This Months Article

Starting: Fri March 1, 2002
Ending: Sun March 31, 2002

Messages: 225

• Grisly events in Middle America of which we read little
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, March 31, 2002

Indians, both within India and outside, often cringe at many of the stories about India in the foreign media - mostly the western press - that show the country in poor light. There is an assumption which is not entirely correct, that foreign reporters are fixated about India's social maladies such as dowry and casteism, and that they never lose a chance to write about the sores and pustules of benighted India. ......
 
• Four killed in communal in flare-up in Akola
• The Times of India, March 31, 2002

Four people were killed and 12 injured in communal clashes in the old city area of Akola on Saturday. Three died in police firing, while one was killed in a stabbing incident. ......
 
• Muslim academics look inward for answers to burning questions
• Shabnam Minwalla, The Times of India, March 31, 2002

At a seminar hosted by Mumbai University and the All India Muslim OBC Organisation this week, eminent Muslim academics from across the country turned their scrutiny inwards. While the three-daylong meet was organised to discuss the problems of the Muslim backward castes, many presentations and discussions turned to the overwhelming questions of the moment. ......
 
• Militants storm Jammu temple, ten killed
• Agencies, The Times of India, March 31, 2002

At least ten people, including four policemen, were killed and 21 injured when militants attacked the revered and crowded Raghunath temple here on Saturday morning. ......
 
• Dawood is now a Pak citizen, may never be extradited
• Mohua Chatterjee, The Times of India, March 31, 2002

Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aides, Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon, were given Pakistani citizenship a month ago, according to information gathered by central intelligence agencies and the Mumbai police's intelligence wing. ......
 
• Centre to blame for BJP debacle: PM
• The Economics Times, March 31, 2002

In a candid admission, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said his government was responsible 'up to some extent' for the Bharatiya Janata Party's recent debacle in the recent state Assembly elections as well as in the municipal polls in Delhi and called for 'introspection' in this regard. ......
 
• Goa is hot destination also for city gangsters
• J Dey, The Indian Express, March 31, 2002

The sandy beaches and the sleepy hamlets of Goa are no longer safe. Nor are they a sanctuary for the footloose. They are, in fact, turning into a hideout for members of the underworld from Mumbai. ......
 
• Peace and normalcy have returned to Gujarat: Modi
• S. Balkrishnan, The Times of India, March 30, 2002

Q. In your view, was the burning of 58 kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra a planned attacked or a spontaneous one? Was there an untoward incident on the station platform which sparked the attack?
A. If one looks at the nature of the heinous attack on the Sabarmati Express and the manner in which 58 innocent kar sevaks were burnt alive in a compartment of the ill fated train, it would be apparent that it was a deep rooted conspiracy and a pre-planned, cold-blooded attack. ......
 
• U. S. favours general elections over referendum in Pakistan
• Ela Dutt, The Times of India, March 30, 2002

The Bush administration wants Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to hold a general election in the country rather than a referendum fortifying his own position. ......
 
• A Turn From Tolerance - Anti-Immigrant Movement in Europe Reflects Post-Sept. 11 Views on Muslims
• Peter Finn, Washington Post, March 29, 2002

A wave of anti-Muslim sentiment has bolstered far-right parties in some European countries since Sept. 11 and left the continent's large communities of foreigners wondering how long their welcome will last. ......
 
• Take the War on Terrorism to Pakistan
• Ted Galen Carpenter, CATO Institute, March 28, 2002

General Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, recently caused a stir when he hinted that U.S. forces might pursue al-Qaeda fighters across the border into Pakistan. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has now quietly but firmly rejected that suggestion. That's too bad, because General Franks was right. Instead of sending U.S. troops to (at best) marginally relevant arenas such as the Philippines and the Republic of Georgia for training missions, the next stage of the war against terrorism needs to be fought in Pakistan. ......
 
• CPM admits to failure in expanding base
• Express News Service, The Indian Express, March 23, 2002

In a soul searching exercise, the CPM today admitted that the party had not made much progress in expanding its base in the country and raising the political consciousness .of cadre despite having succeeded with the United Front experiment at the Centre in the late 1990s. ......
 
• NCERT can publish non-controversial books, rules court
• Santwana Bhattacharya, The Indian Express, March 23, 2002

The Supreme Court today allowed the NCERT to publish books relating to the new national curriculum framework for secondary education on all subjects except Hindi and social sciences, including history and religion. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S.P Bharucha made this modification on applications moved by the Centre and the NCERT. ......
 
• High in Andes, a place that may have been Incas’ last refuge
• John Noble Wilford, The Times of India, March 22, 2002

Every generation or so, explorers of the high Andes of Peru come upon an elaborate sacred place or city that had been unknown to archaeologists studying the Inca civilisation. The most impressive still is Machu Picchu, discovered in 1911, and no important “lost city” has come to light since the 1960s. ......
 
• History Revisited
• Neera Kuckreja Sohoni, The Times of India, March 21, 2002

The ongoing debate on history has been quite one-sided so far and needs to be widened in its scope. History and its recording by written or unwritten sources is somehow seen as sacrosanct and, therefore, not open to any revision. The contention that the contemporary historians as well as the historians of earlier times are led solely by objectivity and accuracy is not as incontestable as is made out by its advocates. ......
 
• Black South African Hindu priest breaks a few myths
• Fakir Hassen, The Times of India, March 21, 2002

He used to be a devout Christian until curiosity took him to a Hindu temple in Lenasia town, 40 km south of this South African city. ......
 
• Spiritual Business
• The Times of India, March 19, 2002

''We are all spiritual beings first and foremost, we exist beyond our bodies'', say Debra and William Miller, an American couple who have launched an international research programme on spiritual-based leadership in business. William began his spiritual journey at Puttaparathi in 1982 under the guidance of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and made frequent trips to India thereafter. ......
 
• Pakistan frees 800 militants
• Press Trust of India, The Indian Express, March 18, 2002

Over 800 militants, 'arrested following' the ban on five jihadi groups imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, have been released under the newly formulated conditional amnesty after the detainees signed an undertaking, promising not take part in extremist activities. ......
 
• The Daily Noose (Interview with Shaheen Sehbai)
• The Times of India, March 18, 2002

Q. Is it true you had to quit because a news report angered the government?
A. On February 16, our Karachi reporter, Kamran Khan, filed a story quoting Omar Sheikh as saying that he was behind the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, the Kashmir assembly attack and other terrorist acts in India. Shortly after I am, I got a call on my cellphone from Ashfaq Gondal, the principal information officer of the government, telling me that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had intercepted the story and I should stop its publication. ......
 
• Media accused of not helping Ayodhya cause
• Jyoti Punwani, Mid Day, March 18, 2002

Somwaari Bazaar was the only spot in Malad where the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP's) March 15 ghantanaad programme could have caused a problem. Thirty feet away from the Ram Mandir is a large mosque. To avoid trouble, the Muslims completed their Friday namaz by 1.45 pm, under heavy police bandobast. ......
 
• VHP to wait until June 2
• Renu Mittal, Afternoon Despatch & Courier, March 16, 2002

The Ides of March in Ayodhya passed off without any violence and bloodshed with the entire central and state administration working overtime to “persuade” the VHP and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (RJN) not to rock the Vajpayee government. A huge soap opera was enacted in Ayodhya throughout the day as the VHP the RJN and the Vajpayee government looked for a face saver to back out from the mandir tamasha buildup over the last few weeks. ......
 
• The Straight Dope
• Cecil Adams, www.chicagoreader.com, March 15, 2002

This is a perennial topic of debate at my local saloon, right after "Who was the world's greatest fighter?" (The other guys are evenly split between Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, but I'm holding out for Ingemar Johansson.) The discussion is complicated by the fact that little is known about many saints. We don't even know how many there are- -the Catholic Church keeps no official tally, although Butler's Lives of the Saints has 2,565 entries. ......
 
• Two Congress Corporators behind Godhra Massacre
• Ravindra Dani, Mumbai Tarun Bharat, March 1, 2002

It is understood that the Home Ministry has received a very shocking news that two Congress Corporators of minority community wrought the horrendous burning of 51 devotees of Lord Ram at Godhra. Initial enquiries have established that this fire incident was well planned much before. ......
 
• Islam: tolerant? Non-violent? You be the judge
• Brig A.S. Apte (Retd), Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

It is understandable when the ignorant and the fanatics try to defend some unpalatable passages in their religious scriptures. Surprisingly, however, even the rationalists too act similarly through their subjective interpretations of such texts or by quoting selectively from them. ......
 
• The Homeland of Indo-European Languages And Culture: Some Thoughts
• Prof. B. B. Lal, Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

There is an academic tradition that while discussing the origin of the railway engine one has perforce to get back to the story of the water-filled kettle which, when heated, emitted hot vapours and the person watching it got the brilliant idea that from the steam thus produced, one could invent a steam engine that could propel very heavy weights. ......
 
• Hinduism and Korean Christianity
• Fr. Malachy Smyth, Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

Koreans were predominantly Buddhists and followers of Confucius but in the last 30 years due to intense activity of Christian missionaries, about 30% of them had become Christians and the conversion goes on. Nearly 40 different denominations of missionaries are active in this small state, with a population of 45 million. Communist North Korea, like Islamic States, does not allow any missionary activity. ......
 
• Scientific Approach To History: Reality Or Myth
• Prof. V. V. S. Sarma, Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

Several historians of the Marxist camp have been waging a jihad, since several decades, claiming to establish new view points in the study of Indian History based on their political agenda. In the process, they attempt to make Indian History nothing more than a sequence of invasions. They view today's India as a country of diverse cultures belonging to successive invaders, ultimately knit together by the British into a single country. ......
 
• Dr Koenraad Elst Best Advocate in West for Hindutva
• Debashish Mukerji, Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

Hindu revivalism has few admirers in the west. Throughout the Ayodhya agitation, those spearheading it were routinely branded 'fascist' and 'fundamentalist' in media and academic circles abroad. Even now, when western newspapers mention the BJP, they routinely add the pejorative “right wing Hindu nationalist party”. A host of books and articles on the rise of the BJP has appeared worldwide in the last decade, and most of them have been hostile. ......
 
