May Month Articles
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by Bharat Verma
Many in India offer prayers to
the Sun God at dawn. Others pray facing Mecca. Both sentiments are worthy
of respect. However, what do you say about those who pray to Washington-particularly
since blind worship of the United States affects Indian policy to the detriment
of the nation? New Delhi's conflict is clearly with Pakistan while Washington
seems more concerned with Saddam Hussain. .....
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by Marlise Simons
A network of Islamist militants
has been recruiting young Muslim immigrants at mosques in the Netherlands,
urging them to join the ``holy war'' in places like Afghanistan or Kashmir,
the Dutch Internal Security Agency reported this week. .....
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by Prafull Goradia
The killings in Godhra and Gujarat
are a sharp reminder that riots are not infrequent in our country. Since
1893, there have not been many years that have passed without riots anywhere
in the subcontinent. Earlier, there might have been occurrences without
records being available in English. In that inaugural year, the provocation
was cow slaughter and the places were Mumbai and Azamgarh. .....
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by Sify News
As many as 61 percent of the population
of Jammu and Kashmir want to remain Indian citizens because they feel they
would be thus be politically and economically more secure, while only six
percent want to be Pakistani citizens, according to a recent opinion poll.
.....
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by Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists
condemns the shooting of Zafar Iqbal, a journalist for the Srinagar, Kashmirbased
English-language daily Kashmir Images. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
Al-Qaeda and Taliban members are
helping organize a terror campaign in Kashmir to foment conflict between
India and Pakistan, US intelligence officials and foreign diplomats say.
.....
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by Ravi Reddy
The banned People's War Group naxals
appear to be facing tough time in the tribal areas of Adilabad district
with more and more tribals turning against them and refusing to provide
them food and shelter. .....
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by Gopalji Malaviya and Lawrence
Prabhakar
Over the last few years, Pakistan
has been prosecuting a “low cost, low intensity war” with India, backed
up by threats to use nuclear weapons should India attempt retribution across
the Line of Control. .....
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by Prafulla Das
The unearthing of some illegal
private radio stations in coastal Orissa has surprised those in power as
well as the general public in the State. .....
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by Ajay Suri
Not much is seen into renaming
of an airport. However, Union Home Minister L K Advani touched an emotional
chord today while renaming the Port Blair Airport here to Veer Savarkar
Airport - after the freedom fighter who, he said, was ignored by the ruling
dynasty. .....
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by M.V. Kamath
In April, 2002 the highly-respected
Fortune magazine published an article by its correspondent Richard Behar
on how things are in Pakistan after a ten-week journey through the country.
Behar's conclusion was that Pakistan is a "dysfunctional nation" or "Problemistan"
- a country that professes to be an ally of the United States but probably
harbours more terrorists than any other place on earth. As he put it: "It
is the most unstable nuclear power in the world, a land where even the
best intentions are undermined by some of the world's worst economic conditions.
.....
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by Rakesh Sinha
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s speech in
Goa last month was unequivocally slandered by the ‘secularists’ as ‘intemperate
and provocative’. A senior Congress leader even went to the extent of demanding
his arrest under POTA! Was there any transformation in the secularists’
logic that the unity of the NDA is based solely on Vajpayee? Or that the
NDA’s disintegration hinged on undoing his image as a ‘good man’? The PM’s
Goa speech was cooked in the secularist kitchen to produce a desired result.
.....
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by The Free Press Journal
Of all the international leaders
who spoke to Musharraf on the immediate need to end terrorism, Japan's
Prime Minister has spoken with cold and implementable realism. The Japanese
Premier has told Musharraf that Japan would find it difficult to continue
the promised economic aid unless the Pak leader puts an end to cross-border
terrorism and closes down the terrorist base camps. Needless to add, this
is the language that Islamabad understands. .....
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by Tara Shankar Sahay
A leading Indian nuclear expert
on Thursday ridiculed Pakistan's assertion that his country would use nuclear
weapons against India even in case of a conventional conflict. .....
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by Daniel Williams
Winding streets and a crumbling
old church seem cast from Italy’s impoverished past. Street markets overflow
with shiny fresh squid and giant artichokes; the stalls look like 19th-century
still lifes. Old ladies wear black as if in perpetual mourning and wrinkled
men play cards lazily outside of storefronts. Watch out for pickpockets,
by the way. .....
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by The Observer
The Standard Comment is familiar.
In an era of globalisation, governing parties have little room for manoeuvre,
so meaningful political choice is close to non-existent. The government
always wins. Broader voter apathy is giving disillusioned voters experimenting
at the margins more influence. All over Europe, in response to crime and
growing immigrant populations, there is are-emergence of fatal DNA in the
European values gene, amurky cocktail of racism, anti-Semitism, nationalism,
anti-immigration and calls for ultra-hard-line criminal justice policies.
.....
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by The Free Press Journal
Pakistan has been particularly
unfortunate in the choice of its leaders. Since they don't come to the
presidential palace in Islamabad through the democratic process, one could
argue, that ordinary Pakistanis are not to be blamed for their poor leadership.
In the ultimate analysis, however, Pakistani people cannot escape blame
for having allowed their army to play such a dominant role in the affairs
of the nation. .....
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by Chidanand Rajghatta
World opinion has swung decisively
against Islamabad on the Jammu and Kashmir issue even as Pakistan itself
is cleaved between the country's moderates and liberals on the one hand
and the fundamentalists and militarists on the other. .....
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by Tamora Vidaillet
China said on Monday that Pakistan
had handed over a key leader of Chinese Muslim separatists who fought alongside
the Taliban, and another 400 militants had been captured in Afghanistan
or on return to China. .....
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by Folkert Jensma
The death of Pim Fortuyn, assassinated
on May 6 as he campaigned for prime minister, leaves the Netherlands- in
fact, all of Europe-with many uncomfortable questions. .....
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by Michael Horsnell
A Muslim traffic warden yesterday
lost a legal claim that a Christian cross on his uniform discriminated
against his faith. .....
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by The Times
When James Callaghan was home Secretary
he told the Cabinet that Peter Hain’s campaign for recial equality was
so extreme it might lay him open to prosecution for conspiracy. Thirty-two-years
later Mr Hain is a Labour Minister and has laid himself open to an entirely
different attack. He is being asked by leading members of the Muslim community
to withdraw remarks about Muslim immigrants who, he said, “can be very
isolationist in their own behavior and their own customs”. He should not
bow to the clamour for contrition. .....
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by David Charter
Mr Hain a veteran antiapartheid
campaigner, said that problem arising from religious differences could
bemore dangerous than problems of racial difference Simon hughes, the Liberal
Democrat Home affairs spokesman said however, that identifying Muslims
as the group most guilty of separatism was simplistic and dangerous. .....
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by The Sunday Times
Peter Hain is right to warn of
the dangers that some British Muslims pose to their own community as well
as to the national interest. His impeccable anti-racist credentials make
his comments about the cultural isolationism of Muslim separatists in our
midst all the more telling. As minister fore Europe he is doubly well placed
to sound the alarm about Islamic asylum seekers who expect Britain’s way
of life, sometimes even refusing to learn English. .....
