In the edit 'Jhanda & Agenda'
(Jan 23), it is stated that Hindutva's main props are Ayodhya, Article
370 and Common Civil Code. Agreed that Ayodhya is a prop of Hindutva; but
a Common Civil Code is a directive principle of our Constitution. .....
What a week it's been! Heaven sent
opportunities for any parliamentary rebel to show their mettle. What with
proposals for "top up" university fees, the funeral of a police officer
killed on anti-terrorist duty, the raid on a mosque, and the BBC investigation
of "Asian" gangs parading their fast cars and violence to corner the trade
in hard drugs from Pakistan and Afghanistan in British cities. Enough to
raise the heckles of any rebel, and certainly one whose constituency is
impacted by such events. .....
Last weekend was going pretty swimmingly
for me. All over the TV, the news shows reported on the "peace" demonstrations
"sweeping" America, though you couldn't help noticing the cameras
always stayed in tight, no wide shots, just close-ups in some cases,
because there were only six "peace" lovers present; in others, to
avoid showing the vast numbers of nutters. .....
This refers to Mohbooba Mufti's
visit to Mumbai to garner financial gain for J&K. As a person, she
has every right to say, "I can't stand Anupam Kher", but as
the vice-president of the controlling party of
India's most troubled state she has no right to make such an immature declaration.
.....
Traffic jams and chaos are a small
price to pay for an event which is a 'symbol of national pride' and 'celebrates
our glorious past', say The Indian Express readers. .....
Pakistan's foreign minister Khurshid
Kasuri ended a fruitless and possibly disastrous Washington visit with
the Bush administration publicly rejecting Islamabad's plea to exempt Pakistanis
from a special registration process and ignoring requests for resumption
of arms supply. .....
US immigration authorities on Tuesday
detained a prominent Pakistani journalist on minor visa violation charges,
causing further disquiet in a relationship that is in turmoil over new
rules requiring men from Pakistan to be fingerprinted and registered. .....
Defence Minister George Fernandes'
recent warning that Pakistan would be wiped off the map if it dared launch
a nuclear attack on India should not be seen as the rambling of a loose
cannon in the government. .....
How fares freedom of speech at
Canadian universities? It looked pretty grim back in September 2002, when
a mini-intifada prevented Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister of
Israel, from speaking at Concordia. .....
Pakistan warned the Bush administration
on Wednesday that any mass deportation of illegal Pakistani immigrants
under new US security requirements would have a severe impact on relations.
.....
A Section of the ulema in the city
has appealed to the Indian government to oppose the proposed American military
action against Iraq. Speaking at a press conference called by the Raza
Academy yesterday, Maulana Musanah Miyan of the All India Aimmae Masjid
said that ulema (religious heads) in India and abroad would be issuing
a fatwa for a boycott of American and British goods. .....
The trains arrive with a whisper,
speak with a computerized voice and at times are driven by women. Passengers
board quickly and quietly at stations that are clean and airy, with graceful
30- foot arched ceilings and computerized entryways. .....
Marriage and divorce laws in Islam
have a profound effect on the family unit and consequently on Moslem society
as a whole. I personally lived in and witnessed many Moslem families and
saw the impossible family dynamics resulting from these laws. I realized
that a woman finding herself happy and secure in a Moslem marriage happens
rarely and only through extraordinary good luck. I will explain why this
is so. .....
Parampoojniya Sh. K.S. Sudershan,
Sarsanghchalak of RSS today lambasted the forces which were opposing
the Shauraya Smriti Samaroh and had launched a disinformation campaign
against the RSS. He said that they were posing meaningless
questions, why was the function being organized and why now? He said
that this opposition was part of the campaign against the Sangh,
its workers and its sister organization. .....
While Canadian leftists were front
and center in demonstrations last week against America's war preparations
in the Gulf, shouting their usual hatred against the United States from
long-entrenched habit, they have been conspicuously silent about Muslim
fundamentalists in their own backyard. .....
Six people were killed and 12 injured
when suspected insurgents of banned National Liberation Front of Tripura
(NLFT) on Sunday night opened indiscriminate fire at a village in West
Tripura district, police said. .....
The 27 student missionaries serving
in 10 Muslim-dominated regions sent a letter urging Southern Baptists to
moderate their criticism of Islam and its founder because it hurts Christian
evangelism and endangers missionaries. .....
The All-India Democratic Women's
Association (AIDWA) State secretary, P.K.Sreemathi, MLA, has alleged that
the State has become a grazing ground for sex racketeers and anti- socials,
leaving it in a shameful state of sexual anarchy. .....
Over 200 representatives of pre-Christianity
ancient cultures like Maya, Inca, Maori, Druid etc from 40 different countries
will participate in a unique international conference at the newly-launched
Rambhau Mhalgi Prabhodhini complex at Uttan, Bhayander from February4-9,
2003. .....
In a forceful attempt to make Britain
too hot to hold radical Islamists and inflammatory preachers from around
the globe, the authorities are arguing for life imprisonment of a Muslim
cleric significantly named by the White House as "linked with Al Qaida".
.....
In an apparent karmic conundrum
few have been able to solve so far, Britain's 1.3 million Indians are newly
revealed to be doing better than all other community groups, but are still
poorer than the white mainstream population. In other words, the Hindujas,
Mittals and Swraj Pauls cannot hide the community's real poverty at the
bottom end. .....
A harangue from Bollywood on human
rights was the last thing Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed
Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba expected. .....
The Digvijay Singh regime seems
determined to needle the RSS-BJP by forcibly acquiring temple land (wherever
possible) either directly in its possession or owned by its supporters.
.....
The police in riot gear burst into
a London mosque on Monday in Britain's biggest anti-terror operation since
the September 11 attacks, arresting seven people as part of a wider probe
into the discovery of ricin poison. .....
The Pakistani Christian community's
sense of being a beleaguered group must have been assuaged to some extent
by President General Pervez Musharraf visit to the Lahore Diocese recently.
.....
After a year of relative silence,
militant organisations are rearing their heads again in Pakistan, especially
in the print media. Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD), formerly the Lashkar-e-Taiba,
which is headquartered at Muridke near Lahore, has set up offices at Chauburji
and in the military-administered upscale Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood
in Lahore. Likewise, Maulana Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad is now known
as the Tehrik Khuddam ud-Din and is establishing new centres. .....
A New book has documented the cultural
heritage of India's three Jewish communities. The book, authored by nine
writers, explores in pictures and prose the rituals, architecture and contributions
of the Bene Israelis, the Cochinese and the Baghdadis, miniscule communities
who, while retaining their Jewish identity, absorbed the culture and customs
of their adopted land. .....
Shri V.K. Malhotra, MP and Parliamentary
Spokesperson of the BJP along with a delegation of BJP functionaries from
the State of Nagaland met the Chief Election Commissioner and Election
Commissioners and presented a petition on the subject of pre-poll rigging
and manipulation of Enrolls in Nagaland. .....
Secularization was first used at
the end of thirty years war in Europe, 1648, to refer to the transfer of
Church properties to the exclusive control of the premises. George Holyoke,
in 1851 coined the term 'secularism' and led a socialist movement of protest
in England. .....
The Congress election strategy
in this crucial election is incomprehensible, even if one uses nothing
more esoteric than common sense. Who advised Sonia to begin her campaign
from Ambaji, a pilgrimage center? What signal was she sending? That She
was a devout Hindu? That the Congress was a party of only devout Hindus?
.....
Italian politicians of the right,
left and center called for the recognition in the European Constitution
of Christian values which form part of the continent's identity. .....
The convention that will define
Europe's constitutional future runs the risk of forgetting the continent's
religious and spiritual heritage, warn representatives of the Holy See.
.....
Now that we know that the Madhya
Pradesh Chief Minister owes his political and physical health to the regular
intake of cow urine, it may finally be possible for us to maturely discuss
hitherto neglected issues that have a vital bearing on our nationhood.
I say this because the purpose of this revelation was to establish Mr.
Digvijay Singh's credentials as a devout Hindu, and thereby deflect a future
RSS-BJP attack on his secular persona in the run-up to the next assembly
elections. .....
A serious confrontation is building
up between India and Bangladesh on the question of deportation of Bangladeshis
from India with both countries sticking to their positions. .....
Former US senator Larry Pressler
on Monday urged the US to give up its policy of balancing India and Pakistan
while reducing military aid to Islamabad and accepting New Delhi as a "key
ally". .....
The United States and India face
the threat of possible attacks by terrorists or "rogue states" armed with
weapons of mass destruction, the US ambassador said Monday. .....
In Pakistan, last year became famous
by its dramatic democracy. The first thing is President Parvez Musharraf
managed to get majority of people behind him and made a record in
the history of dictatorships by getting 97 % votes in the referendum.
He made many changes in the Constitution of 1973 in order to have the President's
post. How a person can use the Constitution for his selfish ends like an
ordinary book has been a puzzle for the citizens of Pakistan. But who is
to stop him? Taking advantage of exactly this factor, Musharraf has been
doing anything that he wants. .....
Frustrated that his troops are
still not aggressive enough in hunting down terrorists, FBI Director Robert
Mueller has launched a potentially controversial initiative aimed at making
sure that field agents finally get the message--and are held accountable.
.....
A serious confrontation is building
up between India and Bangladesh on the question of deportation of Bangladeshis
from India with both countries sticking to their positions. .....
Two-year-old Saurabh, son of a
Surat-based kirana shopkeeper Dinesh Kumar Shah, who was kidnapped from
the Mahesh Nagar area under the Sachin police station of the Surat district
of Gujarat on December 25, was rescued from a village in the Nalanda district
on Sunday. .....
The arrest of two activists of
the Students Islamic Movement of India in Lucknow on Saturday has sounded
warning bells for the state police, that is now convinced that the banned
Islamic outfit had begun to flex its muscles again in Uttar Pradesh. .....
A day ahead of Prime Minister Vajpayee's
visit to Mumbai, a powerful explosion ripped through an auto-rickshaw,
killing a woman and injuring 25 others, near a crowded market at suburban
Vile Parle on Monday night, police sources said. .....
In a new twist to the Graham Staines
murder case, a Central Bureau of Investigation officer on Monday told a
court that none of the 18 persons chargesheeted in the case belonged to
the Bajrang Dal. .....
Swami Vivekananda was energy personified.
Freedom was his passion; he never liked subjugation. To him it was a badge
of shame. He asked, "What would you do if someone insulted your mother?"
One reply was, "I would fall upon him, and teach him a good lesson". .....
Out of my 466-word piece, Query
for Lady Naipaul (HT, January 11), Lady Naipaul chose to focus on the last
three words alone and made it to the headlines. I should have known that
nobody likes to be a Pakistani these days. Ironically, she adopted an old
communist practice: to sidetrack the main issue and label the person seeking
answers. Unfair, indeed. .....
The Iraq war is over! Saddam Hussein
is gone (Somewhere?)! We won! U.S. troops return to ticker- tape parades,
the world bows to America's superpower with our citizens living in homeland
peace forever after. Right? No, unfortunately, probably wrong. .....
On the eve of the 54th Republic
Day of India I greet all the billion people of our country living in India
and abroad. I also greet the members of the armed forces and paramilitary
forces who guard our frontiers on the land, the sea and the air. .....
Two recent incidents have exposed
the chinks in the armour of the 'secular' cabal and put a question mark
on its credibility, which was never high any way. One is the nabbing of
a former Director General of Police-turned-Human Rights' activist from
outside a college in Delhi for eve teasing. The other is the quit notice
served on an American Protestant preacher in Thiruvananthapuram district
of Congress-led Kerala for indulging in a conversion campaign against the
stipulations of a tourist visa. .....
Even as Pakistan's Northern Areas
emerge as a major safe haven for Al-Qaida and Taliban elements, the two
million-plus people of the mountainous region, who insist on calling the
area Gilgit-Baltistan, have stepped up their campaign for independence
from Islamabad's rule. .....
Chief Election Commissioner JM
Lyngdoh is misusing his constitutional position and crossing all lines.
He is causing immense damage to the country's democratic polity and openly
abusing people. He is acting in his discretion and taking decisions which
can be legitimately dismissed with a shake of head as politically motivated,
partisan and highly discriminatory and outrageous. .....
Prime Minister José María
Aznar said today that Spanish police officials had arrested 16 militants
suspected of links to Al Qaeda, breaking up two cells and confiscating
electronic material and containers of unidentified chemicals. .....
P R Brahmananda, renowned economist
and president of the International Economic Association, died here today
following cardiac arrest. A bachelor, Brahmananda was 77. .....
For those who think that that other
war - the one in Afghanistan - is over and done, think again. The characters
and currents responsible for triggering the war on terror are as dedicated
as they were a year ago, but the more likely battleground for years to
come will be next door - in Pakistan, where much of the problem began.
.....
Asserting that Pakistan had become
a 'center' for terrorist activities, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee on Monday
voiced concern that no action was being taken against that country and
urged the international community to put a stop to this. .....