• Archaeology and Babri Masjid Unalterable Facts of History
• Prof. B. B. Lal, Bharatiya Pragna, March 2002

Under the caption 'Tampering with history', the Editor of The Hindu, (dated June 12, 1998) dealt with the reconstitution of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR). Since I happen to be one of the 18 persons nominated by the Government on the Council, the editor took the opportunity to have a dig at me. He made three distinct allegations. ......
 
• The RSS And Kashmir : The battle for integration will continue
• R. Upadhyay, South Asia Analysis Group, May 11, 2001

As per traditional Hindu scripture, Kashmir is the abode of the Goddess of knowledge (Saraswati).  The students of the traditional Sanskrit schools by and large in their prayer recite the verse:- "Namaste Sharada Devi Kashmirpurvasini, Tvamaham Prarthaye Nityam, Vidyam Buddhim cha Dehi Me" ( Oh Goddess of knowledge Sharada, whose abode is Kashmir. ......
 
• Who can question our patriotism? (Interview)
• Sabha Notes, January-March 2001

Q. Why do you oppose the concept of a national church which is not foreign-controlled, foreign funded and foreign influenced as proposed by the RSS?
A. The very concept of a foreign-controlled Church is faulty. Faith is universal. There are no borders for faith. A Japanese can become a Hindu. Likewise, all over the world there are Christians. As far as we in India are concerned, only by faith we are Christians. For everything else we are hundred percent Indians. So any one who is asking us to be a national church or Indian Church is speaking from a grave misconception. It is very hurting to the Church. By asking us to be Indian Christians you doubt our integrity and our patriotism. ......
 
• Statement by PM in Lok Sabha
• July 24, 2001

In the days and weeks before his visit, I had occasion to exchange views and perspectives - individually and collectively - with leaders of political parties, eminent personalities, media representatives and intellectuals, on the future prospects for India-Pakistan relations. They endorsed, almost unanimously, our view that the visit should be used to seek avenues for durable peace and cooperative friendship with Pakistan. ......
 
• India under threat
• A R. Kanangi, Afternoon Despatch & Courier, January 13, 2001

We know it is there. Silent, menacing. We cannot see it, we can only feel it, sense it. Sometimes - very rarely we see the tip of the iceberg. We do not know where the enemy lurks. We see the shadow that hovers over the country. The enemy is there in countries surrounding us. In Nepal, in Bangladesh, in Pakistan-held Kashmir. And what is disturbing is that he is right there -- in our midst. In our cities and towns. Many of them in Kashmir carrying on deadly operations, smuggling in death from across the border. ......
 
• UpheavalInKashmir - Contemporary History
• Pabitra Kumar Ghosh, Bartaman Patrika, January 20, 2000

India's glory earned at the victory at Kargil is already on the wane.  The unrelenting attacks from Pakistan's militants have succeeded in taming down the Government of India, which appears to be clueless.  The terrain for conflict has now extended from the LoC to Srinagar.  The dexterity of Pakistan has outwitted India. ......
 
• Engg student e-mailed secret info to Pak
• K.R.Sreenivas, Today's news, January 18, 2001

A student of PES Engineering College, Mandya, has been  arrested for passing on classified defence-related  information to Pakistan. His involvement came to light  when an officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF) was  questioned in an espionage case. ......
 
• Inside Jihad
• Time magazine, February 5, 2001

Four bearded militants warm themselves at a gas heater in an Islamabad safe house. A wireless set suddenly crackles. "Our boys have entered Srinagar Airport," a grave, distant-sounding voice announces. "Pray for them. It has now been 15 minutes." The voice, speaking in Urdu and broadcasting from deep within India's part of Kashmir, is detailing the progress of a suicide mission by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a ruthless, Pakistan-based militant group waging war to wrest Kashmir from India. ......
 
• Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception
• M S M Saifullah, www.secularislam.org, September 21, 2000

The Christian missionary efforts in preaching the Gospel are hardly worthy of emulation. Ever since the appearance of Islam on the world stage and the first sighting of tribes (or natives) of the New World, the crusade to convert the whole world to Christianity was accompanied by the unholy means of deception, exploitation and persecution. ......
 
• Dalai Lama’s visit not desirable yet: Korea
• The Times of India, October 31, 2000

South Korea will not allow a visit by the Dalai Lama this year, foreign ministry spokesman Lee Nam-Soo said in a statement. ......
 
• A matter of prime loyalty
• Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, November 23, 2000

The first was the call to defeat anti-Hindus. More recently, he asked Christian churches to become swadeshi and the Muslim people to Indianise themselves. So far there has been no enquiry for an explanation as to what could have inspired the appeals. Was it an anxiety or could it be an aspiration or a combination of the two? ......
 
• Turning Point: Ted’s Gospel of Peace and Love
• Hinduism Today, Nov/Dec 2000

I've been thinking of this conference for a lot of years. When I was a little boy, I was very religious. I was born into a Christian family and went to a Christian school, and I became a Christian, just like you become whatever you're exposed to as a little child. I was going to be a man of the cloth. I'd be sitting out there with you, and I would have loved that life. I really would. ......
 
• A Disappointed Reader (Letters to the Editor)
• D.V. Gokhale, Manushi, November –December 2000

First, the article titled Wargasm in Issue No. 106 with that smutty cartoon of prime ministers of India and Pakistan showing their genitalia, each boasting that his is bigger than the other’s. It was sexist, cheap, literally below the belt and demeaning a serious nuclear debate, dragging it down to male-female level. ......
 
• Trouble in the Holy Land - Jerusalem cleric praises child ‘sacrifices’
• David Kupelian, WorldNetDaily.com, November 10, 2000

The Mufti of Jerusalem, the city's highest Muslim religious authority, is calling for the complete "liberation" by Palestinians not only of Jerusalem, but of all of Israel, and stresses that "sacrifice" and "martyrdom" of Palestinian children prove that "the new generation will carry on the mission with determination." ......
 
• U.S. public schools mandate teaching about religion, new report finds
• The Freedom Forum, November 20, 2000

A new report by the Council on Islamic Education and the First Amendment Center reveals that nearly every state mandates the teaching about religion in public school social studies classes. ......
 
• It is a Matter of Pride
• FTS Today, May & June, 2000

As I promised earlier in the February issue, I am giving some more startling truths about India. These facts not only remind us of our past glory but inspire us to rise again as a great nation with sheer determination to help underprivileged sections of our society and to educate illiterate masses of villages and forests i.e. Vanvasis. Our devotion and dedication for the cause would bring changes and we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for the rest of the world to follow. ......
 
• Linking Hindu almanac to Western calendar
• M.Madan Mohan, The Hindu, July 4, 2000

A unique attempt to bring about a compromise between the Indian "panchanga" and the Western calendar has been made by Pandit Vadirajacharya of Bijapur, now settled in Bhadravati in Shimoga District. He has prepared on a single sheet the calendar for 197 crores of years of the life of the earth, which devout Hindus believe, has passed through six "Manvantaras" and is currently going through 28th Kaliyuga of the seventh "Manvantara"! ......
 
• Teenager Encourages Peers to Pursue Spirituality
• The New York Daily News, July 13, 2000

A select few are born in every century to light the spark of love, devotion, and selfless service among their communities.  Young Kavindra Jaganan, age 16, is doing that very thing at the recently completed Hindu Sanatan temple in East Elmhurst, New York.  Following in the steps of his priestly forefathers, he encourages the youth of the Indo-Caribbean community to get in touch with themselves so that they become better people. ......
 
• Panel tells Buddha to clarify ‘shoot criminals’ remark
• Santanu Banerjee, The Indian Express, December 30, 2000

The West Bengal Human Rights Commission has sought clarification from the Principal Home Secretary of the state on the recent statement by Chief Minster Buddhadeb Bhattacharya asking the police to shoot the armed criminals. ......
 
• Muslim rights & Hindu wrongs!
• M V Kamath, The Free Press Journal, December 28, 2000

If our secularists think that by getting the resignation of three BJP Ministers tensions in India will lessen and peace will prevail in the country, their understanding of peoples’ sentiments can only be described as pathetic. The Babri Masjid stood for everything that was wrong in Hindu-Muslim relations. It needed to be dismantled. One suspects neither the Muslim community and much less the so-called secularists had any idea of how the Hindu mind works. ......
 
• Pakistan’s Afghan neighboures: When your home is mine
• Ijaz Hussain, The Asian Age, December 2, 2000

Following the entry of 30,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan during the last two months and the threat of their unabated influx in the days to come, particularly the expected flow of about half a million more during the next 45 days, the government of Pakistan on November 9 imposed a ban on the entry of all Afghans into Pakistan without valid travel documents. ......
 
• Orissa villages ban conversion
• The Times of India, December 29, 2000

Some 4,000 people in eight Orissa villages have resolved to ban religious conversions, days after the people of Jharia village stopped the erection of a statue of Jesus Christ within the precincts of a Hindu temple, the leader of a Hindu group said Thursday. ......
 
• Death and glory for ‘The Holy Warrior’
• Richard Warburton, The Birmingham Post, December 29, 2000

Abdullah Bai was one of hundreds of Muslims who give up their homes in the West Midlands each year to fight for militant groups in Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan. ......
 
• Recall the Goa Inquisition to stop the Church from crying foul
• Kanchan Gupta, Rediff on Net, March 16, 1999

His Majesty the king has ordered that there shall be no Brahmins in his land and that they should be banished.' ......
 
• ‘I was in Pakistan many years ago.  The people I dealt with are no longer there’ - The Rediff Interview/ Zoramthanga
• Rediff on Net, July 12, 1999

For twenty years the malaria-rampant jungles and forbidding hills of India's border with Burma were his lair.  Inspired by Laldenga's clarion call for secession from India, he confronted its superior forces in scores of encounters, where his cunning, instinct and undeniable good luck saved him often from imminent annihilation. ......
 
