The supply of arms to Pakistan
would not come in the way of United States having strong and good relations
with India, the State Department has said. .....
US President George W Bush has
recommended "over USD 640 million" for Pakistan "to help advance security
and economic opportunity for it's citizens" in fiscal 2006 in a nearly
2.5 trillion dollar budget that was presented to the US Congress. .....
The warning was issued by CIA director
Porter Goss at the Senate committee on intelligence in Washington. He also
said that North Korea continues to pursue a uranium enrichment capability
drawing on the assistance it received from disgraced Pakistani nuclear
scientist A.Q. Khan before his network was shut down. .....
"It is unfortunate that due to
some constitutional anomaly in India the minorities through their educational
institutions can teach the children their concepts of one prophet and one
text but we are not allowed to impart the liberal teachings of Hinduism
or Sanatana Dharma through the schools and colleges run by us." .....
Narendra Modi is a lightning rod
not just to his many detractors within India. An American advocacy group
is now spearheading a campaign to see that he is denied a visa for his
planned US sojourn next month. .....
As January merged into February,
UC Irvine's Muslim Students Union once again displayed its true colors,
hosting an anti-Jewish hatefest protesting an anti-terror rally. .....
In two of your editorials and in
an article on the rehabilitation of tsunami victims in Sri Lanka authored
by Bachi Karkaria (Feb. 8), you seem to be losing the Indian perspective
of things. The first editorial related to the hike of FDL in telecom, which
you said has come rather late in the day and that too with strings attached.
.....
In an unremarkable 450-square foot
half-constructed home, where smoke from the chulha has blackened the walls,
sits a 15-year-old, awash with regret. .....
The Assam State unit of the Communist
Party of India (CPI) has expressed grave concern over the design
of Islamic fundamentalists of Bangladesh to create a 'greater Bangladesh'
comprising Assam, neighbouring Tripura and parts of West Bengal. .....
Cid Martel of Dutchdisease.com
has kindly sent over this translation of a Dutch-language article.
Why is it permissible in the Dutch press to say "Hindu" but not "Muslim,"
so that we get a story about a "Hindu" temple attacked by "Moroccan"
youth? Are we supposed to believe that Moroccans as such have some
animus toward Hindus? .....
After stones through the windows,
a burning car driven against the house and two arson attacks, the house
at the Nijenrodeplantsoen in the Zuilense neighborhood of the city of Utrecht
is still empty. The last tenant, a woman of 34 has fled the city of Utrecht.
In her new house in a small village, far away from Zuilen [neighborhood
in the city of Utrecht], she now tells her story. .....
Like a bad dream, the Dr AQ Khan
episode has returned to haunt the world. There are a number of reasons
why it will do so in the coming days. First, it is one of the most serious
crimes committed against humanity. The repercussions of state-sponsored
networks of smugglers, nuclear scientists, military officials and businessmen
freely trading in nuclear technology and materials will be felt for generations.
.....
In an unprecedented move, a Muslim
political party Tuesday refused to endorse a motion in the Andhra Pradesh
Assembly condoling the death of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
.....
Israel will be the last country
to be disarmed (of its nuclear arsenal), says British secretary of state
Jack Straw. Tel Aviv was facing a threat to its very existence (from its
Arab neighbours), so it would be the last state to be disarmed, Mr Straw
told a select gathering at a local hotel on Monday. .....
War with India could an option
to settle the Baglihar dam issue, Federal Education Minister and former
ISI DG Qazi Javed Ashraf told the Senate on Tuesday. .....
Vishnu Kanchi Police Station has
filed a case against noted columnist S Gurumurthy on charges of attempting
to deviate the investigation of Sankararaman murder case being conducted
by Special Investigation Team, by giving wrong information. .....
Archaeologists say they have discovered
some stone remains from the coast close to India's famous beachfront Mahabalipuram
temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami. .....
Filip Dewinter, a boyish man in
a dark blue suit, bounds up two flights of steep stairs in his political
party's 19th-century headquarters building where posters show a Muslim
minaret rising menacingly above the Gothic steeple of the city's
cathedral. .....
