International attention on Kashmir
has invariably focused on the tensions and conflict between Kashmiri separatists
and the Indian government. Any discussion on self-determination or human
rights is routinely prefaced on the assumption that the situation in Pakistan-held
Kashmir is "normal", that the Pakistani government is a "friend" of the
Kashmiri people, and it is only the Indian government that is hostile to
the "genuine interests" of the people of Kashmir. .....
Turning the other cheek is not
one of President Bush's best-known traits. But he is ready to forgive a
lot in the case of Pakistan, where a skillful political alchemist is transforming
a record of failure, extremism and betrayal into gold from the U.S. Treasury.
.....
Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf
has received enough sugar-free, fat-free lollypop samples from President
George Bush to go back home, jumping with joy on his controlled media,
to convince confused Pakistanis that he was returning as a conqueror of
Camp David and not a man put under greater scrutiny and pressure. .....
A decision by Bandra's St Andrew's
High School to ask 70 students to leave has stirred up a storm. School
authorities on Friday explained that the students were expelled for their
poor academic performance. .....
Pakistan's President Musharraf
warned the West yesterday not to allow India to develop a military superiority
that would leave his country's nuclear arsenal as its only real deterrent.
.....
In the fifties a talented Muslim
actor (Yusuf Khan) still felt it necessary to assume a Hindu name (Dilip
Kumar) to survive in Hindi movies! Today there are more than a dozen Khans/
Muslim actors flaunting their Muslim name and identity and are doing well,
with a large (including Hindu) fan following in a highly visible medium
like Cinema! .....
Eleven men, nine of them U.S. citizens,
were charged with conspiring to join a Muslim extremist terror group that
has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the disputed Kashmir (news -
web sites) territory of India and Pakistan. .....
Of the variegated forms of murderous
assault that the Palestinian Arabs have unleashed against Israel since
they began the Al-Aqsa Intifada - the Oslo War - in September 2000, none
has proved so cruel or lethal, or so perfectly embodied absolute evil,
as suicide bombings. Certainly none has exercised so hypnotic a spell upon
the "learned classes." .....
Militant Muslim imams are preaching
a distorted, hateful form of Islam to U.S. soldiers and federal prisoners,
creating a "dangerous situation," Sen. Charles Schumer charged yesterday.
.....
Oslo Western Europe is increasingly
a house divided against itself. While non-Muslim Europeans live in
democracies, most Muslims in the same countries inhabit theocratic
enclaves where they are expected to tread a narrow path or suffer
the consequences. .....
Whatever spin General Pervez Musharraf
may give to his US visit, away from the media glare, a post-9/11 United
Nations panel is turning the screws on Pakistan on the question of terrorism.
And, in response, Islamabad is ducking for cover. .....
Some of General Pervez Musharraf's
recent pronouncements about Pakistan's political future should end the
illusion of those who see him as a well-intentioned soldier forced by circumstances
to take over the country. His statements that ''Pakistan is not ready for
democracy'' come on the heels of his declaration that, for national interest,
he would not relinquish power. .....
Since the much-hyped arrest of
three Thai Muslims with alleged links to an Islamic militant group
in the region, the Muslim minority in southern Thailand has been in fear
that Islamic schools there may soon face a lesson in survival. .....
Q.: Both India and Britain want
to play a positive and pro-active role in international affairs. Where
do you see India placed in the post-WTC attack and Iraq war scenario?
A.: India, being the largest democracy
of the world, carries a lot of credibility in the international community.
It is an emerging economic giant. It is seen as the voice of the region.
But somehow, the ongoing tension with Pakistan has always over- shadowed
the wider role India can play on the world stag. .....
A gathering of 50 Children was
hardly a crowd at the Ayyappa temple in R.K. Puram, Delhi. It was Vishu,
the Malayali New Year's Day, and thousands of them, expatriates in the
kingdom of nostalgia, had thronged the temple from dawn. They came-and
went-offering prayers and receiving the token one-rupee coin from the priest.
.....
The media, at least the 'secularist'
media, it seems doesn't want to learn. Following the Godhra carnage we
were bombarded with stories and theories about how a minor altercation
with a tea vendor led to a spontaneous gathering of a mob of nearly 2000
men with weapons and incendiary materials within minutes who burnt down
the Sabarmati Express killing scores of mostly women and children. .....
The Pakistan President, Pervez
Musharraf, has said that India being the larger country should show "magnanimity"
and make more compromises if a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem
is to be realised. .....
New Delhi and the US State Department
found themselves in the same camp, trying to scuttle President Pervez
Musharraf's hopes of receiving F-16s and more at Camp David. .....
An embarrassed CPM leadership in
Kerala has decided to "publicly censure" party veteran and ideologue P.
Govinda Pillai for "grave indiscipline" in criticising the late E.M.S.
Namboodiripad, who headed the world's first elected communist government.
.....
The American mom who took refuge
with her two children in an American consulate in Saudi Arabia was on her
way home to California last night - but it was not clear whether the kids
were allowed to leave with her. .....
The Incident took place in 'Margundi'
a small hilly town in Chickmangalur District of Karnataka which is famous
for Coffee Estates all over. It has a Population of 4,000 People, out of
which the Muslims dominate over 50%. .....
There is an extremely disturbing
and alarming trend amongst the Indian intelligentsia to glean from history
what suits their bias. Rather than accept the historical fact that the
Muslim invasion of India has, by almost all accounts (including the historical
writings of the invaders themselves), been the bloodiest in the history
of the World, these "scholars" try to project a more "respectable" account
of the Islamic invasion of India. .....
It can be safely predicted that
China and India, two of the most populous countries and fastest growing
economies in the world, will emerge as great powers in this century. It
would also not be unreasonable to predict that China will attain that status
before India. These trends will influence the foreign policies of both
the countries as well as their mutual relations. .....
A gathering of 50 Children was
hardly a crowd at the Ayyappa temple in R.K. Puram, Delhi. It was Vishu,
the Malayali New Year's Day, and thousands of them, expatriates in the
kingdom of nostalgia, had thronged the temple from dawn. They came-and
went-offering prayers and receiving the token one-rupee coin from the priest.
.....
Liberal thinkers among Muslims
are strongly of the view that the Ayodhya dispute be resolved once and
for all through negotiations between Hindus and Muslims. A section among
the intellectuals, albeit a hopeless minority, has gone so far as to suggest
that Muslims "gift" away the disputed land in a "grand gesture of generosity",
thus eliminating the biggest source of friction between the two communities.
.....
Basra, Iraq: Still no luck in my
quest to help the US administration find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
But meanwhile, I'm getting the impression that America fought Saddam, and
the Islamic fundamentalists won. .....
For once, Attorney-General Soli
Sorabjee, once the firebrand follower of Jayaprakash Narayan, has spoken
his mind on the draconian anti-conversion law recently enacted in Tamil
Nadu and Gujarat. And, true to style, he did not mince words. With the
kind of drubbing the legislation has received from the highest law officer
of the land, its continuation on statute book is no longer tenable. .....
Hyperactive Muslim individuals,
with leadership pretensions despite the fact that they have been roundly
defeated in recent elections, are running around in circles in a state
of desperation to find out the details of the proposals on Ayodhya the
Shankaracharya of Kanchi has given to the Muslim Personal Law Board. .....
'Destroy the minorities' sense
of belonging so that they are forced to flee the country. after selling
their property for a song. This strategy. will rid the country of not only
the minorities. but also all the ethnic groups, and turn it into a monolithic,
theocratic state..'' This is so true about the Sangh Parivar in India.
.....
The Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama
Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has charged that the All-India Muslim Personal
Law Board was getting ready to give up all claims to the disputed Babri
masjid site in Ayodhya when the board's working committee meets in Lucknow
on July 6 to consider the Ayodhya proposal of the Kanchi Sankaracharya,
Jayendra Saraswati. .....
In a volte face, the BJP president
M Venkaiah Naidu today said he never favoured construction of mosque alongside
the Ram temple at Ayodhya and termed media reports to this effect as 'misinterpretation'.
"I did not mean that mosque can be constructed close to the temple at the
birthplace of Lord Ram. It can built in a place which has concentration
of Muslim population," Naidu said here. .....
Benazir Bhutto has said that Pervez
Musharraf, then Director General of Military Operations, had brought the
Kargil Plan to her when she was Pakistan's Prime Minister and she had shot
it down. .....
Former Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif, in his first ever interview since his exile in 1999, has
said that he and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had decided on a deadline
for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute but Kargil sabotaged the
plans. .....
Exiled Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif
may have been badly mauled politically but he refuses to fade away. Having
left Pakistan under an alleged deal with General Pervez Musharraf's regime,
Sharif and his family are not supposed to either return to the country
or create any political trouble for General Musharraf. .....
There is a growing need to rewrite
Indian history according to the latest linguistic and archaeological discoveries
if Indian children are to understand who they are and where they come from.
.....
Pakistan's Islamic Opposition on
Wednesday denounced a $3 billion US aid pledge secured by President Pervez
Musharraf as a disgrace to the country and evidence of subservience to
Washington. .....
A senior Bush administration official
described President Bush's June 24 meeting with Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf as "historic," because, he said, the two leaders made a long-term
commitment to build a fundamentally new relationship between the two countries.
.....
It may seem absurd and outlandish,
but it's a fundamental question nonetheless: 'Why should India at all extend
a hand of friendship to Pakistan?' .....
As a House subcommittee (of the
Committee of Education and the Workforce) holds hearings Thursday
on "International Programs in Higher Education and Questions of Bias,"
it is investigating the federal funding of campus-based area-studies centers
and programs. The representatives might wish to consider a dismaying pattern
that pertains to one of those areas, the Middle East. .....
In his only interview till date
this year, the media- shunning RSS-chief spoke on a wide range of issues
in the context of the Atal-Advani leadership row and the VHP's raised pitch
on the mandir issue. .....
Farooq Abdullah lost his power
when his brother-in-law, Ghulam Mohammad Shah, established his credentials
of enjoying majority support in the Legislature.l He was an inefficient
Chief Minister, who only took Kashmir to the brink of disaster by fuelling
secessionist and divisive fires, polarising the entire polity on communal
lines and harassing the minorities. .....
Sri Dayananda Saraswathi Swami,
head of Anaikatti Arsha Vidya Gurukulam condemned the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom having included India in its list of
Countries of Particular Concern quoting the Gujarat riots,. Citing
laws to prohibit forcible conversions, the above Commission had concluded
that there is no religious freedom in India. .....
When Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan
agreed to line up with the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, many Pakistanis
who sympathized with al-Qaeda and the Taliban were outraged. Don't worry,
Musharraf reassured them days later in a revealing TV address in the Urdu
language not intended for American ears. .....
PRESIDENT BUSH: Good day, Mr. President.
Thank you so much for coming. Laura and I are honored that you and Mrs.
Musharraf are joining us here at Camp David. .....
Kuldip Nayar's June 20 assertion
in Islamabad that India-Pakistan relations could not progress as long as
Pakistan continued to sponsor cross border terrorism has sparked off angry
reactions in Pakistan. .....
Around 200 people were reconverted
to Hinduism in the presence of Union Minister of State for Forest Dilip
Singh Judeo at Parswani village in Mahasamund district today. .....
With international pressure rising
over Cuba's latest crackdown on dissidents, the country's high court upheld
tough sentences against high- profile opponents of President Fidel Castro.
.....
Had it ended differently, Sun Zhigang's
life might have been a testament to his country's progress. The 27-year-old
carpenter's son had worked his way out of a remote village in China's central
Hubei province to a university in the provincial capital of Wuhan. He graduated
with an arts degree, then later moved to Guangzhou, landing a job as a
graphic designer and the chance to make a home in new China's glittering
boomtown. .....
One irony of victory in Iraq is
that Iraqis now enjoy more freedoms than the rest of the Arab world
that supported the U.S. liberation. That includes Kuwait, staging
ground for U.S. forces, where last week journalist and political
reform advocate Mohammed Jassem was arrested for allegedly criticizing
members of the Kuwaiti royal family. .....
In Lahore's crowded Shahdara area,
not far from the local police station, a "fun fair" is advertised by a
large signboard. A signboard bearing the name and insignia of the military
police, proclaims that the fair is out of bounds for all ranks, except
for those on duty. .....
If you ask anyone age 50 or older
who has followed world events, even rather remotely, which nation is the
closer ally of the United States, India or Pakistan, the near universal
answer would be Pakistan. That answer is based on the Cold War framework,
which defined our foreign policy for nearly half a century. India was in
the Soviet orbit. .....
Delegates from 28 countries across
the Middle East and Africa gathered in Cairo yesterday to pledge their
commitment to eradicating female circumcision, long considered a barbaric
practice around the world. .....
The Indian Parliamentary delegation
visiting Pakistan on Monday said they were intrigued by the total lack
of response from the Pakistan government to their visit. .....
President Bush is expected to announce
this week an aid package for Pakistan worth billions of dollars, not only
to reward Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf for his cooperation in
the war against terrorism but also to try to counter the anti-American
sentiment driving a surge in support for Islamic radicals. .....
It was a touching interview, and
one that disturbed him, said Khalid Mohd, Group Editor-in-Chief of Utusan
Malaysia, after interviewing Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
last week. Here is a translated excerpt from the Malay-language daily.
.....
There's trouble brewing in sleepy
Kasauli.Residents of some 90 'old grant bungalows' in this quaint hill
station, 55 km from Chandigarh, are up in arms over the Army's plan to
acquire their properties and tide over an accommodation problem for its
officers and soldiers. .....
As worshipers at the Islamic Center
of Long Island, in Westbury, Nasau County, chatted and rose from Friday
Prayers last week, Ghazi Khankan stepped before a microphone and called
for the crowd's attention. Mr. Khankan, ready with a box of voter registration
forms, wanted to make voters of everyone present, as part of his effort
to register 100,000 Muslims across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
.....
One of the leading lights of the
Ramajanmabhoomi movement, Sri Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Math says
he disagrees with the statement of Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswati,
that there were only three parties to the Ayodhya dispute- the Sankaracharya
himself, Muslim organisations, and the Union Government. .....
The only time I ever met General
Musharraf was in Agra during the failed summit. I had been - almost from
the start - a critic of that summit. When A.B. Vajpayee invited Musharraf
to India, I wrote, on this page, that the summit was doomed. Our approach
was: let's be friends, and once we've built up an atmosphere of trust,
we'll discuss Kashmir. His approach was: let's settle Kashmir, and only
then can we be friends. .....
Let me emphasise, however, that
it is not necessarily the case for India to be forever wedded to Israel,
or indeed, to anyone else: all tactical alliances are fluid and based on
expediency. Indians, naïvely, go for lifetime commitments, when a
light-hearted affaire de coeur is the right answer. .....
Edward W Said's debunking of Samuel
Huntington's clash of civilisations theory ('The Clash of Ignorance'; The
Pioneer, June 9, 2003) conceals a bitter irony. Israel-baiter Said is no
different from our Hindu pseudo-secularists and proxy- Islamists who preach
"secularism" safe in India defended by a Hindu-Sikh army. .....