• Islam: Liberal Fiction And Historical Truth
• Srdja Trifkovic, Chronicles, February 2, 1999

"Some say there is an inevitable clash between Western civilization and Western values, and Islamic civilizations and values. I believe this view is terribly wrong. False prophets may use and abuse any religion to justify whatever political objectives they have - even cold-blooded murder. Some may have the world believe that almighty God himself, the merciful, grants a license to kill. But that is not our understanding of Islam. . . There are over 1,200 mosques and Islamic centers in the United States, and the number is rapidly increasing. ......
 
• A Tribe Races to Teach Its Mother Tongue
• Guy Gugliotta, The Washington Post, August 9, 1999

Sapulpa, Okla. - The old man sat with his arms folded while Katy, 15, Renee, 13, and Eleanor, 9, huddled to figure out how to say "bring the shovel," a tough question in a quiz game the community had dubbed "Yuchi Jeopardy!" ......
 
• ‘Taliban invited to conquer the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir via Astore and Skardu’
• Mr Kofi Annan, October 4, 1998

I, on behalf of the Balawaristan National Front (BNF), have the honour to inform you that the government of Pakistan has decided to act upon the intrigue to conquer Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit Baltistan (POGB)) with the help of Taliban fanatics. This conspiracy has become an open secret of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), in which the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state had to turn into ashes before invasion of J&K and Ladakh on the Indian side, due to which deteriorating situation and unrest occurred among the people. ......
 
• KLA rebels train in terrorist camps
• Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, May 4, 1999

Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans. ......
 
• B.B. Lal’s book buries the Aryan Invasion myth by exhuming India’s true antiquity
• Hinduism Today, May, 1998

The outstanding feature of Professor Lal's book," says famed historian Shiva G.  Bajpai, "is that in one volume you have the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of all the major archaeological sites of the Indus- Saraswati civilization." Lal's book, The Earliest Civilization of South Asia, delineates in 300 pages of readable text, as well as abundant photographs of excavated sights and artifacts, an extensive and engaging account of the Indus Valley Civilization's chronology, economy, religion, socio-political stratification, script as well as causes of decline and legacy. ......
 
• Fifty years of loot, plunder and intrigues
• A Socialist Correspondent from Pakistan, October 1997

Pakistan, meaning a "land of the pure", turned fifty this year. Looking back over the past five decades of Pakistan's political history, a picture of utter hopelessness, disillusionment and decay in almost every field, flashed into the mind. A land which was carved out on the map of the world after enormous sacrifices were rendered in the form of precious human lives stands today in utter contrast to the ideals and goals which were promised by the pioneers of the Pakistan Movement and which were so gullibly believed by the people of that time. ......
 
• Interview with Dharampal
• Max Martin, Down to Earth, June 30, 1997

A noted Gandhian historian, Dharampal, has enquired into various facets of pre-British Indian society. He has authored several books, including Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century and The Beautiful Tree. In a conversation with Max Martin in Delhi recently, he spoke on India's achievements in agriculture and science, the efficacy of indigenous systems of local governance and the deleterious effects of British rule ......
 
• My Turn - It's Easier to be Hindu in Ireland than India
• Jay Keshavappa Shankar, Hinduism Today, January 1997

It is easier for me to bring up my children to be Hindus in the West than it is in India.  My children here in Ireland have the freedom to express their Hindu values and heritage in a non-Hindu society where people are tolerant and eager to understand us.  The local Irish people take part in programs of bhajans, yoga, yajna and the like.  Lately, vegetarianism is becoming popular among them -- while Hindus arriving here are taking to meat eating. ......
 
• FIJI: Christian Condones Attack
• Hinduism Today, February 1997

Fiji Hindus were outraged over a dipavali-day break-in at the Soni Samaj Temple in Nadi.  Several Deities were smashed, others were stolen.  Damages totaled US$25,000.  Fiji's Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, condemned the vandalism as "beastly.  If it was performed by any Christian Methodist, we are all ashamed." A second temple break-in on November 14 escalated tensions. ......
 
• What the invaders really did
• Rizwan Salim, The Hindustan Times, December 28, 1997

On the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition (December 6, 1992), it is important for Hindus (and Muslims) to understand the importance of the event in the context of Hindustan's history, past and recent, present and the future. ......
 
• Memories of December 16
• Akhtar Payami, Dawn, December 16, 1997

"THE Seventh Fleet of the United States is about to touch our shores." "The Chinese troops are going to land in Dacca in a couple of hours." ......
 
• Some Pointers for Personal Evangelism Among Educated Hindus
• H.L. Richards, Mission Frontiers, September/October 1996

Friendship evangelism is usually easy to initiate with Hindus. Most Hindus esteem religion in general and are free and open to speak about it. A sincere, nonjudgemental interest in all aspects of Indian Life will provide a good basis for friendship. Personal interaction with Hindus will lead to a more certain grasp of the essence of Hinduism than reading many books. ......
 
• In Search of the cradle of Civilization - Book Review
• Hinduism Today, July, 1996

A lot of fine scholars of Indian history are going to detest this book.  The reason can be traced to their urge not just to report history, but to speculate "why" events happened as they did.  In the case of Indian history, the Great Explanation for the last 150 years has been the "Aryan Invasion of India." Never mind that it was at best a wild guess to start with. ......
 
• Aryan Invasion Theory
• Dinesh Agrawal, Hinduism Today, July, 1996

The Aryan Invasion Theory is not a subject of academic interest only, rather it conditions our perception of India's historical evolution, the sources of her ancient glorious heritage and indigenous socio-economic-political institutions which have been developed over the millennia.  Consequently, the validity or invalidity of this theory has an obvious and strong bearing on the contemporary Indian political and social landscape and the future of Indian nationalism. ......
 
• Not guilty
• Priya Sahgal, Sunday, 25 February – 2 March 1996

“The Hindus have been so much humiliated and insulted since 1947 that sometimes it seems doubtful whether they are living in their own country. In Kashmir and Punjab, so much Hindu blood is being shed. Even in Ayodhya unarmed kar sevaks, including the sadhus were brutally killed.” Sadhvi Rithambara, Vishwas Nagar Chowk, New Delhi, on 28 November 1990. ......
 
• Capturing India’s Sadhus – v\ Interviews with Five Famous Film
• Rajiv Malik, Hinduism Today, January, 1995

As many as two million television viewers in the UK and USA experienced a close encounter this year with three of India's holy men, thanks to two brother film-makers, Naresh and Rajesh Bedi.  The first of their three fifty- minute documentaries focused on Sri Jayendra Saraswati, Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham in South India, the second on Lotan baba ("The Rolling Saint") and the third on Ram Nath of the extremist Aghori sect. ......
 
• Caste conscious
• Sunday, 10-16 December 1995

The Dalit Christian demand for reservation may have stirred up a storm, but it is hardly of recent origin. Its roots, in fact, go right back to pre-Independence India, when the government granted reservation to all minorities on a communal rather than a caste has is, by way of a Communal Gazette Order. This included two per cent reservation for Christian Dalits. ......
 
• Does Mother know Best? – What the critics say
• Sunday, 10-16 December 1995

Mother Teresa. She is on record as saying that abortion is the biggest threat to world peace. Abortion, she believes, is “direct war” murder committed by the mother herself. Speaking at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations, she said, “We are frightened of nuclear war, we are frightened of this terrible new disease, AIDS, but we are not frightened to kill an innocent child.” ......
 
• Oh Mother!
• Sunday, 10-16 December 1995

“Let us pray.” That is how Mother Teresa signs off most of her letters. So, her attendance at a prayer meeting on 18 November at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Delhi should not have occasioned more than a two-line report in most of the capital’s newspapers. ......
 
• Mother Backtracks
• Vir Sanghvi, Sunday, 10-16 December 1995

Last week, I wrote about how disappointed I was that Mother Teresa had participated in a dharna to secure reservation for so-called Christian Dalits. “I can only hope that she has been ill-advised and that she will now recognise that she has acted unwisely and retract from her stand,” I said. ......
 
• The Original Home of the Hindus (Interview of Dr Ambedkar)
• Organiser, January 23, 1994

The Father of the Indian Constitution, Dr B. R. Ambedkar, was the foremost nationalist leader of the oppressed classes and an erudite scholar. The following is an account of the en lightening dialogue the author had with him. Though the author himself does not agree with all of Sri Ambedkar’s conclusions, the dialogue is significant for the fact of Sri Ambedkar’s total rejection of the theory of Aryan invasion as “a perversion of scientific investigation”. ......
 
• Hindutva, Constitution and Dr Ambedkar
• Ramesh Patange, Organiser, January 23, 1994

“Here I do not enter into the merits of the Constitution. However good and faultless a constitution may be, but if those who implement it are incompetent and useless, that constitution results in an evil. Similarly however defective a constitution may be, but if its executors are good the same constitution results in the good of the people”, such was the view expressed by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar while replying to the discussion on the Constitution on November 26, 1949. ......
 
• Ram over Babar: Is Narasimha Rao preparing to do a deal with militant Hindus?
• Aditi Phadnis, The Sunday, October 10, 1992

An exercise has begun in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to hand over Ayodhya to the Hindus.  At least, this is the impression gathered by senior journalists and political leaders who have met Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and key officials in his secretariat over the last few weeks. ......
 
• Science in The Medieval World
• Sa'id-al-Andalusi, India-West, November 29, 1991

Long Beach, California - An Indo-American professor, along with a colleague, has translated and eleventh- century book published in Islamic Spain which documents the contribution of scientific knowledge from India, Greece, Persia, Rome, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. ......
 
• Caste no bar to be Hindu priest
• The Times of India, December 8, 1995

The landmark ruling of the Kerala high court recently that a trained priest belonging to any caste was eligible to be appointed a priest has been hailed by all the major Hindu organisations In the state. ......
 
• The only alternative
• M.C. Chagla, December 29, 1980

Shri Vajpayeeji, fellow citizens of Bombay and Friends coming from all over the Country, I am not a member of your party nor am I addressing you as a representative of any one. Nonetheless, I do assure you that while so addressing you, I do not consider myself as an outsider or a stranger. I sincerely tell you that I am one of you. The objective that has brought you all here is as endearing to me as it is to you. The vast multitude of people that I am seeing here is an apt reply to Smt. Indira Gandhi. ......
 
