Re: Muslim Problem, Hindu Solutions: Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
Radio Pakistan's effort to revive Khalistan agitation, an effort in
vain
2009-09-28 20:30:00
Radio Pakistan in its recent Punjabi Darbar programme has given an
indication that Pakistan wants to revive the Khalistan agitation which
caused misery to thousands of Sikhs in India and retarded the economic
development of the State.
The Punjabi Durbar programme stated that India has forgotten the
promise it had made to Sikhs and Kashmiris.
Manpreet Kaur, a Sikh scholar and educationalist, said that the
Pakistan propaganda is not making any impact on the people living in
Punjab. He remarked that "Before making comments on the situation in
India, Pakistan should look at itself first, and the statements being
made by its former President General Musharraf from London brazenly
stating how Pakistan has misused American aid against India.
"Pakistan will never be able to incite minorities in India. The fact
is that persons from minority are occupying important positions in our
country. Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Leaders like Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain are occupying posts in Bharatiya Janata
Party.
"They are the voice of the countrymen, so how does the question of
minorities being dominated or discriminated in India arise?," asked
Manpreet Kaur, a Sikh scholar and educationalist.
Manpreet Brar pointed out that Sikhs and Hindus do not feel safe in
many parts of Pakistan. Sikhs had to leave the North West Frontier as
the Taliban elements there asked them to pay 'Jezia' or protection
money. Many Sikhs and Hindus were forced to change their religion.
The latest allegations look ridiculous considering the fact that
Sardar Parkash Singh Badal is heading the State Government of Punjab,
which is an Akali Dal and BJP combine.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is also a Sikh, has always
believed in the concept of secular India where members of all
religions can live in harmony.
Dr. Singh's Cabinet represents persons of all religions but they have
been included because of their intelligence and leadership qualities
and not religious identities.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad is from
Kashmir. Having remained one of the members of the Congress core
committee, he has served as the Chief Minister of Kashmir in the
recent past. Besides, Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq
Abdullah, whose son Omar Abdullah is the present Chief Minister of
Jammu and Kashmir, also represents the Kashmiri leadership in the
present UPA government.
Former President of India A.P.J.Abdul Kalam is still one of the most
respected figures of the country.
Manpreet Brar, asks can Radio Pakistan mention even one Hindu leader
to have occupied the post of President or Prime Minister?
The support for a separate nation for Sikhs and an independent Kashmir
only exposes how Pakistan is blatantly supporting divisive forces in
India. (ANI)
...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
Lack of leadership is the problem of Indian Muslims: INL President
Prof
Muhammed Sulaiman
Submitted by admin4 on 28 September 2009 - 6:17pm.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: The biggest problem of Indian Muslims is the lack of strong
leadership, said Prof Muhammed Sulaiman, national president of the
Indian National League. He was speaking at the public meeting
organized in relation with the inauguration of the state committee
office of the INL in Kozhikode yesterday.
Now there is none to bring the real problems of Muslims to the notice
of the Parliament and those in power, he said. Those who represent the
minorities in the Parliament are more interested in speaking about
political matters. The central Minister of Minority Affairs has
uttered this fact and the community should understand it with due
seriousness. When Narendra Modi’s government shot dead the college
student Ishrat Jahan making her a terrorist, the Congress government
filed an affidavit in favour of it in the court. None of the Muslim
MPs and ministers was ready to protest against this, he complained.
NVA Majeed, state vice-president, presided over the function. National
general secretary Siraj Ibrahim Sait, Karnataka president Abdussamad
Siddiqi and Tamil Nadu president J Inayatulla spoke at the function.
Adv PMA Salam, MLA, delivered the vote of thanks.
Leadership
Submitted by Gopi Thomas (not verified) on 28 September 2009 - 6:35pm.
What Muslims need is grass roots development.
Look at keral christians - look at the accomplishmnents they have made
to themselves and to the country with a population of only 60 lakhs.
There is no "Christian leader"...
Muslims have to accept that in a secular modern polity the functional
unit must bee the individual, and not the community. They refuse to
accept this, making them go backward further.
keral christians
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 28 September 2009 - 7:51pm.
Kerala christians are thriving on missionary money.Muslims donot use
monetory benifits for conversion.
Islam is against such conversions.
Keral christians/anonymous
Submitted by Gopi Thomas (not verified) on 28 September 2009 -
11:01pm.
@ anonymous
I am not talking about conversions or lack of conversions.(Muslims and
Christians have done their fair share of conversions)
What i am talking about is the significant accomplishments, in
education, in business, in professiosn, in national contribution -that
the Christians in Kerala have made to kerala and India. How have they
integrated in the mainstream, how they acquired knowledge etc in spite
of being a minority.
They did not ahve any governmental reservation or handout.
There may be lessons to be learned by any minority. Otherwise, Muslims
will remain backward and marginal.
for gods sake dont compare
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 29 September 2009 - 2:39am.
for gods sake dont compare isai conversion with other religion
conversion. Missionaries can stoop to any level to convert we all know
it!!
and keralite excelled cos of two main reasons
1) Missionary powered schools and engg and nursing colleges which do
get money from outside, they churn out suboptimal level products, and
almost all of these isai products are absorbed in Gulf area.
2) Gulf money!!
I agree
Submitted by Giri (not verified) on 29 September 2009 - 2:18am.
Christians are very forward looking indians compared to any community.
That is the reason why kerala is the most literate state. I am ok with
conversions as long as it is individual based and not under pressure
or monitary benefits. One case is TV actress Mahant (journo in
Shaktiman serial) who is converted to Xtian by accident. I oppose the
ones that do mass conversions, only problem i see is that can lead to
secession in the indian union if some enemy country tries to take
advantage.
bademiyansubhanallah
Modi worships assault guns
Mail Today Bureau
Ahmedabad and New Delhi, September 29, 2009
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Monday performed shastra puja
(worship of weapons) at his official residence in Gandhinagar, raising
questions whether someone in his position should be taking part in
such a ritual.
On display at the prayers, while members of the elite National
Security Guard (NSG) and the state police looked on, were sub- machine
guns, AKseries assault rifles, and prohibited bore pistols. These are
regular issue for the NSG, paramilitary forces and the Army.
Also placed in the row of weapons for the prayers - usually performed
on Vijaya Dashami, the last day of Navratra - were swords, tridents,
clubs and axes.
As the CM performed the prayers for close to two hours, none of the
NSG men appeared to be armed. Their weapons had evidently been
presented for the ritual.
This worship is a traditional ritual, followed by those who carry
weapons-like the Rajputs, or members of the armed forces and the
police. It is believed to have its genesis in the worship of weapons
by Rama's followers before the final battle with Ravana, in which the
demon king was killed.
However, when a top civilian representative takes part in such a
practice, controversy is bound to follow.
Modi has made this an annual ritual, and those close to him insist he
has not done anything unusual. The CM's office too did not think it
was out of place for him to worship deadly weapons belonging to NSG
personnel.
"The CM started the shastra puja tradition on Vijaya Dashami in 2002.
Everyone, including the security personnel and the NSG men, takes
part. No one has ever said anything," said Jagdish Thacker, Modi's
media advisor.
However, that may no longer be true. The Congress expressed surprise
at the chief minister's worship of deadly weapons and said it showed
his weak character rather than strength.
"The attempts of the chief minister of Gujarat to project a muscular
image are nothing short of comic," said Congress spokesperson Manish
Tewari.
The Left condemned it as a "medieval" practice. "What is he trying to
do? He should have some sense. No one can be stopped from offering
prayers on Vijaya Dashami but collecting arms from security personnel
and worshipping them is going a bit too far," said CPI general
secretary A.B. Bardhan.
Modi's party, the BJP, appeared to be trying to make sense of what
political message the Hindu Hriday Samrat was sending. "I really do
not know anything about it," said BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
However, the fact that NSG men did not have their weapons seems to
have upset the brass of the elite force that protects VIPs. NSG
director-general NPS Aulakh was unavailable for comment. But, a senior
official in Delhi said there were strict guidelines for the commandos
to always hold their weapons while on duty.
"At any time, there are six to eight NSG commandos with their weapons-
usually an MP5 or an AK-series rifle-guarding the closest security
ring of a Z-plus protectee like Modi. In no event are they supposed to
hand over their weapons to anyone," he said.
He said if on- duty NSG commandos had flouted the rules, the matter
would invite an internal inquiry.
Former NSG director- general Ved Marwah said, "I am sure rules do not
allow for such a thing, where commandos hand over weapons for worship.
Maybe the commandos could not say 'no' to the chief minister. I cannot
recall any such case during my tenure at the NSG."
President Pratibha Patil posed with an AK-47 rifle recovered from
militants during her visit to Jammu & Kashmir in May last year.
The President, seen with a weapon linked to militants, was disapproved
by many. Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah criticised Patil
on his blog, saying he would have rather seen her talking to kids
about the future. He wrote: "it (was a) reminder of the one object
that has caused so much death and destruction over the last 18 years."
Courtesy: Mail Today
bademiyansubhanallah
CBI gives clean chit to Pragya and Purohit in Nanded case
Mail Today Bureau
New Delhi, September 29, 2009
In a relief to former Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi
Pragya Thakur, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given
these Malegaon blast accused a clean chit in the Nanded case which the
investigative agency is probing again.
A CBI officer on Monday revealed that the agency filed a supplementary
chargesheet in the Nanded case last month, but only against Punebased
antique arms dealer, Rakesh Dhawade.
The CBI had re-opened the Nanded case in December 2008 after the
Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 11 persons, including
Dhawade, Purohit and Pragya, for the Malegaon blasts and revealed a
link between the Malegaon and Nanded incidents.
The ATS submitted its Malegaon chargesheet in January, implicating
Dhawade for the Nanded blasts as well. Dhawade has also been charge-
sheeted by the ATS for bomb blasts in the Purna mosque in Purna
(Parbhani), Qadriya mosque in Jalna and the Mohammediya mosque in
Parbhani.
While it took the CBI eight more months to reconfirm Dhawade's link
with the Nanded case, the agency has let Purohit and Pragya go free.
This, despite the ATS chargesheet in the Malegaon case calling Dhawade
the "main member of the organised crime syndicate involving all the
Malegaon accused". "Dhawade was present at the oath- taking ceremony
of members of Abhinav Bharat at Raigad fort in 2006 - attended by
Purohit, Ajay Rahirkar , and others," reads the ATS chargesheet.
bademiyansubhanallah
Column&contentid=58357&blogs=1&contentid=58357
Double Column
An item number Mother Goddess?
Divinity is an annual ritual reminding you of your quotas in life.
The Pujas in Kolkata do exactly that to various people in many ways.
Time was when the Pujas meant festivity, unbridled revelry, endless
pandal-hopping and clock-less partying when you could have danced all
night. For every generation, it has been the same; the young looking
forward to the annual coming while the elders taking furtive glances
at calendar pages going.
It's the same with style, fashion, food, entertainment, sports, and
almost everything that our lives are locked with. The cup brimmeth
over only to be refilled; for some, there are no more refills.
It may sound a trifle sad to start off a festival issue with such
words of emptiness but fact is there are times when you need to look
inside to feel what is happening outside. This Puja, for example, does
not come with great expectations and this city, which was once a
repository of emotions in some fashion or the other, just does not
seem to care that we have had devastations like the Aila, the post-
poll violence on the other, while SMSes continue to crowd your cell
phone with alerts on easy shopping or which film is running where and
the exciting prizes that can be won if you patronize a first day,
first show. No harm in that, chalta hai world as it has become.
I remember this same city only two decades back playing only Hemanta
Mukherjee songs at Puja pandals (mind you, without a government writ)
because the legend had passed away only a few weeks previous to the
festivals. I also remember this same city three decades back switching
off lights during the Pujas and staying away from all ostentations
because the state had drowned in Noah-time floods. That was a city
with a heart and that is the way I would, like countless others, love
to remember it by. A city which paid tributes without realising that
it was setting an example to be emulated.
In 2009, there is a strange silence. It is as if the goddess is almost
unwelcome. Which is, of course, an exaggeration because that is not
true. The five days will remain those five days for all those living
in Kolkata and the city will deck itself up alright and have fun till
the wee hours of Ekadashi but somehow, somewhere, something is
missing. It is as if the quota is full. It is as if the spontaneity is
missing.
For example, now, more than ever before, nobody remembers when
Mahalaya comes and goes, but that could be because the radio is more
used to FM now. Calcutta Doordarshan anyway has never given us
anything to write home about with its Mahalaya programmes and nobody
misses it.
The Mahalaya quota for the city has brimmeth over, barring the file
pictures of old men washing themselves in the Ganges for tarpan.
Believe me, those pictures are almost never taken as a reality check,
the photo department quota on tarpan pictures in any newspapers office
can outlive generations. It helps that the paying public usually has
the memory of a flea and so nobody notices.
A tarpan picture is usually like a President's address on R-Day eve;
you can easily show the previous year's footage and nobody will
notice. As I said, the Mahalaya quota is over.
But the consumer honchos will not allow the Puja quota to be over so
fast. Hotels will rush and bombard you with press releases of food
festivals, suddenly art galleries will stumble upon new Raja Ravi
Vermas, the SMSes already referred to will continue to jam cell phones
and the number of Puja awards for best vahana will proliferate. I am
quite sure marmosets will find pride of place in some Puja pandal or
other this time. As Shah Rukh Khan recently said in an interview, "You
need an item number all the time, be it in song or sequence." I can
wager my last farthing that the marmoset will be the item number this
Puja.
Some illumination perversion can turn to the Aila as some did with the
Dhananjoy hanging in 2004 but I leave that to a matter of taste or
distaste depending on the way you prefer to look at things.
The Mahalaya has vanished because it could not come up with item
numbers; the industry which the Pujas spawn will not allow that as
long as it can help it. But the strain is showing over the years; the
quotas, after all, are in the mind and not in the credit card
ceilings.
The Alipore weather office has predicted disaster this Pujas saying
that it will be rain washed. Even if it has not, made any formal
prediction, I see this news being front-paged every day in the media;
why hacks without fresh news should take this almost perverse glee in
warning people of disappointment ahead could be another solid reason
as to why the cup is already brimming.
Is it true that rain washed and empty pandals might just reflect the
state of mind of a city which has nothing to look forward to except a
32-year-old expected change in the form of an item number Mother
Goddess?
August 25, 2009 Posted by Abhijit Dasgupta
Tags: Shah Rukh Khan, Raja Ravi verma, Pujas, Mahalaya, Kolkata,
Hemanta Mukherjee, Ganges, Calcutta Doordarshan, Alipore, Aila
Comments (3)
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Why someone is afraid if he had twill something about the goddess in
the newspaper to accept the views of others which can be shard it is a
very easy thing to earn money just create controversies and be popular
as we say the name is bad but it is better than no name is it so thus
our print media also follow this it is proven by this article by
hurting a number of devotees.
shashank
September 05, 2009
If they check our views why didn't his, who wrote this kind of blog,
is it a pinpoint towards the feelings of devotees of Ma Durga.
shashank
September 03, 2009
"Item NUMBER-SHARUKH" while reading 'Mother GODDESS' of yours ABHIJIT
BABU -kharab lago.
Maa DURGA will remain for ever to all in INDIA - to West Bengal is
concerned - it's importance/DEVOTION cannot be compared to such "ITEM
NUMBER" and strongly find it is very objectionable in any form in such
of MAA DURGA especially.
Other wise yes IMPORTANCE of MAHALAYA-TARPAN GANGA SNAAN etc., is of
course less compared to 60's/ 70's -exact reason is not political but
our advancement -yes some times we all come across such MAA DURGA
cannot be taken as referred by some who only knows publicity of his
own in any form and recently noticed it's too much. MAA SHOULD excuse
of such as they are very ignorant.
you will EXCUSE me if somewhere I offended. But I am frank and respect
all and is -ve in any form for betterment of the faiths to which we
are embedded.
sudhakara rao
August 26, 2009
About Abhijit Dasgupta
Abhijit Dasgupta is an Executive Editor with India Today. He started
his career as a trainee journalist with The Telegraph and was one of
three who were promoted to Night Editor directly from traineeship,
something unimaginable in 1982. He has since worked with The Indian
Express, Sunday Observer, Financial Express, The Pioneer and was the
launch Editor of Calcutta Times of the Times of India, giving Kolkata
its first taste of Page 3. He was the English translator of Jyoti
Basu's authorised Bengali memoirs which was inaugurated by the CM at
the Book Fair 1998. His debut novel, Dying to Return, is to be
published in London early next year.
bademiyansubhanallah
No fresh construction of places of worship at public places, rules SC
PTI
New Delhi, September 29, 2009
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that there shall be no fresh
construction of places of worship at public places throughout the
country.
The restriction would apply to temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras
and places of worship of all other communities, a Bench of Justices
Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma said in an interim order.
The Bench said its order would be enforced till the issue relating to
construction of places of worship at public places is finally resolved
by the apex court.
The apex court also said that the fate of existing places of worship
shall be dealt by the respective state governments on a "case to case"
basis.
The Bench passed the direction after Solicitor General Gopal
Subramanium informed the apex court that the Centre and the states had
reached a consensus that there shall be no fresh construction of
places of worship at public places.
The apex court had on July 31 directed the government to ensure no
place of worship is allowed to come up by encroaching public place.
The direction to the Centre came during the hearing of a petition
challenging the Gujarat High Court order of May, 2006, by which the
municipal corporations in the state were directed to demolish all
illegal structures including places of worship on public roads.
bademiyansubhanallah
National / Opinion Magazine | Oct 05, 2009
A Hey Ram For Ahimsa
It seems we’re doing nothing about the violence in our mindset
In a few days, we will be observing the 140th birth anniversary of the
Father of the Nation. I must confess I’m incensed to see some who have
absolutely no place there file past his samadhi on anniversaries and
the like. For obvious reasons, I shall not name them, but they are
those who want to acquire some respectability by being caught on
television as they parade their loyalty to the Mahatma and his ideals.
These are people guilty of exactly what Gandhiji asked us to desist
from. Not only are they venal, it is well known that many of them do
not hesitate to unleash violence to promote their interests.
What appals me most, among several other facts of life in India, is
the speed at which we are regressing from the Mahatma’s fundamental
message of non-violence. Without doubt we have become a nation where
the cost of human life is as negligible as in the worst parts of
Africa. Where on earth would a woman accused of adultery be dragged
into the streets and be beaten up by other women? Where else would
girl students escaping from flood waters be molested, starting a
deadly stampede at a school? If such incidents do not stir our
politicians into action, it’s because many of them thrive on violence
and disorder. Even if they do not themselves indulge in violence, they
command packs of hoodlums who do. Every election sees more and more
criminals getting elected to our legislatures while decent people
watch helplessly. This unfortunate aspect of our polity has had more
than a ripple effect on crime in general.
When we want to study crime trends in our country, our almanac is
‘Crime in India’ (CII), an annual publication of the National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB), attached to the Union home ministry. Its
figures are not exact, given the police tendency to under-report crime
and the public’s growing reluctance to lodge complaints. Still, the
CII is the only authentic crime report we have, in the absence of
public opinion surveys on crime that the US and UK boast of. According
to the CII, crime involving bodily harm increased more than five per
cent in 2007, the last year for which figures are available. My guess
is the rise was far higher.
I am, however, more concerned about violent crimes against women,
whose safety was paramount in the causes espoused by the Mahatma.
There were more than 8,000 dowry-related deaths during 2007. The
number of rape cases was 20,000, a 35 per cent increase over the
decade. This is a trend that should shock us out of our wits.
Remember, rape is a form of crime that is highly under-reported, given
the social stigma that attaches to the victim. You will be even more
shocked to learn that culprits get away in as many as two-thirds of
the rape cases that ultimately reach court. The chief reasons for
acquittal are faulty investigation by the police and dishonesty on
part of key witnesses. Quite often, the perpetrators of this
abominable crime are moneyed and influential; more importantly, they
often happen to be friends or relations of the victim. This is why it
is not the police alone who are guilty; society has to share the
blame. In my view, it’s time we think of how we can raise a whole
generation of citizens resolved to intervene wherever and whenever
they see injustice, especially to women.
I have the greatest contempt for our film world, which systematically
promotes violence in general and the ridicule and abuse of women in
particular. Murder and rape are the staple of many of our movies,
which ape Hollywood shamelessly and with the utmost insensitivity to
our traditional values. I was appalled to watch Kamalahaasan on TV the
other day, justifying the depiction of violence in his productions. He
seemed quite pleased when the NDTV interviewer referred to his movies
as among the most realistic in showing violence. He wasn’t apologetic
either. He denied he was promoting violence and said he was merely
reflecting what was happening in society. What a clever way of saying
that nothing else sells!
Coming as that did from a polished and remarkably talented actor-
director, I was immeasurably pained. What do we do to put some sense
into the likes of Kamalahaasan so that future generations are exposed
to movies that will teach them to abjure violence and cultivate the
nicer sentiments of life? This is a mammoth task. There’s a crying
need for creating an influential body of opinion leaders who will set
score by what the Mahatma taught us.
(The writer is a former director of CBI.)
chhotemianinshallah
Unsung tale of a Legend family
Posted On: 29-Sep-2009 04:29:09
News Source: Vidya Bhushan Rawat
New Delhi: Almost three years after the death of legendary Dashrath
Majhi, a visit to the landmark created by the ‘Pahad purush’ i.e.
mountain man in Dashrath Nagar, Gehlaur (Gaya) in Bihar makes one
wonder how the government’s forgets their promises? The man who hailed
from Mushahar community is today revered as Pahad baba. Those who have
seen the primitive conditions of Mushahars and their persistent
marginalization, they would certainly vouch that the recognition and
acknowledgement of the work done by one among them, will go to
rejuvenate the community and bring it to the life back. One does not
know these facts but Dashrath Majhi’s work might make a fascinating
story for young minds and the importance of commitment for a cause.
On August 17th, 2007, when Dashrath Majhi, 70, died of a prolonged
illness and the Nitish Kumar government of the time took care of his
treatments in AIIMS, Delhi, it looked that they would honor the words
given to Dashrath Majhi and his villagers. Not only this, Baba, as
Dashrath Majhi, is reverently addressed in the entire area, was asked
what should be done for him. ‘Yes, we will provide 5 acres of land to
your family’, the chief minister had promised. Baba that time said he
did not anything for him but ‘build’ a hospital for the village. After
the death of Baba, the government named the road that Baba cut through
the huge mountain as Dashrath Majhi Road and the village as Dasharath
Nagar. A temple is being constructed in the name of Baba which is
called as Ghat.
Born in a deeply poverty entrenched family of Mangaru Majhi and
Pattiya Devi in the Gahlor Ghati which was surrounded by the mountains
and no connectivity of roads to the nearest town, Baba saw the
difficulties of people living in Gehlor Ghati. His wife would go along
with others to get water mounting the difficult terrain. He saw
tremendous pain of inability for those who needed medical aid and old
folks who found it difficult to climb the hill to reach the other
side. The other way to reach the nearest town was by road which was
about 75 kilometer. It was nearly impossible. Baba decided himself
that they need some one way to reduce this and it was only possible if
he would cut through the mountain and will make way for every one.
While the governance was absent in the village and there was no way
for the community to speak to political class to provide them roads
and infrastructure. And one can understand what would have been the
situation in 1960 when there were not much money and political power
was still in the hands of dominant communities. So Dasharath must have
felt that the only way to overcome this hurdle was to take some
initiative and do the work. Hence then one fine day in 1960 he started
his work. The pains and agony of people strengthened his determination
particularly as his wife too had to face tremendous problems during
these days. With shovel in hand, he started digging the mountains.
Actually, Mushahars of the region depended a lot on stone cutting as
it is their main source of livelihood. But Baba was not much doing it
for commercial gains as he was keen on reducing the difficulties of
his fellow villagers. It was a herculean task. The family never liked,
the villagers called him mad. ‘How will this man cut such a rocky
mountain? Has he gone mad? Does he has no other work to do? What is he
doing”, were the scornful questions thrown at Baba. But Dasharath
Majhi was determined and just did not care for these remarks. It is
not that he was cutting the mountain from morning till evening.
Actually, for him it was an additional work, as he had to support his
family and it would have been impossible if he was not working on land
or cutting stone for his survival. Whenever, he was without work or
holidays, he would start cutting the stones himself. No body came to
support him. He did not have the tools to cut big rocky stones;
neither had he had money, the only thing that was with him, ‘courage
and determination, against all the odds which exist in our
communities. It was a complete madness towards his work and to relieve
people from hardship.
Slowly some of the people realized that he was really into it, so
they would help him with voluntary work for time to time. It is rather
strange that the government and its authorities were completely
unmindful of his work. It shows why a major part of India is still out
of governance and people have to depend on their own self for their
development. Such a major work was done by a man and his community
and yet it remained unseen, unheard, unreported and unchecked. Yet,
Baba completed his task by 1982 by cutting about 300 meter long and 25
ft wide mountain and therefore converting the distance of 75 kilometer
to just 1 kilometer and it became easier particularly those on cycles
and motor bikes to take their elderly people to the nearest town for
medical aid. Today, you see streams of people using the way. Women
going to forest, getting grass for their pets while motor bikers,
cyclists and other villagers are using this path. And this has reduced
their burden and pains. Today, Baba has slipped into folklore as a
folk hero as people are constructing a temple for him. A local
organization has painted the rock on the way saying that legendary
Dashrath Majhi completed this herculean task of linking Ghivra mauja
of Dashrath Nagar, in Gehlaur Ghati to Atara Prakhand, Wajirganj by
reducing the distance from 75 kilometer to just one kilometer, in 22
years.
But after three years of death, none of the promises made by the Bihar
government have been fulfilled. Baba’s lonely son Bhagirath is a
physically challenged man. His daughter in law, Basanti Devi suffers
from physical disability. Baba’s daughter Lavangi Devi too lives in
the house along with others as they have a small semi constructed
house. Daughter in law Basanti Devi cook mid day meal in the nearby
primary school while her husband Bhagirath get Rs 200/- pension every
month but not because of any love for Baba but for ‘disability’
reasons. The total land they got was about 1.5 acre which they got
along with other villagers long back.
While the family now knows that their Baba was not just a useless mad
man but did something for the society yet Basanti Devi was not amused,
‘He did nothing for us. What have we got from his work? Our children
are starving and no way to educate them. The government promised us 5
acre land but it never came’. One can understand the frustration of
the family members as for them the issue of the survival of their
children is more important. Though they know that Baba did wonder yet
they feel that the government has not really honored its words.
Somewhere they feel that Baba would have asked more from the
government so that they could have lived a better life.
Their Indira Awas is still incomplete. The huts are not enough to keep
the family better. In one side, the family keeps the photographs of
Dasharath. His son and daughter and their children live together
though cook separately. Yet, they are hoping against hope as people
come and seek their interview.
The situation is pathetic and though the area is open and wide yet a
community can not live on ‘fresh air’. It needs work. The road network
is now being developed in the area. But one wonder how long will it
take. Not many efforts by the government to change the life of the
people. No medical assistance, no proper school for the
children.Baba’s grand daughter Lakhsmi who is nearly 15 ( I could say
less than that) is a married girl. She could not get admission to
Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya. She does not know why but most of the
children complained about that. She can just read and write and
perhaps completed her Vth standard.
The children are hungry and asking for more. The mother beat them for
lack of food and virtually annoying. The house is incomplete and in a
mess. Tears rolls down from Basanti Devi as she starts talking about
Baba and narrate their own plight.’ People come here, ask about Baba,
his work and passion, but we remain the same’. We have nothing to eat.
I do not know what to tell people about Baba but if they want to see
how government honors people, they can see our conditions.’ Actually,
after Nitish Kumar government honored Baba, a lot of media hype was
created added with Maha Dalit slogan of Bihar government. Nitish had
actually called Dashrath Majhi to Patna and asked him to sit in front
of him said his son Bhagirath. They were elated at this respect shown
by the most powerful man of Bihar but then little did they know that
politicians will do everything to gain political gains. Mushahars may
not matter as voters for them but honoring Dashrath Majhi gave
tremendous good will of the Dalit communities in Bihar.
