Behind the scenes, Pakistan's military helped revive talks with India
ISLAMABAD | By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
Reuters/Mohsin Raza/Files
The quiet involvement of Pakistan's powerful military in its foreign policy this year paved the way for reviving a stalled dialogue with India, officials said, a thaw leading to the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian premier in almost 12 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise trip to meet Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif on Friday raised hopes that stop-and-start negotiations between the nuclear-armed neighbours might finally mean progress after more than 65 years of hostility.
Aides say the meeting was arranged directly between the two prime ministers on just a few hours' notice when Modi called to wish 66-year-old Sharif a happy birthday.
Australia and India tend the seeds of a growing relationship
By Meg Gurry
Although there is a distance to go, relations between Australia and India have come a long way in the past decade, writes MEG GURRY. On arrival in New Delhi in 1965 as Australia’s new high commissioner, Arthur Tange commented that while there was ‘fertile ground’ between Australia and India, ‘no-one seems to know what seed to plant’. We’ve come a long way since then. Indeed, the two-way official traffic has never been busier. The reciprocal state visits of prime ministers Tony Abbott and Narendra Modi in 2014 pointed to the warming of relations. Trade Minister Andrew Robb has visited India five times in 2015 and says Australia and India are on track to secure a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Attorney-General George Brandis recently visited New Delhi and forged a new counterterrorism agreement, with global security imperatives now collapsing any lingering unease left over from the Cold War. At the G20 in Turkey, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held formal discussions with Prime Minister Modi in a ‘sidelines’ meeting, and advanced further the formalities to enable the sale of Australian uranium to India; the uranium issue had been a major barrier to better relations. - See more at: http://asaa.asn.au/australia-and-india-tend-the-seeds-of-a-growing-relationship/#sthash.xKTkBMMh.dpuf
[Australia India]
‘Indian Machiavelli’ Urges Confronting China
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on November 12, 2015 at 4:40 PM
WASHINGTON: Forget Gandhi and satyagraha. India needs to be more strategically assertive and take China on, a longtime national security advisor to New Delhi said today. And if the US doesn’t like it, then “screw you.”
But Washington should like a more aggressive India, said the American-educated Bharat Karnad, because it’s the only thing that can hold the line against a rising China.
“A very strong, pugnacious India is going to help you guys in some sense breathe easy, which you won’t be able to do otherwise,” Karnad told me after his remarks this morning at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“How are you going to manage China? You can’t without India’s help,” Karnad continued. “They’re rivaling you and very soon… they’re going to take you apart, [because] you don’t have the resources anymore to have even 12 carrier task groups.” (The US currently has 10 carriers, with an 11th being completed, leading to potential gaps in carrier presence in key regions).
[Counterbalance]
Working With a Rising India: A Joint Venture for the New Century
Chairs: Charles R. Kaye, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Warburg Pincus, and Joseph S. Nye Jr., Distinguished Service Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Project Director: Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia
Program Director: Christopher M. Tuttle, Managing Director, Washington and Independent Task Force Programs
Publisher
Council on Foreign Relations
Release Date
November 2015
"A rising India offers one of the most substantial opportunities to advance American national interests over the next two decades," asserts a new Independent Task Force report sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Working With a Rising India: A Joint Venture for the New Century.
Over the past ten years, India, the world's largest democracy, has lifted more than 130 million people out of poverty. The country has rebounded from a recent economic growth slump, surpassing China this year to become the world's fastest-growing major economy. "If India can maintain its current growth rate, let alone attain sustained double digits, it has the potential over the next two to three decades to follow China on the path to becoming another $10 trillion economy," notes the Task Force.
[India US] [Counterbalance]
India’s TPP dilemma
31 October 2015
Author: Geethanjali Nataraj, Observer Research Foundation
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that was agreed to on 5 October 2015 covers almost a third of world trade and 40 per cent of global GDP. By not being part of the TPP, India risks losing out. According to a Center on Global Trade and Investment study, India’s nominal GDP is likely to be trimmed by more than 1 per cent as a result of trade and investment diversion caused by the TPP. The ensuing negative effects on India’s economy by way of revenue and job losses will be large.
[TPP]
In the race for Africa, India and China aren’t all that different
Written by
Lily Kuo
Obsession
China in Africa
October 27, 2015 Quartz africa
As state leaders and delegates descend on New Delhi this week for the third India-Africa Summit, Indian officials are working hard to differentiate their country from China, the African continent’s leading Asian partner.
“Our partnership is not focused on an exploitative or extraction point of view, but is one that focuses on Africa’s needs and India’s strengths,” said Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, alluding to criticisms that China exploits the region’s resources. India’s minister of commerce and industry described Africa and India as “old friends and old family,” drawing a distinct line between China’s relatively recent entry into the continent and the 2.16 million members of the Indian diaspora that have been living in Africa for generations. Last week, prime minister Narendra Modi claimed that India has emerged as a major investor in Africa, “surpassing even China.”
