The first published interview with
new CIA Director Porter Goss, which appeared this past week in Time magazine,
contained a bombshell that exploded with barely any notice. .....
A little over a year ago, a clutch
of village women from Vaishali district in Bihar chanced upon each other.
Their talk expectedly revolved around their plight. Mostly wives of farmers
in the banana-cultivating belt of Sughai Jamalpur, Siduari and Panapur
Langa, they had a common woe: the repeated failure of the crop. .....
The Government of India's decision
to deny Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid a visa to travel
to India is entirely understandable. It is clear that Sheikh Rashid has
to answer some serious allegations that he ran terrorist camps aimed against
India once Yasin Malik blew his cover. .....
Last week 18 people were killed
and 100 injured in a power full car bomb blast in Pulwama town in south
Kashmir. The killing whether that of innocent civilians or the members
of security forces or the militants, has become a matter of routine. There
is no end in sight of the blood bath that the state is experiencing since
1989. .....
The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians
(PPPP) has submitted an adjournment motion seeking a debate on the issue
of alleged oppression of Hindu community by the relatives of Sindh Chief
Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim in Khait Lari, Tharparker. .....
This 64-page report, compiled by
Dr. Zafar ul Islam Khan, editor of the Delhi-based magazine Milli Gazette,
details the starvation deaths that have taken place in and around Jalangi
in Murshidabad district in Werst Benegal in recent months, which have received
but scant attention in the media. .....
Advani's startling pronouncements
in Pakistan about Jinnah, about December 6 and about Pakistan being a reality
of history and RSS chief KS Sudarshan's opinion about Indira Gandhi have
created a furore in political circles. Attempts have been made to explain
away these statements - by the save-Advani cabal on behalf of Advani and
by the RSS spokesperson on behalf of the RSS. .....
The French Justice Ministry is
seeking the help of representatives of the French Muslim minority to appoint
a Muslim chaplain-general to cater for the religious needs of Muslims prisoners
doing time in French jails. .....
Many call it the `Bangla bomb'
and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, like his counterparts
in Tripura, Assam and the entire North-East, is clearly concerned. .....
D D Kosambi is perhaps India's
finest historian. He wrote in 1964 that ancient Indian history was like
a fine mist. "In India, there is only vague popular tradition, with very
little documentation above the level of myth and legend." .....
The exasperation of Porter Goss,
the Director of the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with Pakistan's
role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other remnants of the Al Qaeda,
is evident from his remarks on bin Laden during an interview with the "Time"
magazine which has been carried by it this week .....
A report published by a Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan fact-finding team has claimed that a sizable Hindu
community is being oppressed in Sindh Chief Minister Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim's
hometown of Khait Lari, Tharparkar. .....
After long and untiring efforts
of Muslims in Gujarat they have now the first Darul Qaza, Shariah court,
for speedy delivering of justice and save time and money of the litigants.
The Darul Qaza ensures justice without causing any heartburn. .....
Secularism today ranks foremost
among India's burden of bad ideas, a term coined by Prof. Shiva Bajpai
to debunk the ill-founded Aryan Invasion Theory, which held academics in
thrall for a century before being flung into the dustbin of history. The
term secular entered India's political vocabulary as a device to disarm
the Hindu majority and inhibit expression of resentment against minority-appeasing
policies of successive Governments. .....
The country has reason to be extremely
indebted to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for throwing the
much-needed spanner in the works of a peace process that has spun out of
control. Even though the timing of his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh is the subject of much low-life speculation, Vajpayee has articulated
important nationalist concerns over New Delhi dancing to the tune of the
military band in Islamabad. .....
It is on this day-the Jyes-htha
Shukla Triodashi of 1674-named Anandanama Samvat that Shivaji was coronated.
The grand function took place atop the 5,000-ft high Raigadh fort in Maharashtra.
He became thereafter a full-fledged chhatrapati-a Hindu emperor in his
own right. .....
