March Month Articles
The brutal lynching of five dalit
Hindus in Duliana, Jhajhar(Haryana) on October 2 and simmering tensions
in Chakwara near Jaipur on use of a village pond had attracted a number
of articles, either lamenting or accusing someone. .....
With the deployment of the Wakf
as a new piece on the temple chess board, the game is likely to take a
new turn. All these years, since the locks of the Ram temple were opened,
the Babri Masjid proponents have made it into a property dispute. .....
Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch today
accused the State Government for holding the minorities of Nadimarg
village, where 24 Hindus were gunned down by the terrorists recently, hostages,
after not allowing them to leave for Jammu and participate in the Tenth
Day and other religious rites of their slain relatives to be held on Tuesday.
.....
The surrender of arms by nine policemen
deployed at Nadimarg police post on the fateful night when 24 Kashmiri
Pandits were massacred by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) was a ploy to keep
them away from their complicity in the crime, investigations revealed.
.....
It would not be untrue to say that
there is widespread, silent support in India for the war on Iraq. Not only
have there been fewer anti-war protests than in most other countries but,
since the assault began, it is possible to meet in the Indian street an
unusually large number of people who admit that they admire America for
reacting forcefully to what happened on September 11. .....
Nadimarg may be 300 km away, but
for the Kashmiri Pandit migrants living in the Purkhoo, Muthi and Mishriwala
camps in Jammu, this is their closest brush with fear in years. .....
A Mumbai police team which went
to a Thane village on Thursday to arrest a suspect in the Ghatkopar blast
case was forced to retreat when angry villagers surrounded their vehicle.
.....
The United States diplomats are
virtually playing a game of see-saw. As the Vajpayee government and
its political party BJP threatens to harden its stand against the US attack
on Iraq, the latter has warned Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism
immediately. .....
Portugal's public prosecutor has
authorised the extradition of Indian gangster Abu Salem, accused of masterminding
bombings in Mumbai that killed nearly 300 people, Lusa news agency quoted
court officials as saying on Saturday. .....
Reacting to Congress President
Sonia Gandhi's call to the people to differentiate between the age-old
concept of Hinduism and Hindutva propagated by the Sangh Parivar, VHP leader
Pravin Togadia on Saturday took a dig at her foreign origin and said the
"daughter of Italy is now trying to teach us Hindutva." .....
They called Kashmir the 'Paradise
on Earth' and compared it with Switzerland. The great Sufi saint Nur-ud-din
refused to enter one of its royal gardens thousands of years ago, saying,
'If I visit this place now I shall not be allowed to visit paradise hereafter.'
Persian poet Firdaus said, 'If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it
is here, and it is here.' .....
The government did not come forward
to rehabilitate the poor, brutalised villagers of Annada Prashad, Bhola,
even one and a half years after incidents of post-election violence. .....
Faith-based groups are poised to
help with humanitarian aid in Iraq once the fierce fighting has subsided,
and in some cases, Christians hope to offer more. .....
1. Where is Jammu and Kashmir on
the world map?
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is
the northern most state of India amidst the beautiful Himalayas, sharing
its western border with Pakistan & Afghanistan and its eastern border
with China. The official map of J&K is available online at the website
of Indian Embassy at http://www.indianembassy.org/new/Kargil/J&K_Map.html
.....
With eight bombings or attempting
bombings in three months, France is convulsing over the problems of terrorism,
fundamentalist Islam, and Algeria. During a recent trip to France, spent
in Paris and at the Riviera, this writer had an opportunity to concentrate
on the Middle Eastern dimension of life in that country. What's happening
there will probably come as a surprise to most Americans. .....
Are there terrorists in Kashmir?
Yes. The disputed majority-Muslim
region has its own local terrorist groups, but most of the recent terrorism
there has been conducted by Islamist outsiders who seek to claim Kashmir
for Pakistan. A recent spate of Islamist cross- border attacks into Indian-held
territory and the December 2001 storming of the Indian parliament in New
Delhi have reinforced Kashmir’s standing as the key bone of contention
between India and Pakistan. Both states have nuclear weapons, making Kashmir
one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. .....
The Vested Property Act first appeared
in 1965, when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. It was at that time
called the "Enemy Property Act." In that year, war broke out between India
and Pakistan. The law was directed primarily against the property of the
Hindus who had temporarily fled to India in fear of their lives. The state
was enabled to take their property into custody, with the rationale that
a Hindu who went to India was an enemy. .....
The recent article 'Autonomy Demand:
Kashmir at Crossroads' by Rekha Chowdhary (July 22-28, 2000) rightly emphasises
the real possibility of an upcoming trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the author unfortunately takes a negative view of such developments,
terming them as 'alarming' and 'reactionary'. .....
Earlier this week, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Naji Sabri Ahmad al-Hadithi was quoted as saying that the already
brutalized US POWs captured in southern Iraq would, "be treated according
to the principles of Islam"..Unfortunately, this statement is not reassuring
at all. .....
Terrorists killed three people
and maimed six in Jammu and Kashmir Friday for allegedly assisting the
security forces, polices said. .....
Are the government and the media
friends? No. Can they be friends? They can, but shouldn't be. Are they
adversaries? .....
As the world remains focussed on
the real and propaganda war in Iraq, lower-grade but significant hostilities
have erupted in a different theatre, with India accusing human rights group
Amnesty International of a "mystifying reluctance to condemn (terrorism)
in black and white" and "a curious attempt to obfuscate" the real issues
involved in Sunday’s tragic murder of 24 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir.
.....
Rape allegations continued to dog
the CPM, with a woman in Purulia today accusing a panchayat samiti sabhapati
of the crime. .....
The State of Israel strongly condemns
the heinous act of terrorism that occurred on March 24, 2003, in the village
of Nandimarg, Kashmir. Twenty-four innocent civilians were killed in the
attack, including women and children. .....
"If Kashmir does not concern Bihar,
is Iraq an integral part of Bihar that the state assembly passed a unanimous
resolution condemning America?" asked an agitated BJP legislator in the
House on Tuesday. .....
