This Months Article

Starting: Fri December 1, 2000
Ending: Sun December 31, 2000

Messages: 203

• Pakistan-Kashmir Caucus
• www.islamicsupremecouncil.org, December, 2000
>>> In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, with Praise and Peace on our Beloved Prophet, His Family and Companions. ......
 
• Buddhism makes a comeback in India
• Francois Gautier, Rediff on Net, December 1, 2000
>>> There is little doubt that Buddha came at a time where Hinduism had got bogged down in too much philosophical talk, rituals and casteism -- it would need much later a Shankaracharya to give it again a new impetus -- and Buddhism offered a simple way out of human misery to anybody, whatever their caste and social status. ......
 
• Militants kill four kids in Kashmir: AFP
• Rediff on Net, December 2, 2000
>>> Militants shot dead four children in Kashmir, an army official said Saturday. ......
 
• US Lawmaker Backtracks From Anti-India Statement
• The Times of India, December 3, 2000
>>> One of the most influential and respected African American US lawmakers has written to President Bill Clinton dissociating himself from a letter sent to the president by a bipartisan group of 20 legislators urging him to declare India a terrorist state. ......
 
• Hung(a)ry for Sanskrit
• Priya Jestin, The Times of India, December 3, 2000
>>> There’s a small land-locked nation in faraway Europe whose people mouth Sanskrit shlokas and devour Kalidasa’s Shankutala and Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda.  Unbelievable? Probably, but Hungary is really like that.  Though most Indians don’t know much about it, this is a land where the Vedas and Upanishads have been religiously read for the past two centuries. ......
 
• ‘Don’t invite the likes of Mani.  If you must, limit them to two pegs’ (interview – Amar Singh)
• Sakina Yusuf Khan, The Times of India, December 3, 2000
>>> None of the Capital’s glitterati was prepared for the extremely ugly exchanges that took place at a social evening last month between Congress MP Mani Shankar and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh.  Starting off as a wordy duel, it degenerated into a physical one, much to the embarrassment of all present. ......
 
• Crystal belle
• Vitusha Oberoi, Mid-Day, December 3, 2000
>>> Nobody shall harm me before my time comes, and nobody shall save me when my time does come.” says astrologer Marjorie Orr, her mauve stain shirt flapping in the wind as she balances herself on a deceptively narrow ledge at the top of Jantar Mantar’s spiralling steps. ......
 
• Tolerance in Hinduism
• Ashok Chowgule, Mid-Day, December 3, 2000
>>> “The myths of ‘Hindu tolerance’ and ‘Indian inclusiveness’ have been questioned before..  Those familiar with Indian myths know that destruction as well as creation and preservation has been a recurring theme.  If the god Bramha is thought of as the creator and Vishnu as the preserver, it is also true that Siva and Kali are thought of as destroyers.  In the Bhagavadgita, Arjuna is instructed by Krishna that it is his duty as a kshatriya to fight and that it is better to do that, however poorly, than to someone else’s dharma well.” ......
 
• ‘Situation in PoK worse than in J&K’
• PTI, Times of India, December 4, 2000
>>> Some leaders from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have said the people in PoK were "worse-off" than their brethren in Jammu and Kashmir and blamed Pakistan for using the area for its "own vested interests". ......
 
• For BJP all religions are equal: Advani
• Deepak Sharma, The Pioneer, December 4, 2000
>>> The story of the day in Ajmer was not Union Home Minister L K Advani's visit to the Pushkar temples.  Rather, it was his surprise appearance at one of the holiest of Muslim shrines --- the Dargah of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. ......
 
• A surprise: Advani prays at Ajmer dargah
• Bisheshwar Mishra, The Times of India, December 4, 2000
>>> Ajmer - Politics never ceases to amaze.  Home Minister L K Advani on Sunday prayed at Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti's dargah here.  The local Muslims were ecstatic and thronged the dargah in huge numbers to watch the spectacle. ......
 
• Ceasefire: a suspension of judgment
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 4, 2000
>>> The death toll since Prime Minister Hajpayee's announcement of the unilateral ceasefire during aaarrrrgghhhh...  "the holy month of" Ramzan: 6 Hindu labourers abducted and shot dead by Lashkar-e-Taiba; 4 Sikh and 1 Hindu truckers shot dead by Hizb-ul Mujahideen; 4 soldiers of 32 RR; 7 civilians; 8 soldiers of the Indian Army; 1 head constable; and 4 children, aged 3 to 15 years, pulverised in grenade blasts.  This, of course, is not remotely a complete list. ......
 
• Surrendered ultra says there are about 400 Fidayeens in J&K
• Dinesh Manhotra, The Daily Excelsior, December 4, 2000
>>> Even as the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has announced unilateral cease-fire in the holy month of Ramzan to bring peace and tranquility, Pakistan, on the other hand, has intensified efforts to infiltrate maximum number of Fidayeens to escalate violence in the State. ......
 
• Kashmir : countdown to annexation
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, December 5, 2000
>>> Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s current offer of a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir has so drastically and qualitatively altered the ground reality against India that one cannot but fear that the countdown to the formal annexation of the state by Pakistan has begun. ......
 
• The great betrayal
• Ram Gopal, BJP Today, December 1-15, 2000
>>> In your editorial, you have expressed the view that the Congress behaviour towards Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel smacked of paranoia, even after your academic friend had explained to you that the Congress behaviour was not psychological but was real politic. ......
 
• BJP’s concern at bomb blast in Kerala
• BJP Today, December 1-15, 2000
>>> THE Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed grave concern at the incident of five CPI-M workers seriously injured in a bomb explosion at their party office at Kannur (Cannanore) on Sunday, November 12. ......
 
• Crystal belle
• Vitusha Oberoi, Mid-Day, December 3, 2000
>>> Nobody shall harm me before my time comes, and nobody shall save me when my time does come.” says astrologer Marjorie Orr, her mauve stain shirt flapping in the wind as she balances herself on a deceptively narrow ledge at the top of Jantar Mantar’s spiralling steps. ......
 
• The Terror Within
• The Indian Express, December 3, 2000
>>> He could he your neighbour, vegetable vendor or worse even your plumber.  Deep in the soul of this city, a low-intensity war involving hardcore agents of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) inextricably linked to the local underworld is being waged. ......
 
• Pakistani Hindu Community will boycott the local elections
• Punjab Kesari, December 3, 2000
>>> The Pakistani Hindu community has decided to boycott the local elections.  These residents of the southern sector of Sindh province are opposing the electoral system that deprives the minorities of its voting rights. ......
 
• ABVP wins; Leftists shown the door
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> The Red bastion has fallen and students say a “political earthquake” made it.  The one vote victory of Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) has sent Leftist-leftovers packing.  “It is a victory of nationalist forces”, said Sandeep as the results were announced. ......
 
• Cruelty thy name is SFI
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> Can an ideology make man a beast? It seems yes.  Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has proved it once again.  In a bizzare incident in Kerala the lumpens of SFI have turned the back of student leader, Nishad, into a billboard and branded the words ‘SFI’ with knives on it. ......
 
• Training camp for village poojaris
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> The 15-day residential training camp for village temple poojaris organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Rameswaram was inaugurated on November 13 by His Holiness Shri Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.  Shri S.  Vedantam, international vice-president of VHP welcomed Swamiji at the entrance of Goswami Mutt, a multi-service complex of the Parishad where the camp was held. ......
 
• The Jnyaneshwari: Where two religions meet
• Yogesh Pawar, The Indian Express, December 3, 2000
>>> Call it a synthesis of all that is beautiful in Hinduism and Christianity or simply baulk at it as another attempt to bridge the twain that even Samuel Langhorne Clemens felt could not be bridged.  You can love or hate Fr Felix Machado’s treatise on Sant Jnyaneshwar’s Jnyaneshwari depending on where you sit on the saffron spectrum but you cannot ignore it. ......
 
• Hindus: majority yet minority
• Francois Gautier, The Indian Express, December 4, 2000
>>> Hindus, who comprise the majority population of India, boasts of one the oldest cultures of the world.  Sanskrit is often thought as the mother of all languages; Hindu philosophy has to considerably fashioned Greek mythology and Celticlore (as demonstrated by French Indianist Guy Deleury); and these two traditions represent the foundation of all European culture. ......
 
