by The Times of India
Kerala's famed Guruvayoor temple, which has been in the news for conducting
an age-old ritual of purification after the visit of overseas Indian affairs
minister Vayalar Ravi's son recently, sprang a surprise on Thursday by
announcing that it had become flexible at least as far as its dress code
was concerned. It said that women could enter the shrine wearing the churidar
or salwarkameez, instead of the traditional sari. .....
by Pia Chandavarkar
Some 50 kilometres from Pune, the village temple at Badhalwadi comes alive
every evening with the sound of cymbals, dholaks and melodious voices
singing devotional songs, as the local bhajani mandal performs its daily
hari paath. Only that in this bhajani mandal the voices are of little
children. .....
by Arif Mohammed Khan
The Muslim Personal Law Board has recently taken a new initiative for
"social reform" that involves the setting up of "Sharia
courts" (Islamic law courts) as "the first option for litigants"
and the "rolling back" by Supreme Court of its judgments which
are not in line with the Board's views on Sharia (Islamic Law) and its
tenets. .....
by Viju B
Former police commissioner A S Samra, who led the investigation into the
1993 bomb blasts, spoke out against the Congress-led central government
of the early 1990s for forcing police to drop Section 121 of the Indian
Penal Code (IPC) against the accused. .....
by Sandeep Mishra
Two nuns were on Saturday arrested after students of a Catholic residential
school in Orissa's northwestern district of Mayurbhanj accused them of
torture to force attendance at prayers. .....
by A.R.Kanangi
India is a republic. The rulers who manage state affairs claim they are
public servants. And public servant no. 1 is in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
.....
by The Indian Express
Faced with criticism from Darul Uloom over his remarks that those who
oppose Vande Mataram should leave India, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi rejected it as an expression of separatist mindset. .....
by Sujata Dutta Sachdeva
Notwithstanding the problems facing them, Indians are a happy lot. In
fact, 64% of them say the next generation will enjoy a better quality
of life. .....
by Suki Kim
The Taliban's abduction of 23 South Korean Christian missionaries in Afghanistan
last Thursday has put South Korea's evangelical fervor under a microscope.
Despite its long-standing shamanist, Buddhist and Confucian roots, South
Korea has about 12,000 missionaries in 173 countries, second only to the
United States. .....
by Tarun Vijay
"We wanted only a Muslim candidate for vice-presidential elections",
a daily quoted a senior Left leader on why they chose Hamid Ansari. And
every other party fell in line. .....
by Free Press Journal
The BJP's performance in the just-concluded Presidential election should
be a cause of concern for the party, with the general elections barely
two years away. .....
by The Indian Express
Egypt's official religious advisor has ruled that Muslims are free to
change their faith as it is a matter between an individual and God, in
a move which could have far-reaching implications for the country's Christians.
.....
by KR Phanda
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, at its meeting held on July 14,
has decided to approach the Supreme Court to review its judgements on
some aspects of the Muslim personal law relating to divorce, alimony,
inheritance, etc. These verdicts, in the MPLB's view, run counter to shari'ah.
.....
by Sumon K Chakrabarti
For 14 years, the Bofors arms deal scam has been an unfolding soap opera
in Indian politics. The scam tainted the reputation of former prime ministers
and many top politicians and the Gandhi family has been forever targetted
for their links with main Bofors accused, Italian businessman Ottavio
Quattrocchi. .....
by The Telegraph
An Allahabad widow with no children performed the last rites of her father-in-law
in what priests say is the first such act by a daughter-in-law in Uttar
Pradesh. .....
by Prabhakar Kumar
It's a classic tale of small towns and big dreams -- only this time round,
the dream almost came true for Sushila Mishra, a resident of Nadda Village
in the Bangah District of Bihar. .....
by The Telegraph
Unable to bear the pressure to re-marry a stranger in order to get back
to her former husband, a woman here has committed suicide. .....
by Nandini Jawli
Britain's jails housing Al Qaeda fanatics and terrorists are becoming
"terror- training schools". New jihadi websites are launched,
using mobile phones, which are sneaked in. Islamists have been found radicalising
other young convicts and they gang up to intimidate the prison staff.
.....
by The Pioneer
The Prime Minister has chosen a disingenuous route to implement his hugely
flawed decision to demilitarise Jammu & Kashmir. Ever since Mr Manmohan
Singh embarked on his mission to fashion a Jammu & Kashmir policy
that would accommodate the demands of separatists in that State as well
as their patrons in Pakistan, which, in turn, would please the US Administration,
he has frittered away the advantages that the UPA regime inherited from
the NDA Government. .....
by B Raman
We are a nation with no memory. That is why national security lapses keep
overtaking us at regular intervals and we keep drifting from one disaster
to another. .....
by The Indian Express
Minister of State for Employment Guarantee Scheme Rana Jagjitsingh today
ordered a special inquiry into the Sindhudurg food grain seam and transfer
of all revenue officers involved in this case. .....
by Josh Meyer
Al Qaeda has strongholds throughout Pakistan, not just in the areas bordering
Afghanistan that were emphasized in a terrorism assessment this week,
according to U.S. intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts
who say Osama bin Laden's network is more deeply entrenched than described.
.....
by Rajeev P I
The LDF Government's continuing spat with powerful sections of the Church
over education reforms reached a head on Friday with the Kerala Catholic
Bishop's Council (KCBC) openly declaring that a conspiracy was afoot to
"destroy the institution of Christianity, using the Government".
.....
by The Indian Express
Past failures to eradicate poverty had resulted in a number of problems
including Left-wing extremism, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said
on Friday. Kumar was addressing a seminar on "Revisiting the Poverty
Issue: Measurement, Identification and Eradication". .....
by The Indian Express
As pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal
region announced they were pulling out of a peace deal with the government,
up to 14 people, including 11 soldiers, were killed in an ambush on a
convoy today, taking the death toll to 38 in attacks in the northwest
of the country in the past 24 hours. .....
by The Indian Express
A group of prominent women in New Delhi have called the projection of
Pratibha Patil's candidature as a symbol of women's empowermentan 'insult
to the women of India' and asked MLAs and MPS to reject her. .....
by The Indian Express
The state government has decided to ask the Kerala government why notebooks
depicting a picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj were banned by the
latter. .....
by T. Ramakrishnan
Changes in the characteristics of 'nagarams' (towns) and commerce in Tamil
country during the late Chola and Pandya period were somewhat similar
to what was witnessed in Europe and Japan, according to Noboru Karashima,
professor emeritus in the University of Tokyo and professor of Indian
studies in Taisho University, Japan. .....
by Mangalorean.com
At least 800,000 devotees Tuesday witnessed the return of three Hindu
deities to the 12th century Jagannath temple in three splendidly decorated
chariots here after their nine-day sojourn in another shrine. .....
