This Months Article

Starting: Tue August 1, 2000
Ending: Thu August 31, 2000

Messages: 116

• Apologise to the R.S.S!
• Vande Mataram, August 2000
>>> There was a bomb blast in a Christian congregation. Immediately they called it an RSS act. Several attacks on Christian, Muslim and even Hindu places of worship followed. With each new incident, tile shrillness of the vendetta against the RSS increased. Christians in this country are being persecuted by the Hindu fundamentalist goons of the RSS and its parivaar organisations, the propaganda mill lamented relentlessly. And invented a rider to it, that all this had started only after the BJP-led Government assumed office at the Centre. ......
 
• Islamic terrorism: a threat to Indian polity
• Narain Kataria, Vande Mataram, August 2000
>>> Islamic terrorism in India has assumed an alarming proportion. It seems, Indian Muslims are implementing the strategy as enshrined in "Quranic Concepts of War" written by Brig. S. K. Malik (foreword by Zia-ul-Haq). More than three dozen militant Muslim organizations (some of them listed below) armed with most dangerous weapons and trained by ISI in Afghanistan and Pakistan are operating with impunity and systematically eliminating Hindu leaders espousing the cause of Hindu society. ......
 
• China says 'no' to diplomatic relations with Vatican
• Vande Mataram, August 2000
>>> While the Indian government was busy convincing the Pope in Rome that everything in India was fine as far as the Christians here are concerned - the PM himself was seen assuring the Pope personally China, in a statement, warned Vatican to refrain from interference in the internal affairs of it, including the management of Christian institutions in that country. ......
 
• Cong leader's son held for bishop's murder
• The Times of India, August 1, 2000
>>> The son of a Congress leader was arrested by the police on Sunday allegedly in connection with the murder of a bishop, G Emanuel, inside a church compound here on Saturday. ......
 
• 27 killed as ultras strike in Pahalgam
• Mukhtar Ahmad, Rediff on Net, August 1, 2000
>>> At least 27 persons, most of them Amarnath-bound pilgrims, were killed and 36 others were injured, many critically, in heavy shooting in the health resort town of Pahalgam late Tuesday evening. ......
 
• Delhi raises concern over ISI activities in Nepal
• Rediff on Net, August 1, 2000
>>> India and Nepal Tuesday agreed to give a new impetus to bilateral ties, even as New Delhi raised concern over Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency indulging in anti-India activities from Nepalese soil. ......
 
• Militants attack Amarnath yatra office in Jammu
• Mukhtar Ahmad, Rediff on Net, August 1, 2000
>>> Militants on Tuesday afternoon attacked the heavily guarded office in Jammu City where Amarnath-bound pilgrims are registered. ......
 
• Life sketch of Shri Bangaru Laxman: New BJP President
• R.  K.  Sinha, BJP-Today, August 2, 2000
>>> Soft-spoken and a man of many parts, who has been evincing keen interest in social, educational and literary activities since his scholastic days, Shri Bangaru Laxman was born on March 17, 1939 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh to Shri Bangaru Narasimha and Smt.  Shivamma. ......
 
• Utterly diabolical
• Editorial, The Pioneer, August 2, 2000
>>> On the face of it, the reports of terrorist killings in Jammu & Kashmir (J & K) that have been pouring in since the attack on Amarnath pilgrims on Tuesday, may suggest that the killers and their masters in Islamabad have gone berserk over the possibility of peace returning to a State they have turned into a killing field. ......
 
• Lessons of History
• Surya Narain Saxena, The Pioneer, August 2, 2000
>>> Mr N Jamal Ansari in his article `Learn from history' (20th June), blames the tragedy of partition on the folly of the Congress party and Hindu Sangathanist movements--the Arya Samaj, the Hindu Mahasabha, the then new RSS, and leaders like Veer Savarkar and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. ......
 
• Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, August 2, 2000
>>> Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was the seer who foresaw the fall of Troy to the invading Greeks; unfortunately she was cursed by Apollo so that nobody believed her. We know what happened thereafter: the oh-so-innocent Trojan horse, the sacking of Troy. I feel quite like Cassandra when I suggest that the recent hyperactivity regarding Jammu and Kashmir amounts to nothing more than a Trojan horse. It is not in India's best interest. ......
 
• US surprised as Pakistan plans export of nuclear material
• Dawn, Karachi, August 3, 2000
>>> The government of Pakistan is to allow the export of radioactive material and equipment for nuclear reactors, in apparent breach of recently drafted guidelines.  The news surprised and confused US officials, who said it appeared to undermine much of the recent progress made in talks on introducing greater controls on nuclear materials. ......
 
• Coimbatore cop gets cyanide-coated sweets by post
• Rediff on Net, August 10, 2000
>>> The Coimbatore police are investigating a case where a police officer received a packet of sweets and fruits coated with cyanide. ......
 
• Laden used Islamic charity to fund Muslim extremists
• Daily Excelsior, August 10, 2000
>>> Alleged international terrorist Osama Bin Laden used an Islamic charity to fund Muslim extremists holding more than a dozen hostages in southern Philippines, a former group member was reported saying today. ......
 
• Moscow blast: Pakistanis among those detained
• The Hindu, August 10, 2000
>>> Pakistani citizens are among the mercenaries detained in Chechnya in connection with Tuesday's bombing in a busy Moscow underpass which killed up to eight people and injured more than 90, Russian Interior Ministry sources have disclosed. ......
 
