by Deepak Kumar Rath
I exhaust all my energy to establish Bharatiya cultural traditions and
for this we instituted Patanjali Yoga Samiti in more than 500 districts
of the country, which has started its work. About 50,000 daily yoga classes
are held in the country, which in the next one year will cross to five
lakh. ......
by Arun Jaitely
Shri Arun Jaitely, initiating the discussion, said: The UPA Government
now has been in power for almost two-and-a-half years. There are several
fronts on which the Government has certainly not lived up to the popular
expectations. We have seen in the last two-and-a-half years gross Constitutional
improprieties committed for partisan reasons in Jharkhand, Goa and Bihar.
We have seen the dilution of the Prime Ministerial authority and the criminalization
of the Council of Ministers. ......
by Ramananda Sengupta
A senior Indian intelligence official has expressed concern over what
he described as the "dramatic increase" in Chinese attempts
to woo Indian politicians and business leaders with gifts, some of them
"phenomenally lavish." ......
by Sify.com
In unmistakable signals of the BJP playing its Hindutva card, senior party
leader Kalyan Singh on Tuesday said "Islamisation of politics"
would be the party's key plank in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
......
by Sandhya Jain
When Chinese envoy Sun Yuxi startled New Delhi by staking claim to the
North-Eastern State of Arunachal Pradesh on the eve of President Hu Jintao's
visit, he was simply reiterating the Middle Kingdom's practice of never
renouncing territorial claims. Chairman Mao had once graphically delineated
China's territorial vision with Tibet forming the palm and Nepal, Sikkim,
Bhutan, NEFA (Arunachal) and Ladakh its five fingers. ......
by Arif Mohammed Khan
The release of the Sachar committee report has prompted many including
the prime minister to express concern over the dismal presence of Muslims
in public services and call for some corrective action. ......
by Ajay Bose
UPA boss Sonia Gandhi appears to have firmly put the brakes on Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's economic and foreign policy agenda. Obviously, with an
eye to the Congress party's wider concern about its dwindling electoral
base, she has thought it fit to make a landmark vision statement at the
recent Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that considerably dilutes the
UPA regime's thrust to make India a global superpower in economic and
strategic terms. ......
by Umesh Mohite
A writ petition before the High Court division bench of Chief Justice
H. S. Bedi and Justice V. M. Kanade has revealed that anything is possible
when it comes to admissions in schools and colleges. It could go to such
level of desperation that students could fall prey to the ploy of bogus
trustees, get converted to Christianity so as to make them eligible to
avail management quotas, pay money and get admitted. ......
by Navin Upadhyay
Why is Govt dragging its feet on recovering huge tax dues? Damning allegation
involving a Vedanta group company is back to haunt Finance Minister P
Chidambaram. ......
by Saibal Dasgupta
Within months of its release, the first-ever Chinese version of the Mahabharata
sold out last December. The second edition of the six-volume translation
of the epic is now under print and would be out in a few weeks. ......
by Asian Voice
Northwood was always best known as a quiet corner of west London suburbia
but today it's been nicknamed Millionaires' Row for British Asians. Multi-million-pound
mansions with indoor pools, marble fittings and landscaping are replacing
their more modest predecessors. With some 20m people of Indian origin
living in 70 odd countries - including 1.2m in the UK - they remember
those still living in India with annual remittances of $12-$15bn. ......
by A M Shah
It is assumed that every caste and tribe included in the three categories
of backward classes (scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward
classes) has discrete social boundaries. ......
by The Times of India
Dubbing the Centre's decision to give Rs 7 lakh as compensation to victims
of post-Godhra communal riots as "discriminatory", chief minister
Narendra Modi has demanded that victims of all communal riots that took
place in Gujarat after 1984 and terrorist attacks across the country since
'84 also be considered for compensation. ......
by The Times of India
The second-most important man in Britain's Conservative Party has challenged
the UK and West's "lazy assumptions" that India, a country "with
low wages and high ambitions", would be content to do "cheap
things" and leave the West to "do the clever stuff" in
the age of globalisation. ......
by Vandita Mishra
Belaganj borders Gaya town and stops just 30-odd lean short of Bodh Gaya
which is famous, among other reasons, for being the one place in the state
where the hum of generators, so characteristic of Bihar towns, is barely
audible. In Bodh Gaya, they get that rare commodity - uninterrupted power
supply. ......
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
When Home Minister Shivraj Patil rang the alarm bell this week over threats
to critical installations and nuclear power stations, he had one reason:
as many as 51 spy rings involved in gathering information and details
on such installations have been busted in the past two years. ......
by Subhash Mishra
"Since the Pakistani education system could not accommodate the refugees,
the Government let religious schools serve as a cost-free alternative,
that over time, produced large numbers of half-educated men with no marketable
skills but with deeply held Islamic views."-National Commission on
9/11 Terrorist Attacks in the US, referring to the Deoband School as a
source of Islamic fundamentalism. ......
by The Times of India
Two Pakistani Christians have been sentenced to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment
and a fine of Rs 25,000 each for burning copies of the holy Quran. ......
by Daily News Analysis
Since time immemorial the Hindu culture has captivated a lot of foreigners
who have been influenced with its rich history and significance in human
life. ......
by Haindava Keralam
Hindu students taking vrutham for Sabarimala pilgrimage was barred from
entering a Government school here for wearing Black Dhothi as part of
the austerity one should follow as part of the pilgrimage.This Hindu bashing
was happened in Beypore Govt. High School in Kozhikode. ......
by Biswabrata Goswami
The Chakdah block developm-ent officer, Mr Sanjib Sarkar, who earned the
wrath of lo-cal CPI-M leaders during the last Assembly polls for purging
the voter list of bogus names, has been served a transfer order to take
cha-rge as BDO of Purulia-II block despite a Calcutta High Court hearing
being scheduled for 7 December on the issue. ......
by The Pioneer
The Chinese envoy's remarks on Arunachal Pradesh rocked the Parliament
on Friday with the BJP mounting a scathing attack on the Left parties
and charging the Government with mortgaging the foreign policy to CPM.
