South Asia Focus (Weekly Program) - Mar 11 , 2018
This episode focuses on, Sri Lanka where the government has imposed a ten-day emergency to stop the spread of communal violence following clashes between majority Buddhists and members of minority Muslim community. In India, an unprecedented rise in its reputation at global stage in recent times owing to its unrelenting and inclusive foreign policy, it has not only balanced and bolstered its ties with major economic powers but has also shown a keen interest in developing its relations with its neighbors and recently, New Delhi hosted Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in line of India’s growing engagements with South East Asian Nations. Gilgit-Baltistan, the region that has been under Pakistan’s illegal occupation for more than seven decades and has been subjected to years of theft and depredations, China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has brought a number of environmental hazards and has done more harm than good to the flora and fauna and survey conducted by a Non Governmental Organisation has raised the alarming situation in the region. In Nepal the Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi congratulated K.P. Sharma Oli after he became the prime minister of the Himalayan nation, apart from discussing the gamut of bilateral ties between the countries, Abbasi emphasized at the revival of the SAARC-the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation—that has been lying virtually non-functional since the last scheduled summit in Pakistan was cancelled. In Bangladesh, the situation of the thousands of Rohingya refugees still remains grim and the United Nations has accused Myanmar of still killing people and forcing them to leave their homes. In India’s north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, the onset of spring heralds a number of agricultural festivals—celebrated by locals and visitors with a great sense of gusto and enthusiasm.
