In a fresh twist to the cash-for-legislators
scam involving former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, a Jagdalpur-based
travel operator has alleged he was asked by Jogi's son to kill a senior
Congress leader. .....
Britain continues to be one of
the safest havens for terror groups. Not one suspect has been extradited
despite nearly a dozen friendly countries, including India, naming wanted
fugitives and making repeated requests. .....
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
deserves hearty congratulations for his foreign policy coup in convincing
Bhutan to crack down on anti-India militants operating on its soil, while
simultaneously ensuring that Nepal and Myanmar prove equally inhospitable
to the fleeing rebels. .....
Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka will
introduce a law restricting conversions due to alleged proselytising by
Christian groups, including groups rebuilding the war-torn island, a minister
said on Saturday. .....
The end of the year seems always
to bring either war or peace between India and Pakistan. This time it is
a hesitant, nervous sort of peace that appears to be breaking out. We talk
of cross-border trains and flights, instead of terrorism, and hear words
like 'bold and flexible' from the General across the border. Even hints
that other words like 'plebiscite' should be dropped from the terms of
dialogue. .....
Before Abdul Karim Telgi hit the
headlines again, Maharashtra's scandal of the season was the MPSC scam.
The cash-for- appointments racket had landed several bigwigs of the state
Public Service Commission, including its head S D Karnik, in jail. .....
No man in recent times-indeed since
Indepen-dence-has been more reviled, demonised and hated than Gujarat's
Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Since February 28, 2002 the English language
newspapers, especially, have gone at him hammer and tongs-and with very
little respect for truth or propriety-with a wilfulness that has had no
parallel in journalistic history. .....
Are Tribal Hindus? For B.K. Muduly,
General Secretary of All Orissa United Christian Forum (AOUCF), tribal
are not only non-Hindus but the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (OFRA),
which prohibits conversion through inducement and allurement should not
be applied to those tribal who change over to other religions. Their simple
logic being tribal are not Hindus. .....
The National Conference reiterated
that New Delhi has to recognise the genuine aspirations of the people (read
Kashmiris) and agree to an arrangement which given them pride in their
Kashmiriyat and a mechanism to further their aspirations while remaining
part of the Indian Union. .....
Police were guarding a church in
southern India on Thursday after more than 250 lower-caste villagers who
converted to Christianity were barred from a Christmas Mass. .....
His problems mounting by the day,
former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi was today rapped by the Election
Commission for his ''undesirable conduct'' and ''patent untruths'' in the
recent election. .....
Syed Salahuddin, in more ways than
one, is more powerful than the world's most wanted terror fugitive, Osama
bin Laden. He has been running a terrorist organisation for several years
without being branded a terrorist. His organisation, the United Jihad Council,
has never been banned. .....
The political father of Pakistan's
nuclear programme, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, gave the game away on day one when
he dubbed its nuclear weapon as the "Islamic bomb". Evidence of Pakistani
nuclear proliferation in Iran and Libya suggests someone in Pakistan took
Bhutto's vision seriously. .....
''Guru, he is one of the rarest
politicians. A great organiser, greater than even my friend Nanaji Deshmukh.''
This is how the late Ramnath Goenka introduced Kushabhau Thakre, who was
already known to me. When I told him, I knew Thakreji, he said ''you know
him but still you do not know this.'' .....
Balabai Kamble is a global Indian
in her own right. She may not be able to converse in any language other
than in the local patois but the 37-year-old from Athani in Belgaum district
of Karnataka has made giant strides overseas. Part of a family of Samagars,
cobblers by tradition, she has indeed come a long way. .....
Die-hard followers of Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi laud him for zealously championing what
they call the Hindutva cause. Muslims, secularists and many others love
to hate him for his "ruthless silence" when bloody riots scarred the state
last year. .....
The question arose after an international
Tibetan group chose 350 acres here as a place to teach meditation and caregiving
for the terminally ill. The beauty of Berne, a remote Hilltown of 2,846
residents with no industry, drew Rigpa, which has centers in 11 countries,
project manager Judith Brown said. .....
Several contributors and letter-writers
to The Pioneer have recently criticised those who question the relevance
of the Nehruvian vision. India has long been ill-served by its political
leaders, especially after Independence. If one had to single out one man
responsible for all our misfortunes, political, military and economic,
the finger would point at Nehru. .....
The end of the year seems always
to bring either war or peace between India and Pakistan. This time it is
a hesitant, nervous sort of peace that appears to be breaking out. We talk
of cross-border trains and flights, instead of terrorism, and hear words
like 'bold and flexible' from the General across the border. .....
