Knowledge of traditional Indian
medicine should be integrated with modern medicine and science, so it could
be exploited by adding value and creating new products for a wider market,
R.A. Mashelkar, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research, said today. .....
An Israeli student today welcomed
the suspension of an Oxford University professor who rejected his application
for graduate studies in a protest against the Jewish state's treatment
of Palestinians. .....
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad today brushed off a US Senate decision to curb aid to the country
on account of recent remarks he made about Jews ruling the world by proxy.
.....
There is no doubt that modern India
owes much to the efforts of Christian missionaries. I studied in a Christian
school till standard V and also received my graduate degree from a Christian
college. But the question is, why did India fail to establish similar colleges
itself? Why did we have to depend on missionaries to provide these services?
.....
Ms Saroj Bala deserves praise for
her two-part article, 'Ram was for real' (Oct 11 & 13). She throws
light on the exact dates of the birth and other major events of Lord Ram's
life, as revealed by a hi-tech computer based on data of stellar and planetary
positions provided in Valmiki's Ramayan. .....
The outgoing Indian High Commissioner,
Mani Lal Tripathi, has alleged that northeastern insurgents maintaining
criminal links were still being given "special treatment" in Dhaka. .....
Red star over South Asia? The two
leading and outlawed Naxalite organisations in the country, People's War
(PW) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), are heading for unification in
the coming months. They plan to up the ante on violence and are keen on
"ideological" partnership with not only Maoists of Nepal but also groups
fighting for "nationality" causes. These, in Naxalite definition, will
include the LTTE and North-east and Kashmir ultras. .....
The recent arrests of some Pakistani
Army officers for their links with the Al Qaeda should not come as a surprise.
Till the 9/11 terror strikes in the United States, religious terrorism
had virtually grown into a profitable industry in Pakistan. India bore
its brunt, but the US did not show much concern. .....
The Roman Catholic Church in Italy
was in uproar yesterday after a local court ordered crucifixes to be removed
from the classroom walls at a state-run nursery attended by Muslim children.
.....
The disruption to an emergency
polio vaccination programme in northern Nigeria threatens the entire region,
United Nations officials have warned. .....
In what has been described as a
shocking incident, two young white men reportedly intruded into a Ram temple
in Ealing Road, London, on Diwali and shook the idol of Ram, breaking an
arm and the bow and arrow. .....
When I was writing this, state
repression on Ram bhakts in Ayodhya and other parts of Uttar Pradesh was
in full force. Thousands were arrested, numerous people injured in police
action and countless forced out of trains and public transport to prevent
them from reaching Ayodhya for a darshan of Ram Lalla. In full public view
and under the glare of TV cameras, revered VHP President Ashok Singhal
was manhandled, humiliated and arrested. .....
The notion that poverty and mental
illness are intertwined is nothing new, as past research has demonstrated
time and again. But finding evidence that one begets the other has often
proved difficult. .....
Their two victims, girls of 13,
were patient as well, never crying out, at least that is what the neighbors
said, and enduring the violence and abuse not once, but repeatedly over
five months. .....
The freedom that Muslims enjoy
in a secular India came in for praise at a global meet here hosted by the
local Islamic community. The 8th International Fiqh Conference has brought
together Muslim theologians from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan among
hundreds of others from around the world. .....
A Muslim and Arab Jew-hatred is
spreading in the suburbs of the major Swedish towns. At the same time Jewish
congregations in Sweden are reporting a sharp increase in Muslim aggression
towards Jews in recent years. This is shown in a new report presented in
DN Debatt. .....
Methods used by Muslim Fanatics
other than Hawalas when Islamic Funds have been frozen by the West. Victims
- The innocent young Kafir / Kufr girls all over Europe and many other
parts of the World, forced into prostitution to raise money for Islamic
Jihad and Suicide Bombers. .....
The recent ban on sacrifices by
the Government of Tamil Nadu has resulted in a rash of statements by ill-informed
and motivated politicians on the "Aryanisation" or "Brahminisation" of
Dravidian culture, in which gods, systems of worship and rituals have all
been divided into one or another camp. The British created an Aryan-Dravidian
divide, which became a useful tool for Indian politicians. It is time to
separate truth from falsehood. .....
At the height of the Vietnam War,
civilians were butchered by an army unit and the carnage was covered up.
But this was not My Lai. This bloody massacre has only come to light in
the past week - and not one of America's elite corps of reporters can claim
the credit. .....
Much of the thrust of the rhetoric
emanating from the recent Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
summit meeting in Malaysia was on the need for moderation in the Muslim
world. .....
Unlike its response to India's
earlier offer of talks, Pakistan has reacted with disappointment and caution
to New Delhi's new package of peace proposals which does not include dialogues
and negotiations on Kashmir between the two arch rivals. .....
Just when I thought I was the only
one in the world who wasn't starry-eyed and hopeful that Shirin Ebadi was
going to lead the Iranian people to freedom, a beacon of insight and rationality
popped up from the Dr. Homa Darabi Foundation, a human rights organization
defending the right of women against religious, cultural and social abuse.
.....