It’s an attempt to catch up to China, one of the Africa’s largest trading partners, now that India needs more energy and commodities to fuel its industries, as well as diplomatic support for strategic moves like India’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Another summit focusing on India-Africa economic ties will be held in Nairobi next month. Then in a little over a month, South Africa will host the 6th Forum on China-Africa cooperation.
[Africa India] [Africa China]
India pushing to edge past China in Africa
By Sajjad Malik
China.org.cn, October 26, 2015
India is trying to expand its political and economic influence in Africa through the platform of India Africa Forum Summit.
As India prospers, it is trying to expand the political and economic influence around the world by creating bilateral and multilateral cooperative mechanisms. One such platform came into existence in 2008 when the first India Africa Forum Summit was held in New Delhi. It had limited success but laid the foundation for future cooperation in various fields. The first summit was followed by another one in 2011 held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
But it is the third India Africa Forum Summit being held in New Delhi on October 26-30 that has attracted a lot attention due to the number of participating nations and its possible impact on relations between the two sides. It is expected that more than 50 African countries are attending with key leaders like presidents of South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
The participants also include the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and India has faced criticism from human rights groups for inviting al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
[India Africa] [China Africa]
Can India make it without manufacturing?
26 October 2015
Author: Peter Drysdale, East Asia Forum
There’s one school of thought in Indian academic and policy circles that India represents a completely new model of development on the way to prosperity. India, it’s claimed, will be a services-led growth model, built on the spectacular international success of its IT hub in Bangalore, and its supply of English-literate back office services to the world.
Indian labourers work at a brick manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Hyderabad on 2 March 2015. (Photo: AAP)
This way of thinking eschews the experiences of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and indeed China in East Asia that saw prosperity built on investment in competitive manufacturing and skills, and eventually a world-class manufacturing base. No need to try to emulate the Japanese or South Korean industrial powerhouses or Global Factory China in this model: skip all that and go straight to the top of the ladder.
This is no idiosyncratic Indian thought bubble. Its articulation in an extreme form may be confined to narrow circles. But the germ in the idea infects the way in which some of India’s top policymakers think about how, for example, the country should position against what is frequently conceived as the challenge of Chinese competitiveness. There is little conception in many Indian policy circles of the transformation that is taking place in East Asian manufacturing, where China is moving into higher-value manufacturing and vacating its labour-absorbing end to others, including potentially India.
[India] [China competition] [ICT] [Manufacturing]
Modi’s mantra to ‘Make in India’
25 October 2015
Author: Anthony P. D’Costa, University of Melbourne
Every nation deserves a visionary leader, from whom its citizens can expect real results. India has had its share of visionary leaders. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, to name two, held views on the economy that were not only diametrically opposite but also influential in shaping the trajectory of Indian political and economic independence.
[Manufacturing]
Intolerance, thy name is India
By Gautaman Bhaskaran
India was once known for its magnanimity and tolerance, but they seem to have disappeared, given the vandalism perpetrated on dissent.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s second call in two weeks urging his countrymen to be unbigoted and accepting of differences in opinion and thought underlines the gravity of the situation. Stressing that humanism and pluralism must not be abandoned under any circumstance, he said Indian civilization had survived for 5000 years because of its enormous power of tolerance. “It has always accepted dissent and differences. A large number of languages, 1,600 dialects and seven religions co-exist in India. We have a Constitution that accommodates all these differences,” he added on the eve of the five-day Hindu festival of Durga Puja — when the President spends his time in his ancestral village home in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
On Oct. 7, the President speaking at a book release function in New Delhi averred: “We should not allow the core values of our civilization to wither away. Over the years, our civilisation has celebrated diversity, plurality and promoted and advocated tolerance. These values have kept us together over the centuries. Many ancient civilisations have collapsed but the Indian civilisation has survived because of its core civilisational values and adherence to them. If we keep them in mind, nothing can prevent our nation from forging ahead. Indian democracy is a marvel and we must celebrate, preserve and promote its strengths.”
But sadly, radical political organisations and individuals with jaundiced views have been holding India to ransom.
[Hindu nationalism]
Obama urges Pakistan to avoid raising nuclear tensions with new weapons
By David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali
Oct 22 (Reuters) - At a time of heightened tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, U.S. President Barack Obama urged Pakistan on Thursday to avoid developments in its nuclear weapons program that could increase risks and instability.
In talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the White House, Obama also sought help in getting the Afghan Taliban back to peace talks, something vital to his faltering bid to bring U.S. troops back from Afghanistan.
With tensions high between Pakistan and India, Washington has been concerned about Pakistan's development of new nuclear weapons systems, including small tactical nuclear weapons, and has been trying to persuade Pakistan to make a unilateral declaration of "restraint."
However, Pakistani officials said Islamabad will not accept limits to its weapons program and argue that smaller tactical nuclear weapons are needed to deter a sudden attack by India.
[Tactical nuclear weapons]
‘Pakistan has built low-yield nuclear weapons to counter Indian aggression’
AFP | Anwar Iqbal | Dawn.com —
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has made low-yield nuclear weapons in response to India’s actions under its cold-start doctrine, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhary told a news briefing here on Tuesday.
This is the first concrete explanation from a senior Pakistani official on how Islamabad plans to deal with India’s so called cold-start doctrine, now re-named the pro-active strategy.