That Pakistan would try to take
advantage of Indian secularists' dushmani for Narendra Modi and celebrate
it with a 'no, no' to Ahmedabad is understandable. But the Indian government's
pusillanimity and BCCI's pet-dog attitude are ironical to say the least.
It's bad in taste and, worse; it humiliates one of our fastest moving states,
which was also home to Gandhi and Jinnah. .....
Pakistan has conceded for the first
time that Dr A Q Khan, the rogue nuclear scientist who is under house arrest
in Islamabad, passed secrets and equipment to Iranian officials and is
now considered the "brain" behind the programme that has put Teheran on
the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons. .....
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-sponsored
"Nationalist Muslim Conclave" began today with a call to the minority community
to `adopt patriotism' as a way of life and `join the national mainstream'
by rejecting terrorism and separatist tendencies. The conclave was held
at the Muslim Musafirkhana here under tight security amid protests by Muslim
organisations. .....
The advent of Saraswati Puja always
reminds me of the popularity it has among the school and college going
students since my early childhood. I was always eager to see the idols
placed in decorative pendals with the odour of incense and brightness of
flowers. It was like Devi Saraswati emerging with all whiteness among the
fog to remind us of the purity she enjoys in our hearts. .....
In June last year, the Ahmedabad
police shot dead four LeT terrorists on their way to kill Narendra Modi.
One of those gunned down was Ishrat Jahan Sheikh, a college student, and
sole breadwinner of a poor Mumbai Muslim family. .....
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
is among 'the world's 10 worst dictators,' figuring for the first time
in a list prepared by a widely-circulated US magazine in consultation with
human right groups. .....
Illegal migrants from Bangladesh
reporting as Christians and conversions had led to a high growth rate among
the Christian population in the North-east in the last decade, according
to the expert committee of the National Commission for Minorities. .....
The RSS on Saturday made a scathing
attack on the Election Commission charging it with "wearing selective glasses
to see political parties" and asked it to demonstrate its "non-partisanship"
in the manner it was treating the UPA allies. .....
It was by far the best day for
the Kanchi Mutt in the last 90 odd days. The day saw the Madras high court
grant anticipatory bail for the senior pontiff, while the junior seer walked
out of the Central jail in the afternoon on bail. A bench of the high court
termed the freezing of bank accounts of the Mutt as "ultra vires". .....
Noted columnist and auditor S Gurumurthy
on Saturday night alleged that the special investigation team (SIT) was
indulging in intimidatory tactics, but he will not be deterred from pursuing
the proposed criminal case against SIT officials for leaking out misleading
contents about his statements made to them at the time of interrogation.
.....
Two days into United States President
George W. Bush's second term, The New York Times ran a major article on
its front page. Entitled "Mix of Quake Aid and Preaching Stir Concern"
and with a photograph of a friendly American woman surrounded by Sri Lankan
children at a relief camp, the article detailed the slippage between concern
and coercion in the work of U.S. missionaries. .....
The pre-planned cold-blooded unusual
brutality by the hardcore Marxist goons against the BJP leaders in Kerala
has been vindicated by two court judgments. What is more frightening is
that the police has been providing a protective shield to the culprits
of such heinous acts. .....
The European Union (EU) has assured
a Kashmiri group that it will take into account human rights violations
in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and northern areas comprising Gilgit
and Baltistan while finalising its agenda for next month's session of the
UN commission on human rights. .....
The victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh
riots have been victimised twice by the Indian State. Whoever may have
been responsible for the riots, the state failed to give the victims protection
in any substantial measure. But their tragedy was compounded by the state's
failure to bring the perpetrators of those gruesome crimes to justice.
.....
As his force failed to make any
headway in the SAR Geelani attack case, Delhi police commissioner K K Paul
yesterday indicated that the delay in informing police about the incident
had made investigations difficult. .....
For the last two months, the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been dithering over the most sensational
scandal it has ever handled-the 17-year-old Bofors case. .....