The expose of the double talk by
a Pak minister (regarding the running of terror camps for training jehadis
in Pak-occupied Kashmir) by a visiting Hurriyat leader in Islamabad has
queered the pitch for Musharraf. .....
The President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
asked the Governors to rise above considerations of partisan politics in
order to play the role the Founding Fathers had envisaged for them. Irked
no doubt by the rank partisanship of the Governors of Goa, Bihar and Jharkhand,
Dr Kalam, speaking at the inaugural session of the twoday conference of
Governors and Lt. Governors, minced no words while berating some of the
luminaries present, albeit obliquely. .....
The English class is in full swing
and the attention that Amandeep Kaur commands as she addresses Class XI
students is admirable. Equally striking is the fact that she is one
among them. She is playing the additional role of a teacher by virtue of
being a topper. .....
It is natural we are debating Mohammad
Ali Jinnah again. But it is unthinkable that the BJP is divided on Jinnah.
Fifty-eight years ago, Independent India had buried the ghost of Jinnah.
With all the macabre memories of lies, hatred, mayhem, bloodshed and mountains
of dead bodies when Pakistan was born in culmination of the two-nation
theory. Pakistan became a theocracy. India became a secular republic. .....
Their aggressive strategy has always
been twofold. One is direct aggression. In the pre-Independence days, Mohammad
Ali Jinnah called it 'Direct Action'. The first blow got them Pakistan.
Our leaders, who were a party to the creation of Pakistan, may try to whitewash
the tragedy by saying that it was a brotherly division of the country and
so on. .....
When I watched my old friend, Yasin
Malik, accidentally blow Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's cover last week, I laughed
out loud. From an Indian perspective it is the only good thing that came
out of the Hurriyat visit to Pakistan. Yasin did not have India's good
in mind. He meant only to honour a man whose contribution to 'the freedom
struggle' in Kashmir would, in his words, be recorded in letters of gold.
.....
When the helicopter hovering above
the new Hindu Temple in Casselberry showers the building with rose petals
Sunday morning, Central Florida's religious landscape will never be the
same. .....
Here's a nice irony of timing.
On the day Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was telling Canberra's National
Press Club about his wonderful program to empower Pakistani women - and
hailing the presence of two Pakistani female politicians in the room as
evidence - The New York Times was editorialising on the travel ban Musharraf's
Government has placed on another Pakistani woman, Mukhtaran Bibi. .....
The Assam Government is at it again.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is at loggerheads with the Governor, Lt Gen
(Retd) Ajay Singh, and just stopped short of calling the President's nominee
to the State a liar. Gen Singh had written to the President in his report
that 6,000 migrants are crossing over into Assam from Bangladesh every
day. .....
The Hindu Samaj congregation in
Hamilton will move forward with an official launch of their temple on July
3rd, even though the temple is short on funds to complete the building.
The temple was destroyed in a post-9/11 fire set by arsonists believing
the temple connected to Muslims. So far the congregation has raised C$1.17
million. .....
Fathom this: A woman becoming the
mother of her own husband. This is not a reel-life drama, but a real-life
incident involving a hapless woman who was raped by her father-in-law.
Later, she was forced to leave her husband and live outside her house.
.....
From the letters of Mr Omar Luther
King, who claims to be a neo-convert Christian, it is clearly evident that
his main objective is to create hatred and ill-will between Hindus and
Muslims. .....
More on minister's mind than mere
relocation of statue-- Deep resentment is brewing in Rampur over attempts
of the state Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan to give an alleged
facelift to the erstwhile riyasat of Rohilla Pathans. The facts here go
much beyond the shifting of the statue of Deen Dayal Upadhyay in obscurity,
bang opposite the Ambedkar Park on National Highway 24. .....
In his just-released, absorbing,
and excellent book, Understanding Jihad (University of California Press),
David Cook of Rice University dismisses the low-grade debate that has raged
since 9/11 over the nature of jihad - whether it is a form of offensive
warfare or (more pleasantly) a type of moral self-improvement. .....