• No Separation of Mosque and State
• Chuck Baldwin, CNN News, December 5, 2000
>>> The cat is finally out of the bag.  Children may pray and worship in public school - but only if they are Muslims. ......
 
• Ayodhya movement was akin to freedom struggle: BJP
• Neena Vyas, The Hindu, December 5, 2000
>>> The ``people's movement'' led by Mr.  L.K.  Advani, now Union Home Minister, for building a Ram temple at Ayodhya which led to the destruction of the Babri Masjid was today compared by the Bharatiya Janata Party to the ``freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders like Lokmanya Tilak and Subhas Chandra Bose.'' ......
 
• Militants raid Hindu Ashram
• The Telegraph, December 5, 2000
>>> Barely 24 hours after desecrating an ashram set up by slain religious leader Shanti Kumar Tripura, militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura raided another ashram at Jirania Khola yesterday and asked the inmates to stop all Hindu rituals and practices. ......
 
• Two more CRPF men killed in Kashmir; another suicide attack foiled
• The Indian Express, December 5, 2000
>>> Two more CRPF jawans were killed today morning in the ongoing encounter with militants inside its camp in Anantnag district, even as the Army foiled another attempt by militants to storm its post in north Kashmir, official sources said here. ......
 
• US panel tells Bush India emerging as "great power," Pakistan going down the tubes
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Indian Express, December 6, 2000
>>> A Bush White House should acknowledge India's progress towards becoming a major Asian power and engage it on a much larger canvas than South Asia, a bipartisan panel of influential foreign policy analysts has advised presumptive President-elect George W.Bush. ......
 
• Christians killed in Indonesia for refusing to convert to Islam
• The Herald, December 6, 2000
>>> Muslims have slaughtered a total 93 Christians since last week on a small island of the Maluku chain for refusing to convert to Islam, a church activist said today quoting a survivor. ......
 
• PM rejects demand for Ministers' resignation in Ayodhya case
• PTI, The Hindu, December 6, 2000
>>> Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today rejected as unjustified the Opposition demand for resignation of three chargesheeted Ministers including L K Advani, saying Ayodhya was no issue to quit because temple construction was an expression of national feeling which was yet to be realised. ......
 
• Pak CEO warns Vajpayee over Kashmir
• The Indian Express, December 6, 2000
>>> Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday demanded a response from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Islamabad's latest offer of dialogue over Kashmir. ......
 
• Basu for Family, never mind Party!
• C R Irani, The Statesman, December 6, 2000
>>> IN a Caveat a few days ago, I had warned Buddhadev Bhattacharya not to silently suffer the burdens so wantonly thrust upon him - designed to discredit him as being unfit for the job, to being unable even to protect people in his own constituency, in order to prepare the ground for a call to Jyoti Basu to return to the wild applause of acolytes like Subhas Chakraborty and those nearer home like family and Advocate-General. ......
 
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: December 2000 edition
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, December 7, 2000
>>> I have been alternatively encouraged, saddened, and entertained by the goings-on in India recently.  I am encouraged that the Indian government is, at long last, taking baby steps towards engaging ASEAN, including Myanmar. ......
 
• 27 persons mowed down in Assam
• Rediff on Net, December 7, 2000
>>> In another cold-blooded strike against Hindi-speaking people in Assam, suspected United Liberation Front of Asom militants gunned down 27 persons and seriously wounded 15 others in the Sadiya-Tezu road in remote Sunpura forest in Tinsukia district Thursday evening, police said. ......
 
• Memorial for first Indian settlers planned - South Africa
• Fakir Hassen, India Abroad, December 7, 2000
>>> A  call to erect a memorial to the first Indian settlers who came to this South African city in 1860 and their 1.2 million descendants at the Point here has been made by a heritage foundation here.  The Malaysian developer of a huge commercial project at the Point, Rocpoint, said it is still considering a proposal submitted by the 1860 Heritage Foundation for the erection of a monument. ......
 
• Collaborating on issuing denials
• M K Dhar, The Pioneer, December 7, 2000
>>> Washington assumes too much by asserting that China will honour its commitment not to supply nuclear capable missiles or components in future.  China is committed now to further improve and reinforce its export control system covering ban on dual use items under its missile non-proliferation policy. ......
 
• Pakistan Improves Nuclear Command and Control System
• www.stratfor.com, December 7, 2000
>>> Pakistan’s National Command Authority held its second meeting in Rawalpindi Nov.  27 at the Strategic Plans Division, The Nation reported.  Pakistan's Chief Executive Gen.  Pervez Musharraf, who leads the NCA, chaired the meeting.  During this last session, the NCA made decisions to consolidate its nuclear weapons management system. ......
 
• ULFA in the grip of ISI -- Surrendered militant
• Ens & Agencies, The Indian Express, December 7, 2000
>>> A high-ranking ULFA militant who surrendered along with 160 others today, said that the the banned separatist organisation was in the grip of Pakistan's ISI. ......
 
• PM rejects demand for ministers’ resignation
• The Economic Times, December 7, 2000
>>> In what appears to be a significant defence of the Ayodhya movement - which formed part of the BJP’s political Hindutva campaign - Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the efforts to construct a temple were an ‘expression of national feeling’.  Mr Vajpayee also rejected the opposition’s demand for resignation of the three Union ministers - L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati. ......
 
• Jihad culture: an American view
• Prof Khalid Mahmud, Dawn, Karachi, December 2, 2000
>>> While the Indians have been telling the world that Pakistan is the mother of terrorism in the region, the scare of Islamic fundamentalist forces becoming unmanageable and posing a threat to the status quo in and around Pakistan has been causing anxiety in the western capitals. ......
 
• Pakistan’s Afghan neighboures: When your home is mine
• Ijaz Hussain, The Asian Age, December 2, 2000
>>> Following the entry of 30,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan during the last two months and the threat of their unabated influx in the days to come, particularly the expected flow of about half a million more during the next 45 days, the government of Pakistan on November 9 imposed a ban on the entry of all Afghans into Pakistan without valid travel documents. ......
 
• Cruelty thy name is SFI
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> Can an ideology make man a beast? It seems yes.  Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has proved it once again.  In a bizzare incident in Kerala the lumpens of SFI have turned the back of student leader, Nishad, into a billboard and branded the words ‘SFI’ with knives on it. ......
 
• ABVP wins; Leftists shown the door
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> The Red bastion has fallen and students say a “political earthquake” made it.  The one vote victory of Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) has sent Leftist-leftovers packing.  “It is a victory of nationalist forces”, said Sandeep as the results were announced. ......
 
• Training camp for village poojaris
• The Organiser, December 3, 2000
>>> The 15-day residential training camp for village temple poojaris organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Rameswaram was inaugurated on November 13 by His Holiness Shri Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. ......
 
• Hizb asks India not to rake up 'frivolous' issue of infiltration
• The Times of India, December 4, 2000
>>> Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen on Monday asked New Delhi not to rake up the "frivolous issue" of infiltration of militants on the Line of Control but take concrete steps to resolve the basic issue of Kashmir. ......
 
• Na Khuda Hi Mila Na Wisaal-E-Sanam
• M.J. Akbar, The Asian Age, December 4, 2000
>>> Q: Let’s start with the recent attack on Nawa-e-Waqt in Karachi. Who did it?
A: There are many reports regarding the bomb attack. Different agencies, law enforcement and security agencies are presenting different pictures. ......
 
• Pallone tells India, Pak to protect Kashmiri Pandits
• The Times of India, December 6, 2000
>>> A leading Congressman who has been championing the cause of Kashmiri Pandits has called on both India and Pakistan to protect the minority Hindu community in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir from continuing assaults. ......
 
• ISI agent held in Delhi, 10 kg RDX seized
• The Times of India, December 6, 2000
>>> In a major catch, sleuths of the military intelligence and Delhi Police have nabbed a Pakistani ISI agent assigned the task of gathering sensitive information about the Indian Army and seized explosives, including 10 kg of RDX, and several incriminating letters from him. ......
 
