by Mukto-Mona.com
Recently in Hyderabad, India, at a meeting to release the Telugu translation
of her new book, "Shodh", prominent feminist author and secular
humanist activist Dr. Taslima Nasrin was physically attacked by three
State Legislators of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (M-I-M) who were accompanied
by a horde of fundamentalist thugs. ......
by Ranjit Roy
The ruling CPI(M)'s policy to acquire farm land for setting up high profile
industries is slowly but steadily eroding party's nearly 30-year-long
Muslim vote bank in rural Bengal. This is evident after the humiliating
defeat in Panshkura and later losing seven seats to the Opposition combine
in closely contested Haldia municipal elections in east Midnapore on July
22. ......
by Syed Amin Jafri
Hyderabad City Police have booked a case against controversial Bangladesh
writer Taslima Nasreen for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims.
The Police have also sought the clearance from a court to file a case
against Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen floor leader in Assembly Akbaruddin
Owaisi for allegedly holding out threats to Taslima Nasreen if she visits
Hyderabad again. ......
by Ketan Tanna
Five-year-old Sunita and her three friends who have come back home from
school a while ago, land up at a huge godown near Jain Mandir, Mazgaon,
on a late Thursday afternoon. "Uncle, give us something to play with,"
demands Sunita, her eyes lighting up in excitement. "Come on Sunday,"
says the uncle, Manilal Dungershi Dand, a retired businessman. ......
by The Indian Express
The US feels India's fears of terrorists using sea routes to sustain their
campaign are well-grounded and has suggested that counter-measures like
Container Security Initiative needed to be ratified soon. ......
by Damien Cave
Shatha al-Musawi, a Shiite member of Parliament, first encountered the
Sunni-Shiite divide on the day the Americans captured Saddam Hussein.
Hearing the news with a close Sunni friend named Sahira, Ms. Musawi erupted
like a child. ......
by K V Ramana
If two terror attacks in less than three months have battered the image
of Hyderabad as a growing international IT hub, even more alarming is
the disclosure that about 13 trained operatives of extremist groups have
infiltrated the rank and file of some of the IT companies. ......
by Vijay Pallod
An exhibition of photos and panels vividly describing the atrocities on
Hindus in Bangladesh caught the attention of influential Congressmen and
key policymakers in the Bush administration. ......
by The Pioneer
Reflecting the increasing isolation of the Left Front in the intelligentsia,
West Bengal's eminent Leftist writer-activist Mahashweta Devi feels that
it has achieved "very little" in its 30 years of rule in the
State. ......
by Satananda Bhattacharjee
The leaders of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and North East Students'
Organisation (NESO) on Thursday reiterated their demand to make the north-eastern
states Bangladeshi-free. Addressing a huge public meeting at Algapur,
9 km from here organised on the occasion of the 3 rd annual conference
of the Hailakandi unit of AASU ......
by Swati Parashar
The secular credentials of India were questioned yet again when Bangladeshi
writer, Tasleema Nasreen was attacked in Hyderabad, by none other than
those who are considered as the law makers of the country. In a deplorable
act of vandalism, three MLAs of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)
hurled abuses at Tasleema and even threw pieces of furniture at her while
she was attending the launch of the Telugu version of her new novel, Shodh,
in Hyderabad on August 9, 2007. ......
by Swati Maheshwari
The attack on exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has exposed deep-rooted
hypocrisy with regard to fundamentalist protests against creative freedom
in India. ......
by Faizan Ahmad
The affairs of the 300-year-old Khaki Baba Ram Janki Thakurbari at Hilsa
will now be managed by an all-Dalit trust. Bihar State Board of Religious
Trusts administrator Kishore Kunal said it would be country's first all
Dalit trust of any temple. ......
by The Times of India
With incidents of the killing of civilians, particularly Hindi-speaking
people, on the rise in Assam, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi says he doubts
the sincerity of the outlawed ULFA to join the peace process as it is
"under the influence" of the ISI and jehadi groups. ......
by Rajeev Ranjan Roy
For the Supreme Court, the illegal Bangladeshi migrants are a security
threat, but not for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.
Millions of illegal migrants do not constitute any threat to the country's
internal security if one goes by the status paper of Ministry of Home
Affairs on 'Internal Security Situation'. The status paper has strikingly
bypassed illegal Bangladeshi migrants. ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
Those familiar with Hyderabad will tell you that there are two faces of
the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), the Owaisi family-led organisation
that exercises a stranglehold over the city's Muslim community. There
is the acceptable face comprising a network of educational institutions
and healthcare centres. The flip side is not so much in evidence on the
main roads but surfaces in the by-lanes of the old city. ......
by Economic Times
The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was willing to keep
the 'creamy layer' out of the 27% quota for OBCs in elite educational
institutions, a move aimed at getting the nod for its early implementation.
......
by P R Ramesh
Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani is the latest cause celebre of the
Left, the Congress and the civil liberty alarmists. A hardline leader,
who still faces around 20 cases in Kerala that include spreading communal
hatred, was recently exonerated by a special court of the charges of his
involvement in the Coimbatore blasts case. ......
by Sailendra Sil
Thousands of refugees still occupy this forgotten and forlorn camp close
to the Bangladesh border in a terrible testimony to the bitter legacy
of the partition of India. ......
by Organiser
The UPA is trying all tricks to avoid an election. With the communists
bent on blocking the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Congress making the
deal a matter of prestige, the options before the ruling coalition are
limited. ......
by Balbir K. Punj
George has a legitimate grievance that no one spoke in defence of civilized
discourse when he as defence minister faced day in and day out Congress
MPs' collective definition of him inside Parliament as "kafan chor".
Some one could also remind the outraged Congressmen that they too employ
adjectives that are most reprehensible. ......
by Irfan Husain
For years, many Pakistanis had resented being 'abandoned' by the US after
the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. But now that we are once more
allied with the Americans, millions of Pakistanis are up in arms over
the relationship. ......
by Shyam Khosla
Let us accept for argument sake, that George Fernandes' comment on the
Prime Minister is not exactly in good taste. He could have used harsher
yet more appropriate language to express his anguish over "lies"
dished out by Dr. Manmohan Singh on the merits of the Indo-US nuclear
deal. But to accuse the veteran leader of inciting violence against the
head of the government is to manufacture excuses to hang the man you don't
like for his views and policies. ......
by Francois Gautier
The first _article_ (http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/may/23franc.htm) published
by rediff on Brahmins as an underprivileged community, brought a flurry
of reactions, mostly of surprise: "What, Brahmins as toilet cleaners,
coolies, rickshaw pullers, priests earning less than Rs 150 a month...
