India should refrain from taking sides in Colombo
Sri Lanka, as the Indian Express put it, “seems to be on the brink of a new political fracture.” It is unclear why Mahinda Rajapaksa had to resort to highly draconian measures after his electoral victory. Putting his defeated challenger under arrest and on trial on ostensibly flimsy [...]
The challenges to India’s growth come more from the stalled economic liberalisation process than from the Af-Pak situation
Yesterday, Sarika Malhotra, a journalist from Financial Express asked me for my views on the regional security situation and the impact on investment. Here’s the exchange:
How do you think concerns regarding terrorism and political violence in AfPak, India, [...]
It’s not the ranking, it’s the change in the score
In 2005, when Foreign Policy magazine first published a failed state index, The Acorn argued that “rankings by themselves do not convey as much information as the direction of their change. How countries change their position, even by this imperfect measure, will be the thing to [...]
Colombo might have won the war with China’s help. It can’t win the peace without India’s
Just in case you missed it in the heat of the elections, here’s the take on the situation in Sri Lanka:
Now, while President Rajapaksa’s election manifesto promised to include in the Sri Lankan Constitution a charter to “uphold and protect [...]
A stable balance between Sri Lanka’s ethnic groups better serves India’s interests than a partitioned island
In an op-ed in Mint I suggest how India might acquire greater leverage over the Sri Lankan government and use it to shape post-civil war situation.
Excerpt:
New Delhi’s half-apologetic, half-embarrassed attitude towards providing military assistance to Sri Lanka pushed Colombo into [...]
Tamil chauvinism must be prevented from taking an anti-India form
It is repugnant, but legitimate, for political groups in India to support the LTTE. It is repugnant, but legitimate for them to engage in lawful political activism to promote their cause. But it is wholly illegitimate and totally unacceptable for them to attack an Indian army [...]
Post-war Sri Lanka can’t do without strong bilateral ties with India
Western countries are considering blocking an US$1.9 billion IMF load to Sri Lanka, not least due to pressure from human rights groups and Tamil diaspora groups. The Sri Lankan government, whose public finances and balance of payments are under pressure both due to the war [...]
How the LTTE damaged the Sri Lankan Tamil cause
More than a generation has grown up without knowing what the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka in 1987 was all about. Shekhar Gupta does well to remind us just why there is no need to shed any tears for the LTTE:
Bipin Joshi and I had many conversations [...]
India’s (and the world’s) priority should be to avert a humanitarian disaster
If the fate of the hapless Tamil civilians is the world’s principal consideration with regard to the war in Sri Lanka, then it stands to reason that that war itself must come to an end as soon as possible. It is unrealistic to expect [...]
Pakistan is the jihadi prize
It is too early to arrive at a conclusive assessment on the motives behind the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. [Update: See Prem Panicker's take.] But it is compelling to see this attack as the latest in the series that include the ones on Benazir Bhutto [...]
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