by Shaju Philip
Raising questions over the CPI(M)'s claim that its new passport to the
Muslim vote bank in Kerala, Abdul Nassar Madhani, shunned extremism after
the Coimbatore blast case, a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative
has told the Karnataka Police that he was in touch with the People's Democratic
Party chief even after Madhani's release from jail. .....
by Ashwani Sharma
On his return home to this Himachal village from Mumbai where he was part
of the NSG team deployed at Nariman House, Chauhan stayed for six days
and yet he rarely talked about what happened those 60 hours fighting the
Lashkar-e-Toiba. .....
by Ravikiran Deshmukh
Sharad Pawar is the best man never to have led India. Now, in his last
pitch for the post of the Prime Minister, the Nationalist Congress Party
chief has turned to allies he never relied on before: The gods. On March
12, the 69-year-old political veteran visited his village Nandwal in Satara,
where he prayed to the village goddess at the Mhatoba-Jogubai temple -
an act that's most interesting, considering that he is known for his agnostic
views. .....
by Swqpan Dasgupta
There is often a striking mismatch between how the media paints an event
and how the actors in the drama perceive it. The appointment of Mohan
Bhagwat as the new Sarsanghachalak of the RSS was viewed by many through
the prism of factional alignments in the BJP. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
The Congress clearly treats Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's sentiments
with utter contempt. Worse, it makes no effort to keep this a secret.
So much for Ms Sonia Gandhi praising him sky high this past week. Why
else would the Congress have gone and inked an electoral pact with Ittehad-e-Millat
Council in Uttar Pradesh? .....
by Usha Manohar
As the Lok Sabha poll campaign gathers steam in the Left-ruled Kerala,
a top Church official has described the CPI-M as a 'threat' to democracy
and warned that India will suffer the same fate as China under Mao Zedong.
.....
by Marathi Daily 'Pudhari'
Since the time from when there has been a storm raised over the speech
of Varun Gandhi, BJP candidate from Pilbit constituency, we have been
firmly stating that there is no substance. But like the adage that 'shallow
water makes more noise,' media did not have this outlook at all. We are
surprised that this is not paid attention by the anti-BJP parties also.
.....
by NewKerala.com
Coming to the rescue of a runaway couple from Jammu and Kashmir, who married
outside their religion, a Delhi court Friday restricted the police and
family members from visiting without prior notice the hostel premises
where the couple was staying. .....
by Tarun Vijay
Those who opposed the Ayodhya temple movement, wore silence over the plight
of Kashmiri Hindus, damaged the Ram Sethu and denied Lord Rama ever existed,
denied the violence at the Godhra railway station, and embraced the butchers
of 1984, are collectively gunning at Varun Gandhi's political life. .....
by Yahoo News
Not all marriages are made in heaven. Some are solemnised at the point
of a gun - as many women and teenaged girls in Jammu and Kashmir will
tell you. .....
by The Pioneer
Congress might have termed Varun Gandhi's inflammatory speeches in Pilibhit
as violent and communal, but on Thursday the party saw nothing wrong in
aligning with a radical Muslim outfit, Ittehad-e-Millat Council in Uttar
Pradesh whose president had announced a reward of Rs 25 crore on former
US President George Bush's head. .....
by Yahoo News
The Bharatiya Janata Party's 'Friends of BJP' campaign launched in the
capital Thursday evening saw an enthusiastic crowd voice support for the
party ahead of the elections. .....
by Rajendra Aklekar
In The first joint public meeting held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and Shiv Sena on Friday, both the parties reaffirmed their coalition vows
saying they were natural allies and the need of breaking the alliance
or scouting for other partners did not arise. .....
by Manoj C G & Shaju Philip
On A day when CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan shared a dais with
Abdul Nasser Madani at an election meeting in Ponnani and hailed his "secular"
credentials, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan made it clear in Delhi
that his party considers the PDP a communal outfit. .....
by A Surya Prakash
Such is the obsession of the Congress Party with three members of the
Nehru-Gandhi family that even the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi
has been virtually forgotten. The Congress Party's contempt for Mahatma
Gandhi is best explained by the fact that just one central scheme - the
Mahatma Gandhi Backward Region Development Fund - has been named after
him. .....
by The Times of India
Hinting that language skills will soon become a must for getting citizenship,
Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney on Friday said immigrants should
either learn English or French, or face denial of citizenship. .....
by The Pioneer
Unleashing scathing criticism against the opaque and unethical political
deals of the CPI(M) with communal parties for electoral advantages, State
Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said here on Monday that the Marxist
alliance with Madani would endanger the social fabric of Kerala. .....
by DR C I Issac
The appeasement of minorities at the expense of the majority, the Hindus,
has covered another milestone in the history of Kerala's political evolution.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF)'s Government of Kerala decision to give
Rs. 4,000 per month as pension to the madrasa teachers (Ustads) is another
chocolate to the jehadi forces of Kerala. .....
by Thomas Landen
All over Europe Islamic banks are establishing branches, Western banks
are offering Sharia-compliant financial services, and European governments
are trying to outcompete each other in welcoming them. Proponents of banking
along the lines of Sharia (Islamic law) claim that the Islamic banking
system is "more ethical" than the West's capitalist system.
.....
by Pratap Chatterjee
Want a billion dollars in development aid? If you happen to live in Afghanistan,
the two quickest ways to attract attention and so aid from the U.S. authorities
are: Taliban attacks or a flourishing opium trade. For those with neither,
the future could be bleak. .....
by Rediff.com
Immediately after the Bhartiya Janata Party made it known that it would
not be dictated by the Election Commission's recommendation to drop him
as its Pilibhit candidate, Varun Gandhi shot out a letter to EC protesting
its order against him, without even giving him a hearing. .....
by Ishfaq Naseem
A report by the Jammu and Kashmir government's Revenue Department has
revealed that as many as 170 temples were damaged in the 19 years of militancy
in the Valley. However, the Government has begun repairs on 90 temples
and incurred an expenditure of Rs 33 lakh. .....
by IBNLive.com
The ascendance of Mohanji Bhagwat to the highest position of sar-sanghchalak
(captain or chief executive) of the RSS, is an event, noteworthy for multiple
reasons. After Guruji Golwalkar, Bhagwat is the youngest to occupy this
position. With his appointment, after a gap of about 14 years, once again,
a Maharashtrian is now heading the organisation. .....
by Web Newswire
Varun Gandhi is being made to gulp venom over his speech against alleged
minority community. However, a careful analysis of his speech reveals
nothing that is overtly communal or anti-Muslim. .....
by The Times of India
A lawyer in Bihar has gone to court against Tata group chairman Ratan
Tata for launching the Nano car ahead of the elections, alleging that
the launch would "help" Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
who provided land to the Tatas after the car project was shifted out of
West Bengal. .....
by Free Press Journal
A defiant BJP on Monday rejected the Election Commission's advice to it
not to nominate Varun Gandhi as candidate in the Lok Sabha elections and
threw its full weight behind his candidature in Pilibhit. The young member
of the Gandhi family also came out with a sharp rejoinder, accusing the
EC of acting in "haste" and going beyond its "jurisdiction",
"pressurised by political considerations". .....
by The Pioneer
BJP on Tuesday slammed the Election Commission for not taking any action
against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for violating the model
code of conduct and alleged that the poll panel was being "partisan"
in targeting Varun Gandhi, while letting off others. .....
by Free Press Journal
The Indian Premier League was a grudge match between the UPA Government
and the Board for Control of Cricket in India. The UPA Government lost.