How is it possible, we always thought that Brahmins were a rich, fat,
arrogant community?" ......
by Rediff.com
Since September 2003, the Art of Living has been working under trying
circumstances to help the Iraqi people overcome the deep pain and suffering
inflicted by the long-drawn warfare. ......
by Rediff.com
Iraqis face a Catch-22 situation! In any long-drawn conflict, the victim
tends to turn an oppressor and the oppressor becomes a victim. Spiritual
understanding alone can break this vicious cycle," says Sri Sri Ravishankar.
......
by Rediff.com
"It is a wonderful programme. We didn't know what the Art of Living
is, but after coming here we are learning so much about our body, mind
and soul. We are learning to handle our emotions," says Ramia Sagban
from Baghdad. ......
by Rediff.com
The training, which will conclude on September 9, will see the youth undergo
some of the Art of Living's intensive programmes like the Youth Leadership
Training Programme. Some of them will be trained to become Art of Living
instructors. They will be equipped to conduct trauma relief programmes
and promote techniques that facilitate physical, mental, emotional and
social well-being of the people of the war-ravaged country. ......
by Rediff.com
It feels like breathing out all the stress of war and breathing in a new
life." This was how 32-year-old Iraqi Ahmed Hinoon described his
experience at the ongoing training programme at the Art of Living International
Centre in Bangalore. ......
by Kanchan Gupta
Even as the Prime Minister continues to conduct negotiations, this time
with comrades shaken by the possibility of China's long march to superpower
status being halted by an incipient India-US strategic entente, on the
123 Agreement behind a veil of conspiratorial secrecy, the BJP's helmsman
has sought to remove misperceptions about his party's approach to the
civil nuclear cooperation deal. ......
by The Pioneer
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani has ended speculation
about change in the BJP's opposition to the India-US civil nuclear agreement
and called for renegotiation of the deal after amending the domestic Atomic
Energy Act. ......
by Jagdish Bhatt
The 'Retreat', the summer home of the President of India in the scenic
woodlands of Charabra near Shimla, is ready to receive a new neighbour.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is eyeing a fourbigha land near the presidential
retreat for a summer getaway of her own. ......
by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Anti-quota petitioners on Thursday gave a new spin to the ongoing quota
debate before the SC by arguing that only those continuing with their
age-old profession and occupation, which categorised them as backward,
should be entitled to OBC reservation. ......
by The Pioneer
Wednesday's communal violence in Muslim-dominated areas of Agra is indicative
of the fragile peace that prevails in many places across the country.
It also shows that all it takes is an incident as far removed from Muslim
issues as a road accident for the community's goon brigade to go on the
rampage, secure in the knowledge that they shan't be punished for their
criminal behaviour. ......
by Tarun Vijay
Bombs are deadly. They suddenly blast and even before you could know what
has hit you, your body would be scattered all around in a hundred pieces.
You may be having fun at a local food joint or preparing to solemnise
marriage the next morning. Everything goes off in a second. Marriages
turn into mourning and the enquiries are ordered. ......
by Asian Tribune
Hindu Chaplain Rajan Zed, who read the historic first Hindu prayer in
United States (US) Senate in Washington DC last month and which was protested,
was honored at New York Ganesha Temple during Hindu Sangathan Diwas (Unity
Day) celebrations for distinguished service. ......
by Asian Tribune
Wahhabism is a new politico-religious movement that is sweeping the Eastern
province of Sri Lanka with more than 50 Muslim fundamentalist organizations
supporting it and helping in propagating the movement throughout the Island.
......
by Maria Misra
With the sixtieth anniversary of independence, enthusiasm for India in
the West is at an all-time high. And though the Hindu nationalist slogan
"India Shining" was decisively and derisively dismissed as overoptimistic
in India itself at the 2004 general election, among Western commentators
the sub-continent's sparkle remains untarnished. ......
by The Economist
In their different ways they were as bad as each other, the three monsters
of 20th-century Europe. That is an oddly controversial statement. Hitler
is almost universally vilified; Lenin remains entombed on Red Square as
Russia's most distinguished corpse; and modern Russia is looking more
kindly on Stalin's memory. ......
by Phyllis Chesler
In the summer of 2004, I wrote an article calling attention to the tragic
plight of black African Muslim women in the Sudan. But my article led
to no feminist, African-American, or Islamic-American campaign on their
behalf. Nor did it prompt liberal Jewish groups to take immediate action
to aid Darfur's refugees. ......
by Anjali Puri
Outside the Pandita home in Mishriwala camp is a walnut tree. It has never
produced a walnut, and never will, in the heat of Jammu. However, its
jagged green leaves symbolise a lost home and a lost life. ......
by Ajai Shukla
Independence Day tomorrow will witness the crescendo and then, mercifully,
the end of an orgy of collective self-delusion that rivals the BJP's Shining
India run-up to the 2004 elections. India's 60th birthday has occasioned
nostalgia, patriotism, jingoism, and a rash of polls to determine data
like India's favourite song. ......
by Vickey Lalwani
Pooja Bhatt's Dhokha releases six days after the twin blasts at Hyderabad.
Dhokha makes a bold statement that India has treated the minorities, especially
the Muslims, unfairly and this is one of the reasons why terrorism poses
a grave threat to our lives everyday. ......
by Abhishek Sharan
For the victims of the two Hyderabad blasts on Saturday, death came gift-wrapped
in glossy paper. The third bomb, which was defused before it could blow
up, was packaged similarly. ......
by Omer Farooq
As the Hyderabad city was trying to recover from the shock of the worst
ever terrorist attacks and loss of 42 lives in twin blasts on Saturday
night, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Sunday categorically said
that it was the handiwork of the terrorist organisations from Bangladesh
and Pakistan. ......
by The Daily Telegraph
Indonesian Muslims are living in sin as long as they fail to implement
Islamic law across the world's fourth largest nation, hardline cleric
Abu Bakar Bashir said today. ......
by Meetu Jain
The face of Brand India and the target of two consecutive terror attacks,
Hyderabad, is in the radar of not just terror groups, but of another source
as well - NGOs. ......
by Shankar Raghuraman
The US and UK may like to believe that they are leading the war on terror
globally, but the country that has had to face the worst of terrorist
attacks on its own soil, barring war-torn Iraq, is India. ......
by M. V. Kamath
First, an explanation: when one speaks of Muslims, it does not mean all
Muslims in India, just as when one speaks of Hindus, it does not mean
all Hindus think alike from Kanya Kumari to the snowy mountains of the
Himalayas. And yet, one can't help generalising at times as when one says
that as a result of a long history of tyrannical Muslim rule, Hindus have
come to attach an abhorrence of Muslims in general and Islam in particular.
