December Month Articles
- Secular Politicking
- by Arvind Sharma
The decisive victory of Narendra
Modi will be viewed by those opposed to him as a setback for secularism
and a sordid victory for communalism. The fact, however, that Gujarat
continues to produce the same electoral outcome so convincingly and successfully
should involve some introspection. To view the outcome solely in Manichean
terms may be morally comforting but could be analytically inadequate.
......
- I Am But A Disembodied
Voice, The Living Dead
- by Taslima Nasreen
Where am I? I am certain no one
will believe me if I say I have no answer to this apparently straightforward
question, but the truth is I just do not know. And if I were to be asked
how I am, I would again answer: I don't know. ......
- Geelani attacked on strike
call
- by The Asian Age
Kash miri separatist leader Syed
Ali Shah Geelani has been publicly criticised by four obscure militant
outfits for issuing a call for strike to mourn and protest the killing
of Benazir Bhutto which evoked only partial response across the Valley
on Friday though. ......
- Nothing official about
it, says Thackeray
- by The Economic Times
Sharad Pawar should take care of
Delhi the way he looks after Maharashtra, feels Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
This was the message the Sena patriarch is believed to have conveyed to
the NCP chief last weekend. ......
- State revives Urdu academy
- by Mohammed Wajihuddin
The Vilasrao Deshmukh-led Democratic
Front government on Thursday revived Maharashtra State Urdu Academy, which
has been defunct for the last three years. A Government Resolution (GR)
of December 26 said that Urdu scholar Dr Abdus Sattar Dalvi would be executive
chairman of the revived Urdu Academy which comes under the cultural ministry.
The names of as many as 19 members to assist have been also announced.
......
- Antony's sudden awakening
- by Inder Malhotra
During his recent visit to Nathu
La in Sikkim, Defence Minister A. K. Antony was evidently taken aback
by the stark contrast between the Chinese and Indian infrastructure along
the border, or the Line of Actual Control, between the two Asian giants.
Indeed, his body language on TV suggested as if he had had a sudden awakening.
......
- DMK thrives on discrimination
- by B.R. Haran
The height of the drama was the
statement by Thirumavalavan that "The government should enact a law
to ensure the entry of Dalits into all temples in the state, otherwise
'mass conversion' might be the only solution". ......
- Carroll: America's politics
of religion
- by James Carroll
What in the name of God is going
on in American politics? Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech,
riddled with mistaken assertions about religion, was itself a warning.
But other presidential candidates, debate moderators, pundits and religious
leaders all share a dangerous confusion about questions of faith and citizenship.
......
- Saudi king pardons rape
victim
- by Andrew Hammond
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has
pardoned the victim of a gang-rape whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused
an international outcry, officials said on Monday. ......
- Kolkata riots were not
spontaneous
- by Ajoy K Das
The anatomy of the riots that erupted
on the streets of Kolkata on Wednesday, rattling the state administration,
had clear hallmarks of scrupulous planning done over many days. ......
- SIMI and the cult of the
Kalashnikov
- by Praveen Swami
"Mohammad is our commander;
the Quran our constitution; and martyrdom our one desire," ran the
principal slogan of the Students Islamic Movement of India. ......
- I felt a new terror on
Basra's streets
- by Times
As one of the first journalists
to visit Basra without military protection in recent years, Marie Colvin
finds Islamic militias are waging a brutal campaign for control in Iraq's
second city ......
- 975 die at Catholic healing
centre
- by Naveen Nair
The Divine Retreat Centre in Kerala's
Muringoor's claim to fame is that it is the largest Catholic healing centre
in the world. It's catch line: come away by yourself to a lonely place
and rest a while. ......
- When bias is passé
- by Jaya Jaitly
Five years ago, during the last
Assembly election, I was in a small town in Gujarat and visited an old
socialist, the editor of the local newspaper. The Election Commission
of India had tightened spending by candidates. I learned from the saddened
editor that to circumvent the old method of paying for published schedules
of public meetings of leaders of parties, money was now being accepted
'under the table' so that the expenditure did not have to be disclosed
as election expenses. ......
- The truth about Sethu Samudram
- by M V Kamath
The truth about Sethu Samudram Writing
in Frontline (15 October), one Mr D Ramachandran reveals some extremely
important facts that merit attention. In the first place, he states that
the Ram Sethu 'is a discontinuous chain of sandbars dotting a 30 km stretch
in the East-West direction between the Palk Day and the Gulf of Mannar'.