A political cartoon of the early
'80s had Indira Gandhi gravely inspecting a queue of Congressmen and then
tell one of them, "You are the chief minister of Maharashtra, what's your
name?" That joke, as good jokes always do, had a serious subtext. Under
the then powerful Congress 'high command', it was the lot of the regional
satraps to be used like pawns on a chessboard. .....
In a strategy to encircle India,
Pakistan has entered into a clandestine agreement with Bangladesh for "joint
security cooperation" which is aimed at funneling fresh wave of terrorism
into India's troubled North-East where more than 16 insurgent outfits are
waging guerrilla battles for over two decades. Pakistan has been taking
advantage of the ethno-cultural turmoil and assisting most of the outfits
by way of financial help, arms supply and training of their cadres in camps
set up inside Bangladeshi territory. .....
Declassification by George Washington
University's National Archives has made documents of Nixon presidency
accessible to public. These documents show extreme disappointment
of U.S. consular personnel in Dhaka and of their diplomats in New
Delhi with the administration' s pro-Pakistan policies. .....
Thank you for sending me a copy
of your letter (below) to Dr. Rochunga Pudaite. It helps me understand
another great man - the Apostle Peter. Peter's influence on world history
has been at least as great as Gautam Buddha's and certainly greater than
Constantine's. I am praying that you will become India's Peter. In a massive,
spontaneous rally in Jerusalem, Peter led 3,000 Jews (who had been mocking
him) to become followers of Jesus Christ. .....
Mohammed Altaf Ismail, the main
conspirator in the Ghatkopar bomb blast of December 2, was deported by
Dubai last night. An Indian Airlines flight brought Altaf to Mumbai's international
airport at 11.30 p.m. where he was taken into police custody. DCP Pradeep
Sawant of the Crime Branch confirmed that Altaf was now with the Mumbai
police. He is likely to be produced in the designated POTA court at 2.30
o'clock this afternoon where the police will seek his remand. .....
One more person was deported from
Dubai last night and taken into custody by the Mumbai police in connection
with the Ghatkopar bomb blast on December 2. .....
Like derailed Indo-Pak talks, Train
to Pakistan is showing less and less signs of returning on track. According
to reports, portions of the rail track on which the Samjhauta Express (from
Attari to Lahore) used to run on the Pakistani side have been dismantled.
.....
Politicians universally enjoy terrible
reputation. As a class they are widely considered synonymous with
sleaze and scam. Not a day passes without someone in some part of
the country ferreting out tales of wrongdoing by politicians. Whether
they are local, municipal-level or operate at the state or central levels,
our 'netas' without doubt have a rotten public image . And deservedly
so. .....
Both partners insist all is well,
but the diplomatic marriage of convenience between Pakistan and the United
States is under serious strain, 16 months after it was consumated after
September 11. .....
A Pakistani judge on Thursday refused
to try Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of banned militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad,
on charges of making a speech against India, saying Indian Deputy Premier
L.K. Advani "threatens Pakistan daily" but a case against him was never
instituted by the Indian government. .....
Ireland's representative to a convention
aimed at framing a European Constitution wants a reference to the importance
of Europe's spiritual and moral heritage included, the Sunday Times reported.
.....
Rasila's father was one of the
25,000 people that the quake consumed, driving her terrified pregnant mother
to despair and psychological problems. .....
Police sources claim that Ghatkopar
blast accused Sayyed Khwaja Yunus Sayeed Khwaja Ayub (28) really escaped
and took shelter in an Ahmednagar madrassa. .....
A 20-member women's football team
sent under the auspices of the Indian Football Association (IFA) from West
Bengal has returned from Bangladesh cutting short its three-match tourney
there. .....
The United States has downplayed
calls by Pakistani Islamic leaders for the expulsion of its Ambassador
to that country Nancy Powell for her remarks on infiltration across the
Line of Control. .....
Over 15 people, including two priests,
were injured on Saturday when police used force to evict members belonging
to a faction of Malankara Church who 'forcibly' entered a church near Kochi
and began to hold services. .....
Less than a week after terrorists
threatened Muslim women to quit government jobs or face death, Lashkar-e-Taiba,
a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, has asked teachers in Army schools in
Jammu and Kashmir to leave their jobs or face consequences. .....
In 1941 the State Bank received
30.9 tons of gold and about 60 tons of silver. Religious chalices,
icom lamps and statues alone accounted for more than 60,000 pieces
and the number of saddles, harnesses, traditional knives, smoke pipes
lavishly decorated with silver, gold and precious stones simply is
not available. .....
A women's football team from India,
invited to play exhibition matches with their Bangladesh counterparts,
had to leave home without playing the last game in the face of stiff resistance
by some religious fanatics. .....
The US intelligence agency FBI,
which has been tracking Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan, would
be collecting complete information about three million Pakistanis including
criminals, politicians, industrialists and businessmen, officials were
on Friday quoted as saying. .....
With her dimpled smile and wholesome
good looks, Preity Zinta has danced and lip-synced her way into the top
ranks of Bollywood stardom. But nothing prepared the 28-year-old daughter
of an Indian army officer for the critical acclaim that greeted her latest
performance, on the witness stand in a Bombay courtroom. .....
By one of those happy coincidences
in which no Iranian ever really believes, both The Economist and the New
York Times have discovered that Iran's religious leaders are not happy
with the way things are going in the Islamic Republic. As readers of my
columns have known for some time, many of the country's leading ayatollahs
have figured out that when the Islamic regime is finally brought down,
the people's rage is likely to be directed against the clerics as well
as the political tyrants. .....
A Muslim preacher incited his followers
to murder Jews, Hindus, Americans and all "unbelievers" by any means after
the September 11 attacks, an Old Bailey jury was told yesterday. Abdullah
El-Faisal even suggested fuelling power stations with the bodies of slaughtered
Hindus, it heard. .....
The United States says Pakistan
is serving as a "platform for terrorism" and that this must stop. The US
ambassador to Islamabad, Nancy Powell, also urged Pakistan to ensure that
militant groups are no longer able to cross into Indian-administered Kashmir.
.....
This has reference to the spate
of media reports on the Naipauls who were in India for Bharatiya Pravasi
Divas. Aren't we giving them too much importance? Agreed, Mr. Naipaul is
a brilliant writer, but I find his unconcealed contempt for India and Indians
a little difficult to digest. My advice to Mr. Naipaul would be either
to come back to India and use his wisdom for our betterment, or else make
the V.S. in his name stand for Very Silent. .....
The premier geopolitical thinker
and writer of Pakistan, Gen. Aslam Beg, the former chief of army staff
after President Zia-ul-Haq was killed in a suspicious air crash in 1988,
has apparently taken leave of his critical faculties. .....
Tension prevailed near a hotel
on Dhanwantri Road in the city today following allegations of "forcible
conversions" which resulted in a controversy. Police have arrested 20 persons
in this connection. .....
RSS Chief K S Sudarshan has said
the word "Hindu" was not linked with any religion and maintained that it
stood for all those who considered India as their motherland. .....
Hindu villagers in India's restive
northeastern state of Tripura have pledged to fight alleged extortion demands
by a Christian separatist group, community leaders said. Militants of the
outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have served extortion
notices to hundreds of Hindu tribals and threatened them with death if
they do not pay up. .....
The newspaper report that about
a fortnight ago my eldest son Harilal, now nearing fifty years, accepted
Islam and that on Friday last 29th May in the midst of a large congregation
in the Juma Masjid at Bombay he was permitted to announce his acceptance
amid great acclamation and that after his speech was finished, he was besieged
by his admirers who vied with one another to shake hands with him. If his
acceptance was from the heart and free from any worldly considerations,
I should have no quarrel. For I believe Islam to be as true a religion
as my own. .....
I on behalf of HRCBM and Lily Foundation
went out to Northern part of Bangladesh yesterday and reached for relief
operation at Serajgan and Pubna to-day(Janunary 24, 2003) and distributed
two bundles of sweaters containing 600 pieces of sweater clothes to the
cold affected victims of those area. We came back to-night at 1.30 hrs
and taking rest at night. Our team consists of 4 volunteers namely 1)
Advocate Rabindra Ghosh, 2)Professor Ashoke Taru, 3)Engineer Mridul Talukder
and 4) Dlilip Das. .....
Ever since the Supreme Court delivered
its judgement, on Dec.11, 1995, setting aside the decision of the Bombay
High Court which had earlier held the election of the Maharashtra Chief
Minister, Mr. Manohar Joshi, void, a number of articles have been appearing
in the Press criticising the verdict in one form or the other. .....
A student-run centre at York University
in Toronto has blocked a pro-Israeli academic from speaking at its facility,
fearing that it may lead to Concordia University- style protests. .....
The day after 9/11, Texas police
arrested two Indian Muslim men riding a train and carrying about $5,000
in cash, black hair dye and boxcutters like those used to hijack four planes
just one day earlier. .....
Pakistan is the 'most dangerous'
country in the world right, according to New Yorker magazine. Quoting noted
investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the magazine said if the US is
'incinerated' any time it will be because of the highly enriched uranium
that was supplied to the al Qaida by Islamabad. .....
Jyoti Basu had owned up the communist
blunder. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday took it forward
by publicly apologising for the blemish communists had put on Netaji. Saluting
the Netaji statue at Red Road, Bhattacharjee saw in Netaji a great freedom
fighter, though he was a "quisling" to his predecessors during the Second
World War. .....
The Thursday haat at the border
hamlet of Phansidewa had only one topic of discussion, besides business:
the letter handed over by a Bangladesh Rifle jawan last week, asking the
villagers to demolish the annexe to an old Shiva temple that stands near
the zero line. .....
The terrorists arrested in Europe
for planning to carry out attacks there with ricin are part of the vicious
Algerian network behind the millennium bomb plots in the United States,
sources say. .....
Last June, four months before the
current crisis over North Korea became public, the Central Intelligence
Agency delivered a comprehensive analysis of North Korea's nuclear ambitions
to President Bush and his top advisers. The document, known as a National
Intelligence Estimate, was classified as Top Secret S.C.I. (for "sensitive
compartmented information"), and its distribution within the government
was tightly restricted. .....
Immediate after the earthquake,
along with hundreds of politicians, bureaucrats, media representatives,
another hundred of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) also had made their
presence felt in the quake-hit villages and towns in Gujarat amid much
hype. .....
Calling for an aggressive defence
policy, former Chief of Army Staff Gen VP Malik on Thursday termed as bad
India's policy of no first use of nuclear weapons. .....
It was the world according to K.S.
Sudarshan, now RSS sarsanghchalak and once eastern region kshetra sanchalak.
In a speech that slammed all in sight and outside, Sudarshan - atop a chariot-like
structure pulled towards the "Hindu rashtra" by wooden horses - expounded
his theory about communists and Americans, Muslims and madarsas, Christians
and missionaries, "Macaulay-putras and Marx-putras" and even the President
and Jesuits. .....
The stage is set for converting
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birthplace, Janakinath Bhavan, into a museum
with the shifting of the maternity home functioning there for nearly 50
years. The chief minister will inaugurate a building to house the maternity
home tomorrow on the occasion of Netaji's 106th birth anniversary. .....
The CPM high command has accused
the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of treating the Bangladesh government
with kid gloves even after the Left Front government of Tripura supplied
the Centre with detailed information on terrorist camps operating from
the neighbouring country. .....
It was red turning redder at the
sight of saffron. Even as RSS chief K. Sudarshan branded ''Marxists'' as
a curse on India at a rally here today, West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattachrya
described him and VHP's Praveen Togadiya as ''unwanted guests'' in the
state. .....
Now that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Digvijay Singh's deep affinity for holy mother cow has been loudly proclaimed
- chiefly his reported taste in gau mutra (cow's urine) and his belief
in gau dung as excellent fertiliser - you would have to be dumb cattle
not to realise that the cow has always been a potent political instrument
in the hands of India's rulers. .....
Religion, said Karl Marx, is the
opiate of the masses. He might well have described it as the laddoo of
the masses. Especially since the prophet of communism found all forms of
religion and religiosity odious. Communist trade unionists have declared
war on Lord Venkateswara in His own home. .....
Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee has told
the Russian Channel 1 Network that he would have been in the Congress even
today if it had not agreed to Partition. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
yesterday signalled to NDA allies that Hindutva will remain the central
issue of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) campaign for the forthcoming
Assembly elections. .....
What right do you have to judge
governments and committees in being fair and of sound purpose when you
yourselves often indulge in unashamed, biased reviewing of books? In this
instance getting Christophe Jaffrelot to review A.G. Noorani's book Savarkar
and Hindutva: the Godse connection (The Germination of Insecurity, December
30). Why not Francois Gautier? The last time Noorani's book was assessed,
it was done by Khushwant Singh, a known Sangh-baiter! .....
Standing at an excavation site
at Sanjan in Gujarat, S.P. Gupta, chairman of the Indian Archaeological
Society (IAS), studies the earth that holds chunks of history in its many
layers. A metal shard at the bottom of the trench brings a glint to his
eye as does a piece of ceramic weighed down by centuries-old dust. The
man who has struck "jackpot" at Sanjan has ever since been deliriously
piecing together the Parsis' India calling more than 1,400 years ago. .....