• The Crusade in the Camps
• Spencer Reiss with James Pringle, Newsweek , August 18, 1980

At Khao-I-Dang camp in Thailand last week, a swarm of Cambodian children stopped a visitor to sing him a song: “One-two-three, Jesus loves me. One-two, Jesus loves you.” Except for proud shouts of “hello” and “bye-bye,” it was all the English- or Christian theology-that most of the young refugees knew. But they were “true believers” nonetheless, among more than 10,000 onetime Buddhists baptized this year by born-again foreign-relief workers. ......
 
• Sri Aurobindo's 15th August 1947 message.
• Sri Aurobindo

August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India.  It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age.  But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity. ......
 
• Husband can beat wife: Dubai court
• PTI, The Times of India, March 31, 2002

In a judgement that may upset advocates of women's rights, a Dubai court has ruled that a man can beat his wife to discipline her provided the punishment should not damage her bones or deform her. ......
 
• Suicidal Lies
• Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, March 31, 2002

The outcome of the war now under way between the Israelis and Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe, to all of civilization. Why? Quite simply because Palestinians are testing out a whole new form of warfare, using suicide bombers - strapped with dynamite and dressed as Israelis - to achieve their political aims. And it is working. ......
 
• Peace has returned to Gujarat, claims Modi (Interview with Narendra Modi)
• S Balakrishnan, The Times of India, March 30, 2002

Q.: In your view, was the burning of 58 kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra a planned attacked or a spontaneous one? Was there an untoward incident on the station platform which sparked the attack?
A.: If one looks at the nature of the heinous attack on the Sabarmati Express and the manner in which 58 innocent kar sevaks were burnt alive in a compartment of the ill-fated train, it would be apparent that it was a deep rooted conspiracy and a pre-planned, cold-blooded attack. ......
 
• Basis of secularism is Hindutva
• Poonam Singh Chauhan, The Indian Express, March 30, 2002

By saying that Hindutva and secularism cannot go together, senior columnist and member of Parliament Kuldip Nayar (IE, March 26) has once again displayed that his understanding of Hindutva is very poor. Or, in an attempt to launch his pseudo-intellectual assault on the BJP, he has taken the risk of maligning the very basis of Indian secularism - Hindutva. ......
 
• U.S. Puts Onus on Palestinians to Stop Terror
• Michael R. Gordon, The New York Times, March 30, 2002

Expressing sympathy with Israel's decision to respond militarily after a series of terrorist attacks, the Bush administration today blamed the bombings by the Palestinian militants for the escalating violence in the Middle East and demanded that Yasir Arafat take steps to stop the attacks. ......
 
• U.S. Agents Seize Terror Suspects in Pakistan Raid
• Raymond Bonner, The New York Times, March 30, 2002

A team of American law enforcement and intelligence officials stormed several houses in Pakistan early Thursday and captured five Taliban fighters and 25 Arabs suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, senior Pakistani law enforcement officials said today. ......
 
• Century-old temple in Maran can be developed
• The Star Online, March 29, 2002

The Government has agreed to allow the development proposed by the management of the century-old Marathandavar Temple in Maran, said MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu. ......
 
• One-sided report (Letters to Editor)
• Cho. S. Ramaswamy, The Hindu, March 29, 2002

Your reporting of the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament was unfortunately totally one-sided. From describing the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's reply to Sonia Gandhi's remarks about him as a “personal attack launched against the Leader of the Opposition,'' to brushing aside the speeches made on the ruling side as “reiterations of arguments spelt out in both Houses last week'' ......
 
• The True Arab Leaders
• Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, March 29, 2002

At a time when Arab countries face far-reaching choices - about economics, democracy, Israel, religion - the region needs most what it lacks most: great leaders. Most of those in power seem to "lead" by staying in the crowd, distracting it when possible, and running around in front of it when necessary. ......
 
• Three men in a boat
• Karan Thapar, The Hindustan Times, March 10, 2002

Occasionally television interviewers meet interesting people. It's one of the advantages of the job. Last week I met three. For good or ill, they left a lasting impression. Two were Nobel laureates, the third a spiritual guru. Each in his own way said or did things that are difficult to forget. ......
 
• Caste and colonial rule
• Andre Beteille, The Hindu, March 4, 2002

Is there a secular trend of decline in the strength of caste in Indian society? My assessment is that there is, although one cannot be categorical because there are many counter-currents that act against the main current. Further, I believe that the trend of change towards the weakening of caste began during the British rule around the middle of the 19th century and has continued, with many ups and downs, till the present. ......
 
• The ABRAHAMIC SUPERCASTE SYSTEM
•  

Jews, derived from the seed of Abraham, are the 'Chosen People'. Nothing we Gentiles do can attain for us the status of the 'chosen people'. ......
 
• History of Communal Riots In Ahmedabad
•  

A Hindu named Hari Ram while celebrating Holi with his friends at his residence sprinkled 'Gulal' a red powder on one muslim, which was strongly protested by Muslims. A mob got assembled near Jumma Masjid under the leadership of Sunni Bohra Mulla Abdul Aziz. Afghan soldiers of the Muslim viceroy also joined the mob seeing the situation. A Kazi interfered for cooling down the angry mob.  But the mob set on fire the house of this Kazi. The rioteers thereafter looted the shops of Hindu Mohalla, Shops and set their houses to fire. ......
 
• True friendship begins by getting to the bottom of yesterday’s problems
• Claude Arpi, Rediff on Net, March 30, 2002

Though it passed unnoticed in India, a very interesting book was published recently. This book should be read by all those interested in the strategic relations between India and China. ......
 
• Moderate Muslims: the new target? (Letter to Editor)
• M.A. Muqtedar Khan, Dawn, March 29, 2002

On March 21, over 150 federal agents raided the offices of several prominent Muslim organizations and the homes of some of the most respected members of the American Muslim community, located in Northern Virginia. For over 20 years, the Muslim leadership associated with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), one of the targets of the raid, has been at the forefront of many progressive, moderate, intellectual and liberal initiatives taken by American Muslims. ......
 
• I’d rather hang myself than extradite Omar: Musharraf
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, March 28, 2002

Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf reportedly told the US ambassador in Islamabad that he would rather "hang himself" than extradite Sheikh Omar Sayeed, one of many instances of backsliding that has called into question Pakistan's credibility as a frontline state in the war against terrorism. ......
 
• Pakistan: Pretense of an Ally
• Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, March 28, 2002

President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell have done everything possible to enlist Pakistan as a full ally in the war on al Qaeda and global terrorism. But Pakistan has not responded with the active support that Bush demands from every state that is "with" the United States in this conflict. ......
 
• Remaking the Musharraf myth
• Sonia Trikha, The Indian Express, March 27, 2002

There's something about Pakistan. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s almost surreal. The only thing that does seem to alter is popular perception. Myths are made, unmade and then remade about Pakistan. ......
 
• Guerrilla Attacks May Rise in Warmer Days, U.S. Says
• Thom Shanker, The New York Times, March 27, 2002

The Bush administration is concerned that the approach of warmer weather in Afghanistan may signal a sharp rise in guerrilla attacks on American and allied troops, senior officials say. ......
 
• Posing as pilgrims, Bangladeshis sneak into India
• Digambar Patowary, The Hindustan Times, March 11, 2002

An alley between two dargahs of the same name on either side of the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya is arguably the busiest infiltration route into India. ......
 
• Muslim women want ‘triple talaq’ to go
• Our Special Correspondent, The Hindu, March 3, 2002

“My husband gave me two children and, 10 years after marriage, divorced me with `a triple talaq'. He gives only a pittance as maintenance for my children,” Shaheed Begum from Madurai said. She was one of the several Muslim women, who converged here from across the State, to demand an end to the “unjust talaq system” in the Islamic society. ......
 
• China’s Economic Facade
• Arthur Waldron, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, March 2002

China’s leadership has worked hard to convince its populace and foreign investors that the country is economically healthy and growing, but key evidence indicates otherwise. Acknowledging the true state of affairs would jeopardize the existence of the ruling Communist Party and would threaten the interests of others as well. But the charade cannot continue indefinitely. ......
 
• Veer Savarkar
• URL: http://www.eaglespace.com/veersavarkar.html

Here is brief summary of just Savarkar's 'firsts'. These excerpts are from 'Veer Savarkar' by Dhananjay Keer. Incidentally Mr. Keer was conferred Padma Bhushan in 1971 for this and other biographies. Mr. Keer himself of a former 'untouchable harijan' caste, worked with Savarkar on the first Pan-Hindu temple in Ratnagiri. ......
 
• Endemic insurgency in northeast is serious
• B L Kak, The Daily Excelsior, March 28, 2002

The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) have warned that things in the country's northeast region can further deteriorate if Governments in majority of the States in the region continued to live in their own 'make-believe' world. ......
 
• Don’t become pawns, RSS tells Muslims
• Our Special Correspondent, The Hindu, March 28, 2002

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today justified its recently- adopted resolution - “let Muslims understand that their real safety lies in the goodwill of the majority” - describing it as “a statement of fact”. ......
 
• Introduce Uniform Civil Code
• Rakesh Sinha, The Pioneer, March 28, 2002

The CPI ambiguously justifies its stand on India's Partition. Hiren Mukherjee, who otherwise is sound in dealing theoretical questions, makes a sweeping remark in his treatise, The legacy we cherish 60 years of the CPI"( 1985): "It is fashionable in certain quarters to decide the Gangadhar Adhikari formulation of the party's nationalities' policy, stressing the fact that the country did have 'nationalities' - some of them predominantly Muslim by faith." ......
 
• Real culprits of the Two-Nation theory
• Rakesh Sinha, The Pioneer, March 27, 2002

The question of multi-nationalities is the central point of any secularist discourse. Secularist social scientists and Indian communist parties unambiguously characterise the Indian state in this term. This precisely leads one to infer that religious groups, especially Muslims, form a sub-nationality in India. The secularists treat Bihari Muslims or Malayali Muslims as monolithic and they are collectively linked with a separate language, Urdu. ......
 
