'Gotabaya will expect India to observe the red line.' 'He even dispensed with any gesture welcoming India as an interlocutor on the Tamil issue.' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The one thing India has over these two States, whose toughness awes us, is our ability to embrace diversity with ease. 'The way ahead lies in learning from Vajpayee's method, not in Xi Jinping's,' says Shekhar Gupta.
If Indian PM boycotts the CHOGM, it is likely to add to Sri Lanka's bitterness. This would not help India's desire to add more depth and content to its relations with Sri Lanka but its ability to influence Sri Lanka's decision making process on the both strategic issues and on Tamil minority issues, says Colonel (retd) R Hariharan.
'The Chinese -- up to the highest leadership -- will avoid a conflict because they know they will be badly licked.' 'The reputation they have painstakingly built over the last two-three decades of being a global power will be destroyed.'
'For a country that has successfully maintained its democracy for more than seventy years now, this sudden storm of hate is highly surprising.' 'My worry is that if the debate continues like that for some more time you will have an entire generation of Indians permanently inoculated with this germ of hatred.'
India on Thursday completely rejected as "baseless and unsubstantiated" allegations levelled by Pakistan against eight officials of the Indian high commission in Islamabad and strongly protested the manner in which their names and photos were published, compromising their security.
Twenty one years ago, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force fought a bloody and bitter war to evict Pakistani intruders from the icy heights in Kargil. Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) salutes the lesser known heroes of the Kargil War.
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
Biden is best qualified to address the root cause of the polarisation in American politics before it turns into terminal malignancy, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Biden administration should expect continuity in Iran's policies under Raisi. This may not necessarily mean that strengthening of ties with the West will be Raisi's top priority, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Blaming state actors in Pakistan for making attempts to destabilise India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the neighbouring country has not abandoned its efforts to harm the country through "various tactics".
'Overlying his idealism was a hatred of war and of all things military. He gave no deep thought to politico-military matters and this prevented him from making sound security decisions.'
It is time the current leaders who swear by 'cultural nationalism', that is religion neutral, assert that Bharatiyata is at the core of our nationalism and India was never a 'Hindu Rashtra', argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The tragedy is that, at least on social media, the narrative that was being lapped up by many Indian Muslims was that Yakub Memon was being victimised. The purveyors of this poisonous line of thinking of course want this sentiment to grow since communal polarisation is the primary pillar of their political strategy, says Sushant Sareen.
'This is what Hindu Rashtra looks like, which has been enabled by conditions of democracy.'
Describing Iran as a "danger" to world peace, Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked India not to remain "neutral" to Iran's "aggressive attempt" to become a forceful hegemon in the region.
"God forbid if they (militants) would have done something. It would not have been possible to have smooth conduct of the elections," Sayeed said.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address to the nation on the eve of 72nd Republic Day.
'The bloodthirsty rhetoric of chicken-hawk TV anchors are the worst contributors to Kashmiri alienation.' 'If this implacable hatred is the authentic voice of India, Kashmiris argue, who can hope for peace?' asks Mihir S Sharma.
Sandeep Singh Dhaliwa stopped a vehicle with a man and woman inside and one of them got out and shot him "ambush-style".
Only he, with his tremendous political capital and personal stature, can pull it off, observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
Chennai Super Kings players took to social media to express their disappointment a day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India was forced to shift the franchise's remaining home fixtures to Pune in the 11th Indian Premier League owing to the ongoing Cauvery water dispute.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
Sounding an alert in the state, Parkash Singh Badal said it was time that the Centre dealt with terrorism with an iron hand.
'This Chinese behaviour we have not seen for a very long time.' 'This sort of build up on the border, this pattern in Chinese behaviour, and especially the aggression and brutality with which our people were attacked on the 15th of June, this is not something we have seen before.'
The Indian Army on Saturday said the announcement of the ban on Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa by Pakistan were "good moves" but the effect of these steps needs to be gauged on the ground.
'Unquestionably, the spirit behind the Panchsheel agreement and the 'Hindi Chini bhai bhai' slogan were thrown overboard by the Chinese, and a trust deficit was injected between the two nations.' A revealing excerpt from General J J Singh's The McMahon Line: A Century Of Discord.
Snooping is one of the oldest peccadilloes of man, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Given the present force levels, India cannot fight and win.' 'India can't hope to terminate the conflict on India's terms and impose the nation's will upon the adversaries,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The government and the farmers must come back to the negotiating table with only the interest of the country in mind, suggests Vivek Gumaste.
'No one needs to lose sleep if a person with better operational credentials supersedes lesser endowed peers,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
Expressing concern over the recent incidents of communal clashes, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the country has not learnt lessons from the history and same "tragic mistakes" are being repeated.
'If the NSCN-IM is cold shoulderd, the chances are that it will slip back into insurgency,' caution Sandeep Pandey, Meera Sanghamitra and Babloo Loitongbam.
'The return of violence in Kashmir justifies government precautions, but risk has to be taken.' 'We need to act and ensure that risk is converted to gain through direct interaction with Kashmir's public,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The official cited it as an example of 'how the Chinese military is trying to resolve issues through dialogue mechanisms'.
As disputed South China Sea witnesses increased Chinese influence, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Monday pitched for India's "active support" to peacefully resolve all disputes and sought its greater linkages across the region.
'Beijing is comfortable with Hasina's pragmatism -- perceived as 'pro-India', but staying out of Indian orbit and receptive to forging close ties with China and yet, siding with neither neighbour,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
