tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233837642012-02-16T15:00:42.904-08:00Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-28040453976422962102008-07-03T15:17:00.001-07:002008-07-03T15:31:13.371-07:00

History would note Sam Bahadur had more faith in democracy than the then democratically-elected Prime Minister who later flirted with dictatorship.Here is to Sam Manekshaw!!Sam Manekshaw | Economist.comHIS most famous remark was not, strictly speaking, true. On the eve of the war with Pakistan in December 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, asked

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-17705750979556866782008-06-22T20:39:00.001-07:002008-06-22T20:39:21.517-07:00

Art Levine: Is Obama Selling Out on FISA bill? - Politics on The Huffington Postthe Only Thing That Matters is that Barack Obama be put in the Oval Office, and we must do anything and everything -- including remain silent when he embraces a full-scale assault on the Fourth Amendment and the rule of law -- because every goal is now subordinate to electing Barack Obama our new Leader.It is

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-83658899467496570612008-06-13T10:55:00.001-07:002008-06-13T11:07:43.738-07:00

New York Times Weighs in: On Guantánamo - Justice 5, Brutality 4 There is an enormous gulf between the substance and tone of the majority opinion, with its rich appreciation of the liberties that the founders wrote into the Constitution, and the what-is-all-the-fuss-about dissent. It is sobering to think that habeas hangs by a single vote in the Supreme Court of the United States — a reminder

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-72134125812623639002008-06-12T13:13:00.001-07:002008-06-12T21:18:08.294-07:00

It appears the process of democratic revival that started after the 2006 congressional elections is now on its last victory lap. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — Foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention there in United States courts, the Supreme Court

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-33689350996112313732007-10-20T22:47:00.001-07:002007-10-20T23:26:43.582-07:00

On the heels of the warning shot from US creditors, emerging economies now emphasize that the US mortgage turmoil has put global prosperity at risk. The statements of these once-poor countries bear out a long-festering resentment.There is a lesson here.Countries do not ever forget an aggressor's humiliating attitude, whether arrogantly projected or misconstrued. Just as the once faltering and

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-83713418017001139702007-08-29T01:02:00.001-07:002007-08-29T01:10:15.586-07:00

This was bound to happen sooner or later. Creditors of the debt-addict have begun to flex their muscles. They certainly have twin leverages of trillions in US securities and similar-sized government-run private equity funds. In the meanwhile, the patient is about to go in a recession and the dollar shows no signs of stabilizing anytime soon.Calls Grow for Foreigners to Have a Say on U.S. Market

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1225140343939870592007-08-16T23:41:00.001-07:002007-08-16T23:41:52.632-07:00

It is nice to see another author echo earlier blogged sentiments on this page. For a good measure, this article also delivers a dose of realpolitik to India's superpower ambitions:Angst At The Picnic : outlookindia.com The Bush administration's notorious CIA secret prisons and its detention without trial of over 400 alleged terrorists at Guantanamo have deprived the US of much of its moral

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-39940233247655466192007-07-24T01:56:00.001-07:002007-07-24T02:04:59.874-07:00

Here is an order from a High Court judge in India, Justice Uma Nath Singh of Punjab and Haryana High Court, the types who can only be removed by impeachment proceedings in both houses of the parliament.At best, this is a judge gone wild that assumes the role of an accusation amplifier, investigator, jury and judge in a span of a few hours. At worst, an illiterate man who inhabits a blissful world

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-11337173506139480492007-07-17T23:29:00.001-07:002007-07-24T02:09:04.708-07:00

The Australian authorities are following due process in the investigation of suspect Mohammed Haneef, an Indian citizen, in connection with the London and Glasgow bombings. While there is Maoist terrorism, aka Naxalism, in large swathes of central India, there are unmistakable signs Islamic terrorism within India is now by and large home grown and now evidently exported, and that there is

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-54531456224871463722007-06-26T12:33:00.001-07:002007-07-09T16:23:23.831-07:00

Some may dismiss this as fiction, an interesting take on Pakistan's deepening crisis from a blunt-talking but highly analytical Indian columnist: Battlefield Pakistan : outlookindia.com Kissinger's influence did not wane with Nixon's exit. It continued to grow with expanding Sino-American trade. Till recently, Kissinger was an important influence on the Neo-Conservatives who invaded Iraq. Bob

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1432772894899069012007-03-30T09:54:00.001-07:002007-07-09T16:42:20.072-07:00

The story says it all. David Hicks gagged before vote | The Daily Telegraph As part of his agreement which was signed before he appeared in the US military commission on Tuesday he has agreed that he was never illegally treated by any person while in US custody. It means Hicks can no longer claim he was mistreated by the US after he was captured in December 2001 in Afghanistan and taken to

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-52892771592024482292007-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:002007-07-09T16:40:54.809-07:00