by The Times of India
Gujarat CM Narendra Modi got a reprieve of sorts from the supreme court
on Wednesday as it refused to direct the Mumbai police to register an
FIR against him for allegedly giving a speech against Muslims in the metropolis
six months after the Godhra riots. .....
by The Times of India
"It's justice, but several years too late.'' That's the distinct
feeling lingering over Century Bazaar at Worli where the blast in 1993
killed 113 persons. .....
by Ronojoy Sen
There are many in India, including the PM, who are surprised that the
suicide bomber in the Glasgow bombing was not only highly educated but
actually gave up a cushy job to become a terrorist. This surprise stems
from a few myths. One of them is the notion that only the poor and illiterate
are the foot soldiers of terror. .....
by The Times of India
The campaign of Dalit Christians for Scheduled Caste status took an interesting
turn on Wednesday with a sceptical Supreme Court responding to their demand
by asking whether Christians also practised caste system. .....
by Subodh Ghildiyal
The Centre appears set to cripple national panels for SCs and STs in its
bid to spare Congress leader Ajit Jogi. The law ministry has turned down
a plea from National Commission for STs to move the SC against an order
of the Chhattisgarh HC which threatens to undermine its very raison d'etre.
.....
by The Times of India
A river in northern England could soon become Britain's answer to the
Ganga as the place for Hindus and Sikhs to scatter the ashes of their
loved ones-an important Hindu cremation ritual. .....
by Abhay Vaidya
Mann Deshi Udyogini (MDU) in Maharashtra is a rare kind of business school;
It's a B-school for rural women. Chetna Gala Sinha, founder of MDU, whose
innovative approach was recently listed alongside Harvard and Fuqua School
of Business in the Financial Times' latest ranking of the best B-schools
in the world .....
by The Times of India
Osama bin Laden praised martyrdom in a new videotape posted on a militant
website on Sunday by Al-Qaida's media production wing. .....
by Nitin Yeshwantrao
The Muslim community in Maharashtra feels let down by the Democratic Front
coalition's "half-hearted'' policy initiatives for its improvement
and the political patronage to those usurping the Wakf properties. .....
by The Economic Times
In Keeping with her efforts to widen her social base, Uttar Pradesh chief
minister Mayawati on Friday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take
steps to amend the Constitution for earmarking separate quota for the
poor among upper castes. .....
by The Star-Ledger
Edison's plan to offer Hindi language classes in the township's high school
in September 2008 may sound to some to be -- forgive us the jest -- a
rather foreign notion. .....
by Sify.com
An American architect who has lived in India for over 30 years wants to
build an Indian vedic centre similar to one being constructed more than
100 km from Kolkata. .....
by Freedom.org
I used to know a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World
War II. He was a German Jew. They owned a number of large industries and
estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer
he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever
since. .....
by Sandhya Jain
India 's internal affairs are increasingly witnessing an interventionist
American nexus. Even as the Supreme Court asks the Union Government to
justify giving so-called 'Dalit Christians' a share in the quota for Scheduled
Castes, it may be instructive to see how US policy has inveigled itself
into our domestic discourse, while maintaining severe pressure upon its
own Hindu citizens of Indian origin. .....
by Swami Aksharananda
"In Jesus Me Can't Die" is a DVD song in chutney style routinely
heard on several of the nation's television stations including the state-owned
NCN. The singer, a certain Mr. Anil Azeez, glorifies Jesus Christ as saviour,
which is standard christian belief. Clearly, the singer is entitled to
his religious beliefs and has the right to practise and propagate them
even if it may be on public funds. .....
by Sherine Abdel Monaim
Yehia Al-Gamal, head of the new liberal Democratic Front Party, blamed
late President Gamal Abdel Nasser at a seminar held Wednesday for not
transforming Egypt into a democracy, which Indian Jawaharlal Nehru had
achieved. .....
by Sonal Kellogg
President-elect Pratibha Patil, who was accused ofbeing allegedly involved
in various criminal activities during thecampaigning in the run-up to
the elections, has now gained immunity fromall cases till she remains
in office, according to legal experts. .....
by The Times of India
The campaign of Dalit Christians for Scheduled Caste status took an interesting
turn on Wednesday with a sceptical Supreme Court responding to their demand
by asking whether Christians also practised caste system. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
Teacher, I want to go London next month. I want bomb, big bomb in London,
again. I want make jihad!" "What?" I exclaimed. Another
student raised both hands and shouted: "Me too! Me too!" Other
students applauded those who had just articulated what many of them were
thinking..." .....
by The Times of India
In its bid to throw more light on the Harappan civilization, the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) has started excavating about a dozen sites in Haryana,
Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. .....
by Ronojoy Sen
There are many in India, including the PM, who are surprised that the
suicide bomber in the Glasgow bombing was not only highly educated but
actually gave up a cushy job to become a terrorist. This surprise stems
from a few myths. One of them is the notion that only the poor and illiterate
are the foot soldiers of terror. .....
by Phnom Penh
Cambodia has banned Christian groups from door-to-door proselytizing and
is seeking to limit other religious activities by non-Buddhist organizations,
which it says disrupt society. .....
by Naomi Canton
Indians' contribution to the development of mathematics has largely been
swept under the carpet in global history books. But a BBC crew, led by
an Oxford professor, was in the country last week to film a documentary
revealing Indians created some of the most fundamental mathematical theories.
.....
by KPS Gills
The utter sensationalism, bias and hysteria that has attended most reportage
and commentary on the arrest and detention of Haneef Ahmed in Australia
is now being progressively exposed for its irrationality and error, as
a few sane voices begin to put things in a perspective that has some connection
to reality. .....
by Sunita Williams
Back from her record-making 195-day space odyssey, Indian-American astronaut
Sunita Williams said Friday the Bhagavad Gita and Lord Ganesha took care
of her during the journey and said she will come to India this year to
share her experiences. .....
by Wilson John
After being raped, killed, looted and chased out of their homes in Kashmir
Valley, the Pandits are now being offered a 'township' outside Jammu.
The Indian state has truly become effete. .....
by Claude Arpi
India will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its Independence next month.
