In the first half of 2023, India bore witness to a disturbing surge in hate speech events targeting its Muslim minority population. This article delves into the documented instances of such events, the underlying causes, and the potential ramifications for Indian society and politics. While India lacks an official definition of hate speech, we adopt the United Nations framework, which […]

Right from the inception of Pakistan, it has had the insatiable desire to keep Afghanistan under its tacit control; anything and everything for Afghanistan should go through Pakistan. Pakistan, from the 1980s, increasingly meddled in the affairs of Afghanistan. From training and nurturing the Taliban in the early 1990s to supporting the US in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) […]

Within the legal framework of India, provisions exist to facilitate a transition, if necessary, from the usage of Bharat with India as is the case today to only Bharat with the complete exclusion of India. It is plausible for this transition to occur, but contingent entirely upon political resolve and a societal climate conducive to change. All talk, till it […]

Malaysia faces a tough crossroads of economic choice in choosing to end its reliance on China or to align more closely on the West for long term economic assurance, albeit in a slower term. Kuala Lumpur will need to have a strategic long term reorientation of its economic fundamentals, especially on ensuring a dependable and sustainable external economic dependence. Current […]

Malaysia’s August 2023 state elections have left the country’s political landscape in a precarious equilibrium. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim kept the opposition at bay, but his unity government — an alliance of political forces anchored by the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition and the former long-time ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (National Front) — lost ground, mainly in Malay-majority constituencies. […]

On 13 September, Afghanistan’s acting Prime Minister, Mohammad Hasan Akhund, and the Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, welcomed China’s newly appointed ambassador, Zhao Sheng, at the presidential palace in Kabul. Subsequently, the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan urged the international community to continue engaging in dialogue with the Taliban and, in turn, encouraged the Taliban to adopt moderate policies and establish […]

The UN Security Council is holding a meeting on Afghanistan on Tuesday where Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary General’s special representative for Afghanistan, will present her report on the situation in Afghanistan, especially that of women and girls. Nasir Ahmad Faiq, head of Afghanistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, as appointed by the former republic government, and UN Women […]

Majed Al Ansari, an advisor to Qatar’s deputy prime minister, says Afghanistan’s isolation is not the solution and the world should rather engage with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). Speaking in an interview with Al-Monitor, Ansari said that since the collapse of the previous government and IEA’s takeover, Qatar has told the world that Afghanistan’s isolation was not the […]

Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister, Anwar ul Haq Kakar said this week that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) does “reside on Afghan soil” and that they even have training camps in the country. In an interview with TRT this week, he said: “We do raise such issues with them (the IEA), there are training camps over there, on their soil (Afghanistan) which is […]