Every October, millions of Nepalese
celebrate Dashain, the most important Hindu religions holiday. On the eighth
day of the 10-day celebration, men pull out their razor-sharp khukuris,
and the slaughter begins. .....
Delhi-based Educational Resource
Centre has sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding action
against organisers of an academic programme here for serving beef to Hindu
teachers. .....
Amid chants of Sanskrit prayers
on a bright and sunny morning, some 2,300 students of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) received their graduate and undergraduate
degrees in Cambridge. .....
BJP President L.K. Advani's startling
endorsement of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's secular credentials is less damaging
than his hallucinations about the common civilizational heritage of India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh - successor states of undivided India. .....
India's more than 4,000-year-old
yoga tradition may witness some high-octane trade disputes sometime from
now. The Union government is building its muscles to bust the market monopolies
on yoga that Western practitioners have been securing through copyrights,
trademarks and patents. Yoga is a flourishing $27bn-a-year business in
the US. .....
The National Commission for Minorities
(NCM) is worried that unchecked influx of Bangladeshis into the north eastern
states could upstage the dominance of tribal communities and lead to their
losing reservations in legislatures and Parliament. .....
Arazor-sharp memory, particularly
the ability to use legal precedents to full advantage, is what makes a
lawyer tick. For politicians, however, any over-familiarity with history
isn't a professional attribute, at least not when it involves communicating
with an electorate that lives for the present and dreams of the future.
.....
JKLF chairman Yasin Malik has said
that Pakistan Information Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid actively
supported the armed struggle in Kashmir when terrorism was at its peak
in the Valley by setting up terrorists training camps. .....
Maharashtra state authorities expell
eight missionaries guilty of praying. "If they wanted to pray, they should
have applied for a missionary visa, not a tourist visa," a police officer
said. .....
From the relative obscurity of
regional films, filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh has entered the very heart of
Bollywood. He has signed on actors Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan, Abhishek
Bachchan and Soha Ali Khan for his films. Now, the National Award winning
director has staged a coup of sorts. He's making a bilingual film based
on the Mahabharata. .....
This is 'spring time' for pastors
who visit the US. Facing the fury of the Hindus whom they try to convert,
the number of Protestant pastors who flee to America is increasing day-by-day.
In this race the pastors from Kerala lead considerably. .....
Enraged at key policy decisions
coming to the cabinet for approval without his knowledge or consent, prime
minister Manmohan Singh has demanded of his ministers to submit all draft
and final cabinet notes to his office beforehand. .....
A lot is being said and written
in the post-9/11 world about the poor treatment of the Muslims living in
America but very little is reported about what the Muslims do to "endear"
themselves to the communities among which they have chosen to live. .....
Intense political lobbying is on
for the appointment of chairman of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). Sources said Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti
had forwarded the name of Justice Santosh Hegde for the post last month,
but the UPA government was yet to decide on the apex court's recommendation.
.....
So what do folks like Advani really
want? They desire a Pakistan that survives on its own but remains at the
mercy of India, economically and politically .....
Even the skies had become softer,
shielding everyone with a blanket of clouds from the harsh summer
Sunday, June 11, when the inauguration ceremony of the Chinmaya Mission's
new center "Mithila" began at 10.30 a.m., under specially erected
white canopies in the parking lot of Mithila's premises at 655 South
B Street here. .....
The Assam Government is at it again.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is at loggerheads with the Governor, Lt Gen
(Retd) Ajay Singh, and just stopped short of calling the President's nominee
to the State a liar. .....
Even when Islamic theocracy had
become the rule in its worst form during the regime of Aurangzeb, the Hindu
swarajya set up by Shivaji did not discriminate between the Hindus and
Muslims in the name of religion. The same was true of the Sikh kingdom
set up by Ranjit Singh after 800 years of Muslim rule over Lahore and west
Punjab, which now constitute Pakistan. .....
The increasing incidents of disrespect
shown to places of worship are of serious concern to the Arya Pratinidhi
Sabha, president Kamlesh Arya says. .....