• High Court upholds ban on Simi
• Bhavatosh Singh & Chanchal Pal Chauhan, The Statesman, March 27, 2002

Six months after the Centre imposed a ban on Students' Islamic Movement of India, Mr Justice SK Aggarwal of the Delhi High Court, who headed the tribunal to decide the legality of the ban, today upheld the Centre's decision. ......
 
• The legal labyrinth of Ram’s Ayodhya
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff of Net, March 26, 2002

It's a reality that may well belong to the realm of fiction. The first legal case for repossession of the Ram Janambhoomi was filed in 1885. And the petitioner won it! In 1886! ......
 
• Securing Secularism
• K Subrahmanyam, The Times of India, March 26, 2002

When 13 American colonies, many of which were founded on the basis of religious sectarianism, came together to declare their independence in 1776 they wisely decided that in order to sustain their unity and eliminate frictions on account of religious sectarian factors they should commit themselves to secularism. ......
 
• Coming to terms with our past
• M.V. Kamath, The Free Press Journal, March 21, 2002

After all the hatred against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has been spewed, after all the breast-beating and self- denigration (at which Hindus are so good) has been gone through, could it be that the time has come to ask ourselves what the killings in Godhra and the rioting in Ahmedabad have been all about? The answer is simple: the people of India - especially the Hindus - have yet to come to terms with their history. ......
 
• What’s the brief for NHRC?
• Arvind Singh, March 26, 2002

The Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision to entertain a public interest litigation on the new school curriculum has cast a shadow over the academic year, even as millions of students prepare to report to school next month. The petition has been filed by activists who will enhance their personal profiles with the publicity generated by the case. Hence the apex court would have done well to question their locus standi on a matter of such academic sensitivity. ......
 
• Irresistible ideology, dispensable education
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, March 26, 2002

The Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision to entertain a public interest litigation on the new school curriculum has cast a shadow over the academic year, even as millions of students prepare to report to school next month. The petition has been filed by activists who will enhance their personal profiles with the publicity generated by the case. Hence the apex court would have done well to question their locus standi on a matter of such academic sensitivity. ......
 
• Pakistan: Terrorist in sheep’s clothing
• Arvin Bahl, The Daily Princetonian, March 26, 2002

On Dec. 13, five Pakistani terrorists stormed the seat of Indian democracy, the Parliament, shouting "Pakistan Zindabad" (Long live Pakistan) as they killed 14 people, including themselves. (The attack occurred minutes after Parliament adjourned as the purpose was to kill as many members of Parliament as possible). Conclusive evidence suggests that not only was this deadly attack carried out by Pakistan backed Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, Lakshar-e-Taiba (LET) and Jaish-e-Mohammaed (JEM), but the top brass of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), Pakistan's intelligence agency, planned the attack. ......
 
• Hawala funding of terror exposed
• Rashid Ahmad and Vishal Thapar, The Hindustan Times, March 26, 2002

The arrest of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Md Yaseen Malik on Monday has re-focussed attention on the foreign funding of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Police and intelligence agencies reckon that the largest recipient of foreign funds is the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the 23-group separatist conglomerate. ......
 
• Goodwill hunting
• Rakesh Sinha, The Hindustan Times, March 26, 2002

The RSS is once again in the soup for its alleged anti-minority stance. Its recent resolution at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha on the question of Hindu-Muslim relationship was widely quoted (out of context) by the media. The resolution read: "Although a few Muslim leaders hold the current atmosphere of jehad as absolutely wrong and in no way support jehadi terrorism, it should be noted that these people have not been able to influence the present day extremist leaders and stubborn mullahs and maulvis". ......
 
• ‘A unique piece of legislation’
• Ajit Panja, The Pioneer, March 25, 2002

"POTO is draconian. POTO is sectarian. It will terrorize innocent citizens and curtail their freedom," a section of political and intellectual opinion keeps on repeating. ......
 
• Judge hearing ‘93 blasts case gets threats to life
• A Chalomumbai Correspondent, Mid-Day, March 25, 2002

Designated judge Pramod Kode, hearing the 1993 serial blasts case, has received threats to his life in two letters asking him to become 'rehamdil' (merciful) while dealing with the accused, official sources said today. ......
 
• Godhra, ‘secular’ ‘progressives’ and politics
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, March 25, 2002

As usual, during the bloodbath in Gujarat, the Nehruvian Stalinists in the English-language media showed their cowardice and bigotry by blaming the Hindus for all sorts of real and imagined faults. It never strikes them that the non- Hindus of India could possibly be anything other than victims oppressed by "cruel, medieval, casteist Hindus:" never mind that such Hindus exist largely in their hyperactive imaginations. ......
 
• Ancient map key to final outcome on Ayodhya
• Vipul Mudgal, The Hindustan Times, March 25, 2002

Two key questions need to be answered for the resolution of the legal dispute over Ayodhya. Where exactly was Ram's birthplace, or janmasthan? And did a Ram temple, marking the spot, exist before the Babri Masjid was built. A 300-year-old map on a piece of withering cotton, currently part of the Jaipur royal family's collection, could answer both questions. ......
 
• Tribal Leaders in Pakistan Warn the U.S. to Keep Out
• Raymond Bonner, The New York Times, March 25, 2002

Tribal leaders from the treacherous mountainous areas along the border with Afghanistan have an unambiguous message for American commanders who have suggested that they might enter the region in pursuit of Al Qaeda fighters: Don't. ......
 
• The Close Reader: Other People’s Religions
• Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times, March 24, 2002

Americans don't like religious intolerance, and who can blame them? When backed by state power, it can lead to murder and mayhem, which is why our founding fathers insisted on the separation of church and state. People who disparage other faiths no longer come off as commendably pious, as they did centuries ago; now they just seem boorish. ......
 
• A Secret Iran-Arafat Connection Is Seen Fueling the Mideast Fire
• Douglas Frantz and James Risen, The New York Times, March 24, 2002

American and Israeli intelligence officials have concluded that Yasir Arafat has forged a new alliance with Iran that involves Iranian shipments of heavy weapons and millions of dollars to Palestinian groups that are waging guerrilla war against Israel. ......
 
• Not Indians but Pakistanis can settle in J-K
• Arun Sharma, The Indian Express, March 24, 2002

Sounds incredible, but a family from Pakistan not only managed to settle in the sensitive border  state, one of its members also procured a job in the state police. Ironically, this happened despite the fact that the J-K High Court had rejected a petition by the family for settlement in Jammu and Kashmir. ......
 
• From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad
• Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, Washington Post, March 23, 2002

In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation. ......
 
• Muslim body’s offer
• UNI, The Hindu, March 23, 2002

A Muslim body has suggested the handing over of the disputed land in Ayodhya to Hindus for building the Ram temple, saying ``Lord Ram is deeply embedded in the head, heart and soul of a Hindu and cannot be removed''. ......
 
• Four Pakistanis Missing After INS Wrongly Let Them Enter Country
• Carl Cameron, Fox News, March 22, 2002

Federal officials are on the lookout for four Pakistani nationals who are in the United States illegally after leaving a freighter that had been docked in Virginia sometime last weekend. ......
 
• Secularism and India Inc
• Priyadarsi Dutta, The Pioneer, March 22, 2002

Na tatra yatra na'ham, na tatra yannmanyi, kimandammi banchami, sarvam sanbinmay tatam" (There is nowhere, where I am not, there is no where that is not within me, what more I am left to covet, when all pervades the entirety). Thus spake Acharya Vidyaranya Swami, the 14th Century Mathadheesh of Sringeri, shortly before he passed into Mahasamadhi. His last words represent the all encompassing catholicity of Sanatan Dharma that has tussle with none. ......
 
• Austrian mayor opposes Islamic complex
• AFP, The Times of India, March 22, 2002

An Austrian far-right politician slammed Friday plans to build an Islamic complex, including a mosque, a school and shops as an attempt to construct an "Islamic mini-state." ......
 
• Pak sews Pheran for Jehadi outfits
• Excelsior Correspondent, The Daily Excelsior, March 22, 2002

General Pervez Musharraf's Government in Pakistan is reported to have given "final orders" to the pan-Islamist militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad to assimilate in different groups of Kashmiri militants. ......
 
• D-company may trigger serial blasts in Gujarat
• Deepak Sharma, The Pioneer, March 22, 2002

The D-Company hired local gangster in Bhuj and Ahmedabad to plot serial explosions in major Government and Commercial hubs in Gujarat. Telephones calls originating from Dubai and traced in Ahmedabad by Intelligence Bureau sleuths unraveled the bloody design which was also aimed at top cops and senior functionaries of the Gujarat Government. ......
 
• Warnings sound in the US
• Editorial, The Indian Express, March 22, 2002

The head of Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, in his testimony to the Senate US Armed Services Committee on March 19, warned the law-makers that the chances of war and nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India are now higher than at any other time since 1971. It is quite possible that the agency staff forgot to brief him about Pakistan's aggression and the war in Kargil in the summer of 1999. ......
 
• US raids on Muslims outrage community
• Agencies, The Daily Excelsior, March 22, 2002

Muslim groups in the US expressed outrage over September 11-related raids on members of their community by law enforcement agencies, saying these trampled civil liberties and sent a hostile message. ......
 
• US to question 3,000 foreigners on terrorism
• The Daily Excelsior, March 22, 2002

The United States wants to question 3,000 more foreign nationals who recently came to this country, Attorney General John Ashcroft said even though a report on the first round of interviews found few had any information about the September 11 attacks. ......
 
• U.S. Might Pursue Qaeda and Taliban to Pakistan Lairs
• Dexter Filkins, The New York Times, March 21, 2002

The commander of American forces here said today that they might cross the border into Pakistan to capture or kill Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters widely believed to have found sanctuary there. ......
 
• Bosnia in the neighbourhood
• Wilson John, The Pioneer, March 21, 2002

So obsessed have we been with our western neighbour in the past few months that we have remained callously ignorant about what another close neighbour on our eastern side has been perpetrating. Bangladesh is fast becoming another Pakistan. The international border between Bangladesh and India has witnessed some of the highest number of skirmishes and firings in the past one year. The government of Khaleda Zia views India with an extremely jaundiced eye. ......
 
