by The Times of India
We live in a world increasingly dictated by divisiveness-within marriages,
between brothers, in the education system. So, it's refreshing when one
of the finest mind explorers this country knows pays homage to the idea
of connectivity. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Speaking as an Indian in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi invoked the hopes
of Kalawati, a struggling villager from Vidarbha. "Nuclear energy,"
he said, "is going to act like Kala's main crop and act as an insurance
policy in times of need." There were just 22 individuals who ensured
that Kalawati's dreams were not dashed last Tuesday evening. .....
by Assam Tribune
Believe it or not, an infiltrator with a Pakistani passport had gone to
the extent of contesting the Assam Assembly polls in 1996. This unprecedented
incident was brought to the fore by the two judgements passed by the Gauhati
High Court that ordered deportation of 50-odd illegal Bangladeshi settlers
recently. .....
by Kingshuk Nag
Four days after the Ahmedabad blasts, Bangladesh is emerging as the deadly
link to the bloody affair. The connection is not only through the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam
(HuJI), the terrorist organization based in Bangladesh which is believed
to have masterminded the operations in cahoots with members of the disbanded
SIMI. .....
by Rediff.com
The state Crime Investigation Department on Tuesday arrested a hardcore
activist of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba from Murshidabad district in West Bengal
along with a laptop and gelatine sticks. .....
by Sushanta Talukdar
The Gauhati High Court has said that Bangladeshis in Assam had become
the kingmakers and "a strong political will to free Assam from illegal
Bangladeshi[s] is the need of the hour coupled with public activism in
that direction." .....
by Francois Gautier
I have often been accused of being a 'Right-winger', a 'saffron journalist',
a 'Hindu-lover'. Actually I am proud to be a lover of the Hindus -- 850
million in India, a billion in the world, one in every six humanbeings
on this planet. .....
by Gujarat Information Bureau
Modi requests the Prime Minister for strengthening the Security and Intelligence
Network across the country Narendra Modi reiterates his suggestion and
insists for strong political will and national strategy to fight terrorism
Gujarat will fight it out, but the centre must help and lead Gujarat's
security concerns being overlooked by the Centre .....
by TN Raghunatha
After the Interpol Protocol (IP) address of an e-mail sent purportedly
by Indian Mujahideen -- which claimed responsibility for Saturday's serial
blasts in Ahmedabad and warned the authorities about fresh attacks in
Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra -- was traced to a Navi Mumbai apartment,
the State Government on Sunday put the country's commercial capital and
communally-sensitive towns of Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Aurangabad on a high-alert.
.....
by B Raman
India continues to bleed at the hands of jehadi terrorists, indigenous
as well as from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Not only has the indigenous component
been on the rise, the religious dimension of the jehad has assumed predominance
over the political, economic and other elements. .....
by Syed Zarir Hussain
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is planning to outsource
terror by hiring foreign mercenaries or Islamist terrorists to carry out
violent strikes in Assam ahead of Independence Day, says a top police
official. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
If ethics, morality, propriety and ordinary decencies are kept aside,
the Trust vote victory last Tuesday evening was one of the most successful
operations ever mounted by the Congress and its UPA allies, with a little
help from intelligence agencies. In converting a 10 MP deficit into a
19-vote majority, the Manmohan Singh Government showed managerial skills
of a high order. .....
by The Hindu
The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a petition questioning the constitutional
validity of a legislation providing annual financial assistance to Muslims
going on the Haj. .....
by Walid Phares
Many in the West and in other regions of the world were impressed by the
issuing of a fatwa (Islamic theological edict) condemning Terrorism by
one of the leading religious centers in the Muslim world, the Darool-Uloom
Deoband in India. An Islamic seminary said to have 'inspired' the Taliban
has, according to the said document denounced "terrorism" as
against Islam, calling it an "unpardonable sin." .....
by The Indian Express
Terror is pathology. But so it seems, in India, is the government's response
to terror. The one score and some serial bombs in Bangalore and Ahmedabad
were met with cringe-inducing official harrumphs from Delhi that warnings
had been given. It is time to ask what the Union government means when
it says warnings were available. .....
by The Indian Express
Investigations into the blast in an empty Hubli courtroom in May this
year could have been a deterrent to the recent serial blasts in Bangalore,
feel experts. "Terrorism and blast-related cases need sustained investigations.
Even if results are not forthcoming, the constant process of inquiry helps
in many ways. .....
by The Indian Express
Even as terror struck at soft targets across India for two successive
days, the Q Branch wing of the Tamil Nadu police on Sunday claimed to
have busted a terror module that was planning to orchestrate blasts in
Chennai and a southern district. One person has been detained in connection
with the case. .....
by Johnson T A
A black trunk containing explosive materials and 32 live detonators, believed
to have been planted by the perpetrators of the serial blasts in Bangalore,
has been recovered on the Bangalore-Mysore highway nearly 60 km from Bangalore,
providing more possible physical evidence for the July 25 explosions in
the city. .....
by Preetu Nair
An institute teaching foreign students how to speak English shouldn't
be a security concern. But, then again, schools teaching students how
to fly planes weren't in the pre-9/11 era. The fact that there is an institute
in Goa with 42 Yemenese students, all with poor attendance record, has
security agencies alarmed in the wake of the consecutive serial blasts
in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. .....
