April Month Articles

• Teacher under fire fort blasphaming Hinduism, Christianity in S. Africa
• IANS News

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 ......
 
• “Foreign missions in New Delhi: undiplomatic leaks”
• Poonam I. Kaushish

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. ......
 
• Motherland over religion
• KB Malhotra

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. ......
 
• Give benefits to majority community too: UDF
• Times News Network

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. ......
 
• Where Lord Ram is preach ream and Ravana krong reap
• Arvind Padmanabhan

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. ......
 
• Shiv Sena, BJP plan morcha to demand NCP corporator’s arrest
• The Times of India

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 Killed in riots after Holi in Akola
• The Indian Express

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. ......
 
• Hindu priest killed in Bangladesh
• NDTV.com

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. ......
 
• FBI links head of Illinois-based charity to bin Laden
• Terry Frieden

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. ......
 
• Upsetting faint balance of social harmony
• Abhijit Bhattacharyya

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. ......
 
• Correspond to values
• Francois Gautier

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 Al Qaeda in Pakistan: clandestine guests or strategic trading cards?
• Subodh Atal

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. ......
 
• Jenin’s [Palestinian] War Criminals
• Jerome Marcus

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. ......
 
• Homesick Taslima gives her heart to Kolkata
• PTI

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 seeks clear definition of word ‘minority’
• PTI

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- and European complicity
• Ron Rosenbaum

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 killing was Pak sponsored: Probe panel
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Trafficked into Pakistan, women find it far from paradise
• Juliette Terzieff

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. ......
 
• Gujarat, a Political issue
• A. R. Kanangi

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. ......
 
• Alien on voters’ list cannot claim citizenship, says SC
• The Times of India

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. ......
 
• Kandhamal District Tense after Attack on Hindu Leader
• SAR News

Security was tightened in parts of Kandhamal district after a Hindu religious leader was pelted with stones, according to Indo-Asian News Service. ......
 
• America No Longer Exists
• Lawrence Auster

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. ......
 
• Heroinisation of the Pak Economy
• B.Raman

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. ......
 
• Iskcon humbles House of fraser
• Amit Roy

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”. ......
 
• Woman brutalised in ‘model’ village
• Asim Pramanik

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. ......
 
• Radical Islam vs. Academic Freedom: One Example
• Edward Alexander

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. ......
 
• Anti-Semitism Is Deepening Among Muslims
• Susan Sachs

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. ......
 
• VHP will back Mulayam if he adopts a pro-Hindu stand’
• Times News Network

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. ......
 
• Taslima wants to settle in Kolkata
• Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay

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. ......
 
• Devout Muslim is Vedic scholar, works for RSS
• Vinay Krishna Rastogi

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. ......
 
• Madarsas: Even as Pakistan controls the jehad factories, we protect them here - III
• S Gurumurthy

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. ......
 
• Skeptics Question Sincerity Of Crackdown by Musharraf
• Karl Vick

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. ......
 
• Pakistan’s Hard Line on Terror Shows Signs of Softening
• Seth Mydans

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. ......
 
• Place of worship attacked in Maharashtra town, violence follows
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• RSS rejects anti-Muslim image, calls it “mischievous propaganda”
• Myra MacDonald

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. ......
 
• Unethical craft of conversion
• Francois Gautier

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. ......
 
• Diagnosing Muslim agony
• Prafull Goradia

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. ......
 
• Unethical craft of conversion
• Francois Gautier

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. ......
 
• Israel’s Right and Left Converge
• Yoram Hazony

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. ......
 
• Madarsas: The terror factories, their anatomy, spread, funds (Part II of II)
• S Gurumurthy

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. ......
 
• Madarsas: Pious schools? Or jehad factories (Part I of II)
• S Gurumurthy

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. ......
 
• Saudi Telethon Host Calls for Enslaving Jewish Women
• National Review Online

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. ......
 
• Press, Polity, People
• Dasu Krishnamoorty

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. ......
 
• A law unto themselves
• M.V. Kamath

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. ......
 
• Desis to the fore
• Editorial

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. ......
 
• Pak. ‘sheds’ inhibition over Kargil conflict
• B. Muralidhar Reddy

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. ......
 
