by The Times of India
China has cancelled a second toplevel meeting with Germany, the German
foreign ministry said on Monday, after Chancellor Angela Merkel angered
Beijing by receiving the Dalai Lama. ....
by Afternoon Despatch & Courier
After the arrest of four people from Bangla-desh, the Dongri police have
received another break-through in the fake currency case. The police have
arrested five people from Bangladesh who had been circulating the currency
in the market. The police have recovered fake currency worth Rs. nine
lakh in the denominations of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000. ....
by Neena Bhandari
An idol of Hindu god Ganesh, decorated in all finery, sat firm as thousands
of devotees followed in a procession chanting "Ganpati Bappa Morya"
to Stanwell Park beach here, as part of colourful celebrations for the
Ganesh festival. ....
by The Pioneer
There's nothing startlingly original about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M
Karunanidhi's obnoxious and obscene verbal assault on Lord Ram and the
Ramayan tradition; far worse sacrilegious acts have been committed in
the past at the behest of the man who continues to inspire the DMK's patriarch.
....
by The Times of India
The race for brownie points in a likely contest for votes is gaining momentum
with the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government announcing sops for minorities
and the downtrodden, days after the Congress-led Centre unveiled similar
offers. ....
by The Telegraph
Nine persons were injured when a group of 50 civilians clashed with jawans
of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in the Chamurchi checkpost area last
night. ....
by Teresa M McAleavy
Increasing Work productivity sound extremely tempting, though difficult.
But Tevis Gale asserts that her services help do the job, especially as
the "24/7-isation of the workplace" works furiously to push
today's workforce closer towards a burnout. ....
by Vikram Sood
All is not well in Musharraf's realm as the General faces multiple crises
- of legitimacy, credibility and authority. The entire trans-border of
Pakistan-Afghanistan is today a vast SEZ of International Terror Inc.
International terrorists like Tahir Yuldashev (Islamic Movement of Turkestan),
various factions of the Taliban with Baitullah Mehsud as the most important
leader in South Waziristan, Abu Kasha, the Iraqi, and Najmuddin, the Uzbek,
operate in North Waziristan along with the Al Qaeda and others. ....
by Aditi Bhaduri
There was a time when Janak Rani decided all matters of her household.
She decided the day's schedule for the children, the menu for all and
the hours the television would run. She even determined her husband's
regime, but outside of his Government job. ....
by Atul Sethi
Mythology, it is said, often has its roots in reality. Or, does it? Take
the great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, for instance. The tantalising
question that crops up time and again is whether the events mentioned
in these epics actually happened? Did the characters described in them
actually exist? How much of the epics is fiction and how much history?
....
by Sumon K Chakrabarti
He is the man who knows the inside story of the Bofors Scam. For the first
time ever the Chief Swedish Investigator in charge of the Bofors case
since 1989 - Sten Lindstrom - has spoken on camera about the investigations
for the first time. ....
by The Times of India
For millions of fans around the world, and India in particular, cricket
itself is a religion -- the Twenty20 version being the latest denomination.
....
by The Times of India
A letter delivered on Friday to Andhra Pradesh police chief has warned
of terror strikes in Hyderabad on September 25, the day of Ganesha immersions.
The city police are on high alert after receiving the letter, which doesn't
mention the name of the sender. ....
by Douglas MacKinnon
New York Republican Congressman Peter King has become the latest target
of those who value political correctness and pandering over the national
security of our nation. ....
by A. Surya Prakash
Despite the alacrity with which it went into damage control mode on the
awful averments made by the Union Government in its first affidavit on
Ram Setu, the Congress is finding it difficult to put a lid on the controversy
because of the passions that this affidavit has aroused on both sides
of the political divide in the country. ....
by The Times of India
Two police posts were set on fire by thousands of agitated residents and
students around Jamia Milia Islamia University on Saturday evening. The
angry mob first set Jamia police post on fire and later targetted Sahinbagh
police post in Sarita Vihar. About 40 people, including policemen, were
injured in the violence. ....
by The Statesman
A Muslim preacher who chanted "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great)
while showing children a film that depicted planes flying into the World
Trade Centre has been removed from his post as chaplain at a Queen Elizabeth
Hospital. ....
by Arabinda Ghose
The day Ram was born, it was the lunar month of Chaitra, and it was the
Navami Tithi of the Shukla Paksha, the moon was near the Punarvasu Nakshatra
(the star Pollux in the Gemini or the Mithun Rashi), Cancer was the lagna
(it was rising at that time in the east), and Jupiter was above the horizon.