• Five killed, 36 injured on 10th day of ceasefire in Kashmir
• The Times of India, December 7, 2000
>>> Five people have been killed and 36 others injured in separatist-related violence in Kashmir, despite an ongoing unilateral ceasefire by the security forces, police said Thursday. ......
 
• Commentary: Political dynasties are thriving
• Steve Sailer, UPI, December 7, 2000
>>> The governor of Missouri appointed Jean Carnahan to fill the U.S.  Senate seat won on Nov.  7 by her late husband Mel Carnahan.  First lady Hillary Clinton drew hordes of photographers when she showed up on Capitol Hill to undergo the orientation for new senators. ......
 
• PM endorses Ram temple plan
• Navhind Times, December 7, 2000
>>> In perhaps his most categorical pronouncement ever on the Ayodhya controversy, the Prime Minister, Mr A B Vajpayee, on Wednesday not only firmly rejected demands for the resignations of three charge-sheeted BJP ministers but also endorsed the plan to erect a Ram Mandir on the disputed site. ......
 
• Collaborating on issuing denials
• M K Dhar, The Pioneer, December 7, 2000
>>> Washington assumes too much by asserting that China will honour its commitment not to supply nuclear capable missiles or components in future.  China is committed now to further improve and reinforce its export control system covering ban on dual use items under its missile non-proliferation policy. ......
 
• Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister and Family Ordered Exiled to Saudi Arabia
• Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press, December 9, 2000
>>> Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been released from jail and exiled to Saudi Arabia, the military government said early Sunday, more than a year after it toppled his administration in a coup.  "This decision has been taken in the best interest of the country and people of Pakistan," the government said in an official statement carried by the state-run news agency. ......
 
• In coastal Gujarat, a new catch: Brahmins
• Milind Ghatwai, The Indian Express, December 9, 2000
>>> I am a Brahmin by Karma,” says Jairambhai Shankar Keni of Dehri village, who has come to attend the 80th birth anniversary celebrations of Pandurang Shastri Athawale on the banks of Narmada river.  “Most Brahmins don’t know much about the Vedas but I do,” he says proudly, pointing to the sacred thread peeping out of his shirt.  Not many can dispute that argument though Keni is just a fisherman. ......
 
• Ideologically secure
• Rakesh Sinha, The Hindustan Times, December 11, 2000
>>> A debate has been sparked off by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assertion last week that the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya where the Babri mosque once stood was the "expression of national sentiment which remains unfinished". ......
 
• Ayodhya and ‘Khalistan’: the link betwixt
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 11, 2000
>>> Despite the Kashmir ceasefire, Ayodhya, as always, has edged everything else off the mastheads.  This year, as always, the fracas began two days before the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition (the rest of the year, the "hurt" feelings are inconsequential). ......
 
• Heritage hushed up
• Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, December 12, 2000
>>> One night during the monsoon of 1991, the rain was so heavy that it washed away the wall that was concealing the frontage of the Bijamandal mosque raised by Aurangzeb in 1682. ......
 
• Ayodhya again!
• Saisuresh Sivaswamy, Rediff on Net, December 12, 2000
>>> Ayodhya, to most Indians, is a divine city thanks to its association with the legend.  And given the force of belief, it is immaterial whether this was the actual geographical entity that Ram presided over, just as it is irrelevant whether Jesus Christ really performed those miracles attributed to him or if Prophet Mohamed was all that legend tells us he was.  Belief, often, transcends everything, and where such belief is not maleficent, it really shouldn't be of concern to anyone. ......
 
• “Communist” leaders back privatisation
• Sarah Glynn, www.socialist.net
>>> While the streets of Seattle may have dragged some of the issues surrounding liberalisation into a wider public consciousness, the newly elected right wing Indian government, supported by the main Congress opposition, is driving full steam ahead with its programme of economic reform. ......
 
• Coke, Pepsi face coconut water revolution
• Rasheeda Bhagat, The Hindu, December 6, 2000
>>> In an interesting offshoot of the ‘boycott palm oil’ drive in some districts of North Kerala, over 4000 college students in this town in Kozhikode district are now saying “No thank you” to Coke, Pepsi and other bottled drinks. ......
 
• Amendments of contention
• Neerja Chowdhury, The Indian Express, December 9, 2000
>>> Did you know that a Christian man can divorce his wife on grounds of adultery, but she cannot get a divorce unless she proves him to be both adulterous and cruel or adulterous and incestuous at the same time? ......
 
• Protest by Afghan women leads to violence in Islamabad
• The Associated Press, December 11, 2000
>>> Pakistani police fired tear gas and beat protesters with steel-tipped sticks during a demonstration Sunday against Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers and their policies on women. ......
 
• Equality of Idiocy
• Ayaz Amir, The Asian Age, December 11, 2000
>>> In Chakwal, which I am increasingly loth to leave as the years roll by, I am ready to go to bed after an early dinner.  If I have the energy I have my daily fix of Pakistan Television’s hit show, the nine o’clock news, which I try not to miss because the sight of the Chief Executive and the President of the Republic performing their routine functions (cutting tapes and so on) I find reassuring, the way I find the coming out of the stars and the waxing and waning of the moon reassuring.  After that and a bit of reading it is lights out for me. ......
 
• Bin Laden t-shirt enrages Nike
• BBC News, December 12, 2000
>>> Not content with stealing Nike's name, trademark pirates are using it to glorify America's most wanted international fugitive, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. ......
 
• ‘Get Back POK’
• Arvind Lavkare, Rediff on Net, December 12, 2000
>>> Even as fidayeens or IEDs killed or crippled our security forces as well as civilians while Vajpayee in Delhi kept playing his fiddle of J&K cease-fire, a bunch of people sowed the seeds in Mumbai of an exceptional movement called "Get Back POK." In concept, it's a daring movement the like of which one cannot quite recall in the last 53 years since Pakistan, courtesy the United Nations, merrily retained some 40 per cent of the territory it invaded and has ruled over ever since, having the cheek to call it "Azad Kashmir." ......
 
• Supreme Court Elects The President! Orchestrates “Velvet Legal Coup”
• Common Dreams, December 13, 2000
>>> Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.  today said, "As a U.S.  congressman I swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States.  Today I reaffirm that oath.  I also reaffirm that we are a nation of laws and not of men, thus, I accept and will abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court. ......
 
• U.S. Trains China for War ...  With U.S.
• NewsMax.com, December 13, 2000
>>> Chinese troops are being trained for war with the United States, using methods freely handed over to them by the U.S.  Army. ......
 
• China blows up hundreds of illegal ‘churches’
• David Rennie, The Telegraph, December 13, 2000
>>> Chinese authorities in the city of Wenzhou have torn down or blown up more than 200 illegal churches and temples. A further 239 small places of worship in the east coast city, many of them linked to the underground Roman Catholic church, have been forced to close. ......
 
• Ceaseless questions
• Anil Narendra, The Pioneer, December 14, 2000
>>> Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's announcement of unilateral ceasefire has not silenced the guns in Jammu & Kashmir as it was hoped.  The reasons are obvious. ......
 
• Security forces on high alert after 14 people killed in Kashmir
• CNN.com, December 14, 2000
>>> Security forces went on high alert in troubled Jammu-Kashmir state after 14 people were killed and 15 others injured in at least five separate attacks by suspected separatist militants, reports said Wednesday. ......
 
• China arming ULFA, Minister tells House
• The Indian Express, December 14, 2000
>>> India said on Wednesday that a senior separatist leader from the troubled North-East had revealed that his outfit had received arms from China and had contacts with the Chinese army. ......
 
• Chori Chori...Shakeel-conduit Rizvi held
• The Indian Express, December 14, 2000
>>> Rizvi, who's said to be Karachi-based don Chhota Shakeel's associate,has been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Control Act(MCOCA) 1999 after he was charged under Section 302 (read with Section 115),which means conspiracy to kill.  The other sections are 387, 120B read with3(1). ......
 
