COLUMNIST: PRAKASH NANDA
Right Angle
Prakash Nanda is a journalist and editorial consultant for the Indian Defence Review. He has over 24 years of journalistic experience and has worked for national and international publications including The Times of India, India's largest English daily. He was a National Fellow at the Indian Council of Historical Research and has authored four major books on Indian foreign policy including “Rediscovering Asia: Evolution of India’s Look-East Policy.”
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March 09, 2010New Delhi, India — India’s profile and wealth have risen enormously in the world due to the constructive use of information technology. At the same time India ranks fifth in the world for cyber crime, including cross-border attacks, which has brought new security challenges to the country.
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March 03, 2010New Delhi, India — Two different stories with a common India link were in the spotlight recently. One is related to Bangladeshi novelist Taslima Nasreen, who lives in exile in India. The other involves Maqbool Fida Husain, who was arguably India’s most celebrated and richest painter but has accepted citizenship in Qatar.
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February 25, 2010New Delhi, India — India and Pakistan’s foreign secretaries began official talks in New Delhi on Thursday breaking the deadlock in foreign ties since November 2008, when relations soured due to the Mumbai terror attacks. However, the talks are expected to be mere photo opportunities, as India and Pakistan did not agree on what they would talk.
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February 17, 2010New Delhi, India — Just days after the deadly Feb. 13 terror attack in the Indian city of Pune, top al-Qaida terrorist commander Ilyas Kashmiri vowed to continue attacks across India until the Indian Army leaves Kashmir. India will hold talks on terrorism with Pakistan on Feb. 25, but Pakistan has raised its pitch over Kashmir.
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February 10, 2010New Delhi, India — There are as many as 1,000 to 1,500 political families in India that have successfully promoted dynastic succession at various levels, national or provincial. But only when political lineage is buttressed by money and other factors is political succession guaranteed.
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February 03, 2010New Delhi, India — The London Conference on Afghanistan last month emphasized buying peace in Afghanistan by distinguishing the so-called “good Taliban” from the “bad Taliban” and buying out the former with a special fund worth US$140 million. But can Taliban followers be so categorized?
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January 27, 2010New Delhi, India — Apart from displaying India’s military prowess and cultural diversity, its Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26 reveal a foreign policy goal. This year, the chief guest was South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The invitation reveals the priority that India attaches to South Korea.
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January 22, 2010New Delhi, India — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India earlier this month predictably evoked a strong reaction from the opposition-led Bangladesh National Party. BNP chief and former Prime Minister Begum Khalida Zia termed the agreements reached with India during Hasina’s visit a “sellout.”
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January 15, 2010New Delhi, India — The hype in the Indian media over racial attacks on Indian students in Australia would suggest that thousands of Indian students have been victims of such attacks over the past two years. This is not true. But these incidents and the news reports could strain overall Indo-Australian ties.
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January 06, 2010New Delhi, India — India and Pakistan are still struggling to maintain peaceful relations with each other. While diplomacy to achieve peace has not worked, India’s top media the Times of India group, and Pakistan’s highly influential Jang Group have undertaken a peace project called “Aman ki Asha,” or Destination Peace.
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December 30, 2009New Delhi, India — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama launched on Tuesday an action plan to take their security dialogue, including counter-terrorism, to the “next stage" and gave a push to a key economic pact. But a breakthrough in the critical civil nuclear area eluded them.
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December 24, 2009New Delhi, India — Communists have long influenced India’s polity and foreign policy. But the government is now regretting that in 2007 India handed over its “Nepal desk” to communist leader Sitaram Yechuri, who facilitated the virtual Maoist takeover of Nepal. Ironically, the Maoists now say their real enemy is India.
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December 18, 2009New Delhi, India — India’s Parliament has been unable to function normally in recent days, and life in the state of Andhra Pradesh has come to a halt as people in one region are demanding their own state. It is time for India to consider restructuring its state system to ensure better governance.
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December 09, 2009New Delhi, India — A year has passed since the terror attacks on India’s financial capital of Mumbai killed 163 people, including many foreigners. Internal security has become a major debating point in the country; many security analysts believe that India cannot prevent the recurrence of another Mumbai-type attack.
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December 02, 2009New Delhi, India — The Liberhan Commission – set up by the Indian government on Dec. 16, 1992 to investigate the destruction of the Babri Mosque on Dec. 6 that year – has submitted its report after 17 years. Expectedly, it blames the entire Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for the incident and exonerates the Congress Party.
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November 25, 2009New Delhi, India — A stable and secure Afghanistan is not in the interest of the forces that run Pakistan today. One of the most important reasons is that once Afghanistan becomes strong, secure and stable, it will demand the return of its territories, particularly Waziristan, which Pakistan will not easily allow.
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November 18, 2009New Delhi, India — Inda is among the countries with the most higher education institutions in the world, and ranks third in student numbers after China and the United States. Still, it needs more and better institutions of higher education in order to compete in an increasingly globalized world.
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November 16, 2009New Delhi, India — Is the Dalai Lama’s presence in India a major impediment to the growth of normal relations between India and China? Would growing tensions between Asia’s two most powerful countries ease and their boundary dispute be solved amicably if the Dalai Lama were asked by India to leave the country?
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November 04, 2009New Delhi, India — The Indian state is engaged in an internal war, which it is refusing to fight with full force. The enemy is an armed group that believes in the political philosophy of Mao Zedong. These Naxalites, or Maoists, have long maintained a loose network but now have formed a much more cohesive organization.
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October 28, 2009New Delhi, India — Nirupama Rao, India’s highest-ranking career diplomat, has said that India must “augment our diplomatic and professional capabilities as we are called upon to play an even more prominent role in world affairs.” To do this, the Ministry of External Affairs may need to change its approach.
