by Yoga Rangatia
The 'reserved' tag for a student from backward class may do his confidence
more harm than good. Over-emphasis on his caste makes him less motivated,
lowers his self-confidence and he expects societal prejudice to work against
him than if the caste remains anonymous, finds a one-of-its-kind sociological
experiment in rural Uttar Pradesh. .....
by Sanat K Chakraborty
Bangladesh is increasingly becoming a haven for Islamic fundamentalists
and terrorist forces, threatening not only its fledgling democratic structure,
but also causing grave security concerns for India. .....
by Jamie Doward, Urmee KhaN and Mahtab
Haider
Rivington House, Great Eastern Street, London EC1, is an unlikely conduit
for an operation to smuggle heroin. A nondescript block of smog-stained
concrete, jammed among sandwich bars and graphic design studios, it does
little to attract attention from the fashionable crowd in London's Hoxton.
.....
by Praveen Swami
Pakistan's Religious right is at war with itself, with clerics locked
in a mortal combat that could have more fateful consequences for the future
of the nation than any of the several crises that have enveloped it since
2001. .....
by Udayan Namboodiri
From a journalist's point of view, I have never seen anything like this
before. This is the phoniest election I have encountered in my whole life.
It's not just that everything is so low key in the West Bengal election
of 2006 (it's something like a cracker-free Diwali, what with the Election
Commission's strictures on use of wall graffiti and loudspeakers) but
even the involvement of the principal forces is so detached, so profane,
that one soon begins to suspect whether somewhere in a corner a time bomb
is ticking away. .....
by SP Singh
The neighbouring areas of National Capital that fall under western Uttar
Pradesh have turned into a haven for Bangladeshi illegal migrants. The
UP police and the local intelligence unit (LIU) officials have detected
a hub that has 50,000 illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in different
residential colonies adjacent to Delhi. .....
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Residents of the A-Tur neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem
on Friday prevented the burial of Muhammad Abu al-Hawa, murdered for allegedly
selling his house to Jews, in a local cemetery. .....
by The Pioneer
The police in Angul have stepped up security after receiving a red alert
from Intelligence Bureau, New Delhi, warning of a possible Lashkar-e-Tayyeba
(LeT) attack on National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plants. .....
by Udayan Namboodiri
In my last despatch, I'd talked about a certain insanity streak in our
politicians. The observation shocked many, particularly because it came
from a journalist who'd just crossed the great Rubicon between the observation
gallery and the ring. How, many wonder out loud, can it be that a nation
is led by loonies and semi-lunatics? .....
by Mayank Jain
Recently, I quizzed some students of journalism about the dates of the
Ayodhya, Delhi, Bangalore and Varanasi terror attacks. Many of them replied
rather vaguely. Contrast this with the American attitude. See how they
converted '9/11' to an international brand name. Its very mention evokes
images of suicide bombers, planes and Islamic terrorism. No wonder, there
has not been a single terrorist attack on the American soil after September
11, 2001. .....
by Soli J. Sorabjee
With the resignation of Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of the National Advisory
Council and from Parliament, the prime motivation for the proposed ordinance
probably no longer survives. However, it is not certain whether other
MPs will follow Sonia Gandhi's example. Nor is it certain that the proposed
ordinance will not be enacted. .....
by Praveen Swami
A March 17 encounter in Ahmedabad shows that the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen,
until recently thought to be defunct, has been reborn from the ashes and
has joined the growing Islamist terror campaign against India. A register
in the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's office in Islamabad lists the names of those
who gave their lives for its cause: 238 men who were killed fighting,
the forces of first the Soviet Union and then the United States in Afghanistan,
and another 433 in Jammu and Kashmir. .....
by S Gurumurthy
How after physically throwing out the reigning Congress president Sitaram
Kesari from the AICC office, Sonia took over as the president of the Congress
party in the year 1997 was live-televised all over the world. Again, when
the first Vajpayee government fell in 1988 thanks to Jayalalithaa, she
had openly worked to become the Prime Minister of the country. .....
by Pallavi Singh
On Wednesday, the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority (MRDPA),
the agency implementing the river's clean-up, is all set to begin its
most-daunting task: Demolishing thousands of illegal structures on either
side of the river. .....