......
by Mara D. Bellaby
Holding candles and standing silent, thousands massed on a fog-shrouded
square Saturday to mourn 10 million Ukrainians killed by a famine orchestrated
by Soviet leader Josef Stalin - an ordeal many insisted must be recognized
as genocide. ......
by The Telegraph
Organisers of the North Bengal Book Fair here were forced to drop plans
of having it opened by author Taslima Nasreen in the face of protests
by some "fundamentalist organisations". ......
by The New Indian Express
In what is seen as the largest guerrilla attack in West Bengal, 80 Maoist
rebels torched eight vehicles and fired at a paramilitary camp and at
workers' huts for about two hours so as to scuttle a road project. ......
by Sumit Pande
The run-up to the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections seem to be
kicking up much storm, with political rivalries in the state overshadowing
all other concerns. ......
by The Times of India
Deep in the arid reaches of Kutch, thousands of women embroiderers are
ushering the vibrant colours of their folk craft into their once monochromatic
lives. For nearly four decades, Chanda Shroff, the 73-year-old founder
of Shrujan, an organisation scripting development for these craftswomen,
has worked relentlessly to revive the fading art, helping rural women
create sustainable income, find better markets, broaden their skill base,
and become entrepreneurs. ......
by University of Florida News
At the University of Florida, the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions
is working to change the way people view the third-largest religion in
the world. ......
by The Economic Times
Making an unusual departure from the government's 'existing laws are enough
to deal with terrorism' stance, Intelligence Bureau director ESL Narasimhan
on Thursday publicly pleaded with the prime minister for a "more
robust legal framework to deal with the new kinds of terror attacks."
......
by Subodh Ghildiyal & Vishwa Mohan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday had to duck a strong pitch for
an effective anti-terror law by Intelligence Bureau chief E S L Narasimhan.
......
by Ram Madhav
"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangham believes in the age-old Hindu
dictum of the supremacy of dharma over the supremacy of the king/emperor.
Its Hindu rashtra is essentially a 'dharmocratic' idea - superior to the
popular political idea of democracy." ......
by Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The BJP on Thursday intensified its attack on the UPA Government for its
"intriguing hesitation" on contradicting China's claim on Arunachal
Pradesh and sought a unanimous resolution expressing a sense of Parliament
that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. ......
by Rediff.com
Families of security personnel who died in the 2001 terrorist attack on
Parliament on Friday said they would return the posthumous bravery medals
to President A P J Abdul Kalam if the government did not reject clemency
pleas for death row convict Mohammad Afzal by December 13. ......
by Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
Unidentified militants on Tuesday killed a junior engineer of J&K
Power Development Department, (PDD) Bashir Ahmad Tantray, who had converted
to Christianity ignoring threats from Islamic radical groups. ......
by The Pioneer
Chinese President Hu Jintao had a piece of advice for the Indian Communists:
Be pragmatic. With China embracing the market economy, Hu told a delegation
of Left leaders who came to call on him to adopt a "more pragmatic"
approach in this era of globalisation that provides immense scope for
economic prosperity. ......
by Anirudh Bhattacharyya
Salman Rushdie has recently been in the news for donating his papers to
Emory University, where he will also teach for four weeks every year.
But as he prepares to enter the world of academia, plans his next novel
and a possible autobiography, he is also engaged with the issue of militant
Islam. ......
by KR Phanda
India is perhaps the only country in the world where political leaders
openly pursue divisive and anti-national policies and yet they are not
prosecuted. The latest case in point is the demand for reservation for
Muslims in Government jobs. ......
by The Times of India
Unable to recruit young people from Assam for its operations, the banned
Ulfa was now recruiting poor Bangladeshi youths into its ranks for acts
of terrorism in the country, according to intelligence sources. ......
by The Telegraph
State transport and sports minister Subhas Chakraborty raised a security
alarm here today. RDX was suspected to have been used in the Monday blast,
Chakraborty said after a visit to the Belakoba station this morning. ......
by Parwez Hafeez
The West Bengal government on Tuesday issued a notification saying 15
per cent of the state's budgetary expenditure must be for the benefit
and welfare of the minorities. ......
by Wilson John
India's counter-terrorism strategies are skewed, thanks to policy-makers
who refuse to look beyond the secured confines of Raisina Hill. Those
who hail the Havana agreement and the subsequent decision to set up a
joint terror mechanism with Pakistan suffer acutely from this fatal myopia.
They are either purblind or half-wits if they don't understand that Pakistan
has not only changed the rules of the game but the game itself. ......
by Simon Robinson
You have probably never heard of Essel Propack but there's a fair chance
you have squeezed one of its products. The Bombay company is the largest
manufacturer of laminated tubes in the world. Most toothpaste these days
is packaged in such tubes and one-third of global supply comes from Essel
Propack's 20 factories in 13 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and
North and South America. ......
by MSN News
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has raised the issue of alleged harassment
of Kazakh Hindus with the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
at a meeting here. ......
by IBNLive.com
Forced to wear yellow patches in the days of the Taliban, the homesick
Sikhs of Afghanistan still hide in back alleys and yearn for India. ......
by Adam Brodsky
Muslims are often accused of not speaking out sufficiently against terrorism.
Nonie Darwish knows one reason why: Their fellow Muslims won't let them.
