A South African Indian teacher
here is under threat of suspension for allegedly making blasphemous statements
about Hinduism and Christianity while teaching high-school students. Incensed
parents of pupils at the Seatides Combined School, North of here, are seeking
the suspension of Noorjehan Ahmed, 49, an educator for 27 years, after
she allegedly made blasphemous statements about Hinduism and Christianity
that upset her pupils ......
Genocide, pogrom, Nazism and apartheid.
Words that spell discrimination and cold- blooded massacre of innocents
have sprung out of history books and today haunt India as never before.
Sweeping accusations and sensational headlines have become the order of
the day, hurting India no end. The carnage in Gujarat was a kind of apartheid
— and has parallels with Germany of the 1930’s... The VHP and Bajrang Dal
are the main instruments for realising the ghettoisation of the Muslims.
......
With reference to Janab Syed Sahabuddin's
contention in his letter 'Muslims' birthright' (April 24) his claim to
birthright is questionable on several counts. First, he calls himself a
Muslims Indian instead of an Indian Muslim. This prioritisation of religion
over the motherland dilutes a child's right to occupy pride of place in
its mother's lap. While I do not question his right to extra-territorial
loyalty. I cannot concede to him an absolute privilege for shelter in this
territory. ......
Kerala's ruling front, the UDF,
has recommended that the government create a level playing field for the
educational institutions run by the majority community. ......
A primary link between India and
Cambodia that dates back over a millennium is an interesting version of
the epic Ramayana, which has recorded the trials and tribulations of Ram
in some 48,000 Sanskrit verses. ......
Challenging the curfew orders in
the riot-hit areas of Kalyan, the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party
and the Hindu Manch have announced a silent morcha to the Bazarpeth police
station on Friday to demand the arrest of Nationalist Congress Party corporator
Iqbal Shaikh. ......
Four persons were killed, three
of them in police firing, and about 15 others were injured when riots broke
out in the communally sensitive city of Akola on Saturday. Six of the injured
are stated to be in critical condition. ......
A Hindu priest has been allegedly
killed by extortionists, in a hill district of Bangladesh in continued
violence against the minority communities in the country. ......
Federal agents Tuesday arrested
the director of an Illinois-based charity whom they accuse of direct links
to Osama bin Laden, and charged him with lying about links to international
terrorism. ......
Undoubtedly, at the vanguard of
India's Independence movement in the late 19th and 20th century, a sizeable
chunk of today's "secular" Hindu Bengalis are passionate about clinging
on to the "glorious past" and a good numbers are oblivious of the lurking
(future) security threat to India. ......
Dear friends - India's image in
the West has never been so bad. We, the foreign correspondents, have been
propagating in the last few weeks a picture of an intolerant Hindu majority,
ruthlessly hunting down the Muslim minority. Not only has this falsified
public opinions abroad about India, but has also put pressure on governments
to bring out so-called Human Rights reports on Gujarat, whereas they have
no right to interfere in India's affairs, given the fact that it is one
of the very few working democracies in Asia. ......
The Bush administration does not
hesitate to proclaim to whoever will listen that Pakistan is a "front-line
ally" in its now stuttering global war against terror. It points to Pakistan
president Pervez Musharraf's cooperation in the Afghanistan war, and to
his steps against Pakistani extremists. Recent events, in which Al Qaeda
members have been captured both on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and
in cities such as Faisalabad and Lahore, appear to support this claim.
Among those snared in recent raids in Faisalabad was Abu Zubaidah, one
of the top operational commanders for Bin Laden. ......
The United Nations is intent on
investigating charges that Israeli forces violated the human rights of
Palestinians during this month's raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Because
noncombatants were killed there, the word "massacre" is being bandied about
in the press. Many in the "human rights community," however, have already
reached a verdict. "When we are confronted with the extent of destruction
of the Jenin refugee camp," says Rene Kosirnik of the International Committee
of the Red Cross, "it is difficult to accept that international humanitarian
law has been respected." Amnesty International claims it too has evidence
of human-rights abuses in Jenin. ......
Bangladeshi writer in exile Taslima
Nasreen, against whom fundamentalists in her own country have issued a
fatwa, would prefer to settle in Kolkata, as living in the 'alien' West
would make her lose touch with her roots. ......
VHP vice-president Acharya Giriraj
Kishore on Friday sought a clear definition of the word minority in the
Constitution saying the special protection given to the religious and linguistic
minorities under Article 30 was having an adverse impact. Talking to newspersons
at the Karsewak Puram, the Acharya said that under these provisions the
minorities got more rights to set up educational and other institutions
and urged the Union Government to give more clarity to the definition of
minority. ......
The second Holocaust - the possible
destruction of the Jews in Israel - is a phrase first coined by Philip
Roth in his 1993 novel "Operation Shylock. " It's a novel that seemed incredibly
bleak back then. Yet even Roth's darkest imaginings seem optimistic now.
Especially when examined by the glare of burning synagogues in France.
Or neofascist Jean-Marie Le Pen's showing in the first round of the French
presidential election. ......
Godhra carnage was an act of Pakistan-sponsored
terrorism and was executed in connivance with the "jihadi forces" based
in the town, alleged a five-member study team of the Delhi-based Council
for International Affairs and Human Rights. "The objective behind the Godhra
carnage was to weaken Indian positions on the border and to make the area
more porous for jihadi infiltrators and smugglers of drugs and arms by
forcing India to divert its Army from border to civil deployment," the
team said in its report titled Godhra and After. ......
After 10 years of living in forced
servitude and several desperate attempts to gain her freedom, Salma has
finally gone home to Bangladesh. But the ordeal for the 23-year-old victim
of human traffickers is far from over -- she had to leave her three small
children behind. ......
Should Mr. Narendra Modi stay or
go? He has been biased in his attitude. He has brazenly declared that Ahmedabad
was a reaction to Godhra. This means he thinks the massacre of members
of the minority community is justified. He must be replaced. The situation
will not improve unless he is thrown out. He must be held responsible for
the atrocities committed by Hindus. He has not cared to bring even basic
relief to the riot-affected people. They are all suffering in make-shift
relief camps. ......
A foreigner may be allowed to vote,
which is an exclusive privilege of the citizens, but he cannot become an
Indian national on that ground, the supreme court has ruled and said that
those who voluntarily migrated to Pakistan after Partition and became Pakistani
nationals cannot claim Indian citizenship after staying here for long.
......
Security was tightened in parts
of Kandhamal district after a Hindu religious leader was pelted with stones,
according to Indo-Asian News Service. ......
Aside from the important debate
over whether the United States humiliated itself to retrieve its people
from China, was I alone in sensing the vague air of unreality that hung
over the entire hostage situation? During those 11 days, I kept getting
the odd impression that the standoff with China was occurring at some great
remove and was of little concern to us - whether the "us" were the media,
the American people, or the U.S. government itself. ......
Any meaningful analysis of the
Pakistani economy has to treat Pakistan and the Taliban-controlled Afghan
territory as one economic zone. Otherwise, one would not have a clear understanding
of Pakistan's economic difficulties and how its economy continues to survive,
even after the suspension of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assistance,
despite frequent predictions of its certain collapse. ......
The Hare Krishna movement in Britain
has won what it describes as a “landmark” legal victory for Hindus after
one of the country’s biggest department store groups had suggested its
devotees were brainwashed members of a “dangerous and loony religious sect”.
......
A 24-year-old woman was paraded
half-naked at a midnight 'court' or 'majlis' - presided over by local 'leaders'
- with a garland of shoes around her neck. Her alleged crime: stealing
a pair of gold earrings from a neighbour's house. ......
In late march, about two hours
after I had sent the announcement of Daniel Pipes' forthcoming (April 10)
lecture at University of Washington on "The War on Terrorism and Militant
Islam" to its academic sponsors for distribution on their "lists," I was
besieged by e-mail messages from self-identified Muslims. These exhorted
me to cancel the lecture or--failing that--to do penance for having organized
it or to allow designated Muslims to "answer" it. ......
Stay in a five-star hotel anywhere
from Jordan to Iran, and you can buy the infamous forgery "Protocols of
the Elders of Zion." Pick up a newspaper in any part of the Arab world
and you regularly see a swastika superimposed on the Israeli flag. ......
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
had no special affinity with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said VHP
general secretary Praveen Togadia on Sunday. If Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi
party adopted pro-Hindu policies, the VHP might been extend support to
it, he remarked. ......
Controversial Bangladeshi author
Taslima Nasreen, who has not been allowed to enter her country since 1998
and has been staying in Sweden, now wants to settle in Kolkata. ......
Syed Husain Shastri, a devout Muslim,
is a walking encyclopaedia on the Vedas. As the bell chimes at 8
am every morning in the RSS-run Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Malihabad, about
30 km from here, Syed Husain Shastri recites Vedic chants to begin the
day. ......
