Editor’s Note: In the miasma of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s current trip to India, Jasmeet Singh takes a look at the rise of India’s next heir apparent: Narendra Modi.

On bright rain-drench mid-week morning of February, a bearded man stood in front of a crowd of young students holding up a glass half-filled with water. “An optimist would say this glass is half full,” he said with a thoughtful glance at the glass “while a pessimist would say it is half empty. I have a third view” he gestured. “For me the glass is always full-half full with water and half full with air.”

The venue that Narendra Modi, current Chief Minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat, chose to deliver his speech was the Sri Ram College of Commerce, or SRCC as it is popularly known among its many aspirants. It is also one of India’s most prestigious institutions to study business. Modi, the emerging face of the Hindu-nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) chose the place not only because SRCC’s name includes the name of Hinduism most revered figure-Lord Ram, but also because it’s a college primarily dedicated to the study of commerce, a field Modi’s Gujarat seem to be excelling in for over a decade now. It has constantly notched 10 per cent plus growth rate during decades after 1991, the year the Indian economy was liberalised and foreign trade eased.

Continue reading “The rise and call of Narendra Modi” »

Lasantha Wickrematunga remains a name of no significance to many. He was in fact one of the most renowned Sri Lankan journalists to have ever lived. Wickremetunga founded Sri Lankan newspaper ‘The Sunday Leader’, and was the editor for 15 years.

The Sunday Leader exposed what no other Sri Lankan paper dared to: corruption, nepotism, demise of press freedom and freedom of speech, the dismantling of a so-called democracy and the implemenation of a totalitarian state. It remained “unbowed and unafraid”. Continue reading “The Sunday Leader – “unbowed & unafraid”, but for how much longer?” »

The past few weeks has seen India grappling with a series of alleged high-profile scams. It all began with the supposed involvement of Robert Vadra, entrepreneur and the Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son –in –law, in a real estate transaction that is claimed to have fetched him some sweet deals. Vadra’s assets are said to have gone up from 50 lakhs to 300 crores in a short period of time. In a highly speculated press conference, activists of the India Against Corruption (IAC) team currently headed by former civil servant Arvind Kejriwal alleged that real estate giant DLF had sold Robert Vadra prime land at throw-away prices, apart from providing him interest-free loans.

The Congress party actively defended him in the beginning. However, as the entire fiasco started heating up, many leaders from the party felt that this was a non-party issue since Vadra is not directly affiliated to the Congress party. The external support now rendered is of little help as the investigations continue. Continue reading “India’s Corruption Contest” »

1) Voters in Georgia Deciding Fate of Government

Voters in Georgia are choosing a new parliament in a heated election Monday that will decide the future of the pro-Western government of President Mikhail Saakashvili. Emotions are running high in an election that is competitive not only for Georgia but for much of the former Soviet Union.

If Saakashvili’s party loses, it would be the first time in Georgia’s post-Soviet history that a government has been changed not through revolution but at the ballot box. The governing party, which has dominated parliament, is up against a diverse opposition coalition led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who has posed the most serious challenge to Saakashvili since he came to power almost nine years ago. With the opposition accusing the government of violations aimed at manipulating the vote, Saakashvili is under pressure to prove his commitment to democracy by holding a free and fair election.

Both sides have promised to respect the results if the election receives the approval of international observers. About 1 million of Georgia’s 3.6 million eligible voters live in Tbilisi, the capital, where opposition support is strongest. Lines formed outside some polling stations in the morning, and the Central Election Commission said turnout in the first four hours of voting had surpassed 25 percent. The U.S. ambassador joined calls for a peaceful election. “I encourage the public to remain calm, have faith and be patient while all the results are counted and any challenges are properly evaluated,” Ambassador Richard Norland said. Under Saakashvili, the former Soviet republic has aligned itself with the United States, while striving to join the European Union and NATO one day.

https://news.google.co.uk/news/rtc?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&topic=w&ncl=dNGRfNMi7avbJnMHmgFor03OM-esM

2) Somali and African Union troops ‘enter Kismayo’

The first Somali government and African Union troops are reported to have entered the strategic Somali port of Kismayo, witnesses have told the BBC.

They have been battling the al-Shabab militia for control of the city. On Saturday, the al-Qaeda aligned militants said they had withdrawn from Kismayo after an AU military assault.

