Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Opinion

  • Will Kejriwal deliver on his promises?

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    By Sreeparna Chakravarty   With the overwhelming vote from the people of Delhi in his favour, Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal has been saddled with the challenging responsibility of meeting the collective and varied aspirations of the 17 million residents inhabiting one of the world’s largest and most densely populated cities. Delhi’s unique position as a city-state…

  • Kiran Bedi is not the only reason

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    By M.R. Narayan Swamy It will be too tempting to solely blame it all on Kiran Bedi, the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, for the party’s humiliating rout in Delhi. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be committing a blunder if it does not accept the larger ugly reality…

  • Delhi debacle a personal defeat for Modi?

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    By Sreeparna Chakrabarty  He campaigned like a local leader, handpicked his own chief ministerial candidate for Delhi and made it a personal referendum on his leadership. Yet Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not halt the AAP juggernaut in these assembly polls and in the process lost his first election since his winning streak began with…

  • I, me, myself’ style backfires for Modi

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    By Amulya Ganguli  What the Delhi poll outcome has confirmed is that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can be stopped in its tracks by a determined opponent, even one not as well-entrenched as established regional parties like the AIADMK, the Biju Janata Dal or the Trinamool Congress were in their respective states in last year’s…

  • Kejriwal a man of steel

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    By M.R. Narayan Swamy and Gaurav Sharma  For one dubbed a maverick and written off politically less than a year ago, Arvind Kejriwal has proved to be more wily than his seasoned political rivals who underestimated this slightly built, doughty fighter who has made an incredible comeback by scripting his second sensational election victory in…

  • Delhi defeat will hit hard BJP

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    By Prashant Sood   A defeat in the Delhi assembly elections, as predicted by exit polls, is bound to hit the BJP hard and shatter the aura of invincibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts say. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party has declared that the Delhi outcome cannot be considered a referendum on Modi’s government, few…

  • Why AAP bounced back and not Congress?

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    By Amulya Ganguli Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had said after the Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) success in the 2013 Delhi elections that there was much to learn from the fledgling outfit and that the Congress will do so “in a way you cannot imagine”. More than a year later, when the AAP is again…

  • The Tragic Tear In US-Israel Relations

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    No leader with any self-respect would have dared to do what Netanyahu has brazenly done. Even if Netanyahu ends up canceling the visit, the damage to Israel has already been done, while inflicting extreme harm to the US’ strategic interests….writes Dr Alon Ben-Meir  There is no doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s acceptance of House Speaker…

  • AAP rises from the ashes

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    By M.R. Narayan Swamy  For a party that was written off after its humiliating rout in the Lok Sabha election, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) has seen a spectacular renewal ahead of the Delhi assembly polls. Irrespective of who actually wins the Saturday battle, the AAP is giving sleepless nights to the Bharatiya Janata Party…

  • Faith schools : Help or hindrance?

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    According to a report by the London School of Economics, Communities will best learn to live peacefully together if they grow up and learn together, respecting each other’s differences. Separation along religious lines they say invites division, racism and bigotry to develop, everything the government and every think tank is trying to circumvent. YZ Patel looks…

  • The forgotten Mahatma

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    By Brij Khandelwal  We remember Mahatma Gandhi only on October 2 and January 30. The symbolic spinning of the charkha, recital of bhajans and selling khadi at a discount are the only activities that remind us of him. For the rest of the year, Gandhi remains a forgotten Mahatma, deified like one of our numerous…

  • A Momentous Opportunity To Embrace The Arab Peace Initiative

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    BY Alon Ben-Meir  The Arab Peace Initiative (API) presents an unprecedented and vital opportunity to change the course of events in the Middle East by realizing an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. At no time since the API was introduced in 2002 by Saudi Arabia has the development of…

  • India shedding its strategic inhibitions?

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    The visit of US President Barack Obama to India not only resulted in both countries overcoming their six-year deadlock over the civil nuclear deal but also the emergence of a “strategic vision” document for closer cooperation in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region in the backdrop of what is seen as an aggressively rising…

  • Is Mumtaz Mahal’s body mummified?