......
by Manjula Ramakrishnan
He is a senior scientist working in CSIR, Trivandrum and Honorary Director
for Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage. He has amassed a host of
academic qualifications that ranges from Masters in pharmaceutical chemistry,
industrial sociology and journalism, all the way up to a D Lit in Sanskrit.
He has earned these accolades for studying Indian Scientific Heritage,
for this is his area of passion. ......
by Dennis Wagner and Tom Zoellner
Arizona appears to have been the home of a "sleeper cell" of
Osama bin Laden's worldwide terrorist organization, with a select group
of operatives living quietly in bland apartment complexes and obtaining
flight training in preparation for the Sept. 11 attacks. ......
by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
A Norwegian-based religious-freedom group reported that authorities in
southern Kazakhstan today began the demolition of the only Hare Krishna
commune in the former Soviet Union. ......
by Santanu Banerjee
Even as the Left parties have decided to ask the UPA Government to come
up with a definite action plan to address the findings and recommendations
of the Sachar Committee report on the backwardness of the Muslim community,
Big Brother CPI(M) is concerned about the skeleton in its own cupboard
that the committee has exposed. ......
by Aryn Baker
Like many other universities around the world, Punjab University in Lahore
is a tranquil oasis far removed from the rest of society. But to Westerners,
there's little else about Punjab U. that seems familiar. Walk around the
leafy-green 1,800-acre campus, and you will encounter nothing that resembles
frivolous undergraduate behavior. Musical concerts are banned, and men
and women are segregated in the dining halls. ......
by The Pioneer
Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz on Monday said he is not
in favour of the Sachar committee recommendation recognising degrees provided
by madarsas. ......
by The Pioneer
At least fifteen persons were killed and around 51 injured in a powerful
explosion triggered by suspected extremists in a general compartment of
a passenger train when it halted at Belakhoba station in Jalpaiguri district
in North Bengal on Monday evening. ......
by Krishnakumar
A Buddhist monk, a Christian, a Muslim and a Hindu from various parts
of Bangladesh came together in India to highlight the plight of the minorities
in the Islamic country. ......
by The Economic Times
The Left which is competing with other 'secular' parties for getting the
UPA government act on the Sachar committee report, is now confronted with
a sobering thought: The report has identified Left-controlled West Bengal
as a laggard and its rivals may use this to question the Communists' commitment
for the welfare of the minorities. ......
by Khajuria S. Kant
Due to the efforts of Bajrang Dal and Nabhadas Sabha, all the Hindus who
had converted to Christianity because of certain inducements, returned
to their original faith during an Atamshudhikaran ceremony (Home Coming)
programme at Kathua in Jammu. Amidst havan and chanting of Vedic mantras,
the 42 families who were converted to Christianity returned to Hinduism.
......
by Omer Farooq
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's fears about Congress' machinations to lure
voters in Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency through money and other gifts
came 'true' on Tuesday when a group of its activists foiled one such bid.
......
by Varghese K George
The parliamentary standing committee on education is set to recommend
a survey of Backward Castes in order to ascertain the "relative backwardness
of BCs," and subsequently ensure that the benefits of reservation
go to the "genuinely deserving, who would be handicapped without
it." ......
by The Times of India
When the Air-India Kanishka flight from Toronto to Delhi was blown up
mid-air in June 1985, killing 329 passengers, Vancouver Sun journalist
Kim Bolan knew whose handiwork it was, because she was covering the pro-Khalistan
violence at that time. Amid death threats, she investigated the plot.
......
by The Pioneer
Over a thousand madarsa students, annoyed over a Congress street play
depicting the beard of a Muslim political leader being pulled off, had
held a protest rally with the Pakistani flag in Assam's Nagaon district.
......
by Haindava Keralam
Ever since my return from Ahmedabad and after the Cabinet meeting the
same day which I had to attend at practically 15 minutes notice and for
which I regret I was not able to read all the papers, I thought I should
share with you what is passing through my mind. ......
by Joginder Singh
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing the conference of State
Minorities Commissions in the first week of November, called for a fair
share for minorities in Central, State Government and private sector jobs.
Before we ponder the statement, it is important to be clear as to what
constitutes a minority community. ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
Ever since Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh decided that
brazenness was the only road to relevance, quotas and reservations have
come to dominate the social agenda of the Congress Party and, by implication,
the UPA Government. ......
by Afternoon Despatch & Courier
To curb corruption at religious places, the government of Maharashtra
has decided to take over all religious shrines through a new legislation.
According to senior government officials the proposed 'Religious Shrines,
Places and Temple Regulations', will add Rs. 40,000 crore to the government's
coffer. But this law is likely to create resentment as it finds no mention
about the Aukaf Land. ......
by The Statesman
He lived a short life of 22 years, but for others. Roshan Rai of 11 Gorkha
Rifles turned out to be a true disciple of his father and died battling
for the country. The 22- year-old sepoy died during a counter-insurgency
operation in Gulgam forest in Kupwara (Kashmir) on 15 November. ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
The media is a dog-eat-dog profession. Nevertheless, I must record my
heartfelt admiration of the Indian Express for recording the lives of
187 Indians who were blown to death in Mumbai on July 11. The profiles
are revealing - a student who had just secured admission to an American
college, a small-time insurance salesman, someone who just moved into
his new flat, a woman who supplemented the family's income to give her
children a better life and a man who thought he was through with commuter
trains. ......
by The Pioneer
Medha Patkar has lost the fight to stop the Sardar Sarovar Project, but
her troubles are far from over. The high-profile leader of Narmada Bachao
Andolan could land in trouble for misleading the court that she never
accepted any foreign funds. ......
