All stories by David Devadas
What I Saw When The Kashmiri Pandits Fled in 1990
Rediff.com25 Mar 2022Threats were often communicated to Pandit homes through notes tied to stones chucked through a window, or a notice pasted on a wall. Those sometimes came from neighbours eyeing that Pandit family's property. Those threats often worked in the atmosphere of terror during that awful season of vacuous exercise of State authority, writes David Devadas, longtime Kashmir watcher and author of two books on the Valley.
Elections Should Have Been Held In March
Rediff.com12 Jan 2022Making citizens queue to vote just when the disease is declining, but is still in the air, could just cause a fresh spurt. The logic for this scheduling is inexplicable, especially since the entire process could so easily have been pushed back by three weeks, argues David Devadas.
Make no mistake, we're heading into war
Rediff.com22 Oct 2021The days of a thousand cuts are over. These mini wars will remain under the threshold of undeniable war, but will escalate closer to that threshold when their big brother pushes in. Chinese aggression has changed the matrix, the strategies, and surely the objectives too, warns David Devadas.
Why Was Kashmir Calm After Geelani's Death?
Rediff.com6 Sep 2021Squashing erstwhile 'separatists', marginalising the 'mainstream', and squeezing funding channels have all evidently had an impact -- at least for the moment, notes David Devadas after a visit to Srinagar.
Cement and Tin Tell Stories of What's Up in Kashmir
Rediff.com4 Aug 2021The transformative improvement promised in Jammu-Kashmir remains largely a mirage, observes David Devadas on the second anniversary of the Constitutional changes in the former state.
Why the Army Needs the IAF!
Rediff.com6 Jul 2021In the early part of the Kargil operations, the army opted to more or less go it alone, sacrificing large numbers of men and officers in almost superhuman struggles against an enemy on higher ground. Some generals seem to think their predecessors would have succeeded better if they had had air resources at their disposal, points out David Devadas.
Coming Up: Women Power in J&K
Rediff.com31 Dec 2020Women will have a decisive say as chairpersons in seven of Jammu and Kashmir's 20 districts.
What J&K poll results means for BJP/NC/PDP
Rediff.com25 Dec 2020What the election demonstrated is that the BJP has a stranglehold on most of the Hindu votes in the Union territory, observes David Devadas.
How India can win future wars
Rediff.com30 Oct 2020Future, even present, wars -- at least those involving such tech giants as China -- include hi-tech battlefields, which a Pakistan-obsessed India has not sufficiently prioritised. Today's generals plan on how to disrupt an enemy city's power supplies, rail networks, airports, ports, and government departments, not just by bombing or torpedoing them; they also examine the option of tripping up the computer networks that run these, notes David Devadas.
Will India face a China-Pakistan war in November?
Rediff.com17 Oct 2020The Indian Army's Northern Command would be stretched if all three of the corps under it -- based in Leh, Srinagar, and Nagrota (near Jammu) -- were to face hostilities, notes David Devadas.
J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha gets down to business
Rediff.com12 Aug 2020Some of the BJP panches and councillors who attended the meeting with Manoj Sinha said they were not impressed with what the new lieutenant governor told them.
Why Modi chose Manoj Sinha as J-K lieutenant governor
Rediff.com8 Aug 2020'Sinha's skills at resolving contradictions will be required to smoothen the functioning of the bureaucracy which has been so fractious that it tripped up even a seasoned bureaucrat like his immediate predecessor, G C Murmu,' notes avid Devadas.
How the army taught the Chinese a lesson
Rediff.com28 Jul 2020The Chinese probably thought that brutal assault was a knock-out, but they had not counted on the ingenuity, loyalty and courage of battle-trained Indian officers and jawans.
Something bigger is afoot than just shifting the LAC a couple of km in Ladakh
Rediff.com27 Jun 2020The government must figure out what the Chinese game plan is and thwart the endgame before it is upon us, possibly in early winter, advises David Devadas.
How Bihar Regiment's bravery at Galwan stunned China
Rediff.com18 Jun 2020A senior officer confirmed that the Indian soldiers fought valiantly and with tremendous grit "till the last", even to the extent that half of them died in battle, reveals David Devadas.
The general defending Ladakh against the Chinese
Rediff.com8 Jun 2020Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the 'Fire and Fury' 14 Corps, has the experience and talent to face down the Chinese challenge. The general is a rare combination of thinker and tough-minded doer, observes David Devadas.
250 days after 5/8, tense summer ahead for Kashmir
Rediff.com11 Apr 2020'Terrorists are killing ordinary citizens, huge crowds brave a pandemic to attend militant funerals, and artillery is booming on the LoC.' 'This April seems like a run-of-the-terror-mill Kashmiri spring: Violence is emerging like a prickly new bud,' warns David Devadas.
AAP's use of Hindu symbolism is a sign of the times
Rediff.com14 Feb 2020As the campaign peaked, AAP leaders evidently realised they had to deflect their chief opponent's attempts to polarise the electorate over religious identity, explains David Devadas.
Many questions about rogue cop Davinder Singh
Rediff.com29 Jan 2020Why did RA&W hire a man with a questionable record, wonders David Devadas.
Communication blockade strikes at the heart of Kashmiri life
Rediff.com3 Sep 2019'Those who have not lived and imbibed the social and cultural patterns of Kashmir cannot quite fathom the importance of inter-personal communication in Kashmiri society,' says David Devadas.