Kenyan and Somali forces had launched an attack on the Islamist group’s last major bastion the day before. Reports as to the size and make up of the AU contingent have been mixed. One resident told the BBC Somali Service that a small infantry unit of 11 Somali soldiers had entered the city from the west and were patrolling on foot on the main roads of Kismayo, while another said he had seen both Kenyan and Somali troops entering the city centre from the airport.

A spokesperson for the Somali government forces, Mohamud Farah, told the Reuters news agency that they had sent “450 [troops] to patrol the town and settle the police headquarters”. Kenyan troops are part of an African force trying to wrest control of Somalia from militants for the new United Nations-backed president. After resisting the AU and Somali advance on Friday, al-Shabab announced it had shut its five-year administration in Kismayo the next day for strategic reasons. A spokesperson for the Kenyan military told the BBC last week that he feared the withdrawal might be a trap, making the army reticent to enter Kismayo. There have been unconfirmed reports that al-Shabab may have mined parts of the town.

Correspondents say the loss of Kismayo will be a major blow to the Islamists. Somalia’s second largest port is a significant source of revenue for whoever controls it and al-Shabab had also used the port to bring in weapons. African Union troops pushed al-Shabab from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011. Along with other pro-government forces they have gone on to take control of most of the major towns previously in militants hands. But the al-Qaeda-linked group’s fighters are still highly active in much of the countryside in southern and central Somalia and have carried out attacks in cities they no longer control. Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has seen clan-based warlords, Islamist militants and its neighbours all battling for control.

https://news.google.co.uk/news/rtc?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&topic=w&ncl=d0iMRcAy9LuDhjMiP_dlMAFIUO0rM

3) Army deployed, 150 held after Buddhist sites torched in Bangladesh

Bangladesh today deployed army to keep vigil in coastal Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong cities as police arrested 150 suspected rioters, who torched nearly a dozen Buddhist temples over an alleged anti-Islam post on Facebook, sparking communal tension in the Muslim majority country.

“So far 150 suspected rioters were arrested and a manhunt is on for others… law enforcement agencies have been asked to enforce a strict vigil for against outbreak of any fresh violence,” Home Minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir said. He said security agencies were particularly asked to enforce a vigil against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingyas who took refuge in Bangladesh after an ethnic conflict with majority Buddhist community at their home in eastern Rakhine state. Additional police superintendent of Cox’s Bazar Babul Akhtar said 118 suspects were arrested from Ramu and adjacent areas alone while police chased and tracked them down also at the port city of Chittagong.

“Most of the suspects were arrested from areas outside Ramu as the rioters fled their homes to evade justice,” Akhtar told PTI over phone. Besides police, the authorities have deployed anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guards Bangladesh and army personnel in the affected areas. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered a high- level probe to identify the perpetrators of the attacks. “An investigation is going on at the highest level to find out those associated with such a heinous act. The law enforcers have been instructed to handle firmly with any such situation,” she said in New York on the sidelines of UNGA session.

Authorities also ordered punitive actions against the attackers who also damaged or set ablaze several dozens of homes of followers of Buddhist faith after midnight Saturday and yesterday at Ramu and neighbouring Ulhia. Witnesses said army troops provided tents and offered food to Buddhists who were rendered homeless overnight after the attack and while military and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh convoys patrolled the streets in Ramu. “The Buddhists who had fled their homes to evade the attackers returned but the situation is tensed while police and RAB officials said they are looking for the bigots,” said a journalist from the scene.

https://news.google.co.uk/news/rtc?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&topic=w&ncl=dU4mdfvkn63fcJMwjqnsyritOH7CM

A non-working session seems to be the most workable proposition for the legislature in India. Forced silence on the part of the government, reinforced by the mis-demeanours of an over-enthusiastic opposition whose sole aim currently is to ensure that the government loses favour with the masses, has resulted in both sides earning the ire of the Indian populace. The government, among other things, has failed miserably to put an end to the opposition’s theatrics.

