Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) lists why India must not do away with AFSPA, but ensure enough transparency to avoid confrontation with human rights.
'Quiet back channel advice will probably be rendered by Saudi Arabia to India that international perception on both issues does not favour India and that it should be prudent to look inwards and introspect on where the failing has been,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
'Clearly, there is a wide gap between the stated intentions of China's top leadership to improve relations with India and the PLA's aggressive border management,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Pak's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said that Modi's statement shows India's nervousness over the situation in Kashmir.
Lakhs of people, including men and women, students, working professionals, lawyers and doctors from the community, participated in the march, under the umbrella of 'Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha'.
Trump had a hastily-arranged bilateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
The former finance minister said that Pakistan "lost conclusively" before the world court and termed the sentencing by the military court to Jadhav as a "farcical processes".
The accused, Mohammed Hanif, was brought to the city and produced before a court which sent him to police custody till August 20, a senior police official said.
"Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms," Trump said in his address to the joint session of US Congress.
The suspect has been identified as 24-year-old Shahid Khan.
A parliamentary panel has recommended replacing the word 'seamen" with 'sea-persons' in the Merchant Shipping Amendment Bill, which aims at governing the welfare of seafarers, to make the legislation gender neutral.
Rifleman Aurangzeb, who belonged to the 44 Rashtriya Rifles, was on way back home on June 14 to celebrate Eid when terrorists abducted him.
He said the country now possesses the capability to strike satellites in outer space with centimetre-level accuracy and precision.
Two lessons from the closure of the Barak investigation: be careful with investigations, and buy from the US or Russia through transparent protocols. Premvir Das examines
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address to the nation on the eve of 72nd Republic Day.
'We have to hit Pakistan in such a manner where it hurts them the most.'
Gurbax Singh Dhindsa, father of Kargil war martyr GS Dhindsa, in a letter to the PM and defence minister underlining the fact that military personnel have little recourse to justice in higher courts.
Police said two people were shot during an armed robbery attempt inside the convenience store.
"Chau violated all the norms. Moreover, he had also not informed the hotel (that he was visiting the area)."
'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The Maharashtra unit of Aam Aadmi Party on Monday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar for asking his party workers to "vote twice" in polls and sought derecognition of his party.
'If there is one certainty in this visit, it is that Trump does not follow a script. He is unpredictable,' highlights Ambassador B S Prakash.
Younger brother Surendra wants to re-invest his share in real estate and education
At the hearing while India demanded the immediate suspension of the former navy officer's death sentence, Islamabad accused it of using the world body as a stage for "political theatre" through a "misconceived" plea.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay, columnist and author of several books like From Lehman to Demonetisation: A Decade of Disruptions and Sahara: The Untold Story, tells Rediff.com why Yes Bank depositors should not panic and the current crisis at India's fifth largest private lender does not pose any systemic risk.
'This letter is not a complaint, it's more indignation, because we do not like being used as political tools by people of various parties.'
'I did not go for the Oscars because I was not invited. I felt bad but I watched the show on television. I had never watched the Oscars before this, it was my first time.' Lion actor Abhishek Bharate looks back at the film.
In one of the most-awaited acts of the day, the women constables, in their debut, created some stunning formations, such as "fish riding, side riding, faulaad, peacock and Saptarishi", that dropped jaws and drew cheers. Now this is what we call women power!
The failure to restructure our armed forces in line with contemporary needs 14 years after the Kargil war will impose strategic costs beyond just delays and scandals, says Nitin Pai
The Chinese have just one commander for all the forces confronting India. Commanders of all these forces answer to one man, and one headquarter. India, on the other hand, offers a diversity of options that is a military embarrassment in the 21st century. In Arunachal and Sikkim-Bhutan, the Eastern Army Commander is in charge. In the Uttarakhand (central) sector, it will be the Central Army Commander. The Himachal-Tibet border is the domain of the Western Army Commander. And all of Kashmir and Ladakh further on, the Northern Army's. Effectively, an array of at least eight 'three-star' commanders will be arrayed against one Chinese, says Shekhar Gupta.
After three days of intense search, debris of the missing AirAsia aircraft carrying 162 people was found on Tuesday in the Java Sea off Indonesia but only three bodies have been retrieved so far as the mystery remained over the cause of the crash.
'NSA Doval and the PM are known to admire Israel's tough response to cross-border terrorism.' 'However, New Delhi's situation is far more complex than Tel Aviv's, which enjoys military superiority over all its neighbours,' says Ajai Shukla.
'Should the new ISIS leadership opt for a consolidation, the Afghan-Pakistan border would be an attractive place,' warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The new policy would also allow many of the stuck programmes, like the heavy weight torpedos for the six Scorpene submarines, to move ahead with clarity.
'If the series of instances in the recent past are taken into account -- guns falling silent on the border; vastly reduced cross-border infiltration into J&K; positive approach to meeting Indian demands on the Kartarpur Sahib pilgrimage; resumption of overflight for Indian aircraft; visible disinterest in rhetoric and so on -- Commander Jadhav may see better days in a conceivable future,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
'Women were not allowed in the Territorial Army before January 5, 2018. Presently girls are not allowed in Sainik Schools and Rashtriya Military schools. Women are not allowed in the army education corps, in the engineering services (as permanent commission), they can't be religious preachers in the army. There's a need to change with the times.'
The Mumbai police and the jail administration cut a sorry figure on Thursday when it was discovered that an accused in the sensational Shakti Mills compound gang-rape case had "disappeared" and could not be produced before the court but he was later found to be in prison.
The prime minister had violated the model code of conduct by holding a 'roadshow' after voting in the Gujarat assembly polls, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged.
'Wanting to see the bright side of things, we always told ourselves, 'It could have been worse!', when the situation got tough.' Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd), who helped rebuild the IAF's Car Nicobar air base after the 2004 tsunami, recalls the devastation on United Nations World Tsunami Awareness Day.
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