When the government is working
overtime to push the state's literacy rate up to 80 per cent, 450 children
have not been able to attend school since the pujas for no fault of theirs.
.....
A new U.S. intelligence report
obtained by WorldNetDaily describes a plot by "Pakistani Islamic extremists"
to pose as aides to disabled travelers to obtain U.S. visas and carry out
terrorist attacks once inside the U.S. .....
Fishermen in the Sunderbans are
still plagued by Bangladeshi pirates, despite the state government's assurance
to step up security. This was alleged by Joykrishna Haldar, secretary of
the West Bengal United Fishermen's Association, in the city on Friday.
.....
In a blistering attack on Hindutva
baiters , Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has exhorted the society
to "recognise" all such elements and challenged those who have triggered
a "controversy" by differentiating between Hindutva and development. .....
"Is there a branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood at the D.C. Jail?" I put that question to D.C. Corrections
Department spokesman Darryl Madden on Tuesday. He wasn't familiar with
the name but said he would check with the staff and get back to me. .....
A rather surprising announcement
was made recently by Zhuang Cong Sheng, a senior official of the United
Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China. Mr Zhuang declared in Beijing: "To my knowledge in recent years,
we didn't have any formal talks with the Dalai Lama." .....
The last vehicle of General Musharraf
s convoy had barely crossed the Ammar Chowk Bridge in Rawalpindi on December
14, when five bombs placed under the bridge detonated simultaneously. General
Musharraf was returning to his residence from the Islamabad airport after
a visit to Karachi. .....
In the days preceding Christmas,
media outlets used misleading information to accuse Israel of ruining the
holiday for celebrants in Christianity's birthplace, Bethlehem.Â
.....
The opposition on Monday walked
out of the Lok Sabha accusing the government of adopting a discriminatory
approach on the issue of subsidy for Haj pilgrims. .....
Local residents foiled an attempt
by suspected Islamic militants to demolish a 200-year old Hindu temple
in the port city of Chittagong in southern Bangladesh, officials said today.
.....
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's
statement that he was prepared to leave UN resolutions on Kashmir aside
and initiate a dialogue with India is certainly one more step that contributes
to the improved atmospherics in the region. .....
Dilip Ghosh, the first to lodge
an FIR with the Dhantola police station after the loot-and-rape outrage
on February 6, denied almost everything that he had said when the trial
began in the fast-track court here. .....
India will not stop building fences
along the ceasefire line in Kashmir despite Pakistan's objection that it
violates bilateral accords and UN resolutions, news reports said on Monday.
.....
European Union's Foreign Policy
Chief Javier Solana hopes that the mutual confidence building spirit will
lead to political dialogue between India and Pakistan on all issues, including
the Kashmir dispute. .....
When peasant Tago Bheel and his
wife, Mira, fled from the captivity of their feudal lord last month, they
knew it was a matter of life or death. Barefooted and starving, both ran
all night, collapsing on reaching safety as the sun dawned on a new day
for the couple. .....
In December 2002, the Washington
Post published an alarming report stating that "U.S. intelligence officials
had identified approximately 15 cargo freighters around the world that
they believed were controlled by al Qaeda or could be used by the terrorist
network to ferry operatives, bombs, money or commodities over the high
seas." .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
has promised an "intense" agitation in Assam in the next few months to
force Bangladeshi infiltrators to leave the State on their own. It is banking
on the support of other anti-infiltration organisations to fulfil this
goal. .....
Punjab Textbook Board in concert
with the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education has somehow become
the principal source of what can only be termed as 'hate literature'. Our
textbooks disseminate a whole array of 'half-truths' and propagate Taliban-like
values. .....
The United States has again been
given good reason to wonder whether Pakistan is the trustworthy ally it
claims to be. Fresh evidence indicates that it has sold nuclear- weapons
secrets to Iran, North Korea and perhaps other countries over the years.
Pakistan's military ruler, , insists that he stopped such sales after seizing
power four years ago. .....
This was the healing touch the
state coffers badly needed. A militant diktat 14 years ago-forbidding payment
of taxes-had seen the Income Tax collections in Jammu & Kashmir drop
to Rs 5 crore by 2000. But as a wind of hope blows through the state, people
are defying threats, lining up to pay their dues. The collection for the
last two years: Rs 230 crore. .....
