The earth quake that hit the East
Coast line on December26, 2004 did extensive damage to many places
of Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai, Pondichery, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam
and Kanniyakumari. Tremors were initially felt around 6.30 in the
morning. But around 8.45 a.m., the sea water raised upto 10
mtrs. .....
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's
admission that at least a part of the Centre's development fund for the
Northeastern States goes to finance terrorist activities there, hardly
comes as a surprise. The fact has been known for decades to people familiar
with developments in the region. .....
The National Cancer Institute (NCI)
of USA on Monday said it was looking at collaborating with the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for multi-centric trials of a homeopathic
cancer cure protocol developed by a city-based homeopath duo, making it
the first such alternative medicine to be tested by the coveted global
body. .....
Piqued over the peace prayers at
the local Jamia Masjid in non-descript hamlet of Danwakote in Rajouri district,
militants last night abducted and slit the throat of the Imam of the mosque,
sparking off a huge protest demonstration in the area. .....
Muqtedar Khan of the Brookings
Institution has announced, in a recent article in the Daily Times of Lahore,
the coming into existence on Dec. 13, 2004, of yet another organization
of American Muslims claiming to be moderates. .....
It is the 23rd day since the Deepawali
eve of Kali Samvat 5105 and the incarceration of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadhipati
Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamiji. The Acharya continues
to be in jail pending the consideration of his second bail application
in the High Court of Chennai. Hearing on the application began on Monday,
November 29. .....
Since politics fortunes are made
as much on the strength of perceptions as ground realities, conventional
wisdom has it that the Congress-led UPA Government is sitting pretty and
that it is the opposition BJP which is confronted by existential turbulence.
.....
In 1989, over 4,000 multi-storeyed
houses stood tall on the banks of river Vitasta (Jhelum) in the heart of
Srinagar. Bustling with life, all these belonged to Kashmiri Pandits. Today,
all that remains of them is burnt shells and rubble with overgrown vegetation,
while some have been occupied by Muslims. .....
A gentleman is also known by the
people he shuns. Given some of the company the gentleman Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh keeps, there is every danger of his own clean image going
for a toss. For, it is not enough for the PM to be personally clean; the
onus that his ministers too adhere to the minimum acceptable norms of good
conduct clearly lies with him. .....
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa
has hit out at her political opponent Karunanidhi for the twin somersaults
made by him through his inconsistent successive reactions to her order
to arrest Kanchi Shankaracharya Swami Jayandera Saraswati. She laments
that he is resorting to all these with the only intention of besmirching
the fair name of her government. .....
The day the people were preparing
for the Deepawali festival, the Tamil Nadu police arrested Jagadguru Shankaracharya
Shri Jayendra Saraswati at midninght from Andhra Pradesh on fictitious
ground. .....
The Vanvasis, incorrectly equated
with adivasis or 'original inhabitants' have made an enormous contribution
to India's civilisation: all the major gods of the Indic tradition have
Vanvasi links. Even caste, long regarded as the keynote of Hindu society,
possibly originated in the Vanvasi clan or gotra. It was the British who
first made the claim that India's so-called Vanvasi population lay beyond
the pale of mainstream Hindu society. .....
I am not holding a brief for the
Kanchi Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswati. I can understand the Tamil Nadu
police, now at the receiving end of countrywide criticism of its handling
of the issue, is human enough to overshoot its attempt to nail its prey.
But certain things seem to jar on any reasonable ears even if you concede,
for argument's sake, that the police has a case. .....
Thousands of people held a procession
last week to protest the arrest of Swami Jayendra Saraswati, Jagatguru
Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamkoti Peeth. The people gathered at Subodh Mallick
Square of central Kolkata, from where the march began to end at Rani Rashmoni
Road. A large laminated photograph of Swami Jayendra Saraswati was displayed
at the site. .....
Earlier it was a faint sugggestion,
but now it is clear that the chief proof of being considered secular is
an attack on the Hindus. As a result, the majority of members of the Hindu
society have come to believe that this nation belongs only to the minorities,
that is, the Muslims. .....
