by Hindu Jagruti Samiti
Four persons were injured in fresh attacks in Tanur near here today even
as a "tense" situation prevailed in Tirur and adjoining areas
of the district following the killing of an RSS activist on Saturday.
A BJP sympathizer was attacked around 6 am by unidentified people who
came in a car, police said. .....
by Sandhya Jain
The Justice Sachar Committee and the lesser noticed Justice Ranganath
Mishra Commission (National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities)
have both been established by the present UPA regime to honour the old
colonial design to vivisect India. Nominated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
is a convenient tool in the hands of western nations determined to continue
the White Man's supremacy in a supposedly post-colonial world, and their
agenda is being ably guided by the Italian-born Roman Catholic president
of the Congress party, Ms. Sonia Gandhi. .....
by Mohsin R. Siddique
I think it was Lenin who had cautioned about the propensity of petty bourgeois
political parties towards opportunism. Not that the progressives should
avoid working with them, just that they should be alert! Awami League's
alliance with the Khilafat Majlish Party behind the back of its 13 party
allies is not an entirely surprising betrayal, especially given the past
instances of AL 's efforts to get on the good side of the proponents of
Islamic theocracy. .....
by Vikram Chobe
Recently, RSS called for nationalization of the Christian Church in India
which not only indulges in forcible conversion of Hindus, but also promotes
anti-nationalism in the country. The leaders of the Christian community
vehemently protested against the RSS' suggestion without providing any
logical reason for doing so. .....
by Ravindra Saini
All India president of Shri Guruji Birth Centenary Celebration Committee
and founder of Bharatmata Mandir, Haridwar, Swami Satyamitranand Giri
has called upon the Hindus to defend Hinduism themselves and remove their
shortcomings. He was addressing a massive gathering in Dehradun recently.
It was the biggest Hindu sammelan held in the State capital during the
birth centenary of Shri Guruji. .....
by Saleem Pandit
In a startling discovery, police in north Kashmir have stumbled on a full-fledged
recruitment cell of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in a 'madrassa'in Sopore.
.....
by Tavleen Singh
In Zurich last week, on my way to Davos, I read an interview with Milton
Friedman in the Wall Street Journal. It was one of the last interviews
the Nobel prize-winning economist gave before his death last November.
One of the questions he was asked was - what did he consider to be the
biggest threat to the world economy. .....
by Akhilesh Kumar Singh
Sasha Jezdic from Bosnia is better known by her Vedic name Karmyogi. Serbians
like Slobodan Milioenic have become Swami Chidanand, Petar Putnik is Siddharth,
Milorad Bera is Kailash Puri and Joran Rakosic is now Chitrapuri. Women
like Dina Putnik and Ashya Putnik prefer names like Agni Devi and Purnima,
respectively. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Film appreciation being a matter of personal taste, the rah-rah over the
release of NRI film-maker Rahul Dholakia's Parzania should be greeted
with some caution. Any film which proceeds on the loose assumption that
the post-Godhra communal explosion in Gujarat was a pre-meditated carnage
by Hindus is bound to be trumpeted by the powerful Left-liberal establishment.
I don't know if Parzania fits the bill but I do hope that at least a handful
of theatre-owners in Gujarat decide the film is worth screening. .....
by The Times of India
Over 60,000 women, 100 shlokas, one raga and one voice... On a sunny Sunday
afternoon, women congregated at Palace Grounds and rendered slokas from
the Soundarya Lahiri, composed by Adi Sankara. The work is addressed to
the Universal Mother - Adi Shakti, Vidya and Lakshmi. It was released
in the presence of senior pontiffs and senior BJP leader L K Advani. .....
by The Times of India
A Shiromani Akali Dal worker was killed and three others injured in poll-related
violence on Monday in Punjab's Beas town near Amritsar. .....
by The Times of India
The Supreme Court on Friday took to task the Centre and the
CBI for failing to arrive at a conclusive finding on the nationality
of controversial Congress MP from Assam Mani Kumar Subba. .....
by Rajinder Puri
How will Comrade Karat and company respond to the exposure of the scandalous
deal in Kerala with SNC Lavalin Co? The evidence is damning. Time for
nemesis to catch up with the CPI (M)? .....
by Rediff.com
Doubting she would be able to visit her motherland whatever be the outcome
of the elections there, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has appealed
to the Indian government to grant her citizenship or permanent resident
status. .....
by Sobhana K and Kapil Datta
Nithari's grieving parents had a new visitor last week. Dressed in a flowing
black habit, controversial Indian-born evangelist KA Paul came calling.
.....
by Michael Holden
A group of British Muslims suspected of plotting to blow up U.S.-bound
airliners flying from Britain had been radicalised in just weeks or months,
London's police chief said on Wednesday. .....
by Kelash K. Motwani
The World Sindhi Institute expresses its deep concern over missing 17-year-old
girl Deepa Kumari from her home in Tharparkar, Sindh, since Dec 31. The
law and order situation in Sindh has broken down to such an extent that
about four weeks have passed and the parties concerned are simply waiting
for notables to assemble and come up with some solution. .....
by Borzou Daragahi
The change came several years ago for Maryam Arrakal. Her husband brought
a black, all-covering abaya back to this steamy, subtropical town from
the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. .....
by The Pioneer
Proving the perpetrators of paranoia wrong, Kerala welcomed Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi on Monday when he reached here to take part in
the Hindu Maha Mela organised by the RSS as part of the MS Golwalkar Birth
Centenary celebrations. .....