by The Times of India
Intelligence officials says that Tamil-Nadu based Al Umma, which was behind
the 1998 Coimbatore blasts, also known to have a presence in Bangalore,
shares the same ideology, purpose and motive like the SIMI. .....
by Prashant Dayal
The job offer came when his father, a cop himself, died with his boots
on. That was in 1995 when Rakesh Yadav had barely entered the Gujarat
police force. His family told him to reject the offer to join the bomb
disposal squad. .....
by The Times of India
Yash Vyas is nine and cannot comprehend what terrorism is. But, Yash now
lies in hospital, critically ill, a victim of the gruesome terror attacks
in the city on Saturday. And he is still unaware that his father died
in the blast and his older brother, all of 12, is fighting with death.
.....
by The Times of India
Recent terror attacks have marked a significant change in the modus operandi
of jihadis where they have shelved the use of RDX and replaced it with
locally available fertilisers and TNT, intended to mask Pakistan's signature
on the explosives. .....
by The Times of India
Saturday could easily have been much darker for Gujarat had terrorists
managed to carry out their entire plan to wreak havoc in the state. A
day after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, the Surat police found two WagonRs,
abandoned in different parts of the city, loaded with enough explosives
and devices to make bombs double the number of those that went off on
Saturday. .....
by Ashish Vashi
He was among those who wanted to save the blast victims, but Paresh Panchal
(38) didn't know that death was waiting for him at the Civil Hospital
where he voluntarily went to donate blood. .....
by ExpressIndia.com
The Hindu community in Pakistan has expressed concerns at the increase
in incidents targeting the life and properties, including places of worship,
of the Hindus in the Islamic nation. .....
by Dina Nath Mishra
The track record of Hindus in the country is exemplary as far as its secular
history is concerned. Here, Dr Manmohan Singh is Prime Minister; his community
is hardly two per cent of the total population. A Muslim gentleman, Hamid
Ansari, is Vice-President. He, too, comes from a minority community which
is 13.5 per cent of the population. .....
by Francois Gautier
Since time immemorial smaller nations without a strong soul, or which
are on the decline, have copied -- - and often blindly aped -- the strong
prevailing civilisations of that moment. In that manner, when Rome was
at its peak satellite nations copied the Roman style of democracy, clothes,
food, mannerisms .....
by B S Raghavan
There is no need for any fumbling guesswork as to who were behind the
lethally orchestrated Bengaluru and Ahmedabad blasts that have taken place
on successive days. The perpetrators, calling themselves the Indian Mujahideen,
have declared a no-holds-barred war on the Indian State by brazenly sending
e-mails to that effect to the security establishment and the media. .....
by The Times of India
Two days after sixteen blasts ripped through Ahmedabad city killing 49
and wounding more than 200, new leads are emerging in the case. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Last Tuesday, the Lok Sabha was adjourned shortly after 4 pm when three
BJP members made their dramatic charge that the UPA Government had used
cash to break the Opposition. Around 5.30 pm, when it was still unclear
how the rest of the proceedings would be conducted, a senior BJP leader
got an unusual message from a senior Cabinet Minister. .....
by Swati Das
Experts on Ramayana denying the claim of the Centre that Lord Ram had
destroyed the Setu, have stated that nowhere in Ramayana is such a thing
mentioned .....
by Dr. Joginder Singh
'Making hey while the sun shines' is an old saying. But in the present
climate of raging corruption in the country, not only the powers-that-be
make a lot of hey (or money) but are not hesitant to distribute a part
of it, to stay out of trouble. .....
by Bharat Putra
Jeevan's parents came to school seeking admission to him. The parents
were seated on the chairs and the Headmaster started to fill up the application
form. .....
by Joseph Gathia
The goodwill and determination of poor Christians constitute limitless
resources that cannot be suppressed by highhanded manners. They cannot
be treated as slaves by following politics of a Church turned an empire.
.....
by Joseph Gathia
As per 2001 Census, there are 24 million Christians in India which is
2.3 per cent of the total population of 1.2 billion. Among the Christians,
16 million are Catholics and the rest belongs to other denominations.
In eastern India, nearly 80% people of Nagaland and Mizoram are Christians.
They belong to different tribes. .....
by Joseph Gathia
The poor tribal Christian woman was crying. I could hear it on the phone.
Reason: Her daughter did not get admission in any Christian school including
the one run by Catholic Church. The only place she got admission was Saraswati
Sisu Mandir, a kindergarten school run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
.....
by Mumbai Mirror
Violence flared up in Srinagar on Saturday as 30 people, including a dozen
policemen, were injured as protesters demanding allotment of land in the
Kashmir valley to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) pelted stones
and threw arson. .....
by P Pavan
Tension prevailed at the heart of Hyderabad on Saturday when an MLA intimidated
officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation by opening fire in
broad daylight. .....
by Mateen Hafeez
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's nephew, Sajid Wagle, has been targeting
cable operators in several areas of south Mumbai including, Mohammed Ali
Road, Null Bazar and Dongri. .....
by Pradeep Thakur
With the Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts
- its third "success" after the UP court blasts and the Jaipur
mayhem - questions are being asked about its pedigree. .....