The sporting spirit was allowed to be marred by big egos, especially that
of Home Minister P Chidambaram. And the number one victim was the Indian
fan of the only mass sport the country has known in recent decades. .....
by Rick Leventhal
If you didn't know where to look, you'd probably never find Islamberg,
a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150
miles northwest of New York City. .....
by Girja Shankar Kaura
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has turned down the appeal of
former MP Kuldip Nayar for making the analysis of the 1962 India-China
war, brought out in the Henderson Brooks report, public. .....
by Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
On September 1, 2004, terrorists stormed a school in Beslan, Russia, and
perpetrated one of the most heinous terror attacks in history. Though
many people may have heard of this attack, it is very likely that most
do not know what really happened there. The reality is so dark that few
dare speak of what went on. .....
by David J. Rusin
Muslims have fought - both figuratively and literally - over the "true"
Islam ever since a succession dispute erupted after the death of Mohammed.
This divide has followed Muslims to the Western world, where it constitutes
a neglected facet of radical Islam in countries struggling to assimilate
their new arrivals. .....
by The Times of India
South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg
this week, saying Monday it did not want to endanger the government's
relationship with China. The move prompted sharp criticism from the Nobel
Committee, among others. .....
by Sandhya Jain
As BJP president Rajnath Singh welcomed former Union Minister Dilip Ray
and former Nationalist Congress Party leader Bijoy Mahapatra into the
party yesterday, close on the heels of the entry of BJD Lok Sabha MP Archana
Nayak (21 March 2009), Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik suddenly lost his
aura of invincibility. .....
by B.Raman
As I read the late night communication of the Election Commission to Varun
Gandhi, son of Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi and grandson of Indira Gandhi,
and his reply to the Election Commission, I was reminded of the exchange
of midnight missives between his illustrious grandmother and the so-called
Syndicate in the Congress before the Presidential elections in the late
1960s in which V.V.Giri, supported by her, was elected and Sanjiva Reddy,
supported by the Syndicate, was defeated. .....
by Sindh Today
Agra, March 17 (IANS) In the green hinterland of Islamic Bangladesh, the
Ramayana is the most popular performing art form, says a leading playwright
of the country. .....
by VR Jayaraj
The poll alliance forged by the official leadership of the Kerala CPI(M)
with the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madani has worsened the divisionism in the
Marxist party and also caused deep fissures in the party-led ruling LDF.
.....
by Prafull Goradia
Mr Varun Gandhi's reported speech at Pilibhit is a long due articulation
of how many Hindus feel about their being the objects of prejudice. This
discrimination against them began with the Khilafat movement, launched
under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in 1919. He declared that the saving
of the Caliph or the Sultan of Turkey on his throne was equivalent to
India winning swaraj. .....
by The Pioneer
A defiant Varun Gandhi today hit back at the Election Commission for asking
BJP not to nominate him for the Lok Sabha polls, and accused the panel
of taking "hasty" and "harsh" action "pressurised
by political considerations". .....
by B Sreejan
The revelations by some of the key witnesses against Abdul Nasar Madhani
in the case against 22 people for harbouring and helping Lashkar terrorists
will be a major headache for the CPM which is set to parade Madhani's
PDP as an illegitimate LDF partner in the coming Lok Sabha polls. .....
by VR Jayaraj
Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday completed the baptism
of Islamist Abdul Nasser Madani and his PDP into the Left by sharing the
dais of an LDF election convention in the Muslim-majority Ponnani Lok
Sabha constituency in Malappuram district. .....
by The Pioneer
Maintaining that Varun Gandhi is still its candidate, BJP today alleged
that Chief Election Commissioner-designate Navin Chawla's "proximity"
to Congress could be the reason behind the poll body's decision on its
Pilibhit Lok Sabha nominee. .....
by Jaya Menon
A chance visit to a remote Pudukkottai hamlet to assess the damage caused
by illegal granite quarrying on an ancient protected' archaeological site
helped an Archaeological Survey of India team uncover what could be evidence
of the first artistic expression of prehistoric man in this region. .....
by Dayanand Kukkaje
In connection with indulging in rampage in a banana plantation belonging
to Babbukatte Nityadhar Church and trying to disrupt peace in the region,
Ullal policemen arrested seven persons on Wednesday March 18. .....
by VR Jayaraj
Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan gave a shock to the CPI(M) leadership
on Wednesday by stating that the probe against PDP chief Abdul Nasser
Madani would continue despite the refusal of Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan,
a Politburo member, to carry out any such investigation. .....
by Abraham Thomas
In a move coinciding with the souring of relations between Amar Singh
and the Congress, the Income Tax Department has turned on the heat on
actor and Singh's close friend Amitabh Bachchan in an income tax waiver
case. .....
by Francois Gautier
The curse of Hindus has always been disunity and betraying each other
to the enemy. Today we see this trend again in the BJP where sometimes
the highest party office-bearers can't even say hello to each other. As
far as one can remember, the BJP had three pillars: Former Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr LK Advani and Mr Murli Manohar Joshi. .....
by The Pioneer
The Election Commission of India clearly transgressed its jurisdiction
and went well beyond its constitutionally mandated remit while asking
the BJP not to field Mr Varun Gandhi as its candidate for the Lok Sabha
election. Given this simple fact, it is not surprising that the BJP should
have rejected the Election Commission's not-so-innocent 'suggestion';
not to have done so would have been disastrous for the party, demoralising
for its cadre and set a dangerous precedent for curtailing the independence
of political parties. .....
by Akhilesh Suman
The game is out. The Samajwadi Party is all set to jump into fray in Bihar
as a "vote katva" party to sabotage the Lok Janshakti Party's
prospects. In the backdrop of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's new-found friendship
with his UP counterpart Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP move is bound upset
Paswan's calculations. .....