India borders three countries,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, which have intense Islamic terrorist activities.
From our security point of view, the developments in these countries are
crucial. ......
Located down a steep flight of
stairs off the main road through this teeming city, the Jaish-i- Muhammad
Bookstore was literally underground long before becoming politically so.
But when President Pervez Musharraf banned the Islamic militant organization
for which it was named, the newsstand donned a bit of camouflage, renaming
itself the Reformatory Library. ......
Three months after President Pervez
Musharraf announced a major crackdown on violent Muslim groups and on the
religious schools that breed them, doubts are rising here about his commitment
to follow through. ......
Violence erupted in the sensitive
Mukundnagar area of Ahmednagar city on Saturday after a group of people
attacked a place of worship in the area on Friday night, in which three
women were injured, police said. ......
If there are two oft-repeated criticisms
which irritate India's Hindu nationalist RSS, one is that it admired Hitler
and the other is that one of its former members assassinated independence
leader Mahatma Gandhi. ......
I was born and brought-up a Christian.
I believe that Jesus Christ is an Avatar of Love, and that now more than
ever, specially after the 11th September terrorist attacks on America,
we need his message of compassion, charity and kindness for one another.
......
The happenings in Gujarat, beginning
at Godhra on February 27, 2002, continuing sporadically thereafter, have
understandably had a traumatic effect on the country. The Muslims are particularly
shaken, although more than a third of the casualties have been Hindu. ......
I was born and brought-up a Christian.
I believe that Jesus Christ is an Avatar of Love, and that now more than
ever, specially after the 11th September terrorist attacks on America,
we need his message of compassion, charity and kindness for one another.
......
Despite the suicide attacks on
trendy hangouts like Cafe Moment, Cafe Rimon and Cafit, Israeli intellectuals
still frequent Jerusalem's cafes. Conversations still linger late into
the night over espresso, served Italian-style with a small glass of soda.
But the atmosphere has changed. Now many of these late-night heart-to-hearts
are between lifelong members of Peace Now, the vanguard of the Israeli
peace movement, and veteran supporters of the West Bank settlement movement
— people who were, until recently, bitterly divided strangers. ......
How did the Indian Intelligence
suddenly wake up to this phenomenon? The answer is it would never have
but for the fact that the US was shaken by Islamic terror on September
11, 2001. ......
This is an investigation into some
institutions claiming to be religious schools but acting as facilitators
for terrorist outfits abroad. It is based on top-secret reports of Indian
Intelligence. ......
The Saudi Information Agency has
obtained a tape by prominent government official cleric Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik
calling for enslaving Jewish women. The tape is called "a Monkey Desecrates
Mosque," and was delivered in a Riyadh government mosque. The monkey refers
to Jews. ......
Time and the compulsions of life
have dissipated the fires of hatred in Gujarat. But the editorial ire of
the English press is still raging, prodding them to send squads of news
dogs to sniff relics of the old rivalry and report cases of fresh villainy
threatening what S Jaipal Reddy pompously calls the secular fabric of the
country discovered by Jawaharlal Nehru. Every day, leader writers, commentators
and analysts remind the reader of the real nature of our polity, our society
and our press. Obviously, their thirst for bad news is unquenchable. ......
The l'affaire Modi has now ceased
to be a moral issue and has turned into a prestige issue as to who, ultimately,
will win: the government or the Opposition; and in another sphere whether
the government or the media. ......
Predictions about the death of
Indian brands have clearly been premature. In fact, as a recent study by
ORG-Marg shows, local brands manufactured by small companies are flying
off the shelves in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) market. ......
About three years after the Kargil
conflict, the Pakistan Government appears to have shed its inhibitions
in conceding the role of the Pakistan Army. This was evident at a huge
presidential referendum rally addressed by the Pakistan President, Pervez
Musharraf, in Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP),
on Tuesday. ......
It’s a snub from a Governor who
seems to have a mind of his own. And one that the Alimuddin Street-controlled
higher education thinktank has never faced before. ......
Yasin Pathan, who has been awarded
the Kabir Samman by the President for saving more than 30 temples and has
played a major role in defusing communal tenson in the state, is receiving
threats from the minority community. ......
If it is not anti-Indianism, then
in what other terms could we possibly render Pakistani-Muslim nationalism?
General Pervez Musharraf chose the holy day of Eid-e-milad to reprimand
"irresponsible religious leaders" whose ceaseless war cry against India
is harming Pakistan's interests. Economic growth, he said, has been undermined
by religious militancy and sectarianism that distort Pakistan's image in
the international community. ......
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. ......
Pakistan may be the flavour of
the day when it comes to bashing Islamic fundamentalism in the subcontinent.
But there are signs that things are not too well on India's eastern flank
either. ......
Eminent English litterateur EM
Foster would not have bargained for it-when he penned the piece of prose
titled 'tolerance', for he is now caught in the current cross-fire in Gujarat,
where communal violence has claimed more than 800 lives in the past seven
weeks, report agencies. ......
The murder of anyone, be he a Prime
Minister or a lower grade clerk in a municipal office is heinous and worthy
of the strongest condemnation. A life is a life and a life lost is a life
lost for ever. But isn't it time for the Congress to pause for a moment
and look back to years past - more specifically to October 1984 - when
a Sikh guard shot to death the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and pore
over the events that followed? The killing of Mrs Gandhi was deliberate.
......
Minutes of the meeting held under
the chairmanship of Shri G.K. Pillai, Joint Secretary (NE), M.H.A. On 29.9.1999
at 11.00 hours to discuss activities of Dutch NGOs in India ......
One form of relaxation for me is
watching sports programmes on television. On the same sports channel, Pakistan
TV beams its daily news and very often I watch it for a short time. The
music programmes and the serials, I must say, are not very different from
Hindi serials aired on the Sahara channel. If a test were conducted and
any foreigner asked which of the two countries a particular programme belonged
to, very few would guess right. ......
Discussions pertaining to communal
strife in the Indian subcontinent in liberal media outlets (whether in
India, Pakistan or Bangladesh) usually tend to focus on crimes committed
against Muslims in India. In the violent aftermath of the gruesome crime
in Godhra, this may be somewhat understandable. But the hypocrisy of the
mainstream media in Pakistan can be particularly galling. ......
Syed Shahabuddin in 'Under attack,
Muslims must innovate' (April 13), has painted a dismal picture of the
Muslim Indians that is uncalled for and unfair. The Constitution of India
does not distinguish between citizens on the basis of religion. To describe
an 'Indian' as Muslim Indian, Christian Indian, Sikh Indian, Parsi Indian,
Hindu Indian only smells of a divisive mindset. In this ongoing tug of
war between the religious fundamentalists, the innocent and the poor are
made to stand on trial. ......
American Advisers have been granted
permission to accompany Pakistani troops into tribal areas of Pakistan
on raids of suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts, senior Pakistani officials
said this week. The agreement appears to clear the way for American help
in Pakistani operations in a region near the Afghan border where hundreds
of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to have taken refuge. ......
In a development of huge significance,
leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal were yesterday
given a hearing by the entire seven-member National Commission for Minorities
(NCM) in which they pleaded with the commission to take up the cause of
the "persecuted" Hindus in the Jammu region. ......
Many of the 1,000-odd young Asian
women, mostly of Pakistani-origin, subjected to forced marriage every year
can now resort to the law of annulment to escape loveless unions. ......
Most people will recall how the
CPI(M) leaders of West Bengal had made fun of the Assam Movement when it
had picked up momentum. Mr Jyoti Basu, who was then the West Bengal Chief
Minister, had even gone to the extent of calling it a picnic. And even
at home, the CPI(M) (as also the other Left parties) had given the general
impression that in their concept of a utopian world, there was no room
for borders and boundaries, and that foreigners who came in hordes from
a neighbouring country ought to be welcomed with open arms on humanitarian
grounds, regardless of the fact that they were illegal migrants. ......
After being the dominant ideology
for several decades, what politicians and many intellectuals call 'secularism',
is increasingly coming under attack. Recently, a leading national magazine
brought out special issue under the heading "Is secularism dead?" Many
see it as nothing but minority appeasement, simply a cover for vote bank
politics. ......
Tiptoe, I had sneaked out into
the spacious courtyard of Delhi Legislative Assembly. The Old Secretariat
constructed during the second decade of 20th century is the hub of sleepy
and aesthetically displeasing offices of Delhi government. I was sitting
on a wooden bench on the magically clean vestibule of Vidhan Sabha, smelling
of disinfectant. ......
Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh
Minorities (HRCBM)
Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh
Minorities (HRCBM) is deeply shocked at the brutal murder of Buddhist Monk,
Gyanjyoti Barua, of Hingala hill tract, in Raujan, Chittagong. We express
our grave concern for the safety and security of the Buddhist and other
minority communities in the region and all over Bangladesh. ......