Barely 24 hours after creating
a major stir, Pakistan today went back on President Pervez Musharraf's
remarks and claimed that it had never dropped the demand for a plebiscite
in Kashmir. President Musharraf, while maintaining that there was a need
for flexibility and to move beyond stated positions, had told Reuters yesterday
that Pakistan had "left aside" the United Nations Security Council resolutions
on Kashmir. .....
''For Muslims, jihad is the ultimate
weapon against the onslaught of the yahood (Jews) and nasara'' Islamabad
mosque told a captive audience during Friday prayers last month. ''There
is no alternative to this and the time has come for Muslims to unite and
meet the challenge.'' .....
General Pervez Musharraf has floated
a few straws in the wind by virtually giving up the demand of settling
Kashmir issue on the basis of UN resolutions. This is welcome. But it also
must be seen along with the views of the leadership of virtually all the
political parties in Pakistan who have slammed him for his statement. .....
Three rituals are performed every
year in India on November 14 -- the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's
first prime minister who passed away in 1964. Ritual number one is that
our morning newspapers that day publicise it as 'Children's Day' -- so
labelled because Nehru had great affection for children who called him
'Chacha Nehru.' .....
By all accounts, the Royal Bhutanese
Army has carried out its task of ending the military occupation of its
sovereign territory by militants and terrorist groups from India. It has
done so, not only with notable successes, but with a professionalism that
the Himalayan kingdom can be rightly proud of. .....
Though the Jharkhand government
has made Hindi mandatory in its offices, a Class 4 student in a private
school here was brutally beaten because he dared to speak in the language.
.....
In a joint operation on Sunday
night, the CID (crime) and the local crime branch Himmatnagar city claimed
have found a 'rocket launcher' and three crude bombs during raids from
riot-torn areas of Vorwad and Chhapariya, and arrested five persons. Sabarkantha
district was the worst-affected in post-Godhra communal riots. .....
Now that sadbhavana has acquired
the status of a growth industry with international stakeholders, it is
only natural that every blip and twitch in Indo-Pakistan relations is being
monitored with the zealousness normally reserved for blue-chip corporates.
.....
The intelligence department has
been asked to get information on the alleged links that Mohammed Nayeemuddin
alias Nayeem, a former naxalite of the People's War, has with the Pakistan
's ISI. .....
At 18, Priti Bhatia, a B Com. first-year
student of South City College , had everything going for a beautiful life.
Now, her family fears she is wasting away in a Dubai brothel. .....
The Indian-American community,
unlike its Pakistani counterpart, is no longer "sitting on the political
sidelines," but is organising, lobbying Capitol Hill, collecting campaign
funds and receiving attention from US politicians. .....
A reduction in revenue deficit
from Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 2,500 crore, revenue expenditure by four per
cent and a corresponding hike in income by 30 per cent, saving Rs 300 crore
in absolute terms through economic reforms and financial management coupled
with a resolve to achieve a 10.2 per cent growth rate during the Tenth
Plan, marks the completion of the first year of the Narendra Modi Government
in Gujarat. .....
This story involves a BJP minister
and a temple, but this is an unusual one. On his birthday, newly elected
Education Minister of Rajasthan, Ghanshyam Tiwari, created history. Ignoring
protests and lecturing priests, he broke an ancient tradition and took
his wife and daughter inside the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ghushmeshwar
Shiva temple in Siwad yesterday. .....
All it will take to wipe out the
Pakistani Cricket Board's huge losses is one visit from the Indian team,
now scheduled early next year. India's tour in February-March is expected
to rake in huge financial gains for the Pakistan Cricket Board, with one
expert putting the figure at around $20 million. .....
There has been considerable controversy
about Prof. Paul Courtright's book on Lord Ganesha. At the center of the
controversy are several assertions within the book, that have caused outrage
among devout Hindus, including assertions that Ganesha's trunk represents
a limp phallus in contrast to Shiva's erect one, that Ganesha's fondness
for sweets is a substitute for oral sex and so on. .....
Perhaps, for rising powers have
always spelled trouble for their neighbors, even in the case of democracies
like Athens (the Peloponnesian War) and the U.S. (we managed to invade
Canada and Mexico in the 1800's. .....
A 15-year-old Pakistani Christian
boy was kidnapped and taken to a strict Islamic religious school where
he was beaten to submission and forced to declare he is a Muslim, according
to an international aid group. .....
Indeed those who fight Allah and
his Prophet and hang around corrupting the people will be put to death,
crucified, banished or have their arms and feet cut on different sides
as a punishment. This will be their shame in this life and their punishment
will be even more dreadful in the coming life". .....