by The Pioneer
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami on Tuesday said it was for the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to accept or reject its advisory on withdrawing
Varun Gandhi as its candidate in upcoming Lok Sabha elections in light
of his alleged anti-minority speech early this month. .....
by A Surya Prakash
This trend is even more apparent in States which have vied with each other
to name programmes and schemes after these three members of the Nehru-Gandhi
family whenever the Congress Party was in power. .....
by A Surya Prakash
In a planned and systematic effort to gain unfair advantage over other
political parties, the Congress party has named all major Government programmes,
projects and institutions in the country after three members of the Nehru-Gandhi
family - Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru - who are its
icons, and disturbed the level playing field in the electoral arena. .....
by Nidhi Sharma
Rice and wheat at Rs 3 a kg for the poor, one-third reservation for women
in Government jobs, coaching fee for all entrance exams for SC/ST students,
a voluntary youth brigade, reservation for economically weaker sections
of society and Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister - this and more ambitious
promises were made by the Congress on Tuesday as it unveiled its election
manifesto for 2009 Lok Sabha elections and officially made a second bid
to return to power. .....
by Maxwell Pereira
In Andhra Pradesh where Naxal activities and encounter deaths are rampant,
a three-judge bench of the local high court clarified on July 13, 2007,
that it is not mandatory for the police to register a case of murder when
there is an encounter killing. This it did while disposing of a batch
of writ petitions. .....
by Shaju Philip
Indicating the emergence of a new Left alliance in Kerala, the CPI(M)
on Friday shared dais with the People's Democratic Party of Abdul Nazer
Madani, who is in the thick of Terror charges and alleged links with Indian
Mujahideen's co-founder Sainudheen alias Sattar Bhai. .....
by The Pioneer
In the wake of BJP-BJD split in Orissa, key detractors of Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik have begun to align with the BJP, strengthening the party
even as it braces itself for a direct electoral battle with its former
ally of nine years. .....
by Kumar Uttam
Outraged by the Election Commission's suggestion to drop Varun Gandhi
as candidate from Pilibhit, the BJP insisted on Monday that it would field
him, while the politician son of late Sanjay Gandhi took pot shots at
the Election Commission, saying his 'real court of appeal' lay with the
people. .....
by S R Ramanujan
If the media really believed that Varun Gandhi's speech would cause unrest
among a section of the people, did the repeat telecasts of the speech
make any sense? .....
by The Times of India
Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh candidate Varun Gandhi may have
sparked off a controversy by his allegedly provocative speeches, but the
Election Commission's action against him has been in haste and beyond
jurisdiction, says former election commissioner GVG Krishnamurthy. .....
by Jacob Thomas
One of my earliest experiences remains quite vivid in my mind. My mother
took me on a trip by train to visit her sisters who were at the time still
living in southern Turkey, known in Biblical times as Asia Minor. I was
impressed by the new sights in the big city where my aunts lived; it was
there for example, where I saw my first fire truck! .....
by Dharmaveer.blogspot.com
Muslim invaders and rulers destroyed over 10,000 Hindu temples over the
centuries. Perhaps none was destroyed as many times, and rebuilt as many
times, as Somnath. The destruction of Somnath by Mahmud Ghazni is well
known. Here is a list of the lesser known destructions of Somnath. .....
by Praveen Swami
Not long before an assassin's bomb extinguished his life in 1989, Abdullah
Yusuf Azzam authored his own requiem. "The flowing blood of innocent
martyrs," Azzam wrote in The Signs of Allah, the Most Merciful, in
the Jihad in Afghanistan, "and the scattering of corpses are all
complementary to jihad. All these are the fuel of jihad and water for
its garden." .....
by Yusuf Jameel
The Jammu and Kashmir government's recent decision to set up shrine board
exclusively for administering, managing and regulating the Hindu shrines
and other places of worship in the Valley seems to have failed to impress
the minority community, a vast majority of which fled, their home following
the breakout of separatist violence in 1989-90. .....
by Kartikeya
In a testimony given to the US government's House Homeland Security Committee
on Wednesday, influential US think-tank and research organisation, RAND
Corporation, has said the 26/11 carnage "relied upon crucial domestic
assistance'' though the main perpetrators were of Pakistani origin. .....
by Ananthakrishnan G
Bonhomie between CPM and People's Democratic Party chief Abdul Nasser
Madani, acquitted in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case, in Kerala may not
have come without a price. .....
by Mustafa Plumber
The Indian media on Monday got its first glimpse of Ajmal Kasab, the prized
catch using whom the Indian Government plans to prove Pakistan's involvement
in sponsoring terrorism on its soil, especially the attack on Mumbai in
November 2008. The hearing was also significant for the fact that the
lone surviving Mumbai attacker accepted before Sessions Judge M L Tahilyani
that he was a 'Pakistani national'. .....
by The Times of India
South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg
this week, saying Monday it did not want to endanger the government's
relationship with China. The move prompted sharp criticism from the Nobel
Committee, among others. .....
by Harsh V. Pant
India is realising that it's difficult to be out of the limelight once
you've got used to it. For the eight years of the Bush Administration,
India occupied pride of place in the US' strategic calculus. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
The media-driven furore over what is being described as Mr Varun Gandhi's
'hate speech' deserves to be countered with matching crudity: If he is
'communal', then his critics are biased against Hindus. .....
by Nikhil Patwardhan
Let me tell you the story of a beautiful city state. This city was built
on the banks of a sacred river. So rich and bountiful was the harvest
that was nurtured by the waters of this river that the river itself was
named "Sabarmati" meaning "The provider of nectar".
Along the banks of this river many sacred spots of pilgrimage flourished.
.....
by Andy Dolan, Matt Sandy and Nick
Mcdermott
A headmistress who was hounded out of her job after being falsely accused
of racism was yesterday awarded more than £400,000 in compensation.
.....
by The Pioneer
Rashtriya Swayayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak KS Sudarshan on Saturday
stepped down after nearly nine years at the helm, paving way for general
secretary Mohan Bhagwat to succeed him, RSS sources said here. .....
by Karan Thapar
Q.: Let's start with your response to Pakistan's 30 questions related
to the Mumbai terror strike. According to The Hindu, barring Ajmal Kasab's
confessional statement, Pakistan has been given every primary investigative
document available with the Mumbai police.