• ULFA is getting Chinese arms, Minister tells Parliament
• Reuters, The Indian Express, December 14, 2000
>>> India said on Wednesday that a senior separatist leader from the troubled North-East had revealed that his outfit had received arms from China and had contacts with the Chinese army. ......
 
• NYPD Apologizes Over Seizing Koran
• J.M. Menezes, Rediff on Net, December 14, 2000
>>> “People would die in defense of the holy book,” said Mujeeb Lodi, publisher of an ethnic weekly in New York, sadly shaking his head.  He was discussing the desecration of a few copies of the Koran in New York—and how it took the police nearly a week to apologize. ......
 
• China Defends Destroying Churches
• Catholic World News, December 14, 2000
>>> China's Communist government defended its campaign to destroy hundreds of churches in an eastern province on Thursday, claiming that the country actually seeks to protect religious freedom. ......
 
• Sonia fails to rise to the occasion again
• The Economic Times, December 14, 2000
>>> The leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi’s continuing silence in Parliament during the Ayodhya debate on Wednesday highlighted yet again the Congress party’s persistent crisis of leadership. ......
 
• No let-up in militant strikes in Kashmir
• Agencies, The Pioneer, December 15, 2000
>>> The security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are exercising utmost restraint in keeping with the cease-fire announced by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee but official figures show there has been no let-up in the militants' killing spree. ......
 
• For all, it’s bye-bye Babri structure
• Arati R. Jerath, Indian Express, December 15, 2000
>>> By the time the Ayodhya debate ended this evening, the Ram temple was back on the political agenda.  In fact, the two-day discussion did not see a single demand for the reconstruction of the mosque, not even a token one from G M Banatwala of the Indian Muslim League.  Instead, there seemed to be a consensus across the board that a temple be built in Ayodhya. ......
 
• On the road President Clinton lit
• Shobori Ganguli, The Pioneer, December 15, 2000
>>> Finally the United States has a President; more importantly, for India, the new President says the United States must pay more attention to India.  The road ahead? ......
 
• Lashkar tells Musharraf to grow beard, launch jihad
• India-Today, December 16, 2000
>>> The Lashkar-e-Toiba wants Pakistan Chief Executive Gen.  Pervez Musharraf to grow a beard in conformity with Muslim customs.  The Islamist party also wants the Pakistan Army to launch a jihad against India to resolve the Kashmir issue. ......
 
• 5 Muslims killed by China police
• Agencies, The Pioneer, December 16, 2000
>>> Five Chinese Muslims were shot dead and over 40 injured in a violent clash with police in Shandong province which erupted over an "insult" to the minority community, media reports said Friday. ......
 
• Surface-to-surface missile launcher seized in Anantnag
• The Daily Excelsior, December 16, 2000
>>> In a major success, Anantnag police assisted by Special Operations Group (SOG) and army today effected a huge haul of arms and ammunition including a surface-to-surface missile launcher during a series of raids conducted at different places since last evening. ......
 
• Hizbul Mujahideen claims 12 Indian troops killed in Kashmir
• Yahoo News, December 16, 2000
>>> Kashmir's key militant group Hizbul Mujahideen claimed its guerrillas in Indian Kashmir killed more than a dozen soldiers in attacks on two paramilitary camps on Friday. ......
 
• US should recognise India as strategic ally: Powell
• The Times of India, December 17, 2000
>>> United States secretary of state-designate Colin Powell strongly believes that his country should recognise India as a major regional power and strategic ally.  Powell accepted Goerge W Bush's nomination as secretary of state Saturday. ......
 
• There is no Kashmir solution
• Ayaz Amir, Dawn, December 18, 2000
>>> What thunderbolt must strike us from the heavens to realize that a Kashmir solution that can satisfy our concerns or preconceptions does not exist.  At least not in the realm of possibility. ......
 
• The AIDS bazaar
• Meena Menon, Humanscape, December 2000
>>> A recent report presented to the Maharashtra legislature stated that dozens of bogus NGOs are clambering onto the AIDS bandwagon.  Many of the organisations which have received funding for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention either don't exist, or do very little.  Are more people living off AIDS than dying of it? ......
 
• Health expenditure on disease control: Should AIDS be a priority?
• Humanscape, December 2000
>>> AIDS may continue to be the flavour of the month/year internationally.  But does that justify the fact that several Indian states allocate a much larger percentage of their health budget to HIV/AIDS than to other far more widespread diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis? ......
 
• The agenda behind the epidemic
• Parshuram Ray, Humanscape, December 2000
>>> A decade-and-a-half after the AIDS programme took off in India, there is no consensus even on the number of HIV-positive people in the country.  Figures vary wildly between 3.5 million to 100 million! Why do governmental and non-governmental organisations remain completely unaccountable? ......
 
• African alarm call
• Humanscape, December 2000
>>> In the US, official statistics show that the number of HIV-positive persons has not increased from 1 million since testing began and experts say the figure has now come down to between 6-8,00,000.  In UK also the official estimate of 23,000 HIV-positive cases nationwide is about one-half or a third of earlier estimates.  In Russia 30,000 were earlier estimated to be HIV-positive, but later only 66 were found to be so! ......
 
• The deadly HIV/AIDS industry
• Humanscape, December 2000
>>> HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest crises being faced by mankind today.  History tells us that whenever there has been a crisis there have also been those who have exploited the crisis.  HIV/AIDS is no exception to this historic truism.  The self-serving HIV/AIDS industry is very industriously exploiting the global HIV/AIDS crisis. ......
 
• NACO's brief
• Humanscape, December 2000
>>> In order to combat the onslaught of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Government of India established the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in 1992, as an executive body in the ministry of health and family welfare in New Delhi, to work for the prevention and control of AIDS in the country. ......
 
• ‘Christians are more indigenous than upper-caste Hindus’ (Interview)
• Parshuram Ray, Humanscape, December 2000
>>> T K Oommen, writer and professor of sociology, whose study of The Christian Clergy in India has just been published, discusses the thorny issue of conversion and points out why the issue of indigenising Christians or the Christian church is a contradiction in terms ......
 
• Letter from America
• Siddhartha, Humanscape, December 2000
>>> It's fall and the trees are a riot of yellow and red.  I'm at the Centre for International Education, University of Massachusetts, Northampton.  I was invited here to give a talk titled `Beyond Paulo Freire'.  It was unusual to be asked by a US university (the five colleges in the area, including Smith College) to speak on Freire just when I had begun to feel, rather regretfully, that he was almost forgotten. ......
 
• Reactions to the Supreme Court's go-ahead on the Sardar Sarovar Project
• Safia Sircar, Humanscape, December 2000
>>> Q.: How does the Supreme Court decision affect the people's struggle?
A.: It has been a big blow to the people.  It is an injury in itself.  The decision is absolutely illegal and unconstitutional. ......
 
• Enticing the Muslim vote-bank
• T N Khanna, The Pioneer, December 6, 2000
>>> Ever since 1977, BJP's fortune in the Parliament had been rising; and by 1996 it covered enough ground to emerge as the single largest party, albeit short of absolute majority. ......
 
• ‘We would rather die than go back’
• Rediff on Net, December 8, 2000
>>> When Partition occurred, many Muslims left India for Pakistan and many Hindus left Pakistan for India. ......
 
• ‘When one is a Hindu one lives in constant fear’
• Rediff on Net, December 9, 2000
>>> Every day, in Kahnaur, Indian relatives hear tales of woe from their Pakistani relatives.  And, each time a new story is recounted, they cannot help but pray in gratitude for having the good sense to leave Pakistan after Partition. ......
 
• SAMHAIN: (Halloween)
• Arktion© Pagan Faith, December 12, 2000
>>> Greetings to thee and  thine! An important date in the cycle of life and the year is approaching and we  invite you to reflect upon its significance and indeed to join us in night of  spiritual regeneration. To assist you we have written  for you below some information on our Tradition. ......
 
• No money for mosques, says ex-minister
• Deccan Chronicle, December 12, 2000
>>> The Congress on Monday charged that the State government has released only Rs 1 crore to the Minorities Welfare Department of the total budget allocation of Rs 42 crore. ......
 
