Mainstream Weekly

Pakistan: Will People Buy Into the Claim That Imran is a Victim of a Foreign Conspiracy ? | Mahendra Ved

Mahendra Ved — 2022-04-08T20:53:28Z

If only Imran Khan and his government had gracefully resigned when his majority support was not challenged, had recommended dissolution of the National Assembly and opted for a snap poll, he would have remained the caretaker, possibly with a huge advantage over his political opponents.
Beleaguered democratic leaders do this the world over. But this is counsel of the unversed. Politics does not work that way, not in Pakistan and not with Imran. Had he accepted a leg-before wicket, the (…)

- 2022

Long wait for Justice for Pakistan's Gang-rape Survivor

Mahendra Ved — 2019-08-03T21:24:02Z

For 17 years, justice has eluded Mukhtaran Mai, the woman who has come to represent the feudal underbelly of Pakistan. The country's best known gang-rape survivor has been pushed between police investigations and court trials on one hand and, while gaining ‘celebrity' status in the West, earned opprobrium from successive governments and the conservative classes at home on the other.
Her quest for justice remains unending and elusive and, on June 12, eluded her yet again, when the Pakistan (…)

- 2019

Women Spearhead 2019 Challenge To Modi

Mahendra Ved — 2018-09-25T21:33:46Z

Move over ambitious, egotist men

- 2018

Modi in Trouble

Mahendra Ved — 2018-09-15T15:04:18Z

Indians are generally shy of statistics. No election is won or lost on the basis of figures. But, figures are crowding into the otherwise personalities-based discourse as the country prepares for general elections.
Many of these figures are unflattering, and should worry the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he has just won the mandate to lead his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) into these polls.
For, long after he stormed to (…)

- 2018

Graphic Account of Afghan Turmoil in the 1980s and Questions posed Thereafter

Mahendra Ved — 2017-08-20T06:40:28Z

BOOK REVIEW
Whispers of War: An Afghan Freedom Fighter's Account of the Soviet Invasion by Masood Khalili; Sage Publications, New Delhi; 2017; 275 pages; Price: Rs 495 (paperback).
Afghanistan's Ambassador Masood Khalili is a born story-teller. This writer, whom he helped in the 1990s with information and insights in order to co-author two books, should know.
Even at the recent launch of his book, Whispers of War: An Afghan Freedom Fighter's Account of the Soviet Invasion, he told an (…)

- 2017

Baritone Voice is Silent—Values Remain

Mahendra Ved — 2014-12-07T13:03:57Z

TRIBUTE
Arun Roy Choudhury, veteran journalist and social activist, who passed away at 87 in Mumbai on November 24 after prolonged illness, would be remembered by friends and well-wishers for the good that he thought of and the good turns he did for them. That is saying a lot about a man in present times.
Younger people, among them journalists N. R. Mohanty, Kay Benedict, Ravi Dayal and this writer, who addressed him as Arunda, or just Dada, have numerous stories to relate about his (…)

- 2014

Drones, their Impact and the Pakistani Dilemma

Mahendra Ved — 2013-07-01T05:43:25Z

The May 29, 2013 drone attack by the United States killing seven people including Waliur Rahman, a top leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has renewed with greater intensity than before a debate that underscores not just anger in Pakistan, but also its helplessness at being able to do little beyond lodging protests. The newly-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took over a week to summon US Charge d'Affaires Richard Hoagland to the Foreign Office to lodge a formal (…)

- 2013

Pakistan: Nawaz May Use Carrot and Stick Policy

Mahendra Ved — 2013-06-15T18:26:52Z

The beauty of Pakistan's fledgling democracy, reinforced by last month's election, is that no Army General who seized power has returned to it after quitting.
Pervez Musharraf's attempt is now part of the ‘if' and ‘buts' of politics since it ended in his detention and a likely return to exile.
But a politician has repeatedly done so. Benazir Bhutto did two terms and Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif started his third this week, a good decade-plus after he was removed by Musharraf.
Saying this (…)

- 2013

Karzai Visit: India's Dilemma

Mahendra Ved — 2013-06-01T09:54:00Z

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, is a man in a hurry. He has one year left in office and he cannot seek a third term. He wants to leave “a legacy of democracy” before he quits.
But he fears an onslaught from the Taliban, operating from across the border in Quetta once the NATO forces leave by the end of 2014.
They are backed by Pakistan. Indeed, the Taliban leadership is called the “Quetta Shoora”.
Battling detractors at home and critics in the West who are sustaining his (…)

- 2013

Afghanistan: Karzai Visit - Looming Danger

Mahendra Ved — 2012-12-03T15:40:48Z

In the months that he survived the exit of the Russian forces from his country, Afghanistan's former slain President Najibullah would visit New Delhi to seek support and succour from India that was itself left ‘friendless' when the Soviet Union collapsed.
There was little the government of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao could do to help him, being itself hit by a serious economic crisis and militarily by insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistan diverted the Mujahideen returning from (…)

- 2012

Mainstream Weekly

Pakistan: Will People Buy Into the Claim That Imran is a Victim of a Foreign Conspiracy ? | Mahendra Ved

Long wait for Justice for Pakistan's Gang-rape Survivor

Women Spearhead 2019 Challenge To Modi

Modi in Trouble

Graphic Account of Afghan Turmoil in the 1980s and Questions posed Thereafter

Baritone Voice is Silent—Values Remain

Drones, their Impact and the Pakistani Dilemma

Pakistan: Nawaz May Use Carrot and Stick Policy

Karzai Visit: India's Dilemma

Afghanistan: Karzai Visit - Looming Danger

Drones, their Impact and the Pakistani Dilemma