A.: That's correct. .....
by VR Jayaraj
Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday completed the baptism
of Islamist Abdul Nasser Madani and his PDP into the Left by sharing the
dais of an LDF election convention in the Muslim-majority Ponnani Lok
Sabha constituency in Malappuram district. .....
by VR Jayaraj
The seat-sharing arrangement has turned into a multi-pronged war in the
CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala as the CPI(M) is striking alliances with organisations
and people of questionable integrity and ignoring the interests of its
time-tested allies. .....
by T N Raghunatha
In a significant change of guard in the 84-year-old Hindu nationalist
organisation, Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday took over as the new Rashtriya
Swayayamsewak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak, after 78-year-old K S Sudarshan
relinquished the post citing health reasons. .....
by The Times of India
Rashtriya Swayayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief KS Sudarshan on Saturday announced
his retirement citing health reasons, paving way for general secretary
Mohan Bhagwat to succeed him. .....
by The Indian Express
Of all its allies, the Congress has a most overt relationship of mutual
suspicion with the NCP. Perhaps the personal history of their leaders
accounts for this appearance, if not the reality. The NCP was born of
Sharad Pawar's rebellion directly against the Congress's president, and
it was carried out at a particularly critical time for the Congress -
in 1999, just after the general elections had been announced, and the
party had perceived a chance at victory. .....
by Dinker Vashisht
Widespread poverty in the villages of largely arid Mahendergarh district
of Haryana ensured that it was the first district to be brought under
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) when it was introduced
in the state in February 2006. In view of an acute water shortage, the
scheme mainly targeted digging of ponds. .....
by Maneesh Chhibber
Orissa looks set for President's Rule if the Centre accepts the recommendation
of Governor M C Bhandare. Sources said that in his confidential report
on the situation in the state after the BJP, which was part of the ruling
alliance headed by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), walked out of the government,
Bhandare has concluded that the Naveen Patnaik Government had not been
able to prove its majority on March 11 when it faced a vote of no-confidence.
.....
by Sanjeev Shivdekar
BJP legislator Devendra Phadanvis created an uproar in the state legislature
on Wednesday by accusing minister of state for home (urban) Arif Naseem
Khan of having links with a close aide of Pakistan-based gangster Dawood
Ibrahim. He also demanded the resignation of Khan, who was inducted into
the ministry recently. .....
by Eklavya Atray
They swear by the Indian soldier in public. But in private, Union ministers,
senior bureaucrats and many others do not hesitate to exploit health facilities
meant exclusively for the Indian soldier. .....
by Nieves San Martin
A Cameroon university center that specializes in the study of Islam is
noting a growing concern over the influence of Wahhabite Muslims who have
arrived in the country from Sudan and Nigeria. .....
by The Pioneer
I regret not being a mufti. Had I been one, I would have issued just one
fatwa that going with the BJP amounts to committing kufr." That was
senior Congress leader Imran Kidwai speaking at an election rally in Chandigarh
on March 15, the BJP told the Election Commission on Thursday. .....
by Dipak Mishra
A day after rebel RJD MP Sadhu Yadav spit venom against "jeeja"
or sister's husband Lalu Prasad, Lalu's wife Rabri Devi came down heavily
on her brother, using words harsher than the ones she ever used for leader
of opposition Sushil Kumar Modi during her tenure as chief minister of
Bihar. .....
by NewKerala.com
Canonical papal control over Church properties in Kerala will be a new
imperialism repugnant to the secular character and sovereign authority
of ' We the People of India', opined Justice (Rtd.) V R Krishna Iyer here
today. .....
by The Pioneer
BJP leader Varun Gandhi, against whom a criminal case has been filed on
the directive of the Election Commission over his anti-Muslim speeches,
today moved the Allahabad High Court seeking quashing of the FIR which,
he claimed, was a result of "a political conspiracy". .....
by Ashok Tuteja
India has not seen any evidence on the grounds suggesting that the Pakistan
army has cut off its links with the Taliban or other terrorist groups.
.....
by R Koul
Muslims in Kashmir are trying to remove all Hindu religious symbols and
rename ancient places. Also hundreds of temples have been either encroached
or destroyed. .....
by The Times of India
A local RSS leader, who was arrested in connection with anti-Christian
riots last year, was gunned down by suspected Maoists in Orissa's communally
sensitive Kandhamal district early Thursday. .....
by B R Haran
As the LTTE kept losing its bastions one by one to the advancing Sri Lankan
Army and as chief Prabhakaran was on the run to save his life while young
Tigers sacrificed their lives, the ethnic (sic) Dravidian politicians
of Tamil Nadu started enacting different dramas of one-upmanship to project
themselves as champions of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. .....
by Rediff.com
As it prepares to participate in two international conferences on Afghanistan,
India on Wednesday cautioned against treating any section of Taliban as
"good", in an apparent message to the United States, which has
expressed readiness to hold talks with "moderate" militia. .....
by Google News
Islamic courts have started work in Pakistan's Swat valley under a controversial
deal that the government hopes will end two years of bitter fighting,
officials said Wednesday. .....
by G Parthasarathy
While India received overwhelming international sympathy and support during
the 26/11 terrorist outrage, the Chinese reaction was one of almost unbridled
glee, while backing Pakistani protestations of innocence. The state-run
China Institute of Contemporary International Relations claimed that the
terrorists who carried out the attack came from India. .....
by The Hindu
Members of the Chidambaram Temples Protection Committee, led by its president
K.Gandhi, observed a day's fast at Chidambaram on Monday, urging the State
government to revoke the order on take over of the Natarajar temple. .....
by The Pioneer
A US commission on religious freedom on Wednesday expressed deep concerns
over links between Pakistan's extremist groups and ISI, saying some of
the madrasas in the country are creating "an atmosphere of intolerance".
.....
by Virendra Parekh
The Upanishads describe Brahman as the One without the other (ekamevadvitiyam).
Jehovah revealed himself to Moses as the only God of the Jews, according
to the Bible. There is no God other than Allah, says Quran. .....
by Ajay Chrungoo
On 24 January, an Enforcement Directorate official, Saji Mohan, was arrested
by the Maharashtra ATS for allegedly trying to sell heroin in Oshiwara.
Saji Mohan, a 1995 batch Indian Police Service officer of Jammu &
Kashmir cadre, was in-charge of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab during
his previous posting as Zonal Director, Narcotics Control Bureau, Chandigarh.
.....
by François Gautier
The Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural
fabric of the country. Slumdog is a recent attempt Hinduism has given
refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians
of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the
Tibetans, allowing them all to practice their religion freely .....
by Kristen L. Rouse
One afternoon in April 2006, my Army unit got word that the hospital at
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, might need help carrying possibly dozens
of litters from medevac helicopters into the emergency room. .....
by Ramesh Vinayak
Until August 2005, Indira Colony was a veritable slum on the outskirts
of Hoshiarpur, Punjab. An unplanned locality that came up in 1985 on the
low-lying bed of a seasonal rivulet, it was perennially beset with squalid
conditions, potholed streets, overflowing drains and garbage. .....
by The Times of India
A US lawmaker who introduced a legislation in the US Congress last week
to pressure Pakistan to allow US officials access to its rogue scientist
A Q Khan, asserted that his black nuclear market has not been closed down
yet completely. .....
by The Telegraph, UK
The sight of British troops recently returned from Iraq being viciously
insulted by a group of Islamist radicals as they marched through Luton
on a welcome home parade has rightly angered and offended many people.