• Fundamentally unsound
• Anil Narendra, The Pioneer, August 10, 2000
>>> According to Pakistan's Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, Kashmir is not a part of India and the Lahore declaration does not serve his country's interest. ......
 
• Wifebeating guide angers Muslim women
• The Guardian, August 10, 2000
>>> A Turkish state-funded religious foundation has courted public fury by publishing a volume that says men may beat their wives as long as they avoid the face and do not strike too hard.  The Muslim's Handbook, written by a retired cleric, Kemal Guran, also says that if a man's wife is ill and he cannot afford a servant, he can take a second wife. ......
 
• Line & Length
• The Business Standard, August 11, 2000
>>> It is clear that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has never heard of the aphorism, 'once bitten, twice shy'. Nor does he seem to have heard the Hindi version of it that, no matter how tempting, a scalded person shuns even iced buttermilk. After Lahore and Kargil last year, that was the one lesson which Mr Vajpayee was expected to learn, namely, that if you are an Indian prime minister, you don't trust Pakistan. That's all. Period. It is not just India's experience since 1947 that leads to this lesson. ......
 
• Pipes on Islamic conference on J'lem
• Steven Emerson with Tamar Tesler, Moment Magazine, August, 2000
>>> "United for Al-Quds" announced the flyer for the May 29, 1999, conference.  Al-Quds, is the Arabic name for Jerusalem often used by Muslims who hope the city will one day be the capital of a Palestinian state.  Billed as a fund-raiser, the conference sounded no different from a Jewish conference called, say, Jerusalem: Eternal and Undivided - an expression of hopes and political aspirations.  But sometimes titles don't reveal everything. ......
 
• A Tightrope Walk
• Editorial, The Times of India, August 1, 2000
>>> Sunday's headline, "Guns fall silent in Kashmir", was the most powerful in years, in a decade, to be precise.  The symbolism of the words cannot be missed because they contain a glimpse of a future thought to be unattainable for Kashmir.  Whatever the eventual course of talks between the Hizbul Mujahideen and the government of India, the fact that hostilities have ceased for now is of enormous significance to the ordinary Kashmiri. ......
 
• Kashmiri Insaniyat
• Editorial, The Times of India, August 5, 2000
>>> By proposing that the government's talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen be conducted in the larger framework of humanity, insaniyat as he called it, Atal Behari Vajpayee has once again shown what it is to rise above the limitations of partisan politics and adopt the voice of global statesmanship.  The Prime Minister's offer goes to the heart of the matter: that Kashmir is much more than a political `problem'; it has, and for far too long, been a human tragedy. ......
 
• Letter from Karachi: The Talibanisation of Pakistan
• Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri, India Today, August 7, 2000
>>> Killing in the name of Allah seems to be the modus operandi of the religious parties in Pakistan.  This is the Talibanisation phenomenon--a direct offshoot to our meddling in the Afghan affairs to appease our erstwhile Cold War ally. ......
 
• Long Haul in Kashmir
• Editorial, The Times of India, August 10, 2000
>>> Those who had expected that the Hizbullah Mujaheedin's ceasefire offer would bring about a quick solution to the Kashmir problem are bound to be disappointed.  Surely, though, that was a rather naive expectation.  The politico-strategic equations in Kashmir are far too complex for peace to arrive so easily in the state.  There has been much speculation -- and some evidence -- that the US has played a `proactive' role in starting the process of negotiations. ......
 
• Why Musharraf can't stick his neck out - Where fundamentalism rules
• Saeed Naqvi, The Indian Express, August 11, 2000
>>> I have given instructions to our cadres to plan target oriented actions." This is just a tiny fraction of what Syed Salahuddin, Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, announced in Pakistan.  It was not a press note, furtively put out.  It was an announcement made at a crowded press conference. ......
 
• ISI plans major assault on August 15
• Naveen Upadhyay, The Pioneer, August 11, 2000
>>> A series of secret meetings of the front-ranking Nepal- based ISI agents and Kashmiri militants were held in Kathmandu during the last three months where it was decided to step up anti-India subversive activities. ......
 
• Govt under pressure to act against Pak
• Tara Shankar Sahay, Rediff on Net, August 11, 2000
>>> Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani are under pressure from a section of the Ministry of Defence to take "decisive action" against Pakistan to end militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. ......
 
• Hindu bodies in Nepal launch campaign against Pakistan
• Keshav Pradhan, The Hindustan Times, August 11, 2000
>>> Angered By last week's massacre of Amarnath pilgrims in Kashmir, Nepal-based Hindu organisations have launched a campaign against Pakistan for assisting terrorists in India and anti-Hindu activities in the Himalayan kingdom. ......
 
• '1.75 million being trained for 'jehad' in Pakistan'
• PTI, The Hindustan Times, August 11, 2000
>>> About 1.75 million Pakistani boys are being trained in nearly 7,000 madrassas (regligious schools) across Pakistan to be sent to Kashmir and various other parts of the world to fight 'jehad' (holy war) against "infidels", a US media report said today. ......
 
• Blue Pencil - Spotting of straws in the wind
• G S Bhargava, Deccan Herald, August 12, 2000
>>> If it is not herd mentality, I don`t know what it is.  Suddenly, word spread in the Lok Sabha press gallery recently that Union Home Minister L K Advani had resigned.  The reason: Pahalgam massacre.  As one tried to track down the news, the version changed to Advani offering to resign, owning moral responsibility. ......
 