"Everyone is equal before law".
This is what the 'seculars' keep saying whether the issue is the Ram temple
in Ayodhya or the arrest of the Sankaracharya. Let us see how equal the
law has been in 'secular' India. .....
There is a concerted roar from
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and State CPI-M Anil Biswas in favour
of fighting the Naxal menace politically. Concurrently there is a mew from
the Left Government's approved musclemen, the police, in favour of taking
on the Red terror. .....
The Benny Hinn Ministeries, headed
by controversial evangelist Benny Hinn, announced that they are expecting
over 10 million to attend a miracle show in Bangalore, India slated for
January 21-23, 2005. Known as "The Festival of Blessings", Hinn supposedly
performs miracles such as talking to the dead and curing audience members
of ailments. Following the show, Hinn attempts to convince audience members
to convert to Christianity. .....
The understanding and living of
a "healthy secularity" is the first challenge faced by religious freedom,
says the Vatican secretary for relations with states. .....
I want to bring the attention of
the authorities concerned to extremism at the campus of Peshawar University.
On Monday I visited the university's central library where I was surprised
to see newspapers and magazines of banned organizations duly stamped by
the librarian, with the instructions that they should not be torn since
they belong to the library. .....
Days before she was due to be married,
Ghofrane Haddaoui, 23, refused the advances of a teenage boy and paid with
her life. Lured to waste ground near her home in Marseilles, the Tunisian-born
Frenchwoman was stoned to death, her skull smashed by rocks hurled by at
least two young men, according to police. .....
Pakistan's education reforms, which
really mean modernising and de- radicalising the existing madrassas (Islamic
seminaries), will now remain under sharp and direct American focus following
the passage of a bill through both houses of Congress on 20 November. .....
Tom Wolfe's new novel about a young
student, "I am Charlotte Simmons", is a depressing read for any parent.
Four years at an Ivy League university costs as much as a house in parts
of the heartland-about $120,000 for tuition alone. But what do you get
for your money? A ticket to "Animal House". .....
One of the great strengths of Hinduism
is that it is not an organised religion rigidly structured on verse and
chapter of a single holy book. Hinduism accommodates in its fold both believers
and non-believers, iconoclasts and idol-worshippers, liberals and conservatives.
It is at once amorphous and intense, reverent and irreverent, ancient and
modern. .....
Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy
urged people to imbibe the love and compassion displayed by Jesus Christ
towards his fellow beings. Addressing a mammoth gathering of people who
congregated at the Polo Grounds in Secunderabad as part of the Twin Cities
Prayer Festival, the Chief Minister said that Jesus felt love was the solution
to every problem, and His teachings were very valid in the present times.
.....
The Hindu Students Council (HSC)
strongly condemns the manner in which His Holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswati
Swamiji, the Shankaracharya of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, was arrested
on November 12, 2004. .....
For the past 3 days, Sri Jayendrar
has not been given his medications. There are fears that he may be
killed in Velur prison itself. Therefore, the President should intervene
to protect his life requests Supreme Court Senior Advocate MN Krishnamani.
In a telegram to the President. .....
Wolfgang Bruno is an author writing
a book about the Internet movement of ex-Muslims. All of Bruno's essays
can be freely published and reprinted by anybody who wants to. .....
The leftist inclined Indian media
has once again shown signs of lacking professionalism by its irresponsible
conduct in the Kanchi issue. By over emphasizing on the baseless
allegations and refusing to highlight the facts which it finds undesirable,
the media has tried to portray the issue in a manner which suits
their ideological interests. .....
The fact that the culprits responsible
for the awful massacre of 59 Dalits in Bihar in 1997 have still not been
brought to justice - as a news series just begun by the Express underlines
- is a grim reminder of both the ineffectiveness of our criminal justice
system, and the sordidness of the politics that surrounds such massacres.
Horrendous violence and brutal exertions of power against Dalits are routine
to politics in many states. .....
How do we sum up Manmohan Singh's
first six months as Prime Minister? Lots of words and little concrete action.
