Latest news with #NanditaSengupta
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
The voter & the commission
Nandita Sengupta is a senior editor with The Times of India. Her blog aims to be mainly about all matters women, which includes men on occasion. Share your ideas with her on and please keep comments and feedback civil. LESS ... MORE TDP wants EC to clarify that its countrywide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is 'not related to citizenship verification'. As Supreme Court asked EC last week, 'why are you getting into' deciding citizenship. EC's initial insistence on birth certificates for those enrolled after 2003 was based on Vajpayee NDA's Citizenship Amendment Act 2003 – those born after 1987 and before 2004 must show one parent is an Indian citizen. Those born after 2004 must prove both parents are citizens. Many poor and internal migrants, including minorities, aren't able to produce such documents. Read full story on TOI+ Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
For us who don't gel
Nandita Sengupta is a senior editor with The Times of India. Her blog aims to be mainly about all matters women, which includes men on occasion. Share your ideas with her on and please keep comments and feedback civil. LESS ... MORE The naming of India's military op to hit terror bases in POK and Pakistan topped TRP charts – it is also a rare instance of daubing a forces' op with a Hindu custom. How the forces name their ops are rarely political activity. From Op Night Dominance in Punjab during 1990s militancy, to Op Sarp Vinash in 2003 in J&K to 'flush out' insurgents and a Sarp Vinash 2.0 recently, to Op Black Tornado in 2008 after 26/11, the names all promised aggression. A J&K op in 2017 was called All Out, followed by a Calm Down. Navy blocked Karachi port in 1999 in Op Talwar. India-Pak standoff in 2001-2002 after Parliament attack was called Op Parakram, while Op Safed Sagar was air force's op during Kargil. The list is long and muscular secular, even Op Devi Shakti is a passive Divine Energy to bring home people when Taliban seized Kabul in 2021. From Python to Cactus to Restore Hope, from Madad to Dost to Ajay, ops are imaginatively named, with aid-ops invariably striking relief & rescue tones – from Rakshak to Goodwill to Good Samaritan etc. Unlike the secular message the Indian military put out in fielding Muslim and Hindu women officers in pressers following India's taking out terror camps and the ensuing battle, the op's political name completely forgot Adil's wife, in Kashmir, who doesn't apply vermillion but is grieving just as much. Her 30-year-old husband was killed trying to protect tourists. It also forgot Tage Hailyang's widow, from Arunachal, whose religion also doesn't include the vermillion custom and whose husband was also killed. Kashmir and Arunachal. Forgotten. In the naming of the op alone, and what rode the airwaves since, hitting Bahawalpur and Muridke terrorist addas morphed into a case of revenge for India. Had the op been named in the usual military style – maybe Op Kamad Tod or Op Bolti Bandh or whatever aggressive tone suited the takedown, it would have eschewed this sense of revenge. By all means, use overt, covert, diplomacy, people-to-people, Track II, III, IV, whatever it takes to stop cross-border terrorism. But going after terror bases has to be born of natsec strategy, long-term, not Bollywoodian revenge fantasies riding on weaponising the pain of those who've lost family. So, hanging the successful op on a very south Asian male self-view of protector of women, a conquest over those who would attack 'our women', is cringe-worthy. Next time GOI gives the go-ahead to take out terror camps, hopefully military will also keep Adil's widow and Tage's widow in mind when giving a thumbs-up to an op's name. And the fact these men were sons and fathers too. What happens in battle is one thing. How we remember it, another. If then the signalling from India is of Hindu India avenging a terror attack, there is no way to dodge the equivalence given to India and Pakistan. This is falsification of reality – but fact is, the fight against terrorism disappears into the fog of war, as have the terrorists themselves apparently. Our military can yell from the rooftops its secular credentials and training, but alas, the world, the world is 'seeing' Hindu majority India vs Muslim majority Pakistan. That rhetoric suits either's domestic politics plenty, but it doesn't prevent terrorism any. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Operation Sindoor: India strikes terror, US strikes deals, Beijing follows Sun Tzu
Nandita Sengupta is a senior editor with The Times of India. Her blog aims to be mainly about all matters women, which includes men on occasion. Share your ideas with her on and please keep comments and feedback civil. LESS ... MORE If proof were needed, it was abundantly evident military engagement with Pakistan will now on be straight proxy war with China – a reality foretold. Which is only one reason why India's new doctrine – a terror attack will be seen as an 'act of war' – sounds solid, but may not be a straight road to follow. For one, Pahalgam was a crude attack. But, terror is also changing form. Does the new red line include cyberwar? Don't know. Does it up the rhetoric ante? Yes. Does it reduce threat levels? No. Second, terrorists behind Pulwama and Pahalgam have so far escaped India's top police forces. New Delhi will need more than a doctrine, howsoever