At least four home ministry and
agency officials are being watched after top secret plans to sack the Narendra
Modi government in July-August leaked to the BJP, soon after which the
former PM, A.B.Vajpayee, warned the UPA against taking any such step while
proceeding on a holiday to Manali. .....
A few days after the IDBI episode,
the controversial CAPART chief L V Saptharishi alleged he was privy to
some casteist remarks being made by two Election Commissioners. .....
The men, Muslims, file quietly
into a classroom of white cinderblock that serves as their mosque. Incense
burns to chase away a sour smell from the hall, as the inmates sit quietly
on sheets stamped "Department of Corrections" covering the linoleum floor.
.....
Ninan Koshy's article, "Towards
accommodation with the RSS' (Open Page, Sept. 11) is a classic example
of some Christian leaders crying wolf against parleys between leaders of
the RSS and the Catholic and Protestant churches in India. .....
The Mumbadevi temple is historically
the most important heritage landmark (II-B) in the Kalbadevi area.
The original temple stood at the Phansi Talao (Gibbet Tank) on the Esplanade,
on a spot within the current limits of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus,
and gave the main island its name-Mumbai. .....
According to the Shalivahan Shaka,
the Hindu calendar shows the beginning of New Year from the first day of
the first month of Chaitra, which is celebrated with great joy as the Gudi
Padwa Day. The year begins in March-April and is determined by the date
on which the sun enters the sign of Capricorn. The third new moon after
this day is marked as the beginning of the New Year. .....
India had a long tradition of painting.
It was one of the 64 kalas (arts). In his commentary on the Kamasutra,
Yasodhar gives a detailed exposition on paintings. It shows that the art
of painting and murals was already well advanced in India. .....
The government on Tuesday conceded
the demand of Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet for the removal of the renowned
danseuse Sonal Mansingh as the chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi. But
in the process it has hoisted on the Akademi a retired Congressman, Ram
Niwas Mirdha, whose links with 'natya sastra' is, at best, a state secret
as its new head. .....
Jinnah's brother Ahmed, who was
a friend of my grandfather Dharamdas Vora of 401 Girgaum Road, Bombay-2,
called him, in 1946, a "Quaid of the Muslims, by the Muslims". I doubt
if he ever dreamt of himself as secular. To a barrister, the word 'secular'
only meant the separation of the church from the state. .....
Implicit in media coverage of Mr.
L.K. Advani's resignation as party president is a critique of the RSS as
intolerant of positive talk about Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the reality of
Pakistan. Since the BJP leader had gone to Pakistan to further peace talks
initiated by the NDA Government, it may be pertinent to examine if there
is merit in reservations expressed by sections of the Sangh Parivar. .....
Eastern religious traditions can
provide new cosmological insights as the methods used by ancient cosmologies
for predicting solar and lunar eclipses yield results almost as accurate
as our modern ones, and in the case of India, the Hindu pundits still use
them, says Dr Paul Utukuru, a retired medical physicist in the Science
and Theology News, a French monthly newspaper. .....
The UPA government headed by Dr
Manmohan Singh is in the saddle at the Centre for the last one year and
it is time to assess its work as well as to appraise the performance of
Dr Manmohan Singh as a Prime Minister of the country during this year.
.....
The opportunistic falsification
of history has been one of the gravest and most persistent follies of the
Indian political leadership and intellectual elite. We demonise and iconise
at will, with no concern for facts or for reality, yielding to expediency
or the fashions of the moment. .....
The Scientologists' ulterior motives
were well and truly exposed when they were found distributing a 30 page
full color, propaganda booklet in Sinhala, titled, Santhoshayata Maga (The
Path to Joy) in Colombo suburbs, recently. Questions have also been raised
on their movements outside tsunami- affected areas, despite their pretence
of having come to aid tsunami victims. .....
