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Lessons from the Arab world

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By K.N. Pandita

West Asia and the Arab World are seething with mass mobilization. It began from Tunisia, a North African state where, like other contiguous Arab states, French cultural influence has been accepted as well as rejected. Uprising against Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was unexpected to happen that soon.  Masses in Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain and Djibouti in East Africa demonstrated restlessness. Inside stories from the Saudi kingdom are inaccessible.

Interestingly, the wave has inched onwards into non-Arab world as well like China. In Shanghai the Jasmine Revolution activists demand democratization in China. The contagion has spread to no fewer than twelve cities of the country. Authorities are jittery that anti – regime revolution may soon rock the entire nation and repetition of Tiananmen Square massacre may not be the solution. Continue Reading…

Hassel of coalition

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By K.N. Pandita

For the first time after his government was rattled by scams, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has broken his silence and given a peep into his mind. As scam after scam came to light, these received unusually strong media hype perhaps because of the magnitude of corruption and mismanagement elaborately revealed. Prime Minister’s continued silence had begun to raise many doubts in the mind of the people and various hypothetical theories were invented and circulated. However, notwithstanding the rage of criticism and exposures witnessed in the context of these scams, as expected Prime Minister’s person emerged unassailable. Even now, when, according to knowledgeable sources the onus of these scams has almost been established, nobody is prepared to accept the insinuation that the Prime Minister prompted or overlooked the scams. The one aspect to which he made repeated allusion were the compulsions of a coalition government. This raises a serious theoretical debate for the pundits of political science as well as active political thinkers in our country. Continue Reading…

No blind following

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By K.N. Pandita

Reacting to the mob uprising in Cairo that lead to the fall of the 33-year old despotic regime, a mainstream political party president in Kashmir wished the valley going the same way.  In other words, instigating mobocracy is the party’s panacea for Kashmir logjam. But the idea has come to the party only after suffering the humiliation and disappointment on the failure of twenty-one years of externally sponsored and abetted armed insurgency that yielded nothing except disaster. Wishing Kashmir to go Egypt way is misplaced comparison and hence sheer intransigence. It shows lack of the faculty of analyzing situations and their background. PDP chief means to indirectly instigate her party activists to replicate Cairo scenario. This in simpler words is to draw a parallel between the situation in Egypt and the one in Kashmir. No sensible person with a clear vision of past history will find this comparison rational and logical. However, the PDP president hopes that some sort of stir must take place to keep Kashmir pot boiling. The deposed Hosni Mubarak was running 333rd year of his despotic presidency. In Jammu and Kashmir, no fewer than five elections to the legislative assembly took place during that period in which one or the other mainstream political party, including the PDP, won or were returned with the strength of forming a coalition government.  Continue Reading…

Freedom of press abused

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By K.N. Pandita

The discovery of more than 750,000 US dollars in foreign currency equivalents in the administration office of the 17th Karmapa Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s third highest religious leader, has been used to badly tarnish what heretofore has been a heroic golden story. After two weeks of unrelenting media hype projecting the Karmapa in many dark colours, an official statement has come from the Himachal Pradesh chief secretary exonerating him of all allegations and giving him a clean chit. Many see the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, as a living Buddha as well as the next world Buddhist leader and political successor to the Dalai Lama. The latter defended the 25-year-old lama, telling reporters in Bangalore that “The Karmapa is an important lama, a spiritual leader. People from different parts of the world including many Chinese, come to seek his blessing and offer money.” However, the Tibetan leader said, “The foreign and Indian currency should have been deposited in a bank and not kept in cash at the monastery.”  Continue Reading…

A note of optimism

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By K.N. Pandita,

Reports of political climate surrounding foreign secretaries meeting just concluded in Thimpu strike a note of optimism. Read between the lines, this meet seems to have proceeded with remarkable caution and cordiality. The meet has come as follow up action to the meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the last year’s SAARC Summit at Thimpu. The two leaders had broadly agreed on three main policy parameters to go into evolving the process of continued dialogue for bilateral relationship. These are (a) frequent contacts between the two countries at various levels, (b) bridging the trust divide, and (c) discussing everything that needs to be discussed in the background of bilateral relations. These are not vague parameters by any stretch of imagination but are important precursors to a fruitful dialogue. Contacts may not be as frequent as one would wish; nevertheless, there is interaction which augurs well for the future course of events. Trust divide has not been fully bridged as yet and much remains to be done in this context.   Continue Reading…