For gay indians, landmark ruling is just the beginning
NEW DELHI — Even as gay activists in India celebrated on Friday, a day after a landmark Supreme Court ruling ended the country’s ban on gay sex, they were preparing for resistance to the decision. Among the pressing questions left unresolved by the ruling: Will the authorities drop the countless criminal cases that had been [...]
Parliament bomb: The second post-mortem examination after a Magisterial order
I write to correct some serious errors in the above article headlined “Re-visiting 1987 Parliament Bomb Blast” byy Professor Ravindra Fernando. (The Sunday Times of 19.08.2018). Mr. Keerthi Abeywickrema, Member of Parliament and Mr. Norbert Senadeera , clerk were both admitted to the Colombo General Hospital with bomb blast injuries on 18.08.1987. Mr. Abeywickrema died [...]
The Maha Sangha bows down to no political authority
There was an article by Neville de Silva, a renowned journalist, published in the Sunday Times of August 26, 2018 under the heading “Philosophy of hate and violence” crticising a statement issued by the Venerable Iththapane Dhammalankara Thera on behalf of the Kotte Sangha Sabha. The impugned statement, in turn, had, among other matters, referred [...]
Belt-and-Road Initiative opens up unprecedented opportunities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A tale of two world leaders, U.S. president Donald Trump and China president Xi Jinping—both of whose countries have among the world’s best economies right now. But whereas Xi is playing Santa Claus to the rest of the world, doling out loans to [...]
The two sides of American exceptionalism
CAMBRIDGE – In July, I joined 43 other scholars of international relations in paying for a newspaper advertisement arguing that the US should preserve the current international order. The institutions that make up this order have contributed to “unprecedented levels of prosperity and the longest period in modern history without war between major powers. US [...]