Sixty-eight years ago, on July
18, 1935, a baby boy was born to Mahadeva Iyer and Saraswathi in Irulneeki,
a small village in Tamil Nadu. .....
They called Kashmir the 'Paradise
on Earth' and compared it with Switzerland. The great Sufi saint Nur-ud-din
refused to enter one of its royal gardens thousands of years ago, saying,
'If I visit this place now I shall not be allowed to visit paradise hereafter.'
Persian poet Firdaus said, 'If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it
is here, and it is here.' .....
Kashmiri Pandits in Shopian are
preparing to leave the valley after the killing of 24 members of their
community on March 23. .....
At a massive rally recently called
by the Jamait-ul-Ulema-i-Hind, a decision was taken that he Muslims should
have a separate political party of their own. It is, to say the least,
a most unwise decision and one hopes that the Jamait will rescind it. The
argument is that Muslims have no friends and that they have to look after
themselves, that their problems remain unsolved and their needs unattended
to. Their approach is one of total despair. .....
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee chairman: If the objection is for commercial reasons, it is not
legitimate. .....
Activists of the banned Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), whom the police suspect to be behind
the series of bomb blasts in the city, have formed several splinter cells
and are carrying out “hit-and-run” attacks, police investigators said.
.....
On Sunday night, two SIMI activists
were picked up by the Mumbai police from Thane Central Prison in connection
with the bomb blast on the Karjat-bound train at Mulund station. .....
While the writings and sayings
of American and other Western scholars about our relations with Pakistan
get widespread and prominent coverage in our media, we sadly seem to neglect
the views of our own scholars on such subjects. .....
At its annual debate organised
by The Telegraph in Jamshedpur a couple of years ago, Saugata Roy of the
Trinamool Congress likened the press to the Sacred Bulls of Varanasi. They
are well known in the narrow lanes leading to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple,
flanked on either side by tiny shops selling religious artifacts, handicrafts,
toys and flowers. .....
That's what Bart Womack, a command
sergeant major of the elite 101st Airborne Division, asked himself as a
grenade rolled past him after 1 a.m. on Sunday at an American camp in Kuwait.
.....
A telecom engineer in Kashmir peeked
out of his balcony to see if it was safe to venture out. He saw two men
toting their guns outside, waiting for him to come out. .....
India on Tuesday blamed Pakistan
for the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in a south Kashmir village and
said violence in the state was continuing because of that country. .....
Gareth Thomas MP, Chair of LFIN,
condemned the indiscriminate killing of 24 Hindus Pandits in Jammu &
Kashmir on 23rd March 2003 where terrorists dressed in army uniforms entered
Nandimarg with the single objective of taking innocent lives. .....
Para 1: Some days ago, the Indian
website Rediff.com published a column, written by a Kashmiri Pandit, Mr.
Lalit Koul, titled "Daddy, why can't we return to Kashmir". The writer,
in a sentimental reply to this question by his six year old daughter, has
described the story of Kashmiri Pandits from 1990 exodus, to the present
day. .....
Ignoring protests by an assortment
of "secular" political parties and organisations, the BJP is going ahead
with a four-pronged rathyatra across Assam from tomorrow to mobilise support
for its campaign against the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals)
Act. .....
The police opened fire after eight
persons, including five policemen were injured in an attack by a mob which
tried to snatch away two persons arrested for burning the national flag
in Hooghly district last night after India's defeat in the World Cup, reports
PTI. .....
A tiny enclave in the largely impoverished
state of Bihar has been raking in millions of rupees by manufacturing and
selling ayurvedic medicines. .....
A religious institution in Chitradurga
district of Karnataka has set up a fund to help the families of farmers
who committed suicide under the strain of financial burdens. .....
At least 24 Kashmiri Pandits were
killed at Nadimarg village near Shopian in Pulwama district around midnight.
.....
One thing can be said in favour
of the US Government without any hesitation. By law it throws open its
official documents to whoever cares to look into them even if that were
to lead to considerable embarrassment to the current administration. And
it was that which a Pakistani writer took full advantage of when he sought
to look into the secret correspondence of the White House and the State
Department with its embassy in Pakistan during the fateful years 1969 to
1974. .....
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad
High Court has directed the Archeological Survey of India to undertake
excavation of Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri structure site on the basis of Radar
Survey findings of Tojo Vikas International. Accordingly, a 14-member team
headed by senior archaeologist B R Mani has started work on March 12, along
with two experts of Tojo Vikas International. .....
No more evidence was needed than
the life of Adi Sankara to prove that India has always been regarded as
one country, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, said here today. .....
An official bill to prevent religious
conversion by force or by lure was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly here
today. The bill standing in the name of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister,
Ashok Bhatt, is likely to be taken up for discussion on March 26. .....
Evidences, archaeological and literary,
prove that the Babri Masjid was established by destroying a temple on a
site profoundly venerated by Hindus. Annette Beveridge's translation of
Babur Nama (1922) mentions that Babar's destruction of the Ram temple was
an act to assert Islamic might. .....
The Delhi High Court today asked
a public interest litigant to specify in his petition inflammatory speeches
allegedly delivered by the International General Secretary of Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP), Togadia, at a dharam sansad here last month. .....
Please read he true story of Hindu
massacre of Dhantal by the Muslims and the nasty role of Ms Yashodhara
Bagchi (also see The Statesman Feb 19 2003 page 9), the chairperson of
Women Comission, an outfit if CPM. I think, I found Yashodhara's emails
in united minority. Shame on you, Yashodhara. .....
Recent incidents on the India-Bangladesh
border have once again brought into focus the feverish efforts by Pakistan
to up the ante in India's Eastern region, which includes Bengal, Cooch-Behar
and the seven north-eastern states, through Bangladesh, where the ISI has
multiplied its presence ever since the Bangladesh National Party (BNP)
came into power. .....
After the injury, the insult. In
the latest twist to the Dhantola gangrape case, the leader of the dacoits
who waylaid the two buses carrying wedding guests in Nadia last month,
escaped from CID custody though he was handcuffed and bound by a thick
rope. .....
A Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning
composer might seem an unlikely critic of Columbia Univeristy’s Middle
East studies department. But last week, when John Corigliano was honored
as a distinguished Columbia College alumnus, the composer took it upon
himself to criticize the bias in that Columbia department. .....