For the last two months the "secular"
pack and the media have been busy weaving myths and half-truths following
the carnage at Godhra and its bloody backlash in the rest of Gujarat.
Samples: These were the worst riots in Gujarat; only Muslims were
its victims; Sangh Parivar and riots are synonymous; the Narendra
Modi Government is hounding the minorities and giving a free hand
to the Hindu rioters; Gujarat is still burning; etc. Pseudo-intellectuals
have even termed the riots as a "Pogrom of the minorities" and called
shots at Modi with words like "Hang the murderer". ......
As the communally sensitive town
of Malegaon gears up for elections to the newly-formed Malegaon Municipal
Corporation (MMC) on May 12, the Janata Dal (Secular) party has decided
to nominate a notorious local gangster, Abdul Aziz Nazir Ahmed alias Aziz
Lallu, who is in jail. ......
If they are sincere in earning
their livelihood, 'secular' investigative journalists aiming for Narendra
Modi's jugular have a job on hand. They must examine why -- ......
Zacarias Moussaoui, charged with
conspiring in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, called today for the destruction
of the United States and Israel in his first extensive public comments
since his arrest. He urged a federal judge to allow him to fire his court-appointed
defense lawyers and represent himself. ......
Just before the assembly elections
in Uttar Pradesh, Rajnath Singh had announced an economic package for madrasas
in the BJP-led state. It so happened that prior to this pre-poll gesture,
in faraway Kolkata, Mr Bhattacharjee had publicly stated his government's
concerns about the proliferation of 'unrecognised' madrasas in his state
and the possibility that they may be serving as breeding grounds for 'anti-national
sentiments'. ......
For tainted Punjab Public Service
Commission chief Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu, it was a long road to power from
the classrooms of Lawrence School, Sanawar, to the corridors of PPSC. ......
Indian intelligence agencies are
in a spot over the mushrooming of some 50 madrassas and mazaars in sensitive
areas in Bikaner, Anupgarh, Suratgarh and Sriganagnagar sectors along the
Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan. ......
To-day's front-page main headline
in the English daily "The Asian Age", published from Ahmedabad, reading
in bold red letters "IF YOU DON'T LIKE PEOPLE, KILL THEM," is a clear example
of misrepresentation. The headline given in the newspaper is in fact a
question No. 3 (A) (3) asked in an English Language examination paper of
standard XII, pertaining to grammer where students were asked to transform
the sentence by removing "if". The said prose is written by E. M. FOSTER,
the great novelist and is a part of official English text-book of std.
XII. ......
While supporting repeal of the
IM(DT) Act, the Central Government has ruled out extension of the controversial
Act to any other States pointing out that it has hampered the process of
detection and deportation of illegal migrants. The clarification was given
by additional Solicitor General, Harish Salve during the course of the
final hearing of the Writ Petition filed by Sarbananda Sonowal challenging
the IM(DT) Act before Special bench of the Supreme Court comprising
Justice G.B.Patnaik, Justice Brajesh Kumar and Justice Arijit Pasayat,
here this afternoon. ......
A senior member of Palestinian
Islamic Jihad who surrendered to Israeli forces in Jenin described the
battle as "a very hard fight" in which both sides took on casualties, but
he said he didn't see "tens of people" killed by the Israeli army. ......
Vanikar Bhuvan, the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad's office in Ahmedabad, is far more impressive than the offices
of the state Bharatiya Janata Party or the Indian National Congress. While
its 96-year-old president, K K Shastri, visits the office for a couple
of hours every day, Kaushik Mehta, the joint secretary, is the one who
calls the shots. ......
Gulf defense sources said the Saudi
government has approved projects for Pakistan to help train and maintain
units of the armed forces. The sources said Riyad has also provided the
green light for projects that include the defense research and development
as well as the joint production of weapons. Saudi officials have acknowledged
what they termed as an increasing defense cooperation with Islamabad. They
said Riyad has financed Pakistani projects meant to expand Saudi's defense
industry. ......
The Indian nation cannot march
forward with a major segment of its largest minority group remaining backward,
illiterate, unenlightened and weak. It is the duty of every section of
Indian society to help in the mainstreaming of this section. But the issue
of modernisation of madrasa education brings up the vested interests of
fundamentalist elements trying to protect their turf and the political
system which strives to utilise the backward for electoral gain. ......
Namaskar, Adavniji, our national
president Shri Jana Krishnamurtyji, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshiji, Shri Pramod
Mahajan, Goa Chief Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar, Deputy Chief Minister
Ravi Naik, Shreepad Naik, state party president Laxmikant Parsekar, sisters
and brothers... ......
The Nagpur Youth Congress is upset
with Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the violence in Gujarat. But when
its ploy of misleading newspapers by planting the news of a fake protest
in front of the RSS headquarters was bared on Tuesday by the RSS itself,
its two factions resorted to violence against each other in the presence
of All India Youth Congress chief Randeepsingh Surjewala and Minister of
State for Home Manikrao Thakre. ......
On may 14, 1970 initiating a discussion
on the Bhiwandi riots in Maharashtra, Atal Bihari Vajpayee delivered a
speech that could well be a replication of what Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi is professing today. He cited a Home Ministry report that
blamed Muslims for starting 23 of the 24 riots between 1968 and 1970. ......
By relegating the Godhra issue
to the back burner and concentrating on the aftermath of the incident we
as a nation have done a great disservice to the country. In the hour of
crisis the nation as a whole should rise and support the government in
tackling the crisis and not fall into the trap set by our enemies. ......
Leiden, The Netherlands: Nasr abu
Zeid does a passable job of hiding his bitterness behind a warm smile.
But after six years here, a continent away from his homeland, he cannot
conceal his anger. ......
Taking strong exception to criticism
of the Gujarat situation by foreign leaders and visiting dignitaries, India
on Monday asserted that it ''does not appreciate interference'' in its
internal affairs by such people in order to ''pander to their domestic
lobbies''. ......
Gujarat Minister of State for Home
Gordhan Zadaphia has blamed the Congress for the fresh spurt in violence
in the state on Sunday, which cost 21 people their lives, saying the opposition
party was trying desperately to break the National Democratic Alliance
government at the Centre. ......
At least 21 Bangladeshi nationals
who were staying illegally in remote tribal villages in Orissa's Nawrangpur
district were deported to their country, District Collector Arabinda Padhi
said on Monday. ......
Decapitated bodies of two labourers
from Bihar were found from Khalhar Kokernag village in south Kashmir while
elsewhere in the state three persons, including two militants, were killed
and five ultras nabbed overnight. ......
Coming down on the Congress governments
since Independence for ignoring netaji subhash chandra bose's achievements,
Home Minister L K Advani on Sunday night said it was made to look like
India got freedom only due to one family. ......
The Washington-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations presents itself as just another civil-rights
group. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
Its public language - about promoting "interest and understanding among
the general public with regards to Islam and Muslims in North America"
- certainly boosts an image of moderation. ......
Look Who's Talking is the name
of an English film my cable provider will be showing later this evening.
I have no idea what the film is all about, but the title seems applicable
this week given the subject of this column. Which I am dedicating to two
friends, both bureaucrats, as they inspired it with their questions --
and some home truths. ......
The provocation for this article
is the baseless, motivated and misinformed criticism of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
speech in Goa by the pseudo-secularists of India and jehadis from Pakistan.
The accusation is that it contained remarks against Islam and Muslims.
......
The desire of the Prince of Wales
to be seen as a defender of faith and as the prince of faiths is no doubt
based on the best of all possible intentions. Otherwise his wish is naive.
Would he, for instance, wish to defend the faith of the Saudi ambassador
to the Court of St James in London - Prince Charles's own address, incidentally
- who has written a poem of praise for Palestinian suicide bombers who
die "to honour God's word"? ......
When many in the Muslim world blamed
Israel and its supposed desire to discredit Islam for the Sept. 11 attacks,
most Americans dismissed the report as a deformed joke. But just as the
attacks forced Americans to face the fact that there are deadly serious
groups seeking to destroy us, so some of the anti-Semitic actions in Europe
in recent months cause us to wonder whether, six decades after the Holocaust,
we are witnessing a resurgence of the virulent hatred that caused it. ......
The opposition parties, some of
the allies of the NDA, and largely the media are in agreement on at least
one point: Removal of Mr Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
They presuppose the return of normalcy in the State with this move. ......
Pondicherry April 19 The Congress
member, R. Kamalakannan today expressed protest against tampering with
the land and property belonging to temples and demanded proper enumeration
of such property. ......
The option before them was clear:
waste a year by sitting at home out of fear or take courage and take the
exams. Most chose the latter and came out smiling. Whatever the results
would be, they' d already passed one test. ......