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    By Brij Khandelwal   The mystery surrounding Mumtaz Mahal’s burial at the Taj Mahal has deepened with a book claiming that her body was mummified. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the 17th century Taj Mahal here in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz who died while giving birth to their 14th child in Burhanpur, a town…

  • New era begins in India-US ties

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    By Arun Kumar  US President Barack Obama’s historic visit to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations turned out to be much more than symbolic as it helped cut the nuclear knot and paved the way for a ‘new era’ in India-US relations. US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes believes the signal…

  • Abdullah a moderate who had to deal with Islamists

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    By C Uday Bhaskar The demise of the ailing Saudi Arabian monarch king Abdullah is a significant punctuation for the desert kingdom, the Arab-West Asian region and the extended Islamic world, which in turn has larger global implications. The royal transition has been effected and King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has taken over the reins…

  • Palestine in the ICC: A game changer?

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    By Hardeep S. Puri and Omar El Okdah The year 2014 ended with a cliff-hanger for the Israeli-Palestinian question. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute on New Year’s eve, a day after a UN resolution mandating Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank failed to pass at the Security Council. As a result,…

  • Modi reassuring figure for Muslims

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    By Mohammed Shafeeq Narendra Modi is a reassuring figure for Indian Muslims but not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet, says Zafar Sareshwala, the most high-profile Muslim aide of the prime minister. The Gujarati businessman, who took over as the new chancellor of Moulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), believes Muslims are closer to Modi…

  • “Bibi’s Policies Fueling Anti-Semitism”

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    Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, comments on latest world events I am no longer surprised by what Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu says or does. No leader with any pride and sensitivity would have tried to exploit for political gain the tragic deaths of four French Jews who were…

  • A make over for coconut industry

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    By Sanu George It’s time the coconut industry in India got a makeover. Producers and officials lament that although India is one of the largest producers of coconuts, it has failed to extract exquisite high value goods – unlike some other countries. Even some non-coconut producing countries are using coconuts to manufacture a wide variety…

  • Tectonic shift in Cuban ties

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    By Amit Dasgupta  Crafted in extreme secrecy and brokered by Pope Francis, the thaw in US-Cuba relations is a tectonic shift in international relations and quite possibly the boldest initiative of 2014. So stunning and unexpected was the announcement that its implications are yet to be fully fathomed. In India, not surprisingly, the self-absorbed media…

  • Lanka verdict a slap for Tamil extremists

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    By M.R. Narayan Swamy  It may sound bizarre but the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s presidential battle is a huge slap for LTTE supporters who had called for an election boycott by Tamils. Hardcore supporters of the militarily vanquished Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the West wanted Tamils living in the…

  • Sheen off Padma awards

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    By Vishnu Makhijani  Once again a controversy has erupted over the Padma awards even before they have been officially announced with shuttler Saina Nehiwal, an Olympic bronze medallist, throwing a fit over not being considered and the sports ministry meekly caving in. The issue erupted on Friday with Saina tweeting her disappointment at her application…

  • Modi must resolve inner contradictions

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    By Amulya Ganguli  The year ended by confirming the BJP’s upward mobility when the alliance led by it secured a majority in the Jharkhand assembly and the party put up its best ever show in Jammu and Kashmir. But there is a hint in both the elections that the party’s ascent may not continue to…

  • 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),…

  • Sony hacking: vandalism or terrorism?

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    By Monish Gulati As South Asia was watching the terrible tragedy at Peshawar unfold another drama was coming to head in Hollywood. At the eye of the storm was ‘The Interview’, a comedy by Sony Pictures Entertainment that depicts a fictional assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. What began with the hacking of Sony…

  • Citizen Khan is a big torture….!

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    Y.Z Patel reviews the latest edition of Adil Ray’s Citizen Khan Having watched the Christmas episode of Citizen Khan I don’t know what’s more excruciating. Having both legs and arms amputated with a blunt hacksaw whilst having your teeth pulled out with a pair of pliers and simultaneously having needles gouged into your eyeballs by…

  • 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…

  • Can Modi really take on the Hindu hawks?