Great news! Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad said Tuesday that he would be willing to come to Israel
under certain conditions. "I would [visit] after the Jewish leadership
would go the Muslim countries and explain why they call Muslims 'terrorists,'"
he said. "That would be fair. Then I will go to Tel Aviv and explain why
I said what I said." .....
A prominent U.S. Muslim activist
was charged Thursday in an 18-count indictment with devising an illegal
scheme to obtain money from Libya and with attempting to conceal his financial
dealings from the government. .....
Hindu girls, some of them minors,
are being kidnapped by Muslim men to be forcibly married off to members
of their community in several districts of lower Assam. The kidnappings
and marriages are all part of a larger game plan of minority leaders to
change the demographic character of the state. .....
This year's United Nation's Arab
Human Development Report urges governments in the region to implement economic,
political and social reform or risk continuing to lag behind. .....
Ohio State University in Columbus,
Ohio, is set to host the Third National Palestine Solidarity Conference
November 9-12. If this year's conference is anything like the last two
conferences - and judging by its leadership and sponsors it will be - its
participants should be treated to another anti-Semitic and anti-U.S. "hate
fest." .....
Canada's intelligence service has
warned police that members of one of the deadliest terrorist groups in
the Middle East may try to infiltrate Canada to set up a support base,
a newly released report reveals. .....
A victim and key witness of the
Naroda-Patia riots following the burning of the Sabarmati express ai Godhra
last year, was brutally beaten up by members of his own community on Monday.
The reasons are still not clear. .....
Hardly had Uttar Pradesh emerged
out of the authoritarian rule of the BSP-BJP coalition, that it has been
hurled right back into an abyss by the Mulayam Singh Government at Lucknow.
There was abrogation of civil liberties at Ayodhya. The reason being the
Ram bhaktas proposed a bhakt sammelan there on October 11 to express solidarity
over their demand to construct a temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site. .....
The North East Council (NEC)'s
Business Summit was to have been held this week at Delhi. It has been postponed
on the orders of the Election Commission. It is a missed opportunity and
could be misinterpreted in the Northeast. The NEC consists of Governors
and Chief Ministers of all the eight northeastern States- Sikkim, Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura. .....
The mythical Saraswati is yet to
be traced but Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan has already
announced an ambitious Rs 5-crore Saraswati Heritage Project, which
aims to develop the "Saraswati river belt" as a "cultural-tourist" hub
with 15 circles or centres. .....
All religions are against the use
of drugs. The Hindu religion basically opposes the use of drugs. Drugs
are an enemy to mankind. The drug problem has become a plague throughout
the world with the number of addicts on the rise everyday said Hindu Vidyanethi
Brahma Sri S. Kuhanantha Sarma during a lecture on "Role of the Religious
leaders in drug prevention" at the 20th IFNGO Conference held recently
in Colombo. .....
In a letter to the editor of the
London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat,(1) Abu Saber M. G., the father of
a young Palestinian who carried out a suicide bombing in an Israeli city
.....
The BJP will conduct a survey of
such temples and other religious places in the state where Dalits are denied
entry for offering prayers or prasad. And after identifying such temples
and other religious places, an agitation will be launched for Dalits' entry
into them. .....
The Meeting of the OIC Contact
Group on Jammu and Kashmir held on the margins of the OIC Summit Conference
at Kuala Lumpur on 16 October 2003 October 2003 .....
Alfred Ford, a great-grandson of
the motoring legend, Henry, has outraged the conservative Russian Orthodox
Church with his plans to build a huge centre for Hare Krishna and Vedic
religion worshippers in the centre of Moscow. .....
Lehman Brothers (LEH, news, msgs),
Goldman Sachs (GS, news, msgs), Electronic Data Systems (EDS, news, msgs)
and Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) all have recently announced that they
are investing in India, joining the rush to take advantage of cheaper costs
and an educated workforce. Financial powerhouse Citigroup (C, news, msgs)
was one of the first U.S. companies to see the business potential in India.
.....
The Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud
al- Faisal, has told Islamabad not to consider Indian Muslims as a "minority"
who needed "outside help" to resolve their problems. .....
U.S. officials say the Palestinian
Authority is blocking its investigation of an attack on a U.S. embassy
convoy in which three American security officers were killed. .....
The United States has provided
additional proof, if any indeed was needed, of Pakistan harbouring underworld
don Dawood Ibrahim, who is now "specially designated global terrorist"
in US law. The UN also has been asked to declare the master-terrorist similarly.
The official notification even gives the details of the passport issued
by Pakistan government to Ibrahim and his Karachi address. .....
That's what the American strategist
Eliot Cohen argues[1] and the term is apt.[2] It captures two points: that
the cold war was in fact World War III and that the war on terror is as
global, as varied, and as important as prior world wars. .....
The Delhi High Court today dismissed
a PIL seeking registration of FIRs against VHP leaders, including its international
secretary, Pravin Togadia, for allegedly making inflammatory speeches against
Muslims at the Dharam Sansad rally here in February last. .....