The village of Dashrath Majhi need a facelift. It need not only
electricity and proper road network which is coming up but also
development of the community. Often, social activists working among
Mushahars, blame them for their laziness and social attitude, but a
man called Dashrath Majhi has given example how legends can come from
any community. It is time that Bihar government honor its promises
made to Dashrath Majhi, take care of the entire Mushahar community,
provide them alternative livelihood and make life of Dashrath Majhi as
part of the school text books. If the government of Bihar is really
sincere towards its promises, it should initiate special schemes for
Mushahars in the name of Dashrath Majhi and create more schools with
special reference for the poor children, apart from a full fledged
government hospital. That would be the best tribute to the man who
moved mountain for the benefit of fellow human being and epitomize the
tremendous will of human spirit.
chhotemianinshallah
Crisis of ideological constructs or war for human rights
Posted On: 26-Sep-2009 08:48:58
News Source: Vidya Bhushan Rawat
‘You mother f….r, how dare you write about implementing ceiling laws
in the Tarai region of Uttarakhand. We will take enough care if you
dare to come here’, came a response to my article on my blog written
after the completion of the padyatra related to land issues in
Uttarakhand.
Such responses are not new to me as they keep coming. ‘ I have not
read an idiotic article like this’, was a response to my review
article on Telengana in mynews.in yesterday. Another one wrote, ‘ how
much money are you getting in to divide Hindu society’.. you are
fortunate enough that you are not born in China and Pakistan, he
wrote, otherwise you would have seen what could have done to you..
Just a few years back during the anti Mandal agitation initiated by
the caste Hindus in the AIIMS, Delhi, I got a number of hate mail at
the CNN-IBN blogs as perhaps I was among very few to question their
‘meritocracy’. ‘You beggar quotawallah, go beg at Connaught place
first, then seek a reserve job’, wrote some one. Times of India
mentioned it as ‘apartheid’ against ‘poor’ upper caste. It is a
discrimination against the upper caste, it intended to say.
Is there a problem in our thinking process ? Are we not ready to
accept diversent view point ? And whose divergent view point as at the
end of the day, there are ideologies and perceptions which force us to
act violently against those we disagree. Hence, a Taslima is unwelcome
as she is threat to Islam, M.F. Hussein, at the age of 90, has become
a ‘threat’ to our omnipotent-omnipresent gods. Children are killed
when they dare to marry against their parental desires. Dalits are
killed if their raise their head and claim to be equal national of the
country.
Therefore it is important to understand as what is the attitudinal or
ideological problem with Indians? Are they afraid of ideologies? Do
they take shelter in fake ideological constructs and live in their own
world. The biggest problem with them is that they live in double
standard. They speak two languages, one for their children and
different for outsider. So a majority of the high profile ‘ideologues’
could not sale Marxism and Maoism to their children, then why they are
selling the same to the tribal, I debated. ‘Oh no, our children are
separate. We can not decide about them. They have their freedom, why
do you want them to be controlled’, they say. ‘But then why you want
to control others’. ‘You give everything to your children’s growth’,
look for Its, finding space for them in US and UK, why, I said. ‘Oh,
that is not to be debated. How can we do that? Mulayam Singh, the
great disciple of Lohia wanted English to be boycotted so he sent his
son Akhilesh to Doon school and then to Australia. Late Charan Singh
condemned computer education and modern sciences as threat to
agriculture, hence Ajit Singh went to United States to study computer
sciences when computer was unheard thing in India. Clear enough, in
this double standard, we sale Marxism, socialism, Hinduism,
Christianity and Maoism to tribal and capitalism to our children. You
see most of the Hindutva ideologues actually came from the best
college of Delhi called St Stephens College.
Who were two biggest dissenters in Indian social system. The first
was Buddha and thousands of years later it was Ambedkar. And since
accepting dissent is not a part of any of these traditions which
claims to revolutionary or uniting Hindus or political ideology of the
day, we find attack against them in each and every form. Buddha
Viharas were attacked and Buddhists were annihilated. Ambedkar was
scorned at for ‘dividing’ Hindus and termed as a very ‘ordinary’
scholar.
No, neither Buddha, nor Ambedkar can help the Dalits, only Marx can
help them, wrote Rang Nayakamma, an old upper caste romantic of
communism in Andhra Pradesh in her book ‘For the solution of caste
question’. How many of these revolutionaries staged a battle against
social evils in India. If that is not important for them, then why
they expect the Dalits to join them. Rang Nayakamma wrote passionately
like Arun Shourie, against Ambedkar.
She blamed Ambedkar as why it took him so long for converting to
Buddhism. Why Ambedkar attacks Marx and glorify Buddha. In the entire
book, Rangnaykamma’s brahmanical past is visible even when she can
claim to be a Marxist and that has been the problem with most of the
upper caste Marxists who remain arrogant to their brahmanical roots.
For them, a shudra does not have the intellect. Even when the
Hindutva’s saffron brigade is busy in social engineering, the
brahmanical Marxist have not been able to provide Dalits a space in
their scheme of things. Writes Nayakamma in her chapter ‘ Caste
Question : Ambedkar has changed religion ( page 407), ‘ The moment he
start writing, there began a baseless confidence in Ambedkar that is a
great intellectual. There emerged a kind of false logic namely,
‘whatever, I wrote is logic’. This is the true story of brahmanical
Marxists whose problem with Ambedkar is that he gave Dalits an
understanding to assert themselves. Who knows Nayakammas and all those
who have great appreciation for her ‘radical’ views can understand
that her writings are pure brahmanical frustration because of growing
Dalit assertion. That assertion is not really visible among the tribal
and that is the reason the brahmanical revolutionaries are leading
them. She goes on to condemn those who admire ambedkar saying that ‘
Biographers of Ambedkar glorified every aspect of his research,
however inconsistent and haphazard it may have been. There is not a
single instance where they raised the question namely, ; what is this
argument’? what kind of research is this?
She further writes in Vartha, a Telugu daily (quoted in her book):
Since Ambedkar was favorable to the exploitation of labour, all his
Dalit disciples too took the same path and ‘turned their faces away’
from Marxism. It is such a stupid path that makes them incapable of
knowing whether they are doing good or harm to themselves’.( page 421)
Many of us know how veteran Sharad Patil has been writing for long the
theory of Buddha, Phule, Ambedkar Marx philosophy as a remedy to
current situation in India. How do you do it with the current short of
Marxists in India who do not want to share, who remain ‘consistent’ in
their condemnation of Ambedkar. Why Arun Shourie and Rangnayakmma hate
Ambedkar. Is it because, Ambedkar’s Dalits have charted their path on
their own and not through the farcical brahmanical revolution? And
yes, it does not mean condemning Marx but they will simply not make a
God of Marx like the Marxists have done. Ofcourse, Ambedkarite Dalits
can not accept Gandhism and its so-called virtues as way to their
salvation. Actually right from left, right, centre, Hindutva or
missionary variety, in their action they did not have time to speak up
against the exploitation of labour in the villages and caste dimension
of it. Instead, Hindutva ideologue people like Shourie calls him a
British supporter while so called Marxist like Rangnakamma blame him
for supporting the exploiter. Can there be any truth in such vicious
campaign and propaganda? Yes Ambedkar condemned three classes which
he says British, Brahmin and Bania and the real meanings of these
should be understood. By British he meant imperialist forces, Brahmin
symbolizing brahmanical Hinduism and Bania, he meant capitalism. How
can any one suggest that Ambedkar did not speak against capitalism.
Those who have read him know that he wanted to nationalized land. Now
was that a capitalist agenda? He formed Indian Labour party, Depressed
Classes, Republic party of India.. where did he put caste identity in
focus in these. Did he deny any class or caste entry in his movement ?
Marx has been a great revolutionary and his vision still stand for an
equitable society. But why Marxist hate Buddha and then Ambedkar is
beyond understanding. If Buddha waged relentless war against
superstition and caste system, why should not Indian follow him? After
all, Buddha was born much before Marx. How did the caste Hindus kill
both Buddha and Marx together in their pursuit for power? One has to
understand the tribal question deeply as why the tribal leadership is
unable to emerge and in the name of tribal liberation it is the
brahmanical forces which are dominant in the region. ‘They can not
fight their own battle, said a friend, so these revolutionaries are
there. Why can not tribal fight their own battle when they had a Birsa
Munda who revolted against the British.
The other day, an ideologue from Andhra said on Times Now,’ the
Maoists are like Bhagat Singh, fighting against state repression’. It
is tragic to do such a comparison that easily. Bhagat singh had never
justified violence and in fact wrote about the issue of untouchability
as the biggest challenge to our society. Secondly, Bhagat Singh never
lived in double standard. At the age of 23, he went to gallows and
scolded his parents who wanted to get pardon from the British. Who had
the courage to openly claim himself as an atheist and demolish all the
religious symbolism from his body? In fact, that is the problem with
our modern day Gandhian historians that they never considered anybody
else for contributing to our freedom struggle, other than Gandhi and
his followers. Bhagat Singh was just branded as gun trotting
revolutionary and not an ideologue who defended freedom and secular
values. They do not feel that Bhagat Singh while fighting against
British imperialism concentrated on our own weaknesses of caste
system, untouchability and communalism.
The other day, some human rights activists claimed that state is
killings hundreds of people and we must speak against them. But who
stops human rights activists to not to speak against those who are
killing the innocent. ‘No, in the war these things are justified, they
say. Fine, in the war, the state will also use its might and that too
is justified despite human rights activists like us asking the police
and military to follow norms, but practically where have these norms
followed in war? Redcross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
all know it well that human rights are violated heavily in arms
conflict. Their pressure makes a lot of things during no war period
but during war, only the gun speaks.
Problem is that brahminism in India has various roots to survive. It
is monster and has different forms. Some where it survives through
pure Manuwaad, we all know, the gangs of Hindutva and their cousins
elsewhere. It comes through socialism, it come through communism, it
come through all shorts of ism including the Dalits themselves. How is
that every perception in India failed because of this. Reason is that
India needed social revolution and we opted for political one. I do
not say that only caste matter (Ofcourse it is the most important
aspect) and class too matters. Why can not our friend take both as
Ambedkar visualized in his famous work ‘ thought on Pakistan’ when he
said that ‘Hindu Rastra would be a calamity’.
Problem is that in the human rights discourse, we are conveniently
using ideological slants for our purposes. Hence those who are not
with left leanings become a right wing. If you are not with RSS then
you are seculars, communists and what not. I am proud to be a secular
whether they want to use it in negative term or something else. The
problem is that none of them appreciate freedom. Some keep conspicuous
silence when Taslima speaks, while others want to raise the issue of
MF Hussein and his paintings. The issue of Satanic verses would be
raised by one set of freedom fighters while others would demand a ban
on riddles of Hinduism written by Ambedkar. So, whenever the
opportunity comes closed mind will not allow this freedom. That is
why, Ambedkar is a problem for all the closed mind. Ambedkar was
essentially a modern man, a liberal democrat who could not close his
eyes to global changes. He was a free thinker who challenged the
supremacy of the religious text books. He knew that Indian society has
no respect for individual and he believed in it and perhaps these are
things which were not liked by those people who lionize a particular
ideology, do not believe in individual freedom and have nothing to
offer to demolish the age old prejudices and our very indigenous
capitalist order entirely based on your identities.
This article is not against a particular short of ideology. It is
basically on issues that in the name of ideologies, we are justifying
everything, human pain and agony. How can it be in a modern democracy
where each life should be considered precious? For those in
authorities, it is prudent that the ideology need a counter ideology.
If development fail to reach to the people, if social justice is not
there in our villages, if India still remain caged to feudal mindset,
if our village resources, our rivers, our mountains are on sale on
throw away prices then Mr Chidambaram and his team will have to do a
lot of soul searching.
Step out side Raipur and you will see the big companies lining up in
Chhatishgarh. Jindal tops the list with thousands of hectares of land
being granted to them for mining. Hundreds others are there to
‘develop’ Chhatishgarh. Tribals remain sandwiched between the two.
They have lost their land. Chhatishgarh is being colonized now by the
non Chhatishgarhis, big companies and Babas and sadhus. And where are
the poor? Mr Chidambaram would do well to take a round in the city of
Raipur’s famous Rajkumar college in the morning hours and watch the
irony of large cue of people waiting to defecate in open even when
there is a Sulabh Shauchalaya. It means that people can buy rice at
one rupee kilogram but no money to defecate as the charges in the
public toilet are higher then the price of rice in the state.
Where ever the political set up failed non democratic forces took up.
The tribal who have been exploited for years gets new hope in those
who give them ‘instant’ justice. There is a Vth schedule of
constitution where you need permission of the village panchayat for
starting any new private ventures? But how many times have the
government cared to speak to them. So, the result is growing
disenchantment among them. They have lost their habitat and without
addressing the basic issue of land, forest and water, the government
would not be able to tackle whole issue. Those who have isolated the
tribal population must be made answerable to them. In the meanwhile,
each one of the revolutionaries from Hindutva’s saffron gangs to
Christian Missionaries to Naxals, will sandwich tribal except from the
tribal themselves. Each one of them consider themselves as
‘protecting’ tribal from ‘outside’ influence but at the end of day
none of them actually belong to tribal themselves. It is time when we
address the issues of the people’s exploitation without being indulged
in the ‘greatness’ of ideologies. Greatness of ideologies lies in the
emancipation of human being and not on controlling their minds. Let us
defend the human rights of all but let not human rights become
instrument for those who spread hatred and violence.
On the other side which is equally darker, let not the ‘threat’ of
terrorism become an instruments to violate human rights of the people.
Let not every padyatra, slogan, publication which question the motives
of the government become a target of security agencies in the name of
‘fight against terror’. It is a very delicate battle and the
responsibility on the state is higher as on the human rights activists
too. The more you oppress the common man, the bigger will be the
fascination for ‘revolution’.
It is time we speak against oppression and for human rights. Let us
condemn violence in unequivocal term. It is time we rise up against
social injustice. The seeds of social democracy should reach each part
of the civilization. Let ideologies not become bigger than the human
liberty. Let human right discourse does not become good or bad because
of a personal perception based on basic political principals and
conditioning of our mind, after all, the movement for social justice,
the principals of human rights too came from hard core struggles of
the masses. It is time we accept criticism with open heart. Speak
against the perception and not on individual. Those who believe that
only ideology can counter ideology must come up with ideological
arguments to spread their ideology. With a gun in hand to promote
their ‘democratic’ ideas would not work and will definitely not do
justice to millions of those whose name this entire battle is being
fought.
chhotemianinshallah
Betrayal of the cause of Telangana
Posted On: 16-Sep-2009 03:25:21
News Source: Vidya Bhushan Rawat
New Delhi: One of the most important struggles for a separate state in
India is definitely that of Telangana state. Unfortunately,
immediately after partition, when the state of Hyderabad merged into
Indian Union, various new states were being formed or re-formed on the
basis of languages. Big states like Madras, Hyderabad were recreated
on the basis of languages. So part of Telugu speaking areas in
erstwhile Madras state and other areas from the state of Nizam formed
the part of new Andhra.
The history of Telangana’s movement lies in its struggle against the
autocratic Nizam who sucked the blood of its Telugu populace and was
not willing to accede to Indian union against the wishes of the
majority of its people. Hence, when the new state were being
formalised, the issue of Telangana ceded to the Telugu maître of maha
Andhra issue simply because the political parties and their leaders
succumbed to the temptation of their caste politics, ofcourse, in the
name of linguistic affinity. I know such facts are not accepted in
politics but anybody can guess the politics of Andhra Pradesh in the
post independent era is actually the politics of power grab between
two powerful communities of Reddy and Kamma.
Therefore it is tragic that a movement so popular and widespread
could not culminate into the formation of a new state. Who are the
forces responsible for this? Why Telengana is still a far away dream?
Have the political class betrayed the cause of telengana? What about
the cultural movement? Why have the intellectuals and social activists
of Telengana remained mute? If not why were they not able to translate
people’s anger into a focused movement for the formation of a new
state? These are questions which the authors of this book are looking.
‘ Civil society is yet to create the intellectual tool and action
plans that can distinguish people’s politics from power politics’
says the authors of the book,’ Telangana : The state of Affairs’.
The editors acknowledge that there is very little information about
Telangana in other languages as well as outside Andhra Pradesh. ‘One
drawback is that most of the available material in print about
Telangana can only be accessed by readers in Telugu’, they write. That
brings us to a new point which I consider as a draw back of this book
or may be of that of Telangana movement. The reason for my discomfort
is that there is not a single chapter devoted to the demand for
autonomy in other parts of the country. It is natural for people who
have been left on the margins to call for a separate state and for
more fiscal autonomy. Telangana was not the first one to demand for
it. It will not be the last one. We all know how the anti Hindi
agitation in Tamilnadu in the 1950s and 1960s shook entire India. The
fact is very clear that Tamilnadu had a distinct identity and it
aspired for it and did not succumb to the pressure of the central
leadership. It resulted in a unique situation of this state that
except for a brief period, Tamilnadu rejected the national parties and
powerful castes. It is another matter that the less powerful castes
now have become more powerful and replicating the brahmanical ‘wisdom’
in Tamilnadu but that is another matter of discussion at a separate
place. Andhra’s politics remained loyal to strong Centre. In fact it
provided strength to Congress party and its leadership in Delhi.
Andhra Pradesh got that symptom very late in the formation of Telugu
Desham but the fact is that the formation of Telugu Desham was not
really a demand for more autonomy to Andhra but more as a counter to
the Reddy domination of Congress Party. Till that period, Andhra’s
Reddy’s dominated the political discourse and occupied all the space
including the so-called revolutionary space. One has nothing against
them in person but the fact that such a monopoly over the political
cultural space in Andhra Pradesh resulted in doom of the politics of
marginalized in AP. In the past 15 years the Kamma, Reddy dominated
Andhra Pradesh has witnessed significant marginalization of the
Dalits, Apasis and backward classes. Both Chandra Babu Naidu and YSR
Rajshekar Reddy became big magnet and darling of the upper caste media
and corrupt business companies. The tragedy of the entire state is
that no credible leadership has emerged from the marginalised
communities and even the social movements have been hijacked by the
powerful communities. The result is that Mao and Marx have failed by
the brahmanical system and their deep rooted caste conspiracy to
sideline everything that come in their way.
That gives rise to my question. How come a leader of another power
community called Velma, lead the voices of the marginalized in
Telengana. Since Telangana remained part of the Nizam and even the
left wing forces fought battle for independence the communalization of
Telangana is not ruled out. Hence, it is an ideal ground for the
Hindutva forces. One must not feel that BJP is not present in
Telengana. The agenda of Hindutva does not lie with a particular
party. Their agenda is to Hinduise the political parties and we have
seen that systematic Hindutvaisation of the political parties in India
who works on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. Narsimha Rao’s
connections with the Sangh parivar dates back from the days of anti
Nizam struggle in the region. The dominant party of Telangana joined
hand with everyone from BJP to Congress for its pursuit to power but
could not force them to accede to its demand for a separate state when
they were in power in centre. Now the Congress actually rubbished them
and got a majority of seats in the last Vidhan Sabha elections in May
2009.
So consolidation of all the ‘Hindu’ votes against a Muslim challenge
could bring some more vote to powerful party of Telengana but at the
end of the day defeat the very purpose of the movement. Any movement
is the result of the marginalization and ostracisation of communities.
In the case of Telengana, it is basically Dalits and other
marginalized. Similarly Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand were tribal states and
remained marginalized under the Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
Uttarakhand’s case is different. It was a mountain state and the
Pahadis were considered to be inferior in not only Delhi but also in
other parts of Uttar-Pradesh. Little funds were allocated for
educational and other developmental programmes. A majority of Netas
and ministers hailed from the Uttar-Pradesh were least bothered about
hills as they were not able to influence the power politics of an
elephantine state of Uttar-Pradesh. Yet, not all Pahadis were equal in
socio-economic status, as the Brahmins of Uttarakhand actually were
among the most powerful in India. Some of these Brahmin families ruled
Uttar-Pradesh hence leader became bigger then the state and the cause
of the state remained marginalized. It is not a tragedy that the
biggest obstacle of the Uttarakhand state was Narain Dutt Tiwari but
he was imposed on a state which did not fight elections under him. So,
the brahmanical leadership is actually powerful in denigrating others
and creating artificial differences in the name of religion, region
and castes.
Demand for autonomy has been one of the major reasons of discontent
in India. Right from Kashmir to North Eastern regions like Nagaland,
Manipur, Meghalaya states have been demanding more autonomy and
freedom. Punjab suffered a lot under it. However, there is a wider
difference between these movements for autonomy is that while
movements for self determination in Kashmir, Manipur and Nagaland, yet
a good linkage to understand the issues of the people and their voices
for freedom and autonomy.
In the chapter ‘Subregionalism in India : The case of Telangana’,
Duncan B Forrester, says “ it remains true that it is not possible to
distinguish Telangana sharply from the rest of Andhra Pradesh in terms
of caste’. He writes : ‘ Non Brahmin feeling was never as strong in
the Telugu Country as in Tamilnadu, but nevertheless Brahmin dominance
was gradually challenged by rising non Brahmin castes, particularly,
the Kammas, and Reddies who tended initially to support justice party
and the Andhra Movement, finding themselves at loggerheads with each
other only after setting up of Andhra Pradesh in 1953.’
Actually, a comparison would have helped analyse things much better
how certain powerful communities dominates each state. So whether you
get a state or not, the question is that we are imposing a democratic
value system on a society which remain highly antidemocratic and
feudal. Hence The issue of mulkis and non mulkis is evident in other
parts of the country. Uttarakhand never got the right due from Uttar-
Pradesh. Since the region had only 25 seats and the contempt for the
people of uttarakhand was high.. Vidarbha is complaining the same from
Maharastra, Darjeeling asking for its right from West Bengal, Bodos
are asking the same from Assam and Chhatishgarh had similar problem
with Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand always remained undeveloped under
Bihar. Leaders became bigger than the movement.
A number of activist friends from Telangana always claimed to have a
unique ‘cultural’ difference between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
However, these distinctions exists every where including those states
which have been created in past 10 years.
I however disagree with the point that ‘subregional conflicts can
break down caste political solidarity in a different way and force
state politics to concern itself not so much with balancing the claims
of significant caste groups as with balancing the claims of various
areas with in the state to equality of treatment, particularly in
economic development. Actually the article was written by the author
in the late sixties and that time the popular media and popular
intellectual discourse was pided between Congress and the left forces.
That time any talk of the Dalits and Apasis or backward communities
was considered as ‘caste’ approach. However, witnessing the
degradation of the Marxian principals hijacked by the upper caste
landlords, one can easily say that a new caste identity of the Dalits
and backward communities along with Apasis is the need of the hour to
save the Telangana movement being hijacked by the same forces as
happened with other states particularly in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and
Chhatishgarh. In all these states, the forces of Hindutva were the
first to do the social engineering while the social strata of the self
proclaimed revolutionaries remained highly feudal and upper caste. One
can not shy away from the fact that the leadership of the Telangana
movement largely drawn strength from specific communities with the
Dalit communities simply jumping in their bandwagon without focusing
on the issue of their identity.
N.Venugopal in his essay ‘ Demand for separate Telangana Towards
Understanding the Core issues, has pointed out the regional
inequalities. He explained the Telangana struggle in historical
perspective. He argues the inequalities during the Nizam’s period
against the Telugu Speaking people as well as Kannada speaking people.
I think we make mistake here too. A number of Muslims living in
Telangana regions have not benefited from the Nizam’s rule. A few of
them might have got benefit in the name of their religion but majority
of them remained under the poverty line. The biggest damage to the
cause of Telangana was caused by the power elite of Andhra Pradesh
which hobnobbed with Congress party at the centre. It brings us back
to question that castes matter a lot in India. So, for the power elite
of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana cropped up only according to convinence
and not really a matter of conviction.
The historical cultural evolution of Telangana is not reflected
outside Andhra Pradesh. The activists feel they are special but they
should also understand that the communist fighters fought against
Nizams, so were many other forces. Like any other movement in India,
in Telengana too, no efforts were made to understand the discontents
among the Dalits against the upper caste leadership of the movement.
While the leaders hobnobbed with power elites and played with the
sentiments of the people, it is important to understand the feeling M
Bharat Bhushan in his analysis mention that initially it might have
been a movement against resistance and crossed caste, class and
religion differences but it looks today that ‘movement’ by political
class is basically to monopolise the power structure, resorting
emotional blackmail, non people means of the movement which he says
are political one upmanship, Unpredictability of the political class,
but I would prefer to use the term ambiguity of the political class is
another reason for inability to get a separate state. So Bharat is
right in saying that a Telengana for TRS may be different than what a
large number of activists think. Like activists who died for the cause
of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhatishgarh today feel betrayed as the
leadership in these states remains the hands of status quoists. Most
of the chief ministers that Uttarakhand have so far, whether under BJP
or Congress are Brahmins who constitute not more than 20% of the
population. The Chief Ministers in Chhatishgarh is a non tribal at the
moment.
There is no guarantee that such things will not happen in Telangana if
state comes into being. That the elected representatives become more
loyal to their party and party leaders then to their constituents. If
there is any uniqueness of Telangana struggle then the activists,
students, academics should join hand and start a social movement. The
voices of marginalized should lead the movement of Telangana. If a
separate Telangana have the same order as existed in Andhra Pradesh, I
am afraid it would become more dangerous than Andhra Pradesh. Let me
put some more points for cause of three states that were carved out.
Uttarakhand came into being because BJP wanted a state where upper
caste interests remain intact as people were unhappy with the Mandal
commission recommendations. It was essentially a movement against
Mandal Commission Reports that resulted in building of Uttarakhand
state. Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand were created to facilitate the World
Bank and transnational corporations. Since Andhra government was
already facilitating things for the neo liberal policies, there was no
need for a separate state here. One has to understand the factor that
the day any government creates problems for facilitation of SEZs or
SAZs, the power games would offer you a separate state in platter.
Telangana’s marginalized people have suffered a lot from the hands of
the power elite of Andhra. In an article ‘Do elections foster
separatism : The case of Telangana’ written by Dean E McHenry suggest
if he goes by the election results of 2004 assembly elections and 2006
Karimnagar byeelection when Telangana Rastra Samiti members
overwhelmingly got support from the masses. But I have not ready to
take this argument the reason for separatism. The original demand for
separate state is caused by a variety of issues such as socio-economic
marginalization, cultural gaps and continuous exploitation of
resources. As revealed in the book itself how Telangana produced more
revenue and how the State Reorganisation Committee Report was rejected
by the government.
As far as the book is concern, it contains very important documents,
articles and annexures which I have seen for the first time. Stories
such as Golla Ramavva written by PV Narsimha Rao and Land by Allam
Rajayya are also part of it. However, I would definitely have loved if
such stories are reproduced which comes from the communities
themselves. People like Narsimha Rao were proclaimed intellectuals but
at the end of the day they contributed very little for the cause of
Telangana and its culture. It is important to note that mere by being
born in a region does not make a person concerned about its identity.
Rao presided over a communal regime in Delhi(despite being a congress
person), opened up India’s land for the grab by the international
companies as well as our own feudal lords in the name of
‘globalisation’, just to counter the growing assertion and awareness
among the Dalits and marginalized in the post Mandal era’s India.
The annexures contains State Re-organisation Commissions Report,
Gentlemen agreement in 1956, Six point formula issued on September
21st, 1973 by Andhra politicians, article 371D i.e. special provisions
with respect to Andhra Pradesh, Order of Government of Andhra Pradesh
in 1975 on the issue of recruitment of local cadres. All these
information are very relevant to understand the crisis of Telangana.
They are important document which reflect clearly how the cause of
Telangana was betrayed by the people in power. It is important that
such documents need to be analysed fairly so that generations may know
how the issue of backwardness of a region is tackled by our political
class and how the ambition of a few makes way for the miseries of the
majority.
The Telangana debate must continue. Even if political Telangana is
not there, let there be efforts to develop the socio-cultural values
of Telangana. It is time to know who betrayed of the cause of
Telengana state in the struggle for which 370 students and youths were
killed in the police firing, and for the loss of academic year in
1969. If the state could not become a reality then time is to fix
responsibility. That can only happen if there is a movement which has
mass support and which is not based on sentiments but positive thought
of what makes Telangana and its people different than Andhra people
despite their common language and common castes? Can we expect that
Telangana will not have the politics of the domination of two or three
power communities in like Andhra? If the Andhra dominant theory is
repeated here in Telangana, then there is no point fighting for such a
state as it would be more damaging to the cause of the people of
Telangana.
This book can be termed as good beginning for people like me who are
far away from the living realities of Telangana but who were always
fascinated by the people’s struggle of Telangana. Definitely it is an
entry point for all those who wish to understand socio-cultural crisis
of Telangana and its polity. One hope that the authors will not end
with this only and will bring more such volumes so that people get
evidence based information on the issue of Telangana and may
understand its uniqueness.