Throw them out. When Deputy Prime
Minister L.K. Advani says so about Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals
who have overstayed in this country, it is easy to see it as extreme right
wing xenophobia. It is not. He has only given voice to a dangerous national
reality. For, India, the classical soft state with occasional hardcore
instincts, has been extremely tolerant towards illegal immigrants from
less-than-friendly neighbours-a socially as well as politically untenable
humanitarian approach. .....
"SUCH A SILLY debate," my Saudi
dinner partner volunteered one evening, nursing a drink in a dry country.
"My wife exercises all she wants in our gym at home." And the millions
of ordinary Saudis without home exercise equipment? Not mentioned that
night. Nor were the women who are forced to wear the veil and barred from
driving, nor the guest workers intimidated by creepy anti-vice police into
praying five times a day while the princes party in London and Aspen. The
topic instead was why the American media have it out for Saudi Arabia.
.....
"When you kill one person, you
go to the prison. When you kill one hundred persons, you are a hero. And
when you are responsible for the killings of hundreds of persons you are
invited to peace talks." .....
Like others elsewhere, Muslims
in Singapore are swept up by the tide of Islamic fundamentalism and some
are retreating into their own comfort zones. .....
Pakistani President General Pervez
Musharraf has caused a stir with remarks that his country could be
attacked by Western forces once Iraq has been dealt with, highlighting
once again potential dire consequences flowing from Islamabad's support
of the US in the war on terror. .....
If you raise the issue of Arab
or Muslim anti-Semitism with the average Arab/Muslim leader, you will,
with just a few exceptions, get a predictable set of responses. Some of
them will shamefacedly acknowledge that the problem exists, and having
done so, will then abruptly change the subject to racial profiling, American
imperialism, or the evils of Israel. Others will admit the existence of
the problem, but insist that it survives only on the "fringes" of Arab/Muslim
society, and is thus an issue of marginal concern. .....
A Judge took the unusual step step
yesterday of banning Jews and Hindus from sitting on a jury which is to
try a Muslim cleric accused of calling for the murder of followers of the
two faiths. .....
"For almost a year," observes Edward
Said in this week's edition of Cairo's Al-Ahram Weekly, "American politicians,
regional experts, administration officials, journalists have repeated the
charges that have become standard fare so far as Islam and the Arabs are
concerned. . . . To today's practically unanimous chorus has been added
the authority of the United Nation's Human Development Report on the Arab
world which certified that Arabs dramatically lag behind the rest of the
world in democracy, knowledge, and women's rights." .....
Can Ram undergo the Rameses-synthesis?
This question chased me like a breeze from the Nile valley to the Ganges.
I am afraid the answer is not blowing in the wind. The question assumed
renewed significance when Lady Nadira, Sir VS Naipaul's wife, stood up
after Deputy Prime Minister's LK Advani's speech during the Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas to ask if India's Muslims and Christians needed to prove their patriotic
credentials by ripping open their chests a la Lord Hanuman to reveal images
of Ram and Sita. .....
The Minister of State for Home,
Ch.Vidyasagar Rao, today said the recent instance of the American missionary,
Joseph Cooper, overstaying in the country should serve as an `eye-opener'
to all States. .....
The BJP President Venkaiah Naidu
has once against got pseudo-secularists in a tizzy. Naidu has set
the agenda for the party's campaign in the forthcoming elections in several
States. Much to the chagrin of the leftists and other fellow travellers
who hate to take an unequivocal stand on vital issues raised by him, the
BJP chief seems set to push ahead with what in one word constitutes the
party's nationalist agenda. .....
With national dailies sticking
up unabashedly for illegal aliens for the simple reason that they happen
to be 'secular missionaries', the communal outfield in the country does
seem totally queer. So, asking an inveterate overstayer, a tout of a faith
masquerading as a tourist, to get out tantamounts to impingement of religious
freedom, or so say the screaming edits. .....
US missionary Joseph W Cooper,
who was ordered to leave the country for preaching religion in violation
of visa rules, left Thiruvananthapuram for Mumbai by a flight on Wednesday
morning, police sources said. .....
'Do Muslims have to have Ram and
Sita in their hearts to show they belong to this land?" was Nadira Naipaul's
interjection during deputy prime minister L.K. Advani's speech at the Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas (Non Resident Indian Day) function on January 10. .....
Putting an end to controversy,
sankaracharyas across the country today unanimously accepted April 3, 509
BC as Adi Sankara's exact date of birth. .....
1. The ancient temple of Sharada
is located in Neelam (Kishanganga) valley just beyond the line of control
in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The temple is located in a small village
called Shardi near the confluence of Kishanganga and Madhumati rivers.
As far as I can gather from my maps, its location seems to be 74.2 E and
34.8 N. .....
It is common knowledge that Hinduism
pervaded several countries of South--east Asia which witnessed the rise
and fall of several Hindu dynasties. The rulers of these dynasties got
constructed many temples for Hindu gods and goddesses, Shiva and Vishnu
including. Along with Shiva and Vaishnava religions, Buddhism also penetrated
the land between Myanmar and Indonesia and flourished side by side as twin
brothers, sometimes in one and the same temple complex. .....
In 1947, Gandhiji had expressed
a desire to meet Guruji. So when Guruji came to Delhi he went to see Bapu
in Birla House. Gandhiji requested Guruji to issue an appeal for peace.
Guruji said that Gandhiji's appeal was enough but that if he wanted his,
it was always available. Thereupon an appeal was issued which was duly
published in the Press the following day, and also broadcast by All India
Radio. .....
Cow is suddenly cool. Struggling
to tackle the hardline Hindutva onslaught, cow belt's Congressmen, led
by Digvijay Singh, are rediscovering the 'gau mata'. .....
The State Government has issued
an order prohibiting exorcism in temples following a recommendation made
by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in August last year. .....
Vishwa Hindu Parishad secretary-general
Praveen Togadia demanded President's Rule in West Bengal on Tuesday to
stop the large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis from across the border.
.....
The real story behind the attack
on US Missionary Joseph Cooper, who was injured and operated upon, is somewhat
different from what was reported. .....
The editor of this rag [TheStranger.com]
told me of your upcoming "Potlucks for Peace" event and invited my comments,
and at first I couldn't think of a thing to say. For one thing, why should
I address a Seattle audience (or even suppose that I have a Seattle audience,
for that matter)? I daresay that I can claim a tenuous connection, because
I have always had a good crowd when reading at the splendid bookstores
of the city, and because it was in Seattle that I stayed when grounded
on September 11, 2001, a date that now makes some people yawn. .....
A US state legislator, who recently
visited Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, has sent a resolution to the New Hampshire
Legislature urging the US government to help resolve the Kashmir issue.
.....
It was always thought that the
statewide Police Karmachari Union, formed under CPI-M's umbrella, when
the first United Front assumed power in 1967, would not permit action against
the five constables who killed the chivalrous Sergeant Bapi Sen. Union
pressure caused even the Commissioner of Police, to be irritated enough
to answer our questions with the now famous words - do you want us to hang
them? What price gestures like the chief minister laying a wreath on Bapi's
body on its way to the crematorium? .....
Naxalbari, home to the movement
that sired the word Naxalite, will occupy pride of place on a progress
report that awaits RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan when he arrives here tomorrow.
.....
A delegation of British parliamentarians
has strongly advocated that international pressure should be brought on
Pakistan to end cross border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir where a 'proxy'
war by 'mercenaries' is being waged. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Kerala
has prepared a list of 50-odd foreign missionaries, who are allegedly engaged
in forced religious conversion or attending religious functions in blatant
violation of their visa provisions. "We have the names of 50 foreign missionaries
who at present are violating visa provisions, and our local units are gathering
more information," VHP state organising secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan
said. .....
Temple priests in Madhya Pradesh
need not wait for divine intervention to improve their lot. The approaching
footfall of elections will do, especially if the state is ruled by a party
dogged by taunts that it is tinkering with "soft Hindutva". .....
Last week some research scholars
from Delhi University came avisiting. They had a grouse against the Delhi
Police for not acting in a case of dowry death. They said that the victim
was a woman activist and the possibility of the said person committing
suicide looked remote. .....
The BJP leader in charge of party
affairs in Kerala, Padmanabhacharya, has condemned the "provocative statement''
of an American pastor, Joseph Cooper, at Kilimanoor. .....
Controversial novelist, Salman
Rushdie, has emerged as an unlikely hawk to support forcible removal of
the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, breaking ranks with a host of other
prominent British writers who have denounced American moves and warned
that a war would be catastrophic. .....
Police here are verifying whether
there has been any visa violation on the part of the American missionary,
Joseph Cooper, who was attacked by suspected RSS workers at a Protestant
convention near a tribal colony at Puliyam in Kilimanoor, on Monday last.
.....
Setting January 25th as the deadline
for Muslim women in Jammu and Kashmir to quit government jobs, a pro-Pakistani
militant outfit today threatened to kill those who did not obey their orders,
official sources said in Jammu. .....
A representative from a Muslim
advocacy group offered greetings to tens of thousands of anti-war protesters
gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday in the name of the "Mujahideen,"
a term that has come to be closely associated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
terror network. .....
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya on Thursday said that the modernisation of madrassa education
had been delayed because of opposition from some sections of the community.
.....
After using innovative means ranging
from candle-light marches to beauty contests in Dharamsala, Tibetan groups
have now hit upon a new strategy to raise awareness about Tibet's occupation
by China - a boycott of Chinese goods flooding Indian markets. .....
RSS has been the most maligned
and most misunderstood organization in India. Its most critics have developed
extremely prejudicial views against it mainly from the motivated false
propaganda. One such person was Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayana (JP) who
had started off with a strong prejudice against RSS in the forties. But
his contacts with RSS workers and leaders made him understand RSS in a
positive way, and he started appreciating its work and ideology. .....
National integration should mean
integration with the nation. But what is a nation? Who constitute a nation?
These questions are to be primarily addressed. .....
"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) believes that the political power alone cannot be a tool for bringing
an expected social change. It is wrong to always depend upon the government
for everything. The society has a role to, play in resolving its problem
on the own and also making the nation strong in all spheres. Need of the
hour is to make people aware of their duties and encourage them to contribute
in national reconstruction," said the RSS Sarsanghchalak, K. S. Sudarshan.
.....
The Marxists' lust for the blood
of the RSS swaymsevaks is never quenched. After a brief lull of three months,
the Marxists barbarians butchered Shri Pottakadan Shaji, 25, to death on
November 16 at Paduvilayi near Koothuparamba in Kannur district. An eight-member
hit squad of Marxist goons waylaid Shaji and his friend as they were returning
from the RSS shakha at 9 p.m. and attacked them with daggers, axes and
bombs. .....
Contextualisation. Synthesis. Adaptation.
Indigenisation. Localisation. What an impressive array of innocent terminology
to couch what should actually be described as 'impersonation'! Christianity
in India is no longer the 'phoren' European stuff that would raise the
hackles of potential converts who are averse to changing their practices
that a change of faith would automatically entail. .....
The very talk of separating Jammu,
Kashmir and Ladakh is falling in line with the two-nation theory,' said
Omar Abdullah to PTI as reported in The Asian Age, Mumbai, of July 1, 2002.
He also said, 'These leaders [of the RSS and VHP] do not know anything
of Kashmir.' .....
The National Minorities Commission,
the apex government body in charge of the welfare of minority communities
in the country, has been drawing flak from church leaders for quite some
days. Christian groups argue that the NMC's fact finding reports on the
continuing attacks against missionaries and church institutions have been
flawed and partial. .....
The National Minority Commission
member, Mr. John Joseph, has alleged that certain quarters in the Christian
community itself are torpedoing the Commission's efforts to end the attacks
on the Christians in various parts of the country. .....
The recent terrorist strikes in
the USA on September 11, 2001, in which the World Trade Centre and Pentagon
were "crash-bombed" by large airplanes, have brought a new resolve in the
global community to root out terrorism from all parts of the world. The
Americans are playing a leading role in building a world coalition against
terrorism. .....
The contrasting receptions rolled
out for Pravin Togadia within a span of few months narrate the story. In
his earlier trips to Orissa, the international secretary of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) had evoked little or no fervour. His whirlwind visit
last fortnight, though, was markedly different. Near hysteria broke out
and Togadia was treated like a VVIP. As supporters of Hindutva followed
him deliriously, so did a star-struck media. .....
Pakistan prime minister Mir Zafrullah
Khan Jamali enjoys the unique distinction of being the only prime minister
in the world today who can be sacked by his army chief. .....
A former Bajrang Dal leader was
stoned to death by some members of a minority community over "personal
rivalry" in Surat, leading to tension in the city, police said on Sunday.
.....
The Church has not given up its
"evangelizing mission," which is stronger in that Southeast Asia nation
because it is "close to the poor, those who suffer, and the oppressed,"
says Father Vito del Prete, secretary of the Pontifical Missionary Union.
.....
Thousands of Hindu migrants are
crossing the Indo-Bangladesh border near Habra - risking their lives, leaving
everything including their near and dear ones behind - to save themselves
from large-scale attacks on minorities in Bangladesh. .....
