By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' -- a word he introduced into our lexicon which means someone acting on the instructions of an influential third party.
'If the Russian forces do capture Kyiv and set up some sort of provisional government, they might run into an insurgency, for which the geography is just right, it could prove costly for them.' 'In that event, the whole exercise could turn out to be counter-productive -- and costly in both foreign policy and domestic terms.'
'The performance of any government is benchmarked on five parameters -- India's external security, the state of the economy, social cohesion, internal security, and India's relations with the world or its foreign policy. On each of the benchmarks in the past nine years, the NDA-BJP government has come up completely short'
Britain's withdrawal from the election to the world court means there will not be a British judge on the UN's most powerful court for the first time in its history.
India has for the first time abstained from voting on a resolution on Palestine adopted at the UN rights body that calls for accountability by parties involved in last year's conflict in Gaza.
The best, wisest, and fairest next step in strengthening our own cause is to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir and allow the resumption of robust political activity. That's a box that remains unchecked on the Modi government's report card as we approach the fourth anniversary of Kashmir's Constitutional shift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'This government puts poor people behind bars, demonises women after their death, puts out the call records of deceased raped victims and robs her of her dignity.'
Amidst stepped up pressure by southern parties to vote against Sri Lanka at the United Nation, the government said the "call" will be taken after studying the final draft of the United States-backed resolution even as India's Representative to the UN in Geneva will be in New Delhi on Tuesday for consultations on it.
After a gap of 19 years, India was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, a position which would help it push more aggressively for the reform of the world body's top organ. India secured an emphatic win, with 187 of the 191 member states in the General Assembly backing its candidature and one member state abstaining from the vote.
The report also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July 2017.
The future challenger to Narendra Modi would be somebody who can bring the Hindus and Muslims together again. The Hindus as Hindus, not broken caste groups, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said it is too premature to congratulate ourselves over the UN Security Council adopting a resolution on Afghanistan, and cautioned that the possible axis of China, Pakistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a cause for worry.
India in December voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the US for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Election for final seat on the International Court of Justice stays deadlocked.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Modi said India's next general elections will be held in 2024 and he invited G20 delegates to visit the country to witness the "festival of democracy" in the "mother of democracy".
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
India was voted to have a one-year term.
Palestine overwhelmingly won a historical United Nations General Assembly vote, which will upgrade its status to non-member observer state at the world body, despite intense opposition from the United States and Israel.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in India Thursday evening in the highest-level visit between the two countries after the ties came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh standoff nearly two years ago.
Elated after India's abstention at the UN Human Rights Council vote on Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody for poaching.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role in it.
BJP banks on Modi, Congress on its candidate Manvendra Singh in Barmer, India's largest constituency by area after Ladakh.
Senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, in the race for the post of Congress president, not only possess contrasting demeanour but have had an equally disparate political journey.
'Before a vote in the UN,' one expert tells Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com, 'instructions are given from both the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry for External Affairs. India should have abstained. On the face of it, it looks like an error on the part of the MEA.'
Whatever its apprehensions and concerns about the regime of the Rajapaksa clan, India must be ready with unconditional assistance when Colombo asks for it. Because it will, observes Aditi Phadnis.
What are India's chances of getting a permanent seat in a revamped UN Security Council?
With the assembly polls only two years away, in 2026, any demoralising defeat in 2024, would challenge not only the party's continued relevance but also EPS's leadership, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
At her daily news conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked how the world's largest and oldest democracies are working together to bring peace in the region amidst the war in Ukraine.
Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said that the morality police 'was abolished by the same authorities who installed it', The New York Times reported.
Acknowledging that there are differences between India and the US on issues like Libya and Syria, a top Obama administration official has said the two countries need to "redouble" their efforts to work together to reduce any misunderstanding between them.
Pakistani teenage rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has donated $50,000 to help rebuild UN schools in Gaza that have been damaged during the recent fighting in the enclave.
The South Carolina governor has become the first woman and minority to join Trump's administration.
Notwithstanding its continuing military strikes against Ukraine, Russia has started supplying some components of the second regiment of the S-400 Triumf missile defence system to India, people familiar with the development said on Friday.
Modi's BJP has promised more revdis or freebies for these assembly elections than ever before, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It was more than ego.' 'It carried with it a sincere belief that he was the quintessence of the country, that the country's destiny was irrevocably intertwined with his destiny.' An excerpt from T J S George's The Dismantling of India: In 35 Portraits.
There is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in Kashmir, Rahul said.
It is learnt that the camp office in Lviv would be able to coordinate the evacuation of Indians to Poland and Hungary while the one at Chernivtsi would facilitate exit to Romania.
He said India can have a possible role in creating a multilateral forum of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis.
