Ashok Malik

Jan 27, 2011

Ashok Malik can be contacted at malikashok@gmail.com

Wiki-washy

Speaking at the plenary session of the All-India Congress Committee in New Delhi this past weekend, the Congress President Sonia Gandhi clarified that the party made no distinction between majority an

Tapping privacy

Is there a larger lesson to be drawn from the WikiLeaks release of 2,50,000 confidential cables sent by American diplomats, and the unconnected but near simultaneous publication/broadcast of calls rec

The Iran question

This past week, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Kashmir a “nation”, the Muslim people of which were locked in a “struggle” against oppressors. He put Kashmir in the same category as Afghanistan and Iraq, which he said were suffering due to American occupation. India reacted by protesting to the Iranian mission in New Delhi and also abstaining from the vote on a Canadian resolution in the United Nations that criticised Iran for its human rights record.

9/11 and TB

In the taut and tumultuous days after 9/11, the spectre of bioterrorism began to haunt the United States. Traces of anthrax were found in letters mailed to offices of senior members of the US Congress as well as to media organisations. This was a new sort of enemy. It didn’t come carrying a gun or even flying a plane. It arrived

A dollar embrace

What does one make of US President Barack Obama’s speech at the joint sitting of Parliament on Monday?

Winter of discontent

It is somewhat piquant that Syed Ali Shah Geelani, hardline leader of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, should be in a controversy for participating in a seminar on the subject “Azadi: The Only Way”.

Time to name, shame

Give credit where it’s due. The United Progressive Alliance government has done well to appoint a committee headed by V.K.

Who’s the real racist?

What is racism and when should a national government take up arms against an act of ethnic or colour-based prejudice or discrimination. The issue is worth pondering because in the past week there have been several cases of alleged racism in relation to the Commonwealth Games. In most, India has played the victim and the ministry

Sweetheart deals

Over the past week, as efforts have been made to get the Commonwealth Games Village and other facilities in some sort of shape, questions have been asked about the Commonwealth Games Federat

The insurgency BPO

What are the implications of the reported presence of an “estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers” of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Gilgit-Baltistan?

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