I have been glancing at the Indian
newspapers to see if they ever retracted their stories that the RSS
had attacked the American Pentecostal Preacher and his companion,
Sam Benson, who it turns out had been absconding for pedophilia.
.....
An obscure Indian trading company
has provided the first clear evidence that Iraq obtained materials over
the past four years to produce or deliver weapons of mass destruction.
.....
Terrorism has made France consider
changing one of its fundamental principles of keeping state and religion
separate and accept the proposal for the state to fund the building of
mosques in the country. .....
Pakistani intelligence blocked
the vehicle of India's top diplomat in Islamabad several times as he headed
to official engagements, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said Sunday. .....
I wrote in a previous message that
the Saffron Scare is parallel to the Red Scare in the USA fifty years ago.
Here is an example of how that manifests in India. This group of environmental
and social activists forcibly entered the Union Carbide plant site in Bhopal
to take samples and to send a strong international message that the victims
of the 1984 disaster have not been adequately compensated and, importantly,
the toxic materials contaminated when the plant blew up, still have not
be cleaned up. .....
The battlelines have been drawn
though the outcome is now almost certain. The IDRF, a charity that provides
funding for Hindu causes in India is to be investigated on charges that
it has duped Indians into contributing money which is used for fomenting
religious violence in India. A study conducted by eleven NRIs in the United
States was published by the Mumbai based Sabrang Communications and The
South Asian Citizens Watch. .....
Foreign missionary organisations
that fight for human rights in India, has drawn flak from the Bengal Chief
Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee. .....
It is common knowledge that Hinduism
pervaded several countries of South--east Asia which witnessed the rise
and fall of several Hindu dynasties. The rulers of these dynasties got
constructed many temples for Hindu gods and goddesses, Shiva and Vishnu
including. Along with Shiva and Vaishnava religions, Buddhism also penetrated
the land between Myanmar and Indonesia and flourished side by side as twin
brothers, sometimes in one and the same temple complex. .....
I welcome this opportunity to "take
my turn" and herald the advent of a new millennium in Hinduism Today. This
allows me to take stock of some of the major historical events that have
affected Sanatan Dharm and to anticipate what the new millennium holds
for Hinduism and its adherents, both in India and beyond. .....
As hundreds of IIT alumni gather
here in Silicon Valley this weekend to mark the golden jubilee of their
celebrated school, they have just heard of a fancy new equation being bandied
around in the US: IIT=Harvard+MIT+Princeton. .....
The probe by the National Commission
for Minorities (NCM) has revealed startling facts about the attack
on US missionary Rev Joseph Cooper in Kerala. The report stated that
the attack was not pre- planned but was a public outcry against the "wrongdoings
and immoral acts by Rev Sam's family in the area" and the US missionary
was an unwitting victim. .....
Over centuries, the percentage
of Hindus in the world and even in India has been declining. Hindus formed
84.98% of the Indian population as per the 1951 census. It came down to
82.7% in 1971, 82.6 in 1981, and 82.41 in 1991. The 2001 census report
nails the figure further down at 82%. .....
The Navi Mumbai police on Wednesday
night rounded up 43 Bangladeshi nationals illegally living in the country.
They will soon be deported to Bangladesh. .....
A new book has documented the cultural
heritage of India's three Jewish communities. The book, authored by nine
writers, explores in pictures and prose the rituals, architecture and contributions
of the Bene Israelis, the Cochinese and the Baghdadis, miniscule communities
who, while retaining their Jewish identity, absorbed the culture and customs
of their adopted land. .....
Bhishma K. Agnihotri has served
as India's Ambassador At Large for Non-Resident Indians and Persons of
Indian Origin for barely one-and-a-half-years but his tenure has been pockmarked
by controversy right from the word go. His very appointment was seen as
cutting into the mandate of Lalit Mansingh, India's Ambassador to the US.
His RSS membership was waved about as further proof that the Sangh Parivar
was plonking its men into key positions of influence. .....
An armed clash broke out between
members of two communities in Munger district today in which two people,
including the imam of a local mosque, were shot dead. .....
Taking on the Noble laureate V
S Naipaul for siding with Tehelka, Samata Party leader Jaya Jaitley has
asked "Sir Vidia and his Pakistani wife not to play politics in India on
behalf of Tarun Tejpal." .....
In a sensational revelation, intelligence
officers have come to know that militants of Assam's National Democratic
Federation of Bodoloand have close links with ISI operatives. .....
Pundits and policy-wallahs in New
Delhi engage in a great deal of teeth-gnashing over the fact that while
the economies of India and China were roughly the same size in the 1950s
and 1960s, China's market reforms since the 1970s have pushed it well out
in front. This "India-China gap" reflects Beijing's greater ability to
expand exports and attract direct foreign investments. Measured in terms
of purchasing-power parity, China now ranks as the world's second-largest
economy. India trails at No. 4. .....
Despite the "ceasefire" agreement
purportedly reached in London yesterday, Hamas announced today that it
would continue to murder Israelis. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leading Hamas
figure in Gaza, denied today that all the terror organizations had agreed
to call off attacks until after the Israeli elections. Yasser Arafat was
reported yesterday to have agreed to enforce a "no attack" period until
the elections, during which civilians of pre-1967 Israel would be exempt
from being murdered. .....
Early in January a very senior
member of the US administration, addressing the CII Partnership Summit
in Hyderabad made some stunning statements on Indo-American relationship
that were largely ignored by the English media. Speaking at the Summit
on January 7, Richard N. Haass, Director, Policy Planning Staff, US Department
of State pointedly said that the LoC's status in Jammu & Kashmir won't
be changed unilaterally or by violence and, in the absence of a jointly
agreed alternative, its sanctity should be ensured. .....
The Centre is planning a legislation
to regulate activities of places of worship and religious instruction.
The legislation, if it is introduced and passed, will provide the government
with a legal sanction to regulate the activities of madrasas and other
institutions being funded and maintained by other religious groups. .....
The 'secularist' cabal generally
talks with a forked tongue. One of its heads works along the argument:
while Hinduism is noble, Hindutva stinks of communalism and blood. Hindus
are generally good and tolerant, but it is the RSS variety which is rotten
and deserves to be squashed. .....
Amidst fears of money being siphoned
off for terrorist organisations including Al-Qaeda, Pakistan's Auditor
General has disclosed that millions of dollars donated by expatriate countrymen
vanished without a trace while being transferred to Islamabad from overseas.
.....
The U.S. government dramatically
increased the deportation of people from Muslim nations in the year after
Sept. 11, 2001, even as it eased up on illegal immigrants from Mexico and
other countries. .....
Whenever a voice on the airwaves
generalizes about Pakistan, I want to ask, "Which Pakistan do you mean?"
Beyond the facade of a flag and customs officers at major airports, there
is no integral, unified state behind the name. Does the pundit mean the
feudal territories east of the Indus river, which resemble 15th century
England with electricity? Or the tribal lands to the west, where the blood
feuds and clan rule of medieval Scotland are supercharged by religious
ferocity? .....
A 60-year-old American national
and Protestant missionary, Joseph Cooper, was grievously injured when he
was attacked by a 10-member armed gang of suspected RSS activists near
a gospel convention venue at the Koppam Harijan colony in the Kilimanoor
police station limits near here, late on Monday night. .....
An Asian bride murdered on her
wedding day was killed in a family feud after she rejected an arranged
marriage to marry her "first real love", police said yesterday. .....
There was a time-not too far back-when
crime against women was unheard of in Tripura´s egalitarian tribal
society. Faithful to tradition , tribal society would connive at courtship
and marriage according to custom . The maximum price an injudicious youth
had to pay for impregnating an unwed girl was the cost of a community feast
and public avowal of sin which the considerate tribal elders would invariably
condone provided the youth would agree to marry the girl post-maternity.
.....
Turkish authorities are investigating
a Capuchin friar for baptizing a 26-year-old Muslim who asked for the sacrament
but later turned on the priest. .....
To some, the great Indian joint
family is tiresomely traditional, hopelessly outdated and irretrievably
on the decline, but Western scientists say it may actually be a hugely
'green' or eco-friendly institution. .....
In an important ruling, the Madras
high court on Friday rejected the plea of a Muslim divorcee seeking to
declare as void the Talaaq-ul-biddar form of divorce under the Shariat
Act, holding that courts cannot interfere with personal laws as they did
not fall under the ambit of the Constitution. .....
Perturbed by Jammu and Kashmir
chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed's healing touch policy, which has
generated hope in the state, Pakistan has framed a new strategy according
to which it has virtually doubled the money the ISI was paying to different
militant organisations. .....
The Daily Sangbad, December 24,
2002. Filed by The Sangbad, Chittagong Bureau Reporter: After long eight-months
since the murder of the Buddhist monk, Gyan Jyoti Barua, the whole plot
in the slaying has started to unravel. In the Magistrate Court, yesterday
(Monday, December 23, 2002), a key member of the killer group, Elaich Mohammed,
confessed (under Section 164) that he himself slaughtered Gyan Jyoti Barua.
.....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
on Tuesday came down heavily on Congress accusing it of carrying out an
insulting' campaign against the Government and the BJP abroad and said
this was reflected in the people's verdict against them in Gujarat. .....
Various terrorist outfits owing
allegience of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan are planning
to carry out fidayeen (suicide sqaud) attacks on certain holy shrines in
the country. The attacks have been planned to show disaffection in the
society and to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations all over the country.
.....
Notwithstanding reader fatigue,
the controversy over the saffronisation of education does not die. As a
student of history, it is amusing to see the jittery stance of earlier
interpreters of history. .....
Plans have been made to kill Prime
Minister A B Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani around Republic
Day. A warning to this effect has been issued to the Special Cell of the
Delhi Police by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW). .....
A police officer was stabbed to
death and four others were wounded Tuesday during a counterterrorism raid
connected to the investigation into an alleged plot to use the deadly poison
ricin, authorities said. .....
For the first time since the outbreak
of militancy, a lesser known militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jabbar (LeJ) has
asked non-Muslim doctors to leave Kashmir within 10 days. .....
Rishi Kumar Sharma, 22, earned
the Raksha Mantri Padak for Gallantry today - posthumously, for an act
of bravery far away from the battlefield and closer to the lives of civilians.
The National Cadet Corps (NCC) senior under officer was shot dead after
he took on a gang of boys molesting a minor girl last year. .....
Traces of an urban settlement over
2000 years old have been found under the mound on which Robert Clive built
his house on the northern outskirts of Calcutta. .....
The Mumbai Crime Branch yesterday
arrested one more person in Aurangabad in connection with the Ghatkopar
bomb blast, according to Mumbai police sources. Abeed Ali ran an STD booth
and allegedly helped the other suspects communicate with each other. .....
Corruption in Mumbai scaled new
heights when a police officer of the rank of assistant Bholu Madia commissioner
of police (ACP) negotiated extortion money on behalf of a criminal. .....
Although the Bush administration
is focused on planning an entirely new war against Iraq, the battle against
al Qaeda is far from over. Unfortunately, the conflict isn't likely to
end until the United States stops allowing western Pakistan to act as a
sanctuary for terrorists. .....
"I consider it my great honour
for me to give a fight against the enemies of Hindutva. Those who oppose
this new force rising on the political horizon, are really the enemies
of Bharat," firmly said the Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.
He gave his pledge that "unconquerable Hindutva will be the true mainstay
of progress" during his speech in reply to the magnificent
reception accorded to him by the Mumbai BJP. .....
The Ghatkopar blasts have brought
the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) back into focus, with
four of the five men arrested so far alleged to have links with the organisation.
.....
The year 1996 marked the 25th anniversary
of India's triumph over Pakistan in the 1971 war and the birth of Bangladesh.
Many commemorative meetings were held in New Delhi attended by the dramatis
personae, civilian as well as military, of 1971. They spoke of their role
and tributes were paid to them. .....
In the age of the Net, who gets
ahead is increasingly determined by who networks the best. Indeed, in today's
wired world, more than intrinsic merit, it is PR that has come to count.
Whether it is the individual wanting to work the system, or an organisation
aspiring for a higher profile, charm offensive would seem the key to gaining
access and clout. .....
The late Chinese communist dictator
Mao Zedong "ranks right up there with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler
because of the way he methodically damaged an entire people." .....
The US administration may still
dubiously term Islamabad a loyal ally in its all out war against global
terrorism but the media in the west thinks otherwise. It has in the recent
weeks been busy, informing the world of Pakistan's numerous dirty deals
to secretly passing on nuclear weapon making know-how to several countries
for money. The beneficiaries have mostly been ruled by dictatorial regimes.
.....
Barisal Correspondent. Defying
a court injunction even during the month of December, glorified as the
victory month of the War of Liberation, BNP leader Tariq Ukil built a residence
on the forcibly occupied landed property of the ancestral home of the liberation
war martyr Dr. Jyotirmoy Guhathakurata. The Government Official responsible
for handling the issues of forgery and forcible occupation of the parental
home site of the martyr expressed his helpless-inability to do anything
about it. .....