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by The Times of India
In a major development, the district
police arrested a Congress leader identified as Naziruddin alias
Neta Nazir, a resident of Begumpurva, on charges of aiding Pakistan
army regular Mohd Anwar alias Ikramuddin. .....
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by Leena Misra
Three months after the Godhra carnage
which claimed 59 lives, the investigations are expected to take the State
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to Mumbai where some of the main
accused, all belonging to Godhra, are said to have taken sanctuary. .....
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by Tamora Vidaillet
China said on Monday that Pakistan
had handed over a key leader of Chinese Muslim separatists who fought alongside
the Taliban, and another 400 militants had been captured in Afghanistan
or on return to China. .....
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by Claude Arpi
Are we to allow Pakistan to continue
to train new armies for invasion and to allow its territory to be used
as a base for these attacks? The obvious course of action is to strike
at these concentrations and lines of communications in Pakistan territory.
From a military point of view this would be the most effective step. We
have refrained from taking it because of political considerations. We shall
have to reconsider this position because a continuation of the present
situation is intolerable. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
India on Tuesday termed as "disappointing
and dangerous" Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's address and said it
contained only repetition of some earlier unfulfilled assurances to curtail
cross-border terrorism. .....
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by James Dao
Virtually the entire senior leadership
of Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been driven out of eastern Afghanistan
and are now operating with as many as 1,000 non-Afghan fighters in the
anarchic tribal areas of western Pakistan, the commander of American-led
forces in Afghanistan said today. .....
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by Zubeida Mustafa
May 28 is the fourth anniversary
of Pakistan's nuclear tests at Chaghai. On Yom-i-takbir, which the government
celebrated in a big way in 1999, it informed the people through boastful
newspaper ads: "We are the seventh nuclear power of the world". .....
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by General Pervez Musharraf
Pakistan is currently passing through
a critical juncture. We are faced with a grave situation and we are standing
at the cross road of history. Today’s decision will have serious internal
and external effects on our future. .....
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by Ayaz Amir
If war is too serious a business
to be left to generals, what would Clemenceau (the originator of this timeless
phrase) have said about part-time generals? The situation on our borders
is grim and could well spiral out of control. But more alarming than Indian
intentions is the sense of drift at home. .....
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by Rajvir Sharma
The Opposition seems to have lost
the track. Running a Hate BJP campaign, its only motive remains is the
ouster of the BJP, even if it comes at the cost of rationalizing anti-people
and anti-national acts of elements opposed to India. Such a parochial attitude
is evident ever since the formation of the BJP. With the BJP arriving on
the political scene in the early 80s, there has been an ideological contest
between the Left, the Congress and the party on account of socioeconomic
and cultural thought and programme. .....
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by The Indian Express
Terming India's charge of its involvement
as “baseless”, its Foreign Office said such allegations were aimed at deflecting
the Muslim world's attention from communal violence in Gujarat as well
as “domestic difficulties” .....
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by The Milli Gazette
What's wrong with "suicide" bombing?
Like tanks, gunships, bunker-busting bombs, F-16s, and cruise missiles,
it kills people. That's what's wrong. .....
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by The Times of India
Secretary of BJP's national unit
B. Padmanabha Acharya on Saturday alleged that the Godhra carnage was a
conspiracy hatched by a section of the Gujarat unit of the Congress to
create communal disturbance in the state as well as in the country. .....
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by AK Verma
Is peace between India and Pakistan
at all possible in a presently foreseeable time frame? Evidence suggests
that the Pakistan establishment, on balance, has ruled out peace. A strong
conviction pervades in its military that peace enforced through military
means remains the best alternative. Its rejection of the ‘no first use’
nuclear doctrine is predicated on this premise. Thrice, in the early 1980s,
1987 and 1990, it seriously examined its nuclear strength for possible
use against India in a tactical mode. .....
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by Hiranmay Karlekar
While the Government is understandably
furious with Pakistan for the latter's relentless proxy war waged against
this country through cross-border terrorism, it should realise that a war
is what the Musharraf regime has every reason to welcome at this juncture.
This will become clear from a study of the strategic context in which the
present tensions have to be seen. To defeat Pakistan's proxy war, India
has to radically change its response pattern and rethink the basic premises
of its approach towards Islamabad. .....
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by Samik Dasgupta
At a time when there's growing
international concern on money laundering, another scam has been detected
by the RBI following a tipoff from the enforcement directorate involving
Rs 200 crore to Rs 250 crore. .....
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by The Times of India
For a country that won its political
spurs by renouncing religion as the basis of nationhood, Bangladesh has
come full circle. Nearly. Proudly secular at birth, the Bangla polity,
under Begum Khaleda Zia, is headed inexorably towards a theocracy. Succumbing
to pressures from the Jamaat-e-Islami — a key coalition partner in her
government — Begum Zia has embarked on a dangerous course of ‘Islamisation’.
.....
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by Kathy Gannon
Two former high-ranking Taliban
talk of reorganizing their militant religious movement and describe a recovering
al-Qaida - all while they sit secretly inside Pakistan, Washington's front-line
ally in the war on international terrorism. .....
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by Jyoti Malhotra
Pressure continues to build on
Pak President General Pervez Musharraf with the international community
weighing in with New Delhi, one by one. .....
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by Felicity Barringer
Intense public reaction to coverage
of the violence of the Middle East conflict has prompted unusually harsh
attacks on several news media outlets and has led to boycotts of The New
York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
At least half of the 48 Muslim
radicals linked to terrorist plots in the USA since 1993 manipulated or
violated immigration laws to enter this country and then stay here, an
analysis by the US Center for Immigration Studies says. .....
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by The Star Online
Concerned with the high number
of Hindus not being able to find the right marriage partners, the Malaysia
Hindu Sangam will play Cupid with its matchmaking programme. .....
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by The Daily Excelsior
India today rejected the charge
that it was in a war-like mood or belligerent towards Pakistan in the wake
of the Kaluchak massacre but made it clear that it would do everything
to protect national interests. .....
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by M.V. Kamath
When a person who is ill goes to
see a doctor, the latter does not put the blame on the patient's body but
seeks to find the source of the illness to prescribe a remedy. In the matter
of the Gujarat riots, the Parliament-in effect the Opposition forces-have
wasted five whole days trying to lay the blame on the Sangh Parivar while
not addressing itself to what ails Gujarat. That is the greater tragedy.
It is pointless to lay the blame on this or that factor. .....
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by P. Jasnsi
I am a girl 18 years of age. I
am not ignorant of my country's history especially, the recent one, as
Mustafa Qureshi (who wrote an article “Action and reaction” in The New
Indian Express, 16.4.2002) seems to be. I know that India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh are successors to one united India where great Kings like Ashoka
ruled. Unfortunately, Hindus who converted to Islam over a period of 800
years of invasion and conquests asserted (stridently from 1905 to 1947)
that they are not Indians, that they are a different nation and that they
cannot live with Hindus in one nation-state. .....