Muslims did not rule all of India all the time. ......
by Sara A. Carter
Islamic extremists embedded in the United States - posing as Hispanic
nationals - are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance
terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration
report. ......
by B. Raman
As August 15 approaches, security analysts ponder over the recent Al Qaeda
threats that talk of targeting "Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi"
as their "legitimate right" and accuse India of "killing
more than 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir with US blessing." ......
by The Assam Tribune
A group of jehadi elements from Bangladesh have managed to penetrate into
Assam along with militants belonging to the United Liberation Front of
Asom (ULFA) to carry out subversive activities, which posed a serious
security threat to the State and all the district police forces have been
put on high alert to thwart the attempts of the groups. ......
by The Assam Tribune
Quite oblivious to the raging controversy over deportation of illegal
Bangladeshi migrants in the North-East, Union Rural Development Minister,
Raghu Prasad Singh today all but gave up his hands, stressing that it
was impossible for the Centre to expel the Bangladeshi nationals from
India. ......
by Premen Addy
The 'Made in China' brand has lost some of its shine. The Middle Kingdom
has taken a significant hit in the US, the UK, the EU, and one or two
lowlier ports of call like Panama. Mattel, the giant American toy retailer,
has withdrawn some $ 18 million worth of goods from China because their
lead content posed a possible threat to the well-being of children. ......
by Hindu Janjagruti Samiti
By offering false promises of monetary help, foreign jobs, taking care
of children etc., Fr. Edward converted 40 gullible Hindu families; but
vigilant members of Bajarang Dal handed him over to the police. He was
booked under Section 295-A and 508 for deceit and bribery by the police.
He will be presented in Andheri Court for hearing. ......
by Diwakar
It's difficult to escape the sense of deja vu. The response to the latest
terror outrage in Hyderabad was followed by the by-now familiar and stale
drill: vows to bring the culprits to book, levelling, even if well-founded,
charges against Pakistan and Bangladesh, condolences for victims and review
meetings by the Prime Minister downwards. ......
by Hindu Janjagruti Samiti
An unauthorized construction of a mosque in Turbhe has been granted support
by a local councilor of NCP. Municipal area officials are not taking any
action against the structure due to political pressure. ......
by The Telegraph
An inadvertent mistake by Tripura school education minister Keshab Mazumder
yesterday drew howls of protests from the Tripura Arabic Forum and the
state unit of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind which questioned his knowledge of
Islamic history and scripture. The organisations also asked him not to
intervene in religious affairs of the minorities. ......
by The Times of India
Considerable support seems to be building up for Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen
in the Old City of Hyderabad. "Every Muslim hates Taslima. She is
like Salman Rushdie. What MIM has done is correct," said Azam Khan
(name changed), a middle-class professional. ......
by M Ratan
Some discerning political commentators - like Swapan Dasgupta and Kanchan
Gupta in The Pioneer - have drawn an alarming profile of Islamist radicalism,
which threatens the nation's democratic and constitutional fabric, in
their columns in the light of the recent attack on writer-activist Taslima
Nasreen. ......
by The New Indian Express
A group of Malayali scholars had predated a ground-breaking Newton 'discovery'
by over 250 years, according a research paper published on Monday. ......
by S. Nagesh Kumar
The Congress Government's benign response to the brazen attack on Bangladeshi
writer Taslima Nasreen by three MIM legislators has evoked despair and
disbelief among the intelligentsia although it may have endeared the ruling
dispensation to fundamentalist forces. ......
by Vijay Narang
Hindu Mandir (Temple) Executives representing 97 temples and Hindu Organizations
from more than 25 states of US and Canada and Caribbean converged in Edison,
NJ, to attend the second Hindu Mandir Executives Conference (HMEC), from
August 10, 2007 through August 12, 2007. They traveled from as far as
British Columbia in Canada, Hawaii, California, Florida, and the heartland
of America, with a mission to nourish, protect and sustain Hindu Dharma
in America. ......
by Soumik Dey
The VHP is planning to set up a home at Siddhpur in Mehsana for abandoned
children, senior citizens and women who have been thrown out of their
home, where they would be formed into family units. "Each child will
get a mother and a grandparent. ......
by Suresh Soni
Later on, many mathematicians like Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya, Shridhar,
etc. were seen in the country. Of them Bhaskara-charya wrote Siddhanth
Shiromani in 1150. This great book has four parts: (1) Leelavati, (2)
Algebra, (3) Goladhyaya, and (4) Graha Ganit. ......
by Assam Tribune
The flourishing illegal trade and business along the Indo-Bangladesh border
areas of the four northeastern states has been draining out huge amount
of wealth from the country, according to a survey conducted by the border
study team of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). ......
by Dr Kiran Prasad
The roots of environmental conservation go back to religion which emphasizes
harmonious living with nature's creation. Several environmental practices
had religious sanction and there were proscriptions against harming nature.
......
by William Dalrymple
In 1805, a young scholar-official of the East India Company was invalided
home to Suffolk at the age of only 35. Edward Moor had first gone out
to India at the age of 11, soon learnt to speak several Indian languages,
and became passionately interested in the cosmology and beliefs of the
Hindus. ......
by The Times of India
Spooked by the prospect that the Indo-US nuclear deal might put its Muslim
vote bank at risk, the Congress-led UPA government is working on a special
economic package for minorities based on findings of Justice Rajinder
Sachar Committee. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to announce
the package after a debate in Parliament. ......
by Ravik Bhattacharya
In the aftermath of Saturday's twin blasts in Hyderabad, the police is
once again looking at West Bengal, considered the hub of Bangladesh-based
militant groups, for clues. ......
by B Raman
During a visit to Hyderabad on July 31 and August 1,2007, I was told that
the influence of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
was so pervasive in the local Muslim community that many members of the
community kept in their houses pictures of Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf and Osama bin Laden. ......
by Vicky Nanjappa
With the twin blasts rocking Hyderabad, the issue pertaining to the sleeper
cells in south India has gained importance once again. ......
by M Ratan
Some discerning political commentators - like Swapan Dasgupta and Kanchan
Gupta in The Pioneer - have drawn an alarming profile of Islamist radicalism,
which threatens the nation's democratic and constitutional fabric, in
their columns in the light of the recent attack on writer-activist Taslima
Nasreen. ......