by IBNLive.com
Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged small arms fire on Thursday after
an attempt by terrorists to cross the heavily guarded border of Kashmir,
an Indian army spokesman said. .....
by Imre Salusinszky and Natalie O'Brien
While critics on the Left have denounced the curtailing of civil liberties
under the federal anti-terrorism legislation, it seems the laws do not
go far enough for the state Labor administrations. .....
by Thomas Friedman
It's hard to know what's more disturbing: The barbaric sectarian murders
by Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq or the deafening silence with which these
mass murders are received in the Muslim world. .....
by Amba B. Bakshi
Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz has a pair and now, so does Prince Charles,
after Mumbai dabbawallahs carried him a wedding present. The 170 families
of Athani village in Belgaum district of Karnataka that make the chappals
now have their own Toehold Artisans Collaborative (TAC), owned by 13 self-help
groups. The cooperative was started by the Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial
Initiatives (Ascent) on a build-operate-transfer basis in 2000. .....
by Sita Ram Goel
The next encounter between Hinduism and Christianity commenced with the
coming of Christian missionaries to Malabar after Vasco da Gama found
his way to Calicut in AD 1498. It took a serious turn in AD 1542 when
Francis Xavier, a rapacious pirate dressed up as a priest, arrived on
the scene. The proceedings have been preserved by the Christian participants.
They make the most painful reading in the history of Christianity in India.
.....
by The Indian Express
Noted Maharashtrian actress Sukanya Kulkarni and Editor of Marathi daily
Loksatta Kumar Ketkar launched the annual magazine Ganesha, an initiative
by The Indian Express Group, at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi
on Monday. .....
by Vivek Deshpande
July 17, 1928. Around 8 a.m., a group of Dalit men and women, singing
bhajans to the accompaniment of taal and mridang, entered the Laxminarayan
temple here, an act that was considered sacrilegious in those orthodox
times. But strongly backed by champions of social harmony like Mahatma
Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave, a man was able to take his mission to fulfilment,
no matter if that led to his being declared an outcaste by his own religion.
.....
by Manoj Prasad
The recovery of the body of a man believed to be a Christian preacher
from the Church of North India graveyard near Kantatoli on January 12
has all the signs of becoming a political hot potato. The autopsy report
has established his death as being due to poison. The police also claim
they have evidence linking the deceased to Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister
Stephen Marandi. .....
by Sreenivas Janyala
For a fisherman, nothing is perhaps more painful than to let go of a big
catch with his own hands, especially if it happens to be a 30-ft whale
shark that would fetch at least Rs 80,000. .....
by P R Ramesh
Transnational grievances have always played a key role in the country's
Muslim politics. In the past, many parts of North India have witnessed
communal riots over the Israel-Palestine conflict; attacks on mosques
in distant locales; and even art works representing Islam. .....
by Tanu Sharma
Praising cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu for choosing "a
moral path" to "set high standards in public life by resigning
from his seat... to get a fresh mandate from the people", the Supreme
Court today stayed his conviction in a road rage death case. .....
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
The newly elected US Congress has moved on tightening the screws on Pakistan
through the very first legislation it has taken up this month. It calls
for the US President to certify that Islamabad is making all efforts to
"prevent Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control
including in the cities of Quetta and Chaman" before releasing any
funds or approving licenses for enhancing its military capability. .....
by Taslima Nasrin
My mother used purdah. She wore a burqa with a net cover in front of the
face. It reminded me of the meatsafes in my grandmother's house. One had
a net door made of cloth, the other of metal. But the objective was the
same: keeping the meat safe. My mother was put under a burqa by her conservative
family. They told her that wearing a burqa would mean obeying Allah. .....
by Arun Joshi
Osama bin Laden was intimately involved in the hijacking of IC-814 in
December 1999, and Al-Qaeda, the global terror network on which he presides,
is consolidating its ties with Kashmiri extremist groups. .....
by Ram Madhav
Several of the Sachar report's 'findings' were found to be more of a fiction
than reality. Contrary to what that report sought to sell, it was found
that the literacy rate among Muslims was higher than that of Hindus in
several Indian states including the ones like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
It goes to reinforce the fact that the Sachar report was actually tailor-made
to suit the fraudulent secularist somersaults that the present dispensation
at the Centre indulges. .....
by Dr Frank M. Tedesco
In conjunction with Wesak 2001, BGF invited Dr Frank M. Tedesco, a well-known
social activist and expert on Korean Buddhism, to Malaysia for a series
of dharma talks. He gave talks at the Kota Kemuning Buddhist Center in
Shah Alam, Buddhist Maha Vihara in Kuala Lumpur, BGF Center in Petaling
Jaya, Than Hsiang Temple in Penang, and Jitra Buddhist Association in
Jitra, Kedah. .....
by Savie Karnel
When former Union minister and Congress leader C K Jaffer Sharief visited
Bowring hospital, members of the Muslim community blocked his way. .....
by Mumin Salih
Like all young Muslim, I was brainwashed to believe that Islam is the
perfect way of life. My mind was happy to accept everything that came
in the Islamic package and carries the Islamic label. Without ever doubting
their wisdom, I had no trouble in accepting the Islamic sharia law with
all its absurdities like polygamy and wife-beating. .....
by The Times of India
Even as the Hurriyat team visiting Pakistan met president Pervez Musharraf
and made appropriate 'peace noises', the main driver of terror in Jammu
& Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba, made it clear that it was not prepared
to buy the argument that dialogue could replace guns. .....
by Simon Kearney and Tracy Ong
Firebrand cleric Sheik Feiz Mohamed's defence of his comments on a DVD
calling children to jihad has been undermined by revelations, the video
also urges Muslims to kill the enemies of Islam and praises martyrs with
a violent interpretation of jihad. .....