Bowing to political pressure, the
Jammu and Kashmir Government has filed a Special Leave Petition in the
Supreme Court challenging the High Court judgment that allows women to
retain their status of "Permanent Resident Status" (PRS) of Jammu and Kashmir
even on marrying a non State-subject. .....
""The Hindus remained under double
jeopardy ¡V from their not only being non-Muslim but also sharing
the religion with the Indian majority. During times of tensions with India
¡V as over Kargil during 1999 ¡V they became even more vulnerable.
The plight of the so-called scheduled castes adds a third jeopardy of extreme
poverty. .....
An American by name Jim Yost had
filled in the guest register at the US India Friendship website http://www.usindiafriendship.net
which meant he wanted to be included on my mailing list on updates and
action alerts relating to US-India relations. .....
The Islamic Republic of Iran has
obtained design information to develop and construct gas centrifuges for
uranium enrichment from Pakistan's nuclear program, according to Western
intelligence sources. .....
Democracy, the unchallenged signpost
of modernity, the apotheosis of all who are progressive, has become the
target of a sharpshooter. We all know the rhetorical power of the word
democracy. It is the modern world's "open sesame", clearing the path for
all on whom it showers its approbation, be he a Bush, a Modi or a Laloo.
.....
Pakistan is actively fomenting
terrorism and militancy in different parts of the world including South
Asia and has emerged as the chief promoter of so-called Islamic militancy.
.....
Murders, armed dacoities, gang-rapes
and bloody violence have unnerved the people of West Bengal. The state
was once lauded for showing respect for the weaker sex but has earned notoriety
for savage incidents of molestation and rape. The police have failed miserably
to deal with outlaws, quell violence and uphold law and order. .....
A Kashmir-born naturalised American
citizen has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges that include plots against
trains and perhaps the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Iyman Faris pleaded
guilty to providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to provide
support, according to the documents that were unsealed in a district court
in Alexandria, Virginia, today. .....
The city police seized several
Video Compact Discs (VCDs) containing speeches of Osama-bin- Laden and
visuals of the training camps run by the terrorist group, Al- Qaida, posters
with provocative messages from Shaik Fareed, an old associate of Asgar
Ali, who is the prime accused in the killing of the former Gujarat Minister,
Haren Pandya. .....
Britain is undergoing a slow transformation
but is still not equipped to deal with the growing menace of Islamic terrorism
in the country. This was my impression following a two-week lecture tour
when I visited several cities in England including London, Manchester,
Birmingham, Leeds and Leicester. .....
At Punjab University last month,
professors of English literature were flabbergasted when they learned that
a top administrator had ordered their curriculum reviewed for un-Islamic
texts. Among the books deemed offensive to public morals: "Gulliver's Travels"
and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles." .....
There is a drift in Islamabad's
mood. All the upbeat peace talk has given place to a tougher attitude.
Musharraf admitted that Pakistan regulars fought in the Kargil war and
there is no certainty that another Kargil would not emerge. .....
So much has been said and written
about settling the Jammu & Kashmir issue once and for all but the general
public has not a clue as to what is happening on that front. Talks at various
levels have been held. Prime Minister Vajpayee has met many world leaders
who have given lip service and praise to India. .....
Q.: Do you think Tripura is in
turmoil?
A.: No Tripura is not in a turmoil.
An elected Government is in place. So why should the State be in turmoil?
.....
Barely two months after it was
launched at Srinagar, India's nth effort to sign peace with Pakistan has
gone kaput. Or so it should be via by the insulting interview of Pakistan's
President to an Indian television channel last week. .....
Islamic extremists in Bangladesh
may be trying to make a radioactive "dirty" bomb. On May 30, Bangladeshi
police arrested four suspected members of a militant Islamic group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen,
at a house in the northern village of Puiya. .....
The peace process initiated by
India has given a fresh momentum to the movement of the people in PoK to
free themselves from the yoke of Pakistan's military dictatorship, intelligence
sources here indicated. .....
One of the national problems we
inherited at the birth of India is Kashmir. The origin of the problem and
its continuance till today as a millstone round the neck of the country
in a way underline the naïve nature of Hindu society, which refuses
to learn anything new from the history. .....
Sir-In his letter, 'Study in contrasts'
(June 9), Mr G Hasnain Kaif makes a baseless accusation: "The Hindu brigade
is bent upon saffronising ... minority educational institutions." He adds
that madarsas educate people about the Quran and the Hadith, and are thus
not "seminaries of jihad". .....
Intelligence reports have warned
of a possible threat to the peace of this riot-ravaged city and a few other
places in Tamil Nadu. The `alert messages' have turned Coimbatore into
a fortress with gun-toting policemen manning checkposts and stepping up
vigil. .....
The Function of some Non Governmental
Organisations (NGOs), alleged to be funding banned Maoist groups in the
State, is being probed by the state intelligence department. .....
A student of a madarsa in Bulandshahr
who was being kept in chains was rescued by the police on Wednesday afternoon.
The police swung into action after a photograph of the boy appeared in
a local daily on Wednesday morning. The child has been identified as 12-year-old
Rizwan. .....
Indian Americans are up in arms
against the Chicago Tribune for its "distorted" coverage of Deputy Prime
Minister L.K. Advani's U.S. visit last week. .....
The Bush Administration on Wednesday
shot down reports that it intended to resume supply of F-16 fighter jets
to Pakistan, and that it would make an announcement to that effect during
military ruler Pervez Musharraf's visit to Washington next week. .....
It looks like Hollywood at its
special- effects best. But the scene was produced in a studio 16 time zones
- and a cultural world - away, in Bangalore, India. .....
In an exclusive interview with
The Pioneer inside dense forest areas of Adilabad, senior CPI(M-L)-People's
War (PW) leader Malkapuram Bhaskar alias Chandranna admitted that his group
has close ideological, political and military links with Maoists in Nepal
and 10 other Maoist organisations operating in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
.....
Defence minister George Fernandes
will visit Surankote in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to review the army's
ongoing Operation Sarp Vinash against terrorists in the Hill Kaka area.
.....
Many may not be aware that a centuries
old rare commentary on the four Vedas is available in the libraries overseas.
The author of this exceptional body of work is none other than Sri Maadhava
Tirtha, one of the four direct disciples of Sri Madhwacharya, exponent
of the Dwaita philosophy. This preceptor expounded the Dwaita philosophy
based on the tenets of the Upanishad. .....
The United States has informed
Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani during his recent visit to
the country that it is preparing an F-16 fighter deal with Pakistan, Defence
and Foreign Affairs Daily reported. .....
It would be staggering to imagine
there will be permanent enemies and permanent friends in politics. Yet,
the statement made by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh yesterday on
Sonia Gandhi's ''Indianness'' must send tectonic waves in the political
field. .....
The Indian embassy in Dhaka issues
something like 2,000 visas a day! Thus, we have half a million of our Bangladeshi
neighbours visiting us each year. .....
They never taught this history
in school, thanks largely to the textbooks that Leftists wrote. High school
students across India will now learn the other history - of the demonic
side to Lenin, Stalin and Mao - that may rattle communists and their academic
sympathisers in Calcutta and Delhi. .....
Barely a month after the president
of BJP's Diu unit, Laxman Punja Charaniya. recovered his fishing boat 'Gangotri',
which was taken away by the pakistan Marine Agency, He lost it again .
Mr.Charaniya had spent Rs 2.5 lakhs on its repairs. .....
Yousef Jameel, whose family firm
bought the British business Hartwell in 1990, is named in papers claiming
more than $1 trillion damages from defendants accused of helping to fund
Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
received an unscheduled visitor soon after his arrival here, when US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called on him at his hotel room. But a personal
friend never showed up as expected: Former Pakistan envoy to India Ashraf
Jehangir Qazi, currently his country's envoy here. .....
by Daniel Klaidman, Mark Hosenball,
Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed looked more
like a loser in a T shirt than a modern-day Mephistopheles. But "KSM,"
as he is always referred to in FBI documents, held the key to unlock the
biggest mystery of the war on terror: is Al Qaeda operating inside America?
