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Arms and the Men

By Nitin Gokhale

The Sky Above

Wednesday September 30, 2009

After all those grand preparations, will China's plan to showcase its military might and celebrate the 60th birthday of the Peoples Republic, come unstuck because of weather? As I write this, the clouds have darkened and weathermen are predicting a gloomy day ahead today and tomorrow. So will the organisers pray hard for a clear, sunny day on Thursday? Well, officially you are supposed to be agnostic, so prayers are out. Instead the Chinese, as is their wont, are plotting to tame nature.

Finally, the all-important Press cards!

Tuesday September 29, 2009

And once again, the limitations of not knowing Mandarin, were evident. We struggled for 15 minutes at the gate of the media centre to convince the guards that we had come to collect our passes. He did not understand our English, we didn't know what he was talking about in Mandarin.

Live from Beijing

Monday September 28, 2009, Beijing

Just landed at the spanking and mammoth Beijing international airport. Very efficient immigration system.

China at 60: Showing off

Sunday September 27, 2009

Sixty years ago when Chairman Mao and his comrades-in-arms established the Peoples Republic of China, the world did not know how to react. Winston Churchill’s description of Russia - A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma - seemed to fit China of 1949 more than Russia.

The China challenge

Friday September 18, 2009

Many in the government have privately blamed the media of indulging in hype in reporting Chinese incursions.

The story behind the book

Saturday August 22, 2009

The idea of writing this book popped into my mind on a short flight from Indore to Delhi. I was flying back after a talk on Military-Media relations at the prestigious Indian Army War College in Mhow.

Let's not forget them

Sunday July 12, 2009

Every July since the year 2000, the Indian media and the Army in that order, celebrates the eviction of Pakistani intruders from the forbidding heights of Drass and Batalik (and not Kargil, as we all in the media keep referring to for some completely unfathomable reason).

Racism in another form

Tuesday June 30, 2009, New Delhi

The fact is: the rest of India does not care about the north-east region or its people. And the people in rest of the country make no attempt to understand or learn about the distant land. The level of ignorance is something that needs to be experienced to be believed. In fact, I tell all my relations and friends back in Maharashtra that they know more about Houston or Boston than Kohima or Kokrajhar!

The on-off India-China relationship

Wednesday June 17, 2009

The sub-continent’s focus this week was understandably on Tuesday's bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan on the sidelines of two important multilateral gatherings held at Yekaterinburg in Russia.

Sri Lanka: Now, to win peace

Friday June 19, 2009, New Delhi

Exactly a month ago, on 19th May, the world watched and heard in disbelief, the death of Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, unarguably the world's most dreaded, most potent and most innovative terror group.

Nitin Gokhale

A student of conflicts, insurgencies and wars, Nitin Gokhale has spent 26 years reporting on military and militants from various hostile fields like India's north-east, Kashmir valley, the Kargil war, China and Sri Lanka, among others. He's currently NDTV's Defence and Strategic Affairs Editor.