Telangana : The State of Affairs
Editors : M Bharath Bhushan
N. Venugopal
Published in August 2009
Publisher L AdEd Velue Ventures,
Hyderabad
Price : Rs 250
Pages : 210
chhotemianinshallah
Discussion Board
There are total 5 comments
by Kiran on 17-Sep-2009
Most Idiotic story i ever read trying to provoke the idea of dividing
a region just for the purpose of political aspects. Bringing all the
old things which are not necessary to be reminded of. People of both
the states donot wnat to be poor and divided. We want to be together.
This sense is abscent in the writer. I suggest that he is to be sent
to the north indian states which were recently divided.. and asked to
make a report of its status. The writer is trying to just gain some
importance. Does the writer have no work ? Please donot initiate the
policy of divide and rule again.. Let the state be peaceful and
together
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat on 24-Sep-2009
Hi, You can also find my report of Uttarakhand, where I walked nearly
500 kilometer around a year back.. so about new state, you can find me
writing on these issues including that of Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand and
uttarkhand.. by the way, I was born in the beautiful mountains of
Uttarakhand.. ofcourse, I live in Delhi.. aur kya jankari
chahiye..India is my home and i work whereever I am needed.. i am
unable to concentrate on writing because of my work with communities..
I do not get internet and mobile access most of the time.. so
dhanyawaad for caring so much..
by Ram on 25-Sep-2009
This all up to the central government to decide about. Why you people
are fighting?
by Gurinder Singh Azad on 28-Sep-2009
Indeed good piece of work Mr. Rawat. While reading your write up, I
find it more of a fact finding report and then, a good book review. It
has become very informative and knowledgeable, in fact. However, in
this regard, I must say, no matter even if issues are centuries old,
if they centre human rights issues or concern pride of any ignored/
sidelined community, no nation can proceed further without paying
genuine and adequate heed to the problems lying in the foundation of
such struggles. Telangana issue is one of such issues. It is in fact a
story of every discomfort state/region where movements and struggles
have taken birth to draw attention of mainstream and government for
the establishment of their respectful existence without any
discrimination. I know, there is a category of people who beat the
drum of democracy and declare such strugglers anti social elements and
such movements undemocratic. However, neither this elite could leave
their casteist mind nor come up with a humanist approach to understand
strugglers’ involved basics. Casteist political parties and leaders
have well played their role in this betrayal of Telangana. No matter
RSS or Congress, when it comes to casteism, they all are same. But,
indubitably, there can’t be a permanent escape from these basic
issues. Alleged governments will have to answer every situation that
causes biased-democracy. Elite class (mostly upper castes and the
privileged ones) talk of unity of India pretending true Indians and
boast of it being the biggest democracy in the world. However, why
this democracy could not ensure dignity and secure human rights of
everyone, on this very issue every one of them is silent or has
orthodox and inhuman reasons. Therefore, it is natural for oppressive
community to ask for their rights even if it goes against democracy.
For feudal minds it seems it has become very ’impossible’ thought to
understand the twinge of dalits in the dearth of sensitivity. In such
a scenario, dalit assertion is growing as a need of the time, no
matter if this elite class doesn’t understand their problems. Hence,
struggles at many levels had been and would keep on occurring
incessantly until complete equality prevails. In the countries like
India, democracy carries different meanings for different people
according to the situation/position one has in the society. For
ingenious people it is different and for dalit it is dissimilar. When
later ask for their rights, former jumps to declare them anti-social
elements and deviate from the questions of equality. Now, in this
situation, where can oppressed class go except to accept this imposed
struggle? The matter of the fact is this who is at stake, later or
sooner, struggles and who is not, sees its stake in that happening
struggle since they know that in the name of democracy (actually
biased democracy) they have sucked blood of dalits and have made them
victim for thousands of years. Possession on all natural resources and
national capital by few upper castes and every comfort for elite
class… what is this democracy all about? Where are the rights of and
benefits for dalits and tribals? Every question needs interrogation of
Casteist politics if someone actually is dreaming for a true
democracy. Telagana struggle is a very basic and natural struggle in
this way. I must say here that if a democracy is a tool of enjoyment
for only elite class then I don’t mind if a nation gets divided into
hundred pieces; yet finally ensures and secures rights of every human
being and every community regardless caste, religion or any hell kind
of discrimination. So far our political parties did not show their
interest in it and the reasons are well known to everyone now. In
fact, casteist politician did play their mind game before and after
India’s division. Dalit was slave before, and in this democracy,
constitutionally they are equal but under this game plan have become
victim of their own situations. Vicious circle has been tightly built
for them and poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and hell number of
other problems dominates their lives. Most important thing is the
respectful life, a life with dignity which dalits have never enjoyed.
And here is the issue of Telangana struggle which needs to be called a
’natural step’ as it sees its dignity and pride in this built of
Telangana. Mr. V.B. Rawat, you, very genuinely and accurately have
taken up this issue and very candidly have moved ahead with this
burning yet ignored issue of Telangana while reviewing this book; and
I will read it for sure as it is a need of the time. I know this hi-
tech class will find it obsolete and a threat to peace and will
declare it anti-democratic issue as usually, but sensitive minds value
every human being. Injustice to even a single person should not be
tolerated and how the injustice to one entire community can be
ignored? True democracy is a far ahead dream so far but will come true
through such struggles. And so far whatever alleged governments have
done is nothing but was just a bandage on a cancer wound.
by Gurinder Singh Azad on 28-Sep-2009
Indeed good piece of work Mr. Rawat. While reading your write up, I
find it more of a fact finding report and then, a good book review. It
has become very informative and knowledgeable, in fact. However, in
this regard, I must say, no matter even if issues are centuries old,
if they centre human rights issues or concern pride of any ignored/
sidelined community, no nation can proceed further without paying
genuine and adequate heed to the problems lying in the foundation of
such struggles. Telangana issue is one of such issues. It is in fact a
story of every discomfort state/region where movements and struggles
have taken birth to draw attention of mainstream and government for
the establishment of their respectful existence without any
discrimination. I know, there is a category of people who beat the
drum of democracy and declare such strugglers anti social elements and
such movements undemocratic. However, neither this elite could leave
their casteist mind nor come up with a humanist approach to understand
strugglers’ involved basics. Casteist political parties and leaders
have well played their role in this betrayal of Telangana. No matter
RSS or Congress, when it comes to casteism, they all are same. But,
indubitably, there can’t be a permanent escape from these basic
issues. Alleged governments will have to answer every situation that
causes biased-democracy. Elite class (mostly upper castes and the
privileged ones) talk of unity of India pretending true Indians and
boast of it being the biggest democracy in the world. However, why
this democracy could not ensure dignity and secure human rights of
everyone, on this very issue every one of them is silent or has
orthodox and inhuman reasons. Therefore, it is natural for oppressive
community to ask for their rights even if it goes against democracy.
For feudal minds it seems it has become very ’impossible’ thought to
understand the twinge of dalits in the dearth of sensitivity. In such
a scenario, dalit assertion is growing as a need of the time, no
matter if this elite class doesn’t understand their problems. Hence,
struggles at many levels had been and would keep on occurring
incessantly until complete equality prevails. In the countries like
India, democracy carries different meanings for different people
according to the situation/position one has in the society. For
ingenious people it is different and for dalit it is dissimilar. When
later ask for their rights, former jumps to declare them anti-social
elements and deviate from the questions of equality. Now, in this
situation, where can oppressed class go except to accept this imposed
struggle? The matter of the fact is this who is at stake, later or
sooner, struggles and who is not, sees its stake in that happening
struggle since they know that in the name of democracy (actually
biased democracy) they have sucked blood of dalits and have made them
victim for thousands of years. Possession on all natural resources and
national capital by few upper castes and every comfort for elite
class… what is this democracy all about? Where are the rights of and
benefits for dalits and tribals? Every question needs interrogation of
Casteist politics if someone actually is dreaming for a true
democracy. Telagana struggle is a very basic and natural struggle in
this way. I must say here that if a democracy is a tool of enjoyment
for only elite class then I don’t mind if a nation gets divided into
hundred pieces; yet finally ensures and secures rights of every human
being and every community regardless caste, religion or any hell kind
of discrimination. So far our political parties did not show their
interest in it and the reasons are well known to everyone now. In
fact, casteist politician did play their mind game before and after
India’s division. Dalit was slave before, and in this democracy,
constitutionally they are equal but under this game plan have become
victim of their own situations. Vicious circle has been tightly built
for them and poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and hell number of
other problems dominates their lives. Most important thing is the
respectful life, a life with dignity which dalits have never enjoyed.
And here is the issue of Telangana struggle which needs to be called a
’natural step’ as it sees its dignity and pride in this built of
Telangana. Mr. V.B. Rawat, you, very genuinely and accurately have
taken up this issue and very candidly have moved ahead with this
burning yet ignored issue of Telangana while reviewing this book; and
I will read it for sure as it is a need of the time. I know this hi-
tech class will find it obsolete and a threat to peace and will
declare it anti-democratic issue as usually, but sensitive minds value
every human being. Injustice to even a single person should not be
tolerated and how the injustice to one entire community can be
ignored? True democracy is a far ahead dream so far but will come true
through such struggles. And so far whatever alleged governments have
done is nothing but was just a bandage on a cancer wound.
chhotemianinshallah
Revivalism of religious rights is a challenge to democratic secular
constitution
Posted On: 23-Oct-2008 11:28:00
The threat to Indian statehood is bigger and vital but the response
has been mute and reactionary. Rather than proactive, it is becoming
more in the form of symbols and so called unity of all the
reactionaries who are outside the brahmancial reactions. So, it is
becoming a fight between the Hindu reactionaries and all other
reactionaries who do not like them. Can India survive a fight between
different reactionaries? Where will be the common person and her
interest? All these reactionaries are opposed to basic human rights,
whether right to livelihood, right to choice and right to abort. They
preach gospels and are against individual freedom and right to
question religion.
Immediately after the Delhi bomb blast, the police as usual, claimed
to have cracked the case by arresting several people in a raid at
Batla House, in the South Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area. Vice Chancellor of
Jamia Milia Islamia, Mushir-ul-Hasan, who was seen to be a villain in
the community on his forthright comment on the prohibition of ‘
Satanic Verses’, became a hero as soon as he decided that the
University would provide all the legal assistance to the alleged
terrorists who were student of the University. While ‘seculars’ have
applauded the case, the Hindutva affiliates are up in arm against
this, terming it unconstitutional as well as appeasement of the
Muslims.
I am not entering into this debate on what is right and what is wrong
as some people have decided to become judgmental terming one community
always wrong while other always feel that it is victimized without
introspecting our own self.
Mushirul Hasan recently said in a meeting in Delhi as why should
Muslim always be answerable to everything that is happening around
them. He was actually saying that why do we expect Muslims only to
react when there are bomb blasts or there is a Fatwa. His question was
that the debate liberal verses fundamentalist Muslims is a sham and
nobody ever think of other communities in the same way. Have we ever
talked of a liberal Hindu verses communal one? That question would not
arise as the upper caste Hindus are always perceived to be liberal
one. Prof Hasan suggests as why should Muslims in India be responsible
for whatever happening elsewhere? Ofcourse, Muslims of India are not
responsible for whatever is happening in Bangladesh, Pakistan or any
other ‘Islamic’ country but definitely they can speak against the
treatment that minorities gets in these countries. Let us not speak
about ordinary Muslim who is working harder for his survival in this
country but why should those who champion the cause of Muslims remain
mute to such things. Are we so naïve to say that there is nothing
common in South Asia and we remained neutral to things h
bademiyansubhanallah
Tirumala Brahmotsavam fetches Rs 12.07 crore
STAFF WRITER 16:17 HRS IST
Tirupati, Sept 30 (PTI) The famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at
Tirumala near here has netted a total income of Rs 12.07 crore during
the nine-day annual Bhrahmotsavam, which concluded last night.
Of this, cash offerings by devotees in the temple 'Hundi' (Offering
Boxes) alone netted about Rs 10.77 crore while sales of Laddu
'prasadam' amounted to Rs 1.16 crore and that of darshan tickets Rs 14
lakh, TTD Executive Officer I Y R Krishna Rao told reporters here
today.
The income from this year's Brahmotsavam was Rs three crore less than
last year during the same period, he said.
About 7.5 lakh devotees thronged the temple to have a darshan of the
presiding deity of Lord Venkateswara during the festival, he added.
Temple sources told PTI that the total income did not include gold and
other precious offerings of devotees and revenue from the TTD
accommodations.
bademiyansubhanallah
Gujarat govt slams fresh affidavit in Ishrat case
STAFF WRITER 14:54 HRS IST
Ahmedabad, Sep 30 (PTI) Slamming the Centre for filing an additional
affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case, the Gujarat Government called the
move as double speak aimed at policy of appeasement and vote bank
politics.
"On several occasions, the UPA government had said that the job of the
Central intelligence was to provide inputs while providing security at
the ground level was the job of the respective state governments,"
state government spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas told PTI.
By filing the affidavit, the UPA government has taken an exactly
opposite stand, he alleged.
Pointing out that the arrest of four would have given the state an
opportunity to question them and get to the mastermind behind the
conspiracy to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he said, "But
unfortunately, when the police challenged them they opened fire and
were killed in the encounter".
bademiyansubhanallah
Bhadohi fake encounter case; 9 policemen sent to jail
STAFF WRITER 11:23 HRS IST
Varanasi, Sept 30 (PTI) Nearly a decade after four persons were killed
in an alleged fake encounter in adjoining Bhadohi district, nine
policemen wanted in the case surrendered before the local court which
remanded them to judicial custody.
Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhadohi, Intakhab Alam yesterday rejected
the bail application of the nine policemen and sent them to judicial
custody for 14 days.
Twenty-one other policemen involved in the fake encounter in Bhadohi
on October 17, 1999 are still on the run and the court directed the
police to arrest them.
After filing of the chargesheet in the case on May 1, 2007, the court
had issued summons to all the 30 accused policemen but they failed to
appear before it.
chhotemianinshallah
The Battle Has Begun
Converting Hindus to Hindutva
In Hindutva, Reports on September 30, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Interview with D.R. Goyal, writer and historian.
by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
D.R. Goyal joined the RSS as a schoolboy but realised within a few
years that its professions were not all true.
D.R. GOYAL is known to have written the most authentic account of the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), in 1978. He was an RSS member from
1942 to 1947. His analysis of the hate-mongering culture of the RSS
since Independence has earned him great respect in academic circles.
As a school student, he joined the RSS, which projected itself as one
of the organisations fighting for India’s independence, but it did not
take him long to realise that the organisation’s professions were not
necessarily true. Since then, he has been a chronicler of various
developments in this “cultural” organisation.
In 1962, when he was a Delhi University lecturer, he set up a unit of
the Communist Party of India at the university. He later joined
Subhadra Joshi (then Member of Parliament from Jabalpur, who also
holds the distinction of having defeated Atal Bihari Vajpayee) to form
the Sampradayikta Virodhi Manch. The organisation is at present named
the Qaumi Ekta Trust. He has also written a biography of Maulana
Hussain Ahmed Madani of Dar-ul-Uloom and is now working on a book on
Indian madrassas. In an interview to Frontline, the author of
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh elaborates on how the present crisis
within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is historically linked to the
RSS.
How do you understand the present crisis in the BJP? What is the role
of the RSS in influencing the BJP’s recent decisions such as the
expulsion of Jaswant Singh, the sidelining of Yashwant Sinha, or the
issuing of a show-cause notice to Arun Shourie?
First of all, I would say that the present situation in the BJP is
like the Mahabharat. Kauravas and Pandavas fighting each other.
Instead of Krishna coming and trying to solve [the conflict], the RSS
jumps in. Though it has always been influencing it, for the first time
the RSS chief has come and issued a public statement before the
Chintan Baithak of the BJP. He made a statement on TV that older
people should retire and the leadership should be given over to people
in their 50s and 60s. This kind of thing has never happened earlier.
Another feature of Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to Delhi was that he did not
even show the courtesy of visiting the ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
who was a major leader of the political formation founded by the RSS
in 1951. Vajpayee was at that time attached to Shyama Prasad Mookerjee
and until the other day he led the party and the BJP government for
six years. So, an ordinary human courtesy required that the head of an
institution that founded the BJP should visit him. Not necessarily for
any consultation, but even Vajpayee’s advice, if he could speak, would
have been useful because he knew people more. Advani, in fact, came
into the political scene much later, only in the 1960s. Before that he
was only an RSS pracharak. Now it seems that Mohan Bhagwat has
displayed a preference for Advani over Vajpayee, which means that he
has rejected all those people who were with Vajpayee.
In other words, for Bhagwat, Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Yashwant
Sinha and all these people are personae non gratae. He didn’t talk to
any of them whereas he talked to everyone who was either with Rajnath
Singh or with Advani. For him, the BJP means only those who are with
Rajnath or Advani. The result of this was that in the Chintan Baithak
of the BJP, no one could discuss the reasons for its defeat, which was
the purpose of the meeting. If it had happened, discussions on
ideology would have come in. The RSS did not want that. All these
days, there have been discussions only about the real role of
Hindutva. Although Advani tried to undermine it, he is known to be a
person who is attached to Hindutva.
In 2002, Vajpayee was in favour of dismissing [Narendra] Modi, but
Advani defended him. So in the RSS’ view, Advani is the real RSS man,
a defender of the RSS’ ideology, not Vajpayee. Therefore anybody who
is attached to Vajpayee has to be discarded.
Now what is the way ahead? Bhagwat says that he can only advise them
[BJP leaders] but cannot suggest. In other words, he doesn’t want to
take names although he has talked to all these people collectively as
well as separately. Talking to [Arun] Jaitley, [Sushma] Swaraj,
[Venkaiah] Naidu, Ananth Kumar means he was talking to people who were
against Rajnath. Therefore, he talked separately to Rajnath.
Another thing to be noticed is that Bhagwat went to Murli Manohar
Joshi’s house for lunch and didn’t go to anybody’s house until then.
Murli Manohar Joshi had not come to meet him. He, therefore, went to
his house. In other words, the RSS has a soft corner for Joshi also.
That is why there is talk that there might be a place for Joshi either
as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha or as president of
the BJP. What happened at the meeting, one doesn’t know; because the
RSS makes statements that are partial. It has never abdicated its role
as the real mentor of the BJP, or even the Jana Sangh. When the Jana
Sangh was founded, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was told by [M.S.]
Golwalkar to set up an organisation and the RSS would give it its
cadre but only on condition that its ideology would be promoted. So
this was a political party of the RSS meant to promote Hindutva, which
also means Hindu nationalism. Therefore, if the BJP does anything
against the minorities, the RSS has no objection to it – be it the
2002 Gujarat carnage or Kandhamal and Karnataka in 2008. The RSS
speaks only when there is a crisis inside the BJP’s organisation.
Why do you think not talking about ideology in the Chintan Baithak of
the BJP would be beneficial for the RSS?
If they didn’t come out with any kind of discussions in the Chintan
Baithak, it is because they didn’t want to disclose that there were
people who were reporting to the RSS. What does Bal Apte’s report
mean? That ideology was one of the reasons for the defeat. The RSS was
never bothered about the future or fate of the political party.
Ideology is prime. Therefore, Rajnath in his own defence repeatedly
says that there can be no dilution of the ideology.
In other words, whatever Golwalkar has said about nationalism, whether
it was his book We, Our Nationhood Defined or later on in Bunch of
Thoughts, still holds. In We, Our Nationhood Defined he said that the
minorities would have no rights except as second-class citizens unless
they accepted the culture of the Hindus. In other words, unless they
converted, they had no rights as citizens. And in the other book,
Bunch of Thoughts, he says that there are three enemies of
nationalism: Muslims, Christians and communists. If they have to
adhere to that ideology, they can’t have any alliance with any of
these three. The sin of Vajpayee was that when confronted with a
question on the dilution of Hindutva in the U.S., he said that unless
the party had two-thirds majority, ideology couldn’t be implemented.
So he becomes an unwanted person. Advani will never say that. Atal
Bihari also defends the Gujarat carnage, Karnataka and Kandhamal
implicitly because he doesn’t speak a word against these incidents.
Do you suggest that the present crisis is a fight between the Advani
and Vajpayee camps and is doctored by the RSS?
You see, the RSS doesn’t need Vajpayee. He was tolerated, not
accepted.
The RSS wants a young leadership in the BJP. In a way, all the present
outcastes such as Jaswant Singh, Shourie and Yashwant Sinha are more
than 70 years old. Young leaders like Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are
close to the RSS and also fall in the age bracket that Bhagwat
suggested. Does it suggest some kind of remote controlling of the BJP
by the RSS through a superficial talk of young leadership in order to
sideline the people who were not close to it?
The idea of the youngsters is intended to promote the people who are
from the RSS stream. The present crop of older leaders like Jaswant
have not been trained in the RSS. The RSS knows that these people will
not work for ideology. They will work for power. Until the BJP came to
power, there was no problem between the RSS and the BJP. It was only
in the 1990s, when there was a possibility of the BJP coming to power.
At that time, there was a BJP conference in Bombay [now Mumbai]. There
was also a parallel conference of the BJP that was addressed by the
then RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan. He said that the BJP needed to be
careful about the “corruption” that had entered in its ranks. A
biography of Advani called Advent of Advani was issued. Even in this
biography, it was suggested by the RSS that the BJP had got addicted
to five-star cultures, which showed in the places where they conducted
their meetings. Even the Shimla meeting was conducted in a luxurious
hotel rather than a place suggested by the State government.
What has been the role of the RSS after Independence in determining
the organisational decisions of the BJP and the Jana Sangh?
The RSS doesn’t only influence their decisions. The relationship
between these political formations and the RSS ensures that the
parties do not function independently. Political formations are meant
to advance the ideology. In fact, earlier the RSS was not in favour of
entering politics by itself. It thought unless it created an
atmosphere in which its ideology was acceptable, it would not enter
politics. “Our culture will be our politics,” it said. Therefore, it
is very difficult for the RSS to enter politics directly or give up
the influence it exerts in these political formations that it has
created. That is the dilemma for the RSS.
Jaswant Singh was expelled on the grounds of writing something that
violated the ideology of the RSS and the BJP. Even Arun Shourie came
forward to confront the leadership of the party, but he was not
expelled, perhaps because he is seen as a staunch Hindutva ideologue.
Does this mean the RSS needs more people like Shourie who could engage
intellectually with the civil society in favour of its ideology
despite certain criticisms against it?
Once Arun Shourie was invited to preside over the Vijayadashami
function, their annual function, in the Nagpur headquarters of the
RSS. A person who has been invited to such a function is normally
considered a promoter of the ideology, though he may not be close to
the Sangh. Moreover, his objection to the functioning of the BJP is
that the ideology has not been promoted in the way it should have
been. Therefore, the RSS should take over, he means, but the RSS
cannot do that. At the same time, Mohan Bhagwat had to say that he is
a respected journalist and an intellectual.
So you think this is the reason the RSS has not been criticising
Narendra Modi despite his efforts to distance himself from the RSS
over the last few years?
Modi is doing what the RSS wants. The only problem between Modi and
the RSS in Gujarat is that Modi has not been able to win over the
castes that are against him.
Do you mean to say that the RSS is a very strong organisation? The
only thing that matters to it is its ideology. Is it itself free from
power politics?
The RSS is not free from power politics. Sometimes problems do arise,
but it solves those by dissolving them. There has been a lot of
discussion on whether pracharaks should marry or not and on matters
such as these. But there has been no difference on ideology. For
instance, the difference between Mohan Bhagwat and K.S. Sudarshan was
on whether the organisation should tolerate a person like Advani or
not. When Bhagwat left Delhi, Sudarshan met him in order to explain
that he was not against him. In other words, the difference between
the chief and ex-chief was about the treatment that should be given to
Advani because there were complaints of “ideological corruption”
against Advani also.
How different is Mohan Bhagwat from his predecessor Sudarshan? What
difference does it make to the BJP?
Since the influence of the RSS is so strong and Bhagwat for the first
time came out speaking before the Chintan Baithak, could a step such
as the expulsion of the president over any indiscipline be repeated in
future? Jana Sangh presidents Mauli Charan Sharma and Balraj Madhok
were expelled from the party on the RSS’ order. Advani was just asked
to resign from the presidentship, though.
It doesn’t make any difference to the BJP. Bhagwat’s only problem is
that he wants a younger generation to come up in the BJP. Sudarshan
had also wanted this. He had said this to both Advani and Vajpayee.
But Bhagwat went a step ahead to prescribe the age limit of the
leadership (between 50 and 60). So Murli Manohar Joshi is also out in
that way. He has not named any of them. But apart from the prominent
four or five, it could also be Bal Apte and Ram Lal. These are people
who are delegated in the BJP by the RSS to look after its political
formation.
Jana Sangh president Balraj Madhok was expelled because he had written
a letter that the organising committee should not be chosen by the RSS
but be elected by the respective units of the Jana Sangh. They would
be paid by the Jana Sangh, not the RSS. What Madhok meant was that the
Jana Sangh should be detached from the RSS. Advani is not able to
project such an approach though he says that the RSS should not
interfere in the BJP’s day-to-day decisions. What does it mean? Does
it mean the RSS should not appoint the organising secretary? His only
objection is that the RSS should not speak up when the BJP makes a
statement that the RSS is critical of. After the Jinnah controversy,
Advani was just asked to resign and was not expelled because unlike
Madhok he was ready to accept the terms and conditions of the RSS.
Madhok was not prepared to accept the RSS’ diktat. Madhok made a very
strong statement against the RSS after his expulsion in Ahmedabad.
In 1985, when the BJP took stock of the reasons for its abject defeat
and Vajpayee was asked whether it marked a return to the Jana Sangh
type of politics, he countered, “When did we get away from the Jana
Sangh?” The Jana Sangh was openly a political unit of the RSS, which
the BJP claims it is not. Even the RSS claims that. On November 6,
1977, however, he said exactly the opposite. “When we joined the
Janata Party we had given up our old beliefs and faiths and there was
no question of going back.” It was almost the same case with Advani
regarding the question of Hindutva before the election. Is this some
sort of ideological confusion or temporary dishonesty for political
gains? What is that which prevents the BJP from charting its own path
and emerge as a right-wing organisation with its own brand of Hindutva
for political gains?
Neither of the two parties, the BJP or the Jana Sangh, has grown in
politics. They have grown in the RSS. The RSS has put them in
politics. Therefore, they have to surrender. There was a journalist
who brought out a magazine called Mother India from Bombay. It was
about the film industry, but there were editorials, which talked about
politics. He once made a comment that Vajpayee says something but when
it comes to the crunch, he goes and kneels before the RSS chief. There
is no difference between the BJP and the RSS. I always say that the
BJP grew by accident. The BJP grew because of the ideological mistakes
committed by the Congress. First, Indira Gandhi destroyed all the
second-rung leaders.
When Rajiv Gandhi came, he was an inexperienced politician. He took
decisions that were not in conformity with his party. For example, he
permitted the foundation stone of Ram Mandir to be laid in Ayodhya. He
also changed the law in the Shah Bano case. He was almost doing what
the BJP wanted to do. Before that in 1983, Mrs. Gandhi made speeches
in Jammu and later in Delhi, which, according to [K.R.] Malkani, were
in accordance with the ideology of the RSS. When you begin to walk in
those lines, then naturally the other party becomes acceptable. So the
Muslims, Dalits, OBCs [Other Backward Classes], all of them got
alienated from the Congress. It was these mistakes of the Congress
which led to the rise of Jana Sangh and then the BJP. If there was no
Emergency, in 1977 how could a conglomerate of various parties come to
power?
When the BJP makes statements accepting different cultures in India,
they have never defined culture. In fact they have never differed from
Golwalkar who said that religion is the basis of culture, in his book
We, Our Nationhood Defined. If religion is the basis of culture, then
those who do not believe in the Hindu religion are not a part of this
culture. It is not even temporary dishonesty. It is just meant for
public consumption, not for practice. People went gaga over Vajpayee’s
tolerance, but was he able to dismiss Modi? Did he differ from Modi
when Advani approved the killing of Graham Staines? The RSS was happy
with a leader who tolerated the ideology.
You have shown in your book how the RSS believes in lie-mongering and
has a convenient memory. Despite their claims of being the most
nationalist force, Savarkar appealed for clemency from the British. In
your book, you reproduced the apologetic letter by Balasaheb Deoras to
Indira Gandhi during the time of Emergency so that they were not
arrested. Almost in the same vein, Advani lied when he claimed
ignorance about Jaswant Singh accompanying mujahideens in the Kandahar
hijack episode. Jaswant Singh called his bluff. What does this history
suggest?