......
- The beauty of maths
- by Lisa Jardine
The story of an Indian clerk with
an extraordinary talent for mathematics should inspire young people to
see the beauty that lies in numbers. ......
- 'Baptized' south Gujarat
tribals re-embrace Hinduism
- by Kamaal Saiyed
Surat, December 18 Around 2,000
tribal men and women from different villages in South Gujarat, who had
converted to Christianity, re-embraced Hinduism on Monday evening at a
religious ceremony ( sammelan) at the Shivaji ground in Tapi district.
......
- Terror Base UK (Interview
with Neil Doyle)
- by Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview's guest today
is Neil Doyle, one of the world's top investigative journalists, a pioneering
author, and a leading expert on international terrorism. He is the author
of Terror Base UK: Inside a Secret War. ......
- Shadow looms large
- by Wilson John
Six years after the terror strike
on Parliament House, the jihadi threat to the country has only multiplied
manifold, thanks to a new breed of terrorists -- they are willing to die
for their 'cause' ......
- The Rado Maoist
- by Manoj Dahal
It was a little less than two years
ago that Prachanda, iconic chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
(CPN-M), came out of the bush, riding the crest of a popular wave that
compelled King Gyanendra to retreat behind palace walls and restore democracy.
......
- Homecoming of Strangers
- by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
When Kashmiri Pandits started to
flee the Valley following the outbreak of insurgency in the late 1980s,
the hope of returning to their ancestral homes kept them from selling
off their properties. ......
- Shirdi asked to pay for
President visit
- by Satyajit Joshi
Trustees of Shirdi's Saibaba temple,
who hosted President Pratibha Patil when she visited last month, have
received a letter from the state stating that the Trust "share the
expenses" of the VIP visit. ......
- Ethnic Indians seek non-Muslim
department in Malaysia
- by Jaishree Balasubramanian
Amid simmering protests by ethnic-Indians
against alleged marginalisation, activists on Sunday asked Malaysian premier
Abdullah Badawi set up a 'non-Muslim affairs department' to look into
issues faced by other communities in this predominantly Islamic country.
......
- Vatican defends 'right
and duty' to convert members of other faiths
- by Earthtimes.org
The Vatican on Friday defended the
"right and duty" of Catholics to do missionary work aimed at
converting people from other religions and other Christian denominations.
The assertion came in a document titled "Doctrinal Note on some aspects
of Evangelization", issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of
Faith, the Vatican's department in charge of matters of church orthodoxy.
......
- ISI operative held in Guwahati
- by K Anurag
The Assam police on Saturday claimed
to have arrested a hardcore operative of the Pakistani Inter Services
Intelligence in a special operation carried out in a Guwahati locality
on Friday night. ......
- India's Da Vinci Code
- by NS Rajaram
SL Bhyrappa's latest Kannada novel,
Aavarana, is making waves beyond the usual literary circles. In less than
a month four print runs have been sold out and the book is now in its
fifth printing. What is interesting is that though a historical novel,
its impact seems to be no less socio-political than literary. ......
- A shameful failure
- by The Pioneer
It is a sad comment on both our
nation and the Union Government that we recall the shocking terrorist
strike on Parliament House and the bravery of those who laid down their
lives to protect the symbol of India's sovereignty only when December
13 comes, that too if at all. ......
- Casteism has come to stay
- by A.R. Kanangi
Brahmana janmana nahi, karmana ahe,
manun Tukaram ne sangitla (Birth alone will not make a person a Brahmin.
It is what he does that makes him a Brahmin). ......
- The perils of pandering
- by P R Ramesh
For the anti-Modi brigade spearheaded
by Sonia Gandhi, "martyr" Sohrabuddin is the latest cause celebre.
The election campaign in Gujarat has seen this gunrunner and underworld
conduit - police had recovered 24 AK-56 rifles, 81 magazines of AK-56,
hand grenades and over 5,000 cartridges from his home in Zarania - gaining
the halo of a "secular" icon. ......
- Marxists end their honeymoon
with left intellectuals
- by Tushar Charan
With more than three years of the
five-year term of the state assembly still left before it faces the polls,
it is disappointing to note that CPI (M), the dominant party in West Bengal's
Left Front, is not even embarrassed, leave alone shamed, by the barrage
of criticism on the way it has handled the situation in Nandigram. ......
