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Three days have passed since the savage terrorist attack at Pahalgam resulting in the death of 26 people, mostly tourists. The communal tenor of the massacre shocked the Indian people. There was unequivocal demand from the people supported by all sections of the political parties that the Narendra Modi government must take strong action against the backers of the terror gang Pakistan. India announced the retaliatory actions against Pakistan including the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. Pakistan followed this on Thursday by announcing that if India implements it, it will be considered as an act of war. Further, Pakistan threatened suspension of Simla Agreement.

It is perhaps the worst of time. In an act of terror at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, 26 people were killed, the worst in the last 25 years since 2000. The world called it ‘An Act of Terror’. Prima facie evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in this terror attack prompted India to immediately take five stringent actions against Pakistan. One of them was suspension of Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. Pakistan called the suspension ‘An Act of War’ and then suspended Simla Agreement of 1972, which amounts to ‘A Suspension of Peace’. UN calls for ‘maximum restraint’. The tale is in progress and nobody exactly knows which way it would turn.

Barack Obama once said “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” The other day an ex-Pentagon official hit out at terror-sponsor Pakistan and likened Pakistan to a pig, alluding that no amount of lipstick will make a difference to Pakistan's image!

International students on US campuses are at present a terrified lot: they can be abducted, sent to some detention centre hundreds of miles from where they live, kept there for any length of time, and then deported abroad. And all this can happen to them not because they have violated any known law, but entirely at the whim of the administration. Exact estimates are difficult to come by, but about 1500 students are reported to have had their student visas revoked and are facing deportation.

In 2024, as in previous years, communal violence has persisted in the form of structural violence, embedded within the legal and institutional framework of the state. Structural violence, as conceptualized by Johan Galtung, refers to systematic inequalities and injustices that are institutionalized within legal, political, and social structures, thereby disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. In this context, discriminatory legislation, selective implementation of existing laws, and state directives have played a crucial role in perpetuating structural violence.

BHOPAL: How democracy can be subverted is the finding of a survey conducted by a leading news paper of the state. The survey revealed that vested interest, who described as "Dabang" are controlled many panchayat without contesting election. This Dabang pays a fixed sum to the sarpanch and panch and obtain all powers to run the panchayats. This is widespread position in the reserved panchayats. They include such "Dabang" who finance election of sarpanch and after election they obtain total control of the panchayat.

Vietnam has shown how a well calibrated trade diplomacy can be conducted in the year 2025 amidst the ongoing tariff war between the two biggest economic and military powers of the world USA and China. Both countries are having best trade relations with this South East Asian nation which is a sort of leader amongst the emerging economies.

BJP leaders and the Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, have launched vicious attacks on the Supreme Court. These attacks have come in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment on the Tamil Nadu Governor’s unconstitutional role in withholding bills passed by the state legislature and subsequently the CJI-headed bench giving an interim order on the Waqf Amendment Act.

From asserting “all is well” on the floor of Lok Sabha only on March 7, the Modi government has had to order “keeping in abeyance the Indus Water Treaty of 1960”, declare the defence advisers in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata and close integrated check post at Wagah-Attari border on April 23, after Pahalgam, often dubbed the Switzerland of Kashmir, witnessed the gruesome massacre of 28 innocent tourists on April 22.

One of the greatest tragedies of South Asia has been the emergence of ‘Two Nation Theory’, which opposed the Anti Colonial Indian National movement. It was a great help to British colonialists to rule over this vast land. It led to the formation of Pakistan on the basis of Muslim majority (Islam) and the remaining part, India as a secular state with a large Muslim population. These Muslims, who by force of circumstances or by choice chose to stay here in India. It also led to large migrations of Hindus from Pakistan to India and many Muslims to Pakistan, the suffering was horrific.