There seems to be something sinister
behind the unfriendliness, bordering on hostility, which the Begum Khalida
Zia government has started to display towards India. Could it be part of
a plot to encircle India with an arch of hostile nations? No need to guess
the Identity of the author of this plot: except Pakistan, no other nation
in the region would go to that length of trying to weaken India in every
possible manner. .....
In a new strategy, Pakistan's ISI
has again started toying with the idea of reviving militancy in Punjab
with senior officials, including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reportedly
having meetings with pro-Khalistan leaders during the birth anniversary
celebration of Guru Nanak. .....
India's national song Vande Mataram
has been voted as the second most popular song in the world next only to
an Irish republican anthem in a poll by the BBC World Service, organisers
said. .....
In spite of the spotlight on Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel and his genuine legatee in the recent Gujarat elections,
developments since Mr Narendra Modi's return to Gandhinagar suggest a vindication
of Lokmanya Tilak's belief that the Hindu community forms the natural core
of the Indian nation. .....
Accusing the Chief Election Commissioner
J M Lyngdoh of "succumbing to Congress pressure", the Himachal unit of
BJP on Monday said his direction seeking removal of all hoardings highlighting
the achievements of the BJP government "lacked logic." .....
While Hindus live in unity, politicians
are trying to create confusion among Dalits only to promote their political
interests, according to the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi.
.....
Carrying forward his Hindutva poll
plank in neighbouring Maharashtra which goes to assembly poll next year,
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday equated the concept with
nationhood and lashed out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for her attack
on Hindutva forces. .....
The north eastern region of the
country is sitting on a powder-keg as Pakistan's ISI has been able to make
substantial inroads into the region by covertly using the Bangladesh territory
for carrying out its operation. .....
Nasik: Considering the relationship
between Christian missionaries and RSS in Poorvanchal, it is natural to
think that it would be impossible that Christian youths would pick up a
lion's share in running an RSS-sponsored school, and propagate nationalism
through this school in the separatist-infested eastern region. .....
On March 20, 2002, The Times of
India published 'Hindustan Hamara' by Harsh Mander, IAS. This article purported
to be Mr Mander's on-the-spot investigation of the communal violence in
Gujarat. In substantially the same form, carrying titles such as 'Cry,
the Beloved Country' and 'Reflections on the Gujarat Massacre', this article
had been making the rounds of the web, and Mr Mander began hitting headlines
all over the world. .....
It was a perfect setting. Sir Vidia
Naipaul sharing a dais with L.K. Advani, Lord Navneet Dholakia and other
distinguished persons representing a broad and glorified Indian diaspora
in a Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas session today. .....
The VHP international general secretary
Praveen Togadia on Saturday asserted that India will never become a theocratic
state as long as Hindus were in a majority in the country. .....
Criminal links with an outlawed
organisation and use of deadly explosives to -create terror in the society
are the main reasons which hastened the police to apply the Prevention
of Terrorist Act (POTA) against the four accused in the Ghatkopar bomb
blast of December 2, yesterday. .....
Deputy prime minister LK Advani
on Monday almost ruled out engaging the Hurriyat Conference in the Centre's
proposed dialogue with J&K representatives, saying that the government
will not talk to anybody who 'reflected Pakistan's voice". .....
Forget the Gujarat bitterness.
In the name of, raising funds for drought relief in Rajasthan, a senior
Congress Minister in the Ashok Gehlot Government has joined hands with
the BJP-appointed Governor to hold a week-long, Ram Katha in Jaipur. .....
It is shocking to know but it is
nevertheless true: Bangladesh, which India helped to liberate from the
tyranny of Islamabad is now actively cooperating with the ISI with what
results only the future can tell. That three senior Ministers of the NDA
Government, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister
Yashwant Sinha and Defence Minister George Fernandes have charged the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP)- led alliance with giving shelter to al Qaida elements
goes to show the seriousness of the situation. .....
"We are saying finish terrorism,
they are saying finish BJP. You decide," said the BJP. And the rest is
history. The spectacular victory of the BJP has stunned everyone. Everyone,
who failed to grasp the dynamics of Indian politics. The issue in Gujarat
was not Hindutva, as the pseudo-secularists would like us to believe. .....
The jewel in Uttar Pradesh's crown,
Agra, seems to be slipping behind in the race for the most sought-after
tourist destination for hundreds of foreigners visiting the state every
year. .....
A group of militants attacked the
home of one Mohd Sadiq in Hast village late last Thursday and killed his
20-year-old daughter Nosen Kousar. The militants then went to the house
of Khalid Ahmed in the same village and took away his 22-year-old daughter
Tahira Parveen, who was later beheaded. After that, the militants entered
the house of Mohd Rafiq and killed his daughter Shehnaaz Akhtar. .....
The prime minister's fond hope,
or shall we call it hype, is typical of the BJP and the parivar. Overblown
political rhetoric masquerading as political reason. But haven't we heard
all this before? Recall the early nineties, when the BJP "annexed" UP for
the first time, in the wake of the frenzy created by Advaniji's Rath Yatra.
.....
Most state elections are fought
on the performance of the government, the quality of leadership and local
issues. But the Gujarat elections acquired national importance because
of the systematic and malicious campaign against the people of Gujarat,
the BJP and Narendra Modi by the Congress, the media and the pseudo-secularists
within the state, the country and outside it. .....
The Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid,
Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari, has demanded the immediate arrest of Pravin
Togadia, international general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),
for his recent diatribes, which he described as provocative and utterly
offensive to the sensitivities of crores of Muslims of this country. .....
A high priest is convinced that
Hindu temples have a role in tackling criminal-related problems of Indian
youths. Unorthodox and determined, Muthu Kumara Gurukal wants the temples
to share their wealth in uplifting and restructuring the Indian community,
writes M. KRISHNAMOORTHY. .....
For years, the Jammu and Kashmir
government has been paying crores of rupees as monthly assistance to over
one lakh of its needy - all registered as physically challenged, old or
widowed. But now it seems that most of that money has been going down the
drain, as over 30 per cent of the names exist only on paper. .....
The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra
Modi, today came here with a forthright message: "Do not be ashamed of
Hindutva," regardless of what others said, but "fight its opponents through
Hindutva," which, in itself, was "unconquerable'' and immortal.'' Those
who opposed Hindutva "have no future.'' .....
Rub your eyes. Liberals are complaining
that the media are unfair and biased. Former President Bill Clinton attacked
"the increasingly right-wing and bellicose conservative press" and said
mainstream media are too docile. .....
With apologies to Time, Newsweek,
CNN and the other news outlets that have been treating this as the Super
Bowl of Evil, that's a really silly question. It's like asking which is
the bigger problem in your life, your foreclosure notice or your kidney
stones. It suggests that we get to choose which one we deal with. .....
Surging revenues, strong profit
growth, lucrative new contracts and a massive recruitment drive-can this
really be the information technology (IT) industry in 2003? Yes, provided
you are in India, where software firms are flourishing thanks to booming
outsourcing business from some of the world's leading multinationals. .....
The line separating a master statesman
and a master thug is assumed to be of infinite length. This is not so in
the case of Henry Kissinger, former US national security adviser and secretary
of state. For myriad American diplomats, politicians and academicians,
Kissinger is a living deity who personified realpolitik and shrewd tactical
thinking, a genius practitioner who sits in the same pantheon as Bismarck,
Castlereagh and Metternich. .....
On October 22, 2002, Oriana Fallaci
addressed an audience at the American Enterprise Institute. Following are
short excerpts from her talk. Ms. Fallaci, a native of Florence, Italy
and a life-long journalist, caused turmoil across Europe with the publication
of her book The Rage and the Pride, calling the West to stand up to the
Islamic world. .....
Even if the United States is successful
in dismantling Al Qaeda, radical Islamic groups in Southeast Asia will
be capable of further terrorist acts like the recent one in Bali, the Singaporean
government said today. .....
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi on Friday announced that his government would bring in an anti-conversion
bill called the 'Dharam Swatantrata Vidheyak' to contain forcible conversions
in the state. .....
A friend shared a not so pleasant
experience of her daughter, who with a few of her friends, had traveled
to Germany and France for the holidays. .....
Declaring a crackdown on 11,500
Pakistanis and 15m Bangladeshis illegally slaying in India, deputy prime
minister LK Advani today directed state governments to launch "special
drives" to detect and deport them as they posed a serious threat to national
security. "Nearly 11,500 Pakistanis have come into the country with regular
papers and passports, but have overstayed. There is no reason why our slates
be soft on them," he told reporters after inaugurating a day-long conference
of state chief secretaries and directors general of police here. .....
The ministry of defence is working
towards developing secret codes using Sanskrit, making it the first
serious effort to prevent the language from becoming redundant. .....
Bishma K Agnihotri is India's Ambassador-at
Large, the first time the Indian government has created such a post. His
appointment by the Vajpayee government has invited its share of flak. Largely,
as the appointment was perceived to be made out of Agnihotri's RSS connections,
rather than his credentials. But in an interview with Sify.com's E Jayakrishnan,
on the occasion of the marking of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in New Delhi,
the Ambassador dismisses these charges as false and asserts that he would
get on with his mission of bringing together the global Indian and connect
it with their motherland. .....
"You have to kill in the name of
Allah until you are killed." An underground film showing the slaughter
of Algerian soldiers is being used as a recruitment tool for British Islamic
radicals. .....
If the walls of this room could
speak, the Mumbai police believe, they would reveal how the Ghatkopar blasts
were planned by Dr Abdul Mateen Bashit, as he held all-night meetings with
many strangers. More importantly, they would reveal who planned them. .....
Trust V S Naipaul to create ripples
when he's not making waves. The irrepressible Sir Vidia managed that again
today when, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, he called
Mahatma Gandhi "a failure in South Africa." .....
After the heroes turned out to
be possessed of clay feet, a heroine has stood tall. By openly confirming
that she received an extortion threat, that during the shooting of the
film, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, a person claiming to be 'bhai ka aadmi'
demanded that she pay Rs 50 lakh, Preity Zinta has done the Indian citizen
proud. .....
Last Saturday, photographer Nitin
Rai and I were scouting around North Goa's beaches for an evocative sunset
for a freelance travel feature for a leading magazine. .....
Although as many as 840 people
reportedly died ever since the announcement of polls in Jammu & Kashmir.
The smooth conduct of elections last October, and the swearing a democratically
elected government headed by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister
has been a defining moment in the political history of the State. .....
On Thursday it was Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Friday it was his deputy L K Advani's turn to
address the Indian diaspora, in a speech that went down very well with
the gallery. His message to the NRIs, "Continue to excel wherever you are,
the more you accomplish the greater the service to the nation." .....
The warning by the Chief Election
Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, that the people of Himachal Pradesh should
not be taken in by any communal propaganda by outsiders during the coming
elections has provoked the Bharatiya Janata Party into saying that the
Constitution guarantees the right to every citizen to move freely in the
country and participate in the democratic process. .....
In a major success, India has secured
the deportation of the main accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast Imran Rehman
Khan from Dubai and he was flown to Mumbai on Thursday night. .....
The latest in the Congress party's
stab at forging regional alliances is that it is talking to Sukh Ram. Remember
Sukh Ram? The former Union telecommunications minister who was convicted
by a trial court in the 1996 telecom scam. In which the government was
said to have incurred a loss of Rs 1.68 crore on account of the minister's
decision to pay a higher price to a private manufacturer in an equipment
deal. .....
Lentils and rotis are an integral
part of his lunch. He relishes ghee, curd and lassi as well. His
Hindi can give any pandit an inferiority complex. He regularly watches
Hindi movies, and his favourite actor and actress are Dilip Kumar and Suchitra
Sen. .....
It is a matter of days before January
19 hits the calendar, a day that most Kashmiri refugees regard as the darkest
in their history. This day more than 13 years ago marked the beginning
of a massive terrorist campaign in their home state that shows no signs
of ending even now. .....
Bangladesh is reported to have
put the over 4,000-km-long border with India on alert to resist any likely
push-in following New Delhi's decision to crackdown on Bangladeshis illegally
staying in India. .....
The National Security Advisory
Board, India's top panel of national security experts, has asked the government
to review its no-first-use of nuclear weapons policy in 'light of the history
of the last four years.' .....
Child prodigy, overhyped son of
an ambitious father with weird ideas, child blunder... At 15, Tathagat
Avatar Tulsi has been through all of these and more. But the prestigious
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore has closed the debate.
Tulsi has become the youngest student ever to secure admission to its illustrious
doctoral programme. .....
Taking a break from its exclusive
concern with the fundamentalism of the sangh parivar variety, the CPM is
also reckoning with the threat being posed by Islamist groups. .....
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari
Vajpayee, is set to hold talks with the leaders of the Naga insurgent group,
NSCN (I-M) here tomorrow, marking a major step forward in the five-year-long
peace process. .....
Hundreds of undocumented Pakistanis
and Arabs, many of whom have lived in the United States for years, have
crowded Canadian border crossings in recent days to seek asylum as America
cracks down on illegal immigrants as part of its war against terrorism.
.....
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari
Vajpayee, today made it clear that there was no change in the Indian position
that talks with Pakistan could take place only when it ended cross-border
terrorism. .....
