The fate of the soon to be held NSA talks between India and Pakistan on August 23-24 hangs in balance. It is still uncertain whether Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval would indeed meet his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaz Aziz. Though it has got no connection with the talks doing the rounds across media circles of both countries since last evening, the likelihood of these talks seem significantly reduced in the […]

In what is likely to put the scheduled India-Pakistan NSA level talks in jeopardy, Islamabad on Friday said that it will not accept any ‘pre-condition’ of cancelling the meeting between its NSA Sartaj Aziz and the Kashmiri separatist leaders. According to media reports, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaj Sharif this morning conducted a meeting with his council of ministers, Army and ISI chief over the issue. During the meeting, it was […]

AHMEDABAD: Suspended Gujarat Police officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had taken on then Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots cases four years ago, has been sacked by the state government. Mr Bhatt was suspended in 2011 for remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles. At the time, he was posted in Junagadh. The officer had claimed he could not attend to duties because of mother […]

One of the key highlights of Modiji’s speech on August 15 from the ramparts of the Red Fort was in what he did not mention rather than what he spoke on. Yes you guessed it right, I am speaking about the One Rank One Pension issue. An election agenda for both BJP and the Congress last year, it unfortunately continues to gather dust in files travelling between the various offices […]

It was pandemonium in the Lok Sabha and as the Monsoon Session approaches its closure. Chaos was the order of the day and indiscipline resigned supreme. Suddenly the country’s highest altar of democracy looked nothing more than playgroup classroom filled with unruly toddlers running all over, throwing things each other and decibel levels that could potentially render others deaf. Even as I pen these words, my head hangs in shame. […]

She won the election by leaning right on national security and left on the economy. Now comes the fallout AMERICA’S first woman president won last November by taking two large risks, transforming an election campaign that had seemed to be slipping away from her. One of those gambles, her hard-edged response to the Cuban-refugee crisis and post-Castro turmoil on that island, may yet pay off for her. The second, her […]

Somehow the monsoon washout in the Parliament reminds me of the 2nd term of the UPA regime and the long history of absolute policy paralysis that the country witnessed. However with Parliament coming to a standstill, the reforms agenda has more or less taken a back seat at least for now. There is a urgent need to put the reform rail on track not just in the interest of the […]

It was a historic pact signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 3 when the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) inked the peace treaty with the centre. This accord which was signed in the presence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, is seen as a major step in bringing about peace not just in Nagaland but the entire north eastern part of the […]

In the night of the tyrants, Who calls my name from afar? I must climb the scaffolding of the gallows to see beyond the prison parapets. Have they waylaid the caravan of the new dawn? “Majrooh Sultanpuri”I had turned up in Mumbai to cover the aftermath of the 1993 bomb blasts. On my way to meet Rusi Karanjia editor of Blitz and journalist Olga Tellis, at the US Club in […]

“It is India’s right to have a permanent seat in UN Security Council”, thundered PM Narendra Modi recently, addressing the Indian Diaspora in Paris. Modi has now visited over 20 countries in an official capacity, unprecedented for any Indian prime minister in such a short span of time. We have almost reached the qualifying mark, but we are still struggling for a rightful place in the Permanent Security Council! The […]