by Yogesh Vajpeyi
Fresh evidence provides missing links: Jaitley ---- With the appearance
of fresh evidence, the noose appears to be tightening around former External
Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and the Congress Party. The Volcker Committee
had listed both as "non-contractual beneficiaries" of the Iraq
oil-for-food scam. .....
by Ruth Linn
The truth about the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was the best-kept
secret of the Nazi architects of the Final Solution, guarded from discovery
by more than 2,000 SS personnel, 200 vicious dogs, two lines of electrified
fences, and a terrorised, fearful Polish population living around the
camp. Throughout the five years of its existence there were hundreds of
attempts by prisoners to escape. Seventy-six of these were by Jews. .....
by BC Dutta
Many Muslims living in various Hindi-Urdu speaking States of undivided
India, who had endorsed the creation of Pakistan, migrated to East Pakistan
after partition. Owing allegiance to that country, they wanted to be repatriated
there; but with Pakistan refusing to embrace them, they eventually infiltrated
into West Bengal. Unfortunately in West Bengal, politicians helped them
obtain ration cards, which enabled them to sneak into the country's voters'
lists. .....
by The Pioneer
Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader LK Advani said on Tuesday that
if the Congress shuns minorityism in politics and governance, it would
set a firm foundation of cooperation with the BJP making common cause
with the Congress. .....
by The Economic Times
In what is seen as a clear disapproval of the Manmohan Singh government's
stand that tainted ministers should be "presumed innocent" until
conviction in the cases against them; the Supreme Court on Friday rammed
in the need for who1esome political response to the issue. .....
by Praveen Swami
Pakistan's Religious right is at war with itself, with clerics locked
in a mortal combat that could have more fateful consequences for the future
of the nation than any of the several crises that have enveloped it since
2001. .....
by Mandira Nayar
The Central Industrial Security Force unit at Mahipalpur in the Capital
had a very special early morning visitor this Sunday -- yoga guru Swami
Ramdev. Roping in the much talked about expert to make the men in khaki
posted at Delhi airport better at their job, a special yoga camp was organised
to teach the CISF functionaries the healing powers of "pranayam''.
.....
by News.com.au
A Sydney man plotted to bomb Sydney's electricity grid and various defence
sites in "violent jihad", a New South Wales Supreme Court jury
heard today. .....
by Outlook
Malaysian authorities have demolished a century-old Hindu temple in Kuala
Lumpur, bulldozing the building as devotees cried and begged them to stop,
Hindu groups said today. .....
by The Indian Express
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Orissa government to provide
police protection to a Muslim couple who were forced to separate after
local clerics issued a fatwa that they were divorced even though they
wanted to live together. .....
by Dharmendra Jore
The Maharashtra government's battle with state election commissioner Nandlal
over electoral duties has turned into a constitutional standoff. The government
has fired the latest salvo by getting the assembly to pass a breach of
privilege motion against Nandlal. The charge: Encroaching upon the legislature's
right to authorise elections for heads of local government bodies. .....
by Rediff.com
Last week, Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau, spoke about
the threat of Bangladeshi infiltration to India's internal security. .....
by Rediff.com
Ajit Doval is one of the most decorated officers of the Indian Police
Service. He is the first police officer to get the Kirti Chakra, the second
highest gallantry award after the Param Vir Chakra. .....
by The Indian Express
Questioning the power of judiciary in the affairs of Muslim community,
the religious body Darul-Uloom of Khargone district has issued a 'fatwa'
recently annulling the divorce decree by a court in Sendhwa town of Madhya
Pradesh in the Arjumand Bano case on the ground that the judge was a non-Muslim.
.....
by CNN News
A Georgia Tech student has been indicted for material support of terrorism,
and another Atlanta-area man has been arrested in Bangladesh in connection
with the case, authorities said Thursday. .....
by Balbir K Punj
What can be more astonishing between a saint confusing people and a rogue
speaking the truth? Two such unexpected observations became media bytes
recently. The Dalai Lama, on a month-long trip to the US and South America,
said at San Francisco and Chicago that Islam is a religion of compassion
which is being unfairly marginalised by few extremists. .....
by The Indian Express
US media is investigating claims by a senior foreign office official that
Pakistan spent thousands of dollars through its lobbyists to drop some
of the negative findings about the country from the 9/11 Commission report.