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by Dr. T.H. Chowdary
As a perceptive Indian who has
no amnesia over India's history I am not a little surprised at the totally
distorted view of Hindu-Muslim relations presented (Newsweek, March 18,
2002) by Ashutosh Varshney, especially as he happens to be Director of
the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. .....
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by A N Bismil
Indian Muslims, who are staying
in this country for their own well-being and happiness should come together
to show their commitment to this country They should not get influenced
by all the rumours, foreign powers and foreign money and also should keep
distance from those few elements which are involved in anti-social and
anti-national activities. .....
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by Feroz Bakht Ahmed
Imam Gazali in the 11th century
had said about terrorism that if the Muslims do not give up terrorism,
then terrorism will see their extinction. In fact it is the need of the
day that the Imams and the religious preachers should have widely and loudly
propagated this thought, but exactly reverse is what has happened. .....
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by Chidanand Rajghatta
The United Nations has dealt a
severe blow to Pakistan on Kashmir that could change the dynamics and complexion
of the contentious issue. .....
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by Kamal Kant Gouri
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
thinks India has a short memory. His latest promise made on Wednesday that
"no organisation in Pakistan will be allowed to indulge in terrorism in
the name of Kashmir", seems to be based on this very belief. The same promise
was made, word by word, in his "famous" speech of January 12. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
US intelligence agencies have concluded
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reneged three promises he made
to the Bush administration on terrorism in Kashmir. .....
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by The Hindu
The tense situation prevailing
in Iritty and nearby areas here following the murder of an RSS worker late
last night turned volatile as two persons, including a woman, were killed
today in a powerful bomb attack on a jeep carrying BJP workers returning
after the funeral of the deceased RSS activist. The assailants were suspected
to be CPI(M) workers. .....
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by The Times of India
I am pleased to meet mediapersons
at the end of my three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir. I had stated in
Parliament that I would visit J&K after the end of the Budget session.
At the time I didn't know that two incidents would cast a ring of shock,
sorrow and outrage around my visit. .....
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by Najam Aziz Sethi
Mr Shaukat Aziz, the finance minister,
is perennially optimistic about the country's economic prospects. Indeed,
Mr Aziz has so mastered the art of “positive” thinking demanded by the
good general that not a frown marks his burrow even at the most testing
of times. .....
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by The Indian Express
The May 8 bomb blast in Karachi
which claimed 14 lives and blew a hole into Pakistan's attempts to put
up a brave, new face, also gave terror a new name: the Harkat al-Jahad
al-Islami. Khalied Ahmed, columnist With reputed Pakistani weekly The Friday
Times and among the most authoritative commentators on Pakistan's homegrown
jehadi groups, says this new group, an amalgam of other terrorist groups,
could also be spreading its tenor in the Valley. .....
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by Peter Hartcher
According to WTO limits, the United
States can shell out no more than $19.1 billion a year in federal aid to
farmers. .....
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by Nicholas Rufford
Abu Qatada, who is suspected of
having turned supergrass for M15, was identified by police as the former
spiritual leader of eight suspected terrorists arrested last week in raids
across Germany. The men were part of a “secret international network on
the brink of attacks in Germany”, according to the chief German prosecutor.
Among potential targets was the British embassy in Berlin, source said.
.....
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by Ed Vulliamy and Grahma Usher
The United Nations is to send a
mission to investigate allegations of Israeli brutality during its violent
occupation of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin on the West Bank, which
ended last week. .....
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by Mohini Raina
The advent of `sonth' heralds the
season of blooms and colours in the Kashmir valley and we Kashmiri Pandits,
prior to our forced exodus, used to throng almond (badam) orchards along
the foot of the Hariparbat hill, Ramchandrun and even at times to Harwan
on the festival days of Navreh and Zangtri. A decade and half has gone
by, yet the nostalgic memories of the fragrance of `sonth' still lurk in
the subconscious mind and the craving for these places has not died down.
.....
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by Saurabh Shah
In the train passing through Godhra,
instead of burning the Ramsewaks returning from Ayodhya, suppose there
were Hajees and the Hindus had thrown kerosene dipped burning rags etc
inside the compartments closed from outside? Suppose the BJP govt. in Gujarat
had refused to carry out the mass funeral of those 62 dead bodies which
were totally charred and had refused to burry all those 62 dead bodies?
.....
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by Jay Bhattacharjee
Unlike the typical Anglo-Saxon
host, whose happiest moment is to see the retreating tail lights of his
guests' cars, this particular Indian will be most sorry to see you go,
Ambassador Qazi (you see, I still cannot reconcile myself to the awful
colonial resonance of High Commissioner, which also takes up seven more
spaces). .....
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by Defense Link
In the past year, guided by direction
from Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Bush, India and the United States
have charted a new course in their bilateral relationship. This course
reflects appreciation on both sides of the importance of the U.S.-India
relationship in building stability and security in Asia and beyond. This
new course entails rapid growth in cooperation on defense and security
matters. In a matter of months, the U.S. and India defense establishments
have translated the broad vision for the relationship into action. .....
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by M.V. Kamath
How many more people need to be
killed in Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistan-sponsored jihadists, how many
more times need railway coaches have to be torched and the Indian Parliament
itself brought under attack before the Government of India resports to
meaningful action? The calculated attack on family members of Army personnel
in the Kaluchak Cantonment in Jammu the day US Assistant Secretary of State
Christina Rocca arrived in Delhi was obviously well-planned and intended,
on the part of the jihadists, to show their utter contempt for the United
States. .....
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by Jim Hoagland
India and Pakistan are three to
four weeks from a foreseeable war that the United States has done too little
to prevent. By misreading Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Bush administration
has contributed to a dangerous confrontation between South Asia's two nuclear-armed
rivals. .....
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by Balbir K Punj
Our comrades who oppose labour
law reforms in India, purposely don't tell their followers how "anti-labour"
are the labour laws in communist havens like China and North Korea. Just
go through the Beijing government's official publication, Labour Law of
the People's Republic of China. .....
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by Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
The crisis managers in separatist
All Parties Hurriyat Conference have once again shown tact and finesse
in turning Kashmir's political tables in favour of Pakistan. While Mr Abdul
Gani Lone's promoters in Indian media, bureaucracy and politics were enjoying
replays of son Sajjad Lone's spitting on Pakistan's ISI, Hurriyat chairman
Professor Abdul Gani Bhat today rejuvenated Srinagar's, if not Kashmir's,
pro-Pakistan euphoria. In the morning Sajjad dismissed his own remarks
as "an emotional outburst". .....
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by The Hindustan Times
It was meant to be a polite good-bye
meeting, but degenerated into a debate on who is to blame for the Indo-Pak
war of nerves. The occasion: departing Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf
Jehangir Qazi's courtesy call on Indian Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer
on Wednesday afternoon. .....
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by Parul Chandra
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed
in 1960 between Jawaharlal Nehru and Ayub Khan, saw the apportioning of
waters of the Indus basin rivers between India and Pakistan. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
At least half of the 48 Muslim
radicals linked to terrorist plots in the USA since 1993 manipulated or
violated immigration laws to enter this country and then stay here, an
analysis by the US Center for Immigration Studies says. .....