by Matthew Rosenberg
An obscure Islamic militant group warning of "the terror of Death"
claimed responsibility for bombings that killed at least 45 people and
authorities stepped up security Sunday after India's second series of
blasts in two days. .....
by The Times of India
The deadly serial bomb blasts on consecutive days in Bangalore and Ahmedabad
have shown that the terrorists are confident of striking at will. But
what's the message they are trying to send? .....
by B Raman
Thirty-eight innocent civilians are reported to have been killed and over
100 injured in 16 serial blasts which struck Ahmedabad on the evening
of July 26. This is the third state ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party
to be struck by jihadi terrorists, who have remained unidentified by the
police and intelligence agencies so far. .....
by BJP.org
Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) has written the
following letter today to Shri Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker of the Lok
Sabha, in connection with the whistle-blowing operation by three BJP MPs
to expose the "Cash-for-Votes" scandal .....
by Kanchan Gupta
There's something obnoxious about the anchors of 24x7 news channels, headquartered
in Delhi, that makes you feel nauseated and infuriated at once. Apart
from pretending to know all and being disdainful of those with a contrarian
(and substantive) point of view, they also try to impose their tuppence
worth of opinion and vacuous concern on viewers. .....
by Sify.com
The serial blasts in Bangalore may bring back to focus the probe into
three bomb explosions that rocked the Andhra Pradesh capital last year
killing over 50 people. The investigators into the terror acts are yet
to make any breakthrough. .....
by Sheela Bhatt
One of India's highly experienced sleuths who is an expert on Pakistan,
told rediff.com that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence has strengthened
its bases in Nepal and Bangladesh after General Kiyani took over as Army
chief. .....
by The Indian Express
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said there is one mastermind
terrorist organization or nation triggering the blasts in different parts
of the country. .....
by Sify.com
Little known terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility
for the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, is behind the earlier serial bombings
in Jaipur and in three towns of Uttar Pradesh and had even sent out prior
warnings on all three occasions. .....
by News Today
Government's counsel Fali Nariman while arguing the case has claimed that
Bhagwan Rama himself, after defeating Ravana and rescuing Seetha, had
destroyed the bridge constructed by the Vanara Sena, so that, no one could
come from Lanka. .....
by T R Jawahar
The MPs are quite a privileged lot. Ayes or nays, they have it good either
way. And choosing the middle path of abstinence is even more rewarding,
as some of them would have discovered on 22 July. The post of an MP, intended
to be an office of service to the people, had long back morphed into an
office of profit (CTC -- Cost to Country per MP per Year is Rs 32 lakh,
by a conservative estimate); but now it is an office of fortune, thanks
to newer opportunities. .....
by The Hindu
Attacking the Centre for its recent affidavit filed in the Supreme Court
saying Lord Ram himself destroyed the Ramsethu, VHP on Thursday accused
the Congress-led UPA government of insulting the feelings of crores of
Hindus. .....
by The Pioneer
Soon after winning the trust vote the UPA Government seems to be in a
hurry to reward those who voted in its favour. Nothing else can explain
the remarkable absurdity of the latest stand of the Government in the
case of the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, at present before the
Supreme Court, other than an attempt to please ally DMK. .....
by News Today
The Speaker of Lok Sabha was summarily dismissed by his party for going
against its diktat. When Somnath Chatterjee celebrated his 80th birthday,
in normal circumstances it would not have been reason enough for the visit
of high profile politicians particularly from the UPA to his house. .....
by Ashok Ganguly
It was certainly not diplomatic, but it was spot on. At the time it was
said, it was felt that George Fernandes, India's defence minister in the
National Democratic Alliance government, had committed a diplomatic faux
pas. He had declared that China was India's biggest enemy. Considerable
embarrassment and indignation followed. .....
by Tom Peterkin
The radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza has been refused permission to appeal
to the House of Lords over a decision to extradite him to America on alleged
terrorism charges. .....
by The Indian Express
By every account, July 22 has been one of the most dramatic days in the
50-odd years of our Parliament. The tabling of bundles of cash on the
floor of the Lok Sabha was so predictably unexpected that it simultaneously
invited revulsion and suspicion. .....
by The Pioneer
The Congress has reason to celebrate, as has the Prime Minister. Having
accomplished the task of mustering a majority in Parliament after being
reduced to a minority, the UPA Government can now continue to be in office.
It has overcome the immediate threat of losing power following the Left's
decision to withdraw support over the surreptitious manner in which the
contentious India-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement is being foisted
on the nation. .....
by The Times of India
Speaking a day after the trust vote, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
L K Advani said that cross-votings and abstentions helped the UPA government
win the trust vote in Lok Sabha. .....
by Jagdamba Mall
The revolutionary leaders of China dared western countries. They challenged
the foreign rule. Finally, they attained independence. When the rule of
China came into the hands of national revolutionary leaders, they paused
for a while and over-hauled complete administrative set-up and evolved
such a system which was best suited to them. .....
by Mini Pant Zachariah
On July 1 this year, despite the heavy downpour, some girls from the Dharavi
slum trudged to the Kishori Project, a Federation of Gynaecologists Society
of India (FOGSI) initiative, to participate in a painting competition.