Evidence discovered in a probe
of Iran's secret nuclear program points overwhelmingly to Pakistan as the
source of crucial technology that put Iran on a fast track toward becoming
a nuclear weapons power, according to U.S. and European officials familiar
with the investigation. .....
Rejecting the so-called third option
of an independent Kashmir, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has
asserted that there was no question of secession of Jammu and Kashmir or
any other part from the Indian Union. .....
Two Personal Security Officers
(PSOs) of DIG Rajouri- Poonch range S M Sahai were killed and two others
were injured when a fidayeen made an abortive attempt to intrude into the
office of Mr Sahai and kill him and other police personnel this morning.
The fidayeen was eliminated within 40 minutes of the attack. .....
... A commendable study of the
textbooks taught in our schools, a hangover of the "Islamisation" effort
has been done by Dr AH Nayyar of the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.
His findings should make everyone sit up. .....
Sherlock Holmes in one of his pithier
stories remarks on the singular incident of the dog in the night time:
which was that the dog did not bark when a crime was committed. Holmes
concluded that the dog did not bark because it knew the criminal, and therefore
he was able to identify the culprit. .....
Washington ? The Weekly Standard
published an article in its December 22 edition in which U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom Commissioner Nina Shea was quoted as
having made a statement regarding Islam and democracy. This quote
is inaccurate, according to Commissioner Shea. .....
Thoughts on issues of current interest
[my comments - as an Indian citizen - within square brackets], including
instances of some double standards of our public figures, especially in
the construction of Indian identity (all those Macaulayan myths, and the
hypocrisy that is Nehruvian secularism) .....
I Fell in love with the Bangladeshis
long before they liberated themselves from West Pakistan 32 years ago.
The independence struggle has an aura of sacrifice and selflessness that
invigorates even the cynic and the sceptical to look beyond. .....
In these times of political correctness,
to negate the country's traditions in favour of multi-culturalism is trendy
and to challenge multi-culturalism raises howls of "racist", "bigot", and
worse. .....
Academics holding responsible posts
in universities of West Bengal and representatives of Government and sponsored
colleges laid bare the heinous Marxist design to destroy excellence in
higher education by promoting mediocrity at every level of teaching and
administration. .....
The recent statement by acclaimed
writer Vijay Tendulkar, that he would shoot the Chief Minister of Gujarat
Mr. Narendra Modi, if he had a gun, indicates just how much the pseudo-secularist
elements in India are convinced that Modi is to be blamed for Gujarat riots,
conveniently forgetting the carnage in Godhra that preceded the riots.
.....
In his first State of the Union
Address after the September 11 attacks, President Bush said "Our second
goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America
or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction." .....
It could now be Amit Jogi's turn
to face prosecution. Having hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons,
Amit, the son of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, seems to
have forgotten one simple fact - that his stay in India is illegal. .....
A Muslim group in Denmark announced
a few days ago that a $30,000 bounty would be paid for the murder of several
prominent Danish Jews, a threat that garnered wide international notice.
Less well known is that this is just one problem associated with Denmark's
approximately 200,000 Muslim immigrants. The key issue is that many of
them show little desire to fit into their adopted country. .....
In recent weeks, we have once again
seen some chattering by local Jammu & Kashmir politicians, national
politicians and Islamic terrorists about the return of Kashmiri Hindus
to the Kashmir valley. Various forums, commissions, me-too-NGOs have propped
up to talk about how Kashmiri Hindus can be resettled back in the valley.
.....
The problem of illegal migration
in North - east particularly Assam now assumed a serious proportions. The
helplessness of Assam government regarding the problem of gigantic infiltration
casts its shadow over Central Government also, for its survival depends
on allies and that some allies are wedded to infiltrators, votes. .....
Dr. Ravi Kapur, a psychiatrist,
trained in India and UK, is currently the JRD Tata Visiting Professor at
the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He has been the
Deputy Director of the same institute and before that the Professor and
Head, Department of Psychiatry at the prestigious National Institute of
Mental Health & Neurosciences. .....
Dr. Ravi Kapur, a psychiatrist,
trained in India and UK, is currently the JRD Tata Visiting Professor at
the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He has been the
Deputy Director of the same institute and before that the Professor and
Head, Department of Psychiatry at the prestigious National Institute of
Mental Health & Neurosciences. .....