You see, they had basically no objection to the Emergency. In fact,
Balasaheb Deoras, the RSS chief, told Indira Gandhi that if she was
prepared to join them, they would help her to fight the communists.
They were prepared to support the Congress. Even now, if the BJP
adopts all the economic and foreign policies of the Congress, the RSS
will have no objections. If one enemy can be fought with the help of
the Congress, the RSS doesn’t mind it. Why do they go to Jinnah again
and again? Now Jaswant Singh has gone overboard and therefore got
expelled. Advani said Jinnah is a great man. One should understand
that if you are a follower of Savarkar, you are bound to be a follower
of Jinnah too. Savarkar in 1937, before the Pakistan resolution in
1940, had made a statement that Hindus and Muslims are two separate
nations and cannot live together. The hue and cry is just because
Jaswant Singh is not acceptable to the RSS and not about Jinnah.
Some in the RSS are repackaging ‘Hindutva’. Something like “anyone who
is born in India is a Hindu”. Bhagwat even said that they are open to
all. This goes against the Golwalkar (in his book Bunch of Thoughts,
Chapter 10) and Savarkar. Both of them denounced territorial
nationalism and strictly defined who is a Hindu. Only a person who
embraces Hindu culture could be a Hindu. So do you see a shift in the
ideology of the RSS or does that amount to the same thing? They have
been using religiosity and nationality almost in the same vein, in
terms of an all-encompassing Hindu nation.
No, this is a hypocritical deceit. The RSS does not come out in the
open with anything. For example, the RSS would not support what Varun
Gandhi said, but they would have no objection if you, like Modi,
create a situation in which the minorities are killed. That is the
difference. They realise that Hindus at large would not accept their
original ideology. Therefore, they want to mould Hindus into their
ideology. In fact, the idea is not to convert Muslims or Christians.
The idea is to convert Hindus to Hindutva ideology. For them, the
weakness lies with the Hindus.
Since you have spoken so much about Vajpayee, do you mean to say that
Vajpayee was not a strong Hindutva ideologue himself?
For this, you have to go back to the genesis of the political
formation. When, after 1948, the RSS was banned, there was a lot of
discussion. In the old files of the Organiser between 1946 and 47,
there are a whole lot of letters where people say that unless you
advance into politics, you will not be able to defend yourself.
Because when there was a ban on the RSS, there was nobody to defend
it. If you want some defence, you have to take the plunge into
politics. I remember one of those letters, which read, “Whatever cuts
in politics, cuts in life.” This means whoever is effective in
politics, he is also able to defend its ideological practice in life.
Therefore, a political formation was created to defend what the RSS
does, in its own name or in any other name. Whatever the Bajrang Dal
or the ABVP [Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad] does, it is defended
by the BJP.
You have always been an acute observer of the RSS both from inside and
outside. Over all these years, what change have you seen in the
working of the RSS?
One big change that I see is that the RSS now does not attract school
students or even young college students. Youngsters in shakhas are
slowly becoming invisible. Life has changed. A child would watch TV in
the evening rather than go to a shakha. In the morning, they go to
school. Therefore the ABVP is the recruiting ground for political work
and violence. After all, where has Arun Jaitley come from?
Finally, where do you see the BJP going from here?
It is very difficult to find a suitable person to preside over the
party. I don’t see any future for the party for the next 10 years, at
least until 2014. In fact, I am sorry to say that the communists have
blundered badly, otherwise, here was a chance [for them] to become the
main opposition party.
Politics today is more fluid than it ever was. After Independence, the
freedom fighters were dictating terms as long as they were alive. But
today, ideology is there but idealism is no more there.
Source: Frontline, Vol:26 Iss:19, Sep. 12-25, 2009
...and I am Sid harth
chhotemianinshallah
BJP will Remain Under RSS’ Thumb
In india news on June 27, 2009 at 2:48 pm
By Amulya Ganguli
Since defeat invariably leads to internal rows in a party, it is no
surprise that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is experiencing
acrimonious finger-pointing over the reasons for its setback in two
successive general elections.
The problem is compounded, however, by the fact that the BJP is not
quite the master of its own destiny. Unlike other parties, it does not
stand alone, but is part of the Sangh Parivar (the fraternity of Hindu
nationalist groups) headed by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
In fact, it can be regarded as the political wing of the Hindu
supremacist RSS although the various members of the Parivar, which
includes, apart from the BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the
Bajrang Dal, like to maintain the fiction that they are all autonomous
entities.
The fact that they pay an annual ‘gurudakshina’ or tuition fee to the
RSS, however, suggests the latter is their friend, philosopher and
guide.
Not surprisingly, when anything goes wrong, the tendency among some in
the BJP is to blame the RSS for its ideological stranglehold on the
party. Usually such criticism is voiced by those who have drifted into
the BJP from other disciplines, such as journalism, and includes those
who had once flirted with the Left.
Few of them are able to accept the whip-hand held by the RSS over the
BJP although this dominance is acknowledged without any murmur by the
true-blue – or, rather, true-saffron – members of the BJP who have
grown up with the party.
One “outsider” to voice his criticism of the RSS is Sudheendra
Kulkarni, a former leftist, who was L.K. Advani’s aide during the
election campaign. In his view, the RSS is the villain of the piece
for exercising its malign influence over the BJP although, Kulkarni
alleges, it does not have too many admirers even among the Hindus.
In addition, Kulkarni argued that the RSS made Advani look weak where
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi made Manmohan Singh look
strong by their wholehearted support.
That it didn’t even take a day for the BJP to dissociate itself from
Kulkarni’s statement tended to confirm his charge about the influence
wielded by the RSS.
In contrast, the criticism of the party’s performance by Jaswant Singh
has steered clear of any reference to the paterfamilias. Singh
undoubtedly knows that he has to tread carefully for he too had
drifted into the BJP from the Janata Party conglomerate. That was one
of the reasons why the RSS had vetoed his selection as finance
minister in 1998 by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Notwithstanding his cautious approach, Singh may be courting danger by
arguing, first, that the BJP looks like a “party of yesterday” and,
secondly, that its concept of Hindutva lacks clarity.
Brajesh Mishra, former national security advisor and a close aide of
Vajpayee, too is reported to have said the BJP’s “message of Hindutva…
did not get across to the voters…” and that the RSS needed to bring
moderation in its ranks.
Since Hindutva is the party’s and the Parivar’s lifeblood, any attempt
to clarify it may be interpreted by the RSS as an attempt at dilution
because the concept stands for the ideal of “one people, one nation,
one culture”. This theory of cultural nationalism, which is the
alternative term for Hindutva, may seem innocuous at first sight
unless one realizes that its emphasis on “one culture” means Hindu
culture and runs counter to the multicultural polity favored by the
secular camp.
This is the essential difference between the BJP and the other parties
and may well be the reason why it is stagnating today after its
initial surge because the minorities and the liberals are unwilling to
accept the dominance of Hindu culture. Besides, those who had been
misled by its pro-Hindu stance have realized that it was no more than
a cynical political ploy.
Unless the BJP is able to bring its cultural nationalism in line with
pluralism, chances are that it will remain a “party of yesterday”.
Till now, there is little indication that it intends to do so – or
will be allowed to do so by the RSS.
Jaswant Singh’s plea, therefore, for clarifying the concept of
Hindutva may engender more heat than light as few in the BJP will have
the gumption to defy the RSS to signify the party’s acceptance of all
cultures at par.
As before, the latest debate is again between the advocates of a
moderate and a hard line. But the difference is that the moderates
have lost a great votary in Vajpayee’s absence due to ill health. As
such, they do not have anyone of stature to present their case.
Advani may have done so, but his position is weakened by his earlier
image as a hardliner, which suggests that he may not be wholly
sincere.
Of the others, party chief Rajnath Singh is too dependent on the RSS
to strike out on his own. Besides, he is an instinctive hardliner who
will not dare to deviate from the straight and narrow path delineated
by the head of the Parivar.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi too belongs to the same hawkish
category although he is not a favourite of the RSS because of his
individualistic style. His friend in Delhi, Arun Jaitley, is still a
lightweight and Sushma Swaraj, another outsider, will not endanger her
seemingly bright future in the party by alienating the RSS.
So the BJP may go through the motions of an internal debate but is
likely to end up toeing the RSS line.
chhotemianinshallah
Sangh Parivar Insider Perspective
A swayamsevaks’s musing on Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar needs to realize the reality
August 18, 2006
Even after 81 years of heroic service to the nation, RSS is considered
a black spot on Hindu Dharma/Bharat and more so a borderline terrorist
organization by the large number of people who don’t know Sangh. These
people seem to include large number of India politicians especially
people belonging to non-BJP parties and the majority of elites in News
Media and influential circle of society.
If this is not the case, then what else could explain the daring move
by Himachal Pradesh government to declare that any person belonging to
RSS will be removed from the government service. Why is it still not
legal for government employees to work with RSS? Why does the name RSS
creates a image of riots and religious warfare in the mind of people?
Why has RSS become a stigma rather than a source of pride to lakhs of
swayamsevaks? Why? Why? Why?
I think it is clearly the fault of RSS leadership. RSS has neither
realized the importance of mass media nor realized that in today’s
society, perception matters more than the reality. RSS leadership has
created a situation for swayamsevaks where they aren’t willing to
openly call themselves swayamsevaks because of the fear that everyone
around them has a negative perception of RSS. At least, I don’t see
any thing that comes out of RSS which suggests that RSS is even
remotely worried about it perception among the non-RSS people. The
main backward decision have been the removal of Ram Madhav Ji as the
spokesperson. Checkout the article below yourself.
HP move to dismiss employees with RSS background
8/17/2006 1:57:28 PM HK
http://www.haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx?PageID=1643
Simla:Himachal Pradesh Congress government had shown their height of
intolerance by suspending a government Ayurvedic practitioner, stating
that he has links with RSS.
“He was working for the RSS. That is why he has been placed under
suspension,” Told Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.He
also warned that any employee having links with the RSS will be
dismissed from service. “Government employees will not be allowed to
take part in RSS activities. If any employee does so, he will be
dismissed,” Singh said.
Singh’s statement evoked a sharp reaction from Opposition BJP today
which termed it as “undemocratic and dictatorial”.
In a statement issued here, party spokesman Randhir Sharma said the
RSS was a “nationalist social organisation which works for inculcating
moral values, honesty, dedication and selfless service.”
He said that it appeared that the Chief Minister had “no faith in
democratic values and was trying to infringe upon the right to views
and expression which was violation of the Constitution”.
The BJP leader said Singh was trying to “browbeat the honest and
dedicated employees and asked him to quote the article of the
Constitution under which government employees could not have links
with RSS”.
Sharma dared the chief minister to take action against such employees
and said that if the need arose, the BJP would not hesitate to launch
an agitation on the issue.
Courtesy:www.zeenews.com
chhotemianinshallah
Video on 70,000 service project by RSS in BharatSeptember 27, 2006 at
4:49 pm · Filed under Hinduism, India, Historical, Politics, Society,
hindu, bharat, dharma, Sangh
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1013666219441914390
Download High Quality version of Sewa Video (350 MB)
(Requires XviD Video Codec)
Sangh Swayamsevaks are running nearly 70,000 service projects
throughout Bharat. These service projects range from reconstructing
villages in the Bhuj, Gujarat to boys hostel for Tribal Villagers in
Tinsukia, Assam. From latest medical clinic, in Wayana, Banglore to
adopting kids who have lost their parents to terrorism in Jammu &
Kashmir. Very often these projects are hidden from the glare of news
cameras and writers of major newspapers. Now, there is a video to
showcase the RSS’s effort to once again take Bharat to Param Vaibhav
(the pinnacle of glory). Please take a moment to see for yourself, the
selfless hard work by lakhs of sangh swayamsevaks in every nook and
corner of Bharat.
Sangh Parivar Insider Perspective
Swami (Baba) Ramdev asks women to awaken Sitamata, Jijabai and Rani
Jhansi in them.March 15, 2006 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Hinduism,
India, Swami Ramdev, Yoga, hindu, bharat, dharma, mausiji, Sangh
Download Audio Speech : Swami (Baba) Ramdev: Mothers are responsible
for dowry carnage in India
Listen (Stream) Audio Speech:
Video Highlights of the Sevika Samiti Event
The Rashtrya Sevika Samiti held its 15th, 3 day national convention
in Nagpur from November 6 to 8. (Video of the Complete Event) A total
of 10,297 Sevikas from across the country including 35 Sevikas from
Nepal, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and Sri Lanka participated in
the convention. On November 6, noted Yogacharya Swami Ramdev organised
an exclusive class of yoga for the participants. It included seven
pranayams, some yogasans for women with his apt comments regarding
swadeshi and role of women in nation building.
In his inaugural address he insisted that women need not go on begging
for 33 per cent reservations. “Beggars have no choice and self-
respect. If women demonstrate glare like fire, speed like air,
patience like earth, coolness like water and broadness like space,
they will be respected by all,” he said. He further said ..
Reservations can’t help a nation grow. Power is not given but it is
taken. Moreover, Swami Ramdev gave some tough love to women and told
that Mothers alone are responsible for “dowry” carnage being played
across the Bharat. At the same time, he also urged women to set high
goals for themesleves and achieve everything they can. Ramdev Baba
asks every woman to awaken Sitamata, Jijabai and Rani Jhansi in them.
He inspires everyone take active role in serving the society.
Length: 40:33 Language: Hindi
Hindu Spirituality should be spread in America: K S SudarshanAugust
19, 2005 at 4:25 pm · Filed under Hinduism, India, Politics, Society,
K S Sudarshan
Download Audio Speech : Hindu Spirituality should be spread in
America: K S Sudarshan Ji
Listen (Stream) Audio Speech: Hindu Spirituality should be spread in
America: K S Sudarshan Ji
Bhisham Agnihotri Ji introduced mananiya K S Sudarshan Ji at Dharma
Summit held in NJ on August 13-15, 2005
Sudarshan Ji begins by saying “I am not an intellectual”, rather I am
an implementor of the ideas from great intellectuals … We hoped that
things would change after the Indian Independence but that didn’t
happen … Nehru was the last Britisher to rule India, therefore nothing
at all changed … we are still in grip of a education system which has
cut us of from our culture and history … today school books say that
Guru Teg Bhadur was a robber in Panjab! … Organization started by RSS
chief Golwalkar Ji in 1950-60s, such as Viswa Hindu Parishad, Bhartiya
Majdoor Sangh, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Vanvyasi Kalyan
Ashram are number 1 in their field! Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s 1st Global
conference brought all the Hindu leaders together after 1500 years!
Last time all the Shankracharyas came together was during the time of
Samrat Harshawardhan in 648 A. D …. Achievement of Hindu society in
India such as destruction of Babri structure and Pokhran test have
made the Hindu proud all over the world. … In India the public will
defeat the terrorism!
Length: 43:05 Language: English
Swami Aksharanand: Hindus, stop preaching all religions are same!
August 5, 2005 at 2:17 pm · Filed under Hinduism, India, Historical,
Society, Swami Aksharananda
Download Audio Speech : Swami Aksharanand: Hindus, stop preaching all
religions are same!
Listen (Stream) Audio Speech:
Swami Aksharanand ji, who holds a Ph.D. degree in Hindu Studies from
the University of Madison, Wisconsin (USA) deplored that it was
unbecoming on the part of leaders of one billion strong Hindus to look
at the United States and complain about the cross border terrorism
(from Pakistan) and cry like babies.
He spoke extensively regarding the falsity of the “equality of
religions” propagated by Gandhi and the modern day gurus and saints.
The concept that “All religions are one” as propagated by Gandhi
incessantly is the most destructive concept that is affecting us all.
It is not only silly but dangerous fallacy to propagate the idea that
all religions are one. Some of these gurus and sanyasis from India
come here at the United Nations and invoke Allah and Jesus Christ. In
fact, what are they saying to us Hindus, who are under severe attacks
every day by the same forces of Allah and Christ. Hinduism and other
religions can’t be equated and called same because “religions” of the
world have been born in the environment of hostility. Tracing the
origin of Abrahamic religions, Swami Aksharananda said that when
Christianity came on the scene, it had to develop an antagonistic
philosophy to deal with Judaism. When Islam came on the scene, it had
to develop an antagonistic philosophy in order to deal with both
Christianity and Judaism. He stressed on the point that Islam and
Christianity in their very genesis are hostile and antagonistic
creeds.
Length: 16:15 Language: English
Indian Economy is Feminine : S GurumurthyJuly 23, 2005 at 2:32 pm ·
Filed under India, Politics, Economy, Society, S Gurumurthy
Download Audio Speech : Indian Economy is Feminine : S Gurumurthy
Listen (Stream) Audio Speech: Indian Economy is Feminine : S
Gurumurthy
S Gurumurthy is an acclaimed writer whose columns have found place on
several dailies and periodicals. He is known for his radical views and
opinions while his intense combination of words and moods are a
testimony of his passion towards raging issues. Gurumurthy’s knowledge
of economics and accounting principles is outstanding and his
articles, though polemical, are always painstakingly well researched
and crafted. Many of Reliance’s travails during the mid-1980s can be
traced to Gurumurthy’s pen.
In this speech, Gurumurthy ji talks about the saving based economy of
Asian nations and their feminine characteristics. Read more about this
issue in his column entitled, Is it back to thrift and end of cheap
money? . In addition, he had some not so savory words for NRIs and
politicians/economist who are currently part of Indian Government.
Raghunath and Vishwanath?” asks Sadhvi RithambaraJuly 12, 2005 at
10:17 pm · Filed under India, Society, Sadhvi Rithambara
Dowload Audio Speech: Vatsalya Gram : A Unique solution for new
problems
Listen (Stream) Audio Speech: Vatsalya Gram : A Unique solution for
new problems
“How can anybody be anath (orphan) in this land of Raghunath and
Vishwanath?” asks Sadhvi Rithambara. Outflowing from her fond concept
of bhakti is vatsalya or devotion as towards children, getting
reflected in her novel experiment of communes vatsalya mandir and now
vatsalya gram. Her vatsalya gram at Param Shakti Peeth is a verdant
sprawl of 43 acres on the Vrindavan-Mathura Road. In her vatsalya
mandir and gram she takes up destitute children and old women and
prepares them as role models of daughters, mothers or grandmothers as
is the case. Sadhvi Rithambara is referred to here as “Didi Ma,” and
schoolteachers know that children have come from vatsalya mandir. She
finds charity a cold concept. It might provide food, clothes and
shelter to some needy person but can’t impart love, affection, care
and warmth, necessary for healthy evolution that vatsalya is all
about.
Paper on Hinduism (3/3)June 19, 2005 at 7:35 am ·
Download Audio Speech: Paper on Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda
Listen to Audio Speech:
Vivekananda at World Parliament of Religion: PAPER ON HINDUISM
Chicago, 19th September 1893
Three religions now stand in the world which have come down to us
from time prehistoric - Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. They
have all received tremendous shocks, and all of them prove by their
survival their internal strength. But while Judaism failed to absorb
Christianity and was driven out of its place of birth by its all-
conquering daughter, and a handful of Parsees is all that remains to
tell the tale of their grand religion, sect after sect arose in India
and seemed to shake the religion of the Vedas to its very foundations,
but like the waters of the sea-shore in a tremendous earthquake it
receded only for a while, only to return in an all-absorbing Hood, a
thousand times more vigorous, and when the tumult of the rush was
over, these sects were all sucked in, absorbed and assimilated into
the immense body of the mother faith. From the high spiritual flights
of the Vedanta philosophy, of which the latest discoveries of science
seem like echoes, to the low ideas of idolatry with its multifarious
mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists and the atheism of the
Jains, each and all have a place in the Hindu’s religion.
Why we disagree? (2/3)June 15, 2005 at 3:15 pm ·
Download Audio Speech: Why we disagree? by Swami Vivekananda
Listen to Audio Speech:
At The World’s Parliament of Religions
Chicago, 15th September 1893
I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker
who has just finished say, “Let us cease from abusing each other,” and
he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance.
But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause
of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a
long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a
little, small frog. Of course, the evolutionists were not there then
to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story’s
sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it
every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived
in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern
bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and
fat. Well, one day another flog that lived in the sea came and fell
into the well.
Welcome Address by Swami Vivekananda (1/3)June 13, 2005 at 12:18 pm ·
Download Audio Speech: Swami Vivekananda’s Welcome Address
Listen to Audio Speech:
Response to Welcome At The World’s Parliament of Religions
Chicago, 11th September 1893
Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy
unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which
you have given us. l thank you in the name of the most ancient order
of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of
religions; and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of
Hindu people of all classes and sects. My thanks, also, to some of the
speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the
Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well
claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration.
chhotemianinshallah
BSP showcases its `Brahmin might'
Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Party had never been against upper castes or Hindu religion, says
Mayawati
Photo: Subir Roy
WOOING BRAHMINS: The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, at
a Brahmin Sammelan organised by the Bahujan Samaj Party in Lucknow on
Thursday.
LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday imparted a new dimension
to the caste-oriented politics of Uttar Pradesh by showcasing its
growing influence among the Brahmin community through a ``Brahmin maha
rally.'' The rally marked the culmination of about 50 ``Brahmin jodo
sammelans'' (Brahmin enrolling conferences) that the BSP had held
across the State in the past three months.
Addressing the rally, BSP president and former Chief Minister Mayawati
said her party had never been against the upper caste communities or
the Hindu religion. ``We were branded as anti-upper castes and anti-
Hindu by manuvadi vested interests, including political parties and
sections of the media.'' Her party was opposed only to discriminatory
tendencies and attitudes such as caste oppression.
Ms. Mayawati said her party had been making concerted efforts to
propagate this understanding and these efforts had started showing
results in the past few months, especially among Brahmins. The
positive appreciation of the BSP among Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh would
be beneficial to the community in electoral terms because the party
leadership had decided to give more ticket to the community in the
coming elections, she added.
Greeted with rituals
As she arrived at the rally venue, Ms. Mayawati was greeted with
Brahmanical rituals. A group of priests chanted Vedic hymns and blowed
conches while the Brahmin leaders of the BSP, including Sudhir Chandra
Mishra, Rajya Sabha member and the chief organiser of the rally,
presented her gifts, including a silver axe, mythical weapon of Lord
Parashuram, who has emerged as a new icon in the BSP's Brahmin
conferences.
Mr. Mishra said Ms. Mayawati had done much more to protect and uplift
the social and political dignity of Brahmins than the leadership of
parties such as the Congress and the BJP.
It may be too early to predict the impact of this Brahmin-oriented
initiative of the BSP, but there are signs that it has created a
threat perception among other parties. The new public holiday
announced by Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh
Yadav recently for ``Parshuram Jayanti'' on May 11 is apparently a
reaction to the BSP initiative.
The BSP effort is obviously based on the political calculation that a
Brahmin-Dalit combination, along with Muslim support, would bolster
its chances.
bademiyansubhanallah
Pakistan deserves credit for fight on terror, defence attaché says
Anealla Safdar
Last Updated: October 01. 2009 11:17PM UAE / October 1. 2009 7:17PM
GMT ABU DHABI //
The Pakistani defence attaché to the UAE last night asked the world to
recognise the sacrifices and successes his countrymen were making to
counter terrorism.
Speaking at an event to celebrate Pakistan Defence Day, the attaché,
Khawar Hussain, invoked what he called the “high standards of valour,
courage and sacrifice” that the Pakistani military displayed during
the war with India in 1965.
Addressing about 130 people, mostly diplomats, defence attachés and
members of the Pakistani community, Mr Hussain said: “Pakistan is and
will continue to contribute positively towards world peace. This is
manifested by Pakistan’s leading role in the war against terrorism.
“On this front line we have sustained heavy casualties and incurred
monumental losses. More Pakistani soldiers have fallen in combat than
the combined casualties of foreign troops in Afghanistan.”
The remembrance, usually held on September 6th – to commemorate the
defence of Lahore against the Indian army – but delayed because of
Ramadan, was marked with a rendition of Pakistan’s national anthem and
a cake-cutting ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Hussain also used the occasion to pay tribute to strong ties
between Pakistan and the UAE, which, he said, date to the 1970s.
“Both armed forces share a common perception towards current
challenges being faced by the world,” he said.
“Both countries stood by each other in the hour of need. The world
response, especially of the UAE during earthquake disaster of 2005, is
a manifestation of brotherly relations between the two armed forces.
And recently, UAE contributed extensively, in providing all out
support for rehabilitation of three million internally displaced
people who had to leave their homes due to Pakistani security forces’
operations against terrorists.”
bademiyansubhanallah
ISI ‘tried to undermine’ democracy in Pakistan
Tom Hussain, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: September 29. 2009 10:46PM UAE / September 29. 2009
6:46PM GMT
Former spymaster Imtiaz Ahmed says he is doing his duty as a citizen
by revealing past conspiracies. Muzammil Pasha for The National
ISLAMABAD // A former spymaster once considered the greatest threat to
Pakistani democracy has rocked the army and political opposition with
a series of revelations about their involvement in past conspiracies
against former governments.
Brig Imtiaz Ahmed burst out of obscurity in August in a series of
media interviews, saying that as director of the internal security
wing of the military’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate
in 1988, he had orchestrated the creation of Islami Jamhoori Ittihad,
a coalition of Right-wing parties, to oppose the Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto.
The coalition, led by Nawaz Sharif, now leader of the political
opposition, succeeded in preventing the PPP from winning an outright
majority in elections that year, although it went on to form a
coalition government.
Mr Ahmed claimed that the coalition’s leaders subsequently colluded
with ISI and Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a bureaucrat turned president, to have
Bhutto’s administration dismissed on charges of corruption and
incompetence in 1990.
In an interview, he said his role in the 1990 conspiracy had involved
distributing briefcases of cash to opposition party leaders, implying
that only one, Altaf Hussain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a
party hugely popular among Urdu-speaking migrants from India, had
refused to accept the proffered bribe.
Mr Ahmed said that, with hindsight, he felt a “tinge of regret” about
forming the anti-Bhutto opposition coalition, but qualified that by
arguing: “At the time, to any sane mind, it was quite in line with the
prevailing political scenario”.
But he was at pains to highlight his role as that of a military
officer carrying out orders.
“I was not the one calling the shots. I was working within the policy
framework of my superiors under their strict monitoring. My detractors
have created the impression that I was operating alone, but I was only
a cog in the machine.”
Mr Ahmed was forced into retirement after Bhutto’s government
presented evidence of his involvement in that and other conspiracies
against it. But the party’s attempt to sideline him was futile.
Elections were held and won by Mr Sharif’s coalition, and Mr Ahmed was
subsequently appointed director general of the civilian Intelligence
Bureau.
In his new role Mr Ahmed soon found himself fighting off the very kind
of anti-government intelligence agency conspiracy he had once
orchestrated.
As Mr Sharif, the prime minister, increasingly distanced himself from
his former military patrons, the army undermined his coalition by
launching a security operation against the MQM, a key partner, in
1992.
Mr Ahmed said the operation was launched without the knowledge of the
prime minister, but Mr Sharif gave it his backing after the military
unearthed torture chambers it alleged were run by the MQM political
militia.
Military Intelligence, an army agency distinct from ISI, also leaked
maps of “Jinnahpur”, purported to be a breakaway state being planned
by the MQM, to drum up public support for the operation during which
thousands of party activists were killed. Mr Hussain was forced to
flee into exile in the United Kingdom.
Mr Ahmed admitted the Jinnahpur map was concocted and that army
revelations about MQM torture chambers were “80 per cent exaggerated”.
Mr Ahmed’s statements have been corroborated by Gen Naseer Akhtar, who
was head of the army’s Karachi Corps, who met Mr Hussain in London in
August to apologise for his past actions – an extraordinary admission
that the MQM chief has since used to pummel Mr Sharif’s democratic
credentials.
“I helped to remove a stain on a major segment of Pakistan’s
population. Otherwise their children would have borne the stigma of
treachery and that would have had serious, drastic consequences for
the country,” Mr Ahmed said in an interview with The National.
Mr Ahmed’s confessions came amid rising tensions between Mr Sharif and
Asif Ali Zardari, the president and Bhutto’s successor as PPP chief,
sparking speculation in the Pakistani media that Mr Zardari had
colluded with Mr Hussain, a key ally, to embarrass the opposition
leader.
However, Mr Ahmed said he made his decision to go public while serving
an eight-year prison term for owning property beyond his proven income
in an anti-corruption court. The courts were set up by Pervez
Musharraf, the military chief who overthrew Mr Sharif in a coup d’état
in 1999. Mr Musharraf was himself forced out of office last year.