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by Reeta Sharma
Justices Jawahar Lal Gupta and
N K Sodhi on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition filed by Lok Sabha MP
Simranjit Singh Mann questioning the validity the Prevention of Terrorist
Act, 2002. .....
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by T. V. R. Shenoy
“Fool me once, shame on you,” runs
an Arab saying, “Fool me twice, shame on me!” In an age when the most recognised
Arab faces belong to Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Yasser Arafat,
the cadences of Arabic probably grind on an American ear. But that does
not deny the verity of the statement. .....
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by The Indian Express
Pakistan today warned that any
cross-border action by India, including in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, would
provoke retaliation. Military spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi told
the AFP news agency, ‘‘Any incursions into Pakistani territory or Azad
Kashmir (PoK) will be responded to and met with full force.’’ .....
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by S Gurumurthy
'War is not the option' they say.
'Nor is it the solution', they counsel. 'Be restrained' they pontificate.
Whether it is the peace-loving media or the neutral intellectual in India
or the United Kingdom or Iran or China, they speak in one voice. .....
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by The Indian Express
Those who thought the age of the
fatwa was over were taken aback when Maulana Mufti Abul Irfan of Firangi
Mahal issued one for a ‘‘complete social boycott’’ of the Muslim MLAs of
the Bahujan Samaj Party. He has called them ‘‘traitors’’ and asked Muslims
not to offer prayers in mosques with them. .....
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by Scott Anderson
Through a crack in the drawn curtain
of his third-floor perch, Yigal Kelman uses the magnified scope of his
sniper rifle to study the Palestinian family that has emerged onto a rooftop
terrace some 300 yards away. .....
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by Barry Bearak
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
told Indian soldiers along the tense frontier in Kashmir today to prepare
for a "decisive battle" against terrorism, words powerful enough to rally
his troops, threaten Pakistan and scare much of the world. .....
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by The Daily Excelsior
India today rejected the charge
that it was in a war-like mood or belligerent towards Pakistan in the wake
of the Kaluchak massacre but made it clear that it would do everything
to protect national interests. .....
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by Dina Nath Mishra
This week's terrorist attack in
Jammu has once again underlined some inescapable conclusions. A) The US
led-war against terrorism has absolutely no impact on the Pak strategy
of bleeding India through crossborder terrorism. B) Whatever the US may
say, the agenda for global war against terrorism doesn't include Indian
concerns about the ongoing war against India. It may be low cost war or
slow war but war it is. .....
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by Ravi K Sharma
Ever since Godhra happened in Gujarat
our media virtually struck a goldmine for filling their otherwise dull
and empty space with vivid accounts of the incidents in the most sensational
and chilling manner. The channel after channel and newspaper after newspaper
has vied for presenting the incidents in the crudest and most irresponsible
manner. English media in particular has been reporting in a one sided way
thereby presenting a distorted picture to the world. .....
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by The Hindustan Times
Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
has sparked a furious row by claiming a coup two years ago was part of
a plan by God to depose the country's Indian-led government. Critics claimed
his remarks amount to blasphemy. Qarase, who first came to power in the
aftermath of the May 2000 coup led by George Speight, told Parliament his
government was in power because it was the will of God. "The SDL coalition
won because it was God's plan," Qarase said. .....
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by Wilson John
For all the politicking that President
Pervez Musharraf is indulging in, he cannot remain oblivious to the growing
dissent at home to his regime's indifference to the people of Northern
Areas. Going by accounts in the Pakistani media, there is already a strong
whisper of protest among the populace against the military dictator's continued
neglect of the area. Major Ahsan Wali Khan, writing in The News last month,
aptly summed up the public mood in Gilgit-Baltistan: "The tempers of the
people are now boiling. .....
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by S. Rajagopalan
India tops the table of "significant
terrorist incidents" during 2001. While the September 11 attacks on the
United States constitute the worst ever in terms of death and devastation,
India has had the most number of incidents, major or minor, catalogued
by the State Department. Its report, 'Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001',
carries a chronology of 123 "significant terrorist incidents" across the
world. Of these, as many as 38 pertain to India, followed by Colombia (9),
Burundi (8) and the Philippines (6). .....
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by The Hindustan Times
To impose their warped interpretation
of the Islamic code, the Taliban used to smash TV sets and hang video cassettes
on trees in the same manner as they 'celebrated' the public hanging of
dissenters or the lynching of women in Kabul's football stadium. In almost
a similar enactment of censorship, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh
seems to be emulating Mullah Omar. .....
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by Swati Chaturvedi
Abdul Gani Lone had been receiving
veiled death threats for some time. "You are tired and old and you should
retire. That's what the anonymous callers keep telling me. But I am not
so tired that I should retire before peace prevails in Kashmir," Lone told
the Hindustan Times in an interview last week. .....
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by Gitesh Desai
After Sept. 11, India was among
the first countries in the world to offer its unconditional support to
the United States in the fight against terrorism declared by President
Bush. Being a victim of terrorism itself, India knows very well what kind
of pain and suffering, death and destruction the scourge of terrorism can
bring. India has been bleeding from the perpetual specter of terrorism
by Pakistan-based and -supported terrorist groups for several years. .....
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by Irfan Husain
Over a week has passed since the
gruesome suicide bombing that left 14 people dead, including 11 French
technicians, but no heads have rolled and, more importantly, no introspection
seems to have taken place. .....
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by Ruth Baldwin
"I stand before you all today with
a heavy heart to tell the tales of the endless raging minority cleansing
campaign," declared Dwijen Bhattacharjya at the International Conference
on Minority Cleansing in Bangladesh, held on April 28 at a cavernous Indian
restaurant in Queens. "From Barisal in the south, to Savar in the center,
to Rajshai in the north, the trails of terror have swept across Bangladesh."
.....
-
by Nicholas Hellen
A Muslim fundamentalist who claims
to have fought for Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation in
Afghanistan has slipped unnoticed back into Britain. .....
-
by Barbara Amiel
In a Gallup poll released last
week, 61 per cent of nearly 10,000 Muslims in nine Islamic countries said
they did not believe Arabs were responsible for the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Centre last September. The poll did not ask the 61 per
cent who they thought had hijacked the planes. One Gallup poll recently
cited by Andrew Sullivan in The Sunday Times gave a figure of 48 per cent
of Pakistanis believing that Jews flew the planes into the WTC after warning
fellow Jews working there to stay home. .....
-
by John J Lumpkin
Terrorists are sure to eventually
acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, US Defense Secretary
Donald H Rumsfeld warned Congress on Tuesday. .....
-
by Sreeram Chaulia
Having won accolades for more than
30 years as one of the brightest and best Indian Foreign Service officers,
the legendary Chandrashekhar Dasgupta has once again proved his mettle
by writing a highly original, revelatory and myth-shattering book on the
genesis of the Kashmir imbroglio. No competent historian until now has
been able to portray the undeclared 1947-8 India-Pakistan war over Kashmir
from the standpoint of British strategic and diplomatic calculations. .....