It will be an occasion to rejoice because India has done tremendously
well in recent years. After New Delhi was forced to drop Moscow's model
of planned economy, India started finding its true place in the comity
of nations. .....
by Malaysia Hindu Sangam
The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Sikhism and Taoism is very unsettled by the comments of the Deputy Prime
Minister that Malaysia is an "Islamic State" and that "We
have never been secular because being secular by Western definition means
separation of the Islamic principles in the way we govern a country. .....
by Suhel Seth
It is a disaster that this week our country will have a President no one
wants foisted on us. Sometimes I think even Pratibha Patil doesn't want
to be President. What is galling is not that we'll have a President no
one respects. In this area, we have got quite used to the realities of
our politics. I mean which sane man would want Arjun Singh as the man
responsible for educating Indians when he can barely open his eyes, leave
alone his mind? .....
by Chaitanya Kalbag
It is like being thrown about in an ideological cocktail shaker. You get
off a gleaming passenger jet and drive over a soaring expressway to the
227-year-old Writers' Buildings in Kolkata to meet a very capitalist communist
politician. .....
by Barbara Plett
Zaher Uddin used to perform at weddings, now he sings only in the privacy
of his home. The white walls are draped with festive garlands, tools of
his newly defunct trade. Music has been banned by local religious militants,
or Taleban. .....
by Aditi Phadnis
Frederic Grare, a leading expert and writer on South Asia, tells Aditi
Phadnis the West has to decide how it wants to view Pervez Musharraf.
.....
by B.R.Haran
The terror suspect Haneef, who is cooling his heels in Australian detention
center, is a close relative (cousin) of the Ahmed brothers, who were involved
in the failed bombing attempts in London & Glasgow. Haneef has stayed
with the Ahmed brothers in UK, lent his sim card to one of them before
leaving for Australia and had been in touch & communication with them
even after coming to Australia. .....
by Chittabrata Palit
The reviewed book's writer is Sachi or Sabyasachi Ghosh Dastidar who is
a distinguished professor of State University of New York at Old Westbury.
He is an uncompromising fighter for human rights. By birth this author
is of Bengal-origin. He has investigated oppression of Hindu minorities
in Bangladesh for many decades. Through 18 story-telling he has composed
the book. The main actors of those stories are all oppressed, some living
while others are dead. .....
by The Pioneer
The Bombay High Court today pulled up the CBI for not investigating allegations
made by Rajni Patil, the wife of murdered Congress worker Vishram Patil,
against two persons including the brother of presidential candidate Pratibha
Patil. .....
by The New Indian Express
Tension prevailed in Osmania General Hospital after two persons - a 'Naik'
in the Army and a Pastor - allegedly abused Hindu Gods and asked the people
to convert into Christianity to "get cured of all their ailments."
.....
by The Indian Express
It would be callous to file away the serial blasts on Mumbai's local trains
a year ago under the sub-head of 'terror strikes'. They left 187 dead.
They left behind 187 stories of stricken families - this newspaper tried
to piece together every one of these distinctive narratives of loss in
the aftermath. But there is indeed a way in which the Mumbai blasts do
surrender their specificity, become part of a general theme. .....
by Seemaa Kamdar
After over 15 years of head-banging over a Bill to curb superstition and
black magic, the decks appear to have finally cleared for the Bill to
be passed. If this happens, the Maharashtra Eradication of Black Magic
and Evil and Aghori Practices Bill will be the first such law to be passed
in the country. A previous draft of the Bill was rejected by all political
parties as being anti-religious, forcing a prolonged rethink. .....
by Lekha Agarwal & N Ganesh
On July 11 last year, these women were helplessly scouring Mumbai's hospitals
in search of their husbands. But their worst nightmare was soon confirmed:
the serial train blasts had taken the lives of their husbands. .....
by T R Jawahar
All the people of the nation, including this thoughtless columnist, owe
a collective apology to all the Presidents of the nation from Dr Rajendra
Prasad to Dr Abdul Kalam. We had always dubbed those who occupied this
ceremonial constitutional post as mere rubber stamps and unceremoniously
dumped them en masse as of no particular use to the country at large.
.....
by Hemant Kumar Rout
An estimated million people Monday witnessed the world famous Rath Yatra,
the annual chariot festival, with devotees driven to a frenzy to catch
a glimpse of the triad of Hindu deities in this eastern Indian seaside
town. .....
by Aziz Haniffa
Rajan Zed, the Hindu chaplain of the Indian Association of Northern Nevada,
who created history on July 12 by opening the US Senate with a Hindu prayer,
has said he received scores of e-mails from Christians apologising for
this protest while congratulating him for his prayer. .....
by John Nichols
Sectarian extremists invaded the U.S. Senate chamber Thursday, chanting
"There's only one true God" and denouncing religious pluralism
as an "abomination." .....
by Anuradha Dutt
Mrs Gandhi snuffed out democracy with the help of a pliant President.
Pratibha Patil will be equally willing to do the dynasty's bidding. .....
by Coomi Kapoor
As a woman you ought to be very happy over Pratibha Patil's nomination?"
is a common refrain of UPA MPs when referring to the selection of this
dark horse. Apparently all women are supposed to rejoice that a big blow
for womankind has been struck. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while
speaking to a group of women journalists recently, called it a red letter
day for women. After 60 years, one of their sex was being elected to the
highest office in the land. .....
by B. Raman
Large sections of the nation shed tears on July 11, 2007, in memory of
the 190 innocent Indians belonging to different religions who were killed
a year ago in a series of explosions in suburban trains of Mumbai by jihadi
terrorists inspired by the ideology of Al Qaeda. Their tears were also
an expression of solidarity with the surviving relatives of these victims.
.....
by Anita Sinha
Hawala is an informal money transfer system which operates below the financial
systems radar. But it's not a terrorist activity only that the hawala
route funds, but also the Naxal activities. Who is funding the Maoists
and their expanding armed guerrilla movement? .....
by The Hindu American Foundation
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the leading U.S. based Hindu human
rights group, released its third annual report today on the discrimination
against Hindus in countries across the world. The report was released
today at the foundation's Washington, D.C. area offices. .....
by Ciaran Mac Aonghusa
In his piece on Islamic terrorism Kevin Myers expressed his shock that
those arrested for the recent attacks in Britain were doctors (Irish Independent,
July 5). .....
by Balbir K Punj
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been having sleepless nights for the
two Indian doctors who are in the centre of the London-Glasgow terror
plot. They are believed to have been involved in the conspiracy to attack
more airports in Britain. They almost succeeded in blowing up Glasgow
Airport but for the alert ground security staff. .....
by Aziz Haniffa
History was created in the United States Senate at 9.30 am on Thursday,
when Rajan Zed, the Hindu chaplain of the Indian Association of Northern
Nevada, opened the Senate with a Hindu prayer. .....
by Nithin Sridhar
Why are Socialist commentators led by UR Ananthamurthy, whose Beijing
Diary had defended Chinese Government's action in Tiananmen Square, angry
with SL Byrappa, the author of Avarana (Veil)? It's tacitly considered
unethical to write a book to mock at another author. But about a month
ago, Ananthamurthy extolled NS Shankar during the release of his book,
Avaranada Anavarana (Lifting the veil of Avarana), a spoof on the original
novel. .....
by Deccan Herald
According to top police officials, prominent installations in the City
such as the ISRO, HAL, Infosys campus and the IISc, are under al Qaedas
radar. .....