by Utpal Kumar
A few years ago, when a survey was conducted to find out the most popular
leader in the country, very few were astonished at Indira Gandhi being
the one, thanks to her domineering political legacy. What, however, came
as surprise was the low acceptability level of Jawaharlal Nehru - the
man who once ruthlessly dominated Indian politics and was seen as a "link"
between "the mass and the class" even by his critics like Nirad
C Chaudhury. ......
by Priyadarsi Dutta
Daniel Pipes in his article, "US's unilateral concessions" (November
13), has quoted from the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship", signed
at Tripoli (November 4, 1796) and Algiers (January 3, 1797) to demonstrate
how the US had made friendly gestures towards Islamic states from its
earliest days. ......
by Jagmohan
No one in modern India has achieved so much in such a short time as Sardar
Patel did. On his birth anniversary on October 31, it should be both timely
and instructive to recall his many-splendoured contribution in various
arenas of public life, particularly when the country has lost the constructive
impulse for which Patel was justifiably famous. ......
by Mary Tan
Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, a practicing Hindu, was re-elected in District
50 last week on the Democratic ticket, netting 63 percent of the vote.
But rather than placing a call to concede the race, his Republican opponent
Rae Hart Anderson instead offered him an e-mail concession that he said
read like an attempt to convert his religious beliefs. ......
by Nadia O. Gaber
I went to Egypt this summer to learn how to speak Arabic. What I learned
instead was how to cover up, to be invisible, to preserve my "moral
reputation." ......
by B Raman
I joined the Indian Intelligence Bureau on July 17, 1967. After my training,
R N Kao, who headed the external intelligence division of IB, told me
that I had been selected to head the Burma Branch of IB. The branch was
created after the Sino-Indian war of 1962, and he considered it as important
as the branches dealing with Pakistan and China. ......
by Rediff.com
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said the recent killing by extremists
of an Indian engineer K Suryanaryana and Border Roads Organisation driver
Maniappan Kutty working in his country was orchestrated from "beyond"
Afghanistan. ......
by Mayank Chhaya
Hindi movie couple Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi believe Indian Muslims
have the potential to be the torchbearer at a time when the Islamic world
is in ferment. Poet and lyricist Akhtar and actor Azmi, currently touring
the US with their highly acclaimed theatre production, "Kaifi Aur
Main", said that Muslims in India held out a great hope for the rest
of the community in the world because they had learned to negotiate through
demands of a democracy. ......
by Robert F. Moore
That's not a pregnant belly - that's a bomb. The NYPD is warning business
owners to be on the lookout for female jihadists who can hide explosives
by faking pregnancy or sweet-talk their way past security officers. ......
by Claude Arpi
When President Hu Jintao lands in Delhi, India and China will not only
celebrate the conclusion of a Year of Friendship, but also another memorable
event. ......
by B N Shukla
Indeed, the subsidy should be withdrawn. First, because it's against constitutional
norms and second because it's increasing the gap between the Muslims and
people of other faith. Articles 14, 15 and 17 of the Constitution provide
equal status to all Indians. ......
by Brendan Montague
No one who saw Angela Donald giving her dignified statement that "justice
had been done" outside the High Court in Edinburgh as the racist
murderers of her 15-year-old son were jailed last week could feel anything
but sympathy. For Margaret Massey there was more, though - a sense of
fellow-feeling and anger. ......
by Mark Mazzetti
As radical Islam spreads globally through online forums and chat rooms,
a group of obscure Arab religious thinkers may come to exert more influence
over the jihadist movement than Osama bin Laden and other well-known leaders
of Al Qaeda, a research group at the United States Military Academy has
concluded. ......
by Rupert Shortt
Why is the Muslim sense of victimhood so inflated, given that many Muslim
societies won't put their own houses in order? And why is this double
standard downplayed so much in Britain? ......
by Mumbai Mirror
India's first High Commissioner in Pakistan Sri Prakash had reportedly
told Lord Mountbatten that "for the sake of peace all around,"
the "best thing" India could do was to hand over Kashmir to
Pakistan, a proposal turned down by Jawaharlal Nehru. ......
by BBC News
A banned cleric is still preaching support for terrorism to young British
Muslims by appearing incognito on the internet, the BBC has learned. ......
by Kevin Mooney
Western policymakers need to "undertake a systematic study"
of Islamic theology and law before they can understand the goals and motives
of terrorists who are working to subjugate or convert non-Muslim populations,
a scholar on Islam told a gathering in Washington on Tuesday. ......
by Vikram Dodd
British intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to
attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday. The announcement,
from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing
for the media, was the latest in a series of bleak assessments by senior
officials and ministers about the terrorist threat facing Britain. ......
by JS Rajput
The vindictive hype of 'detoxification', 'de-saffronisation' and 'de-Talibanisation'
of education seems over. Those who fought against the removal of nine
'controversial, distorted and incorrect' passages from history textbooks
in 2001 are in the process of removing 75 passages. History repeats itself.
This unprecedented U-turn is not unexpected for those pronounced 'guilty'
of 'communalising school education in India' like this writer. ......
by Narain Kataria
Does Militant Islam pose a serious threat to liberal democracies? Should
we believe in the sanctimonious rhetoric that Islam is a peaceful religion?
