An unfortunate oversight or an
error of judgement has brought upon the Congress the ignominy of sharing
the blame for the installation of a portrait of Veer Savarkar just opposite
to Mahatma Gandhi's portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament. The Congress
has all along believed that Savarkar had a hand in Gandhi's assassination,
an allegation the Hindutva icon later denied. .....
Lady Nadira Naipaul's query to
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani that "why must Indian Muslims be expected
to have Ram and Sita in their hearts" continues to stir senior BJP leaders.
Though Mr Advani at the time steered clear of any controversy on the issue
and perhaps Lady Nadira was satisfied with the former's reply during the
Pravasi Bharatiya meet, Pondichery Lt Governor K R Malkani has written
a two-page letter to her, beginning with a counter query -- "Why not"?
.....
After the Opposition onslaught,
the RSS went into a tizzy and brought out a list detailing appreciation
of V D Savarkar by senior Congress and Communist leaders.The list, released
by the RSS joint spokesman Ram Madhav, includes senior leaders from both
the parties. It lists Subhash Chandra Bose, Indira Gandhi, Y B Chavan,
Gulzari Lal Nanda etc from the Congress and S A Dange and S M Joshi from
the socialist stream. .....
A strange paradox seems to have
benumbed the Bharatiya Janata Party even as it seeks to put a confident
face forward for the forthcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh. The party
had virtually conceded the State to the Congress until Mr Narendra Modi's
mind-boggling victory in Gujarat forced it to recognise the burgeoning
Hindu groundswell nationwide, and give Mr Virbhadra Singh a run for his
money. .....
To the list of threats coinciding
with the crisis in Iraq add the possibility that U.S. troops in Afghanistan
will face an offensive this spring from revived forces of the Taliban and
al Qaeda based in Pakistan. Already, in the past few weeks, American units
deployed in the southeastern border provinces have been engaged in the
heaviest fighting in nearly a year, and attempted ambushes of patrols and
rocket attacks on bases have steadily increased. .....
Guddu Baba - his dreadlocks and
beard flowing slightly in the breeze - sits on the banks of the Ganga and
gazes at the vast expanse of water before him. This water is what the 38-year-old
priest is fighting for and his life's mission is to make the Ganga pollution-free.
.....
"Laying out the world's changing
attitudes to Israel and America so barely makes it sound like a conscious
decision -- which is absurd. But changes in the spirit of the times are
as difficult to explain as those immense flocks of birds you see sitting
on some great African lake, hundreds of thousands of them at a time, till
all of a sudden, successively, they fly up and turn in a specific direction.
One can never analyze which bird started it and how it became this incredible
rush. All you see is the result." .....
An Islamic school has removed alleged
terrorist co-conspirator Sami Amin al-Arian from its board of trustees,
the Florida school's principal told WorldNetDaily. .....
The recent People's War dump unearthed
by the Anantapur police is said to be significant in nature as it consisted
of `explosive' information about the sources of income on regular basis.
The information could be a vital shot in the arm for the police in its
fight against the naxalite movement. .....
Playing the 'Hindutva' card, Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday advocated the cause of building
a Ram temple in Ayodhya and said he would prefer to die than eat beef.
.....
Encouraged by the deportations
of Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar and notorious gangster Ejaz Pathan
by the Dubai authorities on Wednesday night, the Centre is mounting pressure
on the United Arab Emirates government to deport 15 other gangsters, including
big-timers Mustafa Majnoon and Mohammed Dossa, to India. .....
Internally Pakistan is stuck between
a military dictator who has no intention of even sharing a little bit of
power and the unknown alternate of Jihadi Generals who, if they throw him
out, will automatically invite the inevitable catastrophe. .....
The American India Foundation (AIF)
may have shot into the limelight in 2001 when US President Bill Clinton
travelled to Gujarat, in the wake of the devastating earthquake, with a
group of its trustees. But even beyond the high-profile earthquake relief
and rehabilitation work in Gujarat, AIF is now looking to a broader objective.
.....
Why doesn't your conscience cry
for the Hindus of Bangladesh who are subjected to continuous communal atrocities?
Those collecting relief for the victims of the Gujarat carnage in Kolkata
have confronted this question, often laced with anger and sarcasm. .....
'It was quiet in [Cooper Hall]
464 Thursday night," noted the student newspaper, "where [Sameeh] Hammoudeh's
6 p.m. Arabic IV class was scheduled to meet. Two students who hadn't heard
of his arrest came to class, and a substitute was assigned to teach in
Hammoudeh's place." .....
No country faces the problem of
illegal migrants as gigantic as India does. Over two crore Bangladeshis
are residing in this country, mostly in neighbouring States. Cities like
Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad have lakh of Bangladeshi infiltrators living
there. These infiltrators are involved in many heinous crimes. The Indian
Government puts their figure at 1.5 crore. Their numbers are more than
the total Afghan population. The menace has changed the demography of the
entire East. .....
To experience a modern, tolerant
and relaxed Islam, the kind that Western policy-makers long to see, visit
Malaysia. In this prosperous Southeast Asian country of 23 million people,
two-thirds of them Muslim, veiled women co-exist easily with miniskirts
and the call to prayer from the minarets blends with the song of the microchip.
But visit soon, because there's trouble in paradise. .....
A group of Tibetans rioted in China's
northwestern province of Qinghai this month after one of them was stabbed
to death in a clash with members of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority. .....
The Dharam Sansad of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) today said the fight against "jehadi terrorism" and
struggle for a Ram Temple at Ayodhya were complementary and demanded a
ban on "madarssas" and terrorist Muslim outfits preaching `jehad'. .....
The recent arrest of some Kashmiri
activists and the evidence of complicity on the part of Pakistan High Commission
officials, including the Deputy High Commissioner, in the funding of terrorist
groups are only the latest in what appears to be a never-ending saga of
dubious activity by Pakistani diplomats in India. .....
Asian students in Britain, particularly
those with Indian roots, are pulling ahead of Whites in exam performance,
latest official figures indicated on Friday. .....
Worried by the low turnout of devotees
during namaaz and the rise of social evils among the young generation,
the maulvi of Jogiakhera village in Muzaffarnagar has issued a fatwa against
watching television. .....
Afghanistan's chief Justice, Molvi
Fazal Hadi Shinwari, on Tuesday called for abolishing the country's co-education
schools as it violates Islamic teachings and principles. "Co-education
violates Islamic injunctions and social morality. Abolishing it will violate
no one's rights,'' Shinwari told the Afghan Islamic Press (aip) agency
in an interview. .....
The pro-Saddam Hussein European
manifestations of February 15th that brought millions into the streets
of European capitals are the culmination of Charles de Gaulle's political
vision of a European destiny led by France. During World War II de Gaulle
was the leader of French resistance against the Nazis, but his post-war
anti-Americanism rallied many of his previous enemies. .....
It's time for the BJP to present
its preparatory campaign for the assembly elections that are to be held
this year. However, it must be understood that Gujarat cannot be re-enacted
in any of these states. The ghastly provocation provided at Godhra on February
27, 2002, made the people furious, but did not win the Gujarat polls for
the Hindutva party. .....
In Gandhian literature, non-violence
has been enunciated as a positive virtue in negative form, signifying the
greatest love for the greatest number. It is said to be the weapon of the
strong. Yet non-violence posited by the weak is cowardice, and cowardice
is worse than violence. Weakness is a precursor to violence, which it invites
and perpetuates in society. .....
Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK has
approached the Madras High Court for a temporary injunction "restraining"
The Hindu from "publishing in future publication, articles, caricatures,
news items, cartoons, etc., defamatory or derogatory in nature, without
prior verification". .....
The Ramakrishna Mission authorities
here and at their global headquarters at Belurmath are worried that the
working of their nine centres in Bangladesh will be severely affected if
the BNP-Jamat-i-Islam-led coalition government in Dhaka continues to create
difficulties in issuing visas to their Indian monks based in that country.
.....
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
has recently transmitted a secret proposal to the Bush administration,
using one of his own sons, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah as an emissary,
rather than officials from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, sources told
ABCNEWS. .....
Tomorrow will mark the first anniversary
of the day the world learned of the murder of my son Daniel Pearl, a reporter
for this newspaper. It is time to step back and reflect on the significance
of this tragedy. .....