....
by P V Indiresan
A week is a long time in politics and the Ram Setu controversy may soon
die down. But even as it fades away politically, it may linger intellectually.
....
by Bhavna Vij-Aurora
One year back, they were scripting the story of the "great Indian
Railway turnaround". Upbeat babus, led by their mantri-messiah Laloo
Prasad Yadav, went to town proclaiming how they got Indian Railways chugging,
sparing no forum to tom-tom how it would mop up profits surpassing those
of top public sector earner ONGC. ....
by The Indian Express
A Japanese video game software firm has come up with a novel way to release
stress that doesn't involve blowing up aliens or racing roadsters: yoga.
.....
by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
Religion and history do not mix well. I shrug my shoulders at those opposing
the Sethusamundaram canal because it will damage the remains of the bridge
that Ram's army used in the Ramayana. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
There was a time when debunking Lord Ram wasn't merely the luxury of heretical
preachers and contrarians like the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudhan Dutt.
Despite the enormous appeal of Lord Ram as a divine maryada purshottam
(ideal king), minority currents not only gleaned his human frailties but
even saw virtues in his enemies. .....
by The Times of India
BJP has threatened to launch a massive agitation if the state government
allowed Britons, including soldiers of the original British garrison,
to visit the state capital to celebrate "their victory in the Sepoy
Mutiny of 1857". "The government must ban their entry into the
state capital on Monday, else BJP will take to streets,'' said party leader
Lalji Tandon. .....
by NS Rajaram
Finally it all came to pass as though across the ages and the civilisations,
the human mind had tried all the possible solutions to the problem of
writing numbers, before universally adopting the one which seemed the
most abstract, the most perfected and the most effective of all."
.....
by Bahar Dutt & Prarthana Gahilote
Is the Ram Setu a natural or a man-made creation? It's now a question
of faith versus science to resolve the Sethu Samudram dispute. .....
by Rediff.com
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed that he called
for a ceasefire to end the Kargil war in 1999 after Army chief Pervez
Musharraf [Images] 'begged' him to do so. .....
by Yahoo News
India's claim to Jammu and Kashmir is 'technically strong' but given the
chance the Kashmiri population will want to break free of Indian control,
says a new book quoting a declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
document. .....
by P Ananthakrishnan
One of the most celebrated quotations of Marx is the one about historyrepeating
itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Had he beenwatching the television
debates on the controversy regarding Ram Setu,he would have concluded
that the real tragedy is that history hasfinally attained the steady-state
of farce. .....
by M.D. Kini
Recently many newspapers have written about proposed amendment to FCRA
(Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976). Some of the commentators
have mentioned four major objections to the proposed FCRA Bill, and they
are : (1) it is ineffective in dealing with misuse of funds as it is possible
to get funds through hawala route; (2) it will curb the efforts of genuine
NGOs from accessing funds from abroad .....
by The Assam Tribune
Assam Government may not be in a great hurry to resume dialogue with outlawed
ULFA, but a reputed US intelligence thinktank has reported that with the
militant outfit increasingly hobnobbing with Islamic militant groups,
Government of India cannot afford to ignore ULFA much longer. .....
by IBNLive.com
King of controversy Salman Khan is in trouble yet again. A Muslim organisation
has issued a fatwa against Salman for attending a Ganesh puja. .....
by Julie Masis
The oldest and one of the largest Hindu temples in New England was vandalized
twice recently, resulting in over $9,000 in damages, and a temple official
isn't ruling out racism as a possible cause. .....
by KPS Gill
It is, indeed, amazing how polarising the political discourse has become
in this country, and how entirely unnecessary and extraneous controversies
are being generated by an intellectually bankrupt national leadership.
