We need to wait till May 2019 to see if India requires the services of a man capable of managing contradictions, and clubbing nationalism and patriotism with plurality.
The Spy Chronicles is a book of conversations between the former intelligence chiefs of India and Pakistan, A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani, respectively. The discussions centre on several subjects, from Kashmir and PM Narendra Modi, to how Osama bin Laden was given up to the Americans.
A stunted middle class may be a direct result of extreme inequality. Folks at the top don’t see teeming masses as a meaningful market, except for utilities, soap, short videos, and personal loans.
Up to 100% foreign ownership of insurance firms, and overhauled rules for banks, pension funds and capital markets aim to shift savings from idle assets toward equities, bonds and long-term investments.
It is argued that India-Israel ties are moving from buyer–seller dynamic to one focused on joint development & manufacturing partnership, a shift 'more durable' than traditional arms sales.
Don’t blame misfortune. This is colossal incompetence and insensitivity. So bad, heads would have rolled even in the old PSU-era Indian Airlines and Air India.
Vajpayee was a PATHETIC PM . Apart from testing the nuclear bomb he did NOTHING .
The biggest failures was his response to Kargil and the Air India Hijacking. His tenure as PM was one of India’s weakest and worst periods of weakness and failure. On Economic policies he did help in selling PSUs which was a positive but he never accomplished anything close to GST which should have happened then.
In this recent euphoria over Atalji and his kashmir policy, people forget how he was treated by journalists as well as public after the 2004 election defeat. He took some extraordinary decisions, but no one wanted him back, and his term was labeled by us (citizens, journalists, activists, politicians) as one in which nothing substantial was achieved, and ‘India shining’ was laughed at. In the next 10 years, thought little was achieved, but congress did return to power. Indians have always loved the governments that do little and act only to plug holes.
This journalist is one of the most fair-minded persons I’ve ever read. He often punishes bjp, but never spares congress either.
Shekhar sir’s lasting problem is that he is too full of himself, the story cannot ever go very far from himself – and because of that is trapped in his own echo chamber.
Who else would otherwise rehash what Vajpayee said a 15 years ago as his unyielding opinion today.
How ironic, that’s a little like the Modiji he’s criticizing here.
The current state of affairs in Kashmir [not Jammu and Ladhak] is primarily due to Pakistan and religion-over-nation doctrine practised by the local residents.
It is an oversimplification to attribute acts, beliefs and policies of leaders and successive government selectively; to build a case for such a conclusion Shekhar.
Each PM did the best they could, based on their party’s ideology, ground situation and limitations therein.
Modi is doing the best he can.
ultimately the future of Kashmiris youths are in their own hands, and right now they have decided it will be ‘violent’.
Vajpayeeji was statesman enough to understand what it would be regarded now as anti national to admit – that two out of three actors in this menage a trois that history has created are deeply unhappy. Viewed objectively, there is little love and romance for the third one either. Changing the status quo is impossible, so treasure and blood continue to be expended. If we persuade ourselves that ordinary Kashmiris merely wish to get on with their lives, weaving carpets and growing apples, smiling at high spending tourists, just a few of their youth are misguided, all the troubles the work of Pakistan, the only issue outstanding between the two countries the restoration of PoK to its rightful owners, this sad, futile conflict that has blighted the subcontinent for seventy years has a lot of life left in it. One can only hope that this latest spell of Governor’s rule will be used to restore a measure of calm, keeping the toll as low as it possibly can be. Nothing the coalition government has done in the last three years or what the Governor does in the next one year will create a tailwind for 2019.
Vajpayee the statesman averted a near catastrophe. He was a Foreign Minister previously and so, he knows more about foreign policy decisions more than anyone else. Manmohan Singh is only an economist and Mr. Vajpayee is a statesman who always favors the interests of the nation above everything else. He is so different among the current breed of vote bank hungry politicians. He averted a full-fledged war by virtue of his tactical acumen and a brilliant national security adviser. We have been congratulated the world over for averting a full-fledged war with Pakistan. Kudos to Vajpayee.
Vajpayee was a PATHETIC PM . Apart from testing the nuclear bomb he did NOTHING .
The biggest failures was his response to Kargil and the Air India Hijacking. His tenure as PM was one of India’s weakest and worst periods of weakness and failure. On Economic policies he did help in selling PSUs which was a positive but he never accomplished anything close to GST which should have happened then.
In this recent euphoria over Atalji and his kashmir policy, people forget how he was treated by journalists as well as public after the 2004 election defeat. He took some extraordinary decisions, but no one wanted him back, and his term was labeled by us (citizens, journalists, activists, politicians) as one in which nothing substantial was achieved, and ‘India shining’ was laughed at. In the next 10 years, thought little was achieved, but congress did return to power. Indians have always loved the governments that do little and act only to plug holes.
This journalist is one of the most fair-minded persons I’ve ever read. He often punishes bjp, but never spares congress either.
Shekhar sir’s lasting problem is that he is too full of himself, the story cannot ever go very far from himself – and because of that is trapped in his own echo chamber.
Who else would otherwise rehash what Vajpayee said a 15 years ago as his unyielding opinion today.
How ironic, that’s a little like the Modiji he’s criticizing here.
The current state of affairs in Kashmir [not Jammu and Ladhak] is primarily due to Pakistan and religion-over-nation doctrine practised by the local residents.
It is an oversimplification to attribute acts, beliefs and policies of leaders and successive government selectively; to build a case for such a conclusion Shekhar.
Each PM did the best they could, based on their party’s ideology, ground situation and limitations therein.
Modi is doing the best he can.
ultimately the future of Kashmiris youths are in their own hands, and right now they have decided it will be ‘violent’.
Vajpayeeji was statesman enough to understand what it would be regarded now as anti national to admit – that two out of three actors in this menage a trois that history has created are deeply unhappy. Viewed objectively, there is little love and romance for the third one either. Changing the status quo is impossible, so treasure and blood continue to be expended. If we persuade ourselves that ordinary Kashmiris merely wish to get on with their lives, weaving carpets and growing apples, smiling at high spending tourists, just a few of their youth are misguided, all the troubles the work of Pakistan, the only issue outstanding between the two countries the restoration of PoK to its rightful owners, this sad, futile conflict that has blighted the subcontinent for seventy years has a lot of life left in it. One can only hope that this latest spell of Governor’s rule will be used to restore a measure of calm, keeping the toll as low as it possibly can be. Nothing the coalition government has done in the last three years or what the Governor does in the next one year will create a tailwind for 2019.
Very nice article Shekhar
Vajpayee the statesman averted a near catastrophe. He was a Foreign Minister previously and so, he knows more about foreign policy decisions more than anyone else. Manmohan Singh is only an economist and Mr. Vajpayee is a statesman who always favors the interests of the nation above everything else. He is so different among the current breed of vote bank hungry politicians. He averted a full-fledged war by virtue of his tactical acumen and a brilliant national security adviser. We have been congratulated the world over for averting a full-fledged war with Pakistan. Kudos to Vajpayee.