- The battle over the new
Dalai Lama
- by Claude Arpi
Imagine a committee of the Left
parties headed by veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu, with CPI-M General Secretary
Prakash Karat, CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri, CPI General Secretary
A B Bardhan and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (West Bengal's chief minister)
as members, along with a few other 'religious Marxist experts' secretly
meeting in Kolkata to select the reincarnation of the CPI-M leader. ......
- Maoist posters at Bengal
secretariat triggers alarm
- by MonstersandCritics.com
Kolkata Police went into a tizzy
Friday after Maoist posters condemning the violence in Nandigram were
found plastered on the gate of Writers' Buildings, the high-security state
secretariat. ......
- Reopen trial of razakars
- by Kanchan Gupta
Last week a significant event took
place that was largely ignored by our 'national' newspapers and news channels
which, at the moment, are busy tripping over each other to defend the
presiding deity of 10, Janpath and berate Mr Narendra Modi, the favourite
whipping boy of Delhi's la-di-da secularists. ......
- Assam: BJP leader shot
dead
- by K Anurag
Unidentified militants shot dead
a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Assam and a dealer of
LP Gas, Munindra Singh Lahkar (62) at his residence at Rangiya on Thursday
night. ......
- Lull salaam
- by Ruchir Joshi
The other day Prakash Karat came
to Calcutta and fired off a salvo in defence of his beleaguered comrades
of the West Bengal CPI(M). Standing next to the Chief Minister, Karat
took a swing at locals critical of his party and the state government:
"Some people, including a section of intellectuals, said what is
happening in Bengal is similar to what is happening in Gujarat. ......
- Sania tenders apology over
shooting in mosque
- by Earthtimes.org
Tennis sensation Sania Mirza Thursday
apologized for shooting a commercial in the historic Mecca Masjid here
even as police registered a case against her and an advertising agency
for trespass. ......
- 'Struggle to continue till
Afzal is hanged'
- by Siddheshwar Shukla
On the eve of the sixth anniversary
of the attack on Parliament, the relatives of martyrs on Wednesday said
that they will continue to raise their demand for execution of Mohammad
Afzal, the main accused in the attack case, till he is sent to the gallows.
......
- Parliament attack victim's
wife embarrasses PM
- by Rediff.com
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apparently
faced embarrassing moments on Thursday when an inconsolable kin of a 2001
Parliament terror attack victim accused the government of not fulfilling
the promises made to her. ......
- 'Namaste Israel' dance
troupe to perform in India
- by Hindustan Times
The 'Namaste Israel' group, a cultural
troupe comprising mostly of youth of Indian origin, will perform in different
Indian cities to celebrate 60 years of Independence of India and Israel
and 15 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. ......
- Security scenario grim,
admits IB report
- by Rakesh Singh
Painting a grim internal security
scenario across the length and breadth of the country, the Intelligence
Bureau (IB) has warned that India is under the siege of terror and the
trend and the threat could increase in the future as India moves towards
economic prosperity in a globalised world. ......
- Shame! Martyrs' kin asked
to pay bribes
- by Faizan Haidar
The plight of family members of
victims of Parliament attack is pathetic. Terrorists killed their kin.
Equally worrying for them is getting compensation announced by the Government,
they are asked to pay bribe. ......
- Malaysia's crackdown on
dissent widens
- by Anil Netto
The administration of Malaysian
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, rattled in recent months by a series of
street protests, launched on Sunday another tough crackdown against peaceful
demonstrators in which at least 23 human-rights lawyers, activists and
opposition politicians were arrested. ......
- Mega human chain organized
for Rama Setu
- by Andhracafe.com
A mega 'human chain' from Ganesh
Temple in Secunderabad to the historic Charminar was organised, here on
Tuesday demanding protection to the "Rama Sethu". ......
- Eternal flame of nationalism
nay, rather universalism
- by V Sundaram
Today (11 December 2007) the World
is celebrating the 125th Birth Anniversary of the great bard of Tamil
Renaissance and Indian Nationalism. 'Mahakavi' Bharathi was a peerless,
poet of Tamil Renaissance during the early face of our struggle for freedom.
......
- Émigré of
Ayodhya
- by Sandhya Jain
One of the most compelling yet overlooked
themes of Hindu civilisation is that the gods themselves are prone to
dislodgement from their celestial heights, to suffer exile and humiliation
at the hands of upstarts who have inveigled fancy boons out of them, and
then defeated them in battle. The gods return to the heavens through a
long process of rebuilding their stamina, often creating new and potent
energies to take on the asuric forces. ......