.....
by M V Kamath
The world "secularism" is unquestionably the most misused word
in the Indian political language. In the Indian context it means that
one must make a deep bow before the so-called minorities and give them
no offence. Artist Husain can draw vulgar and indecent pictures of Hindu
gods and goddesses, but one should not complain. One must take it in the
"right spirit". .....
by Premendra Agrawal
In the democracy every citizen is the king or badshah. But they should
not be Mir and Mirza: "The chess continues even as the British troops
march into the city until they have a fight over the game. Mir, who has
nearly shot Mirza and is ashamed of his behavior, says, 'We cannot even
cope with our wives, so how can we cope with the company's army?'"
.....
by Daniel Pipes
Who would have thought that Belmont University of Nashville, Tennessee,
would apply the Islamic law to its staff? But just that happened earlier
this month. .....
by Premendra Agreawal
Is Attorney-General Banerjee have given a clean chit to Navin Chawla,
saying Mr.Chawla had commeted misconduct when he was a bureaucrat? Should
PM Dr.Singh follow his innervoice or voice of Super PM? .....
by Mumbai Mirror
Underworld don and main accused in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts Dawood Ibrahim
continues to live in Karachi along with his brother and other wanted persons,
according to Mohammed Jabreel Khan, cook of Dawood's brother Anees Ibrahim.
.....
by Syed Khalique Ahmed
An Undercurrent of tension between two Muslim sects, the Deobandis and
the Barelvis, since Id-e-Milad flared into a riot on Friday afternoon,
injuring 48, including six policemen and two deputy superintendents of
police. .....
by Husain Haqqani
When Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke recently of a "treaty
of peace, security and friendship" with Pakistan, he inadvertently
highlighted the different visions of India-Pakistan relations prevailing
in Delhi and Islamabad. India sees normalization as a means of addressing
disputes and issues that have proved intractable over more than five decades.
.....
by Free Press Publication
A commission headed by Justice M. S. Liberhan probing the demolition of
the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya is "extremely disappointed" with
the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for not presenting its
side of the arguments. .....
by Rediff.com
The national highway between Roorkee and Hardwar will remain closed for
vehicular traffic on April 6 owing to the VVIPs' movement for the inauguration
of the first Yoga University at Hardwar. .....
by Organiser
Tribal converts to Christianity are not fit to head the community. Because
it is the headman who performs both the religious and administrative functions
for them. This landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on March 28, went
largely unreported and hence unnoticed. Perhaps only the Times of India
in Delhi carried this report. .....
by S Balakrishnan
Builders in Mumbai are up in arms over what they call extortion by touts
claiming to front for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). .....
by Yahoo News
Two influential Muslim clerics have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
to resolve the Kashmir issue, saying they would support Congress president
Sonia Gandhi's election campaign only if she took concrete steps in this
direction. .....
by Scotsman.com
A former Home Office minister has called for an MP to be put in charge
of counter-terrorism. John Denham, the Commons home affairs select committee
chairman, said a single minister should bring together all the policing
and intelligence issues. .....
by V Sundaram
The great difference between the real statesman and the pretender is,
that the one sees into the future, while the other regards only the present;
the pretender lives by the day, and acts on expediency; the statesman
acts on enduring principles and for immortality. What morality requires,
true statesmanship should accept. .....
by Udayan Namboodiri
Eminent citizens lay bare kolkata's capture by CPM------- "Capture
Kolkata", West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told
the CPI(M) cadres at a rally held in the State capital on February 13.