Below is the letter from
Chairman of Balawaristan National Front Mr.Abdul Hamid to New Hampshire
Legislators who visited to POK. It was released for Press release yesterday
and appreciate if you can circulate to media circles in India. .....
Abdul Majid Dar, who once headed
Kashmir's biggest guerrilla group Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, was shot and killed
Sunday by masked gunmen, police said. .....
Grenades exploded at a 101st Airborne
command center in Kuwait early Sunday, killing one and wounding 13 servicemen,
and a U.S. soldier was detained as a suspect in the attack, the Army said.
.....
Whether it is a Savarkar, Bhojshala
or Ram temple issue, Hindus seem to be at loggerheads with Hindus so severely
that it shames even a communal hate campaign between Muslims and Hindus.
.....
The Indian Government has taken
"much action" against those behind the Gujarat violence but it was not
reflected due to the "agonisingly slow" legal system in the country, US
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca has said. .....
More than 60 vehicles, including
45 BMTC buses, were damaged when a group of Muslims, who were protesting
against the US attack on Iraq, turned violent in the City Market area this
afternoon. .....
I'm telling you once more that
things cannot go on this way. I have a historic mission, and this mission
I will fulfill because Providence has destined me to do so… I give you
once more, and for the last time, the opportunity to come to terms. Either
we find a solution now or else events will take their course. Think it
over, think it over well.' .....
Recent incidents on the India-Bangladesh
border have once again brought into focus the feverish efforts by Pakistan
to up the ante in India's Eastern region, which includes Bengal, Cooch-Behar
and the seven north-eastern states, through Bangladesh, where the ISI has
multiplied its presence ever since the Bangladesh National Party (BNP)
came into power. .....
The International Secretariat of
the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) would like to bring to your
attention the demolition of houses belongings to members of the Hindu community
of the Chakribakri, Madhukhali, Radhanagar, Bigordana and Parmadhukhali
villages (Khulna district) by the police, as a form of punishment for their
alleged support for so-called terrorist groups. .....
Police teams from Mumbai and Thane
have fanned out across the state to search for Saqib Nachen, an alleged
activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which
is suspected of having organised the recent spate of bomb blasts in the
city. .....
The narrow lane winding through
decrepit, old houses bustles with the life and activity typical of old
Dhaka. The small shops on the ground floors of the buildings do brisk business
as people and cycle rickshaws noisily jostle for space. Sounds of temple
bells mingle into the cacophony of the market. .....
An international school in Jeddah,
which has boys and girls of varying nationalities on its rolls, has banned
an Egyptian Muslim girl for wearing a head scarf. The girl, Lujain, was
banned from Jeddah Prep and Grammar School and was forced to look for another
in order to continue her studies. .....
As the U.S. geared up for military
action in Afghanistan, Army Chaplain Capt. Abd Al- Rasheed Muhammad began
questioning the permissibility of a fight against fellow Muslims. .....
Usually, I agree with your positions,
but if I'm not mistaken , and I could be...so if I am please forgive me,
you recently wrote very positive things about Daniel Pipes and his analysis
of Islam in America. I must tell you that I was more than a little bit
distressed with your opinions. .....
The credit of reaching the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) to every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu goes to Shri
S. Vedantam, besides others. Resigning from a lucrative job in a private
organisation, he joined VHP in 1970 as a full time worker. He organised
and is running several service organisations of schools, hospitals, etc.
Village Temple Archak’s Forum, conceived and organised by him, is doing
yeoman service in Tamil Nadu to train village temple poojaris. .....
India has accused Bangladesh of
sheltering terrorists who operate in India’s Northeast and also of having
become the new haven of Islamic extremists, including al Qaida. Similar
accusations against the ruling coalition, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist
Party, have also been levelled by the country’s main opposition party,
the Awami League. .....
A group of 28 Bangladeshis was
arrested at Kamlapur in Nadia’s Chakdah police station area yesterday for
trying to cross over to their country without valid travel documents. .....
A spate of Sikh conversions to
Christianity in Punjab, particularly in the border belt adjoining Pakistan,
has rocked the Sikh community provoking a furore among the religious and
political outfits. The Sikh representative party, the Akali Dal, is now
seeking an Anti Conversion Act in Punjab on the pattern of Tamil Naidu.
.....
The US attack on Iraq flouted international
laws and was tantamount to an assault on Islam, one of India's leading
Muslim clerics said in New Delhi on Thursday. .....
“Hindutva is only Manavata, i.e.,
the characterisation of quality of Hindu in being a perfect human being.
A man cannot exist without the quality of humanity. Similarly, a Hindu
cannot exist without Hindutva. Thus, the connotation and equation of Hindutva
with fundamentalism, terrorism and so on are totally unwarranted. .....
A youthful Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,
writing in his Urdu journal Al Hilal, had advised Muslims in 1913 not to
join any political party—for Islam itself is the party of Allah and its
name is Hizbullah. .....
A cursory look at Pakistani publishers'
catalogues or a visit to Urdu Bazaar in Karachi should take book-lovers
by surprise. Scores of books on ancient India, Hindu mythology, religion,
philosophy, epics and the Bhagti movement are nowadays available in Urdu
- either in translation or original. .....
Forty-eight hours after the suspension
of trade along the Indo-Bangla border in the northeast, life has come to
an absolute halt in these areas. .....
A Pakistani nuclear missile can
now hit Tel Aviv, according to a former Pakistani intelligence chief who
is "strategic adviser" to his country's Islamist politico-religious parties.
.....
The Kerala high court holding as
unconstitutional taking oath in any manner other than in the name of 'God
or a 'solemn pledge' in the legislature has thrown up a challenge to the
Muslim League. .....
America is now experiencing the
fear American Indians have felt for more than 500 years. Our ancestors
never knew what act of violence or terror would befall them from the American
invaders. But death did come. It came in the form of biological warfare
when small pox tainted blankets were distributed to the unsuspecting victims.
.....