It is also a rare explanation of Pakistan’s decision to make tactical nuclear weapons to deal with the possible threat of Indian aggression.
Briefing the Pakistani media on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Washington, Chaudhary also said that Pakistan would not sign any nuclear deal with the United States during the visit.
[Tactical Nuclear weapons] [India Pakistan]
What is Cold Start Doctrine?
Cold Start is a military doctrine developed by the Indian Armed Forces to put to use in case of a war with Pakistan. Here are nine things to know about it.
IndiaToday.in | New Delhi, October 20, 2015 | Posted by Vivek Surendran | UPDATED 16:26 IST
A military doctrine helps standardize operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing military tasks. Its objective is to foster initiative and creative thinking and links theory, history, experimentation and practice. Cold Start is a military doctrine developed by the Indian Armed Forces to put to use in case of a war with Pakistan.Here are ten things to know about the Cold Start Doctrine:Â
1
The main objective of the Cold Start Doctrine is to launch a retaliatory conventional strike against Pakistan inflicting significant harm on the Pakistan Army before any international community could intercede, but not in way Pakistan would be provoked to make a nuclear attack.
2
Cold Start Doctrine deviated from India's defence strategy since 1947 - "a non-aggressive, non-provocative defense policy," - and will involve limited, rapid armoured thrusts, with infantry and necessary air support.
[India Pakistan] [Cold Start]
India’s role in Asia may not fit ‘Indo-Pacific’ agenda
30 August 2015
Author: Hugh White, ANU
Many observers tend to assume that India will play a large and growing part as a great power in a wider ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategic system, that it will use its growing power to balance and limit China’s regional weight. But some caution is called for — although this outcome is possible, it is far from inevitable.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and China's President Xi Jinping wave to the press before their meeting in Xian, the capital of the Chinese Shaanxi Province, on 14 May 2015. (Photo: AAP)
Prime Minister Modi has encouraged leaders in Washington, Tokyo and Canberra to believe that he shares and wants to help promote their vision of Asia’s strategic trajectory. But it is equally probable that India will play little role in the power politics of East Asia. And if it does, it will pursue Indian interests, which may differ substantially from America’s, Japan’s or Australia’s.
[Counterbalance]
Pak prez makes surprising claim about eliminating Uighur ultras
Saibal Dasgupta,TNN | Sep 2, 2015, 09.09 PM IST
RELATED
• PM Modi meets Xi Jinping, for the fifth time this year
• China's support to Pak over Lakhvi's release unacceptable, PM Modi te...
• India only external threat: Pakistani military
• Stop backing Afghan Taliban, Kabul warns Islamabad
• Afghanistan investigating reports of Taliban leader's death
BEIJING: Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain caused some surprises when he assured China that almost all members of the Uighur militant group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) based in Pakistan have been eliminated. This is significant because China has for years refused to acknowledge that Uighur militants were getting support and operating out of Pakistan, which is a close ally.
Hussain told Chinese president Xi Jinping on Wednesday that 'Operation Zarb-i-Azb' of the Pakistani military has been hugely successful in eliminating terrorism in his country.
"It has also been very helpful in eliminating the ETIM element from our country and I think almost all the ETIM people in our country have been eliminated. Maybe, if they are there, there should be very few," Hussain said during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Recent years has seen hundreds of people being killed and wounded by militants in Xinjiang province bordering Pakistan, who are known to get training and arms support from Taliban across the border. Police action against them has also resulted in a large number of casualties. Pakistani authorities have tried to avoid any discussion about the linkages between Uighur militants and the Taliban in their country.
[Uighur] [Xinjiang] [Pakistan]
Modi blows his cover – and the loss is India’s
By M.K. Bhadrakumar on September 10, 2015 in Asia Times News & Features,
India recently witnessed a strange spectacle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues subjecting themselves to an intense scrutiny by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, the Hindu nationalist organization, regarding their ‘performance’ in office.
Modi himself used to be an activist of the RSS. But an elaborate charade was kept so far that Modi was in command of the government.
The Indian media has since reported that the RSS eventually gave ‘thumbs up’ to the government after Modi and his cabinet colleagues trooped in to meet the RSS bosses and testified at the hearing on their ‘schemes and achievements’ in the government.
No Indian government has ever been made to look so foolish and diffident.
Why the RSS decided to subject Modi and his cabinet to such a dressing down publicly is anybody’s guess. Perhaps, it was to project the RSS itself as god almighty in the Modi era. But then, it is an open secret that the Hindu fundamentalist groups are calling the shots in the government, penetrating all walks of national life systematically and imposing their agenda.
The upshot of the RSS hearing is that Modi has blown his ‘cover’, which helped him so far as prime minister to create an impression that he is a humanist and a devout follower of Buddhism who viewed with distaste the excesses committed by the Hindu zealots on the minority communities in India such as the attacks on Christian churches.
