by The Hindu
Women in thousands have started pouring in to participate in Friday's
'Pongala' festival at Attukal temple, famed as 'Women's Sabarimala' for
attracting one of the world's biggest female congregations. .....
by Earth Times
After years of praying in a cellar in a west Berlin street, the German
capital's 6,000 Hindus can look forward to worshipping in two brand-new
temples. A local Hindu group this week announced plans to build a temple
to the god Murugan, just three months after other Hindus conducted a ground-breaking
ceremony for one dedicated to the elephant-headed deity Ganesha. .....
by Don Sebastian
At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision
after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary. .....
by The Economic Times
After launching Jyotigram Yojana which aims at supplying electricity to
all villages, Gujarat is planning another ambitious project to provide
broadband links to its rural areas. .....
by Suchandana Gupta
Madrassas in Ujjain have boycotted the Madhya Pradesh government's mid-day
meal scheme for students on the ground that the food is being prepared
by Iskcon, the Hindu religious organisation spreading Krishna consciousness
throughout the world. .....
by Zenit.org
The president of Pakistan's episcopal conference called on the government
to protect Christians in the wake of increased violence and pressure to
convert to Islam. .....
by Aziz Haniffa
Not only are the Hindus and Mormons the most likely to be married (78
percent and 71 percent respectively), but also the most likely to be married
to someone within their own faith (90 percent and 83 percent respectively),
a landmark survey that details the religious affiliation of the American
public and explores the remarkable dynamism taking place in the US religious
marketplace has found. .....
by Claude Arpi
Backed by the US and the EU, Kosovo has declared 'independence' from Serbia,
although its claim to 'sovereignty' is extremely dubious. But the independence
of another nation, Tibet, continues to be denied by China. The US and
EU are least interested .....
by Hindustan Times
For the first time, schools in London will introduce sitar and Indian
harmonium in its music lessons from the next academic year starting in
September. .....
by Rahul Singh
Laungewala, The scene of some of the bloodiest fighting during the 1971
Indo-Pak war, has stirred patriotism and pride in Defence Minister A.K.
Antony's heart. .....
by R Vaidyanathan
A major debate on reservation in institutions of higher learning like
the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management
(IIMs), etc is being conducted at the Supreme Court. .....
by Srilanka Watch
Due to prompt action by the Seeduwa Police in setting up road blocks,
police were able to arrest the person suspected to have transported them
to Mabole area in a van bearing the licence plate number 57-7399 at the
road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m. The arrested person was later identified
as a pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of Four Square Church,
a Christian evangelist group. .....
by Pramod Kumar
"We have won only one battle and three more battles are still to
be won. The second battle to be won is against the Hindi textbooks, which
are replete with more poisonous text than that in the history books. The
hearing on our PIL against the Hindi books is going on in the court and
the court has to deliver its verdict soon. Our third battle is against
sex education and fourth battle is against Delhi University, which is
teaching highly distorted history to college students." .....
by Randeep Singh Nandal
Bhaiya - it's a term commonly used to describe an inhabitant of eastern
UP and Bihar. A term used in exact opposite sense of what it means. .....
by Arthur J Pais
An unqualified apology from a Christian community to Hindus worldwide,
which also denounced proselytisation by Christian missionaries, has triggered
a debate among pastors across the United States. .....
by Hindustan Times
The UPA government's constant tirade about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi being anti-minorities has not reflected in the Centre's own stock-taking
report on minority welfare. In fact, the Minority Affairs Ministry has
given a positive rating to the work done in Gujarat for minorities. .....
by Manju Gupta
This collection of 12 profiles of eminent Parsis of India covers the era
from the 19th century to the contemporary times to cover the freedom fighter,
industrialist, lawyer, scientist, Field Marshal and even a conductor of
western classical music. .....
by Dr. Indulata Das
The communities designated as minorities, which include Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs, Budhists and Parsis (Zorastrains) account for 18.4 per cent of
the India's population according to 2001 Census. Among them, Muslims constitute
the largest group with 13.4 per cent of our population followed by Christians
2.3 per cent. .....
by AK Kaul
Apropos the editorial, "Camping in Karnataka" (February 4),
the report on the discovery of an Islamist terrorist training camp in
Karnataka only confirms that jihadis have spread their tentacles across
the country. What is, however, disgusting is the public apathy towards
such unnerving developments. .....
by Csun.edu
"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our
land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange
to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the
water, how can you buy them? .....
by Dorothy Randall Gray, MSc, Interfaith
Minister
I come to you this evening as Dorothy Randall Gray, but in fact, I don't
know my real family name, the name of my lineage. That name was stolen
from me 400 years ago when my people were stolen out of Africa. They were
sold into slavery in America, "the land of the free and the home
of the brave." .....
by Johnson T A, Bangalore
After the chance arrest of two youths-Raziuddin Nasir and Mohammed Asadullah-from
Karnataka's Davangere region on January 11 for suspicious activities,
much of the focus of the investigations has been on Nasir's terror connections.
.....
by Daniel Greenfield
Even as the world rushes to embrace the newly manufactured Kosovo as a
country, the rise of a splinter Muslim country in Europe can't help but
give hope to Islamic terrorists fighting to create breakaway states in
Thailand, the Philippines, Israel, India and Kenya among many others.
.....
by Shri Punj
Introduction: By the way why do the Marxists play down global threat of
Islamic terrorism? Is that to placate their constituency of Muslim appeasement
ever since the united CPI supported the demand for Pakistan from the very
beginning? Yechuri wants to remind L.K. Advani about the Babri demolition
case; that is only a political charge. .....
by World Net Daily
An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America
has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that
3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has
learned. .....
by Kay Biouki in Teheran and Gethin
Chamberlain
The Ayatollah Khomenei brought millions on to the streets of Iran to overthrow
the decadence of the Shah. Now the late leader's grandsons and other Iranian
clerics face a backlash over their families' fondness for fast cars, big
houses and hot tubs. .....
by Iran Focus
An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging
after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man
who had tried to rape both her and her niece. .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
Tasneem Khalil, a Bangladeshi journalist who worked for the Daily Star
and CNN, who was picked up by Bangladeshi military intelligence in May
2007 and kept in detention for over 22 hours, has written about his ordeal
in a Human Rights Watch report. .....
by Sultan Shahin
Is suicide compatible with Islamic teachings? The question has been debated
endlessly for the last several years. The clear consensus of Islamic scholars
now is that it is not. And yet extremist groups continue to use human
bombs as their weapon of choice in several parts of the Muslim world.
How do they manage to entice Muslims into committing such a heinous crime
against humanity? .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
He was arrested for his role in the Surat riots case. And all this time
the man was out on bail and was even reporting to the police station once
a week in Bangalore. .....
by Ibn Jeylan
There are many problems with the Arab world. In this article I would like
to talk briefly about three problems. The three problems are important
because they are shaping what we think or know regarding the Arabs. After
all, Islam came from the Arabs. .....
by Daily Mail
The fanatic who plotted to kidnap and behead a British soldier wanted
his three-year-old daughter to marry a jihadi terrorist, a court heard.