At this point in time, the construction
of Ram Temple in the city of Ayodhya ( in the state of Uttar Pradesh),
is the biggest Hot-Potato in India, this temple has completely altered
the course of politics in India. This is because Lord Ram's Temple-Site,
is a bone of contention between Hindus and Moslems in India. .....
Two senior executives and journalists
with The Economic Times and Satyam Infoway have been arrested on charges
of extortion filed by the proprietor of a finance company. The accused,
Deputy Manager of The Economic Times, Rishi Chopra (31) and Joseph Prizee
of Satyam Infoway, were arrested on Monday and remanded till February 25.
.....
Recognising the good in others
is one of the greatest and rarest of human virtues. The guiding principle
of a worker should be to water the seeds of virtues in others and carefully
weed out their vices and defects without parading them before all and presenting
before them the silent example of his own superior conduct. .....
Sorry is the only word I am left
with, in the face of the unprecedented horror unleashed by the proponents
of Muslim Bangla (BNP/Jamat, infested with Jinnah's destructive ideology)
against the non Muslim Bengali communities, to humbly offer to my Bengali
Hindu brothers and sisters whose family and relatives back home have to
bear the grunts of a hostile government bent on axing the roots of Bengali
culture .....
At a hurriedly called press conference,
BJP leader Uma Bharti today unveiled a letter written by the MP Youth Congress
chief, Menakshi Natrajan, which made clear for the first time the beef
issue which has stung Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. .....
Although neither the Dharam Sansad
on February 22, nor the Supreme Court hearing on Ayodhya tomorrow is likely
to take the Ram temple issue forward, Prime Minister Atal Bihari kept the
political mood alive. .....
President Bush has come under some
criticism recently for his outreach to the U.S. Muslim community because
administration officials have apparently met with some groups that have
ties -- direct or indirect -- with extremist groups here and in the Middle
East. .....
I had hoped that it would pour
with rain during last Saturday's march for "peace." Why? Exactly a week
earlier in northern Iraq, a brave minister of the autonomous Kurdish government
was foully done to death by a bunch of bin Laden clones calling themselves
Ansar al-Islam. .....
It came as an unpleasant surprise
to read the comments of the former CJI Js. J.S. Verma on the Ayodhya case.
He was reported to have objected to the way the 1994 Judgment of the Supreme
Court Bench in respect of the Government's reference on Ayodhya was being
interpreted. .....
Recently one of my friends directed
my heed to television news. He was disgusted by a capsule which displayed
the traffic jam due to the movement of Prime Minister Vajpayee. He was
on his way to the RSS headquarter in New Delhi to pay his homage to a person
known as Chaman Lal, but the correspondent did not mention even the name
of the departed person. .....
In an ideal world our guardians
of law and order would follow the ''Chaminda Vaas Manual on Dealing with
Bangladeshi Pretenders'', namely: Knock 'em over, and send them back! Alas,
for decades it seems they have been anticipating the ''Captain Clueless
Rulebook' (scripted by the erstwhile ''Prince of Kolkata''), to wit: Grab
the endorsements, and go to sleep... .....
The parents of a Sikh girl who
has been held by a tribesman for the last 40 days in the remote Tirah Valley
of Khyber Agency and is said to have embraced Islam have given up all hopes
for the recovery of their daughter. .....
Sunita Tanaji Naik always had a
tough time telling Berad-Ramoshi children stories about their community.
The teacher at a balwadi in a hamlet in Sangli district of Maharashtra
could at best recount that a certain Bahirji Naik from the community served
as Chhatrapati Shivaji's intelligence chief. And someone called Umaji Naik
led an uprising against the British in the first half of the 1800s in Pune
district. .....
Silence can be more expressive
than words. The long silence of the state women's commission following
the atrocities perpetrated on the women in the vehicles forcibly stopped
at Dhantala in Nadia says a host of things. The loudest message is simple:
the Party is above all. Unfortunately for the women's commission, the police
this time were quick to discover the kingpins behind the robbery, murder
and assault. .....
"India has traditionally been a
secular country. The concept of theocratic state is alien to our people,"
says Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister LK Advani, who was recently
on a week-long official visit to Thailand and Singapore. .....
Muslims alone have the right to
rule the world and are allowed to kill infidels that stand in the way of
Islam. This is themmessage being taught to schoolchildren through textbooks
used in the network of institutions run by Jamaat ud-Daawa, according to
a research report on Hate Speech complied by the Liberal Forum Pakistan.
.....
While the general belief is that
the number of pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine has come down sharply
after the militant attack at the Kaluchak army camp in May last year, official
figures say otherwise. Over 22.35 lakh pilgrims have so far visited the
shrine since August last year. .....
The CPI(M) and BJP remain bitter
ideological adversaries but the Left Front governments of West Bengal and
Tripura are emerging as the Centre's staunchest allies on the twin issues
of ISI activity and illegal migration from Bangladesh. .....
Among the unwritten rules governing
contemporary Indian politics-at least for the past three decades-is that
a government loses its way midstream and becomes vulnerable to a rising
tide of anti-incumbency. Till a year ago, this seemed to be the predestined
fate of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA Government. The BJP and its allies
were worsted in the key assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,
Punjab and Uttaranchal. The Congress under Sonia Gandhi was staging a dramatic
comeback. .....
The heat is on in the Rock Fort
city. Not the initial February summer heat, but the heat of the Hindu youth
who have gathered here in thousands for the first-ever Hindu youth conference
beginning in the early hours tomorrow with a Ganapathi Homam. .....
The peace marches around the world
held on February 15 to highlight global aversion to war in Iraq may actually
accelerate U.S. plans to topple Saddam Hussein by force. It is obviously
not the result that peace marchers seek from street demonstrations, but
then it is just another contradiction in the way the Iraq campaign has
evolved. The only clear beneficiary in this campaign, until now, has been
Saddam Hussein. .....
This paper discusses Kautilya's
thought on Public Enterprise and examines its relevance for the present
day management of PEs. It starts with the scope of economic activities
conducted in public sector during the period of Kautilya. Wage policy is
discussed thereafter. .....
On February 27, 2002, coach S-6
of the Sabarmati Express was set afire at Godhra railway station in Gujarat.
Fifty-eight passengers were killed, most of them VHP activists or Ramsevaks
returning from Ayodhya. A throng of extremist Muslims, said to be 1,500
strong, was held responsible. The act set off a retaliatory carnage, a
contentious election and changed the face of Gujarat's politics. .....
As intelligence tip-offs go, this
one was red hot. It came early on the morning of February 6 to the Delhi
Police's Special Cell. The next few hours were dramatic. They served to
establish that the Pakistani High Commission in the heart of the Indian
capital had become a den of espionage and subversion. They were also to
cost Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan's acting high commissioner, his job.
.....
It is a routine that seldom fails.
As day breaks, you see the figure of Sanjay Senapati making his way to
the Kali temple near the CRPF Square in Bhubaneswar. On the way to his
office, he again makes a visit to the temple. There is one more circumambulation
at dusk. He says this gives him an immense sense of peace. Prayer is food
for the soul indeed, but there's food for the body too. .....
The arrest of Anjum Zamruda Habib,
a second-rung functionary of the 23-group separatist All Parties Hurriyat
Conference (APHC), in Delhi last week with Rs 3.7 lakh, allegedly given
to her by the expelled Pakistani deputy high commissioner, Jalil Abbas
Gilani, has prompted security agencies to sharpen their operations in squeezing
financial support to Kashmiri separatists. .....
At the outset, some home truths
about Pakistan need to be reiterated. One, Pakistan was created on the
basis of Islam but that still couldn't bind its diverse society together.
The concept of nationhood was, therefore, defined in narrow, anti- Indian
terms. This will continue, even if there is an acceptable solution on Kashmir.
.....
Drive out of Bhuj town and the
real spirit of the Kutchis begins to show. Unfazed by the sudden, total
destruction of their habitat by an earthquake two years ago, the average
Kutchi has proved he's a great survivor. .....
In a major setback to gangster
Dawood Ibrahim, Dubai authorities on Wednesday night deported to Mumbai
his younger brother Iqbal Sheikh Kaskar and a close aide Ejaz Pathan. .....
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. .....