• Dependence Day, 2000
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, August 13, 2000
>>> "Pados mein to hum loktantrik desh chahtey hain.  Lekin agar loktantra ka takhta palat kar sena satta sambhal leti  hai to  woh ek virodh ka karan banta hai.   Hum  apni nakhushi prakat kartey hain.  Lekin usko hum shart nahin banatey baatchit karney ke liye.  Jo jaisa hai, hum usikey saath nipatney ko taiyar hain." ......
 
• Regain the spirituality of art
• Francois Gautier, The Indian Express, August 14, 2000
>>> Like A.L.  Basham, the author of The Wonder That Was India (which unfortunately is still considered a classic), most Europeans have seen at best in India an exalted civilisation of religious and artistic achievements.  But India's greatness encompassed all aspects of life, from the highest to the most material, from the most mundane to the supremely spiritualised. ......
 
• Muslim rebels halt peace talks in Philippines
• Agence France-Presse, August 13, 2000
>>> Manila, Philippines - Muslim guerrillas have suspended peace talks with the Philippine government after Manila placed a bounty on their leaders' heads and seized all their training bases, a spokesman for the country's largest separatist group said Monday. ......
 
• What's on Uncle Sam's mind?
• Tathagata Bhattacharya, The Pioneer, August 13, 2000
>>> We are progressively heading towards a unipolar world and only the laws of electromagnetics debar us from calling it so.  Today, the American tag can legitimise almost anything under the sun, even poverty alleviation and human rights. ......
 
• An Unholy War
• Editorial, The Times of India, August 14, 2000
>>> If the Washington Times has got its facts right, some 1.75 million young men are currently being trained in thousands of madrasaas in Pakistan for waging a jehad in Kashmir and other parts of the world.  To say that this is disturbing is to state the obvious.  This dedicated private army will undoubtedly cause death and  destruction on  a scale many  hundred times  more  than what we saw this past week in Kashmir. ......
 
• When Bengal comrades panic, CPM stands for Crude Pressure on the Media
• Subrata Nagchoudhury & Santanu Banerjee, The Indian Express, August 14, 2000
>>> Governments all over dislike an adversarial press, Governments in panic even begin to beat up journalists.  In West Bengal, the Left Front Government is doing both.  Not only is it using its party apparatus to crudely intimidate reporters, it has banned all its officials from speaking to the press. ......
 
• In the Villages, the Taliban's Absolute Hold on Power Begins to Slip
• Dexter Filkins, The Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2000
>>> Four years after imposing one of the world's harshest Islamic regimes, the armed movement known as the Taliban is beginning to lose its grip. ......
 
• Skin-deep intellect on J&K autonomy: Part I
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, August 14, 2000
>>> Farooq Abdullah's autonomy resolution has, in retrospect, served a very useful purpose: It has dramatically revealed that some high profile intellectuals are as skin deep about J&K as showman Abdullah himself. ......
 
• Pendulum Politics
• Tavleen Singh, India Today, August 21, 2000
>>> What is going on in Kashmir?  Does anyone know?  Little of what has happened in the past few weeks makes any sense.  There is, they tell us, a peace process but add that they will not involve Pakistan in it because Kashmir is a domestic problem. ......
 
• The Untold Story Of 1971: Behind Pakistan's Defeat
• Samar Halarnkar, India Today, August 21, 2000
>>> A secret inquiry into Pakistan's debacle in the 1971 war held army atrocities, widespread corruption, cowardice and the moral laxity of it's generals as prime reasons for the defeat in East Pakistan.  The explosive Hamoodur Rehman report, suppressed by successive Pakistani governments, has never been disclosed-until now. ......
 
• When the Congress Party opposed Article 370
• L.K.Advani, BJP Today, August 1-15, 2000
>>> Thanks to the Ekta Yatra, (December 1999- January 1992) there has been a lot of animated public debate these days on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, the provision that confers a special status on Jammu and Kashmir State. The discussion has not been confined only to its content or to its desirability. Several writers have sought to probe its genesis and history. This piece has a look at a very significant facet of this history. ......
 
• How much the country loves Kashmir!
• K.R. Phanda, BJP Today, August 1-15, 2000
>>> The atmosphere is filled with the stormy debate over autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir. Whether to give autonomy or not to give it? If the give it, how much to give? The eyes, ears and the minds of all the debaters are fixed on J&K. The shortsighted are discussing only today whereas the longer sighted quote from history generally beginning with 1947. ......
 
• Trinamool Congress lambasts CPI-M stand on Syama Prasad centenary
• BJP Today, August 1-15, 2000
>>> Severely condemning the decision of West Bengal Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to stay away from the July 6 centenary celebration of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee at Calcutta presided over by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr. Nitish Sengupta, General Secretary of the Trinamool Congress, has said that the CPI-M leader has betrayed his colossal ignorance of the history of Bengal in the 1920s, 30s and 40s and Dr. Mookerjee's contribution then. ......
 
