IDR Blog
Pakistan: Time to end unilateral concessions
Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh’s remark that there can be no business as usual with Pakistan after its troops mutilated the bodies of two Indian soldiers they killed, and that those responsible for this crime will have to be brought to book, is unexceptionable in so far as it goes. But to interpret this as indicating a radical reversal...
India and Pakistan: Between Hawks and Peaceniks, is there a middle path?
The beheading and mutilation of the bodies of L/Nk Hemraj and L/Nk Sudarshan Singh by Pakistani soldiers on January 8, 2013, is yet another barbaric act by Pakistan’s army, following several earlier ones [Ref.1, Note 1.]. It is not unlike the acts of medieval armies or armed raiders, whose aim was to strike terror into the hearts of people....
Beijing's Map Aggression Now and Then
Yesterday, Xinhua reported that China “has inked for the first time South China Sea islands on its new official maps in equal scale to that of the Chinese mainland.” The National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASMG) announced that “the new vertical-format maps of China, published by Sinomaps Press, include more than...
Pakistan’s Hybrid War
A peculiarly important news item that I came across while writing this column (January 10) is about the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to implement the visa-on-arrival facility at the Attari-Wagah check post to Pakistani nationals over 65 years of age from January 15. Under the liberalised visa regime, parts of which were...
AFSPA in J&K: Selective withdrawal may be harmful
Speaking to the Press on December 21, 2012, Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of J and K, once again demanded selective withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from certain districts in the state where insurgent activity is minuscule. He has been persistent in this demand because in his reckoning the situation in the state has...