A Gallup Outlook opinion poll in
Pakistan reveals that there is no solution to Indo-Pakistan hostility unless
the Kashmir issue is resolved to the satisfaction of Pakistan. Seventy
nine per cent of Pakistanis feel no other option is acceptable to them;
and 54 per cent of Pakistanis consider India as their enemy. Forty seven
per cent consider Indian Prime Minister's recent peace initiative as a
"Gimmick". .....
More than 20 years ago young and
beautiful girls, if they happened to be intelligent as well, faced a peculiar
threat in Pakistan. The threat came not from criminals but from a well-
orchestrated propaganda through the Urdu press that India's RAW had pushed
a number of dazzling-beauties into different parts of Pakistan particularly
into Sindh and Baluchistan where they put their spell on officials and
carried on the task assigned to them. .....
In a rebuff to Pakistan's efforts
to seek mileage out of the Gujarat riots, Saudi Arabia has said Muslims
in India cannot be considered a minority and that they could resolve their
problems without outside help. .....
This university possibly never
found a mention in Huien Tsang's memoirs. But around the same time the
great Chinese traveller-scholar was laying bare the tenets of Buddhism
to his students at Nalanda University, a few hundred miles to the south,
devout Hindus were absorbed in studying the four Vedas, a recent archaeological
find suggests. .....
Is the issue about rights? The
right to live versus the right to rally. It is possible to believe that
even a brain turned to jelly by the constant repetition of party rhetoric
would be able to discern, if only in a rare flash, which is the more fundamental
right between the two. The funny thing is that the court ruling restricting
rallies had done just that, restricted them to times and places. .....
The time has come that we Hindus
have to be on the offensive. I have sent the following NOTICE (a signed
letter) to "The Hindu" (Original letter by courier on 1st Oct. and email
today). I propose to file a Writ Petition in a High Court, restraining
The Hindu from using the word 'Hindu', which is sacred to us, and a paper
which is writing against Hinduism or Hindutva has no right to have the
title "The Hindu". .....
Everything was wrong with India.
We hated her rags and yet, at the same time, we resented the rich and went
out of our way to harass those who created wealth. With unreasonable and
punishing taxes. With regulations that crushed all initiative and enterprise.
.....
You think Pakistan occupied the
Kargil hills in the summer of 1999. You believe it was an operation Pakistani
generals planned on the sly and then prime minister Nawaz Sharif didn't
know about it until the bullets started flying. You're absolutely sure
about India emerging victorious and the Pakistani army deeply embarrassed.
.....
Although his academic credentials
are quite impressive, Belgian historian Koenraad Elst is known to his Indian
readers largely as a polemicist. In his 58-page booklet, Ayodhya: The Finale,
he doesn't disappoint those who have come to expect hearty, punch-packed
secularist-bashing from his pugnacious pen. .....
Nestling amid stacks of photo albums
and reams of memories of perhaps every Indian woman is one cherished image.
Of a moment when she is partly the seductress, partly the nun, aching to
shed the weight of childhood, striving to surpass her mother, dreaming
to outshine her peers and seeking to impress upon herself that she, in
this new form, has effected a successful metamorphosis to adulthood. .....
Concerted and continuing changes
in the demography of the north-eastern States, which have already overwhelmed
the indigenous population in several districts, are causing dismay and
alarm among dispassionate intellectuals, ordinary citizens and even concerned
administrators. Political parties, however, have mostly turned the Nelson's
eye to the crisis brewing in several border regions. .....
In a startling revelation, suicide
bombers or "fidayeen" are being given heavy doses of drugs to infuse them
with courage and "take away the pain" before launching a terror attack
on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, a US-based newspaper said today.
.....
The Oct. 15 killing in Gaza had
a bitterly ironic quality. The victims were three Americans, security personnel
protecting an academic review committee en route to interview Palestinian
applicants for the Fulbright program, an academic exchange funded and run
by the U.S. government. The killers were Palestinian terrorists. .....
Taking the threats of Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden to widen the spread of extremist attacks quite seriously,
the French Government has said that it will use its influence to convince
other members of the European Union (EU) not to encourage moves to grant
political asylum to Pakistani residents. .....
Tarun Narula, a 25-year-old computer
instructor, celebrated Mohandas K. Gandhi's birthday on Oct. 2 by going
to the Metropolitan Mall. So did so many thousands of others that the parking
lot was full, as were those of the other two malls across and down the
street. Indian-made sport utility vehicles, cars and motorcycles fought
for space, choking the roads of this satellite city south of Delhi. .....
A court case now underway in Australia
is regarded by some observers as a legal challenge to Christians' freedom
to question the validity of other religions. .....
Preaching was never so lucrative.
With salvation outsourced, the boob tube now wants to be your drawing-room
deliverer, promising armchair enlightenment and remote-controlled emancipation.
.....
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
went to China in June. Everyone clapped. Pandit Nehru's old dream, a true
prevalence of Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai days, could finally begin to manifest.
The ancient ideologues of the Long March were dead and gone, a fourth generation
of young, pragmatic and dynamic leaders had taken over. .....
Jammu and Kashmir is an integral
part of India and its people have willingly joined the country, the Prime
Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said here today. .....
