India and the World | India Writes

Bharat Ratna, who shines India’s path to knowledge power

July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 - by India Writes Network

BHARAT has lost a Ratna, but the light from this jewel will guide us towards A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s dream-destination: India as a knowledge superpower, in the first rank of nations. Our scientist-President – and one who was genuinely loved and admired across the masses – never measured success by material possessions. For him, the counterpoint to poverty was the wealth of knowledge, in both its scientific and spiritual manifestations. As a hero of our defence programme, he shifted horizons; and as a seer of the spirit, he sought to liberate doctrine from the narrow confines of partisan tension to the transcendental space of harmony.

Every great life is a prism, and we bathe in those rays that find their way to us. His profound idealism was secure because it rested on a foundation of realism. Every child of deprivation is a realist. Poverty does not encourage illusions. Poverty is a terrible inheritance; a child can be defeated even before he or she has begun to dream. But Kalamji refused to be defeated by circumstances. As a boy, he had to support his studies by earning money as a newspaper vendor; today, page after page of the same newspapers are filled with his obituary notices. He said that he would not be presumptuous enough to say that his life could be a role model for anybody; but if some poor child living in an obscure and underprivileged social setting found some solace in the way his destiny had been shaped, it could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of illusory backwardness and helplessness. He is my marg darshak, as well as that of every such child.

Igniting Dreams: Dr Kalam lives on in his inspirational thoughts

July 28, 2015July 29, 2015 - by India Writes Network

He was an extraordinary scientist, but more than his myriad positions and multi-faceted achievements, Dr A.P. J. Abdul Kalam was a luminous human being, radiating boundless energy and an inner radiance that illumined the lives of all around him. Humility can be sometimes fake, a show, but for Dr Kalam, sporting his floppy silvery mop nestled around his forehead, it was his second nature. Scientist extraordinaire, the father of India’s space and missile programme, India’s 11th president, his life story is truly inspirational as the boy from a non-descript village in Tamil Nadu rose to occupy not only the highest position in the world’s largest democracy by sheer self-belief and tireless hard work, but also remapped the contours of the presidency by bringing the much-needed people’s touch to a largely ceremonial institution. His achievements were many, but for countless of young people he will remain a teacher, inspiring them for reach for the skies. It was fitting that he breathed his last among students at an institute in Shillong on July 27. The man who epitomizes the power of dreaming and self-fashioning is alive and burning in all ignited minds. Here is a random selection of Dr Kalam’s inspirational thoughts.

Cuba-US detente: The long road ahead

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015 - by India Writes Network

The reopening of embassies and establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US after 54 years marks the start of a new chapter in relations between the once estranged countries. Diplomatic engagement opens another road towards resolving many issues that have bedevilled relations between these two neighbours. But there are many difficult and long-standing differences that will require persistent efforts to resolve in moving from destructive conflict to constructive engagement. The development has been welcomed globally, and is especially welcome in the Americas. It is important to note various historical and political factors at work.

President Obama had indicated his intention to improve relations with Cuba as long back as 2005. But the opposition of hard-line Cuban Americans and their representatives in the Congress, and the imprisonment of USAID worker Alan Gross in 2009 stalled progress. The recent thaw began with the release of Alan Gross from a Cuban prison in exchange for the release of five Cubans imprisoned in the US since 1998 for spying. Gross was suffering from medical problems and there was a strong effort by the Jewish lobby to secure his release. The Vatican and Canada facilitated contacts that led to the agreement for the mutual release of Gross and the “Cuban five”. Gross’s release by the Cubans resulted in the Jewish lobby supporting détente with Cuba. A New Cuba-PAC has been set up to press for normalising relations with Cuba. The success on this front encouraged President Obama and President Raul Castro to move further, and led to the decision to resume full diplomatic relations, broken off in 1961.

Maldives reassures India, will not to allow China’s military base

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015 - by India Writes Network

Assuring India that its strategic interests will not be compromised after the Maldives passed a constitutional amendment to allow foreign ownership of its islands, President Abdullah Yameen in a statement said, “The Maldivian government has given assurances to the Indian government and our neighbouring countries as well to keep the Indian Ocean a demilitarised zone”.

The statement came in the backdrop of India raising concerns over the land law amendment passed by the Maldives. The Maldives’ Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb said, “We don’t want to give any of our neighbours including India any cause for concern. We don’t want to be in a position, when we become a threat to our neighbours.” He also said Maldives was not looking at strategic projects and was looking at projects on the lines of Dubai’s Palm Islands or Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. He criticised the opposition parties for raising concerns over the law.

India’s Act East policy to get cultural and intellectual shine

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015 - by India Writes Network

India’s Act East policy is not simply strategy and business. Taking a long-range view, New Delhi is planning to pitch multifarious cultural linkages to the fore as it moves to transform and reinvigorate this crucial relationship.
Ahead of the next India-ASEAN summit in Malaysia, India has underlined the importance of bolstering cultural linkages to impart a greater resonance to its burgeoning relationship with this enterprising and vibrant region.
Speaking at an international conference on “ASEAN-India Cultural Links: Historical and Contemporary Dimensions” in New Delhi on July 23, Mr Anil Wadhwa, India’s seniormost diplomat handling the region, spoke about ancient cultural linkages that bind India and Southeast Asia.