.....
by Yahoo News
A suspected terrorist Mohammed Yahya Kammakutty belonging to the banned
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has been arrested by the Bangalore
Police. .....
by The Hindu
Ancient India had recognised importance of the concept of infinity whereas
other civilisations frowned upon it, Frits Staal, Professor Emeritus of
Philosophy and South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California,
Berkeley, said on Monday. .....
by The Indian Express
Democracy is animated by the big idea and programme but it is as much
the unspectacular habit and routine. It follows a time-table. Every five
years, the people renew their pact with their representatives, elect a
government. In this context, the clamour from some quarters that the Election
Commission should delay the assembly polls in Karnataka must be asked
to explain itself. In the democratic and constitutional order of things,
Karnataka must elect a new assembly by May 28, when the six months' duration
of president's rule runs out. .....
by Vivek Deshpande
The loud, long-winding call in the dead of night breaks the silence in
this village situated perilously close to the thickly-forested Naxal dreamland
of Abujmad. Twelve hard-hit bangs of tolls rippling out of an iron bell,
denoting the time, follow. And barely have the echoes died, there's another
one: "two number sentryiiiiiiii..., hoshiyaaaar hai" followed,
this time, by a solitary toll. Then another one. And then yet another
one. And then the call-toll combo is fired one last time by the fifth
sentry. .....
by The Hindu
She presented the white snows of winter; the delicate pink Sakura blooms
of spring; the red heat of the summer and the yellow leaves on the rivers
in autumn in poetic fashion. .....
by Dr. Harishchandra Shah
A few Muslims, while acknowledging the 'isolate instances' of suppression
of Hindus by the 'handful Muslim tyrants' of the medieval past like Ghouri,
Ghaznavi, Nadir Shah, Aurangzeb, etc., express no sorrow, remorse, regrets,
apologies, etc., for their 'savagery and crimes against humanity,' but,
nevertheless proudly claim themselves along with over 140 million Indian
Muslims to be the descendants of the great patriotic Indian! -- Emperor
Akbar (grandson of warlord Babur). .....
by The Times of India
A meeting at Darul Uloom at Deoband next week, expected to be attended
by ulema from over 6,000 madrassas including those affiliated to other
sects like Barelvis and Ahl-e-Hadiz, will deliberate on the need to take
a stand against groups which justify terrorism as being sanctioned by
Islam. .....
by Priyadarsi Dutta
Could 2008 prove even a flimsy remake of 1708, the annus mirabilis of
Rajput resurgence? In that year,Jodhpur, the state of the Rathors, secured
freedomfrom Mughal hegemony, after waging relentless battle for 30 years.
Aurangzeb had proclaimed its annexationafter his dissenting ally, Maharaja
Jaswant Singh I,died prematurely in 1678. The leader of that protracted
war of independence was Veer Durga Das Rathore (1638-1719), cherished
as "defender of the people of Marwar". .....
by Smriti Kak Ramachandran
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation does not believe in intense vigilance
nor does it rely on hidden cameras to plug leaks and nab wrongdoers. Instead
the organisation has turned to Bhagavad Gita to stem corruption, lethargy
and negligence. .....
by Francois Gautier
Bana Singh was born on 6 January 1949 and now lives in R.S.Pura near Jammu.
He joined Indian Army's Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry (JAK LI) on
6 January 1969 After training at the High Altitude Training School along
with his battalion at Gulmarg, he was posted in Siachen in April 1987.
Pakistan had already occupied a vantage point called Quaid Post named
after Mohammad Ali Jinnah. This is the most important and highest post
in the area. .....
by Anand Arya
Pramod Karan Sethi, popularly known as Dr P.K. Sethi made a unique contribution
in the field of orthopaedic rehabilitation by developing 'Jaipur Foot',
a wood and rubber ankle foot prosthesis, which has changed the lives of
millions of amputees in the developing and underdeveloped countries. He
was born on November 28, 1927, in the holy city of Banaras (Varanasi)
in India. .....
by B.R. Haran
The arrival of East India Company and the subsequent British regime have
been the launch pad for foreign Christian missionaries to land in India
and establish themselves. They penetrated in to the far and wide of the
country in the guise of focusing on "Education & Health Care"
sectors to help the poor and downtrodden of the country. The Indian leaders,
who were fighting for the freedom lost focus on the penetration of these
missionaries. .....
by The Pioneer
The Supreme Court on Tuesday warned it would not hear any of the pending
Godhra riot cases if social activist Teesta Setalvad represented the petitioners.
The court was outraged over its criticism by Setalvad for delay in providing
justice to the riot victims. Setalvad had attacked the judiciary in a
recent write-up published in leading newspapers. .....
by The Hindu
What was meant to be an exercise to infuse amity among the police and
public near here turned out to be a unique spiritual and social adventure
when efforts of the men in khaki led to the unravelling of an ancient
temple shrouded for decades by wild growth. Of course, the police-public
interface suffused enough friendliness. .....
by Sandhya Jain
Secularism has evolved into an odious fast-track for the disproportionate
ascent of religious minorities in the top echelons of Indian polity, and
their hijack of the state and its resources to pander to sectarian fundamentalism.
Ever since Rajiv Gandhi's craven surrender in the Shah Bano case, there
has been an insidious chipping away at the nation's secular edifice in
a manner tailored to crystallise and partition minority identities. .....
by Surendra Ulla
An eminent Indologist and a visiting professor at the University of Houston,
Dr Pramod Pathak has challenged the basis of age old theory perpetrated
by Western scholars about the invasion by Aryans in India and of driving
the Dasuys South ward.Talking to the media in Chicago, Dr Pathak said
that his study and research revealed that the Aryan invasion theory is
a myth and it is perpetuated by the English scholars from the time of
their invasion of India in the 17th century. .....
by Deepak Lal
Food riots in Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, the Philippines and Vietnam. Price
controls and food rationing in Pakistan and China. Are we back to the
Malthusian trap as prices of agricultural and food commodities from wheat
and corn to dairy products and meat have risen in the last few years to
historically unprecedented levels? .....
by Prem Shankar Jha
Everyone loves a good race, and we are no exception. The 22 primaries
in the United States have, therefore, captured the headlines in all Indian
papers. But should the American battle not have provoked some reflection
in our country on where we are headed? After all, we too face a general
election only months after the American President is elected. .....
by Afternoon Despatch & Courier
The Samajwadi Party has criticised Railway Minister Lalu Prasad' remark
about performing chhat puja in Mumbai saying these were 'provocative'
"I don't agree with what Lalu has said", SP General Secretary
Amar Singh told reporters here when asked to comment on reports that the
RJD chief had dared to perform the puja in front of Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's residence. .....
by Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Maintaining his tough stand towards north Indians, Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena Chief Raj Thackeray has vowed not to allow celebration of Uttar Pradesh
day and warned his party will take on "political goondaism"
of north Indians in Maharashtra with open hands. .....
by The Times of India
Bangalore tops the list of terror hubs in Karnataka. The antiterrorist
cell classified the state into two zones. Bangalore falls in Category
I as a hub for terrorists from Pakistan and Bangladesh. .....
by N D Shiva Kumar
Doctors, engineers and techies. The face of terror has changed in Karnataka.
In less than two years, seven youths with professional degrees or registered
for professional courses have been held in the drive against terror. The
number is set to increase as the state police sets out on a manhunt for
more educated youths who are absconding. .....
by N D Shiva Kumar and Ambarish B
An electrical engineer once employed with a leading US multinational and
now an active member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI) has been arrested from Bangalore by police who claim the 32-year-old
could hold the key to cracking a dangerous terror web that spanned a large
swathe across India, from UP to Kerala. .....
by Manoj Jain
Ever wonder what causes us to age resulting in death of our body cells
over the years, develop heart disease leading to plaque in the artery,
or suffer from cancer causing cells to mutate and grow erratically? The
answer may be simpler than we think. .....
by Nitin Mahajan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls it the most serious internal security
threat the ountry faces. The toll in Naxalite violence has surged over
the last two years to almost one death each day. The Sunday Express reporters
travel to police stations in the heart of Naxal country in six states.
.....
by Nadine Kreisberger
I have been following the saga of the new Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway with
a mélange of amusement, bewilderment and more recently, with concern.