It is incomprehensible how such perverse nonsense relating to the controversy
on Ram Setu could have entered a supposedly secular Government's representation
before the Supreme Court of India. ......
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 Ranjit Roy
On August 14, lawyers in West Bengal had observed a day's cease work in
protest "pre-planned and politically motivated attacks on judiciary
in order to bow it down" before the wishes of the ruling Marxists.
As a result, all law courts from high court to sub-divisional courts were
closed in West Bengal on August 14. ......
by Haindava Keralam
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Thursday criticised the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for its judicial affidavit that
said there was no historical evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram.
......
by Newkerala.com
Puri Goberdhan Peeth Sankaracharya Swamy Neeschalananda Saraswati today
alleged that the attempt to destroy the Ramsethu for the Setusamudram
shipping canal project was a ''conspiracy'' against Hindu ethos and religious
beliefs. ......
by S Gurumurthy
It was a drama that lasted less than 48 hours. On Tuesday (9/11/07) Sri
Rama, who existed in the hearts of millions and millions of faithfuls
for thousands of years, ceased to exist, and became a myth for the UPA
government. Like a stone thrown at a beehive this set off a reaction that
made the government on the run for cover on Wednesday. On Thursday, the
secular government quickly turned round and admitted that Rama was real
after all. ......
by Sandhya Jain
Tulsidas' seminal rendition of the Rama story makes no mention of the
Lakshman rekha in the episode dealing with Sita's abduction. The line
surfaces only later, in distant Lanka, when Ravana's wife, Mandodri, advises
him to give up his obstinacy and refrain from fighting the illustrious
Raghus. ......
by The Pioneer
As the controversy over the UPA Government's affidavit in the Supreme
Court has seen Indian politicians vacillate between bland denial to reverent
assertion of Lord Ram's existence, management gurus in the world's premier
educational institutions have been telling their students to take a lesson
from Ram to succeed in the present environment of globalised economy.
......
by Sahara Samay
Millions of people here are celebrating the Ganapati festival, a 10-day
event beginning today that will see groups across the city vying to create
the most colourful and attractive marquees. ......
by TradingMarkets.com
The lack of cooperation of Muslim communities with the security authorities
remains a weak point of the fight against terrorism in Germany. Six years
after the attacks on 11 September 2001, according to a survey of the news
agency ddp in all federal laender, the authorities can hardly count on
active support from Muslim communities. ......
by Tarun Vijay
Sethusamudram, a project to create alternative shorter route for ships
to cross the Gulf of Mannar, is a wonderful idea -- one which is more
than 150 years old. The channel, originally an idea of a British commander
named A D Taylor was put forth in 1860. ......
by The Hindu
The 93rd Amendment under which the quota law has been enacted "breaches
the secular character of the Constitution," senior counsel K.K. Venugopal
argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. ......
by L.K. Advani
'The leadership of the Congress party and the UPA government has poured
contempt on the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus all over the
world'. ......
by Brian Ross
Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues
to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions
of dollars to al Qaeda. ......
by Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
A decade ago the acronym ABCD was automatically understood to mean "American
Born Confused Desis." Today Indian-American youth have taken so many
strides in defining an identity that the letter C more accurately means
"confident." Says 21-year-old Boston University student Varun
Mehta, "If we use the term ABCD at all, it's largely as a joke."
......
by Andrew Norfolk
A Muslim group that wants to open a giant £100 million mosque in
London has set its sights on "winning the whole of Britain to Islam".