The Naxal group Peoples War have
lost some of their supporters. Hundreds of adivasis in Orissa's Rayagada
district, who once protected the Peoples War Group, have virtually declared
war on them. .....
There's bad news for secularists,
agnostics, and atheists who lust for ? and have for ages predicted ? an
end to all religion. Ever since the 19th and throughout the 20th century
there were thinkers who prophesied that humanity was about to enter a golden
age without a trace of gods or any need to worship. .....
International Kashmir Alliance,
an amalgam of expatriate Kashmiri leaders, has asked the Organisation of
Islamic Conference not to make a fundamental mistake of getting influenced
by Pakistan. IKA feels that Pakistan is a gross violator of Muslim sentiments,
especially of Kashmiri people. .....
The issue of religious conversions
is snowballing in Sri Lanka, with nongovernmental organization, The National
Peace Council asking the government to investigate into a spate of recent
attacks on churches, even as a journalist was allegedly attacked by Christians
last week. .....
The participation of tribals from
various states in the VHP movement in Ayodhya has baffled UP police officers.
During raids at Karsevakpuram in Ayodhya on October 15, the police were
surprised to see tribals in saffron robes with trishuls in their hands.
Tribals were also a major phenomenon during the communal riots in Gujarat
last year. .....
Two unidentified men on a motorcycle
reportedly threw a bomb and a piece of flesh at a temple in the Jattiwara
locality of Meerut some time after dawn on Tuesday morning. The temple
priest and a couple of women devotees were injured in the explosion. .....
Troops along the Line of Control
and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir have been placed on high
alert following surprise raids by the Pakistan Army's Border Action Teams,
a senior defence official said. .....
The revelations in Sandhya Jain's
article " Nationalization of the Hindu temple" (Pioneer, Oct 7, 2003) about
using money from Hindu temples for Madarasas development and Haj subsidy
(and churches development) are no doubt disturbing but are they a surprise?
.....
Security forces today foiled the
militants' first ever suicidal attack on the official residence of the
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Maulana Azad Road. While as two
BSF soldiers died and 10 others-including an incharge Commandant and three
photojournalists-sustained injuries, both the heavily armed militants took
shelter in the nearby Dr Ali Jan Shopping Plaza. .....
Perturbed over fencing on Line
of Control and International Border, Pakistan Army has set up a Border
Action Team (BAT), a combination of Army, Rangers, ISI and other agencies
to devise a fresh strategy for infiltration of the militants and sabotage
fencing, security officials said. .....
A three-star general active in
the search for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein has told religious audiences
that the war on terrorism is a battle between a "Christian army" and Satan,
and that Muslims worship an "idol" and not a "real God." .....
US President George W Bush and
and his wife Laura Bush have sent Diwali greetings to Hindus in America
and around the world. "I send greetings to Hindus in the United States
and around the world as you celebrate Deepavali (Diwali), the festival
of lights," Bush said in his message. .....
Pentagon leaders on Thursday spoke
up in support of a top general who has told church audiences that the war
on terrorism is a battle with Satan and that Muslims worship idols. .....
If Union tourism minister Jagmohan
has his way, and if other ministries (civil aviation in particular) cooperate,
Ayodhya will be transformed from a temple town to one of India's leading
tourist attractions. Over the next six months, it is to be developed
as "a wonder of resurgent India". .....
Parents of students in different
schools and colleges of Uttaranchal were recently shocked to see objectionable
religious literature in the hands of their children. The literature
criticizing Hindu deities and glorifying Christian saints was freely distributed
in all the schools of the state capital Dehradun and adjoining areas. .....
Sell clay, and you are selling
a commodity. Make it into a pot and you have manufactured a product. But
if in the end, you send a designer bowl to the markets, then you have a
brand and all the big ticket profits. It has taken it a while, but there
is growing evidence that India has internalised this simple reality. .....
The US Treasury Department tonight
announced that Dawood Ibrahim alias Sheikh Dawood Hassan is a ''specially
designated global terrorist'' with a Pak passport and a Karachi address.
.....
Raising a voice of dissent as the
world prepares to celebrate Mother Teresa's beatification on October 19,
a doctor, who had deposed before an inquiry into the Mother's life, on
Thursday said she did 'more harm than good' to the image of the City of
Joy. .....
Afghanistan's erstwhile Taliban
militia, ousted from power by the US two years ago, is again gaining strength
with the help of the Pakistani establishment and Islamic groups, says a
reputed news magazine. The Far Eastern Economic Review said in its latest
issue that hit the stands here this weekend that Afghan leaders had complained
to the US about the overt and covert assistance being extended to the Taliban
from Pakistan. .....
A large number of speakers at a
seminar in the Capital on Sunday expressed concern over the fast-dwindling
Hindu population of the Country. The seminar was titled National Seminar
on Religious Demograpy: Ramifications & Remedies. .....
In Valmiki Ramayan it is mentioned
that Shri Ram's army constructed a bridge over the sea between Rameshwaram
and Lanka. After crossing this bridge, Shri Ram's army had defeated Ravana.
Recently, NASA put pictures (reproduced here) on the Internet of a man-made
bridge, the ruins of which are lying submerged in Palk Strait between Rameshwaram
and Sri Lanka. .....
