On her previous visit to Pakistan, in October last year, the element of hectoring was loud and clear and left no one in doubt about her imperious style and the raw thrust of her ‘no-holds-barred’ modus operandi, something that would make pundits of

Our armed forces go on violating human rights and they know only how to kill. This way instead of solving the problem, we will reduce Kashmir to a vast cemetery. More and more young protestors are dying and death hardly deters these young protestors

While analysing the events of history and their impact one has to be accommodative of positive aspects of the perceived adversary and at the same time be critical of the faults of the ‘victim’ without any prejudice. Only then outcome will be

To begin with, we must own the war against terror and get rid of the misconception that the war against terrorism is not ours, that it is essentially America’s war and that the hell that has let loose on the people of Pakistan is the result of the

In the two decades since the convention of the ulema held in 1951 (see my article Religious Orthodoxy during Ayub regime, Encounter, July 4, 2010), the religious leaders managed to get a constitutional guarantee to accomplish their goal. The

Mr. Girish Karnad, the noted film director-actor, asked “As long as their choice of food is not affecting others, why its consumption should be prohibited?” It is interesting to note that Gujarat, where such a law already exists, has become a leading

The dialogue is aimed at providing a wider and durable base and inter alia has focused on priority areas like the economy, energy, education, science and technology and agriculture.

The last time the Israel leader visited the US, he was given a frosty reception. It was so cold that Obama wouldn’t even allow a photograph of their meeting in the Oval office be released to the press.It was a calculated rebuff to Netanyahu for the

Neither any civilian nor the military regimes had a credible manifesto to follow and they lacked not only political stability but also a national will or direction. The private sector provided major part of primary health care while the public sector

The euphoria was not limited to the right-wing leaders in India. The director of nuclear policy at the prestigious Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C., George Perkovich quotes the suave left-leaning Indian former prime

He had made an effort to confine the traditionalist ulema to their limits, and he was not willing to accept their claim that a constitution could be regarded Islamic only if it was drafted by them. “This was a position which neither the people nor I

We have turned deaf ears to the voice of reason and sanity, of logic and moderation and are swayed by emotionally charged, high-sounding words of demagogues. Gruesome gangs, malevolent mafias and blood-thirsty terrorists rule the roost, while the

More importantly, it is time for General Petraeus to reflect upon his role in the new theatre of war for which he earlier wrote the script called the “new counterinsurgency strategy”.

This carefully choreographed gathering of 1,600 delegates tasked with developing a consensus, endorsed Karzai’s push for peace talks, citing the inability of Nato and Afghan forces

General Stanley McChrystal was highly regarded in most military circles as a genius with an innate sense of strategy and military savvy. He’d shone bright in Iraq where as commander of ‘special operations’ for five long years — 2003 to 2008 — he was