For some days now, Karachi has
thankfully not woken up to the news of yet another medical doctor shot
dead in cold blood. But as an editorial in The News (April 16) cautions,
'The current let-up in the assassinations does not mean that the issue
should be allowed to quietly die down, or overshadowed by the controversial
referendum. The question of who is behind the killings and why still begs
to be answered, and must be answered sooner rather than later.' ......
Walls and columns around the temple,
which should otherwise be preserved as a historical relic, have already
been demolished. One Haji Abdur Rab, who lives next door and also an official
of the school committee, is overseeing the demolition of the temple and
extension work of the school. ......
India's military research industry
is to launch experiments with yoga to sharpen the skills of troops in modern
warfare and help cope with the stress of battling domestic insurgencies.
......
Muslim communalists in Mysore State
are demanding their proverbial 'pound of flesh' for their support to the
Congi, and openly defying established rules and regulations. No wonder,
the communal situation in Hubli flared up resulting in the, death of a
Hindu youth Shrikant Chipkar and much loss of property. ......
Reangs, also known as Brus form
a minority in the multi-tribal society of Mizoram. The State otherwise
has an absolute majority of Mizo tribe, be it in local administration or
in trade. In the past few years the State has witnessed mass conversions
by Christian missionaries. The situation has led to tribal strife and at
times it has spanned into other parts of the insurgency-infested northeastern
region. ......
In the 70s, Mahesh Yogi was going
around the country popularising his Transcendental Meditation. In Bangalore
was a young man whose name-Pandit Ravi Shankar-made Mahesh Yogi's head
turn. "Join me," said Mahesh Yogi to the young man, who jumped at the offer.
The young man travelled the world as Mahesh Yogi's devotee. His flowing
beard, his pleasant smile and immaculate manners disarmed the west. ......
A rare, unpublished letter written
by Dr. Zakir Husain, 43 years ago to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
has been deposited at Bait al-Hikmat, the Hamdard's new library,
at Bund Murad.The letter throws light on the selection of officials
to assist him during the nascent period of Pakistan State. ......
Chief Superintendent of Jails G.
David, by his own admission, can be spotted in only three places:
his home, Pondicherry Central Prison, of which he took charge in 2001,
and church. His son is training to be a priest and his daughter is a nun.
It is perhaps not surprising then that David is in the eye of a storm after
being accused of forced conversions at the prison. ......
Chief Superintendent of Jails G.
David, by his own admission, can be spotted in only three places:
his home, Pondicherry Central Prison, of which he took charge in 2001,
and church. His son is training to be a priest and his daughter is a nun.
It is perhaps not surprising then that David is in the eye of a storm after
being accused of forced conversions at the prison. ......
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's relationship
with the Jamiat Ulema has suddenly hit rock bottom with the latter threatening
to pull down the Congress from the seat of power. ......
Sir,— Kuldip Nayyar stated in the
Opinion column (April 16) that the Gujarat attacks were planned. Here is
his statement, ``This scheme of exterminating a particular community had
been prepared long before Godhra and would have been carried out even without
the gruesome Godhra incident''. ......
What began as a simple cultural
night to celebrate the Nepali New Year on 14 April is turning into a conflict
between Hindus and Christians in Kalimpong. ......
High-profile member of the National
Commission for Minorities, John Joseph, today said he had asked the Gujarat
government to publish the names of those killed in police firing in various
parts of the state, but the Narendra Modi government had not bothered to
do so. ......
The curious case of "baptism for
admissions" has been raised by the Andhra Pradesh Government before
the Supreme Court which exposes malpractices denying minorities admissions
in private unaided "minority" institutions. ......
Bangkok authorities will distribute
100,000 vials of 100-year-old holy water from a Hindu temple to celebrate
the city's 220th anniversary this weekend, a religious leader said Saturday.
......
Alarm bells have been set ringing
following reports of an Inter Services Intelligence-sponsored initiative
to unite several Islamic rebel organisations in Assam and across the North-East,
with major insurgent groups of the region receiving instructions to impart
training to these rebels. ......
When Jyoti Basu told V P Singh
in the run up to the 1989 elections that while he (Basu) could ignore BJP
he (VP) could not, he was telling him a political truth. He was also giving
him a fine lesson in the crafty art of who could and needed to 'use' secularism
as a political plank and how! That secularism is a strategy but not a creed
is borne out by the actions of all the opportunists in the Indian political
arena from almost the time of freedom struggle. ......
For the seculars in this country,
Hindutva is an evil, an unmitigated one. Those who profess Hindutva are
communal, violent, Hindu Taliban and what not. Hindutva has been declared
as the greatest evil without any debate as to what it is all about. ......
As the violence continues in Gujarat,
an intelligence report says Muslim men in camps and safe houses across
the city are being urged to take up guerrilla warfare. The chief coordinator
of the Shah Alam camp, however, described the report as baseless. ......
The Gujarat riots have brought
about an unexpected if temporary -alliance between the upper caste champions
of Hindutva and the tribals and Dalits who languish at the bottom of traditional
Hindu social hierarchy At several places, Dalits eagerly joined Hindu fanatics
to kill and loot Muslims. ......
Lovely Natalie Portman is gearing
up for the May 12 premiere of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,"
in which she plays Senator Padme Amidala, but this week the 20-year-old
Harvard junior is focusing on earthbound conflicts. ......
Given the justified preoccupation
of the country with the tragic events in Gujarat, not enough heed was paid
to two small but very si9gnificant prono8ncements emanating from the mouths
of senior Congress leaders. The other day in Guwahati, the Congress President,
Sonia Gandhi, declared with a straight face that Prime Minister Vajpayee
had lost his mental balance. ......
So when will this charade in Parliament
end? For the fourth consecutive day, the opposition parties did not allow
the two Houses to function. The presiding officers are obliged to adjourn
the two Houses within minutes of their having re-assembled on Thursday
morning. The Opposition demanded a debate on the Gujarat riots under
Rule 184 while the Treasury benches were equally determined to debate Gujarat
but only under rule 193. The upshot was a first-rate stalemate with
nobody willing to yield an inch of ground to the other. ......
Amid the intense propaganda war,
there is unusual agreement on the developing humanitarian tragedy.
No one disputes the fact that many, and perhaps most of the houses in the
Jenin refugee camp were destroyed in the fighting, whether by terrorist
bombs that were exploded in efforts to kill Israeli soldiers, or by tanks
and troops. The residents who did not flee are without regular supplies
of food, water and medicines. ......
For all the controversy aroused
by his observations on religion, Atal Bihari Vajpayee has got away with
one particularly clever falsehood. While releasing a book by K.R. Malkani,
Vajpayee sought to give respectability to the term ‘Hindutva’ by ascribing
it to no less a person than Swami Vivekananda. Vajpayee’s critics failed
to notice that there was no way Vivekananda could have ever talked of Hindutva
because the term was coined a good 20 years after his death by Hindu Mahasabha
leader Veer Savarkar. ......
On Pakistan's western border, the
US-led coalition is still engaged in its war against terrorism. US Special
Forces, intelligence operatives and FBI agents are scouring the caves and
mountains of Afghanistan for members of Al-Qaeda. They have been promised,
and are dependent upon, Pakistani support in their effort. ......
On may 14, 1970 initiating a discussion
on the Bhiwandi riots in Maharashtra, Atal Bihari Vajpayee delivered a
speech that could well be a replication of what Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi is professing today. He cited a Home Ministry report that
blamed Muslims for starting 23 of the 24 riots between 1968 and 1970. ......
Flies are landing on Abdul Khaliq
Siddiqi's body. But the secretary- general of Sipah-e-Sahaba--one of the
deadliest terror groups in Pakistan--is very much alive and doesn't notice.
"We were worried about the World Trade Center families that were destroyed,"
Siddiqi says, sitting in a circle with fellow militants, cross-legged and
sipping black tea, at the group's office in Quetta. "But after the U.S.
attacked Afghanistan, it is our commitment that they are great men who
destroyed the World Trade Center." ......
Indian women are being smuggled
and sold in Pakistan, says an Amnesty International report. Pakistan is
also becoming a destination for women being trafficked from Nepal, Bangladesh
and Afghanistan, Amnesty says in its report Pakistan: Insufficient Protection
of Women. ......
Looking back on the incidents of
last month, two contrasting images stand out in my mind. First, Arundhati
Roy smilingly accepting flowers after spending 24 hours in Tihar Jail in
a contempt case. Second, innumerable armed policemen stalking the streets
of Ayodhya to ensure the VHP's compliance with the Supreme Court order.
......
Controversial Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasreen, who faces a death threat for allegedly blaspheming Islam,
is to approach the Indian government for permanent residency. ......
So, at last, General Musharraf
has spoken. His televised address was intended as much for a domestic as
for an international - specifically American - audience. It calls for analysis.
Most of his one-hour address was aimed at his fellow countrymen. He recalled
the words of Pakistan's founder, Mohamad Ali Jinnah and of the poet Iqbal.