Mr Ahmed said he was concerned about the possible consequences of
mounting public disillusionment with civilian politicians, calling it
the result of the autocratic tendency of politicians to accrue
personal power after being elected.
“I have seen a succession of political governments lose sight of the
fact that their power base hinges on an independently functioning,
strong parliament. Intentionally, they have undermined parliament
because they intended to function outside the parameters of the
system, in effect becoming a proxy for military dictatorship.”
He said the failure of politicians to learn from the past would
empower hardliners within the military intelligence agencies and
enable them to resume their historic role as a shadow government.
“If I succeed in giving the politicians a wake-up call, I’ll feel I
have done my duty as a citizen,” Mr Ahmed said.
bademiyansubhanallah
US to triple aid to Pakistan
Last Updated: September 30. 2009 2:55PM UAE / September 30. 2009
10:55AM GMT
A bill was expected to be passed by the House of Representatives on
Wednesday that will triple the amount of non-military aid the US gives
to Pakistan to US$1.5 billion (Dh 5.51bn) a year for the next five
years, focusing on education and infrastructure.
The package then needs only the signature of President Barack Obama,
who has enthusiastically supported the bill as a long-term investment
to end the allure of extremism in the Islamic world’s only declared
nuclear weapons state.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan,
said the bill was a sign of a bedrock US commitment, and five-year
funding promises were “very unusual in the modern world.”
“Pakistan is a huge and important country,” Mr Holbrooke told
reporters last week in New York.
He said that Karachi, the world’s largest Muslim-majority city,
suffered power blackouts for much of the day. “These are serious
problems and they contribute to instability,” Mr Holbrooke said.
The House of Representatives first approved the bill in June along
largely party lines, with Republicans supporting aid but accusing Mr
Obama’s Democrats of trying to micro-manage the package through
onerous conditions.
The House will now vote on a compromise version with the Senate, where
the bill was approved unanimously after politicians toned down some of
the stricter conditions on the aid.
But the bill still insists that Pakistan take action against extremist
groups on its soil and not assist them in fighting neighbouring
countries, namely India.
It specifically lists the extremist movements Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammed. Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for last year’s bloodbath
in Mumbai that left 165 people dead.
The bill also orders the administration to ensure that Pakistan
prevent any proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The US has voiced concern after Pakistan permitted freedom of movement
for its key nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted five
years ago leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The bill sets as a key aim the consolidation of power in civilian
hands. President Asif Ali Zardari took over a year ago, ending a
decade of military rule in Pakistan, but US officials worry that he is
still weak and lacks full control over the nation’s powerful military.
As US politicians wrapped up work on the bill, Pakistan’s former
military leader, Pervez Musharraf, was in Washington for private
discussions.
Mr Musharraf, who was the former president George Bush’s key ally in
the “war on terror,” criticised the debate in Washington on whether to
send more troops to Afghanistan. “By this vacillation and lack of
commitment to a victory and talking too much about casualties (it)
shows weakness in the resolve,” Mr Musharraf told The Washington
Times.
The Obama administration has revamped Mr Bush’s strategy by saying it
is looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan together, after worries that
extremists chased out of Afghanistan were finding refuge in lawless
border areas.
AFP
bademiyansubhanallah
Pakistan’s tenuous path towards peace
Last Updated: September 27. 2009 8:22PM UAE / September 27. 2009
4:22PM GMT
At a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week,
the news that the US Senate had approved $1.5 billion in non-military
aid to Pakistan provoked a round of spontaneous applause, a rare note
of optimism for the troubled state. The package, which is expected to
be passed by the US congress in the near future, triples non-military
aid over five years. Combined with gains made by the Pakistani
military on the ground – and the army chief Ashfaq Kayani’s commitment
to keep the armed forces out of politics – there is a glimmer of light
at the end of the tunnel.
Pakistan has inched back from the abyss since the violence before the
2008 elections and steady incursions by the Taliban into the North-
West Frontier Province and tribal areas. The president Asif Ali
Zardari has not only held on to office in defiance of predictions but
has made strides towards consolidating civilian power. He has co-
ordinated an international aid campaign to prop up the faltering
economy, reinstated the deposed chief justice (admittedly under some
duress), and proposed a truth and reconciliation commission to address
sectarian and ethnic grievances.
Although these moves towards a more civil society are far from
irreversible, there is an opportunity that would hardly have been
credible just a year ago. The key will be whether the much-maligned
military continues to protect the state, rather than try to run it.
The weekend bombing in Peshawar shows the continued threat posed by
the Pakistani Taliban; after the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, the
disparate militant groups are attempting to form a united front. There
are more battles ahead, but Islamabad’s sovereignty in the tribal
areas will be established only by dispensing with the archaic tribal
laws and bringing electricity, good roads and education to areas too
long ignored.
The stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan will always be balanced on a
knife edge as long as it is waging conflicts on its own soil. The
United States has a role to play as an ally – not least because of the
poorly kept secret that Afghan Taliban and al Qa’eda leaders shelter
in Quetta – but one it has bungled so far. Attacks by foreign forces,
even unmanned drones targeting hardline extremists, will always be a
call to war for Pakistanis of many different backgrounds. If not
stained by blood, that $1.5 billion can go a long way towards helping
Islamabad to re-establish a more stable state.
bademiyansubhanallah
India - Jihadis luring Kerala college girls for love
Share: by israeli.agent | August 31, 2009 at 10:12 pm
1331 views | 22 Recommendations | 2 comments
Photos
Lovingly Jihadi | Photo 02
see larger image
It is not only happening here, but other parts of the world too, in
various forms. But this is the one of the rare incidents where the
popular media openly dares to talk about this 'phenomenon', at least
in India.
It was happening for a long time, since behind the supposed to be
secular walls of the country, India. Under the constitution every
citizen has the freedom of faith and can work towards spreading his/
her religion. But as for Jihadis this is another tool to swell their
ranks for with ease because they can cheaply recruit the 'infidels'
and utilize them as tools of terror in the place of the deep rooted
'fidels'. The modus operandi is simple. Charm the girl with terror
funded money, make them fall in 'love', and then use all the
techniques in the book to convert them to Islam. Done.
The important part of this scheme is that never allow any of the
'fidel' girls to fall in to the infidel faiths. They have very
effective terror cells to prevent a remote chance of such incidents.
Any infidel who dares to look at the 'fidel' girls is definitely
confronted by death threats on them and their family. Oh, not to
mention that the possibility of a 'communal riot' freely offered by
the Jihadis.
Kerala police has constituted a special team to probe charges that
jihadis are running an organized racket in the state's colleges to
lure gullible girls in the name of love and then convert them for
subsequent use in anti-national activities.
"We are investigating if there is any such design,'' DGP Jacob
Punnoose told TOI. What jolted the sleuths into action was a habeus
corpus petition in the Kerala high court from the parents of two MBA
students. The students were staying in the same hostel at St John's
College in Pathanamthitta district when they met a senior and grew
fond of him.
But the boy proved to be a nuisance to the authorities and was
expelled from the college some years ago. "He still managed to retain
contact with four junior students, including the two MBA students and
feigned love for them. The boy wanted them to get converted to Islam.
But one of them suspected his intentions and withdrew while another
developed psychiatric problems. The other two fell for him and
eloped,'' college principal Sreekumaran Nair said.
When there was no news of their wards, the parents approached the high
court with habeus corpus petitions. The girls were subsequently
produced in court which allowed the parents the custody of their
children for a week. When they appeared in court next, the girls
stated they had been trapped and did not want to go back with the boy.
In the period they were with him, one of them had already married the
boy and the other was "forced to marry'' his friend, a bus conductor.
In their statements given to police, the students claimed that they
were shown jihadi videos and literature by the boy. Expressing concern
over the development, the high court asked the police to probe
deeper.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Now it is the turn for all the "secular" and communist forces in the
country to wake up and cry 'religious profiling' and 'discrimination'
in the top of their lungs. Because it is question of assured votes.
MUMBAI: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is meant to
probe high-profile cases, will now investigate love affairs that have
resulted in marriages between Hindu girls and Muslim boys.
The state CID has been told to check whether Muslim boys are enticing
Hindu girls as part of a larger ‘conspiracy’. Minister of state for
home (rural) Nitin Raut announced this step in the legislative
assembly on the last day of its session.
BJP MLAs Eknath Khadse and Devendra Fadnavis had alleged in the
assembly that young Muslim boys in rural areas were wooing Hindu
college girls and then marrying them. This, they claimed, was part of
a ‘conspiracy’ to increase the strength of the community. Khadse had
further alleged that some Hindu girls had also been sent to the Gulf.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
0 reply
2Rhonda J Mangus
at 00:01 on October 1st, 2009
Sorry I missed this, Agent.
0 reply
12israeli.agent
at 04:46 on October 1st, 2009
Thanks Rhonda..! Better late than later..!
.Agent.
chhotemianinshallah
Page last updated at 13:02 GMT, Thursday, 24 September 2009 14:02 UK
CPS doubles 'honour crimes' team
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is doubling its legal team
fighting so-called "honour" crimes in London.
The 10 specialist prosecutors will be increased to 20 in a bid to
tackle what it calls "an abuse of human rights".
Acting Chief Crown Prosecutor for London Nazir Afzal said the CPS
wanted to reduce the number of victims.
An honour killing is defined as the murder, mainly of women from Asian
or Middle Eastern families, accused of bringing shame upon their
relatives.
'Cultural beliefs'
Mr Afzal told a London conference organised by the Association of
Chief Police Officers: "Honour-based violence is a big problem in
London and with this increase in the number of specialist prosecutors
we hope to reduce the number of victims and bring more offenders to
justice.
"By having a number of prosecutors who specialise in this type of
crime we have a database of people who have knowledge of the
difficulties in bringing prosecutions against offenders.
"The prosecutors will be familiar with the different sensitive and
often complex issues which are apparent in cases of this kind.
"Honour-based violence is difficult to prosecute as it involves
family, community and long standing cultural beliefs.
"But the Crown Prosecution Service will not shy away from tackling
honour-based violence.
"It's a fundamental abuse of human rights."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml
Crimes of 'honour'
Honour killing is the murder of a woman accused of bringing shame upon
her family.
Killing in the name of honour is often considered to be a private
matter for the affected family. In recent years, more and more cases
have reached the UK courts but many crimes still remain unresolved or
even undetected.
So-called honour killing is usually committed by male family members
against a female relative. In some communities mothers and sisters may
also play a part. Some of the most common reasons for murdering a
family member include: refusal to enter an arranged marriage, seeking
a divorce - even from an abusive husband - or committing adultery.
In some cases, women who have been sexually assaulted or raped are
then murdered for the 'dishonour' of having been a victim of an
attack.
Honour killing is an ancient tribal custom and an allegation against a
woman can be enough to defile a family's honour and justify her
murder.
Men who kill their wives, sisters or daughters argue that a life
without honour is not worth living.
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the annual worldwide
total of killings might be as high as 5,000 women.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_2.shtml
Honour killings in the UK
In the UK, murders have sometimes taken place after a family has
reacted violently to their son or daughter taking on the trappings of
western culture. Killings are often disguised as suicide, fire or an
accident.
Police believe there may be as many as 12 honour killings in the UK
every year. They will typically occur within Asian and Middle Eastern
families when a person is believed to have 'dishonoured' their loved
ones.
In 2003 the Metropolitan Police set up a strategic task force to
tackle the issue. A specialist unit was given the task of researching
honour crimes and 100 murder files spanning the last decade were re-
opened in an effort to find common links.
The move followed the killing of a teenage girl in a Kurdish family in
London. In 2002, Heshu Yones, 16, was stabbed to death by her father,
Abdullah, because he disapproved of her Western dress and Christian
boyfriend.
Mr Yones then cut his own throat and attempted suicide by jumping from
a third floor balcony. At his murder trial in 2003 he begged the judge
to sentence him to death. Yones, a political refugee, who had fled
Saddam Hussein's regime 10 years previously, was sentenced to life
imprisonment for the murder of his daughter.
Other examples
Mustaq Ahmed, 40, a Muslim businessman murdered his daughter's
boyfriend because he disapproved of their relationship. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22-year-old Albanian
Rexhap Hasani in 2003.
Rukhsana Naz, 19, wanted to divorce her husband to marry her boyfriend
by whom she was pregnant. She refused to have an abortion and was
strangled by her brother with a piece of plastic flex while her
mother, Shakeela, held her down. The family put Rukhsana's body in the
car and drove 100 miles to dump it. Shakeela Naz and her son Shazad
Ali were sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing in 1999.
Nuziat Khan, a mother of three, was seeking a divorce from her abusive
husband. He strangled her to death in front of their three-year-old
daughter in 2001. He remains on Scotland Yard's most wanted list and
is believed to have fled to Pakistan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_3.shtml
Protecting the vulnerable
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in March 2004 Mr Gidoomal called
for key changes to be put in place to help those at risk.
His appeal followed the death of Anita Gindha, a young Sikh mother,
who had run away from home to get married. She was strangled at eight
and a half months pregnant.
In his letter, Mr Gidoomal urged the authorities to introduce three
new measures to raise public awareness of honour-related crime.
These included:
A code of conduct, signed by Asian community leaders, with an agreed
and well-publicised form of whistle-blowing to protect women under
threat within their own communities.
Extending telephone helplines to include services targeted at Asians
particularly young people who may be at risk.
The setting up of a Young Asians at Risk Register (YAAR - the Hindi
word for friend) to help the police, social services and other
organisations to maintain an accurate national database.
Mr Gidoomal explained: "Protecting our citizens is an important duty
of our nation. One life lost is too many. When a young girl or boy
suddenly disappears from school to go abroad, at what point is it the
right of the state to become involved in finding them?"
He says it is particularly important to target communities where
honour crimes are most likely to occur. "It really does need multiple
sectors working together. There needs to be training for teachers,
police and others so they are aware of the early warning signs and
able to identify those who would be most at risk."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_4.shtml
A global problem
Outside the UK, honour killings have been reported in countries
throughout the world including: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt,
Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan,
Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.
The practice is common in Pakistan where police believe that up to
4,000 people, mostly women, have died in brutal honour killings in the
four years between 2000 and 2004. Hundreds of women are raped or
killed there each year in so-called honour attacks for behaviour
including extramarital affairs or marriage without a family's consent.
In a recent case (June 2005), Jali Ahmed set fire to his sleeping wife
and daughter and burned them to death in an honour killing. The 20-
year-old girl was killed for having had an affair and her mother for
not doing enough to discourage her daughter.
In another harrowing case, a Pakistani widow and her two daughters
were beaten and forced to parade naked through a market after her son
allegedly had an affair with another man's wife.
And in June 2002, a 30-year-old woman claimed she was gang raped on
the orders of a tribal council to atone for her brother's alleged
affair with a member of a powerful rival clan. Mukhtar Mai's family
said the charge against her 12-year-old brother, Shakoor, was
fabricated.
The family claims Shakoor was sodomised by a group of men from the
local Mastoi clan. After they threatened to report the incident to the
police, Mai was gang raped allegedly by four men.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_5.shtml
Moving forward
In Europe the phenomenon is also on the rise. European police met in
The Hague in 2004 to discuss ways to tackle the problem and pledged to
set up a pan-European unit to crack down on honour killings.
Police believe that some families may have hired contract killers or
bounty hunters. Some killings have also involved sending the victim
back to the family's "home nation" to be killed there.
They have also acknowledged that the culture surrounding honour crimes
is complex and that recognising early warning signs will be the first
step towards saving lives.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_6.shtml
Culture of honour
Shahien Taj, founding director of the All Wales Saheli Association,
and a member of the Asian community, says: "Honour is supposed to be a
positive word. Clearly, calling a killing an 'honour crime' is a
contradiction of terms. A lot of talk and dialogue takes place after a
crime has happened but this is too little too late. If you really want
to deal with an issue you have to unpack it in its true context."
Ms Taj maintains that the majority of women within Asian communities
face pressure over honour. She explains: "The whole concept of honour
puts barriers up. It is repeatedly used in forced marriages."
She also cites cases of abduction and families giving permission for
the use of domestic violence on newly married daughters. "Women are
thought of as a collective and not an individual," she says. "I've met
men and women who've been brought up on the concept of honour. It
doesn't allow you to thrive."
Ram Gidoomal CBE of the South Asian Development, adds: "There's a
deeper issue at stake with honour killings. Asian families who come to
Britain are unprepared for the changed cultural environment. Young
people have real problems trying to cope. Many of these youngsters
live in two worlds.
"Attempted suicide rates are high among Asian boys and girls. Some
will want to go down a particular career path but their families won't
let them. The most serious issue is that of marriage. In extreme
cases, the clash of cultures results in young people wanting to take
their own life or people engaging in honour killing or murder of the
worst kind."
Mr Gidoomal has been campaigning on the issue since the early
nineties. He claims that the authorities need to look further than
murder cases to get to the bottom of honour crimes. "Suicide,
attempted murder and injuries can all fall into the category of honour
killing," he says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_7.shtml
A matter of culture not religion
Honour killing, Mr Gidoomal continues, is not a religious issue.
None of the world's major religions condone honour-related crimes. But
those who are guilty have sometimes tried to justify their actions on
religious grounds.
"Honour crime happens across the board in the Asian community,"
insists Mr Gidoomal. "People try to blame Muslim, Hindus or Sikhs but
it tends to happen in families where there are the strongest ties and
expectations. It's a very strong cultural issue."
Leaders of the world's faiths have also strongly denied a connection
between religion and honour killings.
In 2003, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) told
the BBC: "Many Muslims are uncomfortable about how Islam has been
dragged into this, because Islam categorically does not allow people
to kill their own daughter."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_8.shtml
EU forces changes
In Turkey, a country that is due to begin membership talks with the
European Union (October 2005), there have also been a number of crimes
linked to honour.
Until June 2005, local judges there had the power to hand down reduced
sentences to the small number of honour killers who were caught.
Since the introduction of a new penal code, designed to conform to EU
law, honour killings have been re-categorised as murder with a life
sentence attached.
Eren Keskin, head of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights
Association, said: "There are some positive developments in these new
laws. However, in Turkey the written law and its enforcement can be
two very different things. Until the feudal make-up of society, until
the very mentality behind these crimes changes, we cannot expect
anything very different."
Keskin's comments followed revelations that a 13-year-old girl had
been forced to marry a paedophile rapist. She was also raped by her
father-in-law for refusing to become a prostitute and then had her
nose cut off.
In the first few months of 2005 Palestine was also shaken by a series
of brutal honour killings. Under laws inherited from the days of
Jordanian rule women are perceived as "minors" under the authority of
male relatives. The maximum sentence for killings in defence of
'family honour' is six months.
Two killings (May 2005) have prompted calls for a change in the law.
One involved Faten Habash, 22, a Christian Palestinian, who was
bludgeoned to death by her father for having fallen in love with a
Muslim.
The other involved the ritual killing of three sisters by their
brother after one of them was accused of having an affair. Maher
Shakirat forced the three women to drink bleach before strangling
Rudaina, who was eight months pregnant. The two other sisters tried to
flee but Shakirat caught Amani, 20, and strangled her. The third
sister, Leila, escaped but was badly injured. The killing was thought
to have been ordered by parents of the three women.
According to the Palestinian women's affairs ministry, 20 girls and
women were murdered in honour killings in 2004. A further 50 committed
suicide - often under coercion - for "shaming" their families. Another
15 survived suicide attempts.
The ministry claims that dozens of other killings are covered up each
year. One woman of 26 was certified as dying of old age.
chhotemianinshallah
Document - Pakistan: Honour killings of women and girls
PAKISTAN
Introduction
"The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their
obeying social norms and traditions."
Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist
Women in Pakistan live in fear. They face death by shooting, burning
or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the
family. They are killed for supposed 'illicit' relationships, for
marrying men of their choice, for divorcing abusive husbands. They are
even murdered by their kin if they are raped as they are thereby
deemed to have brought shame on their family. The truth of the
suspicion does not matter -- merely the allegation is enough to bring
dishonour on the family and therefore justifies the slaying.
The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by
traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men. Male
relatives virtually own them and punish contraventions of their
proprietary control with violence. For the most part, women bear
traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and
behaviour with stoicism, as part of their fate, but exposure to media,
the work of women's groups and a greater degree of mobility have seen
the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded
world of women. But if women begin to assert their rights, however
tentatively, the response is harsh and immediate: the curve of honour
killings has risen parallel to the rise in awareness of rights.
Every year hundreds of women are known to die as a result of honour
killings. Many more cases go unreported and almost all go unpunished.
The isolation and fear of women living under such threats are
compounded by state indifference to and complicity in women's
oppression. Police almost invariably take the man's side in honour
killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers. Even
when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually
receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their
female relatives with virtual impunity. Specific laws hamper redress
as they discriminate against women.
The isolation of women is completed by the almost total absence of
anywhere to hide. There are few women's shelters, and any woman
attempting to travel on her own is a target for abuse by police,
strangers or male relatives hunting for her. For some women suicide
appears the only means of escape.
Abuses by private actors such as honour killings are crimes under the
country's criminal laws. However, systematic failure by the state to
prevent and to investigate them and to punish perpetrators leads to
international responsibility of the state. The Government of Pakistan
has taken no measures to end honour killings and to hold perpetrators
to account. It has failed to train police and judges to be gender
neutral and to amend discriminatory laws. It has ignored Article 5 of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, which it ratified in 1996, which obliges states to
"modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women"
to eliminate prejudice and discriminatory traditions.
Some apologists claim that traditional practices as genuine
manifestations of a community's culture may not be subjected to
scrutiny from the perspective of rights contained in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Against this, the 1993 World Conference
on Human Rights in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
stated: "All human rights are universal, indivisible and
interdependent and interrelated" and asserted the duty of states "to
promote all human rights and fundamental freedoms". The United Nations
General Assembly in 1993 adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence against Women which urges states not to "invoke custom,
tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation" to
eliminate discriminatory treatment of women.
While recognizing the importance of cultural diversity, Amnesty
International stands resolutely in defence of the universality of
human rights, particularly the most fundamental rights to life and
freedom from torture and ill-treatment. The role of the state is to
ensure the full protection of these rights, where necessary mediating
'tradition' through education and the law.
This report is the fourth in a series issued by Amnesty International
on the rights of women in Pakistan; it is the first to look at abuses
of women's rights by private actors.
Killings in the name of honour
Ghazala was set on fire by her brother in Joharabad, Punjab province,
on 6 January 1999. According to reports, she was murdered because her
family suspected she was having an 'illicit' relationship with a
neighbour. Her burned and naked body reportedly lay unattended on the
street for two hours as nobody wanted to have anything to do with it.
Ghazala was burned to death in the name of honour. Hundreds of other
women and girls suffer a similar fate every year amid general public
support and little or no action by the authorities. In fact, there is
every sign that the number of honour killings is on the rise as the
perception of what constitutes honour -- and what damages it --
widens, and as more murders take on the guise of honour killings on
the correct assumption that they are rarely punished.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3
Often, honour killings are carried out on the flimsiest of grounds,
such as by a man who said he had dreamt that his wife had betrayed
him. State institutions -- the law enforcement apparatus and the
judiciary -- deal with these crimes against women with extraordinary
leniency and the law provides many loopholes for murderers in the name
of honour to kill without punishment. As a result, the tradition
remains unbroken.
The methods of honour killings vary. In Sindh, a kari (literally a
'black woman') and a karo('a black man') are hacked to pieces by axe
and hatchets, often with the complicity of the community. In Punjab,
the killings, usually by shooting, are more often based on individual
decisions and carried out in private. In most cases, husbands, fathers
or brothers of the woman concerned commit the killings. In some cases,
jirgas (tribal councils) decide that the woman should be killed and
send men to carry out the deed.
The victims range from pre-pubescent girls to grandmothers. They are
usually killed on the mere allegation of having entered 'illicit'
sexual relationships. They are never given an opportunity to give
their version of the allegation as there is no point in doing so --
the allegation alone is enough to defile a man's honour and therefore
enough to justify the killing of the woman.
According to the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP), 286 women were reported to have been killed for reasons of
honour in 1998 in the Punjab alone. The Special Task Force for Sindh
of the HRCP received reports of 196 cases ofkaro-karikillings in Sindh
in 1998, involving 255 deaths. The real number of such killings is
vastly greater than those reported.
Pakistani women abroad do not escape the threat of honour killings.
The Nottingham crown court in the United Kingdom in May 1999 sentenced
a Pakistani woman and her grown-up son to life imprisonment for
murdering the woman's daughter, Rukhsana Naz, a pregnant mother of two
children. Rukhsana was perceived to have brought shame on the family
by having a sexual relationship outside marriage. Her brother
reportedly strangled Rukhsana, while her mother held her down.
Two main factors contribute to violence against women: women's
commodification and conceptions of honour. The concept of women as a
commodity, not human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to
those of men, is deeply rooted in tribal culture. Dr Tahira Shahid
Khan of Shirkatgah, a woman's resource centre worker, explains: "Women
are considered the property of the males in their family irrespective
of their class, ethnic or religious group. The owner of the property
has the right to decide its fate. The concept of ownership has turned
women into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold..."[1].
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards each
other in a spirit of brotherhood.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1
Ownership rights are at stake when women are to be married, almost
always in Pakistan by their parents. A major consideration is the
property or assets that the young woman has a right to inherit one
day. A woman is handed over to her spouse against payment of a bride
price to her father; sometimes that bride price includes another woman
given to the father as a new wife. Some men accept a low bride price
on condition that the as yet unborn daughter of the couple will be
returned to them to be married off for another bride price. The
commodification of women is also the basis of the tradition of khoon
baha(blood money) when a woman is handed over to an adversary to
settle a conflict.
Women are seen to embody the honour of the men to whom they 'belong',
as such they must guard their virginity and chastity. By being
perceived to enter an 'illicit' sexual relationship, a woman defiles
the honour of her guardian and his family. She becomes kariand
forfeits the right to life.
In most communities there is no other punishment for a kari but death.
A man's ability to protect his honour is judged by his family and
neighbours. He must publicly demonstrate his power to safeguard his
honour by killing those who damaged it and thereby restore it. Honour
killings consequently are often performed openly.
The perception of what defiles honour has become very loose. Male
control extends not just to a woman's body and her sexual behaviour,
but to all of her behaviour, including her movements and language. In
any of these areas, defiance by women translates into undermining male
honour. Severe punishments are reported for bringing food late, for
answering back, for undertaking forbidden family visits. Standards of
honour and chastity are not applied equally to men and women, even
though they are supposed to. Surveys conducted in the North West
Frontier Province and in Balochistan found that men often go
unpunished for 'illicit' relationships whereas women are killed on the
merest rumour of 'impropriety'.
A man's honour, defiled by a woman's alleged or real sexual
misdemeanour or other defiance, is only partly restored by killing
her. He also has to kill the man allegedly involved. Since a kari is
murdered first, the karooften hears about it and flees.
To settle the issue, a faislo(agreement, meeting) or jirga is set up
if both sides - the man whose honour is defiled and the escaped karo-
agree; it is attended by representatives of both sides and headed by
the local tribal chief (sardar), his subordinate or a local landlord.
The tribal justice dispensed by the jirga or faislo is not intended to
elicit truth and punish the culprit. Justice means restoring the
balance by compensation for damage. The karowho gets away has to pay
compensation in order for his life to be spared. Compensation can be
in the form of money or the transfer of a woman or both.
Official claims that women's rights are not understood in backward
rural areas ignore the fact that there are many urban honour killings
and considerable support for them among the educated. For example,
Samia Sarwar's mother, a doctor, facilitated the honour killing of her
daughter in Lahore in April 1999 when Samia sought divorce from an
abusive husband (see below). Shahtaj Qisalbash, a witness during the
killing, reported that Samia's mother was "cool and collected during
the getaway, walking away from the murder of her daughter as though
the woman slumped in her own blood was a stranger."
The frequency of karo-kari killings and the unexpectedness with which
women are targeted contributes to an atmosphere of fear among young
women. The poet Attiya Dawood quoted a pubescent girl in a small
Sindhi village: "My brother's eyes forever follow me. My father's gaze
guards me all the time, stern, angry... We stand accused and condemned
to be declared kari and murdered."[2].
International support for women fleeing abroad when they fear for
their lives from their families' death threats has been hesitant. The
threat to the lives of women who refuse to accept their fathers'
decision relating to their marriages has only recently been recognized
as grounds for granting asylum to such women [3].
