Linked with Inter Press Services IPS, with BB’s make-or-break choice, with Deal becoming a hot potato, with Political Fallout of Indo-US Nuclear Deal Turns Severe, and with ‘At democracy’s crossroads‘.
Praful Bidwai is a New Delhi-based political analyst and peace activist, a columnist with twenty-five Indian newspapers and co-author (with Achin Vanaik) of New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament. He shared the International Peace Bureau’s Sean MacBride International Peace Prize for 2000 with Vanaik.
Read: No Nukes For Peace, August 13, 2007.
He writes: The United States-India nuclear cooperation agreement, tabled in India’s Parliament on Monday, has precipitated the worst-ever political crisis for the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government since it was formed a little over three years ago. Although the existence of the ‘left-of-centre’ UPA government is not immediately threatened, it has clearly lost the support of the communist parties on this defining foreign and security policy issu … (full text, August 21, 2007).
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Praful Bidwai – India
He writes also: … The NDA’s main charge against Patil was that she would be a mere « rubber-stamp » for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The underlying assumption is that Shekhawat would act as a counterfoil to Singh. This betrays a profound misunderstanding of the role of the Indian president under the constitution, the president is not an alternative power-centre, supervisory authority, or last court of appeal. S/he enjoys only two prerogatives: appointment of the prime minister, and dissolution of parliament. Even these have to be exercised according to well-established norms. Otherwise, his/her role is largely ceremonial. (full text).
NEW DELHI, Aug 9 (IPS) – Cancer patients in India have reason to be relieved at a high court ruling this week which dismissed a petition by Swiss pharmaceuticals multinational corporation (MNC) Novartis challenging an Indian law which denies patents for minor or trivial improvements to known drugs … (full text).
Former senior editor of The Times of India, Praful is a freelance journalist and regular columnist for several leading newspapers in India. He is an associate editor of Security Dialogue, published by PRIO, Oslo; a member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP) and co-founder of the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND). He is a co-recipient, with Achin Vanaik, of the International Peace Bureau’s Sean McBride International Peace Prize for 2000. His latest book, co-authored with Achin Vanaik, is New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament (Interlink 1999). (board/etcgroup.org).
Anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai, agrees with the CPM that the agreement lacks legitimacy as it does not have widespread acceptance in the country. (full text, Aug. 19, 2007).
Read: The US-India nuclear deal, myth and reality, July 28, 2007.
Praful Bidwai pleaded for a nuclear free zone. He also suggested that a committee of civil society actors should be constituted to develop a vision of future Kashmir. (full text).
Kashmir Conference inaugurated in Washington, July 28, 2007: (listed what main participants said).
Read: Nuclear Clouds Gather Over Asia, December 29, 2005.
Neelan: Why did LTTE kill him? On the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the death of renowned intellectual Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam today, an article by well-known Indian columnist Praful Bidwai is reproduced here. The article first appeared in the August 1999 issue of Tribune, India, July 28, 2007. (full text).
Read: A Defining Moment, Indian Elections 2004, June 2004.
Mr. Praful Bidwai pleaded for liberal visa system. He was of the opinion that sustainable peace is very important by making Kashmir a nuclear free zone, July 27, 2007. (full text).
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