Pakistan, he said, would not be a theocratic state; he did not mention
one of his presidential predecessors by name, but it was President Zia
who had set the country on he road towards it, and one can admire Musharraf
for his current zeal to make Pakistan a progressive, modern and dynamic
nation. ......
The Bombay High Court has ordered
a teacher to tender unconditional apology to her colleagues for calling
them 'kafir,' and held that there was no place in a secular country for
such expressions. ......
Recently, the Jammu and Kashmir
police arrested JKLF Chairman and senior Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik under
POTO at Srinagar while he was addressing a press conference denying his
involvement with two persons arrested earlier for possessing $ 1 lakh.
Malik's detention followed the arrest of a JKLF conduit Begum Shazia, who
was caught bringing the amount from Nepal, supposedly for a Hurriyat leader.
......
Khalistani terrorist organisations
are "desperate" to undertake "some sensational terrorist action" in India
under constant pressure from Pakistan's ISI and revive terrorism in Punjab,
the government has told a parliamentary committee whose report was tabled
in the Lok Sabha today. ......
Since the Gujarat riots, it looks
as if a battle between two radically different Indias is happening right
now, under our own eyes; and the outcome of this battle will decide what
kind of India we will have in the 21st century. India's human rights groups,
many of India's finest intellectuals, the communists, the Congress, many
politicians - in fact a major chunk of India's elite population - assert
in the strongest terms that on one side you find an India which is communal,
mistreats, or even kills minorities ......
The special teams of the Coimbatore
Rural Police have arrested Nazar (25) of Karumbukkadai last evening in
connection with the murder of the RSS activist, Murugesan. ......
Six-year-old Rupa Shaw cannot get
used to the idea of living in such a big, clean and "white" house. That
too, with an attached toilet and bath. ......
In the wake of the arrest of four
persons in connection with the March 28 murder of Murugesan amid the revelation
that they are members of a secret service agency _ Truth Voice _ of the
Al-Umma, the Intelligence wing of the police has tightened its vigil. ......
On April 8, the Supreme Court dismissed
as 'frivolous' a PIL seeking a court directive to bar Muslims from offering
prayers in places other than mosques. The SC slapped a fine of Rs 10,000
on the petitioner. The court said: "People like you (the petitioner) are
causing bloodshed in the country." Varanasi-based businessman petitioner
Arun Kumar Jaiswal had filed the PIL to redress the inconvenience caused
to people from other communities due to namaz being offered in public places.
He ended up paying Rs 10,000 and earning an insult. ......
Pakistan's military regime has
decided to hold a referendum on Pervez Musharraf’s continuation as President
for another five years by mid April, a senior official has said. ......
Indeed,it appears that you are
quite upset, even angry (Outraged?). Moreover, every few years you seem
to become upset by us. Today, it is the 'brutal repression' of the Palestinians;
yesterday it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear
reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War and the Sinai campaign. It appears
that Jews who triumph and who, therefore,live,upset you most extraordinarily.
......
A land as sterile as Rajasthan
has had much to thank its people-with their flaming ghaghras and safas
they provide colour where none exists. It is, however, no longer the only
purpose that clothes serve here. In a country fast cleaving on religious
lines, garments have come to symbolise the growing Hindu-Muslim divide
in the state's border districts of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner. ......
Vaishnodevi? No problem," says
a porter at Jammu airport to a group of foreign tourists who look rather
lost. Somehow, this deja vu reassurance encapsulates the experience. Vaishnodevi
has now become more like a "no problem" pilgrimage. ......
It's a legacy so violently thrust
on Gujarat, a chronicle so smeared with communal gore that the sheafs of
conflict must need be rifled several times over before the tragedy is unravelled.
For, among the overwhelming figures of death and destruction unleashed
by riots lurk patterns freshly formed, areas newly covered by hate, unsavoury
precedents set. For the first time in the state, and in India, the demography
of riots has altered, moving from urban to a rural spread, bringing the
tribals in its fold. ......
For once the prime minister was
wrong. Atal Bihari Vajpayee told inmates of the Shah Alam Roza refugee
camp during his visit to Ahmedabad on April 4 that with all that was happening
in Gujarat, he was troubled about how he would show his face in Singapore,
where he was headed during that weekend. ......
Tens of thousands of demonstrators,
encouraged by a message from President George W Bush, chanted and cheered
solidarity with Israel at the US Capitol on Monday, equating the military
onslaught on Palestinian militants with Bush's war on terrorism. ......
Lifted out of strife torn Afghanistan,
hundreds of Al Qaeda men have been transported to several locations across
the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) to be eventually
inducted into Jammu and Kashmir. Field Intelligence Units (FIUs) on this
side of the Indo-Pakistan border have inputs, which put the number of J&K-bound
Al Qaeda guerrillas at around 2,000. ......
Even as the National Commission
for Minorities (NCM) is busy with the spade work for a "hopeful'' series
of talks between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Muslim community
leaders "for bringing about better understanding and amity between the
two communities'', the response from some of the leaders on the latter
side is lukewarm and wary. ......
Following the Godhra and the Gujarat
explosion, novelist Arundhati Roy observed: "It must be terrifying to be
a Muslim in this country today." This grim truth was brought home to me
during a recent tour of North India. I was struck by the extraordinary
hostility towards Muslims displayed by Hindus at all levels-from villages
to posh country clubs and universities. ......
India has emerged a the top nation
among 29 surveyed countries with more of its citizens taking up entrepreneurial
activity to make a living, giving a fillip to national economic growth.
......
Have communal feelings managed
to penetrate the bhadralok psyche, the last bastion of secularism, that
has fed on Ray and Marx, Gandhi and Netaji? ......
Children swimming in the Thakee
River erupt in giggles when the first few converts, dunked beneath the
surface, emerge with water sputtering from their noses. ......
Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas) takes
its religion seriously. For years, Malaysia's key opposition party has
tried to pass various Islamic laws, including one prescribing the death
penalty for Muslims who leave the faith. Now it appears the government
is taking a leaf out of Pas's books. Earlier this year, one of the states
passed a law providing for apostates to be detained for "rehabilitation"
for up to a year. ......
Senior militant commanders based
in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have directed militants fighting in
the Kashmir valley not to own responsibility for their actions, according
to a defence spokesman. ......
The international general secretary
of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Praveen Bhai Togadia, today alleged that
the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, was `playing the role of Mohamad
Ali Jinnah' by creating a fear psychosis among the minorities and subjugating
the Hindus. ......
The Allahabad High Court on Monday
dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed against detention order under
the National Security Act of a person who was arrested on charges of cow
slaughter in violation of the law in Uttar Pradesh and said Muslims should
respect the sentiments of Hindus. ......
Reading the British press last
week, watching the BBC and listening to European politicians reminded one
of those lines by TS Eliot: "The rats are underneath the piles / The jew
is underneath the lot." What other explanation for the malevolent reporting
of Israel's attempt to root out terrorists on the West Bank? ......
The divergence between the two
main political parties appears to be much more than the physical distance
between Goa and Guwahati where their leadership will deliberate on how
to manage the future of a billion people. ......
The three monotheistic religions
are in bitter conflict. Jasper Griffin wonders whether the ancients were
not wiser with their polytheism Ten years ago, Soviet communism collapsed.
The familiar Cold War came to an end. The West might have hoped that the
world would no longer contain a powerful and implacable enemy. But Nature,
once again, showed that she abhors a vacuum; and into the gap left by the
end of secular ideology stepped the struggle between religions. ......
The Vigyan Bhavan premises are
host to the Justice Venkataswami Commission inquiring into the issues arising
out of the Tehelka Tapes and the Justice Nanavati Commission seeking the
truth about what happened to Sikhs in October 1984 following Indira Gandhi's
assassination. ......
As the tide of passion, soul searching
and recrimination over Gujarat ebbs, it is becoming possible to look for
answers to the question tormenting all Indians since March 1. "What went
so horribly wrong in Gujarat that 750 people had to die (in addition to
those killed at Godhra) and over 1,00,000 had to be rendered homeless and
destitute?" All of us know that the security of the Indian state in future
years—in short the safety of our children—depends upon our finding the
answer. But till just a short time ago, most of us had despaired of finding
one. ......
Hussain was to be presented with
the award tomorrow at a function to be held in the City Palace here but
he informed the Foundation yesterday that he would not be able to attend
the function ‘‘ due to unavoidable circumstances’’. ......
As political parties vie with each
other in expressing concern over the plight of communal violence victims
in Gujarat, Kashmiri Pandits today criticised the political spectrum for
"maintaining a deafening silence" over the "sufferings" faced by a populace
of more than 3.5 lakh after their migration due to militancy in 1990. ......
