Covering Policy Issues from South Asia
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee – the Quintessential No One’s Man but His Own0
- Blog
- August 16, 2018
16 August 2018 Wire India Often called the ‘right man in the wrong party’, he accepted this sobriquet not because it was the true depiction of his political orientation but because it enabled him to ride two boats simultaneously. File picture of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Credit: PTI Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Before he slipped out of the
By the Numbers: Is Afghanistan’s Democracy at Risk?0
- Blog
- August 16, 2018
August 15, 2018 By Mohammad Shoaib Haidary FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInEmailPrintShare Today, the Taliban continue to fight government forces in Afghanistan, recently launching major attacks such as those in Ghazni and demonstrating the persistence of the challenges at hand. But recall that after the Taliban government was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan made great strides towards democratization, rebuilding its political
The Price of Power: The Political Economy of Electricity Trade and Hydropower in Eastern South Asia0
- Blog
- August 16, 2018
August 15, 2018 By Aditya Valiathan Pillai, Sagar Prasai FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInEmailPrintShare Grand experiments in geopolitics often begin by cautiously testing new ways of doing things. Sovereign states calibrate and then recalibrate their visions by expanding and aligning interests with their neighbors, with the hope that the sum of what is achieved is greater than its parts. Recent actions
VS Naipaul: a man who cast doubt on post-colonial liberal certainties0
- Blog
- August 16, 2018
VS Naipaul after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. EPA Dilip Menon, University of the Witwatersrand No author in contemporary times more wilfully damaged his reputation with cantankerous observations as did VS Naipaul. He had extreme and contrarian opinions on the big issues of the day, from colonialism to Islam and the travesties
Pakistani elections are flawed, but poor rural voters are taking control0
- Blog
- August 16, 2018
Power to the people. Benny Lin via Flickr, CC BY-NC Shandana Khan Mohmand, Institute of Development Studies Despite being dogged by allegations of electoral engineering and vote-rigging, this year’s hotly contested general election in Pakistan should be – cautiously – celebrated. As a new government is sworn in, the country is marking a milestone in
Bangladesh Detains 42 People in Expanding Crackdown after Student Protests0
- Blog
- August 13, 2018
By Pulack Ghatack on Aug 10, 2018 07:30 pm Bangladeshi police have arrested at least 42 people in connection with recent mass protests demanding road safety, officials said Friday, amid growing international calls for the release of those detained, including renowned photographer Shahidul Alam. Law enforcement officials said they were on the lookout for “instigators”
Commentary
Sri Lanka: What next after ‘Panda Bonds’?0
- Commentary
- August 13, 2018
Sathiya Moorthy 14 August 2018 Living beyond one’s means is something that parents, family and religion condemn in people. The West-induced ‘credit card culture’ aimed at promoting consumerism and with it the ‘capitalists’ near-exclusively, may have changed it all, yet more and more people are finding the truth in the ancient wisdom even more.
Pakistan General Elections 2018- Addressing the U.S. Concern0
- Commentary
- August 13, 2018
by Hareem Aqdas 13 August 2018 General elections were held in Pakistan on July 25th, 2018. The elections were held after successful completion of five-year term by the outgoing government. As a result of the elections, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) – party led by ex-cricket captain turned politician, Imran Khan turned out to be the
The Uyghur militant threat: China cracks down and mulls policy changes0
- Commentary
- August 13, 2018
By James M. Dorsey 13 August 2018 China, responding to United Nations criticism, academic and media reports, and an embarrassing court case in Kazakhstan, has come closer to admitting that it has brutally cracked down on the strategic north-western province of Xinjiang in what it asserts is a bid to prevent the kind
Tamil Nadu: Will Azhagiri queer the pitch for DMK ahead of bypolls?0
- Commentary
- August 13, 2018
N Sathiya Moorthy August 13, 2018 Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri’s firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi’s death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy. By sounding the bugle for succession days after Dravida
Understanding the UN Report on Human Rights Violations in Kashmir0
- Commentary
- August 12, 2018
A British representative on the UN Security Council, Mr. Noel Baker, once described the Kashmir dispute as “the greatest and gravest single issue in international affairs.” Finally, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has released their “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir” in June 2018, the
TAMIL NADU IN INDIA PAYING HIGH PRICE DUE TO POOR WATER GOVERNANCE0
- Commentary
- August 12, 2018
by N.S. Venkataraman 13 August 2018 Now, Tamil Nadu is facing an awkward and embarrassing situation, as millions of cusecs of Cauvery water is now being let into the sea due to want of storage capacity. This is not the first time in recent years that such awkward and unacceptable situation has arisen
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Bangladesh: Will this country become Pakistan or Kashmir?
1. A political group is spreading the perception that the country will again become Pakistan if Awami League loses control of Bangladesh. They even suggested a label “Banglastan” for this supposed nation which transforms into an improvised Pakistan in the East. But symptomatically it appears to become another Kashmir, or in a classical sense