IDR Blog
The Green Crescent
When did it exactly start? No one knows. But it can be said with a degree of certainty that in the early nineties when the Pakistanis decided that JKLF or Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, a “pro-azaadi” terror outfit in Kashmir, should cease to exist, it was the beginning of Islamic Jihad in the Kashmir valley. JKLF wanted Jammu & Kashmir to...
Impermanence, Impermanence
As President Xi Jinping arrived in Islamabad in April 2015, he was welcomed by huge billboards in Chinese and English: the friendship between China and Pakistan was ‘higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel.’ In an article published in Pakistani papers before he landed in Islamabad, Xi wrote:...
Nuclear Doctrinal revision in its effects on the India-China Dyad
In the latest brouhaha over the nuclear doctrine revision, Manoj Joshi offered the sage advice that Pakistan should not be the only referent in considering evolution of India’s nuclear doctrine. The discussion in the strategic circles sparked off by the defence minister recently voicing his personal opinion on nuclear doctrine, was rather...
A Stone with My Name
Some soldier with a funny bone at 102 Infantry Brigade (Base Camp) will tell you that Siachen means ‘Rose Garden’. Its true. Maybe its funny, in a self-deprecating sort of way. Most soldiers crack jokes, which only they can understand. It’s been a violent year, both emotionally and physically. Never was the Indian Army attacked by those...
Nehru’s Advisor and Tibet’s Tragic Fate
I recently came across a telling note written on October 31, 1950 by Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai, who served as Secretary General of Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations in the early days of Independent India. This note is interesting for several reasons. One, it was based on this note, that Sardar Patel, the Deputy Prime...