.....
by Shekhar Gupta
One of the most remarkable reactions to the Pakistani election result
came, predictably, from Pervez Musharraf. All parties, he said, should
accept defeat gracefully. You would have thought, for a moment, that it
was a misquote, or that some TV headline writer had perhaps abbreviated
much too brutally what was perhaps a more nuanced statement. .....
by Johnson T A and Rajeev P I
In a catch possibly reaching the nerve centre of the activities of the
banned Students Islamic Movement of India, the Corps of Detectives of
the Karnataka police have arrested a former software engineer and discovered
that he may be a key link to SIMI activities in India and to leaders of
the group. .....
by Johnson T A
The lives of three Karnataka youths, built through academic perseverance
against a backdrop of poverty and on the verge of professional careers
as medical practitioners, has hit a downward spiral following alleged
links to terrorist activities. .....
by J P Yadav
Each day, when Sub Inspector R L Thakur gazes at the setting sun falling
behind the hills facing his police station, he shivers. The gathering
darkness raises the fear of a roar from these very quiet hills - the roar
of gunfire and the spectre of a Naxalite attack. .....
by M.G. Radhakrishnan
A meeting of the state committee of the CPI(M) normally is as electrifying
as Sunday morning mass at the nearby parish. However, it was a different
sight last week when thousands of flag-holding workers converged for a
mammoth public rally to mark the end of the four-day Kerala state conference
at the rain-drenched Nehru Stadium in Kottayam-a prelude to the 19th party
congress in March at Coimbatore. .....
by Subhash Mishra
Mayawati shuns a surname but if she ever chooses to tag one, it could
well be "unpredictable". On Monday last, she met Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in Delhi after which she indicated that she has put her
decision of withdrawal of support to the Congress-led Government at the
Centre on hold. However, she is unlikely to stay quiet for long and may
well renew her onslaught on the Congress soon enough. .....
by The Times of India
The Maoists may be striking with increasing impunity in Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa but the party's top command is dominated by
leaders from Andhra Pradesh, with half its politburo (PB) members coming
from the state and as many as four of them from the outfit's old bastion,
Karimnagar district. .....
by The Times of India
The Maoists' brutality peaked during their attack on Nayagarh on Friday
night. They burnt one policeman alive, stabbed and shot hiding cops and
castrated a constable. Rarely has such sadism been witnessed in the state.
.....
by The Times of India
Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough
time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers. The trouble
started there when he would not pray in the mess hall. .....
by Julian Crandall Hollick
Hindus have always believed that water from India's Ganges River has extraordinary
powers. The Indian emperor Akbar called it the "water of immortality"
and always traveled with a supply. The British East India Co. used only
Ganges water on its ships during the three-month journey back to England,
because it stayed "sweet and fresh." .....
by N.S. Rajaram
Sixty years after Mahatma Gandhi fell to an assassin's bullet, it has
come to light that the most illustrious bearer of the Gandhi name today
accepted the Order of Leopold, instituted by the Belgian royal family.
The name Leopold, King of the Belgians is synonymous with the worst excesses
of European exploitation of Africa. Leopold, the king whose name the award
carries was a slave merchant who rivals Hitler as a mass murderer. .....
by Rediff.com
The Hyderabad task force police on Sunday arrested 14 people from Bangladesh,
suspected to be Inter Services Intelligence agents, at the Secunderabad
railway station. .....
by Yahoo News
Scores of Muslims led by a radical cleric protested Friday against India's
decision to extend the visa of threatened Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen,
who is in hiding in New Delhi. .....
by IBNLive.com
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday visited a temple in
Vellore on shared the dais with the head of a Hindu religious organisation.
.....
by Swapan Dasgupta
The allusion is not to the Leader of Opposition LK Advani who was forthright
in his condemnation of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader's publicity-seeking
utterances that led to the death of one poor Bihari migrant. Nor can we
fault Hindu hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray for making it clear that
the Indian nation must prevail over parochial interests. .....
by Sachin Haralkar / Vikas Shrivastav
Mehtab Aalam, the sight of whose blood-soaked face probably intensified
the violent clashes between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Samajwadi Party
workers, has been arrested. .....
by Mateen Hafeez
The Maoist menace is no longer confined to the jungles. Last year, India's
financial capital got a Naxal scare. With the arrest of a few activists
in August, the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of Maharashtra police claimed
to have busted a Maoist think tank, which was trying to indoctrinate and
recruit people, and collecting funds for the organisation. .....
by B. R. Haran
The Congress President Mrs.Sonia had accepted the title 'Grant Officer
of the Order of Leopold' from the King of Belgium in November 2006, which
makes her eternally devoted to Belgium and its Monarchy, as per the statute
of becoming a Member of the Association for the Order of Leopold. .....
by Thaindian News
Jagannath temple in Bihar took a bold initiative by anointing a low-caste
to perform temple rituals, considered a strict prerogative of the Brahmins.
.....
by NewKerala.com
Suspected terrorist Asif Mohammad's accomplice Shakeel Mali, who was arrested
on Tuesday last, revealed that 32 activists of the banned Students Isslamic
Movement of India (SIMI) had participated in its meeting at Castlerock
on Goa-Karnataka border on the Western Ghats recently. .....
by Hindu Council UK
The Hindu Council UK (HCUK) has today released a revealing report on varnashram
or the caste system, a subject HCUK says is much misunderstood by the
British media, politicians and the public. "Caste has been the subject
of ill-informed comment for too long," says HCUK General Secretary
Anil Bhanot. .....
by Nandini Jawli
The UK Government has drawn up controversial new guidelines on the "language
of terrorism" to advise civil servants on how to talk about terrorism
without causing offence to Muslims. .....
by Taslima Nasreen
Although I was not born an Indian, there is very little about my appearance,
my tastes, my habits and my traditions to distinguish me from a daughter
of the soil. My father was born before Partition; the strange history
of this subcontinent made him a citizen of three states, his daughter
a national of two. .....
by Mohan Gupta
PIL filed by Patriots' Forum in Delhi High Court against implementation
of Sachar Report ( including Justice Sachar's blatant recourse to suppressio
veri, suggestio falsi) was heard today by the Division Bench of Hon'ble
Chief Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Ms. Reva Khetrapal. Senior Advocate
Sri P.N. Lekhi appeared in behalf of Patriot's Forum, while Central Govt
was represented by the Addl. Solicitor General, Sri Gopal Subramaniam.
.....
by Mayank Jain
Recently, I quizzed some students of journalism about the dates of the
Ayodhya, Delhi, Bangalore and Varanasi terror attacks. Many of them replied
rather vaguely. Contrast this with the American attitude. See how they
converted '9/11' to an international brand name. Its very mention evokes
images of suicide bombers, planes and Islamic terrorism. .....
by Rahul Singh
The army has invoked the Mahabharata and the Vedas to check sliding morality
and ethics in its ranks. An honour code circulated to soldiers across
India quotes Bhishma's advice to the Pandavas, asking them to control
passion for wealth, promotion and luxuries as these "frailties"
erode leadership. .....
by The Times of India
Always eager to offer sops to minorities, the Andhra Pradesh government
of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Monday decided to dole out
subsidies, on the lines of the Haj scheme, for Christians who want to
visit holy sites in Israel. .....
by C. Vidyashankar, MD
A one-week yoga program reduced stress and anxiety among survivors of
the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean islands of Andaman and Nicobar in
December 2004, researchers from India report. .....
by Randeep Ramesh
Leading figures from Indian literature, academia and the law announced
a campaign last night to stop an exiled Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasrin,
who has been accused of insulting Islam, from being expelled from India.
.....
by The Pioneer
For some time now strategic affairs 'experts' and their political mentors,
known for their proximity to the Washington establishment, have been peddling
the theory that India needs a technology-intensive 'lean-and-mean' Army,
not a large force of 11 lakh soldiers and officers. On paper this sounds
good. .....
by Joginder Singh
The UPA Government has decided to provide a relief package to dependents
of terrorists -- those men who fought against the integrity of India and
were killed by the security forces in encounters in Jammu & Kashmir.
