Covering Policy Issues from South Asia
Blog
After terrorist bombings, Sri Lankan government imposes draconian national emergency0
- Blog
- April 23, 2019
23 April 2019 The Sri Lankan government has exploited Sunday’s terrorist bombings, which claimed at least 290 lives, to impose a national state of emergency that gives the police and military draconian powers of arrest and detention. While many details have not been released, Sunday’s attacks involved coordinated bombings, within minutes of each other, of
In India, WhatsApp is a weapon of antisocial hatred0
- Blog
- April 23, 2019
Rohit Chopra, Santa Clara University A general election in India, the world’s most populous democracy, seems a theoretical impossibility. Collecting the votes of nearly a billion people across a staggeringly diverse subcontinent has for more than half a century faced challenges of logistics, politics, economics, violence and law. This year, a new challenge has arisen
Sri Lanka attacks: government’s social media ban may hide the truth about what is happening0
- Blog
- April 23, 2019
Meera Selva, University of Oxford 23 April 2019 Sri Lanka has temporarily banned social media and messaging apps in the wake of the coordinated Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels across the country, which killed at least 290 people. The ban is ostensibly to stop the spread of misinformation – and the move feeds
Under Bangladesh govt corruption will continue unabated: Shahidul Alam0
- Blog
- April 22, 2019
DECCAN CHRONICLE. | GARGI CHAUDHRY PublishedApr 17, 2019 Alam exclusively shares his experience, what he had gone through during detention and talks about the expectations from Bangladesh govt. Mumbai: Shahidul Alam is an internationally recognized Bangladeshi photographer based in Dhaka. He is also a writer and an activist with an interest in education and new media.
India’s Supreme Court considers call to open mosques to women0
- Blog
- April 22, 2019
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to consider a petition from a Muslim couple to allow women into mosques, seeking to overturn a centuries-old practice that largely bars women from the places of worship. Women are not allowed inside most mosques in India although a few have separate entrances for women
India: Modi & Shah have turned India into ‘Jingostan’ & are out to conquer the paranoid country0
- Blog
- April 22, 2019
The Modi-Shah BJP has resurrected dangers & the enemy from the past, and built a scary jingoism. It’s a great diversionary tactic, but it never ends well. Shekhar Gupta 20 April, 2019 In the course of my usual trawling of the Hindi media, I am struck by lyrics from a very distant, faded past. It
Commentary
What do Sri Lanka’s ‘Easter Day blasts’ mean for India0
- Commentary
- April 23, 2019
N Sathiya Moorthy 23 April 2019 India has activated the Coast Guard to scan the shared waters, to make sure that none of the surviving Easter Day plotters in Sri Lanka escape out of the country, using the sea-route. At the end of a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), a ‘relic’ from the
Violence complicates Pakistan PM’s tightrope walk as he visits Iran and China0
- Commentary
- April 22, 2019
By James M. Dorsey 21 April 2019 A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts and Tumblr Two attacks in as many weeks in Pakistan’s troubled province of Balochistan shatter hopes that the country has gained the upper hand in efforts to reduce political violence. The
Bangladesh paying a price for hosting refugees0
- Commentary
- April 22, 2019
The loss of forests and the ecological damage caused by almost one million refugees has taken a toll ByBertil Lintner, Chiang Mai 22 April 2019 Bangladesh is paying a heavy price for hosting hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. According to an article on the Bangladesh Chronicle’s website on April 20, the
Afghanistan Trade Policy Achievements and Issues0
- Commentary
- April 21, 2019
April 21, 2019 Shokrullah Amiri Introduction In this opinion piece, it has been tried to present an argument about trade policy development in Afghanistan. Initially, providing a brief background, then summarising key policy achievements and Challenges in the post and pre Afghanistan WTO membership, arguing how WTO membership has worked out, existing institutional challenges to
The Truth behind Pulwama & Balakot- The road ahead0
- Commentary
- April 20, 2019
Forty Indian troops of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) were killed in an attack on Jammu Kashmir National Highway in Pulwama district, Kashmir on 14th February 2019. The perpetrator of this suicide mission was a local Kashmiri man, Adil Ahmad Dar. Pakistan based group JEM (Jaish-e-Mohammed) claimed responsibility for this attack. The aforesaid incident
The curious case of Sri Lanka’s encounter with pirates: the knowns and the unknowns0
- Commentary
- April 20, 2019
He would not fly the Rovers’ flag — the bloody or the black, But now he floated the Gridiron and now he flaunted the Jack. He spoke of the Law as he crimped my crew — he swore it was only a loan; But when I would ask for my own again, he swore it
ISSN 2471-9501 (print)
ISSN 2471-951X (online)
Featured
Bangladesh; DEMOCRACY IN PERIL
by F R Chowdhury 20 March 2019 I was very upset with news from Bangladesh. For last few months we often come across news that someone somewhere in Bangladesh is arrested or jailed for passing unacceptable remark against the prime minister or for making any sort of cartoon of the prime minister. I am grateful
‘Pulwama’, ‘Balakot’, Modi, Imran Khan, Wing Commander Avinandan, War Cry, Peace Appeal etc. etc: What do we make of all these?
2 March 2019 M. Adil Khan[1] Whole thing started with Pulwama in Kashmir in Indian Kashmir where a suicide bomber attacked an Indian army convoy and killed 40 soldiers. The incident has happened in the wake of upcoming general election in India which also coincides with Modi’s plummeting popularity that have made some people looking