Asian Lite News Archive

Category: COLUMNS

  • One year without Sachin at the crease

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    By Biswajit Choudhury  The year that the Indian cricket team played without Sachin Tendulkar and lost successive Test series abroad gives enough food for thought on the nature of the sport, also at a time when other team sports in the country are beginning to organise commercially on the lines of the Indian Premier League…

  • Chandy had a whale of a time

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    By Sanu George   Just as 2014 began when Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy saw the withering away of the Left-sponsored protest against what is known as the Solar scam, the year is coming to a close with a morale-boosting victory over his state party president V.M.Sudheeran when the liquor policy was tweaked. Overall for Chandy,…

  • Vajpayee: Apostle of peace, humanity personified

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    By Ashok Tandon  A 28-year-old dhoti-kurta clad young man was jostling to push his blanket-wrapped baggage into the unreserved compartment of a passenger train at Delhi Railway station on May 8, 1953. It was a send off for Shyma Prasad Moookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (predecessor of the present day Bharatiya Janata Party),…

  • Isolating Moscow will not help

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    By Amit Dasgupta By all accounts, the Russian economy is in imminent danger of collapse. After a period of relative economic stability under President Vladimir Putin, the rouble is now in free-fall. The central bank has announced an increase in interest rates from 10.5 percent to 17 percent. It failed to stabilize the rouble. This…

  • Shattering Israel’s Image

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      By Alon Ben-Meir No Israeli government has shattered Israel’s international image more than the Netanyahu government has over the past six years. Not only have Netanyahu and his cohorts systematically been engaged in rancorous public narratives against the Palestinians, but they have taken action that could only attest to his unwavering commitment to expand…

  • Is Vatican playing into Beijing’s hands?

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    By Amit Dasgupta  Nobel laureates gathered in Rome last week were dismayed that Pope Francis had surprisingly refused to grant an audience to the Dalai Lama so as to not incur Beijing’s inevitable wrath. Earlier the meeting was to be held in Cape Town to commemorate the first death anniversary of Nelson Mandela. The South…

  • Hindutva upsurge dents Modi image

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    By Amulya Ganguli The first phase of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) politics was marked by the targeting of mosques and churches. After the advent of Narendra Modi, the scene has become quieter. In fact, the Ram temple issue has been put on hold and even the fulminations against “love jihad”, the supposedly sinister plan…

  • Putin reassured after talks

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    By Saeed Naqvi  Who knows, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have added non-alignment to his bow in the conduct of foreign affairs. He stood firm by the side of President Vladimir Putin at a time when Washington has all but given notice that it seeks regime change in Moscow. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tweeted as…

  • Malala appeals to world leaders

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    Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has written an open letter to world leaders seeking help on Climate Change, education and slavery Malala calls on world leaders to make 2015 the year in which they and the rest of the world “commit to seeing the last child out of school, the last child forced into slavery and…

  • PALESTINE: Trapped In Their Public Narrative

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    The upcoming March 2015 Israeli elections provide the Palestinians a momentous opportunity to engage in reconciliatory public narratives by stating their readiness, willingness, and ability to negotiate in earnest to achieve a lasting peace based on a two-state solution…writes  Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU The…

  • Is it still a nasty party?

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    There is something wrong with the Conservatives….writes YZ Patel “There’s a lot we need to do in this party of ours. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us – the Nasty Party. Theresa May, Chairman of the Conservative Party, October 2002  The problems with…

  • Will saffron warriors trap Modi?

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    By Amulya Ganguli It is perhaps in the natural order of things that when a party vanquishes its opponents, its nemesis emerges from within its own ranks. This is what appears to be happening in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If it thought that the party’s majority in the Lok Sabha will enable Prime Minister…

  • Has Modi changed caste politics?

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    By Saeed Naqvi  Eminent TV anchor, Rajdeep Sardesai, has in a recent article drawn attention to the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has restored balance to his cabinet by inducting Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu, two Gaud Saraswat Brahmins, as full fledged ministers. Some writers took him to task for his Brahminical digression, strange…

  • Oh My Lord! Lets Blame it on the Muslims

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    Payday loans, big finance institutions, pig farmers and anything else peddled but prohibited within the religion are surely next. Not selling much? Pesky Muslims again…writes YZ Patel Muslim are now the default choice for the ills of everything and anything. Not a day goes by when we are not in the news or being blamed…

  • How Bibi Committed Political Suicide ?

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, comments on the latest developments in the Jewish state Prime Minster Netanyahu’s insistence on passing a bill that will define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is as disgraceful as his denial that Israel is not an occupying power.…

  • Bhopal Tragedy: Three Decades of Trauma

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    M.R. Narayan Swamy comments on Bhopal Gas leak“Can you go to Bhopal immediately? Something big seems to have happened. Many people have died. You can help out our local bureau and return after two or three days.” This was U.R. Kalkur, a marvel of a journalist who was the deputy general manager of UNI. He spoke…

  • You must earn your place in this country!

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    If we want to make constructive contribution to the society we live in and want to be part of then we must do things that allow us to do that…comments YZ Patel on the issue of discrimination at British workplaces Two paradoxical emails dropped in the inbox. One a report pertaining how British Muslims face…

  • Cry, the beloved country!