......
by The Hindu
"It is time for the court to put restrictions on the number of backward
castes as the presence of caste is being felt in every field," senior
counsel K.K. Venugopal said on Wednesday. "The situation in this
country is once a backward caste, always a backward caste. We have advanced
tremendously in various walks of life but the claim for backward caste
status is increasing. ......
by Balbir K Punj
The Congress is playing a numbers game to justify sops to a particular
community. The flawed Sachar Committee report has been subverted by another
conundrum: The count of people who have died in all jihadi terror attacks
in the country published by different newspapers. ......
by Rediff.com
For his 12th novel The Indian Clerk, David Leavitt, one of America's distinguished
writers, chose to work on the relationship between mathematicians G H
Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. ......
by Yaroslav Trofimov
The world's richest Muslim entrepreneur defies conventional wisdom about
Islamic tycoons: He doesn't hail from the Persian Gulf, he didn't make
his money in petroleum, and he definitely doesn't wear his faith on his
sleeve. ......
by Alexander G. Higgins
Three Islamic terror suspects arrested on suspicion of planning massive
bombings in Germany may have been part of a larger network involving up
to 50 people, an official said Saturday. ......
by Tarun Vijay
Just before we were about to celebrate Dussehra, the government of India
swore that Ram never existed. A Diwali-Dussehra gift to the Hindus. Last
time, Diwali saw Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati being arrested while
performing puja by Jayalalithaa's khaki-clad law enforcers. ......
by Sweta Ramanujan-Dixit
The state president of a saffron party speaking at a mosque after Friday
prayers in a town with a sizeable Muslim population - may have been inconceivable
until today, but will happen on Friday. ......
by Shekhar Iyer
The BJP has questioned a Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT)
directive to all state governments for posting Muslim policemen, teachers
and workers in areas with large Muslim population. ......
by The Tribume
In an important judgement, Allahabad High Court has said 'Bhagwadgita'
is a 'Dharma Shastra' of India and it was the duty of the state to recognise
the text as 'rashtriya dharma,' which inspired our national struggle for
freedom and all walks of life. ......
by Andrew Norfolk
One of the world's most respected Deobandi scholars believes that aggressive
military jihad should be waged by Muslims "to establish the supremacy
of Islam" worldwide. ......
by Tarun Vijay
Visiting Nagaland makes you feel different. You have to procure an inner
line permit to enter. The permit demands to know why I am going there,
where I shall stay and to be sure about my credentials I needed a guaranteer
to vouch for me, my safe conduct and return within the stated period.
Issued by the deputy commissioner's office this permit is governed under
the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act 1873. Yes, 1873. ......
by Randeep Ramesh
A controversial new history of the Indian Mutiny, which broke out 150
years ago and is acknowledged to have been the greatest challenge to any
European power in the 19th century, claims that the British pursued a
murderous decade-long campaign to wipe out millions of people who dared
rise up against them. ......
by Prafull Goradia
Unlike the Punjab in the early years of Partition, there was very little
of a population exchange in Bengal. It was a one way traffic which has
made the state also over populated, one of the compulsions of which is
a shift from agriculture to manufacture. More than one out of every four
Bengalis being Muslim, Jamiat-e-Ulema is likely to have a large following
in its endeavour to resist the setting up of large factories. ......
by Wolf Pangloss
All praise is due to Allah, who built the heavens and earth in justice,
and created man as a favor and grace from Him. And from His ways is that
the days rotate between the people, and from His Law is retaliation in
kind: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed.
......
by Nicholas Kulish and Souad Mekhennet
Legally, his name is as German as they come: Fritz. To his new confidants
in the radical Islamic scene and alleged terrorist co-conspirators, he
was Abdullah. ......
by Sarita Kaushik
07.07.07. The date is burned into Sudhakar and Kamlesh Arka's memory.
That's not because of the perfect symmetry of the numbers. It was the
day their father, Ashok, a 45-year-old forest guard, was butchered by
Naxalites. The killers left a note on his body saying why they had killed
him. ......
by Andrew Norfolk
The voice, gentle but clear, has a mesmeric quality to it and as he recites
verses of the Koran in Arabic they gain a hypnotic, captivating beauty.
