Being prepared to press the red button ensures that it doesn’t have to be pressed So Bill Clinton has revealed that “Indian officials spoke of knowing roughly how many nuclear bombs the Pakistanis possessed, from which they calculated that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 [million] to 500 million Indians while annihilating all 120 ...
Why Uncle Sam needs Pakistan (“Because of the Gurkhas” edition) “Ignorance about India”, Narendra Singh Sarila writes, “was the reason why the Americans came to rely on British advice on questions concerning the subcontinent after its independence.” He quotes an anecdote to illustrate this: In those days, the Americans’ understanding of India was extremely limited. ...
India should ensure that the main location of Pakistan’s proxy war remains far away from home Those who believe that the India-Pakistan ‘peace process’ that began in 2004 is responsible for the decline in terrorist violence in Jammu & Kashmir are making the oldest policy mistake—confusing correlation for causation. To understand, take a look at ...
A National Humour Rights Commission Report At the sidelines of a G-20 summit, two bhais, one Hindi, one Chini, meet at an abandoned temple. Chinibhai: “Look, we both rose from the same per-capita GDP rate. But see where you are now, and where I am now. Today I have tall buildings, Olympic stadiums, trade surpluses, ...
It’s not so much about bigger bombs. It’s about improving command & control. In an op-ed in The Hindu today, K Santhanam & Ashok Parthasarathi make a compelling case that the thermonuclear bomb tested in May 1998 at Pokhran was not only fizzled, but “actually failed”. They also go on to conclude that “no country ...
What would India’s soft power be without Bappi? In its June 2009 edition, the Proceedings of the Centre for Soft Power Studies reported how Jimmy Zingchak holds sway over the people of Kazakhstan. Today it brings to your attention the wonderful Tajik Jimmy—whose career mirrors that of the Jimmy incarnation. Baimurat Allaberiyev, who herded sheep ...
A realist appraisal of the trans-Himalayan context In today’s Mint Sushant and I argue that more than worrying about an unlikely Chinese invasion, India ought to focus on managing the armed co-existence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. Excerpts: Chinese scholars have suggested that this is due to Beijing’s assessment ...
Rocket attacks originating in Pakistani break the ceasefire twice in three months “In a rare incident of its kind on the international border,” reports Pakistan’s Dawn, “the Indian forces opened fire from across the Wagah border on Friday night after mistaking an unexplained explosion in a village in East Punjab for ‘rocket fire from Pakistan.” ...
History, current affairs & books JK joins us on INI today. Longtime readers will know that Varnam has been illuminating the blogosphere on Indian history interspersed with incisive commentary on current affairs since, as he puts it, the Pre-Cambrian era of Indian blogging. It’s great to have him on the INI platform. Do update your ...
The dangers of elevating humans to superhuman status Over on his blog, Manoj Joshi posts his Mail Today article on how the legend of APJ Abdul Kalam resulted in poor technological choices and ultimately, as sub-standard missile arsenal. Excerpts: Whatever may have been his successes as SLV-3 project manager, his tenure as DRDO chief has ...