My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Delhi Polls: Chief Ministerial (CM) Faces By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 25, 2014 Who will be the next chief minister of Delhi? It is a matter of conjecture at present as the X factor is at play this time with none of the political parties barring the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), revealing any names, preferring to play their cards close to their chest. Arvind Kejriwal: Battling Narendra Modi Factor It would, indeed, be interesting that after having lost to Narendra Modi in the summer Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, AAP’s CM candidate  Arvind Kejriwal  is again virtually pitted against Modi after the BJP refrained from projecting any CM candidate in Delhi and instead decided to contest on the plank of “good governance” of the Modi government at the Centre. This ploy had worked in Maharashtra and Haryana earlier and in Delhi too it is also likely to help the party keep a united face during elections. Kejriwal does seem fighting against the odds in the wake...

Modi in Fiji: Visit of Geo-Strategic Significance By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 24, 2014 Castling plays an important role as an effective defensive strategy in chess. It also strikes a fine balance between defence and offence. This applies to international diplomacy as well. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s day long stopover at Fiji on November 19 while returning home from Australia after attending the G20 summit could well be termed an example of castling. His visit preceded a three-day visit of the tiny island country by the Chinese President Xi Jingping. The Australian foreign minister too is expected to visit Fiji soon. This was Modi’s first visit to the region and the first by an Indian prime minister after late India Gandhi visited the tiny nation in 1981. His Fijian counterpart Voreqe Bainimarama received him at the airport. You may also like to read Narenda Modi's Australia Visit Narendra Modi's Biography Fiji’s Strategic Location ...

Modi’s Australia Visit : Major Takeaways By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 21, 2014 ‘Rock star’ Narendra Modi is fast acquiring words in his lexicon. Consider the ‘shirt-fronting’ remark with a hint of a wink at the start of his historic address to the joint session of the Australian parliament on the very last day of his visit to the Kangaroo nation! He had picked up typical Australian football slang with aplomb. The use of the same phrase by his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott, with whom he now shares a very warm personal equation, had left Russian President Vladimir Putin fuming. But Modi’s use of the same phrase made a telling impact on the Australian parliamentarians as they clapped to applaud Modi. You may also like to read Biography of Narendra Modi During his Australia visit, Modi often departed from his trademark Hindi oratory to mesmerise the world with his English. As he spoke in English for almost 25 minutes at the Australian Parliament, ...

J&K Assembly Elections: In the Shadow of Terror By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 20, 2014 Terror and election boycott calls have become a norm during elections in Jammu & Kashmir. This time too, the situation is no different as the state goes to the Assembly polls in five phases from November 25. The security forces are on high alert and Pakistan yet again makes attempt to push infiltrators to disrupt the poll process in the state. Recent Arrests of Terrorists with Arms and Ammunition in Jammu and Kashmir Just a day after the announcement of upcoming polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the police busted an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror cell in Sopore on October 26 that was entrusted to target top leaders and disrupt the election process in the state by creating fear among the voters. They arrested eight suspected terrorists and seized five grenades, 100 AK-47 bullets and eight Under-Barrel Grenade Launchers (UBGL), from them. In an operation stretched to t...

Delhi Polls: Do-or-die Battle for AAP By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 19, 2014 Can the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spring a surprise again in Delhi? Miracles don’t happen always but none can be completely written off in politics either. Yet, the political greenhorn’s fall has been as quick as its rise in the political firmament of the country! Delhi Assembly Elections: Survival at Stake Today it has been a battle for survival for the AAP. The party chief  Arvind Kejriwal  realises it well. Ever since its unexpected victory in the Delhi assembly elections in December last year, the AAP’s fortunes have dipped drastically. That the Delhi voters did not appreciate his decision to quit as the chief minister within 49 days was evident in the April-May General Elections where the AAP drew a blank in the city-state. An ‘unforgiving’ Delhi did instead vote for the BJP which obtained over 50 per cent votes in the national capital and emerged victorious in an incredibl...

Can J&K have a Hindu Chief Minister ? By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 18, 2014 The ensuing election in Jammu & Kashmir has fuelled a debate over whether religion should form the basis of the appointment of the chief minister in the state. Sham Lal Sharma, a minister in the Omar Abdullah-led state government stoked the debate stating the next chief minister should be a Hindu. Reports are infiltrating and suggest that the BJP president Amit Shah too has set his eyes on having the first ever Hindu CM in the state. On the other hand, a Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party MLA, Peerzada Mansoor, invited flak from all corners by saying only a Muslim can become the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir since it is a “Muslim majority state” – a view from which his party quickly distanced itself. Even the Congress party has pitched in with its leader and former CM,  Ghulam Nabi Azad  calling for “a human Chief Minister who feels the pain of the people an...