|
|
|
|
Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of July 17, 1998
INDIAN PM ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE asked Pakistan to accept a pact agreeing to no-first-use of nuclear weapons. He will discuss the proposal with PM Nawaz Sharif when they meet in Colombo, Sri Lanka later this month.INDIA IS CONSIDERING erecting a 150-km electrified fence along part of its border with Bangladesh to stop illegal immigration and smuggling. The barrier would be charged with a low, non-fatal voltage, immigration officials say.
Week of July 10, 1998
NEW DELHI will reopen its high commission in the Fijian capital of Suva after a gap of eight years. Relations were strained after a military coup in 1987 ousted the Indian-backed Labor government of Timoci Bavadra. Indians in Fiji number about 350,000, some 46% of the population.
SOUTH ASIAN NUCLEAR SCENARIO
A RELIABLE INDIAN SOURCE says New Delhi believes that Islamabad has identified 14 Indian cities to be hit with low-yield atomic weapons. The Indians planned a pre-emptive strike targeting Pakistani missile sites apparently near Multan in central Punjab and near Sargodha, 200 km northwest of the border. Tension was apparently at its peak in the interim between India's nuclear tests on May 11 and 13 and the Pakistani explosions on May 28. Islamabad feared India would strike in Kashmir and elsewhere before they could conduct their tests. The United States warned India not to use force against Pakistan, as rumors floated that New Delhi had ordered its troops to pursue Pakistan-based guerrillas infiltrating the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir back into Pakistan. Islamabad also feared that India would take out Pakistani nuclear installations with the help of the Israelis - although New Delhi would not necessarily need Tel Aviv's help. After the Pakistani nuclear tests, India's Chinese-supplied M-9 and M-11 surface-to-surface, medium-range missiles were withdrawn from their forward postions, as were Pakistan's Hataf-2's.Week of July 3, 1998
KASHMIR Large parts of the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley closed in protest when Indian home minister Lal Krishna Advani toured the disputed region. India and Pakistan's prime ministers are set to meet in Colombo, Sri lanka, from July 29 to 31 to discuss the mounting tensions.Week of June 26, 1998
NEW DELHI India will cut 50,000 troops from its million-plus army by next year and use the money saved to upgrade weapons, the Pioneer newspaper reported. The army reduced its manpower by 33,000 at the end of March. An additional 17,000 troops will be cut by March 1999.
BANGLADESH AND INDIANew Delhi rejected an offer from Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina to mediate with Pakistan. PM Atal Behari Vajpayee met with her for 30 minutes during her one-day visit.
INDIA AND PAKISTAN The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of its "Doomsday Clock," its symbol of nuclear peril, five minutes closer to midnight. It now stands at 11:51 p.m. The publication said the change was not only in response to the emergence of India and Pakistan as declared nuclear powers, but the increased danger that international nonproliferation agreements could collapse.Week of June 19, 1998
SAARC Prime ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif will attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Colombo in July. The two will most likely meet privately during the three-day session, but no date has been set. It will be the first time the leaders of India and Pakistan have met since the recent round of nuclear-weapons testing escalated tensions on the Subcontinent.NEW DELHI Jets from watercannon pounded Congress Party activists in New Delhi who protested acute water and power shortages that have aggravated a killer heat wave in which more than 2,000 people died.
Week of June 12, 1998
MALDIVES President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, indefinitely postponed a trip to India and Pakistan to protest their nuclear tests.Week of June 5, 1998
NEW DELHI: When the city recorded its hottest day in 50 years - 47 C on May 26 - riots broke out over power and water shortages. The heat claimed at least 180 lives around the country by mid-week.Week of May 29, 1998
In Geneva, Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde argued for removing "imbalances" in the World Trade Organization and urged the global body to be fairer to poor nations. Hegde said countries were indiscriminately accusing India of dumping textiles on the world market. He also asked for a relaxation of rules governing protection of intellectual property rights.Week of May 22, 1998
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will reintroduce derivatives after banning trading in them in 1956. SEBI said it will allow bourses to trade the instruments "provided they meet the eligibility conditions," including surveillance systems, and at least 50 members take part in the market.Week of May 15, 1998
Loose Cannon or Voice of the People?