- Achalpur riots shameful,
says Patil
- by Indiainfo.com
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister
R R Patil today described the recent Achalpur riots as "shameful"
and called for initiating a peace-building process. Addressing a meeting
at Nagar Bhavan in Achalpur this morning after visiting the affected area,
Patil called upon the elders from both communities to initiate peace building
process and form peace committees. ......
- India facing terrorism
on eastern border as well: CM
- by The Indian Express
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
today said that terrorism is threatening India not only on the western
border but also on the eastern fringes. He was speaking at a function
organised by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission at Nandan Complex
to mark the 59th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
......
- Islamic outfit bans skirts
for girls in Manipur
- by The Times of India
Islamic extremism is now targeting
Muslim women in the northeast. The outlawed People's United Liberation
Front (PULF), an Islamic outfit active in Manipur, has issued a diktat
banning Muslim schoolgirls and college students from wearing frocks and
skirts. ......
- A 'two rupees doc' with
a mission
- by Rediff.com
In an era of cut-throat medical
expenses, Dr Rairu Gopal is an exception. He charges a meager amount or
sometimes no fees at all from his patients and so he is fondly called
a 'two rupees doctor.' ......
- Bangladeshi Hindus and
infiltrators from Bangladesh
- by Bhupendra Kumar Bhattacharyya
Shri Rajnath Singh, President of
Bharatiya Janata Party recently stated that the Hindu migrants from Bangladesh
should be treated as refugees in this country. He is perfectly right as
his statement is based on the BJP's national policy of treating the persecuted
Hindus of Bangladesh who took shelter in this country as refugees and
to treat the Bangladeshi Muslims as infiltrators. ......
- Muslim apostates threatened
over Christianity
- by The Telegraph
Sofia Allam simply could not believe
it. Her kind, loving father was sitting in front of her threatening to
kill her. He said she had brought shame and humiliation on him, that she
was now "worse than the muck on their shoes" and she deserved
to die. ......
- Malaysia has changed, but
not for the better
- by Tarun Vijay
Ramachandran, a Tamil, was hospitable
and enthusiastic, keen to take me on a tour of Kuala Lumpur. I would have
to see the Maha Mariamman temple and the Batu caves, as "without
them a trip to Malaysia would be incomplete," he asserted. The Batu
Caves temple, devoted principally to Lord Subramanianswamy, is a big tourist
attraction for the entire South East Asia, with people of all religions
and nationalities visiting it. ......
- Taliban 'hanged boy, 12,
for spying for UK'
- by Tom Coghlan
Taliban fighters hanged a 12-year-old
boy from a mulberry tree, claiming he was passing information on Taliban
roadside bomb attacks to police and British forces, Afghan police have
said. ......
- Just who is this Sohrabuddin
Shaikh?
- by Sudarshan
There are, really, three compelling
issues that emerge from the drama of the past week. First, just who was
this Sohrabuddin Shaikh and why are we being subjected to intimate photographs
of him every evening on television? Second, are "police encounters",
in Gujarat or elsewhere, necessary, evil or merely a necessary evil? Third,
what impact, if any, will this have on the political fortunes of everybody's
favourite bogeyman, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi? ......
- NHRC has failed to provide
succour: Kashmiri Pandits
- by Webindia123.com
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits Sunday
flayed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), accusing it of failure
to provide succour to the community living in exile for the past 18 years.
......
- Muslim Scholars in TV Debate
on Apostates in Islam
- by Memri
In a television debate on apostasy
in Islam, which aired on Al-Risala TV on November 5, 2007, Kuwaiti TV
host Sheikh Tareq Al-Sweidan, Egyptian cleric Gamal 'Allam, and Egyptian
scholar Gamal Al-Bana, and audience members discussed whether a Muslim
is free to convert to another religion, the consequences of such a conversion,
and who falls into the category of "infidel." ......
- India's Peaceful Rise
- by Lee Kuan Yew
Even though the economy's annual
growth rate has been 8% to 9% for the last five years, India's peaceful
rise hasn't led to unease over the country's future. Instead, Americans,
Japanese and western Europeans are keen to invest in India, ride on its
growth and help develop another heavyweight country. ......
- Spit and scoot
- by The Pioneer
There is no doubt that elections
tend to generate a lot of heat and dust with contesting political parties
and their leaders indulging in hyperbole or, at times, in sharp exchanges.
But few politicians would use words like those chosen by Congress president
Sonia Gandhi to lash out at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at election
rallies addressed by her. ......