Four months later, the CPI(M) truly "captured" the Kolkata Municipal
Corporation. And how! .....
by The Times of India
Yet China is seeking that distinction as host of an international Buddhist
conference this week, an outgrowth of its increasing use of people-to-people
diplomacy and its newfound willingness to harness traditional beliefs
to ease social tensions at home. The gathering can "help overcome
questions about China's rise and destroy the absurd 'China threat
theory'," Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious
Affairs, told the forum organisers. .....
by Newly Paul
Business, believe environmentalists, is the main culprit behind the depletion
of tropical forests. Yet, few environment-friendly initiatives have come
from big businesses. So when Himanshu Sheth, a marketing consultant in
industrial products in Jamshedpur, got a project from Tata Steel to develop
an eco-friendly option for packing steel, he decided to set the equation
right. .....
by Sugata Srinivasaraju
Padma of Kylanchahalli in Ramanagaram taluk of Bangalore Rural district
is not an official meter-reader employed by the Bangalore Electricity
Supply Company (BESCOM). .....
by S.S. Gill
The HRD ministry's proposal to raise the reservation quota of students
in the professional institutions and central universities to 49.5 per
cent from 22 per cent has raised quite a clamour. But some important issues
have been lost in the debate. Nobody seems to be raising the basic issue
why we still require the crutch of reservations to enable students from
the deprived sections to stand on their feet even 60 years after Independence.
.....
by Organiser
Last month, Shri Chandrasekhar, Collector of Dharmapuri district in Tamil
Nadu, gave away Rs 1 lakh to Shri Muthuraj, panchayat president of B.
Chettihalli village, in appreciation of elimination of untouchability
in his panchayat under a state government scheme to promote social cohesion.
Till 1981, this village had the bad name for ill-treating harijans. .....
by KR Phanda
India has fought four wars with Pakistan and in all the four cases the
country has had an upper hand. Yet the issue of Jammu & Kashmir has
remained unresolved. Crores of rupees have been spent and thousands have
lost their lives. To remain in power has been the only concern, be it
the Congress, the Janata Party or the Bhartiya Janata Party. Since the
Hindu vote is fractured, every party has followed a policy of Muslim appeasement.
.....
by Zenit
An official with Aid to the Church in Need has voiced concern about the
massive and growing presence and influence of Protestant sects in Brazil's
East Amazon region. .....
by The Pioneer
Pressing the panic button following the Election Commission's sustained
bid to curb what the Left's political opponents dub as "scientific
rigging" in West Bengal, a delegation led by the CPI (M) on Sunday
tried to bulldoze the commission by complaining against its officials'
conduct. .....
by Rajinder Puri
It is common to hear in drawing room conversations these days how democracy
is being destroyed by rustic roughnecks. True, Laloo Yadav and compatriots
have established a precedent that no minister need relinquish office even
after arrest, unless convicted by a court of law. .....
by Varinder Walia
At least six frescos of Hindu gods, including Lord Rama and Lord Krishna,
which were unique specimens of the Sikh school of art of the Maharaja
Ranjit Singh era have been replaced with Sikh paintings during kar seva
at Darbar Sahib here. .....
by The Pioneer
Imam mastermind, five Jaish ultras arrested ---- Nine days after its sleuths
picked up Imam Waliullah, Pesh Imam of Phoolpur Mosque in Allahabad, the
Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police claimed on Wednesday
that it had bust the terror module behind 3/7 serial bombings in Varanasi.
.....
by Syed Zarir Hussain
Come elections and the Muslims in Assam become the darling of all political
parties. And the scene is no different this time, with the State currently
in election mode. .....
by Yahoo News
Archeologists have discovered a huge 1,500-year-old pre-Hispanic pyramid
in a working class district of Mexico City after digging into a hill used
every year to depict the crucifixion of Christ. .....
by Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Is there a link between monetheistic religions and intolerance and hostility?
As Jean-Pierre Lehmann argues, monotheistic religions have caused much
turmoil throughout history - and continue to do so today. What is needed
is a new global ethical and spiritual role model, and in his opinion,
the best candidate to fill that spot is India. .....
by Deccan Chronicle
Over 6,000 acres of urban lands belonging to the "gods" are
being put up for auction by the endowments department. This decision was
taken after the department realised that land sharks had no fear of the
gods and were grabbing even "divine" property. After the endowments
department expressed its inability to protect the lands, the government
gave the green signal for the auction. .....
by P. Raman
For a whole one week last month, the entire political elite behaved as
if a severe disaster had befallen on this great nation. The Manmohan Singh
government suddenly decides to suspend the Parliament session sine die;
drafts an urgent ordinance literally at midnight; a panicked BJP sees
ghosts of a second emergency intended to save another authoritarian Mrs.