by Ashok K Mehta
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is an able and learned man, singly responsible
for the economic emancipation and rise of India. But lately he has made
some impromptu statements on security which make one wonder whether he
is well advised. That Indian Muslims are not immunised against engaging
in acts of international Islamist terrorism was exposed last week. .....
by Ganesh Kanate
Score one more for the land-grabbing instincts of the kin of UPA
presidential nominee Pratibha Patil. A DNA investigation shows
that an educational institution associated with Patti had grabbed
a plot of land measuring 1,08,900 square feet in Amravati (150 km from
Nagpur). .....
by Surya Prakash
Despite mounting evidence of fraud and nepotism in the institutions founded
by her and the lurking suspicion that she had used her political clout
to derail the justice system and stall criminal and civil cases faced
by members of her family, the ruling United Progressive Alliance and its
Left partners have decided to retain Ms Pratibha Patil as their candidate
for the office of President. .....
by Wall Street Journal
India's presidential race is entering its final stages and the weaknesses
of the ruling Congress Party are on full display -- both in the choice
of candidate and within its coalition. .....
by Yogesh Vajpeyi
Warning that a "weak and vulnerable" President could spell disaster
for democracy in India, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday released
a compilation of media reports and articles and a website providing "extensive
information, with proper references" about UPA candidate Pratibha
Patil. .....
by Hindu Human Rights
The bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of slavery was meant to
be a time when all sections of British society could come together and
celebrate what was a momentous event. It is therefore unfortunate that
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) used this time to pursue its own
agenda and renew its vilification of all things Hindu with unprecedented
opportunism and fanaticism. .....
by Andrew Ong
C Ragu, 20, signed up for a course in a government-owned vocational institute
in the hope that one day he would become a electrician. .....
by Wilson John
After the busting of the Bangalore Club, one is forced to concede that
even educated, affluent Muslims are taking to terrorMarc Sageman, who
was a CIA case officer and a forensic psychiatrist posted in Afghanistan
during the late 1980s, carried out an exercise to profile global terrorists
a few years ago. .....
by Paul Anderson
Taxi authorities have condemned an Islamic recruiting drive by some of
Melbourne's Muslim cabbies using propaganda-style DVDs featuring radical
preacher Sheik Khalid Yasin. .....
by Walid Phares
In the years that followed 9/11, two phenomena characterized the Western
public's understanding of the terrorists' ideology. The first characteristic
stemmed from the statements made by the jihadists themselves. More than
ever, Islamist militants and jihadi cadres didn't waste any opportunity
to declare, clarify, explain, and detail the meaning of their aqida (doctrine)
and their intentions to apply Jihadism by all means possible. .....
by Jagmohan Singh
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGOPC) President Avtar Singh
Makkar on Monday courted a serious controversy by extending an invitation
to Hindu Hindu students studying in the educational institutions run by
SGPC to adopt Sikh religion. .....
by Udayan Namboodiri
Saturday Special focusses on the plight of the middle-class, educated
Indian Muslim, who, following the revelations about Al Qaeda's links with
certain doctors and engineers of the community, would hitherto be victims
of far more prejudice and type-casting than ever before. .....
by Hasan Suroor
Judging from much of the Muslim reaction to the latest Islamist outrage
- last month's attempted bombings in London and Glasgow - the community
seems to have talked itself into a default position in relation to violent
Muslim extremism. The same old arguments are being flogged again betraying
an unwillingness to acknowledge either the scale of the problem or its
nature. .....
by Stony Gray
History was created today when Rajan Zed, Hindu chaplain from Reno, Nevada,
opened the session of United States Senate here today with Gayatri Mantra
from Rig-Veda, the oldest Hindu text composed around 1,500 BCE. .....
by The Hindu Council UK
The Hindu Council UK (HCUK) has welcomed the Cardiff High Court decision
to grant a reprieve to Shambo, the sacred bullock at the Skanda Vale temple
that tested positive for bovine TB, saying it is 'common sense.' .....
by Prafulla Gattani
Ceramic sector has developed in Gujarat at a much faster pace than anywhere
else in India. Almost 40 years ago, the tile making industry had started
growing in Maharashtra, Morbi and Rajkot. A few companies were working
hard on getting some machineries from Italy for manufacturing tiles. In
fact, Parshuram Potteries and Decora Tiles were among the first ones to
take lead and start production of tiles in Morbi. .....
by K. R. Phanda
Justice MSA Siddiqui, chairman of the National Commission for Minority
Educational Institutions (NCMEI), is said to have recommended to the Union
Government not to table the Constitutional Amendment Bill, seeking to
change the way the term "minority" is defined in parliamentary
proceedings. The commission feels it will divide the country. .....
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
The storming of Islamabad's Lal Masjid is finally over. The stench of
decomposed bodies fills the air in and around the mosque. Bullet-pocked
and blood-stained walls speak of ferocious battles between the Islamic
militants holed up inside and the attacking Pakistan army commandos. Officially,
the casualty count is 107, but many say the real toll is much higher.
.....
by Theodore Dalrymple
Arriving in Britain by air the day after two men crashed a gasoline-laden
Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal at Glasgow's international airport,
and a couple of days after two car bombs were discovered in the heart
of London, I was surprised by how calm everybody was. .....
by The Hindu
Tribals have a wealth of knowledge in indigenous medicine and are very
industrious people, S.V. Balasubramaniam, Chairman of the Bannari Amman
Group of Companies, said here on Sunday. .....
by Jay Bhattacharjee
The long arm of history, as recent events have shown, is relentless in
its pursuit of truth and accuracy. However far dictators, tyrants and
their defendants may seek to run, the past and its records have a habit
of catching up with them. .....
by Tim Butcher
The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism
yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital
punishment. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
The CPI(M), in a front page editorial in the party's weekly organ, People's
Democracy, has castigated the BJP for its "scurrilous campaign …
against the UPA candidate" for the presidential election. Ignoring
the reams of documents, petitions, RBI notices and CAG reports that have
been placed in the public domain and which implicate Ms Pratibha Patil
and her family in several scandalous acts of financial misdemeanour, the
CPI(M) has mocked at the BJP for its "inability to substantiate the
charges they have levelled". .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Every political crisis throws up its share of conspiracy theories. The
UPA-Left crisis of credibility over the nomination of Pratibha Patil to
succeed President APJ Abdul Kalam is no exception. Over the past some
time, as more and more skeletons tumble out of the Pratibha cupboard,
questions are being asked as to why such a dodgy individual was nominated
in the first place. .....
by Vigil
Thoughts on issues of current interest [my comments - as an Indian citizen
- within square brackets], including instances of some double standards
of our public figures, especially in the construction of Indian identity
(all those Macaulayan myths, and the hypocrisy that is Nehruvian secularism)
.....