• For Independence Day
• BJP Today, August 1-15, 2000
>>> Q.1) Dear Shri Atalji, what is your message to the readers of BJP Today through this special Independence Day issue?
Ans: I send my heartiest felicitations to all readers of BJP Today, and all the workers and supporters of our Party, on the joyous occasion of the first Independence Day of the new century. In the middle of the last century, Mother India won her freedom after a long and exemplary struggle against colonial rule. We have many proud achievements to our credit in nation building in the first five decades of Freedo. ......
 
• Vatsalya Mandir - Experiment with love and care
• Atul Rawat, Organiser, August 6, 2000
>>> Charity is a fascinating word but an incomplete concept.  The western emphasis on it may have provided for food, clothes and shelter to some of the needy, but has it also provided for their becoming as complete humans as possible?  Mind, body, intellect and soul are four basic constituents of human personality.  To satisfy the overall growth of them, something more than charity is needed.  More than mere fulfillment of food, cloth and shelter, it is necessary that love, affection, care and positive attitude are available. ......
 
• CPM Government and police declare war on RSS-BMS-ABVP
• S.  Chandrasekhar, Organiser, August 6, 2000
>>> Close on the heels of the CPM's determination to physically annihilate political foes in Kerala (mainly the Sangh) and its rampant corruption and misuse of power to channelise funds of about Rs.  200 crore for its new television channel is the CPM's conspiracy to torpedo the education system in the State.  Kerala, the most literate State in the country, is now following a 10+2+3 system of education. ......
 
• Increasing number of Indians rejecting the evangelical version of God Tradtional vs Christian
• Associate Press, August 8, 2000
>>> In Robeson County and on the Cherokee reservation in the Smoky Mountains, small but growing groups of Indians are rejecting Christianity as the religion of white oppressors. ......
 
• Arrested Pakistan militant is Hindu
• Sanjeev Pargal, Mid-Day, August 11, 2000
>>> For the first time, over a decade long period of militancy, the Jammu police have arrested a Hindu youth who is a dreaded Pakistan Afghanistan militant. Four of his associates, including two Hindus were also arrested. They were sent to Jammu by Major Irfan of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to disrupt the city on Independence Day ......
 
• Violence by a Muslim Sect Stuns Malaysia
• Mark Landler, The New York Times, August 13, 2000
>>> It was the trial of the century in Malaysia.  But on the morning after this country's former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was found guilty of sodomy last Tuesday, the newspapers here gave more ink to another hearing, held in a court up country.  Twenty-nine members of an Islamic sect were charged with treason for looting two army camps last month in the northern state of Perak. ......
 
• Jehad against peace
• Seshadri Chari, The New York Times, August 13, 2000
>>> In what by any standards is the bloodiest series of attacks in the last few years of mayhem in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorists have gunned down over hundred innocent people and wounded many.  The nation's psyche stands hurt.  The complexity in Kashmir goes back to Partition and the subsequent (mis)handling of the situation by the then prime minister.  A neighbour, born out of hatred for anything Hindu, has taken advantage of the mess of the last 50 years.  But the addition of the Islamic fundamentalist thought to Pakistan's terrorism has added a new dimension to the proxy war. ......
 
• Sri Aurobindo and Indian Civilisation
• Pradeep Krishnan, Organiser, August 13, 2000
>>> Sri Aurobindo, India's greatest Yogi, rishi, poet and philosopher prophesised the rebirth of India's greatness.  He had implicit faith in "her mission, her gospel, her immortal life and her eternal rebirth".  His hope lay in the conviction: "In India alone there is self contained, dormant, the energy and the invincible spiritual individuality which can arise and break her own and the world's letters." His message has tremendous relevance in today's context.  Never before has humanity faced a crisis of such gravity. ......
 
• Cry of Jehad in Philippines
• Atul Rawat, Organiser, August 13, 2000
• >>> Kidnapping of innocent and vulnerable people seems to be the favourable propaganda tool for the Islamic terrorists worldwide.  The Islamic terrorists of Philippines are no exception.  Recently, they had kidnapped a group of twenty-one people which included foreigners, and women.  Now these terrorists have declared a jehad against the Philippine Government.  The gang led by Abul Sayyaf declared that they also supported the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's call for jehad.  The Muslims are demanding that Philippines be divided and a Muslim state be created in Southern Philippines. ......
• Calcutta journalists stage march to protest attacks
• Express News Service, The Indian Express, August 17, 2000
>>> West Bengal Governor Viren J.  Shah today expressed serious concern over the recent spurt in attacks on mediapersons and told a five-member team of journalists to take up the issue with the Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and his deputy, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. ......
 
• Kashmir: The govt's patience is running out
• T.  V.  R.  Shenoy, Rediff on Net, August 17, 2000
>>> From time to time, and for purely educational purposes, I tune in to Pakistan Television (PTV World).  It is, from an Indian point of view, depressing.  If there is any hope of forging lasting peace between India and Pakistan, a few evenings' worth of watching PTV World removes all illusions.  Which brings up the theme of this column: if I spoke of General Musharraf's options last week, it is time to examine those of India today. ......
 
• It's official: North Korea is selling missiles to Pak
• The Hindustan Times, August 17, 2000
>>> INDIA'S WORST fears over Pakistan's covert missile development programme have come true.  North  Korean leader Kim  Jong II  has reportedly  confirmed  his  country  was  selling missiles to Pakistan. ......
 