• Shah vetoes varsity red writ
• Sunando Sarkar

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. ......
 
• Threat calls haunt temple saviour
• Our Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Ideological Crossroads
• Najum Mushtaq

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. ......
 
• Woes abound for victims of Gordha
• Sify News

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. ......
 
• Time bomb in Bangladesh
• Editorial

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 litterateur EM Foster caught in Gujarat cross-fire!
• The Free Press Journal

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. ......
 
• Congress Party and selective amnesia
• M.V. Kamath

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. ......
 
• On Dutch NGOs
• Hindu Vivek Kendra

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 ......
 
• Homelands in Pakistan
• Claude Arpi

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. ......
 
• All they are teaching gives peace no chance
• SF Gate

Six days a week, kindergarten teacher Samira Ali El Hassain tells her class of 30 5-year-old boys and girls what makes the world go round. ......
 
• Secularism in the Context of the Two-Nation Theory:
• South Asian Voice

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. ......
 
• Muslims mis-led by ‘benefactors’
• CP Chinda

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. ......
 
• US to raid Pak tribal areas
• The Hindustan Times

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. ......
 
• VHP knocks at NCM doors for Jammu Hindus
• Tribune News Service

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. ......
 
• No to forced wedlock
• Vijay Dutt

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. ......
 
• Charity? Not at Home
• The Sentinel

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. ......
 
• Will someone please answer these ‘secular’ questions?
• Dr. K.S. Shadaksharappa

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. ......
 
• Waiting for Bhagat Singh
• Priyadarsi Dutta

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. ......
 
• Murder of Prominent Buddhist Monk in Bangladesh
• 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. ......
 
• Truth in Gujarat
• Balbir K Punj

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". ......
 
• JD(S) to nominate criminal in civic polls
• Agencies

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. ......
 
• Bin Laden said to be hiding in Pakistan
• Arnaud de Borchgrave

Osama bin Laden has been hidden by many sympathizers in this dusty slum city, a gigantic labyrinth of 3.5 million people, since early December. ......
 
• Has a Muslim’s prophecy come true?
• Arvind Lavakare

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 -- ......
 
• Terror Suspect Says He Wants U.S. Destroyed
• Philip Shenon

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. ......
 
• Check up on those madrasas
• Editorial

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'. ......
 
• From teacher to PPSC chief
• HT Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Madrassas mushrooming along Pak border
• Amit Sharma

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. ......
 
• Whither  Media  Maturity
• Pradeep Jain

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. ......
 
• Centre tells Supreme Court: IM(DT) Act hampering aliens deportation
• Kalyan Barooah

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. ......
 
• Palestinian fighter describes ‘hard fight’ in Jenin
• CNN News

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. ......
 
• ‘The Hindus of Gujarat regret the violence’ (The Rediff Interview/Kaushik Mehta)
• Rediff on Net

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. ......
 
• Saudis allow expansion of Pakistan military presence
• Middle East Newsline

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. ......
 
• Madrasa Education and the Condition of Indian Muslims
• D Bandyopadhyay

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. ......
 
• ‘Who Started The Fire?’
• Atal Behari Vajpayee

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... ......
 
• Minister stage-manages protest
• Express News Service

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. ......
 
• There is no alternative
• India Today

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. ......
 
• Godhra: a strategic appraisal
• Lt. Gen. R. Narasimhan

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. ......
 
• An Exiled Scholar Of Islam - Egyptian Intellectual Tradition Destroyed By Mohammedanism
• Daniel del Castillo

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. ......
 
• Back off on Gujarat, India warns world
• Press Trust of India

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 home minister sees plot to break NDA
• Sheela Bhatt

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. ......
 
• 21 Bangladeshi nationals deported from Orissa
• Giridhar Gopal

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. ......
 
• 2 labourers beheaded in Kashmir valley
• The Tribune

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. ......
 
• ‘Bose’s achievements have been ignored’
• Agencies

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. ......
 
• CAIR: ‘Moderate’ friends of terror
• Daniel Pipes

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. ......
 
• Unmindful minders
• T V R Shenoy

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. ......
 
• Reaching out to the dark side
• I.D. Swami

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. ......
 