......
by The Assam Tribune
Assam has witnessed a record growth of Muslim population in the country
as per 2001 census and if this trend continues, the state is bound to
be divided on religion line, said Harendra Pratap, BJP central leader
and state observer while addressing a press meet here on Thursday. ......
by The Hindu
A Muslim cleric today demanded, in the presence of Trinamool Congress
chief Mamata Banerjee, that controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen
should not be given shelter in West Bengal and be driven out. ......
by Andrew Norfolk
Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic
sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims
to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation by The Times has
found. ......
by The Times of India
Most-wanted terrorist Abu Hamza, believed to have been detained by Bangladesh
police, was not only a part of the terror module targeting Hyderabad,
but also involved in destabilising operations in Tripura, according to
reliable sources. ......
by Sify News
Youth and terrorism make for an explosive mix. What inspires youngsters
to take up arms against the system? What steps can be taken to check the
increasing alienation of today's youngsters? These were the questions
raised at a four-day conference at the Ramada Rajpark in Chennai last
week. Janani Krishnaswamy reports. ......
by TransWorldNews
A woman goes to her doctor for a mammogram. The test reveals a cancerous
tumour but her doctor decides not to tell her. Two weeks ago 71 year old
tenor Luciano Pavorotti was recording an album of religious songs when
he went to the hospital with a fever. Tests revealed a cancerous tumour
on his pancreas. ......
by Emily Wax
Down a narrow, stone-paved road in a quarter known here as "Jew Town,"
a woman with salt-and-pepper hair was sewing glittery beads onto the rim
of a Jewish prayer cap. It was just after 3 p.m., and Sarah Cohen, wearing
a housedress and flip-flops, sat in the sunny doorway of her shop, waiting
for the visitors from around the world to come in for a visit. ......
by Shishir Gupta
Forty eight hours after the twin blasts in Hyderabad, investigators are
looking at questioning a 40-year-old born in a village in West Bengal,
who is now sitting in a Lucknow jail. Going by his startling interrogation
statement after he was arrested this June by the Uttar Pradesh Special
Task Force (STF) ......
by G.S. Radhakrishna
A second-year lady medical student of Vellore's Christian Medical College
was last night taken into police custody on the suspicion of ferrying
RDX from Bangladesh to Hyderabad. ......
by Swapan Dasgupta
As the Middle Kingdom celebrates a remarkable foreign policy triumph achieved
entirely by leveraging its hold on India's internal affairs, we should
be asking one fundamental question: Who governs India? Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh or CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat? ......
by Vicky Nanjappa
Intelligence Bureau sources told rediff.com that apart from conducting
raids on suspected hideouts, the police are cracking down on sleeper cells,
which they believe is the main breeding ground for terrorists. ......
by The Pioneer
It is astonishing that the Congress should try to bypass Parliament and
ignore the Opposition by striking a private deal with the Left. The committee
that is being set up by the Congress to discuss the finer nuances of the
123 Agreement and the implications of the Hyde Act with the Left lacks
legitimacy and cannot supplant Parliament where the India-US nuclear deal
should be discussed. ......
by Snehasis Biswas
The Pakistan-centric articles in the Indian newspapers lack a holistic
view. While the US's and China's contributions to that country's military
might - and hence, belligerence - are regularly written about, there is
little analysis of North Korean support that provides Pakistani missiles
its teeth. ......
by Zee News
The arrest of a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant in Kathua, who belongs
to Manipur suggests that banned militant outfit has spread its tentacles
in the country's North-east region. ......
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 The Indian Express
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said in a video issued ahead of the sixth
anniversary of the September 11 attacks that the United States was vulnerable
despite its economic and military power. ......
by The Indian Express
Criticising the Bush administration for its counter-terrorism policies,
Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards today said he would invade
Pakistan to eradicate terror cells if there were actionable intelligence
and the US-ally refuses to act. ......
by Vivek Deshpande
Three years ago, 22-year-old Kamlesh Arka from Marpalli village in the
Naxal-affected Aheri tehsil of Gadchiroli joined the police as constable.
