Bharat Karnad

May 03, 2012

Bharat Karnad is professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Nelson Mandela 'very critical, anything is imminent': Daughter

Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela's condition is 'very critical' and 'anything is imminent', his daughter Makaziwe Mandela said Thursday.

"I can reiterate that Tata (father) is very critical, that any

Strategic pincer & Trojan horses

Consider the simplified timeline: on May 4, when the armed intrusion by Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the Depsang Bulge was on-going, the Indian government in an inspired fit announced the extension of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scheduled visit to Japan by a day (May 27-29).

Zero for DRDO

The Indian Air Force has been clever over the years in a petty sort of way. Short-range or medium-range combat aircraft and so on are uniquely IAF nomenclature; no other Air Force has such categories. In the age of aerial tankers, describing warplanes by their radii of action is a distraction.

Kudos to Dhoni & Co.

Congratulations to Dhoni and Co. for their historic victory over Australia. It was an all-out team effort led by M.S. Dhoni who played a brilliant innings in Chennai.

A can-do helmsman

Nations on the march, or those in the dumps, have sometimes found great leaders to lift their spirits, offer a guiding vision, fuel ambition and help them leap forward. A down and out China found Deng Xiaoping, a fast-declining Britain got Margaret Thatcher, and a de-spirited America had Ronald Reagan.

A game of monopoly

The military variant of that old saw about India being a rich country with poor people owing to god-awful governance is that there is no real dearth of monies allotted to defence but every reason to doubt these are always spent wisely, or even well.

Submarine import trap

The Indian Navy has quietly and without fuss built up a great reputation for itself as a strategic-minded service. Its plans for distant defence are the best articulated, and its procurement of naval hardware mission-appropriate, reason why the government has accorded it the pivotal role in the strategic defence of the country.

Out of control on the Line of Control

In the wake of the beheading of a slain Indian soldier by 29 Baloch Regiment regulars on the ceasefire line, Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne, Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, warned about “other options”, implying something stronger by way of a reaction than the usual harrumphing by New Delhi.

No churning on China

Situation awareness is a prime tactical, operational and strategic level military attribute and also, one assumes, a quality equally prized by politicians who need to be sensitive about every fold in

Beware! A nuclear storm is brewing

The Indian government rarely heeds warnings, does not prepare for the worst and when the storm hits, flaps about helplessly and reaches for straws to save itself.

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