Li Keqiang: ascent of a regional partner?

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China's newly elected Premier Li Keqiang is in an instrumental position to boost China's relationship with India and shape the destiny of South Asia. At this stage, Sino-Indian diplomacy is prudently geared to place border disputes on the back burner to reap the advantages of bilateral trade. "India and China must shake hands to make Asia an engine of the world economy," Li said speaking to an Indian delegation on Wednesday in Beijing. He has arrived in India seeking cooperation and commitment towards that very vision. Stronger ties with India are in China's national interest. It's a policy move directed purely by prudence and not principle, a lesson China learnt the hard way. Mao Zedong may have been the founder of the nation of China, but he is not the architect of the modern day China that many have come to know, respect and even fear. While Mao's despotic....

The economic route to India-Pakistan rapprochement

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Pakistan has completed a major milestone in its history, successfully holding elections after a democratically elected government completed a full term. Nawaz Sharif stormed ahead of the other parties in the polls, gathering over a 100 seats at the very onset of the elections. The Pakistan People's Party faced the brunt of crippling anti-incumbency and their leaders didn't even put up a fight during the polls. Sharif is poised to once again become the Prime Minister of Pakistan on the mandate to boost the national economy and deliver security to its citizens. Democracy in Pakistan has been regularly overthrown by military generals on the pretext of protecting national interests by removing 'corrupt' politicians. Yet, unlike the Turkish military, Pakistan's military has never had a democratic outlook in its relationship to the civilian leadership. It has always sought to provide military statesman, and never nurtured democratic institutions, or allow smooth transitions.....

Re-engineering the Conservatives: Thatcher's legacy and Cameron's challenge

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In their book Flight of the Buffalo, corporate gurus James Belasco and Ralph Stayer beautifully state the politics of change when they say, "change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have, and underestimate the value of what they might gain by giving that up." Margaret Thatcher, the first female Conservative Party leader and first female Prime Minister of the UK was the harbinger of such change. She clashed with the centuries old economic and class system in her country to keep her nation at the fore front of the free market and globalisation wave. Thatcher had the misfortune of attaining UK's premiership at the height of the recession. The government was compelled to induce a hike in taxes and cuts to the public sector. Under her leadership, the state sold off major state industries including British Telecommunications, British Airways, British Steel, British Gas, the British Airports....

The cruelty of war and the rhetoric of justice

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After a hiatus of one year, the Sri Lanka human rights debate has once again stirred the Indian political spectrum. India is days away from deciding to vote for or against the island nation in an upcoming meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Tamil parties and the Left have raised the clamour demanding the government push for an impartial, international inquiry into the killing of Tamil civilians in the 2009 Lankan offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Parties have held up the photo of LTTE leader Prabhakaran's dead son, raising the allegation that he was killed in cold blood by the Sri Lankan army. They have supplemented their outrage pointing fingers at images, documentaries and old reports of other alleged atrocities by Lankan soldiers, and the plight of Tamil refugees. Leading the pro-Tamil bandwagon, the AIDMK and the DMK, ever so eager to play....

Death Penalty is no sign of an uncivilized society

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Morality and prudence are polar opposite virtues, which when hold hands deliver political master strokes to those who wield them. For the heinous crimes of terrorism and rape that visit the Indian people every day, that political capital lies in carrying out the death penalty, as many cheer to see the rare sight of justice in its purest form. The very root of crime is human character, something that hasn't diminished in brutality even with the advent of 'civilised society'. While it is very important for society to drive the judicial machinery to prove guilt, it is as important to give fitting punishments to the guilty. Due diligence should never be seen as the criminal justice system being soft of perpetrators. Yet, when the Supreme Court and the President sign off on a penalty, the sentence of the guilty should be carried out; the right of appeal of the guilty....

Rahul Gandhi, this is your chance

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The nation continues to reel under the shock of the death of a young medical student who was brutally gang raped in New Delhi on the 16th of December. The incident caused an eruption of protest across the country over the past week as people from all walks of life have made a loud, unified demand for the improvement in law and order as well as the mandate for capital punishment for the crime of rape. As the Congress big wigs attempt to placate the masses with expressions of sorrow and promises, the people are far from satisfied. Even Sonia Gandhi's rare 20 minute attempt to reassure protesters outside 10 Janpath failed to garner any confidence as they criticised her for making empty gestures. The public sphere was embroiled in an image battle between the protesters and the cops, jostling between the brutal lathicharge last Sunday, the mystery of....

Congress whimpers in the face of Moditva

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There is a Goliath called Modi looming over the state of Gujarat, in real life as well as in 3-D, who is once again poised to bag the Chief Minister seat of the state. His mega rallies, eloquent and witty speeches over the past weeks have captured the hearts and minds of the people, while his well known track record as Chief Minister bears the hopes of millions' of Gujaratis. He prospers within their imaginations and the political destiny of the state, as he's all set to return with a two-thirds majority. In the battle of perception, Modi is clearly undisputed while the Congress struggles under a damaged image and from poor political strategy. In a pursuit for objectivity, many Indian news channels have dubbed the Gujarat polls, a decisive BJP vs Congress battle. However, it's evident that the Congress party is simply putting up a token fight....

Malala Yousafzai: Bravery of an ignored struggle

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Last month, the world was shocked when the Pakistan based Taliban shot a fourteen year old girl in an assassination attempt because of her education and women's rights activism in the Swat valley. She miraculously survived and the incident stirred a worldwide reaction of solidarity. To the global imagination, Malala Yousafzai became the antithesis to the extremist and apathetic narrative surrounding the nation of Pakistan today. The nation's few inspired citizens raised their voices condemning the attack, as the international media applauded giving a global platform to a largely ignored struggle against extremism. Yet, as time went by, the issue melted away, out of the dynamic news cycle. The rare public outcry was no where to be seen. Yet, the question of the incident's effect on the Pakistani public sphere still hangs in the air. Is Malala's name still chanted on the streets of Pakistan or is it now just....

The spectre of vote rigging in Battleground Ohio

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The mainstream media is geared for the biggest political spectacle of the year. Newsrooms are abuzz as the final lap of the US Presidential race is upon them. Trying to outdo each other, they are hungry for poll numbers, locked and loaded with their analysis, anecdotes and predictions to put on a great show for the American public. Their eyes are set on the Democrats and the Republicans in the battlefield of Ohio, where the parties are blitzing citizens with campaign ads and rallies. Yet, in all the rush and media frenzy lies a rising concern among Ohio citizens that has unfortunately failed to make the front pages or the prime time news bulletins. The whispers of alleged vote rigging have re-emerged in the state, which has gone unnoticed in the din and drama of the elections. In the 2004 presidential elections, George Bush won Ohio by a....

The politics of disaster: Hurricane Sandy and the US elections

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As Hurricane Sandy pounded the eastern coast of the United States, the campaign dynamics of the presidential elections changed dramatically even though temporarily. During Sandy, Barack Obama was no longer the Democrat Party's nominee, but the President of the United States. All eyes were on him for how he was going to deliver the nation from the crisis, while all eyes were on Romney whether he could successfully challenge the President's leadership, this time in real time besides in retrospect. While the American political fraternity scorns 'playing politics' in times of crisis, both Romney and Obama campaigns went into stealth mode, employing subtle tactics for American hearts and minds. The past few days have shown that incumbency favoured Obama by the simple fact that he was doing a great job as President. Obama cancelled his campaign events in the crucial swing state of Ohio this week as he....