- Malaysia, not truly Asia
- by Kanchan Gupta
The brutal crackdown on Malaysia's
ethnic Indian community for demanding equal rights and a better deal should
have left India incandescent with rage and South Block fuming. Instead,
we have heard nothing more than a timid squeak in the form of the UPA
Government informing Parliament that it has "taken up the issue"
with the Malaysian authorities. ......
- TN govt ads sell 'land
of Ram' to bhakts in north
- by Deccan Chronicle
Even while chief minister M. Karunanidhi
and his cabinet colleagues swear that Lord Rama is only a mythological
character and the Rama Sethu a natural formation, the Tamil Nadu government
has launched a publicity campaign across North India to sell Rama Sethu
to the Rama bhakts. ......
- Muslim outfit imposes dress
code in Manipur
- by The Assam Tribune
A Muslim militant organisation in
Manipur has asked Muslim girl students to refrain from wearing frock and
skirt or any western dress in educational institutions in the State from
next year. ......
- When Delhi burnt
- by MV Kamath
The book brings to the fore not
only the horrors committed by the mobs led by Congressmen, but also the
hypocrisy of 'secular' media ......
- Karat claws at culture
critics
- by The Telegraph
Prakash Karat has branded intellectuals
opposed to the CPM "enemy of the society and the country", seeking
to demolish critics at an event convened to decry the destruction of Babri
Masjid. ......
- Centre's book confirms
Ram Sethu 'man-made'
- by News Today
The National Remote Sensing Agency
(NRSA), of the Union Ministry of Space has published a book of satellite
photographs [ISBN: 817525 6524] claiming that "archeological studies
show" that the Setu may be "man made" (see enclosed photo).
This book has been distributed to all MPs free by the Ministry of Space.
......
- Modi responds to EC
- by bjp.org
I am in receipt of your notice dated
6th December 2007 wherein on the basis of the media reports and a complaint
dated 5th December 2007 filed by Teesta Setalvad, I am alleged to have
made an open exhortation to violence and misused of religion for political
ends. ......
- West Bengal State gives
in to thuggery
- by K. P. S. Gill
Despite West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's attempt to trivialise the Nandigram debacle
as a mere "administrative and political lapse", this issue is
not simply going to disappear. The recovery of the burnt remains of several
bodies from shallow graves by the roadside near Nandigram are a reminder
to the nation of the gravity of the excesses and incompetence that have
marked the State's response to what should have been a fairly manageable
challenge for the district administration. ......
- 1984 rioters were paid
Rs 500 for each killing: Book
- by Rediff.com
The rioters of the 1984 Sikh carnage,
in which over 3000 people were killed in Delhi, were apparently paid Rs
500 for each person they killed, a new book on the riots reveals, reinforcing
the allegation that the violence far from being spontaneous was the outcome
of a conspiracy. ......
- Ram Sethu 'man-made', says
government publication
- by Sify News
The controversial Adam's bridge
off the Tamil Nadu coast could be "man-made" and has an "echo
in the ancient mythological epic, the Ramayana", says a government
publication tabled in parliament last week - a development that could
put the Congress-led government in a piquant spot. ......
- I was forced to hit back:
Modi (Interview with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi)
- by The Pioneer
In the thick of controversy over his remarks on Sohrabuddin encounter
killing, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has accused Sonia Gandhi
of provoking him by calling him the "merchant of death". He
also opposed fake encounters and said he was a law-abiding citizen who
would uphold the supremacy of the Indian Constitution.
......
- I have no respect or tolerance
for Sharia
- by Ian O'Doherty
So the story gets more interesting. The so-called "Qatif Girl",
the truly heroic woman who now faces 200 lashes after being gang-raped
had more than just the authorities of this savage kingdom to worry about
-- it has recently emerged that her own brother tried to kill her when
he realised she had been repeatedly violated.
......
- Islam's Silent Moderates
- by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of
them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a
matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day.
......
- CPM engineered Muslim rage
- by Kanchan Gupta
Was the recent violence witnessed in some parts of central Kolkata, leading
to dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's forced eviction from
the city, genuine Muslim anger or manufactured rage? Did the CPI(M) have
a hand in organising the rioting? Who has gained the most after mobs took
to the streets? ......
- 'Dalit converts not entitled
to quota'
- by Subodh Ghildiyal
In what may prove to be a serious blow to the case for "Dalit"
Christians and Muslims to be given access to reservations, the National
Commission for SCs has concluded that there is insufficient evidence that
these sections suffered from the stigma of untouchability. ......