His father Ashok worked as a part-time forest guard and earned Rs 1,500
per month, hardly enough to feed the nine-member family. Two months ago,
the Naxals accosted Ashok in the forest where he worked and killed him
for letting his son join the police. ......
by Bella Jaisinghani
Santosh Kambli makes Ganesh idols for the world when it asks, but before
installing one in his own home he thought fit to seek the permission of
his family deity. "It was necessary to get a koul or a signal that
doing so would be in my best interests,'' says the moortikar whose family
has been making the Lalbaugcha Raja since its installation in 1935. ......
by Rucha Biju Chitrodia
Every festival has its warm and expansive associations. The city's muchloved
Ganeshotsav, which is less than a week away, has always carried with it
the fragrance of agarbatti, the aromas of prasad and the sounds of the
uniquely phrased aarti. In many Maharashtrian, Konkani and Tamilian homes
across the city, the God is offered his favourite food-smooth rice modaks,
which when bitten into release a gush of sweet, crunchy and syrupy coconut
filling. ......
by Jaideep Sahni
It's been the third week for Chak De India and, to put it mildly, the
film is doing much better than what many people expected. There are many
things all of us in the team that made the film are thrilled about, but
what has given us the most encouragement is the response of the people
to the kind of patriotism the film attempts to stand for. ......
by The Indian Express
In a lead that Hyderabad Police believe may link the series of recent
blasts, Bangladesh Police reportedly arrested terrorist Abu Hamza on the
Indo-Bangla border today on a tip-off from the city police. Hyderabad
Police believe Hamza, who was once a resident of the Santoshnagar area
here, was behind the blasts at the Task Force office in October 2005 and
at Mecca Masjid on May 18 this year. ......
by Kalyani Sardesai
Even as the month of Shravan brings in its wake the festivities of Mangalagaur
observed by married Maharashtrian women in all their finery, this organisation's
enthusiasm for the tradition is taking it all the way from Satara to Dubai
- to showcase a slice of the rituals and beliefs that form their roots.
......
by Rediff.com
Curfew was clamped in six areas of Allahabad and educational institutions
were ordered closed on Saturday after a mob attacked a police station
and damaged several vehicles over the alleged desecration of a holy book
inside a place of worship. ......
by Jyllands-Posten
Controversial Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir celebrated its annual
congress in Copenhagen on Sunday with words of anger against Jews and
the West, reported daily free newspaper Nyhedsavisen. ......
by Breitbart.com
Nine men have been arrested in Denmark suspected of planning terrorist
attacks, the Danish intelligence service PET said in what the second major
anti-terrorism raid in less than a year. ......
by Subrata Nagchoudhury
Security agencies investigating the arrest of 11 suspected militants this
year at the Haridaspur border checkpost in Bongaon - about 100 km from
here - have come up with shocking evidence of political patronage to such
elements. ......
by Navhind Times
The celebrated culinary expert and master chef, Mr Sanjeev Kapoor today
said that no food is bad "unless there is something which is impure
in it", and blamed the consumers for having reduced their activity
level towards food. ......
by Paul Danahar
Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons
are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan.
......
by D K Singh & Jayanth Jacob
Sensing the inevitability of mid-term elections sooner rather than later,
the UPA government is believed to be working out reservation benefits
for Muslims and Christians. The plan is to bring a "sub-quota"
for Muslims within the existing 27 per cent OBC quota and to include Christian
and Muslim Dalits in the Scheduled Castes List. ......
by Dulue Mbachu
Born to a family of traditional priests, Ibe Nwigwe converted to Christianity
as a boy. Under the sway of born-again fervor as a man, he gathered the
paraphernalia of ancestral worship - a centuries-old stool, a metal staff
with a wooden handle and the carved figure of a god - and burned them
as his pastor watched. ......
by Rajib Chatterjee
The state government failure to stop infiltration through the riverine
borders has resulted in a rise in population in the Sundarbans where it
is almost double the state's population growth rate. Forest resources
and animals living in the state's delta region are therefore being threatened.
This is because people resort to deforestation to build their houses.