They did nothing for the country except attempting to destabilise it and
kill innocent civilians. .....
by DNA (Daily News & Analysis)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, known for his rationalist ideology,
would visit a Hindu temple at Vellore, 140 km from here, next week. .....
by Dr. Babu Suseelan
Marxists and their cohorts are relatively clear what they want to achieve
in India. They want the destruction of Hindu civilization and establishment
of a proletariat Marxist state. For the last seventy five years, Marxists
are working hard to realize their misguided and dangerous goals through
positive sounding slogans such as "inclusion", "human rights",
"feminist empowerment", "classless society", and "women's
rights". .....
by Dibyendu Guha
On November 14, 2007 top ranking intellectuals, writers, play-wrights,
poets and artists of Bengal like Mrinal Sen, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Joy
Goswami, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Gautam Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Purnodas Baul,
Anjan Datta and many other, marched in silent procession in Kolkata to
protest against fascist type violent action in Nandigram by the armed
cadre of the ruling CPM. .....
by The Indian Express
With the killing of five Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants, including its
two top com.ll1anders, followed by thy the arrest of another commander
in south Kashmir, police and the Army on Saturday claimed that the militants
are on the run after these successive operations. .....
by Sujit Das
Out of all the heinous crimes modern societies have ever witnessed, the
worst one obviously is crime against children. The barbaric violent acts
of brutality against children often leave scars in their soft minds, which
often never heals in their lifetime. .....
by Shobhan Saxena
The Red Caps are back in the Frontier. In a remarkable display of resilience
and commitment to its secular values, the Awami National Party (ANP),
which bore the brunt of suicide bombers in the run up to the elections
in the country's most volatile province bordering Afghanistan, swept to
power in NWFP on Tuesday as it completely overwhelmed Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal
(MMA) in its stronghold. .....
by The Pioneer
Friday night's daring raid by Maoists on armouries and police establishments
in Orissa, which resulted in the death of at least 14 policemen and a
civilian, comes as yet another grim reminder that far Left extremism remains,
to quote the Prime Minister, the biggest threat to our internal security.
What makes the latest outrage particularly worrisome is that it occurred
at Nayagarh, a district headquarters town, which is a short distance from
Bhubaneswar. .....
by Deccan Chronicle
Retired Naval Captain H. Balakrishnan on Saturday said the implementation
of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) would pose a threat
to the country's national security as maritime terrorism and sea piracy
were getting inter-mingled. .....
by News Post India
Scientists and experts at a meet organised here Saturday urged the central
government to table a white paper in parliament on the 'economic viability,
environmental and ecological sustainability, engineering feasibility and
ethical tenability' of the controversial Sethusamudram Shipping Canal
Project (SSCP). .....
by News Today
A retired Naval Officer and Master Mariner for the Merchant Navy H Balakrishnan
on Saturday said the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal
Project (SSCP) was unscientific and would also pose a threat to country's
national security as maritime terrorism and sea piracy were getting inter-mingled.
.....
by Taslima Nasreen
Although I was not born an Indian, there is very little about my appearance,
my tastes, my habits and my traditions to distinguish me from a daughter
of the soil. My father was born before Partition; the strange history
of this subcontinent made him a citizen of three states, his daughter
a national of two. .....
by Gayatri Chauhan
In school we had to fill the first page of the school calendar which had
a slot for religion. I wonder why I would hesitate to fill it in and say
Hindu. .....
by The Times of India
The Coast Guard chief has added a new twist to the Sethusamudram controversy.
He thinks that the proposed shipping canal is vulnerable to terror strikes
from non-state actors in the region. Recently, the naval chief was quoted
as saying that the canal may be too small for large ships. The project
has already attracted undue opposition from political parties, religious
groups and environmentalists. So, is the canal project worth pursuing?
.....
by Vicky Nanjappa
Finally, after two years, the Bangalore police have made some headway
in the case pertaining to the terror attack on the Indian Institute of
Science in Bangalore. .....
by Rohit Parihar
It is probably the only city in the world to have lent its name to a prosthetic,
but now limbs other than foot-like a Jaipur knee or wheelchair-may soon
be associated with the pink city. .....
by Balbir K. Punj
Tennis prodigy and India's hope for the world tennis crown, Sania Mirza,
says she won't be taking to the Indian tennis courts in the near future.
Reason: she is "tired" of the constant criticism of her sports
uniform and other off- and on-court behaviour by orthodox Muslims. In
the follow-up, several newspapers have lambasted this orthodoxy and asked
the liberals why they were so silent. .....
by Jaideep Mazumdar and Ganesh Prasad
Chowrasia
With a family of eight to look after, Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC)
greens-keeper Ganesh Prasad Chowrasia could scarcely afford the chicken
or mutton dishes his youngest son was so fond of. Often, disappointed
with a vegetarian meal, the diminutive, soft-spoken kid would stomp off
from his dad's cramped, two-roomed quarters off RCGC's ninth green to
pursue his only passion: golf. .....
by Akshaya Mukul
Always known in the corridors of power, differences in the Election Commission
- among Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy and the two ECs Navin
Chawla and SY Qureishi - have come out in the open on the issue of serving
notice to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a complaint seeking her disqualification
as MP for accepting a Belgian honour. .....
by The Indian Express
Former chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Roy offered a middle path to
resolve the stalemate on Taslima Nasreen's visa extension on Sunday. .....
by The Times of India
It is not surprising that China had unhappy words to say about Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh. After all, the Chinese
are master hecklers, shooting off statements meant to rile India even
as they engage in formal talks to supposedly resolve the boundary dispute.
.....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Viewers of English-language TV news channels will have noticed the frequency
with which a mysterious community called "activists" has begun
popping up. On subjects as diverse as education, health, industrialisation
and religion, the utterances of politicians, officials, corporates and
the man in the street are invariably countered with views of "activists"
presumed to have profound expertise on all subjects. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
When the Communist states of Eastern Europe collapsed in the early-1990s,
there were anxious debates in Marxist circles over what had gone wrong.
The common sense explanation was pretty simple: the dictatorship of the
party was tyrannical, opaque, excessively bureaucratic and plain inefficient.
The system violated human nature. For those who felt history was on their
side, the collapse lent itself to a curious explanation. The socialist
bloc, they argued, had crumbled because it had deviated from the true
path. .....
by Prophet of Doom
Iftekhar Murtaza, a 22-year-old American Muslim man living in Southern
California was arrested in Phoenix Airport for bludgeoning, stabbing,
strangling, and burning Leela, Karishma, and Jayprakash Dhanak. These
three victims were the mother, sister, and father of his girlfriend, Shayona
Dhanak. .....
by Prafull Goradia
After the victory in the Gujarat Assembly election, it is time for the
BJP to shed its inability to look beyond the NDA. It's time to give up
the posture that the party means many things to many people. .....
by Hasan Suroor
In a rare show of unity against attempts to interfere with Britain's secular
laws, Muslim groups on Friday joined Ministers, MPs and civil rights groups
to criticise Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for suggesting that
elements of Sharia should be incorporated into British law as a mark of
religious and cultural "accommodation" with the country's 1.6
million Muslims. .....
by Ashok Ghosh
To many, it may sound dichotomous to press for a programme and then to
dump it unceremoniously, but to a Leftist it should appear mischievous.
The failure of the Left Front Government to implement NREG after fighting
hard for it to be incorporated in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) is
clear manifestation of hypocrisy practiced by some of the constituents
of the ruling coalition in West Bengal for quite some time now. .....
by Manohar Malgonkar
A Bend in the ganges is an epic saga of the decade leading to partition
and the forces which engineered its bloody consummation plunging Modern
India into its darkest hour; where over 3 million people died, over a
million women were raped, abducted and mutilated, and several million
rendered helpless refugees, left to fend for themselves in the quagmire
of post partition existence teeming with poverty, disease and death. .....
by Stewart Bell
A Toronto-area man has been posting messages on the Internet supporting
attacks against Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil, drawing the attention
of RCMP national security investigators. .....
by Suman Guha Mozumder
It would seem Sanskrit has become the flavor of the month in some parts
of the United States. Last week, a two-day Sanskrit seminar, the first
of its kind in Nevada, concluded in Reno with chanting of Sanskrit shlokas
(verses) by Andrea Forman, lead singer of Shanti Shanti, the only Sanskrit
rock band in the world. .....
by The Pioneer
The Government's controversial move to amend the Constitution to bring
parity among the three Election Commissioners (ECs) has been sharply criticised
by the CPI. .....
by The New Indian Express
Head of US-based Siva Ashramam Sadguru Bodhinatha Veylan Swamigal has
said that Hinduism is facing the challenge of unethical conversion by
other faiths. .....