A respected retired Indian journalist forwards an email expressing deep angst about the quality of Indian print and television media. It is dismayed that what used to be respectable "mainstream" print media is now slipping into tabloid journalism. The latest example cited is the failure to report the killing by terrorist outfits in Kashmir of an Army major just as acquittal of a popular Bollywood

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-20332269250519483602007-02-06T01:11:00.001-08:002007-02-06T14:12:57.109-08:00

Am glad a respected India-based historian has accurately psychoanalyzed the euphoria in India: India Is Reveling in Being the Buyer - New York Times “There’s a deep inferiority complex,” said Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian and social critic. “Sometimes it manifests itself in excessive deference. At the same time, we exalt in cases of success over the white man.” Ever since the Tata

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-89668802490399655532006-12-30T12:53:00.001-08:002007-07-09T17:03:56.235-07:00

I became aware of the US politics upon arriving here during the last years of the Regan presidency, in the wake of the brazen testimony of Oliver North in uniform before the Congress. Coincidentally, I lived as a student not far away from the "White House on the West Coast", President Regan's Santa Barbara ranch. My earliest political recollections, snippets from the mid-seventies as a

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-87178940906248542512006-12-08T12:48:00.001-08:002006-12-08T14:27:49.126-08:00

The following article mentions in passing that the Iraqi quagmire sends a warning to occupiers of other peoples' lands: Iraqi Quagmire Haunts NATO Riga Summit By K Gajendra Singh Russia is the only power which even now can thwart US moves and military power. But it was the Iraqi resistance in Iraq which exposed the limits of US military power sending a resounding warning to aggressors and

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1163198829242207092006-11-10T14:47:00.000-08:002006-11-11T19:31:23.770-08:00

Much has been written about the recent elections that voted the Democrats back in control of both houses of the U.S. congress. So I'll spare election analysis here. This news item just caught my eye: U.S. rep to the UN may not get Senate approval Here is a tribute to the defeated Republican Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee for upholding a high principle of democracy: honoring electoral

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1157060297877702542006-09-01T13:42:00.000-07:002006-11-11T19:23:27.303-08:00

Encouraging public disclosures and protecting the whistleblowers--those who take the courageous and sometimes self-harming step of disclosing wrongdoings--are important for a healthy and well-functioning democracy. India lacks any such law that would mandate an investigation when a qualifying disclosure is made and give protection to the whistleblower. One hears that an internal "whistleblower

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1150746618405281582006-06-19T12:50:00.000-07:002006-11-11T19:23:27.098-08:00

The populist choice | Economist.com SPECTACULAR success followed by tragic failure. That might seem the verdict of the weekend’s general election in Slovakia, where one of the best-regarded reforming governments in the post-communist world was booted out of office amid big votes for left-wing and populist parties. Yesterday evening I had an interesting discussion whether democracy inevitably

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1149798397397077982006-06-08T23:53:00.000-07:002006-11-11T19:23:26.900-08:00

It doesn't get better than this. Just as we have Syria, China, Saudi Arabia and a host others carrying out the vaunted international responsibilities of running UN's Human Rights Panels, just as we have dictators in Pakistan, Cuba and elsewhere singing praises of the values of Democracy, now we have Saudi Arabia, home of the world's most theocratic system, lauding the values of Secularism. Sweet!

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1149315248943679942006-06-02T23:14:00.000-07:002006-11-11T19:23:26.648-08:00

India to Let Dictators Thrive in Her Neighborhood Singapore, June 3 (AP): India, hailed as the world's biggest democracy, will not export its free society ideology to neighbouring military-ruled Myanmar, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today. "Our basic principle is to live in peaceful coexistence and we do not believe in exporting ideologies," Mukherjee said. "It is for the people of the

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1148080064474676122006-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:002006-11-11T19:23:26.389-08:00

If one delves into the psyche of ordinary people enraged by criminal acts -- whether by petty thieves, rapists, murderers or organized crimes against communities or the humanity -- one often notices the familiar refrain: Mr Criminal, you are abusing the fair and democratic laws of my country; in another less civilized and autocratic place, you would be long dead.One wonders if the audience

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1142392465017948452006-03-14T18:49:00.000-08:002006-11-11T19:23:25.947-08:00

Rajinder Puri urges India to take the lead in spreading democracy around the world. But only after putting its own house in order. After 9/11 the quality of American democracy plummeted. ... Many of [the Bush administration]'s actions destroyed American values and even attracted threats of impeachment. The administration deliberately falsified intelligence inputs and lied to the nation for

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23383764.post-1141436083967181722006-03-03T17:30:00.000-08:002006-11-11T19:23:25.635-08:00

President Bush thinks so. "The United States and India, separated by half the globe, are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," Mr. Bush declared in the cool March air of New Delhi on the grounds of a 16th century fort. Their ability to lead largely depends on how the world sees their practice of democratic values, i.e.

Sanjay Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179110125712053283noreply@blogger.com2