His one clear strategy seems to be a single-minded focus on surviving for
a full five-year term, and if this means waffle and timidity, so be it.
Optimists will call this prudence. Pessimists will call it funk. .....
Maulana Qureshi's, who is also
Secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, is reported to have
said that the demolition of the structure at Ayodhya "is the blackest incident
in the history of the country" and that "it will not be forgotten till
justice is done and the rule of law is established". .....
The comrades in Red are reinventing
Aurangzeb. In their wisdom, they are suggesting to the UPA government to
collect a cess from temples in India. Couched in the words 'places of worship',
they have cited Vaishno Devi, Tirupati, Golden Temple, Amritsar and such
shrines. .....
Even before Sourav Ganguly and
his boys could leave for Bangladesh for scheduled matches in Dhaka and
Chittagong, newspapers were seized of genuine concern over the cricketers'
safety following a fax message from 'Harkat-ul Jihad' received at the Indian
High Commission, saying "Thank you (for the team's visit) for an opportunity
to take revenge, just like the Israelis were killed by Palestine (sic)."
It also mentions the death of Muslims in the Gujarat riots of 2002. .....
Senior Supreme Court lawyer M N
Krishanmani is a deeply religious man. Author of a book called Shankara,
a treatise on Adi Sankara and the institution of the Shankaracharya, spirituality
for Krishanmani is a way of life. .....
The Kuwaiti progressive scholar
Ahmad Al-Baghdadi, a political science lecturer at Kuwait University,
recently published several articles in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa,
denouncing religious thought and praising secularism. .....
After 15 years in "exile", my brother-in-law
is beginning to hope he will get to see his ancestral home in Srinagar,
the capital of Indian-held Kashmir, by next summer when the crocuses will
be in full bloom. .....
If it had been even a primitive
nuclear weapon that hit the World Trade Center three years ago, hundreds
of thousands of people would have died instead of fewer than 3,000, and
the free society we enjoy almost certainly would have been a casualty as
well. .....
It would be folly to treat the
threat issued to the Indian cricket team by a terrorist organisation based
in Bangladesh as posing danger only to the players. The threat issued by
Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) poses a direct and serious danger to India
because, despite denials by the Bangladesh Government, it is clearly an
indication that terrorist groups affiliated to the Al Qaeda have made Bangladesh
an operational base. .....
The news that the Asom Gana Parishad
(AGP) has begun talks with the United Minority Front (UMF) for an electoral
tie-up during the State Assembly polls due in 2006 would rate as the most
bizarre pre-election alliance imaginable. At the same time it also serves
to underscore the fact that anything is possible in politics - especially
in Indian politics. .....
For Left outfits, Communist camaraderie
comes before the interest of the nation. If a resolution, which was defeated
in the students' council of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, is anything
to go by, the Communists of the world must unite. Unbelievable as it may
sound, at the first council meeting of JNU Students Union (JNUSU), Left
outfits voted against a resolution condemning China for repeatedly showing
Arunanchal Pradesh as not being a part of India. .....
Vellore, Dec6- kanchi Seer's advocate
has been denied permission to meet him in the jail. The Seer's lawyer
Sri.Krishnaswmy had been meeting him daily. Even on holidays he was
allowed to meet the seer. Meanwhile he had submitted a request for
meeting him on Saturday and Sunday. But the jail authorities have
denied him permission. .....
Don't look for enemies outside
for there is a siege within. The task force report on internal security,
formed after the Kargil war, says about 45 per cent of India's geographical
area, covering 220 districts, is in grip of insurgency of some kind. .....
Sehrunnisa Sheikh, mother of prime
witness in the Best Bakery case, Zaheera Sheikh, was on Thursday held guilty
of contempt of court by the special court conducting the retrial in Mumbai.
.....
A nation has security, Walter Lippman
notes, when it does not have to sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid
war, and is able, if challenged, to maintain them by war. It must be clear
to any objective observer of the trajectory of developments in this country
that India does not meet these criteria, and that its leadership has not
even begun to imagine the task of building them into a national vision.
.....
