'Who put the fear of god into Imran Khan and how it happened we do not know, but the great cricketer panicked and called Mahathir to regret that he cannot attend the KL Summit,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Kathleen Stephens, the new United States interim ambassador, on Friday took charge of the American embassy in New Delhi and said she was looking forward to working with India for strengthening and broadening the Indo-US partnership.
A young domestic help hailing from Jharkhand has accused a senior Indian Foreign Service officer of sexually assaulting her while he was posted in Kenya and approached the police seeking his arrest. While the Ministry of External Affairs said it will look into the allegations, the Delhi Police registered a case against Ketan Shukla, a 1986-batch IFS officer now posted in Ahmedabad, charging him with rape and criminal intimidation.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wags his finger at an Indian official on Monday morning. He later threatened to pull his boss out of the talks!
Mubeena, mother of Shah Faisal, in Srinagar was elated when her son was declared the topper.
'Bush was too committed towards Indo-US relations. I don't know if Obama is as committed.' Former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh in an exclusive interview.
'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 Delhi police chargesheeted disgraced diplomat Madhuri Gupta on Tuesday accusing her of passing secret information to Pakistan's Inter State Intelligence during her posting in Islamabad.
'Why not simply make some more ventilators and find some more beds? How much would it cost?' asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
An opinion is steadily gaining ground in Muslim countries in India's 'extended neighbourhood' that the Modi government is adopting State policies that are decidedly 'anti-Muslim', warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed has been appointed the country's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which has a 2.8 million-strong Indian community.
Nirupama Rao, the former Indian Ambassador to the US, has been named as the 'Meera and Vikram Gandhi Fellow' with the Brown-India initiative at the Watson Institute for International Studies.
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is likely to campaign for two Congress candidates in Lok Sabha polls in Bihar sources said on Thursday. "Sachin will campaign for former Delhi police chief Nikhil Kumar and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in the upcoming polls," a Congress leader close to Kumar said.
'If India does not succeed in making the US recognise the combined threat of the China-Pakistan alliance, there is nothing left in the visit,' says Brajesh Mishra, the former National Security Adviser.
'Taranjit has the ideal temperament to deal with the Americans who understand firmness and appreciate flexibility.' 'He can hold his ground with a cheerful face and still make it clear that India and the US are partners, rivals,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The department of information and technology (DIT) is considering an amendment in the Information Technology Act (IT Act) to facilitate this move, according to an internal note prepared by the department of telecommunications (DoT).
Ambassador Venu Rajamony, who served as press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee during his tenure, salutes the statesman and political legend, who passed into the ages on Monday.
Christine Fair, who infuriated New Delhi when she alleged that India was meddling in Balochistan, has been offered the India portfolio in the Obama administration.
'While high-level interventions may help smoothen inter-State relationships, they cannot fundamentally change the alchemy of such relationships, which are firmly rooted in mutual benefits and mutual interests,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The foreign secretary should delegate policy execution
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Career diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, who recently retired as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Here's how you should prepare yourself for various Civil Services exams scheduled in 2009.
Mechanism for non-resident service providers made stricter.
Former diplomat M K Bhadrakumar talks to Sheela Bhatt on what the Obama-Singh summit holds for India.
South Asia expert Christine Fair believes this week's Obama-Singh summit will accomplish little in terms of getting Pakistan to rein in terrorist groups using its soil to mount attacks on India.
Mathai took the office on Monday. He succeeds Jaimini Bhagwati, who retired recently.
The Rajya Sabha is all set to go digital to minimise the massive wastage of paper in the House, thanks to an initiative by Vice President and Chairman Hamid Ansari.As per the suggested changes, Parliamentarians will receive documents in hard copy only if they request for it and special incentives will be provided to MPs who opt for the digital format.Ansari, a retired Indian Foreign Service officer, wants Parliament to set an example.
Sanjeev Chowdhury, director general, department of foreign affairs in Canada, headed the team that organised the G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto respectively from June 25 to 27. When he joined Canada's foreign service 15 years ago and became a part of the team that organised the G7 summit -- as it was then called -- in Halifax, he never imagined that he would one day be responsible for organising these major events. He spoke to rediff.com's Ajit Jain.
Make no mistake, the Bangladeshi and Afghan missions in Chanakyapuri would report verbatim to their capitals the abrasive remarks attributed to the Indian leadership, casting a slur on their countries' political culture and national honour, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
There are no heroes or villains in No Fathers in Kashmir, but only helpless characters, who perhaps don't have a choice other than learning to live with what they're subjected to, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
On her 101st birth anniversary, November 19, four letters that reveal a different side to inarguably India's toughest prime minister.
Sujatha Singh stands for the right values and quite simply, she's a "good person" who understands complex economic issues thoroughly, say her friends.
Indians at large harbour a notion that their country is cherrypicking out of the American basket of goodies, but the policymakers in Delhi and the political leadership are well aware that it can only be a pipe dream since a military alliance with a superpower is a profound irrevocable commitment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Mr T V R Shenoy, who contributed columns to Rediff.com from its birth, passed into the ages on Tuesday evening. As we grieve and mourning his passing, Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar bids adieu to an unusual human being, a sage for our times.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Senior Indian Foreign Service officials Sharat Sabharwal and Meera Shankar will be the next envoys to Pakistan and the United States respectively. Sabharwal, Special Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, will succeed High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal, who reaches superannuation on February 28. Shankar, India's Ambassador to Germany, will succeed Ronen Sen in Washington.
All you need to know about preparing for the Civil Services examination
The suited and booted officials of the Ministry of External Affairs had a different job at hand on Sunday -- weeding out old files and papers and removing unusable and obsolete furniture.
Atul Keshap, a senior Indian American career diplomat and one of the rising stars in the United States foreign service, has been picked by Nisha Desai Biswal, the newly appointed assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, to be her deputy.