Some members of the Pakistani establishment
and especially those agencies, which have assumed the role of determining
what is ‘national interest of Pakistan’, and who is loyal, and who is anti
Pakistan, have perhaps done more damage to Pakistan than known enemies
of Pakistan. .....
“We believe that our country has
been unfairly maligned,” said Saudi spokesman Adel al-Jubeir at a notorious
press conference last December. “We believe that we have been subjected
to criticism that we do not deserve.” .....
A natural and in fact inevitable
consequence of spreading Islam by jihãd is the destruction of non-believers’
places of worship and their idols. It is somewhat remarkable that this
duty has not been enjoined in any Koranic verse as a part of jihãd.
The destruction of idols is often mentioned in the Koran, but nowhere in
connection with jihãd. Such an ordinance derives from the Sunnah
and the Sunnah alone. .....
For a nation that is very casual
about its history but is obsessed with the past, historians have suddenly
acquired celebrity-hood. The Ayodhya conflict is at different levels a
battle over faith, over politics and even over competing principles of
nationhood. Instead, it has been hijacked by a small group into a pedantic
and contrived dispute over history-a course that has prevented a resolution
of the conflict. .....
At a time when we see politicians,
journalists, philosophers, and even spiritualists utter only what is "politically
correct", at a time when nobody really dares to call a spade a spade -
whether it is the Chinese threat to India, the 20 millions Bangladeshis
illegally staying in this country, or the bypassing of India as a democratic
superpower by the West - it is time we went over what the Mother of Pondicherry,
whose 125th birth anniversary falls this year, said on these subjects so
long ago, but all of which is still very pertinent today. .....
Hindus do not pay much attention
to the historical order of things," wrote Al Beruni in 1030 AD. "They are
very careless in relating the chronological succession of things." The
millennium-old censure of the Hindus' lack of historic sense by a medieval
Muslim historian appears to still apply, particularly to the Indian historians
of the present day. It is bizarre that eminent historians like Irfan Habib,
Suraj Bhan and KM Shrimali have opposed the interim direction of the Allahabad
High Court for excavation of the Ayodhya site. .....
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh had irked our "progressive" intellectuals some time back. Half way
through their campaign against imagined "saffronisation", in November 2001,
he rose above politics to blow his whistle on this group when it was clear
that they had taken their game too far. Mr Singh made it clear that he
was not against universities offering courses in astrology in the UGC's
offering of subjects, which students may choose in study. .....
I was astonished at the March 10th
news of the arrest and harassment of Indian IT professionals by Malaysian
authorities, especially as the news stories talked about how they were
arrested from posh highrise apartments in an upmarket location in Kuala
Lumpur. Clearly those targeted were not illegal migrants who had sneaked
into the country and melted into some ethnic Indian underclass. This is
unprofessional behaviour on the part of the Malaysians. .....
This is something very relevant
on the eve of Holi. Believe it or not, people everywhere are getting splashed
with colours and various shades of Hindutva. By now we have Soft Hindutva,
Togadia brand of Hindutva, Thackeray's Hindutva, Vajpayee and Advani varieties
of Hindutva, Vaghela 's kind and the Digvijay brand of Hindutva. But a
new variety came to the fore in Kolkata during a panel discussion organised
by The Telegraph group of journals. .....
Four {BNP) men terrorised a helpless
(Hindu) garment factory worker in Chittaganj and took their turns in raping
her. The police declined to file a charge because this (Mafia like) gang
of four took shelter in the offices of the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist
Party} center. .....
My personal compliments to FPJ
for speaking out the truth about Veer Savarkar in the news report title
"Savarkar portrait witness opposition boycott" (FPJ Feb.27). The main storm
came from the communists, accusing Veer Savarkar of filing a petition on
August 15, 1943 demanding implementation of M. A. Jinnah's "Two Nation"
Theory. It is like tea-pot calling the kettle black. .....
The Kerala high court holding as
unconstitutional taking oath in any manner other than in the name of 'God
or a 'solemn pledge' in the legislature has thrown up a challenge to the
Muslim League. .....
Pakistan has been moving its nuclear
arsenal frequently in recent times. It cold lead to a danger of these weapons
falling into the hands of terrorists, a leading US nuclear expert said
today. Ever since the September 11 terror attacks in US, Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf has been moving his nuclear weapons frequently for fear
of US or Indian strikes, visiting US expert Scot D Sagan said. .....
Having secured West Bengal government's
active support for the Centre's drive against illegal immigration from
Bangladesh, deputy Prime Minister LK Advani sought to strengthen this cooperation
by asking chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to tighten implementation
of existing state laws to check the unprecedented growth of madrasas in
border districts of the state. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L.K Advani
on Tuesday assured West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of
all possible central help to deal with illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
.....
February 5 was observed as "Kashmir
Solidarity Day" by Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, the section of Kashmir administered
by Pakistan. .....
There are two divergent views on
the historicity of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharat. There are some
who say everything about the epics is absolutely true to the letter. Even
that Lord Ram flew back to Ayodhya on Pushpak Viman from Lanka. The other
view is that everything about them is absolutely baseless and is a figment
of imagination. Between these two views possibly lies the truth. .....
As the war against terrorism that
the US and its allies started in Afghanistan threatens to take a Westerly
direction that does not have the same level of world support, N.S. Rajaram
traces the history of Jihad that has come to roost in Pakistan .....
I've heard a lot of rumors lately
about the Muslim Student Association – the national organization of Muslim
college students that boasts chapters in over a thousand colleges across
America and Canada, and is one of the most influential religious organizations
around. They've been accused of promoting Islamic fundamentalism and inviting
speakers who spew violent anti-American rhetoric. I thought I'd check things
out for myself. .....
Recently Congressmen John Conyers
Jr. (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI)
wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft: "We ask you to immediately terminate
the Justice Department's new policy directing the fifty-six FBI field offices
to count the number of mosques and Muslims, as well as other community
groups and religious organizations, in their areas." .....
Even before the snow has fully
melted in the border heights in Kashmir, armed-to-the-teeth Pakistan marauders
have started to descend on outposts in Jammu and murder policemen and civilians
at will. The attack on a police outpost on Saturday night in the Gool area
of Udhampur district, killing nine policemen and three civilians, including
a woman, points to a new strategy. Since the Special Operations Group has
been disbanded, it is easy for these Pak murderers to find soft targets
in Jammu. .....