Following the disintegration of
the spaceship Columbia, America's loyal stooges, Musharraf-Jamali, issued
condolences to the families, which included Indian and Israeli crew members.
NASA is no more than an arm of the American military, which uses its spy
satellites to inform India of the location of our strategic weapons. .....
Thousands of people in the Bangladeshi
port city of Chittagong are flocking to a Roman Catholic church where tears
are reported to have been seen on a statue of the Virgin Mary. .....
Within Bangladesh, the Pakistani
ISI and Dhaka's Directorate General of Forces' Intelligence (DGFI) work
as 'cousins': complimenting and supplementing each other in espionage and
intelligence operations against India. .....
More than 70 journalists from 22
Commonwealth countries gathered in Bangladesh on Monday to discuss widespread
violence against reporters around the world and especially in this Southeast
Asian nation. Last year saw 67 journalists killed in the line of duty,
according to the International Federation of Journalists. Scores more were
beaten up or jailed. .....
A United States-based charity alleged
to have been financing fundamentalist organisations in India has said it
has not been told by the United States authorities about reported investigations
on its tax-exempt status. .....
Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury (AGC) did
it again. This time he joined the so-called Hindu-Bhudist-Christian Okoya
Jote to denounce the friends of nationalist and patriot government of Bangladesh.
.....
Seminaries in Karachi received
an overwhelming response in a two month-admissions campaign that ended
last week, with madrassas belonging to various schools of thought and sects
saying they had registered 16,000 during this period. .....
In the first crackdown on a terrorist
Islamic outfit by the Khaleda Zia government, Bangladesh has banned the
newly-formed "Shahadat-e- Al-Hikma", a group funded by underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim. .....
In Jakhan village, a new fine has
been imposed on residents. Any Hindu who talks or helps a Muslim neighbour
will now have to cough up Rs 1,100. But the Panchayat hasn't earned any
revenue because for the past two months, the Hindus and Muslims of this
village are not even talking to each other. .....
Philadelphia Inquirer, in its January
17, 2003 issue published an article, highly critical and defaming of Hindus,
and titled, "HINDU NATIONALISTS TAP IMMIGRANT GUILT IN US". Their staff
reporter had attended a meeting of the visiting VHP International Working
President Shri Ashok Singhal, and interviewed him at length. Shri Singhal
had come to USA, to pay a personal visit to a friend who was seriously
ill, and had agreed to meet the New Jersey community. .....
You are bound to bump into someone
from Lahore if you stay long enough in Delhi. (Oddly, it is never Multan,
or Rawalpindi, or Lyallpur, or any of the other cities in the western Punjab,
but always Lahore) And most always wax sentimental about the beloved city
they left behind at Partition. .....
I am writing this from Pune, the
Hindu-centric city. I came here to do yoga for two weeks in the famous
Iyengar Institute.I stumbled upon a SOFM (School of Frontier Mission).
I am staying in an old convent which is now called as Christ Prem Sewa
Ashram (C P S Ashram, for short). .....
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 bizarre serial killings in
which nine persons were murdered on communal bias, all by slitting of throats,
through last year is believed to be the handiwork of ISI agents. .....
Since the last week of January
2003, tension has been building up along the Indo-Bangladesh border over
the question of continued illegal immigration of Bangladeshi nationals
into India. The attempt of India's Border Security Force (BSF) to push
back a recent group of 213 illegal migrants has been resisted by the Bangladeshi
security forces resulting in a confrontational situation. .....
Concerned at the heightening tension
in the districts along the border with Bangladesh, the West Bengal Government
has asked police to intensify vigil in these districts as they bore the
brunt of the infiltration. .....
Senior All-India Congress Committee
(AICC) functionaries today refused to be drawn into commenting on the BJP's
suggestion that it would be willing to bring legislation banning cow slaughter,
provided the Congress agreed to cooperate in its passage. .....
Celebrity yoga has become its own
industry, generating magazine covers, fashion lines, and now books. Christy
Turlington, the limber supermodel and yoga-clothing designer, ambitiously
combines memoir, historical survey, and instruction manual in LIVING YOGA
(Hyperion). "I discovered that I could be graceful and agile and could
hold my balance in challenging poses, both as a model and as a yogi," she
writes. .....
"Udaaracharitaanaam vasudhaiva
kuthumbakam"-"For the large-hearted people, the whole world is one family"-so
declared our ancient Vedic seers. An ancient Tamil sage proclaimed: "Yaatum
oore, yaavarum kelir"-"The entire world is my native place and all are
related". .....
Government troops seized boxes
of documents Sunday in the house of a Muslim separatist leader in the southern
Philippines, including manuals on assassination, ambush and bombing techniques,
military officials said. .....
It is always difficult to reconcile
religious passions with the discipline of legal judgments. Still, organizations
and individuals do so for sordid motives. But when the governments go the
same way, they betray their political leanings. .....
In a verdant valley amid the foothills
of the Himalayas, Hindu villagers prayed in silence and piously threw petals
into a small puddle they believe was a mighty river some 4,500 years ago.
Not far away, an archeologist leaned over a trench to examine freshly excavated
pieces of broken pottery. .....
It's not just the Bamiyan Buddhas
which faced the wrath of Taliban. For, around 70 historical Sikh gurudwaras
too were completely destroyed by them. .....
One of the articles of faith these
days is that free trade is a panacea for all sorts of evils. Proponents
of free trade and the concomitant globalization argue that comparative
advantage is key. That is, each country or region should produce what they
can do better than anyone else. Others will buy this product, and in turn,
sell things that they themselves have an advantage in making. .....
The concept is burned into the
consciousness of most non-Muslims as the holy war against the infidel,
blessed by God, offering either victory or a path to eternal paradise.
.....
Maratha history seems all set to
go international as newspapers dated February 6 reported the launch of
a film project on the battle of Wadgaon, which took place between the English
and the Marathas in 1778-79. .....
I suppose I get as scared as
the next person. But I hate to let it show. So it is with some dismay that
I watch my fellow Washingtonians stocking up on duct tape and plastic sheeting.
Even if such measures were prudent, I would not want to give Al Qaeda the
satisfaction of knowing they'd scared us. .....
Muslims alone have the right to
rule the world and are allowed to kill infidels that stand in the way of
Islam. This is the message being taught to schoolchildren through textbooks
used in the network of institutions run by Jamaat ud-Daawa, according to
a research report on Hate Speech complied by the Liberal Forum Pakistan.
.....
One in a series of excerpts adapted
by Robert Locke from Dr. Serge Trifkovic's new book The Sword of the Prophet:
A Politically-Incorrect Guide to Islam. .....
Thanks to bureaucratic ineptitude
and the lack of political will, successive governments slept over the problem.
The presence of 15-20 million aliens - besides signalling a total breakdown
of border management and immigration control - has imposed a crushing socio-economic
burden on the country and is posing a serious threat to India's national
security. .....
The Pakistan Foreign Minister,
Khurshid Kasuri's mission to the United States has failed to prevail upon
the Bush administration to exempt Pakistani nationals from being subjected
to compulsory registration and fingerprinting under a new INS (Immigration
and Naturalisation Service) directive. .....
The VHP has given the Government
its February 22 deadline for handing over the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi
site. Otherwise, it threatened to launch a campaign to take over other
such sites where temples had been destroyed or converted into mosques.
If the VHP were a little more patient, it would realise that the Indian
establishment has woken from its slumber and seen the gross injustice meted
out to tens of millions of Ram bhakts in the country in the Ram Janmabhoomi
dispute. .....
You can fool some of the people
some of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the
people all of the time. John F Kennedy's words fits Pakistan well. Pakistan
stands exposed as a leading sponsor of terrorism. It was not surprising
to see President Musharraf crestfallen during his recent visit to Moscow.
I don't know with what expectations he went to Russia, but President Putin
minced no words in reprimanding the General for his continuing support
to terrorist activities. .....
Reports say Iran's Supreme Court
has revoked a death sentence imposed on dissident academic Hashem Aghajari,
whose sentencing provoked nationwide demonstrations. .....
