The Government of India on June 4, 2023, has notified a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, to inquire into the incidents of violence in the state of Manipur on May 3, 2023, and thereafter. The Commission chaired by Justice Ajai Lamba, former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court with Himanshu Shekhar Das, Indian Administrative Service […]

As the rivalry between these nuclear powers heats up, long-standing border tensions risk a dangerous escalation. The December 2022 clash between Chinese and Indian troops along the two countries’ 2,100-mile-long contested border — known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — highlights a worrying “one step forward, two steps back” trend. This brawl was the worst since 2020, when […]

An ongoing power struggle for the position of ambassador at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi underlines India’s diplomatic quandary about the nature of its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not issued any public statement regarding the dispute between representatives of the previous Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban’s Islamic […]

After US President Joe Biden cancelled his visit to Australia for the QUAD leaders’ summit, the leaders of the four Quad countries—India, Japan, the United States (US), and Australia— met at Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan. This was the third in-person summit of the leaders of the Quad countries. Naturally, the Quad Summit has injected […]

On May 21, 2023, Dinesh Gope aka Kuldeep Yadav aka Badku (51), the ‘supremo’ of the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was arrested in New Delhi. Though the NIA, in its press release, on May 21, 2023, confirmed that the Agency arrested him from New Delhi, media reports claimed […]

On May 21, 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist, Mohammad Ubaid Malik, from Kupwara District in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). According to a NIA release the accused was in constant touch with a Pakistan-based JeM ‘commander’ and was passing on secret information, especially regarding movement of troops and Security Forces (SFs). On May 5, 2023, […]

Composition of the new cabinet indicates fair deal for minorities marginalized during BJP rule The newly-installed Congress government in Karnataka has begun the process of restoring the communal balance in the State that was upset by the previous BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai. The composition of Chief Minister Siddharamaiah’s cabinet indicates that a fair deal is in the offing […]

In anticipation of next month’s United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China’s foreign policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country’s demands. “The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries, allowing more small and medium-sized countries to have more opportunities to participate […]

India’s involvement with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is of paramount importance in advancing its interests within the region. India can potentially improve regional connectivity, mitigate security concerns, secure access to energy resources, and counterbalance China’s regional influence by virtue of its membership in the SCO. The convocation of foreign ministers from the eight constituent nations of the SCO in […]

SINO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE AND GLOBAL POLITICSWith the Sino-Russian declaration of “ no limits” to their cooperation one wonders if Joe Biden’s call for democracy as the pillar of a free world is going to be attractive to the developing world. Decades back many developing countries were freed from mainly British rule and some from the colonial rule of Portugal and Spain […]