-
by The Hindu
The Cultural Affairs Minister,
G. Karthikeyan, today said that the previous LDF Government had packed
the various cultural institutions with persons who were politically loyal
to the front. .....
-
by The Hindustan Times
Police have arrested a Muslim couple
here for torturing a Hindu boy and trying to convert him to Islam, police
and local reports said on Monday. .....
-
by The Hindustan Times
Union minister of state for home
Ch Vidyasagar Rao today said around 12,000 Pakistani nationals were staying
illegally in India and they will be apprehended and sent back to their
country. "In India 12,000 Pakistani people are staying illegally. Out of
them 2,200 are missing. We will investigate into all these aspects and
try to apprehend and send these people back," Rao told reporters here.
.....
-
by Indrani Bagchi
Christiana Rocca's peace mission
can expect a hard landing here next week. India is preparing a strong message
to the U5 that New Delhi will take a serious view of Islamabad's attempts
to rachet up infiltration across the Line of Control (LOC). India will
also tell the US official that Washington's efforts to 'defuse' the tension
was not particularly constructive, because what is needed is for Pakistan
to be asked to stop infiltration and cross-border terrorism, none of which
has been forthcoming. .....
-
by Meenakshi Shedde
It is quite normal for women, especially
in rural areas, to have some secret money stashed away, says Chetna Gala
Sinha. “In our Mahila Bank, many of the women have secret accounts. It's
a little like a Swiss bank. After the weekly haat, when they sell vegetables,
eggs or goats, they don't reveal their entire earnings to the family. They
keep some of it with friends or the savkar (moneylender), or more frequently,
in their accounts with us.” .....
-
by Amit Mukherjee
The disappearance of nearly 500
visitors from Pakistan is worrying the Intelligence Bureau. In a report
submitted to the Union home ministry, the agency said, “They are all not
traceable anywhere.” .....
-
by Times News Network
Muzrai temple priests in Karnataka
have to now qualify by passing an examination in aagama shastra (chanting
of mantras and pooja rituals). This is according to the new rules drafted
by the Muzrai officials under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Trust
Act of 1997 which received presidential assent in December. .....
-
by Ramesh Babu
The VHP is recruiting in Kerala.
Low profile reports have appeared in the inside pages of the state's newspapers,
quoting Parishad press releases that announce vacancies for dharma pracharaks
(preachers). .....
-
by Vinay Krishna Rastogi
The disputed site in Ayodhya is
the Janmabhoomi (birthplace) of Lord Ram, and a temple was destroyed by
Mughal Emperor Babar to build a mosque at the site, archaeologist and historian
Dr Swaraj Prakash Gupta told the Allahabad High Court yesterday. .....
-
by Sandhya Jain
It is difficult to remember when
an Indian Prime Minister last visited even the Jammu region of troubled
Kashmir. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision to visit the state is therefore
a welcome assertion of personal confidence and national sovereignty. .....
-
by Sudhi Ranjan Sen
A new Pakistani jehadi group, the
Jamaat-e-Milli, is believed to have supported the Kaluchak terrorist attack
in Jammu. A Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) report says it is one of a
new crop of jehadi groups being used by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
to strengthen his influence among Islamic militants. .....
-
by The Indian Express
Compared to the high-profile efforts
to build an international coalition against terrorism after September 11,
the interest of the international community in terrorist violence, symbolised
by the escalating transnational terrorism in India, seems to be remarkably
subdued. One week after the barbaric killings of women and children, one
has heard little from the US, which is leading the global war against terrorism.
.....
-
by The Free Press Journal
One of the last acts of Parliament
before it ended its Budget session was also its most novel. For in a badly
fragmented polity it was rare to see all sections of the House show a rare
unanimity. What had brought Parliament together to the last member was
the continuing threat of cross-border terrorism. Pakistan's export of barbarism
to this country had shocked the entire nation. .....
-
by The Economic Times
Critical of celebrities taking
up advertisement contracts with tainted company Home Trade involved in
the Nagpur Co-operative Bank seam, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today
said icons like Sachin Tendulkar and Shah Rukh Khan should not hanker after
money by accepting such a contract. .....
-
by The Economic Times
US Ambassador, Robert D Blackwell,
today called on the Union home minister L K Advani, amid clear indications
that the latest terrorist outrage in J&K may have severely undermined
America's leverage with India. .....
-
by The Economic Times
We, the citizens of Gujarat, from
different walks of life, are deeply concerned over the unabated violence
in the State. This is no less than a great tragedy. It is clear that the
vested interests are behind the orgy and the culprits have no community.
The forces behind the nefarious game are out to destroy the image of Gujarat
as a progressive and forward-looking state. .....
-
by Mizan Khan
Hindus are most concentrated in
the Sindh province of southeast Pakistan (GROUPCON = 3). Before partition,
most Hindus in present-day Pakistan were urban, highly educated and economically
advantaged. However, most middle- and upper-class Pakistani Hindus immigrated
to India after the 1947 partition of the sub-continent. Those that remained
tended to be poorer and rural. Lacking the resources to organize politically
(large numbers are bonded labor), Hindus have remained politically and
economically marginalized in Pakistan. .....
-
by Khaled Ahmed
Ary Digital TV’s host Dr Masood,
while discussing the May 8 killing of 11 French nationals in Karachi, named
one Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami as one of the suspected terrorists involved
in the bombing. When the Americans bombed the Taliban and Mulla Umar fled
from his stronghold in Kandahar, a Pakistani personality also fled with
him. This was Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami,
Pakistan’s biggest jehadi militia headquartered in Kandahar. .....
-
by M.J. Akbar
An escalation of the undeclared
war for Kashmir was inevitable after the recent referendum in Pakistan
that “confirmed” Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s civilian job. This is not because
the referendum strengthened Musharraf. But because it weakened him. .....
-
by Syed Saleem Shahzad
The deadly hand of jihadis appears
finally to have stoked the fires of confrontation to such an extent that
a clash between India and Pakistan is inevitable. .....
-
by V. Sudarshan
"Why is it that when Hindus kill
hundreds of Muslims it elicits an emotionally muted headline in the Arab
media but when Israel kills a dozen Muslims, it inflames the entire Muslim
world?" .....
-
by Balbir K. Punj
How dare you compare Veer Savarkar
with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose?" said Basudeb Acharia of the CPI(M) in
the Lok Sabha. "This is an insult to Netaji." This angry remark may have
come as a shock to the uninitiated. But there is nothing new about Communists
running down our national heroes or causes. No wonder, too often Left protestations
end up as a farce unto themselves. .....
-
by Yahoo News
The CPI national council member
and former Pondicherry minister, R Viswanathan, and six partymen were arrested
today in connection with the alleged attack on participants of a Sanskrit
coaching camp in Pondicherry Engineering College here. .....
