Seema Sirohi
Read biographySeema Sirohi is a foreign policy analyst currently based in Washington. She has worked for The Telegraph (Calcutta), Outlook and Ananda Bazar Patrika in the past, reporting from Geneva, Rome, Bratislava, Belgrade, Paris, Islamabad and Washington on a range of issues. Author of Sita’s Curse: Stories of Dowry Victims, she has been a commentator on BBC, CNN and NPR.
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Nasheed wants India to be vocal, will India listen?
Washington: The ousted president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, still puts his faith in India even though India sprinted to recognize the "new" government in Male as if in a diplomatic race. He thinks New Delhi should lead the effort to right the wrong. Nasheed wants early elections before the current #Adhaalath Party #ConnectTheDots #India #Maldives #Mohamed Nasheed #United States
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Clinton’s Pak ‘apology’ does not mean much
Washington: The sort-of US apology to Pakistan for the Salala incident last November is a tactical move which changes nothing in essential terms about how the Obama Administration understands Islamabad and its game. The “apology” will be portrayed by Pakistan’s civilian leaders as the price they extracted from Washington after months #Ashfaq Parvez Kayani #Hillary Clinton #HowThisWorks #Obama administration #Pakistan #Taliban #United States
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Imagining India: A sacred geography bound by Hinduism
Washington: Can geography be imagined in the mind and enacted? By billions of feet trekking to sacred rivers and mountain tops over thousands of years? Diana Eck, an eminent scholar of Hinduism, says this is the real idea behind India or Bharat, a geography carried in the imagination over generations #Diana L. Eck #Faith #Geography #Hinduism #Religion
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India, US are talking ten to the dozen
Washington: It's talk therapy and it's much needed when you are building a partnership. India and the United States are talking ten to the dozen on a million things, about subjects once forbidden and about roads never travelled. As the third round of the India-US Strategic Dialogue opens next week, #India #Leon Panetta #ThisisNext #United States
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Celebrate, not Decry Desi Domination of Spellings
Washington: It seems some have a slight problem with desi kids dominating the American spelling bees. They are busy finding convoluted reasons to explain why Indian American kids won the celebrated Scripps Spelling Bee five years in a row. Ancient oral traditions, Indian methods of rote learning, subliminal parental memories of #English language #indians #Spelling bee #ToTheContrary
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The slow and inevitable isolation of Pakistan
Washington: When the game has changed, it is pointless to play by old rules. Pakistan’s impossible demands and exaggerated expectations, which may have been met once upon a time, have a strange dissonance today. Pakistani leaders – whether prisoner of politics of their own making or compelled by domestic demands – #Pakistan #Politics of Pakistan #PowerGames #United States
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Pak trades pride for dollars; returns to the ‘business’ of war
Washington: No apology and no end to drone strikes, but yes to millions of US dollars for opening the supply routes to Afghanistan. Not necessarily with love from Uncle Sam to Pakistan. This is the net result of six months of serious sulking by Islamabad and shutting down Nato supply routes #Afghanistan #NATO supply route #Pakistan #Taliban #ToWhatEffect #US
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India-US: A relationship ‘oversold’?
Washington: Clever and selective labels get attention but they do no justice to the reality. A narrative is emerging in Washington that the US-India relationship has been “oversold” and that it is time to shrink expectations, get real and do a revision. Old critics are reappearing, using the current hurdles in #China #diplomacy #India – United States relations #Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement
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Osama letters: Getting into the dark mind of ‘the Sheikh’
Washington: So Osama bin Laden and his association of terrorists didn’t think much of Fox News and Vice-President Joseph Biden. Ouch. Journalists are poring over the 17 documents released by the US government’s Combating Terrorism Centre to look for hidden clues and connections. Perhaps a new detail missed by trained counter-terrorism officers #Al-Qaeda #Barack Obama #Joe Biden #Osama bin Laden #United States #WhyNow
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How ‘outsourcing’ taints India’s contribution to US
Washington: In the current doom and gloom around India’s economic scenario, even the good tends to get lost. The increasing presence of Indian companies in the United States and the role they play is a story largely unappreciated because it is untold. And no, it is not only the information technology #H-1B visa #HowThisWorks #India – United States relations #Outsourcing #United States