Souleiman Ghali, the president
of the Islamic Society of San Francisco, got the message loud and clear
after meeting with seven special agents from the FBI. .....
Zhu Rongji, who retired as China's
premier on Saturday, is usually a very frank man. A few years ago he admitted
the Chinese system was flawed by two plagues: incorrect figures sent by
regional leaders about the development in their respective regions and
the rampant corruption gangrening the Communist Party and the nation. .....
Union minister and general secretary
of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa today said the
state government should bring a Bill to impose a complete ban on religious
conversion in the current session of Assembly. .....
On the issue of Shri Rama Janmabhoomi,
the behaviour of the secular intellectuals is always intriguing.
Having confidently stating that the Hindu claim for the site is without
any historical justification, they should be welcoming the order of the
Lucknow High Court for excavation, instead of opposing it. .....
48 hours have elapsed since the
horrifying incident actually occured. There have been not many developments
which would satisfy the answer-seeking souls. However, a few things that
appeared in the local papers do deserve a mention here. .....
Americans tend to think of lawless
nations in Africa and Eastern Europe when the discussion turns to mass
murder and crimes against humanity. But a commission created by the Oklahoma
Legislature spent the late 1990's searching for mass graves in and around
Tulsa. The missing dead - who could number as many as 300 - were shot,
burned, lynched or tied to cars and dragged to death during the Tulsa Race
Riot of 1921. .....
The mention of presence of Bangladeshi
illegal immigrants in India and the accompanying security connotations
in the President’s address to Parliament reflects BJP-led NDA Government’s
concern on the issue. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani has
come out with his tough stand on the issue of deporting Bangladeshi immigrants
staying in the country illegally while addressing the Delhi Police’s Raising
Day celebrations on February 16. .....
Christian missionaries first rode
to the remote town of Jashpur on horseback 150 years ago, educating the
poor and converting them in their thousands. .....
The real India is waking up to
a new, historical reality. This awakening is a result of the unfolding
of a mighty creative genius of millions of unknown Indians whose names
are not known and whose lives are nothing special to remember otherwise.
It is they who can metaphorically be descried as the "Real Bharat". .....
Belief in religion is and should
remain a private and personal affair. When it crosses the four walls of
the house or place of worship, and becomes a public issue, it will be the
singlemost important rootcause for all violence, terrorism and strife,
said Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam of the Madras High Court. .....
G. Madhusudan (BJP) today criticised
the Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, B.K. Chandrashekar,
in the Legislative Council for his "misplaced secularism" and objection
to words such as `prakritidevi' for nature, and the description of the
ancient Nalanda University as "excellent" in high school textbooks. .....
About a dozen Islamic terrorist
groups are operating in Bangladesh, with some of them training youths in
armed combat, news reports said on Friday. .....
The state government has asked
the Centre to amend the Foreign Registration Act to make it easier to detect
and deport illegal foreign nationals, chief minister Sushil kumar Shinde
said on Tuesday. .....
The brother-in-law of alleged terrorist
co-conspirator Sami al-Arian attended engineering classes at the same college
and time as the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror plot, records
at the North Carolina college show. .....
A Muslim militant group named Jesh
Ahle-i-Alqiblat Al Jihadi Alsari Al Alami based at Peshawar, the capital
city of NWFP, a border province to Afghanistan, distributed a pamphlet
on January 10, 2003 to call on Christians in Pakistan for conversion to
Islam and those who refuse may be killed. .....
Born on September 11, 1950, at
Sangli in Maharashtra, Bhagwat belongs to an old RSS family that
originally hailed from Chandrapur village near Nagpur. A graduate in veterinary
sciences, he became an RSS pracharak in 1974. He has rapidly risen through
the RSS ranks, having been all India sharirik pramukh (head of physical
training) and all India pracharak pramukh (head of all RSS fulltimers)
in the nineties, before assuming the post of sarkaryavaha in March 2000.
.....
Q.: The RSS has infused young blood
in its executive. What’s behind it?
A.: This is not a new thing. Right
from Hedgewar’s time, the RSS has been grooming young people to handle
future challenges. This time, however, our seniors themselves have opted
out because of age and such factors. Also, the organisation is growing
very fast and a lot of running around is needed. We have reached about
30-40 per cent of the revenue blocks in the country. Our aim is to reach
100 per cent by year 2006, the birth centenary year of Guruji Golwalkar.
That also explains the size of the executive. While the seniors can help
us with their their expertise, the young ones can take up the strenuous
part with agility. .....
Mohan Madhukarrao Bhagwat, re-
elected Sarkaryavaha (general secretary) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) at the all India Pratinidhi Sabha of the organisation in Nagpur last
week, bears a ‘‘striking resemblance’’ to ‘‘Doctor Saheb’’, many a RSS
worker gushingly insist. Doctor Saheb, of course, refers to Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar, who founded the organisation in 1925 and became its first sarsanghchalak.
.....
For the past several days I have
been in the spotlight for protesting against Pakistani artistes performing
in India. Instead of supporting a patriot and a nationalist, a section
of the media has accused me of being jealous of the success of my Pakistani
rivals. .....
Saudi Arabia, as the birthplace
of Islam, will not allow churches to be built on its land regardless of
the outcry from "fanatics," according to Defense Minister Prince Sultan.
.....
It was an unusual expose; those
turned in were neither common thieves nor wily dons but members of
the fourth estate. Rishi Paman Chopra, 31, of The Economic Times and Thomas
Josef Priju, 28, of Satyam Infoway were arrested in the lobby of a south
Mumbai five-star hotel on February 17, following a complaint of extortion
filed by a Malegaon-based share broker Punamchand Prithviraj Malu. .....
Prabandha Chintamani, a Jain scripture
records, that the famous Raja Bhoj of Parmaar dynasty got constructed the
Bhojshala temple at Dhaar, Madhya Pradesh, in 1034 AD for worshipping Goddesses
Saraswati. The temple served as a center of Hindu philosophy and Sanskrit
language, and a great residential university. .....