• Be careful which faiths you respect, Charles
• Minette Marrin

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"? ......
 
• The Return of an Ancient Hatred
• Editorial

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. ......
 
• Give a dog bad name and hang it
• Rakesh Sinha

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. ......
 
• ‘Prevent tampering with temple property’
• Our Staff Reporter

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. ......
 
• Pak. under pressure to release jehadi activists
• B. Muralidhar Reddy

The Punjab province in Pakistan is believed to have released all but 87 of the activists belonging to outlawed jehadi and religious parties. ......
 
• Put to the test, Gujarat students opt for exams
• Express News Service

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. ......
 
• Targeted doctors ask what about us as Gen fights US war against terror
• Beena Sarwar

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.' ......
 
• Ancient temple grabbed
• Staff Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Military gurus turn to yoga
• www.news.com.au

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. ......
 
• Communalists take their ‘pound of flesh’ in Hubli
• Organiser

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. ......
 
• The lesser minority
• Anup Kumar Sinha

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. ......
 
• We need to globalise wisdom too (Interview)
• T.R. Gopalakrishnan & N. Bhanutej

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. ......
 
• Historical letter to Quaid-i-Azam traced
• H. A. Hamied

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. ......
 
• Conversion by conviction
• Hinduism Today

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. ......
 
• Prisoners of faith
• Farwa Imam Ali

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. ......
 
• Muslim clerics turn the heat on Assam Govt
• HT Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Where is the proof?
• Don Patrick

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''. ......
 
• Kalimpong tense after ‘New Year’ soiree
• The Statesman

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. ......
 
• Bad PR Charge On Atal, Modi
• Kay Benedict

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. ......
 
• Baptism under fire in AP
• K Balasubrahmanyam

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 to Hand Out Holy Water
• The Associated Press

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. ......
 
• ISI move to unite ultras in the North-East
• Shankhadeep Choudhury

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. ......
 
• Are there any secularists, there? ............
• Dr R L Bhat

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. ......
 
• They should, but they will not, obey this judgment
• The Indian Express

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. ......
 
• Pamphlet urges reprisal in Gujarat
• Vinay Menon

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. ......
 
• Dalits, upper castes join hands in Gujarat mayhem
• Rathin Das

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. ......
 
• Shekhar loses his farm
• R. Venkataraman

Within two days of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar celebrating his 75th birthday, his 600-acre Bhondsi farm has been snatched from him. ......
 
• Natalie Portman Strikes Back
• Lloyd Grove with Barbara E. Martinez

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. ......
 
• Sonia Gandhi’s sour grapes
• Editorial

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. ......
 
• The Disrupters Inc.
• Editorial

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. ......
 
• The Dirty Politics Of Humanitarian Aid
• Gerald M. Steinberg

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. ......
 
• How Hindutva got judicial approval
• Manoj Mitta

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. ......
 
• Musharraf’s agenda: Me, myself and I reign
• Husain Haqqani

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. ......
 
• There is no alternative
• India Today

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. ......
 
• Kidnapped Nation
• Richard Behar

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 sold in Pakistan, says Amnesty
• IANS

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. ......
 
• Children of lesser gods
• Balbir K Punj

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. ......
 
• Taslima seeks home in India
• The Free Press Journal

Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who faces a death threat for allegedly blaspheming Islam, is to approach the Indian government for permanent residency. ......
 
• Musharraf must know that Kashmir’s future is not at all negotiable
• MV Kamath

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. ......
 
• Teacher calls colleagues ‘kafir’, sacked
• Sify.com

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. ......
 
• Free flow of funds sustains terrorism
• Dr Bhabani Dikshit

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. ......
 
• ISI bid to revive Punjab terrorism: report
• The Tribune

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. ......
 
• Hinduism is India
• Francois Gautier

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 ......
 
• One more held for RSS man murder
• Our Staff Reporter

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. ......
 
• Ramkrishna Mission’s houses for the poor
• Statesman News Service

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. ......
 
• Police tightening vigil on Truth Voice
• V.S.Palaniappan

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. ......
 
• Media in grip of pseudo-secularists
• Dina Nath Mishra

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. ......
 