by M.V. Kamath
First, an explanation: When one speaks of Muslims, it does not mean all
Muslims in India, just as when one speaks of Hindus, it does not mean
all Hindus think alike from Kanyakumari to the snowy mountains of the
Himalayas. ......
by Ravi Shankar Kapoor
A newspaper asked the question whether Australia should apologise to Haneef,
and two-third of the people answered in the affirmative. Emboldened by
such phony patriotism, Haneef sought an apology-not for himself but for
"my peace-loving country and citizens." ......
by Dr H V S Shastry
Poverty is bad and there cannot be two opinions about it in the view of
any religion. Hence the scriptures are unanimous in prescribing ways to
eradicate it by certain moral conducts. The Hindu scriptures deal in an
ethical or religious way with the same threefold business of economics,
namely production of wealth, its equal distribution and the appropriate
consumption. ......
by Ruhi Khan
A 28-year-old from Mumbai has become the first Dalit to get enrolled in
a PhD program in the US, who will study clinical social work. ......
by Baby Maodud
Reader, you haven't forgotten Purnima, have you? I am talking about Purnima
Shil, you know the (Hindu) girl who used to live in the small village
of Purbadulia in Uttarpara, Sirajgunj. Can you recall the girl who was
an A student in the Ulapara Hamida Pilot High School? That's right, she
was working as a volunteer for an 'Awami League' party candidate on October
1st, 2001. ......
by Sify.com
The Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Gen. S K Sinha, has said it was a pity
that India "has been apologetic and defensive about its position
on Kashmir" since 1947. ......
by HeadlinesIndia.com
A 14-year-old boy who had earlier stunned the academic world by clearing
class XII examinations at the age of 11 has accomplished yet another feat
by becoming a computer graduate at the age of 14. Shailendra received
his mark sheet for Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) from the Lucknow
University Vice Chancellor R P Singh on Thursday. ......
by Haindava Keralam
Devaswom Minister Sudhagaran's innate ability to deceive, worked in front
of Justice Paripoornan Commission as well. He posed in front of the commission
as an ardent devotee who is worried about the political interference in
Temples! He boasts in front of the media that â?~ He won't encourage
politicians inside Devaswom boards'. ......
by Seema Mustafa
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and now external affairs minister Pranab
Mukherjee have completely misled Parliament in stating, and then repeating,
that India has retained its sovereign right to conduct a nuclear test
while negotiating the civil nuclear energy deal with the United States.
......
by IBNLive.com
Declassified American documents reveal that Islamabad funded, armed and
advised the Taliban, the militant Islamic group in Afghanistan. ......
by Sanjeev Nayyar
Ever since the TADA Court delivered its judgment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts
case there has been a clamor to punish those guilty for the 1993 riots.
A well known leftist recently wrote an article whose bye line read, "The
strength of the Republic is measured by its capacity to treat all its
citizens equally". That the guilty should be punished is beyond question
but to say that the law treats all Indians equally is a myth. ......
by Rediff.com
Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe's [Images] suggestion in New Delhi to have
a "broader Asia" partnership involving India, the US, Australia
and his country while leaving out China, has come in for sharp criticism
from scholars in Beijing [Images], who claimed it resurrects a "Cold
War mentality" and is not conducive to regional peace. ......
by Sunetra Choudhury
When Shibu Soren walks out of jail he may want to thank his former colleagues
in the government. Sources have told NDTV that the government may be more
to blame than the CBI for the former union minister's acquittal. ......
by J.L. Choudhury
Realising the potential threat of this Bangladeshi influx, Nichi Students'
Union and All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union issued quit notice to
all the suspected migrants and set July 15 as the deadline, Around 30,000
Bangladeshis from different places of Arunachal Pradesh descended down
to Assam and scattered away in the districts of Lakhimpur, Banpeta, Dhubri
and Tejpur. ......
by Debasis Tripathy
Best example of torture and harassment of students inside the white walls
of Christian church has come out to picture. Two nuns (sisters) are arrested
for torturing and keeping homosexual affairs with students at Baripada.
......
by Richard Kerbaj
On a two-week "under the radar" visit to Australia, Syrian-born
Wafa Sultan secretly met both sides of federal politics and Jewish community
leaders, warning them that all Muslims needed to be closely monitored
in the West. ......
by S.C. Panda
This has reference to Mr. N.Jamal Ansari's article, "Deport Taslima"
(August 22). May I ask Mr. Ansari why people like him do not logically
counter what Ms. Taslima Nasreen speaks and writes in an intellectual
and ideological manner, insted of blaming her in general terms for 'insulting'
Islam? ......
by Ajay Bharadwaj
Pakistani fundamentalists' continuing siege of Bhai Taro Singh gurudwara
in Lahore has galvanised the Centre and Indian Sikh bodies into action.
......
by The Guardian
In Bangladesh, no one really commemorates August 15, the independence
of India and Pakistan. After all, how many independences can one country
take? First there was the exit of the British - something to be celebrated,
surely, as Bengal was at the heart of the reform and nationalist movements
throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Then, there was the creation
of Pakistan, which Bengali Muslims voted for and endorsed. ......
by Dr P.K. Iyengar
For some reason, the text of the 123 Agreement of the India-US "civilian"
nuclear deal was kept secret until it was approved by the Union Cabinet.
Once the text was made public, the reason became clear. In spite of the
best efforts of our negotiators, the United States has succeeded in imposing
the Hyde Act on us. ......
by The Times of India
A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday observed that
the current Hyderabad police commissioner was afraid of taking action
against unruly elements in the city. ......
by J. Venkatesan
A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court considering the validity
of the law providing 27 per cent quota for the Other Backward Castes on
Tuesday observed that reservation would have to be stopped some day. ......
by Central Chronicle
Picturesque Assam is once again in turmoil. Its plantations and rice fields
are turning more and more red with blood. The outlawed ULFA continues
to play Dhaka's diabolical game and has killed over 70 Bihari workers
during the past few weeks. Thousands of Bihari labourers in the State
have expectedly panicked and started moving back. This suits Dhaka and
Pakistan's ISI eminently and is, in fact, in accordance with their game
plan. ......
by Dr. Anand Kumar
ULFA has been itching to do something horrible before the Independence
Day as it has been doing for many years in the past. The government of
India and its security agencies were also aware of this. The increased
pressure of security agencies gave ULFA little leeway to act. But this
also forced the outfit to look for softer targets. ......
by IBNLive.com
In a shocking incident 12 insurgents were arrested from the official residence
of three Congress MLA's and one former MLA in Imphal, Manipur late Friday
night. ......
by Durba Ghosh
It is 22 years since the historic Assam Accord to settle the contentious
'foreigners' issue was implemented, but illegal migration continues unabated
in the Northeastern state. ......
by The Indian Express
Events at Nandigram and Singur reflect a total failure of the government
machinery in the state and a violation of human rights, said former judge
of the Gujarat High Court Justice S M Soni. He was presenting the findings
of a report undertaken by an Ahmedabad-based NGO - Justice on Trial. ......
by Manu Pubby
They may not look like much, but a few limestone "building blocks"
recovered from the seabed off the Gujarat coast by the Indian Navy hold
the key to solving the age-old mystery of the mythical city of Dwarka.