by T R Jawahar
At the height of the stock scam in 1992, FM Manmohan Singh declared that
he 'will not lose much sleep over it'. With terror topping the charts
a decade and a half later, the sleeping habits of the former FM, now PM,
have apparently changed drastically and diametrically. He does lose sleep,
of late. But, not for the sake of terrorism's victims or their families,
he being secular. .....
by Irfan Husain
As bouquets and brickbats are being flung at the government following
the Lal Masjid operation, the tough questions are sure to follow. Even
as the corpses of the victims and the villains are being buried, most
Pakistanis are already asking how events were allowed to come to such
a bloody pass. .....
by Russell Working
Bolingbrook resident Raj Koul was a student in the Indian state of Jammu
and Kashmir when Islamic extremists launched an ethnic cleansing campaign
against Hindus. .....
by IBNLive.com
Pakistan's most dangerous export to India is not just terrorism-it's Inter
Services Intelligence (ISI) is trying to flood the country with fake Indian
currency. .....
by Lata Jagtiani
In the early 1980s, as a lecturer at the largest Indian school in Dubai,
I saw within our school premises a five-foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi
installed in the playground. A few days later, however, the statue disappeared.
I found it tucked away in a corner, hiding furtively in darkness in the
school-library, heavily draped with sheets. Gandhi was in a *hijab*! A
Government directive prohibited statues. .....
by Premen Addy
It was the unlamented Laventri Beria, Stalin's feared police chief, who,
in 1949, invented the infamous "Doctors' Plot". What Stalin
would have made of the jihadi doctors' plot we shall, mercifully, never
know. No Anglo-American imperialist conspiracy here, at least not one
that is visible or credible. Today's false prophets, intoxicated by the
brew of apocalyptic nihilism, prefigure in Feodor Dostoevsky's novel,
translated variously as The Possessed or The Devils. .....
by FrontPageMagazine.com
Upon assuming office, United States Congressmen swear to "support
and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,
foreign and domestic." Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) is on
the job, zeroing in on a large-scale plan to subvert the Constitution,
led by none other than George W. Bush. .....
by Barry Bearak
With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early.
These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand
through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road. .....
by Rajendra Aklekar & Ketaki Ghoge
A series of functions was organised to remember the 11/7 serial train
blasts victims but the state government's only homage was a oneminute
silence in the state cabinet. .....
by ExpressIndia.com
Lord Mountbatten "used" his wife Edwina, who shared a "deep
emotional love" with Jawaharlal Nehru, to influence India's first
Prime Minister to refer the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, according
to the last Viceroy's daughter. .....
by Ashling O'Connor
It was one of the most talked-about relationships in British colonial
circles: Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the
last Viceroy of India, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first postindependence
Prime Minister. .....
by The Indian Express
Rajani Patil, the wife of Congress leader V G Patil who was murdered in
Jalgaon in 2005, on Friday moved the Bombay High Court, seeking interrogation
of UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil and her brother G N Patil
by the CBI which is investigating the case. .....
by Samudra Gupta Kashyap
The Muslim population in Assam has increased by over 313 per cent in half-a-century-between
1951 and 2001. As against this, the rate of increase of the state's Hindu
population is a little over 193 per cent, said former Director of Census
Operations of Assam N C Dutta. .....
by D'Arcy Doran
Britsain's new security chief warned the country's battle against terrorism
could take up to 15 years, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an
interview broadcast on Sunday he wanted an expanded European system to
share information on potential threats. .....
by Tavleen Singh
As someone who spent years reporting on the events that led to Operation
Bluestar and the decade of terrorism that followed in its aftermath I
watched the siege of Islamabad's Lal Masjid with deep interest. Last week
when it ended with one of the two head mullahs, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, and
many of his holy warriors dead, General Pervez Musharraf received kudos
from his friends in the West. .....
by Amulya Ganguli
Even before the accolades about Mayawati's remarkable election victory
in Uttar Pradesh, born of a path-breaking Dalit-Brahmin alliance, had
subsided, several flawed aspects of her politics have come to the fore.
.....
by Alan Shelton
Spirituality lies beyond the material world of proof, beyond what can
be measured or counted. It is made up of the inner life, the realm of
belief, mystery, and faith. And yet for all the mystery that surrounds
it, spirituality is vital to our well-being. It is the foundation of our
most closely held values, the seat of our trust and hope. .....
by Gurcharan Das
In a meeting of the board of directors that I joined recently, the company
disclosed that it had paid a bribe to recover an overdue payment from
the government. My first reaction was: Holy cow, how did I land in this
unholy mess! I wondered about my responsibilities as an independent director.
Should I resign from the board? Do we sack the managing director? .....
by Saibal Dasgupta
Communist China may have embraced capitalism, but it has declared one
of the icons of global capitalism, Starbucks, a no-no in Beijing's Forbidden
City. The directive to get the coffee giant out of the 587-year-old heritage
site came after several months of protests by a section of people, who
said that its presence "trampled on Chinese culture''. The decision
was a rare instance of Beijing responding to public grumbles against Western
companies, which have been wooed to China over the past three decades.
.....
by The Times of India
The 'Lakshman rekha' was drawn by Lakshman to save Sita from the hands
of Ravan, not the other way round, said Justice Arijit Pasayat of the
supreme court, commenting on the reference made by politicians on the
judiciary crossing its bounds. .....
by Bella Jaisinghani I
Born on the 11th of July, Milind Bhoot and Pravin Varma were travelling
home separately to their birthday celebrations, when their lives were
thrown offtrack by the train blasts of 2006. After the tragedy, TOI introduced
them to each other as 'brothers in destiny'. A year later, the two have
maintained the solidarity that developed between them in the aftermath
of 7/11. .....
by Viju B I
Destiny gives the toughest test to the bravest. When one of her neighbours
started crying because her husband did not return home on 7/11, it was
53-year-old Malti Ben Mithani who consoled her and prayed for his safety.
While her neighbour's husband returned home safely, little did Mithani
know that her own husband was struggling for life at Sion hospital, after
being caught in the Matunga blast. .....
by The Times of India
NDA-backed presidential candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's voluntary
declaration of assets on Friday seemed to have put Congress on the back
foot despite its strong assertion that such a move was not required by
law. .....
by Gautam Siddharth
Pope Benedict XVI has ruffled feathers in the Christian world by saying
orthodox churches are defective and Christian denominations outside the
Roman Catholic Church aren't true churches. His views are contained in
a 16-page document of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith released this week, in which he has also called for allowing wider
use of Latin in the Holy Mass. Many perceive the document as a blow to
the reforms initiated by the revolutionary Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
.....
by S Balakrishnan
Congressmen in the state are in a quandary over the scheduled visit of
Pratibha Patil, the nominee of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for
the presidential election. Patil is expected to visit the city on July
18. .....
by The Times of India
The high court said it would continue hearing the petition by the widow
of Jalgaon district Congress committee chief V G Patil on Tuesday after
additional solicitor-general B A Desai, appearing for the CBI, opposed
it and said he wanted to file an affidavit in reply. .....
by S. Prasannarajan
So welcome to Bangalore, the silicon shrine of the so-called flat world.
