India is ideally suited to provide the military trainers that NATO needs in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan needs more military trainers — NATO has been able to provide only 541 out of 1278 trainers needed for the growing Afghan Army and Police forces — and they aren’t getting them from anywhere. Pakistan has been rather keen to provide [...]
Only one reason — ensure the security and well-being of its citizens, thereby providing them with a better life.
Amidst all the hype over Indian involvement in Afghanistan and lamentations over declining India influence in that country, here is a quick check of the possible reasons that drive India’s continued interest in Afghanistan.
Let us start with [...]
Incremental budgeting for defence expenditure by the government demolishes all talk of budgeting based on capability-based, long-term integrated defence planning.
Amidst all the pretentious talk about LTIPP (2007-2022), five-year defence plans, forward planning, capability based restructuring and more such gibberish put forth by the defence services, defence ministry and myriad strategic commentators on allocations for the [...]
On the Tharoor controversy.
In response to the earlier blogpost on the controversy surrounding Mr. Shashi Tharoor’s ‘interlocutor’ statement in Riyadh, Ms. Suhasini Haider, Dy. Foreign Editor [CNN-IBN] replies.
Dear Pragmatic,
Permit me to suggest that you may be guilty of precisely the kind of ‘callousness and disdain’ you accuse me of in your article “A Manufactured Controversy”, [...]
In this debate over building police capacity, quality is as important, if not more, than the quantity.
In the aftermath of the massacre of ill-trained and poorly-equipped policemen in West Bengal by the Maoists, Saikat Datta of the Outlook magazine unravels the depth of the crisis engulfing the Indian police forces. And Saikat does it by [...]
On the diabolical role of certain sections of electronic media in the latest Tharoor controversy.
Another public statement by Shashi Tharoor and another controversy. So what’s new with that? It is easy to dismiss that off with a shrug and get back to watching that heady cocktail of Bollywood, cricketers [its not about the sport any [...]
A correction. 36.6 percent of allocations for new defence acquisitions has been returned unexpended this year.
Indian Express report quoted by this blog yesterday was slightly off the mark. It assumed that all the money — Rs 5221 crore — being returned out of the defence budget of 2009-10 was from the capital expenditure account. After [...]
The biggest service that Mr. Antony can do to national security is resign as the defence minister.
Congress MP and spokesperson, Manish Tewari’s recent piece suggesting that the defence ministry has not done enough to strengthen national security — though written in his personal capacity — has suddenly put the defence minister, AK Antony in the [...]
First, organised stone pelting and now, outsourced terror strikes.
Stone pelting by protesters during demonstrations is not a new thing. Over the past decades, our drawing rooms have been satiated with images beamed from all over the world — places in Europe, South East Asia, West Asia and South America easily come to the mind — [...]
From Kishenji to JFK.
Has it ever occurred to you that we gloat over the US getting its Baradar and Haqqani in Pakistan but can’t get one stupid Kishenji in our own country? While Kishenji isn’t the military supremo of the Maoists, getting him is important to correct the distorted media narrative of [...]
Draft Model Police Act of 2006, a part of police reforms, provided for Special Security Zones to overcome the differences between states on conducting security operations against Maoists.
Maoists are back in news again. Two dastardly attacks, one kidnapping, one Chief Minister publicly capitulating before the Maoists, another Chief Minister who publicly opposes any use of [...]
India needs a holistic, well-crafted response that balances its short-term, mid-term and long-term goals vis-à-vis Pakistan.
The jehadis have struck again on the Indian mainland; this time in Pune, albeit more than a year after the horrendous terror attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. The initial response, while going with the most plausible and popular assumption [...]
Two initiatives of the home ministry — monthly report card & updated Action plan — are exemplars for other ministries to emulate.
P Chidambaram has done a lot of good things since taking over as the Home Minister of this country in the aftermath of the ghastly terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008. He has [...]
An image from the past.
Courtesy — Beyond belief: India and the politics of postcolonial nationalism By Srirupa Roy
Islamist foreign fighters didn’t start the jehad in Kashmir. They came to support and fight the jehad in Kashmir.
Mint has been and remains this blogger’s favourite newspaper. But when the wonderful editorial team at that newspaper errs in its assessment, the discrepancies have to be pointed out. On the twentieth anniversary of the mass [...]
Let us stop this jamboree of a Republic Day Parade.
Even if there is no fog on this 26th January, Delhi will still come to a standstill. Blame it on the Republic Day celebrations. As this news report suggests, the state seems to be taking a kind of perverse pride in converting the national capital [...]
One quote from the Indian Foreign Secretary says it all.
Political power flows from the barrel of a gun.~Mao
Here is Nirupama Rao’s answer to the sudden surge in media pieces asking India to resume talks with Pakistan.
Karan Thapar: What about the opinion expressed by some analysts that if India were to resume the dialogue process, it [...]
The calls for recommencing talks with Pakistan do not stand to logic and are not grounded in reality.
There are periods in history in which it isn’t enough to say you’ve done your best, when the only test is whether you have done what is necessary.~Churchill
It seems that the wonderfully efficient marketing machinery at an Indian [...]
Leave alone the video or the audio file, even the transcript of army chief’s annual press conference is not available at any government website.
If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.~Groucho Marx
General Deepak Kapoor, Indian Army Chief held the traditional press conference on the eve of the [...]
The next army chief says Indian Army is designed for defence of India within the sub-continental domain.
Here is an excerpt from an interview in Salute with Lieutenant General VK Singh, who — in all likelihood — will be the next army chief in a few months time.
Warfare [...]
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