- Find names outside the
Family, BJP tells Congress
- by Rediff.com
Exasperated over naming of popular projects after members of the Nehru-Gandhi
family, the BJP on Tuesday asked the ruling party whether the country
was devoid of any other great leader. ......
- Malaysia in the wrong
- by The Hindu
Human rights violations are everybody's concern. Nation states must not
hide behind exclusivist notions of national sovereignty and take umbrage
at expression of such concern by governments or political parties or citizens
of other countries. In over-reacting to political India's show of anxiety
over the treatment of Malaysians of Indian origin, Kuala Lumpur committed
an error of conceptual judgment. ......
- Silence to save the world
- by Sebastien Blanc
Hindu priests on the island of Bali, where the world's nations are gathered
to come up with an answer for global warming, think they have one solution
- a day of silence. ......
- Malaysian mala fides
- by Ashok Malik
Malaysia's Indians don't send home dollars, don't become CEOs of IT start-ups;
they haven't even produced a VS Naipaul. Consequently, in contrast to
the dissertations on the NRI community in the United States, the formerly
east African Indians in Britain and the Indian diaspora's experience in
the Caribbean, there is a paucity of even basic information on the ethnic
Indians living off the Straits of Malacca. ......
- Advani to take up with
PM plight of Malaysian Hindus
- by Anita Saluja
Leader of Opposition L K Advani along with Leader of Opposition in Rajya
Sabha Jaswant Singh would take up the issue of the plight of the Malaysian
Hindus with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. ......
- Five half-burnt bodies
found near Nandigram
- by The Pioneer
Five mutilated and half-burnt bodies were found on Wednesday buried in
a trench in a field at Bidyapith village in the CPI(M) stronghold of Khejuri,
adjacent to Nandigram in West Bengal. ......
- Divide between India and
Malaysia deepens
- by Aditi Phadnis & Anirban Chowdhury
A week is not even a punctuation mark in the history of nations. But how
rapidly relations between India and Malaysia have deteriorated in the
past week in the wake of crackdown on ethnic Indians in Malaysia can be
judged from the fact that air ticket sales to Malaysia have declined by
between 5 and 10 per cent in the last seven days. ......
- 'We are at war with all
Islam' (Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
- by Mary Wakefield
Last Tuesday at nightfall, as the servants of democracy fled SW1, a young
Somali woman stood spotlit on a stage in Westminster. Behind her was the
illuminated logo for the Centre for Social Cohesion: a white hand reaching
down across England to help a brown one up; in front, an audience of some
of Britain's biggest brains - politicians, editors, academics. She drew
her shawl a little closer round her shoulders, looked up and said: 'We
are not at war with "terror", that would make no sense.' ......
- Tamil Disobedience in Malaysia
- by Dr. C. Bose
The 25 November 2007 civil disobedience organized by Tamil in Malaysia
against their discrimination and marginalization by the Muslim dominated
government represents a signficant milestone in their long struggle for
equal and democratic rights. The demonstrations in which hundreds and
thousands of Tamil converged in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was a
rude shock to the government and those Tamil ethnic leaders who have betrayed
the Tamil community. ......
- India Appeases Radical
Islam
- by Sadanand Dhume
Friday's multiple bomb blasts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
-- which killed 13 people and injured about 80 -- ought to give pause
to those who see the world's largest democracy as a linchpin in the war
on terror. ......
- Ultra Pradesh
- by Ajay Uprety
In her statue-making and demolishing spree, the behenji of Indian politics
might not have noticed that her state faces the most number of terror
strikes after Jammu and Kashmir. Since 2005, UP has witnessed 24 terror-related
incidents-including blasts and arrests of ultras. ......
- Chinese troops destroy
Indian posts, bunker
- by Nirmalya Banerjee & Amalendu
Kundu
A few weeks before the first ever India-China military exercises, the
real war games have begun. On November 8, Chinese forces demolished some
unmanned Indian forward posts near two Army bunkers against which Beijing
had raised objections since July. ......
- Divide and ruin
- by Hindustan Times
Assam is simmering with sectarian tension and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi
wants us to believe that everything is shipshape. The day a 36-hour strike
was called by tribals under the flagship of the All Adivasi Students Association
- triggered by the vehement and violent reaction to Saturday's protest
march demanding Scheduled Tribe status for the state's tribals - Mr Gogoi
stated that there was "no social divide" in Assam. ......