......
by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
A student of a school located in the Pimpri Camp Area was declared failed
because he used to apply tilak on his forehead and used to write 'Shri
OM' on his book. A case has been filed against the three persons of the
concerned school for preaching Christianity in the school. This has been
understood to happen in a school called Jai Hind High school in the Pimpri
Camp area. ......
by IBNLive.com
Having put on hold 27 per cent quota for OBCs in Central educational institutions,
the Supreme Court on Thursday wanted to know whether Government could
spell out norms for going ahead with its reservation policy and submit
a fact-sheet to it. ......
by Jihad Watch
Sheik Muhammad Al-Munajid: This is a nation of monotheism, and this is
the Islam that Allah wants to spread throughout the world, and to rule
the land it its entirety. Allah wants this. He sent down the Koran and
the hadith for that purpose. ......
by The Times of India
The police might have got another lead to the Hyderabad blast case, but
intelligence agencies in West Bengal are in a tizzy owing to the easy
availability of Bangladeshi SIM cards, which can be purchased in less
than Rs 200, an exclusive report of Times Now said. ......
by Dan McDougall
We first came here as refugees in 1947; we used cow dung for fuel then,
as we do now. Nothing has really changed for us." Kajal Royzz's eyes
are watering from the smoke that fills his bamboo and mud home. ......
by K.R. Phanda
In the past 60 years, I have never celebrated Independence Day. Nor will
I do so in future as, to me, this day signifies a day of mourning. When
the Radcliffe Award on the partition of Punjab was made public, Hindus
and Sikhs protested vehemently. ......
by The Hindu
Extending benefits to Dalits who converted would adversely impact the
SCs. Terms it yet another move to treat minority communities as 'vote
bank'. ......
by The Times of India
Britons view Muslims with more suspicion than their American or European
counterparts, according to a poll published in the Financial Times on
Monday. ......
by The Times of India
A storm may be brewing what with Christian groups having decided to challenge
the Andhra Pradesh government's order 747 that bans propagation of any
religion other than Hinduism in Tirupati and other specified temple areas.
......
by The Indian Express
Undeterred by the attack on her by radical Muslim fundamentalists in Hyderabad
and a fatwa against her, exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen is
busy penning the sequel of Lajja, 14 years after the book annoyed clerics
in her country. ......
by Deena Nath Mishra
Islamists are testing the tolerance level of Indians. A number of examples
can be cited. Their recent violent attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima
Nasreen is one. Change is the law of nature and there are no exceptions
to it, not even in Quranic Law - the Shariat. Yet, there are millions
of Islamic fundamentalists and other Islamists who shun reforms. ......
by Stephen Adams
The killer who knifed headmaster Philip Lawrence to death is expected
to win his appeal to stay in Britain because deporting him would breach
his human rights, according to a Home Office official. ......
by Abhijit Sathe and Deeptiman Tiwary
Close on the heels of the arrest of Arun Ferreira, a Bandra resident,
on naxal charges by the Nagpur police, the Anti Terrorists Squad on Sunday
arrested two top leaders of CPI (Maoist) from Govandi. ......
by The Times of India
Five persons have been arrested in connection with the brutal killing
of a Shiv Sena leader and member of Nagpur Zilla Parishad at Tarsa near
Mouda near here, police said on Monday. ......
by P Pavan
In a controversial decision, the Andhra Pradesh government has said it
will allot government houses and extend the ownership of the allottee
only if he/she keeps a logo with Indira Gandhi on a tricolour prominently
displayed on the wall. ......
by Uday Mahurkar
There was an unmistakable excitement as leading Gujarati litterateurs
gathered for a grand event in Ahmedabad last week. There were tears of
joy as Ratan Marshal, the state's longest living writer, 96, launched
the Arabian Sea digitised version of Visamisadi, a literary Gujarati magazine
that was published by legendary Gujarati journalist Haji Mohammed Allarakha
Shivji of Kutch, in Mumbai from 1916 to 1920. ......
by Jaya Jaitly
Dear Mr Q, Pardon the familiarity in the mode of address, but we Indians
have become so familiar with you over the past 20 years that even our
media often refers to you thus. ......
by Rediff.com
An 18th century Sikh temple at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore [Images] has
been taken over by a Muslim group, which has replaced the gurdwara's religious
symbols with Islamic slogans, a Pakistani daily reported Tuesday. ......
by Ritu Sarin
After pressing for his extradition from Argentina for six months, the
UPA Government last week withdrew the appeal which was prepared for an
upcoming hearing in the Buenos Aires Supreme Court and, thus, allowed
Bofors-accused Ottavio Quattrocchi to fly back - a free man to Milan.
......
by Amaresh Misra
The year 2007 is special in that it marks both the 150th anniversary of
the first war of Indian independence and the 60th anniversary of achieving
it. The link between these two events, however, seems tenuous, since they
appear to arise from different historical impulses. But new research reveals
that there was in fact a semblance of continuity between them. ......
by Arvind Lavakare
Former prime minister V P Singh has dubbed the finalised India-US 123
Agreement as 'a step towards slavery.' Former finance minister and external
affairs minister Yashwant Sinha has described its defence in the Rajya
Sabha by the PM as 'a bundle of untruths, half-truths and pure white lies.'
......
by Ravikiran Deshmukh
Over a year after the Centre started releasing money to the Maharashtra
government as part of the Rs 3,750-crore package announced by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in July last year to stop farmers' suicides in Vidarbha,
the PMO has asked the state to explain where the money has gone and why
there is still no let-up in the number of suicides. ......
by The Indian Express
Bihar's mountain man Dasrath Manjhi (77) died on Friday at the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Manjhi, who single-handedly carved
out a passage through a mountain near his village in Gaya district, was
suffering from jaundice and suspected cancer. ......
by Tavleen Singh
The thing that annoyed me about the prime minister's very boring Independence
Day speech was the way he made it sound as if it was our fault that India
remains poor and illiterate. "India cannot become a nation with islands
of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits
of growth accrue only to a few. This is good neither for our society nor
for our polity," he said. ......
by Chidanand Rajghatta
The bad news is that India hasn't made the cover of major international
publications on its 60th birthday. That may well be the good news too.