.....
by Sandhya Jain
It is unclear, at the time of writing, if Orissa Governor Murli Bhandare
will concede the Opposition demand for a fresh vote to test the strength
of the BJD Government, following allegations that Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik 'manipulated' his March 11 victory by a questionable voice vote.
.....
by MN Buch
It is curious that just as the world had cornered Pakistan over the 26/11
Mumbai attack, Islamabad began to play the Taliban card. Obviously, the
purpose is to divert attention from the core issue of Pakistan-sponsored
cross-border terrorism. .....
by Radha Rajan
It is a measure of the success of the Christian propaganda machinery that
idiot Hindus have no threat-perception of their own. How else can we explain
that notwithstanding the barbaric Crusades, Atlantic slave trade, White
Christian European colonialism, the near-total extermination of the native
peoples of North and South America, and the total destruction of the faiths
and cultures of Native Americans .....
by Yusuf Jameel
The Jammu and Kashmir government's recent decision to set up shrine board
exclusively for administering, managing and regulating the Hindu shrines
and other places of worship in the Valley seems to have failed to impress
the minority community, a vast majority of which fled, their home following
the breakout of separatist violence in 1989-90. .....
by The Indian Express
Seven years ago, when Ashok Kamte was the Deputy Commissioner of Police
for Zone I, the area that was targeted in the November 26 terror attack,
he had apparently decided, in a fit of frustration, to apply for a deputation
to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) - the same paramilitary border
force that has now been approached by the Mumbai Police to guard his killer,
Ajmal Kasab, in jail. .....
by Ananthakrishnan G
Bonhomie between the CPM and People's Democratic Party chief Abdul Nasser
Madani, acquitted in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case, in Kerala may not
have come without a price. .....
by Divya A
It is not quite the Partition and the Great Migration. But the steady
trickle of Hindus crossing into India from Pakistan, and pleading for
permission to stay here, underlines how little has changed in 61 years.
The immediate provocation was the alleged persecution of Hindus by the
Taliban. But social alienation too has taken its toll. More than 6,000
Pakistani Hindus migrated to India in recent months. .....
by Tavleen Singh
As a huge fan of Barack Obama and a dedicated enemy of radical Islam it
worried me to hear the American President talk of 'moderate' Taliban.
I found myself wondering how they would be graded. Would those who burned
girls' schools but did not participate in the global jihad be considered
moderate? .....
by Kartikeya
The Bombay high court has taken strong exception to former chief minister
Vilasrao Deshmukh's office asking the Buldhana district administration
in Vidarbha to go easy on Gokulchanda Sananda, a moneylender and father
of Congress MLA Dilipkumar Sananda, in 2006. The court has labelled the
action "gross abuse of power''. .....
by The Pioneer
I am a Gandhi, a Hindu and an Indian in equal measure," BJP leader
Varun Gandhi said here on Wednesday and claimed that there was a "political
conspiracy" to malign his image and the CD in question was doctored.
.....
by The Pioneer
Under all-round attack over his anti-Muslim speeches, BJP Lok Sabha candidate
Varun Gandhi on Wednesday said the video footage was "doctored"
and a "political conspiracy" has been hatched to malign him.
.....
by Sandhya Jain
It is unclear, at the time of writing, if Orissa Governor Murli Bhandare
will concede the Opposition demand for a fresh vote to test the strength
of the BJD Government, following allegations that Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik 'manipulated' his March 11 victory by a questionable voice vote.
Essentially, the vote count is meaningless as the tenure of the present
Assembly has ended and the Election Commission has announced an April
poll. .....
by Ravish Tiwari
Four farmer communities from different parts of the country were recently
felicitated by the Government for their efforts at preserving different
original varieties of rice genomes. .....
by Manu Pubby
With violence levels in the Valley at an all-time low, the Army is relocating
and thinning out troops engaged in counter-terrorism operations in Kashmir.
Close to 3,000 troops deployed in the Valley have been relocated to the
Line of Control with the Army moving out its 70 Infantry Brigade from
Shopian in south Kashmir. .....
by Aiswarya A
Natwarlal Rotawan was at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) with his two
children on November 26 when Ajmal Kasab and his partner arrived. Fifteen
weeks later, they are still at the station. .....
by P Stobdan
China recently appeared keen on averting a replay of last year's Tibetan
unrest that nearly wrecked the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ahead of the 50th
anniversary of the Tibetan uprising on March 10 this year, it poured extra
troops into Tibet to quell any disturbance. .....
by Syed Ubaidur Rahman
Indian Muslims are making waves. A.R. Rahman, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Irfan
Pathan, Yusuf Pathan and Sania Mirza are winning kudos for themselves
and their country. There are scores of other Indian Muslim achievers.
The Pathan brothers came from a muezzin's home who did not have the means
to even get a pair of shoes for such brilliant kids. .....
by Rediff.com
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Bangladesh's Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Hasan Mahmud told the channel that the new government
in Dhaka has mutually agreed with India to handover United Liberation
Front of Asom's chief Anup Chetia, who has been in a Bangladesh jail since
1996. .....
by The Times of India
Bangladeshi minister for foreign affairs Hassan Mahmud has hinted that
terrorists, who launched the November 26 Mumbai attacks, may have used
Bangladeshi soil. This is the first time an official from the Bangladeshi
government has pointed to a Dhaka hand in the attack. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
For the past couple of years we had been putting off the distressing task
of getting our apartment repainted. Besides the hassle of coping with
temporary dislocation and eating out of soggy paper plates, what would
scare us was the prospect of dealing with the junk that invariably accumulates
under the bed, in cupboards and between file covers. .....
by The Hindu
The Pakistan-based terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, had plans to set up
an operational base in a rented accommodation in posh Colaba in south
Mumbai in early 2008 to coordinate the 26/11 terror plan, according to
investigators. .....
by The Pioneer
Victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots today voiced concern over the "continuous
delay" on part of the CBI in filing an inquiry report before the
Court, claiming that any more delay will jeopardise justice in the matter.