by Jaya Menon
An avowed atheist, who has little patience for godmen, Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister M. Karunanidhi not only played host to Sri Sathya Sai Baba at
his Gopalapuram residence last evening, but also got a dose of the godman's
famous 'miracle' of producing holy ash, gold jewellery, and other objects
from thin air. Karunanidhi in turn equated Baba to 'God.' .....
by K Venkataramanan
Godman Sathya Sai Baba performed his trademark miracle of producing rings
out of thin air to impress DMK stalwarts at the residence of Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. .....
by Johnson T A
Communal tension simmering since Friday's clash over a Muslim rally to
protest Saddam Hussein's execution spilled over to Sunday. Shops and buses
were set ablaze and several people injured in group clashes near one of
the three places at which Virat Hindu Samaveshas were being held. .....
by Rediff.com
Brother of Hafeez Saeed, founder chief of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba,
has been asked to leave the US, where he is a cleric at a mosque in Massachusetts,
a report said. .....
by Surya Narain Saxena
To Hindu ethos of universalism and respect of all religions and faiths
as compressed in Sarvadharma-samabhava, how malicious is the response
of Christian elite and men of letters of the north-east, must be known
to all men of goodwill. We are given to understand that the message of
Christ is one of love, of respecting other cultures and creed-not of utilising
devious and unethical means to converting people. .....
by Zayadul Ahsan
Policemen coming from Gopalganj, the birthplace of Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, and belonging to a certain religion had become pariahs
in the police administration in the last five years of the BNP-led four-party
alliance government. .....
by Dr. Sibranjan Chatterjee
We may begin our discourse by referring in brief to the concept of leadership.
Who can be a leader? What is the test of leadership? In the words of Swami
Vivekananda, the leader of leaders, "The real test of a leader lies
in holding widely different people together along the line of their common
sympathies." Another test of leadership, to Vivekananda, is that
a leader "must be a servant of servants, and must accommodate a thousand
minds." From this perspective, Gandhiji, Netaji and Syama Prasad
Mookerjee were leaders. A politician need not necessarily be a leader.
.....
by Organiser
The UPA government is following a policy foreign to both national security
and realpolitik. The exodus of the Hindi-speaking people from Assam, following
a macabre killing of seventy innocent daily wage earners by the outlawed
ULFA terrorists has once again highlighted the failure of the centre in
ensuring safety and protection to the people. .....
by Sandhya Jain
Is it time for regime change in India, for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
to walk into the sunset? Uncle Sam, ever anxious to rearrange the world
with friendly dictators and pliable democrats, seems to have woken up
to the grand potential of Mr Rahul Gandhi, whose scintillating 30-month-old
stint as Amethi MP has set the Potomac on fire. .....
by Ramesh N. Rao
Hitler and Nazism not only did major physical damage to the 20th century
world but wrought unimaginable horror on Jews, and serious injury to the
psyche of the Germans. Their legacy continues to contribute to the unease
of and disease in the world. Nazism still attracts many young whites in
Europe, in the United States and in the newly independent East European
countries, including Russia. .....
by Haran B. R.
His Holiness Sri Sathya Sai Baba's visit to the Gopalapuram residence
of Chief Minister Karunanidhi was a real surprise to the DMK party men
and a shocking astonishment to the devotees of Baba. During his stay of
45 minutes there, he had blessed Dayanidhi Maran with a 'Ring' from thin
air and when the PWD minister Durai Murugan also requested for his blessings
he conceded by giving another 'Ring' for Durai Murugan. .....
by Rick Mathes
Last month I attended my annual training session that's required for maintaining
my state prison security clearance. During the training session there
was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic,
Protestant and Muslim faiths who explained their belief systems. I was
particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. .....
by Ashok Malik
In March 2005, the US famously denied Narendra Modi a visa and the British
Government followed Big Brother's lead in saying that the Gujarat Chief
Minister was unwelcome. The instant assessment was that the American ban
was a black warrant for Modi's political career and that he would be isolated
and ostracised by the rest of the world. .....
by ExpressIndia.com
In the dark of the night, a mixed group of teenage boys and girls huddle
together in a circle inside a secluded cemetery, holding hands and chanting
invocations to the Satan. .....
by KR Phanda
Syed Shahabuddin, in his article, "Flawed report on Muslims"
(January 11), suggests reservation for Muslims in education, public employment,
welfare programmes, bank credit and legislatures on par with the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes. His argument is completely baseless and has
no historical basis to support it. .....
by Hina Farooq
The Punjab government will import idols of Hindu gods from various monuments
in India to Pakistan for the restoration of the historic Katas Raj temples,
Oriya Maqbool Jan, director general of the Punjab Archaeology Department,
said on Friday. .....
by Rediff.com
Asserting that any decision on Kashmir must not be made without the approval
of Parliament, leaders across Pakistan's political spectrum have rejected
President Pervez Musharraf's proposals to resolve the vexed issue and
asked for continued "jihad" in the state. .....
by A M Jigeesh
An invitation to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by the Kerala state
unit of the RSS to participate in the Vishala Hindu Mahasammelan in Thiruvananthapuram
on January 29 is threatening to snowball into a controversy with some
Muslim organisations and a section in the Left pressurising the LDF government
to deny Modi entry into Kerala. .....
by Maloy Krishna Dhar
The latest ULFA carnage in Assam has been diagnosed by top leaders like
quack doctors, broadcasting panic, and their diagnosis is wide off the
mark. .....
by Rajinder Puri
India is in the midst of an invisible war. It is an unrecognized war.