by CPMIndia.blogspot.com
The Government of West Bengal proposed to set up a Special Economic Zone
(SEZ) and a chemical hub in an area covering around 10,000 acres in Nandigram
Block-1 and for that purpose it proposed to acquire land. On 28th December,
2006 Haldia Development Authority circulated an informal notice showing
the likely location of the project. The local people resented the proposal
for acquisition of land. .....
by The Hindu
Malaysian police fired tear gas and water cannons Saturday to break up
a rally by about 200 ethnic Indians, some carrying roses to symbolize
their peaceful demand for racial equality. .....
by Piyush Roy
Built on the right bank of the river Shipra, Ujjain has seen the rise
and fall of many kingdoms and rulers-from Vikramaditya to emperor Ashok
and Iltutmish. Now the city sprawls on both sides of the river like any
other Indian small town, its garish billboards grinning at squat concrete
houses. .....
by Manoj More
Every Thursday, Indrayani river that flows through the temple town of
Alandi breathes easy. Do not mistake, it's not the Alandi Municipal Council
that is showing concern for the river which has earned the tag of highly
polluted river in Pune. Neither are residents in Alandi coming forward
to bail out the river, whose woes stem not only from official apathy but
from people's beliefs as well. .....
by Subrata Nagchoudhury
A well-networked cartel at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, one of the biggest
repositories of the country's cultural and historical heritage, has been
siphoning off crores of rupees under the pretext of preserving priceless
artifacts, a probe has found. .....
by Organiser
I have received information from Ayodhya today that some Army and Air
Force officers belonging to various countries visited the Ramjanmabhoomi
at about 4.00 pm for inspection. The names, which I came to know, included
Shri Suhail Abbas (Brigadier of Bangladesh Army), Mohammed Ibrahim (Afghanistan),
Mohd. Abdul Wasim (Mangolia) and T.K. Pillai (Australia). .....
by Ruth Gledhill
Britain's Hindu community, known for its peaceable love of sacred cows,
for its annual Diwali festival of light and its opposition to conflict,
has risen up in unprecedented anger against the Government led by Prime
Minister Gordon Brown. .....
by Claude Arpi
The US Administration is untiring in preaching democracy and human rights
to others. But it warmly embraces dictators who loathe democracy and trample
on human rights. We are seeing this in Pakistan. We saw it in Indonesia
during Suharto's brutal excesses. .....
by Malik Siraj Akbar
Hindus, the largest religious minority in Balochistan, threatened to boycott
the February elections or "migrate to safer places" if the government
did not protect them. .....
by The Times
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has made admirable efforts
to engage constructively with Islam and its clerics. His sensible conversations
about the Muslim world stand in welcome contrast to the attitude of some
of his colleagues, notably the Bishop of Rochester, whose remarks last
month about unspecified "no-go areas" for non-Muslims were unnecessarily
provocative. .....
by The Times of India
It was in 1985, two years after a trip to Rishikesh, that I got an opportunity
to meet Maharashi. A young psychologist at Harvard, who was doing a study
on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation for older people, told me
about Maharishi's visit to America for a conference after several years.
My wife, Rita and I decided to attend it. .....
by Organiser
Continuing its murderous orgy against the Sangh Parivar, CPM goons attacked
and butchered V.K. Shaju, Zonal Joint Secretary of BMS and a worker at
the Kerala Feeds Factory at Kallettinkara, near Irinjalakuda in Thrissur
district on February 12 in broad daylight at 7.30 am. .....
by S. Chandrasekhar
The CPM which rode into power by getting the support of fringe terrorist
outfits like PDP, NDF, SIMI, Kanthapuram Musliar, Jamaat-E-Islami etc
is toeing the same line, despite strong opposition from its predominantly
Hindu support base. .....
by Deepak Kumar Rath
The Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini organised a national seminar in New Delhi
on February 14, 2007 on "Innovative Strategies to Counter Naxalism:
Experiment of Salva Judum." The seminar was held in four different
sessions throughout the day which had eminent speakers drawn from a wide
spectrum of on-field workers to policymakers to law enforcers. .....
by Ajay Srivastava
It is tale of crafty deception. A hapless Dalit widow was lured by those
who are seen as living symbol of mercy and faith in the society. Her cries
have exposed the demon beneath the white cloak. She not only lost her
beloved grandson, who was a serious patient of brain tumor and the lone
bread winner for the family of fifteen, but also stripped of her faith
in the hope that one day he will come back from jaws of death by prayers
as she was allured. .....
by Neelesh Misra
A few months ago, I was having a conversation with someone who had spent
a sleepless night during the 1999 Christmas vacations, guiding the government's
response during the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane. As he looked
back, I asked him, what were the thoughts that ran through his mind? "It
has to do with us as a nation," he said. "We have made a fine
art out of not remembering. Look at the Israelis - would they have ever
forgotten something like this?" .....
by Bhupendra Chaubey
The Chief Election Commissioner, N Gopalaswamy and his two fellow Election
Commissioners - Navin Chawla and Dr S Y Quraishi - is the troika responsible
for maintaining the spirit of unity and democracy in India. .....
by The Assam Tribune
The killing of a villager by suspected Bangladeshi marauders in Lumjyrmi
village under the Bholaganj sector of the Indo-Bangladesh border has put
the BSF in an embarrassing situation. .....
by Arun Shourie
We were all at the weekly meeting of the BJP members of Parliament. L.K.
Advani was presiding. Two of our colleagues represent Arunachal in the
Lok Sabha - Tapir Gao and Kiren Rijiju. They drew attention to the fact
that Chinese incursions into Arunachal were not just continuing - these
were becoming more frequent and the Chinese soldiers were coming in deeper
into our territory. .....
by Rediff.com
Opposing any move towards acquisition of temples by a government, spiritual
guru Sri Sri Ravishankar has said that if such a step was indispensable,
it must not apply only to places of worship of any one religion. .....
by B.R.Haran
The recent report in a section of media on the unearthing of a "Jihadi
Training Camp" in the jungles of Dharwad & Uthara Kannada districts
of Karnataka might have been a shocking surprise to the people of India
in general and the people of South India in particular. But, for those
who have been closely watching and analyzing the concept of Jihad and
the spread & growth of Islamic Terrorism in India, it is not at all
a surprise and seems to be only the tip of the iceberg. .....
by Dr. Babu Suseelan
The detection of Pakistan ISI Jihadi terrorism training camp in the deep
forest of Karnataka is nothing new. It is as old as Islamic invasion of
India. The irrational obsession of Muslims to take over India by the Islamic
sword is nothing new .For centuries; Muslims have shown obsessive ferocity
to destroy Hindu civilization and India by ideological, military and other
violent means. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
When the Communist states of Eastern Europe collapsed in the early-1990s,
there were anxious debates in Marxist circles over what had gone wrong.
The common sense explanation was pretty simple: the dictatorship of the
party was tyrannical, opaque, excessively bureaucratic and plain inefficient.
The system violated human nature. For those who felt history was on their
side, the collapse lent itself to a curious explanation. .....
by Deepak Chopra
It was in 1985, two years after a trip to Rishikesh, that I got an opportunity
to meet Maharashi. A young psychologist at Harvard, who was doing a study
on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation for older people, told me
about Maharishi's visit to America for a conference after several years.
My wife, Rita and I decided to attend it. .....
by The Times of India
Two years after the IISc terror strike, the Karnataka police claim to
have got the name of the shooter, Abu Hamza, a prime LeT operative. DGP
K R Srinivasan announced this after Sabauddin, one of the six ultras held
in UP on Sunday, confessed to this. .....
by Nitin Sethi
The 'dead ships' coming to India under flags of convenience are not only
an environmental threat but also pose a threat to India's maritime security.