.....
by Expressindia.com
The Anti-Corruption Bureau in Hyderabad has been ordered to register a
case against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Irrigation
Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and nine others for alleged misappropriation
of public funds. .....
by Expressindia.com
After inking a deal with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government
for implementation of Islamic law in the Swat Valley, the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat
Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad, has expressed his desire of implementation
of a similar law over the whole world. .....
by Haindava Keralam
City Metropolitan Magistrate RG Chaudhary today issued bailable warrant
once again to Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan in a defamation case
filed by VK Saxena, president, National Council for Civil Liberties, Ahmedabad,
an NGO which is up in arms against Patkar for her obstructionist role
in Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) which is lifeline of Gujarat. .....
by M. V. Kamath
Pakistan today is in a situation worse than ever in the past. It is on
the point of dissolution. Delhi must consider all options open to it and
be ready and willing to act firmly as the changing situation demands in
the weeks ahead. Hopefully, Holbrook's visit has helped to clarify matters
and to draw appropriate plans to meet the challenges that lie ahead. .....
by Allheadlinenews.com
Dozens of Somali children have left the United States in secret to join
the Islamist fight against the foreign forces in Somalia. .....
by The Times of India
Shivratri celebrations in Karnataka took a different hue this year as
the BJP government transported large quantities of 'Ganga jal' from Hrishikesh
to be distributed among devout in select temples across the state. .....
by Hadi Ghaemi
Two Iranian women labor activists, convicted for participating in May
Day celebrations, have been punished by flogging, the International Campaign
for Human Rights in Iran reported today. .....
by Shobhan Saxena
Those photographs all but made us smell the dust. A peasant squatting
on parched land, staring at a harsh blue sky with stony eyes.It was the
image that defined India for decades - a newly-independent nation of millions,
where drought and floods took turns to torment the people. .....
by Free Press Journal
India and Pakistan held more than two dozen secret meetings in third countries
from 2004 to 2007 but failed to reach a historic breakthrough on Kashmir,
even though the two sides had had "come to semicolons,'' according
to American Pulitzer Prize winner authorjournalist Steve Coll. Coll's
account of the breakthrough that was not reached is set for publication
in the "New Yorker" magazine. .....
by Pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com
The (Afghan) Taleban's Supreme Commander Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a
statement over a year ago distancing himself and the Afghan Taleban from
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its chief Baitullah Mehsud. He
also condemned Baitullah Mehsud in strong words for fighting against the
Pakistan Army instead of with the NATO forces. .....
by Saeed Khan
Mufti Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, the Imam of Ahmedabad's biggest mosque,
has found himself alone among the city's Muslim clerics. What has landed
the 52-year-old Imam in trouble in his own community is his admiration
for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. .....
by T.R. Andhyarujina
The most challenging constitutional function of the President is to decide
who should be Prime Minister when there is a hung Parliament. The events
of 1989-1992, when President R. Venkataraman had the onerous task of appointing
three Prime Ministers, provide guidance on how to decide on the choice
of Prime Minister should the 15th general election produce a hung Parliament.
.....
by Swapan Dasgupta
The most heartening feature of the imminent imposition of the Model Code
of Conduct for the General Election is that it will put a temporary halt
to the completely wasteful expenditure of the Centre and states on the
lavish advertisements that have filling newspapers for the past two months.
.....
by Free Press Journal
AN announcement of the month-long Lok Sabha election dates tentatively
fixed on Sunday has been delayed as Election Commissioner Navin Chawla
suddenly proceeded on a two-day leave, amid speculation that it gives
more time to the government to make announcements without attracting censure
under the model code of conduct. .....
by Ruth Vanita
Gandhi famously termed Katherine Mayo's book "Mother India"
(1927) a "drain inspector's report" because it focused exclusively
on atrocities, and seemed to assert that "the drains are India."
"Slumdog Millionaire" is that report updated. .....
by Sunanda K Datta-Ray
In those agonising weeks of Bangladesh's bloody birth, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
observed that if 'Muslim Bangla' was seceding because of language, it
should logically merge with West Bengal. But if it felt more Muslim than
Bangla, it should remain in Pakistan. .....
by Kalyani Shankar
Congress, BJP continue to lose space to smaller parties, making alliances
brittle and fractious. Is there a way out of this conundrum? .....
by The Times of India
Sitting at the head of a conference table with his suit coat off, US President
Barack Obama exhibited confidence six weeks into his presidency despite
the economic turmoil around the globe and the deteriorating situations
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He struck a reassuring tone about the economy,
saying he had no trouble sleeping at night. .....
by Dr. Manzur Ejaz
Rulers averse to an independent judiciary and an equitable socio-economic
order; an economic upper class hostile to paying its fair share in taxes;
self-obsessed intellectuals and media persons; and a poverty-stricken
population - this presents the perfect mix for the forces of destruction
.....
by The Times of India
Pakistani authorities have released 12 Taliban militants in a bid to consolidate
a pact struck last month with Islamists in the troubled northwestern Swat
valley, a senior government official said on Sunday. Another report quoted
an official as saying Pakistani Taliban shot dead 14 security personnel
a day after kidnapping them in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
.....
by Expressindia.com
Three Muslims of Pakistani origin were given prison terms at the Old Bailey
on Monday for sending medical equipment, computer supplies and binoculars
to militants fighting British soldiers on the border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan. .....
by S Balakrishnan
The leading US think-tank, the Rand Corporation, has confirmed what Indian
intelligence agencies have been always maintaining: that Dawood Ibrahim
has graduated to terrorism big-time and is siphoning off millions of dollars
earned from film piracy, drug-running and other crimes to finance his
operations. .....
by Vishal Rambani
Their forefathers made a choice 60 years ago and stayed back in Peshawar
despite Partition. And today their unhappy descendants - a group of Hindu
families - have been forced to flee by the rising influence of the fundamentalist
Taliban. .....
by Ruth Vanita
Gandhi famously termed Katherine Mayo's book "Mother India"
(1927) a "drain inspector's report" because it focused exclusively
on atrocities, and seemed to assert that "the drains are India."
"Slumdog Millionaire" is that report updated. .....
by Chidanand Rajghatta
The United States is lining up billions of dollars in new economic and
military aid to Pakistan despite reports that Islamabad is using American
tax-payer money for deals with the Taliban and accounts of US arms ending
up in the hands of the extremists. .....
by DNA (Daily News & Analysis)
The Bahujan Samaj Party's 'Brahmin Samaj Bhaichara' rally organised here
today turned out to be a flop show as most members of the community boycotted
it in protest against the party fielding gangster Mukhtar Ansari from
the holy city for the coming Lok Sabha election. .....
by The Economist
Like the crude oil that lies in vast pools beneath the Persian Gulf, tensions
between the region's Sunni and Shia Muslims tend to stay below ground.