When the Congress Working Committee
(CWC) was debating Hindutva in Delhi on Sunday, a battery of Rajasthan
cabinet ministers were listening to Morari Bapu's Ram Katha here with blissful
devotion. .....
Muslim women on Saturday took out
a rally against compulsion of 'burqa' under the banner of Navnirman Samaj
Vikas Kcnilra, at Azad Maidan VT. The killing of four women in Rajouri,
Kashmir, for not observing the 'hurqa'diktat led them to raise (heir voice
against the suppression of their basic rights. .....
The U.S. National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) is seeking India's help to study and
decipher the massive amounts of data on earth sciences from a confluence
of satellites. .....
Now-a-days, plenty of discussion
is going on on Hindutva. Every Hindutvawadi will welcome it because according
to Hindu Logic 'Out of discussion is born light'. They believe it. But
the debate must be genuine and not only debate for debate's sake.
Keshavmitra has defined debate as "Debate is one which is done in the search
of knowing the principles" and twisted (with vested interest) debate as
"Debate done without explaining one's own side and only to point out the
faults of the other". .....
Riots may have ripped apart the
secular fabric of Gujarat but here is a story that will make you feel that
all is not lost yet. Over 50 Muslim artisans from Kapadwanj are at present
camping at the Trimandir on Ahmedabad-Mehsana highway near Adalaj. Their
task is cut out: making the dome of the Trimandir. Religon does not matter,
they say, all that does is making doors, windows and domes for the abode
of God. .....
In an important development, four
persons accused of masterminding the bomb blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar
were on Friday booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA)
by the Mumbai police. The four accused were produced before designated
judge A P Bhangale on Friday and were remanded to further police custody
till January 17. .....
The Yemeni gunman who killed three
US missionaries this week has confessed to meeting suspected Al Qaida members,
including a suicide bomber who attacked the USS Cole, a state-run Yemeni
newspaper said on Thursday. .....
"Peter Beinart, the editor of The
New Republic notes that India's Muslim population is "among the freest
in the world" and estimates that more Muslims go from Pakistan to India
every year than the other way around." .....
My simple greeting to all of you
here today is: Welcome home. Many of you are citizens of your adopted countries.
Over 20 million of you have set up home in scores of countries, near and
far. But each one of you shares a common identity - your Indianness - and
a common origin - this Motherland of your forefathers. .....
A former close associate of Dalit
leader R Tirumavalavan, has accused the DPI convenor of receiving huge
funds from Christian Missionaries in India and abroad and that he was opposing
the anti- conversion law brought in by the Tamilnadu government only because
of that. .....
Naranarayan Naskar, the BJP president
of Palar block who was found burnt to death and tied to a post yesterday,
was among the kar sevaks who pulled down Babri Masjid a decade ago. .....
The events of September 11 have
intensified a long-standing debate: What causes Muslims to turn to militant
Islam? Some analysts have noted the poverty of Afghanistan and concluded
that herein lay the problem. Jessica Stern of Harvard University wrote
that the United States "can no longer afford to allow states to fail."
If it does not devote a much higher priority to health, education and economic
development abroad, she writes, "new Osamas will continue to arise." .....
A Christian school near Tenkasi
has been accused of propagating religious hatred and degrading Hinduism
while hailing Christianity under the guise of teaching moral Science. .....
The 50-year-old Kashmir dispute
has all the attributes T S Eliot assigned to history. It has "many cunning
passages, contrived corridors" and "deceives with whispering ambitions,
guides us by vanities". During the past year, as India and Pakistan faced
off militarily and the US searched for al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists
nearby, the dispute seemed especially dangerous, US interests in the subcontinent
compelling, and America's influence and Pakistani as well as Indian receptivity
to US mediation high. .....
The controversy over some Pakistan
nuclear scientists collaborating with countries listed as "axis of evil"
by the US has deepened further with the media in Islamabad publishing on
Wednesday contents of a brochure allegedly brought out by by the country's
top nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, offering nuclear technology
to other nations. .....
A federal appeals court today ruled
that the government has properly detained an American-born man captured
with Taliban forces in Afghanistan without an attorney and has legally
declared him an enemy combatant. .....
British anti-terrorism police say
they have arrested another suspect, bringing to seven the number of those
held after the discovery of traces of the deadly poison ricin in a London
apartment. .....
Over the next few months, commentators
across the world will doubtless be marking the recent firefight between
US and Pakistan security forces as a turning point in the life and times
of General Pervez Musharraf. It is not difficult to see why. .....
Bihar is a strange state. Some
2,500 years ago, Gautama Buddha wandered there for more than 80 years,
propounding the gospel of love and Ahimsa. At that time, it was the most
culturally and politically advanced province of India. .....
The information that Dr Abdul Qadeer
Khan has been offering nuclear and nuclear related technology to other
nations is being circulated in Washington since early December. .....
If BJP swears by Ram Lala, the
new found saviour of chief minister Mayawati seems to be gau-mata. The
way to the upper caste vote bank in the cow belt is through the holy cow,
the CM has realised. And, in sharp contrast to the BJP, Mayawati's score
board is definitely impressive on this count. .....
To the estimated 3.5 lakh ethnic
Indians in Fiji, "Pravasi Divas" - the celebration of the achievements
of the Indian diaspora - in the Capital from January 9 is just hype. For
them life is a constant struggle for economic, political and human rights.
.....
No? Me neither. And even if I did
hear a good Mohammed joke, you can bet I wouldn't tell it. Not in an e-mail,
not in a column, not no way, not no how. Why? Because if you poke fun at
the prophet of Islam - or even suggest anything that remotely smacks of
irreverence - you will live (maybe) to regret it. .....
Egyptian police on Sunday arrested
a Coptic man for allegedly turning his house into a church, police
said. Sulieman Ibrahim, a farmer from a village in the province of Sohag,
about 290 miles (455 kilometers) south of Cairo, had turned his house into
a church where Copts from the area prayed daily, police said. Muslims in
Ibrahim's village of Nag'a al-Keeman complained to police after hearing
people's prayers coming from the house, police said, who added that some
of the Muslim villagers were planning to attack the house. .....
Confessions of the four suspects,
supported by police evidence, indicate that the twin blasts in December,
one in a Ghatkopar bus and the other at a fast food joint in Mumbai Central,
were masterminded by a Dubai- based fundamentalist group. .....
A child having his head tonsured
or being taken to a temple is no news. But when the subject is the grandson
of none other than rationalist DMK president M Karunanidhi the issue does
merit a debate. .....
These past years there has never
been so much talk of the dialogue of civilizations and the culture of peace,
while one is confronted with an absolute culture of hate, of an outburst
of terrorism against civilians, of discrimination, and of religious intolerance.
This culture of hate has justified international terrorism, the terrorism
of the media, and air and sea piracy, which have caused countless innocent
victims. .....
Activists of non-governmental organisation
Nirbahy Andolan yesterday met members of the Siddhivinayak temple trust,
demanding their resignation on grounds of corruption. They also alleged
that the trustees were harassing hawkers in the immediate vicinity of the
temple. .....
Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's "healing
touch" prescription in J&K is just not working out. On the contrary,
the fidayeen [suicide squad] attack on the Raghunath temple last month
and the splurge of recent killings in Poonch and Rajouri villages indicate
that the supposed remedy is aggravating the disease; the lay Indian certainly
thinks that way. .....
Back in 1972, Sunil Baidya - then
the leader of the CPM's youth brigade in the Gobrapur-Kundipur belt - was
the first person any refugee crossing over from the other side of the border
would look up. He would Organise relief camps, distribute food and clothes
(and political, literature) and it was people like Baidya who built up
a base for the CPM that has stood the test of time. .....
The BJP landslide in Gujarat may
compel Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh to take Hindu aspirations
more seriously to ensure a record third successive stint as chief minister.
This is despite the fact that the chances of a Hindutva wave inundating
the relatively calm backwater of the state in the 2003 Assembly poll seem
unlikely on current evidence. .....
While the state government is considering
a ban on VHP leader Praveen Togadia's entry in Maharashtra, opposition
Shiv Sena-BJP legislators today decided to make an issue of it. The legislators
today forced adjournment of the Assembly seeking an explanation from the
government why it wanted to prevent Togadia from entering the state. .....
If the so called investigation
of Sewa International by Channel 4 is anything to go by, then Adam Patel,
Megnad Desai, and Chetan Bhatt are the saviours of Britain's "liberal",
"freethinking", "Asians". One is conspicuous by his virtual silence on
almost all matters in the Lords. Another, despite being a contributing
member in the Lords, has a reputation among Hindus as anti-Hindu. The third
seems to have made an academic career out of "Hindu fundamentalism". .....
Sutarsi was a Christian, an Indonesian,
and a victim of the creeping genocide against the Christian community in
the Moluccas islands, Indonesia. Her village was attacked by Jihadist militants.
In the ensuing battle, Sutarsi was shot in the face by a Muslim militant.
.....
Once again, the bogeyman of the
mythical Hindu fundamentalist is raised in response to the Tamil Nadu government's
ordinance banning forced conversion. Inevitably, the cries of foul come
from the usual sources: pseudo-secularists and churchmen like the Bishop
of Madurai. .....
Religious rights activists are
urging King Abdullah of Jordan to intervene in the case of a Christian
widow who has gone into hiding after being ordered to surrender her children
to her estranged Muslim brother. .....
140 sevikas from 23 towns in the
UK and two other countries in Europe attended the Samiti's annual shiksha
varg at the Riverside College, Leicester from 27th July to 3rd August 2002.
96 of these were full time residential. The theme of Saatvik Karyakartaa
(pure and selfless worker) underlined the week's programme of training
activities for girls and women with responsibility for running their local
Samiti shakhas. .....
78 delegates from various Hindu
organisations from all over the UK attended this one day conference held
on 22 September at Arya Samaj Vedic Mission, Birmingham. The delegates
were office bearers and held position of responsibility in their respective
organisations. .....
Christian churches and schools
scattered across Pakistan are largely unprotected because the beleaguered
community, facing an unprecedented threat from Islamic extremists, has
no money for basic security measures. .....
One reason I didn't want to exchange
eight or nine dollars for a couple of air-cooled hours with Ben Affleck
and Morgan Freeman in "The Sum of All Fears" this summer was the Hollywood
decision to take the Tom Clancy novel's villains - Islamic jihadists right
from the headlines - and turn them into neo-Nazis right from the funny
pages. .....
In the current political climate,
it is tempting to maintain the taboos on those historical subjects that
could be easily exploited by xenophobes. One such taboo is dhimmitude,
which resulted when Christians and Jews (dhimmis), in addition to other
non-Muslim, indigenous peoples, were conquered by jihad wars, and henceforth
"tolerated" and "protected" as subjects of Islam. .....
Human rights and the concept of
jihad are two incompatible ideas. In Judeo-Christian societies, the
concept of human rights is based on the biblical interdiction against killing,
and the equality of all human beings. Though it has religious roots, this
notion of human rights evolved mainly from the 19th century in a secular
European and American framework. .....
Former United States deputy secretary
of defence and strategic affairs expert, John Hamre, on Tuesday said Pakistan
posed a bigger threat to the US than Iraq as there are radical elements
inside President Pervez Musharraf's government who are trying to remove
him. .....
Islam is today the fastest growing
faith in the Western world, and nearly 20 million inhabitants of the European
Union are self-avowedly Moslems. If present trends continue, by 2020 Moslems
will account for 10% of the overall population of Europe, and exceed ten
million in America. This population is expanding by immigration and an
enormous birth rate that far exceeds that of the indigenous population.
.....
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
kept up his defence of the rewriting of history textbooks, a project dear
to the heart of human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi,
by taking the fight into the opponent camp. .....
Amid slogan shouting and high voltage
speeches by VHP leaders on Sunday, VHP distributed over 400 trishuls(tridents)
to youths with a pledge to fight for Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura. VHP leaders
also took digs at Prime Minister Vajpayee for "his soft stand over Hindutva."
.....
The first days of the New Year
are a time for reflection. During the last few days, I have been "musing"
over the past 28 years that I spent in this country. Though I am still
a French man, I adopted this country as my own long ago. .....
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson
Najma Heptullah on Monday questioned the "silence" of top Muslim leaders
whenever Hindu temples were attacked by terrorists or when women not wearing
burqas were killed. .....
On December 25, 2002, Afghan Islamist
leader Gulboddin Hekmatyar announced that his militia joined forces with
the Taliban and Al-Qa'ida in a "holy war" against all international and
peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan. (1) Hekmatyar, who lived in exile in
Iran during the Taliban's rule, returned after U.S.- led forces defeated
it. Hekmatyar stated on behalf of his group, Hezb-e-Islami, that it "will
fight [its] Jihad until foreign troops are gone from Afghanistan and Afghans
have set up an Islamic government." .....
China is heading toward an economic
crisis like the one faced by Southeast Asian nations in mid-1990s because
of its gigantic problem of plenty, a leading economist warned on Monday.
.....
