Soon after Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta provided a classified briefing to the House leadership in the US Congress on the covert mission inside Pakistan that killed Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden, he was peppered with a volley of questions. He was quizzed about Pakistani duplicity, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence's perfidy about how it could have not known about bin Laden living right under their nose in Abbottabad.
A frustrated and angry America Inc believes it has been let down by Delhi after all of its lobbying to push through the deal in the US Congress, reports Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC.
Leading think tanks put a question mark on the India-US strategic partnership. Aziz Haniffa reports
On the urging of his Indian American constituents, particularly hoteliers who have origins in Gujarat and are ardent fans of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a United States lawmaker, Congressman, Joe Walsh, a right wing conservative Republican, and is the darling of the Tea Party Movement, has launched a campaign to prevail on the Obama administration to grant a diplomatic visa to Modi. Aziz Haniffa reports
Mark Potok, senior fellow at the US-based non-profit civil rights organisation Southern Poverty Law Centre which monitors white supremacist and other hate-groups in America, is convinced that Wade Michael Page targetted innocent Sikh worshippers in the Oak Creek, Wisconsin, believing they were Muslims.
After the second US-India strategic dialogue, Aziz Haniffa finds growing concern about the civilian nuclear deal trapped in limbo.
Akshay K Desai's Universal Health Care Group, a major Medicare provider - has gone belly-up.
'India is about 50 years behind China in the quest to eliminate illiteracy. At this point of time, about a third of India's working age population has never been to school and on current trajectories, even 20 years from now, about almost a fifth of India's working age population will not ever have had any formal education -- not even one year of schooling.'
Pakistan harbouring Osama bin Laden was the straw that broke the camel's back and led to the irrevocable trust deficit between the United States and Pakistan, says Louie Gohmert. Aziz Haniffa reports
Leena Jayaswal, an associate professor at American University in Washington, DC, last week made her artistic debut at an exhibition titled Motherland at the Gandhi Memorial Center in Washington DC this month. Aziz Haniffa reports
Security expert Bruce Riedel says that from the evidence at hand so far it is clear that the jihadist infrastructure in Pakistan is closely tied to the country's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence. Aziz Haniffa reports
Former US ambassador to India Frank G Wisner says Americans are going to confront the fact that as prime minister -- if that's where Narendra Modi ends up -- they are going to have to do business with him because the relationship with India is too important to leave it on the altar of disagreements over one man. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
Pakistani journalist, scholar and author Ahmed Rashid has virtually taken on an advisory role to the Obama administration on Pakistan. He has been arguing that the United States should not unilaterally re-set its relationship with Islamabad -- which is in the doldrums -- unless that country completely eschews supporting and funding terrorist groups that attack the US, India and Aghanistan. Aziz Haniffa reports.
The first-ever poll of Asian-American voters finds support for President Obama, but also room for outreach. Aziz Haniffa reports in this two-part series.
There is no denying that Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's three-day trip to the United States will advance the further institutionalisation of India-US counter-terrorism and intelligence-sharing cooperation.
The strengthening ties between India and United States have made Pakistan paranoid. Fearing that US might just discard it, Pakistan is now turning to its "enduring friend" China, believe America's powerful couple in diplomatic circles -- former ambassadors Howard and Teresita Schaffer. Aziz Haniffa reports
Aziz Haniffa reports on a business management programme the University of Maryland is offering Indian graduates.
'The current period of implementation and consolidation will put the relationship on an even sounder footing when the leaders in both capitals determine it is time to quicken the pace,' US experts tell Aziz Haniffa.
Dr S Amer Latif, a senior Pentagon policy wonk, on leave as a Visiting Fellow with the Wadhwani Chair in United States-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies -- a leading Washington, DC think tank -- has said the civilian bureaucracy with the Indian ministry of defense "is a significant impediment to close US-India military ties."
'Indians need to think clearly about what kind of future they are going to have with a Pakistan that has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world, and more terrorists per square mile than any other place in the world.' Erstwhile Central Intelligence Agency veteran Bruce Riedel speaks to Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa in an exclusive interview.
If there is another Mumbai-like attack; the US should not be constraining India. India and Pakistan should simply deal with it bilaterally, without US pressure, says South Asia expert Professor C Christine Fair. Aziz Haniffa reports.
As much as it was a thumping victory for Barack Obama, the election results were also a repudiation of the current Republican Party, held hostage by a rabid tea party, that has alienated minorities and women, who delivered for Obama despite an unemployment rate of over 7.8 percent, says Aziz Haniffa.
US officials want President Barack Obama to support India as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, telling him it could make his India visit truly historic, reveals Aziz Haniffa.
Nothing stops you, except you, except your own imagination and your ability to do hard work, says Dr Inder M Verma. The Salk Institute molecular biologist, who was appointed editor in chief of the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, spoke exclusively to Aziz Haniffa.
Neera Tanden's father abandoned his family when she was just five years old, in a strange land. Now, she has been named as the first Indian-American head of a major Washington, DC-based think-tank, reports Aziz Haniffa
Nina Davuluri proves once again that she is much more than just a pretty face.
India's answer to China's 'string of pearls' in Asia, particularly South Asia, is its own 'necklace of diamonds', reports Aziz Haniffa
Scoffing at former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's suggestion of close India-Pakistan cooperation on combating terror, Lalit Mansingh, former ambassador to the United States, argued that India needs to discuss with countries like China and Pakistan from a position of strength. Aziz Haniffa reports.
Doubts about the Obama administration's commitment to a strategic partnership with India were raised by the likes of Lalit Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to the US and former Indian foreign secretary, and Kanwal Sibal, former Indian foreign secretary and former deputy chief of mission in Washington, DC, in two separate panels titled 'American and Indian Strategic Interests in Asia' and 'Where is the US-India Strategic Relationship Headed in the Coming Year?'
India's exponential economic prowess has made Boeing covet that country like never before, said Thomas Pickering, former under secretary of state and former ambassador to India, who after he retired was a vice president with Boeing and who remains a consultant with the aviation giant.
India's envoy to the United States Nirupama Rao attempts to counter the contention that there's a drift in the strategic partnership between the two nations. Aziz Haniffa reports
Mansoor Ijaz, the man who has triggered off a political crisis in Pakistan, is a 'dubious character,' who is sowing 'seeds of dissension,' South Asia experts in the US tell Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC.
Surrounded by luminaries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's family, and with his hand placed on the Bhagwad Gita, Srikanth Srinivasan was formally sworn in as judge for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
Lisa Curtis, the head of conservative Heritage Foundation's South Asia Program analyses the Obama visit to India in conversation with Aziz Haniffa.
United States President Barack Obama not just met, but beat India's expectations, feel two veteran career diplomats who between the two of them have over four decades of service in the Indian subcontinent, reports Aziz Haniffa.
The Obama administration has expressed its deep disappointment with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for relegating the devolution of power in the Tamil majority areas, in the country's northern province, to the back-burner. The international community had urged the Lankan government to put the motion in process after crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Aziz Haniffa finds out why few people are upset about the Pakistani ambassador's ouster and what the outlook on his successor is.
US Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told Rediff.com that he appreciated India's concerns over the massive American military largesse for Pakistan, considering the reports that such aid has often been diverted for a potential military confrontation with India.
Srinagar-born Farah Pandith, President Barack Obama's special representative to Muslim communities worldwide, recently made her first trip to India after her high-level appointment. She had 'a great trip,' she told rediff.com, and 'was very humbled to be able to go back.'