But when pressures build and a ready channel is cleared, they can bubble
to the surface with alarming force. Thirty years ago the Islamic revolution
in Shia-majority Iran inspired a wave of unrest among fellow Shias of
the opposite shore. .....
by Amulya Ganguli
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have overstated his case when he said
that George W. Bush was loved in India. But there was a reason for the
accolade. Bush was the only American president who understood India's
special place as a multicultural society in the midst of dictatorships
and hobbling democracies. .....
by Geert Wilders
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There
is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic.
We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not
only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it
is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. .....
by Amil Imani
The cult of death, Islam, is marching forward under its battle cry: "We
love death, the infidels love life," says Hassan Nasrullah, leader
of Lebanon Hizbollah. There is no limit to the Shi'a mullahs' obsession
with all matters dealing with death. .....
by Maureen Fan
A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police after he set himself on
fire Friday, the third day of the Tibetan New Year, at a market in Sichuan
province's Aba prefecture, Tibetan activist groups said, citing eyewitnesses.
.....
by Hetal Vyas, Deeptiman Tiwary and
Anand Holla
Even though Mumbai police had arrested Indian Mujahideen founder, it was
the Delhi police who cracked the IM code when they arrested teen member
Mohammed Saif in the Batla House encounter in September .....
by Laina Farhat-Holzman
A murder was committed in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. On Feb.
13 a 44-year-old Muslim businessman, Muzzamil Hassan, allegedly beheaded
his 37-year-old wife, Aasiya Z. Hassan. The local district attorney said:
"This is the worst form of domestic violence possible." .....
by N.V.Subramanian
Somnath Chatterjee has disagreed with L.K.Advani's suggestion that the
prime minister should only be from the Lok Sabha. The outgoing Lok Sabha
speaker said it will have no "practical" effect. Who is right?
To judge that, it would be necessary to quote both Advani and Chatterjee
in the entirety of what they said. .....
by Samuel Baid
Broadly speaking, there are two worlds in Pakistan - one has grown from
the intolerant Islamic ideology which was used as the motive force to
run the Pakistan movement in the 1940s by the Muslim League led by Mohammad
Ali Jinnah. The second world which is also inspired by Jinnah's secularism
speech on August 11, 1947, consists of crores of people who yearn to be
like India - secular democracy, enlightened and progressive. .....
by The Pioneer
The United States has said many charities in Pakistan act as channels
to fund terrorist organisations, besides providing material support. .....
by The Pioneer
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, considered the architect of
the 1999 Kargil war, has warned that there could be more such conflicts
if the "key dispute" and "sore point" Kashmir remains
unresolved for long. .....
by Webindia123.com
More than 40 years after they traveled to India to study transcendental
meditation (TM) from their Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, two of the former
Beatles team, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, will reunite next month
for the same cause. The only difference is that they will teach TM to
troubled children, so they could become useful citizens, according to
the Star Ledger, a New Jersey daily newspaper. .....
by Vikram Sood
Over the years Pakistan has come to believe that the world is beholden
to it because it exists. This notion of indispensability allows those
in power in that country to be wild, delinquent and dangerous. .....
by Mateen Hafeez
The alleged founder of Indian Mujahideen (IM), Sadiq Shaikh, told the
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that no Pakistani was involved in manufacturing
bombs that were used in July 11, 2006 train blasts in Mumbai. This contradicts
ATS' earlier theory that some Pakistanis had assembled the bombs containing
RDX. .....
by Soli J. Sorabjee
In the crowded hours of our daily lives we unfortunately tend to forget
the deeds of great individuals who have left their indelible footprints
on the sands of time. Justice H.R. Khanna is one such individual. In the
course of his distinguished judicial career Justice Khanna delivered several
important judgments. .....
by The Pioneer
In the week since the March 3 terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket
team in the heart of Lahore, the Pakistani authorities have spun half-a-dozen
conspiracy theories. Finally some clarity seems to be emerging - but given
the nature of the country, it is probably only a mild interruption in
the fog. On Friday, March 6, Government investigators officially acknowledged
that "local terrorists" were responsible for the ambush. .....
by Ayesha Siddiqa
"This is A conspiracy to malign Pakistan and to give it a bad name,"
has been a common refrain of most television anchors after the unfortunate
attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3. Fingers
are being pointed at India, and the attack is being interpreted as New
Delhi's response to the equally tragic event in Mumbai last November.
.....
by Saurabh Shukla
The plot of senseless blood letting in Dhaka is thickening. And as the
two-month-old Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina battles to bring
stability to the country following the barbaric killing of over 140 top
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) officers along with their family members in Dhaka
on February 25, reports of a Pakistan-sponsored plot to assassinate her
are gaining credence. .....
by Mohammed Hanif
Cricket legend and self-appointed cheerleader for the Taliban, Imran Khan,
told an Australian TV channel in October that militants would never attack
a cricket match or cricketers in his country because Pakistanis love cricket
too much. I am not sure where Imran Khan got the impression that militants
respect people's favourite pastime. .....
by The Indian Express
On a day when the attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team in Pakistan drew
worldwide condemnation, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee called
on Leader of Opposition L K Advani for a half-an-hour-long meeting. .....
by Maneesh Chhibber
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami's recommendation that his colleague
Navin Chawla should be removed because of his pro-Congress bias may have
been rejected by the Government but it has been kept under wraps. .....
by Expressindia.com
US President Barack Obama said the frontier regions of Pakistan were "safe
havens" for the Al Qaeda. "The safe havens for Al Qaeda remain
in the frontier regions of Pakistan," Obama told reporters in response
to a question at the White House during a joint press conference with
the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. .....
by Indrani Bagchi
The first sign of a Pakistani footprint is showing up in the bloody mutiny
that shook Bangladesh this week. As mass graves continue to spew forth
more bloody tales-10 more bodies have been recovered, bringing the toll
to 76-what is emerging slowly is a larger design behind the apparently
senseless killing over the past couple of days. .....
by The Times of India
Cautioning that the 'hawala' money in India is directly linked to terrorist
financing, the US has suggested to New Delhi to strengthen its anti money
laundering and counter terrorism-finance legislations. .....
by The Pioneer
Culture buffs are in for a veritable treat as the week-long Khajuraho
Dance Festival gets underway in Khajuraho on Wednesday against the backdrop
of the world-renowned Chandela-era temples famed for their erotic sculpture
and listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. .....
by C Unnikrishnan, S Ahmed Ali &
Kartikeya
The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls made by the 26/11 terrorists
to their handlers have been traced to a serving colonel of the Pakistani
army, investigations have revealed. .....
by The Indian Express
Already on the backfoot after its defeat in the Assembly election, the
Opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh is facing further embarrassment due
to the appreciation BJP CM Raman Singh continues to receive from visiting
Union Ministers. .....
