Modi's hardline policy towards Pakistan and J&K has created numerous leverages and bargaining positions that New Delhi can bring to the bargaining table and translate into concessions, argues Ajai Shukla.
In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistani Rangers on Thursday resorted to unprovoked firing on forward Indian posts along the Indo-Pakistan border in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
For India and Pakistan, the divergence on traditional issues remains, but there is a search for new areas of convergence, believes B Raman
India has been trying cricket diplomacy since the 1980s. In one memorable occasion, the Chennai crowd even cheered a Pakistani Test victory. But unfortunately, every such attempt has generally been followed by a terrorist attack to get the Indo-Pakistan relations back to square one, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
A major report by Washinton-based think tank on 26/11 predicts that the Indo-Pakistan crisis is both unresolved and unfinished, and further attacks by Pakistan-based and Inter-Services Intelligence trained terrorists is inevitable.
Border Security Force personnel offered Diwali sweets to their Pakistani counterparts on the Indo-Pakistan border in Jaisalmer but very few of them accepted it amid border tensions between the two countries.
There will be as many as 9 historicals coming up in the next 15 months!
Defence Minister A K Antony and Army Chief Gen V K Singh on Tuesday paid tributes and laid wreaths at the cemetery of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw on his 98th birth anniversary.
Defence Minister A K Antony and Army Chief General V K Singh will attend a function at Udhagamandalam on April 3 to mark the 98th birth anniversary of Field (Fd) Marshal Sam Manekshaw.
Mohammad Azharuddin's rehabilitation from life ban is more than complete in many ways but the former India captain says he "doesn't really know the reasons" for banning him in the first place. In December 2000, Azharuddin was handed a life ban by the BCCI for his involvement in match-fixing. However, after a long drawn out legal battle, Azharuddin saw the Andhra Pradesh High Court revoking the ban and terming it "illegal" in 2012.
"Operation Parakram" in 2001 was the "most punishing mistake" for the armed forces, former Navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar said on Friday, maintaining the government then lacked any political aim or objective for deploying the army along the Indo-Pakistan border.
Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Friday welcomed Indo-Pakistan talks as a "good omen" and said bold initiatives were needed for the success of the bilateral dialogue process. "It is a good omen that India and Pakistan have agreed to write a new chapter in their history. There is a need for taking bold steps, leaving behind the past bitterness and the practice of complicating the issues," Mirwaiz said while addressing a Friday congregation at Jamia Masjid.
The Enemy Property Act has turned two senior cabinet ministers into adversaries. Salman Khurshid, minister for corporate affairs and minority issues, directly targeted Home Minister P Chidambaram during the Union Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The Indo-Pakistan tennis duo of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi has booked a berth in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals to be held from November 20 to 27 at London's O2 arena.
Manifesting the mindset of the Pakistan military and its intelligence arm, the Inter Services Intelligence, Retired General Ehsan Ul Haq, erstwhile chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee of Pakistan and former ISI director, has said that the Indo-Pakistan composite dialogue, now in limbo was 'a charade'.
A get together brought about by cricket should serve to revive Indo-Pakistan dialogue so rudely shattered by the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, advocated the Pakistani media after the historic meeting of the two prime ministers at Mohali on Wednesday.
Does Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh want to capitalise over the craze between the high-voltage World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan? If high-level sources are to be believed the answer is a yes. One of the options that governments of both the nations is considering is to have more cricket matches between the two-arch rivals, sources told rediff.com.
In a major ceasefire violation, Pakistani Rangers on Wednesday opened heavy fire at Indian border outposts along the international border in Jammu district, killing a Border Security Force personnel and leaving three other troopers injured.
India is all set to build 558 roads at a cost of Rs 500 billion along the border with two hostile neighbours -- China and Pakistan -- in a bid to effectively counter the former, which is working at a break-neck speed to execute a world class infrastructure along the Indo-China and Indo-Pak border region.
'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.'
The Centre has decided to construct 509 new Border Outposts (BOPs) and complete the unfinished barbed wire fencing along the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangla international borders, a top official said on Tuesday.
President Pranab Mukherjee, along with the Defence Chiefs and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar were also present to pay homage on the 50th anniversary for the brave who sacrificed their all for the greater good.
Asked whether Swaraj will attend the conference, he said, "The external affairs minister will not be able to attend." Swaraj is undergoing treatment for kidney failure.
The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan and from there the swarms moved towards Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab over the last few weeks and are now threatening to enter Uttar Pradesh, putting at risk the summer crop.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake was asked pointedly by rediff.com to respond to a growing perception that Pakistan was hedging on punishing the terrorists behind the Mumbai terror attack and the US was backing off from applying too much pressure on Islamabad because of its strategic interests. Blake said, "First of all, let me say these are really a very complicated set of issues that are for India and Pakistan to resolve."
Communism and its unruly offshoots Naxalism and Maoism will continue to lose public support in India but a solution to the Naxal problem is still a few years away, writes Pramod Kumar Buravalli.
Putting to rest speculations that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was reluctant to address the Parliament -- on the Indo-Pakistan joint statement issued at Sharm el-Sheikh -- the Prime Minister's office has clarified that both the PM and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will speak on the subject.Media reports on Tuesday night had claimed that only Mukerjee would address the Parliament.According to sources, new additions have been made to the PM's earlier statement.
Ambassador Robert Blake, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, on Tuesday said that the Indo-Pakistan ties would improve if the suspects of the Mumbai attack are tried and convicted by Islamabad.
Rohan Bopanna joined senior pro and compatriot Leander Paes in the doubles quarterfinals of the UNICEF Open after clearing the first round along with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.
China's policy towards Pakistan is driven primarily by its interest in countering India in the region and diverting its military and strategic attention away from Beijing, an influential South Asian expert has said. "Chinese officials view certain degree of Indo-Pakistan tension as advancing their own strategic interests, as such friction bogs India down in South Asia and interferes with New Delhi's ability to assert its global ambitions," said Lisa Curtis.
Tariq Fatemi, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and principal foreign policy adviser to erstwhile prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has urged New Delhi to lift the 'pause button' on the Indo-Pakistan composite dialogue, which was imposed after the Mumbai terror attacks.
In a clear indication that it is against the appointment of an American special envoy for the sub-continent, India said on Tuesday that there was a bilateral mechanism to improve Indo-Pakistan ties and third party intervention would not make any difference.Asked about US media reports that the incoming Obama administration may appoint former President Bill Clinton or some other person as special envoy, Pranab Mukherjee said that such news reports were speculative.
Hameed was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his gallantry in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, when he single-handedly blew off five Pakistani tanks.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh continues to be in the hot soup. The crisis regarding the Indo-Pakistan joint statement simply refuses to blow over with the party now giving charge to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony to diffuse the situation, retrieve the issue with the least damage to the government.
Two dates: July 29 and July 30, will be important dates for the government and the Congress party to clear the air about the Indo-Pakistan joint statement.
India and Pakistan have a real opportunity to take relations forward after the exit of President Pervez Musharraf, feels Adrian Levy, co-author of Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy.
In Delhi, Election Commission officials have admitted that 66 per cent polling was "much beyond their expectations and was indeed a pleasant surprise".
Ahead of India's 69th Independence Day, a special comic book is all set to be released this week chronicling the life, valour and sacrifice of 21 awardees of the Param Vir Chakra, the nation's highest military decoration.
'China is likely to help Pakistan in keeping the fire burning in J&K to bleed India for its own interests.' A fascinating excerpt from Lieutenant General K Himalay Singh's Making of a General: A Himalayan Echo.
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