I believe that a vast majority
of the members of the largest minority community in the country, mind you,
larger than the population of Pakistan use secularism only as a mask to
hide their jehadi mindset. They pay lip service to secularism because it
affords them a special status denied to the majority community. They
are secular because it helps them co-opt in their sectarian project the
support of the self-deludingly liberal and open-minded Hindus. ......
'The whole world is demanding that
Israel withdraws," said Kofi Annan in Madrid last week, standing alongside
various panjandrums from the EU, UN, US and Russia. "I don't think the
whole world, including the friends of the Israeli people and government,
can be wrong." ......
Memorial Health University Medical
Center has ambitious goals for itself, and executives here hope Deepak
Chopra can help achieve them. In a bid to become a regional leader in health
care by combining traditional and alternative medicine, the hospital has
joined with Dr. Chopra, the best-selling author and holistic health guru,
to create a center where patients and Savannah residents can come for yoga,
meditation or a treatment called Shirodhara in which warm herbalized sesame
oil is dripped languorously onto their foreheads. ......
As we began our journey as an independent
nation we were told that our polity would be based on three pillars. First,
that it would be classless. Next, that it would be casteless. Third, that
it would be secular. ......
Peace-loving citizens of Kalyan
received their first jolt when a mob looted and set ablaze houses and shops
in Rohidas Wada on Tuesday. Yesterday, there were more incidents of attacks
and arson ......
Have communal feelings managed
to penetrate the bhadralok psyche, the last bastion of secularism, that
has fed on Ray and Marx, Gandhi and Netaji? ......
It is not just this column that
has been charging the English language media and the electronic media with
irresponsible coverage of the Gujarat riots. On April 3, Press Council
chairman Justice K. Jayachandra Reddy found it necessary to issue a strong
statement in this regard which, interestingly enough, about all the English
language newspapers only The Asian Age cared to publish. The electronic
media, of course, ignored the statement altogether. ......
A Sub-Inspector attached to the
Nehru Nagar Police Station was attacked with a cricket stump yesterday
afternoon, allegedly by a man brought in for questioning in connection
with his sister-in-law's suicide. ......
Following Ayodhya and the killings
in Godhra, Ahmedabad and Gujarat in general, a question is now being asked:
Is secularism dead? The implication is that it is the BJP, the VHP, the
RSS and the Sangh Parivar in general who are guilty of murder. And the
further implication is that the practice of 'secularism' and the leadership
in doing so devolves only on Hindus and that the minorities are exempt
from the rule. ......
To expand ties with Asian countries,
United States must no longer put India on par with Pakistan and instead
should consider it as a rising power like China, a leading US-based think-tank
has said. ......
"All Hindu doctors are warned that
they are not safe practising in Muslim-dominated areas. They are thus requested
to stop practising in such areas and also in minority trust-run hospitals
with immediate effect". This message issued by the Ahmedabad Doctors' Forum,
which has about 100 active members in the city, came as a direct fallout
of the attack on Dr Amit Mehta, who was repeatedly stabbed in his clinic
in Juhapura on Tuesday. ......
Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican
secretary for relations with states, is following events in the Holy Land
closely, especially the crisis in Bethlehem. He is in constant touch with
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio in Israel. ......
The day marked the inauguration
of his "cherished dream project" - Vivekananda International School at
the school campus, Ramakrishna Palli in Jahlaka village. ......
In international relations, as
in human relations a payback time occurs when one of the parties helping
the other all along, itself needs support and understanding. In terms of
India-Israel relations, it is payback time now for India. Israel today
is under severe attack by a succession of suicide bombings resulting in
the loss and wounding of hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians lives.
These suicide attacks against Israel have been launched by Palestinian
terrorist organisations and other Islamic Jehadi organisations, mostly
operating from Palestinian areas. ......
The divide between Africa and the
West never seemed wider than after Zimbabwe's recent election. As Western
governments condemned President Robert Mugabe, African presidents - all
except one - rallied behind him or greeted his stolen victory with silence.
......
As the U.S. war on terrorism inches
us into closer alliances with regimes we might otherwise hold at arm's
length, we can't fall into the Cold War trap of allowing national interests
to impugn our national character. ......
Bandar bin Sultan is Saudi Arabia's
ambassador to the United States. He has been in Washington a long time,
in the country an even longer time, and part of that time a friend of mine.
It pains me, then, to tell him that he is, with all due respect, full of
it. ......
Heavily armed militants shot dead
seven Hindus, including two women and their daughters, and lobbed grenades
on some houses in a village in Udhampur district on Sunday night after
a fierce gunbattle with the members of the village defence committee (VDC),
official sources said here on Monday. The militants swooped on Dandli village
around 2100 hours and engaged the VDC members for nearly six hours. ......
The Annual Holi celebrations at
Sparkhill Park in Birmingham on 28th March were once again marred by disturbances
as groups of youths - said to be Pakistani Muslims - clashed with Hindu
worshippers. ......
Six children who were allegedly
injected with harmful germs during a car festival at Asodu village near
here on March 30 are healthy. They have not contacted any disease, a press
release from the health and family welfare department said. ......
A people who have traditionally
been strangers to the idea of religious persecution are now at the end
of their tether, unable to control their passions and end the spiral of
violence in Gujarat. In the face of an extremely adverse national and international
media, respectable Hindus are seeking to protect their personal images
by expressing shame or anger at the continuing bloodshed. Certainly the
killings are reprehensible, and must stop. ......
Behind an unmarked wall in the
heart of Jeddah's electronics market, Mohammed Younis surveys the rows
of small marble plaques covering infidel graves. "Here, it's nothing --
just baby, baby, baby," says Mr. Younis, the guardian of the only proper
cemetery for non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia, the world's most rigorously Islamic
state. ......
Her confidence belies the fact
that Komal lost her parents just a month ago. Her desire to get on with
life seems all the more unbelievable when one is told that she also lost
two of her sisters, along with her parents, to the same tragedy. ......
Filing communally-sensitive frivolous
petitions might attract the ire of the courts and imposition of fine as
a Varanasi-based business found out today in the Supreme Court. ......
Pakistan's ISI has entrusted the
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) with the task of reviving militancy in Punjab,
an Indian intelligence report says. According to the ISI plan, the Lashkar
will impart arms training to pro-Khalistani outfits like the Babbar Khalsa
International (BKI), the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) and
the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF). ......
A top leader of Hamas, the militant
organisation of Palestine responsible for the recent series of suicide
bombing attacks in Israel, was believed to have visited Hyderabad and Lucknow
in December last to participate in some "religious seminars". ......
Terrorist mastermind Osama Bin
Laden managed to escape hours before a joint team of FBI and Pakistan commandos
raided an al-Qaeda hideout in Faisalabad in Punjab province on March 28,
which resulted in the capture of his lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, a media report
said Monday. ......
A clash between people of two communities,
which killed two and left over a dozen injured on Sunday, led to tension
in Ishaqpur village of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh. ......
Rejecting as "mischievous" a petition
seeking to restrain Muslims from offering 'Namaz' at places other than
specified, the Supreme Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the
petitioner saying persons like him were causing bloodshed in the country.
......
Of late, an influential section
of the media has become less nationalistic. The coverage betrays symptoms
of a post-nationalist era; sometimes it ignores national interest, even
harms it. Also the media nowadays is far less ethical in comparison to
the media a decade back. This can be largely blamed on the commercial character
that the media has acquired. For a company what matters is profits; for
journalists what matters is the pay packet. Competition, speed, and deadline
have contributed a lot to the breakdown of the time-tested value system
of journalism. ......
For the first time in its 77-year
history, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will enter into a dialogue
with representatives of India's Muslim community. ......
A section of Non-Resident Indians
in the United Kingdom are up in arms against the use of the image of Lord
Ganesha in an advertisement for beers. ......
All temples in the State, which
do not have sufficient resources even for one puja a day, will be
covered under the `Oru kala puja scheme' in one year, the Chief Minister,
Jayalalithaa, told the Assembly today. ......
There is nothing new in the proposal
to create an educational system and a cultural environment that will be
given an authentically Indian character by being purged of foreign elements
and other impurities. What is new is the determination of the party in
power and the government in New Delhi to promote such a project. Xenophobia
existed in the past, but it was not officially encouraged. Today there
are cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and highly placed educationists
who are prepared to give it their open support. ......
In a judgment affecting lakhs of
Bangladeshi migrants and other foreign nationals staying in India, the
Supreme Court has ruled that "long stay in the country and enrolment in
the voters' list would not confer any right to an alien to continue to
stay in the country". ......
There are indications that to avoid
detection of their presence in Pakistani territory by the US intelligence
agencies and possible cross border (Pakistan-Afghan border) punitive strikes
by the US forces operating in Afghanistan, the Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) of Pakistan has started shifting important elements of the Al Qaeda,
including surviving leaders of its brains trust, to Pakistani Punjab and
the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), including the Northern Areas (Gilgit
and Baltistan). ......