• 'Indians in Pak.  prisons a 'Indians in Pak.  prisons a tortured lot'
• The Hindu, August 17, 2000
>>> Three prisoners  repatriated through this  joint checkpost  today claimed that a number of Indians being held  in jails across the border had gone insane due to continuous torture by Pakistani intelligence officials. ......
 
• An Indian Spiritual Democrat in Chicago
• O P Sharma, The Times of India, August 17, 2000
>>> One of the most significant events in the nineteenth century in the field of inter-religious dialogue and understanding was the first World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in September 1893.  The contribution made by ``the Hindoo Monk of India'', Swami Vivekananda, was reported in the world press as a significant one and ``of lasting value''. ......
 
• Another Serbian Orthodox Church Destroyed in Kosovo
• Gracanica Monastery, August 18, 2000
>>> The Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren has just received that the Serb Orthodox Church of St.  Elijah in Vucitrn, central Kosovo was destroyed early this morning.  The church was built in 1834 in the eastern part of the city of Vucitrn where previously had existed an old Serb medieval church.  The church was painted by frescoes in 1871 by Blaza Damjanovic from Debar.  In June 1999 the church was looted and vandalized by local Kosovo Albanians together with the nearby parish home. ......
 
• Hindu pilgrims massacred; but the show must go on
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, August 18, 2000
>>> It is no great surprise to me that the so-called 'ceasefire' by the shadowy Hizbul Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir came to an ignominious end.  As I said in my previous column ('Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!') it was a propaganda exercise for the separatists and the Pakistanis to claim that see, they were willing to talk, it was India that was intransigent. ......
 
• 'Rs.  6 cr.  spent on V P Singh's treatment'
• The Hindu, August 18, 2000
>>> Over Rs.  6 crores was spent on the treatment of former Prime Minister V P Singh abroad during the last three years, Rajya Sabha was told today. ......
 
• Nepal-based ISI agent behind UP blasts
• Sharat Pradhan, Rediff on Net, August 19, 2000
>>> A notorious Nepal-based agent of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence is suspected to have been the brain behind the three blasts in Uttar Pradesh on Independence Day. ......
 
• Destabilisation fears in Bangladesh
• The Pioneer, August 19, 2000
>>> Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in her interview with the BBC sounded a grim warning to her countrymen about the perils they face from right-wing Islamic fundamentalists, whom she has charged with creating anarchy in the country. ......
 
• Deendar attacked churches at ISI's behest
• PTI, The Hindu, August 21, 2000
>>> Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directed the Deendar Anjuman to attack churches in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as the States were receiving massive foreign investments, official sources said here today. ......
 
• Harkat-ul-Mujahideen prefers 'jihad': PTI
• Rediff on Net, August 21, 2000
>>> Differences among militant outfits over the cease-fire and initiation of talks with India came to the fore with the Pakistan-backed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen warning separatists groups and political organisations against such moves, saying the "only" way to resolve the Kashmir issue was through a 'holy war'. ......
 
• BSS chief's murder: Big blow to Bodoland movement
• HT Correspondent, The Hindustan Times, August 21, 2000
>>> The move to bring warring Bodo factions together for the cause Bodoland statehood received a severe blow when militants from the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) gunned down Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) president Bineshwar Brahma Saturday night. ......
 
• This Bangla film-maker believes in being different from others
• Press Trust Of India, The Indian Express, August 21, 2000
>>> Controversy is virtually the second name of film-maker Tanvir Mokammel.  As a leading director of documentary and feature films in the parallel cinema circuit of Bangladesh, he has taken up subjects in a manner few others in his country have done. ......
 
• Amnesty charges Hindu groups with inciting attacks on Christians
• Rediff on Net, August 21, 2000
>>> London-based human rights group Amnesty International has expressed concern at the recurring anti-Christian attacks in India, which it said, was the result of incitement by right-wing Hindu political groups. ......
 
• Text of Cabinet decision on J & K Autonomy Resolution
• Kashmir Sentinel, July 1 - August 15, 2000
>>> The government is committed to the promotion of federal harmony by ensuring a partnership of the Centre and the States as laid down in the National Agenda for Governance of the National Democratic Alliance. ......
 
• All Goa citizens' committee for social justice and action
• M. K. Jos, Renovacao, August 1-15, 2000
>>> Violence against Christians escalating visibly under your government role of Sangh Parivar posing serious threat to communal harmony and peace all over the country. ......
 
• Excerpted from the presidential address of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee at the first All India Session of Bhartiya Jana Sangh at Kanpur on December 29, 1952
• Kashmir Sentinel, July 1 - August 15, 2000
>>> We are reproducing below the report prepared by the Andhra Police, in full, and which has been made available to Communalism Combat. But to begin with, we must make it clear that it is not for us but the courts to decide whether the accused leaders and members of the Deendar Anjuman are guilty of the charges levelled against them. We are reproducing it nonetheless because we are reproducing it nonetheless because we find it extremely educative in many ways. ......
 
• Deendar Anjuman
• Communalism Combat, August, 2000
>>> We are reproducing below the report prepared by the Andhra Police, in full, and which has been made available to Communalism Combat. But to begin with, we must make it clear that it is not for us but the courts to decide whether the accused leaders and members of the Deendar Anjuman are guilty of the charges levelled against them. We are reproducing it nonetheless because we are reproducing it nonetheless because we find it extremely educative in many ways. ......
 
