The external affairs minister said PM Modi had discussed with his Pakistani counterpart of re-engaging with each other."
'India's policy makers need to pull their heads out of the sand and recognize the reality that Pakistan has supported and sponsored terrorism on Indian soil for more than three decades; a national counter-terrorism strategy must be evolved in the fullest consciousness of this fact, and of the continued hostility of the Pakistani nation-State to the very idea of India.'
The US needs to do three things to help the newly elected Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan, says Stanley A Weiss
India on Wednesday extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan, saying it was time the two countries display "maturity and self-confidence" to do business with each other.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday hit out at its rival parties in Jammu and Kashmir, saying their stand on a number of issues, including the demand for restoration of Article 370, is the same as that of countries like Pakistan, and asked the Congress if it agrees with the "anti-national" views of the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party over its support to them.
On February 4, Twitter was asked to take down 1,178 accounts with links to Pakistan and Khalistan supporters that were spreading misinformation and provocative content related to farmers' protest.
Tillerson said China's behaviour and action is "posing a challenge to the rules-based international order".
'I would evaluate her on her past policies towards American Hindus and her future approach towards the community'
Expressing concern over the situation in Afghanistan, a group of eminent persons, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday urged the government to continue engaging with the Taliban and not allow any political party to use the developments in that country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
'My father lived on minimum money and helped others.' 'What was he to gain personally? No name, fame like a politician who work for votes.' 'His sort believe all humans deserve better lives.'
'The biggest advantage for India was its seasoned and experienced political leadership who had spent decades struggling against the Raj and had spent years behind bars.' 'Not a single prominent leader of the Muslim League spent one day in jail.' 'Gandhiji, Nehru and Sardar Patel were intelligent, shrewd men with their hands on the popular pulse.'
Lobbying on the Hill is time consuming and cumbersome, but very effective to influence US government policies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC after the 1998 nuclear tests and during the Kargil War.
Last week, two BSF troopers from Rajasthan, members of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Congo, were killed by protestors. Do we need to lose lives fighting in a country not ours, in a war that is not ours and for a cause that is not ours, asks Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd), who served in the UNPKF in Congo.
Shah said "three families" are answerable to the people for their failure to develop Jammu and Kashmir over the past seven decades.
The US military efforts in Afghanistan were akin to filling a bucket that had gaping holes, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tharoor was asked by a Pakistani journalist as to how the political fortune of the Indian government was impacted by the rising COVID numbers. He said it was paradoxical as the government was "not doing well" in dealing with the pandemic and people realise that, but polls suggest that it has not hurt the BJP politically as it should.
He said other parties would be afraid of right-wing backlash in case of settlement on the Kashmir issue.
As India expressed 'displeasure and disappointment" over the United States's decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said that the she will patch things up with India soon on the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that India's efforts for engagement with Pakistan is on with peace as supreme objective but the forces have "full freedom to answer back" in whatever manner they have to.
Modi said Jethmalani was 'witty, courageous and never shied away from boldly expressing himself on any subject'.
'Putting tanks on the Ladakh border is not enough to combat China, what is needed to ensure resilience against any cyber-attacks or attacks in outer space or China flexing its economic muscle, as it did with Australia.'
'There will be much for President Trump and Prime Minister Modi to discuss including growing Chinese military cooperation with Pakistan, which heralds a new attempt by China and Pakistan to neutralise India's influence in its Indian Ocean neighbourhood,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy.
A group of Indian-Americans gathered at Times Square on Sunday, carrying placards and raising slogans in support of the Narendra Modi government and CAA.
What the Indian economy looks like next January will influence her view on India, not her genetics, notes Shekhar Gupta.
The bilateral and Quad summits, in which Prime Minister Modi played a significant role, has sent the right message to China, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
In his brief address, the external affairs minister said India's friendship with Afghanistan is "strong and unshaken" and that no part of the country is untouched by New Delhi's development programmes.
'The trick in a democratic battle is to highlight those aspects of one's personality which are the opposite of the 'enemy's',' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Introduced by Republican Congressman Ted Poe and Democratic lawmaker Rick Nolan, the legislation calls for revoking MNNA status of Pakistan, which was granted to it in 2004 by the then president, George Bush, in an effort to get the country to help the US fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday (local time) said the US is working closely with its partners in the Indian government to deploy more supplies and additional support amid the record upsurge in Covid-19 infections in the country.
During Vajpayee's tenure, he was there as an indispensable insider, witness to every action that had an impact on history: Pokhran-II (nuclear tests in 1998), the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, the Indo-Pak Agra Summit in 2001, intense engagement with the United States on nuclear issues besides the Kandahar hijack.
India's trade with the Gulf-Arab region stands at $180 billion. India needs the Gulf region more in terms of trade, investments and employment than the other way round. When it comes to faith, the Gulf-Arab nations have not been found wanting at any point in time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'India can rely on him to fight terrorism in all its forms, including Pakistan-sponsored outfits.'
The reduction of tension on the Chinese border may have reduced the urgency of a Biden-Modi meeting, but the sooner Modi starts a bromance with Biden the better as he had done with Obama and Trump, suggests Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Nine seats have been proposed for STs and seven for SCs in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said. This is the first time that seats have been proposed for STs in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.
The International Crisis Group said that security forces were allowing 'anti-India outfits... to operate madrasas and charity fronts'.
American help in defending our independence will send a strong signal to the Chinese, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
"We do not have any tight (military) relations with Pakistan," Putin said.
Naveed Musharraf, the president's brother, and Irum Bilal Musharraf, his daughter-in-law, have reportedly given donations to Obama instead of Bush's Republican Party's presumptive candidate Senator John McCain.
The intelligence wing will have 650 field and staff agents to gather actionable information.
