make up his mind over attending the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting) to be held in Colombo in two weeks from now, China is making the best use of the situation to strengthen its presence in Sri Lanka. China’s intention is obvious: profit from India’s...
Damaging a great institution
As compensation for limited promotions, early retirement and to soften blows of the earlier Pay Commissions, the service chiefs demanded ‘running pay band’ and ‘rank pay’ from the 4th Central Pay Commission (CPC), constituted in 1983. Since this CPC appeared to follow in the footsteps of the earlier Pay Commissions, the three service chiefs...
Drop in standards of probity in military
Recent report in the media brings to light that nearly 180 defence personnel, that is, serving, retired and widows, had submitted false affidavits to HUDA for favour of allotment of plots from the reserved quota earmarked for 14 categories of applicants. In defence services, once misdemeanour, corruption or misconduct comes to light, there is...