.....
The innate decency of the Hindu
ethos precludes India from ever subscribing to Prof Samuel Huntington's
vulgar formulation regarding the clash of civilisations. Essentially a
euphemism for armed conflict between the White Christian and Arab- dominated
Muslim worlds to conclude the unfinished medieval Crusades, this simplistic,
yet vituperative doctrine would be laughed out of court in any civilised
society; it succeeds in America only because it is an intellectually immature
and emotional society. .....
The State Government has initiated
yet another defamation proceeding against The Hindu, this time taking exception
to an editorial about the controversial anti-conversion ordinance promulgated
on October 5, 2002. .....
A Muslim terror suspect has confessed
to plotting to bomb embassies in the Thai capital during an upcoming summit
of Asian and Pacific Rim leaders, which President Bush is due to attend,
Thailand's prime minister said yesterday. .....
"So much good grows from sponsorship.
For a child - health, hope, friendship and confidence. For a sponsor -
joy, satisfaction and pride. Nothing can replace the importance of your
role as a sponsor! As you get to know your sponsored child through cards
and letters, you'll bring (and receive) such joy." -- Christian Childrens
Fund. .....
After seeing my first article on
Kashmir appear in Free Press Journal issue dated May 13, 2003 I would like
to invite the attention of the people of India to the background realities
of the Kashmir issue in my observation, not only does the world, inclusive
of our own statesmen not comprehend the issue of Kashmir fully but the
two generations born in the last 50 years lack the information too. .....
Facing an unexpected challenge
to his power from Islamic fundamentalists in the provinces and defiance
from the parliamentary opposition, President Musharraf may counter-attack
.....
Tension has been brewing here in
the serene woods bordering Nepal following police allegations linking the
missionaries and converted Oraon tribals with the Maoist Communist Centre.
.....
For a sense of the new forces stirring
inside Mexico today, consider the Legion of Christ. The once obscure religious
order, founded 62 years ago in the basement of a Mexico City town house,
ranks as the world's fastest-growing branch of Roman Catholicism. It attracts
more recruits to the church's aging priesthood than any other Catholic
congregation on the planet, per capita. .....
"Bhojshala is a temple, it is no
masjid and the Central Government is trying to bring back the idol of Goddess
Saraswati from the London Museum and have it installed in the Bhojshala
temple,''said Smt. Bhavana Chikhalia, Union Minister of State for Tourism
and Culture while talking to Organiser after her recent visit to Bhojshala
at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. .....
From an ordinary person like me,
we look at India and Pakistani leaders, like yourself, and they still seem
to choose the sublime or the ridiculous to discuss - impossible issues
like Kashmir or trivial issues like cricket. But the real issues like trade,
how we can help each other economically, those are tractable, solvable
problems. What happens if you say. Chalo, this is impossible, we won't
discuss it. The trivial too, we won't. Let's just get down and fix the
machinery here. .....
Considering the influence that
America exercises over our lives and our national sense of direction, we
should have a right to vote for the president of the United States. But
we did not even vote for our own president. He seems to have been 'elected'
for us by the present American administration. At the same time, democracy
is said to be the name of the game. .....
The Bangladeshi Atomic Energy Commission
has confirmed that a football-shaped package recovered by the country's
police last month near its northern town of Patnitala contains semi-processed
uranium. .....
Five suspected terrorists and five
Saudi security officers have been killed in a clash in the Muslim holy
city of Mecca, a government-run Saudi newspaper has reported. .....
War on terror. Now, that's a good
phrase: What a shame, then, that it's been weeks since we heard anybody
utter it. It's a little like that other phrase: 'weapons of mass destruction'.
Of course we hear the expression a lot these days but never from the people
who originally popularised it - George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and even
Tony Blair - but from the other side: people who doubted that the 'weapons
of mass destruction' ever existed. .....
Is Kashmir our core issue? Cambridge
Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines 'core' as "the basic and most important
part of something". If that something is Pakistan then is Kashmir Pakistan's
"most important part" (or was East Pakistan our most important part)? In
a more commercial sense 'core business' is defined as "the most important
or the largest part of a company's business activities which it depends
on in order to continue trading". .....
Five more policemen have been taken
into custody for alleged links with militants involved in the killing of
former Jammu and Kashmir home minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone and attacks on
security forces in the state. .....
Next week, leaders of the European
Union will meet in Greece to vote on a proposed constitution that will
govern the lives of 450 million Europeans. The most agitated debate at
the convention that produced the draft focused on the preamble, specifically
whether God in general, and Christianity in particular, ought to be mentioned
among the sources of the "values" that produced a common European culture
and heritage. .....
President Pervez Musharraf has
alleged that two opposition parties were taking instructions from abroad
and that "they were the architects of various problems in the country"
reports UNI. .....
The residents of Jamalia Nagar
Cross Road now feel vindicated. After almost going through the equivalent
of hell in the last few months as a construction of a church had brazenly
encroached on the public road causing them lot of hardships, they are now
heaving a sigh of relief after authorities demolished the upcoming structure
yesterday. .....
That was the husband's verdict
after he learnt that his wife had taken their six-month-old son to a health
camp to get him administered the polio vaccine. .....
Amonth or so ago, I was in Kurigram and talking to an NGO worker. She was young and pretty and although the ostentatious
sindur was not there on her sinthi, the white sankha on her hand told me
that she was married. She proudly told me that she is considered to be
the best worker in her office, and I could see that she possessed those
ingredients of management that set leaders apart from the others. .....
The proposed conversion of some
one lakh Dalits in Gujarat to Buddhism has again being postponed. The programme
scheduled to be held in Vadodara on Sunday has been deferred till October
5, the Buddha Purnima day. .....
At long last a Pulitzer Prize committee
is looking into the possibility that the Pulitzer awarded to Walter Duranty,
the New York Times Moscow correspondent whose dispatches covered up Stalin's
infamies, might be revoked. .....
In a significant statement that
could create a row, Union minister of state for culture Bhavnaben Chikalia
has asserted that no mosque existed inside the disputed complex at Bhojshala.
.....
Maintaining that Islamabad does
not trust New Delhi, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has declared he
would be more than willing to lead any talks between India and Pakistan
aimed at normalising ties between the two countries. .....
In his letter, 'Tipu Sultan: Eye
of the tiger' (May 31), Mr Obaidur Rahman Nadwi alleges a section of religious
fanatics (read Hindus) has launched "a campaign to denigrate Muslims, particularly
those who played a leading role in India's struggle against the British.
A recent publication. .....
As the clerical authorities tuned
down their previous harsh rhetoric against demonstrators, the Democratic
Front of Iran called on the people to continue the protest movement "until
the regime falls". .....
The government of Saudi Arabia
said today that it has fired several hundred Islamic clerics and suspended
more than 1,000 others for preaching intolerance, part of a broader campaign
against terrorism. .....
The terrorists have struck against
Israel once again. Yesterday witnessed yet another suicide bombing, this
one on an Israeli bus in Jerusalem, killing at least 16 people and wounding
dozens more. .....
Several NGOs based in Assam have
come under the scanner with police recovering sheaves of Ulfa documents
containing information on links between the militant outfit and various
organisations, including one that claims to be a human rights watchdog.
.....
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud
Abbas has threatened to resign after his failure to prevent an escalation
in the Israeli-Palestinian insurgency war. .....