Does it sound so yesterday? There is a shift-and Inshallah, we hope it's
a temporary one-in perception after its migration from business pages
to front pages. Bangalore has become the back story of Glasgow, and in
a flat world, this transformation is perfectly in order. .....
by Saurabh Shukla
Much before the Bangalore boys got India its first date with infamy, Al
Qaeda managed to spread its tentacles in India, riding piggyback on smaller
groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and LeT, operating from Pakistan. Al Qaeda,
Arabic for 'the base', is scouting for new 'recruitment bases' and India
is high on the list. Analysts say it is now focusing on recruiting Indian
professionals as part of its strategy of assembling cadres from countries
less likely to attract the suspicion of global security agencies. .....
by Amarnath K. Menon
The best way to keep one's word, said Napoleon, is not to give it. Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, though, thinks somewhat
differently. Here is a man who not only makes promises, but knows how
to fulfil them. .....
by Chidanand Rajghatta
The United States and China are bracing for a backlash from Islamic extremists
after supporting the Pakistani military's attack on the Lal Masjid complex
in Islamabad that killed militant leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi and an unspecified
number of fundamentalists. .....
by Andrew Bostom
As we continue to learn the terrifying details of the foiled U.K. bombing
plots - and the six doctors allegedly involved in them - some suggest
that the notion of Muslim physician-terrorists is a total anomaly, a perversion
of not only the medical creed but of the ethic of Islam. .....
by Sandhya Jain
Far from expanding the aura of Islam, the recent Glasgow Airport attack
only underlines the shrivelling of the sphere of influence of jihad and
Muslim rage. This may seem surprising to those easily alarmed by media
overkill about terror cells lurking in every locality, but a brief pause
would show that Islam's disunity and absence of strategy to face its Western
'tormentors' have led it into the proverbial chakravyu from which exit
is unknown. .....
by Daily Times
A newspaper warns that Jews and Christians are engaged in "genocide"
against Muslims. A website says children should love guns instead of cricket.
A video shows a child beheading a militant accused of betraying his comrades.
.....
by B. R. Haran
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to his British counterpart Gordon
Brown about the recent terrorist acts in Glasgow and London. It was heartening
to note that the Prime Minister has assured Mr Brown of India's cooperation
in the investigations into the UK terror plot. But while talking to journalists
subsequently, he made some surprising statements. .....
by The Pioneer
Liberalism and communism together could prove to be a deadly cocktail
as is now being witnessed in Kerala, one of the three Marxist bastions
of India. Proponents of such amalgamation believe that "the end justifies
the means" as demonstrated by those who edit and publish Desabhimani,
the CPI(M)'s Malayalam organ. .....
by The Pioneer
A mystery letter is doing the rounds in CPI(M) circles questioning the
party's support to UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, its failure
to punish the people responsible for the Nandigram incident, and its deviation
from the party's ideological moorings. .....
by Navin Upadhyay
UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil's perfunctory denial of grave
charges of wrongdoing levelled against her and her family members is in
line with the equally unconvincing rebuttals by Congress spokespersons.
.....
by IBNLive.com
Documents and CDs containing jihadi propaganda material were seized from
the Bangalore home of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, who are suspects in the
failed British terror plot. .....
by Irshad Manji
Last week, two very different Brits had their say about the latest terrorist
plots in their country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the nation that
"we have got to separate those great moderate members of our community
from a few extremists who wish to practice violence and inflict maximum
loss of life in the interests of a perversion of their religion."
.....
by The Telegraph, UK
The warning from Sir Alan West, the new security minister, that it could
take as long as 15 years to deal with the Islamic radicalism that spawns
terrorist attacks in this country will surprise no one. .....
by Julia Zappei
A Muslim-born woman who was forced to spend six months in an Islamic rehabilitation
center because she wants to live as a Hindu said Friday after her release
that she will never return to her original faith. .....
by Brisbane Times
Two West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign
doctors questioned over the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks. .....
by Joel Mowbray
In what must have come as a shock to its readers, the New York Times reported
that the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London brought "home to
Britain fears of homegrown terrorist attacks among its disenfranchised
South Asian population." .....
by Archana Masih
There are certain things that are a must do in life. Even if it means
pulling out of bed at 4 in the morning to make it to the water's edge
in one of India's most chaotic cities. .....
by John Steele
A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades
in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist
internet chat site. .....
by The Economic Times
The much-revered Tirupati shrine is on the jehadi outfits' terror radar
according to latest intelligence inputs which also list Sai Baba's temple
at Shirdi and the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai as likely terror targets.
.....
by Scott Baldauf
Sitting in the lotus position, his legs crossed, his eyes closed, his
breath even, his arms draped against his knees, his back erect, and his
tensions melting into the earth beneath him, Om Prakash is slowly putting
the worries of the world out of his mind. .....
by Anna Molberg
On an elaborately decorated stage outside Cannon Chapel on Saturday, College
sophomore Vishal Patel and College freshman Anu Anand got married. Well,
not really. .....
by Michael Binyon
Medicine and engineering have long been the two most prestigious professions
for Muslims. Some of the Arab world's most famous writers and politicians
have studied these disciplines. .....
by Adam Fresco
Two Asian men were arrested yesterday in the UK on suspicion of terrorism
offences after they ordered a quantity of gas bottles to be delivered
to what is believed to be an empty industrial unit. .....
by Prakriiti Gupta
Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir have issued fresh diktat against Hindus.
They are forcing Hindus to print the wordings Allah ki Meharbani on wedding
cards if they want a peaceful wedding in the family. The Hindus are asked
not to don their religious symbols like Janaeu, Tilak and stopped from
displaying the pictures of their deities. .....
by Michel Moutot
This time it was doctors, but it could just as easily have been students,
engineers or shop-keepers: the radical Islamist ideology apparently behind
the recent failed attacks in Britain is not limited to one social class,
experts say. .....
by The Times of India
Be it West Bengal or Kerala, CPM's claim of having a common vision on
political economy has received a jolt with West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee openly criticising Left economists. .....
by BJP.org
The election for the President of India is governed by 'The Presidential
and Vice-Presidential Act, 1952'. The Act requires the Election Commission
to appoint a Returning Officer through whom it shall conduct the elections.
Even though the powers and procedures for the election are mentioned in
the Act, the powers of the Commission in relation to areas not occupied
by the legislation are contained in the Article 324 of the Constitution.
