Op-Ed

I’m entitled to presume official Pakistan agencies were involved: Chidambaram

Mar 22nd, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed, Opinion

We’ll insist that the criminals are brought to trial, says Home Minister
Edited excerpts from an interview with Home Minister P. Chidambaram by Karan Thapar, to be broadcast by CNN-IBN on March 22:
Let’s start with your response to Pakistan’s 30 questions related to the Mumbai terror strike. According to The Hindu, barring Ajmal Kasab’s confessional statement, […]



A cat and mouse game in Pakistan

Feb 13th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Nirupama Subramanian
 
While India remains focussed on its demand that Pakistan track down and extradite or prosecute the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, the ability of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government to continue with its initiatives could well depend on a developing chain of internal crises that has caused national despondency within a year of a […]



Mumbai attacks: anatomy of a failed strategy

Feb 10th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Kanwal Sibal
 

Lack of a bilateral response to the Mumbai attacks has allowed others to patronise us with advice to observe restraint, avoid tensions, engage in a dialogue with Pakistan, combat terrorism jointly, etc.

 
Our post-Mumbai strategy has lacked purposefulness and coherence. We have been overly cautious in our reaction to the Mumbai carnage, as if […]



Investigating and addressing terrorism should be done voluntarily: Ban Ki-moon

Feb 7th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Featured Articles, Op-Ed

N. Ram
Ban Ki-moon responds to questions on the Mumbai terror attacks, India-Pakistan relations, Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, and climate change. The United Nations Secretary-General, who was in New Delhi for a day on Thursday following his visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, gave this half-an-hour interview to The Hindu in his suite at the Ashok Hotel….(Full Story)



‘The origins of the Mumbai terror attack are in Pakistan’: Miliband

Jan 16th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

How does Britain view the standoff between India and Pakistan, and beyond that, how does it view the challenge of terrorism? Karan Thapar explores these two key issues in an in-depth interview in New Delhi with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who visited India ahead of a visit to Pakistan. The interview was done for […]



After evidence dossier, direct accusation against Pakistan strikes discordant note

Jan 8th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Siddharth Varadarajan
 
 
 
New Delhi: In a strategy that runs the risk of sending contradictory signals to Islamabad and the world about the nature of Indian policy, the government has followed the handing over of a dossier linking “elements in Pakistan” to the November 26-28 Mumbai attacks with a full-throated accusation that the terrorists who killed more […]



Everybody loves a good conspiracy

Dec 23rd, 2008 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

 Siddharth Varadarajan
Amidst the bizarre conspiracy theories swirling around the subcontinent in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I would like to offer one of my own: Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay is a secret agent of the sangh parivar. The reason I say this is because he is doing his utmost to […]



Will the proposed emergency protocol on media coverage work?

Dec 17th, 2008 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Anita Joshua
Before the week is through, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) — a collective of leading private news and current affairs channels — hopes to have in place an emergency protocol for coverage of situations like the Mumbai terror attack. Indeed, a welcome step but will it meet the same fate as the NBA’s self-regulation […]



Pakistan: first casualty, people-to-people contact

Dec 15th, 2008 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Nirupama Subramanian
Kishwar Naheed, one of Pakistan’s top women poets, should have travelled to New Delhi last week for a literary conference.
Instead, she and four other poets were left angry and disappointed at the last-minute call to them from the Ghalib Academy in Delhi, asking them not to come to the seminar, apparently on instructions from […]



Beyond the ‘no security, no taxes’ slogan

Dec 13th, 2008 | By Editor | Category: Op-Ed

Harish Khare
Within two days of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, billboards were up in the city with the slogan, “no security, no taxes.” This theme was heard loud and clear on Wednesday, December 3, when Mumbaikars gathered in solidarity and protest at the Gateway of India. Courtesy one television channel, the country was given an […]