Some 'Singham' like activities being performed outside police agencies in Mumbai, in the backdrop of the Sushant Singh Rajput case have negated the Prime Minister's recent appeal to the police force, urging the institution to uphold public trust.

BY Vappala Balachandran 10 September 2020

There is elevated hope in India, as in Washington DC, that Vietnam would actively help in trying to checkmate China. This might be an erroneous assessment if we study the China-Vietnam normalisation process.

BY Vappala Balachandran 27 August 2020

While Kamala Harris has received the support of Indian-Americans of all hues, except 'Hindutva groups', her detractors say that she is too close to the Israeli lobby which might alienate her from Arab-Americans who support Palestinian rights.

BY Vappala Balachandran 14 August 2020

New Delhi has made the strategic mistake of aligning too much with the White House. This has caused deep divisions among the 4.5 million strong Indian diaspora with 1.3 million voters in eight battleground states.

BY Vappala Balachandran 24 July 2020

The Israeli experience of a surprise raid by Egypt and Syria is worth remembering to ensure that our hard pitched “nationalist” cries do not result in excessive public and official hubris

BY Vappala Balachandran 14 July 2020

Why are we merely content with uttering clichés on heroism of soldiers after their deaths and do nothing substantial towards intelligence-led preventive action? writes Vappala Balachandran.

BY Vappala Balachandran 25 June 2020

China is using the same language it used against India while justifying its 1962 incursions into India. The 1962 attack was to insult Nehru while the 2020 attack is to discredit Narendra Modi, writes Vappala Balachandran.

BY Vappala Balachandran 17 June 2020

Shantung, the cradle of Chinese civilisation being the birthplace of Confucius, was seized in 1897 by Imperial Germany which forced Peking to lease it for 99 years.

BY Vappala Balachandran 13 June 2020

The publicity of 'Musharraf Tapes' in 1999, which were 'unprocessed' intelligence and would reveal the source, was touted as a diplomatic triumph. But what followed was that the source had dried up immediately.

BY Vappala Balachandran 3 June 2020

Vappala Balachandran, former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, writes about why there is a need to regularly declassify secret security records and what sad lessons history had taught us.

BY Vappala Balachandran 17 May 2020