Honour killings for choosing a marriage partner
Expressing a desire to choose a spouse and marrying a partner of one's
choice are seen as major acts of defiance in a society where most
marriages are arranged by fathers. They are seen to damage the honour
of the man who negotiates the marriage and who can expect a bride
price in return for handing her over to a spouse.
Frequently fathers bring charges of zina (unlawful sexual relations)
against daughters who have married men of their choice, alleging that
they are not validly married. But even when such complaints are before
the courts, some men resort to private justice. According to local
press reports, Sher Bano, for example, was murdered outside a court in
Peshawar. She had earlier eloped with a man she wanted to marry but
was arrested on charges of zina. On 6 August 1997, when she emerged
under police guard from the court room after submitting her bail
application, her brother shot her dead.
Women who are disowned by a family over a marriage are cut loose from
their social moorings and become vulnerable to exploitation. R. [name
withheld] told Amnesty International that at the age of 15 or 16 she
married a man from another tribe against her family's wishes. Three
years later her husband verbally divorced her. Her family had
threatened to kill her for marrying a man of her choice, so she had
nowhere to go. She took up begging. Eight years later she married
another man but one day was recognized by her first husband who wanted
her to work for him as a beggar. He threatened to bring charges of
zina against her for living with another man as he denied having
divorced her. She was arrested by police. The local wadera (landlord)
intervened and had her brought before a magistrate who sent her to the
Hyderabad Darul Aman, a government-run women's shelter. She does not
know what will happen to her next.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race,
nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a
family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during
marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent
of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society
and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16
Satta-wattamarriages, which involve exchange of siblings, put an
additional burden on women to abide by their father's marriage
arrangements. Shaheen was allegedly set on fire by her husband Anwar
in Gujjarpura in December 1998 in asatta- wattacontext. Their marriage
had run into trouble. Anwar wanted to send Shaheen back to her
parents, Shaheen's brother, married to Anwar's sister, refused to send
his wife home as well. Anwar found no other way to remove his shame
than to kill his wife [4].
Often women choosing a spouse are abducted and not heard of again. At
the time of writing this report, the whereabouts of Uzma Talpur who
had married Nasir Rajput against her father's wishes in November 1998
were unknown. Police arrested the couple in November on the charge of
Nasir Rajput's abduction of Uzma and charges ofzina[fornication]
against both partners despite their being validly married. In
December, police handed the young woman over to her family but when
her husband filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court
for the release of his wife from parental custody, they claimed that
she had been abducted by unknown men from the court premises. In June
1999, police stated before the High Court that such an abduction had
not taken place. The High Court ordered a general search for her.
Honour killings of women seeking divorce
Women who have sought divorce through the courts have been attacked,
injured or killed. Seeking divorce is seen as an act of public
defiance that calls for punitive action to restore male honour within
the traditional setting.
On 6 April 1999, 29-year-old Samia Sarwar, a mother of two young sons,
was shot dead in her lawyer's office in Lahore. She was murdered
apparently because her mother and her husband's mother are sisters and
Samia's attempt to divorce a husband she described to her lawyer as
severely abusive, was seen to shame the family. In the 10 years of her
marriage, Samia had suffered high levels of domestic violence. In 1995
she returned to her family home after her husband had thrown her down
some stairs when she was pregnant.
Samia fled to Lahore on 26 March 1999, seeking help in the law firm
AGHS and taking refuge in the women's shelter Dastakrun by AGHS
lawyers. The lawyers included Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir, who is
currently UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary and
summary executions and then chairperson of the HRCP. On 6 April, when
Samia Sarwar was at her lawyer's office, Samia's mother arrived
accompanied by Samia's uncle and a driver. The driver shot Samia in
the head, killing her instantly.
The fact that the killing was carried out in the presence of well-
known lawyers indicates that the perpetrators were convinced they were
doing the right thing, were not afraid of publicity and felt no need
to hide their identity as they felt sure that the state would not hold
them to account. They were right. Despite a First Information Report
(FIR, the report filed by the complainants with police which initiates
a police investigation) filed the same day, nominating Samia's father,
mother and uncle for murder, no one has yet been arrested.
Newspapers in the North West Frontier Province reported that the
public overwhelmingly supported the killing, with many arguing that
since it was in accordance with tradition it could not be a crime.
The Chamber of Commerce in Peshawar, of which Samia's father is
President, and several religious organizations demanded that Hina
Jilani and Asma Jahangir be dealt with in accordance with "tribal and
Islamic law" and be arrested for "misleading women in Pakistan and
contributing to the country's bad image abroad". Fatwas [religious
rulings] were issued against both women and head money was promised to
anyone who killed them. In April 1999 Asma Jahangir lodged a FIR with
police against those who had threatened her and her sister with death.
Simultaneously, she called on the government to set up a judicial
inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge to investigate almost 300
cases of honour killings reported in 1998 in Pakistan. No action is
known to have been taken on either issue.
On 11 May, Samia's father lodged a complaint with Peshawar police
accusing the two women lawyers with the abduction and murder of Samia.
They obtained bail before arrest. A month later, the Peshawar High
Court admitted their petition to quash the case and ordered police not
to take any adverse action against the lawyers on the basis on this
complaint.
Honour killings for rape
For a woman to be targeted for killing in the name of honour, her
consent -- or the lack of consent -- in an action considered shameful
is irrelevant to the guardians of honour. Consequently, a woman brings
shame on her family if she is raped.
In March 1999 a 16-year-old mentally retarded girl, Lal Jamilla
Mandokhel, was reportedly raped several times by a junior clerk of the
local government department of agriculture in a hotel in Parachinar,
North West Frontier Province. The girl's uncle filed a complaint about
the incident with police who took the accused into protective custody
but handed over the girl to her tribe, the Mazuzai in the Kurram
Agency. A jirga of Pathan tribesmen decided that she had brought shame
to her tribe and that the honour could only be restored by her death.
She was shot dead in front of a tribal gathering.
Nafisa Shah reports that women who expose rape and thereby dishonour
their men are particularly vulnerable. Arbab Khatoon, raped by three
men in a village in Jacobabad district, reportedly lodged a complaint
with police. She was murdered seven hours later. According to local
residents, she was killed by her relatives for bringing dishonour to
the family by going to the police [5].
Fake honour killings
In honour killings, if only the kari is killed and the karoescapes, as
is often the case, the karo has to compensate the affected man -- for
the damage to honour he inflicted, for the woman's worth who was
killed and to have his own life spared.
This scheme provides many opportunities to make money, obtain a women
in compensation or to conceal other crimes, in the near certainty that
honour killings if they come to court will be dealt with leniently.
Nafisa Shah speaks of an "honour killing industry" involving tribes
people, police and tribal mediators.
In November 1997 Mussarrat Bibi, a mother of three children, pregnant
and married for 11 years, was beaten to death by frenzied villagers in
Chehel Khurd near Qilla Deedar Singh in Sheikupura district after
rumours of her immoral behaviour spread. Inquiries revealed that the
real reason for her death was that she had refused to work for the
local landlords without payment. Two people were reported to have been
detained briefly.
Reports abound about men who have killed other men in murders not
connected with honour issues who then kill a woman of their own family
as alleged kari to camouflage the initial murder as an honour killing.
The lure of compensation has in some cases led to publicly known
distortions of truth. In Ghotki, a man reportedly vouched for his
wife's innocence after she had been attacked by his brother who
alleged that she was guilty of an 'illicit' relationship. The husband
took her to Karachi for treatment but when told that she would be
permanently paralysed from the waist down, he reneged, declared her a
kari and took a woman in compensation from the supposed karo's family.
The fact that women are often given in compensation when illicit
relations are alleged has led to further perversions of the honour
system. If a woman refuses to marry a man, he may declare a man of her
family a karoand demand her in compensation for not killing him. In
some cases, he may even kill a woman of his own family to lend weight
to the allegation. Attiya Dawood cited an incident in Moorath village,
related to her by the sister of the alleged karo. Her brother
Amanullah had married a woman who had earlier been fond of her cousin
Nazir, a married man with eight children. Unable to obtain her
family's consent to marry her, Nazir murdered Amanullah, then killed
his own innocent sister and declared both karoand kari. After a brief
prison term, he was given Amanullah's wife, now a widow, in
compensation for the supposed infringement of his honour.
Punitive domestic violence against women
Honour killings are but an extreme form of violence against women.
Domestic violence is also frequently intended to punish a woman for
any perceived insubordination supposedly impacting on male honour.
Sabira Khan, for example, who was married at 16 to a man more than
twice her age, was shortly after her wedding in 1991 told by her
husband that she must never see her family again. When in December
1993 she tried to break this rule, she said that he and his mother
poured kerosene over her and set her on fire. She was three months
pregnant. Despite 60 per cent burns she survived, badly scarred. She
has fought since then to bring charges against the perpetrators -- so
far in vain. The magistrate in Jhelum upheld her husband's argument
that Sabira was insane and had set herself on fire. An appeal is
pending in the Rawalpindi High Court bench.
Shahnaz Bokhari of the Progressive Women's Association in Islamabad
says that since March 1994, when the organization was set up, it has
monitored 1,600 cases of women burned in their homes in Rawalpindi and
Islamabad alone. These are only the reported cases.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5
HRCP's 1998 annual report states bluntly: "Woman's subordination
remained so routine by custom and traditions, and even putatively by
religion, that much of the endemic domestic violence against her was
considered normal behaviour... A sample survey showed 82 per cent of
women in rural Punjab feared violence resulting from husbands'
displeasure over minor matters; in the most developed urban areas 52
per cent admitted being beaten by husbands."[6].
Few places to hide
Girls and women who fear punishment for alleged breaches of
traditional norms of honour have few places to hide. They rarely know
their way about in the world outside the home, they are unused to
public transport, usually have no money and are vulnerable to further
abuse if moving around alone. The high proportion of karis killed in
relation to karosalso reflects this sheer inability of women to move
in the outside world. Many of the women who run are caught and killed.
All are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination
to equal protection of law.
All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such
discrimination.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7
One of the few places where a kari is safe is in the home of a tribal
sardar, a pir(holy man) or in a religious shrine. Here women can
obtain protection against murder. However, they are still expected to
abide by strict social roles. In many cases, women remain for years as
unpaid servants in the house of the sardars and are sometimes abused.
A few women reach state-run or private shelters of which there are
simply too few. These women often seek to pursue their rights through
legal channels -- but may not be aware that by approaching the state
system they block their return to their communities. Such shelters
have recently become targets of attacks.
Unable to escape violence or forced marriage, some women resort to
suicide. Police have not paid attention to family members or the
community abetting such suicides. No official figures of women's
suicides exist and many women are quietly buried to cover up the
possible damage to the family's honour. Occasionally, however, such
cases come to light. On 29 March 1999 an 18-year- old college girl,
Qaisrana Bibi, committed suicide in Khanpur when her parents put
pressure on her to marry a man she did not want. She lay across a rail
track and was crushed by a train.
Honour killings and the state
The international understanding of state responsibility for human
rights violations has significantly widened in recent years to include
not only violations of human rights by state agents but also abuses by
private actors which the state ignores. If the state fails to act with
due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish abuses, including
violence against women in the name of honour, it is responsible under
international human rights law. This view of state responsibility is
established in all the core human rights treaties. The Declaration on
the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the UN General
Assembly in 1993 affirmed that states must "exercise due diligence to
prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation,
punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are
perpetrated by the State or by private persons".
The Government of Pakistan has failed to take measures to prevent and
end honour killings. It has not sought to eradicate traditions which
prescribe honour killings nor ended the virtual impunity of
perpetrators of such killings. Discriminatory laws making full redress
difficult persist. Police and the judiciary have applied the law in a
biased manner as a result of which perpetrators have not been held to
account for honour killings and the practice has been perpetuated.
Government indifference to honour killings
The Government of Pakistan has not shown any determination to bring
violence against women on grounds of honour to a halt, thus virtually
signalling official indifference if not approval of the system.
Government inaction received more public exposure after the honour
killing of Samia Sarwar in Hina Jilani's office in April 1999. A
representative of the government condemned the killing before the UN
Human Right Commission in Geneva. But in Pakistan, where attitudes
need to be changed, the government three weeks after the killing
declared it a 'dishonourable' act without ensuring that adequate
action would be taken. The accused have not been arrested and no
action has been taken against those who issued death threats against
Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani for protecting women's rights.
The government's disregard for its obligations to take measures to
alter public perceptions involving gender bias, to which it committed
itself when ratifying the UN Convention on the Elimination on All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, is partly responsible for the
persistence and indeed increase of honour killings. When the 1998
annual report of the HRCP was released in March 1999, Information
Minister Mushahid Hussain reportedly said about allegations of
violence against women and of child labour: "These are a feature of
Pakistan feudal society, they are not part of any government policy or
a consequence of any law..."[7].
State Parties shall take all appropriate measures: (a) To modify the
social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view
to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other
practices which are based on the idea of inferiority or the
superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and
women.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, Article 5
The present government has taken no effective steps to change gender
bias in Pakistan with a view to ensuring equality to all citizens. The
comprehensive recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry for
Women set up on the direction of the Senate of Pakistan have not been
implemented. As long as such inaction goes on, honour killings and
other violent abuse of women will continue.
Gender bias in law
The status of women in Pakistan has been described as defined by the
"interplay of tribal codes, Islamic law, Indo-British judicial
traditions and customary traditions ... [which have] created an
atmosphere of oppression around women, where any advantage or
opportunity offered to women by one law is cancelled out by one or
more of the others" [8].Traditional norms, Islamic provisions (as
interpreted in Pakistan) and statutory law diverge in many areas
relevant to women's lives, including control of assets, inheritance,
marriage, divorce, sexual relations, rape and custody. The Government
of Pakistan has failed to ensure that women are aware of their legal
and constitutional rights and to ensure that these rights and freedoms
take precedence over norms which deny women equality. The lives of
women who are by and large confined to the private sphere do not
benefit from constitutionally secured fundamental rights.
Among statutory laws, it is particularly two laws which disadvantage
women in Pakistan, both introduced in the name of the Islamisation of
law. The 1990 law of Qisas and Diyat covers offences relating to
physical injury, manslaughter and murder. The law reconceptualized the
offences in such a way that they are not directed against the legal
order of the state but against the victim. A judge in the Supreme
Court explained: "In Islam, the individual victim or his heirs retain
from the beginning to the end entire control over the matter including
the crime and the criminal. They may not report it, they may not
prosecute the offender. They may abandon prosecution of their free
will. They may pardon the criminal at any stage before the execution
of the sentence. They may accept monetary or other compensation to
purge the crime and the criminal. They may compromise. They may accept
qisas[punishment equal to the offence] from the criminal. The state
cannot impede but must do its best to assist them in achieving their
object and in appropriately exercising their rights."[9].
This reconceptualization of offences has sent the signal that murders
of family members are a family affair and that prosecution and
judicial redress are not inevitable but may be negotiated.
The law of Qisas and Diyat prescribes that the death penalty may not
be imposed for murder as either qisas[punishment equal to the offence
committed] or tazir[discretionary punishment, when the evidence is
insufficient to impose qisas] when the wali[heir] of the victim is a
direct descendant of the offender. In such cases the court may only
impose a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment. Thus, if a man murders his
wife with whom he has a child, who then is the victim's heir and the
descendent of the offender, he can at most be sentenced to 14 years'
imprisonment.
Men who have killed their wives or daughters for bringing shame on
them could also in the past find relief under the provision of "grave
and sudden provocation". Section 300(1) of the Pakistan Penal Code
(PPC) read: "Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, whilst
deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation,
causes the death of the person who gave the provocation..." The
punishment for manslaughter is imprisonment, for murder it is death.
In its interpretation by the courts, the law provided men who have
killed their wives or daughters for allegedly bringing shame on them
with mitigating circumstances not available to women. Courts opined
that if the provocation - to a man's honour - is grave and sudden as
when someone tells him that his wife has an 'illicit' relationship, he
loses all power of self-control and is not fully responsible for his
actions.
This provision was omitted when the Qisas and Diyat law was introduced
in 1990 but judicial practice still allows such mitigating
circumstances (see below).
(1) State Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the
law.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, Article 15
The 1979 Zina law has also contributed to restricting women's rights
[10].The gender discrimination inherent in it sent an affirmative
signal to those intent on treating women as second class human beings
with fewer rights than men. It has also provided a handy tool with
which to detain women who take any initiative with respect to their
choice of a spouse, as fathers often bring zinacharges against such
women.
Gender bias of the police force
Often police act or allow themselves to be used as guardians of
tradition and morality rather than impartial enforcers of the law.
Frequently, fathers use police to recover or unlawfully arrest and
detain their adult daughters who have married men of their choice.
Despite numerous judgments asserting that adult women have the right
to marry without their male guardians' consent, police continue to
register complaints of abduction and zinaagainst women making use of
this right, even though police could easily ascertain if couples were
married and thus not guilty of either abduction or zina.
When women are seriously injured by their husbands or families, police
still discourage them from registering complaints and advise them to
seek reconciliation with their husbands or families.
In karo-kari cases, when husbands appear in police stations declaring
that they have killed a girl or woman of their family, police often
fail to take action, reflecting their unwillingness to enforce the law
over custom.
Financial corruption also seems to contribute to police inaction
before such crimes. Nafisa Shah quotes villagers in Kashmore as saying
around 1993: "The police in Kashmore charge 7,000 Rupees to keep
silent about karo-kari murders... They never record cases and so we
have a zero per cent crime rate". She reports that "police stations in
Jacobabad district are considered goldmines in police circles because
of the high incidence of karo-kari murders there. A conservative
estimate puts the number of karo-kari murders in Jacobabad at between
55 and 60 a month." Given the lucrative aspect of honour killings,
police are not interested in ending the practice.
Police also appear to cover up fake honour killings. A housewife,
Khadeja, and a bank officer were shot dead on 19 January 1999 in
Jampur city, Rajanpur district in southern Punjab by Khadeja's
husband, Ameer Bukhsh. He then turned himself in, acknowledging the
killings and alleging the victims' illicit relationship. Khadeja's
brother, Abdul Qadir, registered a complaint of murder against Ameer
Bukhsh. Six days later, Abdul Qadir received a copy of the FIR which
he said had distorted his complaint. He reported that police
threatened to involve him in a murder case if he did not sign a false
statement. Abdul Qadir alleged that Ameer Bukhsh had killed the bank
officer for some other reason before killing his wife as a cover up
and that he had bribed police to distort the complaint.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent
national tribunal for acts violating the fundamental rights granted
him by the constitution or by law.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 8
Similarly, burn cases are rarely investigated by police. Of the 183
women reported to have died of burn injuries allegedly caused in
cooking accidents in Lahore in 1998, only 21 complaints were
registered with police and only three people finally arrested, despite
a High Court ruling three years earlier that all burn cases be
investigated fully by police. The HRCP report added that at least 70
of the victims were not even cooking when the supposed accident took
place.
Gender bias of judges
Pakistan's judges, particularly at the lower level of the judiciary,
tend to reinforce discriminatory customary norms rather than securing
constitutionally secured gender equality. For example, women recovered
after alleged abductions and women whose marriage to men of their
choice was challenged by their fathers are usually placed in the
custody of state-run institutions until the courts have decided the
issue -- and are treated by the court as "crime property". "Courts
have been known to refuse issuance of the writ of habeas corpusseeking
the liberty of a woman on the grounds that her right to liberty is
subject to conformity to social norms, and any suspicion that she may
not abide by the standards of morality can disentitle her from
receiving relief in equity."[11].
Parts of the judiciary appear convinced that any interference in the
patriarchal structure of society will disrupt society and that it is
its duty to guard against such upheaval. However, this attitude
ignores that the existing structure of society perpetuates a
discrimination on gender grounds which deprives one half of the
population of basic rights.
In dealing with honour killings, the courts have usually accepted the
mitigation contained in section 300(1) of the Pakistan Penal Code
(before its removal in 1990), despite the fact that such killings are
usually premeditated, not committed under sudden and severe
provocation. Moreover, they continue to place a low threshold on what
constitutes provocation.
In some cases, courts have found extenuating circumstances even when
the murderer did not claim to have been suddenly and severely
provoked. Muhammad Younis killed his wife, alleging that he had caught
her committing adultery. Although all the circumstances, including
medical evidence, spoke against this assertion, the court accepted
mitigating circumstances: "The appellant had two children from his
deceased wife and when he took the extreme step of taking her life
giving her repeated knife blows on different parts of her body, she
must have done something unusual to enrage him to that extent." [12].
After 1990, which saw the formal removal of the right to plead
mitigating circumstances, the courts have gradually reintroduced this
provision in their interpretation of the law and sentenced men charged
with crimes of honour to lighter sentences than for similar acts of
violence not involving honour.
The Lahore High Court in 1994, while hearing the bail application of
Liaqat Ali who had gravely injured his sister and stabbed to death a
man he allegedly found with her, was told by the petitioner's counsel
that in an Islamic society a person found to indulge in zina in public
deserved to be "finished" there and then. Indeed, such murder was more
of a religious duty than an offence. The judge is reported to have
said: "Prima facie, I am inclined to agree with the counsel."
Marriages contracted by women against the wishes of their fathers are
perceived by many courts to impact on the father's honour and to
justify a man losing control and killing the offender. Mohammad Riaz
and Mohammad Feroze were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing
their sister who had married a man of her choice. The Lahore High
Court reduced the sentence to the imprisonment already undergone -- 18
months -- saying that "in our society nobody forgives a person who
marries his sister or daughter without the consent of parents or near
relatives."[13].
State Parties shall....undertake: ....
(c) to establish legal protection of the rights women on an equal
basis with men to ensure through competent national tribunal and other
public institutions the effective protection of women against any sort
of discrimination; ......
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, Article 2
Amnesty International believes that penal sanctions commensurate with
the gravity of the offence should apply to honour crimes. However, it
opposes unconditionally the imposition of the death penalty, which it
regards as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment. Accordingly, Amnesty International
does not think that men murdering female relatives should be sentenced
to death but welcomes all commutations of death sentences. At the same
time, it is concerned at the message the judiciary sends when it
treats such murders as less serious than other murders. The acceptance
of family honour as a mitigating circumstance by judges in Pakistan
leading to reduced sentencing of perpetrator of honour killings is by
many observers in Pakistan seen to contribute to an increase of such
crimes.
Amnesty International's recommendations to the Government of Pakistan
Amnesty International calls on the Government of Pakistan to take
urgent measures in the following three areas in fulfilment of its
obligation to provide effective protection to women against violence
perpetrated in the name of honour and to end the impunity currently
enjoyed by its perpetrators.
1. Legal measures
1.Undertake a review of criminal laws to ensure equal protection of
law to women.
2.Adopt legislation which makes domestic violence in all its
manifestations a criminal offence. The UN Special Rapporteur on
violence against women developed a framework for model legislation on
domestic violence [14] which Amnesty International recommends be used
when drafting legislation against such crimes.
3.Make the sale of women and girls, the giving of women in marriage
against financial consideration and as a form of compensation in lieu
of a fine or imprisonment a criminal offence.
4.Provide women victims of violence with access to the mechanisms of
justice and to just and effective remedies for the harm they have
suffered.
5.Ensure that the provincial home departments, commissioners, deputy
commissioners and senior police staff take notice of all reports of
honour killings and ensure that every single case is investigated and
brought to prosecution.
6.Abolish the death penalty and commute all death sentences.
2. Preventive measures
7.Undertake wide-ranging public awareness programs through the media,
the education system and public announcements to inform both men and
women of women's equal rights.
8.In particular, provide gender-sensitization training to law
enforcement and judicial personnel to enable them to impartially
address complaints of violence in the name of honour.
9.Ensure that data and statistics are collected in a manner that makes
the problem visible.
3. Protective measures
10.Ensure that activists, lawyers and women's groups can pursue their
legitimate activities without harassment or fear for their safety by
providing adequate police protection and pursue all such threats with
a view to punishment.
11.Expand victim support services provided by the state or non-
governmental organizations; they should be run as places of voluntary
recourse for women and their purpose should be only protective; they
should be available all over the country, adequately resourced, and
linked to legal aid, vocational training and with adequate provisions
for children.
(1)Tahira Shahid Khan: "Chained to custom" in: The Review, 4-10 March
1999, p.9.
(2) Attiya Dawood, "Karo-kari: A question of honour, but whose
honour?", in: Feminista, 2 (3/4), April 1999.
(3) See a recent Canadian decision: CRDD M97- 06821et al., Michnick,
Arvanitakis, July 14, 1998.
(4) Dawn, 16 December 1998.
(5) Nafisa Shah: A story in black: Karo-kari killings in upper Sindh,
Reuter Foundation Paper 100, Oxford, 1998, p. 56.
(6) The State of Human Rights in 1998, 1999, p.216 and p.10.
(7) Reuter, 10 March 1999.
(8) Simi Kamal, Asma Khan: A study of the interplay of formal and
customary laws on women, vol.I, 1997, p.ii.
(9) Federation of Pakistan through Secr. Min. of Law vs. S. Gul Hassan
Khan, PLD 1989 SC 633
(10) For a detailed discussion see: Women in Pakistan: Disadvantaged
and denied their rights, AI Index: ASA 33/23/95.
(11) Hina Jilani, Human rights and democratic development in Pakistan,
Lahore, 1998, p.143-144.
(12) Muhammad Younis vs. the State, 1989 Pcr LJ 1747.
(13) Mohammad Riaz and Mohammad Feroze vs. the State, Lahore High
Court, 1998.
(14) E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.2
bademiyansubhanallah
'India is very secular, but not in the western sense'
2 October 2009, 12:00am IST
Dominic Emmanuel , spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, was
given the National Communal Harmony award recently. Emmanuel, a
founding member of the Sarvadharam Sadbhav Sansad (Parliament of
Religions), has been involved in promoting inter-faith dialogue
through articles, books, radio programmes and films. Dominic
Emmanuel , spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, was given
the National Communal Harmony award recently. Emmanuel, a founding
member of the Sarvadharam Sadbhav Sansad (Parliament of Religions),
has been involved in promoting inter-faith dialogue through articles,
books, radio programmes and films. Michel Lemme spoke to Emmanuel:
As a priest, what is your experience of communal harmony in India?
Being a priest in India is very exciting, challenging and fascinating.
I've always been interested in inter-religious dialogue. I feel it is
an urgent need in this country.
Religious conversion is a sensitive issue here. Do you think
Christianity in India needs to find a balance between inter-religious
dialogue and spreading of the gospel?
Dialogue within Indian culture is a very old story. The ground reality
of India itself takes us automatically into dialogue with other
religions; there is no escape from that. Right-wing fundamentalist
groups have raised the issue of conversion in the recent past. Their
argument is we are luring the poor into conversion. That's an
unacceptable argument. Tell me one country in the world where
Christians are not working with the poor and the oppressed? Also
people get converted not only from Hinduism to Christianity, there are
thousands of Christians who have become followers of Hindu gurus.
Conversion is a natural process that has gone on in human society all
the time. Helping the poor and the needy is the most important mission
of the Church. That's why we should not be scared of people who blame
us for conversions, because for all you know they may be only trying
to stop us from working for the poor.
During the 2008 communal violence in Orissa, India was chided on the
international stage for the inadequacy of its response to the riots.
What's your perspective on Indian secularism?
India is very secular, but not in the western sense, where religion
has no place in state affairs. For us, secularism is defined as equal
respect for all religions. I feel that in India secularism is in
practice both in the government and society. As for Orissa, it has to
be said that law and order issues are the responsibility of the
states, not the Centre. However, the central government could have
been a little more serious about the riots there.
Relating to the politics of secularism in India, do you support the
demand of SC reservations for non-Hindu Dalits?
Yes. I've been part of the campaign of Christians asking for Dalit
status, so that they can obtain some advantages from the government.
They say Christianity doesn't believe in the caste system, and yes it
is true, we don't believe in the caste system. But you can't just wish
away something that has existed for the past 3,000 years.
bademiyansubhanallah
Hindu holocaust museum
Written by (Author ) Editorials Oct 3, 2009 A fundraiser in New
Jersey, USA on August 16, 2009 raised $50,000 for a “Hindu Holocaust”
museum to be built in Pune, India. The museum is the brainchild of a
Frenchman, Francois Gautier, and is under the auspices of the Viraat
Hindu Sabha (VHS), The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), a sister
organization of the fanatic Hindu militant outfit Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
They claim that over the past thousand years, millions of Hindus were
killed, with the intention to wipe Hindus off the map. It is to be
“dedicated to the many millions of Hindu lives lost, to the loss of
cultural and spiritual institutions, temples and burning of scriptures
by Islamic and Christian invaders to Bharatvarsha (India) who even
today, and with government sanction, seek to finally convert every
last Hindu and prays for the complete extinction of the oldest
religion known to mankind, Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism).”
