Association with FPA Blogs
I have started contributing to the Foreign Policy Association Blogs recently. Foreign Policy Blogs is the largest network of global affairs blogs. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks developments from around the globe.
Readers of thetrajectory will be updated on posts featuring at the FPA blog, though these shall not be replicated in entirety here. You are encouraged to access these at the FPA blog. However, thetrajectory will keep running as usual with regular posts.
Enjoy
Pakistan and U.S. Move from ‘Relationship’ to ‘Partnership’
“Today, I am a happy man and a satisfied man,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Secretary Clinton’s remarks at the same conference “We have listened, and we will continue to listen.”
This is what Pakistan is celebrating as a movement from relationship to partnership. Semantics in diplomacy can be a great face safer and Minister Qureshi seems to realize this fact.
[Picture Courtesy: Jim Young/Reuters]
Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup
Reading Vikas Swarup’s murder thriller Six Suspects this weekend was a treat. Following the debutant success of Q&A, which was made into Oscar fame Slumdog Millionaire, Swarup continues to highlight India in this book. The thriller element of a murder mystery may not have been the greatest strengths of the plot, but the portrayal of India is indeed riveting. Without giving away the ‘mystery’ in the plot, here are a few things about Six Suspects that stand out. Click to continue…
Muslims and New Social Media
Connecting through virtual communities has become the norm of social life for people across the globe. From acquiring cooking skills to dealing with relationship problems, from expressing political views to cribbing about economic incentives at workplace, the social media has emerged as a platform to discuss anything and everything. You can tweet the Iranian political protests, blog live about President Obama’s Inauguration Address, upload videos of you sky-diving stint and meet your long lost High School crush on social media sites. A group of young American Muslims have taken upon themselves to put these impressive features of the social media to constructive use. They have sought to create a space where the Muslims, generally viewed as insulated and segregated, connect and interact within and outside the community. Contrary to popular expectation, this aggregate of diverse forums is not limited to explaining Islam; it is not confined to focusing on a liberal/moderate enunciation of the Quranic texts. It is simply a social networking tool for Muslims; platforms where Muslims discuss cooking skills, relationship problems, political views, economic concerns and even meet their long-lost High School crush.
Will we have enough Women to take advantge of 33% Reservation?
The country was celebrating the ‘victory’ of Women’s Bill after it garnered adequate support on the floor of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of India’s Parliament). I am not sure what 33% reservation in Parliament can do for women, but I am sure about what it cannot do. It cannot stop gendercide in India.
India’s Nuclear Weapons: Symbolic or Strategic…or Neither?
Whether it was December 2001 or November 2008, the Government of India did not respond militarily to terrorist strikes within the country, even when evidence of Pakistan’s involvement was available. The question is why? According to the Government of India, the country as a responsible state did not want to escalate a nuclear crisis in the region. This leads to an interesting juxtaposition of nuclear realities in the region: India cannot avenge a terror strike on it soil because it might prompt Pakistan to use nuclear weapons. But Pakistan can continue its strategy of ‘bleeding India by a thousand cuts’ without any fear of India’s nuclear capability. Vipin Narang has a carefully calibrated explanation for this discrepancy in his paper on “Pakistan’s Nuclear Posture: Implications for South Asian Stability.”
[Picture Courtesy: IBN Live]
Attempts at moral policing in Pakistan
I am compelled to share an excerpt from a post by Murtaza Ali Jafri on the Dawn Blog today. I was unable to discern my reaction after reading it: is it funny or pathetic?
Last month, the Punjab Assembly resolved to ban all late-night call packages offered by mobile telecommunications companies in the province. During vigorous assembly debates, it was concluded that the ability to make cheap, late-night phone calls was having a negative impact on this country’s bright young things. Forget terrorism, the energy crisis, a weakened government, and water shortages – apparently boys and girls texting and calling each other past their bed time has become a matter of national concern.
Hence the assembly resolution demanding that mobile companies stop promoting “cheap rate, late night packages that alter societal tendencies.” Luckily for us nocturnal phone addicts, the powers that be haven’t yet discovered the prevalence of instant messenger or the internet.
I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but cheap mobile packages don’t corrupt the youth, society corrupts the youth. After all, the previous generation grew up without mobile phones, the internet, cable television, and Gossip Girl, and they’ve hardly turned out to be bastions of virtue.
Does the Government of Pakistan ever fail to surprise us? Only if they could ban all guns given the fact that so many young Pakistanis were being lured by terrorist groups.
What does M.F. Husain’s ‘renunciation’ of India mean?
Naked Sita on Hanuman's tail
For all those who are wondering why M.F. Husain “abandoned” India, here are a few thoughts (in words and pics) from an equally confused Indian.
According to Husain it was impossible for him to express his creativity in India. So what does this say about India’s claim as an open democratic society? Is Qatar more democratic than India?
Human Rights Advocacy: Concerns and Challenges
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and interact with Meenakshi Ganguly and Ali Dayan Hasan from Human Rights Watch. In my informal interaction with Meenakshi, I found her to be a keen observer and her previous career as a journalist convinced me of her astute sense of reasoned social investigation; a quality imperative for anyone working in the field with Human Rights issues. The interaction brought to light some interesting dimensions with regard to human rights in general and HR Watch in particular.
Extending the Shiv Sena’s Argument Further
During the past week, I got a few forwarded e-mails with the subject “Bal and Raj Thackeray’s Point of View”. Since I have no interest in reading the views of these “exalted gentlemen”, I kept ignoring the mails. But finally when the surge continued, some coming from people who I knew to share my abhorrence for Shiv Sena politics, I thought of reading it. The content turned out to a logical, even though outrageous, extension of the Shiv Sena’s political rationale, if they have one. So here is the text of the mail….read and enjoy!