Okay, of all the TV networks which one was the best debate on match fixing? Well, for me it was the one on Times Now where our dear old Bishen Singh Bedi appeared half drunk. At first it seemed like I was mistaken but when he started talking I was more than convinced that he was indeed three or four drinks down, at least. A couple of drinks more and I’m sure Bedi would’ve told Arnab Goswami,” Oye, Chadd Yaar. Tainu Kee? Aye koi nai gall thodi hai. Salon se ho raya hega. CHEERS!!” or words to that effect. But you can’t really blame Bedi for this. What do you expect people to be doing at nine in the evening? Good people work through the day and party in the evenings. Don’t they? For that matter, Farouq Engineer who was speaking from Manchester, UK where it was around four thirty in the evening, was seen having a huge cup of coffee (or at least that’s my guess) because you are supposed to have coffee at that time.

Posted on September 3rd, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Amir, Asif, Cricket, fixing, ICC, match, Pakistan, PCB, Terror, war. Comments: 4

All of a sudden in the last couple of weeks the entire policy or attitude, if you please, of every Tom, Dick and Harry including the govt of India on Kashmir and Kashmiris has undergone a drastic change. Now everyone is talking about the feelings of Kashmiris which has led them to resort to violence in the valley. Even media personalities like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai and Meghnad Desai (sitting in London) are constantly espousing their cause through regular tweets and columns in various newspapers. In fact Lord Desai even said that all stake holders must dilute their positions in order to reach an amicable solution.

Posted on August 13th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Abdullah, autonomy, Congress, Hurriyat, Kashmir, Omar, Pakistan, Terror. Comments: 5

When David Cameron, the British premier, was in India he said what all Indians wanted to hear, “Pakistan must stop exporting terror.” When Zardari met him recently in London just days after this statement, the communique which came out after the meeting had no relation to his previous statement made in India. Not surprisingly, it said what Pakistanis wanted to hear, that terror must be fought decisively and blah blah blah. When Barrack Obama meets Manmohan Singh he refers to him as a ‘good man’ which is music to any Indian’s ears but when he meets Zardari or Geelani the words that come out are that America and Pakistan have pledged to fight terror to it’s end or words to that effect. There is hardly any reference to Indian concerns, though there is some lip service separately by their foreign office just to keep the Indians in good humour.

Posted on August 10th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: Cameron, communique, diplomacy, Pakistan, Qureshi, Terror, visit, Zardari. Comments: 3

Though they keep saying that politics should not be mixed with sports but we all know better than that. On most occasions politics dictates sports in our country. And it is politics of 26/11 terror attacks that has forced the govt to direct the bosses of IPL not to pick Pakistani players. Had that not been the case and there was indeed an issue of security of Pakistani players, as brought out by franchisees, IPL should not have included their names in the list of players to be auctioned. In any case security of players was the problem of security forces and not the franchisees. By saying that there were problems on this score are these people implying that our security apparatus was not good enough for these players? Also, may I remind them that attack on international cricketers took place in Pakistan not in India. As you can see the reasons given by them can only be termed as flimsy at best.

Posted on January 23rd, 2010 under India calling. Tags: attack, Cricket, IPL, KKR, Pakistan, Priety Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, SRK, Terror. Comments: 13

The basic difference between India and Pakistan is not religion alone. The basic difference is the perception of identities of it’s citizens of these two countires by these very people. When Indians talk of Pakistanis they are actually referring to Pakistanis only and not Muslims whereas when Pakis talk of Indians they imply Hindus. That’s the basic difference between the people of the two countries. More often than not during debates on TV channels we see the Paki speakers invariably switch from talking about Indo-Pak relations to Hindu-Muslim relationship or lack thereof. By extension since Islam is so deeply ingrained in their psyche they see the problem as being a Hindus versus Pakistan issue whereas this is not the case. As a result there is no meeting ground for the two of us.

Posted on January 17th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Bollywood, India, Movies, nuclear, Pakistan, Terror, terrorist, war. Comments: 12

If you go by a poll conducted in Pakistan, despite the kind of ‘investment’ Obama has done in Pakistan, America is still perceived as the number one enemy in that country. Let me tell you for a fact that this will not change for at least the next few generations. If that be the case is there any assurance that the govt in Pakistan will keep overlooking the general public opinion? Remember, how the strong public opinion forced even a president like Musharraf to quit? Actually Obama can thank the fundamentalist parties in Pakistan who have not yet whipped up this very strong emotion prevalent amongst the populace of that country. But things can change very fast in case they actually do.

Posted on November 23rd, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: India, obama, Pakistan, PM, Terror, US, visit, war. Comments: 8

“Without forgiveness, life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.” And “The longing for vengeance is like craving for poison.” These lines are from an article written by Pierre Lavalle, a Canadian therapist, published in Times of India dated 22 Nov 09. He goes on to say that though it is very difficult for us but we should try and forgive those who carried out these terror attacks in Mumbai last year. Well, it had to come to this someday but it is rather surprising that Times of India published this article within just about an year of the most horrific terrorist attack on our soil. The call first got diluted from an all out war against Pakistan to just action against perpetrators of 26/11, then it got further watered down when Pak govt let go of one perpetrator after another while at the same time giving lip service of all possible help against terrorists even as our govt watched it helplessly and now sections of media within our own country are telling us that we should move on and forgive those murderers altogether, albeit on the prodding of westerners.

Posted on November 22nd, 2009 under India calling. Tags: 26/11, attack, forget, forgive, Kasab, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terror. Comments: 13

The first and foremost thing we need to understand is that, as George Fernandes had said long time ago, it is China which is our number one enemy and not Pakistan. Yes, we need to get this straight up front. And so our military policy has to shift from being a Pak centric one to being a China centric one. In effect what this implies is that China has to be dealt with even before we sort out the problem of Kashmir with Pakistan. Yeah, that is the crux of this statement. And yes, there are many ways in which we can deal with the Chinese, effectively.

Posted on September 14th, 2009 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: border, China, dispute, India, Pakistan, pressure, Tibet, Uyghur, Xinjiang. Comments: 11

Tell you what? It is just fine with me that we were partitioned because I’m not so sure whether we would have remained as one nation even for a few years more after 1947. We would have encountered resistance from Balochis, SIndhis, section of Punjabis, may be even Bengalis, Tamils or Kannadigas and God only knows who all. And take it from me there would have been many more riots between various religious and regional groups.

Posted on August 26th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Gandhi, India, Jinnah, nation, Nehru, Pakistan, partition, Patel. Comments: 8