-
by K.V. Subramanya
Bangalore's underworld don, Muthappa
Rai, who has been detained by the Dubai Police along with aides of the
Pakistan-based mafia lord, Dawood Ibrahim, planned serial explosions in
government and commercial hubs in Gujarat. .....
-
by The Hindu
“It is now time to come face to
face with reality, sever diplomatic ties with Pakistan and launch a full-scale
war”, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said here today. .....
-
by Nilanjana Bhaduri Jha
When Omar Abdullah speaks, people
listen. The Lok Sabha listened attentively when the young minister told
the world that India does not need its empty support, that India would
not let the Jammu massacre go unanswered. His father nodded imperceptibly.
.....
-
by Ram Gopal
Since April 2, an 11-judge bench
of the Supreme Court has been hearing 200 petitions from the beneficiaries
of minority rights, provided for in Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution.
Almost every senior advocate of the Supreme Court is engaged by this or
that minority group. .....
-
by Rediff on Net
Communist Party of India-Marxist
leader Somnath Chatterjee on Friday offered a three-pronged strategy to
help resolve the Kashmir issue. .....
-
by V.R. Krishna Iyer
`Murder most foul' daily mars lovely
Jammu and Kashmir and dastardly terrorism `red in tooth and claw' claims
countless innocent Indian lives with Pakistan militarily and morally getting
away with it, describing these lethal operations as liberation and self-determination.
The Bush doctrine of war-on-terror leaves Pakistan untouched and undeterred.
For several sinister years, this ghastly killer game has been going on
and no prospect of this bloody process is in sight save `words, words,
mere words'. .....
-
by The Hindu
The Hindu Aikyavedi has alleged
that the Adivasi leader, C. K. Janu, had visited Vatican and Germany many
times to be trained as a spokesperson of Christian missionaries. .....
-
by Claude Arpi
Last week a suicide bomber drove
his car into a bus leaving the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. Fourteen persons,
including 11 French engineers working in the naval base in Karachi, lost
their lives; many more were injured. The French were working for the Pakistan
Navy to produce an Agosta type of submarine (far superior to the Russian
ones used by the Indian Navy), which is assembled in the Pakistani shipyard
with parts imported from France. .....
-
by Guy de Jonquieres
The heads of the world's three
main multilateral economic institutions on Thursday joined forces to condemn
rising US protectionism, saying it harmed global growth and set back economic
reform and open markets. .....
-
by Joint motion for a resolution
on India
Following the recent outbreak of
violence in the Indian state of Gujararat, leading to the loss of more
than 900 lives, MEPs adopted a resolution strongly condemning all sectarian
violence in India which followed the burning to death of 58 Hindus on a
train earlier in the year. There is a call on the Indian government and
the State government of Gujararat to continue investigations into the killings
with a view to bringing those responsible to justice. The Commission and
Council are requested to support the Indian government with relief programmes
to the area. .....
-
by The Economist Global Agenda
The latest terrorist outrage in
Kashmir has pushed India and Pakistan a little closer to the brink. Could
this spark the first war between nuclear powers? .....
-
by Angela MV Robinson (Rev Mrs)
I have been in Bangladesh for three
years but there are still things about this beautiful, naughty country
that make my mouth drop open! .....
-
by Center for Indic Studies
For what may be termed as a historical
event on April 26, a Panel Discussion on Media Coverage of Terrorism in
India and Pakistan, Indian American community packed the First Amendment
Room at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to listen to the panelists.
While descriptions varied, there was unanimity among panelists that the
media coverage, especially in India and Pakistan, needs improvement. .....
-
by Readers
Daniel Pipes states that some 100
to 150 million people worldwide embrace radical Islam, and that some 500
million other Muslims "concur with its rank anti-Americanism," sympathizing
more with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban than with the United States ["Who
Is the Enemy?" January]. .....
-
by Ali Sina
I am often asked, Why I left Islam?.
As absurd as it may be, some Muslims cannot even allow themselves to think
that leaving Islam is an option, or even possible. They rather think that
those who leave Islam are paid Jewish agents than accept the fact that
people have freedom to think and some may even think that Islam is not
for them. The following are my reasons. .....
-
by K.P. Nayar
The recent flare-up in west Asia,
the biggest in the region since the Yom Kippur war nearly 30 years ago,
has valuable lessons for India. For the first time in half a century, it
has brought into sharp scrutiny, Israel's hitherto successful handling
of its ties with its biggest and most important supporter in the world:
the United States of America. .....
-
by Kamal Kant Gouri
An aggressive Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday said, appeasement cannot be pursued in the name
of secularism. BJP is committed to secularism, however, it would not pursue
the policy of appeasement, Mr Vajpayee said while speaking in the BJP parliamentary
party. .....
-
by Tom Gross
Israel's actions in Jenin were
"every bit as repellent" as Osama bin Laden's attack on New York
on September 11, wrote Britain's Guardian in its lead editorial of April
17. .....
-
by The Indian Express
At one time-all Fernandes's profiles
begin with at one time-he was the rebel's pin-up boy. Today, the poster's
curled at the edges. The man who led the historic 1974 railway men's strike,
a watershed in terms of bringing down Indira Gandhi by 1977, is today lurching
from one scandal-stop to another. The latest, his apparent cosying up to
the Sangh. Although he was the first leader to visit Gujarat after the
riots, and Orissa after the murder of Graham Staines, in both the cases
he defended rather than admonished the Parivar. .....
-
by Mohini Raina
The advent of `sonth' heralds the
season of blooms and colours in the Kashmir valley and we Kashmiri Pandits,
prior to our forced exodus, used to throng almond (badam) orchards along
the foot of the Hariparbat hill, Ramchandrun and even at times to Harwan
on the festival days of Navreh and Zangtri. A decade and half has gone
by, yet the nostalgic memories of the fragrance of `sonth' still lurk in
the subconscious mind and the craving for these places has not died down.
.....
-
by Express News Service
Malegaon, the powerloom town of
Maharashtra, may soon get Janata Dal (Secular)’s Nihal Ahmed as its first
mayor. He is accused of fanning communal violence in the town last year.
.....
-
by Sumer Kaul
Much has been written and spoken
about the Godhra- Gujarat massacres. But words can never fully convey the
anguish that every Indian must feel at the sight of man killing man, mobs
killing fellow humans and fellow-citizens. .....
-
by The Washington Post
Last January Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf delivered a highly promoted television address in which
he promised to lead his divided and impoverished country in an entirely
new direction. His aim, he said, was to create a modern, prosperous and
democratic "Islamic welfare state"; to do that, he would purge the country
of the Islamic extremism that had infected its politics, its schools and
its armed forces. Terrorism, Mr. Musharraf declared, would no longer be
tolerated, and militant groups that had waged war against India and its
rule of Muslim Kashmir would no longer be supported. .....
-
by Soumyajit Pattnaik
The detection of illegal radio
stations and the arrest of a few suspects in the Rajnagar area of Kendrapara
district on Monday has blown the lid off the activities of illegal Bangladeshi
nationals, and the security breaches made in the vicinity of sensitive
defence installations. The main transmission centre of the radio station
was located near Dhamra port, which is close to the missile testing range
at Wheeler Islands, said officer-in-charge of Rajnagar police station Alok
Ranjan Ray. .....