The government tinkers with terrorism in various fronts. The enemy continues
to advance. Last year the enemy struck at many points. In Kashmir the
terrorists killed 517 civilians and security personnel; in Assam, 131;
in Manipur 132; in Nagaland 10; in Tripura 30; in Uttar Pradesh, 21; in
Maharashtra, 240. .....
by Air Commodore T.T.Job
Some interesting material written by Mr. Sethu Madhavan further to Kolkata
incidence where Armymen vandalised police station to free Major, Capt.
.....
by Rediff.com
The Supreme Court has sought the Centre's reply on a petition challenging
the Constitutional validity of the Haj Committee Act, 1959 and the provision
of annual financial assistance by the Government to Muslims going on the
pilgrimage. .....
by Priyanjana Dutta
In many ways it was Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan's idealism that saw this
couple leave their successful jobs and cushy lives in the US and come
home to India. A successful banker and an architect, the couple decided
after 10 years that it was time they gave back something to their country.
.....
by Kamlendra Kanwar
Some recent statements by the Army Chief, General J J Singh, and a Defence
spokesman, Lt Col S D Goswami, reflect the apprehensions in the armed
forces that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government may give
in too much on Kashmir and Siachen in negotiations with Pakistan. .....
by The Pioneer
Just in case you thought good sense shall prevail and the UPA Government
will desist from embarking on the path of fragmenting India along communal
identities in pursuit of what the Prime Minister has unabashedly described
as its "Muslims first" policy, you must think again. .....
by Jahed Ahmed
Probably the most suitable noun that could accurately describe the intellectual
status of today's Muslim world is 'stagnancy'. From Science-Technology
to Literature-Art-Philosophy and like, the presence of Muslim talents
is highly scarce and frustrating. .....
by Sugata Ghosh
Men in pinstripes may find themselves at the wrong end of minority politics.
Soon, a banker writing a loan cheque will have to take into account the
borrower's religious practice. .....
by Ninemsn.com.au
Sydney's most influential radical Muslim cleric has been reportedly caught
on film calling Jews pigs and urging children to die for Allah. .....
by Alathea Faraday
I have noticed in recent years many examples of Muslims being offended
and asking for an apology or concessions from non-Muslims. That's fine;
I'm happy and proud to live in a civilization in which all people can
have their say and ask for what they believe is respectful treatment.
At the same time, respect needs to be a two-way street. As it happens,
there are a number of areas in which Muslim behavior has offended me,
so I also wish to ask for an apology and/or concessions from Muslims.
.....
by
As Indian Christians, we believe that the best and perhaps the only way
we can bear witness to our faith, is by extending our unconditional love
to our neighbours and expecting nothing in return as Jesus Christ showed
us. As such, we are against aggressive faith marketing by any religious
group because such efforts discredit India's tradition of respecting all
religious thought and also runs counter to the true spirit in which the
Constitution grants people the right to profess, practice and propagate
their faith. .....
by Sarada Lahangir
A new ritual of worshipping "Mahodadhi" (or, the Sea God) everyday
in the evening has been started in Puri by the priests of the world famous
Jagannath Temple. .....
by Deccan Herald
A bigger and more prominent university than Nalanda University has been
discovered near Hampi. Believed to have housed more native and foreign
students than Nalanda, the Lokapavana University at Chakratheertha near
Hampi is expected to open up new vistas of discussion in history. .....
by A Surya Prakash
With State Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh just round the corner, the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre appears to
be obsessively concerned with issues concerning the Muslim community.
Central to this "Muslims first" agenda is the Government's preoccupation
with the recommendations of the Sachar Committee that examined the social,
economic and educational status of Muslims in India. .....
by A Vaidyanathan
The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for Mohammad Afzal, the
key accused in the Parliament attack case, and dismissed his curative
petition. .....
by Rashid Ahmad & Arun Joshi
This could be more trouble for India. On Thursday, a man claiming to be
a spokesperson for Al-Qaeda called up a local news agency in Srinagar
to announce the arrival of the terror group in Kashmir. .....
by The Times of India
Spirituality and its role in ensuring health for all, relevance of the
concept in the minds of today's youth and love as the starting point of
all positive energies as visualised in spiritual living - these were some
of the issues discussed on the second day of the first World Convention
of Science and Spirituality. A host of speakers from the medical and spiritual
fields sought to clarify these issues. .....
by Mahendra Kumar Singh
Ahead of crucial assembly elections in politically sensitive UP and three
other states, the UPA government is considering a plan to prepare a geographical
map of minorities across the country. .....
by Ketan Tanna
In an age where modern medicine is stretching the limits of hope, it is
astonishing that an ancient Ayurvedic centre in a small humid town in
north Kerala, treated nearly two million patients from India and other
countries just last year alone. Kottakkal, a town that goes to sleep around
television prime time, is about 25 kms from Kozhikode. .....
by R A Mashelkar
The world has woken up to India's traditional knowledge base that offers
valuable advice in terms of complete health and wellness. But we need
to create awareness of our intellectual property rights. I did my best
as director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR), when I fought to secure our legitimate right over products and
processes that we had developed. .....
by Ranjan Roy
The ostensible reason for external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee's
first visit to Islamabad was to hand over an invitation to Pakistan president
Pervez Musharraf to attend the Saarc summit in New Delhi in April. But
just ahead of his landing, Islamabad told Indian diplomats Musharraf wouldn't
travel to New Delhi because it was now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
turn to visit. .....