There are several church bodies
which have perfected the art of slandering Hindus with finesse. They cloak
their motives by putting up a false concern for the Indians and in this
game a section of English print media offers its services, as if, without
any hesitation. .....
During his recent to Pakistan Sri
L.K. Advani seems to have stirred a hornet's nest by stating that Jinnah,
the founder of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was a secular figure who
wanted Pakistan to be a secular country. .....
By hook or by crook, politicians
want a permanent berth in the corridors of power. Elections are the most
important tool to achieve that goal. The CPI-M-led Left Front in West Bengal
has, by virtue of its long presence in the hot seat, been able to sharpen
this tool to near perfection. .....
It is a matter of shame that the
Marxists have earned the dubious distinction of reporting the highest number
of cases of trafficking in women. The state also tops the list for persecuting
old and young widows. This has been stated by Girija Vyas, chairperson
of the national Women's commission, who also pointed out that, after Delhi
and Maharastra, West Bengal recorded the third highest number of rapes
in the country. .....
Like so many Americans who like
to play "Indian", Indian-Americans too have been traversing America's sacred
landscape without connecting with the deeply held beliefs of its ancient
inhabitants, the American Indians. .....
If Assam Governor Lt Gen (Retd)
Ajay Singh's statement that about 6000 illegal Bangladeshis are entering
Assam daily is correct, then the fate of the north-east people are terribly
at stake. .....
A few days before Parliament's
Budget session came to an end, PTI circulated a story based on Minister
of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal's reply to a Rajya Sabha MP's
question on the 2002 riots in Gujarat. .....
For centuries, this 27-square-mile
town on the road from Delhi to Agra has been the holiest of holy places
for devotional Hindus. Drums, brass hand cymbals, and the chanting of ancient
prayers echo out each morning from Vrindavan's 5,000 temples. .....
Whereas sovereignty over the entire
Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised
by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred
trust .....
A French court just found three
writers for Le Monde, as well as the newspaper's publisher, guilty of "racist
defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. In a groundbreaking decision,
the Versailles court of appeal ruled that a comment piece published in
Le Monde in 2002, "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer," had whipped up anti-Semitic
opinion. .....
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Lal
Kishenchand Advani has kicked up a storm by calling Mohammed Ali Jinnah,
the founder of Pakistan, a man of impeccable secular credentials. The statement
made in Pakistan just a couple days after Advani dumped the Sangh Parivar's
'Akhand Bharat' theory, is being seen by some in his party and the Parivar
as a betrayal. .....
Gujarat chief minister Narendra
Modi almost hates the media. His complaint: today's media does not play
a constructive role; it is only out to look for 'stories' that sell rather
than the ones that help build a society. .....
Long a bastion of Catholicism,
southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers.
Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting
by the hundreds. The Mexican government is worried about a culture clash
in their own backyard. .....
Never-before-seen propaganda videos
obtained by ABC News showcase the intensely violent fighting and unique
difficulties that surround the hunt for Osama bin Laden in the remote tribal
areas of northwest Pakistan. .....
Komal Chheda is one among the hundreds
devotees from Mumbai who applied to go for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra
this year. He was told his spouse who was accompanying him would be allotted
the same batch. .....
There's one Narendra Modi, the
one whom the secularists and human-rights activists love to hate.
The state's communal record continues to haunt the BJP. But there
is also another Narendra Modi, the tough, efficient administrator who is
clearly making headway in his crusade to turn the state into a symbol of
Gujarati pride. .....
A widow who managed to survive
a decade-long boycott by the pro-CPM labour union in Kozhikode district
is in hospital following an alleged attempt on her life. .....
This statement is being issued
to clear the misunderstanding created by incorrect reporting in a section
of the media about the proceedings in the criminal case filed against me
by the TN Police in the Magistrate's Court in Kancheepuram. .....
The United Liberation Front of
Asom runs seven hotels of international standards in Dhaka, Chittagong
and Sylhet in Bangladesh and operates three bank accounts in that country,
the Border Security Force said on Friday. .....