The theme was close to their heart: Save the girl child. .....
by Sanjeev Pargal
Intelligence agencies were reported to have written to External Affairs
Ministry seeking action against a Netherlands based Non-Governmental Organisation
(NGO), a Kolkatta based female Professor, an Ahmedabad based Advocate
and a host of "anti-India Indians" who have joined hands not
only to carry out strong anti-India propaganda in Europe but were also
found in raising funds for terror outfits operating in Kashmir. .....
by Qaiser Felix
The district of Muzaffargarh rules in favour of the Muslims, rejecting
the request from the family that wants to bring home the two sisters -
13 and 10 years old - kidnapped last June 26. Christian associations charge
that they could end up as prostitutes. .....
by Vasundhara Sanger
It's a vision that would melt the heart of the staunchest atheist. And
it must be one of its kinds in the world; at one time, millions of people
walk in Waari- a holy pilgrimage in Maharashtra. It's perhaps, the world's
longest pilgrimage. Remarkable, in over 700 years of Waari tradition,
no stampede or chaos has ever taken place. .....
by News Today
'Narada Gana Sabha' was jam-packed and overflowing on Sunday, with the
religious elite of Chennai that had poured in to listen to Swami Dayananda
Saraswathi's luminous eloquence on a subject of imperative importance:
Do all religions have the same goal? .....
by Sandhya Jain
As Delhi courts grapple with a petition seeking a ban on the publication
and distribution of Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati's magnum
opus, Satyarth Prakash, it may be pertinent to recall Sri Aurobindo's
tribute: "In the matter of Vedic interpretation I am convinced that
whatever may be the final complete interpretation, Dayananda will be honoured
as the first discoverer of the right clues. .....
by Con Coughlin
The biggest threat to the West is not al-Qa'eda, Afghanistan or Iran,
but the country that, thanks to its laxity, has become the terrorists'
chief hideout and breeding ground .....
by Syed Saleem Shahzad
From thinly disguised insinuations against Pakistan following the suicide
attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul this month to outright accusations
against Islamabad by the Afghan government over the unrelenting Taliban-led
insurgency, the blame game has entered a critical time: a major regional
battle could erupt in a matter of days. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
Addressing a large public rally - hordes still turn out to gawk at her,
marvelling at her high-pitched English and stilted Hindi, pallu firmly
in place a la Mrs Indira Gandhi, amma to millions south of the Vindhyas
- in the boondocks of Nellore last week, Congress president Sonia Gandhi
made a solemn promise to the unwashed masses of India. .....
by Times
In New Delhi last week, one member of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Cabinet
was heard to remark: "War is inevitable." In Islamabad, President
Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan spent the better part of a 40-minute television
speech railing against the Indians, whom he accused of "whipping
up a war frenzy." .....
by Free Press Journal
A few months before the Emergency, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi put the
dreaded Maintenance of Internal Security Act in the statute book. She
said that it was required in the national interest. .....
by Irfan Husain
Imagine a world without joy: a world in which music, dancing and art are
prohibited; where women have been declared non-persons and banished from
public view; and where games and sports of all kinds have been banned.
.....
by M.V. Kamath
Can't we for once behave like decent human beings respecting each other's
rights and elementary needs? Kashmiri Muslims and their political parties
must be ashamed of themselves, if, that is, they have any conscience.
Recent events have shown that they have none. .....
by Ashoka Gupta
Ashoka Gupta, who passed away on July 8, 2008 at 95 years age, was engaged
in intensive relief work in riot-scarred Noakhali in 1946. She and many
others like Sucheta Kripalini, Renuka Roy and Sneharani Kanjilal took
instructions from Mahatma Gandhi and tried their utmost to help the persecuted
and ravaged minority community. .....
by Andrea Castillo
Walk through the halls of the University of Chicago's Graduate School
of Business during the school year, and along with students cramming facts
for macroeconomics and operating strategy you may encounter some students
stretching their bodies and doing something really unusual for business
school students: relaxing. .....
by The Hindu
"Indus Valley civilisation and Vedic civilisation are not two different
civilisations but the former was only an urbanised version of the latter,"
historian Suryanath U. Kamath said here on Sunday. .....
by The Hindu
The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to create a separate department
for Christians on the lines of minorities welfare department. .....
by Saurav Basu
So, Manmohan Singh has finally cast the die which has stumped both the
NDA and the left. The Samajwadi party which in 1998 refused to support
the congress coalition has proved the old adage that in politics there
are no permanent friends and enemies. Dwindling electoral returns in UP
has forced it to commit compromise and retain its identity in Indian politics.
.....
by Manoj C G
Trust the Left to take the moral high ground and not let facts get in
the way. A year ago, jailed RJD MPs Pappu Yadav and Mohammed Shahabuddin
helped the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil become the first woman President
by casting their votes in a crunch situation. .....
by Sreeram Chaulia
After two decades of calm in large-scale popular movements, Indian-administered
Kashmir recently witnessed mass demonstrations and protests against the
state government's decision to transfer forest land to facilitate a Hindu
pilgrimage. .....
by Upananda Brahmachari
One Nationalist Party and some Hindu Organisations called Nation wide
Hartal on 3rd July, 2008 upon the issue of denial of lands already assigned
to the Amarnath Shrine Board By the J&K Government. Upon the issue
the Hurriat Conference, PDP and some other 'anti Indian' - 'anti Hindu'
force created an earlier violence in the society, even upon the guest
pilgrims came to Kashmir for paying homage to the holy shrine of Amarnathji.