James Michael Lyngdoh has been
at it again: acidic and allergic to BJP's Hindutva. He would be entirely
at liberty to wear that antipathy on his sleeves but for the fact, alas,
that he is the country's Chief Election Commissioner who must keep his
personal ideology to himself instead of advertising it as he seems to revel
in doing. But even the black eye the Gujarat voter gave him last year hasn't
compelled him to turn a new leaf for the New Year. He remains opinionated
and overbearing. .....
Despite the massive efforts of
the United States to remove Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida organization,
they are still very much with us. I don't mean to suggest that U.S. efforts
in Afghanistan and elsewhere are faulty, but rather to emphasize how complex
and difficult it is to combat this new kind of enemy. .....
The senior members of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee said today that they were deeply concerned
that elements of Pakistan's government were helping to undermine the stability
of Afghanistan, including the possibility that they were sheltering Taliban
fighters along the border. .....
India will try to persuade Bangladesh
accept that large- scale illegal immigration from that country was a problem
being faced by New Delhi for a long time during talks Foreign Minister
Mohd Morshed Khan will have with Indian leaders tomorrow, highly-placed
sources said tonight. .....
It's literally a story about the
changing colours of the State Forest Department. And if the colour change
occurs with the change of guard at the helm, then it gets all the more
curious. .....
The current outburst of antiwar
activities in Europe, USA and some Arab countries is confusing the public
opinion in the world and misguiding people about the realities of the barbaric
regime of Iraq and the real aspirations of Iraqi peoples including Kurds
and Arabs and the prospects for regime change in Iraq. .....
President of Bangladesh Communist
Party Manjurul Ahsan Khan today debunked the Khaleda Zia government's contention
that there was no ISI activity and the presence of al-Qaeda in that country
and said Dhaka should cooperate with New Delhi in containing cross- border
terrorism. .....
Since September 11, 2001, much
information has come to light about our so-called ally, the family business
called Saudi Arabia: its quaint customs, like decapitation; its degradation
of women; its subservience to Wahhabism; its being an incubator for terrorists;
its financing terror attacks. What has not received enough attention, however,
despite the efforts of a few politicians and journalist, is the Saudi kidnapping
of American citizens. .....
After finishing high school in
Ontario, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah became an al-Qaeda terrorist. Now detained
in the U.S., the 21-year-old is revealing his secrets: He met with the
architects of the World Trade Center and Bali bombings, convinced Osama
bin Laden of his worth as an operative and planned several attacks of his
own. .....
Pressure on the Blair government
is growing to deport an imam here who has said the space shuttle Columbia
was destroyed because it was carrying a "trinity of evil" -- Americans,
an Israeli and a Hindu. .....
Seven days after the alleged rape
of women passengers travelling in two buses in Nadia, the West Bengal Women's
Commission called it a "heinous crime". .....
The West Bengal Women's Commission
seems to be in no hurry to investigate the allegation of mass rape last
week in Nadia of women passengers travelling in two buses. .....
Yao Xinde sat dazed on the roof
of the student dormitory he helped build, gazing into the dark sky with
his legs dangling over the edge of the 10-story building. It was a cold
night, and he shivered as the wind cut through his thin black jacket. On
the ground below, a large crowd gathered to see if he would jump. .....
In the name of Allah, the merciful,
the beneficent: a message to our Muslim brothers in Iraq. Alsalam alikom
wa rahmat Allah wa barakato (Quran verse - Oh believers, be pious to God,
and never die but when you are believers in Islam). .....
Even as New Delhi appears to be
obsessed with its Islamabad centred concerns, the United States seems determined
to reassess its past priorities and policies in the larger Islamic world,
West Asia in general and the Persian Gulf in particular. The State Department's
Mr Richard Haass had asserted last month that the growing gulf between
the regimes and citizens of many Islamic countries increasingly limited
the ability of these regimes to "provide assistance to, or even to acquiesce
in, American efforts to combat terrorism or address the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction". .....
In her article "The killing of
Gandhi" (Feb. 4), Supriya RoyChodhury says that I have nowhere referred
to the murder of Gandhi in the history portion of the `Contemporary India'
(Class IX). She also asserts that "there is no reference... to any other
aspect of his life and ideas" in the textbook. .....
In Chapter 39 of a handbook meant
to be destroyed long before it was found, Indonesian police said, investigators
discovered a fundamental rule of Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian terrorist
network: All armed operations must be approved by the group's emir, or
supreme commander. .....
I was born and raised as a Moslem
in the Middle East culture that has many facets, some of which have a beauty
and splendor that I miss to this day. That beauty was the contributions
of many different groups. The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Babylon,
Egypt, Persia, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon and --yes-- Israel and the
cities of Jerusalem and Mecca enrich the World. .....
The CPI(M) and BJP remain bitter
ideological adversaries but the Left Front governments of West Bengal and
Tripura are emerging as the Centre's staunchest allies on the twin issues
of ISI activity and illegal migration from Bangladesh. .....
CIA chief George Tenet has informed
a Senate panel that Pakistan is continuing to support anti-India groups
in Jammu and Kashmir and cautioned that another major terrorist act could
provoke India to mass forces on the border again. .....
The interplay of the various cultures
of the world, their interaction and how they overlap, making it impossible
sometimes to draw the dividing line between them, has always been a fascinating
subject. .....
As usual, Mr Francois Gautier has
come out with an intellectually stimulating article, 'Under Western eyes'
(February 5). He traces the ignorance of Indians about their own culture
to the education system introduced by Macaulay. But while this analysis
is valid, it goes neither deep nor wide enough. .....
The two-day lightening strike by
Government and private doctors in Bihar, following the abduction of orthopaedic
surgeon Dr. Bharat Singh by suspected extortionists, is only the latest
instance of lawlessness in the eastern badlands of India. The almost simultaneous
arrest of a CPM activist in a scandal of alleged rape and assault on a
marriage party in West Bengal has taken the sheen off another honourable
ally of the Congress party at the Centre. .....
In difficult moments, I Made Pastika
hikes briskly up a mint-green mountain toward a cool, silent place above
the clouds. At the summit, after a two- hour climb, the Indonesian investigator
in charge of solving the worst case of international terrorism since Sept.
11, 2001, sits cross- legged before an ornate, centuries- old temple carved
of white stone, the highest Hindu temple in Bali. .....
Since the installation of the BJP-led
government, India Abroad has published some vicious and vindictive diatribes
couched as "scholarly articles" for a readership that has as yet, as far
as can be made out from letters to the editor, not understood the history
of these "historians" and the scientism of the "social scientists" who
regularly vent their anger and spill their vitriol in the Op-ed columns.
.....
The destruction of the great Buddhist
statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban militia was as predictable
as it was culpable; Saudi Arabia bears ultimate responsibility for
this appalling annihilation of the world's heritage. .....
Police and the Border Security
Force here have unearthed a blueprint drawn up by the Bangladesh Rifles
to "allow" Bangladeshis who had been "pushed back" into their territory
to infiltrate India again. .....
A recent issue of Defense News
has an interesting byline of a dispatch from New Delhi: "India, Iran sign
strategic accord." The "startling new accord", it notes, "gives New Delhi
the right to use Iranian military bases in the event of a war with neighboring
Pakistan, in exchange for India providing Tehran with military hardware,
training, maintenance and modernization support". .....
Joseph Cooper's minority report
in The Indian Express, January 30, by Father Dominic Emmanuel is a malicious
travesty of truth. He contumaciously disregards the report of the National
Commission for Minorities and the extensive coverage in the Malayalam media
on this issue. .....
While the debate over authorizing
war on Iraq puts the United Nations center stage, forces are converging
offstage to change the UN Security Council for the better by giving India
a permanent seat. .....
The Poorvi Delhi Sangarsh Samiti
has strongly resolved to oppose the setting up of a slaughter house at
Ghazipur in East Delhi. Led by the area MLA, Nasib Singh, the Samiti has
decided to launch a prolonged awareness campaign to garner the support
of the local residents and senior citizens of the area for their cause
and if need be prepare themselves for an agitation. .....
The 213 snake charmers from Dhaka's
Sava area have finally vanished into the night, and the zero line at Satgachi
has fallen silent. The area has been cleared of the "extra territorials",
giving all quarters concerned some much deserved sleep. According to reports
filtering in from across the border, the BDR has parceled the families
off to Patgram, from where they are to be sent home near Dhaka. .....