The temple lands scam which rocked
the endowments department this week runs much deeper than seems on the
surface. Everything with regard to the sale of land belonging to the Seetharama
Chandra Swamy temple at Devarayamjal in Shaikpet mandal happened with the
full knowledge and approval of endowments minister M Satyanarayana Rao,
top sources said. .....
Once upon a time, a small Yarkandi
village stood guarding the entrance of a mighty glacier of the Karakoram
range. It was a meeting place for Balti traders to barter their goods with
Central Asian merchants. One day the Yarkandis decided to visit their southern
neighbours; they descended from the glacier, but before returning north,
they could not resist taking away a beautiful Balti girl. .....
The State Women's Commission has
sent notices to five local leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
on a petition by Valsa Sumithran of Koorachundu in the Kozhikode district,
the latest victim of the "ex-communication" policy of the Marxists. .....
When former chief minister A.K.
Antony foughta crucial assembly byelection from Tirurangadi in 1995, he
openly sought the support of the People's Democratic party (PDP). The PDP
was founded by Abdul Nasser Madhani after his Islamic Sevak Sangh was banned
in 1992. Antony justified his wooing of Madhani, claming that by associating
with a mainstream party like the Congress the demagogue would turn democrat.
.....
It is indeed surprising that Bharatiya
Janata Party president L.K. Advani, who betrayed the Hindus and the nation
while in office for six years, can speak the truth. .....
The autocratic attitude of the
UPA government towards its opponents has this time insulted crores of labourers
in the country. In an unprecedented and dictatorial decision, the Union
Labour Minister, K. Chandershekhar Rao, while violating all norms and existing
practices and even flouting the International Labour Organisation's (ILO)
guidelines, has nominated the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)
as the delegate to the 93rd ILO Annual Conference .....
DR Kiran Patel's largesse of donating
over $ 34 million to the University of South Florida, which makes him the
biggest individual donor to a US university, hasn't surprised this village,
where his father was born. .....
It could be the ultimate leveraged
buyout (LBO) of all time. With some two dozen MPs, Rashtriya Janata
Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav has taken over first the Indian Railways and
now the state of Bihar despite his party losing power in the last assembly
elections. .....
The Election Commission is attracting
more attention than usual these days. In the midst of the controversy raised
by bureaucrat L.V. Saptarishi's charges of bias against the present CEC
B.B. Tandon and his deputy N. Gopalaswami, political circles are abuzz
with the appointment of high-profile I&B secretary Navin Chawla to
the EC. .....
BJP on Saturday took exception
to the absence of Congress and UPA leaders at a function in Parliament
House to pay tribute to freedom fighter and Sangh Parivar icon Veer Savarkar
on his 122nd birth anniversary. .....
The Election Commission is attracting
more attention than usual these days. In the midst of the controversy raised
by bureaucrat L.V. Saptarishi's charges of bias against the present CEC
B.B. Tandon and his deputy N. Gopalaswami, political circles are abuzz
with the appointment of high-profile I&B secretary Navin Chawla to
the EC. .....
Gen. Pervez Musharraf's much-touted
initiative to showcase Islam's 'peaceful' face to the world has come a
cropper even before it could get off the ground. The Pakistani dictator
had entrusted Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Minister of State for Religious
Affairs, with the task of securing a unanimous fatwa (edict) from the clergy
of the various Islamic sects in the country to the effect that suicide
bombings in the name of Jehad were haraam (forbidden) .....
On the face of it, the report of
the Wadhwa Commission on the murder of the Australian missionary Graham
Staines and his two sons should have been very welcome to our secular friends.
.....
This piece is not meant to be about
petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and the way in which he treats the
PSUs under his administrative charge, but one can't really help it since
even the Central Vigilance Commission has been forced to comment on the
manner in which the petroleum ministry is running its PSUs. .....
Hindus want to stop Tribals from
getting a Catholic education so as to better control them, says the Bishop
of Amravati. Government and press are abetting the whole thing. "The authorities
should wake up; such episodes are the seed of a great tragedy", says human
rights activist. .....
