Author: Stuart White

Accused of ‘Defaming Islam’, Bangladesh blogger fears for family
11Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Accused of ‘Defaming Islam’, Bangladesh blogger fears for family

Accused of defaming Islam, Bangladeshi blogger and secular activist Asaduzzaman Noor, fears for the safety of his family living at Amtali Upzila of Barguna district (around 320 km south of Dhaka).He says that his family is being harassed by the government for posting a Facebook video criticizing alleged appropriation of a Buddhist temple.Noor has been in hiding — in Bangladesh and abroad — for past several years after receiving death threats from Islamist groups for defending a Buddhist monk, and 10 Minute School, a pro-LGBTQ platform.He has been charged under the Digital Security Act, 2018, for defaming Islam — an offence punishable with a jail term of up to 10 years. Amnesty International has described the law as a serious threat to freedom of expression in Bangladesh.Bloggers, social me
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Article 370: How Modi government changed status of Kashmir
9Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Article 370: How Modi government changed status of Kashmir

On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government in the Centre brought two resolutions related to Jammu and Kashmir. The first revoked Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the second resolution was for bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.This step fulfilled a much-awaited demand of the RSS-BJP, since the days of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, whose leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee died in a Kashmir prison, campaigning against the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.Article 370, combined with Article 35A, accorded Jammu and Kashmir special status under the Constitution of India, allowing it to have a separate constitution and a separate penal code among other legal distinctions.Article 370 is a temporary provision in relation to Jammu ...
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Article 370: Can Jammu and Kashmir regain statehood?
9Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Article 370: Can Jammu and Kashmir regain statehood?

Soon after the Indian government announced abrogating the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in 2019, converting the state into two Union Territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said it was a "temporary" situation.PM Modi said statehood of Jammu and Kashmir would be restored at "some point of time".In March this year, PM Modi told a visiting delegation of politicians from Kashmir that "the government will work with all sections of the population to realize the hopes of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir at an early opportunity".Union Home Minister Amit Shah also told the Jammu and Kashmir leaders that "visible changes will be seen on the ground in the next few months".However, around 10 days after the meeting, the coronavirus lockdown had to be imposed across the coun...
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Xi’s attempted coup against Pakistan
8Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Xi’s attempted coup against Pakistan

In order to expand his direct influence over the political and economic processes of Pakistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping is all set to sideline the democratically elected representatives and civil servants of the people of the country.Since 2016, Xi has been forcing the Pakistani establishment to put pressure on the government (it was Nawaz Sharif’s government back then) to sideline the Planning Ministry’s role in the implementation and monitoring of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).He pushed for the creation of a supra-constitutional CPEC Authority that would freelance the management of the predatory infrastructure and power-generation projects under his direct command.The proposal was rejected then, but in 2019, it was again presented before the current
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Jammu and Kashmir: A year without Article 370
8Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Jammu and Kashmir: A year without Article 370

It has been a year since the government of India scrapped Article 370 (and Article 35A), taking away the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and bifurcating it into two Union Terrirtories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Undoubtedly, August 5, 2019, was a watershed moment, popularly dubbed as “historical blunder being corrected in one stroke”. Of course, the cynics cried foul – ranging from the killing of a democratic polity, recommitting a historical blunder, a betrayal, to a sinister ploy to alter Kashmir’s demography, so on and so forth.Nonetheless, it was a monumental step taken by the Narendra Modi government to seal Kashmir’s fate. In one stroke it removed all the ills of Kashmir misfortune, which boosted national domestic confidence, struck a deadly blow to Pakistan’s ostentatious
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From aggressor to appeaser, China caught out in consulate reprisal game
6Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

From aggressor to appeaser, China caught out in consulate reprisal game

The Trump administration’s order to shutdown China's consulate in Houston caught Beijing by surprise.The United States claimed the Chinese mission had illegally transferred medical research, turned over information to Chinese institutions and coerced fugitive Chinese citizens to return home.Barrels of documents were burned in the courtyard of the consulate before four Chinese researchers were charged by the Department of Justice for allegedly lying about their links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).China had 72 hours to decide how it would react. It used up nearly 48 in the hope of a diplomatic reversal. Beijing had to appear strong to placate nationalists at home but avoid provoking America into a deeper economic, diplomatic or even military confrontation that neither side is prepare
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Abrogation of Article 370: Dawn of a new era for Jammu and Kashmir
4Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Abrogation of Article 370: Dawn of a new era for Jammu and Kashmir

It is almost a year since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. It was this ‘special status’ that barred the Indian mainland as well as any foreigner from investing in the former state. Not only that, a cluster of privileged families freely ran the roost and created hereditary political lineage that was no different than the pre-Partition hereditary monarchy practiced in the state since the signing of the Amritsar Treaty between Maharaja of Jammu Gulab Singh and the East India Company at the end of the First Anglo-Sikh war in March 1846.The Amritsar Treaty signed on March 16, 1846, was the basis on which the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was established and which existed as an independent state for 101 years before Pakistan launched an unprovoked attack on the fa
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Demand of some Kashmiri Pandits to restore Art 370 illogical, lacks historical support
4Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Demand of some Kashmiri Pandits to restore Art 370 illogical, lacks historical support

In a vibrant democracy like India’s, every decision can be challenged and the same happened last year on August 5, with the Central government announcing to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A, creating two Union Territories out of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). While the local political parties, which had warned of serious consequences, have been immobilized and national parties have turned cautious in voicing their objections, an organization named ‘Reconciliation, Relief and Rehabilitation’ headed by Satish Mahaldar demanded the restoration of Article 370 in J&K.The organization comprises Kashmiri ‘Pandits’, which itself is a highly ambiguous expression since the term used to indicate Shaivite Pancha Gouda Saraswat Brahmins of Kashmir and there is nothing wrong in identifying
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TikTok really is the central front in the US-China Tech war
2Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

TikTok really is the central front in the US-China Tech war

If the future of the internet will be determined by a technology war between the United States and China, India is the key emerging-market battleground.Until recently, TikTok, the popular vertical video app had as many as 1 billion users but after the India ban on TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps, including the messaging giant WeChat, the Clash of Kings mobile video game, and Baidu maps, the number of users plummeted rapidly.The devastating effect can be analyzed by the fact that TikTok was downloaded in India 611 million times in this year's first quarter, equating to 30.3% of its total downloads worldwide in the quarter and nearly double the total number of India downloads for all of 2019.The digital rupture between China and India virtually ensures that the latter will land firmly in Am...
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The coming India–China conflict and a higher calling for India
2Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Conflict, Opinion

The coming India–China conflict and a higher calling for India

On July 3, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the border region of Ladakh for the first time since Chinese troops killed 20 Indian soldiers in the Galvan Valley on June 15. And judging by China’s official reaction, the Communist Party didn’t see Modi’s response coming.Modi showed support for his troops, and also tapped into the growing anti-China sentiment that has been provoked by Beijing’s coronavirus-era brazenness. His visit placed the fighting in Ladakh in the broader context of China’s global expansionism. Speaking in Leh, Modi directly admonished Beijing for its expansionist policies.“The age of expansionism is over, this is the age of development,” he said. “History knows that expansionist forces have either lost or were forced to turn back.”Instead of calling out China’s
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