Gandhi; and the latter retaliates with her second renunciation. .....
by The Pioneer
Man playing with Constitution: BJP ---- The BJP on Saturday said Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh 'can go to any extent to save his chair' and accused
him of working like "an extra-constitutional authority" creating
impediments in the constitutional process. .....
by Vijay Dutt
Some madrassas in Pakistan have been accused of nurturing terrorists and
suicide bombers, but the charge by Muslim leaders in Britain that up to
100,000 of schoolchildren from the community are being exposed to physical
and sexual abuse by their religious teachers here every year, has shocked
the authorities. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Each time I am in Orissa, I make it a point to update myself on the latest
buzz on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. This time, an official told me
the tale of the Chief Minister's visit to R Udayagiri, the district that
was the scene of a Maoist attack on a police station. .....
by The New Indian Express
The celestial wedding of Lord Rama and his consort Sita at the Ramachandra
Swamy temple was soul-soothing for the thousands of devotees who gathered
here for the event on Friday. .....
by Majid Jahangir
The largest indigenous Kashmiri militant group, the Hizbul Mujahideen,
has now come out in the open to slam Islamabad saying the General Pervez
Musharraf government is "harming their cause." .....
by Balbir K. Punj
I keep on getting mails and e-mails - approbating, enquiring, or critical
- from my readers. I normally respond at an individual level. I never
thought that one of these could become the theme of a column. But recently
one Nazar Ahmed Khan, resident of Civil Lines, Aligarh, who apparently
keeps a tab on my column in the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, has sent me
a missive running into five pages. .....
by The Times of India
During the last 16 years of militancy; the Indian Army has convicted 134
personnel and officers found guilty of committing human rights abuses
against civilians in Jammu and Kashmir. .....
by Krishnedu Bandyopadhyay & Falguni
Banerjee
The Opposition (read the Trinamul-BJP combine) is hot potato in Arambagh
sub-division of Hooghly district. "It's safe to drop it as quickly
as possible," says Anup De, a lawyer who practises at the Arambagh
sub-divisional judicial magistrate's court. .....
by The Times of India
Indefinite curfew was on Tuesday imposed after a clash between people
of two communities over the Mahavir Jayanti procession being taken out
in the walled city of Pali in Rajasthan in which at least 10 people were
injured. .....
by Ritu Sarin
In what could severely embarrass investigative agencies on the trail of
the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal in which former Foreign Minister Natwar
Singh lost his job, one of the prime suspects and the "mastermind"
behind the money transfers, Aditya Khanna, has quietly left India for
London. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Each time I am in Orissa, I make it a point to update myself on the latest
buzz on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. This time, an official told me
the tale of the Chief Minister's visit to R Udayagiri, the district that
was the scene of a Maoist attack on a police station. .....
by Balbir Punj
At around 10 in the night of September 8, 2005, an act of comic terrorism
took place in Ernakulam, Kerala. A Tamil Nadu State Corporation bus running
on inter-State route was boarded by five men armed with handguns and knives.
They were raising slogans for the release of a dreaded terrorist from
Kerala lodged in a jail in Tamil Nadu. .....
by Vijay Dutt
Some madrassas in Pakistan have been accused of nurturing terrorists and
suicide bombers, but the charge by Muslim leaders in Britain that up to
100,000 of schoolchildren from the community are being exposed to physical
and sexual abuse by their religious teachers here every year, has shocked
the authorities. .....
by The Pioneer
The worst fears about the UPA Government selling out to Pakistan and thus
severely compromising our national interest seem to be coming true. It
now transpires that National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, during an
unpublicised meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Dubai
(of all places!) has conveyed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's eagerness
to pull out troops from Siachen Glacier. .....
by The Times of India
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf-facing pressure to crack down
on foreign extremists hiding out in Pakistan-ordered all foreign militants
to leave the country or be killed. .....
by The Hindustan Times
The re-emergence of the Mandal regime a la Arjun Singh has not gone down
too well with the concerned parties - educators and students. .....
by Nick
The Miguel Covarrubias book Island Of Bali talks about how Christian missionaries
have tried over the last 200 years to convert the Balinese. Balinese culture,
family life, daily life and social organization are all inter-linked with
the Agama Hindu religion and its is hard to imagine anyone converting.