.....
by Reuters
A leading Muslim group in Nepal said on Saturday it would organise street
protests if the government does not meet its demand to set aside seats
for its community in November elections. .....
by Vivek Desnpande
Within a month of issuing an appeal to the "stressed out" cops
to join Naxalite movement, the Moists first killed a cop a few days ago
in Gadchiroli and have now killed a Forest guard for allowing his son
to join the police force. .....
by Tavleen Singh
The prime minister's timing couldn't have been worse. In the week we discovered
that al-Qaeda could have found recruits in Bangalore, in the week we saw
Islam's fanatical face on full display in the battle for Lal Masjid, and
in the week that Ayman al-Zawahiri reappeared on our television screens
to urge all Muslims to join the jihad to destroy the West, the prime minister
announced that he is losing sleep over Muslims being "labelled".
.....
by Rajeev P I
Dogged by continuing exposes, the CPI(M), which leads the LDF Government
in Kerala, is going beyond blaming the media in general. Even while disowning
anonymous street posters vilifying its media tormenters, the party's leaders
are seeking out specific targets. .....
by Ritu Sarin with Dhaval Kulkarni
The cooperative bank in Jalgaon set up by the UPA-Left's Presidential
nominee Pratibha Patil, ostensibly to empower women, had its licence revoked
in 2003 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for alleged financial irregularities.
.....
by Atul Sethi
Dusk is slowly enveloping the small village of Missi in the Bidinki sub-division
of Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Hasan Ahmed, a Muslim, is getting
ready to attend a Hindu marriage ceremony, which he says, won't start
without his arrival. .....
by The Times of India
Up to eight people, suspected of having links with terror groups, including
Al Qaida, and some even believed to have attended terror training camps
in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are employed in Britain's police service,
according to a London daily. .....
by Devraj Dasgupta
Until a year ago, Sunita Pawar's story would have read like that of any
average Mumbai housewife. The young girl from a small town in Maharashtra
moved into the city after getting married several years ago and led a
humdrum and sheltered life, bustling about her daily chores and looking
after her two little sons. The train blasts on July 11 last year shattered
her cocoon. .....
by R Jayaprakash
The Bangalore link to international terror appears to be going beyond
the two doctors and a PhD engineer linked to the Glasgow airport attack
and two foiled London car bombings. Investigating agencies are looking
for 12 persons who could provide major leads to crack the UK terror plot.
.....
by Shekhar Gupta
Any proud and self-respecting Indian would share the prime minister's
anguish and loss of sleep over the arrest of some Indian Muslims for suspected
Al-Qaeda links. Similarly, you'd also understand his statement that, being
a Sikh, he particularly understands the implications of a community being
tarred with the charge of terrorism. .....
by Gautam Mukherjee
Our "non-political" Prime Minister has been delivering a command
performance of late, flitting from lecturing Indian business on the responsibilities
of corporate governance to expressing great concern for the underprivileged.
But none of this causes him to show visible discomfort when called upon
to defend the indefensible. .....
by The Pioneer
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has let it be known that he has been spending
sleepless nights after watching the tearful parents of Kafeel and Sabeel
Ahmed, involved in the terrorist plot to blow up Glasgow Airport and targets
in London, on television. That's very touching, but it would have been
convincing if the Prime Minister had demonstrated similar sentiments after
watching television footage of mutilated bodies of victims of terrorism
both at home and abroad. .....
by Ambreesh Mishra
Mahipal Singh Rajput, a 51-yearold agriculturist from the fertile
Narmada belt in Hoshangabad, is studying the Reliance Fresh model these
days. With masters degrees in economics and geography, his interest
in the evolving organised retail of farm products is only natural,
but for the fact he is convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.
And the studies are a part of his ongoing MBA programme. .....
by Prerana Thakurdesai with Priya
Sahgal and Satarupa Bhattacharjya
SUGAR MILL SCAM : The Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd, Jalgaon,
was founded by Patil in 1980 but the project took off only in 1994-95
with a loan from the Mumbai Central District Co-operative Bank. It began
operations in 1998, but never broke even and was closed down after 1999.
It owes the bank Rs 17.7 crore. .....
by Prerana Thakurdesai with Priya
Sahgal and Satarupa Bhattacharjya
It is the stuff sci-fi writers scour around for to script their futuristic
mindbenders. To conventional political credentials, India's first woman-who-might-be
president has added a touch of the paranormal. A la Frodo Baggins in The
Lord of the Rings, Pratibha Patil apparently conducted a seance with the
dead in order to discover her future. .....
by Indian Currents
Cracking its whip on fake non-government organizations, the Rural Development
Ministry has ordered blacklisting of 600 NGOs, lodging FIRs against 21
others and handing over 10 cases to CBI. "We have to stop the scam
involving public money," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad
Singh told reporters. .....
by Saurabh Shukla
Even though terrorism continues to be the single biggest impediment in
the Indo-Pak peace process, Home Minister Shivraj Patil's remarks, on
the eve of the home secretary-level talks between the two countries, have
exposed yet again how different ministries in the Government have been
working at cross purposes on the crucial issue of national security. .....
by Saurabh Shukla
The Art of War was written by the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu in 500 B.C.,
and is still considered a gospel for war and strategic thinking in organisations
around the globe, and if the recently declassified CIA documents are to
be believed, the Chinese mastered it perfectly in the run up to the 1962
Sino-India war. .....
by Irfan Husain
It is two years to the day since suicide bombers attacked the London transport
system in 2005, killing over 50 innocent victims. Since then, others have
tried to emulate these atrocities, including the botched attempts in London
and Glasgow recently. Although thousands of miles separate the recent
violence in and around Islamabad's Lal Masjid from the UK attacks, a strong
strand connects the incidents. .....
by The Hindu
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) will set up a 'kalyanamastu trust'
to continue with the mass marriages programme in the years to come, while
a 'vidyadan trust' will be set up to open modern spiritual 'gurukulams'
in all district headquarters. These 'gurukulams' were meant for children
of poor families, but the quality of education imparted there would be
on a par with what was available in corporate schools, TTD trust board
chairman B. Karunakar Reddy said here on Wednesday. .....
by Sify News
Police in Banaglore say Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed - two Indians who
are said to be brothers and are prime suspects in the failed terror plots
in Britain - had joined the Tabligi Jamaat, a fundamentalist missionary
sect within Islam. .....
by Diana West
Q: Who is winning the really important war of ideas - the one between
the West and itself?
A: Not the side that understands jihad as a foundational Islamic institution.