We are back to the incorrigible
Laloo Prasad Yadav again. The Railway Minister in the Government of gentleman
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, seeks attention in ways which cannot but
reflect poorly on the ragtag ruling UPA. Yet, neither Singh nor his controller-cum-
boss, Sonia Gandhi, seems to have either the courage or the inclination
to discipline him. .....
Two meta or transformational trends,
exported from Bangladesh, pose a real danger for the entire eastern slice
of India. These are: One, the infiltration of mllions of Bangladeshi Muslims
who have now spread all over India, and, two, Taliban-type Islamic terrorism
manned by fundamentalist cadres. .....
Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi,
who has been arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder case,
has complained to the NDA team that called on him of "mental and psychological
torture" while in police custody and has denied making any confessional
statement. .....
Four Islamic institutions are being
investigated for spreading militant Islam through visiting scholars from
Japan, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, and
the Maldives following a protest from a South East Asian nation. .....
Two cases were registered by police
yesterday against BJP Tamil Nadu unit secretary H Raja, MLA, on the charge
of making an "inflammatory and provocative speech" at a public meeting
organised in connection with Ganesh Chathurthy at Karaikudi on September
20 last. .....
The presence of the Bangladeshi
writer Salam Azad as a visitor to the Sixth North East Book Fair at Guwahati
is indeed serendipitous for the people of Assam. This is because the Bangladesh
Government is too full of lies when it comes to the issues of large-scale
illegal migration of Bangladeshis to the North-east and of the presence
of a large number of camps for the training of insurgent groups from the
North-east in Bangladesh. .....
The leftist inclined Indian media
has once again shown signs of lacking professionalism by its irresponsible
conduct in the Kanchi issue. By over emphasizing on the baseless
allegations and refusing to highlight the facts which it finds undesirable,
the media has tried to portray the issue in a manner which suits
their ideological interests. .....
"Is the government aware that the
government of the United States of America has circulated a document earlier
which seeks to alienate the north-eastern region from the country?" The
question by Dr Vijay Mallya was listed for discussion in Question Hour
in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, but was suddenly pulled out of the list
of starred questions and placed in the unstarred category. .....
The most encouraging thing in this
"tamasha" created by the arrest of the Shankaracharya in Tamil Nadu was
the 70-year-old spiritual leader's clear instructions to his followers
not to pursue his bail application to the Indian Supreme Court. I wish
he had refused to move any bail application, even in the lower courts.
.....
India at a heavy cost of men, money
and materials helped the people of Bangladesh in its liberation from Pakistani
bondage. Since its birth in December 1971, our country has been providing
assistance in various ways. The Ganga waters treaty of 1996 is a glaring
example. .....
CM Vilasrao Deshmukh stated in
the legislative assembly on Tuesday that Arthur Road jail superintendent
Swati Sathe had on Monday informed special judge Abhay Thipsay, who is
hearing the Best Bakery case in Mumbai, of a plot to poison the 17 accused
who are lodged in the jail. .....
More than a year has gone by since
President George W. Bush declared promotion of democracy in the Muslim
world as one of the key objectives of US foreign policy in the 'greater
Middle East'. The US went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, partly to create
models for pluralist democracies for neighboring Muslim states. .....
The Musharraf-led military government's
decision to allow the country's top intelligence agency, the Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI), to recruit its own civilian officers without going
through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), has literally given
absolute powers to a spy agency that is already perceived by many to be
excessively intrusive in national politics. .....
Shabina (name changed), a nursing
attendant and CPM activist, had hoped one of her party leaders would get
her a better job. Instead, she was sold off to flesh traders in Kashmir.
All this happened in the heart of the town at Taltalla, a stone's throw
from CPM headquarters at Alimuddin Street, where the mandarins were busy
flaunting the suddhikaran (purging) programme against errant partymen.
.....
The people of India have warm feelings
for Bangladeshis. The bilateral turf has witnessed many significant
developments which would go a long way in promoting peace, security
and economic ties in South Asia. However, good news does not make
headlines in the media-problems invariably do.There are some aspects
in our relations which engender these. .....