• Christians under siege in India a missionary ploy
• David Frawley, The Organiser, August 6, 2000
>>> Christianity does not have a notable reputation for tolerance and respect for other religions. The Christian need to convert the entire world and the Christian failure to honour other religions, particularly non-biblical traditions, is well known. Christian missionaries have had a reputation of using methods to promote conversion that are not always honest, including employing military and political force during the colonial era. Yet Christians today conveniently like to ignore such facts. ......
 
• 'Why should we talk to Pakistan?' (The Rediff Interview - Javed Shah)
• Onkar Singh, Rediff on Net, August 14, 2000
>>> Javed Shah of the National Conference, once a top militant, was one of the first leaders in Jammu and Kashmir to criticise the bomb blast in Srinagar, in which 12 people, including photojournalist Pradeep Bhatia, were killed and 35 injured. ......
 
• Skin-deep intellect on J&K autonomy: Part I
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, August 14, 2000
>>> Farooq Abdullah's autonomy resolution has, in retrospect, served a very useful purpose: It has dramatically revealed that some high profile intellectuals are as skin deep about J&K as showman Abdullah himself. ......
 
• Skin-deep intellect on J&K autonomy: Part II
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, August 22, 2000
>>> India Today once boasted of having the clout to build public opinion strong enough to oust a government in New Delhi.  But in this, its silver jubilee year, that intelligent man's weekly has committed quite a few blunders in its two recent cover stories on J&K, thereby exposing once again how some so-called intellectuals have not yet got their history right on what has for 53 years now been an extremely critical, sensitive subject for the entire nation. ......
 
• "Autonomy" and Minority in Kashmir
• C.L.Gadoo, BJP Today, August 16-31, 2000
>>> In 1947, when Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India, the ruler of the State, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the instrument of Accession, which the rulers of other major Indian States had signed. The accession of the State to India was not subject to any exceptions or preconditions to provide for any separate constitutional arrangements for the state. ......
 
• SFI souvenir makes CPM see red
• K A Shaji, BJP Today, August 16-31, 2000
>>> The revelation of some 'stark truths' about the CPM by an SFI leader through the pages of a special souvenir brought out by the federation's Sulthan Bathery St Mary's College unit, has caused a flutter in the CPM circles of Wayanad. ......
 
• Lumpen "Marxists" launch barbaric assaults on nationalists
• BJP Today, August 16-31, 2000
>>> On the page alongside dear reader, you will find a colour photograph showing a newly married couple flanked by the mother of the bride and senior BJP leaders of Kerala. On close scrutiny, you will find that the wedding took place in a temple belonging to the SNDP sect, because the picture of Shri Narayan Guru also appears in the photograph. ......
 
• Communal politics in Kerala
• K. Raman Pillai, BJP Today, August 16-31, 2000
>>> The topic of discussion at present in Kerala to which front Muslim League will join". Is it to continue with U. D. F. or join the LDF? For the past 30 years Muslim League has been a faithful partner of the Congressled United Democratic Front. ......
 
• Cult for the communal
• Rediff on Net, August 16, 2000
>>> An obscure Islamic sect has shot to prominence in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the last two months. ......
 
• 'Anjuman people love Pakistan, not India'
• George Iype, Rediff on Net, August 17, 2000
>>> Welcome to the strange world of the Deendar Anjuman, the followers of which wear the green turban of Muslim saints, the saffron robes of Hindu swamis and beards like the Sikhs. ......
 
• It is decision time on Kashmir
• The Pioneer, August 17, 2000
>>> There comes a time in every nation's history when it has to take a stand, a stand which could pit it against global opinion, a stand which could expose it to virulent criticism from within, a stand which could lead to unforeseen changes in its polity. ......
 
• Hindu-bashing through the decades
• Mayank Jain, Organiser, August 18, 2000
>>> "Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully...  The effect of education on the Hindus is prodigious.  No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion.  Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy, and some embrace Christianity. ......
 
• Drawing Lessons From Ayutthaya
• K Subrahmanyam, The Times of India, August 19, 2000
>>> Bangkok: Ayutthaya was a flourishing Buddhist kingdom in Thailand for four centuries from 1350 to 1767. The name was derived from the original Ayodhya of the Raghus on the banks of the Sarayu. Founded by Ramathibodi I, Ayutthaya became one of the most powerful kingdoms of South East Asia. One day this kingdom was invaded and the capital Ayutthaya was subsequently occupied and destroyed by invading Burmese forces. ......
 
• Drawing Lessons From Ayutthaya
• K Subrahmanyam, The Times of India, August 19, 2000
>>> Bangkok: Ayutthaya was a flourishing Buddhist kingdom in Thailand for four centuries from 1350 to 1767. The name was derived from the original Ayodhya of the Raghus on the banks of the Sarayu. Founded by Ramathibodi I, Ayutthaya became one of the most powerful kingdoms of South East Asia. One day this kingdom was invaded and the capital Ayutthaya was subsequently occupied and destroyed by invading Burmese forces. ......
 
• China's hand in Africa's wars
• defence-data.com, August 22, 2000
>>> In a bid to develop a market for its arms industry, China has dispatched four military delegations to sub-Saharan Africa in the last few months.  South Africa and the United Nations have worked to resolve the region's conflicts. ......
 