The Quebec National Assembly yesterday
unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose "the establishment of so-called
Islamic tribunals in Quebec and in Canada," making the province the first
to explicitly ban the use of sharia law. .....
In a major success, police today
smashed a training centre of Hizbul Mujahideen killing five militants at
Sui Patyala, about 32 kms from Gandoh, bordering Himachal Pradesh, in Doda
district and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition. .....
The Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind on Sunday
demanded reservation for Muslims in Parliament, Legislative Assemblies
and Government jobs and extended support to the 'model nikahnama' prepared
by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. .....
There can be no two opinions that
monetary, intellectual and "other" resources would be required to fight
SDA (Seventh Day Adventists) in court and outside. Because SDA is represented
in legal matters by Nalini Chidambaram, wife of our Finance Minister, P.
Chidambaram. And I have enough authenticated papers that would give you
the kind of money SDA is rolling on. .....
Let's hear it for outrage to religion.
So goes my prayerful response to news that Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci
will be prosecuted on charges of "outrage to religion." Apparently, the
outspoken Fallaci, now in her 70s, has offended some disciples of Islam
with her book, " The Force of Reason," and, by Allah, they intend to see
she pays for it. At least they didn't shoot her. .....
Ghaziabad: Increasingly Ghaziabad,
Noida and some other western Uttar Pradesh (UP) districts are becoming
safe heavens for terrorists, striking in Delhi. While evidences and instances
in the recent past corroborate this fact, the police in the area deny this.
.....
The Election Commission is attracting
more attention than usual these days. In the midst of the controversy raised
by bureaucrat L.V. Saptarishi's charges of bias against the present CEC
B.B. Tandon and his deputy N. Gopalaswami, political circles are abuzz
with the appointment of high-profile I&B secretary Navin Chawla to
the EC. .....
Christian missionaries have added
a new dimension to the national debate over conversions with their objections
to an unexpected Judaic threat to their flock in the north-eastern states
of Mizoram and Manipur. .....
How did a nation of petty traders
that Britain at one time was, manage, in the space of a couple of centuries,
to conquer an entire sub-continent, heir to a great civilisation and trivialise
a magnificent tradition and lord it over a people with distressing ease?
Scores of books have been written on the subject. The story of India's
subjugation, slowly but surely, gradually but determinedly by the British
has a moral to tell. .....
One is amazed and deeply hurt that
the Chief Minister could not pick up hospitals owned and run by Hindus
for a tie up with a premier institution owned by one of the most sacred
temples of the Hindus. And the money for which comes from common Hindu
devotees. .....
I am in receipt of a slender book
"Hindu-Muslim Unity- Truth vs. Falsehood" further captioned 'For a Secular
and Harmonious India" with a portrait of Gandhiji on the cover. It is authored-cum-compiled
by Bharat Dogra and published by former Chief of Naval Staff Vishnu Bhagwat.
.....
It is the Congress that has engineered
most of the riots... Rajiv Gandhi failed to protect Harijans and Muslims...
Geographical boundaries of the country were jeopardised by the Congress
and Rajiv Gandhi..." .....
Pakistan's Punjab province is the
nerve centre of the jehad directed against India and nearly 50 per
cent of jehadis belong to this region, says a new book. .....
The Delhi High Court on Fridaycriticised
the Centre for maintaining silence over the ownership of the Jama Masjid
despite funding its maintenance but not declaring it a protected monument.
.....
In last week's column, I had quoted
the views of Gandhiji's Christian admirer, a British missionary, Father
Verrier Elwin's views, warning India about the dangers of the conversion
of hill tribes to Christianity which was being carried on with British
connivance for ulterior purposes by thousands of foreign missionaries.
.....
How to unite the Indian people
against the British-this was the task before the Indian National Congress
at the turn of the 20th century. For this, it drew on the experience of
the nationalist movement of Europe. .....