On Wednesday, the Patna High Court
had the right idea. To source the anarchy that blows through Bihar, it
sought a peep into the prisons where powerful dons and petty criminals
have been housed, presumably to keep them well isolated from pursuing any
mischief. That impromptu raids ordered in Bihar's 55 jails would turn up
mobile phones and other prohibited material was perhaps expected. .....
The Inter-religious Council of
Russia has denounced a recent "Food of Life" campaign organized by Russia's
Hare Krishna community where members handed out vegetarian sweets to veterans
and the disabled in a Moscow district. .....
"Policemen probing Sankararaman
murder case threatened to kill me if I did not confess to the crime," said
Chinna alias Rajnikanth, one of the prime accused in the murder case. The
threat was not once, but twice, he added. .....
Muhammad Shahrour, a layman who
writes extensively about Islam, sits in his engineering office in Damascus,
Syria, arguing that Muslims will untangle their faith from the increasingly
gory violence committed in its name only by reappraising their sacred texts.
.....
As Swami Jayendra Saraswati stoically
braves the onslaught of secular oppression unleashed by an unholy
alliance of Government and media, it is clear that his tormentors
have no case, have failed hopelessly in their nation-wide fishing
expedition, but are nonetheless determined to keep him incarcerated. .....
Escaping the stress of clogged
roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland's once celebrated way
of life, the Dutch middle classes are leaving the country in droves for
the first time in living memory. .....
DMK president M Karunanidhi today
criticised investigating officials for allegedly trying to link film actresses
in the Sankararaman murder case, in which Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi
has been arrested. .....
Sir-While repealing POTA, Home
Minister Shivraj Patil has said the strict bail provisions of the law went
against normal practices of jurisprudence and that an accused should get
bail, till his trial begins to be conducted. One is indeed bewildered at
the Minister's warped sense of justice. .....
We are back to the incorrigible
Laloo Prasad Yadav again. The Railway Minister in the Government of gentleman
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, seeks attention in ways which cannot but
reflect poorly on the ragtag ruling UPA. Yet, neither Singh nor his controller-cum-
boss, Sonia Gandhi, seems to have either the courage or the inclination
to discipline him. .....
In an interview to rediff.com,
Prosecutor for Tamil Nadu, KTS Tulsi said of those who show support for
the Kanchi Sri Sankaracharya: "For them, a Brahmin is above the law." Ignore
for now the fallacy that a sanyasi is bound by varna - that is a question,
I am unqualified to discuss. There is something else there that Mr. Tulsi
got wrong. It is not that we claim our Dharmacharya to be above the law.
.....
Abdul Matin, one of the prime accused
in the Ghatkopar blast in December 2002, was on Tuesday granted interim
bail on a personal bond of Rs five lakh by a special court here. .....
Union home minister Shivraj Patil
has said the Centre will make a distinction between illegal Bangladeshis
who are living in this country for a livelihood and those fomenting insurgency.
.....
A group of extremists recently
attacked the Catholic church of St. Francis of Assisi in Mathal,
Diocese of Kottar, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. .....
Dharampal, the well known Gandhian
and historian of Indian Science, has given a detailed accounts of the extensive
indigenous system of education that was thriving in India before the British
came in his famous book, The Beautiful Tree. .....
An alleged plan by the Dawood gang
to eliminate the 17 accused in the Best Bakery case, currently lodged in
Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai, has been foiled by the jail authorities.
.....
Kripashankar Singh was a man in
a hurry, at least a month before the Assembly elections. The Assembly polls
were scheduled for October 13. But just before the poll code could be enforced
in mid-September, Singh, in his capacity as Minister of State for Home
in the Democratic Front government, approved an unprecedented 349 arms
licences in a month. .....
"That All Peoples May Know Him"
is the theme for this year's season of prayer for international missions
in Southern Baptist churches across the country. For the next five days,
Baptist Press will feature stories and photos that highlight the challenge
of reaching the masses in India with the Gospel. .....