Following the recent drubbing in
Gujarat and the chaos in other states, the Congress is supposed to be advocating
something called ‘soft Hindutva’. An example of it is the recent announcement
by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh that he fortifies himself
with a daily drink of cow’s urine. .....
Why have the pro-Babri masjid lobbies
not welcomed the expediting of the case? They have opposed the Government
of India's plea to the Supreme Court to hear the case at the earliest.
They have even more vehemently resisted the Allahabad High Court order
that the truth should be discovered through excavation. Why? .....
Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence
(ISI) agency, it seems, is doing a good job of establishing contact with
Indian Army personnel and extracting "sensitive information" from them.
.....
The bomb blast on the suburban
train in Mumbai on March 13, ten years and one day after the 1993 bombings
in Mumbai, has again focussed attention on the shadowy war the two countries
have been fighting for over two decades. .....
As the hunt for Osama bin Laden
expanded to include the rugged northern region near Peshawar, US officials
are 'concerned' that Pakistan's ISI is leaking information to the al- Qaeda
terror network about pending raids on his suspected hideouts, media reported
on Friday. .....
A possible tragedy was averted
in New Delhi on Friday with timely detection of six bombs at the New Delhi
Railway Station, a day after a bomb blast wrecked destruction in a train
in Mumbai. .....
The doctor at Ranaghat hospital
who had said in a medical report that women were “raped” by the dacoits
in Dhantola was found murdered on February 27, the Indian Medical Association’s
Calcutta chapter said today. .....
When terrorists of Osama bin Laden's
Al Qaeda struck the US on 9/11, many counter-terrorism analysts of the
world thought of the New York World Trade Centre explosion of February
1993, and the simultaneous explosions at Mumbai on March 12,1993, in which
nearly 250 innocent civilians were killed. For the sheer audacity of conception,
these three terrorist incidents stood apart. .....
A youthful Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,
writing in his Urdu journal Al Hilal, had advised Muslims in 1913 not to
join any political party-for Islam itself was the party of Allah and its
name Hizbullah. Down the centuries, Muslims instead of joining others'
parties, he observed, had prepared for their own. Ninety years afterwards,
the same spirit manifested itself through the words of the Shahi Imam of
Delhi's Jama Masjid. .....
As if the new low in Indo-Pak relations
was not bad enough, a group of Indian singers and filmmakers have begun
striking discordant notes, questioning why the Government is rolling out
the red carpet for Pakistani singers when Indians are not welcome across
the border. .....
The VHP today asked ruling BJP
and the main opposition. Congress, to clarify their stand on enacting a
legislation for the construction of Ram temple at disputed site in Ayodhya.
.....
Shah Wali Ullahs (1703-1762) was
a great Muslim thinker of eighteenth century. His time was one of the most
emotional chapters of Islamic revivalist movements in Indian subcontinent.
The on going Hindu-Muslim communal controversy in contemporary India is
deeply rooted to his political Islamic theory. .....
The fear of Bhavnagar in Saurashtra
turning into a nursery for radical Islamists grows as the role of madarsas
in the region comes under a scanner. .....
A leading airport-security firm
under fire for hiring foreigners was pressured by the federal government
two-and- a-half years ago to rehire Arab non-citizens. .....
American policymakers often display
a suspicious attitude toward India, but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
apparently wants to outdo all of his predecessors. None of them managed
to group democratic India with the likes of Iran and North Korea. But Rumsfeld
did, according to the Daily Telegraph. .....
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid
Mehmood Kasuri's statement that his country could defend itself if it was
the next US target after Iraq is not just a simple reassurance for Pakistanis,
but also a subtle threat to the US, according to a leading US strategic
analysis group. .....
A few years ago, a leading national
daily published the story of how a survey of frequent flyers from Orissa
threw up a real surprise. Most of those who regularly flew in and out of
Bhubaneshwar were not politicians or industrialists but, hold your breath,
NGO officials. And therein lies a tale. .....
The cleansing of pigeons from Trafalgar
Square, despite them being the biggest tourist attraction, was the first
initiative of Mayor Ken Livingston. He was reviled and accused of inhuman
behaviour, and many protests led by peers and MPs were held. .....
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Sarsanghchalak Shri K. S. Sudarshan’s weeklong visit in West Bengal has
evoked sharp reactions from media in the State. While the State Chief Minister,
Buddhadev Bhattacharya, described the respected Sarsanghchalak as “unwanted
guest”, media warned the Left not to be complacent about the emergence
of a “new force wearing khaki shorts and black caps in the red bastion”.
.....
The Government of Tamil Nadu has
recently promulgated an Ordinance banning conversions by use of “force,
allurement or fraudulent means”. Ever since the Ordinance was promulgated
there has been a lot of commotion and restlessness in the Christian missionary
leadership. A few days ago, Minority Gospel Rights Protection Forum in
Simmakkal, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, has brought out a booklet in Tamil captioned
Approach to Combat Anti-Conversion Law. .....
The Union Government has, at last
long, appears to have woken up to its moral and political responsibility
to remove hurdles in the handing over of “undisputed” land adjoining the
makeshift temple at Ayodhya. The Narasimha Rao Government acquired the
land belonging to the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas after the demolition of
the disputed structure. The first step in this direction was taken on Centre’s
behalf by the Solicitor General, Kirit Rawal. .....
The problems of security and development
have been with us ever since humans learned to live in organised society.
The two are inseparably inter-related. One cannot think of development
without security, nor security without development. .....
About ten years ago, a Dhaka weekly
newspaper had made a futuristic assessment of the population problem of
Bangladesh stating that the population of Bangladesh would reach 15 crore,
out of which five crore would be encouraged to cross into India and then
the remaining 10 crore would be able to live happily thereafter. .....
The Chief Minister of West Bengal,
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, “apologised” on January 23, 2003, on behalf of
the Communists, ostensibly to the people of India, for calling names to
Subhas Chandra Bose at the time he was organising the people of Indian
origin in South-East Asia including Indian prisoners of war captured by
the Japanese and setting up the Azad Hind Fauj for liberating India from
the British yoke. .....