• Indian film producer's arrest bares mafia links
• Agence France-Presse, December 18, 2000
>>> The Indian film industry's mafia links have been exposed once again following the arrest of a leading movie producer last week. ......
 
• Bangla woos banned Khasi militant outfits
• Rahul Karmakar, The Hindustan Times, December 18, 2000
>>> The Meghalaya government is worried over Dhaka's courtship of two Khasi-Garo militant outfits, encouraging them to set up training camps in Bangladesh adjoining the West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills districts. ......
 
• Clinton's parting gift to Asia
• Brahma Chellaney, Rediff on Net, December 18, 2000
>>> It speaks volumes that just when the United States determined after years of deliberation that China had engaged in clandestine missile trade with Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Iran, it announced simultaneously that it was waiving its domestic-law requirement to impose economic sanctions. ......
 
• ISI backed dons holding Bollywood to ransom
• PTI, The Indian Express, December 18, 2000
>>> BJP members voiced serious concern in the Lok Sabha on Monday over the threats being extended by underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel to the Mumbai film industry and demanded that producers, directors and actors be provided security. ......
 
• What can you expect from a religion that worships cows?
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 18, 2000
>>> Two weeks ago, Bangladesh's foreign ministry lodged a formal complaint with its Indian counterpart against Mayer Dak, a newspaper published from Calcutta.  In a letter to the MEA, Bangladesh requested that the Government of India ban the newspaper since it's "spreading disinformation about Bangladesh in India and internationally." ......
 
• When war becomes dharma
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 18, 2000
>>> Two weeks ago, Bangladesh's foreign ministry lodged a formal complaint with its Indian counterpart against Mayer Dak, a newspaper published from Calcutta.  In a letter to the MEA, Bangladesh requested that the Government of India ban the newspaper since it's "spreading disinformation about Bangladesh in India and internationally." ......
 
• Hackers caught in security ‘honeypot’
• Keith Johnson, The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2000
>>> Security pros use HoneyNet Project to learn tricks of the hacking trade -- and raise corporate awareness. ......
 
• Ayodhya's Original Sinners: Part I
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, December 19, 2000
>>> Cowards, all of them.  Cowards --- from Chandra Shekhar to Somnath Chatterjee, from "Maulana" Mulayam to Mamta "Cry-baby", and from Jaipal Reddy to A B Vajpayee.  All of them blamed each other in last week's censure motion debate in Parliament on the Ayodhya event of December 6, 1992. ......
 
• Dump ‘rarest of rare crimes’ criteria
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, December 19, 2000
>>> By a cruel irony, India’s greatest woman leader, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, has become a yardstick for the denial of justice to women.  Invoking the criteria of the “rarest of rare crimes,” the Supreme Court recently commuted the Delhi High Court’s death sentence on a man who had raped and murdered an eighteen-month-old girl child. ......
 
• 63 civilians killed in first 20 days of ceasefire
• The Hindu, December 21, 2000
>>> Sixty-three civilians were killed and 183 others injured in 149 incidents of violence reported in Jammu and Kashmir during the first 20 days of Ramzan peace initiative of the Central Government, Rajya Sabha was told today. ......
 
• Details of incidents in Jammu region on the 24th day of ceasefire
• The India Express, December 22, 2000
>>> Nine people, including a National Conference activist and two Army jawans died in attacks by militants across Jammu and Kashmir today. ......
 
• Edward Said and Me
• Justus Reid Weiner, MEF Wire, December 22, 2000
>>> In September 1999, Commentary magazine published an article by Justus Reid Weiner, a scholar-in-residence with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which demonstrated that the autobiography of Edward Said, a University Professor at Columbia University, was fundamentally inaccurate. ......
 
• Persisting mystery
• R Krishna Kumar, Frontline, December 22, 2000
>>> Chekannur P.  K.  Mohammed Abdul Hassan Moulavi disappeared in July 1993.  The investigation into the abduction and possible murder of the Muslim scholar, orator, teacher and tenacious religious reformer, allegedly by fundamentalist elements within the community, has now reached another dead-end. ......
 
• Rewriting history
• Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd), Rediff on Net, December 23, 2000
>>> It is history revision time.  We have recently seen revised versions of the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.  An "official" history of 1971 has recently been published.  A large number of files and papers gathering dust in archives have now become available and a whole army of historians, researchers, investigative reporters and iconoclasts are out there pouring over every battle, legend and tradition. ......
 
• One Year After
• Josy Joseph, Rediff on Net, December 23, 2000
>>> There was a triumphal air to their march to freedom -- accompanied, in that sequence, by Research and Analysis Wing chief A S Daulat, then by Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh and, finally, by Taliban leaders and the hijackers themselves. ......
 
• Bombs shake 5 Indonesian churches; at least one dead
• Geoff Spencer, The Associated Press, December 24, 2000
>>> A series of bombs exploded Sunday outside five churches during Christmas Eve celebrations in Indonesia's capital, police said.  At least one man was killed and 16 others injured. ......
 
• Lashkar warns of more attacks like at Red Fort
• The Deccan Chronicle, December 24, 2000
>>> Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, has decided to sabotage the peace process with its attack on the Army camp at the Red Fort being intended as a warning to India that it ''should stop the drama of a ceasefire and talks.'' ......
 
• Ageing ex-Beatle chants Krishna once more
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Indian Express, December 24, 2000
>>> Filled with gloom and foreboding about the world, George Harrison is once again calling Lord Krishna. ......
 
• Arabs, Iranians call for death to Israel
• Middle East News Line, December 24, 2000
>>> Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites around the Middle East called for the destruction of Israel. ......
 
• A report on Coca-Cola name controversy
• Anand Soondas, The Telegraph, December 25, 2000
>>> After the controversy over racial discrimination, Coca-Cola is facing another public storm for an offence it may not even be aware of. ......
 
• Peace initiative in Kashmir - A Risky Gamble
• Shyam Khosla, Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> J&K BJP leader and Union Minister Chaman Lal is absolutely right when he points out that it is a misnomer to call suspension of anti-insurgency operations in J&K a ceasefire.  The Prime Minister did not call it a ceasefire when he announced his peace initiative.  It is indeed a media creation.  Journalists are always on the look out for catchy phrases to convey complex and complicated situations. ......
 
• Be wary of anti-Hindu-Sikh unity propaganda
• Mohanrao Bhagwat, Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> THE report that RSS had justified the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of Smt.  Indira Gandhi, came out in some newspapers published from Jammu is really shocking to the RSS.  “It is quite disappointing that the RSS, which was the only organisations in the forefront with the Sikh brethren in shouldering their trails and travails, is blamed for no reasons. ......
 
• A party in search of a future
• M. V. Kamnath, Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> What is wrong with the Congress is neither Sonia Gandhi nor Jitendra Prasada.  They are merely symptoms of the disease.  The disease remains undiagnosed entirely because nobody wants to face the truth.  The truth is that the party as a whole has no vision. ......
 
• The Indus Script and Horse Sense
• M.R. Mallya, Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> The attack on Rajaram and the scholars, who asserted the autochthonousness of the Aryans in the Saraswati-Sindhu belt, has been well marshalled by Frontline (24-11-2000).  By publishing Rajaram's letter and interviewing him, the ground was prepared to confound him further on minor issues, particularly the ‘horse’ that was but a footnote to the larger question of the Indus script. ......
 
• Vedic Horse Demolishes Witzel's Theory
• N.S. Rajaram, Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> No horse at Harappa Michael Witzel, the Wales Professor of Sanskrit, is now the leading spokesman for the scientifically discredited theory known as the Aryan Invasion Theory of India (AIT), though of late it is being called ‘migration’ instead of ‘invasion’ (AMT). ......
 
• Reviving River Saraswati
• Organiser, December 10, 2000
>>> Research work on and revival of River Saraswati will benefit over 20 crore people in the entire north-west India directly and will be an achievement unprecedented anywhere else in the world.  It will also be a lesson in history on the scientific, technolgoical and philosophical contributions made to the world, by the civilization nurtured on the banks of the River Saraswati. ......
 
