Indian businesses are worried, even if they’re not quite ready to admit it. That was the subtext of the statement issued yesterday by Nasscom, the industry’s main trade group, after the big American downgrade announced on Monday. “The economic crisis in the US, unfolding over the last few days, does not have any major bearing on the …
India
Five Lessons the World Will Take From U.S. Economic Policy Gridlock
Washington may have cut an unlovable deal to avert a default on its debts, but U.S. and global stock markets are tanking anyway. That’s because the measures agreed Tuesday can’t reverse the slide of the U.S. economy — its fundamentals, to use a phrase beloved by politicians, are less than sound. So, what the world sees in America’s …
Why Did Pakistan’s Spy Chief Make a Secret Trip to China?
Reports reveal Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan’s main military intelligence agency, the ISI, flew on a secret mission to Beijing for urgent talks this Monday. The visit followed swiftly on the heels of yet another round of diplomatic squabbling between Washington and Islamabad. During a heated summer of disputes, tensions …
Why A Fresh Face Isn’t Enough to Move India and Pakistan Closer to Peace
The new Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, landed in India yesterday for bilateral talks and, not surprisingly, the Indian media have heralded her arrival with intense interest. From a land-owning family with a long history in politics, Khar is decidedly younger and more glamorous than the usual diplomats making the …
My Meeting With an Alleged ISI Agent
In June 2009, I traveled to Islamabad to do some research for a story about Kashmir. It was a routine reporting trip, in which I did the rounds of various think-tank experts, officials, politicians and other sources well known to any journalist writing about the region.
While I was there, I got a request: Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of …
Six Things to Watch from Hillary Clinton’s India Tour
President Obama grabbed hearts and headlines with his state visit to India last fall, and there was a lot of talk about bringing the two countries closer together. It’s “a defining partnership of the 21st century” between “natural allies” who have committed themselves to a “strategic dialogue.” What does it all mean? …
Militant Groups Would Benefit if Pakistan is Blamed for Latest Mumbai Attacks
There’s no reason yet to believe the latest Mumbai terror attacks bear the same signature as the 2008 massacre that left 164 people dead. Wednesday’s multiple explosions appear from early reports to have involved small-scale and relatively crude bombs, even though they appear to have inflicted substantial casualties. That might point …
Three Bomb Blasts Hit Mumbai: Has Jihadi Terrorism Struck Again?
Mumbai was hit by three serial blasts in heavily populated areas during rush hour on Wednesday night. Confirmed details are scarce, but local television channels are reporting as many as 21 people killed and dozens, perhaps over 100, injured. Police so far have not made any clear announcements, and India’s Home Ministry has …
Why Cuts in U.S. Military Aid are Unlikely to Change Pakistan’s Behavior
The Obama Administration clearly wants the American public to know it is not allowing Pakistan’s double game in Afghanistan and on militant jihadists to go unpunished: The New York Times reports that the U.S. is withholding some $800 million — one third of the aid designated for the Pakistani military — to send a message that …
A.Q. Khan’s Revelations: Did Pakistan’s Army Sell Nukes to North Korea?
Abdul Qadeer Khan is tired of being a scapegoat. The controversial father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb shared hi-tech secrets and equipment with a host of rogue regimes — including North Korea and Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya — earning himself international notoriety and a 2005 TIME magazine cover that dubbed him “the Merchant of …
Will New Evidence of War Crimes Tip the Scales Against the Sri Lankan Government
On June 14, the British television network Channel 4 broadcast a stunning hour-long documentary presenting footage of horrific abuses allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops during the last months of the country’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The images are graphic and profoundly disturbing. They include the …
An Indian Temple’s Hidden $22 Billion Treasure Hoard May Wake Political Dragons
Renowned as sites of great spirituality and stunning architecture, India’s myriad ancient temples draw tens of millions of devotees and tourists each year. But it’s been a long time since any of its many hallowed shrines were in the news for possessing something altogether more mundane: a vast golden treasure, worth approximately $22 …
Will Pakistan Play the Spoiler to U.S.-Taliban Talks?
That the U.S. has been talking to the Taliban has been known for some time now — Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged as much two weeks ago. A political agreement with the Taliban remains the key to securing a U.S. departure from Afghanistan, because the idea that the Afghan security forces will be able to hold the line against …