September 2008
Praful Bidwai
The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), that will allow it to resume nuclear commerce despite not signing Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, is a massive setback to the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
NEW DELHI, Sep 8 (IPS) - The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers'...
September 2008
Praful Bidwai
The Kashmir unrest, which unseated the elected government of the state in July, now threatens once again to become a serious problem for India and its already fraught relations with Pakistan.
NEW DELHI, Sep 2 (IPS) - Even as the Jammu region of the strife-torn Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is settling down to normality and peace, a two month-...
August 2008
Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (IPS) - As the tortuous negotiations for the United States-India nuclear deal enters its final stage, it becomes clear that India seriously underestimated the discomfort and opposition the agreement would arouse in many countries because of the special privileges granted to India, largely on New Delhi's terms.
The emerging...
August 2008
Praful Bidwai
By terming Musharraf’s resignation as Pakistan’s ‘internal matter’, India has lost a chance to express solidarity with the people’s fight for democracy.
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF’S resignation as President ends almost nine years of authoritarian rule and marks a milestone in Pakistan’s tortuous road to democracy.
Musharraf had to resign because his options...
August 2008
Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Aug 23 (IPS) - Dashing hopes that the United States-India nuclear cooperation deal would sail through the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), a two-day meeting in Vienna of the 45-nation association has failed to produce a consensus on a U.S. drafted text.
The deal cannot be finalised unless the group grants India a special exemption from...
August 2008
TNI
Tariq Ali
Post-Musharraf Pakistan will stumble on, its people trapped between the hammer of a military dictatorship and the anvil of political corruption.
General Pervez Musharraf acted swiftly and ruthlessly when he seized power to become Pakistan's fourth military dictator in October 1999. He proclaimed himself Chief Executive of Pakistan. When he lost...
July 2008
Praful Bidwai
Manmohan Singh’s tainted victory facilitates India’s alignment with the U.S. and conservative domestic policies, completing the project he launched 17 years ago.
Indian supporters of a close strategic alliance with the United States, who also profess or advocate probity and democratic norms in public life, never cease to amaze one. For the past...
July 2008
Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Jul 19 (IPS) - As the parliamentary floor test for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal approaches, the domestic political odds seem to be turning against India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The government recently lost its majority when the Left parties...
July 2008
Praful Bidwai
The UPA’s decision to get the nuclear deal through by embracing the S.P.
July 2008
Praful Bidwai
Whether or not the Manmohan Singh government survives the confidence vote next Tuesday, it will be remembered for its deviousness, stealth and deception in pushing the India-US nuclear deal without a democratic mandate, and by betraying the promise it made to its own Left supporters. Why, it even falsely claimed that the safeguards agreement...
