India’s national security reform is in the second stage
Going by most media reports, you will be forgiven for believing that M K Narayanan’s movement to West Bengal as governor has got entirely to do with an energetic home minister winning turf battles and the Congress party president going one up on the prime minister. Or [...]
A flip after the flop
And just one day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that his government has “no fixed, inflexible or ideological view” with regard to anti-terrorism laws, and that it was actively considering strengthening the legal framework in line with “global consensus”, his government has announced that it won’t be doing so after [...]
Yes, it was the UPA’s political persuasions that got in the way of fighting terrorists
On June 8th, 2004, the UPA government presented its programme in parliament, in the president’s speech:
My government is concerned about the misuse of POTA in the recent past. While there can be no compromise on the fight against terrorism, the [...]
A revolution in investigative affairs?
The use of brain mapping in investigation, and most recently the acceptance of brain mapping reports as evidence by Indian courts has raised many eyebrows. Today’s New York Times has a report by Anand Giridharadas on this:
The Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test, or BEOS, was developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan, a [...]
A seven-point programme for your favourite party’s manifesto
Start fighting the war of minds
1. Project the war for what it is—that the New Jihadis are against everything that India stands for: freedom, openness, democracy and a tolerant way of life.
2. Assure the nation that we will fight—and win—this war. This will bring fence-sitters onto the side [...]
Its causes and its remedies
Which of the three, Kautilya asks, is the worst—an impoverished people, a greedy people or a disaffected people?
He answers:
An impoverished people are ever apprehensive of oppression and destruction (by over-taxation, etc.), and are therefore desirous of getting rid of their impoverishment, or of waging war or of migrating elsewhere.
A greedy [...]
The right to protest does not imply that the protests are right
K Subrahmanyam’s piece warning against giving in to separatist demands makes a very important point—the tendency to tolerate and appease those who take to the streets to press their demands.
But the challenge facing India is whether we try to set right our governance and [...]
India burns while Shivraj Patil works on a grand plan to recruit more policemen
Over at Tehelka magazine they have a curious defence of Shivraj Patil, arguably the worst home minister in the worst government in Indian history (linkthanks Gautam John). The article tells us that “sources close to the Home Minister said that is precisely [...]
Defeatism spreads under ineffective leadership
It is nice to see the Indian Express correctly hold the the nincompoops in the UPA government responsible for allowing the situation to come to such a sorry pass.
Discussions on Kashmir always bring up history. Here’s a little bit of history to help contextualise the current state of state response: probably [...]
Taken by surprise
Vijay Vikram writes in to inform that the June 2008 issue of Kamal Sandesh, the BJP’s house magazine has reprinted the op-ed that I wrote for Mail Today (based on this post).
While it is good to know that Kamal Sandesh’s editors found the article worthy of dissemination, it must be put on [...]
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