• How and why China proliferates ballistic missiles to Pakistan
• Philip Saunders, Philip Saunders, August 22, 2000
>>> If you thought that China had become a serious missile nonproliferation convert, then think again.  New evidence produced by US intelligence agencies suggests that Chinese ballistic missile-related technology transfers to Pakistan remain a serious proliferation concern. ......
 
• Setting record straight on Kashmir
• Harold A Gould, The Observer of Business and Politics, August 22, 2000
>>> On July 31, Congressman David O Bonior published an op-ed in The Washington Post, which is a grievously inaccurate analysis of the Kashmir dispute. While he was correct in saying that the roots of the Kashmir crisis run deep, almost everything that follows this truism betrays a blatant anti-Indian bias. One of the principal respects in which he reveals his bias is by equating India and Pakistan as "two unstable nuclear powers... on a collision course". ......
 
• Speight was just a fall guy: Chaudhry
• Mahendra Ved, The Times of India, August 22, 2000
>>> Deposed Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has charged that his predecessor Sitiveni Rabuka had planned the May coup against his government, to become the country's president, but George Speight, who was party to the conspiracy, upstaged the plotters by acting three days too soon. ......
 
• Row brews at Centre for Policy Research
• Saurabh Shukla, The Indian Express, August 23, 2000
>>> It may just be the beginning of a war of sorts at the Centre for Policy Research here, following the dismissal of one of its permanent professors, Brahma Chellaney. ......
 
• Spreading violence
• Editorial, The Pioneer, August 23, 2000
>>> Monday's incident in West Bengal's Midnapore district, in which about 3,000 supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) looted over 400 houses and burnt 250 huts belonging to Trinamool Congress supporters, provides yet another example of the alarming spread of political violence in West Bengal. ......
 
• The peak of contention: Army says it was never ours
• Manoj Joshi, The Times of India, August 24, 2000
>>> Army officers are seething at what they say is an ``inspired'' campaign to malign their image.  Their main complaint is over a pattern of news reports that claim the Army has ``lost'' a Kargil height, Point 5353, to Pakistan, and made the Zoji La-Kargil road vulnerable to Pakistani shelling. ......
 
• Global media blitz planned to expose Pak role in Kashmir
• Y Siva Sankar, Rediff on Net, August 24, 2000
>>> As the countdown for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to the United States in September nears zero, a group of Indian citizens has taken upon itself "the task of exposing Pakistan's reprehensible role in Jammu and Kashmir" to the world in general and the US in particular. ......
 
• Army upset over report aimed at maligning its image
• Manoj Joshi, Times of India, August 24, 2000
>>> Indian Army officials are seething at what they say is an "inspired" campaign to malign their image. Their main complaint is over a pattern of news reports that claim the army "lost" a Kargil height, Point 5353, to Pakistan, making the Zoji La-Kargil road vulnerable to Pakistani shelling. ......
 
• Links between defence officials and Anjuman unearthed
• George Iype, The Indian Express, August 25, 2000
>>> After two months of investigation into the Deendar Anjuman's activities, after it was accused of having set off a series of bomb blasts in places of worship in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, police officials have stumbled on evidence that some Indian defence officials were acting as its links to the ISI. ......
 
• The games that historians play
• N.S. Rajaram, The Pioneer, August 25, 2000
>>> Of late the air has been rent by cries of `saffronisation' by eminent historians who, until recently used to monopolise the history establishment. ......
 
• Consensus on caste a must: Bangaru
• Suman K Jha, The Pioneer, August 25, 2000
>>> The Bharatiya Janata Party elected Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit leader (a Madiga) from Andhra Pradesh, as  its  president recently.   Laxman, who will formally take over the reins of the party at the Nagpur meeting of the BJP national council beginning on Saturday, is the first Dalit to have been chosen to head the party. ......
 
• Interpreting Indian History Differently
• The Weekend Observer, August 26, 2000
>>> Francois Gautier is a well-known French journalist and a writer. In his latest book Arise, O India Gautier says that India was a melting pot of different influences coming from the West and owes many of her achievements to out side cultures. ......
 
• Delink Jammu & Ladakh from Valley - Bogey of alienation in Kashmir
• Hari Om, The Tribune, August 27, 2000
>>> What is alienation? According to M.Seeman, author of "germinal" work On the meaning of alienation (American Sociological Thought, XXIV, 6, 1959), alienation, denotes the estrangement of the individual from key aspects of his or her social existence".  Or, "alienation is a feeling on the part of the individual that he cannot influence the situations (social or political) in which he interacts". ......
 
• 'We will kidnap aid workers and wed them'
• Julian West, The Telegraphy, August 27, 2000
>>> Aid workers in Pakistan's North-West Frontier are being attacked by the country's growing army of Taliban-style mullahs.  One, Maulana Zia ul Haq, has published a fatwa ordering any "Anglo-Saxon" entering his territory to be killed. ......
 
• Ban inflow of funds to missionaries: Mahant
• The Hindu, August 27, 2000
>>> Shri Ram Janambhoomi Trust President Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans today demanded a ban on inflow of foreign aid to Christian institutions, expressing his concern over "suspicious activities" of foreign missionaries in north-eastern States. ......
 
• Through French eyes
• Dileep Padgaonkar, The Sunday Times of India, August 27, 2000
>>> Francois Gautier is a Frenchman who came to India three decades ago, married an Indian and succumbed to the spell of Sri Anrobindo's teachings in Pondicherry. As the South Asia correspondent of the influential newspaper Le Figaro, he pursued an ambitious agenda: to radically change the deeply-entrenched views of his compatriots about India. ......
 