.....
by IBNLive.com
MPs in prison are suddenly in big demand. The parties that once distanced
themselves from MPs upon their conviction are now chasing them for support.
.....
by Dr. Satish Kumar
There is fresh spurt of violence in different districts of Bihar, especially
Jehanabad and Gaya. A few top leaders of Naxal Outfits have been nabbed
in the state which reveals shocking revelations. .....
by Abul Kasem
Quite Often I Receive E-Mails asking me why I have so much dislike for
religion in general and Islam, my religion at birth, in particular. This
question is not easy to answer. A person's religion is the most sacred,
and to some, the most valuable asset one may claim to possess. .....
by T V R Shenoy
The Honourable Member of Parliament from Phulpur, Ateeq Ahmad (Samajwadi
Party), is in jail. He stands charged with the murder of Bahujan Samaj
Party MLA Raju Pal. .....
by B.R.Haran
The Central Bureau of Investigation, shortly called as 'CBI', has become
a subject of ridicule in India, mainly due to the blatant abuse of the
prime investigation agency by the politicians of all hues. At the drop
of a hat people have started demanding a CBI investigation for even open
and shut cases, resulting in the agency becoming a big joke. .....
by The Times of India
Militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir are using cell phones of high-profile
people, including a former MLA, who work as their overground workers,
to communicate and receive orders from their Pakistan-based headquarters,
intelligence agencies have said. .....
by The Indian Express
The Bush administration has shored up President Pervez Musharraf "for
far too long", an American daily on Friday said, underlining the
need for the US to work with the ruling alliance in Islamabad "to
regain control" over the Pakistan Army and the ISI that seem "far
more loyal to the extremists than their own government". .....
by Arun Sharma
The modus operandi of militants seems to have become official. Militant
commanders across the border have started using Pakistan's official channels
to push in men and money in Jammu and Kashmir. .....
by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The Supreme Court on Monday saw red over the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) recommending clemency to a condemned prisoner, whose appeal as
well as review petition against death penalty in a murder case was turned
down by it. .....
by Organiser
Extract from the memorandum submitted by Shri Rabindra Ghosh, president,
Human Rights Commission for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM), on Atrocities
Against Minorities of Bangladesh and Investigative Reports-2008 to Shri
Shivraj Patil, Home Minister, Government of India, on June 26, 2008. .....
by Dr. Richard Benkin
A friend recently mentioned that he had been "hearing about the Communist
victory in Nepal on NPR [National Public Radio]." This network, funded
by US taxpayers, reports news and commentary from a generally liberal
or leftist stance; although it would be incorrect to dismiss NPR as worthless
or any sort of hack journalism. .....
by M. Amarjeet Singh
Nagaland does not share a direct land border with Bangladesh, but illegal
migrants are infiltrating into the state from Assam, with which Nagaland
shares a nearly 500-kilometre-long land border. .....
by The Pioneer
While the Congress itself has downplayed it, the statement by the former
Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose actions
while in office have set him apart from his self-seeking and Islam-pandering
predecessors, that the violent agitation against the transfer of land
-- for temporary shelters and facilities to be used by Hindu pilgrims
visiting the Amaranth shrine -- was funded by Pakistani and Saudi Arabian
sources, is actually fairly noteworthy. .....
by Business Standard
Q.: You are being accused of having set Jammu & Kashmir on fire again.
We haven't heard your side of the story
A.: Before responding to these allegations, I would like to state some
bare facts about the Amarnath shrine board. It was set up in 2000 on the
basis of the recommendations of a judicial commission that inquired into
the death of 250 pilgrims in an avalanche in 1996. .....
by Jerry Markon and Ben Hubbard
A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as
2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders
that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed
for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves,
a Washington Post review of the books has found. .....
by The Statesman
In an act of political vengeance, nine Congress families were allegedly
attacked by Marxist cadres in a village barely one kilometre from Bishnupur
town just after midnight. .....
by Vaihayasi Pande Daniel
Duba is a rosy-cheeked Sikkimese lad who lives and works at Tsongmo Lake,
20 kms from Nathu La, which is India's border with China. It is at 14,140
feet through the Himalayas in eastern Sikkim, from where Lhasa, the Tibetan
capital is just 525 km away. .....
by A Surya Prakash
Giving in to Muslim communalists and protesters who indulged in violence
across the Kashmir Valley, the Congress-led Government in Jammu &
Kashmir hastily withdrew the allotment of 100 acres of land made to the
Sri Amarnath Shrine Board to provide basic amenities to Hindu pilgrims
along the Amarnath Yatra route. .....
by Robert Spencer
Today marks the anniversary of the real Nakba, or perhaps more precisely
the ?????????? -- the Catastrophe: on this day in 1453, the armies of
the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II entered Constantinople, marking the end of
the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire.
