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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How Pranab-da floored US corporates
Washington: When it’s storming outside, it takes a brave heart to walk into the eye of the tornado and mount a salvage operation. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee did just that this week and with old-time political flair. Diving right into the well of critics at one of Washington’s premier think tanks, #Congress #HowThisWorks #Manmohan Singh #Pranab Mukherjee #United States
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The importance of being Shah Rukh Khan
Washington: There have been two kinds of reaction to the whole Shah Rukh Khan affair – it is no big deal and that it is too big a deal. The sneer in the first camp is matched only by the outrage of the second, creating a narrative which does no justice #Abdul Kalam #OnOurMind #Shah Rukh Khan #United States #Yale
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Zardari+Lunch+Trade = Change? Not
Washington: India-Pakistan meets carry an element of Bollywood hope of good (relations) triumphing over evil (intentions) but in retrospect they begin to seem unrealistic despite compelling acting, terrific ambience and an earnest supporting cast because life intrudes. This is not to say we don’t need a Bollywood injection once in a #Ajmal Kasab #David Headley #HowThisWorks #Mumbai attacks #Pakistan #Zardari
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Pakistan gets 3rd degree on Balochistan
Washington: Perhaps you could call it evolution. But the crippling irony of a blustering Congressman, who once relentlessly berated India on Kashmir, standing up for the right of self-determination of the Baloch people and railing against Pakistan was overwhelming. So there was Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican Congressman from California, loudly declaring #Balochistan #Dana Rohrabacher #HowThisWorks #Pakistan #Steven Solarz #United States
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Dharun Ravi trial: American judicial overkill, and underkill
Washington: Two cases, two deaths, and two vastly different denouements and attitudes. But then who said justice is blind. Sometimes it has selective vision. Dharun Ravi, an Indian American, was convicted last week under hate crime laws for spying through a webcam on his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, in a Rutgers University #Dharun Ravi #ToWhatEffect #Trayvon Martin #Tyler Cementi
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US matching Indian ‘babus’ with flip-flop visa policy
Washington: All is never fair in life but the degree of unfairness matters. When a particular group is targeted for no apparent reason except the heated political climate, it is time to ask why. Skilled Indian professionals seeking H-1B and L-1 visas to work in the United States are being #Barack Obama #H-1B and L-1 brigade #L-1 visa #TCS #ThatsJustWrong #Visa
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Why Obama must shut out the war cries – and talk to Iran
Washington: Candidate Barack Obama of 2008 who boldly talked of engaging Iran, shunning the institutionalised enmity, now only speaks and acts the language of sanctions against the country, as he hurtles into his re-election battle. Republican presidential candidates have raised the pitch against Iran and its nuclear ambitions sky high, the #diplomacy #Iran – United States relations #Obama #oil
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Why Pakistan’s Democracy should matter more to the US
Washington: The strongest proponent of democracy is strangely soft-spoken about the water boarding treatment democracy is currently receiving in Pakistan where an army chief openly warns of “grievous consequences” when called out on his back-handed moves against the government and where a former ambassador is hounded because he is a moderate. True, #Asif Ali Zardari #Hussein Haqqani #Pakistan #Pakistan elections 2013 #ThatsJustWrong #US-Pak ties
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Don’t count on the new US ambassador to India
Washington: Who the American ambassador is matters. The ritual of the hunt, the nomination and finally the confirmation by the US Senate is a keenly watched sport among diplomats because of the signals, both overt and covert, contained in the process. As the year came to a close, the Obama Administration #HowThisWorks #Nancy Powell #Nirupama Rao #Timothy J. Roemer
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Encircle the dragon: India, US, Japan in dance of diplomacy
Washington: There is always strength in numbers. And so it is with India, the United States and Japan who decided to come together to take stock of common concerns in Asia ranging from maritime security to piracy to terrorism. They met as a troika for the first time here on #Asia #China #diplomacy #EyeOnChina #India #Japan #South China Sea