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay
Singh is hoping to embarrass the RSS in a big way by reiterating
his demand that a three lakh square feet stretch of land adjacent
to the famous Mahakaal temple in its possession be handed over to
the state government to enable the authorities to expand the temple
complex for the massive Simhastha mela in 2004. The disputed land
is presently being used as a bus stand. .....
Exactly the same problem is present
in each and every Western country that has carelessly opened the floodgates
to mass immigration from the Muslim world. An early sign of what was about
to hit England came almost 20 years ago in a document published by the
Islamic Foundation in the industrial city of Leicester, 100 miles north
of London. .....
A once-beleaguered Hindu nationalist
government recently won re- election by a landslide in India's Gujarat
state, attributing its turnaround to a resurgence in "Hindu pride" that
had been struggling to find expression for decades. .....
The year 2002 was punctuated by
crises either instigated or abetted by proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. The war against al- Qaeda, the Korean crisis, the imminent
war against Iraq, and even the Israel-Palestinian conflict were all aggravated
by and subjected to the stresses that this issue puts upon governments
as they seek security and/or peace. .....
"Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is
not committed to National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It is committed only
to the Hindu cause. In coming years too it will support the parties that
accept its Hindutva agenda and assure to work for betterment of the majority
community of this country. The VHP supported the BJP in Gujarat because
the elections in the State were contested on the Hindutva agenda. Now we
will not let the Gujarat Government deviate from the Hindutva agenda,"
said the General Secretary of VHP, Dr Pravin Togadia while talking to media
persons in New Delhi. .....
The National Curriculum Framework
for School Education (NCFSE-2000) was formulated and released by the National
Council for Education Research & Training (NCERT) in November, 2000.
Following its release, the 'pseudo-secularists', 'Marxists' and 'Macaulayists'
were tip in arms. They saw the NCFSE-2000 as a threat to their dream of
diluting the intensity of Indian Nationalism. A tirade, based on falsehood,
untruths and half-truths was launched against the NCFSE-2000 as well as
NCERT. .....
The ISI had struck again in Hyderabad.
On 21/11/2002, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists had planted an Improvised
Explosive Device (IED) in a scooter just in front of the famous Saibaba
temple of the busy Dilsukhnagar locality and activated it at 8.30 p.m.
A woman and a child were killed and 14 other devotees were injured in the
powerful blast. Had they been successful in igniting the second IED (5-kg
explosives) as planned, probably the huge temple complex would have been
reduced to rubble. .....
The BJP President Shri M. Venkaiah
Naidu has called upon political parties to come out of political considerations
and support a legislation banning conversions by inducement in the larger
interest of the country and in the interest of communal harmony and peace.
Emphasizing that the Constitution guaranteed the right of freedom to profess
and practice any religious faith, Shri Venkaiah Naidu expressed concern
that conversions have often become a source of friction. .....
The Nationalist Congress Party
on Saturday asked Congress to verify the The Indian Express report on the
involvement of Congressmen in the attack on former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri
and demanded action against the errant and an apology to those distraught
by the onslaught. .....
Indian 'secular' liberals have
thrown a bombshell-the country runs the risk of sliding into violence,
intolerance, authoritarianism and economic chaos if the liberals do not
go on offensive. Thanks to the obliging media, these liberals have succeeded
in even ensuring that voices critical to them are effectively suppressed.
.....
The chief Muslim cleric in New
Delhi said Friday that he supports the Taliban, and called the U.S.-led
airstrikes on Afghanistan (news - web sites) an attack on Islam. .....
The days of the balloon as an effective
delivery vehicle in CIA's propaganda operations have long since passed.
The propaganda game has now been evolved into a subtle contest of wits
and the agency's Covert Action staff has developed far more sophisticated
methods for spreading ideological messages through some selective journalists,
who feel proud to twist information on specific subjects for furthering
their careers and contributing to the propaganda objectives of the United
States government with a special slant. .....
On April 1, your friendly jingoist
tuned in to CNN's Q&A with Riz Khan featuring Nayyar Zaidi, a Pakistani
journalist based in Washington, and Gowhar Rizvi, a New York-based functionary
of the Ford Foundation. There was no Bharatiya representative; the topic
was the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. .....
Post-Gujarat election results,
Mr Yatin Oza, an advocate and Congress candidate against Mr Narendra Modi
in the Manina-gar constituency, said while conceding defeat: "I blame Star,
Zee and Aaj Tak television channels. You kept showing only the atrocities
on Muslims and pushed Hindus on Modi's side.The Hindus were happy when
you showed the plight of the Muslims. They thought the Muslims were suffering
like them for the first time in history. And when you showed that the riots
were state sponsored you actually made Modi a hero. .....
An upmarket school in Kolkata,
managed by the ruling CPI-M mandarins, has created a controversy. The reason:
An alleged manipulation of affairs related to a land acquisition deal struck
by the State Government in favour of the school. .....
United States Intelligence agencies
have found 'fingerprints' of Dawood, his brother Anees Ibrahim Kaskar and
their gang in the recent communal riots in Nigeria during the hosting of
the Miss World beauty pageant. .....
Islamabad has allowed American
and allied forces to cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and hunt for
Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists, according to a report. .....
North Bastar has finally mustered
up the courage to take on Naxals. In a show of courage, villagers of North
Bastar organised two rallies last week and pledged support to the district
administration in its fight against Naxalites. About 1,500 villagers, including
women, attended the rally at Koelibeda village in Kanker district on Saturday.
.....
Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani
today came down heavily on Jawaharlal Nehru for distorting the concept
of secularism. It is the Nehruvian concept of secularism that, he said,
has "distorted the true concept of secularism, which is synonymous with
Hindutva". .....
The "Ram Katha'' recital organised
by the Rajasthan Governor, Justice Anshuman Singh, began here today. The
Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and at least half a dozen Ministers
of the Gehlot Government joined the crowd to hear the recital to raise
funds for drought relief. .....
In a decisive shift in policy,
the US has reduced the pressure on India to begin talks with Pakistan to
resolve the Kashmir issue, and shifted the focus of bilateral relations
to an active engagement on Iraq. .....
Severely rapped by the Centre for
its shoddy handling of evidence in the Anees Ibrahim case, authorities
in Mumbai have shown that if there is a will, there is a way. .....
Forty-three soldiers were killed
and 25 seriously injured in two weekend attacks by Islamic terrorists
in Algeria, an Algerian newspaper reported in its Sunday edition.
.....
General Pervez Musharraf has one
utility for India that cannot and should not be denied. Since becoming
a player in the power structure of Pakistan from late 1998 onwards, he
has repeatedly performed the task of giving India, and the world at large,
clear assessments about the efficacy or otherwise of India's Pakistan policy.
.....
India's East Coast, especially
along Tamil Nadu, is increasingly drawing the attention of archaeologists
and anthropologists from across the world for its evolutionary and historical
secrets. .....
Prohibitory orders have been clamped
in old Davanagere town under the Gandhinagar, Azadnagar and Basavanagar
police station limits, following the death of an youth in a clash. .....
Not many know that the Jewish diaspora
reached India two thousand years ago. Although the size of the three Jewish
diasporas in India was always small, they merit study because their history
of sustained harmony sharply contrasts the Jewish diasporas in Europe,
a history of periodic horrors. .....
Concerned over the indiscriminate
growth of madrasas (Islamic schools) along the country's international
borders, the Centre is considering enacting a law to regulate activities
of places of worship and religious instructions. .....
To equate transfer of funds by
the India Development and Relief Fund for social development in India,
to money laundering by Islamic charities for the sole purpose for terrorism
is preposterous and displays the ludicrously negative attitude of a section
of the media, both Indian and Western. .....
It's the religious leaders sitting
outside the country who have always guided the Church movement in India.
Very often their spiritual guidance is cosidered as a dictate for these
organisations, because of their control over financial assistance provided
to them. The annual Home Ministry Report "Receipt of Foreign Contribution
by Voluntary Association" and the available Church literature in the country
seems to substantiate the view that there exists a strong link between
foreign funding and Church and para-Church organisations here. .....
Christian missionaries and allied
groups continue to be largest recipients of foreign funds. They received
Rs 15.88 crore (75.69 per cent of the total foreign funds) in April-June
this year compared with Rs 11.41 crore during the corresponding period
last year and Rs 12.67 crore in the first quarter. A study of the receipt
of foreign funds by religious/ non-political organisations and other groups
in April-June, based on Intelligence reports gathered by the Home ministry,
indicates a sharp increase to Rs 20.98 crore compared with Rs 14.02 crore
during the corresponding period in 1998. .....
It is with a heavy heart and a
sense of utter frustration at the failure of my life-long mission to uplift
the backward Hindu masses of East Bengal that I feel compelled to tender
resignation of my membership of your Cabinet. It is proper that I should
set forth in detail the reasons, which have prompted me to take this decision
in this important juncture of the history of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent.
.....
Pakistan's top nine nuclear scientists
are absconding, setting alarm bells off on the safety of Islamabad's nuclear
programme, a news report has said. .....
The Tamil Nadu police arrested
a Imam and five other men alleged to have links with a terror network.
The police claimed to have cracked a "major terrorist network, flush with
funds from Saudi Arabia, and planning to assassinate important religious
and political leaders, besides bombing big temples in Tamil Nadu." .....
"We have defeated our enemy without
going to war." -General Pervez Musharraf Pakistan's leader has pointed
the way to the future. This is the way to fight all Indo-Pak wars: bluster
and posturing followed by a declaration of victory. War colleges on both
sides should take note of this. .....
The US military reserves the right
to cross the border into Pakistan in hot pursuit of enemy fighters who
may flee there from Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said on Friday.
.....
Canada cleared the way Thursday
for the United States to seek extradition of an alleged forger whose information
led the FBI to launch a manhunt for five men who may have entered the country
illegally, an Ontario court official said Friday. .....
The Sankaracharya of the Kanchi
Kamakoti Mutt recently released a book that contains guidelines for NGOs,
many of which have faced flak for indirectly inciting religious conversions
through their development initiatives. .....
"India's Hindu right is on the
rise thanks to some rough politics in Gujarat state. Riots broke out in
Gujarat last February after the murder of 58 Hindus by a mob. The state's
Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, refused to condemn outright the two-month
carnage that followed, in which thousands of Muslims were killed by Hindu
mobs incited by his party's supporters." A report in the Pakistani press
you would presume? Think again. .....
The Congress has received a massive
drubbing in the just concluded Gujarat election. Yet it is not the biggest
loser in the campaign; that dubious honor belongs to the English language
media especially the television networks. When the survey published in
India Today a few weeks before the election suggested that the BJP was
likely to win big, the English language media and the 'experts' went into
action. .....
Notwithstanding the tough line
adopted by the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the American Ambassador
Robert Blackwill against cross-border terrorism being perpetrated in Jammu
and Kashmir by Pakistan, there seems to be no change in policies of Pakistan.
.....
The National Curriculum Framework
for School Education (NCFSE-2000) was formulated and released by the National
Council for Education Research & Training (NCERT) in November, 2000.
Following its release, the 'pseudo-secularists', 'Marxists' and 'Macaulayists'
were tip in arms. They saw the NCFSE-2000 as a threat to their dream of
diluting the intensity of Indian Nationalism. .....
The BJP President Shri M. Venkaiah
Naidu has called upon political parties to come out of political considerations
and support a legislation banning conversions by inducement in the larger
interest of the country and in the interest of communal harmony and peace.
.....
I am extremely grateful to the
Lalit Doshi Memorial Trust for having invited me to deliver the 2002 Lalit
Doshi Memorial lecture. I have been asked to speak on Terrorism and India,
a subject on which, in the last one decade a tot has been written and spoken
about. But when the debate goes on and on, one of the impressions which
is formed by an average reader or an ordinary citizen, is one of great
frustration. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
said in Lok Sabha that on November 25 the sudden spurt in violence in Jammu
and Kashmir, including the Raghunath temple siege, was the handiwork of
Pakistan and lamented that the global community was not understanding that
a terrorist State was a far greater evil than the terrorist organisations.
.....
Rebbishing the theory that Osama
Bin Laden has left Afghanistan and have reached his native Yeman among
his fiercely loyal tribesmen in that country, the Afghani Education Minister
Younus Qanooni has hinted in an interview that the Al-Qaeda chief lives
"within Pakistan border". Qanooni was in New Delhi recently. .....
As The Hunt Steps Up for Islamic
militants in Indonesia, much of the focus is likely to fall on a small
but significant community with ancient ties to the Arabian Peninsula. This
might seem unfair but is almost inevitable for the estimated 5 million
Indonesians of Yemeni descent, whose forefathers came as traders and missionaries
to the sprawling Indonesian archipelago over the past 6oo years. .....
Southeast Asia's elder statesman
Lee Kuan Yew wrapped up a four-day visit here on Wednesday warning the
region to be on alert for growing "anti-Zion" Islamic crusade spawned by
fighting in Afghanistan. .....
Kerala Minister for Local Government
Cherkalam Abdullah is in trouble. The reason: he sported a tilak at a function
in Sringeri Mutt recently. Muslim organisations are after his scalp and
have demanded he should penance for the 'blasphemy'. .....