The perpetrators of the Hindu Holocaust Museum claim that the genocide
suffered by the Hindu Community at the hands of the Muslim occupying
forces in India for a period of 1100 years is as yet formally
undocumented. They reiterate that the only similar genocide in the
recent past was that of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis;
and of the Africans during the slave trade perpetrated by the Arab
Muslim slave traders and later by the European colonialists as also
the almost total wiping out of native populations like the Maoris in
Australia and the Red Indians, (Aztecs, Incas, etc.) in North and
South America. It has been estimated that in all, millions of African
men, women and children died throughout the trade and more than 75% of
the native Americans were wiped out. They assert that the holocaust of
the Hindus was of similar proportions, the only difference was that it
started in the year 715 C.E. with the Arab Muslim invasion of Sindh
and continued for 1100 years, i.e. for more than a millennium, till
the brutal Muslims were effectively overpowered by the Hindu Marathas
in 1720 C.E. The extremist Hindu historians declare that since times
immemorial India had been invaded by many people from different parts
of the globe. But what contrasted the pre-Muslim invaders from the
Muslims was that after their initial clash with Hindu military power,
the pre-Muslim invaders merged into the general mainstream and even
the memory of their having come as invaders itself disappeared. They
do not consider Emperors like Kanishka (a Ku Shan or Kushana), Milinda
(an Indo-Greek), Rudradaman (a Shaka or Scythian from pre-Muslim Iran)
to be non-Indians.
These invaders have merged into today’s general Hindu population. But
the Muslims with their barrack like lifestyle and their contempt for
everything non-Islamic have left a wounded civilization in India. The
brutal Muslim tyranny has till today left a split in India’s national
character, even after the country was vivisected into two parts – to
create Pakistan as a state for Indian Muslims. But in spite of the
division of this country to create a separate homeland for the Muslims
in 1947, many of them preferred to stay back and today account for the
recurrent communal riots, the killings of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir
and the renewed demand for special status and for the Islamization of
India. The question here arises why Francois Gautier has been
professing The Hindu Holocaust Museum and earning his bread and butter
by flaming hatred for Indian Muslims? Professor Vijay Prashad,
Professor of South Asian History Trinity College Hartford,
Connecticut, in his article ‘Hindu holocaust’ (News India Times, Sept.
25, 2009) sheds some light on Gautier’s rationale for purporting the
idea of a Hindu holocaust museum. He says that Gautier came to India
from France about 30 years ago, and settled in Pondicherry. His work
reads like another European apologist for extreme Hindutva, Koenraad
Elst. Both went to strict Catholic schools and now hold a deep animus
against Christian missionaries, but seem to take their venom out
mainly against Islam. Gautier and Elst want to make plain the “Muslim
genocide against Hindus.”
But neither is a serious student of history, with little idea of how
to read historical texts. They draw more from a misplaced passion than
from a real, sober scientific exploration of the facts. That they are
taken seriously is a sign of the degradation of reason in the world of
Hindutva. The idea of the Hindu Holocaust casts the Hindu as history’s
victim, who should now become history’s aggressor to avenge the past.
But the Hindu was not always the victim. If you read the historical
records carefully, you will find that many Hindus participated in the
slaughter of other Hindus, and that the Hindu-Buddhist battles of the
ancient world were perhaps more bloody than anything that comes
afterward. Or indeed, that the systematic violence against Dalits and
other subordinate castes should hold our attention far more than it
does. Between Hindus and Muslims there has not been an endless rivalry
for social power.
When Islam enters the subcontinent, it does not come in the saddlebags
of the Ghaznis or the Ghouris, but amongst the rumble of goods brought
by traders. Early conversions are not by the sword but by the
merchants. There was killing, but that was as much for reasons of
warfare and plunder as for reasons of God and tradition. An interested
reader might want to look at the distinguished historian Romila
Thapar’s superb book “Somnatha: The Many Voices of a
History” (Penguin, 2005). There, Professor Thapar shows us that Mahmud
Ghazni’s destruction of the Shiva temple in 1026 was driven not so
much by a fanatical religious belief but because his father,
Subuktigin, needed money to sustain his faltering kingdom in Central
Asia. It is heartrending that one of the worst butchers of humanity,
who showed their true colors during the partition of the sub-continent
in 1947 by planned genocide of the Muslims, later, massacred hundreds
of thousands of innocent Kashmiris and Muslims in Gujarat and Mumbai
should be talking of a “Hindu holocaust museum”. Sultan M Hali
bademiyansubhanallah
Mine, mine
The Indian Express
Posted: Saturday , Oct 03, 2009 at 0314 hrs
Iron Man, we know, is a profitable superhero franchise that has been
re-imagined several times over, to suit the changing times. India’s
own Iron Man, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is turning out to be a pretty
malleable cultural icon, made over by the BJP and fought for by the
Congress.
Patel, that doughty crusader for a unified India, would be entirely
surprised at the kind of political war raging over him. BJP
politicians from L.K. Advani to Narendra Modi like to trace their
genealogy back to him — in the popular imagination, he combines a
tough-guy image with an inflexible nationalism and cultural
conservatism. His legendary differences with Jawaharlal Nehru make it
easier to pitch Patel as the man whose vision the Congress failed to
understand, and for the BJP to appropriate. Patel, of course, can no
longer protest this ahistorical hostile takeover of his image. After
the flap over Jaswant Singh’s book, the Gujarat government rushed to
ban it, citing injury to Patel’s reputation — “he is considered the
architect of the modern India, no one can show him in bad light.” They
had to climb down from that position after court orders, but Modi
soldiers on in the effort to wrest Patel’s legacy. Meanwhile, the
Congress has belatedly learnt to guard its turf — sanctioning Rs 17
crore to spruce up the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial in
Ahmedabad and lavish attention on Patel through a book and artwork.
Modi stole the thunder, claiming that Sardar Patel should have been
India’s first prime minister. He freely fantasised: had Sardar Patel
been the first prime minister of the country, farmers would not have
committed suicide in Karnataka and Maharashtra. There would have been
no terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. He also hit the Congress where it
hurts, claiming that Patel had predicted the Chinese threat, writing
to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950 and asking him to revise defence policy.
Sonia Gandhi hit back, saying that to “claim that there were
unbearable disagreements between Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru is to
distort history.” And indeed, despite their well-known differences,
there was no personal animus between Patel and Nehru — Sardar Patel
remained a Congress anchor till the end. But then again, historical
fact is hardly likely to get in the way of Modi’s grandiose self-
fashioning project.
bademiyansubhanallah
Jamaat-e-Islami condemns 'Shastra Poojan' on Dusshera
Agencies
Posted: Friday , Oct 02, 2009 at 2058 hrs
Bhopal:
The Madhya Pradesh unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has condemned the
'Shastra Poojan' (worship of weapons) by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan and some academic institutions in the state on Dusshera.
Jamaat spokesmen, Anwar Safi in a statement, said that this was not
the first time when the BJP government was promoting the agenda of the
RSS.
Anwar said the state government had already created controversies by
introducing Surya Namaskar, Vande Mataram and 'Bhojan Mantras' in
schools since it came to power.
He said that while the RSS had claimed all these practices as
religious, Education minister Archana Chitnis maintained that it was a
social tradition.
A vast Hindu population disliked the RSS-BJP agenda as it "disturbs"
social fabric, he claimed.
Chouhan had performed a 'Shastra Poojan' on September 28, on the
occasion of Dusshera, in the CM house. A couple of educational
institutions, including RSS-run Saraswati Shishu Mandir, too performed
a similar pooja on their premises.
Comments (1) |
Hindu puja
By: Harsh Patel | 02-Oct-2009
Jamat e whatever your name is you keep your business towards you only
there is no need to tell hindus how to perform our puja,
bademiyansubhanallah
BJP govt best friend of Minorities- Qureshi
Assures Chairman of Minority commission
By Team Mangalorean
Pics: Rajesh Shetty
MANGALORE, October 3, 2009: The Chairman of the State Minority
Commission Mr. Khusro Qureshi has assured the minorities in the
Dakshina Kannada district not to worry too much on the insecurity as
the government was trying hard to give them all the security through
police and the security agencies in the state.
Mr. Qureshi speaking to the presspersons here today stated that it is
true that there were some issues between the two communities, but all
that has been more or less based on hearsay, deep inside the society
both communities were together and living harmoniously. He said the
B.S. Yeddyurppa government had taken so many decisions that would
favour the minorities in the state. One of them was the socio-economic
and educational development of the minorities.
For the Dakshina Kannada district the Yeddyurappa government had given
five times more budget for spending on minority welfare which was
unprecedented in the history of the district under any government.
He said he did not believe that two communities are at war in the
district, it was only few persons running loose from the law that were
creating problems to secure their own ends. He said Mr. Yeddyurappa
had assured that all the outstanding issues between the two
communities will be sorted out in time and in totality and Dakshina
Kannada will be a model district for communal harmony.
Mr. Qureshi said he shared the views expressed by the Chief Minister
and wanted the district to be safe for everybody and the BJP
government at the state and every official and politician will work
for it.
Mr. Qureshi said that the colleges are free to impose their dress
codes and everyone of us should try to keep politics and religion away
from the field of education. He said this when one of the reporters
sought clarification on the Burkah issue that had rocked the district
sometime back.
bademiyansubhanallah
Mayawati's rural cleanliness project bridges social divide
Agra, Oct 3 (IANS) When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati launched
a rural cleanliness scheme in 2008, not many realised the
revolutionary potential of "this seemingly innocent and unattractive
scheme" now being implemented all over the state.
More than 100,000 'safai karamcharis', or community sweepers, were
recruited under the scheme, two for each village. "These young men and
women from all castes, educated but without work, initially thought
they would not have to do any work but would get paid. A large number
paid hefty amounts to recruiting committees to get the jobs.
"What is happening now is that these people are being forced to work,
clean up the villages, the choked drains. If someone is reluctant, the
village pradhan can immediately stop payment of salary," says village
development functionary Subhash Jha working at the community
development office (CDO) here.
In the 636 villages of Agra district, 996 people were recruited -- 550
of them from the general category including Brahmins and Thakurs. A
large number are young women from this city. Many have to go to the
villages early in the morning.
"Lakshmi Kumari has given the impression to all in her locality she
goes out teaching in a village school," said Pratap Singh, a social
activist of Dayalbagh area here. But once in the village, she has to
pick up the broom and start cleaning the drains, while the villagers
watch.
"In our village Akhwai, in Akola block, there is a youngster Neeraj
Singh, son of Kadheru. He is a Jat who has completed school. Now he
has to go to work in Kheria village. The villagers make sure he really
cleans up the place," Gandhian activist Chandraveer Singh told IANS.
"All these fellows thought it was a regular government job and they
would get away without cleaning by bribing the village pradhans. But
the villagers have become clever. Many derive sadistic pleasure by
making them work, knowing some of them come from higher castes,"
Chandraveer added.
In Agra district, at least 100 mostly upper caste cleaners are alleged
to be working at the homes of district officials instead of where they
are supposed to work. But the villagers know their whereabouts and
make inquiries about them, Subhash said.
Madhu Devi, 35, goes from Agra city to work in Ghamauta village.
Another cleaner called Lakhan Singh goes to work on a motorcycle, gets
into his jeans and finishes off his cleaning assignment speedily to
get back to the city. One cleaner Sunil is a Yadav, while Santosh
Singh is a Lodhi, says Subhash.
They have to work in two shifts, one from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the
other from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. They cannot bunk as every day they have to
report to the village pradhan who has been given the power to stop
their salary.
"These fellows are getting something like Rs.9,000-10,000 a month as
fourth class employees of the state. This is a pretty attractive
package in the villages," said local resident Bahadur Singh, president
of the Gram Pradhans Association. A few months ago more than a dozen
were suspended by the chief development officer for not doing their
work satisfactorily.
Ravi Singh, environmentalist and progressive farmer of the Baruli Ahir
block, told IANS: "On paper the scheme does have the potential of
changing social equations in the countryside, but because of
corruption the scheme was not being implemented fairly.
"My village has three safai mitras. In the village set-up there's not
much garbage like in the cities. All the dirt eventually gets mixed up
with cow dung and becomes usable in the fields. They clean up the
approach roads and pick up the garbage from visible areas."
Ravi said the jobs should have gone to the really needy people and not
to just anyone who applied.
Social activist Netra Pal Singh, working for the Agra unit of the All
India Women's Conference, points out: "It's not easy in our social
order to pick up the broom and start cleaning public roads in full
view of the community. It does need lots of courage. Even if some
people have managed to get into the government muster rolls by bribing
officials, the community knows their new status of a safai karamchari
and in our scheme of things who would be happy with this new tag?"
But others say Mayawati has taken a major leap by bulldozing caste
prejudices.
In a February 2008 speech Mayawati had spelt out the contours of the
scheme which was later modified to include other castes. She said: "My
government has taken an unprecedented and historic decision to provide
more than one lakh permanent government jobs in rural areas for the
Valmiki community of Scheduled Castes.
"By this decision, all the 1.08 lakh revenue villages of Uttar Pradesh
will have at least one safai karamchari, and the person appointed will
be from the same village in most of the cases... This, besides meeting
the employment problem, will also make a sea change in the health
atmosphere of rural areas for it will ensure cleanliness and help
eradicate diseases spreading due to unhygienic conditions."
(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at bri...@ians.in)
IANS
bademiyansubhanallah
A la Kerala, CM redraws OBC lines
Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay
Posted: Sunday , Oct 04, 2009 at 0336 hrs
Kolkata: Taking a leaf out of the Left-ruled Kerala, the Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee government is quietly working on a plan to bring in more
Muslim sub-groups under the OBC category so that reservation benefits
could be extended to the community that has been the CPM’s traditional
support base.
The dwindling Muslim support base of the Left has been one of the key
reasons for a series of poll debacles the ruling Left Front has faced
in the state in recent times.
In Kerala, 99.7 per cent of the Muslim population has been brought
under the OBC category. In West Bengal, there are 11 Muslim sub-groups
that fall under OBCs and form about 2.89 per cent of the total Muslim
population of the state. Now, the government has identified 37 more
Muslim sub-groups to be brought under the OBC category and that will
push the percentage up to 8-9 per cent of the total Muslim population
in the state.
The proposal from the Minority Affairs Department, which is under the
chief minister, will be placed before the state Cabinet for approval
soon. Another 10 groups are going to be identified soon, according to
sources.
“There are many sections in the Muslim community that are economically
weak and need reservation for their amelioration. So we are trying to
identify them and bring them into the OBC category,” Minister of State
for Minority Affairs, Abdus Sattar, told The Indian Express.
In West Bengal, OBCs enjoy seven per cent reservation in employment
but unlike SCs or STs, they do not enjoy reservation in education.
In fact, Bhattacharjee reportedly got fascinated by the Kerala model
after he had to shelve his plan for reservation for Muslims following
the Andhra Pradesh fiasco. On October 5, 2005, the Andhra government
passed a Bill providing for 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in
educational institutions and government services but the move got
bogged down in legal imbroglio.
Even on August 3 this year, the late Andhra CM Y S Rajashekhar Reddy
reiterated that his government was committed to providing reservation
for Muslims. But much before that, Bhattacharjee, singed by the Andhra
experience, chose to follow the path his comrades-in-arms in Kerala
have shown. He ordered his officials to identify as many Muslim groups
as OBCs so that they could be given the fruits of reservation.
It is the Cultural Research Institute under the Backward Classes
Welfare Department which made a comprehensive list of 73 sub-groups
under the Muslim community of which 37 have been recommended for
approval as OBCs.
“Our commitment is to the improvement of the Muslim community, which
is traditionally poor,” Sattar said.
bademiyansubhanallah
‘Centre working hard to implement Sachar recommendations’
Express News Service
Posted: Monday , Sep 14, 2009 at 0305 hrs
Kolkata: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed that the
Central government is working hard for the development of the
minorities.
Speaking at a function to distribute clothes to the poor at Furfura
Sharif in Hooghly district on Sunday, Mukherjee said the Centre is
trying hard to implement the recommendations of Justice Rajinder
Sachar Committee for the upliftment of the minorities.
The finance minister visited Furfura Sharif along with Sultan Ahmed,
Union Minister of State for Tourism. Ahmed said efforts were on to
improve the road condition and other facilities at Furfura Sharif and
plans are afoot to include it on the tourist map of Bengal.
Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Partha Chatterjee said
his party would do everything to ensure the proper implementation of
the Sachar Committee recommendations. Local Trinamool leader Idris
Ali, one of the organisers of the function, demanded the setting up of
a hospital in the area.
Mukherjee also lauded Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. “She has taken
over just a few months ago, but has already done a lot for everyone
and has given special emphasis to the upliftment of the minorities.
She has delivered on most of the promises,” he said.
chhotemianinshallah
Pakistan: Now or Never?
Perspectives on Pakistan
10:46 October 2nd, 2009
Talk of Waziristan offensive picks up in Pakistan
Comments (32)
Posted by: Myra MacDonald
According to Dawn newspaper, the Pakistan Army is poised to launch a
major military operation in South Waziristan, stronghold of the
Pakistani Taliban.
It quotes senior military and security officials as saying that the
army would launch what it called “the mother of all battles” in the
coming days.
“If we don’t take the battle to them, they will bring the battle to
us,” it quotes a senior military official as saying of the militants.
“The epicentre of the behemoth called the Taliban lies in South
Waziristan, and this is where we will be fighting the toughest of all
battles.”
“For three months, the military has been drawing up plans, holding in-
depth deliberations and carrying out studies on past expeditions to
make what seems to be the last grand stand against Pakistani Taliban
in the Mehsud heartland a success,” it says.
“We are ready. The environment is ready,” it quotes the senior officer
as saying. “It will not be a walkover. This is going to be casualty-
intensive hard fighting. The nation will have to bear the pain,” said
another officer.
The Pakistan Army is not saying anything in public, and information
about its operations in Waziristan is hard to come by since the area
is so remote and inaccessible.
But any ground offensive into South Waziristan would be a major
escalation in the Pakistan Army’s battle against the Pakistani
Taliban, dwarfing its operation earlier this year to clear militants
out of the Swat valley northwest of Islamabad.
The army has been reluctant to send ground troops into South
Waziristan, instead aiming to seal off the area and rely on airstrikes
to target militants. But talk of a possible ground offensive has risen
after two bomb attacks last weekend raised fears the Pakistani Taliban
were recovering from the death of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a
U.S. missile strike in August.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told me earlier this week that Pakistan
was considering whether it needed to launch a full-scale military
operation against the Pakistani Taliban, who he described as “the
front face of al Qaeda”.
And according to Dawn, “Thousands of army soldiers - two divisions -
are now sitting on the fringes of the Mehsud mainland waiting for
orders from the high command to move in.”
South Waziristan is believed to be heavily defended; it is larger than
Swat and more inaccessible. Its people have always been hostile to
outsiders, unlike Swat which was once a tourist paradise before it was
overrun by Taliban militants. So any ground offensive would likely
cause heavy casualties.
The general view has also been that the army has been running out of
time to launch a ground offensive before the winter snows make
operations extremely hard and would defer any big moves until the
spring. That could still be the case, if it judges that a combination
of air attacks and missile strikes by U.S. drones - the latest
reported casualty from these was Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev
- is enough to keep the militants at bay and stop them from bombing
Pakistani cities.
But Malik said Pakistan could even launch an operation in winter if
needs be. “Even in the winter, even before starting winter … if we
feel appropriate that this operation is unavoidable, yes, we will
consider that,” he said.
The Pakistan Army has years of experience of fighting in winter
conditions - along with the Indian Army it became a world expert in
high-altitude warfare in the conflict over the Siachen region which
erupted in 1984, and it also has troops posted in the mountains along
the Line of Control dividing Kashmir - although there has been a
ceasefire there since 2003.
So it is not out of the question for the Pakistan Army to launch an
offensive that drags into the winter. According to the Dawn report,
temperatures in Waziristan can drop to 20 degrees below freezing, with
snow setting in towards the end of November — fairly brutal conditions
for an offensive, but less hostile in terms of weather than it has had
to deal with in Siachen over the years. And Dawn quotes military
strategists as saying the weather problem would hit the militants more
than the troops, although the former would have the advantage of
knowing their terrain.
In its battle against Islamist militants, Pakistan has concentrated on
tackling the Pakistani Taliban, which threaten the country directly.
That has annoyed the United States, which wants Pakistan to move as
well against militants fighting western troops in Afghanistan,
including the Afghan Taliban which it says are based in Quetta, in
Baluchistan province. India is pressing for action against militant
groups based in Pakistan’s Punjab province, including the Lashkar-e-
Taiba militant group it blames for last year’s attack on Mumbai.
But for now, attention within Pakistan seems to be turning to
Waziristan for what could turn out to be the toughest military
campaign in the whole of the Afghanistan and Pakistan theatre.
(File photos:Pakistani soldier in Swat; Pakistan army chief General
Ashfaq Kayani with U.S. General David Petraeus; Taliban fighters;
author in Siachen)
Comments (32) |
17:13 September 30th, 2009
from India: A billion aspirations:
Is Gaddafi’s U.N. speech winning him a fan base in Kashmir?
Comments (33)
Posted by: Sheikh Mushtaq
A street vendor in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, sold hundreds
of framed portraits of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the last one
week.
Kashmiri separatists and many residents are all praise for Gaddafi
after his maiden address to the U.N. General Assembly last week in
which he said Kashmir should be an "independent state."
It was a diplomatic embarrassment for India but has Gaddafi's U.N.
speech actually won him an enthusiastic fan base in strife-weary
Kashmir where Muslim militants are fighting New Delhi's rule since
1989.
The Libyan leader told the U.N. General Assembly last week that
Kashmir should be an independent state, not Indian, not Pakistani.
Last week, dozens of Kashmiris carried placards reading "Gaddafi The
Lion of Desert II" referring to the 1981 Hollywood movie "Lion of the
Desert", which is about Omar Mukhtar, who led the rebellion against
Italian rule in Libya and was captured and hanged in 1931.
The movie on Omar Mukhtar encouraged rebellion in Kashmir in 1985.
This is for the first time in recent times a Muslim leader outside the
Indian sub-continent has advocated Kashmir's complete independence
both from India and Pakistan.
The two countries claim the region in full but rule in parts.
Encouraged by the speech, separatist leaders say Gaddafi's statement
in the U.N. General Assembly should serve as an eye-opener for Indian
and Pakistani leaders.
Despite two wars over Kashmir, India and Pakistan have so far failed
to find a solution to the more than six-decade-old dispute over
Kashmir.
New Delhi has so far largely struggled to win the hearts and minds of
the people of Kashmir, where anti-India sentiment still runs deep.
Gaddafi also opposed the expansion of the U.N. Security Council by
including countries like India. New Delhi, which has downplayed
Gaddafi's statement, has not yet reacted officially.
Has Gaddafi's U.N. speech on Kashmir's "freedom" won him foes in India
and friends in Kashmir?
Comments (33) |
15:24 September 30th, 2009
Pakistan and Britain: On exits and entrances
Comments (34)
Posted by: Myra MacDonald
With one million Britons of Pakistani origin, and as the former
colonial power, Britain has a unique relationship with Pakistan. But
concerns about Britain’s vulnerability to bomb attacks planned by
Pakistan-based militants — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has
said that three-quarters of the most serious plots investigated by
British authorities had links to al Qaeda in Pakistan — has made for a
rocky relationship.
Irfan Husain, a columnist for Dawn newspaper who divides his time
between Britain and Pakistan, writes that these tensions are being
worsened by the problems Pakistanis have in obtaining visas to visit
Britain.
“It is true that Pakistan is increasingly viewed as the epicentre of
Islamic terrorism. Many plots, real and imaginary, have had their
roots in the badlands of Fata (the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas),” he writes. “Many young Brits of Pakistani descent have
travelled to remote parts of the country to receive training in bomb-
making. But the point is that these young men do not need visas to
return to Bradford and Wolverhampton. Being born in Britain, they
enter their country without let or hindrance.”
Among those denied entry were members of the Lahore Pipe Band hoping
to take part in a world championship in Scotland, a trade delegation,
a well-known columnist, and a guitarist.
It’s not entirely clear whether the visa problems are driven more by
bureaucratic bungling than fear of terrorism. The Guardian newspaper
says that several thousand Pakistani students hoping to start
university in Britain are facing delays of three months or more for
visas because of a “bureaucratic fiasco” - after a reorganisation,
visa applications from Pakistan are now processed in Abu Dhabi.
Husain argues that by denying entry to the likes of writers and
musicians, Britain is compounding the very problem it wants to contain
- the spread of extremism. These are the kind of people who should be
made welcome in the west, he says. ”Given the position they enjoy in
Pakistan, they can influence many to see that the enemy is not the
West, but the forces of darkness that have gained the ascendancy in
our own country. By turning them down, the British government only
provides ammunition to those who are convinced of the West’s inherent
anti-Islam policies.”
In any case, most security analysts would argue that the main concern
is not about Pakistanis coming into Britain; it is about Britons of
Pakistani origin leaving the country to attend militant training camps
based in Pakistan. On this subject, Stephen Tankel has an interesting
post about signs of growth in the operations of the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant groups. Based in Pakistan’s
heartland Punjab province, these groups were initially focused on
fighting India over Kashmir, but are increasingly seen as a potential
or direct threat to the west.
“In the past JeM and LeT were valuable to al-Qaeda because of what is
called the ‘Kashmiri Escalator’. A disproportionate number of British
Pakistanis are of Kashmiri decent and those interested in making
contact with a militant group often can employ familial connections in
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to find their ways to Lashkar or JeM,” he
writes.
“Recruits procure training from one of the two groups, after which
some of them are passed on to al-Qaeda operatives who are often in the
FATA. In 2009 British security officials estimated that approximately
4,000 people were trained in this way since 9/11…”
The apparent growth of these two groups in the heart of Pakistan, he
writes, give pause for thought about the U.S.-led campaign in
Afghanistan. “Enormous sacrifices are being made to keep Afghanistan
free from al-Qaeda and its allies. Meanwhile, next-door some of those
same allies are building away in the seemingly safest of havens.”
The argument about who is responsible for British citizens seeking
training in militant camps in Pakistan is a complex one - both
countries tend to blame the other. And as Amil Khan wrote in this post
last year, the attitude of British Pakistanis to Pakistan is far more
layered than a simple question of which country should take the blame
when something goes wrong.
But if one of the aims is to stop young British Pakistanis from being
drawn towards hardline Islam, and at the same time offer them an
alternative image of both Britain and Pakistan, why ban the bagpipers?
Comments (34) |
11:06 September 25th, 2009
India, Pakistan and Afghanistan: the impossible triangle
Comments (133)
Posted by: Myra MacDonald
A single paragraph in General Stanley McChrystal’s leaked assessment
of the war in Afghanistan has generated much interest, particularly in
Pakistan.
“Indian political and economic influence is increasing in Afghanistan,
including significant development efforts and financial investment,”
it says. “In addition the current Afghan government is perceived by
Islamabad to be pro-Indian. While Indian activities largely benefit
the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is
likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani counter-
measures in Afghanistan or India.”
He did not say anything that anybody did not already know. Pakistan
has long been wary of India’s growing influence in Afghanistan since
the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and is seen as reluctant to turn
against the Afghan Taliban and other insurgent groups as long as it
believes it might need them to counter India. The fact that he said it
all suggested a renewed focus on the relationship between India and
Pakistan, whose confrontation to the east spilled long ago into
rivalry over Afghanistan to the west.
Pakistan’s Daily Times said in an editorial the rivalry between India
and Pakistan in Afghanistan highlighted the need for peace talks
between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three full-
scale wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
“One must be clear in one’s mind that in many ways the mess in
Afghanistan is actually a spillover of the Indo-Pak conflict in the
region of South Asia,” it said. “Pakistan’s policy of “strategic
depth”, which reached a climax with the hijacking of an Indian
airliner to Kandahar in 1999, was in reaction to the unresolved
dispute over Kashmir which created the “threat of India” that Pakistan
felt “from the east”. Even today, as Pakistan struggles against the
Taliban, 80 percent of its army is stationed on the Indian border.