A confidential report of the naval intelligence has pointed out that the
D-gang is involved in most of the deals going around in the shipbreaking
business. .....
by The Time of India
Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi, known for his atheist ideology, will visit
a Hindu temple in Vellore, 140 km from here, next week. .....
by Suchandana Gupta
Within a month of issuing an ultimatum to the UPA government of withdrawing
the BSP's support to the Centre, UP chief minister Mayawati on Sunday
repeated her threat-this time on grounds that Delhi is planning to reopen
the Taj Corridor case against her. She had earlier said the BSP could
withdraw support to the UPA anytime after January 15, which was her birthday.
.....
by Mateen Hafeez
Even as senior officials say police stations have been told to register
FIRs immediately, a pregnant woman had to wait for a month to lodge a
dowry case against her husband, who had earlier sent her a talaq notice.
.....
by The Time of India
In a dramatic breakthrough in investigations into the terror attack on
the CRPF camp in Rampur on January 1, the UP special task force (STF)
on Sunday arrested six alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, three
of whom were bound for Mumbai on Sunday morning to carry out strikes on
key installations in India's financial capital. .....
by Menaka Rao
A Sewri fast-track court on Thursday framed charges against the Maulana
Ghulam Yahya, the Imam of Haj house masjid on the charge of harbouring
three alleged Kashmiri militants in 2006. The Imam, however, denied all
charges. .....
by The Times of India
With just eight days left for the expiry of her visa, a worried Taslima
Nasreen hoped that India will not "turn its back'' on her and grant
extension for her to stay on. .....
by M.G. Radhakrishnan
The Left, that squirms every time its opponents mention the public sector,
finds itself in an unenviable situation over the sale of PSU land to Mumbai-based
Blue Star Realtors, promoted by Housing Development and Infrastructure
Ltd, for building a Rs 4,000 crore Cyber City in Kochi. .....
by Saurabh Shukla
With the Indo-Pakistan peace process grinding to a halt following political
instability in Pakistan, the incremental gains of the composite dialogue
process, to discuss crossborder terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir and other
issues, seem to be lost and the trust deficit is widening with Pakistan's
vitriolic anti-India propaganda on the rise. .....
by Subhash Mishra
Senior Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh are a worried lot. They say the
people in the state may have brought BSP's Mayawati back in power with
an absolute majority but there is a lot which the Opposition can use to
its advantage. .....
by Ramesh Vinayak
Against the backdrop of a smoke-billowing chimney of a brick kiln and
under a tin-roofed shed stuffed with rows of freshly-molded bricks, a
class is in session. .....
by KA Shaji
Two senior ministers of the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala,
Elamarom Kareem of the CPM and KP Rajendran of the CPI, have come under
the scanner for their alleged role in the land scam involving property
of the public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT). The land at Kalamassery
near Kochi had been given to HMT years ago by the state government for
setting up manufacturing units. .....
by Stephen David
The R.K. Pachauris and Al Gores of the world can rejoice. The planet is
neither going into meltdown nor is it going to be buried in plastic. Not
till there are villages like Ira around. This village of 1,300 families
in Bantwal taluk of Mangalore has been inspired by a revolutionary self-help
movement called Apna Desh to take on leadership role and to keep it free
of plastic waste. .....
by Sheela Reddy
At 2.30 am on January 27, alone in the AIIMS coronary care unit, her wrists
strapped to tubes of running saline and life-saving medicines, watching
with the expert eye of a former medico as the monitor showed her ECG,
pulse and blood pressure dance and soar alarmingly, Taslima Nasreen had
only one coherent thought. "If I survive this night," she told
herself as she felt her body going numb and feather-light, "I will
talk to my friend, Pranab Mukherjee...perhaps he'll see how this tension
is killing me and send me back home to Calcutta." .....
by Avinash Dharmadhikari
Umpires hijacked the Sydney cricket match. The arrogant and threatening
players of Australia corroborated that plan and its execution. Moreover,
they kidnapped the presence of Harbhajan Singh who was consistently 'capturing'
the wicket of Ricky Ponting. The religious Cricket lovers spread across
India were bound to be dreadfully furious at this. .....
by G. Parthasarathy
Dr Manmohan Singh astonished the country after a meeting with President
Musharraf in Havana in September 2006, when he announced that like India,
Pakistan was also a "victim" of terrorism. He then proceeded
to tell his baffled countrymen and the world at large that the terrorist
violence in India was not being perpetrated by the ISI, but by "autonomous
jihadi groups". .....
by Organiser
After facing border disputes with China and Pakistan India may now face
similar problem from Nepal where the Maoists have recently rejoined the
Girija Prasad Koirala government. Around 400 Maoists from Nepal recently
crossed over the porous Indo-Nepal border touching Uttarakhand to lay
claim on some of the portions falling in the "No man's land".
.....
by Kushtia
Speakers at a national convention yesterday urged the Harijan community
to be united and raise their voice for their constitutional rights, which
they are denied in the society for a long time. .....
by Rediff.com
Former deputy mayor of Belgaum city and nine medical were detained for
alleged links with outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)
and suspected militant Mohammed Asif who is in police custody. .....
by Allard
Rabiah Hutchinson, the Mudgee-born grandmother accused of being the "grand
dame" of extremist jihadis in Australia, says she has limited sympathy
for the victims of the Bali bombings because those holidaying on the Indonesian
island engaged in pedophilia and drug taking. .....
by The Times of India
Suspected terrorist Riyazuddin Nasir alias Mohammed Ghouse wanted to visit
the United States and spread terror there, he has told interrogators.
.....
by Aaron Hanscom
Just when suicide attacks stopped shocking the world came the news thatBaghdad
bombings were committed by two Down syndrome women wired toexplode. Aaron
Hanscom wonders if there could be any act more depravedthan turning a
mentally disabled person into a human bomb. The mosthorrific part: it's
becoming a trend. .....
by Khaleej Times
Six hundred would-be suicide bombers have been deployed to Pakistan's
southern port city of Karachi to target security forces, a media report
said on Monday. .....
by M.V. Kamath
Irrespective of the end results of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's
visit to Beijing, the intriguing question remains: can we trust China?
Are we being take for another ride? According to a paper prepared by the
American CIA in mid-1963 recently released, the Chinese duped Jawaharlal
Nehru by its guile over the Sino-Indian border row that led to a war in
1962. Nehru turned out to be naïve leader, easily taken in by Chinese
pretensions of friendship. .....
by Jason Groves
An "overwhelming majority" of Europeans believe immigration
from Islamic countries is a threat to their traditional way of life, a
survey revealed last night. .....
by The Statesman
Minorities in the state will have a fifty per cent reservation in the
296 flats made by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA),
that are coming up in the Baishnabghata-Patuli area. The state minister
for urban development and municipal affairs Mr Ashok Bhattacharya in this
regard today made an announcement. .....
by Nava Thakuria
The land of armed movements, set on fire by the anti-New Delhi militias,
has woken up to a new threat from religious fundamentalists fuelled by
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to make Northeast India a
volatile region in the continent. .....
by The Pioneer
Kerala's Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan appears to be unfazed by
the real extent of the threat posed by Hizb-ul Mujahideen operatives in
the State. Or else he would not have suggested that extremists are travelling
to God's Own Country for rest and recreation. The Minister would do well
to reconsider his views and accept the ground reality in Kerala, with
its Islamist organisations like NDF and PDP, that affords ISI-trained
terror operatives from Jammu & Kashmir to park themselves without
being detected. .....
by Diana West
The year is 1942. The place, the Pentagon. A Berlin-born aide to the U.S.
deputy secretary of defense has learned that a military intelligence officer
has not only read Hitler's Mein Kampf, but is lecturing senior officers
about Hitler's heretofore unexamined goals of world domination. .....
by Rashneek Kher
Iconoclasm and religious persecution of faiths alien to the king's faith
has been a norm said one of my Marxist friends. He didn't stop there.