“India and ASEAN are today at the threshold of a qualitatively more substantive and reinvigorated relationship. As we work to give shape to our Plan of Action for the period 2016 to 2021, setting new goals to move the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership forward, we not only aim to strengthen the third pillar of our engagement, i.e. the socio-cultural pillar, but also wish to bring it to the forefront of our relationship.”

War games in Indian Ocean: India-US-Japan Malabar exercise to raise stakes

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015 - by India Writes Network

The stakes in the new game unfolding in the Indian Ocean are rising by the day. Against the backdrop of China’s growing clout and assertiveness in the region, the world’s three maritime democracies, the US, Japan and India, are set to conduct joint naval exercises in October. It’s not official yet, but senior military officials from India, US and Japan met at an American Navy base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo on July 22 to discuss the details of the forthcoming Malabar Naval exercises.
The three countries, who also hold a trilateral meeting every year, are expected to deny that the exercise is targeted at China, but Beijing will be watching closely how the Malabar exercise plays out.
While China objected to Japan’s Defence Review, it has not reacted with the same intensity so far on the proposed joint naval exercises between the three countries. The last time the exercise was held where Australia, Japan and Singapore were also invited by India to its drills with the US navy elicited such a strong reaction from Beijing that it was never held after that. The event is likely to send alarm bells ringing in Beijing, with more alliances being formed in the region against it. While China may have made inroads into the global financial system by setting up new financial institutions challenging the US, the US retains its military clout in the region, and still dominates the seas due to its naval superiority. China sees this strategy of the US as the one similar to forming groups such as NATO and a US-led security grouping in Asia-Pacific.

Terror strikes Africa again, West African countries forge coalition

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015 - by India Writes Network

In a series of suicide attacks in Nigeria and Cameroon, more than 50 people were estimated to have been killed, signaling a spurt in increasing extremism across a wide swathe of the continent.
Boko Haram is suspected to be behind these attacks. The terror canrage comes in the backdrop of Boko Haram releasing videos on the social networking site Twitter, where it claimed that they were not defeated and said, “We will be coming from where you never expected, stronger than before.”
Boko Haram is among prime drivers of terrorism in the region, which also include outfits like Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and al-Shabaab. Boko Haram deploys Wahabbi Islam for radical proselytization and is waging a war against what it calls “the evil secular government in Nigeria.” In an hour-long video released on August 24, Boko Haram’s emir, Abubakar Shekau, declared his intention to establish the world’s second Islamic “caliphate.”

10 years after nuclear deal: How estranged democracies became ‘natural & best partners’

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 - by Manish Chand

t’s been a transformative decade in the India-US relations, birthed and nurtured by the path-breaking nuclear deal that morphed the once estranged democracies into engaged democracies. The 10th anniversary of the transformational India-US nuclear deal, conceived on a warm summer day in July 2005, deserved a joint op-ed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, with a soaring vision statement of the brave new future of this crucial relationship. Or better still, the two principal protagonists in catalyzing the deal – then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then US President George Bush – would have found time to pen their reflections, and a thousand visions and revisions that framed the grand bargain. They may still do that, but for now we may have to do with the joint op-ed by the ambassadors of India and the US, published in the Huffington Post.

The two grown-up democracies can’t be expected to agree on every issue, and there are still many imponderables that can challenge this defining partnership, but the horizons for the multi-hued India-US relations remain relatively unclouded. The establishments in New Delhi and beltway Washington may cavil, but the sheer strength of people-to-people relations will ensure that the intricate machinery of India-US partnership will keep humming with new ideas, energy and drive to transform the lives of people not just in the two countries, but around the world. This is the true legacy of the India-US nuclear deal, provided this transformative impulse will endure in the decades ahead.

Where is conflict? Both US and China can aid India’s transformation

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 - by India Writes Network

In so far as larger international politics is concerned, India welcomes the growing reality of a multi-polar world, as it does, of a multi-polar Asia. We, therefore, want to build our bilateral relationships with all major players, confident that progress in one account opens up possibilities in others.

An aspect of our current approach, while having implications for the entire world, has a special relevance for its two largest economies – the US and China. India is endeavouring to modernize in the fullest sense of that term. This is expressed in a variety of programmes, ranging from “Make in India”, “Digital India” and “100 Smart Cities” to “Skill India” and “Clean India”. It seeks resources, technology and best practices from international partners. That is very much at the heart of our diplomatic engagement. Both the US and China – and indeed the ASEAN, Japan, RoK and Europe – can contribute to this transformation.

Arabs hold the key to defeating the Islamic State

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 - by Aditi Bhaduri

June 29 marked the first anniversary of the Islamic state. It is an indictment of the international community that an entity so monstrous should move into its second year without showing any significant signs of recession. Instead, its recruitment drive is increasingly sophisticated and successful, the envy of other terror groups. While the ISIS prompts many conspiracy theories, it has not yet sufficiently unsettled Arabs to launch an assault on it as decisive as in the case of impoverished Yemen, for instance. No joint Arab force was mooted to battle the Islamic state. Differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran take precedence over joint efforts against it.

Whatever air power has been used has been done sporadically, more as revenge, and sometimes to deflect attention away from internal deficiencies. This is how Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Morocco have launched attacks. Western military initiatives led by the US have also been limited and also resented in the region. More resources have been poured into Syrian rebels battling the Assad government, which looks almost angelic compared to the IS. Shiite militias, Kurdish peshmerga, the weak Iraqi army are fighting the ISIS in what are more localised knee-jerk reactions.
Arab commentators and analysts continue to see Assad and Iran as bigger threats.