It is easy to dismiss India's new and highly vocal defense minister George Fernandes as a "controversial firebrand" - the 1970s lefty who forced Coca-Cola out of India and now seems to have some sort of agenda to disrupt India's relations with China. His oft repeated and very public assertions that it is China, not Pakistan, that poses the greatest security threat to India, make life difficult for many people. Beijing quickly slammed Fernandes's most recent remarks as "absolutely ridiculous and not worthy of refutation, utterly fictitious and entirely baseless." Indian opposition parties accused him of endangering Sino-Indian ties, which have stabilized in recent years. PM Atal Behari Vajpayee has so far avoided overt criticism of his defense minister, whose Samata (Equality) Party is a key member of the precarious coalition government.The truth is that much of India's defense establishment subscribes to Fernandes's views. They see a future in which two of Asia's largest economies will be locked in an intense struggle for resources. To them, China seems to be engaged in the military encirclement of India, particularly by basing missiles in Tibet and probably helping Pakistan upgrade its weaponry. Reports that North Korea helped Islamabad develop its recently tested Ghauri missile are dismissed in New Delhi, where hawks insist it was China who supplied the necessary know-how. And despite current good relations, the Indians say China still holds 40,000 square km of its territory in Kashmir, while China lays claim to a swath of Indian territory in the far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. So while there is little doubt Fernandes is using the China issue to advance his own career, his remarks reverberate strongly within India. Don't dismiss him, or his views.
Week of May 8, 1998
INDIA-PAKISTAN A mob of Shiv Sena Hindu activists manhandled Pakistan classical singer Ghulam Ali at a concert in Bombay. The party's leader, Bal Thackeray, has vowed to stop Pakistanis from performing in India until Islamabad stops "meddling" in Kashmir.CHINA-INDIA Gen. Fu Quanyou, the first Chinese army chief to visit India, said after talks with government and military leaders that both sides had agreed to safeguard regional stability. Fu, head of China's People's Liberation Army, called the discussions with PM Atal Behari Vajpayee "very cordial and friendly.
Week of April 24, 1998
NEW DELHI WILL INCREASE MILITARY SPENDING in its next budget amid threats from China and insurgencies in the country's far-eastern and northern regions, Defense Minister George Fernandes said. He claimed Beijing is making military incursions into the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China.Week of April 17, 1998
A HATF 5 (SWORD OF THE PROPHET) MEDIUM-RANGE MISSILE with a 700-kg payload was successfully test-fired on Apr. 6. The indigenously built weapon has a range of 1,500 km, can reach deep into India and is believed capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.Week of March 27, 1998
Sikhs were forbidden from getting married in hotels and private halls after their highest religious body declared such costly events blasphemous. The Akal Takht, Sikhdom's ultimate authority, said Sikhs could only marry in temples or at homes, warning violators they would be punished.Week of March 6, 1998
The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party should win the most seats in the ongoing national polls but will be short of a majority. Congress and the United Front - whose falling out sparked the vote - could launch a reshuffled alliance to keep the nationalists out of power.
Week of February 6, 1998
"They are all rumors," Congress Party leader Sitaram Kesri said of reports that Sonia Gandhi might run for political office. The Italian-born Gandhi, widow of assassinated prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, hit the campaign trail for Congress in an effort to revive its flagging political fortunes in elections starting Feb. 16.Week of January 23, 1998
THREE-NATION SUMMIT Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were scheduled to begin a tripartite summit in Dhaka on Jan. 15. Political chaos in India and Pakistan stalled the talks in November 1997. Trade relations are at the top of the agenda for the one-day meeting, but the issue of Kashmir was expected to take up much of the time in side sessions between the Indian and Pakistani delegations.Week of January 16, 1998
An alliance of centrist Indian political parties wants to stop right-wing Hindu nationalists from winning upcoming elections. "Our objective is to defeat religious intolerance and sectarianism and to bring about social justice," opposition leader Laloo Prasad Yadav says.Week of January 9, 1998
Sonia Gandhi, widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, agreed to campaign for the ailing Congress (I) party in the upcoming national elections. Congress president Sitaram Kesri, who has offered to stand down in favor of Sonia Gandhi, greeted the decision "with all gratitude."News from India in 1997
News from India in 1996
News from India in 1995