He went on to name various Hindu, Naga, Buddhist & Huna kings [Kalhana's
Rajatarangi (The River of Kings)] in the Pre-Islamic period who had resorted
to iconoclasm and religious persecution of faiths other than theirs. .....
by Stephen Knapp
As of late, in the year 2007, the idea of whether Lord Rama exists or
not has been called into question, by no less than some of the politicians
in India. So it is a wonder how such persons can be accepted as leaders
of the people of India who should be concerned with preserving and protecting
the culture of the country. .....
by The Pioneer
Demanding tough measures to regulate activities of foreign funded NGOs
operating in riot-hit Kandhamal district, VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati
on Saturday called for an open debate on conversion, terming it as the
'root cause' of unrest in the tribal dominated areas. .....
by Prafull Goradia
In the course of the Moplah riot of 1921 anything was practised from arson
to conversion to pregnant women being cut into pieces with unborn babies
protruding from the mothers' corpses. Smt Annie Besant, the Irish lady,
and the 1913 president of the Congress, after her visit to Malabar, exhorted
Gandhiji to see for himself the ghastly horrors. .....
by Swami Dayananda Saraswathi
"There are Christian theologians who feel the conversion of others
is not any more the business of the Church." This is indeed an encouraging
statement from Dr Hans Ucko, Head of the Committee on Inter-religious
Dialogue and Cooperation of the World Council of Churches, a powerful
body that has over 350 member churches. .....
by Ashok B Sharma
Nanotechnology might have become the buzzword today but few are aware
that it was in use in ancient times for producing a number of products.
Of late, scientists have not only rediscovered it, they have also reinvented
it to keep in pace with changing times, claims American chemist and Nobel
Laureate, Robert Floyd Curl Jr of Rice University. .....
by T R Jawahar
'Convert me if you can', challenged Mahatma Gandhi, when confronted by
a missionary who was quite incensed by the great man's strident opposition
to conversions. And missionaries being what they are, they must have certainly
tried. But we all know that Mohandas Gandhi did not become Malcolm Gandhi.
.....
by Irish Sun
The chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI),
his political aides and three Pakistani nationals have been accused of
killing 345 people in April 1971, when resistance to the Pakistan Army's
crackdown in the then East Pakistan was building up. .....
by S Rajagopalan
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was denied a US visa three years
ago, will have a 'live' session with his vast constituency of Indian American
supporters packing a New Jersey venue on February 1. .....
by www.geocities.com/RainForest
Although best known today as "discoverer" of lands that had
been discovered by Native Americans thousands of years before, it was
already Columbus who introduced all those measures generally attributed
to later conquistadors; including the enslavement of Indians and hunting
them down with large packs of dogs. .....
by Alan Caruba
Since so few of us have any contact with Muslims, it behooves us to try
to gain an insight into the minds of those living in the West. Common
to the culture of the Middle East is the abject refusal to take any responsibility
for anything done in the name of Islam. .....
by V Krithiga
A long standing factional rivalry in the Tirunelveli diocese of Church
of South India came to a head on Tuesday when Bishop Rev S Jayapaul David
was attacked by a group at Cathedral Church in Palayamkottai. .....
by David Orr
The spat between the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968 became
an instant pop legend as perhaps the most bitter bust-up in the era of
Free Love. .....
by R. Balashankar
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has shown a way. He took urbanisation
to villages and not vice versa. By taking irrigation, electricity, better
roads and connectivity Modi changed the village landscape. Urbanised it.
.....
by Rediff.com
Former Pakistani Generals, including ex-army chief Mirza Aslam Beg, have
criticised President Pervez Musharraf's handling of the Kashmir problem
and said there could be no long-term friendship with India unless the
issue is resolved. .....
by Prafull Goradia
The assassination of Banazir Bhutto is yet another episode in the civil
war between the comprehensive Islamists and the civil Muslims in Pakistan.
.....
by Suman Guha Mozumder
It would seem Sanskrit has become the flavor of the month in some parts
of the United States. Last week, a two-day Sanskrit seminar, the first
of its kind in Nevada, concluded in Reno with chanting of Sanskrit shlokas
(verses) by Andrea Forman, lead singer of Shanti Shanti, the only Sanskrit
rock band in the world. .....
by William Porter
I spent Sunday morning watching 90 yoga devotees bending themselves into
shapes so feline that I pulled three muscles and jammed a knee just watching.
.....
by Benoy K. Behl
The rock-cut caves of India are one of the most magnificent traditions
in art. In ancient times, palaces of kings and buildings made in the service
of ephemeral personalities were made of perishable materials such as wood.
That which was made for the Eternal within us, to aid us on our journey
towards self-realisation, was carved out of the heart of the mountain.
.....
by The Pioneer
Kerala's Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan appears to be unfazed by
the real extent of the threat posed by Hizb-ul Mujahideen operatives in
the State. Or else he would not have suggested that extremists are travelling
to God's Own Country for rest and recreation. The Minister would do well
to reconsider his views and accept the ground reality in Kerala, with
its Islamist organisations like NDF and PDP that affords ISI-trained terror
operatives from Jammu & Kashmir to park themselves without being detected.
.....
by Indulata Das
Every profession has certain responsibilities. In the case of mass media,
these are multiplied, because they shoulder the responsibility of unfolding
the truth. Hence their version has to be impartial, and unbiased. The
truth should also be seen from the angle of one's own country and culture,
and not from that of an alien. .....
by The Telegraph
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati has asked the Prime Minister to
ban a text recommended for Delhi University history students that allegedly
contains objectionable references to characters in the Ramayan. .....
by Mahesh Jethmalani
Modi's stunning success in the recent elections has left the entire secular
establishment - read politicians, the media and activists - distraught.
While a magnanimous minority of Modi's detractors attributes his success
to his charismatic leadership and the success of the bijli, sadak, paani
programme, the majority believes that it is the result of acute communal
polarisation by Modi within the state. .....
by Irshad Manji
In the days after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, it will be tempting
to reach two hasty conclusions: that she was Pakistan's last great hope
and that her geo-politically crucial country has revealed itself to be
inherently hopeless. .....
by Kaktuzkid
Accuse the person of lying and ignorance. Tell him/her to read "authentic"
Muslim websites and texts. Say that critics of Islam are "so-called"
experts. Say that once a person "learns" about the "real"
Islam, he/she will understand how beautiful and peaceful it is. .....
by NewKerala.com
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Tamil Nadu was found
hacked to death here, leading to tension in this volatile area with party
workers raising slogans against minorities at his funeral Tuesday. .....
by Free Press Journal
Attacking the Centre's reported move to amend the Constitution to equate
the Election Commissioners with the CEC, the BJP on Sunday asked the Left
parties to clarify whether or not they would "blindly support the
constitutionally inappropriate action". .....
by The Hindu
Even as the 10-day 'Thai Poosam' festival was over with float festival
(Theppa Ther) on Friday, it would informally come to an end only after
the visit of a large number pilgrims from Edapadi and nearby villages
in Salem district to the hill temple. .....
by Nava Thakuria
Notwithstanding a regular ban on celebration of India's Independence and
Republic Days by outlawed militant outfits as a mark of their protest
against New Delhi for years, country's trouble torn northeastern area
observed it with utmost conviction. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
Sixty years after the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a 'mahatma'
to many but really a cunning politician who had mastered the art of manipulating
the Indian National Congress and offering simplistic solutions to the
most complex problems, apart from coercing others to toe his line by abandoning
food, the story of his murder continues to elicit both curiosity and passion.
