All posts filed under: Politics and Foreign Affairs

In the Wake of Dastardly Terrorist Attack In Pahalgam

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Most of you who have followed me for over four years might know how close my relationship with Kashmir has been. I have written, reported, extensively documented for various Organisations over the years. I have myself lived in Kashmir during curfews, the most vulnerable, volatile days. I have had the deepest time of my life as a teacher, as a Traveller and as a person who is dedicated to arts and expression. Terrorist Attacks are not new for my country. We have been dealing this for the longest time to an extent we were even called too much tolerant at one point because we never knew who our Osama was. But somewhere we do know. We cannot look back to 26/11 and many other incidents But what happened yesterday has taken not only mine but nation’s heart out. Terrorists before and mostly fought the Central Reserve Police Force(The CRPF), Local Police and some times clashed with the Army Personnel but attacking and murdering 26 tourists including 1 Local, 2 tourist from Nepal after identifying them …

A Special Valentine’s Day Story of One Beloved Diamond more Precious than the Kohinoor of India

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There is a story that is commonly told in Britain that the colonisation of India – as horrible as it may have been – was not of any major economic benefit to Britain itself. If anything, the administration of India was a cost to Britain. So the fact that the empire was sustained for so long – the story goes – was a gesture of Britain’s benevolence. New research by the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik –just published by Columbia University Press – deals a crushing blow to this narrative. Drawing on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade, Patnaik calculated that Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938. It’s a staggering sum. For perspective, $45 trillion is approximately 17 times more than the total annual gross domestic product of the United Kingdom today. Yet Interestingly, When the Britishers were plundering India, they took away not only the Money, the artefacts, archaeological marvels, and not only the Costliest Diamond of the world “The Koh-i-Noor” but also the Timur Ruby. …

The STORY OF INDIA in 75 Independent Years

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Today is 15th August. It is a date with destiny. A total of 6 countries got Independence on this date in different years. You can say they were destined too. BahrainCongoThe Two KoreasLiechtenstein and my country, India. The largest and the most vibrant democracy in the world. A country that is diverse in every single sense. Geographically, Socially, Culturally, Linguistically. Since Colonial Rule, a nation of 1.3 Billion people will celebrate the fact that they have proven wrong every Western Commentator who predicted doom upon a young country in the late 1940s, all the way up to even 1970s. 75 Years ago at midnight India made tryst with destiny. An independent India was born. Drained and Divided but desperate to make on its own. How would one describe this journey of seven and a half decades? Its been a staggering, astonishing, colossal and a monumental journey this past 75 years. And no what foundations, morals a man or a country shows; it all boils down to ECONOMY The British crown looted 45 Trillion dollars from …

At War, with the truth. With Afghanistan and her Killers: A photographic Essay of Twenty Years

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I wasn’t really planning to write anything, after The Sins of America any more of whatever turned out in Afghanistan as there seemed no point to keep poking but it all changed the moment i saw a video of the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who while facing the toughest grilling of his carrier remarked that “they inherited a deadline, and did not inherit any plan,”. It angered me to say the least. World’s strongest, resource filled country actually had no plan for 20 years. And it is safe to say that they have no plan to deal with anything under the sun, leave China; I do not think anymore that anyone of us will ever get to know anything about the origins the Corona virus. The funniest part is, that those terrorists who were once on the UN blacklist, were carrying millions of money on their heads, the deadliest of human killers have become great again. Google Mullah Baradar, the Taliban co-founder is now on this week’s ‘Times ‘100 most influential people of …

The Sins of America

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Things have been volatile in our part of the world. Unsettling, as what happened was not conceived well before or rather this only was the peace deal. The Peace deals that started taking shape of some form during the Trump era, without any allies on the table; of all not even India who for last twenty years singlehandedly built almost everything for the Afghan nation- from the roads to schools, to their dams, to even the Parliament- this was never what the Indians were working for and it has shaken the trust the allies had on them. As every other being thought that the Taliban would be given a fight, tall talks of resistance by the afghan forces were given, President Ghani talking about winning the final war against the battles that Taliban has won fled just like the US Army, quietly in the night. Biden talking about the inevitability of Kabul falling, or it not being the rerun of what happened in Vietnam, rather it is the worst what will take shape in the …