Underscoring the immense knowledge
base of India's farmers, with regard to agricultural practices, climate,
soil and water use, Mangala Rai, Director-General of the Indian Council
of Agriculture Research (ICAR), on Monday called for marrying scientific
tools with ancient wisdom. .....
The President of Pakistan came
to Westminster yesterday to tell us why we should love him. General Pervez
Musharraf may have been feeling a little insecure for he is, technically,
a dictator. I feel rather bad pointing this out, because no one else did
so yesterday. .....
Columnist and auditor S. Gurumurthy
was today questioned by the special police team investigating the Sankararaman
murder case in connection with a series of articles he had written in an
English daily on the case. .....
"The Bhagavad Gita is not as nice
a book as some Americans think. Throughout the Mahabharata... Krishna goads
human beings into all sorts of murderous and self-destructive behaviours
such as war... The Gita is a dishonest book; it justifies war. ...I'm a
pacifist. I don't believe in 'good' wars." .....
The United States is selling the
theory that the Pakistan-based nuclear proliferation ring has been broken
up and its mastermind, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has been "brought to justice".
He is under house arrest in Pakistan. Unfortunately, as much as the Bush
administration would like to wish away the Khan issue, it continues to
dog two of the biggest foreign- policy crises for the US. .....
The BCCI has deferred the departure
of the Indian cricket team to Bangladesh for a two-Test tour after its
players were issued a death threat by little-known Harkat-ul-Zihad in a
letter to the Indian High Commission here. .....
A splinter group of the Abu Salem
gang is now targetting Bollywood producers for the overseas rights to their
films. The latest victims of this group are said to be film-makers Yash
Chopra and Ram Gopal Varma who released Veer Zaara and Naach respectively
this Diwali. While Veer Zara, starring Shah Rukh Khan, has been a hit in
almost all territories in India, Naach, featuring Antara Mali, has been
a moderate success. .....
There is a thin line dividing sanity
from insanity. The great leader of the casteist forces in Bihar, Laloo
Prasad Yadav, took pride in crossing that line last week in Parliament.
On the first day of the winter session of Parliament, Yadav and some of
his crime-scarred MPs went to great lengths to recycle the garbage that
had earlier spewed forth from the mouth of a woman who, through a quirk
of good fortune, had once been married into the Advani family. .....
Bashir Ahmad 'Golu', one of the
three men who made 27 unemployed Kashmiris pose as militants and ''surrender''
to the Army last month by promising them government jobs and ''a meeting
with Sonia Gandhi'', is now blaming leaders of his own party, the Congress,
for the hoax. .....
In India, the ancient land of the
Hindus, 80 per cent of the population is Hindu. Our peaceful life of millenniums
was disturbed by foreign invasions. Unlike the Huns, Sakas, etc., the waves
of Islamic onslaughts could neither be thwarted nor the invaders be absorbed
by us due to their strong religious identity, well-knit organisation and
their military might developed by conquering countries enroute to Bharat
and also their merciless and cruel disposition towards adversaries. .....
The Political vendetta is now clear
as daylight. The tide seemed to turn slightly, with the Kanchipuram magistrate
refusing to grant the prosecution request to extend the police custody
for Kanchi Sankaracharya Shri. Jayendra Saraswati on November 22. But on
November 26, he sent the Acharya for another 15 days judicial custody.
.....
The arrest and subsequent incarceration
of the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswati has understandably
evoked editorial attention in the English media but througout all the hundreds
of words written on the subject runs the refrain that the law must take
its course. An event such as the arrest of a Shankaracharya interestingly
enough, is the first in the annals of the rule of law. .....
Tripura State Police & Tripura
State Rifles arrested one Sravanjoy Reang alias Subaljoy, Saranjoy or Sunny
Reang active cadre of ATTF (All Tripura Tiger Force, a well known terrorist
group) on last 19th July this year in a joint move from Gandachera village
of Tripura. .....
Anti-Hindu forces are determined
to pursue their divisive policies and actions. They are at work all the
time spreading canards about Hindu nationalism and making all out efforts,
each in its own way, to weaken the Hindu society. Their aim is political
domination and personal glorification, even if national unity and glory
of India is the cost. .....