restrained, as a deterrent. Third, New Delhi has a single focus – to put an end to Pakistan's cross-border terrorism. So far, it has done so, and deterred but not stopped terror, in three broad ways: limited dose of sharp military action as and when required, lobby to stop global aid to Pakistan, and off and on try to talk to civilian voices in govt and in society. Pakistan's Army-ISI has one goal: disrupt India's democratic fabric. It does with great dedication. It has no incentive to stop. Take this time alone. An otherwise hollowed Pakistan sees itself suddenly salient again – a tragedy of a personality, as fractured as Gollum. State Of Terror | No one, not Beijing, not Washington – Pakistan's two greatest patrons – no-one doubts Islamabad doesn't manufacture and export terror – their one successful product. So, terror attacks will continue to be attempted. It is far from easy for New Delhi to pre-empt or prevent terror attacks in toto – border fencing with eyes in the sky perhaps should be the single-biggest investment. BSF has had shoot-at-sight on LoC-IB since 2015. But… Anyhow, per the new mood, in the event of a terror attack, India will strike. Note that Islamabad hasn't once said hitting Bahawalpur or Muridke is an 'act of war'. It has called India's suspending IWT an 'act of war'. It is here that Pakistan can plead victimhood. Global humanitarian advocacy directed at Greater Nation India should be expected in the months ahead especially as summer sets upon us. Losing the narrative on water wars has poor optics. Even internally, many from within bureaucracy and politicians will chafe at weaponsing water. The next few months will reveal how the two square up on the two treaties – Pakistan's cancelling Simla Agreement jeopardises LoC itself, and India's keeping in abeyance IWT jeopardises Pakistan farms and drinking water supply. Domestically, General Munir's likely now to push his reportedly prime pet project that is to make Pak military in one manner or the other – Pak army farms too now, having taken over 1mn acres in 2023 for agriculture – the guardian/ owner/ keeper of all land in Pakistan. It's after all, his Supreme Court. Big Guns | The intensity with which this 100-hour battle was fought opened up – in a twisted way but it's a twisted world – opportunities for Big Powers. Cycles of such intensity on the back of India's new doctrine can only mean that eventually, it will be a full-blown war. Neither India nor Pakistan has ever desired a full war beyond rhetoric. The primary aspect that made this round of near-war different is Beijing's heightened interest and involvement in one, providing its puppet state – one that's economically weak, terror-ridden and with factions at every turn, what it required militarily and two, helping it mount a massive misinformation campaign. For Beijing, there are few downsides – as long as the fight doesn't spiral. Beijing's involvement and India's new policy. No one should be deluded that it isn't these two tweaks that's piqued Trump's interest. Here was a battleground that was 'none of US's business' as Vance said – 'centuries old' as Trump said – but, one in which Russian and Chinese goods made up a significant part of the weaponry and apparently proved to be the more effective than Western parts. Where is the US-made stuff? That is the sole reason for Trump's little performance to wrest a ceasefire – choosing to be politically blind to the seriousness of the underlying reason for the conflict. For Trump, Pakistan and India are great markets to Make America Great Again. There are deals to be made, arms consignments to be delivered. Anyone who imagines Trump cares about peace or democracy or anything remotely state-like, lives in lalaland. Arms manufacturers may want to believe that India-Pak conflicts can be engineered to be switched on and off – what it does take to trigger a dogfight – like a live lab to demonstrate how Western arms & munitions stack up against Chinese goods, how US-made stuff stack up against Russia-made. It can safely be said that India does not, categorically, want to be a live lab. Expect Imran Khan, who took on the army, to stay in jail for the foreseeable future. For General Munir, who has sharply reversed Musharraf's slipping out of his fatigues into a sherwani, is, in the moment, on terra firma. On the face of it, such concentration of power should have US sanctioning to 'Save Democracy'. Instead, US wants to trade with this 'great nation'. So, international lenders will give Pakistan the money to buy arms for US? For Washington, better them than Beijing. Them & Us | It is essential to note a key difference between Pakistan and India that has nothing to do with realpolitik or geopolitics. It is the presence of the 'other' in one's everyday politics. India does not feature in Pakistan's domestic politics beyond wartime. It has never been a campaign issue. They have too many wheels within wheels of their own. Elections may be rigged, army is boss, but campaign rhetoric never has POK or 'Let's whoop India' or 'India' used as a pejorative on posters. But in India, 'Pakistan' is routinely used to whip minorities – recall all the FIRs and bulldozers that happen after cheering for the Pakistan cricket team. All that this does is accord a broken nation an outsized importance. Makes Pakistan far more significant than it is in reality, especially relative to India's fortunes. Take Pakistan's misinformation campaign this time – it was straight govt lies and denials plus exaggerations