Today, in the 75th year of Independence, both India and Pakistan must honour their 2012 agreement and allow at least the elderly to meet relatives across the divide, writes Tridivesh Singh Maini for South Asia Monitor
This is not new and it’s certainly not accidental that women are participating in every sphere of the Baloch movement, from the streets of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to the suicide operations of the Majeed Brigade. It’s the most precise sociological indicator of how far this conflict has travelled in southwestern Pakistan. Mama Qadeer Baloch conducted 2,000-kilometre march from Quetta to Islamabad in 2013-14, under the banner of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons. It was largely sustained by women.
Barring several imponderable items, the pomp and show and the nine-course meal banquet, Trump essentially returned empty-handed after his visit to China, with the latter asserting over Taiwan, ushering in G2, but with no major trade or investment concessions from Beijing. It is advantage China in this round, and the new-found confidence in Beijing could constrain New Delhi's moves.
Now, Bangladesh has said that future bilateral relations with India will heavily depend on successful renegotiation and renewal of the 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, which expires in December 2026. Bangladesh’s Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are pressing for immediate talks on new agreements that should not have fixed tenures.
Amid this regional uncertainty, a new dynamic is emerging. China and Pakistan are taking steps to form a new regional alliance that plans to include Bangladesh as a potential member. This reality may lead to various disagreements about the need for SAARC’s revival. However, establishing active regional cooperation in South Asia would help create geopolitical pressure and push crises like the Rohingya problem towards a coordinated solution.
Today, in the 75th year of Independence, both India and Pakistan must honour their 2012 agreement and allow at least the elderly to meet relatives across the divide, writes Tridivesh Singh Maini for South Asia Monitor
Overall, the changes proposed in the country's education system are in tune with the concept of nationalism and culture that sectarian nationalists want to impose on the country, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Though Russia has agreed to accept spent fuel, it is unclear how safe the procedures for removing it from reactors and transporting it from Bangladesh will be, writes Aashish Kiphayet for South Asia Monitor
To expect that in a possible future armed conflict with a neighbor, India can rely on the Russian army is lunacy. The Russian army itself demonstrated in Ukraine what actually it represents, write Prof (Dr) Vesselin Popovski, Prof Abhinav Mehrotra and Surabhi Bhandari for South Asia Monitor
By using religion and nationalism in tandem, the BJP has taken giant strides forward in the electoral field so much so that its opponents – the so-called secular parties – are at their wit’s end, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor
While the number of those who have benefitted from the Art of Living’s trauma relief is some 150,000, a total of 2,000 fighters are claimed to have laid down their weapons in various parts of the world including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kosovo, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Iraq and the Philippines after being inspired by the spiritual group, writes M.R. Narayan Swamy for South Asia Monitor
Bangladesh's leaders struggled to protect people's right to vote when they were out of power; in power, they continue their attempts to deprive them of the right to vote, writes Aashish Kiphayet for South Asia Monitor
If only the leaders in both India and Pakistan would listen for once to the voices of young people and the dreamers, and not be swayed by the fanatics, no time can be short enough to make a new beginning, not just for India and Pakistan, but for the two billion people of South Asia, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor
The reality is that Delhi had forfeited the tactical advantage that the Indian Army had acquired at considerable cost, to ostensibly facilitate the negotiations with China. However, despite multiple rounds of talks, the PLA has not moved back from all the areas that it had intruded into along the LAC, writes Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Bangladesh is a miracle story, while Sri Lanka and Pakistan are disaster tales, writes John Rozario for South Asia Monitor
Yameen’s ‘India Out’ campaign is centred on his firm belief that independent of change of governments and leaderships in New Delhi, India was against his becoming president, writes N. Sathiya Moorthy for South Asia Monitor
Even in these dark times, one can see bright rays of communal harmony. One only hopes these trends are encouraged and divisive loudmouths are punished, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Museums and art galleries are the preserves of the common heritage of South Asia, and it is a pity these are often destructively targeted during political conflicts, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
In another CSDS study of post-poll analysis after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it was found that between 2014 and 2019 support for the BJP among Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Class has more than doubled, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Unlike many other South Asian countries, Bangladesh's prudent and selective engagement with China's BRI has helped Dhaka avoid debt problems, writes Sheikh Abdur Rahman for South Asia Monitor