• Ayodhya — Unfinished Agenda
• Shyam Khosla, Organiser, December 17, 2000
>>> THE Fascist elements in the Indian polity comprising Communists and the secularist brigade are aghast at the Prime Minister's assertion that the Ayodhya movement was a manifestation of the national desire to build a temple at the birthplace of Sri Ram. ......
 
• Righting the Historic Wrongs
• T. Mani Chowdary, Organiser, December 17, 2000
>>> The destruction, humiliation and outrage to Hindus, the desecration of their holy places by the Islamic invaders for a period of over 800 years has no parallel in the history of any country in the world.  Fortunately, the indigenous rulers and people emerged triumphant after the 800-year-long struggle from 11th century and tamed the remnants of the foreign ruling dynasties and their converted collaborators. ......
 
• Attack on Adarsha Vidyapeetham
• M.P. Balan Master, Organiser, December 17, 2000
>>> In Kerala, the CPM is intensifying their attack day by day.  On November 16, 2000 at about 11.30 p.m.  some Marxist Communist Party activists rushed to a school namely Adarsha Vidyapeetham in Kannur district in Kerala and they broke down the complete doors of the school. ......
 
• Killing continues in Kannur - Marxists on murderous spree
• Brahma Naik, Organiser, December 17, 2000
>>> The spectre of violence has reared its ugly head once again in Kannur, the killing field of Kerala.  In the fresh spurt of violence, the Marxists killed three RSS-BJP activists attacked the houses of the BJP sympathisers and ransacked offices of the RSS. ......
 
• Chekanur Moulvi was strangulated — CBI
• Organiser, December 17, 2000
>>> P.K.M.  Abul Hassan Moulvi, aka Chekanur Moulvi, a wellknown Muslim scholar and orator who went missing from his residence on June 29, 1993, is reported to have been strangled by the militant elements in his community who were incensed by the Moulvi's unorthodox views on religious matters. ......
 
• Hindu worker shifted from Muslim college
• Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, The Indian Express, December 19, 2000
>>> Bowing to the strong protest by students, the principal of the government-run Maulana Azad College in Calcutta has transferred a Hindu bhistiwala (water carrier) from the Elliot hostel run by the college. ......
 
• India will be unmatched power in South Asia in next 15 yrs, says CIA
• The Economic Times, December 20, 2000
>>> The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in a crystal-gazing exercise, has predicted that India will be the unrivaled power in South Asia in the next 15 years but the ‘decisive shift’ in conventional military power in New Delhi’s favor will make the region more volatile and unstable. ......
 
• Government Celebrates Jubilee 2000 In Indian Capital
• Catholic World News, December 21, 2000
>>> More than 10,000 people including Indian president K.  R.  Narayanan and several prominent national leaders attended on Wednesday in New Delhi the public celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. ......
 
• Shahi Imam of Delhi wants Arab sanctions against India
• December 22, 2000
>>> The Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari, today threatened to approach the Arab world seeking imposition of economic sanctions against India if any attempt is made to construct the proposed Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. ......
 
• Myths Aside, Traditional Families Protect Kids Best
• www.ZENIT.org, December 22, 2000
>>> A widely publicized recent study on sexual child abuse only helped to feed media misconceptions about the dangers of family life for youngsters, the Sunday Times reported. ......
 
• Pillars of Fire: Temple Tempo builds in Ayodhya
• Amita Verma, The Asian Age, December 23, 2000
>>> It is 9 am and the fog still rests heavy in the winter air.  The sprawling three-acre workshop at Kar Sewak Puram, where stones for the proposed Ram temple are being carved, is already buzzing with activity. ......
 
• The iftar watch
• Editorial, The Indian Express, December 23, 2000
>>> Does Mamata Banerjee's presence at Sonia Gandhi's iftar party and her absence at those hosted by the prime minister and BJP president Bangaru Laxman earlier this week add up to a rift between the Trinamool and the BJP? At her party, Sonia Gandhi reportedly patted Banerjee on the cheek. ......
 
• Cakeless days
• Norris Pritam, The Indian Express, December 23, 2000
>>> I was born into a Christian family.  As a child, I used to hate Good Friday, the day of crucifixion.  There were no new clothes, plum cakes or gifts.  The worst was the three-hour church service in the afternoon for which I was dragged. ......
 
• Imam to call for sanctions if temple is built
• Rajeev Khanna, The Asian Age, December 23, 2000
>>> Taking a hard line on the temple issue, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari, has threatened to approach the Arab nations to impose economic sanctions against India if “the temple is constructed under the supervision of the present government” at the spot where the Babri Masjid stood. ......
 
• Vajpayee hits back at Sonia’s bickering
• The Economic Times, December 23, 2000
>>> The last day of the current Parliament session came with its own brand of excitement, with the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, carrying the aggression she displayed at Thursday’s Congress parliamentary party (CPP) meeting into the House. ......
 
• Is India really a secular nation, asks archbishop
• The Asian Age, December 23, 2000
>>> The Archbishop of Delhi, Vincent M.  Concessao, has expressed concern over the growing “organised ideological attacks” on the Christians and the rise in circulation of anti-Christian literature. ......
 
• If Bush means what he says
• Editorial, Dawn, December 24, 2000
>>> In a country where foreign policy has traditionally been bipartisan, the coming of a new president has seldom meant a radical departure from the past.  Whether during the worst days of the cold war or later after the demise of the Soviet Union, American foreign policy has maintained its essentially bipartisan character, the difference here and there being mostly of shades, nuances and emphasis. ......
 
• Ram Mandir is nation's agenda
• T. Mani Chowdary, Organiser, December 24, 2000
>>> It is astounding how people could be worked up about the Babri structure that was pulled down in Ayodhya in 1992.  First of all, Babar was not an Indian.  He was an alien invader.  Secondly, in the year the General built the mosque, the Muslim population of the city could not have been more than a few hundreds, while the Hindu population would have been tens of thousands. ......
 
• Missionaries misuse ICAR funds
• Organiser, December 24, 2000
>>> The Holy Cross Krishi Vigyan Kendra (HCKVK), a Hazaribagh-based agriculture research centre, financed by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi, has attracted a lot of media limelight for its dubious activities. ......
 
• Will they come out in the open?
• Rakesh Sinha, Organiser, December 24, 2000
>>> RSS Sarsanghchalak K.S.  Sudarshan's exhortation to Indian minorities to Indianise themselves has been interpreted by the Left parties and the so-called secularists as a “pernicious campaign” against them and an attempt to “metamorphose India” into a Hindu state. ......
 
• Devotee seek religious status to Konark temple
• Organiser, December 24, 2000
>>> The imposition of entrance fee in the Sun temple of Konark, the renowned tourist spot is becoming block stumbling in Orissa to the worshippers of Sun God.  The temple which is known as Arkakshetra is famous for its festival Mahasaptami during which thousands of worshippers turn up to worship the sun god and to take a dip in the holy Chandrabha”. ......
 
• Ayodhya ritual
• Editorial, Organiser, December 24, 2000
>>> Even as the whole country was preparing to heave a sigh of relief that the Ayodhya episode is now not on the priority list of any political party, the Congress and the Leftists raked up the whole issue.  Valuable time of Parliament was wasted like nobody's business.  Important bills were kept pending. ......
 
• A School for tradition
• Sukhmani Singh, The Indian Express, December 24, 2000
>>> Tucked away on a hill facing the snowcapped Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas in Dharamsala is a school which would be the VHP’s envy. ......
 
• VHP opens ‘Second’ Temple Movement
• The Asian Age, December 25, 2000
>>> The place could not have been better and with leaders from 45 countries attending the meet, VHP president Ashok Singhal could not afford not to announce the “second Ram Janmabhoomi movement”. ......
 
• Control, not autonomy
• Bharat Jhunjhunwala, The Pioneer, December 25, 2000
>>> These Brahmins lived independent of state and were rooted in the masses.  At some point in history, the pundits who neither lived independent of the state nor were rooted in the masses declared themselves to be Brahmins and usurped their privileges. ......
 