of military victories. It barely wavered on the focus of the misinformation campaign. GOI's sober response shone in stark contrast. But shrill, misplaced, discombobulated war cries on television and social media, framing India's hitting terror camps as having a goal beyond, outshouted GOI's studied restraint. Such messiness only firms up India-Pakistan re-hyphenation, reversing 'de-hyphenation' of India from Pak, wrested in the Manmohan era – India vying with China to be voice of Global South, making it to the QUADS of the world, while Pakistan needs handouts. On no front is it an equal. Yet it is India's domestic politicians who would repeatedly yoke their brandwagon to anti-Pakistanism. A futile pursuit. But very noisy, very loud, very top of mind. All this when Pakistan in no way is India's biggest headache. Fact is, between Made in China, Make America Great Again and a Pakistan bruising and shot but high on its own misinfo meth, New Delhi has little choice but to engage with Pakistan at multiple other levels, including people to people and working on the double to choke international aid. Intelligence, policing and military – natsec ecosystem – are but one part of the Great Game, no matter how glam weaponry systems are. The smarter way, as Sun Tzu says, is to subdue the enemy without fighting a war. Only Beijing is heeding that. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘I Battled Too'
Nandita Sengupta is a senior editor with The Times of India. Her blog aims to be mainly about all matters women, which includes men on occasion. Share your ideas with her on and please keep comments and feedback civil. LESS ... MORE It's almost 40 hours and I'm battle-weary. War was waged, revenge was sweet, but the battle was exhausting. As a true patriot, I transported myself to the border, skipped the mandi, and waited in my 10×12 secure bunker in Delhi's Govindpuri's. Glued to my mobile phone in the palm of my hand made me integral to the guaranteed win of this epic battle via my favourite news channel and influencers who were so very like Sanjay of Mahabharat. Sanjay vachaha, went BR Chopra's soap. My YouTube journos, like Sanjay, were telling me – am I blind as Dhritarashtra? ah well – in gory detail what they could see from the 'battlefields'. There were so many fire-tipped arrows and drones flitting hither-tither across the screen and over the maps of India and Pakistan. That grainy govt image earlier in the day was so unhelpful – govt is so boring – I was better informed via those bright videos of terror camps being hit, in yellow, green, blue and red, kaboom!, did you know we almost nabbed Masood on camera? One for the country, I whooped. The phone rang incessantly. It incensed me – can't these fancy types live without their veggies a single day – for the nation's sake? I wouldn't let that distract me. I didn't budge from my forward position, lying on my stomach, head hanging over and beyond the pillow to track my phone face up on the floor. I stayed like that for hours – battle positions demand resilience. At some point I must have dozed off for I thought I spotted a L-Auki drone come down onto TarBooz's armoury. Boom, the fireworks splatted red fruit all over the walls. The drill that very evening, I knew by then, was no mock but the real thing. GOI called it a drill only so we wouldn't scare or despair, for we must be protected, we who build the nation, whack by whack, whacko by whacko. I was alert and engaged, and ready to lay my life down for the country, till my wife asked who'll bring home the dal roti, so that plan had to be shelved. Fervour drove my adrenaline – oh what a to-do with this love for my country. When the drill, sorry, war started, I wondered if I should crawl under the bed, or a desk as instructed in the whatsapp group of fellow fruit 'n veggie vendors. Then I remembered that the video from Japan was about what to do in the event of an earthquake. Well, war can't be that different – it's all about upheaval. The lights went off, but damn, the inverter revved up – that was a spoiler. I'm tired now, though, of all the to-do. I'm unsure is this full war or is it short of war? India-Pak toh chalta rahega. But me, I think I'll take a break from all this fighting. Kaam pe toh jaana hee hai. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Optics Post Pahalgam
Nandita Sengupta is a senior editor with The Times of India. Her blog aims to be mainly about all matters women, which includes men on occasion. Share your ideas with her on and please keep comments and feedback civil. LESS ... MORE The only point New Delhi will keep in mind when surveying its range of military options to strike at Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack on tourists is this: Can India afford to open a front with Beijing on its western flank too? Beijing is, reportedly, already kitting out Islamabad to counter any move from India. Beijing has reportedly made an 'urgent transfer' of fighter jets, from its own lot, not the ones that were due to be exported to Pakistan, after the Pahalgam attack. Turkey isn't far behind. Modi, in the second CCS meet has distanced himself from military action – giving the army a free hand. Modi is eyeing a new profile of peacemaker. But in the Indian scheme of things, it makes little sense. Operational details have always been Army's bastion. Whether covert or overt is not going to be decided without Modi's nod. Making that statement itself was odd – Indian military takes orders from GOI. A carte blanche to military does not dim govt's responsibility or authority. But the optics of the statement suggests as if govt is at a remove from what Army decides. It's understandable why Modi distanced himself some. The 2019 Balakot strike following Pulwama didn't end with New Delhi smelling of roses or Islamabad vanquished. The capture of an Indian pilot, a blue-on-blue hit whose casualties weren't acknowledged till months later, were outcomes better played down than trumped up. And that was before Indian troops were amassed at the eastern Ladakh front where China's sat for five years now. 