.....
by Abhisek Roy Chowdhury
There is a common belief among historians that the history of Bengal started
from the period of Palas and Senas. But the recent excavations in South
24-Parganas have stirred up a new debate. The objects unearthed recently
are dated prior to the Palas and Senas period. .....
by Rediff.com
With political parties bracing themselves for the trust vote, Communist
Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan on Monday accused the Congress-led
United Progressive Alliance of horse-trading and alleged that the going
rate of a member of Parliament was Rs 25 crore. .....
by Irish Independent
In 1966, Robert Kennedy told an audience of 'a Chinese curse' that goes:
"May you live in interesting (i.e. dangerous) times". He ruefully
added: "Like it or not, we live in interesting times." Two years
later he was gunned down. .....
by B. S. Raghavan
The passion with which academia and think-tanks in Western countries in
recent years have been labouring to construct the profile of an average
jihadi terrorist can only be called phenomenal. .....
by Assam Tribune
Lambasting the State government for its failure to drive out the illegal
Bangladeshi migrants from the State boundaries even after three years
of scrapping of the IM (DT) Act by the Supreme Court, the All Assam Students'
Union today alleged that the Tarun Gogoi government, illegal Bangladeshis
and fundamentalist forces are supporting one another's existence in Assam.
.....
by Tarun Vijay
It's difficult to forget the picture of an 11-year-old Karthik leading
the funeral procession of his father VV Rao, a young Indian Foreign Service
officer who was killed in Kabul's fidayeen attack along with 40 others
that included three Indians - Brig Mehta of the Indian army and Ajay Pathania
and Roop Singh of the ITBP. What had Rao and the other 40 done to invite
this sudden death? .....
by Deenanath Mishra
The track record of Hindus in the country is exemplary as far as its secular
history is concerned. Here, Dr Manmohan Singh is Prime Minister; his community
is hardly two per cent of the total population. A Muslim gentleman, Hamid
Ansari, is Vice-President. .....
by The Times of India
India on Saturday confirmed that Pakistan's infamous ISI had a definite
role in the Kabul bomb attack on the Indian embassy. .....
by Yahoo News
In his first public appearance in this border town, former chief minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad Sunday accused Pakistan and Saudi Arabia of bankrolling
the parties behind the violent agitation on the Amarnath land row. .....
by Dhananjay Mahapatra
More than a year ago, the Supreme Court had sought the Centre's response
to a constitutional question-whether a person not born in India could
be appointed to a public office-but the UPA government, given the query's
natural link to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is yet to put in its reply.
.....
by Nitasha Natu
Till July 11, 2006, Yogita Waghela believed that she and her husband Ashok
had over come all hardships. The couple and their two school-going children
had moved from a chawl to a posh highrise in Dahisar after Ashok's chartered
accountancy firm expanded. But after Ashok's sudden death in the 7/11
train blasts, Yogita realised that she would have to start all over again,
literally from scratch. .....
by The Economic Times
The arid land of Gujarat is turning into a bowl of exotic fruit and vegetables.
Taking a step aside from growing conventional crops like groundnut and
cotton, a section of the farmers have opted to grow "premium"
varieties to suit both the local and global pallets. .....
by Thekashmir.wordpress.com
He was dreaded as the 'butcher of Pandits', and after 16 years of custody,
Bitta Karatay, the dreaded militant of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF) is back to haunt migrant Kashmiri pandits once again. .....
by Saurabh Shukla with Danish Karokhel
When India launched its woo Afghanistan campaign seven years ago after
the fall of the Taliban in 2001, it knew that the road to Kabul would
be perilous. .....
by Farzand Ahmed and Shafi Rahman
When in desperation, put on your skull cap. The nuclear deal hitherto
debated away from its communal implications, has been gaining the good
ol' Muslim angle. .....
by Ambreesh Mishra
In a world driven by cut-throat competition, what does one make of a publication
that wants to sell less? That is the claim being made by Sameera, a Bhopal-based
niche magazine. .....
by Neil Addison
Sir - Both the Lord Chief Justice and the Archbishop of Canterbury have
suggested that sharia courts could have a "complementary" role
to Family Courts in cases such as divorce. .....
by David Williams
The picture is an affront to all victims of terrorism and their families.
Abu Qatada, Al Qaeda's ambassador in Europe, strolls along a busy London
street fondling his prayer beads. .....
by NS Rajaram
Islam, we are constantly told, is a religion of peace and brotherhood.
According to this view, terrorists taking innocent lives in its name are
either ignorant of the true teachings of Islam or are driven to violence
as a last resort because of injustices suffered at the hands of the victims
-- Hindus, Jews and Christians. .....
by Saibal Dasgupta
Chinese authorities have replaced top police and security officials in
the Muslim dominated Xinjiang province, which is the hotbed of separatism
and political violence. They have also closed down 41 "illegal"
places of worship. .....
by Denise Ford-Mitchell
With the exception of special observances, followers of Hinduism rarely
worship together. Hindu worship -- or puja -- is primarily an individual
activity rather than a communal service, says Midland resident Sambasiba
R. Allada. .....
by News Today
After the Prime Minister left for the G8 Summit enthused and emboldened
by the inclination shown by the Samajwadi Party, the Left withdrew its
support to the UPA government. .....
by Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Bangladesh's Director General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) has slowly
started making its presence felt in West Bengal, with around 100 specially-trained
DGFI spies operating in the state, trying to build a network. .....
