2017

by Mikhail Gorbachev
(The following article by Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the leader of the USSR as its President from 1985 to 1991 (when the Soviet Union was still in existence), appeared in The Washington Post on October 11, 2017. It is being reproduced from there with due acknowledgement.)
This December will mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the treaty between the Soviet Union and United States on the elimination of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. This was the (…)

MUSINGS
by Humra Quraishi
with the election scene gaining momentum in Gujarat, the Congress should invite the erstwhile civil servants who spoke out against the Modi-led government in Gujarat...who’d dared to hit out at the communal slants and the biased moves of the Modi Government during the 2002 pogrom. In fact, these officers suffered severe setbacks but they were absolutely determined to expose the Modi Government. One of the first to speak out was R.B. Sreekumar—an IPS officer of (…)

by Richard McGregor
The Chinese Communist Party Congress displayed all the qualities beloved by Leninist institutions over the ages, of deep secrecy mixed with stern pageantry, leveraged in the service of reinforcing their leaders’ inviolate right to rule.
Its closure on Wednesday (October 25, 2017) in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People also highlighted a familiar ritual, the unveiling of the membership and the ranking of the new leadership team, known as the Polit-Bureau Standing (…)

by Gouri Sankar Nag
What began in mid-June 2017 came somewhat unexpectedly to an end on August 28, 2017, when both China and India reached an agreement to withdraw their respective armed forces—hitherto taking up position face-to-face—from the Dokola area of the Doklam Plateau of Bhutan. This prima facie has dispersed the gloomy clouds hovering over of the South Asian sky for more than two months (73 days to be precise from June 16 to August 28, 2017) which saved the two Asian giants from (…)

by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
This article was written before the Communist Party of China’s 19th Congress. But it is being belatedly published in view of the durability of its content.
China’s emergence as a great power is quite established now. It is the world’s most important economic and military power after the US. The Chinese Renminbi is increasingly dominating the international currency market. China is executing some of the most fascinating great power projects like the Belt and Road (…)

The Election Commission has never done it before and had developed an independent status since T.N. Seshan. He had given it a stature which was admired by the electorate. But the way in which the EC is dilly-dallying with the poll dates in Gujarat gives room to several conjectures. Some even see the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who hails from Gujarat.
What it means is that the people have come to doubt the independence of the Commission. The Gujarat Assembly’s term ends on January (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
October 20 this year marked the fiftyfifth anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India. On this occasion we are carrying N.C.’s ‘New Delhi Skyline’ published in Mainstream seven days after the invasion.
A fresh appraisal of values has overtaken New Delhi with the shock of the massive Chinese aggression on the far-flung frontier from Ladakh to NEFA.
In the course of a single week, the nation faced the dangerous implications of a militarily powerful neighbour (…)

COMMUNICATION
This is a time for India to remember one of its greatest freedom fighters who had become a symbol of great courage in his lifetime. In addition, and this is very relevant to our times, he had also become a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. Indeed his anniversary is being observed not just in India but also in Iran where he spent his last days continuing his valiant struggle even from there.
Sufi Amba Prasad (1858-1917) was impri-soned thrice and was subjected to extreme (…)

An amazing week is unfolding in West Asian politics. It began with three dramatic develop-ments on Monday (October 9)—Turkish troops crossing the border into Syria’s Idlib province; announcement in Moscow on agreement to sell the S-400 missile defence system to Saudi Arabia; and, the freeze on visas by the US and Turkey for each other’s nationals. And the week promises to be climactic in the US-Iranian relations.
On Monday (October 9) the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that any move by (…)

Nehru had seriously thought of evolving India’s foreign policy even before India attained independence. An outline of the foreign policy had already begun to emerge in his mind even before he assumed any government position in the final years of India’s freedom struggle. It was in his position as the Vice-President of the Viceroy’s Executive Council and a member for external affairs that he made the first official announcement of India’s foreign policy. In a nationwide broadcast on September (…)