While it is premature to speculate on future developments in Jammu and Kashmir, it is too late in the day to bemoan the bitter electoral battle between the Congress(I) and the National Conference. The battle is a fact. It has taken place. It has produced certain consequences which can be … Read More
THE election to the vidhan sabha in Jammu and Kashmir has been far from peaceful and in that sense not quite free and fair. Even so the results should by and large be accepted as reflecting the popular will. By any reckoning, it has been a momentous election. It is … Read More
As agency messages relating to Mr Seymour Hersh’s charge against Mr Morarji Desai came in on Thursday, our reaction was one of stunned disbelief. Everything we have known about Mr. Desai led to the inescapable conclusion that he could not be guilty of such a heinous crime – his long … Read More
On the face of it, the Vijayawada get-together of opposition parties, including four non-Congress (I) chief ministers, has been a washout. It has led to the formation of an opposition council and adoption of a resolution which holds the Congress (I) responsible for all the ills the country is suffering … Read More
Some western newspapers have carried reports to the effect that a new consensus may emerge among top Chinese leaders favouring a tough stance towards the United States. These reports suggest that following criticism of his previous pro US stand by, among others, Mr. Hu Yaobang, the party’s general secretary, Mr. … Read More
Pakistani claims that a negotiated settlement of the Afghan problem in none too distant a future is possible have begun to look credible. This change in perception is the result of the US State Department’s confirmation of reports that the Jamaat-i-Islami section of the Peshawar-based Mujahidin “have worked put some … Read More
The government of India has launched a drive to convince Arab governments that Muslims in this country are not being maltreated and to impress Indian Muslims that Arab leaders recognise and appreciate its support for Arab causes. New Delhi has thus sent special envoys to Arab capitals, invited Arab journalists … Read More
It is tempting to take the view that the country should have been spared the unseemly slanging match between Mrs Indira Gandhi and her widowed daughter-in-law, Mrs Maneka Gandhi. The argument in support of this proposition would run as follows: Maneka exasperates the Prime Minister on account of her ways … Read More
In deciding to ignore Congress on the question of the sale of upgraded F-16s to Pakistan, the US administration has demonstrated that it is prepared to go out of its way to accommodate the Zia regime. The reasons for it are obvious enough. Pakistan figures prominently in America’s strategic design … Read More
Sant Longowal has publicly returned to the old Akali theme that the Sikhs are a qaum. This statement spotlights, as nothing else could, the psychology of the men who are currently leading the agitation in Punjab and in the process poisoning Hindu-Sikh relations and, indeed, exposing the state to the … Read More