- 'Today, in the whole country,
'Gujarat' and 'development' are synonymous'
- by Rediff.com
On November 27, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi kickstarted his election
campaign from the city of Botad, in Bhavnagar district. The election speech
gives a fair idea of the issues of Election 2007. It also gives an insight
into the mind of Modi who is loved and hated with passion by his friends
and enemies. ......
- Reformers Turn Grabbers
- by M.G. Radhakrishnan
The original architects of land reforms in the country are now turning
out to be one of the finest practitioners of land grab. One of the most
picturesque spots in God's own country is witnessing an ugly showdown
between a group of tribals and CPI(M) cadres, triggered by a heated dispute
over land. ......
- The Modi Model
- by Uday Mahurkar
Jyotirgram Power Scheme: The scheme ensures 24-hour, three-phase domestic
power supply to all 18,000 Gujarat villages, spurring an economic revolution
in villages and reverse migration from city to villages in many parts.
......
- Congress communal campaign
- by Organiser
So the Muslims, who constitute the largest religious community in the
country after Hindus are totally under the mercy of the Sonia Congress.
At least that is what the party wants the Muslims in the country to believe.
......
- Uncalled for apology
- by Prafull Goradia
Even after 15 years, the significance of the Babri Masjid demolition has
not been widely understood. Even a historian of the stature of Prof Devendra
Swarup is more apologetic and less objective in his commentary published
by The Pioneer on December 1, 2007. He has talked of the demolition having
left a bad memory and he went to the extent of differing with writers
Nirad C Chaudhuri and VS Naipaul, who had welcomed the event as a piece
of justice. ......
- Tamil Disobedience in Malaysia
- by Dr. C. Bose
The 25 November 2007 civil disobedience organized by Tamil in Malaysia
against their discrimination and marginalization by the Muslim dominated
government represents a signficant milestone in their long struggle for
equal and democratic rights. ......
- The Muslims who will vote
for Modi
- by Praveen Rai & Priyavadan M
Patel
Muslims in Gujarat, especially after the post-Godhra violence, find themselves
in a difficult spot. They have to make a choice between going with the
BJP or with staying out in political wilderness. ......
- CPM climbdown on N-deal
betrays its Beijing line
- by M.D. Nalapat
Although the international media has highlighted the opposition of the
CPI and the CPM to the attempt by Manmohan Singh to sign a nuclear agreement
with the US that would contain the severe restrictions imposed by the
Hyde Act, the reality is that the two communist parties are just a sideshow.
......
- Niloufer doctors strike
after MIM MLA's attack
- by Andhracafe.com
Niloufer junior doctors on Sunday went on a flash strike after MIM legislator
Afsar Khan allegedly attacked them, following another attack earlier in
the day by a patient's attendants. ......
- Lashing Justice
- by The New York Times
Muslims who wonder why non-Muslims are often baffled, angered, even frightened
by some governments' interpretation of Islamic law need only look to the
cases of two women in Saudi Arabia and Sudan threatened with barbaric
lashings. ......
- Prophet picture row in West
Bengal
- by Swati Sengupta
With the West Bengal capital barely having recovered from the November
21 violence over dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's visa -
as also due to the firing in Nandigram - a fresh controversy is brewing
in the state over a book, 'Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan', brought out by a
New Delhi publisher. In the eye of a storm is a "picture", said
to be of Prophet Muhammed, published in the book. ......
- Overseas And Unhappy
- by Sunanda K. Datta-Ray
Malaysia's simmering ethnic crisis is something for the ministry of overseas
Indian affairs to ponder on. Presumably, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
was bestowed on S. Samy Vellu, president since 1979 of the Malaysian Indian
Congress and public works minister in the ruling coalition, because India
approves of his work as representative of more than two million ethnic
Indians. ......
- Yet, Sonia defended them
in Parliament, Salman in Courts
- by S Gurumurthy
It was founded in the year 1977. Not by a religious leader, but by an
English-educated academic, Mohammed Ahamadullah Siddiqui. He was a professor
not at some Alighar University in India, or in Islamabad, but at Western
Illinois University in the US, a country of free thought that claims to
melt people of diverse ideas into a wholesome one. ......
- Govt must not spare Nandigram
outlaws
- by Saugar Sengupta
Sticking to his earlier stand that the recapture of Nandigram by CPI(M)
cadre was "unlawful and unacceptable", West Bengal Governor
Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Sunday visited the troubled area and said "wrong-doers
must not be exonerated" and pitched for the presence of CRPF there
for some more time. ......