A mass grave, containing hundreds
of Buddhist monks and civilians executed in Stalinist purges in the 1930s,
has been found in the Mongolian capital. .....
Q.: Have you really distanced yourself
from the Ayodhya issue, as media reports seem to suggest?
A.: Yes and no. I'd like to distance
myself from the politicisation of the Ayodhya issue. By making my position
on this clear, at least I've been saved from having to field questions
on the politics of the mandir-masjid imbrogli. .....
'Secular liberals must be proactive
to prevent India from skidding into an era of violence, intolerance, authoritarianism
and economic slowdown that experts now derisively call the Hindutva rate
of Growth,' says Anita Pratap (outlook April 29, 2002). .....
An influential US foreign policy
scholar has issued a ominous warning that Pakistan's nuclear weapons and
materials could soon fall into the hands of forces allied with al-Qaeda
and other extremist groups. .....
In a move to popularise Vedic maths,
the World Academy of Vedic Mathematics, a private promotional body would
train professionals to inculcate the traditional concept among students,
reports PTI. .....
L K Advani received an unscheduled
visitor soon after his arrival here, when US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
called on him at his hotel room. But a personal friend never showed up
as expected: former Pakistan envoy to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, currently
his country's envoy here. .....
After issuing diktats on a "dress
code" and imposing a number of socio-economic curbs on women, militants
have now "banned" the singing of the national anthem in educational institutions.
.....
Early this year, executive director
J. B. Lee of Hyundai Motor India, the Indian subsidiary of the Korean car
giant wrote to his 70-strong suppliers urging them to add a new clause
on "product liability" in the supplier agreement. This clause was meant
to make suppliers liable for any product recalls that Hyundai might have
to make anywhere in the world as a result of a faulty component supplied
by them. .....
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
on Tuesday declared that India wanted to start talks with Pakistan .as
soon as possible' but made it clear that for a meaningful dialogue cross-border
terrorism should end and terror infrastructure dismantled. .....
Leaders of the UK Hindu community
today strongly protested the statement made by the Earl of Mar and Kellie
in support of a claim by the Christian Medical Fellowship's pastor Juge
Ram that Hindus were ''lost, spiritually blind and Hinduism is a false
religion''. .....
The Indian Union Muslim League
(IUML) is understood to have intervened in the Crime Branch investigation
into the Marad carnage, as the party felt that a proper probe would land
it in deep trouble. .....
The Congress tried to walk the
tightrope in obliquely opposing Kanchi Shankaracharya's remarks commanding
P.V. Narasimha Rao for installing a make-shift temple at the disputed site
in Ayodhya without expressly refuting or criticising him. .....
Pope John II is peeved and perturbed
but obsessively persistent - about his declared mission of harvesting umpteen
souls in India. According to an Associated Press report from Vatican City
published in The Times of India, Mumbai, on June 4, 2003, he told a group
of visiting Indian bishops to 'courageously' proclaim the gospel in India
notwithstanding .....
The Andhra Pradesh unit of the
People's War Group has established a direct link with procurers who bring
in arms from Bangladesh-based ISI agents via the riverine Sunderbans route.
.....
Australian-born Muslim convert
Jack Thomas, who was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of training with
terrorists, has left his Melbourne home and is still in hiding. .....
The bailiff and police Friday recovered
leading film actress Noor from her father's house who had detained her
for allegedly contracting marriage with a Hindu in Dubai. .....
The day the fundamentalism will
end in Pakistan, that day, Pakistan will be divided. To sustain fundamentalism,
terrorism is a must. And hence the Prime Minister of Pakistan says that
nobody would believe that Pakistan would abandon the terrorism. .....
None of us will live to see it,
but before this millennium is over, Islam is likely to have joined the
myths of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome as a religion that was tested and
failed. .....
The Harvard Divinity School is
considering whether to return a $2.5-million donation to the president
of the United Arab Emirates after questions were raised about his connection
to a controversial Middle Eastern think tank. .....
Greenhorn as she is in the wonderland
of Indian politics, Ms Sonia Gandhi has the added disadvantage of having
been born and brought up in an alien land and culture. No wonder most of
the time she is still a 'reader' and not a 'leader' and frequently underscores
the sad reality (through her words and silence as well) that she is yet
to mature and strike roots in the Indian tradition. .....
Dr Ajay Chrungoo, the Jammu-based
chairman of "Panun Kashmir", a representative body of displaced Kashmiri
Pandits, was in Srinagar to meet New Delhi's interlocutor Mr N.N. Vohra
to put across views on various issues facing the community. Shortly before
the two sides closeted at a guest house on the banks of the Jhelum. .....
Somewhere in the bylanes of Byculla,
resides 20-year-old Sakina in her mother's home. Mother of two boys and
divorced last year by the single sitting of the triple talaq, young Sakina
is petrified of the future. Her mother Noreen says, "It is a sinister word.
We would like Sakina to get married again and so we are hunting for men
who are divorced themselves." .....
1. Islam is a totally MISSIONARY
religion committed to making EVERYONE Muslim, according to the Koran the
world is divided up into 2 parts, Dar-as-Islam (House of Faith) a title
which applies to all Islamic countries and Dar-al-Harb (Household of War),
land not yet surrendered to Allah, which is the rest of the world. .....
Have empathy. The Pope has genuine
problems. The Papacy was born to convert the world to the only true religion,
Christianity. This Pope merely continues this 2000 year tradition to cleanse
the world off 'false faiths'. Turn it exclusively Christian. He did not
start the war to exterminate 'false faiths'. He just inherited it; has
no authority to change it. .....
On December 2, 2002, a blast in
a stationary double-decker bus in Ghatkopar, northeast Mumbai, killed 3
persons and injured 28; the same day, another bomb was defused in Andheri,
northwest Mumbai. On December 6, an explosion in Bombay Central injured
25. .....
Working, as I have been for the
last couple of years, on a short biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, I became
conscious of the extent to which we have taken for granted one vital legacy
of his: the creation of an infrastructure for excellence in science and
technology, which has become a source of great self-confidence and competitive
advantage for the country today. .....
Param Poojya Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda
Swamiji yesterday danced to the rhythmic beats of the tassa as he rejoiced
in "heavenly bliss" at the consecration of his vision-the 85-foot-tall
Sri Karya Siddhi Hanuman. .....
Ava Bruce, 12, is not even Hindu,
but she topped all the other primary school pupils to get full marks from
the preliminaries to the finals in a Ramayan Quiz. .....
Every time the spectre of a Shariat
act is raised in Pakistan, women are the first to shudder. Despite the
rush of burqa humour clogging the Net, these jokes conceal a fear as visceral
as it is real. Irrespective of its content, there are widespread fears
that the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government's adoption of a
Shariat bill could result in serious curbs on women's mobility and freedom.
.....
The new Imam of the Grand Mosque
of Rome, the largest in Europe, called for the "victory of Islamic fighters
in Palestine, Cechnya and other areas of the world" in his sermon Friday,
June 6. He called for Allah's help in "the destruction of the homes and
destruction of the enemies of Islam". He called for their "annihilation"
and "the victory everywhere of the Nation of Islam." .....
As it nears the end of its fifth
year in office as the head of a coalition government, India's Bharatiya
Janata Party is preparing to put its mandate on the line in national elections
due by October 2004. Little surprise that the party has recently shown
signs of backing down on some planned economic reforms in areas like taxation,
foreign investment and privatization. .....
The trappings of a typical high
school prom were all there: the strobe lights, the garlands, the crepe
pineapple centerpieces and even a tiara for the queen. In fact, Fatima
Haque's prom tonight had practically everything one might expect on one
of a teenage girl's most important nights. Except boys. .....