Has the "Clash of Civilization" already taken roots? Should
Muslim immigration be stopped to democratic countries? Why 95% of the
terrorist activities are conducted by the adherents of Islam? ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
Now that we have waved our little tricolours on Independence Day and got
all inspired by Aamir Khan doing his Mangal Pandey number, Parliament
of India is going to meekly acquiesce in one of the most brazen acts of
national subversion. I am referring to a legislation that in all fairness
should be called the Corruption Guarantee Scheme rather than the Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (REGA). ......
by Andhra Bhumi Daily
Madugula is a village in Visakapatnam district. Roman Catholic Mission
is running an upper primary school for girl students. Most of the students
are Hindu families. ......
by Swapan Das Gupta
There are few things as demeaning as nation-states being engulfed in hyphenated
relationships. For more than five decades, until information technology
injected a new dimension, India was trapped into a hyphenated relationship
with Pakistan. India's status as the dominant, stable and democratic power
of South Asia was constantly undermined by the strategic community's invocation
of the India-Pakistan problem. ......
by Rajeev Ranjan Roy
BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday accused the UPA Government of drawing
the roadmap for 'communal reservation' in the garb of former Karnataka
Chief Minister Veerappa Moily's advocacy of quota for Muslims and Christians
even after such attempts were rejected by the courts in the past. ......
by Dr. Dipak Basu
Balochistan, along with the North West Frontier Province (N.W.F.P) are
the victims of an imaginary line, called Durand Line, which was described
by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president as the "line of Evil".
In deed that line signifies both the British and Pakistani imperialism
that have subjugated the Baluchs and the Pushtuns. ......
by The Times of India
Some of the mist over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise of "fair
share" for minorities in government jobs could be lifting. Congress
on Monday took ownership of proposals for quota benefits for Dalit Muslims
and Christians aired by two senior Congress leaders A R Antulay and Veerappa
Moily. ......
by The Milli Gazette
Shariah Protection Council, a Chennai-based organisation on Shariah, conducted
a statewide sample survey on the AIMPLB's model Nikahnama in May. A total
of 2,672 persons were interviewed. Muslims as well as people of other
religions, people of different age groups, and with differing educational
levels were covered in the survey. People both from urban and rural areas,
and with differing marital status were also interviewed. ......
by NewsInsight.net
What position must India take in the foreign secretary level talks tomorrow
and the day after? One of caution, but be prepared for the worst. Here's
why. A critical environment change has come from the Republican defeat
in the United States and the Democrats' control of Congress. There is
a new defence secretary, Robert Gates. He is a pragmatist, a team player,
unlike his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who was a unilateralist. ......
by The Hindu
Terming reservation on the basis of religion against the spirit of the
Constitution, BJP today made clear that it would oppose any move of the
Congress-led UPA Government to introduce reservation for Muslim community.
......
by Haindava Keralam
Criticising a fatwa issued by a cleric asking Muslims not to administer
polio drops to their children, Gujarat Health Minister Ashok Bhatt today
said this could affect the mass vaccination drive in the country. ......
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
Setting the stage for the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan,
India passed on the passport and other identification details of Mohammed
Fahad - the Pakistani militant nabbed in Mysore - last week and is now
expecting a response at the talks starting tomorrow. It's learnt that
Pakistan, meanwhile, has also asked for consular access to verify Indian
claims. ......
by Joanna Pitman
As India prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from British rule
next year, the Royal Academy is putting on a series of small, culturally
specific exhibitions designed to display something of the extraordinary
variety and wealth of the country's history and art of. The first of these,
which opens on Saturday, features 30 cast bronze sculptures from the region
in the far south known as Tamil Nadu. ......
by Sean O'Neill
The most significant al-Qaeda terrorist to be captured in Britain was
sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday and ordered to serve a minimum
of 40 years. ......
by Nick Cohen
On the morning of 1 October, 2002, Wolfgang Daschner, deputy chief of
police in Frankfurt-am-Main, gazed at Magnus Gaefgen, a law student and
the prime suspect for the kidnapping of the 11-year-old son of a Rhineland
banker. The policeman was certain he knew where the boy was, but Gaefgen
refused to talk and had every reason to maintain his right to silence.
......
by Jeremy Seabrook
A country torn by a low-intensity cultural civil war has seen at least
25 people die in this conflict in the last 10 days; its capital city is
strewn with overturned cycle rickshaws, rocks and broken glass. A tense
and watchful calm has since returned to Dhaka, one of the fastest-growing
cities in the world, although sporadic violence continues in some outlying
districts. ......
by Declan Walsh
Five years ago today the Taliban vanished from Kabul and a liberated city
exploded with joy. As the turbaned Islamists scurried, whooping residents
rushed on to the streets. Men queued to have their beards shaved, some
women removed their burkas and Radio Kabul played music for the first
time in years - announced by a woman. There was savage vengeance too -
some Taliban stragglers were lynched and dumped on the roadside. ......
by Easwaran Nambudiri
Muslims across India are severely under-represented in government employment,
including PSUs, compared to the percentage of their population in a state.
......
by The Pioneer
A premier US think-tank has cautioned India against "more spectacular
attacks" by terrorists, saying such incidents could also create "bigger
problems" for Pakistan than it could handle. ......
by The Pioneer
The army officials guarding Siachen are opposing the issue of demilitarising
the glacier in the course of talks of resolving the confrontation between
India and Pakistan on the world's highest battlefield issue. ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
Those who have read William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal, a masterly reconstruction
of the final days of the Timurid dynasty, would have noticed something
odd about the rag-tag court of Bahadur Shah Zafar: The near-total absence
of Hindus. ......
by Claude Arpi
Finally India has a full time Foreign Minister. Observers thought that
a new Minister had taken over in South Block when they heard that CPI(M)
polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury left for a seven-day Beijing trip
to 'prepare' for President Hu Jintao's visit to India. ......
by Abraham Thomas
Not long after the Government declared in Supreme Court that Shariat courts
exist in the country as "alternate dispute resolution" mechanisms,
doubts are beginning to surface on the motive behind its claim. ......
by Rediff.com
Irked by the posting of several Indian-origin diplomats by the United
States and Britain in their embassies in this country, Pakistan has reportedly
asked Washington and London to avoid appointing such officials to "sensitive
posts". ......
by Vijay Thakur
The Ulfa is now sourcing its "ground force" from neighbouring
Bangladesh as it is unable to recruit committed cadres from the local
populace, say security agencies, who have been closely watching this new
trend of "outsiders" joining the Ulfa. ......
by The Patriot Post
Responding to breaking news of the thwarted Jihadi attacks against a dozen
commercial flights from Great Britain to the United States this week,
President George W. Bush did the unthinkable: He described the would-be
killers in accurate terms. ......
by The Patriot Post
The Cold War nuclear threat may have subsided with the collapse of the
Soviet Union, but The Long War, our campaign to secure the U.S. and our
national interests and allies against Islamist terror, is heating up.