When the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister,
Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy allowed the Gujarat police to nab an alleged ISI
agent, Maulana Naseeruddin from Hyderabad and within a few days helped
the Tamil Nadu police to apprehend Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati
from one of the Telengana districts, how can he or his police be faulted
for any partisan approach? Obviously not. His hands were 'tied' as revealed
by him as he had to uphold the rule of law. .....
To slurry the image of the Hindu
society, which is showing signs of awakening after a deep slumber of centuries,
all the anti-Hindu forces, both indigenous and foreign, appear to be ganging
together. A campaign of calumny is being unleashed against all Hindu revered
icons. .....
The culture troopers of the Nehru-Gandhi
variety are back in full force, restyling and modifying the style errors
of the recent past and encoding their own brand of aesthetics in public
imagination. .....
Will some Congress notable kindly
enlighten the general public as to what exactly is meant by secularism?
Is it related strictly to religion? Can one be casteist and still be secular?
.....
Thanks to the wedding of Suresh
Kalmadi's son, Sumeer, the village of Gorhe Khurd is rejoicing. Host to
the Congress MP's sprawling guest house, Jalsimha, this village of about
1,000 residents is witnessing the true meaning of development. And that
too on the fast track. .....
How do we sum up Manmohan Singh's
first six months as Prime Minister? Lots of words and little concrete action.
His one clear strategy seems to be a single-minded focus on surviving for
a full five-year term, and if this means waffle and timidity, so be it.
Optimists will call this prudence. Pessimists will call it funk. .....
Contradicting Union home-minister
Shivraj Patil's contention of sixty per cent reduction in terrorist infiltration
in Jammu and Kashmir, the army says a figure between five-ten per cent
is more accurate, and officers are disconcerted by the UPA government's
decision for general troops reduction from the state. .....
In his deposition before the Marad
Judicial Inquiry Commission here today, the former Director General of
Police (DGP) K.J. Joseph said that the then Kozhikode South Zone Assistant
Commissioner of Police (ACP), Abdul Rahim, had failed to investigate and
take prompt action in the seaside village of Marad. .....
So it is not only the leftists
of various persuasions who routinely twist the arms of the gentleman Prime
Minister to extract their pound of flesh. No, even other still smaller
constituents of the ruling UPA are aping the Commies to bully the politically
frail Manmohan Singh to carry out their dictates. .....
With her smoke and honey voice,
22-year-old Ale Metha is almost the Norah Jones of Nagaland. She counts
among her fans even state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who often calls the
young schoolteacher to sing at functions. .....
On Monday, the prosecutors had
told Madras High Court that Jayendra Saraswati had long early morning conversations
with Usha, a "deserted woman in Srirangam", to whom substantial sums of
money had been transferred. The suggestion was that she was involved in
the murder of temple manager Shankar Raman in which the seer is the first
accused. .....
The sidewalks of the prestigious
Fifth Avenue near Central Park, right in the heart of New York City, reverberated
with the slogans: "Santon Ka Apmaan -- Nahin Sahenge, Nahin Sahenge", "Hindu
Persecution -- No More, No More", "Enough is Enough", and "Release our
Shankaracharya -- Right Now, Right Now". .....
His Holiness Jayendra Saraswati's
arrest and imprisonment as a common criminal will have far-reaching repercussions;
in due course it will become a watershed in the history of India. .....
An FBI team which is touring India,
Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Armenia has found intelligence of a pact
between local Chinese authorities in Xinjiang and some Al-Qaeda members.
According to the unwritten agreement, Al-Qaeda members may stay in Xinjiang
so long they don't support the East-Turkistan separatist movement. .....
Sporadic incidents of violence
occurred in different parts of the district today as a sequel to the clashes
between CPI(M) and IUML workers here yesterday in connection with the public
reception to the Industries Minister, P. K. Kunhalikutty, organised by
the IUML district committee. .....