Time has come for the Hindus with
self- respect to fight `secular' Hindus to salvage the pride of the religion
and achieve the goals of reconstructing temples at Ayodhya, Kasi and Mathura,
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ashok Singhal, said today. .....
The Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) condemns the murder of journalist Parvaz Mohammed Sultan, editor
of an independent wire service based in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
.....
Over the last fortnight, I have
had the opportunity to read the views of two fellow citizens, both of whom
happen to be Muslims, on post-Gujarat Hindu-Muslim relations. The first
is Communal Rage in Secular India, the latest offering from Dr Rafiq Zakaria,
a prolific writer and one of India's noted scholars. .....
I don't know if many of you are
aware of gruesome murders of Hindus taking place in AP- 13 to be exact
and many more if police's fearss are proved right. Obviously our Islamic
Bhais are revelling in slitting throats of Hindus by offering 'Lift' in
a car. They are keeping a neat record of the 'process' of slitting
throats in video and colour photos which are 'proof' needed for them to
get their 'service charges' from the Gulf. .....
Inside the dimly-lit last bogie
of the Howrah Express, three elderly men sit, handcuffed. Surrounded by
policemen, they get ready for their journey back home on Saturday night,
to the border and then further into Bangladesh. .....
A year after President Pervez Musharraf
drew applause from the West for banning militant Islamic groups and announcing
a crackdown on their activities, the organizations he sought to dismantle
are alive and well, repackaging themselves to promulgate their message
and increase their numbers. .....
Flummoxed by the series of bomb
blasts in Mumbai in December and January, police theorise that the explosions
are part of a fund-raising drive by smaller terrorist organisations based
in the Middle East. They say that the blasts were meant to prove the might
of these organisations so that the large terror networks such as the Al
Qaeda would be prepared to divert funds to them. .....
Pakistan is still not doing enough
to halt incursions by Islamic militants across the line of control into
Jammu and Kashmir, a US official said. 'It is not being stopped, and this
is the main concern," said a state department official on condition of
anonymity yesterday, after Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri
met secretary of state Colin Powell. .....
What is there in common between
Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi? On the former's birthday (12 January),
it is both interesting and instructive to reflect upon the bonds that existed
between the spiritual emancipator and the political emancipator of India
and also upon their overall contribution of putting "the Indian way" at
the centre- stage of world thought. .....
An alarming deterioration in the
security situation in the state has taken place during the past one and
a half month. Tile terrorists have been inflicting harrowing burtalities
on the innocent civilians. In many cases the entire family has been wiped
out on mere suspicion. Even a four-year old child was not spared in Reban,
Sopore. Terrorists have also been attacking the state police personnel
selectively. A spurt in Fidayeen attacks' has led torn all pervasive fear.
.....
On January 31, Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Digvijay Singh declared in Delhi that there was nothing wrong
in taking up issues concerning Hindus. Defending his decision to write
to the prime minister on beef exports, he said he had merely forwarded
a letter by a cow-protection group. He also took full credit for banning
cow slaughter in his state in 1994, even talking about the medicinal and
commercial value of cow's urine. .....
Their Deaths barely merited a mention
in the papers. Yet they have a significance that goes far beyond the borders
of the small State of Tripura where they lived and died. Anjali Pal was
blind when she was born 19 years ago in a lower middle class Bengali family
settled in the northern district of Tripura. Ask anyone who knew her and
they would tell you that she could see better than most what was right
and wrong. .....
More than 30 policemen were injured
after an angry mob attacked them following the seizure of 1,000 buffaloes
in Bhiwandi in the wee hours of Monday. .....
As a new front on the War on Terror
edges ever closer to opening, most Americans don't seem to be much clearer
about what we're up against than they were on September 10, 2001. While
al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups, and even the relatively secular
Saddam Hussein, fulminate and plot against the United States in the name
of Islam, within the confines of the Great Satan it's virtually taboo to
ask any questions about the role that the Religion of Peace may be playing
in the motivation and recruiting of terrorists. .....
"In Islam, apostasy is a flagrant
sin and guilt for which certain punishments have been specified in Shari'a
(Islamic law). Apostasy means, to renounce the religion or a religious
principle after accepting it. In other words, one's departure from Islam
to atheism is called apostasy. A person who abandons Islam and adopts atheism
is called an apostate . . . .....
The real India is waking up to
a new, historical reality. This awakening is a result of the unfolding
of a mighty creative genius of millions of unknown Indians whose names
are not known and whose lives are nothing special to remember otherwise.
It is they who can metaphorically be descried as the 'Real Bharat.' They
are charting a new course for the future of our country. .....
In my earlier articles I had discussed
the ISI's progress in cementing ties with the urban-based terrorist group
ULFA. I had also written about the ISI's reaching out to other underground
groups in the North-East from Bangladesh till about the mid-1990s. A lot
of water has flowed down the Padma since, with negative changes for the
people living on both sides of the international border. .....
A new Mahabharat war between secular
and self- respecting Hindus in India has started in which the latter would
emerge victorious, Vishwa Hindu Parishad International president Ashok
Singhal said here on Saturday. .....
An Indo-US-Israel dialogue on terrorism
held in New Delhi on February 6 and 7 concluded that the three governments
must set up "a joint trilateral mechanism to pool resources, capabilities
and experience of the three countries for concerted action against international
terrorism." .....
By going back on the assurances
given to the Kanchi seer, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, on the Ayodhya issue,
the Centre had insulted the Sankaracharya who mediated between the VHP,
Muslims and the government, VHP international working president Ashok Singhal
said today. .....
Christians in Ivory Coast fear
an Islamic insurrection could succeed in creating a Muslim state in the
African nation after the signing of a French-brokered peace accord that
gives important positions of power to rebels. .....
Deposed from his mosque because
of his anti-Western rhetoric, cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri took his radical
brand of Islam to the streets yesterday and told worshippers President
Bush is a curse to his people and the planet. .....
Yoga has become as trendy as this
glamorous ski hamlet, so it would not seem surprising that some local schools
have added it to the students' day. But some parents and religious leaders
here are objecting, saying that teaching yoga in school violates the separation
of church and state. .....
The last year turned out to be
a landmark in India's political landscape; for it signalled the beginning
of the end of the Old Left, those who have clung on to ideologies emphatically
repudiated everywhere in the world. After all these years of thunder, this
is their day of drums, we hear their threnody. .....
A Christian missionary organization
claims to have obtained a top-secret Chinese government document directing
a systematic campaign of persecution against Protestant and unregistered
churches. .....
Inside the dimly-lit last bogie
of the Howrah Express, three elderly men sit, handcuffed. Surrounded by
policemen, they get ready for their journey back home on Saturday night,
to the border and then further into Bangladesh. .....
The people of Gujarat have thrown
the pseudo-secularists in the dustbin of India's contemporary history.
The latter don't go about in widow's weeds. Nor they wear sackcloth and
ashes. But their grief is inconsolable. Their world has collapsed. The
dream world of power and pelf, of roses and rainbows, of colours and scents
has suddenly ended. Faced with the harsh realities they are dazed and stupefied.
.....
Ambassadors, High Commissioners,
and high-ranking diplomats representing various countries of the world
respond to the invitation of BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu to join him
for an informal get together over lunch at the Party headquarters on January
8. .....
A Muslim radical group has denied
allegations by the police that it was involved in a series of murders to
incite communal violence in this Andhra Pradesh capital. .....
After having failed to enforce
compulsory burqa in the bordering Rajouri district, militants have now
turned their guns to hapless canines. Almost 50 dogs have been killed either
by their owners or militants in various villages in the past fortnight,
following militants' threat to kill people whose dog barks at night. .....
Did we botch it? Karan Thapar had
invited Neerja Chowdhary of the Indian Express and me to question Dr Praveen
Togadia on a programme he anchors for Sab TV. .....
A year after President Pervez Musharraf
announced a ban on Muslim extremist groups, a move hailed in Washington
as a turning point for Pakistan, several of the organizations have reconstituted
under different names and are once again raising money and proselytizing
for jihad against India and the West, according to Pakistani officials
and members of the groups. .....
The past week has seen some welcome,
if belated, course correction in our policy on Iraq and the US. The confusion
had peaked last week with Defence Minister George Fernandes asserting that
India won't participate in any military action against Iraq. It was said,
perhaps, as a measure of extreme caution just in case somebody happened
to ask us. But since then the silence of our policy-makers and leaders
is more than welcome. .....