Pakistan cannot end its support
to militants as it serves as a defence line for the country, says Pakistan-based
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Sayed Salahuddin, reports PTI. .....
Militants have killed three of
the four persons they abducted in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir
while the whereabouts of the fourth is unknown, sources said in Jammu on
Sunday. .....
Two features of the evolving strategic
environment stand out. The first is the contemporary phenomenon of ''jehadi''
terrorism. The second is the danger of the acquisition of weapons of mass
destruction (WMDs) and their means of delivery by deviant states and/or
radical non-static formations. A third - which impacts on our political
environment very differently but nevertheless forms part of the strategic
calculus - is an increasing unilateralism in the use of force. .....
Far removed from zero line and
international glare, nearly 500 Bangladeshi migrants continue to languish
in the 20-odd jails of WB. To all, they are forgotten - Bangladesh has
shown no interest in getting them back, and India seems to be in no hurry
to deport them who are often pawns in the state's politics. .....
The Centre today maintained before
the Justice Liberhan Commission that the V.P. Singh Government issued an
ordinance on October 19, 1990, by which the disputed structure and the
land around it were acquired for handing it over to the VHP. .....
One person was killed and five
others, including a police official, were injured in sporadic incidents
of violence in Afzal Sagar and Mallepally area on Thursday. .....
Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested
two of their colleagues for their involvement in attacks on security forces,
a top police official said today. .....
Many residents of the Jamalia Nagar
Cross Road in Perambur are, these days, pretty cross. Over what? Er, a
church that is coming up on that 40-feet road. .....
Recently married Sabita Halder,
(a young minority woman) was visiting her family home in the rural village
of Bahurbunia in Morelganj in Bagerhat district. She was there with husband,
Pijush, and their six-month-old son Pintu. That's when the terror struck
Her young life was cut short by a group of brutal gang rapists and murderers.
.....
Down an unmarked dirt road in a
hilly corner of eastern Pennsylvania, Sankar Sastri calls out to his nine
cows who, after a moment, charge around an old stone fence and romp around
Sastri like children at play. .....
Every morning for two years, Samira
Makhlouf removed her Islamic-style head scarf before entering her public
school in the southeastern French city of Lyon. .....
In his 'Letter from Islamabad'
(IE, May 29) Congress ideologue, Mani Shankar Aiyar, has said: That ''weaning
the Kashmiri away from the causes of his discontent will decisively determine
the course and content of the external dialogue''. .....
I started reading books when I
was a teenager. At that time I was living in Hyderabad, Sindh, now in Pakistan.
I was 14 years old when I joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The first
question put to me by Rajpal Puri, then prant pracharak (RSS provincial
head) of Sindh, was whether I liked reading books. .....
A Muslim woman who cited religious
reasons in refusing to remove her veil for a driver's license photo must
show her face for the camera if she wants her license reinstated, a Florida
judge ruled Friday. .....
The World Trade Organisation has
clearly become the most important multilateral forum in the world, being
far more pervasive and effective than even the United Nations. Even China,
which had long stayed aloof from all such entities lobbied ferociously
to get into it and has finally achieved its aim. India has been one of
the founding members of WTO and is today in the thick of the various debates
that go on within the WTO. .....
The BJP president, M. Venkaiah
Naidu, today denied that he had suggested that a mosque be constructed
beside the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is not
at all pleased with the assertion of the Bharatiya Janata Party president,
Venkaiah Naidu, in Rampur on Wednesday that his party would be prepared
to allow a mosque to come up next to a Ram temple at the disputed site
in Ayodhya for a peaceful resolution of the issue. .....
Muslim leaders in Italy are demanding
the removal or destruction of a priceless 15th century fresco in Bologna
that they say offends Islam by showing the Prophet Muhammad being cast
into the flames of Hell. .....
After massive electoral victory
in tribal dominated areas of central Gujarat, the Sangh Parivar has now
decided to make a fresh bid to expand its influence to the tribal areas
of south Gujarat. .....
Robert Antoine-Pierre, 28, is the
first foreign suspect implicated in the attacks that killed 43 people.
He was taken into custody in the northern city of Tangiers, where he had
been living with his Moroccan wife, security officials said. .....
The Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, has said that the Kashmir "dispute" could not be
resolved by converting the Line of Control into a "permanent" border. .....
Pakistan says it is not in a position
to stop infilration even if it wanted and added it was taking place despite
government efforts. ''We are not in a position even if it is completely
wanted,'' Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said in an interview
to a private television channel. .....
Congress ka haath, Garib ke saath
is an eloquent slogan, but unfortunately it is obsolete. The age of daridra
narayan passed with the demise of socialism. The evidence in India was
that not a murmur of protest greeted the U-turn the PV Narasimha Rao Government
took in 1991. Though the Congress had won the election on a socialist manifesto,
it went liberal without checking out the views of a single voter. .....
A round of ruthless attacks in
Tripura in early May claimed the lives of 32 people, including seven children
and eight women. Militants belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)
and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) launched simultaneous
attacks on three predominantly Bengali villages in West Tripura as part
of their efforts to get all post-1949 non-tribal residents vacated from
the hilly regions of the State. .....
London's prophets of doom don't
have to dig out their old files anymore. They point to the new ring of
concrete around the houses of Parliament as validation of their claims
that British policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are far more likely to encourage
terrorism than eradicate it. .....
Sir, - This is in response to Mushirul
Hasan's article, "Madrassas in India," (May 21). The Madrassa curriculum
is unsuited to the demands of the present day. The syllabi is Islamic in
content. It is devoid of all scientific and rationalist learning. .....
What do the Japanese do when their
nation's economic slide throws more people out of work and cuts into their
savings? They go in for a hug from none other than Kerala's Mata Amritanandamayi
Devi who is on the Japan leg of her world hugging tour. .....
Israel Television Channel Two News
correspondent Ehud Yaari showed a tape this evening of the meeting Yasser
Arafat held in Ramallah with children to mark International Children's
Day. .....
They've seen Nisha Sharma, a girl
in their neighbourhood in Noida, send back her groom and his family from
the wedding because they wanted dowry; they've seen a groom die accidentally
in some celebratory shooting. Now Gujjars in the area have announced a
ban on dowry and ostentatious weddings. .....
The anti-auto theft squad of North-West
District Police have arrested six Bangladeshis while they were planning
to commit dacoity in the Azadpur Subzi Mandi. .....
Saturday, February 26, 1966, 11-10
am. God called back another of His favourite sons, one of His choice gifts
to Mother India, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, He was 83. .....
A Muslim MP has recently disgraced
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, epitome of pride and patriotism for crores
of Hindus. Sultan Salauddin Owesi, MP from Hyderabad made a provocative
statement that Shivaji Maharaj was the first terrorist in the world. .....
As a Bharatnatyam dancer, Narthagi
Nataraj often acts out the roles of various mythological characters. Her
favourite is Amba-the vengeance-seeking princess in the Mahabharat. Spurned
by her lover after Bhishma kidnaps her to become a wife for his brother,
Amba commits suicide. But she is reborn as a woman who later becomes a
man and avenges her humiliation by Bhisma. Nataraj wholeheartedly identifies
with Amba. .....
India has come a long way since
Independence. If there is a dispute, it is all about the pace, not about
the progress. One of the fastest growing economies in the world, the country,
in its own peculiar ways-ah, blame it on the vibrancy of the great Indian
democracy-has an identifiable, and reasonably decisive, place in the global
free market. And geopolitically too the voice of India is audible and is
listened to. .....
London's prophets of doom don't
have to dig out their old files anymore. They point to the new ring of
concrete around the houses of Parliament as validation of their claims
that British policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are far more likely to encourage
terrorism than eradicate it. .....
