Pakistan is making efforts at multiple levels for the Taliban government to have a soft landing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'I am committed to my country if there is respect for democracy and human rights. If not possible then I will prefer to stay in India or any other western country'
In his first bilateral meeting with international leaders after assuming charge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
The world's attention is on the new Taliban and the imminent announcement of an inclusive government in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The US intends first to cripple the Afghan government financially through sanctions, freezing of assets, denial of access to international banking, etc, and then proceed to do pretty much what it wants to do with scant regard for Afghanistan's sovereignty, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India invited leaders of the BIMSTEC countries as well as Kyrgyz President Jeenbekov, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and Mauritius PM Jugnauth for the Modi's swearing-in.
A banquet hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee for a visiting foreign dignitary on Friday night provided the platform for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his bitter political foe West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to meet and exchange pleasantries.
Pakistan has too much at stake to allow even an iota of rapprochement between India and the Taliban, says Vivek Gumaste.
Admitting that several party workers, most of them lower-rung activists, have resigned over the last few days following the recent attacks on BJP panchayat members and sarpanches, a BJP leader said some were from Budgam district in central Kashmir.
Pakistani journalist and Rediff.com contributor Hamid Mir interviewed Osama bin Laden thrice. Mir, who works for Pakistan's Geo TV network, was the only journalist to interview bin Laden after 9/11.Hamid Mir, who is writing bin Laden's biography, reveals what the world's most wanted terrorist was really like.
Despite dependence on the ISI for years of sustenance, Taliban leaders may harbour resentment over the ISI's excessive control, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Biden Administration on Monday said it was now focused on completing its evacuation mission from Afghanistan by August 31, the deadline for removing all American troops from the country.
A special court trying embattled former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf ordered the government to include former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, a former law minister and a chief justice as alleged co-conspirators in the high treason case slapped on him.
All hopes of a breakthrough between the Afghan Taliban and the Hamid Karzai administration came to an end when Mulla Umar refused 35,000 government jobs for his fighters, the News International, Pakistan reported.
Hasina, the president of the Awami League, won the 11th parliamentary elections with a landslide victory even as the Opposition rejected the "farcical" polls marred by violence that claimed 17 lives, making it one of the deadliest polls in the country's history.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar's spokesman rejects Afghan President Hamid Karzai's attempts for talks with the Taliban in an exchange with Rediff.com contributor Tahir Ali.
Despite disruptions over central rule in Uttarakhand and fresh revelations on the AugustaWestland chopper deal, the Rajya Sabha passed four bills and Lok Sabha cleared three.
According to The Washington Post, the CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of the Afghan administration to maintain sources of information in a government in which the Afghan leader is often seen as having a limited grasp of developments.
Marriages are are bound to happen pandemic or not.
'He could indeed survive [the no confidence vote] even as he faces his biggest political test.'
A metal detector was on Monday installed in front of Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari's office in Parliament after he wondered why he is exempt from usual checks that all others are subjected to.
Love is in the air this spring, even with the coronavirus pandemic. Countless weddings have been postponed, but people are still getting married; although with adjustments to accommodate social distancing and other restrictions. Here are some ways couples are exchanging their wedding vows.
The United States has announced the end of its 20-year-old war in Afghanistan as the last American military flight flew out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul shortly before the August 31 deadline.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
'My family goes to the airport every day so that they can find a way out.'
'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.
A confrontation with the Taliban in Kabul in this fading light of a twilight zone would have been sheer madness, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Keeping trusted men in key positions at Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar has become vital for Bajwa, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
"Tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary," Modi tweeted.
Inter-faith prayer meeting held on Friday at Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi.
Amid criticism that the decision of the Afghan Election Commission on the Presidential polls was not legal, the United States on Wednesday said it considers Hamid Karzai as the 'legitimately elected' president of the war-torn country.
The Crown Prince, who arrived on a three-day official visit, will be accorded a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday, following which he will lay wreath at Mahatma Gandhi' memorial at the Raj Ghat.
Congress leaders paid their tributes to India's first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi on her 98th birth anniversary.
Imran Khan knows Pakistan is holding a strong hand and doesn't have to flaunt it while claiming victory. But Pakistan has learned from the experience of the 1990s -- high risk of going out on a limb, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
An Indian national, who went missing in Pakistan's restive northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in 2012, was taken away by intelligence agencies from a police station before his disappearance, police has said.
For the second successive year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated Diwali with troops on Wednesday, saying the world looks at India with respect because of their valour and "character", in comments that come against the backdrop of protests by several veterans over OROP.
Former Inter Services Intelligence chief Lieutenant General. Hamid Gul responds to charges that he supports terrorism, discusses 9/11 and ulterior motives for the war on Afghanistan, claims that the US, Israel, and India are behind efforts to destabilise Pakistan.
United States President-elect Joseph Biden has always been a strong supporter of India and India-US partnership since his days in Senate and later as a Vice-President.
On the occasion, the PM presented a memento to the outgoing president.