Last year I talked to a young Mormon from Salt Lake City USA who was on
a RTW trip. .....
by The Daily Star
Of all the growing menaces in the society, we find fatwa an institutional
dictate of self-proclaimed religious leaders. Exploited by a handful of
self-styled religious clerics particularly in the rural areas of the country
this has become a matter of grave concern. Their actions in turn often
are supported by vested groups of socially influential people of concerned
localities. In most cases a fatwa implies blatant violation of basic rights
of women in particular. .....
by The Daily Pioneer
The Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) is understandably concerned over the mushrooming
of 1,900 madarsas on both sides of the India-Nepal border in the recent
past. Particularly significant is their proliferation - 800 in number
- on Nepal's side of the border. Muslims constitute a minuscule part of
that country's population and though they are concentrated along the India-Nepal
border, the size of their population hardly warrants such a massive sprouting
of these seminaries. .....
by The Free Press Journal
The Congress Party spokesperson, Abhishek Singhvi, was one hundred per
cent certain that the post of chairperson, National Advisory Council,
of the ruling UPA alliance was not an office of profit. Singhvi iterated
that most unambiguously on several occasions prior to the resignation
of Sonia Gandhi from the Lok Sabha last Thursday. .....
by R.S. Narayanaswami
A mammoth gathering of Hindus has called for a total ban on conversions
and cow slaughter, enactment of a uniform civil code and crushing of Islamic
terrorism. The Hindu Resurgence Conference organised by the Tamil Nadu
Vishva Hindu Parishad in association with the Grama Kovil Poojaris Conference
at Erode on March 19 demanded a legislation to facilitate the reconstruction
of Shri Ram temple at Ayodhya. .....
by The Hindustan Times
Six Harkat-ul-Jehad al Islami (HUJI) terrorists, including the mastermind
behind the Varanasi blasts, had hatched a conspiracy to blow up the two
Hanuman temples' in the city on Ramnavami, state police's Special Task
Force sources said. .....
by Secular-Right.blogspot.com
These are random thoughts of mine based on previous reading. I do not
refer to any specific text per se. The history of the Marxists in India
has been one of repeated betrayal of the country. They have let India
down time and again when it came to the clash of interests with the Soviet
Union or China. Their political loyalties lay outside. .....
by Amita Verma
In a major breakthrough in investigations in the Varanasi blast case,
the special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday arrested
Waliullah, the man who had masterminded the entire operation on March
7 that left 20 people dead and over 60 injured. .....
by hpi.list@hindu.org
On the night of April 5, 2006, the new temple being constructed in Maple
Grove by the Hindu Society of Minnesota was vandalized. Vandals broke
in to the 43,000 square feet facility and damaged the religious deities
and several other areas of the temple, including the auditorium, dining
hall and classrooms. The temple, in its final stage of construction, was
scheduled to open to the public in June 2006. .....
by Balbir K Punj
The beeline that 'secularists' of various hues - the CPI(M), Congress
and Muslim League - are making to the Coimbatore Central Jail to pay their
political obeisance to Abdul Nasser Madani will astonish only the uninitiated.
The jailed jihadi reportedly masterminded the February 14, 1998, Coimbatore
serial blasts that killed 59 people, but narrowly missing the main target,
then BJP president LK Advani. .....
by M.V. Kamath
When will we ever have structured, mature, objective reporting - and editorial
writing? Yes, we do need heroes and we have them in plenty in the film
and sports worlds. But the trouble is that everything that they do is
so hyped-up that when they fail they get slapped in the face in the most
undignified manner. .....
by Sanjay Singh
The UP Special Task Force (STF) today claimed the March 7 Varanasi blasts
were carried out by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI) of Bangladesh
which has links to Pakistan's Jaish-e-Mohammed terror organisation. .....