Despite agreeing with India that
cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir has again increased after
a temporary drop in June last year, the US finds it "increasingly difficult"
to reconcile with Pakistan's support to terror due to its cooperation in
US-led war in Afghanistan, a leading American newspaper reported on Saturday.
.....
The government has refused permission
for Pakistan's participation in the two-day international conference on
terrorism, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Youth Morcha, party chief
Kishan Reddy said on Friday. .....
We're losing the war on terrorism
in America's classrooms. That's the sobering conclusion of the American
Textbook Council, which Friday releases a report on how our schools' most
popular world-history books fail to grapple honestly with the problem of
militant Islamism. .....
The BSF-BDR standoff at Coochbehar
heralds a new and difficult phase in Indo-Bangladesh relations, directly
related to a shift towards fundamentalist attitudes in Dhaka after the
last elections. Relations have worsened since the April 2001 border skirmish
at Roumari in which 18 border guards, including 16 of the BSF, were killed.
.....
The Bharatiya Janata Party has
called State-wide bandh on February 11 to protest the 'jehadi' killings
by the Darsgah Jehad-o-Shahadat (DJS) and demanding strong steps to check
its activists and MIM's alleged support to the organisation. .....
Close on the heels of cancellation
of football matches in Bangladesh between a visiting Indian women's team
and local women's clubs comes the news of another cancellation - a fashion
show in Dhaka featuring Indian models. Both were the result of threats
by newly- floated Islamic fundamentalist groups which consider participation
of women in fashion shows and games obscene. .....
Union Minister for Tourism and
Culture Jagmohan on Tuesday announced that the Centre has launched a scheme
of unearthing lost cities, which once existed along the embankments of
Saraswati River, and left a number of signposts of the Saraswati-Indus
civilisation from Adi Badri near Kurukshetra to Dhola Vira in Gujarat.
.....
By the end of September 1909, the
three-man team which was to murder the British collector of Nasik, Mr AMT
Jackson, had been primed and ready. They had received their revolvers and
tried them out at target practice. They were now waiting for the year to
end because their leader, Anna Karve, had been told by his astrologer that
1909 was not a good year for such assassinations. Ironically, it was Collector
Jackson who seemed to egg them on to action - advance the D-day for his
own murder. .....
22 December, 2002. People who had
been listening to the BBC's morning programme must have thought they had
got the wrong channel. The radio was playing Vande Mataram. .....
I wanted to inform you that Syed
Ibn-i-Abbas, counsellor in the Pakistani high commission was summoned to
the ministry of external affairs today (Saturday). It was conveyed to him
that Jalil Abbas Jilani, charge d'affaires of the Pakistan high commission
has been found indulging in activities incompatible with his official status.
His withdrawal from India was sought within the next 48 hours. .....
World history textbooks in U.S.
classrooms sanitize the problems of Islam when compared to how they often
treat Western civilization, a review of seven widely used texts reported
yesterday. .....
Mumbai's main railway station,
VT, has not played host to so many Bengalis in a long time. From the time
deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani stepped up the heat on illegal immigrants,
hundreds of Bangladeshis have been fleeing their homes in the city every
day. .....
Went Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya's repeated claims that the state was an 'oasis' as far as
crime was concerned were belied last night when one person was killed and
six girls raped by heavily armed robbers at Dhantala village in Nadia district.
.....
A fourteen-year-old girl here was
sexually harassed by three men who poured kerosene oil on her and set her
afire when she protested. Jyoti sustained 50 pc burn injuries and is now
admitted in Muzaffarnagar District Hospital. .....
Arab media reactions to the Columbia
space shuttle disaster have been diverse. While several papers printed
editorials expressing sorrow and condolences, some columnists linked the
incident to America's war on terrorism, the anticipated war on Iraq, and
the Arab-Israeli conflict. A few mocked the tragedy, with particular emphasis
on the death of Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon. .....
A Palestinian psychologist claims
that more than half of Palestinian children aged 6 to 11 dream of becoming
suicide bombers, according to a video presentation produced by Israel's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. .....
An old, wrinkled man, wearing a
bright yellow turban set the tempo for Sunday afternoon's Brahmin reservation
rally in Alwar. Pulled out from a crowd of around 30,000, the turbaned
man blew into his conch and announced the arrival of the militant Brahmin.
.....
Twenty-eight Pakistanis, arrested
recently by the Italian police on suspected terror charges, may have been
plotting to assassinate Britain's chief of the armed forces Admiral Sir
Michael Boyce, the police said. .....
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international
general secretary Pravin Togadia has advised the Union government to attack
Bangladesh and annex three of its districts "if the policy of ethnic cleansing
against Bangladeshi Hindus and Buddhist Chakmas continues". .....
In your endeavour to give the minority
community a voice you have, wittingly or unwittingly, stifled the voice
of the majority What you probably do not realise is that writing editorials
like 'Rites of Passage' (Jan 22) only makes matters worse for both the
minority and majority community, increasing the chasm of distrust. I have
noticed that your editorials have an in-built agenda against the majority.
.....
The latest public relations missive
from Riyadh complains bitterly that alarmist Americans "have gotten out
of control" with accusations that Saudi Arabia supports terrorism. But
there is good reason to state the opposite: That we ignore to our peril
the degree to which the Saudis spread extremist anti-Americanism. It is
particularly unsettling that the Saudis stoke such sentiments here, in
our own country. They do this by funding American outposts of the intolerant,
militant Wahhabi form of Islam. .....
Has the foundation been laid for
a stable Middle East and Asia for decades to come? That may well be what
happened when India and Iran unveiled a strategic partnership during President
Mohammed Khatami's recent visit here. On the economic side, the two countries
need each other. Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserves.
India is one of the world's largest gas importers and values Iran's strategic
location as a gateway to Middle East and Central Asian energy suppliers.
.....
The Saudi Embassy quietly provided
the wife of a terror suspect a passport and transit out of the United States
in November, after she was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand
jury in New York investigating her husband's possible links to the Al Qaeda,
diplomatic and law enforcement sources said. .....
In a major breakthrough in the
Sabarmati Express carnage case, Gujarat Police on Thursday morning detained
a cleric at Godhra on charge of masterminding the ghastly crime a day before
the incident on February 27, 2002. .....
The week-long Indo-Bangla standoff
ended on Thursday with Bangladesh accepting its 213 illegal immigrants
stranded for a week in no- man's land in border with West Bengal. .....
To the surprise of diplomats, Pakistan
raked up Kashmir issue during the debate on Iraq in the United Nations
Security Council, but it evoked little response from the member states.
.....
In what could be yet another disappointment
for Indian authorities, CBI sources in Mumbai said Dubai has reportedly
released underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother and other top aides. .....
On the second day of his peace
mission in New Delhi, Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati on Wednesday
sought to remove misgivings on the contentious issue of conversions at
a meeting with evangelist Paul Dinakaran. .....
Over a quiet dinner at an Indian
restaurant in upstate New York, Warith Deen Umar offered his views of Islam
and the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijackers should be honored as martyrs, he
said. The U.S. risks further terrorism attacks because it oppresses Muslims
around the world. "Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come
to this country, too," he said. The natural candidates to help press such
an attack, in his view: African-Americans who embraced Islam in prison.
.....
In a recent article on Sulekha,
Sankrant Sanu examined Microsoft Encarta's treatment of Hinduism, Islam
and Christianity. He concluded that Encarta's portrayal of Hinduism was
decidedly skewed and negative in comparison to the more even-handed and
sophisticated treatments granted Islam and Christianity. Sanu's article
[i] prompted me to look closer at the world religions textbook I have often
used in my teaching. .....
The latest confrontation brewing
at the Indo-Bangladesh border might be averted if the fate of the 213 Bangladeshis
is amicably settled in the coming days. But any settlement will prove to
be temporary unless Dhaka is made to take a realistic view of the huge
problem of continuing influx of its citizens into India from the highly
porous international border. The stand-off over the group of 213 Bangladeshis
is symptomatic of Dhaka's cussedness. .....