A decade after the world media celebrated India's 50th Independence anniversary
milestone in a blaze of colour, the country isn't a novelty anymore. It
is now an ongoing story, a work in progress. ......
by Ranjit Kumar Dash
The UNESCO recently placed the Rigveda on its World Heritage List. Weeks
later, in the same country where the UN is headquartered, it met with
a reception that says little has changed in how the world views the Vedas,
UN recognition or no. ......
by Tom Hays
They preferred bookstores or hookah bars to mosques. They stopped listening
to pop music and instead surfed Web sites promoting radical Islam. They
threw away their baseball caps and grew beards. ......
by Josy Joseph
Marine archaeologists may finally be able to put an end to speculations
regarding Lord Krishna's submerged city of Dwarka off Gujarat coast, and
provide a scientific history of the fascinating underwater landscape.
.....
by Tarun Vijay
It's a wonderful feeling being 60 and going strong. Good to find that
the whole world looks at us with admiration. Certainly Bharat that is
India has once again become a land of hope and immense possibilities.
In spite of inefficient governance, a blinkered polity that doesn't own
India and a hundred other reasons to complain, we have risen like the
phoenix showing our civilisational strength and a will to prove the Geeta's
message .....
by Irish Independent
Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf has played both sides ? the
US and the Islamic fundamentalists ? against each other for too long.
Religious fanatics in the country's madrassas, which he supported, are
determined to drag his nation into chaos We must pay attention to Pakistan.
When a country with 50 nuclear weapons and hundreds of thousands of jihadi
fanatics is hissing and crackling towards collapse, it is time to pay
attention. .....
by Omer Farooq
Akbaruddin Owaisi, the floor leader of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)
in the Andhra Assembly on Friday said, "It is legitimate to kill
Taslima Nasreen under Islamic law, but unfortunately we could not do it".
He was reacting to Thursday's attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima by
Majlis men and MLAs. .....
by The Times of India
In a startling revelation, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi
Azad has said that his government has prepared a list of politicians who
have links with the militants in the strife-torn Valley. .....
by Neha Tara Mehta
It is important to first understand what we mean by 'reincarnation'. For
the purpose of our research, we use the term to refer to the concept that
human beings consist of two components: a physical body and a non-physical
component, some call it 'psyche', others may refer to it as 'mind', 'personality',
or 'soul'. .....
by M. Amarjeet Singh
The emergence of several Islamic militant groups in North-East India and
their ability to forge close ties with the region's most violent militant
groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom [ULFA] and other foreign-based
Islamic groups pose a major security threat for the region. Islamic militancy
started in North-East India in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition
and the subsequent communal disturbances as well as because of Manipur's
infamous Meitei-Muslim riot in 1993. .....
by R. Upadhyay
Like most of the Islamist terrorist groups, the origin of Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami
Bangladesh (HuJI-B) also lies with the Afghan War of Nineteen-eighties.
A group of Mujahideens (Holy Warriors), who returned from this war to
their native land Bangladesh formed HuJI-B in 1992 and announced its formation
in a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka same year on April
30. .....
by Mid Day
Muslim leaders and intellectuals today strongly condemned the attack on
controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, terming the incident
as "shameful" and "barbaric". .....
by Sify News
"For half an hour death stared at me from close as I locked myself
in a room and those men tried to break in and kill me," a traumatised
Taslima Nasreen said on Friday, a day after the controversial Bengali
author was attacked in Hyderabad during a book release. .....
by IBNLive.com
The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) on Friday issued a fresh threat
to Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, saying it will "not spare
her next time she is around in Hyderabad." .....
by DailyIndia.com
The US Embassy here has reacted strongly to the remarks made by Parliamentary
Secretary for Defence Major (retired) Tanveer Hussain Syed in which he
urged the Pakistan government to announce jihad against India and the
US. .....
by Chris Heffelfinger
On July 26, a former Washington cab driver and resident of Gwynn Oak,
Maryland, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for providing material
support to a terrorist group. .....
by IBNLive.com
Local political activists in Hyderabad on Thursday attacked the car of
noted Bangaladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen when she was attending the book
release of the Telugu translation of her latest novel Shodh. .....
by Tarun Vijay
Ms Priya Dutt is a Member of Parliament representing more than one voter
of her constituency. As a lawmaker she has a responsibility to speak for
the nation on national issues. Having considered her present turmoil borne
out of brotherly affection, one has full sympathies with her. .....
by The Pioneer
The Kerala BJP unit has alleged that a deliberate surrender by the prosecution
had led to the exoneration of PDP chairman ICS Abdul Nasser Madani in
the Coimbatore serial blasts case. .....
by Yossarin
With the media clamour on action on the Srikrishna Commission Report getting
louder by the day. Most of the media activism on this front is by CNN-IBN
led by Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghosh. Karan Thapar too had Soli
Sorabjee on the same subject. CNN IBN's sensationalism is naseuating to
say the least when it compares Sanjay Dutt's conviction for illegal possession
of an AK-47 with Sarpotdar's posession of an unlicensed pistol while quoting
from the report. .....
by Chidanand Rajghatta
The Pakistani foreign office distorted the contents of President Bush's
phone call to Gen Musharraf on Friday, falsely claiming that he described
remarks by presidential candidates about military strikes inside Pakistan
as "unsavoury" and made in the heat of electioneering, it has
emerged. .....
by Aiswarya Ananthapadmanabhan
August 4 At Mahadevnagar slum on Sinhagad Road near Hingane, the threat
this monsoon is not from the floods but illicit liquor that is sold at
a den which functions openly, while the police look the other way. The
fall-out is along expected lines - drunkards who beat their wives for
hooch money, teenagers coming home intoxicated and young children exposed
to a life of what excess alcohol can do to break up households. .....
by Karen Deyoung & Joby Warrick
Last September, when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited the
White House to tout a controversial plan for driving al-Qaeda from his
country, President Bush responded at a joint news conference with a trademark
profession of faith. When Musharraf "looks me in the eye" and
says there "won't be a Taliban and there won't be an al-Qaeda, I
believe him," Bush said. .....
by Hindustan Times
A leading Muslim cleric today issued a fatwa that the face of controversial
Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen be blackened for her alleged comments
against Islam and demanded that she be immediately expelled from India.