.....
by Baradan Kuppusamy
A new political force - right wing Hindu activism - has strongly emerged
in multi-ethnic Malaysia, adding volatility in an election year to the
country's already religiously charged political arena dominated by the
majority Malay Muslims. Across the country, ethnic Indians, who make up
about 8% of the country's 26 million people, are mobilizing to protest
against alleged socio-economic neglect and discrimination in employment,
education and business at the hands of the ethnic Malay majority. .....
by Mike Corder
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to
transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town
of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old. .....
by Sheela Bhatt
Director General of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, Shireen
M Mazari blasted critics who feel that Pakistan's nuclear weapons may
fall into the hands of terrorists. .....
by Organiser
After the Navy chief, the Director-General of Coast Guards has expressed
serious reservation on the viability of the controversial Sethusamudram
project. The Ram Sethu Raksha Samiti had in the last one year, agitating
for the protection of the ancient most monument of Hindu faith, raised
well-documented extensive logistical objections on the project. It was
proved that the project is a navigational disaster, that it is unviable
and an ecological outrage. .....
by Bishwadeep Ghosh
For the first time, Islamists picked up in Uttar Pradesh have been successfully
prosecuted in a fast track court. Five fanatics, including one from West
Bengal, who had conspired to carry out bombings in Lucknow, have been
sentenced to life imprisonment for waging war against the state .....
by Shaik Ahmed Ali
Despite ongoing legal battles, Andhra Pradesh has started implementing
4 per cent quota for Muslims in government jobs. The state government,
on Saturday, handed letters to 10 Muslim candidates appointing them as
engineers in the Energy Department. .....
by Free Press Journal
The reported move to amend the law only to protect the controversial Election
Commissioner Navin Chawla is malafide. It must be nipped in the bud. The
Prime Minister had earlier abdicated his responsibility when he allowed
the Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to enact a law aimed only at the
dismissal of Dr. P. Venugopal, the widely-respected Director of the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences. .....
by PT Bopanna
The arrest of a Pakistan-trained suspected hard-core terrorist recently
by Karnataka Police at Davanagere has brought to light the fact that the
terrorist menace has spread its tentacles to the backward northern Karnataka
region. .....
by The Pioneer
The BJP has slammed the reported move by the UPA Government to amend the
Constitution to strip the Chief Election Commissioner of power to recommend
the removal of other commission members, saying it was a politically motivated
exercise to preempt action against Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.
.....
by Gouri Satya
A distance of just 32-km, from Toranagallu to Hampi, takes an hour and
a half. This is testimony enough to the infrastructure in this part of
the country. .....
by V.Venkatesan
Everyone knows how the Union of India had to withdraw its own affidavit
in the Sethusamudram case in the Supreme Court, as the Government felt
embarrassed by Paragraph 20 of the affidavit, which averred that there
is no scientific basis to the claim that the Adam's Bridge was a man-made
structure, and that the epic Ramayan, which the petitioner cited in support
of his claim, was just a mythology. .....
by Adrian Morgan
In April last year, I wrote about the totalitarian aspects of Malaysia's
society. Since that time, the situations described then have been repeated
and appear to have worsened. General elections were officially due to
take place in 2009, but last month, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
suggested he would be bringing these elections forward. The elections
may take place as early as March this year. .....
by Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
The film industry in Kolkata - better known as Tollywood as all its studios
are located in a place called Tollygunj - is gradually falling prey to
the menace of extortion, which has become a common problem for Bollywood
personalities. .....
by Bhavna Vij-Aurora
The home ministry has asked all security establishments to watch out for
possible infiltration of their ranks by terrorists or their sympathisers.
.....
by The Pioneer
Islamist terror, spreading its tentacles steadily across India, had crossed
the Vindhyas some years ago. Now it seems deeply entrenched in Karnataka.
It is disquieting but not surprising that a jihadi terrorist training
camp has been detected right under the nose of the authorities, and for
the first time, in southern India. .....
by The Hindustan Times
A suspected militant arrested last month has told police that he was to
carry out bomb blasts in 11 places in Karnataka and Goa, including IT
campuses and the ISKCON temple, but could not do so as RDX from Pakistan
failed to reach him. .....
by Ranjit Singh Ghuman
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing the chief ministers' meeting
on internal security in New Delhi on December 20, 2007, underlined that
left-wing extremism (Naxalism) is the single biggest challenge to the
Indian state. He emphasised that "we need to cripple the hold of
the Naxalite forces with all the means at our command" and urged
the chief ministers that precise and actionable intelligence was the key
to fight the Naxals. .....
by S.Gurumurthy
"Narendra Modi's stunning victory will change Indian politics decisively,
perhaps dramatically, possibly desperately." "In Modi, the BJP
has discovered" that "it can win a majority on its own".
"Of course, Advani will continue as its prime ministerial candidate,
but Modi is the future." .....
by Soma Mitra
'Peace' may have returned to Nandigram but for the women whose lives
are shattered by the land clashes, the fight for justice has just begun.
.....
by The Indian Express
The father of a Hyderabadi girl whose love story involving Pakistani cricket
captain Shoaib Malik went sour contested his claim that the couple did
not enter into a 'nikah' and pressed the player to give a "formal
divorce." .....
by K. Srinivas Reddy
Islamic fundamentalists planned serial blasts on the Goa beaches, interrogation
of Hyderabad resident Raziuddin Nasir has revealed. .....
by The Pioneer
Adding fuel to the Ram Setu controversy, Director-General of Indian Coast
Guard has cautioned that the Sethusamudram project poses a national security
hazard and also conveyed his concern over the project to the Government.
.....
by Satarupa Bhattacharjya
Every Wednesday evening C.M. Ganga Ram rides his bicycle laden with snacks
from his home in west Delhi to the India Today office at the city centre.
Selling packets of small eats to staffers fetches him Rs 200 on a good
day. At 73, Ganga Ram is your anonymous vendor, but a common man with
an uncommon past. .....
by Stephen David
Illegal sand quarrying, bogus ration cards or inter-caste clashes, nine
female civil servants in the state brave all odds to weed out corruption
and bring reforms in the district of Mandya .....
by M V Kamath
The truth about Sethu Samudram Writing in Frontline (15 October), one
Mr D Ramachandran reveals some extremely important facts that merit attention.
In the first place, he states that the Ram Sethu 'is a discontinuous chain
of sandbars dotting a 30 km stretch in the East-West direction between
the Palk Day and the Gulf of Mannar'. .....
by Ramesh N Rao
Mahatma Gandhi sired four sons, and his family history has become as rich
and complex as any fable in Hindu mythology and may be more colourful
and mixed than any post-modernist parable. .....
by Sri Nandanandana Das
As of late, in the year 2007, the idea of whether Lord Rama exists or
not has been called into question, by no less than some of the politicians
in India. So it is a wonder how such persons can be accepted as leaders
of the people of India who should be concerned with preserving and protecting
the culture of the country. .....
by The Hindu
In a move that could put the controversial Sethusamudram project in cold
storage, Culture Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday said the ASI could not
give a definite view on the project without undertaking some kind of survey.
.....
by Vicky Nanjappa
Even as police teams from various states interrogate Mohammed Raziuddin
Nasir, the man arrested in Karnataka for his alleged terror links, investigating
agencies have stumbled upon startling information about his terror plans
and his closeness to other terrorists. .....
by Thomas Fuller
The customers of Malaysian Indian Casket, a small shop on the outskirts
of this modern and cosmopolitan city, come in all different sizes: standard
coffins clutter the entrance, child-size boxes are stacked high on the
shelves and extra-large models, those for the tallest of the deceased,
are stored in the back. .....
by Financial Express
Some devotees had been fasting for weeks and shaved their heads. The most
zealous pierced their cheeks with skewers or attached large wooden icons
to their bodies with dozens of flesh-piercing hooks. On January 23rd tens
of thousands of ethnic-Indian Malaysians gathered at the Batu Caves temple
outside Kuala Lumpur to celebrate Thaipusam, one of Hinduism's biggest
festivals. In past years more than a million have turned out. .....
by Soma Mitra
'Peace' may have returned to Nandigram but for the women whose lives
are shattered by the land clashes, the fight for justice has just begun.
.....
by Sandhya Jain
The de-legitimisation of the word 'dalit' (which means "broken, crushed")
is a blow to the West-funded evangelical industry which has long promoted
the term to forge separatism amongst the Scheduled Castes. The 250 million
Scheduled Castes are a principal target of the conversion industry that
has abused the caste system for discrimination against the SCs and promised
them equality and economic enhancement. .....
by The Hindu
Bharatiya Janata Party's senior leader L. K. Advani on Thursday sought
an extension of the visa of exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.
He also demanded that she be allowed to lead a normal life in West Bengal.
.....