.....
by Pramod Navalkar
Our country need not fear Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. We are quite
a powerful nation and no one dare touch us. However, we do need to fear
the imminent threat from casteism. The sheer number of castes in India
offer a direct blow to our national unity. .....
by Alexander Zinoveiv
Wide territories are being irretrievably lost from the sphere of the Indian
civilasation and are moved, in the spiritual sense, thousands of kilometers
more to the west direction. .....
by KPS Gill
The involvement of some Indian doctors and engineers - conclusive evidence
in two cases is yet to be disclosed, but there now seems little doubt
that one of the perpetrators of the attack on Glasgow Airport, Kafeel
Ahmed, is an Indian engineer - has once again dramatically exposed the
infirmities of India's orientation towards Islamist terrorism, the manner
in which it is perceived and projected by the national leadership, and
the counter-productive tyranny of political correctness and undercurrent
of apologetics that dominates most approaches. .....
by David Quinn
The other day when he was asked to react to the attempted car-bomb attacks
on London, the city's mayor, Ken Livingstone, called for tolerance. .....
by The Telegraph, UK
Up to eight people believed to have links with extremists including al-Qa'eda
are working for British police forces, it has been reported. .....
by Salim Mansur
Last week, attending in Toronto a Fraser Institute conference on immigration,
terrorism and border control I met Bat Ye'or, a remarkably gentle woman
in her 70s, though her work as a historian has generated in equal measure
ire and admiration in both Europe and North America. .....
by Navin Upadhyay
An independent fact-finding team headed by Justice M Ramakrishna, former
Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, has described as "holocaust"
the killing of villagers at Nandigram on March 13-14 and has said that
the West Bengal Government remained either a silent spectator or acted
at the behest of CPI(M) cadres. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
The Prime Minister is worried, extremely worried, that the latest bombing
plot to come unstuck in Britain could lead to "labelling of Muslims
as terrorists". After watching television footage of tearful parents
of the three Indians believed to have been part of the conspiracy to blow
up Glasgow Airport and targets in London, Mr Manmohan Singh has been having
sleepless nights; he has been worrying his head off about people attaching
the terror tag to the Muslim community. .....
by The Indian Express
The Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh is under the mistaken
notion that persistence can be made to pay; that with some clever manipulation
of percentages, it would be able to get its policy of introducing a Muslim
quota in the state past the watchful eye of the courts. The Andhra Pradesh
High Court has already struck down two earlier attempts of this kind and
the Supreme Court, in the last instance, had refused to overrule the high
court's verdict. .....
by V. Balachandran
In 1976, Asia Society, New York, published the results of their survey
on the treatment of Asia in American elementary and secondary school textbooks.
A team of 103 experts reviewed 306 books used in 50 states. The portrayal
of India was "the most negative among all Asian countries" according
to Prof. Arthur Rubinoff of the Toronto University who felt that this
was one of the reasons why Congressional perceptions on India had been
negative. .....
by Marathi Weekly "Vivek"
President of India Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam returned from his tour to Greece
in May 2007. During his visit to Greece, Dr Kalam was wonderstruck when
the President of Greece, Carlos Papoliyas welcomed him clearly in Sanskrit.
.....
by Vivek Deshpande
On April 26, 2007, just over six weeks before the UPA-Left announced Pratibha
Patil's name for President, the Congress-led Maharashtra government leased
out 25,000 square feet of prime land in Amravati to her husband's education
society. And agreed to build a sports complex on it using Rs 36 lakh from
Patil's MP Local Area Development Fund Scheme (MPLADS) she got way back
in 1996 when she was a Lok Sabha MP. .....
by The Time of India
The Bangalore connection to the British terror web appears to be turning
deadlier by the day. Two days after the suspected role of two cousins
Sabeel Ahmed and Haneef Muhammed, both from Bangalore, in the foiled car
bombings in London hit headlines, it has now emerged that the man who
drove the flaming jeep into Glasgow airport on Saturday is Sabeel's elder
brother Kafeel. .....
by Paisley Dodds
That, a British priest said Wednesday, was the cryptic warning made to
him in Jordan by a purported al-Qaida chief months before the failed car
bombings in London and Glasgow that have been linked to a group of foreign
Muslims working as doctors in Britain. .....
by The Pioneer
The BJP today alleged that the petition challenging the nomination of
UPA-Left presidential candidate Pratibha Patil and dismissed by the Supreme
Court was a "Congress-sponsored" litigation. .....
by Michael Binyon
Hindus in Britain have a problem: they fit in too well. Unlike alienated
Muslim extremists, they do not march, demonstrate or threaten violence.
Most achieve good results at school and hold good jobs. Many find their
religion compatible with Western society. And, as a result, official Britain
takes little notice. .....
by Amit Roy
London had a very lucky escape today when a car bomb, which could have
killed and maimed hundreds around Piccadilly Circus - a favourite haunt
of Indians - was defused in the nick of time. .....
by The Pioneer
Among the many tragedies that have befallen West Bengal since last August
is the rape and murder of 18-year-old Tapashi Mullick. In the annals of
popular struggle against the State's Marxist regime, her gruesome death
would have been just another statistical detail. But the context of the
teenager's death has made it a cause célèbre. .....
by T R Jawahar
All the people of the nation, including this thoughtless columnist, owe
a collective apology to all the Presidents of the nation from Dr Rajendra
Prasad to Dr Abdul Kalam. We had always dubbed those who occupied this
ceremonial constitutional post as mere rubber stamps and unceremoniously
dumped them en masse as of no particular use to the country at large.
.....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Every political crisis throws up its share of conspiracy theories. The
UPA-Left crisis of credibility over the nomination of Pratibha Patil to
succeed President APJ Abdul Kalam is no exception. Over the past week,
as more and more skeletons tumble out of the Pratibha cupboard, questions
are being asked as to why such a dodgy individual was nominated in the
first place. .....
by Shekhar Gupta
In a week when Rashtrapati Bhavan is in the headlines, it is relevant
to recall a little nugget from our political history. It seems that in
the very early sixties, when Jawaharlal Nehru showed first few signs of
tiring and flagging and there was some concern in the Congress top brass,
the then president, Rajendra Prasad, sent out word that, should a change
become necessary, he was willing to "step down" and take over
the onerous responsibility of prime ministership. .....
by Navin Upadhyay
The Congress Governments at the Centre have helped UPA presidential nominee
Pratibha Patil build an empire around two different trusts run and controlled
by her family members over the past three decades. .....
by Diana West
If anyone wants to know why Muslims the world over tell pollsters the
United States is at war with Islam, just read President Bush's speech
at the Islamic Center of Washington, especially the part about American-style
religious freedom - in the president's words, "what we wish for the
world." .....
by Griff Witte
Daulat Nagar, Pakistan -- Nusrat Riaz, a doctor for 17 years, has spent
the past three directing a clinic that provides care to thousands of poor
patients in this remote, wheat-farming village on the plains of Punjab.
.....
by Yahoo.com
Dozens of Muslim students of a government-run Urdu school in a Bihar village
have refused to take mid-day meals cooked by a Dalit woman. .....
