Articles from the author

India's federal government said yesterday it had approved a proposal to rename Calcutta as Kolkata.

Musharraf says willing to meet Vajpayee

It is good that India-China relations have turned over a new leaf. The agreement signed by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao is certainly a new beginning - the much-wanted thaw after 30 years of glacial silence.

Only a decade ago did we hear a constant refrain during debates in developed countries that India was a "soft state." Academicians confirmed the observation in their books.

"Oil is cheap but technology costly." This was President Saddam Hussain's remark to Inder Kumar Gujral, then foreign minister, during a conversation in Baghdad before the last Gulf War 12 years ago.

A superpower goes to war to establish that it is super. That is the principal difference between wars begun by the dominant power of the age, and those initiated by lesser mortals.

The opposite of Opposition is not government. It is, more logically and more correctly, position. In theory, a government takes a position, and the parties across the dividing aisle in parliament, oppose.

Events make questions irrelevant and answers unnecessary. Last winter, on the eve of the crucial vote in the U.S. Congress authorising George Bush to go to war if he considered it necessary, George Tenet briefed senators on a matter of the highest sensitivity.

Violations of human rights and outright plain killings, have recently increased in number in Kashmir. The victims are Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus and they are all innocent.

The rise of non-issues is the surest sign of impotent politicians. It seems incredible that serious politicians should believe that the urine of a cow and the content of a cake will determine the fate of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

India seeks 3m tonnes of Iraqi crude

India, U.S. avoid Iraq troops issue