by Vivek Deshpande
Late M Ganesan. This name will receive a salute from this Naxal-infested
district tomorrow with a missed feeling of pride and grief. Naxalites
had first broken both the hands of the 35-year- old Junior Engineer of
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and had then stabbed him 34 times, on
January 14 last year. His fault: he hadn't stopped the work of the biggest
bridge the BRO was building in the district, across Bande river, 8 km
from this tehsil in the remote south-eastern part of the district. .....
by S Hussain Zaidi
Faisal Shaikh, Tanveer Ansari, Sohail Ahmed, 10 other accused and 15 absconding
in the case are part of the terror database maintained by the the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US. .....
by Free Press Journal
Given the recent history of the Indian sub-continent, and the lingering
emotional divide between communities which pre-dates the Partition, it
is no surprise that Muslims here have not kept pace with the majority
community in economic and social spheres. When the cake is small, and
there are more claimants than it can be divided into, it is natural for
a certain in-built bias to come into play. .....
by V Sundaram
Walter Scott, the great English writer and poet wrote, "One hour
of crowded glory is worth an age without a name". The standing informal
motto of every Union Cabinet Minister in the UPA non-Government today,
with the full tacit political approval of the de jure Prime Minister and
the moral approval of the de facto Prime Minister, is this: "A moment
of crowded infamy is better than an age with a great name for political
decency and honesty". .....
by Katherine Shrader
Al-Qaeda poses the gravest terrorist threat to the United States and an
emboldened Hezbollah is a growing danger, the U.S. intelligence chief
said Thursday. .....
by Organiser
The State government would consider a subsidy for Christians to travel
to Bethlehem, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said recently. Responding
to Hyderabad Archbishop Marampudi Joji's request at the United Christmas
Celebrations, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy assured that the government
would study the possibility and financial implications of such a subsidy.
.....
by Sandhya Jain
Instructing the Pandava prince about the duties and responsibilities of
a ruler, the dying Bhishma avers: "Is the king responsible for the
times, or are the times responsible for the king? You, Yudhisthira, should
entertain no doubts about this: the king indeed is the cause of the times,
it is he who gives rise to good or bad times" (Mahabharata, santiparvan,
69.79). .....
by P R Ramesh
UPA politicians have been shedding TV-compatible tears over the serial
killings of Biharis in Assam. Government bigwigs have been queuing to
hop onto brand new Embraers for flying for an on-the-spot assessment of
the security situation in the state. And there have been a chorus "we-will-not-allow-this-carnage-to-continue"
pledges from the government's top leaders. .....
by M.V. Kamath
Year ends can get to be pretty hard on journalists, especially some editors.
Some of them feel bound to discover the Man of the Year. The word 'man'
presumably includes 'woman' as well. To end the confusion the Man of the
Year has been transformed into person of the Year to respect feminists.
Person of the Year? The word 'person' sounds so impersonal. In fact, this
year, the U.S weekly Time did find the impersonal person - You. .....
by Balbir K Punj
The latest brutal killings of Hindi-speaking labourers in Dibrugarh and
Tinsukia districts of Assam has evoked the usual episodic response from
the Indian establishment. Our political parties have made statements on
predictable lines. The Centre, too, has followed the usual drill; it has
rushed Ministers to the affected State for "on the spot assessments".
.....
by Devyani Rao
It's not often that you see a political leader cry. But Afghan President
Hamid Karzai did. In front of scores of journalists, UN representatives
and hundreds watching the broadcast of his speech, on the occasion of
Human Rights Day. .....
by Mishal Latif
I recently saw a television interview in which Hussain Haroon spoke of
a report commissioned by the prime minister of India on the social status
of the Muslim minority of India. He tried to prove that the two-nation
theory was correct and that the current condition of Muslims in India
still reflects the need and the foundation for the two-nation theory.
.....
by Sarla Handoo
A look, in retrospect, over India's response to victories in wars with
Pakistan, big or small, makes a dismal reading. It has been one of returning
to the vanquished all that it could get hold of --- after a huge sacrifice,
of course. .....
by K. N. Pandita
Some days ago, the deputy leader of opposition, V.K. Malhotra raised the
question of Kahmiri Pandits in the Parliament. He wanted to know the policy
of the UPA government on the rehabilitation of the Pandits. The questions
which he posed were only peripheral and did not touch on the core of the
issue. .....
by M.V. Kamath
We need leadership of an entirely different kind and it is in this sphere
that India has totally failed in the last half a century. The trouble
is that "leadership" cannot be manufactured in the IITs and
IIMs. That has to come from within; it is a matter of the heart, not of
the mind. .....
by The Pioneer
The ghastly violence that has left at least six persons dead at Nandigram
in West Bengal's East Midnapore district tells a grim story of Marxist
cadre taking the law into their hands with the explicit purpose of coercing
villagers into submission. For some time now, the people of Nandigram
have been apprehensive of their land being forcibly acquired by the Left
Front Government of West Bengal for a mammoth project planned by Indonesia's
Salem Group. Simmering anger over what was perceived by them as imminent
loss of their livelihood erupted into violent clashes on Saturday night.