• Algerian rebels cut pop singer's throat
• The Times of India, December 25, 2000
>>> Muslim rebels burst into an Algerian discotheque, slashed the throat of a 23-year-old woman pop singer and dragged off two members of her band, security sources said on Sunday. ......
 
• How to recognize a Hindu pluralist
• Rakesh Sinha, The Telegraph, December 26, 2000
>>> There is a massive campaign all over the country against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.  This propaganda has often termed the organization as a "fascist" threat to India's liberal democratic polity.  This hatred for the RSS's ideology and organization has had two fallouts. ......
 
• Christian divorce law to get a more humane face
• Manoj Mitta, The Indian Express, December 26, 2000
>>> It’s a Christmas gift for which several women's rights organizations have been struggling for.  The Government has decided to plug glaring holes in the Christian divorce law going beyond the Bill it introduced in Parliament last session.  This will give Christian men and women rights comparable to those contained in Hindu and secular laws. ......
 
• India fights the curse of Kandahar, Maulana Azhar
• Muzamil Jaleel, The Indian Express, December 26, 2000
>>> The hijack of IC-814 last year unleashed a demon that has been haunting the security agencies in Kashmir since then.  The deal struck with the hijackers to exchange the hostages at Kandahar with three top militants in jail has become a nightmare for them. ......
 
• Ceasefire has not ceased violence
• G. Parthasarathy, The Pioneer, December 26, 2000
>>> On November 19, Prime Minister Vajpayee announced a halt to all offensive operations against militants in Jammu & Kashmir.  This moratorium was extended till January 26 on December 20. ......
 
• NLFT militants kill Hindu tribal leader
• The Times of India, December 27, 2000
>>> Insurgents of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) killed a leader of the Jamatia community for his refusal to embrace Christainity at Dalak village in South Tripura district on Christmas night, police said. ......
 
• Tripura tribal leaderkilled
• BBC News, December 27, 2000
>>> Police in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura say a leading Hindu religious leader, who was kidnapped by suspected separatist rebels on Monday, has been found dead. ......
 
• Dying of consumption
• George Monbiot, The Guardian, December 28, 2000
>>> The modern industrial economy works like this: resources are dug from a hole in the ground on one side of the planet, used for a few weeks, then dumped in a hole on the other side of the planet.  This is known as the "creation of value". ......
 
• Shahi Imam's threat (Letters to the Editor)
• H. S. Gopal, The Hindu, December 28, 2000
>>> Sir - I refer to the news item ''Shahi Imam threat to seek Arab sanctions'' (The Hindu, Dec.  23).  The Shahi Imam has threatened to approach the Arab world seeking imposition of economic sanctions against India if any attempt is made to construct the proposed Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. ......
 
• ‘Shrinagar suicide bomber was British student’
• The Times of India, December 28, 2000
>>> The militant who staged a car bomb explosion at an Army unit in Shrinagar on Christmas day was a British Muslim student, a prominent community leader here has claimed. ......
 
• Engineered show
• Editorial, The Pioneer, December 28, 2000
>>> The anti-Hrithik Roshan riots in Nepal, which have been deftly given an anti-Indian turn, bear the clear imprimatur of careful engineering. ......
 
• British Muslims take path to jihad
• Jeevan Vasagar and Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, December 29, 2000
>>> Hundreds of young British Muslims have fought for religious causes around the world, an Islamic leader claimed yesterday, following reports naming a student from Birmingham as the suicide bomber who killed eight people in Kashmir on Christmas Day. ......
 
• Muslims Still Looking For Martyrs
• Peter Foster and Ahmed Rashid, The Daily Telegraph London, December 29, 2000
>>> Muslim splinter groups operating in Britain will continue to recruit young men for military training abroad despite the introduction of tough new anti-terrorist legislation, an extremist Muslim cleric said yesterday. ......
 
• Warning: Strategic encirclement!
• Siddhu Warrier, Rediff on Net, December 29, 2000
>>> Yes, it has happened again! The Indian government has suspected the anti-Hrithik and anti-India protests in Nepal to be the handiwork of the ISI.  As usual, it has failed to see the bigger hand, a red hand, the Chinese hand. ......
 
• Militants gun down eight in Assam
• The Times of India, December 29, 2000
>>> In yet another strike on the Hindi-speaking communities in Assam, eight Biharis, including one woman and three children, were gunned down Thursday night by United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) militants in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, according to a top police official here. ......
 
• Divide and we fall
• Hoihnu Hauzel, The Hindustan Times, December 29, 2000
>>> As A Christian, I have always believed in one thing: that we are the children of Jesus Christ and that there is no distinction among His children.  However, a recent experience has made me realise that even in His kingdom, there is room for discrimination. ......
 
• In defence of the ancient culture
• Patrizia Norelli, Bharatiya Pragna, November-December 2000
>>> This article was inspired by a two-part series, entitled, An Open Letter to Bangaru Laxman, that appeared in The Hindu, (10-11.10.2000), written by Gail Omvedt.  It is not difficult to understand what prompted Ms.  Omvedt to write such a Letter. ......
 
• Can Savitri be a Muslim name?
• www.islamicvoice.com, December 2000
>>> Certainly not in India.  But Muslim Indonesians have plenty of Savitris, Gayathris, Leelas, Pushpas and even Seetas among themselves.  Last time I met a young Indonesian couple at Madinah airport.  Husband was a teacher and wife Savitri a designer. ......
 
• Taliban an ‘international terrorist,’ says US
• Agency France Presse, Newstime, December 17, 2000
>>> The United States has warned that Afghanistan’s Taliban is a threat to the “international community” as it pressed the case for new anti-terrorism sanctions against the country’s rulers. ......
 
• Border vigil blueprint singles out mosques
• Chandan Nandy, The Telegraph, December 17, 2000
>>> The task force on border management has asked the Centre to mount greater surveillance not only on mosques and madarasas on the country’s border, but also on the activities of teachers, visitors and inmates of the Islamic institutions. ......
 
• Tension rises in Ayodhya as Hindus set temple deadline
• Stephen Farrell, The Times of India, December 18, 2000
>>> Masons assembling the stonework for India’s most controversial Hindu temple in Ayodhya near a demolished mosque have been ordered to finish their work by March 31. ......
 
• People in Kudus live in religious harmony
• Jakarta Post, December 19, 2000
>>> The becak (pedicab) is the main mode of transport in this small town of Kudus, 55 kilometers east of the Central Java capital Semarang.  Once at the forefront of the spread of Islam, now the town is home to people of all religions. ......
 
• Al-Muhajroun press release on Kashmir
• www.almuhajiroun.com, December 25, 2000
>>> Al-Muhajiroun hereby endorse and fully support the martyrdom operation against the barbaric Hindu occupiers in Kashmir on December 25th December 2000 wherein at least 6 Hindu occupying soldiers were killed. ......
 
• Curbing extremism
• Khalid A-H Ansari, Mid-Day, December 26, 2000
>>> What with religious intolerance and terrorism, its manifestation, being the flavour of the month back in India, events over the Christmas season in Malaysia assume more than mere academic interest. ......
 
• Top think tank for special US-India ties
• Aziz Haniffa, India Abroad, December 28, 2000
>>> A leading US think tank has urged the incoming George W. Bush administration to forge a special relationship with India and develop a foreign policy toward New Delhi independent of a South Asia policy that lumps India with all other nations in the sub-continent. ......
 
• Muslims still looking for Martyrs
• Peter Foster and Ahmed Rashid, The Daily Telegraph, December 29, 2000
>>> Muslim splinter groups operating in Britain will continue to recruit young men for military training abroad despite the introduction of tough new anti-terrorist legislation, an extremist Muslim cleric said yesterday. ......
 
• Warning: Strategic encirclement!
• Siddhu Warrier, Rediff on Net, December 29, 2000
>>> Yes, it has happened again! The Indian government has suspected the anti-Hrithik and anti-India protests in Nepal to be the handiwork of the ISI.  As usual, it has failed to see the bigger hand, a red hand, the Chinese hand. ......
 