[Modi] [RSS]
We are sorry Mr Jinnah
Instead of democratic parties, we have political dynasties where the only merit for becoming a key party office-bearer is to be the blood relative or family friend of a party leader
Syed Kashif Ali
August 15, 2015
Although the 68th independence anniversary of Pakistan has just recently been celebrated with national zeal and fervor, as a nation we should apologise to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father, for being unable to achieve what he had envisioned for us. On August 11, 1947, while addressing the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan as its president, Mr Jinnah said, “The first duty of a government is to maintain law and order so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state.”
Unfortunately, the life, honour and property of the common man are not secure in the country, termed many as the citadel of Islam. Our government maintains law and order in the country but the country for it is confined to places the political and military elite frequent.
[Dynasty] [Pakistan]
India Losing Opportunity To Become Next Great Power? Narendra Modi's Faltering Revolution
Last year Narendra Modi won an unusually strong majority in India’s parliamentary election. Previously barred from receiving a U.S. visa because of charges that he incited sectarian violence, Modi visited the U.S. last September and was warmly welcomed by both the Obama administration and Indian-Americans. He was treated as the leader of the next great power.
India won independence in 1947 and long was ruled by the dynastic India National Congress Party. Although ethnic Indians circled the globe as entrepreneurs and traders, the Delhi government turned dirigiste economics into a state religion. Mind-numbing bureaucracies, rules, and inefficiencies were legion. Only the well-empowered and well-connected benefited from the socialist illusion that persisted into the 1980s.
Eventually modest reform came, but the Congress Party was never fully committed. Even half-hearted half-steps generated overwhelming political opposition. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party later broke the CP’s monopoly on power and made further changes, but that still was not nearly enough. Later CP governments were major disappointments. Last May the BJP, led by Modi, handed Congress its greatest defeat ever. He seemed poised to transform his nation economically. Some Americans called him the Indian Reagan.
As the anniversary of that visit approaches, the Modi dream is fading. An Economist report found him widely described as an “authoritarian” and a “megalomaniac” even by supporters. More important, by all accounts he does not believe in a liberal free market. Rather, like so many Republican politicians who routinely applaud free enterprise, he is more pro-business than pro-market. The Economist noted that “he occasionally praises small government, but the list [of official pledges] contains a striking number of big tasks for the state. Half of the goals involve grand, state-heavy expansion.”
[Modi]
Roundup: Indian army carries out surgical strike against militants inside Myanmar
Xinhua, June 10, 2015
Indian troops killed at least 15 illegal armed militants inside the Myanmar territory in a cross- border operation Tuesday, said the military.
The attack came after 18 Indian army soldiers were killed in an ambush by militants last Thursday near the Indian-Myanmar border in the northeast state of Manipur.
Special forces of the army carried out a surgical strike inside Myanmar, slaying about 15 insurgents of the groups believed to be responsible for the deadly ambush, said Press Trust of India.
The strike was carried out by commandos on specific intelligence input in coordination with Myanmarese authorities, with the Army saying that "significant casualties" had been inflicted on two militant groups called NSCN(K) and KYKL, or " National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang and "Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup", which both claimed responsibilities for the killings of Indian soldiers.
[Myanmar] [Separatism]
Pakistan's Drone Strike Victims Accuse U.S. Of Double Standard
| By Asif Shahzad and Steven R. Hurst
Posted: 05/01/2015 10:16 am EDT Updated: 3 hours ago
ISLAMABAD (AP) — People in Pakistan who live under the threat of U.S. drone strikes see a double standard at work in Washington.
Last week, President Barack Obama took the unusual step of acknowledging and apologizing for a highly secret U.S. drone strike that accidentally killed an American and an Italian aid worker held captive by al-Qaida in Pakistan. The U.S. government said their families would be compensated.
Drone-strike survivors and family members of innocent Pakistani victims, lawyers and government officials in Pakistan asked why those victims don't also warrant an apology and compensation from the United States. They wonder why it takes the deaths of Westerners to bring the controversial drone program back to the public debate in the United States.
[Civilian] [Double standards] [UAV]
Why is US pleased with India’s outreach to North Korea?
Shweta Desai · Apr 16, 2015 · 08:40 am
Washington is watching carefully as Pyongyang works hard to come out of its isolation.
The colourful American basketball player Dennis Rodman had proved an unusual international emissary in 2013 when he visited North Korea on his own and took back the message to Washington that the pariah state’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un was ready for parley. The ball set rolling back then is still is very much in motion, although it hits roadblocks periodically.
The United States still holds a hostile view of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, its belligerence, nuclear weapons and human rights abuses. But there is at least an openness to bringing the hermit state out of its reclusion. So when North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong paid a rare visit to Delhi this week, it was not surprising that India’s diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang was welcomed by the United States as a “positive development”.
[India] [Naiveté] [US NK policy]
The Fierce Pressures Facing Pakistan
Ahmed Rashid
April 2, 2015 Issue
The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics
by Ayesha Jalal
Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 435 pp., $35.00
The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan
by Aqil Shah
Harvard University Press, 399 pp., $35.00
Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London
by Mohsin Hamid
Riverhead, 226 pp., $27.95
Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition
by Nisid Hajari
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 311 pp., $28.00 (to be published in June 2015)
rashidi_2-040215.jpg
A. Majeed/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani Shiite Muslims protesting a suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar with portraits of the victims, February 20, 2015. At least twenty-three people were killed in the attack on February 13, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
1.