Kuldip Nayyar is a prominent journalist
of India. He has been Indian High Commissioner in the UK, and so is associated
with Indian government. He is welcome to visit Pakistan and also write
for our papers, and project the views of his government. .....
His has been the most notable face
among the Christian gospelers. He has presided over several thousand 'miracle
healing' meetings wherein countless 'sufferers' have had their illness
or afflictions, ranging from common cold to blindness, 'cured' through
prayers. .....
The illegal flier boldly posted
on the concrete telephone pole outside Dilyar Jumabayev's home leaves no
doubt about the sentiments of the man who lives inside: "All Muslims of
the world unite against the infidels." .....
The rout in the assemblies has
changed the complexion of national politics and sent the Congress into
the doldrums. The party needs to reinvent itself if it hopes to challenge
the BJP in the 2004 general elections. Outlook put together a list of proposals
for the party to consider and then asked intellectuals across the country
for their views.a .....
The second day of the Bihar Assembly's
winter session was adjourned today on a noisy note within 10 minutes of
its opening with the entire Opposition rallying together, demanding the
report on Mohammad Shahabuddin be made public. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today
demanded immediate release of two youths from Andhra Pradesh taken hostage
by the Taliban and called for the need to have a treaty between the Hindus,
Christians, Buddhists and Jews to fight what it terms as "jehadi terrorism".
.....
Assam, which is still reeling under
the impact of continuing illegal immigration from Bangladesh, is suffering
equally from acute cultural violence in the form of a rising graph of rape
and abduction of minor girls and young women by suspected 'guests' from
this worrisome neighbour. .....
China released a wanted list of
Muslim separatist groups and individuals on Monday, accusing them of acts
of terror and appealing to foreign governments to ban the groups and track
down and hand over the wanted individuals. .....
Residents, mostly landowning families,
noticed that Ms. Musarrat's family showed no signs of grief or mourning.
The family buried her in their ancestral graveyard in a farming village
40 miles away. .....
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on Friday
decided to impose a complete ban on cow slaughter, a promise made by the
Bharatiya Janata Party before the elections. .....
Two days after the Prime Minister
said that action would be taken against those responsible for the murder
of Satyendra Dubey ''wherever they are,'' his parent Ministry today issued
a statement denying any slip-up on its part. .....
The arrest of two top Pakistani
nuclear scientists in Islamabad has been confirmed by Pakistani sources
in London, who say the men have been accused of passing on nuclear secrets
to Iran. .....
Forget, for the moment, Saddam's
weapons of mass destruction - or lack thereof. Consider instead the other
WMD conundrum: Iran. Events in Pakistan, where two nuclear scientists were
arrested last week, suggest the whole issue is about to blow. .....
In the days before opinion polls
and exit polls became growth industries and sources of disinformation,
only journalists had the monopoly of getting electoral forecasts horribly
wrong. During election season, there were two types of media reports in
evidence. .....
Three years ago, on a long weekend,
Maruti Udyog Managing Director Jagdish Khattar and his think tank spent
almost an entire morning looking at their bestseller Zen. It was still
a looker and mentioned in the right circles for its genteel European styling.
But it was getting flanked by hot new competitors like the Santro from
the Hyundai stable and the Indica from Telco (now Tata Motors). .....
As the words roll off of their
tongues, the chill in the room where the two captured Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
militants from Pakistan are kept in Srinagar's Badami Bagh Cantonment intensifies.
These two young men were taken into custody by the army even as their fidayeen
colleagues were shot dead days before the ceasefire across the Line of
Control (LoC). .....
At a recent seminar on India and
China, Jairam Ramesh of the Congress party asked a senior Chinese banking
functionary about how serious the non-performing assets (NPA) problem was
-while most analysis feel that this is China's Achilles heel, Jairam pointed
out, none of the presentations by the Chinese delegates suggested a sense
of crisis! Not surprisingly, the answergiven by the Chinese official was
really a non-one. .....
On 10th December 2002 when the
world was observing International Human Rights Day the West Bengal Government
was brutally evicting 4000 families. Beliaghata eviction will be remembered
as 10th December carnage. This incidence will be marked as a monumental
mistake in the history of West Bengal. Till date none of the 4,000
families have been provided any alternative accommodation. .....
The BJP's bad luck with women extends
to those within. The party took a very early decision when it named Uma
Bharati, the coy saffronite, and Vasundhara Raje, the princess-in-waiting,
as its nominees for chief minister in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. There
was a smug air of nomination about the decision, as if the elections had
already been won. .....