by The Indian Express
About 2,000 Islamist women gathered at the radical Lal Masjid in Islamabad
on Wednesday and vowed to raise their children for holy war, days after
a suicide bomber killed 18 people after a similar rally. .....
by Kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
The land transfer to the SASB washed off the façade of goodness
that the Kashmiri Muslims had worn on themselves over the years. It just
showed that nothing has changed in the valley. They are what they were,
bloodthirsty and communal zealots. Even after they had forced half a million
Pandits out of the valley they could not even accept that 40 acres of
land will be taken out for a pilgrimage. .....
by Ashok Mehta
For the country, and the Congress-led Government especially, it was a
Black Monday: Its Government in Jammu & Kashmir fell; the Left withdrew
its support; it lost a few legislators in Karnataka to the BJP; and horror
of horrors, Pakistan formalised its proxy war against India in Afghanistan
through a suicide attack targetting the Indian Embassy in Kabul. .....
by Jagmohan
The controversy surrounding the Amarnath yatra is unwarranted. It is more
a product of pride and prejudice than of any substantial issue. The forest
land which had been allotted to the Amarnath shrine board was for a specific
purpose - providing basic amenities and temporary shelter to the yatris
in pre-fabricated structures. .....
by The Pioneer
The bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul has all the hallmarks of a
particular Intelligence agency that has a record of attacks in Afghanistan,
a Government spokesman said on Tuesday. .....
by The Assam Tribune
Strategising along expected lines, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is
all set to rake up the issues of Chinese intrusion into Arunachal Pradesh
and illegal influx from Bangladesh and its devastating impact on the North-East,
in a major way. .....
by Wilson John
Sleeper cells of the ISI are thriving all over India using Bangladeshi
infiltrators as local contact points. Result: The signature of HuJi on
most bomb blasts in recent times .....
by NewKerala.com
Even as the controversy over the allotment of land to Amarnath Shrine
Board by the Jammu and Kashmir Government refuses to die, the pilgrims
to the famous shrine have returned with tales of terror with the Jammu
and Kashmir Police being a mute spectator. .....
by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Amarnath Shrine, situated in the Himalayan ranges at a height of about
13,000 feet, is one of the oldest pilgrim centers of the Hindus. Its importance
and antiquity were well known even by the twelfth century since Kalhana's
Rajatarangini mentions it. .....
by K Anurag
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday called upon the fugitive commander
in chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom Paresh Baruah to come
out of the clutches of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence and other
forces inimical to India and hold talks with the government of India instead
of engineering killings of innocent people in Assam. .....
by Lobsang Sangay
During the height of the recent protests in Tibet, a 49-year-old Tibetan
American living in Massachusetts called his mother in Tibet. .....
by The Pioneer
It would be erroneous to believe that the situation in Jammu & Kashmir,
so severely disturbed this past week by separatists on the rampage and
their political patrons of various shades, will become 'normal' now that
Governor NN Vohra has 'returned' the land which had been leased to the
Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. .....
by Daily Mail
A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising
a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from
Muslims. .....
by Jagmohan
The controversy surrounding the Amarnath yatra is unwarranted. It is more
a product of pride and prejudice than of any substantial issue. The forest
land which had been allotted to the Amarnath shrine board was for a specific
purpose - providing basic amenities and temporary shelter to the yatris
in pre-fabricated structures. .....
by Rediff.com
Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, till recently Governor of Jammu and Kashmir on
Thursday launched a frontal attack on the state's main political parties,
especially PDP and its patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, accusing him of being
"hand in glove" with separatists and fundamentalists. .....
by The Economic Times
With its West Bengal unit finding to its dismay that it's difficult to
court Muslim opinion, the CPM appears to have decided to use its opposition
to the Indo-US deal for its Muslim outreach. This is a tested strategy
as communalisation of the foreign policy had fetched the CPM liberal electoral
dividends in Kerala. .....
by The Times of India
Demanding that the Jammu and Kashmir government cancel the revoked order
on land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), the BJP on Saturday
asked Muslim organisations across the country to support the cause. .....
by Free Press Journal
How distorted is our theory and practice of secularism has yet again been
revealed in Kashmir. Here an innocuous move to allot a temporary piece
of land for the safety and convenience of tens of thousands of pilgrims
from all parts of the country and abroad was seized upon by pro-Pakistani
elements and their local agents and sympathizers to humiliate the entire
majority community. .....
by The Pioneer
In resigning on the floor of the Assembly even before voting could take
place on a confidence motion, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Chief Minister of Jammu
& Kashmir, took the honourable route out of a morass not of his making.
A decent man, Mr Azad has watched his Government collapse amid a fortnight's
bizarre political drama. .....
by Mumbai Mirror
Four years ago, when a Lucknow-based horticulture institute floated the
idea of homa-farming, cultivators in the mango belt of Kakori and Malihabad
adopted it in droves. .....
by Jane Macartney
Armed troops patrol the streets of Lhasa and Tibetan monks and Buddhist
pilgrims have virtually disappeared from the sacred prayer path that surrounds
Tibet's holiest temple in the heart of the capital. There is no sign that
China is ready yet to loosen the security clampdown imposed after Tibetans
rioted in the streets more than three months ago. .....
by Jane Macartney
Where maroon-robed Tibetan monks would clap their hands and shout in spirited
Buddhist debate daily, now only birdsong can be heard. Barely a dozen
tourists a day visit Sera monastery on the edge of Lhasa and the monks
are nowhere to be seen. Many are confined to their quarters. Some have
even been arrested. .....
by Daily Mail
Rising materialism, the cult of celebrity and the decline of extended
families are all contributing to an erosion of children's values, a report
warns today. .....
by Rod Liddle
The left-wing "journalist" and professional agitator Marc Wadsworth
has struck the first blow against the new mayor of London, Boris Johnson
- and has done so on territory upon which Boris felt himself, perhaps
rightly, to be vulnerable. .....
by Tehelka
Q.: You have often said the state government was fully geared to handle
the Naxal menace?