No one should be surprised to read that in Pakistan the army has taken charge, established military courts, derailed democracy, brought television and other media under military control. Nor should one be surprised to learn that foreign policy and national security were being directly run by the army. Many similar situations have occurred in Pakistan since 1958, when the army first came to power in a gradual coup, declared martial law, and ruled for a decade. The country has for years been under partial military rule, outright martial law, or military authority disguised as presidential rule.
[Pakistan]
Saudi aggression and the mercenary state — I
Saudi Arabia has always been a bossy key player in Pakistani politics. Along with administering large sums of money for the army and the clerics, they have been instrumental in toppling unwanted governments and bringing favourites to power
Lal Khan
April 05, 2015
What has been shocking for Pakistan’s ruling elite, the state’s bosses and media and intelligentsia barons has been the negative response of the masses at large to becoming an accomplice in the Saudi monarchy’s brutal aggression against Yemen. Some in the media have even dared to reveal the vicious character of the despotic Saudi regime and its atrocious treatment of more than 2.5 million Pakistani immigrant workers, banished into slavery and drudgery by these tyrannical monarchs. The hesitation, lack of confidence and hypocrisy of the rulers is pathetic. An official press report said, “Pakistan called upon the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the international community to play a constructive role in finding a political solution to the crisis in Yemen. An official statement from the PM House had said the meeting concluded that Pakistan remains firmly committed to supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Pakistan. It was also emphasised in the meeting that Pakistan is committed to playing a meaningful role in resolving the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.”
What a laughable, pathetic and spineless response! In reality, what is said about consulting parliament and informing the people is a brazen, cynical, stinking farce. These rulers are mere puppets that are informed about military operations and other crucial foreign policy decisions by the top bosses of the state and their imperialist masters actually calling the shots, mostly after they have already been executed.
Nawaz Sharif was granted amnesty under pressure from the Saudi monarchs and spent his years in exile after Musharraf’s coup in 1999 in Saudi Arabia, where he was a guest of the royal family (which was also his business partner) and lived in obscene luxury. The Saudi royals paved the way for his return to the country and road to power. On his coming to power in 2013, he was doled out a gift of $ 1.5 billion by the Saudi government. Despite his frequent visits and business deals with China, Turkey and Qatar, and his bondage with US masters, he is still more indebted to the Saudi monarchy.
[Pakistan] [Saudi Arabia] [Nawaz]
Pakistan declines to join Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran alliance
Saudi Arabia's campaign to build a broad Sunni alliance to contain Iran has apparently suffered at least a setback from Pakistan. Islamabad has opted, at least for now, to avoid becoming entangled in the sectarian cold war between Riyadh and Tehran.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected, at least for now, Saudi Arabia's entreaties for Pakistani troops to help guard the Saudi border with northern Yemen, controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite forces.
Author Bruce Riedel Posted March 15, 2015
Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was invited to the kingdom for urgent talks with King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his advisers. The king met Sharif at the airport to underscore the importance of the talks. The main topic was Iranian aggression in the Arab world and the impending deadline for the P5+1 negotiations on Iran's nuclear project. The king wanted firm assurances from Sharif that Pakistan would align itself with Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies against Iran, especially in the proxy war now underway in Yemen.
Salman specifically wanted a Pakistani military contingent to deploy to the kingdom to help defend the vulnerable southwest border with Zaydi Houthi-controlled north Yemen and serve as a trip-wire force to deter Iranian aggression. There is precedent for a Pakistani army expeditionary force in Saudi Arabia. After the Iranian Revolution, Pakistani dictator Mohammad Zia ul-Haq deployed an elite Pakistani armored brigade to the kingdom at King Fahd's request to deter any threats to the country. In all, some 40,000 Pakistanis served in the brigade over most of a decade. Today only some Pakistani advisers and experts serve in the kingdom.
According to Pakistani sources, Sharif has reluctantly decided not to send troops to Saudi Arabia for now.
[Saudi Arabia] [Pakistan] [Iran]
Why delicious Indian food is surprisingly unpopular in the U.S.
By Roberto A. Ferdman March 4 at 3:20 PM ?
Yesterday, we told you the secret formula that makes Indian food so delicious. But if you think your love for Indian food is shared by everyone—or even most people—in this country, you might want to think again:
Indian food may be awesome, but it's pretty unpopular.
Indian food has slowly but surely found its way into the hearts (and stomachs) of cities around the United States. There are more than 300 restaurants that serve cuisine from across the subcontinent in New York City alone, according to Krishnendu Ray, a professor at New York Univeristy who has been studying the cuisine's rise for more than a decade. Compare that to the mere 20 Indian restaurants that could be found in the Big Apple in the early 1980s. And consider that the cuisine has been pronounced, time and again, the next "ethnic food trend."
But the truth is that Indian food isn't anywhere nearly as popular as it should be.
