Years of unwisdom
MEMOIRS of retired Indian and Pakistani diplomats contain accounts of their postings to Islamabad and New Delhi, spent in professional pugilism and recollected in tranquillity. Former Indian high commissioner Ajay…
Changing the nuclear paradigm
Speaking at a book launch, General Ehsanul Haq, the former chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), warned against India shedding its pretence of the ‘no first use’ (NFU) of…
Nuclear signalling
At the 2017 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, a biennial gathering of nuclear experts in Washington DC, Vipin Narang, a US-based South Asian nuclear expert, created quite a stir with…
Unheeded sages
India has more closed borders than open minds. And so when a mature Indian diplomat speaks his mind, we on this side of the permeable sealant should listen. Few Indian…
Gurmehar’s silent battle for peace
It is not unlikely that Gurmehar Kaur or her mother has read Sahir Ludhianvi’s anti-war poetry. It is also possible they have read Charles Sumner’s views on human strife. Gurmehar…
The vale of tears
To view history, one needs to use bifocals — to see distance in perspective, and in close-up to observe the minutiae that provide it substance and colour. Take the Indo-Pak…
Making foreign policy
The national security adviser has arrived in India to the chagrin of the external affairs ministry. First came Brajesh Mishra in 1988 who also doubled as principal secretary to the…
Talks with no outcome
Recent diplomatic exchanges between Pakistan and India are akin to being on a treadmill: plenty of activity and movement without going anywhere. There have been a series of informal, high-level…
State of uncertainty
The meeting in New York between prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Manmohan Singh helped to ratchet down tensions that had surged in recent months between the two countries. It yielded…
Flawed presumption
They met, shook hands and inquired about one another’s health in their shared mother tongue. But they could not tell the people of their needlessly estranged countries what they have…