• Tihar Jail riot leaves one dead
• Rediff on Net, December 30, 2000
>>> A communal riot in New Delhi's notoriously overcrowded Tihar jail left an inmate dead and 37 prisoners and guards seriously injured, an official said Saturday.  ......
 
• I sent Kashmir bomber, says London imam
• Nabanita Sircar, The Asian Age, December 30, 2000
>>> Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the London-based Al Muhajiroon group, said that he had recruited the suicide bomber for the Christmas Day attack on an Army unit in Srinagar. ......
 
• US warns Pak on jehadi outfits, condemns threat against Vajpayee
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Indian Express, December 31, 2000
>>> The United States on Friday warned Islamabad against runaway terrorist activities directed against India by organisations based in Pakistan and said the Government of Pakistan had the responsibility to rein in jehadi outfits that preached and practised violence. ......
 
• In Capital letters
• Pramod Kumar Singh, The Pioneer, December 31, 2000
>>> Over 3,000 of the 35,000 ISI agents in India are active in New Delhi alone.  The ISI has even managed to deploy "spotters" in various communally-sensitive areas of the Capital. ......
 
• The silent & unbreakable robots
• Meenakshi Rao, The Pioneer, December 31, 2000
>>> At a high-security joint interrogation cell in Bhuj, Indian intelligence, security and police personnel are hard at work.  Their subject is a stoic, unbreakable Indian agent of the ISI and their object is to make him sing. ......
 
• Berliners rescue Indian family from neo-Nazis
• G Sudhakar Nair, Rediff on Net, December 31, 2000
>>> Hounded by neo-Nazis and uprooted from their home, an Indian family got a new lease of life in Berlin with the help of several German well-wishers. ......
 
• Help us bear the burden of secularism
• M. V. Kamnath, Organiser, December 31, 2000
>>> Recently, a distinguished columnist, T.V.R.  Shenoy, made a point in relation to the Babri ‘Masjid’ affair that beautifully summed up the dilemma of the Hindus in India.  He said: “Help us bear the burden of secularism.” He was addressing the minorities. ......
 
• Kannur, The Kurukshetra of Kerala
• Organiser, December 31, 2000
>>> CPM attacks on the BJP and RSS workers since 1968 in Kannur district of Kerala know no bounds.  The CPM-led Government is taking a sadistic pleasure in wiping out the BJP-RSS workers from the State. ......
 
• Foreign Missionaries, Quit India: RSS
• Organiser, December 31, 2000
>>> “Foreign missionaries should quit India immediately and Indian Christians should free themselves from the clutches of foreign domination and establish Indian National Church”, said Dr Shripati Shastri, senior RSS functionary and Akhil Bharatiya Sahsampark Pramukh. ......
 
• Retrospect and Prospect
• Atal Behari Vajpayee, Organiser, December 31, 2000
>>> Time passess off quickly.  Almost forty long years have elapsed.  Still it looks as if all this happened only the other day.  It was the year 1957.  The second general elections for Lok Sabha were in the offing.  My party—Bharatiya Jana Sangh—was enagaged in the gigantic task of establishing itself. ......
 
• The Indian way
• Gurcharan Das, The Times of India, December 31, 2000
>>> Tomorrow really is the first day of the new century, experts tell us, but it is also a second chance to sit back and look at the big picture. It is now plausible that India will solve its economic problem in the first half of the 21st century. ......
 
• The Left laments
• Daya Prakash Sinha, BJP Today, December 16-31, 2000
>>> The literary Hindi magazine ‘Alochana’ had commenced publication some fifty years ago but ever since it has been appearing in fits and starts. Recently it has started its regular publication. ......
 
• Gandhiji against proselytisation
• S C Chaturvedi, BJP Today, December 16-31, 2000
>>> Gandhiji’s advice was fivefold, and it remains as pertinent today. The best thing of course is that you give up conversion altogether, he said. ......
 
• Syed Sahib: clarify your thoughts! (Letters to the Editor)
• T.R. Gopalan, T.R. Gopalan, December 16-31, 2000
>>> So far as Haj pilgrimage is concerned it is not the question of anyone’s right to travel abroad. It is the question of the host country not being able to make satisfactory arrangements regarding stay, medication etc. Saudi Government is insisting on India sending less number of pilgrims. But our Government is continuing to send more and more. ......
 
• Dhaka's Attempts To Ban Minority Paper Condemned
• Ravi Adhikari, News India-Times, December 22, 2000
>>> Despite claims by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government that minorities in Bangladesh are doing well under Awami League, members of minority community-- now living in the US -- has said, the claims are nothing but media gimmicks. ......
 
• BJP allies shaken as Hindu votes get consolidated
• The Free Press Journal, December 23, 2000
>>> The Prime Minister’s stand on the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya has consolidated the Hindu vote in a very big way and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) can win hands down on its own if there were a quick mid-term elections, says an official survey of the mood of the people just concluded. ......
 
• PM’s Ram temple utterance puts Delhi Shahi Imam in a dirty mood
• The Free Press Journal, December 26, 2000
>>> Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s attempt to placate his Sangh Parivar leaders with his pro-Ram Mandir statements has adversely affected his own Kashmir peace exercise as his admirer Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid of Delhi, has turned hostile and refused to be any longer an interlocutor between the government and the Kashmiri militant leaders. ......
 
• VHP agenda on Ram temple not binding on BJP says Thakre
• The Free Press Journal, December 27, 2000
>>> Former BJP president, Kushabhau Thakre on Tuesday said the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s agenda for construction of Ram temple was not binding on BJP and nobody would be allowed to take law in hand on Ayodhya issue, reports PTI. ......
 
• Row over Buddha’s ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders
• The Indian Express, December 27, 2000
>>> A major political controversy has erupted in West Bengal over the Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee’s instructions to the police to shoot down armed criminals, as the major opposition Trinamool Congress threatened to move Amnesty International and human rights bodies. ......
 
• Future political battle will be between CPI & RSS?
• Lajpat Rai, The Free Press Journal, December 28, 2000
>>> It is, quite interesting and noteworthy that the Rashtriya Swam Sewak Sangh (RSS) that symbolises the Right in the Indian politics emerged on the Indian scene with the Communist Party of India (CPI) that symbolises Left in the same year -in 1925. Both are now celebrating their 75th anniversary together in December 2000. ......
 
• Future of the church in an ungodly society
• Simon Jenkins, The Statesman, December 28, 2000
>>> An early sketch by English comedian Row- an Atkinson depicted a vicar damning his congregation from the pulpit. Why were they present in such numbers, he demanded. ......
 
• Lashkar e Toiba, Jaish e Mohammad…
• The Indian Express, December 31, 2000
>>> Death is the only aim of their lives. In fact, they celebrate death. Surrender is out of question and even security agencies admit it is rare to trap such militants alive. Unlike the local indigenous outfits, their agenda transcends the demand for right of self-determination or the creation of independent Kashmir. The pan-Islamic militants seem to have changed the course of insurgency in Kashmir. ......
 
• In an idyllic village, on the hour of peace, Muzamil Jaleel recalls a night with the terrorists
• The Indian Express, December 31, 2000
>>> It was the day before Ramzan, a cloudy evening at Bandipore in North Kashmir, where I had spent nearly two decades of my fife. We used to five at the foothills of the snow-clad Harmukh peak, on the banks of a fresh water stream called the Afrin nullah, famous for its rainbow trout fish. ......
 
• If you’re old and homeless, turn to Taloja
• Sudha Ramaswamy, The Times of India, December 31, 2000
>>> Shakuntala grins, raises one hand and says Namaste. She apologises for not greeting you properly or getting up and explains the lapse by pointing out to the empty spaces where her legs and left hand should have been. ......
 
• Latest from Russia -- Grandfather Frost is a Vedic God
• Dadan Upadhyay, The Indian Express, December 31, 2000
>>> A Russian scholar says red Russia's fairy tale Grandfather Frost, or Ded Moroz, is none other than Varuna, the god of seas in Hindu mythology. ......

Last Article date: Sun December 31, 2000
Archived on:  Sun December 31, 2000

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