A Tamil version of the now famous
Nisha Sharma saga was today played out in Chennai with a 26-year-old bride
from the conservative West Mambalam walking out of the marriage hall to
seek an appointment with the police as she was unable to bear the mental
'torture' inflicted upon her by the groom's family with too many dowry
demands and a threat to call off the marriage at the eleventh hour if the
demands were not met. .....
The Army is in the process of fine-tuning
its biggest ever operations against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir after
getting the nod from the top political leadership. .....
Attempts have been made by Pakistan-based
terrorist groups to create a network in Ladakh, but the geographical nature
and the climatic conditions of the Himalayan region have prevented militants
from spreading their tentacles, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council
(LAHDC) Chairman Thupstan Chhewang has said. .....
The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development
Council (LAHDC) has demanded that Ladakh be given special status within
Jammu and Kashmir wherein people from other parts of the State do not have
the right to own land or property, till the Himalayan region is granted
the status of a Union Territory. .....
Beleaguered British MP George Galloway
may have another problem, in addition to be investigated by his own Labour
Party for a possible relationship with Iraqi intelligence. Now the British
government has frozen the assets of a Muslim charity with links to Galloway.
.....
More than a year after communal
violence hit Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that
the incidents had had no effect on economic growth of the state. .....
Under a successful operation code-named
Sarp Vinash (Snake Eradication), the Indian Army has smoked out a large
number of terrorists belonging to different Pakistani jihadi organisations,
which are members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front, from
a secret launching base in the Hill Kaka area of Surankote in Jammu &
Kashmir (J&K). .....
The Anglo-Saxon war on Iraq has
revealed much, not just about Iraq and its government, but also about the
Arab psyche. The stereotype of the Arabs as a divided people is only partially
true. For whether they are ordinary people chatting in cafés or
pundits opining on the new satellite stations, the Arabs generally agree
about two things: that (a) the United States will not create democracy
in Iraq, and that (b) even if this were to happen, democracy achieved at
the point of a US bayonet is unacceptable. .....
Bali bombing co-ordinator Imam
Samudra has cited 13 reasons for the fatal blasts, singling Australia out
for its role in a "conspiracy" to separate East Timor from Indonesia. .....
Over the past decade, Islam has
become Italy's second-largest religion yet it has never achieved official
government recognition. But now Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu
is launching negotiations with Muslim leaders that would sanction religious
holidays, schools, weddings and the right to receive state funding. .....
In the land of enlightenment, it's
worship for the goddess of learning. At Bodh Gaya, 113 km from Bihar
capital Patna, adjoining the massive pagoda shrine with its giant
statue of the praying Buddha, a tiny Hindu temple has emerged. .....
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
tonight said if talks were to resume with Pakistan on Kashmir issue, it
has to be on the one-third portion of Kashmir which was under Pakistani
occupation. .....
"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of
[chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties,"
the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month. .....
Thank you for informing me of your
opposition to the appointment of Professor Romila Thapar to a Kluge Chair
at the Library of Congress. Thank you also for directing my attention to
the Internet petition that opposes her appointment. .....
Despite international pressure,
Kashmir would remain an "inseparable" part of Pakistan's national
policy and a key component of Islamabad's overall strategy, Vice
Chief of Army Staff Gen Mohammad Yusuf Khan has said. .....
A feisty female has the plaint
that this columnist is atavistic in matters related to Jammu and Kashmir.
But when media elite and policy pundits repeatedly distort or ignore the
critical facts of history for millions in India and elsewhere, what is
one to do but retreat into time in an effort to surgically remove the malignant
misinformation? .....
Standing in the leafy courtyard
of the US Embassy here, it is hard to imagine this country may be the most
dangerous posting in the world for American diplomats. .....
India on Monday opted for an image
change-over from being an aid-taker to an aid-giver even as Prime Minister
Vajpayee ended his meetings at the G-8 Evian summit as the head of government
of one of the select developing countries with big impact on global economy.
.....
On May 9th, a Saudi student at
Arizona State University, Muhammad Al-Gurashi was arrested for direct connections
to terror. He personally drove convicted terrorist supporter Faisal Al-Salmi
on numerous occasions to President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch apparently
on a pre-terror reconnaissance mission. .....
The southern Philippines has become
the training center for Al Qaeda's Southeast Asia affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah,
drawing recruits from a number of countries, according to Western and Philippine
officials. .....
More and more children in Aligarh
district are ending up with twisted limbs as organisations like the WHO,
UNICEF and Rotary International and the district authorities find that
their concerted campaign against the disease is proving to be hopelessly
inadequate. .....
The Islamist alliance governing
the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan has introduced a Shariah Bill
in the provincial Assembly prescribing a strict code of conduct for Muslims.
.....
The controversial Domicile policy,
which has claimed about one dozen lives across the state in the last one
year, has not only brought the political parties under the cloud but the
role of missionaries is also being questioned. .....
Five-time CPM member of Parliament
Radhika Ranjan Pramanik was expelled from the party today, largely because
of his association with Mamata Banerjee. .....
Yoga has been in vogue for some
time among the likes of pop queen Madonna and celebrities like Sadie Frost
but this month, it officially goes mainstream in Britain. It's a come-on
cue for yoga instructors in India and fashion designers like Rohit Bal,
Adarsh Gill and Ritu Beri. .....
On a dusty byway in a busy city
neighborhood stands an innocuous single-story house. It could use a coat
of paint, and its small patch of lawn needs mowing. A two-wheeled scooter,
a symbol of lower middle-class India, is propped against a peeling wall.
The door has no sign, just an electric bell. .....
May 21 marks the death anniversary
of two contemporary leaders of the Kashmir scene. Both had fallen victims
of the gun culture they abhorred. `The mehman terrorists', as Abdul Gani
Lone used to address these `gun wielding jehadi groups,' gunned down Mirwaiz
Maulvi Farooq at his residence in 1990. .....
Since the publication of "The Source
of Bias against Hindus" at IndiaCause, I came to know more of the affront
to the Indian community and also of the depths which western and Indian
"secular" academicians traverse just to paint a miserable picture of Indian
culture and religion. .....
From secure fortified bases 35
km deep inside Indian territory in thick jungles near here, militants mostly
foreign mercenaries, for over three years used satellite phones to make
hundreds of calls to apparent modular cells all over the country raising
concerns of the intelligence agencies. .....
Illegal migration has caused a
serious demographic imbalance in the North-Eastern region. The North-East
apprehends the danger of losing its geo-ethnic identity due to long-term
evil designs by international terrorists. If the BJP-led government continues
to neglect the border security of these states and does not take immediate
steps as recommended by experts, this region might face the Kashmir like
situation, writes Mozaffar Islam. .....
In a nation where collective finger
pointing at politicians, grieving at the slowness of democracy and deriding
India itself is fashionable, Rangaswamy Elango is an object lesson. He
is an engineer for whom the outer world lay open. He chose to return to
his village. He was born a Dalit, a people who have many justified grievances
with Indian society. .....
A barber by profession stunned
a social worker Sri Sriram who came to the saloon for hair-cut after completing
his vow to memorize Bhagavad Gita, by reciting Soundarya Lahari, Trisadi
(A collection of 300 names of Goddess Ambal), Raja Rajeswari Ashtakam,
Gayatri Mantram, Mrutyunjaya Mantram, Navagraha Stotram, etc. in Samskrit
apart from Thevaram, Tiruvachakam in Tamil. .....
Preceptor should follow what he
preaches. Karunanidhi is one who preaches something to others but does
not follow in his own life. He preaches atheism to all, teases those
who wear kukum on their foreheads, ridicules firewalking in temples. but
he wears yellow shawl, approves his family going to Guruvayoor temple for
tonsure of his grandson's head ! .....