by Pradeep Thakur
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), investigating the money trail in the
'oil-for-food' scam, has finally tracked a sum of Rs 8 crore transferred
from London-based NRI businessman Aditya Khanna's bank account to his
own NRI account in a Delhi bank. .....
by The Indian Express
Four kg of gold and Rs 3 crore in cash are found in a car at the Kalwa
checkpost. The driver has no transaction papers, but the police let him
go-on the intervention of Home Minister R R Patil. .....
by Daily Times
More than 1,500 Christians protested in Tibba Shomali in Mian Chunnu tehsil
against the burning of the Bible and other sacred texts by four Muslims
on Tuesday. .....
by M.V. Kamath
What on earth is the matter Muslims in the Indian sub-continent? And when
one speaks of the subcontinent one includes under that rubric all three
countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. .....
by Sonia Gandhi
This month we have seen two remarkable and related achievements that will
go a long way in making our nation a long-term and prosperous economy.
The first is the budget that the UPA government presented this year. The
budget has focused on those areas of our economy that still need strong
state intervention. These are the flagship programmes of the Congress
Party and have also found agreement within the CMP. .....
by V Sundaram
Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-1953) was a great scholar, an ardent
Hindu nationalist and an outspoken Parliamentarian. He was born on 6 July,
1901 in a Brahmin family with a very high social standing in Bengal. From
his parents Sri Asutosh Mukerjee and Jogmaya Devi, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee
inherited a splendid saga of erudite scholarship and fervent nationalism.
.....
by Neeraj Chauhan
"The use of sophisticated weapons by militants is not new. But the
recovery of Luger pistol from a terrorist in Delhi has happened for the
first time," said a senior police officer. .....
by BBC News
It simply depends on the faith of its thousands of Hindu devotees who
run a unique voluntary courier service to faithfully deliver the fruit
every day without fail. .....
by Rajinder Puri
The current crisis over the Ordinance controversy impels one to recall
events. On May 16, 1999 The Statesman carried a report which said that
former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had attempted to set up a joint training
programme between Indian and Italian intelligence agencies. .....
by Baya Agarwal
When his daughter Shama (16) didn't return from her stitching class at
the usual time on Saturday night, Khushyal Khan (37), an accountant with
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, realised something was amiss. .....
by S Balakrishna
Tiger Memon, the most wanted accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case,
whom Indian intelligence agencies have been trying to track down for the
past 13 years, has been spotted in Dubai. According to intelligence sources
in Delhi, the gangster has opened a restaurant in the Emirates city in
partnership with a prominent Mumbai restaurateur. .....
by Sudneendra Tripathi
The spirit of revolution smoulders beneath the foundation of this sea-facing
building. Named after the legendary revolutionary, the Swatantrya Veer
Savarkar Air Rifle Club at Shivaji Park has come up with a coup of sorts.
.....
by The Hindustan Times
The Swaminarayan Hindu Mission in South Africa hosted a spectacular premiere
of the film "Mystic India" with children dressed in traditional
Indian outfits welcoming viewers by showering them with flower petals.
.....
by Surjit S Bhalla
There are some things I would like to understand, but am unable to. Ms
Sonia Gandhi recently resigned from her Parliament seat amid much acclaim
and felicitations for her "sacrifice". But it was just yesterday
when her government was planning to bring in an Ordinance at the midnight
hour (tried quite successfully by her mother-in-law, Mrs Indira Gandhi,
when she imposed the Emergency some thirty years ago) just to protect
her from her "sacrifice". .....
by Deccan Herald
An activist of militant outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba, who had received training
in Pakistan, has accidentally fallen into the police net here on Thursday.