.....
by Kushwant Singh
For too long have we been fed on the false notion that the world is heading
towards an Armageddon with armies of Islam ranged on the one side against
Christians, Jewish and Hindu forces on the other to a final battle which
will end in the destruction of the human race. It has been described as
the clash of civilisations as well as a conflict between obscurantism
and modernity. Such analyses are simplistic bordering on the stupid. .....
by News Insight
The PM said something odd yesterday. At the FICCI annual summit, he gave
free rein to his imagination almost like A.B.Vajpayee . "I dream
of a day," said Manmohan Singh, "when, while retaining our separate
identities, we can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner
in Kabul. That is how my forefathers lived. That is how I want our grandchildren
to live." Pakistan said nothing about this dreaming. But it poured
ice-cold water on another of the PM's proposals. .....
by Basildon Peta
Pakistan has sent several senior military experts to help strengthen President
Robert Mugabe's army, which has been severely weakened by mass resignations,
desertions and a Western military embargo. .....
by KR Phanda
At a recent meeting of Dalits and minorities in Delhi, a status paper
on the condition of Muslims in India was circulated. Among other things,
it highlighted, two points: First, the representation of Muslims in public
services and legislatures is not commensurate with their population in
India; and, second, that there have been numerous instances of communal
violence after Independence, in which a large number of Muslims have lost
their lives. .....
by Khaleej Times
A Pakistani fruit vendor shot dead his sister because she had a job and
was studying for a university degree, a police official in conservative
North West Frontier Province said. .....
by Rediff.com
Yoga is relatively more effective than more popular methods like aerobics
in treating obesity, according to a study conducted by a reputed Yoga
institute in Lonavala, Maharashtra. .....
by Subhrangshu Gupta
A group of CPM cadres, armed with automatic rifles and other weapons and
wearing police uniforms, raided Nandigram village last night and gunned
down at least six farmers in accordance to the party's suddenly adopted
policy of applying force against the Krishi Bachaoo Committee, opposing
the land transfer to Indonesia's Salim group. .....
by Radhika D Srivastava
Over four decades ago, a frail, landless farmer got hold of a chisel and
a hammer and decided to change the face of his village nestled in the
rocky hills of Gaya. Dashrath Manjhi tore open a 300-feet-high hill to
create a one-km passage. .....
by Amarnath K. Menon
Retrieval and restoration of old temples is a daunting task, more so if
it is a throwback to nearly 1,000 years. But that has not deterred the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from taking up the restoration and
conservation of the Rudraeswara Swamy Temple, popularly known as the Thousand
Pillared Temple, in Warangal, about 140 km from Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh.
.....
by Sanjiv Kumar
The march of liberalisation notwithstanding, 'Inspector Raj' has neither
altered nor abated despite a fervent call three years ago from none other
than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do away with it. .....
by The Indian Express
Yusuf Raza, president of the Bhiwandi unit of Raza Academy and one of
the accused in the lynching of two policemen that followed police firing
to quell rioting over the construction of a police station in the Mumbai
suburb, has been arrested and sent to judicial custody till January 10.
.....
by The Statesman
The Viswa Hindu Parishad is vigorously pursuing the "home coming"
of the tribals in the district. "We are planning to do it more intensively
and in a well-coordinated manner," a VHP office-bearer said here.
.....
by Zee News
A 2000-year-old aesthetically carved sculpture of dancing Yakshas has
been excavated from a famous Buddhist site in the State's Krishna district
close to a National Highway that runs between Vijayawada and Hyderabad.
.....
by Zee News
The 'bhoomi pooja' for a building, sponsored from the local legislator's
constituency development fund, hit a fortune in the form of a golden treasure
at Pillayarnatham village near Nilakottai in Dindigul district on Sunday.
.....
by B. R. Haran
E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker was a non-entity as long as he was in Congress
party and to achieve his ambition of becoming a leader and making it big
in politics, he came out of Congress and started his own movement called
Dravidar Kazhagam, after a short stint with the 'Justice' party. He became
the epitome of Hindu hatred by his atheistic views and made out a strategy
of 'Anti-Brahminism' to come to the limelight. He sowed the seeds of casteism
& separatism in the minds of the innocent Tamils and very soon developed
a big following. .....
by IBNLive.com
While taking a dig at the Congress policy of "minority appeasement",
BJP president Rajnath Singh on Saturday called for a redifinition of the
term 'minorities'. .....
by PayVand.com
Archaeological excavations in Gohar Tepe, in Mazandaran province in Iran,
has led to the discovery of the remains of the statues of some cows which
were most probably used in religious ceremonies. .....
by Maulshree Seth
In a statement that shocked even officials of the state Health Department,
Ahmad Hasan, the family planning minister of Uttar Pradesh, today announced
that Muslim women can produce as many healthy children as they want, and
that the state government would give Rs 1,400 to take care of each child.
.....
by N.S. Rajaram
Within the past year, the Sanskrit Department at Cambridge University
and the Berlin Institute of Indology, two of the oldest and most prestigious
Indology centres in the West, have shut their doors. The reason cited
is lack of interest. At Cambridge, not a single student had enrolled this
year for its Sanskrit or Hindi course. Other universities in Europe and
America are facing similar problems. .....
by KPS Gill
India, as a nation, has long been hostage to inept analyses and pseudo-solutions
to prevailing problems, and the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee has
become a significant case in point, where a selective focus on particular
data, within the context of the author's personal predilections and prejudices,
has become a substitute for a realistic and productive assessment. .....
by Grant Swank
Sanao Menghwar has had three of his daughters kidnapped, then forced to
marry Muslim men. That means that the young women were coerced into becoming
Islamics. .....
by Deccan Chronicle
In a timely and successful operation, the city police on Friday foiled
an attempt by a suspected terrorist to attack IT major Infosys and the
HAL airport in the city. Acting on a tipoff, a police team headed by additional
commissioner Bipin Gopalkrishna intercepted a passenger bus coming from
Hospet near Jalahalli on the city's outskirts and arrested 32-year-old
Imran, alias Bilal. .....