Al Qaeda is not a monolithic, hierarchical
organisation; it operates through like-minded subsidiaries. The support
structures of its affiliated organisations in India have been constructed
by the al Qaeda-Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) combine, with financial
support from west Asia and from expatriate Muslim communities in the west.
.....
American President George Bush's
war on terror and al Qaeda's war on America are swirling around two parallel
universes, both of which at times seem streaked with fantasy. For the US,
if terror had been the only cause, then Iraq would never have been an issue.
The accusations of links with al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction
remain unproven. .....
Operation Sarp Vinash has unearthed
documents that show the Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau failed
to sense the scale of activities in Hill Kaka for about four years. .....
In the midst of a singularly lacklustre
election campaign, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot showed undue panic
by floating the balloon of reservations for 'economically needy' sections
of the forward castes. Brahmins dismissed the move as gimmickry since additional
reservations require Central legislation, and demanded that the State include
them among the Other Backward Classes so that they can immediately avail
of the benefits of Government employment. .....
Indian foreign policy today stands
at a crossroads. In the years following independence, India, suspicious
of the United States, maintained a stance that was ostensibly non-aligned,
although in practice favorably inclined towards the Soviet Union. It also
adopted a rhetorical stance supportive of the Palestinian cause and contrary
to Israel. .....
The Cambodian authorities announced
on May 30, 2003, the arrest of two Thais and an Egyptian on suspicion of
having links with the Jemaah Islamiyah(JI), an extremist organisation of
South-East Asia, which is alleged to be associated with Osama bin Laden's
Al Qaeda. The JI has been blamed by the Indonesian authorities for last
October's explosion in Bali. .....
Not too long ago, whenever people
wishing for an Islamic utopia would argue with me, they would invariably
cite Saudi Arabia as an example of the closest thing you could get to heaven
on this earth. .....
The country recently witnessed
a most unfortunate controversy over the installation of the portrait of
the great freedom fighter and revolutionary V.D. Savarkar in Parliament.
It is sad that the Congress, Communist and other parties should have opposed
the move without assessing the supreme sacrifice of Savarkar during our
struggle for independence. .....
Weeks after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
called for a probe into madarsas for "training jihadis", the National Commission
for Minorities has done something very similar: it has convened a meeting
of madarsa board chiefs across the country and asked them to "bring along"
copies of their syllabi. .....
Moving to ensure that personal
appearances do not disclose an individual's religion or lead to bias, the
IAF has ordered its men in uniform not to sport "tilak/vibhuti on the forehead,
thread on wrists and trinklets and earrings." .....
For four hours in a Denpasar Court
he was unmoved by the plight of Hindu and Christian victims of his terror
campaign, telling the court impassively that he understood their moving
testimony but had no idea whether it was true or false. .....
As Algeria begins to clear away
the debris from a devastating earthquake -- the government there is prohibiting
Muslim fundamentalists from collecting donations to help survivors. .....
Five women were arrested on charges
of trying to convert forcibly in Ranganathapuram near Bodinayakanur in
Theni Dist. They are Nagercoil Santhakumari (42), Jayaneedhi @ Radhika
(18), Ariyalur Sofia (19), Tambaram Surya (63), Kirubai (58). The
modus operandi of these is to go on door-to-door canvassing, distributing
pictures and books on Christianity and gifts. .....
Cambodian police shut down an Islamic
school near the capital yesterday as part of a crackdown on outside Muslim
influences prior to a visit next month by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
.....
Seeking to put at rest the controversy
over its stand on the Ayodhya issue, the BJP today categorically told its
cadres from the minority community that it favoured construction of a grand
Ram temple at the Ram Janambhoomi site and a mosque outside a five kilometre
radius of the disputed site- a demand echoed by Sangh Parivar. .....
Section 153 B (1) (a) of the Indian
Penal Code, 1860 (as amended by the Information Technology Act, 2000) stipulates
that 'Whoever, by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible
representations or otherwise, makes or publishes any imputation that any
class of persons cannot, by reason of their being members of any religious,
racial, language or regional group or caste or community .....
For the first time in years, Kashmiri
militants say Pakistani authorities are trying to stop them from crossing
into Kashmir, and accuse Islamabad of betraying their bloody struggle.
.....
An estimated Rs.10 billion of federal
funds meant for the development of India's northeast goes instead into
the coffers of separatist guerrillas annually, a minister said Saturday.
.....
United States Congressmen Frank
Pallone and Sherrod Brown have expressed concern over the plight of Kashmiri
Pandits and urged Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to create a 'political
and economic' safety net for them. .....
Engineers at Texas Instruments'
Bangalore-based development centre have delivered the world's first single-chip
solution for high-speed modems used for broadband communication applications.
.....
A majority of multinational corporations
operating in India have rated the country as a better investment destination
on various parameters than China, Brazil, the UK, France, Australia and
Singapore. .....
The first Garwhali-Kumaoni feature
film on the horrific 1994 Muzzafar Nagar massacre which is set for release
in Uttaranchal tomorrow has created a controversy with the Samajwadi Party
(SP) taking exception to its contents. The film allegedly shows SP leader
Mulayam Singh Yadav in bad light. .....
Dennis Roman was spiritually hooked
on to India long before i-flex Solutions' senior management made a secular
pitch to him - to join them as chief marketing officer for the Americas
and Japan, and establish the i-flex brand there. .....
When the United States revealed
last October that Pakistan had supplied uranium enrichment technology to
North Korea, the Bush administration did not pin the blame on the U.S.-backed
military ruler in Islamabad, General Pervez Musharraf. Secretary of State
Colin Powell endorsed Musharraf's claim that he had stopped the nuclear
transfers to Pyongyang initiated by his civilian predecessors. .....
Since the BJP-led coalition came
to power, the Indian left has done the greatest damage to India's image
abroad. In conjunction with radical groups in the US, it has launched innumerable
petition drives and approached partisan human rights groups. They have
carped about Indian minorities being in danger and assailed the rulings
of India's courts. .....
Even 158 years after their arrival
in Trinidad and Tobago, Indians have "preserved and cherished" their distinct
cultural traditions and emotional bonds with the country of origin, Indian
High Commissioner Virendra Gupta said on Thursday, reports PTI. .....
Communist China is known to do
it. Does Communist Bengal do it too - inflate economic growth data? Bengal's
economic growth has been above 7 per cent from the mid-nineties till now,
well over the national average and second only to Karnataka's. .....
As India and Pakistan inch towards
peace, the great game, as its being played out on the subcontinent, is
being watched keenly in the United States. .....
Several organisations representing
Kashmiri Pandits living in the region today have taken strong exception
to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh for his reported remarks
terming the exodus of Pandits from the valley nearly 13 years ago a "big
mistake." .....
Do you believe that a "post-Sept.
11 backlash" has resulted in a nationwide wave of violence and bigotry
against Muslims in America? The hype artists and book-cookers at the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee want you to think so. The group's new report
purports to document "a massive increase" of hate crimes targeting Arab-Americans.
.....
Six top Pakistani militants were
shot dead on Thursday in Pir Panjal mountain ranges in the border district
of Poonch, official sources said here. .....
In the first sign that it has already
wearied of the public debate over the possible roots of extremist thought
in Saudi Arabia, the government ordered the removal today of the the editor
in chief of Al Watan, the daily newspaper which had been most outspoken
on the subject. .....
It was the 2 nd of May ,
sundown under a crescent moon at the Marad beach. The Hindu fishermen,
most of whom had just hauled their daily catch and were resting on the
beach, never knew what hit them. Three teams of about a hundred armed men
climbed out of their fiberglass boats on to the shore. .....