Also on the rise is the risk of nuclear attack on Western targets. Albeit
limited in scope, such attacks are much more probable now than during
the Cold War. Preventing nuclear attack is more difficult today because
our Jihadi foes are asymmetric rather than symmetric entities. ......
by The Patriot Post
In the 1990s, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was a new
sense of security in the West, particularly in the U.S. But the Free World
had unwittingly traded the Cold War for the Long War -- "unwittingly"
because after eight years of the Clinton administration's national security
malfeasance, and eight months of the newly installed Bush administration's
effort to reorder national priorities, most Americans were unaware that
a deadly enemy had coalesced in our midst. ......
by The Patriot Post
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against
terror. We've removed an ally of al-Qa'ida and cut off a source of terrorist
funding, and this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons
of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.
... Our war against terror is proceeding according to principles that
I have made clear to all: Any person involved in committing or planning
terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this
country and a target of American justice. ......
by The Patriot Post
The first constitutional responsibility of any U.S. President is to our
national security. In the event that our vital national interests are
threatened, the President has the authority to commit armed forces to
protect those interests. ......
by The Australian
Three Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy"
by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines
jihadists, a court heard yesterday.The girls' severed heads were dumped
in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi
province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks.
......
by Jihad Watch
Why do Muslim terrorists attack in Jammu-Kashmir? Because they can. The
Muslim claim to Kashmir differs from their claim to all of India (or for
that matter to Spain (Al-Andalus), to Israel, to Sicily, to the Balkans,
to Bulgaria, to Rumania, to Hungary, and to all the areas once dominated
by Muslims) only in the ability to push that claim. ......
by Wilson John
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been a really clever dictator,
successfully hiding from the world his regime's gross human rights abuses.
While former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death
for killing and torturing his own countrymen, the international community
seems blind to the atrocities committed by their "staunch ally"
in the war on terrorism. ......
by Balbir K. Punj
Pressure is being mounted to upturn the Supreme Court's recent verdict
on a number of constitution amendments that the "creamy layer"
in SC/STs be kept out of the promotion within their quotas in public employment.
From all indications Government would cave in despite its own doubts,
for the simple reason that the parties in the UPA do not want to be perceived
as "anti-reservation" whatever that means. ......
by M.V. Kamath
On October 8, Hindustan Times carried a shocking story. It said that "convent-educated
Pune faith healer Sohail Sheikh was asked by the chief of Pakistan's Inter
Services Intelligence (ISI) to tail and 'bump off' BJP leader L.K. Advani".
......
by John Cheeran
What's wrong with Muslims in Kerala? Muslims in India are considered to
be a economically weaker section. They are poor, and largely illiterate.
The leaders of Muslim community would like us to believe that a Hindu-majority
state is responsible for the pathetic condition of Muslims, conveniently
ignoring the past of Mughal emperors. Think Taj Mahal! ......
by Easwaran Nambudiri
Muslims across India are severely under-represented in government employment,
including PSUs, compared to the percentage of their population in a state.
......
by Rosie Dimanno
Oh, this is rich: a defence of the veil as feminist prerogative. What
next - promotion of the chastity belt as post-feminist birth control?
Events thousands of miles away, in England, are resonating here in Canada,
in yet another round of politicized and polarizing debate over the alleged
"otherness" of pious Muslims, the purported unwillingness of
some to accept the secular status quo of the Western societies in which
they reside. ......
by Michael Coren
Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not
the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters
of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western
world that enable him to move freely. This medical doctor, author and
activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for
"the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. ......
by C Raja Mohan
The government's decision to express concern at the death sentence handed
to the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might please the domestic
pressure groups, including the Communist parties, but would do little
to ease India's deepening diplomatic contradictions in the Gulf. ......
by Haindava Keralam
In one of the biggest land fraud in the State a plantation company Harrisons
Malayalam Ltd had sold the Government forest land of 3.500 acres to the
most infamous Pentecost Missionary gospel for Asia, based in US ran by
a fanatic K P Yohanan. ......
by Jean-Baptiste Piggin
A Muslim woman who sits in the German parliament has been given a police
bodyguard after she received death threats over her public appeal for
other Muslims to abandon headscarves. ......
by Mohit Kandhari
Six weeks after a class 12 student, Shamima Akhter, was strangulated to
death by local militants after she refused to marry Hizbul Mujahideen
militant Manzoor Ahmad alias Furkan, the same group of militants attacked
her house late Saturday evening in Manglogi village in Udhampur district
killing four other members of her family in cold blood. ......
by Hari Jaisingh
Some of the startling disclosures of the Sachar Committee and estimates
of the 61st round of the NSSO survey on the extent of deprivation of the
Muslim community in Indian society are bound to throw up sensitive and
controversial issues as well as non-issues. This need not be a point of
concern. ......
by Malaysia Kini
A top finance industry official has drawn fire after reportedly forbidding
Muslims from delivering Hindu festive greetings to ethnic Indians. Fauzi
Mustaffar, head of the Islamic law department at insurance company Takaful
Malaysia, issued the warning to the staff ahead of this month's Deepavali
festival, the Star Daily reported. ......
by The Times of India
Chinese officials in Kathmandu are trying to track down and silence the
hundreds of western climbers and sherpas who witnessed the killing of
Tibetan refugees on the Nangpa La mountain pass last week. ......
by Preetam Srivastava
Cashing in on anti-India sentiments of some misguided Muslims, the Maoists
have offered to train them and even launched a new Muslim outfit. At a
recent meeting, they also thrashed out a blueprint to divert terrorist
activity in India through Nepal. In pursuit of this, of late, ISI masterminds
and Maoists have held meetings. ......
by Jeremy Page
Forget the call centre in Bangalore or the software laboratory in Hyderabad.
