The South Asia Politics, News, and Analysis Thread

Unknown. It's become so partisan, no one knows the truth. It doesn't help that the guy, however well-spoken and well meaning he may be, comes off like a jackass most of the time.

There is more news in the subcontinent than religious issues. Keep them to the relevant thread.

edited 9th Jan '15 11:58:47 AM by FFShinra

Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa's attempt at a Batman Gambit election has failed and he was swept out of power yesterday.

Great news, in my opinion. The guy was slowly but surely becoming a dictator, was not trying at all to heal the wounds the Sri Lankan civil war caused between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, and was basically trying his damndest to make an enemy of India by cozying up to both China and Pakistan. Overconfidence at having already succeeded seemed to be his downfall.

Rajapaksa is gone? Good riddance. That dude was a division-creating jerk.

Considering there was the possiblity of elections not being fair and balanced, I'd say well done on those who voted against him.

edited 9th Jan '15 2:07:42 PM by Quag15

He's probably regretting not rigging the election. He basically banked on the opposition being so divided that he'd win by plurality and also not get hit with the illegitimate election stick by the court of international opinion.

It is news, especially the government ministry thing, but very well.

Obama coming to India in the next few days, will be a guest at the Republic Day parade on January 26 at Raj Path. All the cops have been on alert since New Year's, even in Mumbai - there are cops everywhere, random cars are stopped, and traffic gets horrifically bad when the police make it move slower so that they can see who are in the car (nakabandis)

Yay for the new President of Sri Lanka! Rajapaksa has been rather controversial, but Maithripala Sirisena is too unknown to gauge, I think, except for any Sri Lankan tropers or someone really interested in SL politics.

I wonder what the next step for Rajapaska is? Hopefully a war crimes trial at the ICC...

Ehh. Too many war criminals living in comfort to hope for that realistically. Still, we can dream.

Sri Lanka isn't a party to the ICC, so not in the near future.

Inviting the Den Haag Party Van to Dhaka might be a decent enough way for the new govt. to clear his clique out of power though...

One can dream.

edited 10th Jan '15 1:20:30 PM by Achaemenid

Only people subject to the ICC can be tried by it?

What is the point of it, then? No sane tyrant is going to be a part.

The US holds back aid to Pakistan, and guess who's to blame? Pakistan refuses to stop spending money on their arsenal, have horrifically low tax collection rates for the very rich, and have the balls to act surprised when the US cuts their aid.

edited 10th Jan '15 8:08:33 PM by arcanephoenix

Wikipedia has this map of ICC member states. States that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute are in green; states in yellow have signed it but not ratified it; and states in red have neither signed nor ratified it.

You'll notice several countries that should definitely have signed and ratified for their own good but haven't. On a more positive note, there are also lots of countries that have ratified it even though their leaders (past or present) were risking trial.

EDIT: The US also has horrifically low tax collection rates for the very rich and won't stop spending money on their arsenal.

Just saying.

edited 10th Jan '15 9:04:17 PM by BestOf

Point noted.

While the Americans do have a lot of money into their [strike:defence] army, and tend to undertax the very rich, the US isn't all that poor to need to funnel foreign aid into their army, nor does it pile that army onto the border of, say, Mexico or Canada. God knows how many ceasefire violations on the Indo-Pak border have happened, especially ever since Modi came into 7 RCR.

edited 10th Jan '15 11:06:50 PM by arcanephoenix

Non-ICC members can be referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council.

Should have known, Rajapaksa's concession sounded too good to be true. It seems he had asked the military to keep him in power by force, only for them to say "Hah! No." Not surprised, after he dragged the war time army chief through the mud....

Good show from the Sri Lankan Army if its true.

Telangana CM says he'll kill those who give bribes

Well, that escalated quickly.

He also plans to make the bribe-complaint helpline toll-free.

What incentive did the army have to keep Rajapaksa in power? What made him think that they'd do it, and then give him the power?

Probably thought they'd grin and bear it like they did when he threw their Army Chief under the bus some years back, I'd bet.

That and no one ever said Rajapaksa was smart.

Pakistan adopts army courts for terror cases.

No good will come of this.

You'd think a guy who's been in power for that long would have at least that much in terms of street smarts.

Also, the Vibrant Gujarat summit is on in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. John Kerry spoke of better Indo-US relations, Modi himself gave one of his few speeches in English (and was pretty decent, too) and other speakers were Gujarat CM Anandibai Patel and industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

Double Post, sorry.

Goa Minister for youth and sports announces centres for LGBT youth to be 'normal'

-sigh- Insert outrage here.

Trinamool Congress leader states that CPI-M women leaders 'often tear their own blouse and accuse others of molestation'

-sigh- Never My Fault, is it?

The day when such homophobic and misogynistic comments come to bite them in the ass isn't getting any closer, is it? The world's largest democracy didn't quite get that way with men alone...

"As in the case of other target groups such as juvenile offenders, drug afflicted youth, marginalised or migrant youth, geographically disadvantaged youth, a detailed survey would be carried out of the LGBT community so that their problems could be specifically addressed," he said.

After carrying out my own detailed survey on the LGBT community I have discovered that one of their primary problems is you, Mr. Tawadkar. Hope that saved you some time and money there.

Nice to see though that their following article is "'Homosexuality a Natural Gift': Goa Chief Minister's Counter to Minister's Gaffe". In it Mr. Tawadkar awkwardly tries to claim that his very unambiguous statement was somehow actually misquoted by the press.

edited 13th Jan '15 11:48:55 PM by betaalpha

Bad times in Bangladesh. It seems the opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia, has staged a riotus blockade of public services across the country in response to the banning of an opposition rally by the government on Jan. 5.

The battling begums will never stop, will they....

Damn. Why was the opposition rally banned?