When Crown prosecutor Margaret
Cunneen and Superintendent Kim McKay addressed a conference on the prevention
of violence against women earlier this year, they didn't expect a hostile
response from any of the feminists present. .....
The S.M. Krishna Government has
stirred up another temple controversy. Its proposal to take over management
of all private and trust-managed temples have raised hackles. Says Sri
Vishveshwara Theertha of Udupi Pejawar math: "This would only give scope
for corruption." .....
Dozens of prominent French women,
including the actresses Emmanuelle Béart and Isabelle Adjani and
the designer Sonia Rykiel, have issued a plea to Jacques Chirac, the president,
to ban traditional Muslim veils as a "visible symbol of the submission
of women". .....
The Congress Party has no one but
itself to blame for its ignominy at the hands of Ajit Jogi. For it ought
to have known better than to have chosen someone as controversial as Jogi
to head the newly-created State. Jogi did not come alone. He brought with
him his enormous ill reputation. Here was a rotten IAS officer who had
to quit the service post haste in order to avoid an inquiry into his doings.
.....
That is the basic message of an
officially-commissioned study by the European Union (EU) which became notorious
in recent weeks when the EU itself quashed the 104-page draft version.
The Financial Times, which broke this story, reported that it did so "because
the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many
of the incidents it examined." .....
The BJP swept the tribal dominated
pockets of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan in what is seen as
a strong evidence of the inroads the Sangh Parivar has made into the category
which was till recently considered to be off limits to it. .....
In a letter, addressed to the Prime
Minister, the state Chief Minister, Mr.Budhdeb Bhattacharjee has expressed
his displeasure over the practice of chanting of "Saraswati Bandana" at
the beginning of govt. functions and has urged him to stop the practice
immediately. .....
Pakistan under General Pervez Musharraf
does not have policies of its own, and is 'licking the feet' of Indian
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, claimed former cricketer-turned-politician
Imran Khan. .....
Taslima Nasreen is not a paragon
of virtue, but she is a brave woman. She has the grit to call a spade a
spade. Pronounced a murtad (apostate) and sentenced to death by Islamic
fanatics in Bangladesh, the exiled author remains firm in her condemnation
of polygamy and other ills in the male-dominated Muslim society, for which
she squarely blames the Prophet and the Koran. .....
Chief of banned terrorist outfit
Jaish-e-Mohammed Maulana Masood Azhar has said that in Islam the only meaning
of jihad was killing, even as another terrorist group supporter asked Pakistan
to declare that suicide bombing against west was jihad. .....
Introspection. If you were politically
interested enough to have remained transfixed by your television set when
the results of the assembly elections came out last Thursday you would
have heard it a lot. It tripped gaily and recurrently off the tongues of
political pundits and psephologists as they advised the Congress Party
on its future course of action. .....
All Meenakshi Nankani, 24, did
in Washington DC was practice ballet, hip-hop and jazz. Till she gave it
all up, to educate children of migrant sugarcane-cutting families in Theur,
Maharashtra. .....
With tears rolling down her cheeks,
Chief Minister designate in Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje on Saturday remembered
her late mother and brother who taught her to 'serve people by entering
politics', reports PTI. .....
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday
night alleged that outgoing Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi tried
to break up the party by bribing its MLAs. .....
Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Guard
forces under the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly killed a 10- year-old
boy in the country's minority Baloch region yesterday, touching off a massive
uprising against the Islamic regime countered by a deadly crackdown and
imposition of martial law, according to sources on the scene. .....
The BJP swept the tribal dominated
pockets of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan in what is seen as
a strong evidence of the inroads the Sangh Parivar has made into the category
which was till recently considered to be off limits to it. .....
All our Mahatmas arrived on 2 0ctober,
2003 from Sydney - Australia by Evening at Nadi Airport - Fiji about 100
people were there to receive at the Airport . There were Grand but
simple welcome ceremony at the Airport. .....
Australia's spy agency warned today
that al-Qaida-linked groups were in the country and sympathisers who had
received terror training in Pakistan and Afghanistan were probably moving
around undetected. .....
This has been an incredible year
for India and the pace of change has been so rapid that the world is yet
to catch up with it. Most people, even supposedly well-informed public
opinion builders outside India, still perceive India in the traditional
way. .....
Ramanathaswamy Temple authorities
in Rameswaram are to be appreciated for have taken steps to revive the
beating of drums discontinued about 100 years ago. .....