We Indians are the products of
one of the oldest civilisations. We need to be really proud of our ancient
history and cultural heritage. However, during the British Rule, we developed
an inferiority complex, which adversely affected our quest to unearth facts
relating to our glorious past. .....
Recently, the BBC reported about
a woman from Azad Kashmir who jumped into a river to commit suicide but
was instead washed ashore on the Indian side. Predictably, she was arrested
and jailed. While in jail and being tried, she was made pregnant by a jailer
and gave birth to a girl. .....
As the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's
Ram readies to take on the regime of RAM - Rajput-Ahir-Muslim, the social
coalition underpinning Mulayam Singh Yadav's government in Uttar Pradesh
- a sense of deja vu is inescapable. .....
When Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican,
opens a hearing of his Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism this
morning, the subject will be the penetration of the U.S. military's chaplain
corps and American prison systems by radical Muslims (also known as Islamists).
.....
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
today chose to address a gathering of party faithfuls who marched through
the city streets in a procession, defying Justice Amitava Lala's
recent directive banning rallies from 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays. .....
Influenced by his neoconservative
advisers, President Bush once portrayed the American invasion of Baghdad
and the ouster of Saddam Hussein as a pivotal battle in the global war
on terrorism. According to this view, the Baath regime in Baghdad had extensive
ties to radical Muslim terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and was in
the process of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. .....
Taking cognizance of a complaint
from a voluntary body, the NHRC has directed the Chief Secretary and the
Home Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir to submit their replies within four
weeks on the alleged "inhuman torture and custodial death" of a rickshaw
puller by the Jammu police. .....
MADAM Fauziah* is into her third
marriage and has to take care of five children - two of hers and two of
her husband's from their previous marriages, and one of their own. .....
As many as 15 Pakistani-Norwegian
teenagers attacked a 31-year-old man outside his flat Monday night. They
thought he was a journalist who'd written a provocative guide about how
to have sex with young Muslim women. .....
Governor Kidar Nath Sahani said
that the re-construction of temples demolished by the Portuguese and other
erstwhile regimes is of great importance in the nation building task and
in bringing about national awakening among the people. .....
A 15-year-old girl from a backward
community was allegedly stripped and raped on Friday night in front of
her parents in Basera village of Muzaffarnagar district by 13 armed men.
.....
A UK-based radical Islamic group,
which funneled large funds to the Taliban after the September 11 attacks,
recruited up to 200 young Asians from Britain to join terrorist groups
in Pakistan to wage "jihad" (holy war) in Kashmir and Afghanistan, a report
said on Sunday, reports PTI. .....
Highlighting the threats posed
to India's internal security, Defence Minister George Fernandes on Saturday
said one lakh people infiltrate to the country from Bangladesh every month
and Nepal's Maoists and local Naxalites were undergoing training in the
hills of Jharkhand, reports PTI. .....
The recent court judgement in the
Staines murder trial has brought welcome relief to most people and a closure
of sorts to a sordid and brutal event that shocked the nation, but the
ongoing battle over religious rights in India is by no means settled. .....
What the Indian Sepoys tried to
do in 1857, the Marathas in three bitter wars and the Sikhs tried in 1840,
but failed, one man attempted: to take on the mighty British Empire single
handed. .....
Lacerating across the heart of
India stretches a wild and untamed land known as the Chambal valley and
beyond to Bundhelkhand which houses an equally untamed and proud people.
With a rugged love of independence and pride they have a long history of
resistance and struggle against oppressors and are even celebrated in numerous
films in the Indian Film Industry as the 'honourable bandits'. .....
In view of dwindling local support,
Pakistan army and Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) have started offering
huge emoluments to the youths in Pakistan and PoK to lure them into the
militancy, according to army officials. .....
Pledging to support the "Kashmiri
struggle", a cash- strapped al-Qaeda is approaching rich expatriate Kashmiris
and Muslims in general who sympathise with the people of the valley. .....
The phenomenon of vote banks based
on Asian religions is fast becoming a reality in British politics. Strategic
voting - more common in politics in the Indian subcontinent - has begun
defining new alignments. .....
Around 100,000 people took part
in an extravagant Diwali gala here that saw a bit of everything -- food
and craft, a photo exhibition, a health fair, cultural show and a colourful
fireworks display to top it off. .....
The Kumbabhishekam on June 8 last
of the Sundaravarada temple of Uttiramerur, Kanchipuram district, was the
culmination of a great renovation work. .....
I reached Sewa Dham around six-thirty
in the morning to be greeted by the breathtaking scene of the RSS swayamsevaks
braving rigorous exercises in half-a-dozen groups. This was my introduction
to the Sangh Shiksha Varga, an RSS education class for leaders. .....
With garlands in hand, Hindus and
non-Hindus, VIPs and well-wishers gathered on January 10, 1997 at Nairobi's
airport to welcome Prof. Rajendra Singh, 75, head of India's Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh. The beloved leader had come to inaugurate celebrations
marking 50 years of service by the RSS in Kenya (known locally as the "Bharatiya
Swayamsevak Sangh," or BSS). .....