The BJP may have decided to keep
Gujarat CM Narendra Modi out of its Bihar election campaign, but
it is realizing that it is impossible to keep Gujarat out of Bihar
politics. .....
The Allahabad high court has ruled
that no person or organisation can claim constitutional validity for "faith
healing" citing the right to freedom of religion and right to protection
of life. .....
The Swaminarayan School, the only
Hindu school in the Independent Schools Council, has blended the unchanging
values of an ancient faith with the relentless demands of modern education,
to create a warm and happy school - with exam results to die for. .....
The specter of death looms large
on our political horizon again. Only six months after the grisly attack
that claimed 21 lives in the heart of the capital, terror struck in full
force on January 27; this time it chose its prey further down north-east.
.....
Another disaster, another place,
this time it is South Asia's coastal regions. The killer, a tsunami the
biggest the world has seen so far in the last two centuries has struck
human settlements unawares. The scale of disaster is unprecedented in terms
of the cost of human lives and infrastructure damage. .....
The controversy over the recruitment
of 5000 police constables in the State is growing bigger and bigger. The
ruling Congress is finding itself cornered, with allegations of corruption
and favouritism flowing thick and fast. The two principal Opposition parties,
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), have
been quick to seize the issue to embarrass Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
.....
Anyone following the investigation
into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife,
two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the
presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant
who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to
convert Muslims to Christianity. .....
Countless people living in Bihar
pack their bags every year, to escape economic backwardness or utter lawlessness.
A Patna High Court judge now wants out, having been falsely painted a Hindu
'fanatic' by members of a minority group with enormous political clout
in 'secular' Bihar. Justice RS Garg's justified reason for seeking a transfer
is that Bihar is not a place for "honest work". .....
Jihad Watch Board Vice President
Hugh Fitzgerald on Malaysia: Malaysia is a good example of the way in which
Muslims, even in a country in which they are a bare majority, have managed
to create a situation that, to the extent possible, reduplicates the dhimmitude
of yore. When it first became independent, Malaya (later Malaysia) did
not have a Muslim majority. .....
Thanks to Sonia Gandhi's assaults
on Hinduism, Christianity is caught in a two-front war-against Hinduism
in India and against Islam in the rest of the world. It is a gain for terrorists.
.....
Why did the Karnataka Chief Minister
and other seculars proudly participate in the mass proselytising event
of Benny Hinn, who abused Hindus and Hindu Gods? How is it that E. Ahmed
of the Muslim League is 'secular' and L.K Advani of the BJP 'communal'?
Why is the Kanchi Matham being hounded while the raid on the Islamic religious
school at Nadwa to catch ISI insurgents was called off and Central ministers
sent to apologise to Ali Mian for the raid? .....
Needless to say, Swedish laws prohibiting
"hate speech" against racial minorities have been vigorously enforced.
There have, for example, been a number of gang-rapes of Swedish women
by Muslim immigrants. .....
Pakistan Army has publicly admitted
paying Al Qaeda over half a million dollars in the most bizarre deal it
has ever made with militant Waziristan fighters, battling the Army and
the US forces in the rugged terrain bordering Afghanistan for months. .....
The demand for extending the policy
of reservations to the private sector has created confrontation between
a section of the political class and captains of industry represented by
the FICCI and CII. Mr Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, Ms Meira
Kumar of the Congress party along with many Dalit MPs have launched a political
campaign for reservations in the private sector, which has been outside
the purview of such a 'quota' system. .....
Prof M.G.S.Narayanan has denied
a report which appeared in a newspaper stating that the one man review
committee, appointed by the ministry, had accused Narayanan, the then chairman
of the ICHR, of ''total lack of intellectual and academic integrity by
becoming party to the disgraceful act of withdrawal of the two volumes
written by historians Sumit Sarkar and K.N.Panikkar''. .....
If people think reporting is an
easy job that anyone can do, they will have to think again, especially
in the context of the Justice Banerjee report on Godhra. This was clearly
brought home by Karan Thapar writing in Hindustan Times (January 23). .....