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    How fair is our justice system? Why there are two yardsticks to measure the crimes and perpetrators of crime…writes YZ Patel Picture the scene… A young Muslim, fervent in his beliefs but recalcitrant to those that the British authorities feel he should hold with regards to his religion. His family are also sharing of the…

  • Britain should double intake of Indian students

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    By Karan Bilimoria Student mobility is a proven means of building long-lasting relations between countries. There is no better opportunity for India and Britain to further this cause than now when our two countries mark the 400th year of direct relations. As chancellor of the University of Birmingham, the most frequent question I am asked…

  • A political football called migration

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    It is the political football that is migration or more to the point immigration, as we are the offspring of….says YZ Patel Always the first, second , third , fourth and fifth topic to be discussed on Question Time on every show. It’s a obstreperous subject for most of us as without it we wouldn’t…

  • Sidhu does shadow boxing

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    By Jaideep Sarin   In the last couple of months, the “time-tested” ruling alliance of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is feeling the strain, forcing senior leaders from both sides to step in and claim that all is well. Both sides have indulged in shadow-boxing in recent weeks with the centrepiece…

  • The Four Musketeers: Khamenei, Bibi, Putin and Erdogan

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    By Alon Ben-Meir,  professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU   As it happened, Ali Khamenei, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were all walking in one of the UN’s corridors. To show that he is just an ordinary human being and a humble man, Khamenei shouted, ‘hey Vladimir, Tayyip, Bibi,…

  • China holds the key for regional peace

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    India’s ambivalence on China can derail regional groupings… writes Subir Bhaumik   A senior diplomat recently told a seminar in Kolkata that India joins too many regional groupings, some of them overlapping, and then not doing anything worthwhile to carry forward their intended agendas. The message from this former ambassador to three countries was clear: Only when…

  • ANALYSIS: 6 months of Modi Rule

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    Right noises on economy, time for action…says Arvind Padmanabhan by analysing the  six months of Modi rule An area that evoked much expectation from the people when the Narendra Modi-led majority government took the reins over six months ago was economic revival, as it was seen as spurring growth, creating jobs, stabilizing prices and boosting incomes.…

  • Saeed Naqvi reviews Middle East politics

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    Release Of Al Jazeera journalists will confirm regional realignment …writes Saeed Naqvi My crystal ball tells me that the three Al Jazeera journalists, incarcerated in Cairo for the past six months, are about to be released. The three were part of Egypt’s most powerful news bureau during the brief spell of President Mohammad Morsi, of the Muslim…

  • Is there any justice for Vishal ?

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    Vishal Mehrotra, son of Vishambar Mehrotra – a former solicitor and now retired magistrate, was abducted in 1981 when he was 8. He was allegedly murdered by the Westminster VIP Paedophile ring. This information given to Vishal’s father by a male prostitute who frequented the infamous Elm House establishment…writes YZ Patel A day when the…

  • Dice loaded in favour of Kashmir Valley

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    By Vijay Kranti Probably the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in India is the only elected house in the world which keeps 24 of its seats vacant in the name of one of its erstwhile regions that is now disputed territory — what is known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK. That is why voters in the…

  • The other wall that fell with Berlin Wall

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      By Rajendra Shende The Montreal Protocol’s entry into force gave birth to the freedom from yet another Iron Curtain. ‘Wall of Shame!’ moaned the Western proponents of freedom to describe 155 km of Berlin Wall that finally came down Nov 9, 1989. The architects of the Wall, however, called it ‘anti-fascist protection’, built to…

  • Indian reforms at stake

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    BJP-Congress tension will hurt reforms…writes  Amulya Ganguli It has long been said that the economic reforms are irreversible. Moreover, the Left claims that both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are on the same page on this subject since they both pursue what the Communists call “neo-liberal” policies. Yet, there are complications. As was…

  • OH, JUST GIVE ME THE NUMBER!

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra Do you agree that everyone has a mobile phone? Some have three, like little trophies aligned to make them feel important. And you also accept that scarcely anyone uses the landline anymore. It is there but you really do not use it like you used to at one time. So,…

  • INTROSPECTION by YZ Patel

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    YZ Patel taking a break to introspect the state of affairs we are in A fireworks display. Nothing out of the ordinary then.  There are hundreds throughout the country. A special significance about this one? More expensive pyrotechnics? More events surrounding it? Somebody from The only way is Essex turning up? Going on all night?…

  • The Fallacy Of The Gaza Withdrawal

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, comments on the latest developments at the Holy land The Netanyahu government has forcefully and consistently promulgated the notion that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, its subsequent takeover by Hamas, and the violence emanating from it strongly suggest that…

  • A political double act with Nehru

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    By Prashant Sood  It is a celebration of Nehru in an era of Modi and politIcal tensions are visible. The 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, on Nov 14 has already sparked a political face-off with Congress seeking to resurrect his legacy as its chief custodian and the Narendra Modi government…

  • UN gets India’s help

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    India pledges over $9 mn for UN development activities…reports Arul Louis  Although India says it “has its own plate full of developmental challenges”, it pledged contributions of over $9.2 million for UN development activities in 2015. Announcing the pledges earmarked for 13 programmes , Prakash Gupta of India’s UN Mission, said: “As a developing country, while…

  • If we are not playing we will never be coaching!