"Indian food isn't actually as ubiquitous as people think, especially compared to other ethnic foods" said Ray. "Indian food is basically where Chinese food was a generation ago."
[Scientists have figured out what makes Indian food so delicious]
There are, after all, more than 40,000 Chinese restaurants around the country, and roughly the same number of Mexican restaurants, but only about 5,000 Indian restaurants, according to Ray. Population accounts for some, but not all, of this. Even compared to Thai food, for example, interest in Indian cuisine is comparatively muted. In New York City, where there are roughly 20 times as many Indians as Thais, there are approximately the same number of restaurants that serve each cuisine.
And, in terms of ingredients for cooking at home, Indian food accounts for only 1.2 percent of the ethnic food market share.
Which all begs the question: Why? How could a cuisine which has been long been heralded by chefs, cherished by foodies, and even studied by food scientists, failed to catch on as quickly as other ethnic foods?
Obama ticks off India’s ‘Sangh Parivar’
Trust a high-level visit to throw up surprises when least expected. President Barack Obama’s visit to India has concluded on controversial note. Just before he departed from India on Tuesday, in his town hall address in Delhi, Obama waded into a topic that even India’s brave-hearted prime minister, Narendra Modi fears to tread – freedom of religion in India.
Obama said, “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith, as long as it is not splintered along any lines, and it is unified as one nation.” On the face of it, it is such a noble thought. But Obama said this in Modi’s India, “a country with a history of strife between Hindus and minorities.” (Reuters). These are extraordinary times in India with Modi’s government tacitly acquiescing in the campaign by Hindu nationalists (Sangh Parivar, as they are popularly called in India) that India is a “Hindu Rashtra”. Modi himself has kept a deafening silence on the issue, refusing to criticize the Hindu zealots.
And in this case, they have every reason to feel furious, because no matter his good intentions, Obama touched on an issue that is in every sense India’s domestic affair. His references constitute an interference in India’s internal affair and he should not have done that while on a state visit. But then, Obama is Obama and he also made public references to India’s relations with Iran and made a vicious attack on Russia and Vladimir Putin — and all this with Modi standing beside him.
Did Obama himself get carried away by his keen sense of America’s ‘exceptionalism’? I don’t think so. Make no mistake, he spoke with deliberation because it is in the US’ interests that he said what he said. To be sure, it will resonate well back home in America. For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me give the link to an article in the latest issue of the Wilson Quarterly titled, “Foreign Policy Experts Ignore the Role of Religion in Western Politics”.
[Obama] [Modi] [Religion]
Foreign Policy Experts Ignore the Role of Religion in Western Politics
By Shannon Mizzi
We accept the role of religion in politics throughout the Middle East. Why do we ignore its role in Europe?
Religion is visibly influential in the realms of domestic politics and international relations: the rise of Islamism across the Middle East, the spread of Pentecostalism and fundamentalist Christianity in South America and Africa, hotly contested votes within the Anglican Church that allowed women to become bishops in the United Kingdom — the list goes on.
This very visible factor, though, has been downplayed by international relations scholars of the past half-century; in a recent article in Politics, Religion & Ideology, Samantha May, Erin K. Wilson, Claudia Baumgart-Ochse, and Faiz Sheikh term this phenomenon “secular bias,” defined by “the unquestioned acceptance of the secularist division between religion and politics.” May (et al) seek to understand whether the world is indeed experiencing an overall “religious revival,” or if we are simply better at recognizing, in our increasingly globalized and interconnected world, religio-political undercurrents that have always been present.
The idea of an inevitable secularization process is uniquely European, rooted in the official separation of church and state in Christian countries over the last 400 years.
[Religion]
India-Pakistan standoff may end soon
The Pakistani report quoting informed sources that US president Barack Obama “privately encouraged and pushed” Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review his Pakistan policies seems plausible. The report mentions that India-Pakistan talks might resume in March.
Of course, the Americans never lose an opportunity to take credit when India and Pakistan engage each other – as if left to themselves the two South Asian countries are incapable of showing a sense of responsibility. But even without Obama’s push (or, state secretary John Kerry’s visit to Ahmadabad in early January), Modi’s mind has been working furiously.
Simply put, the formation of a coalition government in Jammu Kashmir between the People’s Democratic Party [PDP] and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is a certainty now, can be expected to have positive fallout on the current India-Pakistan standoff. What is unfolding is a bold experiment not only in terms of J&K politics but also in regard of the Kashmir problem as such. (See my blog A leap of faith in Jammu & Kashmir.)
Indeed, good governance by the new government in J&K needs to go hand in hand with India-Pakistan dialogue. Common sense would dictate that and both PDP and BJP have shown pragmatism in deciding to work together. The Common Minimum Program of the incoming coalition government in J&K makes it imperative that India engages Pakistan constructively.
But, beyond that, there is a paradigm shift as well. The point is, Modi is an ambitious leader and he is radically resetting the compass of Indian diplomacy from the traditional way of managing the country’s problems with its neighbors to one of resolving the problems — as evident in his approach to the India-China relationship — which would enable the country to focus optimally on its national priorities of development (for which a conducive external enviornment is indeed necessary).