• Defeated expectation
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, March 21, 2002

The country heaved a sigh of relief on March 15, after the shiladan at Ayodha passed off peacefully. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had the satisfaction of conducting its religious ceremonies. The Government was able to enforce the Supreme Court verdict of March 13 in letter and spirit, without causing any bloodshed. ......
 
• The Omens From Islamabad
• B. Raman, South Asia Analysis Group, March 20, 2002

Gen.Retreat has retreated again. In the face of mounting pressure from Pakistan's clandestine Army of Islam, headed by Gen. Mohammad Aziz Khan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and mounting terrorist violence in different parts of the country, climaxed by the grenade attack on a group of American and other foreign Christian worshippers in a church in a high security Islamabad area on March 17, 2002, Gen.Pervez Musharraf has called off the implementation of all the measures which he had ostensibly taken against the extremist/terrorist elements operating from Pakistani territory against India and the US. ......
 
• Stay away from polls, terrorists warn APHC
• Rashid Ahmad, The Hindustan Times, March 20, 2002

A small but hostile PoK-based terrorist group has threatened the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) with dire consequences if it participates in the elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The threat comes within a day of the Prime Minister's call to all separatist Kashmiri militants and politicians to join the poll process. "Desist from the temptation of elections or face the consequences," said a letter that was delivered at the APHC's Raj Bagh headquarters on Tuesday. ......
 
• Chinese workers bitten by new market realities
• CNN News, March 19, 2002

But the lessons of late have been harsh: Since 1999, the Daqing Petroleum Administration has laid off 86,000 of its roughly 260,000 workers. ......
 
• Pak Blames India For Blast
• Pranay Sharma and Idrees Bakhtiar, The Telegraph, March 19, 2002

New Delhi and Islamabad, March 18: An embarrassed Pakistan, under international glare for yesterday's grenade attack on a church, today blamed India for the tragedy even as a US official cut short her Delhi trip and left for Islamabad. ......
 
• Ayodhya: Why does truth unnerve the seculars?
• S Gurumurthy, New Indian Express, March 18, 2002

"Court orders are being flouted," shouted the secular brigade. "Secularism in danger," they wailed. "Stop the Ram sevaks converging on Ayodhya," they clamoured. This chorus began long before, more intensely a month before, Mohammed Aslam Bhure filed his petition before the Supreme Court on the 8th of this month to stop the VHP's puja at Ayodhya. ......
 
• Riots hit all classes, people of all faith
• Sanjay Pandey, The Times of India, March 17, 2002

With great effort Harish Parmar limps forward to greet you. His right leg was hit with a bullet above his right knee joint when he was running away from the mobsters involved in torching his house. ......
 
• Karsevaks baffled IB using internet
• www.intelligenceonline.net, March 16, 2002

Intelligence agencies are baffled by the use of hi-tech communication systems by karsevaks to organise themselves for the shila daan and pooja on the undisputed land in Ayodhya yesterday, top officials disclosed. ......
 
• Stop Secular Talibanism
• Tarun Vijay, India Today, March 25, 2002

The temple reflects our vision of a prosperous and proud Bharat, which sheltered all those driven out by fanatics of the world. Like the Statue of Liberty. ......
 
• Look, who’s talking!
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, March 20, 2002

"Ban VHP and Bajrang Dal," screamed the "Secular Brigade" (read the Congress, Communist and Communalist combine) for having stormed the Orissa Assembly building on Saturday last. The Marxists and Congress tried to equate the Orissa incident with the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament and the earlier attack on the J&K Legislative Assembly in October. ......
 
• Pak may release leaders of Jaish, Lashkar
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, March 20, 2002

Pakistan government has released some radical Islamic religious leaders from detention as a reconciliatory gesture to stem the tide of growing backlash from banned Islamic militant groups and might release leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba, the two outfits active in Kashmir, on the same grounds as no serious criminal charges were levelled against them. ......
 
• The Parivar missed the legal bus
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, March 19, 2002

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had to eat a lot of crow from the Supreme Court's recent pronouncement on the Ayodhya case only because it had missed the legal bus right from the time the Narasimha Rao government passed the 'Acquisition of Certain Area at Ayodhya Act, 1993 (No. 33 of 1993)' till the apex court's original judgement came on October 24, 1994 and even thereafter. ......
 
• Al-Qaida, Taliban Planning Comeback
• Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press, March 19, 2002

Peshawar, Pakistan - Protected by sympathetic clerics, up to 1,000 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are hiding in Pakistan and planning a Taliban comeback in Afghanistan, according to Taliban members and others familiar with the Islamic movement. ......
 
• New solutions to temple problem
• Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, March 19, 2002

If only the Hindu leadership were familiar with the psyche of Muslim elite, its task might have been less difficult. For example, how long and arduous has been its continuing struggle to get back the Ramjanmasthan? When there is a confrontation, whether with the Hindu or any other, the Muslim does not give in. He gives up only when he has no choice. ......
 
• Anti-US struggle to go on, says freed jihadi
• Agencies, The Pioneer, March 19, 2002

The leader of a hard-line Muslim religious party who was released from house arrest has vowed tocontinue campaigning against the presence of the US forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan. ......
 
• Tripura CPM accuses church of nexus with NSCN-IM, NLFT; blasts Sonia
• Our Correspondent, The Statesman, March 19, 2002

The ruling CPI(M) in Tripura is worried over the nexus between a section of the church and militant organizations in the north-eastern region. The party has brought serious charges against the churches working in the region. ......
 
• Don’t Be Fooled By Musharraf’s Nice-Guy Pose
• Shaheen Sehbai, The Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2002

Three weeks ago, I resigned as editor of Pakistan's most influential English daily, the News. My proprietor had directed me to apologize to the chiefs of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for my decision to publish details of a confessional statement by Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. I was the first local journalist Danny contacted last year when he arrived in Karachi to cover Pakistan, and America's war against terror, the latest dimension of which was seen in Sunday's attack on a church in Islamabad. ......
 
• Law to tighten control on Madaris soon
• M. Ismail Khan, Dawn, March 19, 2002

The federal government has prepared an ordinance that provides for the registration and tighter control over deeni madaris and circulated it among the four provinces for review. The ordinance is likely to be promulgated on March 23, a senior government official said. ......
 
• Muslim killings in India, Palestine not the same: Saudi paper
• Indo-Asian News Service, IANS, March 14, 2002

An influential Saudi Arabian newspaper has defended India's secular record, pointing out that the country has already had two Muslim presidents while many Muslims have served in cabinet positions. ......
 
• Media accused of not helping Ayodhya cause
• Jyoti Punwani, Mid-Day, March 18, 2002

Somwaari Bazaar was the only spot in Malad where the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) March 15 ghantanaad programme could have caused a problem. Thirty feet away from the Ram Mandir is a large mosque. To avoid trouble, the Muslims completed their Friday namaz by 1.45 pm, under heavy police bandobast. ......
 
• “The temple shall be built”
• Balraj Madhok, Rediff on Net, March 18, 2002

Professor Balraj Madhok, former president and co-founder of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, has not lost his ability to brutally dissect political adversaries. The Jan Sangh -- precursor of the Bharatiya Janata Party -- had its high-water mark under Madhok's stewardship when, along with its allies, the party won 100 seats in the 1967 general election. ......
 
• Did the court ask, what is Mohd Aslam’s locus standi?
• Arun Shourie, The Indian Express, March 18, 2002

What is the VHP? Whom does it represent? What is its locus standi?, the Supreme Court asked the other day — and it seemed to have done so in a tone that triggered much delight among secularists. ......
 
• The judgement vs the interim order
• Arun Shourie, The Indian Express, March 17, 2002

‘‘The mandate (which the Act imposes upon  the Central Government),’’ the Supreme Court said in its 1994 judgement on the Ayodhya case, ‘‘is that in managing the property so vested in the Central Government, the Central Government or the authorised person shall ensure maintenance of the status quo [and here the Court quoted merely reproduced — for the second time within ten lines — the words in the Act itself) in the area on which the structure (including the premises of the inner and outer courtyards of such structure), commonly known as the Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid, stood.’’ ......
 
• Al Qaeda’s Grocery Lists and Manuals of Killing
• David Rohde and C. J. Chivers, The New York Times, March 17, 2002

On Aug. 17, 1995, Amir Maawia Siddiqi, the son of a bookshop owner in a small village in Pakistan, set down his oath of allegiance to the jihad. ......
 
• Pakistan army chief bribed his Bangla counterpart to ensure Khaleda Zia’s win
• Rediff on Net, March 17, 2002

In a bid to gain a foothold in Bangladesh politics and promote Islamic fundamentalist groups in that country, a Pakistan army chief paid a bribe of Rs 100 million to his Bangla counterpart to ensure Khaleda Zia's return to power, a Pakistani media report said. ......
 
• This kar sevak couldn't turn his back on burning bogie
• Express News Service, The Indian Express, March 12, 2002

The smoke from the burning S-6 bogie of the Sabarmati Express did serious damage to his oesaphagus and lungs. But 30-year-old Prahlad Patel, who was in a critical state till a few days back, is now inching his way to recovery at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. Though Patel, who was in the bogie next to S-6, managed to open the door and jump off, he did not run away in search of a safer place. Instead, he went into the burning S6 and managed to push out around 30 women and children. ......
 
• Don’t coddle Pakistan, think tank warns
• International Relations And Security Network

The international community should be wary of an apparent  shift by Pakistan's military rulers to a pro-Western stance  as it masks moves to stay in power, the International Crisis  Group (ICG) said in a report. General Pervez Musharraf, who  seized power in a 1999 coup, has been feted as a key ally in  the US-led war on terror for ending support for  Afghanistan's Taliban movement and clamping down on Islamic  militants at home. ......
 
• U.S. supported al-Qaeda cells during Balkan Wars Fought serbian troops
• Isabel Vincent, The National Post, March 16, 2002

Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network has been active in the Balkans for years, most recently helping Kosovo rebels battle for independence from Serbia with the financial and military backing of the United States and NATO. ......
 