A British police force is planning
to open a station in Jammu and Kashmir to tackle criminals who flee there
after committing crimes in Britain or target Britain from the Kashmir,
according to a media report. .....
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
urged Latin Americans on Saturday not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying
the 1492 discovery of the Americas triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native
Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler." .....
Even as the banned ULFA and the
NDFB continue to remain in the focus, growing activities of Islamic militant
outfits have raised concern among the security forces engaged in counter-insurgency
operation in the State. .....
Back home the term forever sits
on the edge of controversy. But "Rama Rajya" in the Thai context assumes
a different meaning and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee acknowledged
as much in his address to the joint special session of the Thai National
Assembly on Thursday. .....
Rejecting the proposed return move
to the clusters in Khir Bhavani (Tulmulla) and Mattan the Kashmiri Pandits
today held the State Government responsible for their all miseries. .....
While the media focuses on Iraq
and Afghanistan, the Southeast-Asian front in the war on terrorism goes
largely unreported. It's now just over a month since 20 al-Qaeda and Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI) operatives in the region were added to the list established
under United Nations Resolution 1390, which provides for international
sanctions against known terrorist financiers. .....
As the United States government
re-plans and refinances its troubled nation-building effort in Afghanistan
and continues its long search for Osama bin Laden, its enemy, the Taliban,
are living in plain sight just across the border. .....
This week the University of Pennsylvania's
Muslim Student Association (MSA) is celebrating its "Islam Awareness Week."
For the keynote address on Thursday, October 9, the MSA invited "Reverend"
William W. Baker, a former chairman of a racist and anti-Semitic organization,
the Populist Party. .....
The Congress and the Left went
into hysterics during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
They are more concerned about proving their fidelity to the Palestinian
cause than facing the reality of Islamic fundamentalism targeting both
India and Israel, as also the US and the West. The Indian side deftly balanced
the growing cooperation with Israel and our long-term commitment to the
legitimate cause of Palestine. .....
The fast track court-I here today
sentenced to life seven of 13 Al Umma activists, accused in the 1999 case
of murder of V. Sridhar, then president of the Tiruchi urban BJP unit,
and acquitted the others. Six of them were handed double life sentences,
to run concurrently. .....
'It is a great pleasure to be here
among eminent business representatives from Asean (Association of South
East Asian Nations), East Asia and India. I congratulate the organisers
of this first Asean Business and Investment Summit. Events like these provide
valuable opportunities for interaction among business and industry of our
countries and for exchange of perspectives between governments and industry.
.....
The BJP has asked the Maharshtra
government to launch an inquiry into charges of links between Karachi-based
don Dawood Ibrahim and the Samajwadi Party in Mumbai. .....
The United States Deputy Secretary
of State, Richard Armitage, was all praise for the role of Pakistan in
the fight against international terrorism and said the Pakistani security
forces were 200 per cent behind the nation and the President, Pervez Musharraf.
.....
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage on Monday said President General Pervez Musharraf had the full
support of country's security forces and he enjoyed the backing of Pakistani
nation and institutions. .....
For the Bharatiya Janata Party,
which is firmly committed to opposing conversion, Gegong Apang appears
to be its best bet in Arunachal Pradesh. In this State that forms the north-eastern
boundary of the nation, conversion until a few years ago was not an issue.
Two decades back, the Christian population in the State was less than 2,000.
Today it is set to touch the 2 lakh mark. .....
"We are looking at the whole issue
from the political perspective and are not concerned with legal niceties."
That was the blunt message of Mr Anil Biswas, CPI-M state secretary, for
the people his party governs. He condescended to concede that the judiciary
was "a pillar" of democracy, but hastened to add that "the judiciary isn't
above politics." .....
The Left Front chairman, Mr Biman
Bose, is trying to create a fear psychosis among the judiciary to get a
favourable judgment, Mr Amiya Kumar Chatterjee, chairman, West Bengal Bar
Council, said today. .....
The following was written by a
Serbian woman from Kosovo and sent to us by a mutual friend in Belgrade.
We have only used the author's initials because she's returning to Kosovo
(by the time you read this she will be back) and she faces real danger
from KLA killers. .....
A. Anbalagan (AIADMK) called upon
the government to keep vigil on the spree of conversion taking place in
his constituency of Uppalam by which women were prevented from sporting
`tilak', `mangala sutra' and wearing of flowers. .....
Contemporary global politics is
the age of Muslim wars. Muslims fight each other and they fight non-Muslims
far more often than do peoples of other civilizations. Muslim wars
have replaced the cold war as the principal form of international
conflict. These wars include wars of terrorism, guerrilla wars, civil
wars and interstate conflicts. .....
by Denpasar Goverment Municipality
Tourism Office, Bali Tourism
Denpasar's fame came from "Puputan"
fight to the death against the Dutch in 1906, when thousands of Balinese
warriors, dressed in their finest Balinese regalia, and armed only with
their tradition weapons like the Keris (short dragger) and spears, hurled
themselves against the lines of Dutch carbines. .....