-
by T V R Shenoy
Sonia Gandhi happened to visit
Tirupati during her campaign for the 1999 general election. While in the
famous temple town, she chose to go to the famous Hindu sanctuary in the
Seven Hills. .....
-
by Sudha Ramachandran
A longtime supporter of Myanmar's
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, India has welcomed her release from
detention as a concrete step by the Myanmar government toward achieving
lasting peace and tranquility in the country. India has consistently advocated
reconciliation and moves toward restoration of democracy, a spokesperson
from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said last week. .....
-
by Christina B Rocca
Thank you for those kind words,
Bob. We in Washington know how fortunate we are to have you here as American
Ambassador to India. You are doing a superb job and you personally have
done so much to push this bilateral relationship forward. .....
-
by Dr Farzana Bari
Rape victim Zafran Bibi was sentenced
to death by stoning by a session court in Kohat under Hudood Laws for alleged
adultery. This tragic case once again exposes the tyranny of Hudood Laws
for women. Ever since its promulgation in 1980, the law has been subject
to gross misinterpretation and misuse due to its inherent flaws and the
misogyny of our judiciary and the society. .....
-
by Arvind Lavakare
It is on record that 'at least
twice in the Constituent Assembly efforts were made to make a specific
mention of the principle of secularism in the Constitution. For example,
an amendment had sought to ensure that no law could be made which discriminates
between man and man on the basis of religion, or applies to adherents of
any one religion and leaves others untouched. All such amendments were
summarily rejected by Dr Ambedkar. .....
-
by Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Two Pakistan militants belonging
to the Lashkar-E-Toiba (LeT), including an accused in the Red Fort shootout
case, were killed in an encounter with the Delhi police last evening. .....
-
by M.V. Kamath
Scoops, such as they are, don't
usually fall into the prayerful journalist's computer lap. They are sometimes,
if not more often than one realises, the result of somebody wishing to
damage the reputations of a party or a government. .....
-
by V P Bhatia
The Secularist Media has virtually
become a mouthpiece of Jamaat-e-Islami and its Pakistani patrons in its
misrepresentation of the Hindu counter-offensive. .....
-
by The Times of India
India needs no lessons in secularism
from the West because secularism is part of the innate message of Bhagwan
Mahavir's philosophy of non-violence and tolerance, Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee said on Thursday .....
-
by Rashmee Z Ahmed
Some days after the election successes
of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Britain is fearful that the
far-right British National Party (BNP) might make gains in next month's
local authority elections. .....
-
by BBC News
At least 30 people have been killed
in Indian- administered Kashmir as suspected separatists attacked an army
camp. .....
-
by Priyadarsi Dutta
What brownie points will someone
who claims to have mastered German by learning English, earn? Well, before
you dismiss that as drivel, listen to his arguments-all but three letters
of the alphabet are the same in the two languages. That is not really ridiculous,
since Hindu pseudo-secularists are practising this, as it were, day-in
and day-out. .....
-
by The Telegraph
Terror struck in the posh Patliputra
Colony area last evening after a Coca-Cola bottling plant here was bombed
by a mysterious "swadeshi" outfit, which left behind leaflets claiming
a "bin Laden-Coke pact" to flood India with "foreign consumer items". .....
-
by intelligenceonline.net
Myanmar's efforts to stop the influx
of Muslim fundamentalists from Bangladesh along their 273-km-long common
border has suffered a setback following the Khalida Zia government's refusal
to accept the border agreement signed three years ago, diplomats said.
.....
-
by Rajeev Srinivasan
The events in Gujarat recently
have been extremely deplorable. Nobody covered themselves with glory. The
murders in Godhra were an outrage, a crime against humanity. The riots
that followed were also a crime against humanity. The perpetrators should
be found, tried and punished forthwith. And the State failed miserably
in its duty and responsibility of protecting its citizens and of dealing
with the criminals. .....
-
by RSF Network
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters
Sans Frontières - RSF) and the Bangladesh Centre for Development,
Journalism and Communication (BCDJC) protested today against new organised
attacks on the media by government supporters, calling for them to stop
and for those responsible to be punished. "The government¹s press
freedom policy has proved to be totally ineffective to judge by these renewed
attacks on journalists directly involving militant supporters of the ruling
party," said RSF secretary-general Robert Ménard in a joint letter
to Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. "The government must end the impunity
enjoyed by those, including its own camp, who physically attack journalists,"
said the president of the BCDJC. .....
-
by ZENIT.org-Avvenire
A leading figure of the Catholic
Church in Pakistan, said that the country is not the bastion of fundamentalism
that Western media would lead one to believe. .....
-
by Balbir K Punj
I must congratulate the Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII) for organising a discussion on Gujarat at its
annual conference recently. I also thank the organisation for inviting
the BJP to participate in it. This purely industrial confederation is taking
a deep interest in the burning political and social issues of the day,
and has made a welcome departure from the problems of business that are
normally discussed at its prestigious annual conference. .....
-
by M V Kamath
One question that keeps recurring
on the recent riots is the role of the opposition parties and the indifference,
if not total cowardice, they showed during all those grim incidents. 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 has
a centre for Islamic studies, the funding of which remains a mystery. .....
-
by Organiser
The Hindus in Bangladesh are facing
an organised attack from the supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and some allied religio-political outfits.
Reportedly, the attack is political in nature as the Hindus there are labelled
as supporters of the Awami League (AL). .....
-
by Davinder Kumar
In what is being considered in
legal circles as a case that will have far-reaching ramifications, an 11-member
bench of the Supreme Court is hearing the contentious issue of the rights
of the minorities to run and administer educational institutions in the
country. .....
-
by PTI
In a major terrorist attack by
a suicide squad today on an army camp and a civilian bus in Jammu Division,
34 people, most of them armymen and their family members, were killed.
.....
-
by Sally Buzbee
The United States would like Pakistan
to do more to hunt any al-Qaida fighters finding refuge along the country's
lawless border with Afghanistan. But at a time when the United States depends
on Pakistan's president for many things - from countering an internal radical
Islamic threat to averting a nuclear crisis with India - U.S. officials
praise the help they get and are leery of publicly pushing for more. .....
-
by The Hindu
In a significant development, which
should bring relief to the Adilabad police, elders of 18 tribal villages
in Asifabad police station limits have passed a resolution banning the
entry of the outlawed People's War Group naxals into the villages. .....
-
by B. Muralidhar Reddy
Alarmed over recent incidents of
terrorism, the Pakistan Government has decided to launch a crackdown on
illegal immigrants. .....
-
by Syed Liaquat Ali
Fearing legal entry of militants
into Jammu and Kashmir, the Vajpayee government has demanded the abrogation
of the controversial Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act. .....
-
by The Hindu
Mild tension prevailed in Kaladera
locality under Chaderghat police station limits on Sunday evening when
a group of youngsters belonging to one community attacked the houses of
the people belonging to another community and inflicted minor injuries
on six persons. .....