• Syariah court to decide apostasy case, says judge
• www.thestar.com

The Federal Court yesterday ruled that only  the Syariah Court has the jurisdiction to hear apostasy  cases and not the civil court. ......
 
• Pak regime to hold referendum on Musharraf’s presidency by mid-April
• Muhammad Najeeb

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. ......
 
• Open letter from an Israeli to the World
• Prof. Shmuel Einav

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. ......
 
• Stress Code
• Rohit Parihar

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. ......
 
• Pilgrim’s Progress
• Shefalee Vasudev

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. ......
 
• The Adivasi Outrage
• Uday Mahurkar

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. ......
 
• Different Images
• K.P. Nayar

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. ......
 
• Bush welcomes big pro-Israel rally
• Jennifer Knoll

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. ......
 
• Search receivers pick-up messages - J&K bound Al-Qaeda men waiting across LoC
• B L Kak

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. ......
 
• Muslim bodies wary of talks with RSS
• Ignatius Pereira

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. ......
 
• Seclarists’ Time Of Reckoning
• N.S. Rajaram

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 high level of entrepreneurial activity: Survey
• Imran Quereshi

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. ......
 
• Gujarat schism scars Bengal
• Sunando Sarkar

Have communal feelings managed to penetrate the bhadralok psyche, the last bastion of secularism, that has fed on Ray and Marx, Gandhi and Netaji? ......
 
• Christianity takes hold in Cambodia
• The Holland Sentinel

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. ......
 
• A Matter of Personal Faith?
• Santha Oorjitham

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. ......
 
• Kashmir militants asked not to claim responsibility
• PTI

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. ......
 
• BJP worker hacked to death
• Our Staff Reporter

A BJP worker was hacked to death while another person injured at Irattapuzha near Chavakkad in the district early this morning. ......
 
• Sonia creating fear psychosis among minorities: Togadia
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Muslims should respect Hindu sentiments: HC
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Truth about Israeli casualties is being ignored in this war
• Barbara Amiel

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? ......
 
• Parties on test
• Editorial

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 jealousy of God
• Jasper Griffin

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. ......
 
• Remember 1984
• Jaya Jaitly

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. ......
 
• Gujarat: A Sober Diary
• Prem Shankar Jha

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. ......
 
• Another brush with saffron for Hussain
• Sukhmani Singh

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’’. ......
 
• Kashmiri Pandits flay parties for being ‘silent’ on sufferings
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Secularism is a mask Muslims wear to hide their separatist agenda
• Virendra Kapoor

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. ......
 
• This war tells us more about Europe than the Middle East
• Mark Steyn

'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." ......
 
• Alternative Medicine Is Finding Its Niche in Nation’s Hospitals
• Reed Abelson with Patricia Leigh Brown

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. ......
 
• Counterfeiting secularism will destroy it, not the VHP
• S Gurumurthy

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. ......
 
• Kalyan residents don't want to stay there anymore
• A Chalomumbai Correspondent

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 ......
 
• Gujarat schism scars Bengal
• Sunando Sarkar

Have communal feelings managed to penetrate the bhadralok psyche, the last bastion of secularism, that has fed on Ray and Marx, Gandhi and Netaji? ......
 
• Media and the riots
• M.V. Kamath

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. ......
 
• Cop battered with cricket stump in police station
• Vinod Kumar Menon

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. ......
 
• Is secularism dead? Let Hindus & Muslims come together instead of fighting
• M.V. Kamath

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. ......
 
• Put India on par with China, not with Pakistan: US think-tank
• TV Parasuram

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. ......
 
• Lost city found off Indian coast
• BBC News

Divers from India and England made the discovery based on the statements of local fishermen and the old Indian legend of the Seven Pagodas. ......
 
• Docs told to stay off minority areas
• Radha Sharma

"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. ......
 
• Holy See’s Position Vis-à-vis Palestinian-Israeli Crisis
• Zenit.org

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. ......
 
• A Platform For Young Minds
• Akash Arora

The day marked the inauguration of his "cherished dream project" - Vivekananda International School at the school campus, Ramakrishna Palli in Jahlaka village. ......
 
• India’s payback time to Israel
• Dr. Subhash Kapila

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. ......
 
