Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh needs to be complimented for standing firm to China and refusing to be bullied by it into not attending the Oslo function on December 10, 2010, in honour of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese political dissident in jail in China, who has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize this year, notes senior analyst B Raman.
'If the ministers spend their time throwing Indian dossiers on terrorism and Pakistani dossiers on Kashmir and river waters at each other, they will miss an opportunity for creating a possible and much-needed turning point in Indo-Pakistan relations.'
Freezing or calling off the re-engagement process in the wake of Tahawwur Hussain Rana's confession on 26/11 will be an easy option, but that will take both India and Pakistan back into stewing in their past, feels strategic expert B Raman
Was the visit connected to China's recent actions vis-a-vis Pakistan?
India needs to evolve a comprehensive security machinery with clearly laid down concepts, carefully defined leadership roles and a workable co-ordination drill.
'The lack of vigorous action by the US against Pakistan for its involvement in the 26/11 strikes and its disappointing cooperation with India in the Headley case have shown that any high expectations of US cooperation with India against terrorism of Pakistani origin would be an illusion.'
Pakistanis are shocked after the brazen attack on one of its holiest shrines on Thursday, says B Raman
We must take note of the feelings of hurt and bitterness coming out of Pakistan after the World Cup semi-final loss to India. But we should not allow these to create self-doubts in our mind about the wisdom of the exercise set in motion at Mohali, says B Raman
Visits at the top level help in imparting the required momentum to bilateral relations, says B Raman
Although the United States have denied confirmation, but it's apparent that Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a recent US drone attack in South Waziristan, Pakistan. Mehsud's death signifies tremendous implications, and was possibly a result of intelligence penetration. Explains security expert B Raman
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has all the potential to become the next prime minister, at least the Congress seems to think so. But senior analyst B Raman raises a few doubts over his ability to lead the nation
The ethnic strife in Kyrgyzstan, which has so far claimed over 120 lives, could have unpredictable consequences for regional peace and security, writes security expert B Raman.
The recent gains by the Republicans in the American midterm polls may benefit India, says B Raman.
How to co-operate effectively with both India and China without seeming to favour the relationship with one at the cost of the other, will be one of Obama's big challenges, says B Raman
Senior analyst B Raman explores the route Tibet and China will have to take in case the Dalai Lama is no longer there.
We can no longer be complacent in the belief that everything that needs to be done to assure nuclear safety has been done and there is nothing to worry about, says B Raman
Obama's agenda has been prepared by the bureaucratic establishments in the two countries without imagination, without a sense of history, without understanding the benign face of Indian Islam totally different from its face in Pakistan and the Arab world, says B Raman.
While a revamp our internal security architecture is needed, an all powerful home minister may not be such a good idea, writes strategic expert B Raman.
Periodic misunderstandings and mutual bitterness in the relations between co-operating intelligence agencies are part of the intelligence game, writes strategic expert B Raman.
The seeping unhappiness among soldiers unable to reach out to their families affected by the disaster is not only likely to affect its counter-insurgency performance, but it would also add to the sympathy for the Taliban in the lower ranks.
Obama has initiated what appears to be the first step towards the possible lifting of the arms embargo imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square revolt by protesting students in 1989.
The US may re-look its human and technical intelligence apparatus in Pakistan following the attack on seven CIA officers in Khost and the failed New York bombing plot, writes security expert B Raman
The government and our officers who have been talking to the media do not realise the importance of keeping the Pakistani intelligence guessing as to what Madhuri Gupta has been telling her interrogators. As for the media, it has converted the case into a slapstick serial, writes security expert B Raman.
The Madhuri Gupta episode shows Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau is back from a relatively long hibernation, writes security expert B Raman
Madhuri Gupta, the indian diplomat arrested for spying in the Indian mission in Islamabad, may not have access to sensitive information, but she has access to the high commission and could have planted transmitting devices and tapped phones, writes B Raman.
While there is no need for any panic, B Raman states that any casual approach to the firing outside the Jama Masjid in New Delhi would be unwise.
Amid the muddle over the Indian Premier League, the Centre is feeling the heat after Outlook magazine carried a report saying that the National Technical Research Organisation has got telephone conversations of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and many other dignitaries tapped.
The controversy is a sensitive issue which could have an impact on relations with China and could hurt the feelings and sensitivities of the followers of the Karmapa, say B Raman.
All the three improvised explosive devices of low sophistication planted outside the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru where an IPL match was played on Saturday afternoon would appear to have been planted in the open space outside the stadium after the anti-explosive sanitisation had been done thrice by the police. B Raman's discerning take on the incident:
Security expert B Raman deciphers the FBI affidavit against Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the Pakistan-origin Canadian arrested with David Headley for alleged Lashkar connections, and speculates who could be their handlers in Pakistan.
Al Qeada-backed Chechen separatists may have been behind the Moscow suicide blasts. Security expert B Raman examines the surge in terror in Central Asia.
India should avoid countering China's renewed rhetoric on Arunachal Pradesh. Instead we should be vigilant and quietly strengthen infrastructure and our defences, writes strategic affairs expert B Raman.
While India was prepared to talk tough on some issues, crucial issues like disparity in trade and China's support to Pakistan and border issues have not been dealt with adequately during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit, says strategic expert B Raman
The blasts in Stockholm indicate a possible link to the so-called 313 Brigade of Ilyas Kashmiri, says B Raman
'We have a very strong case against the Chinese on the border issue, which we should project in a non-sensational, non-jingoistic manner, but by indulging in such methods we might find our credibility weakened in the eyes of the international community.'
While re-vitalising these interactions, it should be our endeavour to expand the basket of issues of concern to India, which have arisen since the format of the composite dialogue was agreed upon when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister and which are not discussed specifically now, writes B Raman.
Talks between China and special envoys of the Dalai Lama were not a Sino-Tibetan dialogue, but a meeting with two 'private representatives' of the spiritual leader on the future of His Holiness and his associates, write B Raman.
'There is no harm in our giving a try to the idea of an informal, clandestine one-to-one liaison relationship between the ISI and R&AW. We should not have any illusions that it would result in a sharing of actionable intelligence. Intelligence agencies share actionable intelligence only when they have common State and non-State enemies. India and Pakistan do not have common enemies.'
The prime minister's remarks on relations with Pakistan and on the Maoist issue do not bode well for our success in dealing with these two challenges to our national security in an effective manner, writes B Raman.
'A disastrous failure of the Games would not be just a failure of an incompetent India. It would be the failure of an emerging India and the damaging of its image as a democratic nation worthy of emulation.'
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