The South Asia Politics, News, and Analysis Thread

Their foreign policy is stable. No matter the government, they have good ties with India. This is more an issue of their internal politics. Between dictatorship and democracy, between conservatism and liberalism. Et cetera and so on and so forth.

Family in India attacked by lynch mob after locals spread rumors that they were keeping beef; one dead & one severely injured in the attack.

edited 30th Sep '15 8:34:42 AM by carbon-mantis

Yup. The worst part is that the authorities have now taken the meat for 'forensic testing' to determine whether it really was beef, as if killing a man would be justified if it was.

Modi's just back from the States after his visit to Silicon Valley, and has made a number of new (hypothetical) deals with the who's who, like Zuck and Nadella. There's been some paranoia regarding internet.org and net neutrality and an argument we thought was resolved some time ago.

Northerners. -_-

Foreigners -_-

At least bhut jolokia.

So anyone have opinions on the Nepal situation going on now that this topic is kinda active again?

They just instituted (some would say rushed) a new constitution thats causing internal issues in Nepal and tensions between Nepal and India because the latter had some reservations about the lack of focus on the people of the Terai (the region of Nepal that borders India).

India should probably be careful about pissing off China, lest they drive them into the waiting arms of the Chinese.

How do you drive people into their own arms?

Baripetha in Odisha is the first village in the state to be 100% solar-powered. The entire project cost ₹7 lakh. That's about $10,000. Damn, that's impressive.

I suppose every bit counts, and if this could be replicated in all the villages of Baripetha's size or smaller we'd be much better off, but I'm slightly skeptical of trying to scale up something like this. Still, if it works for Baripetha, let's hope it works elsewhere as well.

It'd be difficult to maintain during the monsoon, but that IS rather nice.

Beef lynching village feels no remorse for the crimes of it's young men.

Indian child killed in alleged human sacrifice The alleged perpetrator was hunted down and set on fire by an angry mob.

In better news India pledges to generate 40 percent of it's energy with renewable sources. The downside is that emissions will continue to rise if India's economy continues to grow at the rate it wants it to grow.

Why are statues of Indian icon Ambedkar being caged? Because of caste prejudice that's why.

edited 4th Oct '15 2:52:51 PM by JackOLantern1337

What, if it ain't doom, it's gotta be gloom with you? Yeesh man.

Okay so I've got a concern. India's doing pretty well economically, and certainly it's outpacing Pakistan in almost every single metric. However, recently Pakistan is doing better than it has since the height of the Musharraf era (mostly due to very low oil prices and a firesale of a lot of state-owned businesses), and earning enough to eventually break the IMF begging bowl again and even offset its recent (and near future) losses in American funding.

Couple this with an Army Chief who is being treated by the Pak media as the president (to the point where I'm wondering when a coup might have occured, even as silent as this one) and now the thus-far-unprecedented step of providing "evidence" of Indian involvement in Pakistani terrorism to the UN....

...I can't help but wonder if this is about to become Kargil all over again.

I dunno, if repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan were not enough for anyone to take action against them, there is literally no point hoping for sanity to prevail.

Honestly, I don't know. If, god forbid, there are belligerent talks with the UN and Pakistan, I don't think Modi is the right man to negotiate. Unaffliated with his party, he's a pretty decent peacetime Prime Minister, a good attempt to increase trade with the rest of the world and build foreign relations (and further a number of corporate interests, but I digress). I don't really see him as a Vallabhbhai Patel-style diplomatic strongman who can get reasonable concessions and prevent war. This could, therefore result in the RSS taking charge behind the scenes, and no war turns out worse than holy war.

Regarding the rains, Odisha, being on the east coast, doesn't really get as much rain as places on the west like Maharashtra, Goa or Kerala, so it could be much better.

Meh. For the RSS cadres that actually are of concern (and not all of them all, since I've had dozens of family members in there who didn't turn out whacko, or even conservative, though that might just be a south thing), that doesn't really get much done beyond the state level. They know full well Modi is the only reason they are able to hold parliament, so I don't see them doing much without his approval.

But you might be right about him being better as a peacetime PM rather than another Vajpayee.

And ceasefire violations are dangerous, but they still aren't as brazen as Kargil was. But thats my fear, that Pakistan will realize this has become a norm and try something more intense in an effort to internationalize the conflict (which I guess they will only try once its clear the UN finds their claims to be nonsense and/or the conflict with the TTP wraps up).

Normally, most would then snort and laugh at Pakistan's folly, but here's the source of my worry: India's airforce has not been upgraded/replenished in many years (the Mi Gs are going to retire themselves at this rate, and the MVP from Kargil, the Mirage 2000, is approaching obsolecence), while Pakistan's air force (professionally speaking, their most competant military branch) has consolidated their air frames from the half a dozen or so (F-6, A-5, F-7, Mirage III, Mirage IV, early-version F-16) they used to have to just two, the JF-17 and later-version F-16s. One of the big lessons learned from the Kargil War was the standoff power the Indian air force provided to keep the conflict on India's side of the border. Pakistan will have learned from it.

Gah. It's entirely a gut feeling, I know, but I feel like Pakistan is gonna try something soon. Maybe next year or the year after, but....not too far off.

The RSS is a bit more tempered in the south (I speak relatively, of course) than, say, in the Hindi belt of UP, Bihar and Jharkhand (and to an extent in Rajasthan as well), somewhat extending into Delhi as well. And the bigger issue I have is that Modi has not really acted against the RSS, either supporting their initiatives or maintaining a Manmohanesque silence.

Ceasefire violations have been little more than skirmishes (I'd have thought of them as overreactions to accidental weapon discharges, except when it happens over 100 times a year, it cannot really be accidental).

The only reason I think war might not happen is because I don't think Pakistan will manage to deal with the TTP appropriately. They may try to use them for their own purposes as an ersatz army, but they're their own thing, and they know it, and Pakistan will probably bend to their tunes, rather than the other way around.

In any case, I'm guessing the new deals with the French for the Rafale (sp?) aircraft will be invaluable under such a circumstance. And I think we might have a new aircraft, a locally developed one, which might be pretty decent. It's one thing to say it's decent, it's another to try it out in an actual war.

India still has to actually GET the Rafales is the problem.

And the Tejas compared to the JF-17 isn't doing great. In the long run, India will come out on top of course, since its entirely indigenous (cept for the engine) and they're working out the kinks, but Tejas is going through serious growing pains compared to the JF-17 at the moment.

HAL is still developing the ACMA right?

AMCA and yes, but that's not expected to even be a thing til 2020 at the very least.

EDIT-

In the long term, India is fine. But its in the near future where there is a gap in capability.

edited 6th Oct '15 12:41:10 PM by FFShinra

Gap as in India is inferior to Pakistan in several areas, that might prompt Pakistan to strike, especially since Pakistan is already finding it near impossible to keep up with India, and it will find it impossible to do so in the very near future,once India's economic and military development get farther along. The Pakistanis might decide that this is a golden opportunity, and not only that, but probably their last opportunity to drive India back from Kashmir, and possibly in their deluded minds, weekend it permanently.

Enough Is Enough: India Needs to Leave Behind Its UN Obsession India’s obsession with the United Nations needs to change if it is to be taken seriously as a rising power.

Once again proving the point, that the problem with UN is the "Nations" part. I wish the New World Order was true.

There are a myriad number of reasons why they will never stop with the obsession.

And what are those reasons?

China's the main one. But also Pakistan, peacekeeping (the subcontinent as a whole usually provides the lions share of bluehats), prestige, and because their argument of belonging there makes logical sense, even if the UNSC digs its heels in and goes lalalalalala about it.