.....
by B.R. Haran
Islamic fundamentalism in independent India took roots in Muslim pockets
of India with Clandestine infiltration of the Pakistan based terrorists
supported by ISI. The continuous terror attacks in the Kashmir valley,
in the name of freedom fight, served as fuel for the rise in Islamic fanaticism.
The demolition of Babri Masjid in Dec 1992 and the consequent Mumbai riots
followed by the serial blasts in 1993 created an obvious division on religious
grounds. .....
by Arjun Nair
The situation in Assam has once again caught the attention of the public
eye with a series of attacks and abductions, beginning in January 2007
and intensifying in May, resulting in the deaths of over a hundred innocent
civilians and leaving hundreds more injured. Although the killing of civilians
is not a new phenomenon on Assam, it is the renewed targeting of the Hindi
speaking population that is causing worry not just to the state government
and the centre, but also to the indigenous Assamese population, whose
interests the ULFA claims to protect. .....
by Organiser
Shri Hari Jaisingh, former editor of The Tribune, has apologised the RSS
for wrongly criticising it and publishing an article based on wrong and
fabricated facts in The Tribune about the RSS seven years ago. Some highly
objectionable and insulting comments had been passed against the RSS founder
Dr Hedgewar in the article, which hurt the feelings of lakhs of swayamsevaks.
.....
by Free Press Journal
Is secularism what our Comrades say it is? Or is there a basic definition
of one of the most abused terms currently in use Indian politics? Broadly
speaking, for a layman secularism ought to mean a conscious erection of
an impregnable wall between religion and politics. .....
by The Pioneer
News about elusive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's appearance are as regular
as UFO sighting. Two days after reports that having undergone plastic
surgery to camouflage his identity Dawood was hiding in Kazakhstan, yet
another titillating tale has surfaced in the media. .....
by The Pioneer
The prosecutor in the 1993 serial blasts case on Sunday described an attempt
by Bollywood to start a campaign in support of jailed actor Sanjay Dutt
as "unfair" and said it would amount to contempt of court. "This
type of campaign is unfair. This shakes the confidence of the common man
in the judiciary and is an indirect attempt at influencing the court of
law," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said. .....
by The Times of India
An old Hindu temple in central Trinidad was ransacked and four life-size
idols damaged by miscreants. Police said they were on the lookout for
six suspects. .....
by DNA India
The death of a Pakistani dancer here last week due to fire that broke
out in a locked flat has brought to notice the plight of dancers, a majority
of them Indians, who perform at hotels in the Gulf nation. .....
by Robert Baer
Last week, at the Directorate of National Intelligence in Kabul, I met
a failed suicide bomber. Arrested two weeks before in Jalalabad, preparing
to assassinate the governor of Nangahar Province, Farhad was setting outside
of Pakistan's Waziristan Province for the first time. .....
by Mid Day
Somar Sundi feels the bullet and baton injuries he suffered in the Quit
India movement of 1942 pale in the face of his miseries today. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
On Friday, The Pioneer published a heart-wrenching story about a father
strangling his five-year-old daughter to death in Hyderabad because he
couldn't pay for the polio-afflicted child's medical care. Since the morning
newspapers are flush with similarly tragic stories, it's unlikely too
many readers would have noticed it; of those who did, most are unlikely
to have read beyond the headline. .....
by Sandhya Jain
By the twitching of my thumbs, fresh mischief is brewing over our northern
frontier. The signs are ominous: there is renewed violence in Kashmir,
including an attack on Amarnath pilgrims. There is Ms. Pamela Mountbatten's
titillating leak that London used Lady Edwina to manipulate Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and subvert Indian national interest in the border state.
.....
by Rohini Mohan
Thousands of homeless people in India live on the streets, search food
in garbage, sleep hungry every night and in fact live a life worst than
stray animals. These are invisible to most of us. But Krishnan, once a
chef in a 5-star hotel, realized five-years back that he couldn't turn
a blind eye anymore. .....
by Ajit Joshi and Mohamed Usman
They are some of Mumbai's richest people. They live in lavish bungalows,
drive the most expensive cars and wear clothes that cost, apiece, more
than a one BHK in Mira Road. Yet, they acquired apartments meant for the
city's poorest of poor under the slum rehabilitation scheme by posing
as slum dwellers. .....
by CBS News
Twenty-seven females in the London borough of Harringey have sought medical
treatment after being sexually mutilated. Down the road in Waltham Forest,
more than a thousand women, girls and infants have experienced female
genital mutilation or FGM. .....
by IBNlive.com
Al Qaeda has issued an open warning to India saying that the country should
be "ready" to see a series of terror attacks. The says it will
also target Israel, Russia and the United States. .....
by Daniel Jeffreys
The kidnap of South Korean church volunteers by the Taliban has caused
deep divisions back home, forcing into the open a dark truth: many Koreans
resent Christians and the speed with which they have become a dominant
force in the upper echelons of society. .....
by The Indian Express
Stung by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remark terming corruption in
road projects as "cancer", Union Rural Development Minister
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has decided to take a lesson from BJP-ruled Rajasthan.
.....
by MSN.co.in
Nepal's new multi-party government, which came to power pledging to improve
the kingdom's tarnished human rights record, has handed over a Tibetan
refugee to China, reviving memories of a similar incident in 2003 that
triggered condemnation worldwide. .....
by Expressindia.com
On the day the CPI(M) celebrated the 119th birth anniversary of one of
its founders, Muzaffar Ahmad, exiled Bangladeshi writer Salam Azad put
Marxists from his own country on the dock for their role in Bangladesh's
politics. .....
by Daya Gamage
An exhibition of photos and panels vividly describing the atrocities on
Hindus in Bangladesh caught the attention of influential Congressmen and
key policymakers from the Bush administration this week. .....
by Kevin Mooney
The Young America's Foundation (YAF) is being threatened with legal action
for including Robert Spencer, the author of several books on terrorism
and Islam, in its line-up of speakers this week in Washington, D.C. .....
by Robert Spencer
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 Robert Spencer
A 23-year-old student at Pace University, Stanislav Shmulevich, was arrested
Friday and charged with two felony counts of Criminal Mischief in the
Fourth Degree as a Hate Crime. Numerous analysts have been quick to recognize
the cruel irony of these charges. Mark Steyn quipped that instead of flushing
the Qur'an, "obviously Mr Shmulevich should have submerged it in
his own urine, applied for an NEA grant and offered it to the Whitney
Biennial. .....