-
by A Chalomumbai Correspondent
Two persons were killed, one in
police firing, and at least 53 injured including a police superintendent,
as communal clashes broke out in tribal dominated Nandurbar in Maharashtra
today compelling authorities to impose curfew in the township. .....
-
by David Von Drehle
The sheer number of suicide belt-bombers
attacking Israel this spring, and the diversity of their backgrounds, has
increased fear among terrorism experts that the tactic will be exported
to the United States. .....
-
by The Hindustan Times
Some 500 Maoist rebels stormed
a Sanskrit university in west Nepal, set the building on fire and destroyed
office records, an official said on Monday. .....
-
by Vijay Dutt
British Minister for Europe Peter
Hain has warned that Muslim immigration and the backlash against it poses
a greater danger than racism and tensions arising from it. .....
-
by Amit Bhattacharya
Away from the media-hogging Ram
temple controversy, the holy town of Ayodhya has quietly been nurturing
a legend of a different kind. Like the legend of Ram, this too can be traced
to ancient times. But unlike the temple discord, it sends out a message
of unity and brotherhood. .....
-
by Dina Nath Mishra
I would like to begin my column
this week with a quotation from a collection of articles of Mahatma Gandhi
from Young India of 1928, named 'to the Hindus and Muslims'. This is to
explain tradition of Hindu-Muslim relations in certain parts of Gujarat
even in those days when there was no RSS presence barring in the city of
Nagpur. The question of VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP presence etc did not arise.
In fact Godhra with half of its population being Muslim had a long history
anti-Hindu offensive. .....
-
by Usha Bande
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, one .JT\of
the great reformers of renaissance India has commanded respect to the point
of veneration and has been acclaimed as a Versatile presence on the Indian
Historical firmament. All his life, he fought to reform the society because
he believed that social and religious reform was the very foundation of
political advancement. A harbinger of the idea of universal humanism, an
apostle of monotheism, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, an advocate of
the freedom of the press and a champion of women's cause, "Ram Mohan Roy
was indeed, what Gopal Krishna Gokhale called him, 'the maker of modem
India'. .....
-
by Andrew Marshall
'Bush Is Still Winning War There,
but He Begins to Lose Battle Here," said the headline in yesterday's New
York Times. The assumption that the United States is at least winning There
is widespread, and with good reason. US forces brought down the Taliban
regime in Afghanistan with terrific speed. And yet the apparent success
of the military strategy is illusory. That, as American officials and generals
know all too well, is why the conflict will go on for years, and why Winning
There is as far away as ever. .....
-
by Charlotte Edwardes and Chris
Hastings
Leaders of an allegedly moderate
Muslim organisation with close links to the Prince of Wales and Tony Blair,
the Prime Minister, have distributed literature on behalf of Osama bin
Laden. .....
-
by Satiricus
Time was when Satiricus was happy
being a Hindu. In those good old communal days it was simple. It did not
exercise his grey cells. Alas, not any more. Now Hindu Satiricus has to
grapple with two quite complex questions that have fairly flummoxed him.
They are- even if his claim of being a Hindu was accepted, is he a representative
Hindu, or is he a representing Hindu? That is, which Hindus does he represent?
Conversely, which Hindus represent him? Take the VHP. .....
-
by Pradeep Kumar
Inaugurating the delegate session
of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) at Kozhikode in Kerala recently,
the Union Minister of State for Home, Vidyasagar Rao said that madrasas
in Kerala were serving as bases for ISI agents to operate from. .....
-
by 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 and all Opposition parties and the cowardice
that they showed during all those grim hours of wanton killing. Presuming
that the rioters were all people belonging to the RSS and the VHP cadres
and, by definition fascist Hindus, what, for god's sake, were the Hindus
in die Congress and Opposition parties doing when they knew that blood
was being shed in the streets, that Muslim women were being raped, Muslim
children were being burnt and Muslim homes were being torched? .....
-
by Khajuria S. Kant
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international
vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore gave a call to Hindus to stand united
in fighting the Islamic fundamentalists. The VHP leader was at Jammu on
a two-day visit to take stock of the situation after the terrorist attack
on the Raghunath Temple. .....
-
by Organiser
Within hours of Jammu-Kashmir's
Director General of Police boasting of police successes in containing terrorism,
another gory massacre took place in the remote Arnas area of Udhampur district
in Jammu division with the security agencies unable to nab the killer.
.....
-
by Organiser
BJP's National Executive has unanimously
supported the Gujarat chief Minister Narendra Modi for putting a brave
front to fight Islamic fundamentalism in his State. The National Executive
advised Shri Modi for the dissolution of the Assembly and to seek a fresh
mandate to govern keeping in view the situation in the State. .....
-
by Shyam Bhatia and Tom Walker
The Pakistani army mobilised its
nuclear arsenal against India in 1999 without the knowledge of its prime
minister, a senior White House adviser at the time has disclosed. .....
-
by Dr R L Bhat
Civilized societies live by dialogue,
uncivil ones by the brute force. In earlier time that force was wielded
with clubs and stones. In the modern times it is bombs, bullets and rockets.
But the impatience and intolerance of the others' viewpoint is the same
as it was in the times when the advanced instruments of death were unknown.
Yet the barbarian had one defense; he did not have any other way. The uncivil
by definition does not know, does not have the advantage of a civilized
way of life. He is forced by his circumstances to wield the club and stone.
.....
-
by BBC News
A rocket has been fired at a vocational
school in Pakistan where US special forces were believed to be staying
as they continue their search for al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, a local
official said. .....
-
by J. N. Raina
The continuing communal outrage
in Gujarat is ostensibly an extremism of 12-year-old Pakistan-sponsored
proxy war in India. Let there be no doubt about it. The hydra-headed
(communal) monster is not going ton sleep like a long. The plot has
been well orchestrated to humiliate India in the comity of nations. .....
-
by B L Kak
The United States has made it clear
to Pakistan that it does not want any kind of support to or leniency towards
the militants and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Washington's latest
message, precisely, calls for " prompt and potent" steps by Islamabad in
this regard. .....
-
by Satnarayan Maharaj
In a letter to the editor published
in another daily newspaper, Anand Arnold of Curepe condemned me for statements
I made during a Ramayan Yagna at the El Dorado South Hindu School on February
23. .....
-
by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Recently we found in the leading
English papers and weeklies, the writings of the so called enlightened
and eminent thinkers and journalists about the tolerance, secularism and
universalism of the Hindus and vehemently condemning those who violently
reacted to the Godhra carnage. Some have expressed surprise that the people
belonging to Gandhi's land have reacted so violently against the massacre
of some 'Hindu extremists' including some old men, women and children,
who perpetrated the crime of raising a 'fanatic' and 'fundamentalist' slogan
that they will build Ram Temple at Ram's birthplace. .....
-
by Charles Krauthammer
Europe's great religious wars ended
in 1648. Three and a half centuries is a long time, too long for us in
the West to truly believe that people still slaughter others to vindicate
the faith. .....