On February 2, 2005, history was
made as the first Indo-Caribbean/West Indian folk musical group from Trinidad
and Tobago traveled to New Delhi to begin what promises to be a monumental
tour. On the invitation of Dr. Shubha Chaudhuri, Director at the Archives
and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology of American Institute, the Mere
Desh Committee, led by Mr. Ajeet Praimsingh, went on a cultural tour to
India. .....
Ruling that women of the minority
community cannot be discriminated against in the matter of providing alimony,
the Allahabad High Court has asked one Islam to pay maintenance to his
estranged wife. .....
Hindus in Britain have started
a campaign to "redeem" the swastika from its Nazi past and reclaim it as
the symbol of life and fortune it once was. .....
In the early days of terrorism
in Punjab perpetrated by Khalistani separatists during the early 1980s,
India cautioned the western democracies, especially the United States of
America, about the rapid transformation of Pakistan into a state sponsor
of terrorism. .....
Pejawar Mutt pontiff Vishvesha
Theertha on Tuesday declared that he is ready to sacrifice his life to
prevent the State government from acquiring the Udupi Sri Krishna temple.
.....
Justice Thanikachalam rendered
a startling judgment granting bail to 4 persons, saying that [the charge]
that Jayendrar instigated an attack on Archakar Madhavan was not credible
and that [Madhavan] had been hurt in an accident. .....
Dr. John Frandsen, a retired zoologist,
was at a dinner for teachers in Birmingham, Ala., recently when he
met a young woman who had just begun work as a biology teacher in
a small school district in the state. Their conversation turned to
evolution. .....
A 9th century Vishnu temple, which
remained dilapidated for years, is being rebuilt at Perumpazhuthur, near
here, thanks to the initiative of the local people. .....
In the revolutionary lexicon of
a big chunk of Anantapur's Naxalite outfits, the class enemy has taken
an entirely different meaning. It now means the enemy of the local factionist
don hiring them to kill. .....
In a corroboration of what has
been suspected all along, a former super sleuth of Intelligence Bureau
(IB) has confirmed that 'Assam for Muslims' was and continues to be a potent
programme of the communalist Muslim organisations in India, Bangladesh
and Pakistan. .....
In all of India's last one hundred
years of history it would be difficult to find a more loathsome character
than Bihar's tainted political leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav. Over the months
he has shown himself to be utterly unprincipled. There have been several
charges against him, not the least the fodder scan amounting to over 1,000
crore of rupees. .....
With the kidnapping of yet another
child from a school, an atmosphere of fear is spreading among parents and
children in Bihar. Lalu Prasad Yadav and his chief minister wife are trying
to play down the seriousness of the incidents by saying that in a day or
two, they would reveal the whole truth about the disappearance of these
girls and boy. .....
He prefers the name 'Laden', as
in Osama bin Laden, because "nobody will remember my real name". The other
reason why Maulana Meraj Khalid Noor has opted for this nom de guerre is
because he looks like Osama bin Laden. Obviously, this preacher of Islam
from Narpat Ganj in Bihar is infatuated by either the physical features
or the ideology of the world's most recognised face of terror, if not both.
.....
The All-India Democratic Women's
Association (AIDWA) has billed the model `nikahnama' - drafted by the All-India
Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) - as discriminatory. While everything
that is favourable to women have been included "only as a pious piece of
advice," all that militate against women's rights have "been described
as Islamic injunctions," the Association said. .....
We watched apprehensively as the
Saudi government boasted of funding mosques and research centers;
as it announced its support for Islamist organizations such as the
Council on American-Islamic Relations; as it trained the imams who
became radicalized chaplains in American prisons, and as it introduced
Wahhabism to university campuses via the Muslim Student Association.
.....
In Congress' "Dharmakshetra" (the
land of Dharam Singh!) Karnataka, it is "communal" to hoist the national
tricolour on a public ground. Uma Bharti, the then chief minister of Madhya
Pradesh, had to quit and was incarcerated for this "crime." It is "secular,"
however, for the same Congress establishment to lend its political blessings
to the "Festival of Blessings" by an American "miracle" evangelist. .....