[Modi]
Obama Hustles Modi, Did He Succeed?
Melkulangara Bhadrakumar | 30.01.2015 | 00:00
The three-day state visit by the United States President Barack Obama to India has been extraordinarily rich in political symbolism. It followed an initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to invite Obama to be the chief guest at India’s national day celebrations on January 26.
Modi himself had visited Washington only four months ago and Obama’s acceptance of the invitation also signified an unprecedented second visit by an incumbent American president to India.
With the dust settling down on the colorful visit, stocktaking begins. There are three templates to consider – one, how to decipher the political symbolism as such; two, what has been the substantive outcome of the visit and what lies ahead for the India-US relations; and, three, how the upgrade of the relationship impacts the power dynamic in Asia-Pacific.
Without doubt, New Delhi and Washington have signaled a political resolve to re-energize the relationship, which has been under the weather in the past 2 to 3 years. Looking back, the high expectations raised by the former prime minister Manmohan Singh to Washington in 2009 and Obama’s return visit in 2010 could not be fulfilled, which took the shine off the India-US relationship.
[India US]
India v. China: Border Games
India is now the belle of the ball, as most of the world and Asian regional powers make pilgrimages to New Delhi to flatter and flirt with India’s dynamic Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Modi and India come with a certain amount of unpleasant baggage, which their suitors do their best to ignore. Modi himself is an unrepentant Hindutva cultural chauvinist whose attitudes toward Muslims (and convincing circumstantial evidence of his involvement in an anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat—so convincing, in fact, he was previously banned from the United States) trend toward the fascistic.
In regional affairs, India has not been a particularly responsible or constructive actor, having mixed it up with Pakistan (assisted the split-off of East Pakistan a.ka. Bangladesh in 1971), Nepal (opened the door to the Nepalese Maoists with its ineptly executed deposition of King Gyanendra in 2008), and Sikkim (Sikkim, in case you noticed, doesn’t exist anymore; it was annexed by India in 1975), and has presided over a bloody insurgency and brutal counterinsurgency in Kashmir that has claimed the lives of at least 60,000 people. India birthed the horrific Tamil Tiger insurgency in Sri Lanka and its intelligence services played what may have been a decisive role in organizing and executing the successful electoral challenge, on January 8, 2015, which ended the rule of the pro-Chinese (now-ex) president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
And there’s the People’s Republic of China, and the contested borderlands of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast and Ladakh/Aksai Chin in the northwest.
[Modi] [Counterbalance] [Border War]
The Indian congress of pseudo-science
By Sumantra Maitra
China.org.cn, January 19, 2015
Union Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan during the 102nd Indian Science Congress exhibition being held at Bandra-Kurla Complex on January 3, 2015 in Mumbai, India.
When India elected a new government under Narendra Modi, there was a sense of jubilation. After a decade and half of policy paralysis in India where science and innovation came down to zero, industries were closed down due to protests and environmental politics, GDP nosedived from a peak of 8.6 to around 3 percent, and overall nothing worthwhile happened, other than partisan bickering, Modi was a breath of fresh air. Modi looked like a man of mission; the ruling BJP poised to carry Indian potential to a modern scientific future, a land of innovation and technology, a global leader.
All came crashing down symbolically in the recently concluded Indian Science Congress. An old, probably senile air training pilot, Captain Bodas, jointly with a teacher of Sanksrit, presented a paper, discussing Indian aviation in the Vedic ages. The result was so hilarious it was almost surreal. The paper was not made public, the contents were not verified, no double blind peer review conducted, and the paper was not even presented for further verification or corroboration by other institutes, or even to the media.
After a glorious year of Indian space research, this one act managed to shake and damage the credibility of Indian science like never before.
Here are some of the ludicrous "claims" presented in the conference. Thousands of years back, during Mahabharata and the Vedas, India had 40 engine planes, which were interplanetary. It could go in any direction, stop mid-momentum, and turn sides. Apparently the Indians discovered special suits to wear during these fights as well. We also made electric batteries and radar thousands of years ago. There is no evidence of where these batteries are currently. Apparently cow urine can also be used for a variety of purposes, including magic paste, strong material for planes, and bacteria which can turn human excreta into pure gold. Not only this, the paper took a dig at modern aviation, by saying Indians, even by modern standards, took to air eight years before the Wright brothers.
[Bizarre]
The Lankan transition resets Indian Ocean politics (I)
Melkulangara Bhadrakumar | 12.01.2015 | 00:00
Rebound as a normal country
The defeat of the incumbent Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential election on Thursday was neither completely unexpected nor was inevitable, as the narrow victory of his opponent Maithripala Sirisena testifies. But its significance is nonetheless far-reaching.
What happened may not have the look of a classic ‘regime change’ – ‘color revolution’ as in Georgia or a coup as in Ukraine – because the transition adhered to democratic principles, but without doubt outside powers had got involved discreetly (without being visible) and choreographed the rebound of party politics in Sri Lanka.
