Services
 
 
Chennai Chapter
You are here:orfonline » Chapter » Chennai Chapter
 
Maldives: Islam, nationalism and 'Islamic nationalism'
In Maldives, if the mainline polity has failed in fighting a process now being projected as contributing to religious extremism, militancy or terrorism, the global community too has failed to distinguish between a return of Islamic traditions and the advent of Islamic extremism, and act accordingly.
 
Maldives: Judiciary in 'crisis' or 'transition'?
06 June 2013
In Maldives, legal and judicial process may be in for another season of controversies, ahead of the presidential polls in September. It is also in transition, from a not-so-democratic past to a democratised future. It is too early to say which way it would go.
 
Ethnic issue, Kachchateevu need to be delinked from TN fishers' woes
29 May 2013
There is an urgent need for Tamil Nadu and its polity to look futuristically at the problems faced by their fishers in the Palk Bay, and delink one from the others, if any practical solution has to be found.
 
Bhullar case verdict and after
26 April 2013
In the 'Bhullar case', the Supreme Court could now be construed to have applied the 'reasonable restriction' theory in the larger application of Article 14 of the Constitution, promising 'equality before law and the equal protection of the laws'.
 
Re-visiting neighbourhood policy
10 April 2013
For India to be taken seriously by its neighbours, and other friends and adversaries alike, it has to be clear in its mind as to what it is and where it is headed, and where it wants to go - and can actually travel to.
 
Rahul Gandhi's CII talk and the hints for policy-makers
09 April 2013
Rahul Gandhi, during his recent 75-minute talk at the CII, may have left enough hints - and some more pronounced than the rest -on the need for the party to 're-invent' itself and re-visit some of the policies, including those of the 'economic reforms era'.
 
Sri Lanka: Did the Indian vote help - and how?
30 March 2013
'Competitive politics' in Tamil Nadu was only one element in India's vote for the US Resolution. But there has been a general sense of dissatisfaction across the State with the Sri Lankan Government's perceived unwillingness to stand by its war-time promises.
 
There is more to Tamil Nadu apart from 'Sri Lankan issue'
26 March 2013
In Tamil Nadu, the inspiration and inputs for the protestors come not from Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka, but from their Diaspora groups whose linkages to the LTTE are discernible.
 
Foreign policy: Regional issues and national concerns
22 March 2013
In not agreeing to have a parliamentary resolution against Sri Lanka, the Parliament has demonstrated where politics ends and policy-making on a sensitive area as external affairs and neighbourhood relations begin.
 
Maldives: Bipartisanship still has a chance
16 March 2013
Not all seems to have been lost to the infant Maldivian democracy. Arch-rivals in the still -unfolding national political drama have come together again, to re-vote two Bills to ensure mandatory assent after President Waheed Hassan Manik had returned them.
 
Sri Lanka: 'Ethnicity' cannot be the sole policy-marker for India
14 March 2013
There are humanitarian and human rights issues in Sri Lanka. Yet, it is basically a political cause, still, which no one in Tamil Nadu seems to be talking about, any more.
 
Maldives: Four-week reprieve for Nasheed
07 March 2013
Despite apprehensions in some quarters, the Hulhumale' Magistrate Court in Maldives let former President Mohammed Nasheed to go home after the day's hearing on Wednesday evening, a day after he was picked up by the police a day earlier and detained overnight.
 
Maldives: Political scene hots up again
06 March 2013
After a week of relative lull on the political front, Maldivian politics revved up on March 5, after the police detained former President Mohammed Nasheed, for production before the Hulhumale' court.
 
Sri Lanka at UNHRC: It's not a one-off affair for India
28 February 2013
After the coming UNHRC session, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group is set to meet in London in April, when they are bound to flag the issue. The Indian position at London would have to be reflective of the position that it might have to take at Geneva only weeks earlier.
 
Maldives: Will Gayoom's opting out impact polls?
26 February 2013
Gayoom's decision means more things than one in contemporary Maldivian politics. His reference to his party having other worthy candidates for the presidency could imply that Gayoom may not back the candidacy of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik.
 
Cauvery dispute: Notification for TN, waters not yet!
25 February 2013
The Centre's Notification of the Cauvery Award should encourage Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to work with the Centre and the other two riparian stake-holders to revive the proposal to build an additional reservoir to store the excess waters, to be shared among them.
 
Sri Lanka: Tales which pictures don't tell
20 February 2013
Since the BBC Channel IV film director has indicated that one purpose of the controversial film on the Sri Lankan war may have been to act in a particular way at the UNHRC session in Geneva next month, New Delhi has to be wary of efforts to influence its decision.
 
Maldives: A further twist to the tale
19 February 2013
A piquant situation seems to have arisen in Maldives, on the domestic front and also for its relations with India, after the trial court issued a second order to the police to produce former President Mohammed Nasheed, who has been in the Indian High Commission in Male.
 
Maldives: What after Nasheed's 'refuge' in Indian mission?
14 February 2012
In Maldives, the development following former President Nasheed seeking refuge in Indian Embassy after an arrest warrant from a local court has raised a number of issues -- legal, political and diplomatic. Presidential polls are due in the country in September this year.
 
Maldives: It's over the other 50 per cent voters?
13 February 2013
With the presidential elections now set for September 7, political parties in Maldives are vying with one another to identify issues and package them attractively for the voters, many of them youth.
 
Maldives: FDI and strategic security concerns
05 February 2013
In these times of ever-increasing fuel costs impacting on national economies the world over, the 'strategic importance' of any oil-find has greater significance for post-Cold War Maldives than is acknowledged.
 
The Centre, the State - and Tamil Nadu
30 January 2013
There is an urgent need for the appointment of a new commission, on the footsteps of the Sarkaria Commission and the Justice E Venkataramaiah Commission, to review Centre-State relations, and State-to-State relations.
 


 
 
 
Chennai Address
 
Observer Research Foundation
3rd Floor, Kothari Buildings,
115, Nungambakkam High Road,
Chennai 400 020.
Ph:
Fax:
Email:orfchennai@orfonline.org