• Justice a victim of US terrorism crusade
• Andrew Marshall, New Zealand Herald, August 28, 2000
>>> He was Public Enemy Number One. His bearded face stared at us from newspapers, magazine covers and the television - the evil genius who threatened the United States and all civilised nations: Osama bin Laden. ......
 
• 'Terrorist cell' in Auckland
• John Andrews, New Zealand Herald, August 28, 2000
>>> New Zealand detectives have foiled a possible terrorist plot to target a nuclear reactor in Sydney, venue for next month's Olympic Games. ......
 
• Mother of melting pots
• Francois Gautier, The Indian Express, August 28, 2000
>>> It was always thought that India was a melting pot of different influences coming from the West, either by trade or through invasions, and that she owes many of her achievements - her sciences, philosophy, or religion - to outside influences, whether by the way of the Aryan invasions, or via the Greek incursions. ......
 
• Belgian NGO blames Pak for violence in Kashmir
• The Navhind Times, August 28, 2000
>>> The President of the Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir, Mr.  Beersmans Paul, has accused Pakistan of being primarily responsible for the disaster in Jammu and Kashmir, stating violence was blocking the way for peaceful and negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue. ......
 
• PM meets his old guru in Nagpur
• The Asian Age, August 28, 2000
>>> It was a journey down memory lane for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when he visited the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh headquarters at Reshimbagh in Nagpur and met his "guru," octogenarian Narayan Tarte, and received a bouquet from him. ......
 
• Human rights (letters to editor)
• Adhir Banerjee, The Indian Express, August 28, 2000
>>> Sir Soon after World War II ended, H. G. Wells invited Gandhiji to attend the first world conference on human rights to be held in Paris. Gandhiji politely declined, saying he understood duties but not rights H.G. Wells wrote back that if rights were taken care. Of , duties would be automatically taken care of. Gandhiji did not reply. ......
 
• Was Veer Savarkar a Nazi?
• Koenraad Elst, Aseemaa, August, 2000
>>> In secularist publications, it is often alleged that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, also known as (Swatantrya) Veer, "hero (of independence)", was a Nazi. Let us examine the two main aspects of this allegation: his view on race, and his actual record in World War 2. ......
 
• Ethnic feud in Sindh
• Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, Newstime, August 27, 2000
>>> The Fierce ethnic hostilities that broke out in Karachi and other parts of Sindh on August 8, although a recurrent phenomenon in Pakistan, have once again brought into focus the failure of the military junta to find a solution to the longstanding problems and grievances of a large section of population - the Mohajirs. These problems are linked with larger issues of economic justice and political autonomy. ......
 
• Equally To Blame (letter to Editor)
• Jesu Mathew, The Times of India, August 30, 2000
>>> My Christian brothers should realise that quite apart from Hindu fundamentalists, the Christian community too is equally to blame for the sorry state that Christian's in general find themselves in. ......
 
• Dragon Fire, not just another work of of fiction
• Press Trust Of India, The Indian Express, August 30, 2000
>>> The fictional scenario of Chinese nuclear strikes on New Delhi and Mumbai drawn in a book written by a veteran BBC journalist was today termed as "plausible" by leading defence experts, lending support to the controversial views of Defence Minister George Fernandes. ......
 
• Filipino Kidnap Group Has Roots in Afghan War
• John K.  Cooley, ABC News, August 31, 2000
>>> Like many international terrorists, the Abu Sayyaf group has its origins in the 1979-89 jihad or ''holy war'' to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan. ......
 
• Kerala politics: Casteist and communal
• T V R Shenoy, Rediff on Net, August 31, 2000
>>> Towards the end of the nineteenth century Swami Vivekananda set out on a journey across India.  The last place on his itinerary was Kerala, specifically the princely state of Travancore.  (Kanyakumari was then part of that kingdom.) Having wandered across the nation, one would have thought that the Swami would be inured to the idiocies of the caste system.  He was not, despairingly describing Kerala as a "lunatic asylum". ......
 
• The Genius of India
>>> What is the specific genius of India, her characteristic soul? What allowed her to survive for so many centuries when all other antique civilisations today lie in their graves ? Does spirituality make all that the spirit of India has been in its past, or did the ancient Indian mind possess other powers too? ......
 
• The Other Side of Midnight
• Iram Allee, Karachi Journal, August, 2000
>>> Karo Kari is the most horrendous form of despotism ever committed with the major victims being destitute, innocent women who have been subjected to this brutality since time immemorial. ......
 
• Kashmir and the defence of democracy
• KPS Gill, The Pioneer, August 19, 2000
>>> Between words and deeds there is inevitably a hiatus. But if this distance grows beyond a certain measure, words lose all significance, and men must be judged not by their proclamations or their intentions, but by deed alone. ......
 
• Christians attack RSS pracharak
• Organiser, August 27, 2000
>>> In Pandalgudi, a small village in Virudunagar district of Tamilnadu, Shri Abhilash, an active RSS pracharak had been running many social welfare programmes including free tuition to the poor and conducting yoga and meditation classes.  Over months Shri Abhilash had earned goodwill and respect from the entire village. ......

Last Article date: Thu August 31, 2000
Archived on:  Thu August 31, 2000