If you're looking for the good life, join the Indian Army today! ......
by Melbourne Herald Sun
A senior Church of England cleric whose father converted from Islam has
attacked the world view of some Muslims, accusing them of incompatible
double standards of "victimhood and domination". ......
by The Telegraph
The Bangladeshi jihadi group responsible for the serial blasts in that
country in August last year has made inroads into the Northeast, Assam
police chief D.N. Dutt revealed today. ......
by Charles Krauthammer
Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god,
invariably have one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about
themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well. ......
by Ananthakrishnan G
In A controversial move, the UPA government has defended the Darul Qaza
or Shariat courts in the Supreme Court, saying their existence posed no
challenge to the country's judicial system. In an affidavit filed in the
court, the Centre even defended the "jaziya tax" imposed by
Aurangazeb as a mere "special tax" which non-Muslims had to
pay for failing to render military service. ......
by Sukumar Mahato
Raped on knife point in front of her four children, while her husband,
a mason, was away to Bangalore on work, there wasn't much Rehna (name
changed) could do on the night of July 25. The ordeal that started then
for the woman continues to haunt her life till now, making her a victim
of one wrong after another. ......
by The Times of India
The supreme court on Tuesday green-lighted the controversial 2001 policy
decision of the NDA government to divest its shares in the loss-making
Ashok Group of Hotels, for which then disinvestment minister Arun Shourie
had drawn flak from Congress and Left. ......
by Suman Layak
Giving it up or grabbing it all, nothing works in business if done mechanically
Families that own businesses must not set rigid rules about succession,
says Nigel Nicholson, professor at London Business School and a researcher
of family-owned businesses. ......
by The Economic Times
Super-rich Indians in Britain are transforming a London suburb into what
has been described as a 'Millionaires Row', where most properties are
being bought by Indians who have prospered in business and other walks
of life. ......
by The Times of India
Alone and palely loitering behind the glittering classical dances at the
ongoing Festival of India at Brussels is the forgotten shade that wrote
the first modern book on the subject, Gesture Language of the Hindu Dance.
She "was serious and painstaking, the first to found a serious school
for a systemised training of Indian dance, particularly Bharata Natyam,"
says dance scholar Dr Kapila Vatsyayan. And 'she' was a beautiful American.
......
by Claude Arpi
Lately many pleas have been made that Mohammed Afzal Guru's execution
should be stayed because his death 'could fuel separatism in Jammu &
Kashmir.' ......
by Aziz Haniffa
The US Commission on International Religion Freedom slammed Bangladesh
for continuing persecution of minority Hindus. It also urged the Bush
administration to get Dhaka to ensure protection of religious freedom
and minority rights before the next national elections in January. ......
by Mark Sappenfield
For a decade, India's economy has played the same hit song, stuck on repeat:
The service sector - anchored by information technology - generates 50
percent of the nation's wealth. Meanwhile, manufacturing has been dismissed
with a snort. India was too inefficient, too bureaucratic, too underdeveloped.
.....
by Jeff Jacoby
Australia's foremost Muslim cleric triggers an uproar when he likens women
who don't wear an Islamic headscarf to "uncovered meat" and
blames them for attracting sexual predators. "If you take out uncovered
meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or the park
. . . and the cats come and eat it," says Sheik Taj al-Din Hilali,
"whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? If [the woman]
was in her room, in her home, in her headscarf, no problem would have
occurred." .....
by David Selbourne
With the US heading towards a painful defeat in Iraq, the Taliban reconstituted,
Iran proceeding on its nuclear path, the 'democratisation' of Islamic
states a no-hoper and the liberties taken by Muslims of the diaspora on
the increase, Islam nevertheless continues to be misperceived. .....
by B. Raman
The Karnataka Police has announced the arrest in Mysore of two Pakistani
terrorists belonging to Al Badr, a Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisation,
after an exchange of fire when they were moving on a motorcycle. They
have given out their names as Mohd Ali Hussain and Mohd Fahad. Two constables
and a terrorist suffered minor injuries in the exchange of fire. .....
by WorldNetDaily.com
Paul Williams, author of "Osama's Revenge" and a new book, "The
Al Qaeda Connection," has stirred a national controversy with his
reporting on the imminent nuclear terror threat posed by Osama bin Laden.
In this exclusive dispatch, first published in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin,
he reveals the connections between Pakistan's nuclear mastermind and Osama
bin Laden's plans for an "American Hiroshima." .....
by Rowan Scarborough
The U.S. military is not only trying to stop terrorists and arms from
leaking into Iraq from Syria and Iran but also another just as dangerous
commodity -- cash. .....
by Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Pakistani terrorist groups which are active in Bangladesh are understood
to have opened a second front to infiltrate into India through West Bengal
and then spread across the entire country. .....
by TS Girishkumar
When I was shifting to Kerala, some of my friends joked; my God, you are
planning to go to Kerala, and beware, that place is full of Malayalees!
