Commentaries & Articles
Failing on Terror Yet Again

Hyderabad is bloodied again by terrorism, exposing once more our failure to marshal the political will, the legal instruments, the organizational structure and the required technical skills and manpower resources to combat this grave threat to the na....

Defence Procurement: Would You Do Business With India?

Ever since we became independent we seem to be lurching from one crisis to another in any matter which concerns a deal or a transaction in which we make purchases or where decisions are taken regarding business. One harks back to the scandal attribut....

Defence Acquisition: Urgent Need for Structural Reforms

Allegations of corruption in the VVIP helicopter deal have once again brought to the fore the fragility of India’s defence acquisition process. Corruption appears to be endemic in defence procurement and a structural overhaul is now necessary. Indi....

China Strengthens its Missile Defence Capabilities: Implications for India

China conducted another ground-based mid-course missile-defence (GMD) test in January end to signify its increasing potential in missile interception capabilities. This test builds upon an earlier test in January 2010 which was again carried out to t....

Political Crisis in Maldives and Indian Dilemma

The political crisis has come to a full circle in Maldives. Last February, when the first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was deposed by a bloodless coup, India did not make any noise. It thought, rightfully so at that point in tim....

What Does the Chinese Take Over of Gwadar Imply?

In a development that did not cause any surprise, Pakistan has handed over the administrative control of the Gwadar Sea Port on Makrana coast in Balochistan province to China Overseas Ports Holding Company, a move that would provide China the much ne....

As US goes Retrograde in Afghanistan Pakistan gets an Upgrade

Introduction Kicking-off the first phase of the US pull-out from Afghanistan, two convoys of 25 containers each crossed the Torkham and Chaman border check-posts in Pakistan on 10 Feb 2013. The containers, “part of the US redeployment of ....

Giving Delhi Some Parisian Delight

France was first to offer a strategic dialogue after our 1998 nuclear tests, forswear sanctions and announce a “business as usual” policy towards India. This remarkably pragmatic position, surpassing the acute international anxieties of the momen....

The Politicisation of Criminal Justice

Afzal Guru masterminded the attack on Parliament in 2001, which left nine security and parliament staff dead, with five attackers also being killed. He was arrested and tried for his crimes, sentenced to death by the Sessions Court and his convictio....

Afzal Guru’s Execution: Propaganda, Politics and Portents

More than 12 years after the most audacious and outrageous act of terrorism against India – the attack on the Indian Parliament – one of the prime accused in the case, Afzal Guru, was finally executed after he had exhausted all available legal op....

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