A.: This is nothing but terrorism. The attack was brutal. In the name
of helping the poor, the Naxalites are murdering innocents in manner that
is nothing but barbaric. .....
by S Balakrishnan
The Shiv Sena has decided to legally challenge the Democratic Front's
decision to reserve Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada)
flats for minorities. .....
by Prafulla Marpakwar
Nearly a week after around 40 inmates clashed with policemen posted at
the Arthur Road jail over their transfer to other prisons, the jail authorities
said the accused raised pro-Pakistan slogans before attacking them while
being shifted. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
Ram Manohar Lohia, guru of the socialist gharana, had a simple principle
for his politics: Congress bad, everything else negotiable. Some 40 years
after his death, Lohia's followers have splintered and anti-Congressism
no longer has the same emotional pull. .....
by J. Gopikrishnan
As per the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) brand of 'secularism',
backing Muslims on the Amarnath shrine land transfer issue is the order
of things. But when it comes to allowing a party MP from the same community
to practice his religious beliefs, the knives are brought out against
him. .....
by The Pioneer
Terming the People's Democratic Party (PDP) "anti-national"
Chairman of All India Anti-Terrorists Front (AIATF) on Saturday alleged
that PDP has raked up the issue of land transfer to Amarnath Shrine Board
on instructions from ISI. .....
by Tarun Vijay
Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw was the name of the hero India
saluted. He died at the age of 94 at Wellington early last Friday. The
only Indians who didn't mourn were the people in the UPA government. .....
by Onkar Singh
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw's funeral did not receive the respect that
a man of his stature deserved feels Lieutenant General S K Sinha (retired),
the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir. .....
by Mohit Kandhari/Khursheed Wani
The protests in Jammu took a violent turn on day two of the three-day-long
bandh in which three BJP workers were critically injured in police firing
in Muthi area. Embattled police force fired teargas shells and cane-charged
demonstrators at several places in Jammu protesting against the rescinding
of land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board before imposing curfew
in parts of city to prevent assembly of large groups. .....
by The Pioneer
Giving a new twist to the ongoing impasse on nuclear deal, UP Chief Minister
Mayawati termed the proposed deal as anti-Muslim, besides ruling out any
possibility of the BSP forging a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. .....
by News Today
In the farcical fight for quotas, the Christian and Muslim minorities,
instigated by the vote-chasing politicians, sought a separate quota within
the BC quota without any sensible thinking and analysis and finally got
what they wanted from the Tamilnadu government. .....
by The Pioneer
Adding insult to injury, the Government has now put forward the dubious
claim that the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and three services
chiefs missed the funeral of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw because he did
not figure in the warrant of precedence. Apparently the Field Marshal
-- a five-star General rank that has its equivalents in the Navy and the
Air Force -- does not figure in the warrant of precedence. .....
by Karan Thapar
It's incredible the Prime Minister and Defence Minister did not attend
Field Marshal Manekshaw's funeral. Their presence wasn't simply a duty,
it was an obligation. And there was nothing else that could have claimed
greater priority. But I'm even more amazed the President didn't go. She
is, after all, the Supreme Commander of the armed forces and Manekshaw
was their greatest hero. Her absence is shocking. .....
by The Pioneer
New evidence has come to light on the terrorism front in Afghanistan.
Deeply sensitive information has emerged that the Taliban insurgents are
being aided by a section of Pakistani forces. Documents that are a part
of the 'after-action' reports compiled by US officials following clashes
on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have revealed that there is a direct
involvement of Pakistan's Frontier Corps troops in attacks on the Afghan
Army and coalition forces. .....
by B R Haran
The Jammu and Kashmir government, after deliberations in the Cabinet (PDP
was also a part of it), decided to transfer 40 hectares of forest land
along the pilgrimage path to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) to
construct tenements, toilets and other conveniences for the benefit of
the yatris. .....
by Barbara Davies
For the moment, adrenaline is the only thing keeping Sean Langan going.
A week ago, he was still in the hands of the Taliban, incarcerated in
a tiny room in the tribal wilderness of the Pakistan mountains, unsure
if he would be beheaded. 'I thought it would be a miracle if I got out
of there alive,' says the award-winning war correspondent, who was freed
last Sunday morning after three months in captivity. .....
by Cornel Nistorescu
Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even
if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the
world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.
.....
by News Today
The Maoists have attacked a boat ferrying the 'Greyhound' squad of Andhra
Pradesh-Orissa police yesterday, when they were getting back from an operational
area in Malkangiri District of Orissa, in which 31 security personnel
got killed. .....