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    By Amulya Ganguli  The sudden cancellation by the saffron hotheads of the religious reconversion programmes to welcome the minorities into the Hindu fold suggests that Narendra Modi has finally decided that enough is enough. However, he may have left it a little too late to ask the Hindutva Gestapo to pipe down. Perhaps he was…

  • 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…

  • ‘Modification’ in India-US ties

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    By Arun Kumar    India-US relations are poised for a takeoff after an eventful year and a historic election that transformed India’s new leader Narendra Modi from a US pariah to a partner ready to “chalein saath saath”. Modi hobnobbing with Russian President Vladimir Putin and doing “business as usual” with Moscow, signing deals including one…

  • 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…

  • RSS marching ahead in UP

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    By Mohit Dubey   Since Narendra Modi became the prime minister in May, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has been merrily expanding its network in populous Uttar Pradesh. In recent months, the RSS — founded in 1925 and traditionally weak in the sprawling state — is focussing on widening its influence among Dalits and in 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…

  • Six months of new governance

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    In the six months he has ruled India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has demonstrated a new style of governance, of a “taskmaster” in his own words, peppered with some out-of-the-box thinking that has won him admirers and raised hopes among the people at a level unseen in recent years. This is the overall assessment of…

  • FIVE FAITHS, ONE JOURNEY

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    Sherry Ashworth shares her experience of recent visit to Brussels There’s no doubt about it – religion has a bad press.  I don’t even have to quote examples to prove this – just pick up any newspaper, read any website, and the accusations and stereotypes are all there.  Religion causes war.  It sanctions extremism. It’s…

  • Irony of peace award amid border friction

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    By C Uday Bhaskar  In a surprise announcement, India’s little-known child rights adherent Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai have together been awarded this year’s prestigious Nobel Peace Prize “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”. This prize assumes significance not only…

  • ‘Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike’

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    By Saeed Naqvi As soon as President Barack Obama Wednesday announced his intention to lead a Coalition of the Willing to “degrade and destroy” the ISIS, his core coalition partners began to fidget and reach out for the exit door. British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond said “UK will not be taking part in the air…

  • SAEED NAQVI: Friends & foes

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    Saeed Naqvi says even during India’s non-aligned phase, there were groups and individuals who saw Israel as a model for the wrong reasons It is widely known that New Delhi tilts towards Israel in its dealings with West Asia, particularly since the 1999 Kargil war when the Jewish state provided the ammunition required for India’s…

  • Congress in crisis?

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    It has not been an easy time for the Congress since it went down to its lowest tally in the Lok Sabha elections two months back. While the party is witnessing internecine battles in many states, it is also facing competition from some regional parties to hog the opposition space in the Lok Sabha. What…

  • Amit Shah- The King Maker

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    Mohit Dubey profiles Amit Shah; the brain behind Modi’s victory in Uttar Pradesh Less than a year ago, when Amit Shah, BJP general secretary and possibly the closest political associate of Narendra Modi, came to Lucknow, the first thing he did was to head for a doctor. An upset stomach and high fever meant the…

  • The Real Test Begins Now for NaMo

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     Ashok Tandon, former media advisor of AB Vajpayee, says Modi accomplished the impossible but the real test starts now   Narendra Modi has proved in letter and spirit what Napoleon Bonaparte said: “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools… Victory belongs to the most persevering.” The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate has made…

  • THE MODI MOMENT

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    Go for it, Mr Modi, be the man they say you are and lead from the front. Don’t do a Kejriwal and betray the public trust for an agenda……Bikram Vohra’s comment on India Elections and Modi victory Anything critical said today goes against the moment of celebration. The BJP has swept the nation and deserves…

  • Modi just got it right

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    “Ab ki baar Modi sarkaar” seems to have sailed through the imagination of the Indian electorate across this vast country as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA trounced the Congress to its all-time lowest tally, said analysts and common people alike. “Modi raised huge expectations regarding employment and governance, which evoked an overwhelming response from the…

  • The election BJP could not lose

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    By Amulya Ganguli  Even if there is little doubt that a wave in favour of Narendra Modi has swept the country, except in parts of the south and the north-east, what is undeniable is that it was an election which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not lose. The reason is that the Congress made…

  • Don’t Carry baggage, Let Go

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    DAILY DOSE BY BIKRAM VOHRA – The most difficult thing to do: Move on, drop the past, don’t carry baggage from yesterday into tomorrow. It doesn’t matter whether it is a friendship, a job, love, business, most of us trap ourselves by lugging unnecessary cargo and falling down under its weight. Let it go. I…