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    In the last 30 years the total Asian population of the United Kingdom has not produced 10 professional footballers never mind those with the ability to play at the highest level for the country of their birth at full level…writes YZ Patel Uruguay , Bosnia Herzegovina , Slovenia , Latvia , Jamaica , Northern Ireland…

  • Jailtley’s ever growing clout

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    Arvind Padmanabhan writes about Modi’s right hand man and his growing clout That the defence portfolio will be taken away from Arun Jaitley was a given. The lawyer-politician, who will turn 62 next month, had himself said in as many words that it was an additional charge he was holding, which would be assigned to someone else…

  • Modi shows he is boss

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     Amulya Ganguli writes about the total control of Modi  But for the drama of the Shiv Sena’s boycott of the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi’s expanded council of ministers, the occasion – the first expansion of his five-month-old government – passed off as a routine event. However, the fact that the Sena’s nominee, Anil Desai,…

  • To wear or not to wear the poppy

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    We are seeing and will see the poppy on our screens big and small on the football grounds on the pitch and off the pitch on the streets everywhere we go somebody will be wearing a form of the poppy…writes YZ Patel To understand a symbol any symbol we first need to analyse it’s lineage…

  • Is there any hope for Congress?

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    Amulya Ganguli writes on the future of Congress The Congress high command, which means the mother-and-son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, is mistaken if it believes that the deep nervousness among Congressmen about the party’s bleak future can be dispelled by a token offer of resignation by the two and a clean chit for…

  • Oman the set for the Iranian nuclear deal?

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     Saeed Naqvi writes about the the west’s imminent nuclear deal with Iran The picturesque Sultanate of Oman was set to make history. It was to be the venue where the West would conclude its nuclear deal with Iran. But control of both the Houses of Congress by Republicans has swelled the ranks of anxious busy bodies…

  • Sajid Javid our Obama?

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    When you do research into the reasons why Obama is where he is and although Javid panders to the indigenous by simply his innoxious demeanour to race and religion where he proclaims sometimes to be of no faith, sometimes of all faiths being the same…writes YZ Patel Much has been written about our non practising…

  • Blame Bibi for the new crisis

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, comments on the new security situation in the Middle East As Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu aka Bibi has consistently invoked his solemn duty to protect Israel’s national security. Ironically, he has become the single most reckless individual who is…

  • Varanasi desperately seeking a makeover

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    By Karishma Saurabh Kalita  You would be forgiven if you thought that Varanasi, one of the oldest cities known to man, which is now Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, would be a sight for sore eyes. Sadly for me, what lies in “the city of Shiva” only managed to make the soreness worse.…

  • $2 Billion for Varanasi makeover?

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    By Gaurav Sharma The anticipated metamorphosis of Varanasi, the ancient and spiritual city for Hindus, yet maddeningly chaotic and filthy, into a heritage site is estimated to cost a whopping Rs. 11,800 crore ($2 billion), thanks to the high-level attention being showered on it because it is also now Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary…

  • US Asia pivot and its Indian objectives

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      As US President Barack Obama prepares to attend the ASEAN and East Asia Summit next week in Myanmar, a leading US strategic expert feels that if the Obama government is serious about its “rebalance to Asia” then it should take advantage of the convergence between what the US would want to achieve and India’s…

  • How to chequemate your creditor?

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     Nury Vittachi shares his expertise to chequemate your creditors Cheques are dying out, a report says. This is a tragic loss of an ancient Asian invention – so I learned from the new Museum of Accountancy in India. That country invented that form of promissory note way back in the Mauryan period (321 to 185 BC), when…

  • Saeed Naqvi on Owaisi Brothers

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    Saeed Naqvi asks: Do the Owaisi brothers have a pan India potential?     The two successes of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) of Hyderabad in assembly elections in Maharashtra may not affect government formation in Mumbai but reverberations will be felt in the nation’s politics for a long time. Victories in Aurangabad and Byculla were awesome, of…

  • Why Modi-bashers are so frightfully busy?

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra After deep and introspective study, I have finally figured out why Modi-bashers are so frightfully busy. He is not playing the game according to the rules.  There you are, that is an incandescent distillation of my research. Who does he think he is, the BCCI? Not being a team player…

  • An assassination recalled

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    By Tarun Basu  Thirty years later, the 90-year-old doctor remembers the event as if it was just the other day. “I had left after chatting with her, like I used to do every morning after a routine check-up,” said Dr K.P. Mathur, of his patient of 18 years, prime minister Indira Gandhi. “But within 20…

  • COMENT: Israel-Hamas Talks

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    Dr. Alon Ben-Meir,  a professor of international relations at the Centre for Global Affairs at NYU, looks into the new development in the Middle East Although the expected resumption of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Cairo was postponed, it will likely take place in the next few weeks as the two sides appear to seek…