The success of that unspoken enterprise will ultimately need to be measured in terms of the policies (and their sustainability) that the Sirisena government is likely to pursue in the coming period. Given that country’s complex external environment, the contradictions in its political economy and of course Sri Lanka’s robust democratic traditions, the best-laid plots by outsiders can go awry.
In a manner of speaking, after the decade-long Rajapaksa era, Sri Lanka is once again becoming a ‘normal’ country – a vivacious democracy that got brutalized in civil war, but refused to go under.
No doubt, the new government will reset the compass of national and regional policies and its impact will be felt far and wide, since Sri Lanka happens to be one of the most coveted real estates in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean.
For the United States, Sri Lanka figures as a potential ‘lynchpin’ in its rebalance strategy in Asia; for Britain, its return to the east of Suez demands reclaiming the mentorship of the political elites in Colombo; for China, it is a vital hub in its Maritime Silk Road strategy; while, for India, that island falls within what it regards as its ‘sphere of influence’.
The Lankan Transition Resets Indian Ocean Politics (II)
Melkulangara Bhadrakumar | 14.01.2015 | 00:00
Part I
One chessboard and many players
The first priority for Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will be to create a political base for himself within the ruling coalition. The directions of his government’s policies will depend on Sirisena’s political consolidation.
Sirisena has been a committed member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party [SLFP] for several decades and his best hope lies in snatching the party from the control of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His power base is not very different from Rajapaksa’s.
However, given the deep-rooted antipathies between the SLFP and the United National Party led by Ranil Wickremesinghe (whom Sirisena has appointed as the prime minister according to the deal worked out in the run-up to the recent election), tensions are bound to arise in the working of the new government.
How long can the inchoate coalition carry on is anybody’s guess, as the countdown begins for the next parliamentary election (due next year). Once he consolidates, why should Sirisena ‘abdicate’ power in favor of Wckremesinghe? This is the second issue. Party politics in Sri Lanka is very competitive.
[Sri Lanka] [Colour] [US global strategy]
How India's Patent Office Destroyed Gilead's Global Game Plan
By Bruce Einhorn January 15, 2015
Gilead Sciences charges a lot for the hepatitis treatment Sovaldi, which sells for as much as $84,000 to U.S. patients. The innovative medication has become one of the world's best-selling drugs despite its price tag, fueling huge growth at Gilead. The company had revenue of $24.2 billion in 2014, according to analysts' estimates, more than double its sales in 2013. Earnings for last year are projected to reached $12.8 billion, more than four times higher.
But the high price of Sovaldi threatens to make the drug too expensive for many patients with hepatitis C in developing countries such as India, where protesters last year lobbed accusations of gouging and carried signs renaming the company "Killead." In September the U.S. pharmaceutical company announced a licensing deal with seven Indian drugmakers to produce generic versions of Sovaldi that could be sold in 91 countries. That, according to Gilead, would help take care of the problem. "Our view is that the competition and the capabilities of these partners will bring down the price," Gregg Alton, executive vice president, told reporters in New Delhi at the time of the announcement.
Unfortunately for Gilead, this week government officials stepped in the way: India's patent office on Tuesday sided with critics who had challenged the company's patent. By rejecting the claim, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks has opened the door for more Indian pharmaceutical companies to produce sofosbuvir, the generic version of Sovaldi. And unlike the seven companies that agreed to the deal with Gilead in September, the newcomers won't have any restrictions on where they can sell their generics.
"Getting sofosbuvir out of the stronghold of Gilead's monopoly will be crucial to expanding treatment for people with hepatitis C globally," Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of the Action Campaign of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the groups behind the Indian patent office challenge, said in a statement.
[Pharmaceuticals] [IPR]
Kashmir shelling, spat over Pakistan aid mar run-up to Kerry trip
By Frank Jack Daniel
NEW DELHI Tue Jan 6, 2015 8:47am
(Reuters) - Reports of a $500-million Washington aid package to Pakistan and a period of intense border shelling in Kashmir have overshadowed the run-up to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's expected visit to South Asia in the next few days.Kerry is due to attend an investment summit promoted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the weekend, and media reports say he will then travel to Islamabad.
President Barack Obama will make a second official trip to India later in the month, seeking to strengthen ties between the world's two largest democracies.
In India, New Tolerance for Intolerance
64 Dec 21, 2014 8:30 PM EST
By Pankaj Mishra
In May, Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government swept to power on his promise to revive investment, boost manufacturing and create jobs. “Acche Din Aa Rahe Hain,” his election slogan claimed: “Good days are on their way.” Many influential commentators -- from U.S.-based economists and center-right think-tankers to Madhu Kishwar, a well-known Indian feminist writer--- vigorously endorsed Modi’s credentials as an economic modernizer or Vikas Purush, “Development Man.”
Six months on, Modi's scorecard on the development front is mixed. India’s GDP slowed from 5.7 percent to 5.3 percent in the first full quarter of his prime ministership. Industrial output is down, and Modi’s plan to imitate East Asia’s export-oriented economies with a government-directed push to “Make in India” looks anachronistic at a time of increasing automation and slow global growth. It was left to Raghuram Rajan, the well-regarded governor of the Reserve Bank of India, to point this out tactfully earlier this month.
[Modi]