by Dhananjay Mahapatra
Should right to property be made a fundamental right? The Supreme Court
on Friday issued a notice to the Centre on a PIL, which said the purpose
for which right to property was relegated to a mere statutory right in
the late 1970s is no longer relevant. .....
by Mateen Hafeez
Indian Mujahideen's (IM) top operative Sadiq Sheikh's confession on his
alleged role in the July 11, 2006 serial Mumbai train blasts has come
as a huge embarrassment for the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS). Two
years ago, the ATS had chargesheeted 13 persons, but Sadiq and other members
of the IM module were not named as conspirators. .....
by The Pioneer
Condemning the attack on Sri Lankan players in Lahore, India today said
terrorism based in Pakistan is a "grave" threat to the entire
world and warned that such acts would not stop till Islamabad takes "prompt"
and "decisive" steps to dismantle terror infrastructure. .....
by Ben R. Furman
United In Hate -- The Left's Romance With Tyranny and Terror is a book
that examines the seamy underbelly of the radical Left which considers
Western society and its values an anathema. Dr. Jamie Glazov, the Editor
of FrontPage Magazine, methodically details the causational factors that
have lead modern Leftists to adhere to the death and destruction mantra
of tyrannical Islamic Jihadists. .....
by Thaindian News
April, a young American artist from New York, swears by Lord Shiva. As
do the 900,000 devotees who attended the Mahashivratri celebrations at
Isha Foundation, a global non-profit organisation, 40 km from Coimbatore.
.....
by Vicky Nanjappa & Krishnakumar
P
"India was part of Pakistan before 1947. In the 1965 war, Pakistan
conquered several areas of India and staring at a certain defeat, New
Delhi requested the United Nations to arrange for a ceasefire. .....
by Ed Husain
As a child, I was unsure if I belonged to Britain, India - or both, or
neither. In the day I went to a multifaith, multi-ethnic state school
in the East End of London. At school I was taught to question, think and
see all religions equally. .....
by The Pioneer
In an unprecedented catch, a woman gun-runner was nabbed by the sleuths
of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) with nine .32 bore pistols when she
was 'marketing her consignment' in Aligarh on Sunday night. .....
by The Pioneer
Mystery shrouds the visit of two foreign nationals in Khiro area of Rae
Bareli. The local police and the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) sleuths are
trying to figure out their identity and the purpose of their visit. .....
by Victor Davis Hanson
In September, federal prosecutors charged illegal alien Mahmoud Maawad,
29, with wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number. But
their real worry was that the Egyptian student had just ordered $3,000
in aviation materials, including DVDs entitled "Ups and Downs of
Takeoffs and Landings," "Mental Math for Pilots," and "Mastering
GPS Flying." .....
by Rahi Gaikwad
A sizeable number of the 21 Indian Mujahideen men, accused in cases of
various blasts in the country and against whom a charge sheet was filed
by the Mumbai Crime Branch here in a court on Tuesday, belong to Azamgarh
in Uttar Pradesh. .....
by The Pioneer
A report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General released last Friday has
brought to light the dismal performance of the UPA Government's Bharat
Nirman and other flagship schemes. The report- and others before it -indicates
that the Government has not lived up to its commitment to the 'aam admi'
with none of its pro-poor plans having been properly implemented, and
with the money for the same having been wrongly utilised, wasted or missing.
.....
by Rajendra P Kerkar
Mahashivratri a festival dedicated to lord Shiva - will be celebrated
with much fervour across the country and state on Monday. Among the Hindu
triad, Shiva is believed to be the destroyer or re-creator and has traditionally
been worshipped by tribal communities. .....
by Ibrahim Lone
Let me begin by telling you what the war in Kashmir is about and what
not. Well for starters, the war in Kashmir is not about freedom, human
rights, equality, right to self-determination or anything that media normally
tells us. In truth, it is about Islam. .....
by Amar Khan
Pakistan was founded to secure the socio-economic interests of Muslims.
Islamic factor was only in the mind of common Muslim mob of that age.
The founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was wine drinker and pork eater
himself, said on August 11, 1947 .....
by R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd)
For centuries the Sufi creed and Sufi music have been tom-tomed as great
symbols of spiritualism and promoters of peace and harmony between the
Hindus and the Muslims. The cleverly marketed concept of Sufi spiritualism
has been unquestioningly accepted as the hallmark of Hindu-Muslim unity.
.....
by Bageshree S.
The provisions made in the 2009-10 budget in the social welfare sector
is striking for the number of allocations made to specific caste groups
and caste-based organisations. .....
by Chandan Mitra
I wonder how many in GenNow would recall this humourous number that used
to be a Vividh Bharati regular in my student days. The song became popular
because schoolchildren dreaded history since the only apparent way to
score in the paper was to commit names and dates to memory. .....
by Rakesh K Singh
Intelligence agencies, investigating the possible involvement of local
elements in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, have picked up over 400 illegal
Bangladeshis from major cities for interrogation. The comprehensive probe
was initiated within a week of the Mumbai attack incident. .....
by Sandhya Jain
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, or Veer Savarkar as he was popularly designated,
is a son of modern India who was denied recognition for his puissant nationalism,
vibrant intellect, and personal valour, due to the pusillanimity of the
powers that be in independent India. .....
by Ahmed Rashid
The government has caved in to the Taliban in the Swat Valley to avert
more violence. Maulana Sufi Mohammed, a radical cleric who was freed last
year after spending six years in jail for leading 10,000 Pashtun tribesmen
in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has begun a
new campaign. .....
by Kim Sengupta
British soldiers are engaged in "a surreal mini civil war" with
growing numbers of home-grown jihadists who have travelled to Afghanistan
to support the Taliban, senior Army officers have told The Independent.
.....
by Balbir K. Punj
The recent serial bomb blasts across the country have got the "secularists"
busy in building smoke screens, raising red herrings and finding scapegoats
- all to save the real culprits. The terror machine in India has two faces:
The "underground" one which plans and executes the violent operations,
while the "over ground" face hides behind masks of human rights,
social activists and NGOs and operates under a common brand name of "secularism".
.....
by Shobhan Saxena
Those photographs all but made us smell the dust. A peasant squatting
on parched land, staring at a harsh blue sky with stony eyes. .....
by Dipesh Gadher, Christopher Morgan
and Jonathan Oliver
A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing
a surge in birth defects - comments likely to spark a new row over the
place of Muslims in British society. .....
by Virendra Parekh
If all religions preach love, amity and peace, why are there so much hatred,
strife and violence in the name of religion? This question has often baffled
not just atheists and agnostics, but also quite a few devout souls. The
short answer is that every religion wants unity of mankind under its own
banner - the operative word here is 'banner' and not 'unity.' .....