• Senegalese Loner Works to Build Africa, His Way
• Norimitsu Onishi

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. ......
 
• Pakistan still has a finger in the wind
• Mervyn M. Dymally

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. ......
 
• It’s Not That Simple, Bandar
• Richard Cohen

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. ......
 
• Seven Hindus gunned down by ultras
• Agencies

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. ......
 
• Holi revellers attacked in Birmingham
• Asian Voice

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. ......
 
• Kids injected with ‘harmful germs’ safe
• D H News Service

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. ......
 
• Communal parity will aggravate crisis
• Sandhya Jain

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. ......
 
• Saudi Arabia Welcomes Foreigners To Work in Nation -- but Not to Die State’s Strict Form of Islam Blocks Burial of ‘Infidels’
• Yaroslav Trofimov

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. ......
 
• Other Godhra victims’ kin too look for help
• Sanjay Pandey

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. ......
 
• Namaz challenger pays for frivolity
• Our Legal Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Lashkar to train Khalistan militants at ISI’s behest
• Chandan Nandy

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). ......
 
• Hamas leader visited Hyderabad?
• The Hindu

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". ......
 
• Laden narrowly escaped US raid in Pak : Report
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Tension in UP village following violence
• Sharat Pradhan

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. ......
 
• SC fines petitioner opposing Namaz at public places
• PTI

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. ......
 
• Six questions to the media
• Dina Nath Mishra

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. ......
 
• RSS, Muslims set May date for talks
• Ramesh Babu

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. ......
 
• NRIs up in arms against derogatory caricature of Lord Ganesha
• Rediff on Net

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. ......
 
• One puja a day scheme for all indigent temples
• Our Special Correspondent

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. ......
 
• The open window
• Andre Beteille

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. ......
 
• Militant’s Case Casts Doubts On Pakistan’s Resolve
• Paul Watson

Authorities have allowed a Bin Laden ally to go underground, critics contend, saying a government crackdown is mostly tough talk. ......
 
• SC blow to migrant citizenship demand
• R. Venkataraman

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". ......
 
• Al Qaeda’s Shadows On India & S.E. Asia
• B.Raman

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). ......
 
• Plan was to torch entire train
• R K Misra

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 shot dead in Azamgarh clash
• Times News Network

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. ......
 
• 4,000 militants ready to cross over to J-K
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• Naga fatwa against Muslims
• Deepak Sharma

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. ......
 
• New awakening in Kerala
• M. G. Vaidya

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. ......
 
• Godhra mayhem is clearly Pak’s creation
• J N Raina

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". ......
 
• Mandela chides woman over remark on Indians
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• ‘Higher education sector politicised’
• Our Staff Reporter

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. ......
 
• $50,000 for a dead coalition soldier: Al-Qaeda
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• Jews under attack, conflict threatens to spill into Europe
• Carol J. Williams

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. ......
 
• This ‘court’ delivers homespun justice
• The Tribune

It's goodbye to lawyers and courts in a tiny hamlet in Orissa. A "court" dispenses instant justice - and it's absolutely free! ......
 
• ISI uses covert modules in J&K - Subversive foreign outfits’ threat to India: IB
• B L Kak

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has informed the Government that subversive foreign outfits have plans to pose the 'gravest' threat to India's internal security. ......
 
• ISI plans blasts in Punjab cities - 200 Sikh youths trained in Pakistan
• Rajeev Sharma

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. ......
 
• CM determined to carry out POCA
• Subhrangshu Gupta

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. ......
 
• In Defence of POTA
• R S Khanna

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. ......
 
• New solution to Kashmir problem
• Prafull Goradia

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. ......
 
• Taliban in a new name?
• Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri

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. ......
 
• Terrorist with the mask of a statesman
• Stanely Theodore

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. ......
 
• Coming up: Bad news for Gen Musharraf
• Husain Haqqani

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. ......
 
• ISLAMIC MILITANCY RAISING ITS HOOD AGAIN IN TAMILNADU
•  

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. ......
 
• Wahhabis in the Old Dominion
• Stephen Schwartz

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. ......
 
• My uncle the Muslim atheist
• Hanif Kureishi

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. ......
 