As the Assembly elections are nearing
in Delhi, MP, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Mizoram, another western correspondent
has remarked that "Lyngdoh rose from relative anonymity in 2002 when he
rejected the ruling 'Hindu nationalists' plans for a snap poll in Gujarat,
where more than 1,000 people died in Hindu-Muslim bloodshed, on security
grounds. The move prompted bitter and sometimes personal criticism of Lyngdoh,
a Christian, by Hindu hardliners". .....
For the first time a church is
observing a Hindu ritual. The St. George's Orthodox Syrian Cathedral here
will conduct 'Vidyarambham' on October 5, a day the Hindus traditionally
initiate their little ones into the world of letters. .....
From the tone and tenor of Mr M
Ratan's letter 'Missing the point' (September 11), it seems he has donned
the mantle of an apologist for the minorities. Poverty and development
-the subjects he keeps bringing up-are not germane to the issue. For, there
is no dichotomy between religion and development; even so, he should read
what Mr G Parthasarathy has to say in his article, "Pakistan: Guns and
poses" (September 11). .....
Early in the morning of July 18,
when Sonaullah Dar and his friends headed to a nearby village for an all-
day cricket tournament, they had no idea they were about to be recruited
to join a militant group based in Pakistan. .....
United States has held first-ever
direct contact with the Taliban leadership when US Assistant Secretary
of States Richard Armitage held a meeting with the Taliban's former foreign
minister Wakeel Ahmad Mutawakal in Kandahar during his recent visit to
Afghanistan, reliable sources said Monday. .....
A Muslim United Liberation Tigers
of Assam (MULTA) activist, Nasiruddin Haq was arrested at Gitaldah in Coochbehar
district of North Bengal, bordering Bangladesh, by BSF in the wee hours
today, North Bengal frontier of BSF sources said here. .....
State Representatives Robert Giuda
and Saghir Tahir say that the United States would gain favor with the Islamic
world by intervening in Kashmir. Why are two New Hampshire state representatives
- who were elected to address urgent local problems such as education funding,
health care and the budget crisis - traveling around the world consorting
with the dictator of Pakistan, a questionable ally in the war on terrorism
and a leader of nation that provides shelter to al-Qaida? .....
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
holds sermons twice a month in Dubai to indoctrinate Indian Muslims to
the jihadi cause, Zaheed Patni, an accused in the July 28 Ghatkopar blast,
has confessed, Mumbai police sources said. .....
One of the most enduring vignettes
of the Great War is the story of its first Christmas - December 1914 -
when Germans and British put up banners to wish the other the season's
greetings, sang "Silent Night" in both languages, and eventually scrambled
up from their opposing trenches to play a Christmas Day football match
in No Man's Land and share German beer and English plum jam. After Christmas,
they went back to killing each other. .....
It's the festive season for the
NRIs. The rapidly growing Indian diaspora, helped by collapsing distances
and increasing numbers, is getting closer to its roots. .....
Navratri, it seems, is not just
about amateur twirling around with sticks in hand. The growing number of
dandiya classes in Pune has moved the enthusiastic dance on to a more professional
beat. .....
An elephant lumbering along-that's
what India's economy was once compared with, in sharp contrast to the southeast
Asian tigers. No longer. The desi pachyderm is not only moving, it's jogging,
according to a slew of leading financial service firms in the US. And everyone
wants a piece of the action. .....
For a break from the cynics and
celebrities who seem to dominate our media, you can do no better than spend
time with some of the brightest young minds of the country. That opportunity
came my way in Mumbai last weekend when I sat on a panel of judges for
a whole day interviewing candidates for the Aditya Birla Group scholarships.
.....
On a balmy Friday fall evening,
when much of the Washington area is parrying after a hard week's work,
a group of Americans is gathered at the Willow Tree Yoga Center near Takoma
Park, a funky suburb that is famous for its radical politics and is often
called the home of the ageless hippies. .....
The police have come across the
names of four Pakistani nationals and two Dubai residents, who are believed
to have conspired in the twin blasts at the Gateway of India and Mumbadevi
on August 25. .....
If the Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW), India's external intelligence agency, was to pick a man to write
a flattering book on the organisation, it would do well to choose Pakistan's
Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram. Akram recently told the UN General Assembly
in New York that RAW has engineered as many as 170 terrorist strikes in
Pakistan. With that kind of strike rate, RAW would shine even when compared
to the peerless ISI. .....
As President Pervez Musharraf made
a fresh pledge not to allow Pakistan to be misused by religious extremists,
the domestic media on Sunday asked him to crack down on all jehadi groups
including those fighting in Kashmir. .....
With the legal process entering
its last leg, CBI is all set to get extradited to India underworld
Don and main accused in the 1993 bomb blast case, Abu Salem, even as the
Portuguese Government has dropped one of the charges against him. .....
On a sunny day at Camp David in
June, President George W. Bush hailed Pakistan's president, General Pervez
Musharraf, as "a courageous leader" who is "working to build a modern Pakistan
that is tolerant and prosperous." On his foreign trips, Musharraf proudly
touts the progress in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the
spread of press freedoms under his watch. .....