by The Pioneer
The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on the Centre for failing
to deport Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the country just
because the neighbouring country refuses to accept them back as their
citizens. .....
by Satyen Mohapatra
The largest Harappan Necropolis (city of the dead or burial ground) the
Indian subcontinent has known so far has been found near village Sanauli
on the banks of Yamuna in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. .....
by S. Gurumurthy
The very idea of Karma, which Max Weber had diagnosed as the nemesis of
India, seems to be emerging as the life vest of the West! The West, fatigued
with the 'greed-is-good' capitalism for over a century, is now looking
for an alternative to the greed-based capitalism. .....
by Massoud Ansari in Karachi and Gethin
Chamberlain
Anti-terrorism forces in Pakistan have been told to brace themselves for
a wave of atrocities. Intelligence officials warned that the security
situation is now more precarious than it was before the September 11 attacks
on New York and Washington. .....
by Jamie Glazov
Recently, the Taliban issued a new set of 30 rules to its fighters. Many
of the instructions were to be expected: Rule No. 25 commands the murder
of teachers if a warning and a beating do not dissuade them from teaching.
No. 26 outlines the exquisite delicacy of burning schools and destroying
anything that aid organisations might undertake - such as the building
of a new road, school or clinic. .....
by Fox News
The Bush administration took action Wednesday aimed at choking off a major
fundraising channel for Hezbollah operating in the tri-border area of
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
If journalism, as has been unwisely suggested, is instant history, a year
is a woefully short period to arrive at considered conclusions. It is
entirely possible that 2006 will go down in history as just another hum-drum
blip-at best the year the US Congress passed legislation exclusively centred
on India, the year the judiciary decided it was the boss and the year
Arundhati Roy discovered a sinister inhouse conspiracy behind the attack
on Parliament five years ago. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
When a monster is put to death, the civilised world is supposed to celebrate
and heave a sigh of relief. That's what happened when the International
Military Tribunal at Nuremburg tried Adolf Hitler's trusted men who survived
the war, found them guilty of committing gross crimes against humanity,
and marched them to the gallows of Allied justice. .....
by M.V. Kamath
One supposes that Justice Rajendra Sachar is well up in Indian history.
If he isn't, the Home Ministry must provide him with some text books on
history which, under the UPA dispensation, cannot lie. What would they
say that is unchallengeable even by the RSS? One is that India was ruled
by Muslim rulers almost continuously in most parts of the country for
over 800 years. .....
by Rohit Phalgaonkar
Legend has that Shri Parshuram (Shri Vishnu's sixth incarnation) shot
an arrow in the Arrabian Sea from the peak of the Sahyadri. This arrow
hit Baannaavali (Benaulim) and made the sea recede, thus reclaiming the
land of Goa. .....
by Organiser
"Muslims should also change their mindset. Sri Ram was the ancestor
of not only Hindus but also of Muslims as change of religion does not
change one's ancestry. They should accept that this country's hero is
Sri Ram and not Babur." .....
by Ram Gopal
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Sachar Committee report on the supposed
Muslim backwardness has only confirmed that the UPA government at the
Centre is bent upon polarising Indian people into Muslim and non-Muslim
blocs. One hundred years ago, few days before the birth of the Muslim
League, the British Viceroy Lord Minto received Sir Aga Khan led Muslim
delegation on October 1, 1906 and gave them the signal to pursue their
separate Muslim agenda. .....
by Vikram Sood
The warmth with which Bangladesh's Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus greeted
Amartya Sen, the other Nobel laureate from the subcontinent, when the
two met in Dhaka recently does, not unfortunately transmit itself to political
masters of the two countries. It definitely does not get transformed into
even bare civility between the two 'Ladies' of Dhaka. Instead, they have
now had years of mutual suspicion and unremitting hostility visible in
absolute obduracy and violence on the streets. .....
by Zee News
The Congress-led government in the state passed the legislation during
its four-day winter session held at the newly constructed Vidhan Sabha
(State Legislature) in Dharamshala on Friday. .....
by www.ci-ce-ct.com
Tradecraft. Persona. Deception. Disinformation. Cover: Western operational
terms and techniques. But, Islamic terrorists have their own terms: taqiyya
(pronounced tark-e-ya) : precautionary dissimulation or deception and
keeping one's convictions secret and a synonymous term, kitman: mental
reservation and dissimulation or concealment of malevolent intentions.
.....
by Henry P. Wickham, Jr.
Mark Steyn's recent best seller, America Alone is a gloomy book on Europe's
future. By Europe, Mr. Steyn means primarily what Donald Rumsfeld once
referred to contemptuously as "Old Europe." In a variation of
the prime cliché of the 1992 Clinton campaign, Mr. Steyn's chief
premise is that "It's the demographics, stupid." .....
by Nayan Dave
In a state still carrying the stigma of communal riots, she boldly bridges
the divide. Rehana Bukhari, 25, has begun her doctoral thesis on Vallabh
Vedanta, researching on the theory that there is only one reality-Brahma.