• VHP bashing
• AR Kanangi, The Afternoon Despatch and Courier, March 16, 2002

Arrest the leaders. They are fanatics. They are whipping up communal frenzy. They are a menace to the country. They are intolerant. They receive funds from foreign sources. These need to be probed. And they do not allow us to convert people. ......
 
• Hostile hosts
• Abhijit Bhattacharyya, The Pioneer, March 16, 2002

Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf asked Indian I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj to lift the travel ban between India and Pakistan during the SAARC inaugural at Islamabad on March 07, 2002. Just look at the unrealism of it all. General Musharraf - the Chief of the Pakistani Army, the "President" of Pakistan, and the General "President" of Islamic Pakistan - is "three-in-one". ......
 
• Deserved dismissal
• Editorial, The Pioneer, March 15, 2002

The Government's decision to ask Air Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Air Command, Air Marshal Manjit Singh Sekhon, to take premature retirement has not come a day late. The Air Marshal stands accused of a serious breach of protocol for an officer of the armed forces. ......
 
• U.S. Indicts Suspect Held in Abduction of Journalist
• Philip Shenon, The New York Times, March 15, 2002

A 28- year-old British-born Muslim militant was indicted today on federal charges that he orchestrated the kidnapping plot that led to the murder of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The charges can carry the death penalty. ......
 
• Godhra Investigation: Tracking the Plan
• Sheela Raval, India Today, March 18, 2002

Investigators begin to identify the many hands behind the Sabarmati Express fire. Most of the suspects have criminal records, and at least one has a Dawood link. ......
 
• Madarasas: Latent Heat
• Uday Mahurkar, India Today, March 18, 2002

Last month, three days before Bakr Id, animal welfare activist J.R. Vyas received a tip-off. Despite an official ban, some 200 cows, he was told, would be slaughtered in broad daylight at Tankaria, an all-Muslim village in Gujarat's Bharuch district, close to Kantharia where one of the largest Deobandi madarsas in the state is located. Swinging into action, Vyas posed as a Muslim cattle trader and arrived at the Tankaria mosque. ......
 
• Where lies the truth?
• M.V. Kamath, The Afternoon Despatch and Courier, March 16, 2002

First comes the killing. Then comes the reaction. Then follows a period of relative calm. Then comes the recrimination and efforts at blame fixing. It is always: "You started it" and the reply, "No, you started it" and it goes on endlessly. ......
 
• 15 girls die as zealots ‘drive them into blaze’
• www.sulekha.com, March 15, 2002

Saudi Arabia's religious police are reported to have forced schoolgirls back into a blazing building because they were not wearing Islamic headscarves and black robes. ......
 
• Secularists be warned
• MV Kamath, The Hindustan Times, March 15, 2002

May I make a sincere request to my fellow Hindus to give a respite to the use of the word `secular' for the next five years? The word stinks to high heavens. ......
 
• Colours of confusion
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, March 14, 2002

What is more important - form or content; appearance or purport? And what will you say about those who confuse demeanour with character? Is it not a fact that most of the time in one's life, the reality inside vibes poorly with the impressions gathered outside? ......
 
• Secular hypocrites working against Hindus
• M.V. Kamath, The Free Press Journal, March 14, 2002

Hundreds of senior editors, journalists and academicians marched to  the Parliament on Monday in solidarity with the victims of the  communal carnage in Gujarat, demanding that the Government should  stop the violence immediately" says a report in The Telegraph. (5  March). The only trouble is that it was not the government that  started the violence. Some one else did. And our intellectuals do not  want to face up to that fact. ......
 
• Sheikh threatens US of retaliation if extradited
• Aamir Ashraf, www.expressindia.com, March 14, 2002

The suspected mastermind of the kidnapping of slain US reporter Daniel Pearl told a Pakistan court on Tuesday that the United States would suffer if he was extradited, a senior official said. ......
 
• Pak supports PoK Govt’s anti-India plan
• B L Kak, The Daily Excelsior, March 13, 2002

Islamabad-controlled Government in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) has added a new dimension to the on-going anti-India campaign, with the setting up of a committee to re-structure the gameplan seeking additional obstacles and embarrassment for India in Kashmir. ......
 
• US cracks Islamic charitys in Bosnia
• AP, The Times of India, March 12, 2002

The United States, widening its financial assault on global terrorism, Monday blocked assets of an Islamic charity's branches in Bosnia and Somalia. ......
 
• Kanchi: The road to somewhere
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, March 12, 2002

Some revolutions come with a whisper. The Kanchi Shankaracharya's ultimately unsuccessful mediation in the Ayodhya imbroglio is a momentous happening, because it has somewhat diminished the State's absolute right to dictate the agenda on matters pertaining to the deeply-held religious convictions of the people. ......
 
• Kalakote tense as DySP assaults temple priest
• Excelsior Correspondent, The Daily Excelsior, March 12, 2002

A complete bandh was observed in Kalakote tehsil of this district today in protest against 'assault' on a Ram temple priest by a DySP of the Indian Reserve Police (IRP). Seriously injured 'pujari' Chandel Ram has been hospitalised. ......
 
• Vijaykumar Malhotra leaves the opposition benches speechless
• Ravindra Dani, Mumbai Tarun Bharat, March 12, 2002

The opposition which was trying to corner the treasury benches on the violence in Gujarat, was itself cornered by the brilliant argument by Vijaykumar Malhotra. Today, his speech should the best in his Parliamentary career. ......
 
• Kashmir’s female separatist trains her sons for jihad
• AFP, The Times of India, March 12, 2002

Aasiya Andrabi makes no bones about holding up the world's most-wanted man, Osama bin Laden, and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar as role models for her two young sons. ......
 
• War with India would split Pakistan: Expert
• Arun Mohanty, The Hindustan Times, March 11, 2002

Such a conflict could lead to Pakistan's dismemberment into several tribal states dominated by India, said Pavel Felgenhauer, whose highly rated column appears in several Russian newspapers. ......
 
• Gujarat: Sympathy or prosecution?
• Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, March 11, 2002

Godhra and its aftermath in Ahmedabad and a few other places became an exercise for prosecution rather than an occasion for sympathy. In no state is the police force sufficient to cope with such an emergency. Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, therefore, appealed to the neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan to send a battalion of policemen each. None of the three states sent a single constable. ......
 
• Déjà vu, all over again
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, March 11, 2002

I do not know why readers assume I'm interested in their messages to other columnists -- my inbox is perpetually flooded with mail written to others and CC'd to me! I do not know why readers imagine I need help with news-surfing -- a quarter of my mail constitutes opinions and items I've almost always read yesterday! ......
 
• Let’s talk about appeasement
• M.G. Vaidya, The Hindustan Times, March 10, 2002

Is there any country in the world which does not have a minority population? No. Is there any country other than India where minority segments are so pampered, appeased and treated 'more than equal' while the majority is subjected to ridicule and abuse? No. ......
 
• I’ve done nothing that can be held against me: Narendra Modi
• Vinod Sharma, The Hindustan Times, March 10, 2002

The communal divide in Narendra Modi's Gujarat is at once a realisation of Jinnah's two-nation theory and the RSS dream of a Hindu Rashtra. Muslim colonies are derisively nicknamed after prominent Pakistani cities. Any road dividing the residential quarters of the two communities is invariably called Indo-Pak border. In the eye of a storm for his failure to contain the post-Godhra conflagration, Modi defends himself. ......
 
• Woes abound for Godhra victims
• UNI, March 8, 2002

That the survivors of the February 27 Sabarmati Express blaze at Godhra are a bitter lot will be an understatement. Few politicians, human rights activists or media persons have had a kind word for them. ......
 
• If Iraq, Iran, And North Korea Are The ‘Axis Of Evil,’ Why Is Pakistan An Ally?
• Leon Hadar, Cato Institute, March 8, 2002

President George W. Bush has declared that the next phase of the anti-terrorism campaign would be aimed at pressing Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- the so-called Axis of Evil -- not to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He also stressed in his State of the Union Address that the war against terrorism would be grounded in a set of universal values, including the rule of law, religious freedom and respect for women. ......
 
• Godhra and the wider design
• Hiranmay Karlekar, The Pioneer, March 8, 2002

The judicial inquiry that will be held into the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27, which led to 57 Ramsevaks being burnt alive, will doubtless unearth what led to the incident. It is, however, hardly surprising that there is a widespread feeling in the country that Pakistan' Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, which has been conducting cross-border terrorism against India for over two decades, was responsible. ......
 
• Contempt for effect
• Editorial, The Pioneer, March 8, 2002

Since TV cameras and mediapersons are not allowed inside Tihar Jail, it is not surprising that the celebrated latecomer to the Narmada movement, Ms Arundhati Roy, quietly paid the Rs 2,000 fine on Thursday and left the prison premises amid provocative slogans against the Supreme Court. ......
 
• Blaming the Hindu Victim: Manufacturing Consent for Barbarism
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, March 7, 2002

Now we can add one more cursed date, February 27, 2002, to the black days in the Indian calendar: April 13 (Jallianwallah Bagh, 1919) and the days on which the battles at Panipat and Plassey were lost. On February 27, a horrific and brutal crime was perpetrated on Hindus: fittingly, it happened at the birthplace of the most fanatical and brutal Muslim tyrant in India, Aurangzeb. ......
 
• Rumsfeld says he doesn’t doubt al-Qaeda regrouping in Pak
• PTI, The Times of India, March 7, 2002

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he does not doubt that al-Qaeda are trying to regroup in Pakistan as he has seen intelligence reports in this regard. ......
 
• Secularism: Definition, Determination and Description
• Sreeram Paranjpe, The Free Press Journal, March 7, 2002

The word 'secularism' is usually so casually used or abused-that in the humble opinion of the present writer it needs a brand-new and more appropriate definition. The term can be defined as - An attitude, an approach and an inclination against Hinduism,Hindutva and Hindu organizations and more particularly the Sangh parivar and 'soft' outlook towards the minorities in general and Muslims in particular! ......
 
• Unsung soldiers
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, March 7, 2002

India has been fighting against cross-border terrorism and proxy war for over a decade. This engagement is on both, the ground and the diplomatic levels. But we can ill-afford to ignore another war being waged against us through a larger span of history. The objective of this war is to divide the country by transducing cross-border allegiances and ideologies into our territory. ......
 