......
by Ambarish B
There could be around one lakh Bangladesh nationals in Karnataka: this
speculative figure could well describe the authorities' shoddy way of
handling foreign visitors. The exact number is not available as almost
all of them have voter identity cards! ......
by Sumit Pande
In a clear indication that it needs a large share of the Muslim vote in
case of a mid-term poll, the Government is now asking states to deploy
more Muslim policemen, teachers and health workers in Muslim dominated
areas. This is particularly in context where there is great deal of public
hearing. ......
by Bhupesh Bhandari
Till the Taliban were driven out of Kabul, Afghanistan was recognised
as the Islamic world's most prolific jehad factory, exporting terror to
every corner of the globe. It is widely believed that Osama bin Laden
is still directing Al Qaeda operatives from his base somewhere in Afghanistan
or the tribal areas of Pakistan. ......
by Rajeev Deshpande
The world over, the fight against terror has resulted in countries giving
more teeth to existing laws of passing tough new laws. New Zealand turned
up the heat following the Bali bombings. Any sort of support to terrorism
was banned. Overall, these measures were not very different from those
taken by other countries against techno-savvy terrorists. ......
by Saradindu Mukherji
This is with regard to Shashi Tharoor's piece, 'Indian identity is forged
in diversity', first published in the Guardian, and excerpted by The Indian
Express in the column 'Printline' (IE, August 16). By blowing up the trivial,
if not the non-existent, and smothering the obvious, it causes dismay.
......
by Vinay Jha
The Harkat-ul Jihadi al-Islami (HUJI) was set up in Pakistan in 1980 as
an organised militia to fight the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Once the
Soviets pulled out, many militia members turned their attention elsewhere.
And some began looking at Bangladesh as a safe base. Over the years, the
original HUJI declined in power and influence. 1992 saw the birth of HUJI
(Bangladesh), reportedly on the instructions of Osama bin Laden. ......
by V Krishna Ananth
The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and the debate on its implication seemed
to cover a lot of ground. It is a different matter that the parties and
the experts engaged in the debate stuck to their partisan positions. And
in this sense, the debate as such did not lead to any substantial changes
by way of policy. It is unlikely that the "mechanism'' that will
be evolved soon would alter the course of the deal in any significant
way. Be that as it may. ......
by Rajeev Deshpande & Vishwa Mohan
M K Dhar, an IPS officer who served nearly 30 years in the IB, has suggested
in a new book that a chief minister had links with the Pakistani spy agency
ISI. He did not identify the chief minister only for the fear of being
hauled up in a court for defamation. Prodded by TOI, he limited himself
to saying, "he was a CM from a north Indian state''. ......
by Roli Srivastava
Mohammad Shahid alias Billal's alma mater is Darsgah Jihad-o-Shahadat
(DJS), a fundamentalist outfit working out of Hyderabad. Its website says
it is involved in the ''training of thousands of Muslim youth to defend
themselves and their community in various training centres of DJS''. ......
by Kingshuk Nag
It was late 2002. Gujarat had just undergone the post-Godhra riots. Fourteen
young men crossed over to Pakistan and walked into the welcoming arms
of ISI. ......
by The Times of India
Who can forget how this man was released from prison, escorted to Afghanistan
by India's then external affairs minister and handed over safe and sound
to the hijackers of IC-814? The 1999 hostages-for-prisoners swap cost
India dearly: Immediately after his release, Masood Azhar founded the
Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the most dreaded outfits in the region whose
terror record includes the Parliament (2001) and Ayodhya (2005) attacks.
......
by Vijay Dutt
Experts and officials dealing with counter-terrorism in the United Kingdom
not only empathise with their counterparts in India, but exchange security
and intelligence information too. They recognise the threat from groups
based in Pakistan and Bangladesh and say the UK is going to maintain its
position on terror in the subcontinent. ......
by Riddhi Shah
When Prashant Salunkhe, 37, was promoted to the position of clerk (he
used to be a peon) at the University of Mumbai, his first reaction wasn't
that of excitement. Instead, he was worried if he'd still be able to make
it for the Lanja Rajapur Sanghameswhar Taluka Utkarsh Mandal's annual
excursion to Ratnagirihe had to report for his new job right in the middle
of the trip. ......