.....
by P R Ramesh
The liberals, Communists and the Sonia Gandhi establishment forced the
Maharashtra government to conduct a politically correct outreach with
the hardline Muslim leadership. For the past several months, they have
been complaining that the police are locking up innocent people belonging
to the minority community. .....
by Siddhartha Sarma
Data from the 2001 Census points at two conclusions which go against the
Justice Sachar Committee Report that says there is a high discrepancy
between Muslim literacy rates and that of the rest, and that the decline
in growth rate of population among Muslims has been higher than that among
Hindus. .....
by Bal Ram Singh
A gathering of over a dozen scholars from India and United States in the
summer 2006 took a comprehensive stock of the social and family conditions
in the world, and developed a consensus that an all encompassing development
and peace in society is only possible with the time-tested value system
of joint family. .....
by Shubhadeep Choudhury
Close on the heels of the controversy sparked off by two NCERT history
books in Haryana, timely action by the state government has scuttled the
possibility of unrest on account of another book. .....
by Sheokesh Mishra
On a chilly evening last week at Delhi's India Habitat Centre, it was
charm of a different sort. About 70 snake-charmers of the Jogi-Nath community
converged from Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
to "charm" the decision-makers present in the audience into
lending an ear to their livelihood woes. They played the Scottish anthem
with 40-odd beens and a dozen tumbas and khanjaris accompanied by three
huge dhols. .....
by SMA Kazmi
The tremors of a scandal, regarding Haj pilgrimage, exposed by a private
television channel and involving Haj committee members of many states,
were felt in Uttaranchal where chairman of state Haj committee, Maulana
Zahid Raza Rizvi, was allegedly shown taking money for sending people
for pilgrimage. .....
by Radha Sharma
This is one tradition girls would want the whole country to emulate. After
engagement, boys in the nomadic Madari community are sent to stay at their
in-laws' house, where they cook, clean and earn as well, all to prove
they are worthy of winning the daughter's hand in marriage. .....
by News.com.au
Two suspected Islamic militants had been arrested with explosives hidden
inside toys which they planned to blow up at a busy market in New Delhi,
Indian police said today. .....
by BBC News
The Roman Catholic bishop of Cordoba in southern Spain has rejected an
appeal from Muslims for the right to pray in the city's cathedral, a former
mosque. .....
by Prafull Goradia
The worst crime of Maqbool Fida Husain has remained largely unnoticed.
The focus in the media has always been on his having painted Saraswati
and Bharat Mata in the nude. Most other objectionable paintings of his
would have remained in the background and would have been so forever had
not Mr Russi Mody, the iron and steel prince of yesteryears, sponsored
a volume of pictures selected by the painter. .....
by The International Herald Tribune
A suspected Islamic militant gunned down a police chief after posing as
a Muslim woman hidden behind a veil in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday,
an official said. .....
by The Times of India
Serious discontent is brewing among tribesmen in Tripura following alleged
large-scale conversion to Christianity in remote parts of North and West
Tripura districts. .....
by Rediff.com
Indian nurses working in hospitals in north Liverpool in England have
become victims of racial attacks by thugs, leaving them terrified to move
out of their flats, a media report said on Friday. .....
by G.S. Hiranyappa
This is a shocking story of Pandit Nehru's utter disdain for India's heritage
during his long and disastrous tenure as the country's first Prime-Minister.
Those who bleat and bray about his so-called secularism can only be fools
or knaves. .....
by Khursheed Wani
Can violence change the demography of a region? The continuing 17-year
separatist violence in Kashmir has somewhat disturbed the religious and
ethnic make up of the Muslim-dominated Valley. On the one hand, a 0.2
million strong Hindu Pandit population has been reduced to a mere 6,000
scattered individuals following a mass exodus in 1990. On the other, an
entirely new phenomenon - the conversion of Muslims to Christianity -
has cropped up. .....
by Arif Mohd. Khan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported to have said at the International
Conference of Dalits and minorities that "the plight of Muslims has
been established by data provided in the Sachar Committee report which
studied the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community
in the country". He declared that it was "incumbent" upon
any democratically elected Government to redress such imbalances and "eradicate
such inequities". Needless to say, he reiterated his Government's
"commitment" to fall in line. .....
by Kay Benedict
Embarrassed by the Sachar Committee report, which highlighted the dismal
state of the minority community in the state, the CPI (M), in its bid
to shift the blame, held the British officer Lord Cornwallis responsible
for their poor socio-economic conditions. .....
by HinduJagruti.org
An Inspector from Traffic Department along with two constables was mercilessly
beaten up by 4-5 Muslim youth. A member of Shiv Sena who tried to intervene
was chided by a police official. On the station road in Kalyan, there
is a ban on plying heavy vehicles. Policemen in plain clothes along with
traffic police are on duty to prevent traffic jam in the area. On Friday
night, a truck plying on that road was stopped by Shri. S K Patil, police
inspector in Traffic Department when 4-5 Muslims got off from the truck
and started beating up Shri. Patil. .....
by NewKerala.com
Launching a tirade against alleged "appeasemnet" of minorities
by Congress and other political parties, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray
tonight charged Hindus do not get what Muslims get in the country. .....
by Kamal Hak
"Afzal Guru will not be hanged," a friend informs me while my
driver is trying to maneuver through the heavy evening traffic near the
ITO crossing. This place otherwise, holds a special place in my heart
as it was a nearby unknown and unfamiliar lane where I found myself pausing
for breath after running away from the baton wielding constables of Delhi
police immediately after our exodus in 1990. Our fault, holding an anti-
Pakistan rally. I find myself in a state of confusion and unable to prioritize
my concerns about negotiating the chaotic traffic and politics of appeasement
behind 'Pardon Afzal' campaign. .....
by The Pioneer
The Prime Minister obviously mistakes cliché for original ideas.
Or else he would not have used a public forum on Wednesday to call for
a "political, social, cultural and intellectual battle" against
untouchability and caste-based discrimination. The awful aberration called
untouchability that became a wart on the face of Indian society never
found either acceptance or legitimacy among the vast majority of Hindus.
.....