A sustained public and political
campaign by two small regional Australian towns has resulted in the 13-year-old
son of an Indian doctor couple being granted a visa. Treating Shivam Agrawal's
application for ministerial intervention as the rarest of rare cases, Australian
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has overruled an earlier decision
by her department and granted visa to the Indian teenager. .....
A muslim tailor was so bold as
to stab an NSG commando The NSG commando went back with 50 of his buddies
with AK-47 type weapons and muslims had also formed a mob with acid bulbs,
stones etc .....
On Friday,November 23 2003 at fairly
short notice eleven Hinduvta activists and dedicated Nationalists convened
at Hunter College North back classroom to refute, counter and successfully
sabotage the standard anti-Hindu rhetoric on the Gujarat riots and thier
aftermath. The event was organized by the ignonimous Biju Matthews and
his Islamic Communist fascist cohorts. .....
At the al Hayer prison outside
Riyadh, young inmates suspected of terrorist leanings undergo a unique
form of rehabilitation: Islamic scholars lecture them on tolerant Islam,
trying to purge their minds and souls of violent extremism. .....
"Azad Hind Army was not a revolutionary
army nor did Subhas Chandra Bose have any revolutionary fervour in him...on
the contrary, he was a supporter of the Facist forces and always looked
after the interests of the capitalists. Netaji was anti-labour and anti-Bolshevik..."
.....
Young women killed for dating.
Limbs amputated for petty theft. Makeshift courts deciding the fates of
members of local Muslim communities. The Western world has grown accustomed
to hearing about the brutalities of Islamic law. However, these primitive
practices are no longer limited to the remote tribal areas of Pakistan,
the backward kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or oppressive, mullah-dominated Iran.
.....
An intense behind-the-scenes diplomatic
struggle over a controversial Saudi-funded academy in Germany has shed
new light on the close relationship between Saudi government officials
and an international network of mosques and schools-some of which, Western
intelligence officials say, have become breeding grounds for terrorism.
.....
I am devastated by the election
results. I was expecting a loss in MP because the BJP/RSS has been
growing there for some time and clearly targeting Digvijay Singh (see Sudarshan's
speech on Vijayadashmi) but I did not expect the losses in Rajasthan and
Chattisgarh. .....
Let me at the outset state unambiguously
that I think the world must be prepared for increasing human rights abuses
as States and governments deal firmly with acts of terrorism. Terrorists,
be they Islamic terrorists, Naxalites, or groups with political ambitions
like the LTTE, are beginning to use arms and weapons and explosives capable
of inflicting maximum damage to property and extensive loss of innocent
lives. .....
The dull redbrick Writers' Buildings,
the administrative headquarters of the West Bengal Government in Kolkata,
is at present the scene of belligerency between the media persons and the
ruling Marxist Government in the State. .....
The sun has just set. About two
dozen people were sitting on a beach near a temple at Marad, a small fishing
village near Kozhikode in Kerala on May 2, 2003, and enjoying their rest
after a hard day's work in the sea. About 50 Muslims came in jeeps and
trucks, armed with long knives and pounced upon the innocent Hindus. .....
After a European Union poll found
that nearly 60% of Europeans consider Israel the greatest threat to world
peace, the British Broadcasting Corp. on November 26, asked if anti-Semitism
is really increasing. "There was outrage and shock over the recent EU poll,"
observed Robert Wistrich, director of Jerusalem's Vidal Sassoon International
Center for the Study of anti-Semitism. .....
The Students' Islamic Movement
of India, or SIMI, is a banned outfit in India. But across the eastern
border in Bangladesh, its activists are pampered guests - the hosts are
facilitating their training in subversion and interaction as well, with
the leaders of the Pakistan-based Azad Kashmir Front and the Al-Naseeran.
And all this, to de-stabilise Assam, West Bengal and other parts of India,
a recent classified Intelligence report said. .....
It was supposed to be a proper
nikaah ceremony but the bride refused to say "qabool" and the parents hurriedly
turned it into an engagement ceremony instead. .....
A submerged coastal city near Poompuhar
in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, is the focus of a major expedition being conducted
jointly by the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) and the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI). .....
Even as the two neighbours have
been offering diplomatic sops to each other, India has pulled off a major
victory over Pakistan and the European Union in a trade dispute before
the World Trade Organisation (WTO). .....
In response to former Malaysian
prime minister Mahathir Muhammad's address at the Islamic Summit Conference
on October 16, 2003, Bassam Darwish, editor of the U.S.-based liberal Arabic
site http://www.annaqed.com, wrote an article, titled "A Complex Waiting
to be Solved." .....
