Posts Tagged ‘India’
Discussion on New Social Media at Kaboo Community Radio
A tourist visa to Pakistan costs Rs.15 (33 cents) and the distance between Amritsar and Lahore is 48 km (29.8 miles) but few Indians have ever visited Pakistan. The movement of Indian journalists in Pakistan is restricted to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Interactions between India and Pakistan are largely confined to the realm of diplomacy, politics and military strategy. The celebrated civil society dialogue between Indians and Pakistanis is limited to social elites from the two sides.
Interactions between the common people of India and Pakistan are challenged by several obstacles. Lack of air connections, absence of road and rail links, endless harassing over visa issues, heightening of political tensions, censorship of movies and blackout of news channels are the commonly encountered hurdles. For young educated Indians and Pakistanis, communication across the Line of Control (LOC) has been more difficult than contact with counterparts in other continents. Media reports, memoirs and ancestral stories have been the only way for gathering information about life across the LOC.
The medium of electronic communication is allowing Indians and Pakistanis a rare opportunity to conduct genuine and open dialogue. Blessed to be born at a time when the web rules the world, a large segment of middle class Indians and Pakistanis can talk to each other. Exchange of e-mails, expression of views through blogs, participation in on-line discussion forums, and sharing of information through social networking sites provides myriad avenues for Indians and Pakistanis to communicate. They can instantaneously discuss about the Marriott attacks in Islamabad or the Mumbai terror siege; comment on U.S. strategy in Af-Pak or implications of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, send live updates of lawyer’s protest march in Karachi or voice concern over the ban on Jaswant Singh’s book praising Jinnah in India. Flow of information across the border is now direct, instant and constant. This new form of popular interaction, referred to as social media, between Indians and Pakistanis is re-defining the contours of inter-state civil society dialogue.
APA Compass on Kaboo Community Radio invited me to speak on how electronic communication, especially New Social Media, was impacting interactions between Indians and Pakistanis. The podcast to the program can be accessed here.
Tale of Two Terrorists in Two Democracies
Ajmal Kasab and Faisal Shahzad are familiar names for most Indians and Americans. Kasab was the only terrorist in the gang of ten who was arrested alive during the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Shahzad was arrested early this week for planting a car bomb in the Times Square in New York City. Kasab was arrested while operationalizing a terror strike; Shahzad was nabbed following the cues from the car which he had planted. Kasab’s connection to Pakistan was established, Shahzad Pakistani connection is evident and under scrutiny.
16th SAARC Summit at Thimphu
The 16th SAARC Summit concluded in Thimphu, Bhutan last week. Two characteristics of South Asians strike me when leaders of SAARC nations meet. First, South Asians feel more comfortable in big crowds. Second, South Asians are highly entrepreneurial. The Thimphu Summit reaffirmed the impressions. Even though the SAARC Charter prohibits discussions on contentious bilateral issues, leaders of India and Pakistan feel most comfortable in conversing at sidelines of SAARC Summits. Despite slow progress of previously agreed cooperative projects, SAARC members do not shy away from undertaking new ventures at each summit meeting.
Naxal Attack at Dantewada
On April 6, in the Mukrana forests of Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district in India, 72 members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one member of the District police force were killed in a gruesome attack by the Naxalites. In addition to the number of causalities, the planning and precision of the Naxal operation stunned the country. India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram accepted full responsibility for the attack and offered to resign.
In a rare display of solidarity, the BJP has expressed support in favor of Home Minister P. Chidambaram. According to BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy, “Chidambaram deserves the support of the government, the support of all political parties”. Though Minister Chidambaram appears resolute, the Government faces many challenges for drafting and implementing a strategy to counter the naxal violence. Some of these concerns are discussed here.
Indian Military and the Challenge of Apolitical Strategic Discussions
On March 30, General Deepak Kapoor handed over charge to General V.K. Singh as the Chief of the Indian Army. General Kapoor’s statements were frequently picked by the media and his comments on India’s new war doctrine (which is not essentially ‘new’) created furor in the strategic community across the globe. On the occasion of General Kapoor’s retirement a few thoughts crossed my mind.
Is advocacy by the military—contrived or unintentional—in the public domain desirable or dangerous? Stephen P Cohen, in his seminal work on the Indian Army asserted that India’s armed forces readily accept their apolitical role—the problem is about who precisely defines the meaning of military and political. General Kapoor’s comment on the two-front war encouraged debate on the Cold Start strategy in the public domain, but did the General cross over into the political realm in doing so? Are public statements on feasibility of strategic policy by the military fostering discussion or is it violating the segregation of military and political roles?
I discuss these issues in greater detail in Pragati- The Indian National Interest Review. According to me, senior military officers should be allowed to speak on their behalf.
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]
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.
The Need to Strategize India-Pakistan Dialogue
“To Indians, cycles constitute the basis of life and stand in stark contrast to the Western linear view of time….in the Indian view, the cosmos also goes through repeated cycles of creation, decay, destruction and recreation…a cyclical view suggests no past and no future, just a continuing series of cycles.”
Though, I mostly disagree with George Tanham’s much famous analysis of India’s strategic culture, I could not but think about these words of Tanham before and after the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan met on February 25.