Current statistics state that only 4 bills were passed this Monsoon session amidst all the brouhaha over the alleged ‘Coal Scam’ now popularly known as ‘Coalgate’. The entire issue started with a  report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This report has raised questions over the allocation of the nation’s coal deposits to Public Sector Entities, which has allegedly led to losses to the tune of 1.86 lakh crore rupees (US$33.59 billion). The government has actively opposed this contention, with the Finance Minister claiming that coal that is not yet unearthed and so cannot possibly lead to any losses. The opposition claims to want answers from the government but absolutely refused to allow the government to answer the questions within the four walls of the Parliament. Continue reading “India’s orchestrated chaos” »

Guest Post by Sarah Miller

When the ethics of humanitarian intervention[1] are debated, the focus is usually on the target state. This article aims to investigate the morality of such intervention with the lens focussed instead on the would-be intervening state or states. The moral quandary arises when the duty of a statesman to protect his citizens is incompatible with his duty to humanity.

(c) US Army

The widely conceived purpose of the sovereign state is to protect the individuals within its borders both from each other and from foreign aggressors.When a state engages its military in action abroad, it generally does so with the expectation that it will suffer casualties.

If vital national interests are at stake, and servicemen and -women die in order to protect their country from what is perceived to be a threat to its security or its way of life, such death is generally accepted as necessary for the greater good.

When citizens perish abroad in a war that is not considered to be of vital national interest, however, moral outrage grows at home. It is widely deemed deeply immoral for the government to send young men and women to die for only a peripheral national interest. Continue reading “Interventionism vs. isolationism: the central ethical dilemma in international affairs” »

Guest post by Sidrah Zaheer

The ground of politics has a tough turf and the most uncertain aspect of it is political relations between any two or more states. Realist politics only counts in the currency of power. This certainly seems to be the case with the U.S.-Pakistan relations.

(c) WebStrong Group

In a strange metaphor, the former Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, has drawn parallels between this unsymmetrical relationship and a “marriage”, while speaking at an American think-tank, Center for the National Interest, and frankly shared his opinion that these two allies should now “amicably divorce”. Continue reading “More cynical than realistic: Hussain Haqqani’s views about U.S.-Pakistan relations” »

The Indian Law Society’s ILS Law College conducted the first Simulation Conference on the United Nations Commission for Status of Women (UNCSW) with a view to promote gender equality in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan on the 29^th and 30^th of August, 2012. The agenda set for the Conference was “Equal participation of women and women at all levels with special emphasis on political leadership.”

The Conference aimed at giving students a taste of the United Nations Commission. Far different from the Model United Nations (a.k.a MUN), this conference followed the standard procedure of the original Commission. Students were trained for a week on how to go about the procedure. This gave them an idea of how the entire process worked. Each country was represented by a team of two delegates and they were given a time span of one week to research their respective countries. The students showcased the product of their research by engaging in fruitful discussion, deliberation and debate. Continue reading “A new era of reformation for women” »

By Giorgos Dimitriadis

When it comes to religious issues and rights, Pakistan seems obsolete and unforgiving. There are numerous reports of attacks, threats and convictions of Christians, many of which take place due to insignificant reasons, or even just because of religious diversity.

With the Muslim population totalling 178,100,000, Pakistan is the second most populous Muslim-majority country. Christians and Hindus are estimated at around 1.6% of the population each, with Islam representing the remaining 97% – most of them Sunni. There are also the Ahmadi religious minority, who – against their wishes – were declared non-Muslims and count for about 2.3%. Apart from the Christian population, Hindus and Ahmadis also face hostility and persecution.

Although actions of aggression take place all over the country – in outermost provinces and in large cities, making it difficult to be recorded – a significant number of them come to light, revealing the authoritarian side of Islam in Pakistan and the hostility that Christians and others face.

Continue reading “Unwanted in their homeland: Christians of Pakistan” »

Guest post by Sarah Aston

The run-up to the United States presidential election is already upon us, with the recent announcement of Paul Ryan as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

(c) United States Marine Corps

So far the two presidential candidates, Obama and Romney, have discussed the issues of the healthcare proposals Obama’s administration put forward (so-called ‘Obamacare’), the role of women in society and, only this week, a Republican party member was discussing the explosive topic of abortion.

One issue that candidates have been less vocal about is Afghanistan and American military forces. Earlier this year Britain’s defence minister announced plans to cut the British forces by more than half amongst shouts in the House of Commons that Britain can no longer afford such an army. One wonders which route the American president will take, how this will affect Afghanistan and whether the US can maintain such a foothold in the Middle East. Continue reading “U.S pledge to Afghanistan: will the presidential campaign alter things?” »