.....
by Jonathan Wald
The star witness in Britain's biggest terror trial since the September
11 attacks began giving evidence Thursday, detailing how he joined the
jihadist movement. .....
by Rediff.com
Around 1900 Islamic seminaries have come up on both sides of the Indo-Nepal
border in recent times and security agencies are keeping a close watch
on 50 or 60 "sensitive" ones among them, Director General of
Sashastra Seema Bal Tilak Kak said on Friday. .....
by Brendan Lyons
The spiritual leader of an Albany mosque repeatedly called a phone number
in Syria that an FBI report indicates had been used to gather terrorist
intelligence for Osama bin Laden, according to classified documents unsealed
late Tuesday in U.S. District Court. .....
by Soli J. Sorabjee
With the resignation of Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of the National Advisory
Council and from Parliament, the prime motivation for the proposed ordinance
probably no longer survives. However, it is not certain whether other
MPs will follow Sonia Gandhi's example. Nor is it certain that the proposed
ordinance will not be enacted. .....
by Wilson John
Barring the hype, Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia'S three-day visit
to India will only be remembered as another sore point in the history
of India-Bangladesh relations, pockmarked largely by bitterness and feud.
.....
by Ramananda Sengupta
Citizens generally were free to practice the religion of their choice;
however, police often were ineffective in upholding law and order and
slow to assist members of religious minorities who were victims of crimes.
Religiously motivated discrimination and violence -- including killings,
rapes, attacks on places of worship, and forced evictions -- remained
a problem. .....
by Anuradha Dutt
Secularism, by its very definition, hinges on a non-partisan approach
to all religions. But, sadly, in the lexicon of the Indian secular lobby,
the term is generally equated with Hindu-baiting and Muslim minorityism.
Other minority groups such as Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists tend to be ignored,
since their worldview derives from Hindu dialectics. .....
by Patrik Jonsson
If a new law passes, it would be the first state to establish the Bible
in its public school curriculum in modern times. Decatur High School student
Kurt Hughes wouldn't call himself religious. He's never even read the
Bible. .....
by The Pioneer
The interrogation of Pesh Imam of Phoolpur, Imam Waliullah, who was picked
up by sleuths of Special Task Force in connection with the 3/7 Varanasi
terror bombings, has established his links with Jaish-e-Mohammad, confirmed
a senior police official in Lucknow on Thursday. .....
by PT Bopanna
The nation remembered former Chief of the Army Staff 'Soldiers' General
KS Thimmayya, who had almost settled the Kashmir issue as far back as
1948, on his birth centenary on Friday. .....
by Mehul Kamdar
Some years ago when the Narasimha Rao government presided over one of
the biggest incidents of fraud in Indian history, the Harshad Mehta scam,
a friend joked that the scam would feature in the newspaper until a cricket
series came up, following which the attention of both the media as well
as that of the Indian people would be diverted to this new tamasha. .....
by Irfan Husain
In the recent parliamentary debate on foreign policy, speaker after speaker
lambasted the government, comparing the far-reaching nuclear deal with
India announced by President Bush in New Delhi with his homilies in Islamabad.
.....
by Pramod Kumar
Minorityism is nothing but vote-bank politics and it will not benefit
the minorities at all, rather it will further deteriorate their condition.
It was the unanimous outcome of a day-long seminar on Minorities and Minority
Rights. The seminar was organised by India First Foundation in association
with the Chetanya Kasyap Foundation in New Delhi on March 19. Noted jurist
Shri L.M. Singhvi, former Lok Sabha general secretary Shri Subhash C.
Kashyap and Shri Arif Mohammad Khan were among the prominent speakers
at the seminar. .....
by The Free Press Journal
Self-flagellation is still considered an easy route to martyrdom among
certain African tribes. Whether it will keep up the tempo in Rae Bareli
is doubtful. Sonia Gandhi has no doubt learnt a lot from Indira Gandhi's
grand-standing posture. But Indira Gandhi also knew to adjust it to the
changing audiences, views and political climate. .....
by Organiser
Sonia Gandhi must be regretting having allowed herself to be persuaded
to join politics at the instance of small-time political operators who
had no bases of their own but wanted to use their perceived proximity
to her for self-aggrandisement. .....
by Ethel C. Fenig
The liberals were right: our civil liberties are slowly disappearing now
that George Bush is president. Of course most of the liberals not only
seem to approve of these infringements on our freedoms they initiate them-all
in the name of the highest ideals of liberalism. Political correctness
and sensitivity and all that. And all in the name of religion. But only
one religion-Islam. .....
