Though he left a mixed legacy, especially a dubious human rights record for allegedly having killed more than 500,000 people after he seized power in 1960s in an anti-Communist campaign, Asian leaders praised Suharto for having built the Indonesian economy.
Suharto, who seized power in 1966, was responsible for the killings of over half a million Communists and their supporters. He also spearheaded the invasion of East Timor and the suppression of separatist movements in Aceh and Papua. As Indonesia became prosperous and self-sufficient during his regime, corruption touched an all time high, with public funds being siphoned off by Suharto's friends and family members.
Prabowo was accused in the late 1980s of making a number pro-democracy activists mysteriously disappear and for human rights abuses in the provinces of East Timor and Papua and was denied a visa to the US.
The Democrats, especially the Biden administration, wanted to deliver a sharper message to Mr Modi than would be possible in a formal summit setting. So, why not get the most prominent Democrat in decades to deliver it?, explains Shekhar Gupta.
India is not particularly enamoured by the AMF idea and would much rather see the Fund revitalised and reinvented as a multilateral institution. Indeed, there could be a meeting of minds between India and the US on the IMF's future.
The Modi government has to embrace the history of Tamil conquests in South East Asia and stop obsessing about Babar/Humayun, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Outside investors don't want to get tangled up in a religious war.'
Blackmail on one side and bullying on the other doesn't make for a constructive partnership, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'Demonetisation, is in principal, a mistake, because it involves a theft -- a taking of private property by the State.' 'It is one of those bad Indian ideas that has been tried twice in the past, with two failures for the record books.' 'This cloud over the economy will probably remain as long as Modi is in power.'
'What India needs to do is to re-build those cultural links in a way it didn't.' 'Clearly, India needs to wake up and spend more time on ASEAN.'
'The existence of Section 295A on the Indian statute books sits uneasily with India's ambitions to be seen as a progressive democracy,' says Kanika Datta.
Humanitarian intervention has little meaning unless the international community is willing to engage in the aftermath, says Shyam Saran.
