A metaphor the the India-Pakistan nuclear deterrence relationship It is not unusual for commentators to use the term “mutually assured destruction” or MAD while discussing nuclear weapons in the India-Pakistan context. This is a direct reuse of a Cold War-era metaphor to describe the nuclear game in the subcontinent. It is also an inaccurate and ...
The Department of Atomic Energy should not have bluffed about the H-Bomb in 1998 In a press conference on May 17, 1998—days after the Pokhran-II nuclear tests—R Chidambaram, head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Atomic Energy said that one of the devices tested a two-state thermonuclear bomb with a yield of ...
Chetan Bhagat uses sophisms to advance an argument for surrender So how many cliched sophisms can you squeeze into one 900-word op-ed piece? Chetan Bhagat manages to do five. More than a defence of the prime minister as it announces itself to be, his op-ed in Hindustan Times (linkthanks Rohit Pradhan) is merely a series ...
People are. From a liberal nationalist perspective, it is impossible to agree with Jaswant Singh’s judgement that territorial integrity of pre-Partition India was worth preserving at the cost of having “Pakistans within India”. His praise for Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is based on this notion. Yet ...
A big catch goes unnoticed It is amusing to see the international media report the capture of Baitullah Mehsud’s two-bit spokesman as a headline story and if at all, somewhere towards the end of the page, mention that Qari Saifullah, the allegedly late Mr Mehsud’s “close aide” had also been taken into custody. Amusing because ...
As long as China controls its information landscape, it will be responsible for being misunderstood How seriously should you take vitriolic—or soothing—opinion that comes out of China over the internet? Ananth Krishnan warns against the tendency to assume every voice is that of a government mouthpiece. News reports also claimed the write-up could not have ...
Admiral Mehta’s speech signifies “the arrival of senior service officers at the top rung of national grand strategy formulation” Coping with China By K Subrahmanyam Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Chief of Naval Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee who is due to retire at the end of this month delivered an address on ...
Can you stomach the truth? Most people—most of all South Indians—react to this with shock and denial. Some go on and come to terms with it. Well, the fact is the idli—a dish that is almost synonymous with South India—was probably an import from what is now Indonesia (and what was then the Sri Vijaya ...
On keeping the republic, getting incentives right and projecting power For contemplation on Independence Day—the Absent Indian Voter Syndrome; All poor, all backward and the wages of Lax Indica. From the archive: Three thoughts on on Republic Day 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and Independence Day 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004. Tweet ...
Helping Af, helpless on Pak Let’s be fair to Richard Holbrooke. He could not have pre-empted an upcoming announcement of benchmarks of success that the Obama administration has set for its Af-Pak policy. That’s why when asked how success will be measured, he could only say “We’ll know it when we see it”. Yes, he ...