by Adnkronos International
Italy faces its "biggest terrorism risks" from North African
jihadists, including some linked to Islamist networks in the Balkans,
the Middle East and Central Asia, according to a report by the Italian
secret services. .....
by Business Standard
The Indian judicial tradition is that comment on the quality and nature
of a judgment is freely permitted, provided motives are not attributed
to the judge in question. Even allowing for that leeway, it is hard to
explain the information and broadcasting minister's unusual comment on
Sanjay Dutt's being sentenced to six years of rigorous imprisonment. .....
by The Hindu
Revealing fresh insights into the Kargil conflict, exiled former Pakistan
Premier Nawaz Sharif has said he never wanted to let down his Indian counterpart
Atal Bihari Vajpayee for whom he had "great regard" but had
to cut a "sorry figure" after being "stabbed in the back"
by Pervez Musharraf. .....
by Smitha Nair
Pratibha Patil is a first-timer in a lot of ways. After a spate of controversies,
she became the first woman President of the India. And now her first address
to the nation has also stirred a debate. .....
by Anjana Rajan
There are lots of NRI children who learn some Indian classical art and
garner praises from their doting elders both in India and the country
their parents have adopted. What is noticeable though, is the high respect
in which they hold the art, as wel l as almost all things Indian and old.
.....
by The Jerusalem Post
Egyptian soldiers killed four Sudanese refugees near the Egypt-Israel
border overnight Wednesday in full view of IDF troops, a shaken-sounding
IDF soldier said in an interview with Channel 10, Thursday evening. .....
by Claude Arpi
This month India will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence.
A large number of new books, their authors pretending to rewrite the event,
are being published - some have already hit bookstores. Though they have
not created the hysteria unleashed over Harry Potter's last adventure,
they have generated a lot of ink in the media. .....
by Shujaat Bukhari
A day after Colonel Vasanth Venugopal was killed fighting a group of infiltrators
from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector, the Army on Wednesday
said that eight militants were killed in the 36-hour-long gun-battle which
ensued after the group was challenged. One soldier was also killed and
another injured. .....
by Siddharth Zarabi & Asit Ranjan
Mishra
Economic growth and an appreciating rupee will see India break into the
ranks of lower middle-income countries this fiscal year, a few years earlier
than expected. .....
by Nedra Pickler
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he
would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt
to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy
skills as naive. .....
by The Pioneer
The Supreme Court on Tuesday was critical of the Government's failure
to forward a representation by 205 MPs seeking the removal of Election
Commissioner Navin Chawla to the President of India. .....
by Christopher Hitchens
During the greater part of last week, Slate's sister site On Faith (it
is jointly produced by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, both owned by
the Washington Post Co., which also owns Slate) gave itself over to a
discussion about the religion of Islam. As usual in such cases, the search
for "moderate" versions of this faith was under way before the
true argument had even begun. .....
by Gene Warner
Dr. Kumar Bahuleyan went from extreme poverty to lavish living, only to
find joy after donating his fortune to his village in India .....
by Gaurang Desai
Dr APJ Kalam has been India's president for last five years. He is regarded
as arguably the best president India has ever seen. Highly educated, knowledgeable
and a man of high integrity, he is a very apolitical leader as a president
should be and has been able to connect to people of all ages. .....
by Ramesh N. Rao
In the preface to the book "Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism
Studies in America," the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion
at McGill University, Professor Arvind Sharma lays it out all and best
about the decade-old public spat between a grass-roots group of mostly
Indian-American citizens and the well-entrenched and powerful group of
Western academics in elite American universities. .....
by Vijay Swaroop
Gangajal (water from the Ganga) and 1,000 copies of Hanuman Chalisa -
those are the precious gifts that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar carried
for the people of Mauritius when he embarked upon a five-day tour of the
island country on Wednesday. .....
by Devendra Swarup
When serious scholars like D.D. Kosambi tried to apply Marxian approach
to Indian history, they found themselves in great difficulty. In 1951,
Kosambi tried to examine Marxist approach to Indian chronology (Annals
of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 31 pp. 258-66) as presented
by a Russian scholar D.A. Suleiken in 1949 and found it 'dangerously misleading'
(Kosambi's Omnibus, OUP 2005, p. 49). .....
by The Indian Express
If the revelations made by six Al-Badr men arrested in Kutch two weeks
ago are anything to go by, some Pakistan-based terror groups are planning
to set up base in the coastal areas of Karnataka, including Karwar. The
area houses INS Kadamba, a strategic Naval base. .....
by BB Kumar
Changing Gods: Rethinking Conversion in India is written by Rudolf C Heredia,
"a committed Christian believer and a professional social scientist",
as the author claims to be. Proselytisation is a part of the Christian's
ordained duty and the author, himself a Jesuit priest, takes a stand as
expected. .....
by The Times of India
Scores of people have been arrested in a traditionally Tibetan area of
western China following public calls for the return of Tibet's exiled
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reports said Friday. .....
by The Times of India
As a mark of the growing Chinese influence on Nepal, the Girija Prasad
Koirala government has begun a stealthy crackdown on Tibetans trying to
escape from China via Nepal. .....
by Hemali Chhapia
Here's something for both the pro-reservation and anti-reservation camps
to chew on. A large chunk of students who made it to the seven Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year is from the Other Backward Classes
(OBC) category. Post-admission analysis at these prime institutions reveals
that almost 14% of those from the general category are OBCs. .....
by The Economic Times
Abdul Naser Madani's acquittal in the Coimbatore serial blasts case has
reportedly triggered a race between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and
the Congress-helmed United Democratic Front (UDF) to welcome the founder
of Muslim fundamentalist People's Democratic Party (PDP) to Thiruvananthapuram.
That is nauseating. True, Madani has been found not guilty of complicity
in the blasts. .....
by Menaka Rao
Then DCP Rakesh Maria and his men managed to crack the broad contours
of the March 12, 1993 Mumbai blast case in about two months. And someone
who had helped investigators ultimately nail many of the prime conspirators,
was prosecution witness (PW) 2. Now, that witness has been formally pardoned
by the Special TADA Court set up to try the case. .....
by The Times of India
Despite a special court convicting 153 people in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts
case, it is Abdul Nazar Madani's acquittal that has attracted attention.
Madani, president of the Keralabased People's Democratic Party, was cleared
of all charges, but only after spending nine years in jail as an undertrial.
He was denied bail during these years despite many pleas. .....