The inordinate delay of the ill-fated
Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express on February 27 inadvertently saved the
lives of hundreds of passengers. The original plan of the conspirators
was to burn down the entire train at Chanchlav station, 12 kms from Godhra
and trigger communal riots throughout the country in a bid to obstruct
the Ramshila puja in Ayodhya. ......
Two persons were shot dead and
seven houses set ablaze in a clash between members of the minority community
and Dalits at Ishaqpur village under the Bardah police station of Azamgarh
district on Sunday. ......
About 4,000 militants in Pakistan
and Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) are waiting for the snow to melt on
the mountain passes along the Line of Control (LoC) to cross over to Kashmir
for stepping up violence during the coming Assembly elections, a senior
police official said on Saturday. ......
Fundamentalism is being redefined
in India's north-east region. Just see what's happening in Nagaland or
in Upper Assam. Militancy here is divided purely on communal lines. Flouting
all secular norms, the NSCN (Khaplang) group has made a public appeal to
Nagas to maintain "strict vigil on the Muslim community" in the State.
......
Kerala is a unique state. Muslim
League is still a powerful factor there. It is not in existence anywhere
in India so that Banatwala has to fight election from Kerala and not Mumbai.
Not in Bangladesh and in Pakistan only namesake. Pt Nehru had declared
that League in Kerala is different and to bring the Communist rule, Congress
certified Muslim as Secular and gave it a honourable pedestal in politics..
But the Communists also declare it as Secular. Because, one faction of
league follows them while the other follows Congress. ......
The authorities in Godhra must
have been suffering from delirium when they made an unsavoury statement
that those who roasted alive 58 kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express were
"uneducated, without jobs, and poor. Many of them are devoid of any sense
of scruples. Most of them ( Ghanchi Muslims) live in poverty and have no
economic activity". ......
Former President Mr Nelson Mandela
today chastised a South African woman for being "arrogant" when she said
the Indian community in the country had created a "little Israel" for itself.
Mr Mandela was answering calls from listeners on a talk show on the national
radio when one of them sought his views on "the Indian community which
has established itself as a little Israel" in South Africa. ......
The higher education sector in
the State has suffered from an overdose of politicisation even as the universities
are in the grip of financial and academic mismanagement, according to a
study conducted by the Bharatiya Vichara Kendram. ......
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, April
5: Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces are offering 100,000 Dollar bounties for
the capture of coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, a US military spokesman
said on Friday. ......
With synagogues ablaze in France,
firebombs defacing Jewish property in Belgium, and Orthodox Jews under
attack on Berlin streets, Europeans have been given notice that the raging
West Asia violence threatens their peace and security. ......
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has
informed the Government that subversive foreign outfits have plans to pose
the 'gravest' threat to India's internal security. ......
Pakistan’s-Inter-Services- Intelligence
(ISI) is plotting to cause explosions in big cities like Amritsar, Ludhiana,
Chandigarh and Delhi and targeting of VVIPs with the help of nearly 200
Sikh youths it trained in Pakistan last year. ......
POTO (Prevention of terrorism ordinance)
is now POTA (an Act) and the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani has advised
all the states to use this law for combating terrorism. ......
Terrorist activity in India is
not new. In fact, it was intensified in Punjab in the 80s and magnified
in its intensity in the 90s in Jammu & Kashmir; the former came under
control while the latter continues unabated. The Government of India promulgated
"TADA" (Terrorist and Disruption Activities Act) 1987. This continued for
some years but was allowed to lapse on account of pressure from National
Human Rights Commission in spite of the Supreme Court holding it legal.
......
It is repeatedly stressed by Pakistani
leaders that Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of Partition. A popular perception
in that country is that, being a Muslim-dominated area, the Valley should
naturally have been integrated with Pakistan - just as the 565 princely
states were integrated into the Indian dominion. The Nawab of Junagadh,
advised by Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, acceded to Pakistan despite its population
being predominantly Hindu. India, however, did not allow the Nawab's action
to endure even for four weeks because of the religion of most of the people
as well as the lack of Junagadh's geographical contiguity with Pakistan.
......
When a group of former Taliban
officials decided to rerevive an Afghan political party, they held a news
conference in Islamabad on 12 December. Their choice of a venue for the
December announcement highlighted the presence of many ex-Taliban leaders
who not only had sought refuge in Pakistan but also intended to resume
political activities. ......
On 15 May, 1974 three Palestine
Liberation Organisation gunmen crossed a border fence in Maalot, Israel
and fired at a van carrying workers from a tobacco factory. They entered
a school, shot dead the housekeeper, his wife and their child. ......
If recent reports in the western
media are any guide, General Pervez Musharraf’s honeymoon as a western
ally is gradually coming to an end. Soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington, Pakistan’s military ruler was hailed
as one of the most significant members of the US-led coalition against
terrorism. ......
The Coimbatore South Taluk Saha
Karyavah Sri Murugesan was murdered by Muslim militants on March, 28th
on his way to his photocopier shop after prayers at Badrakaliamman temple.
The gang consisting of six members brutally attacked him and his body was
lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab injuries. The gang which
came on two motorcycles and a scooter split into two groups. While
two of them kept the two wheeler ready on the main road, the others stabbed
Murugesan. Murugesan has worked as Pracharak from 1992 to 1997 for
5 years. ......
Federal Law Enforcement has kicked
over quite an anthill in Northern Virginia. A U.S. Treasury task force,
Operation Green Quest, has been investigating the funding of Islamic terror.
Raids on March 20 struck an extraordinary array of financial, charitable,
and ostensibly religious entities identified with Muslim and Arab concerns
in this country, most of them headquartered in Northern Virginia. ......
To me, writing for film is no different
to writing for any other form. It is the telling of stories, only on celluloid.
However, you are writing for a director and then for actors. Economy is
usually the point; one objective of film-writing is to make it as quick
and light as possible. You can't put in whatever you fancy in the hope
that a leisured reader might follow you for a while, as you might in a
novel. In that sense, films are more like short stories. The restrictions
of the form are almost poetic, though most poems are not read aloud in
cineplexes. Film is a broad art, which is its virtue. ......
The authorities in Godhra must
have been suffering from delirium when they made an unsavoury statement
that those who roasted alive 58 kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express were
"uneducated, without jobs, and poor. Many of them are devoid of any sense
of scruples. Most of them ( Ghanchi Muslims) live in poverty and have no
economic activity". ......
Because of my wife's nationality,
I have had the opportunity to socialize amongst Indians and be a part of
many of their social functions. My wife's Indian circle includes friends
that are Hindus, Christians and Parsis. We also socialize in the Pakistani
circle where I have quite a few friends and acquaintances. I have noticed
stark differences in the mentality, attitude and overall thinking of the
people of these two countries. ......
His mediatory efforts in the Ayodhya
dispute seem to have been stalled. But Kanchi Shankaracharya sri
Jayendra Saraswathi appears confident of pulling it off, in the not too
distant future. It's wrong to say my mission has failed. It has not been
called off either. The kind of feedback I'm getting from both sides makes
me hopeful. The talks are still on, behind the scenes. I'm not in a position
to reveal the details though. Sooner than later, we should be able to clinch
a deal," he asserted in the course of a 40-minute interview here. ......
For all the efforts of our contemporary
theorists to harness and sometimes refashion history, the facts of the
past belong to no one -- and won't go away. Those who conjure it up often
discover to their dismay that they themselves are subject to its brutal
laws of truth. The Palestinians are fast learning of history's ironies
and unintended reminders, as they seek to invoke the past to convince Americans
of the righteousness of their present plight. ......
Sumit Ganguly has written on nuclear
issues, regional security, world politics and ethnic conflict. And the
professor of Asian Studies and Government at the University of Texas at
Austin has published yet another interesting book, Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan
Tension Since 1947. ......
Cutting across the party affiliations,
the legislators in the Assembly today demanded that Indus Water Treaty
should be scrapped immediately as it was causing Rs 6500 crore worth losses
to Jammu and Kashmir annually. Even Congress (I) MLA Ashok Sharma, whose
party was in Government at both Centre and State when the Treaty was signed
in 1960, also supported its scrapping. ......
According to a "Top Secret" report
of an Indian security agency made available to "The Tribune" today, to
avoid exposure to their continued support to Sikh militants, Pakistan is
using Kashmiri separatist outfits as a front for handling Sikh militants
and creating a nexus between the two. Details of Pakistan's plans to revive
militancy in Punjab are being published for the first time by "The Tribune".
......
Pakistan's terror merchants exported
hundreds of their fellow citizens into Afghanistan to try and save the
Taliban regime from US attack. One kind of terrorist was held back. This
was the jihadi born in India. Not one of the Pakistani prisoners interviewed
by the Hindustan Times in a jail here in northern Afghanistan, near Mazar-i-Sharif,
recalled meeting an Indian Kashmiri jihadi in Afghanistan. ......