But let me confess; it never occurred to me that things could be so bad,
and I shall have to live in a sick society such as this. .....
by Haindava Keralam
The city well-known as the literacy hub of Kerala received a novel experience
on the occasion of Mathru shakti samellan. Thousands of women dressed-up
in traditional Kerala attire lined up to demonstrate that they are the
moral strength of the Hindu society. The sammelan was conducted as a part
of the on going birth centenary of Shri Guruji Golwalker, the much revered
thinker and the second sar sanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh.
.....
by V Sundaram
Eknath Ranade was a man of tremendous vision and right from day one he
had planned to achieve two inseparable objectives. The first major objective
was to complete the work of installation of Vivekananda Rock Memorial
at Kanyakumari. This work was started in 1964 and completed on September
2nd 1970 when the memorial was dedicated to the nation by V V Giri, the
President of India. .....
by V Sundaram
After clearing up all the political obstacles on the path of his goal
of speedy construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari,
Eknath Ranade saw to it that construction activity at the site began in
a methodical and organised manner. On 6 November, 1964, the first stone
was cut. Eknath Ranade was a man of tremendous faith in his chosen mission,
in God Almighty, in Guruji Golwalkar and Dr Hedgewar. .....
by V Sundaram
The Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari was inaugurated in 1970.
The construction of this memorial started in January 1964 and was completed
in 1970. Whenever we think of Benaras Hindu University, the only name
that comes to our mind is that of its chief Viswakarma Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya. .....
by Ninemsn.com.au
The head of spy agency ASIO says he was shocked by the magnitude of the
home-grown terrorist threat facing Australia when he took charge of the
organisation. .....
by The Hindi
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter revealed on Friday that he had to sign
a personal undertaking that an international charity, Habitat for Humanity,
would not engage in religious conversion activities, before the group
was allowed to build houses for the poor in India. Mr. Carter said he
had given this undertaking to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. .....
by Giraldus Cambrensis
The information comes in a document published on Sunday, extracted from
a review of an Indian government study of Muslim welfare by the Justice
Rajinder Sachar committee. India's population is 84% Hindu, and the remaining
population is 13% Muslim and 2.4% Christian. Yet prison statistics show
that this ratio is not preserved in India's jails. .....
by Joby Warrick
In December 2001, as the investigation into the U.S. anthrax attacks was
gathering steam, coalition soldiers in Afghanistan uncovered what appeared
to be an important clue: a trail of documents chronicling an attempt by
al-Qaeda to create its own anthrax weapon. .....
by Deccan Herald
Hitting back at Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former External Minister
K Natwar Singh today said she was behind his recent problems with the
Enforcement Directorate in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam and attacked her
foreign origins. .....
by The Telegraph
Chhat Puja celebrations in the Assam capital turned macabre this evening
as twin explosions ripped through the banks of the Brahmaputra at Soonsali,
killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring 12 others. .....
by KPS Gill
It is truly astonishing that a man who has lied so often and so obviously
on the subject, should still be constantly sought out for his opinion
and assessment on the course of terrorism in the South Asian region and,
in fact, the world. It is, moreover, incomprehensible that world leaders
still tolerate, acquiesce in, and even encourage this man's continuous
mendacity, his baseless boasting, and his incessant and false posturing.
.....
by Isambard Wilkinson
Taliban militias in Pakistan have set up offices, introduced taxes and
taken control of justice in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, where
last month the government signed a peace agreement with militants. .....
by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Somali Islamists have begun recruiting thousands of young fighters to
fight a jihad against Ethiopia, officials said Wednesday, amid fears of
all-out war across the lawless Horn of Africa nation. .....
by The Taipei Times
Two Islamic militants jailed for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people
were freed yesterday and nine others had their sentences reduced to mark
the end of the Islamic fasting month, officials said. .....
by P R Ramesh
Mumbai police deserve appreciation for getting the Prime Minister's Office
and the patrons of the ruling establishment abandon their indulgent world
of make-believe. .....
by Ananda Majumdar
It was a relatively kinder and gentler Medha Patkar when she went to Singur
in West Bengal to oppose the Left Front government's land acquisition
for the Tatas' small car project. As farmers nearby lined up to collect
their checks, Patkar said she was sure the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government
would address their "complaints." .....
by The Indian Express
The Kerala High Court today declared void the election of former Union
Minister P C Thomas from Muvattupuzha Lok Sabha constituency on the ground
that he used his religious background to woo Catholic voters in the May
10, 2004 election. .....
by Organiser
For over a decade, dark, vicious clouds have been hovering over the Sivagiri
Mutt, the spiritual arm of the Sree Narayana Dharma established by the
great social reformer and spiritual Acharya of Kerala Sree Narayana Guru.
Sree Narayana Guru's contribution to the existence of Hinduism in Kerala
can never be forgotten. Had the Guru not been there, entire Kerala would
have got converted to Christianity and Islam. .....
by S. Chandrasekhar
The Islamic terrorist organisation, National Development Front (NDF) involved
in several acts of terrorism to its credit like murder of RSS cadres,
bomb explosions in Kozhikode bus-stop, torching of Tamil Nadu state buses,
explosion of boat in Beypore and not to forget, the barbaric and savage
butchering of eight Hindu fishermen in Marad in 2003, is diversifying
its area of operation to publishing of extremist magazines, indulging
in campus politics and post-graduation to the high-tech 'Letter Bomb'!
.....
by Jyoti Lal Chowdhury
Vanvasi of north-east are subject to ever mounting atrocities by disruptive
forces in order to subvert their culture and religion and to evict them
from forest land. With a view to bringing about reawakening among the
Vanvasis for preservation of their hoary tradition and adopting unified
stand against the dark forces, a five-day mammoth meet of Vanvasi youths
of north-east has been planned at Guwahati from December 24 to 28 under
the banner of North-East India Janajati Faith and Culture Protection Forum.
.....