'Surgical strikes', similar to the attack on an army post in Uri in 2016, are always on the table, but do not have the dazzle or spectacle of a 'fitting reply'. Sacking diplomats, throwing out Pak citizens, and engaging in social media warfare is par for the course. Pakistan threatening the LoC deal or India suspending the Indus Water Treaty is not a game-changer. As a party, BJP is master at making a political capital out of any and every occurrence. So it is foolish to think that the seemingly irresponsible remarks made by Goa and Assam CMs are not born of party chats, Whatsapp or perhaps Signal. It's no coincidence, but perhaps a Freudian slip, that two CMs simultaneously referred to Balochistan's 'indigenous movement' – that has no link with Pahalgam's terror attacks. Except perhaps the tenuous point that Pakistan blames New Delhi for causing 'trouble' in Balochistan – an allegation New Delhi vigorously denies. Islamabad has also accused India of the more than 20 random killings of baddies across Pakistan by masked men on motorbikes over the last couple of years. There's disquiet within Pakistan's intel rank & file that Islamabad didn't make an issue of it. Pakistan observers have commented that Islamabad is in no position to go all out and attempt the kind of 'adventurism' like the Pahalgam terror attack. That it has its hands full fighting TTP and Taliban terrorism, and the sharp uptick of insurgents in Balochistan – it's mere weeks since the train hijack on March 11. In the wheels between wheels in the Islamabad-army-ISI-terror complex, in the hydra-headedness that's always been Pakistan, it's difficult for India to ever know quite what or who to hit. Pak PM Sharif has called for a 'joint investigation' into Pahalgam – because of course that worked out so well in Pathankot and Pulwama attacks. Reportedly, the other Sharif, Nawaz, has been deployed to ride the backchannel with New Delhi's seniormost. Pak army chief Munir, former ISI brass, who's seen as the present-day Zia and had a severe falling out with Imran Khan, has 'somehow' become fodder for Indian social media – awash with hashtag #MunirOut, suggesting that fear of India's counter has made the Pak army chief evacuate his family to UK. Optics is everything. Reading social media and watching television can make one believe a full-blown war is imminent. Anyone reading the tea leaves and not social media could conclude just the opposite. It's never too much to labour the point that not only can Pakistan not afford a war right now, even India can't. Troops movement is prepping, much needed posturing, part of pre-war harrumph. In fact, if conflict was actually imminent, it would be very quiet. Now, in Kashmir itself, it is no secret that things haven't been all tulips and apples since abrogation of Article 370. On March 6, CM Omar Abdullah spoke about 400 young Kashmiris swept up in police's draconian PSA net – without cases or evidence. Anguished, he still played smart post Pahalgam, reiterating in his 'with what face do I seek statehood' remark that as CM of a UT. Kashmir is second only to Manipur in internet shutdowns. Going back a few months to the elections, Kashmiris voted as one, cancelled all the so-called 'New Delhi proxies' that included unsavouries, and put their faith in the Old Guard. Post Pahalgam, they came out again as one – Not In My Name. But barbed wire looks like it's back, alleged terrorists' houses have been razed, arrests have reportedly crossed 1,500, the crackdown and tracking has a 1980s feel. The point to labour then is this. Post Pahalgam, what's 'normalcy'? Could a barely-held fragile peace post 2019 be called the 'new normal'? Or is the decades old shadow of militancy that's morphed into terrorism what's 'normal' for Kashmir? The larger region's politics have metamorphosed into a 'headache' for New Delhi. Three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are led by slippery govts – then there's Myanmar, no less slippery a customer to deal with. In talking with Taliban and striking ties to only spite Islamabad, New Delhi does itself a disservice. Kabul must be engaged, but not from a point of need, but for influence. Fact is, despite the fraught ties between Kabul and Islamabad today, Beijing has both firmly girdered, its singular focus on OBOR projects (see map) and mining reserves in NWFP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pahalgam's attack and the hunt for perpetrators is best contained within Kashmir; Kashmiris are paying for it already, from livelihood to surveillance to restricted movement. While the attack's ripples have reached Kanyakumari and Kochi, there simply isn't enough reason to wage a new conflict over and above the one already in place against terror. What's been churned the last few days since the attack has whipped up enough anti-Pakistan frenzy to last till year-end. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