I had been an editor of a Marathi
daily for about 17 years and I came across hundreds of letters, criticising
our viewpoint. It was our policy to publish as many letters as possible
with preference to those letters that criticised us. My associates and
I never thought that we were the last prophets and that our words and opinions
were the final truth. We always believed that there could be another point
of view also, possibly of equal validity. .....
Kerala has always acted in the
opposite of national political currents. When the whole nation voted out
Indira Gandhi in 1977, it gave all the 20 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress.
Similarly, when communism has been swept out all over the globe, Kerala
is a State that is maintaining it on life support ventilator. .....
“Vanvasis form an integral part
of the Hindu society. They have the exclusive ownership right over forests
and lands. It is their responsibility to strengthen the cultural heritage
by worshiping nature and protecting the forests,” said the Sarsanghchalak
of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shri K.S. Sudarshan. He was addressing
a mammoth gathering of Vanvasis assembled at the All Kerala Vanvasi Sangamam
held in the premises of the historic Mananthavadi Valliyoorkavu temple
in Wayanad district of Kerala. .....
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC),
J.M. Lyngdoh, is misusing his constitutional position and crossing all
limits and thus causing damage to the country’s democratic polity. He is
taking decisions that can be legitimately dismissed with a shake of head
as politically motivated, partisan and highly discriminatory and outrageous.
.....
The Congress and the government
run by it appear to be determined not to learn lessons from History. Worse
still, it seems to be itching to commit same blunders it committed in the
past, which have brought it to the present position in national politics.
.....
Following Pope John Paul II’s call
for harvesting souls in Asia, thousands of Evangelist and gospel churches
with armies of pastors have sprung up all over Kerala promising to deliver
the Hindus from the evil grip of Satan to the heavenly kingdom of Jesus
Christ. Armed with crores of dollars from their overseas donors, these
professional cross vendors are marketing Jesus as an elixir for all the
ills of society. .....
Unlike their English-language dailies
that did not bother to investigate the case and were content with spreading
lies handed out by the Church, several Malayalam newspapers did their homework.
These dailies and magazines have brought to light facts that show sex-starved
pastors,operating in tribal areas of Kerala,are no different from their
spiritual brothers manning Churches in the West. .....
Taken from chapter "Social stratification
among Muslims in India" by Zarina Bhatty from the book "Caste --
its twentieth century avatar" by M N Srinivas, Viking, New Delhi, 1996,
pp 249 - 253. .....
Mayerdak (www.mayerdak.com) is
a newspaper brough out by the Hindu reactionaries in West Bengal. Its printed
version (printed in Bangla and English) has a circulation of approximately
20,000 prints and is becoming vastly popular among the semi-urban masses
especially those living in the border regions with Bangladesh. .....
Dr Pravin Togadia comes from the
noble profession of healing and professes to be a believer in the nobler
ideas of Hinduism. Yet, he would not pause for a moment before making uncharitable
remarks against Islam and Muslims. .....
It is a reserve army, tailor-made
for the operations of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) of Pakistan
- an indigent migrant population harbouring little or no loyalty to the
host country. .....
There's something about election
fever -- in Kerala, at least, it affects even the Church, leaving the Marxists-led
ruling Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led opposition, the United
Democratic Front, with no alternative but to sing to the tunes of the Christian
establishment. .....
The West Bengal Government has
withdrawn orders on conversion. It has withdrawn an order on furnishing
details on conversion following strong exception to it from the State Minorities
Commission. Why this forced sterilisation of religious statistics? .....
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, whether
one agrees with him or not, is undoubtedly an important and dominating
figure in the history of India; and not only the contemporary but the future
history also. He has molded the minds of several generations of Indians
and founded a dynasty -- a dynasty in a democracy -- and left a legacy
that still haunts India. .....
While the writings and sayings
of American and other Western scholars about our relations with Pakistan
get widespread and prominent coverage in our media, we sadly seem to neglect
the views of our own scholars on such subjects. I was saddened when the
comments made by one of our most distinguished scholars on international
relations, Professor Satish Kumar, on "Reassessing Pakistan as a long-term
strategic threat" on March 3 before a distinguished gathering in New Delhi
was largely ignored by our media. .....
The exodus of Christians from the
Holy Land is prompting more and more Christian women to marry Muslims.
.....
Your distinguished columnist Shafqat
Tanvir Mirza's review of the book Maharaja Porus (Feb 7) notes with regret
that like many others, Porus was not given due recognition for his resistance
to the foreign invader, Alexander. We, in Pakistan, have a tendency to
favour the second-rate and denigrate and ignore the true and the illustrious.
.....
What are the first names that come
to mind when asked to name members of the CPI-M? Jyoti Basu, Harkishen
Singh Surjeet, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, possibly Somnath Chatterjee or E
K Nayanar. Those with long memories may be moved to name names from the
past such as E M S Namboodaripad. .....
“Party first” is a dangerous doctrine
that mocks the rule of law. But Mr Anil Biswas, the secretary of the West
Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has once again shown
that he firmly believes in the doctrine. His attempt to defend party activists
allegedly involved in a rape in Cooch Behar is not just irresponsible;
the manner in which he has done so makes it particularly revolting. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today
warned Muslims that it would launch a nationwide agitation for “reclamation”
of the 30,000 temples that were “converted” into mosques if they do not
“reconsider” their statements or “change their mindset” on the Ramjanmabhoomi
issue. .....
In what appeared to be the first
signs of a rift in the ruling Left Front over the Chheramari gangrape,
agriculture minister Kamal Guha today slammed Anil Biswas for casting aspersion
on the victim, saying the CPM state secretary’s remarks would “encourage
the hoodlums”. .....
The Congress and the Left parties
used sheer lung power today to foil a BJP attempt to sneak in a non-official
resolution in the Lok Sabha seeking a legislative ban on cow slaughter
nationwide. .....
A quiet but dramatic transformation
seems to be taking place in the discourse in the Pakistani press and civil
society on Islamabad’s India policy in general, and Kashmir in particular.
Even the right-wing combine of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal,
has, in its manifesto, sought a dialogue with India on the basis of the
Shimla Accord. .....