The Bihar government's offer of
a reward of Rs 3 lakh for vital information regarding the November 19 kidnapping
of two top National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) officials involved
with developing the state's rural roadways says it all, coming as it does
in the wake of the Diwali day murder in his Patna clinic of medical practitioner
Dr N K Aggarwal who had been sent a series of extortion notes by thugs.
.....
In a relief to Shiv Sena supremo
Bal Thackeray, the Supreme Court today set aside a Mumbai High Court order
of 1997 convicting him for contempt of court for levelling bribery charges
against a judge in his Dussehra public speech at Shivaji Park in Mumbai
in 1996. .....
Twenty four hours later it turns
out that Usha is a cancer patient for 15 years and has undergone radiation
therapy 130 times, yes 130 times! That Jayendra Saraswathi was giving financial
help to her. Her name was mentioned by the police in the court as a possible
accomplice of the Acharya! The police obviously knew that that the `woman'
angle would also malign him. .....
A new study by a Harvard professor
has found that terrorism is not caused by poverty - thus further undermining
the main premise behind international aid to Arabs of Judea, Samaria and
Gaza (Yesha). .....
Police resorted to lathicharge
to disperse the rampaging Youth Congress workers, who attacked the
Guruvayur police station demanding the release of a youth on Tuesday.
.....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
on Thursday alleged that Superintendent of Police Premkumar, heading the
special investigation team probing cases involving Kanchi acharya Jayendra
Saraswati, was a ''tainted officer'' with a ''shady background.'' .....
Muslim quota in paramilitary forces
---- The BJP on Thursday charged the Manmohan Singh Government with taking
a decision on reservation for Muslims that could have divisive effect in
the country. .....
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate,
S. Narayana Kurup, will inquire into a complaint that the Thampanoor Circle
Inspector, Sharafuddin, sent a false message on the police wireless with
the intention of getting mediapersons arrested during the recent violent
incidents in front of the RSP(B) office here. .....
In his anxiety to please, prime-minister
Manmohan Singh has submitted more than necessary or desired. In a tiny
reshuffle, which saw the return of an alleged murderer, Shibhu Soren, into
the cabinet, but no overdue changes, Shivraj Patil moved to a less onerous
ministry, or Pranab Mukherjee upgraded to home, or general performance-
related movements, the PM made a controversial concession. .....
After spewing venom on the Americans
and the infidels for their so-called attacks on Islam, jihadis in Pakistan
are now imparting "violent lessons" aimed at targeting Hindus. .....
The lack of a popular reaction
among Hindus following the Kanchi Sankaracharya's arrest has made "Hindu
passivity" a fashionable phrase among the commentariat again. Depending
on their ideological proclivity, commentators have either been wistful
or snide about the majority community not taking to the streets or even
conducting agitated conversations in drawing rooms. .....
If we look at the pattern of attacks
on Hindu Mutts/ Peeths/Ashrams etc, it becomes clear that whenever
a Hindu order or saint becomes popular, they become the target of
the Anti-Hindu forces.They unleash canards and use thw media effectively
to do it's dirty job. .....
A meticulously organized effort
is under way to make the people suspect Swami Jayendra Saraswati,
the most revered head of the Hindu Religious Centre, Kanchi Kamakoti
Peetham, as a murderer. Let the court decide whether he is the one
or not. It is not my point. .....
The Kanchi seer's arrest at 10
pm during the Diwali celebrations in Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh was
cleared by the Union home minister, Shivraj Patil, after speaking to the
Congress leadership, which did not include prime minister Manmohan Singh.
.....
Usha, a woman from Srirangam, wanted
by police for interrogation in connection with the Sankararaman murder
case, in which Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi was arrested, on Tuesday
"presented herself" before the police here. .....
The bodies are anonymous, rotting
in the shallows of the Straits of Gibraltar. The fortunate ones are dragged
out for a hasty burial. They are Africans trying to make it to Europe,
betting their lives on a nine-mile ride, thousands losing that bet each
year. .....
Expressing "outrage" over the arrest
of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Sarswathi, several Hindu religious and
political organisations and the Sikh Sangat of America held a demonstration
near the Indian consulate in New York demanding the seer's release. .....