• Secular make-believe
• Jaya Jaitly, The Indian Express, March 7, 2002

It is very easy to talk of communal harmony from Delhi and express anger about the failure of the BJP government in Gujarat and the rise of Hindu fundamentalist forces. Marches by Opposition leaders with Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhawan as backdrop, is comfortable politics. Our usual band of intellectuals take the easy route by occupying, as usual, the 'Letters to the Editor' columns to condemn and issue appeals. ......
 
• The man who knows too much
• Jonathan S. Tobin, Jews Week, March 7, 2002

CNN reporter Steve Emerson was stuck in Oklahoma City on Christmas 1992 with nothing to do and wandered by the city's Convention Center, where a gathering of the Muslim Arab Youth Association was taking place. ......
 
• A failure of intelligence
• K. P. Nayar, The Telegraph, March 6, 2002

When the Union home minister, L.K. Advani, was in Washington in January, some of his American interlocutors thought that they could pin him down on the one issue on which they thought he was vulnerable - his image as a Hindu hardliner and his reputation for being soft on the more radical elements in the saffron parivar. ......
 
• Violence in Gujarat
• Naren J Patel, March 6, 2002

I was listening to Radio WM this morning and I was pleased to hear that both guests from the Hindu and Muslim communities spoke of maintaining law and order in UK and not to bring the politics of the sub-continent into UK. ......
 
• Muslim group wants to undo Babar’s fault
• Prasanta Paul, The Deccan Herald, March 6, 2002

If Babar made a monumental mistake way back in 1528 AD by demolishing a temple and erecting a mosque in its place, could this go unexpiated down the ages, especially when it has triggered a dispute, threatening the secular fabric of India? ......
 
• U.S. Policy Should Acknowledge Hindu Nationalism
• Sarita Sarvate, Newsday.com, March 6, 2002

The recent burning of an Indian train headed for Ayodhya, the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram, has once more flared Hindu sentiments in the subcontinent. ......
 
• Religious freedom in Nazareth
• The Jerusalem Post, March 5, 2002

During these difficult times, the decision of a ministerial committee headed by Construction and Housing Minister Natan Sharansky to block the building of a large mosque in the main square of Nazareth may seem to be of peripheral interest. The decision, however, may eventually be seen to be a landmark victory against extremism and for religious freedom, and be taken as a model for how to respond to other instances of crass bullying. ......
 
• Why ‘secular’ history repeats itself
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, March 5, 2002

All of a sudden, Jayalalithaa has emerged as the secular politician with a difference -- a whole world of a difference. In a public statement from Chennai on February 28, the AIADMK goddess incarnate used the ghastly Godhra tragedy to lambaste all major political parties in the country for their 'anti-majority and pro-minority approach'. ......
 
• Evidence behind Godhra carnage uncovered
• Shai Venkataraman, NDTV News, March 4, 2002

The police in Gujarat claim that they have evidence to indicate that people outside the city were also involved in the February 27 attack on the Sabarmati Express. ......
 
• Re-consider the Integration Policy
• Azam kamguian

In the last few weeks, the Swedish society has been touched by the brutal and calculated murder of Fadima Sahindal; a young courageous woman who chose to live according to her will and paid the price by her life. In the last two months, two other young women in Denmark and Britain were killed by their fathers because of the honor of the family. Honor of men and the family took their lives. ......
 
• Temple should be built through national consenses: Uma Bharati
• The Daily Excelsior, March 4, 2002

Union Minister for Sports Uma Bharati today said Ram Temple should be constructed at Ayodhya through a national consensus and peaceful solution on the lines the Somnath temple was re-built in Gujarat. ......
 
• Ayodhya’s ‘disputed’ land: First, a few ground rules
• M. Rama Jois, The Indian Express, March 4, 2002

This article is intended to remove the wrong impression created in the minds of the people that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is proposing to commence construction of Ram Mandir on the disputed area at Ayodhya against the court order, which has created tension among the people. In fact and in truth, the VHP is only proposing to commence construction on totally undisputed land belonging to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, which is at present in the hands of the Central government. ......
 
• Madrasas: A centre of education or a nursery of terrorism
• Rajendra Chaddha, Organiser, March 3, 2002

The mushrooming of madrasas and their turning into hotbeds of extremist elements is creating terrorism in the society at large. The unrecognised madrasas, which preach hatred against people professing other faiths, are detrimental to harmony of Indian society. The recent reports from different parts of the country focus on their unconstructive role in carrying out anti-national activities. ......
 
• Pakistanis believed killed in Macedonia
• PTI, The Hindustan Times, March 3, 2002

Seven suspected foreign militants, believed to be Pakistanis, were shot dead in Macedonia when they ambushed a police patrol, media reports said. The dead men were "probably Pakistanis" and had been planning attacks on vital installatons and embassies in capital Skopje, Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski was quoted as saying. ......
 
• I want what is mine
• Lajwanti D’Souza, The Sunday Mid-Day, March 3, 2002

For a man who almost brought Mumbai to a halt on March 1, Ashok Chowgule, Maharashtra president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is a picture of peace. Seated in his high-rise apartment at Peddar Road, which is painted white and has huge paintings adorning the walls, Chowgule said that the Ayodhya mission is not the culmination of failed talks with the Muslims but with so-called secularists. ......
 
• Undisputed land belongs to VHP, says law ministry
• Vitusha Oberoi, Mid-Day, March 2, 2002

The law ministry has conveyed its opinion to the Vajpayee government that the undisputed land at the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya be handed back to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). But the opinion may never see the light of day because the government fears it may add fuel to the communal fires raging across the country and the VHP might exceed its brief. ......
 
• War Against Terrorism: Quo Vadis?
• B.Raman

There were two important landmarks in the evolution of international terrorism since the 1970s. The first was the formation by Carlos in late 1975 of a united front of like-minded terrorist groups (the International Front of Revolutionaries) to wage a joint struggle aginst common adversaries, namely, international capitalism and zionism. ......
 
• Without tinder, sparks are useless
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, March 4, 2002

In Mumbai, 7 buses have been damaged, 8 BEST staffers injured, and trains blocked by stone-throwing mobs during the strike called by the VHP. In neighbouring Thane, 6 shops belonging to "a minority community" have been set ablaze; a "100-strong mob moved around in the town... appealing to shopkeepers to down shutters and at some place forcibly pulling them down" (The Indian Express). ......
 
• Golden Pumpkin (News Notes)
• India Today, March 4, 2002

General Pervez Musharraf is the world's ultimate infotech man-he lives in virtual reality. When in America, he decided journalist Daniel Pearl was alive and well and "victim" of a fundamentalist conspiracy against Musharraf! Hours later, Omar Saeed Sheikh, mastermind of Pearl's abduction, was telling a Pakistani court the American was dead. The judge-he must be a cousin of Musharraf-pretended not to hear. ......
 
• Told to sack reporters, Pak editor quits job
• Reuters, The Indian Express, March 3, 2002

The editor of a leading English-language daily in Pakistan said on Friday he had resigned after the government exerted pressure for himself and three other reporters to be sacked. ......
 
• Godhra and our double standards
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, March 3, 2002

The reactions of 'secular parties' to the massacre at Godhra has once again exposed the double standards which define the contours of public life in independent India. The victims of the pre-planned and mindless violence were not criminals. ......
 
• Secularists to blame
• Editorial, The Free Press Journal, March 2, 2002

The naked dance of death in Gujarat must stop forthwith. If the frenzied mobs do not stop, they must be made to stop. That is the least the administration in Gandhinagar can do. For, whatever the provocation - and, we must grant, it was indeed great - no government worth its salt can allow marauders to take the law into their own hands. Chief Minister Narendra Modi owes it to himself as he does to the people of the State to restore order at the earliest. ......
 
• Madam, will they be shamed by your blunt words?
• S Gurumurthy, The New Indian Express, March 2, 2002

Commenting on the roasting alive of 60 persons inside the Sabarmati Express in Godhra in Gujarat, she said, “it is saddening and strange that when such acts are perpetrated against the minorities all political leaders rush” to condemn. But when the majority is attacked, “not a single political leader” condemns it. ......
 
• MHA report says Godhra pre-planned
• Sharma, The Daily Pioneer, March 2, 2002

The preliminary investigation of the Gujarat police into the gruesome attack on the Sabarmati Express indicates that the violence was meticulously planned. ......
 
• A Modest Proposal From the Brigadier
• Peter Landesman, The Atlantic Online, March 2002

In the center of the biggest traffic circle of every major city in Pakistan sits a craggy, Gibraltarish replica of a nameless peak in the Chagai range. This mountain is the home of Pakistan's nuclear test site. The development, in 1998, of the "Islamic Bomb," intended as a counter to India's nuclear capability, is Pakistan's only celebrated achievement since its formation, in 1947. ......
 
• Groups Banned by Musharraf Join Forces for Attacks, Officials Say
• Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, March 1, 2002

At least four radical Islamic groups, including one believed responsible for the killing of an American journalist, appear to have formed an alliance to mount attacks and resist a government ban against them, Pakistani officials said today. ......
 
• It’s a crime against humanity: Jayalalithaa
• Suresh Nambath, The Hindu, March 1, 2002

While condemning the killing of 57 passengers of the Sabarmati Express in Gujarat, the Chief Minister-designate and AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, today defended the rights of the Hindu majority and took exception to what she saw as the reluctance of political leaders to condemn violence against the majority community. ......
 
• Protesting Rights Violations - Abuses in Nagaland
• John Sundquist, Christian Century, 15-22, July 1998

When an ethnic group is being persecuted, it is often hard to determine whether people's religious or human rights are being violated. This is certainly true of the Nagas, a group of 2 million people living in India's northeast. This tribal group, once headhunters, is now more than 90 percent Christian. The majority are Baptists. ......
 
• A Rare Resilience
• Smita Gupta, The Times of India, March 1, 2002

The contrast couldn’t be more striking: As you drive through the difficult-to-negotiate lanes of the 450-year-old walled city of Bhuj, the signs of devastation are all around, but business is booming in the hastily patched-up buildings. ......