The Minister of State for Primary
Education, B.K.Chandrashekar, today told the Legislative Council that a
committee of experts had been constituted to go into social science textbooks
up to Standard 10, which created confusion in the minds of students about
history. .....
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court
has directed the authorities concerned to grant benefits to refugees from
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) similar to those being provided to other
displaced persons in the country. .....
From the walls of Shambhunath Jha’s
house, plastered posters vie for attention. But the one that catches the
eye is a conversation chart that goes something like this: ‘‘Welcome. Please
sit down. Would you like some water? Nice to meet you. See you again. Goodbye.’’
.....
In this organised mess of pintsized
hutments, here in Muthi outside Jammu town where some 490 migrant Kashmiri
Pandit families huddle, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's word --
especially one that promises to take them home -- counts for naught. .....
You are born in a place. You spend
a good part of your life in the lanes and by-lanes of this place. You inherit
a great culture from the people of this place. You identify yourself with
its land, its air, its trees, its rivers, its mountains, its temples, its
shrines, and its way of life. You are planning for the rest of your life
in that place. .....
Dr Pravin Togadia comes from the
noble profession of healing and professes to be a believer in the nobler
ideas of Hinduism. Yet, he would not pause for a moment before making uncharitable
remarks against Islam and Muslims. .....
The usual discordant noises are
coming out of India. Investors are getting nervous about the impact of
high-priced oil on the economy: The Bombay index is off 3% so far this
year. The opposition is assailing the ruling BJP's budget for its attempt
to rein in subsidies. Farmers are praying for a better monsoon. Poor rains
last year kept GDP growth to 4.4%, well below archrival China's 7.8%. .....
The principal aim of the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was to create a framework for a universal
code based on mutual consent. The early years of the United Nations were
overshadowed by the division between the Western and Communist conceptions
of human rights, although neither side called into question the concept
of universality. .....
On June 7, 1985, the British Parliament
adjourned its proceedings for an extraordinary reason. MPs paid tributes
to a person once the empire classified as its deadly enemy -Swatantryaveer
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966). They converged at the auditorium
in the Westminster's Annexe where a documentary on Savarkar by Prem Vaidya
(adjudged the best Filmfare documentary for 1983) was scre-ened. .....
What is the real nature of the
Muslim Students' Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA)? This octopus-like
entity has infiltrated numerous college and university campuses in North
America, and has taken the lead in corralling young Muslims to defend the
fascist dictator Saddam Hussein. .....
One of the clearest signs of the
growing blind hostility to Israel and Jews of so much of the world's media
is the increasing trend to label Palestinians' atrocities, such as the
exploding of the bus full of children in Haifa a few days ago, as "Palestinian
resistance." The PLO and its amen choruses routinely explain away such
mass murders of Jewish children and other civilians as "Palestinian resistance",
but so do the BBC and many other establishment media outfits. .....
This is a tale of two news stories.
They both pertain to Islam and culture clash in the post-9/11 world, but
they take place in parallel universes: the first in a world where hard
facts are prized like battle stars, the second in a milieu where reality's
sharper edges require plenty of padding. .....
A petition challenging the 'Z-plus'
security provided to VHP leader Praveen Togadia was on Monday dismissed
by the Delhi High Court after the government informed the court that it
has been given as per the guidelines. .....
Major communal violence broke out
after miscreants pelted stones yesterday at the victory procession carried
out to mark India’s win over Pakistan at the World Cup in the sensitive
K G Halli and D J Halli areas in the City. .....
Dressed like boy rappers, four
young women scurry toward their apartment tower home, and try not to think
about the 17- year-old girl burned to death in a nearby garbage depot by
a local teenage boy. .....
The investigation into the Godhra
carnage, which took place exactly a year ago, is entering a crucial stage
and the Gujarat police may seek the assistance of the Central Bureau of
Investigation to solve the case. .....
At least 12 policemen and as many
people were injured and several vehicles and shops were damaged in communal
violence that erupted in the sensitive Anepalya and Neelasandra areas in
the City tonight. .....
The sacred Jewish site regarded
as the grave of the biblical patriarch Joseph has been turned into a pile
of rubble by Arab vandals, according to Israeli officials. .....
Claming that surveys ordered by
the Allahabad court have discovered ruins of a temple at the disputed site,
senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ashok Singhal threatened that the
two-day dharamsansad starting from Saturday would be taking "unprecedented
and hard decisions" on the Ayodhya issue. .....
The spreading violence in Malwa
region and the fear of an electoral backlash in the coming Assembly poll
compelled Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh on Friday to partially
surrender to the demand of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Jagran Manch
over the restoration of Hindu rights of worship at the Bhojshala in Dhar
district. .....
I was raised in Tamilnadu in South
India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, of an English father and
a Polish mother. Both were dedicated followers of Sri Ramana Maharishi.
Therefore as a child growing up in the small town of Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu,
I was fluent in Tamil and was surrounded by Indians who were proud of their
nationality and heritage, and believed they had a lot to teach us Europeans.
.....
It is not easy to be an Indian
living abroad: Not only one has to retain one's Indian-ness while coping
with the West's positive and less positive aspects which creep into one's
life, but one is also subjected to the humiliation of seeing one's own
countrymen spit on India in mainstream foreign newspapers and television.
Recently, the Gujarat riots and the IDRF episode have been used by a few
Indian academics/scholars/ writers, particularly in the United States,
to demean India and Hindus. .....
A god who was once a king on earth,
a king who is also God, may soon win judicial reprieve and mercifully end
centuries of bloody disputation over His legitimate birthplace. The March
5 order of the Allahabad High Court directing the Archaeological Survey
of India (ASI) to excavate the disputed site at Ayodhya and determine whether
or not a temple could be adjudged to have pre-existed the Babri Masjid
there and submit its report by March 24, is as sudden as it is unexpected.
.....
The so-called human shields who
offered to make themselves targets of U.S. bombs, artillery or rifles
have been described as useful idiots - they are not - they are stupid
idiots. .....
Wednesday morning I called Ibrahim
Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Last week Hooper
and I had words on MSNBC's Nachman show about the propriety of the FBI
investigating mosques, and I wanted to get his reaction to new allega