• Godhra mayhem is clearly Pak’s creation
• J N Raina

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". ......
 
• Pakistani attitudes (Letter to Editor)
• Mohsin Khan

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. ......
 
• Hopeful Of Ayodhya Solution Soon: Kanchi Seer
• The New Indian Express

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. ......
 
• “History Isn’t on Palestinians’ Side”
• Victor Davis Hanson

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. ......
 
• ‘I don’t foresee Indo-Pak peace in near future’ (Interview with Sumit Ganguly)
• Nitish S Rele

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. ......
 
• Assembly’s unanimous call for scrapping Indus Treaty
• Excelsior Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Reviving militancy in Punjab
• Rajeev Sharma

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". ......
 
• Kashmiri jihadis got special training
• Yashwant Raj

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. ......
 
• Blaming Modi is not just enough: what is Congress role in restoring peace?
• M V Kamath

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. ......
 
• Hyphenated homelands
• Reena Shah

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. ......
 
• India’s new game-plan and Pakistan's limitations
• Ejaz Haider

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. ......
 
• Bogey of Bin Laden at every Godhra turn
• Basant Rawat

A group of Muslims recently approached the superintendent of police, Raju Bhargav, seeking permission to “eliminate all Muslims of Godhra”. ......
 
• Anjar ‘Desecrator’ Traced To Delhi
• Basant Rawat

The flames today spread from Ahmedabad to Anjar as an angry mob retaliated against last night's desecration of a Hanuman statue. ......
 
• ICHR wins manuscript battle but loses data
• Aloke Tikku

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. ......
 
• Financing terror
• T V R Shenoy

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. ......
 
• How liberal Muslims make way for clergy
• Sunnah Fitratullah

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. ......
 
• Yen for funds, not fact-finder
• Sunando Sarkar

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). ......
 
• Two strikes: one in China, the other in Kerala
• Rajeev Srinivasan

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. ......
 
• Temple doors shut for purification
• Shujaat Bukhari

The gory incident of Saturday at Jammu's historic Raghunath temple led to the closure of its doors for the first time in 150 years. ......
 
• Jaish chief inspiration for jehad in Kashmir
• Yashwant Raj

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. ......
 
• Muslims concerned over marriage registration bill
• J.S. Ifthekhar

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. ......
 
• Shahnawaz, Mukhtar get threat calls
• The Pioneer

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. ......
 
• A question of ‘squaring up’
• Arvind Lavakare

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. ......
 
• Qaeda and Taliban May Ply Pakistan’s Porous Frontier
• Dexter Filkins

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. ......
 
• Intercept from PoK tells Hizbul cadres to deny hand in temple attack
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• Religious groups shatter Musharraf’s referendum dreams
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• Violence spreads to Kutch, police commissioner attacked
• Press Trust of India

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. ......
 
• Friends of India Voice Your Concern
•  

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. ......
 
• Bangladesh: A Cocoon of Terror
• Bertil Lintner

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. ......
 
• ‘NGO stoking communal passions in Tihar Jail’
• Meenal Dubey

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. ......
 
• SIMI calls Basu a fundamentalist
• Subhrangshu Gupta

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. ......
 
• Pak not to yield to US pressure on India’s list: Musharraf
• The Daily Excelsior

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. ......
 
• Local contact helped ultras in Ragunath temple attack
• Excelsior Correspondent

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. ......
 
• Muzafarrabad directive warns Hurriyat Vajpayee’s poll call against jihad: Salahuddin
• B L Kak

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. ......
 
• In Assam, Holi revives art forms
• Shankhadeep Choudhury

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. ......
 
• A Dangerous Symbiosis
• Ranjit Bhushan With Abhik Siddiqui

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. ......
 
• Forced conversions in jail?
• GC Shekhar

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. ......
 
• Indo-American Kashmir Forum prays for the victims of suicide terrorists massacred in Kashmir, India.
• Press Release

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. ......
 
• The true jehad is for Kashmir
• Yashwant Raj

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. ......
 
• Let’s talk, but don’t ask for the 20 men: Musharraf
• Reuters

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. ......
 
• Ominous indications
• Editorial

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. ......