क़स्बा - the suburbia

THE BLASTS IN IRAN ARE THE CAUSE FOR SERIOUS CONCERN. WE SEEM TO BE ON A BRINK OF SHIA-SUNNI FAULT LINE WAR. FIRST DONALD TRUMP VISITED SAUDI ARABIA AND ADDRESSED LEADERS OF SOME 35 SUNNI COUNTRIES. Micheal D Andrea, the CIAs top covert action expert has been put in charge of covert ops against Iran. He was the man who led the Osama hunt. Pakistan has once again offered itself as a base for covert ops against Iran. Gen R. Sharief is supposed to lead the second Karbala war to exterminate the Shias. I don't think they will find the going so easy. There is  a lot than Iran can do to retaliate. Could we think in terms of aggrieved democracies around Pak to include India, Iran, Afghanistan hitting back jointly, or will we be more concerned with promoting American interests at the cost of lives of our own people? A couple of days ago Iran allotted two oil blocks (which were to be given to India) to some Russian company, due to delay in finalising the deal stuck ...

The recent death and mutilation of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistani army-backed border action team, followed by the abduction and brutal murder of Lieutenant Umar Fayaz by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in Kashmir, has placed the Indian government on the political back foot. It is time India firms up a response to the policies of the Pakistani army. Any further continuation of the “headless chicken” syndrome as a measure of policy will only embolden Islamabad and its proxies in Kashmir and elsewhere in India. Readers can share their thoughts in comments below  

In 1600 when the East India Co. was established, Britain accounted for only 1.8 percent of the world’s GDP while India was generating some 23 percent. By 1940, Britain was producing nearly 10 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and after the British had left, India’s GDP stood at 4 percent. How did one of the wealthiest countries turn into one of the poorest and most backward in the world? “Inglorious Empire” gives a scathing account of what the British really did to India. This brilliant reassessment of the Raj began, in fact, as a debate. At the end of May 2015 Shashi Tharoor was invited by the Oxford Union to speak on the subject “Britain Owes Reparation to Her Former Colonies.” In early July, the debate was posted on the web and Tharoor tweeted a link to it, which went viral. Without any apology, the author tackles the true story of the Raj: The looting of India. India’s gradually dwindling share of the world’s economy begins when the East India Co. was incorpo...