From the heart of the deepest river
in Africa to the gentle seduction of the virgin woods of the Amazon, comes
a life force that binds us all. It is a force of the universal brotherhood
of man. If seeing is believing, then the First International Conference
and Gathering of the Elders drives home this Truth. .....
Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Yemeni
national to death after he refused to wake up for prayers and denounced
Islam and the Saudi religious police. .....
Daniel Pipes includes us in a group
of university professors who "deny that jihad has any military meaning
whatsoever" ["Jihad and the Professors," November 2002]. Though we have
generally respected Mr. Pipes as a scholar, he has both of us absolutely
and totally wrong on this matter. For the past year and more, we have made
exactly the opposite point about jihad in lectures to various audiences
(including ones at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Notre Dame).
.....
Islamic Bangladesh of Bengali language
and Bengali culture is back at its favourite game of smashing the Hindu
minority and raping their women and maiming them for life. Lest this is
perceived as fabrication by an Indian, the above piece of information has
been lifted from the report of a Bangladesh daily of October 11, 2001.
It goes thus: "Subjugated and defamed Hindu minorities of seven districts
are leaving the country. Mayhem in Bangladesh: Gopalganj's Ramshil village
is now a refugee camp." .....
I was a member of the Orthodox
Syrian Church, Kalyan, till recently. Even though I was a rare visitor
to the Church, whenever I used to go, I emphasized that the credit balance
of one's deeds are all that matters, ultimately. Moreover, my promotion
of Blood Donation, Eye Donation, etc. and my articles about the same in
The Times of India earned me the wrath of the Orthodox clergy and they
issued orders to other members of the Church to boycott me. .....
The Jamat-e-Ulema-Hind, which has
control over 300 unrecognised madarsas in the state, today refused government
assistance, alleging that the Left Front move was aimed at gaining control
over the madarsas. ''The Marxists are playing with fire. Any move to control
the madarsas will attract secvere reaction. We don't need government help.
.....
Our media demands foolproof accountability
from every institution in our land, including the judiciary. Why then doesn't
it demand the same from itself? .....
Indian Communists have suddenly
realised that they have been committing blunder after blunder all these
years. They have at last admitted that they were wrong about Subhash Chandra
Bose, whom they called a running dog imperialists, that they committed
a historic blunder in not allowing Jyoti Basu form a government at the
centre, that they were wrong about the Quit India Movement and also about
Gandhi and Nehru, whom they called all kinds names. .....
Although the Bush administration
is focused on planning an entirely new war against Iraq, the battle against
al Qaeda and its terrorist allies is far from over. Unfortunately, the
conflict isn't likely to end until the US stops allowing western Pakistan
to act as a sanctuary for them. Shortly after Christmas a Pakistani border
guard wounded a US soldier on patrol in Afghanistan. .....
Ever since the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon by Islamic inspired Al- Qaeda "What is Jihad"
has become one of the hotly discussed topics. Even in India, where Jihad
has been going on for centuries it has generated new interest. The call
for Jihad in Kashmir is not a new phenomenon. .....
It's over 13 years now but, political
rhetoric aside, we, as a nation, have become immune to the plight of the
Kashmiri Pandits who remain largely irrelevant in the political discourse
-- both within and outside the country. .....
Dhaka's allegation, that India
is pushing Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims into Bangladesh in the name
of expelling infiltrators from the latter, would make a horse laugh. This
country has a powerful and independent media which is in awe of no Government,
and a vibrant and secular democratic polity in which the Opposition plays
a stridently assertive role. .....
A 'provisional Hindu republic'
was established in Bangladesh six months ago with the declared objective
of forming a 'Hindu Republic of Bir Banga' having its "capital" at Shaktigarh
in the Chittagong hills. .....
Startling news came last week out
of the FBI: The leadership had directed all of the bureau's 56 field offices
to count mosques in their regions as part of waging the war on terror.
.....
Harassed and tortured for dowry,
thousands of poor Indian Muslim women have nowhere left to turn if their
greedy husbands and in-laws refuse to abide by the ruling of Islamic courts.
.....
There were renewed calls for the
deportation of Abu Hamza al-Masri yesterday after he said that Allah had
destroyed the shuttle because it was a "trinity of evil" against Islam.
.....
In a crackdown sparked off by the
recent murder of gangster Sharad Shetty, the Dubai police detained more
than 30 gangsters this morning including two of Dawood Ibrahim's younger
brothers - Noora and Mushtakeen - besides a key D-Company associate Aftaf
Batki. .....
The war of words between India
and Bangladesh on the question of deportation of illegal Bangladeshis
from India threatens to turn into a major clash between the Border Security
Force (BSF) and Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR), as both countries refuse to budge
from their stands. .....
From the serene setting in Goa,
Prime Minister Vajpayee wished his countrymen a very happy new year. Musing
on important issues facing the nation, he said, "Hindutva, which presents
a 'viraat darshan' of human life, is being projected by some people in
a narrow, rigid and extremist manner - an unfortunate and unacceptable
interpretation that runs totally contrary to its true spirit... Hindutva
is liberal, liberating and brooks no ill-will, hatred or violence among
different communities on any ground." .....
Hussein Al-Athel, secretary-general
of the Riyadh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has visited the US every
year since Last year, like thousands of other influential Saudi citizens,
he decided not to. "Why should I take the risk of being accused of some
wrongdoing? They may even misunderstand my name. .....
She used to be branded as the most
autocratic ruler of the Nehru dynasty by the Left. In fact in the early
'80s, election graffiti of the CPI (M) depicted her as a witch. Two decades
later, Indira Gandhi is undergoing a "resurrection" as the Marxist Chief
Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, goes on to unveil a statue of hers in
one of the most prime locations of the city. .....
Pushed to the corner in the ideological
war with Hindutva forces, the Left has turned for support to Indira Gandhi
whom it once denounced as a 'dictator'. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
has turned down an informal suggestion by the Union government that it
get the stay connection with the disputed and undisputed land in Ayodhya
vacated, sources said. .....
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. .....
Riots may have ripped apart the
secular fabric of Gujarat but here's a story that'll make you feel otherwise.
Over 50 Muslim artisans from Kapadwanj are camping at Trimandir on Ahmedabad-Mehsana
Highway near Adalaj at present. Their task: making domes for the temple.
.....
Equating the concept of Hindutva
with secularism, deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani declared on Saturday
that India was a Hindu nation and hence it was secular. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the
Bajrang Dal are not behind the two instances of converts to Christianity
being attacked on New Year's Day in this district adjoining Mumbai. The
victims themselves say that they were beaten up by their own brethren,
who were angered by the conversions. .....
US officials have begun to grumble
for the first time about the extent of Pakistan's cooperation in the war
against Al Qaida and the Taliban along the Pak-Afghan border even as American
and Pakistani forces exchanged heavy machine gun fire in a tribal area
along the border on Friday. .....
Formalising the country's nuclear
command and control structure, the government on Saturday declared for
the first time that India would retain the option of retaliating with nuclear
weapons if attacked with chemical or biological weapons by even non-nuclear
adversaries. .....
The United States and Pakistan
dressed up their ugly weekend spat on the Afghan border on the first working
day of the year, but ties between the most allied allies appeared to be
fraying amidst mistrust and recrimination. .....
The ancient faiths of Hindu and
Jew are not commonly linked, yet both pull at India-born artist Bentzion
Ben Yosef Yakof, an Israeli immigrant who now lives in Houston. .....
It isn't every day that the interior
minister of a mature western democracy publicly announces that his policies
are leading to the collapse of social order and uncontrollable widespread
communal violence, things more usually associated with places like Gujarat
(and northern Nigeria.) .....
Police in Indonesia say they have
arrested the leader of the Singapore branch of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the
regional militant network accused of carrying out the Bali bombings last
year. .....
The war of words between India
and Bangladesh over the issue of illegal immigration has increased. The
fifth round of talks between the Border Security Force and the Bangladesh
Rifles to resolve the deadlock over 213 people stranded at the Indo-Bangla
border broke down on Monday. .....
Freed from the shackles of house
arrest after five years on Wednesday, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri
- the man once destined to become spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic,
who then became its most outspoken dissident cleric - today did what he
does best. .....
Richard C. Reid, who said he was
a member of Al Qaeda and pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic
flight with explosives concealed in his shoes, was sentenced today to life
in prison. .....
