Al-Qaeda's strategic plan involves aiding "persecuted" Kashmiri Muslims once their objectives in Pakistan are achieved. Shifting the jihadist threat toward Kashmir will also align with the ambitions of the Pakistani military.
The adverse influence of uncontrolled social media in the relations between India and Maldives is a case in point. Social media poses an existential threat to the conventional methods of conducting governance, diplomacy, and warfare.
Voters in Bangladesh recently handed Sheikh Hasina, already the world’s longest-serving woman prime minister, a fifth term after being in power for 19 years. Hasina’s victory was a fait accompli given that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party or the BNP of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia boycotted the election.
S. Venkat Narayan, a senior Indian journalist and commentator based in New Delhi, was in Dhaka to report the outcome. In a span of 32 hours, he engaged Prime Minister Hasina twice asking her blunt questions, including about the credibility of an election boycotted by the main opposition. Venkat Narayan spoke to Mayank Chhaya Reports to explain the significance of the outcome in a country which feels like a virtual fiefdom of Sheikh Hasina whose father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman founded it in 1971.
The absence of a strong opposition can potentially pave the way for the ascendancy of authoritarian, dictatorial, or undemocratic forces within the country's political sphere.
With the spectacular achievements of the Indian Navy in the 1971 war under the daring and decisive leadership of Admiral Nanda, he could well have been considered for being made Admiral of the Fleet. As this involves rectifying past oversights, there are already precedents.