The new Cold War
The confrontation between the US and China is likely to escalate in words and deeds.
BY: Munir Akram US Vice President Pence last week declared a new Cold War against China. America has now decisively stepped into the Thucydides Trap — the Ancient Greek historian’s thesis that a confrontation between an established and a rising power is almost always inevitable. China was accused by Pence of multiple wrongs: unfair trade, […]
Renaming India: Saffronisation of public spaces
By renaming cities, streets and airports, the BJP government is trying to erase India's diverse history and identity.
BY: Rizwan Ahmad In August 2018, India’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government renamed the historic Mughalsarai Junction Railway Station in the state of Uttar Pradesh after the right-wing Hindu ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, most likely because the existing name referred to the Indian Muslim Mughal dynasty. Three years earlier, in May 2015, many […]
ROHINGYA REFUGEES: IDENTITY AND POLITICS
By: Tajamul Maqbool Through the twentieth century, there has been a significant growth in the frequency of armed conflicts across the globe. These conflicts have not only led to widespread deaths but extensive displacement, fear and economic devastations. The most affected of these conflicts are those who get dislocated from their native places under unbearable […]
BEYOND SAUDI-IRAN FEUD!
The reality check!
By: Nasir Ahmad Dar The cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran has turned hot in recent years and threatens a certain confrontation. This conflict has engulfed the entire Muslim community across the globe and most of the Muslims have started taking sides. Usually we will see people being cognitively biased towards one among these […]
Polls and polarisation politics
The Opposition parties have to press ahead with political adjustments to counter the dominant narrative
By: Zoya Hasan The political discourse, as Assembly elections approach, is slipping to new lows. Addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh recently, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, once again described infiltrators as “termites”. Earlier, speaking at a rally in Rajasthan, he said that he was confident that the BJP would […]
High on rhetoric, low on promise
By: Imtiaz Alam Halfway through its honeymoon period, the Imran Khan government continues to flounder on its promises while compensating its incompetence with ever heightening rhetoric against political adversaries. Where is that much touted 100-day panacea to all our ills? Nobody knows. Pakistan requests IMF for bailout package An anti-climax seems to be coming too […]
We need a pro-liberty judicial approach
The judiciary is deviating from its own precedents in terms of civil liberties
By: Markandey Katju Article 21 of the Constitution places the personal liberty of citizens on the highest pedestal, and so it is the duty of our courts to protect it. However, two recent decisions of the Supreme Court suggest that the court may not be showing sufficient zeal in upholding liberty. In Romila Thapar v. […]
The Rohingya Reversal
By allowing refugee deportation, judiciary has stepped back from its own principles
By: Roshni Shanker At the annual session of the executive committee of the UNHCR held in Geneva, India stated, “We are a responsible state with a functional democracy and rule of law.” On the same day, October 3, seven Rohingya men were being taken to the Indo-Myanmar border for a scheduled deportation. Ironically, they had […]
SUBCONTINENT UNDER NEW MILITARY THREAT
By: Mushtaq Hurra External affairs ministers and defense ministers of India and America met last month in Delhi for much hyped bilateral talks, and both the countries have signed an important military agreement there. The agreement is believed to incept a new and extraordinary American military stronghold on India in particular and on the whole […]
Nitish Kumar seems to have lost touch with the ground reality
His poll victories have been in alliance with the RJD or BJP. The only times he contested alone — in 1995 and 2014 — the results were disastrous
By: Dipak Mishra Politicians often take on different personas when it comes to negotiating the number of seats with their allies, and end up ignoring the ground reality. Bihar’s chief minister, Nitish Kumar, is doing the same thing. He is donning his persona from 2010, when his wish was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s command. He […]