Sheeghram Dhave" (run fast), shouts
a little boy in chaste Sanskrit to his fellow batsman while running between
the wickets holding the bat on a nondescript maidan in this village, where
the country's ancient language still remains alive and spoken among the
rustic folk, reports UNI. .....
On Dec. 17, at Rawalpindi, Amanullah
Khan, chairman of the Pakistan based J and K Liberation Front, announced
that, the subversives will wage an 18 month old campaign of terror, including
hijacking, killing and more kidnappings. He went on to say that the Front's
underground guerilla force operating in J and K has been given guide lines
which states- "Don't touch our own people, but hit Indian property, landing
airlines, post offices and public buildings". .....
A scuffle between youth at a hair
cutting salon in the Gaikwad Haveli area near the Jamalpur flower market
in Ahmedabad resulted in a communal flare-up raising tensions in this sensitive
area. .....
"Ram teri Ganga maili ho gayee,
paapiyon ke paap dhote dhote." Dilip Singh Judeo, newly-elected Minister
of State for Forests and Environment, hummed this popular song from the
movie, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, while pledging he will do all he can to clean
up the Ganga and Yamuna. .....
The only Indian news that came
to Davos, from where I write this week, was that George Fernandes warned
Pakistan that it would be ''erased from the map of the world'' if it used
weapons of mass destruction against India. Our Defence Minister is not
known for subtlety and has made similar threats before so, in itself, his
latest rhetorical flourish would not be worth discussing. .....
"I don't know how the Indian home
minister got that figure. But the fact that many of them speak Bengali
does not necessarily mean that they are from Bangladesh," he told The Daily
Star in an exclusive interview last week. .....
Everybody says that we must learn
from experience. But only a few of us are willing to learn and fewer
still actually learn from what we go through in life. As a nation,
we are not famous for learning from our acts of o mission and commission.
If we did, we would have learnt a great deal from our long history and
by now should have become wiser. But we choose to be otherwise! .....
Inspired By Muang Boran, an impressive
re-creation of edifices from Thailand's history, Deputy Prime Minister
L K Advani is working on a similar historical heritage park in India. Perhaps
the most significant feature of the proposed heritage park will be the
construction of a replica of the original palace of Lord Ram of Ayodhya.
.....
A few socio-political developments,
at home and abroad, have led observers to think that the four-party alliance
Government led by Begum Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh may be becoming "unstable''.
.....
Four Dursgah Jehad-o-Shahadat (DJS)
activists involved in the killing of nine persons were arrested by the
Rangareddy district police on Thursday. The fifth member of the gang is
still at large. .....
India yesterday summoned Bangladesh's
Acting Deputy High Commissioner to New Delhi Shahadat Hussain and conveyed
to him Indian government's concerns over "illegal immigration of Bangladeshi
nationals into India". .....
Remember the Kashmir Committee
of Ram Jethmalani, the angry old man of Indian politics? What exactly has
it achieved since it was formed six months ago and hogged publicity for
a while thereafter? And what is that committee up to now? .....
As the Republic Day parade rolled
on, it was time to go over the last 10 years and count our blessings, tracing
them back to the time Dr Manmohan Singh audaciously dumped the Nehru-Indira
line of the command and control economy to install a market mechanism.
The market economy got further impetus with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government
since 1998. The benefit to the public since then has been multi-dimensional.
.....
TIME was, long ago, when Muslim
commentators delved with tabloid nosiness into the public and private life
of the Prophet Muhammad. Bukhari, considered the most authentic of the
early collectors of the Prophet's sayings, revelled in the ins and outs
of who slept with whom, when and where. No longer. When al-Hilal, a small
Jordanian weekly, published accounts, based on Bukhari, of the Prophet's
sex-life, the result was shock and horror. .....
Put off by his vehement opposition
to the raising of Mangla dam's height by 40 feet, the military rulers of
Pakistan have decided to divest Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) "prime
minister" Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan of his powers. .....
Italian police have arrested 28
Pakistanis suspected of links to al Qaeda in one of the biggest anti-terrorism
operations Italy has seen since the September 11 attacks on the United
States. .....
There can be only limited and very
technical validity to the All India Democratic Women's Association's outburst
against Narendra Modi's suggestion that instead of the traditional gold
and ornaments farmers offer drip-irrigation apparatus as dowry when their
daughters marry. .....
More and more of Chhattisgarh's
Pahari Korba tribals are giving up their drinking and meat-eating habits,
thanks to a philanthropist and saint who had 50 years ago started a revolution
of sorts in the state's adivasi belt, some 425 km from Raipur. .....
Few debates are as impoverished
as the ones Indians have about their diaspora. Over the years the chattering
classes of India have spoken about their overseas brethren through a spectrum
of emotions ranging from whiny to jealous to ill-informed. .....
In a stern warning, India has told
Pakistan that it would be "erased from the world map", if it uses nuclear
weapons against India. "We have been saying all through, that the person
who heads Pakistan today, who is also the whole and sole in-charge of that
country, has been talking about using dangerous weapons including the nukes,"
defence minister George Fernandes said last night. .....
The ministry has approved a three-year
programme to improve the productivity of cows and buffaloes in Uttar Pradesh
through genetics. An amount four times the entire spending for this purpose
over the Previous two decades has been sanctioned. .....
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. .....
In a recent Supreme Court judgement
pronounced, by a two-member bench comprised of Chief Justice Arianga Pillay
and Judge Kestoe Matadeen, the 50% reserved seats for admission to Catholic
schools in Mauritius was declared anti-constitutional. .....
Reading the English language press
of India, particularly the editorial pages, it appears that the media considers
itself to be the supreme authority in the land. The English press of India
goes far beyond what its counterparts do in America, UK or other Western
countries in trying to influence its readers or shape government policy.
.....
Change of guard in Maharashtra
is a measure of Congress party's nervousness after its rout in Gujarat.
There are indications that the operation may be repeated in other Congress-run
states going to the polls later this year. Changes in the party structure
and leadership of legislative party are internal affairs of the party but
the manner in which the Congress High Command has been hustled into sacking
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh has demolished the party's
claim that Congress-run states were models of good governance. .....
When a Muslim Minister from Kerala
applied Tilak, he was denied entry in any Masjid. According
to the Hindu (4th January), when Mr Charakalam Abdullah, Minister for Local
Administration had visited along with the CM Shri A. K. Antony had gone
to Awala Math in Kasargod District, the priests there applied Tilak to
Mr Antony and Charaklam Abdulla. When it was shown on Doordarshan,
the CM and the Local Administration Ministers both were seen with Tilaks
on their foreheads. .....
The Opposition-sponsored Bihar
bandh evoked a good response, with normal life going out of gear. In what
is being seen as the first Real test for the RJD government since the days
of the anti-Mandal agitation in 1990, large-scale violence was reported
from various parts of the state. The worst hit was the state capital where
protesters, egged on by the Opposition, fought a pitched battle with the
police. .....
Hindutva or cultural nationalism,
BJP can only look up and consolidate the gains of its resounding success
in the Gujarat Assembly polls, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee said on Friday.
He said the party was targeting to consolidate its gains in Gujarat and
wanted partymen to "aggressively counter" the Opposition-sponsored negative
campaign against the BJP-led NDA government. .....
When I read recent reports (fabricated,
to say the least) of the IDRF (India Development Research Fund) being a
conduit for the communal violence in Gujarat, I said to myself, "there
we go again." There just doesn't seem to be an end to this litany of lies.
A few years ago there was a story circulating in the Indian news media,
about the fleeing Hindu refugees from Kashmir. .....
A delegation comprising of Jiten
Roy, Ph.D., President, and Bidyut Sarkar, General Secretary, respectively,
of International Federation of Bangladeshi Hindus & Friends, Mohini
Sarin, a Human Rights Activist, Dr. Narinder Kukar, former National President
of the Association of Indians in America and N. Kataria, Founder of Indian
American Intellectuals Forum, called on Deputy Ambassador, Indian Mission,
Mr. A. Gopinathan, at New York on January 20 .....
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. .....
Pakistani authorities freed 42
children Wednesday who had been kept in chains or ropes at a Muslim religious
school near the city of Multan in Punjab province, a local police officer
said. .....