Why don't moderate Muslims speak
up in favor of President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair when they resolve,
"to crush global terrorists who hate freedom"? .....
"Patriarchy has struck with a vengeance,
unable to accept the fact that a woman can write and expose life behind
closed doors and talk openly about everything from religion to the sex
lives of 'well- known' men," was writer Taslima Nasrin's first reaction
when The Times of India called her in New York on Saturday on the controversy
surrounding her book Dwikhondito. .....
Last time devotional singer Krishna
Das played the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in Chelsea, its "Light" studio
was more crowded than a subway car during rush hour. .....
Hundreds of Christians who fled
Egypt to the United States claiming persecution under Islam showed up outside
a Southern California middle school yesterday to protest an extra-credit
assignment urging students to participate in the Muslim Ramadan fast. .....
Why does the popular culture -
including the movie industry - place such a powerful premium on downplaying
the obvious connection between international terrorism and fanatical Islam?
.....
Prominent Israeli personalities
such as novelist A.B. Yehoshua and strategic analyst Barry Rubin were among
the speakers earlier this month at the Toronto Jewish Book Fair. The biggest
draw, however, was a Muslim Canadian author calling for an Islamic Reformation
that would purge the Muslim world of antisemitism. .....
On November 30, 2003, Dr. Muhammad
Talal Al-Rasheed, columnist for the English language daily The Saudi Gazette,
wrote an article titled "Senseless Violence, Senseless Death." The article
is in reaction to the murder of Saudi Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al- Rasheed
of Hail by 'Islamists' in Algeria. .....
A string of arson attacks, under
investigation by a two-county task force, may be targeting members of the
Hindu faith, a leading member of a Houston-area Hindu temple says. .....
Permanent peace would come to Jammu
and Kashmir only after Pakistan's "mischievous designs" were neutralised,
the state's governor said here on Sunday. .....
Just as India's BSF charges that
Pakistani intelligence is working with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Abdullah
Al Madani of Gulf News writes that in fact, "Pakistan, through its madrassah,
fundamentalist parties, and Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, is helping
the Taliban remnants return to power, repeating exactly what was done in
the mid-1990s." And all this despite the Musharraf regime's claim to be
"doing everything it can to fight terrorism." .....
Cardinal Keith O'Brien called for
a national effort to re-Christianize Scotland and urged resistance to tide
of secularization, especially concerning the celebration of Christmas.
.....
Not long ago I happened to be on
a flight with BJP President Venakaiah Naidu. He was returning from Jodhpur
after campaigning for Vasundhara Raje and because the flight was a longish
one we got talking about this and that and during the course of the conversation
he mentioned that Sonia Gandhi treated the press with the contempt that
it deserved. .....
One of the world's most hunted
and wanted man Mullah Mohammad Omar, the supreme leader of the ousted Taliban
regime in Afghanistan, was spotted last week in the Pakistan border city
of Quetta. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai told this to the Times. He
accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to terrorism in its border region.
.....
Through a public interest litigation
filed in the Bombay High Court, Kewal Semlani, a Mumbai resident, has objected
to the sanction of Rs 86 lakh to an NGO run by the then minister for law
Vilasrao Patil- Undalkar. .....
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin has announced plans that could in effect ban Muslim women from
wearing headscarves in public institutions. .....
It has emerged after the conviction
of four Pakistani immigrant brothers of various rape charges that they
raped two teenaged Anglo- Australian girls "just for fun". .....
A few years ago, the Left Front
government invited Deepa Mehta to shoot in Bengal when she was hounded
out of Varanasi by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal for hurting
religious sentiments in the now abandoned film Water. .....
Religious minorities in Bangladesh,
an overwhelmingly Muslim country of 130m people, have been getting increasingly
nervous lately. In mid-November, 11 Hindus were killed near the southern
port of Chittagong when their house was burnt down. .....
Traffic at the JB Nagar junction
in Andheri (W), which joins SV Road to Link Road, came to a standstill
for an hour on Nov 20 when protesters from the Wadar Samaj (a Maharashtrian
community that buries their dead), placed a corpse in the middle of the
road. .....
Reduced to Ashes, a compilation
brought out by the Kathmandu-based South Asia Forum for Human Rights, claims
to contain irrefutable evidence of the state having carried out genocide
in Punjab. But investigations by Frontline reveal a different story. .....