Political observers in Pakistan
stand aghast at the spectacle of General Musharraf unfolding his own version
of democracy, governed by his own constitution and bound by the rules he
himself has laid down. Needless to say, politicians who managed to get
elected to the national assembly during military rule face a very difficult
choice. .....
In a truly free election in Saudi
Arabia, with the royal family on the sidelines bereft of the divine right
of kings, and Osama Bin Laden as a candidate for prime minister, the world's
most wanted terrorist would win hands down. So spoke, albeit privately,
one of the most important non-royals, who manages a big chunk of the royal
family's financial portfolio. .....
An 11-year-old Singaporean girl
was told to leave school and could face suspension for defying a ban on
wearing traditional Islamic headscarves, the government said on Thursday.
.....
Leaders of the All India Christian
Council protested against the Christmas Eve attacks on Christians and accused
the authorities in India and Pakistan of not doing enough to protect Christian
minorities against Hindu and Muslim extremists. .....
Firebrand Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) leader Pravin Togadia has called for building a temple at a disputed
site in Ayodhya "at any cost" and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
must be ready to lose power for the cause. .....
Seven weeks after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, Islamic cleric Mohammad Asi made a speech at the
National Press Club, calling them "a grand strike against New York and
Washington" launched by "Israeli Zionist Jews" who had warned the 5,000
Jews at the World Trade Center to skip work. He warned America that if
it continued to offend Islam, "the day of reckoning is approaching." .....
Mushirul Hasan, an erudite man,
highly regarded in India's political and intellectual arena, in a recent
article (Strongman Politics, Indian Express, and November 27, 2002) has
compared Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat to Josef Goebbels of
Nazi Germany. .....
About 120 missionaries are on the
way to Hyderabad in the next two weeks. They are part of a global mission
and mainly Americans. They have raised over two hundred thousand dollars
for the journey. They are obviously targeting Hyderabad and surrounding
areas. .....
The present state of Jharkhand,
which was carved out of Bihar in November 2000, is a part of Chotanagpur
plateau of Indian peninsula. Its complex social condition provided unique
opportunity to the various socio-religious and anthropological groups for
carrying out their intellectual pursuit in this most diverse cultural and
linguistic area of central India. .....
Yemeni officials said three Americans
were killed yesterday at a Baptist missionary hospital in central Yemen
by a man apparently belonging to a small cell that planned to victimize
both Westerners and secular Yemenis. .....
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
said today he'd been prepared to use atomic weapons if Indian forces crossed
into its territory earlier this year when tensions peaked. .....
Of all major religions, Islam is
the least amenable to dialogue with other faiths. Among non-Muslims it
seeks converts or obedient subjects, not partners in a dialogue. Nevertheless,
among some misguided Western social conservatives there exists an a priori
desire to forge an alliance of believers against the moral and spiritual
decay of a sinful world an "ecumenical jihad," a war of all religions against
unbelief: .....
"The Foreign Exchange of Hate,
IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva" released by Biju Mathews last
month has created ripples in the Indian American media. .....
The church of various Christian
denominations in India is obviously emboldened to stage bandhs of its educational
institutions, etc., as a blackmail weapon of the Christian upper hand in
the educational field available to them because of historical, imperialist
reason of British backing in the past. In fact, if you go into their history
a little deeper they are the progeny of British imperialism now strutting
about as the true blue breed to lord it over the natives. .....
A Jabalpur boy has literally had
his niche carved in the galaxy for his brilliant invention. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology(MIT), US, has named '12509 Pathak' - a recently
spotted minor planet between Mars and Jupiter - after Madhav Pathak - a
Class X student. .....
A new six-foot-tall brass lamp
that will remain lit through the year has been donated to the Meenakshi
Amman temple in Tamil Nadu's Madurai city. .....
Reflecting the current chill in
its relations with Pakistan, the Centre plans to restrict Pakistani visitors
to three cities and undertake a drive to round up those who have overstayed
in the country. .....
We are saying finish terrorism,
they are saying finish the BJP. You decide," said Narendra Modi. And the
rest is history. The spectacular victory of the BJP in Gujarat has stunned
everyone-everyone who failed to grasp the dynamics of Indian politics.
In 1971 Indira Gandhi used this technique for the first time when she said:
"Main kehti hun garibi hatao, yeh kehtein hain Indira hatao (I say remove
poverty, they say remove Indira)." .....
Q. How do you see your victory?
A. It is a vote for nationalism.
It is a vote against the Congress' fatwa politics. It is also a slap on
the face of pseudo-secularists who have emerged as the Congress' biggest
allies. We fought against the combined national strength of the Congress
and the pseudo-secularists. But in the end their falsehoods have been publicly
exposed. .....
Gujarat today is India tomorrow.
Let there be no obfuscation about that. At the height of the election campaign,
Sonia Gandhi repeatedly stressed the battle was one for the soul of India.
In meeting after meeting she exhorted the people to vote against the forces
of Hindutva, calling them fascist. Gujaratis have given their verdict.
They have told her in no uncertain terms that Hindutva is their soul. .....
Palatial houses with tin-coated
dish antennas and fancy water tanks against a rural backdrop are nothing
new. Neither is the possibility of the Indian diaspora nurturing such pictures
of prosperity. A steady flow of remittances from NRIs over the years has
turned several old homes into new, drastically transforming the lives of
those whom they left behind. In some villages, entire rows of houses stand
as monuments of expatriate largesse, defying the stagnation and squalor
of their surroundings. .....
The government also reviewed the
entire security system following the terrorist attack on Parliament House
on December 13, 2001, and subsequently banned 32 organisations involved
in terrorist activities under Pota. These details were revealed in a yearend
review released by the home ministry here on Wednesday. .....
The ISI role in Bosnia, Afghanistan
and in keeping Sikh militancy alive has now been brought to public notice
by no less a person than the former chief of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir
(Retd), who has boasted of these "achievements" in a petition filed by
him before a Lahore Terrorist Court seeking the death sentence for four
top journalists responsible for a report accusing him of embezzling Pakistani
Rs 3 billion. .....
High on adrenalin after the Gujarat
poll sweep, BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu today left no one in any doubt that
the Hindutva card was here to stay and that the party won't be shy of playing
it. .....
The brutal murder of three children
and three women in Jammu and Kashmir over the last two days once again
reveals that some of the groups operating in the strife-torn state under
the guise of carrying out a 'freedom struggle' are nothing but vicious
and cowardly criminals. .....
VHP's international secretary Pravin
Togadia today questioned the attempts by the DF government in Maharashtra
to ban his entry into the state or on his speeches and accused Congress
president Sonia Gandhi of trying to avenge her party's crunching defeat
in Gujarat. .....
The outcome of the election in
Gujarat is likely to evoke a question as to what could be a Hindu rashtra.
The Narendra Modi- led victory is the first assertion of Hindu nationalism.
One of its aspirations would be the founding of a rashtra, or state, after
its heart. What could be its character? .....
Despite the recent attack by suspected
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists on Hindu pilgrims in a temple in Gandhinagar
and periodic reports of the activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) in its territory, Gujarat is not yet a terrorism-affected state.
But it is a terrorism-prone state due to several reasons. One, its border
with Pakistan and its coastline and innumerable creeks which facilitate
infiltration of anti-national elements. .....
The adoption of an anti-conversion
law by the Tamil Nadu assembly has evoked sharp reactions, both from self-proclaimed
secularists and those whom they denounce as communalists. The Church, of
course, is up in arms over the issue. Soon after J Jayalalithaa promulgated
her anti-conversion ordinance, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi while addressing
a protest rally, quoted some obscure dictionary to say that the word 'Hindu'
meant a thief, and justified conversions. .....
Along with my regular fitness regimen
of walking, swimming, hiking, dancing or whatever other exercise I could
coax my pregnant, ballooning body to do in recent months, I have been coming
once a week to a Tuesday night yoga class that attracts hundreds of women
weekly from all over the city. .....
James Glover's love affair with
Vedic mathematics began nearly 25 years ago. As head of the mathematics
department at St James' Independent High School in the UK, he has been
an ardent champion of the system, with several textbooks to his credit.
"We use the system because it's brilliant and it works," the 46-year-old
Welshman explains. He is in the city on the first leg of an India-wide
tour sponsored by Motilal Banarasidas, publishers of his books and organisers
of more than 100 Vedic mathematics workshops in India. .....
The ungodly treatment meted out
to the Raghunath Temple in Jammu Sunday was a disgrace. Had you taken a
round of the temple before the attack, you would have wondered whether
this was the same place where the guns of militants had boomed earlier
this year, shedding blood. .....
The lives of more than a hundred
young Muslim women are shattered every year in Bradford when their families
attempt to force them into marriage against their will, the city's police
race relations officer said yesterday. .....
Taking a sexual partner of their
own choice or even applying for a university place is still regarded as
an unforgivable crime for many young Asian women in Britain. .....
Too much patriotism is bad for
health. Sensible, secular Satiricus knows this, but the BJP and the Shiv
Sena are not secular, and therefore not sensible. As a communal consequence,
they have resurrected their four-year-old proposal that the singing of
the National Song Vande Mataram should be made compulsory in the municipal
schools of Mamba. The first time the pernicious proposal was moved in 1998
after it had been okayed by the then Education Committee of the Mumbai
Corporation. .....
I remember the first time someone
suggested I try yoga. They came at me with enough zeal to impress a Jesuit
missionary and the reticence of an anti-smoking bore. I knew all the benefits
of yoga to health, posture and attitude to life but as far as I was concerned,
it was about as appealing as tofu. .....
While the number of dead hostages
was climbing on Monday, a Moscow newspaper had a headline that read: "At
last, we have something to be proud of". Was it right? On balance, I think,
yes. .....
If there were any doubts that the
development of missile defences was one of India's most important national
security imperatives, they should be removed once and for all by the latest
statements of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on his country's
nuclear posture. .....
Detainees set fire to a building
at Villawood last night, continuing the string of deliberately lit blazes
at detention centres around Australia. .....
Three persons were injured and
two shops set ablaze on Tuesday in communal clashes triggered by an incident
of eve teasing prompting authorities to clamp curfew on parts of Dahod
district town in central Gujarat. .....
A barrage of criticism by the Forward
Bloc, coinciding with a massive CPI rally after 12 years, seems to have
unnerved the Left Front big brother as it had never done before. .....
Less than a week after Iranian
President Mohammed Khatami wound up his three-day tour of Pakistan, Teheran
is said to have complained to Islamabad about the Pakistani media's ''distortion''
of Khatami's remarks on Kashmir. .....
As evangelical Christian emissaries
have spread throughout the Muslim world, their presence has increasingly
proved to be a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment while provoking
the anger of native Christian sects and Islamic clerics. .....
One answer came last week, when
Saddam Hussein had his Islamic leaders appeal to Muslims worldwide to join
his jihad to defeat the "wicked Americans" should they attack Iraq; then
he himself threatened the United States with jihad. .....
Chief Minister Narendra Modi's
new year resolution is to lay the foundation of 21st century Gujarat in
2003. And thanks to his resolve, the yearend holidays of all secretaries
have been spoilt. .....
A letter from Evangelists D G S
Dinakaran and Paul Dinakaran to an ardent Shiva devotee and authority on
Shaivism has sparked a controversy with the recipient of the letter raising
a pertinent question: Under what provision of the anti-conversion law can
the founders of 'Jesus Calls' Trust be booked? .....
The U.S. military bombed an abandoned
religious school on Pakistani territory after a gunbattle between U.S.
and Pakistani troops on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan officials
said Tuesday. .....
Russia blamed Islamic terrorists,
including Arabs, today for a pair of explosions that devastated a government
center in Chechnya on Friday, as investigators tried to figure out how
three suicide bombers drove unmolested through a thicket of checkpoints
set up to shield the complex from just such attacks. .....
In a significant ruling, the Madras
high court on Friday said that personal laws cannot be declared void, since
they do not come under the ambit of the Constitution. .....
Criminals went on the rampage at
a Bharat Sevashram Sangha temple here today and damaged the altar, an idol
of Krishna and some artefacts. Temple staff caught one of them, Afzal Haq,
and handed him over to police. .....
The conspiracy behind the Ghatkopar
bomb blast which claimed two lives, and possibly the McDonald's outlet
explosion at Mumbai Central railway station was believed to have been hatched
in the room of a resident doctor attached to the government-run J J Hospital
here. .....
The Bharatiya Janata Party today
adopted a political resolution hitting the Congress hard, alleging that
it was "going soft on terrorism,'' while it patted itself on the back for
its "commitment against terror'' and "demolishing the myth that alliances
in India cannot run stable governments.'' .....
Recently the Vishwa Hindu parishad
called for the elimination of some 24 anti-polytheistic (anti-idol-worshipping
Hindu) verses of Koran and Hadis. The VHP as made this suggestion in the
expectation that such elimination could help foster a better relationship
between Hindus and Muslims. .....
Jehadi extremist Abdul Nasser Madani
is facing trail at Coimbatore prison in Tamil Nadu for involvement in the
serial-blast case, which was aimed at eliminating L.K. Advani in 1998.
.....
