India cannot be competent in internal security without being competent in overall governance
“If 26/11 is not to become another one in an endless series of fatalities,” Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes “we need to keep asking the question: how can a people who have much to be proud of, be endowed with a state that has [...]
India shouldn’t expect that it can defeat Pakistani terrorism on the cheap
So little do people expect out of Pakistan that when it did admit that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan, it was seen as major step in a good direction. That step, we are told, was due to pressure from the United [...]
Internationalising the terrorism issue
When accosted by a frowning teacher, the first trick that naughty primary school students use is denial. When that doesn’t work, they try one or both of the following: develop stomach ache and point finger at classmate.
It’s stomach ache time when you hear about Pakistan being "a victim of terror". And now [...]
Calling out the Financial Times’ anti-India prejudices
The editors of Financial Times have time-and-again demonstrated an anti-India bias that is unfathomable. Or it is perhaps a ‘poison-pill strategy’ to prevent Anil Ambani or Vijay Mallya from buying over the paper and casting out the condescending snobs who sit on its editorial board. If these are strong [...]
David Miliband’s trip raises serious questions on Britain’s role in countering terrorism
Never in recent times has a visiting foreign minister been so flippant and so insensitive. The flippancy concerns a bizarre trip to Rahul Gandhi’s rural constituency, the purpose of which is unfathomable beyond cheap political theatre.
But the British foreign secretary’s speech at the [...]
International relations is not a courtroom battle
Here’s a post from the archives on the matter of proof in international relations, written in August 2006 after a previous round of terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Things remain so much the same that there’s no need at all to write a new post.
The farce is with him
Yousuf Raza Gilani, who became Pakistan’s prime minister before he knew what was going on, and remains prime minister without knowing what is going on (and, is likely to still not know what is going down even after not remaining the prime minister) has upstaged the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson—historically, and [...]
Pakistan’s military mobilisation bogey didn’t work—it only exposed the army’s hand in the Mumbai attacks
It is hard to say whether the good retired brigadier Shaukat Qadir actually believes in his own fairy tale or is merely trying to make the skunk smell good in public. For he argues that “the token withdrawal of troops from [...]
A common bank of votes and notes
As the ghastly chapter of the terrorist attack on Mumbai came to an end, long time reader Jai_Choorakkot wrote to Dilip D’Souza, Rohit Pradhan and me suggesting that posting on each others’ blogs would be a great way to show that Indians are united on fundamental issues. So here, [...]
After the apologists come the Sominists
Emily Wax—the Washington Post correspondent who, in February 2008, informed the paper’s readers that Indians don’t dress like Mahatma Gandhi—now announces that the calls made by the Mumbai ‘gunmen’ to television stations shed light on their motives.
(The use of the word gunmen should already alert you to where the correspondent, [...]
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