One question that keeps haunting
concerning the riots in Ahmedabad in particular and in Gujarat in general
is the role of the Congress as of all. Opposition parties and the indifference,
if not total cowardice, they showed during all those grim hours of wanton
killing. Many questions remain unanswered. What, for example, is the nature
of the Muslim psyche in Godhra? Since independence there have been at least
four major communal riots in this town; it is believed to be a strong Islamic
centre. It has a centre for Islamic studies the funding of which remains
a mystery. ......
For the past six months I have
been living in Ahmedabad, one of a handful of foreigners in the city. While
I hold an American passport I am connected to India by my parents, my colour,
my name and my affection for it. Back home I am a 'hyphenated American',
someone who lives between two communities, in my case Indian and American,
but never completely belonging to either. ......
A report in the Indian press suggests
New Delhi may have decided to open dialogue with Pakistan. According
to the report, Indian prime minister, A B Vajpayee has asked his pointman
on Kashmir, K C Pant, to informally explore ways to resume a bilateral
dialogue with Pakistan. Mr Pant will be in Pakistan on April 7 for a 3-day
South Asian ministerial meeting on poverty. His visit will come shortly
after a trip to Occupied Kashmir by Mr Vajpayee where the Indian prime
minister plans to announce an impressive peace package. ......
A few months ago it won the battle
with Oxford University Press for the manuscripts of the two controversial
volumes of the "Towards Freedom" series. But now it has lost some data
stored in the three diskettes that made up for the volume edited by Prof.
KN Panikkar. As for the other, officials have counted over 160 pages missing
in the volume edited by Prof Sumit Sarkar. ......
Five years ago, under intense American
pressure, Switzerland's banks paid up US $1.25 billion by way of restitution.
The charge was that they had collectively profited from Nazi war crimes.
Since then, a commission of inquiry has turned up further proof that the
fabled Swiss doctrine of neutrality had more holes than a slice of Swiss
cheese. Switzerland's businessmen, it seems, eagerly sought out Nazi war
contracts even if it meant endangering their own nation. ......
When the Shankaracharya of Kanchi,
offered a formula for resolving the Ayodhya tangle, all were anxious to
know the decision of Muslim organisations. However, even when the formula
was not yet formally proposed, discordant voices from Muslim political
elites could be heard questioning the authority of All India Muslim Personal
Law Board (AIMPLB) as a party to the dispute. ......
The mission: a diplomatic foray
(by Japan) to gauge the status of members of the minority community of
one country (Bangladesh) now seeking refuge in another country (India).
......
We have all become used to little
homilies on how India should learn from China. See how the Chinese have
converted their land into a virtual paradise for their workers, they tell
us. See how cleverly they have orchestrated the greatest economic buildup
ever seen by man, we hear. Look at the shiny new skyscrapers in Shanghai,
we are told. In the wake of Jaswant Singh's trip to China, the hosannas
from the usual suspects are practically deafening. ......
Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM), is the closest thing that Pakistan's Terror Inc has to a brand ambassador.
Azhar's name cropped up everywhere when the Hindustan Times conducted interviews
at a jail near here, home to some 800 Pakistani jehadis. New Delhi has
asked Islamabad, with little success, to hand Azhar over for his role in
terrorist attacks on the J&K Assembly and Parliament buildings. A Delhi
court declared him a proclaimed offender on Monday. ......
There is simmering discontent in
the Muslim community over the recent passage of the A.P. Compulsory Registration
of Marriage Bill, 2002, by the State Assembly. The community is outraged
at what is being dubbed "gross interference'' with the Muslim Personal
Law. ......
Two top Muslim leaders of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) are feeling the heat of the Gujarat riots. Civil Aviation
Minister Sayyed Shahnawaz Hussain and former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi have been receiving threatening calls from radical outfits. The duo
have lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs. ......
Though Arun Shourie and a couple
of others did make some noises of protest, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad brigade
still seems shell-shocked by the Supreme Court's interim order last month
refusing permission for shila daan puja anywhere on the 67.703 acres of
land vested in the central government by the Acquisition of Certain Area
at Ayodhya Act, 1993, and also refusing to accede to the brigade's demand
that part of that acquired land be returned to it. ......
Along this desolate frontier said
to be teeming with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, the border with Pakistan
seems as elusive as the fugitives themselves. ......
According to authorities, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
militant outfit has asked its cadres to deny any involvement in the recent
attack on the Raghunath temple in Jammu. ......
Pakistan's main religious parties
said on Tuesday they would launch a country-wide campaign to protest President
Pervez Musharraf's move to hold a referendum to extend his presidency.
......
Indefinite curfew was clamped in
Anjar Taluka town of Kutch district on Tuesday following escalation of
tension even as the situation was tense in Khanpur locality of the city
after Monday night's communal violence. ......
Recently, Texas based Daystar Television
Network, http://www.daystartv.net/contact.html with nationwide broadcast,
aired an episode featuring an Indian Christian with his White "trainer."
They both proceeded to slander Hindus and the Sangh in particular. They
claimed that Staines was murdered by Hindu fanatics but his death backfired
and caused millions of Indians to turn to Jesus. They said that Hinduism
teaches Dalits and others that God does not love them and that they are
unworthy of worshiping God. The Indian Christian was the most venomous
and said that the 300,000,000 dalits must convert to Christianity and thus
become a massive power and right the wrongs of the Hindu tyrants. ......
A Revolution Is Taking Place in
Bangladesh that threatens trouble for the region and beyond if left unchallenged.
Islamic fundamentalism, religious intolerance, militant Muslim groups with
links to international terrorist groups, a powerful military with ties
to the militants, the mushrooming of Islamic schools churning out radical
students, middle-class apathy, poverty and lawlessness--all are combining
to transform the nation. ......
An Additional Sessions Judge at
a city court has asked the Delhi Police to investigate an anonymous letter
from Tihar inmates alleging perpetration of criminal and terrorist activities
by an NGO inside the jail. The letter, forwarded by the Tihar inmates to
the court recently, accuses a female social worker of subversive activities.
......
Mr Jyoti Basu has been named as
a fundamentalist Hindu in the official documents of the recently banned
Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which the CBI had seized recently
from Kolkata. ......
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf
has said his Government withstood the pressure from the United States to
hand over 20 terrorists to India and Omar Sheikh, prime accused in the
murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, to Washington. ......
Police have launched a hunt for
a ‘local contact’ of two fidayeens, who yesterday struck at Ragunath temple
killing five civilians and three cops. Certain clues gathered by Jammu
Police during investigations in the first-ever suicide attack in the City
confirmed the involvement of a ‘local person’ in assisting the fidayeens
to execute their task. ......
Pakistani ISI's blue-eyed boy,
Syed Salahuddin, has ordered the dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen cadre
in Kashmir to join hands with like-minded groups to prevent "all freedom-loving
people" from participating in the Assembly elections due in September-October
next. ......
Mixing religion with an initiative
to revive dying art forms. That's what temple authorities at the Dol Gobindo
mandir near here did on Saturday on the occasion of Holi. ......
Do the so-called Indian secularists
and political parties ignore Hindu causes and play up minority issues?
Put another way, has the English-speaking chatterati ignored minority communalism
and highlighted majority communalism, an outcome of the old Nehruvian construct
which makes the fundamentalism of majorities more dangerous than that of
the minorities? The question therefore is whether secularists are guilty
of ignoring minority communalism to the extent that they have actually
provided the ruse for the majority to claim that minorities have been pampered.
......
The Pondicherry government has
ordered an inquiry into alleged forced conversions of prisoners into Christianity,
after six prisoners formally lodged a complaint with the state government.
......
On Saturday, March 30, suicide
terrorists attacked a 150-year old famous Hindu temple in the state of
Jammu and Kashmir, India. Ten people were brutally slain in a senseless
attack on innocent worshippers. Local law enforcement officers have
implicated the Pakistan-based Islamic terrorist group, Laskhar-e-Toiba,
which is already being targeted by the U.S. for previous, similar acts
of brutality. In the month of March alone, Islamic terrorists have
also slaughtered over 40 other civilians in Kashmir. ......
If it weren't for Osama bin Laden
and the Taliban, Mohammed Sayed would have been in Kashmir fighting Indian
soldiers. Instead, he was sent to Afghanistan to kill Americans. ......
Pakistan has done enough to crush
terrorism and it is now time for New Delhi and Islamabad to hold talks
to ease their military stand-off, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf
told in a newspaper interview. ......
One of them is about the reported
grant of citizenship to terrorist-cum-don Dawood Ibrahim whose immediate
extradition India had sought a couple of months ago. The second is of the
Lahore High Court's order to release the Lashkar-e-Toiba ideologue, Professor
Hafiz Sayeed, and his directive to terror groups operating in Kashmir to
step up violence, albeit quietly. ......