- In The Grip Of Comrades
- by Mukulika Banerjee
The Bengali word shontrash - a strong word meaning not just fear or apprehension,
but terror - was used to describe a relatively peaceful time, such as
the weeks before the 2001 assembly elections. But since it appeared in
the language press and described the mood in villages rather than Kolkata,
it was not really taken up for discussion. ......
- CPM engineered Muslim rage
- by Kanchan Gupta
Was the recent violence witnessed in some parts of central Kolkata, leading
to dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's forced eviction from
the city, genuine Muslim anger or manufactured rage? Did the CPI(M) have
a hand in organising the rioting? Who has gained the most after mobs took
to the streets? ......
- Taslima to delete lines
from her controversial book
- by Supratik Sengupta
Tossed around from place to place, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen
on Friday announced that she was withdrawing some controversial lines
from her autobiographical book, Dwikhandito (Split Into Two), that had
triggered Muslim violence and demands that she be expelled from India.
......
- Does Practise make Perfect?
- by Anuja Prashar
When CNN IBN website carried the story titled: Who is a Hindu? UK school
lists out the 'qualities'. published , Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at
09:35 (World section) , a global online debate erupted, encompassing Hindu
intellectuals and scholars from Australia, India, Malaysia, Germany, UK,
USA, Trinidad and Canada. ......
- Narenbhai, messiah of growth
- by MSN News
The village council office in this western Gujarat hamlet tells a story.
It's at the heart of the change visible through much of the state. That
is where Chief Minister Narendra Modi began chipping away in his ambitious
governance makeover. ......
- Marginalised in Malaysia
- by Hindustan Times
Like people, no nation would like anything to spoil its birthday party
- and Malaysia is no exception. It's unfortunate that the unrest in the
country happens at a time when it celebrates 50 years of independence.
The ethnic Indian community staged its biggest anti-government protest
last Sunday, thousands of protesters braving tear gas and water cannons
to raise their voice against alleged racial discrimination. ......
- Belated Tribute to a Martyr
- by V Krishna Ananth
The contempt notice issued by the Calcutta High Court to the CPI(M)'s
West Bengal unit secretary, Biman Bose, and party central committee members
Shyamal Chakravarty and Benoy Konar for their comments on an earlier ruling
by the court that the March 14 police firing in Nandigram was unconstitutional
has raised some issues that should provoke a debate on the law of contempt
as such. ......
- Belated Tribute to a Martyr
- by Ramesh Vinayak
Red-stone archway, concrete streets lit with solar lamps and a tastefully-landscaped
park with a coloured fountain-this is no heritage resort but a humble
village, with a history. Seventy-six years after laying down his life
for the country, a son of this soil has become the harbinger of its prosperity.
......
- We Don't Need No Lecture
- by Soutik Biswas
Step back from the Nandigram media maelstrom. Take a break from news channels
showing wiry, lungi-clad gunmen stalking Bengal's lush farmlands, irate
anchors shouting down stubborn Communist leaders and bhadralok intellectuals
teetering on the edge of emotional collapse. Haven't you heard the question
ad nauseam by now: how could this happen in Bengal? ......
- Open Letter to Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi
- by Beth Yahp
26 September 2007 saw two thousand lawyers "Walk for Justice"
to defend the good name and protest the sliding standards of their profession.
"When lawyers march," said Ambiga Sreenevasan, President of
the Bar Council, "something must be wrong." ......
- Malaysia tells TN CM to
lay off...
- by The Statesman
Malaysia triggered a potential diplomatic row with India when a senior
minister today threatened Tamil Nadu chief minister Mr M Karunanidhi that
he should "lay off" after the DMK supremo voiced concern over
the harsh police action here against ethnic Tamils here. ......
- Pakistan's problems start
at the top
- by Nikhil Lakshman
Nothing -- not even the rise of Osama bin Laden -- shook the foundations
of Saudi Arabia as the siege of Mecca 28 years ago. ......
- Pakistan's problems start
at the top
- by Pervez Hoodbhoy
Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan eight years ago, claiming
that the army had to step in to save the country from corrupt and incompetent
politicians. Since then, he has run both the army and the government himself,
with the connivance of a rubber-stamp Parliament put in place through
rigged elections. His rule has proved to be a dismal failure, creating
more problems than those it set out to solve. ......