The aim of the South Asia Analysis
Group (SAAG) is to provide analysis and information on international security
concerns, and particularly those of India. As such, the SAAG website features
some very interesting and scholarly articles on terrorism, national security,
and even media bias, all from a uniquely South Asian point of view. .....
For those who have experience of
a grotesque phenomenon called Naxalism, the assassination bid on Andhra
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu brought back unhappy memories. However,
it is not merely that the cult of murder draped in a red flag is still
thriving which causes discomfiture. .....
It was no mean feat. When people
from five villages of five separate districts belonging to different ethnic
groups collected in Guwahati to participate in a five-day festival of bhawona
last week, it spelt hope for the divided state. Bhawona is a traditional
Assamese theatre form that was invented more than 600 years ago by medieval
social reformer and artist-preacher Sankaradeva. .....
Musharraf's promise-action gap
means Western public opinion doesn't trust him Western governments
describe Pakistan as an ally in the ''global war against terrorism'', and
General Musharraf has President George W. Bush's endorsement for being
''tight in the war against Al Qaeda''. .....
Mr Hamida Maiga looks out over
a green field ringed by white suburban houses and low-rise apartment blocks,
and imagines the spires of a mosque's minarets rising above it all. .....
I don't think many people, even
if they were military despots, would have the gumption to openly support
terrorism from the august rostrum of the United Nations. General Pervez
Musharraf did, last week. Yet no one has condemned him till now. .....
The opening of the largest mosque
in Europe by the Ahmaddiya community in southwest London has been
affected by criticism from a section of the traditional Muslims.
The mosque can accommodate 10,000 people for prayers and has cost
around £15 million, all through donations and is called Baitul
Futuh complex. .....
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is
moving out his business operations from Dubai to Saudi Arabia, say intelligence
sources. According to reports submitted to the home ministry recently,
Dawood visited Saudi Arabia at least six times in the past year - as frequently
as he used to visit Dubai earlier. .....
A Royal Air Force reservist who
refused to fight in Iraq because of his Islamic faith has lost an
appeal after being punished by the British Ministry of Defense. .....
Media coverage of the Mideast conflict
is plagued not only by specific episodes of bias, but also by a dangerous
set of more subtle, underlying assumptions. To the typical Westerner, the
media has generated the following desert mirage .....
Washington, DC-Today, Congressman
Joseph Crowley (NY-07), a member of the influential House International
Relations Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and
Indian Americans, met with Pakistani Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan
Jamali. Congressman Crowley addressed his concerns to the Prime Minister
about Pakistani terrorism and the situation that Christians in Pakistan
are facing. .....
The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Centre and other targets in the US were not a matter of regret,
the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari declared on Saturday.
.....
Pakistani forces have killed at
least 12 and arrested 12 suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters over the
past two days in a major operation at Angoor Adda, a small town on the
border with Afghanistan. .....
Politicians could make the difference,
they didn't. Residents of a south Calcutta locality did - brought a sliver
of smile on deaf-mute rape victim Dipali Basak. .....
A report on this summers exam performance
says Pakistani youngsters are to blame, together with poor people and failing
schools for disappointing results. A detailed analysis of the results has
been prepared by Education Bradford, which has the job of driving up standards
for all age groups. .....
In an old settlement of oil workers
situated 30 km from this Azerbaijani capital is a rare Hindu temple dedicated
to Jwalaji or the goddess of fire, forgotten for decades but now catching
the attention of tourists. .....
Good evening everyone, I'm Danielle
Smith in Calgary. Welcome to Global Sunday, the forum for the issues and
topics that matter most to Canadians. . Is Islam overdue for an overhaul?
Irshad Manji, author of a new book The Trouble with Islam is with us in
Vancouver and joining us now is historian Daniel Pipes, Director of the
Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based research institute. Thanks for
being with us Daniel. .....
If you think this is the action
plan or demands put by a socially outcast Indian Taliban, you need to guess
again. This is the essence of the demands of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (JUH)
which the "secularists" ranging from the Congress to the Samajwadi Party
have been endorsing with their presence at JUH programmes, wearing skullcaps.
.....
In a new audio tape released by
terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden's group, the Al Qaeda has appealed to
Pakistani soldiers to "topple" President Pervez Musharraf or he will "hand
over" them to the Hindus. .....
Thousands are expected to converge
on Jersey City's Little India neighborhood tonight and tomorrow night for
the Navratri festival, a religious Hindu festival organizers say will be
celebrated in the streets for the first time in the United States. .....
French Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy threatened to expel Muslim clerics espousing hard line views
and to close mosques preaching Islamic fundamentalism, in an interview
published Thursday. .....
But the evidence that is available
points towards a contrary conclusion. The Chishtiyya school was foisted
on India by Muin-ud-din who had settled down in Ajmer before the Second
Battle of Tarain. According to the sufi lore, he had made a few converts
from among the local Hindus and started issuing orders to Prithivi Raj
Chauhan, the Hindu king, for the benefit of these converts. .....
An editor from an Indian American
newspaper sent me this . It is an article from a 14 year old Indian girl
in Texas, typically describing her predicament as a Hindu girl going to
school misrepresented because of incorrect information in her text books.
.....