Dawn newspaper said McChrystal’s words on India were ”perhaps as
significant as any other in the report”. The Americans appeared to
have finally understood, it said, that the war in Afghanistan could
not be won without help from Pakistan. “But that means gaining
Pakistan’s full cooperation, which in turn means alleviating the
national security establishment’s concerns vis-à-vis India.”
However, as discussed in this analysis, India is in little mood to
move rapidly towards peace talks with Pakistan until it takes greater
action against militants it blames for last year’s attack on Mumbai,
although the two countries have been taking incremental steps towards
repairing relations. Many argue that the powerful Pakistan Army would
be unlikely to turn against militant groups it once cultivated to
fight India in Kashmir, without a comprehensive peace settlement with
India. (For an understanding of how complicated all this is, read this
book reviewby Pakistani strategic analyst Ayesha Siddiqa.)
So, to win the war in Afghanistan, the United States needs help from
Pakistan, which Pakistan in turn is reluctant to provide so long as it
believes it is threatened by India to both the west and east. From
Washington’s point of view, it needs to nudge Islamabad and New Delhi
towards the negotiating table, by leaning on Pakistan to act against
militant groups and putting pressure on India to resume peace talks.
Here is another catch. Although the relationship between the United
States and India blossomed under former President George W. Bush,
there is far less warmth in New Delhi towards the Obama
administration. The relationship started on the wrong foot with India
concerned about increasing U.S. economic dependence on its rival
China.
Now India and the United States are at loggerheads over President
Barack Obama’s nuclear non-proliferation drive. India has never
signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That row, in turn,
complicates efforts by Washington to persuade India to talk to
Pakistan.
(Reuters file photos: Obama with Karzai and Biden; a British soldier
in Afghanistan; hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar)
Comments (133) |
06:26 September 25th, 2009
In Pakistan, not over the moon
Comments (11)
Posted by: Reuters Staff
By Zeeshan Haider
Pakistan is battling Taliban militants, trying to patch up relations
with old rival India and struggling to revive a limping economy but
another issue has preoccupied the country over recent days: the
sighting of the moon that markes the end of the Muslim fasting month
of Ramadan.
A row erupted when the Eid al Fitr holiday that follows Ramadan was
celebrated in several parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on
Sunday, a day ahead of the rest of the country. Many Pakistanis say
that violated a spirit of harmony and unity that should mark one of
the most important events of the Islamic calender.
Some clerics in NWFP announced on Saturday evening that the crescent
moon, which marks the end of a month in Islam’s lunar calender, had
been sighted, meaning Ramadan was over and Eid would be celebrated the
next day. But a government-appointed body of clerics responsible for
moon-sighting rejected the announcement, citing reports from the
Meteorological Department that said the moon could not be seen on
Saturday.
Clerics in NWFP, a religiously conservative region on the Afghan
border dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, have called Eid early before but
this time the politicians jumped into the fray. The Awami National
Party (ANP), a secular party ruling NWFP which is also part of the
federal coalition, backed the clerics from its province who called Eid
early.
Analysts say the ANP’s stand could be a aimed at winning the support
of conservative Pashtuns.
Some ANP ministers exchanged barbs with Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, the
head of the federal government’s moon-sighting committee, and called
for his removal.
Minister for Railways and senior ANP leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour
described Rehman as a “remnant” of Pervez Musharraf, the former
military ruler who stepped down as president last year after ruling
the country for nine years, and said he should be replaced by Mufti
Shahbuddin Popalzai, a hardline cleric from NWFP who called Eid early.
Rehman responded by saying Bilour was trying to stoke religious
tension by promoting the conservative Popalzai.
“By demanding that Popalzai be made chairman of the Reut-e-Hilal (moon-
sighting) Committee, Bilour is paving the way for Talibanisation in
other parts of the country,” the News newspaper
quoted Rehman as saying.
Both Bilour and Rehman later toned down their rhetoric.
Bilour apologised for some of his remarks while Rehman said he would
not oppose Popalzai’s appointment as a member of the central moon-
sighting committee.
But debate is still raging in the media, amid calls for the federal
government to take steps to ensure unity on religious questions.
“I have a simple suggestion to permanently end the annual moon-
sighting controversy: a compulsory course in astronomy for all members
of the Reut-e-Hilal Committee as well as those clerics who think that
the moon should appear in Pakistan on the same day as in Saudi
Arabia,”
Shakir Laskhani said in a letter published in the News newspaper on
Thursday.
The daily said in an editorial headlined “Moon madness” scientific
methods should be employed when sighting the moon.
“The time has come to find rationality”.
[Reuters pictures of Lahore's Badshahi mosque and sighting of the moon
in Malaysia]
Comments (11) |
10:34 September 24th, 2009
India and Pakistan: the changing nature of conflict
Comments (53)
Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani
Early last year a group of Indian and Pakistan retired generals and
strategic experts sat down for a war-gaming exercise in Washington.
The question, predictably enough, was at what point during a
conventional war, would the generals in Rawalpindi GDQ reach for the
nuclear trigger.
In the event, the simulated war took on an unpredictable turn, which
in some ways was more illuminating than the question of nuclear
escalation, as columnist Ashok Malik writes in The Great Divide:India
and Pakistan, a collection of essays by experts on both sides of the
border.
The exercise begins with an Indian military strike on militant camps
in Pakistani Kashmir, the most commonly envisaged scenario for the
next India-Pakistan war. But the Pakistan response defies
conventional logic . They don’t order a military push into Indian
Punjab and Rajasthan, they don’t even attack Bombay High, the most
valuable Indian oil asset in the Arabian Sea, and well within striking
distance of the Pakistani Air Force.
Instead PAF planes fly all way to Bangalore, deep in the Indian south,
to attack the campus of Infosys, the much celebrated Indian IT
company.
Strange choice of target ? By all military logic it would seem so.
It’s not like all of India would be crippled if Infosys were
attacked, they don;’t run Indian IT infrastructure. Even the company
itself might not suffer lasting damage. Its data would probably be
stored in locations elsehwere too, and it wouldn’t take it long to
rebuild the campus. Besides. the Pakistani planes would be almost
certain to be shot down on their way back, if they managed to
penetrate this far in on what seems like a suicide mission.
So why Bangalore, and Infosys? Malilk quotes a Pakistani participant
as saying they chose the target because it is an “iconic symbol” of
India’s IT prowess and economic surge. The idea was to strike at
India’s economic growth and great power aspirations. A raid on the
Infosys campus, visited by heads of states and corporate leaders,
would underline the dangers of business in India and remind the world
that for all its new-found success, it remained a nation of
contradictions, and at heart, unstable.
Many people in the room were not convinced by the Pakistani choice.
It still seemed more like an academic exercise than anything rooted in
military reality. But in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks later
that year, and in the light of renewed warnings this week by Israeli
intelligence of another Mumbai-like attack coming in the next few
weeks, it is clear that India’s vulnerability appears to be in
economic, rather than purely military, targets.
Indeed last year when tensions rose following the Mumbai attack and
there was talk of an Indian military response, it was Pakistan’s
former chief of intelligence Hamid Gul who warned of Pakistan hitting
back where it would hurt the most. India’s so-called Silicon Valley
will go up in smoke, Gul is widely quoted to have told CNN, if the
Indians sent troops to the border.
{Photographs of the Mumbai skyline and Indian and Pakistani soldiers
at Wagah]
Comments (53) |
12:30 September 17th, 2009
The missile shield and the “grand bargain” on Afghanistan and Pakistan
Comments (67)
Posted by: Myra MacDonald
Back in 2008, even before Barack Obama was elected, Washington pundits
were urging him to adopt a new regional approach to Afghanistan and
Pakistan involving Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia and even Iran.
The basic argument was that more troops alone would not solve the
problems, and that the new U.S administration needed to subsume other
foreign policy goals to the interests of winning a regional consensus
on stabilising Afghanistan.
It would be simplistic to suggest that the Obama administration’s
decision to cancel plans to build a missile-shield in eastern Europe
was motivated purely — or even primarily — by a need to seek Russian
help in Afghanistan. But it certainly serves as a powerful reminder
about how far that need to seek a “grand bargain” on Afghanistan may
be reshaping and influencing policy decisions around the world.
“Securing Afghanistan and its region will require an international
presence for many years, but only a regional diplomatic initiative
that creates a consensus to place stabilizing Afghanistan ahead of
other objectives could make a long-term international deployment
possible,” Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid argued in their much-cited
2008 policy paper titled “From Great Game to Grand Bargain”. (pdf
document).
Many of those arguments reappeared in a more recent report by the Asia
Society (pdf document) — formerly chaired by U.S special envoy to
Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke – so they are worth studying closely.
The ideas were ambitious and far-reaching, from remapping relations
between Russia and the United States, prodding India and Pakistan
towards a peace deal on Kashmir, seeking help from Iran and drawing in
China and Saudi Arabia. Some of those ideas were blown off course by
the financial crisis, by the row in Iran over its disputed election,
and by last November’s attack on Mumbai which undermined U.S. attempts
to steer India and Pakistan towards a peace deal.
And recently, they had been almost completely drowned by the media
focus on military tactics and the merits of sending more troops to
Afghanistan. With the U.S. decision to cancel the missile shield, one
of those ideas — about seeking Russian help in Afghanistan — may have
finally managed to break above the surface again.
In the case of Russia, the question was always about what price the
United States was willing to pay to win Moscow’s help in Afghanistan,
possibly through less ardent support for NATO aspirants Ukraine and
Georgia and a review of the missile shield due to be set up in the
Czech Republic and Poland.
Obama already moved to try to assuage fears in Moscow and elsewhere
that the United States might be seeking a permanent military presence
in Afghanistan, a long-standing concern in Russia wary of having U.S.
troops in what it sees as its backyard. “Make no mistake: we do not
want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases
there,” Obama said in his speech in Cairo in June.
But it has been unclear how much further he might be willing to
compromise to win Russia’s support for what has become widely known as
“Obama’s war” in Afghanistan.
As discussed in this post, the Moscow Times spelled out what it saw as
the price of Russian cooperation in Afghanistan in an op-ed published
before Obama’s inauguration:
“Afghanistan may well define your foreign policy legacy the way Iraq
defined Bush’s,” it said. “You will need all the support you can
muster, including from Iran. You will also need Russia’s support.
Moscow understands that the stability of its southern flank will
hugely depend on what happens on the Hindu Kush mountain range in
eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. But Moscow is torn
between giving support to the West and preparing for the West’s
withdrawal from Afghanistan. The latter would mean cutting deals with
the Taliban locally and relying on China strategically. You can help
Russia make the right choice.”
Of course, there are many other reasons for, and consequences of, the
U.S. decision on the missile shield, as discussed here and here.
But if anyone wants a steer on the likely direction of U.S. foreign
policy, and its implications globally, it’s probably worth rereading
Barnett Rubin’s “grand bargain” proposal from last year. Diplomacy is
the art of the possible, and nobody expects the recommendations to be
followed to the letter. But with Obama a considerably more cerebral
president than his predecessor, the old “Read my Lips” slogan probably
needs to be replaced with a new one: “Read the pdf.”
(You can also find regular updates on the progress in relations
between India and Pakistan – one of the key themes of that report — on
“Pakistan:Now or Never”, most recently in this post)
(Reuters photos: Girl in Afghanistan; Holbrooke, Obama)
Comments (67) |
12:41 September 16th, 2009
Sting sings ‘Fragile” for Pakistan
Comments (3)
Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani
Pakistan’s nearly 2.3 million people forced from their homes in the
northwest are beginning to get more attention beyond the borders. Last
weekend Pakistani artistes as well singing great Sting came together
for a concert in the U.N.General Assemby in support of the men, women
and children who have become refugees in their own land in one of the
largest human dislocations in recent years.
The Concert for Pakistan was put together by Salman Ahmad, founder
of the Pakistani sufi rock group Junoon , which has created a mass
following with its songs of peace and harmony.
Top billing was Sting, though, with his song “How Fragile We Are ” .
Here’s the video of that performance from the On Faith feature of The
Washington Post.
Comments (3) |
10:47 September 15th, 2009
Opposition mounts to Pakistani farmland sale plan
Comments (20)
Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani
Pakistan is pushing ahead with a plan to sell or lease agriculture
land to foreign investors even as opposition grows at home. A Saudi
delegation is due in the country at the end of Ramadan this month for
further talks on a plan to lease an area of land more than twice the
size of Hong Kong, a Pakistani official told Reuters this month.
The Saudis are looking to boost their food security and Pakistan will
presumably will reap monetary benefits in return. But what about
Pakistan’s own food security in the longer term, All Things Pakistan
asked in a recent post.
A stampede for food in Karachi on Monday, although not related,
underscored Pakistan’s own vulnerabilities and the plight of some of
the nation’s desperately poor. Eighteen women and children died iin
the stampede that erupted when a local businessman was handing out
wheat flour among hundreds of poor women gathered in a narrow lane.
Those were the destitute, but giving away rich land to foreigners to
cultivate and take the produce to their homeland will ultimately hit
the ordinary Pakistani, the small farmer and those who indirectly
depend on farming for their livelihood, critics are warning.
Robert Schubert in a piece for Food and Water Watch says it has been
recognised in other parts of the world that such a “land grab” harms
local communities by dislodging smallholder farmers, aggravating rural
poverty and food insecurity. Many of the land purchases comprise tens
of thousands of acres which are then turned into single-crop farms –
and these dwarf the small-scale farms common in the developing world,
where nearly nine out of 10 farms (85 per cent) are less than five
acres.
Giving away land carries an unhappy connotation across South Asia,
perhaps more than in other parts of the world. And in Pakistan’s case,
at this difficult point in its history, it raises even more painful
questions.
To many it is yet another assault on the nation’s sovereignty. “With
the US increasingly occupying Pakistan with their covert and overt
armed presence, and the Gulf states taking over our rich agricultural
lands, our rulers are voluntarily making us a colony again – as we
were under the British who used our men to fight their wars and our
cheap labour to ship the finished produce back to Britain! Have we
come full circle after 62 years of our creation?” said defence expert
Shireen M. Mazari.
The Dawn wrote in an editorial headlined “Country for Sale” that the
government stood in violation of a UN General Assembly resolution on
Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources. It said the government
had moved ahead with the plan without running it past parliament and
it would do grievous damage to farmers. And it quoted a recent study
which identified Pakistan as one of the countries at “extreme risk” in
terms of food security. “This is the time to help local farmers and
landless peasants, not wealthy foreigners and their food needs,” it
said.
And all this is being played out against the backdrop of the militancy
raging across the country. Public discontent works to the militants
advantage and they could use this to bolster support, as discussed in
an earlier post on the same issue.
Or it could lead to fresh upheaval. Business Monitor Intelligence said
such deals had fallen apart in other parts of the world because of
local resistance. It cites the case of Madagascar where a plan to
lease a huge tract of agriculture land to a Korean company likely
contributed to the downfall of the president in March.
{Photographs of farmers in Multan and in Swabi in the northwest]
Comments (20) |
16:00 September 14th, 2009
India and Pakistan: looking beyond the rhetoric (part 2)
Comments (54)
Posted by: Myra MacDonald
Following up on my earlier post about what is happening behind the
scenes in the fraught relationship between India and Pakistan, it’s
worth keeping track of this report that Islamabad is considering
appointing former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan to handle the
informal dialogue with New Delhi known as “backchannel diplomacy”.
As discussed in this story there has been much talk about trying to
get the backchannel diplomacy between India and Pakistan up and
running again, both to reduce India-Pakistan rivalry in Afghanistan
and to prevent an escalation of tensions between the two countries
themselves. So any forward movement on the backchannel diplomacy, if
confirmed, would be important.
To recap (and with apologies to those who already know this), India
and Pakistan have many different ways of engaging with each other.
They have a formal peace process known as the composite dialogue,
started in 2004 and broken off by India after last November’s attack
on Mumbai. India has said it will not resume the composite dialogue
until Pakistan takes more action against those accused of involvement
in Mumbai.
Then there are Track II talks, in which politicians, journalists,
administrators and others on both sides of the border meet in a
private capacity to try to promote understanding between India and
Pakistan.
Senior politicians also have a habit of holding bilateral meetings on
the fringes of international conferences, as happened when Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Zardari in Russia in June
and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Egypt in July. The foreign
secretaries, or top diplomats, of both countries are also expected to
meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this month, ahead of
a meeting between the foreign ministers.
But of all the different ways that India and Pakistan have found to
engage with each other, the backchannel diplomacy carried out away
from the glare of the media has arguably been the most successful. In
2003, the two countries agreed a ceasefire on the Line of Control
dividing disputed Kashmir, and extended it to Siachen, where the two
countries had fought a high-altitude war since 1984.
In 2007, Satinder Lambah, a special envoy to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, and Tariq Aziz, envoy to then president Pervez Musharraf,
etched out a set of principles meant to allow them to work towards a
resolution of the Kashmir dispute (Praveen Swami at The Hindu gives
the details here.)
I’m told there is no evidence the deal would ever have worked - many
crucial details had yet to be negotiated. And since the backchannel
talks were held in secret, it has always been unclear whether either
country could win over domestic constituencies which might resist or
sabotage any peace deal. But the backchannel diplomacy, and the
intellectual space it opened up even to consider an agreement on
Kashmir, functioned as an important ”shock absorber” between two
nuclear-armed countries which have already fought three full-scale
wars since independence in 1947.
The tentative “roadmap” agreement fell apart as Musharraf’s own
political fortunes deteriorated, and the backchannel talks have yet to
find their feet again in any kind of structured format.
The signs are that many other informal discussions are going on. As
discussed here, the Pakistan Army has moved a significant number of
troops away from its eastern border with India to fight the Pakistani
Taliban on its western border with Afghanistan. The head of the Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI) broached what is effectively Indian
territory by attending an iftar at the Indian High Commision in
Islamabad. And the Indian government is trying to work out how to
engage the Hurriyat, the main political separatist group in Kashmir,
and that is something it can only do with Pakistani acquiescence.
But these informal contacts have lacked the structure of the
backchannel diplomacy, whose main aim was to work out a way towards
peace.
Until this week, it was unclear who would handle the backchannel
diplomacy on the Pakistan side to replace Tariq Aziz, who was an
appointee of Musharraf. On India’s side, Satinder Lambah could remain
as a special envoy to the prime minister.
So the suggestion that Riaz Mohammad Khan might be appointed to fill
that role for Pakistan would be a major step forward.
That said, there are plenty of spoilers in both countries who don’t
believe in the peace process. So if India and Pakistan find a way back
into their secret backchannel diplomacy, we might never know.
(Reuters file photos: A child at the funeral of Benazir Bhutto; Prime
Minister Singh and President Zardari in Yekaterinburg; the gates
closing on the india-Pakistan border; and a soldier at base camp in
Siachen)
Sid Harth
HC pulls up govt for detaining Pakistanis, others
IANS 4 October 2009, 04:16pm IST
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has pulled up the government for
detaining many foreigners, particularly Pakistanis, without proper
detention order, and wanted to know why these people have not been
deported to their countries.
Counsel Arvind Nigam told a bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah
and Justice Manmohan that many foreign nationals have been languishing
in Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) deportation camps
since 2006 and no effort has been made by the government to deport
them.
"Some people have been there for 2-3 years without any detention
order," Nigam told the court. The exact number of people detained in
these camps is not known.
Last year, 11 detainees wrote a letter to the Chief Justice
complaining about the poor conditions of living in deportation camps.
They said the camps faced perennial shortage of drinking water and the
quality of food served was also poor. The court took the letter as a
public interest litigation and initiated legal proceedings.
Government counsel Zubeda Begum said some of the people have been
detained for security reasons. Others have been detained for crimes
like not possessing proper visa documents and not completing basic
immigration formalities.
To this, the court said: "You (government) must detain the person with
appropriate legal order."
The court also asked the government counsel whether any exchange of
detainees has taken place between India and Pakistan. The petition
says that many of the foreign nationals in the camps are Pakistanis.
The exact number of Pakistanis in such camps is not known.
"Provide us with the figures as to how many such exchange of prisoners
took place (between India and Pakistan). We just can't turn a blind
eye to the people who are suffering because of (lack of) diplomatic
relations," the bench said.
The court asked the government counsel to consult the union home
secretary and file a detailed affidavit as to what is the present
status of all the foreigners living in camps by the next date of
hearing.
Sid Harth
Billions in US aid never reached Pakistan army
By KATHY GANNON
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 4, 2009; 11:24 AM
PHOTOS
FILE - This May 16, 2009 file photo shows Pakistani Army soldiers
patrolling along Malakand road near Mardan, in northwest Pakistan. The
United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars
it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the
domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India. Now the
scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and
2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion
in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military, two army
generals tell The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File) (Emilio Morenatti - AP)
FILE - This May 16, 2009 file photo shows Pakistani Army soldiers
patrolling along Malakand road near Mardan, in northwest Pakistan. The
United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars
it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the
domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India. Now the
scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and
2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion
in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military, two army
generals tell The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File) (Emilio Morenatti - AP)
FILE - This Oct. 25, 2008 file photo shows a Pakistani armored vehicle
firing toward Taliban positions in Loi Sam, in the Bajur tribal
region, Pakistan. The United States has long suspected that much of
the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has
been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as
fighting India. Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming
clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500
million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the
Pakistani military, two army generals tell The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, Pool, File) (Emilio Morenatti - AP)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The United States has long suspected that much
of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants
has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as
fighting India.
Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between
2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6
billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military,
two army generals tell The Associated Press.
The account of the generals, who asked to remain anonymous because
military rules forbid them from speaking publicly, was backed up by
other retired and active generals, former bureaucrats and government
ministers.
At the time of the siphoning, Pervez Musharraf, a Washington ally,
served as both chief of staff and president, making it easier to
divert money intended for the military to bolster his sagging image at
home through economic subsidies.
"The army itself got very little," said retired Gen. Mahmud Durrani,
who was Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. under Musharraf. "It went to
things like subsidies, which is why everything looked hunky-dory. The
military was financing the war on terror out of its own budget."
Generals and ministers say the diversion of the money hurt the
military in very real ways:
-Helicopters critical to the battle in rugged border regions were not
available. At one point in 2007, more than 200 soldiers were trapped
by insurgents in the tribal regions without a helicopter lift to
rescue them.
-The limited night vision equipment given to the army was taken away
every three months for inventory and returned three weeks later.
-Equipment was broken, and training was lacking. It was not until 2007
that money was given to the Frontier Corps, the front-line force, for
training.
The details on misuse of American aid come as Washington again
promises Pakistan money. Legislation to triple general aid to Pakistan
cleared Congress last week. The legislation also authorizes "such sums
as are necessary" for military assistance to Pakistan, upon several
conditions. The conditions include certification that Pakistan is
cooperating in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that
Pakistan is making a sustained commitment to combating terrorist
groups and that Pakistan security forces are not subverting the
country's political or judicial processes.
The U.S. is also insisting on more accountability for reimbursing
money spent. For example, Pakistan is still waiting for $1.7 billion
for which it has billed the United States under a Coalition Support
Fund to reimburse allies for money spent on the war on terror.
But the U.S. still can't follow what happens to the money it doles
out.
"We don't have a mechanism for tracking the money after we have given
it to them," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Wright said in a
telephone interview.
Musharraf's spokesman, retired Gen. Rashid Quereshi, flatly denied
that his former boss had shortchanged the army. He did not address the
specific charges. "He has answered these questions. He has answered
all the questions," the spokesman said. Musharraf took power in a
bloodless coup in 1999 and resigned in August 2008.
The misuse of funding helps to explain how al-Qaida, dismantled in
Afghanistan in 2001, was able to regroup, grow and take on the weak
Pakistani army. Even today, the army complains of inadequate equipment
to battle Taliban entrenched in tribal regions.
For its part, Washington did not ask many questions of a leader,
Musharraf, whom it considered an ally, according to a U.S. Government
Accountability Office report released last year.
Pakistan has received more money from the fund than any other nation.
It is also the least expensive war front. The amount the U.S. spends
per soldier per month is just $928, compared with $76,870 in
Afghanistan and $85,640 in Iraq.
Yet by 2008, the United States had provided Pakistan with $8.6 billion
in military money, and more than $12 billion in all.
"The army was sending in the bills," said one general who asked not to
be identified because it is against military rules to speak publicly.
"The army was taking from its coffers to pay for the war effort - the
access roads construction, the fuel, everything. ... This is the
reality - the army got peanuts."
Some of the money from the U.S. even went to buying weapons from the
United States better suited to fighting India than in the border
regions of Afghanistan - armor-piercing tow missiles, sophisticated
surveillance equipment, air-to-air missiles, maritime patrol aircraft,
anti-ship missiles and F-16 fighter aircraft.
"Pakistan insisted and America agreed. Pakistan said we also have a
threat from other sources," Durrani said, referring to India, "and we
have to strengthen our overall capacity. "The money was used to buy
and support capability against India."
The army also suffered from mismanagement, Durrani said. As an
example, he cited Pakistani attempts to buy badly needed attack
helicopters.
Pakistan asked for Cobra helicopters because it knows how to maintain
them, he said. But the helicopters were old, and to make them battle-
ready, the Pentagon sent them to a company that had no experience with
Cobras and took two years, he said.
As a result, in 2007, Pakistan had only one working helicopter - a
debilitating handicap in the battle against insurgents who hide, train
and attack from the hulking mountains that run like a seam along the
Afghan-Pakistani border.
The army was also frustrated about not getting more money. Military
spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said the U.S. gave nothing to offset the
cost of Pakistan's dead and wounded in the war on terror. He estimated
1,800 Pakistani soldiers had been killed since 2003 and 4,800 more
wounded, most of them seriously.
The hospital and rehabilitation costs for the wounded have come to
more than $25 million, Abbas said. Pakistan's military also gives land
to the widows of the dead, educates their children and provides health
care.
"These costs do not appear anywhere," he said. "There is no U.S.
compensation for the casualties, assistance with aid to the grieving
families."
Even while money was being siphoned off for other purposes on
Pakistan's end, the U.S. imposed little control over or even had
specific knowledge of what went where, according to reports by the
U.S. Government Accountability Office. The reports covered 2002
through 2008.
The reports found that the Pentagon often ignored its own oversight
rules, didn't get adequate documents and doled out money without
asking for an explanation.
For more than a year, the Pentagon paid Pakistan's navy $19,000 a
month per vehicle just for repair costs on a fleet of fewer than 20
vehicles. Monthly food bills doubled for no apparent reason, and for a
year the Pentagon paid the bills without checking, according to the
report.
Daniyal Aziz, a minister in Musharraf's government, said he warned
U.S. officials that the money they were giving his government was
being misused, but to no avail.
"They both deserved each other, Musharraf and the Americans," he
said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Blast at WFP office in Pakistan
The Associated Press
Monday, October 5, 2009; 3:54 AM
ISLAMABAD -- Police say a suicide bomber carried out the attack on the
World Food Program offices in the Pakistani capital.
Police officer Bin Yamin says three people were killed in the blast
Monday, including an Iraqi working there.
He said the attacker blew himself up in the lobby of the heavily
guarded and fortified building.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - A bomb inside the offices of the World Food Program
in the Pakistani capital killed at least two people and wounded
several others Monday, police and witnesses said.
The blast left victims lying on the ground in pools of blood and
shattered windows in the heavily guarded and fortified building in
Islamabad, witness said.
Al-Qaida and Taliban militants have carried out scores of attacks in
Pakistan over the last 2 1/2 years, a number of them targeting
foreigners and their interests. Under U.S. pressure, Pakistani
security forces are targeting the extremists in their strongholds in
the northwest.
Dr. Altaf Hussain said two people were killed and four others wounded.
Another hospital official said one of the dead was a foreigner.
UN spokeswoman Ishrat Rizvi says it is not yet clear whether the
device "was thrown or already planted."
"I was on the upper floor when there was the sound of a huge explosion
downstairs. I found many of my colleagues lying on the floor full of
blood," said a WFP employee who declined to be named. "We immediately
put the most critically wounded in a vehicle and rushed them to
hospital."
The WFP is distributing food to poor Pakistanis, including those in
the northwest.
The British defense and home ministers were visiting Islamabad at the
time of the attack, but were unaffected.
Sid Harth
Opposition claim of BJP being anti-minority baseless: Quraishi
TNN 5 October 2009, 11:01pm IST
MANGALORE: The state government has found an able ally in Karnataka
State Minorities Commission to bat for its pro-minority credentials.
It was an assertive Khusro Quraishi, chairman of the commission who
while reeling out statistics on budgetary support given by the BJP
government to the minorities launched a diatribe against the
opposition particularly the Congress questioning their role in
upliftment of the minorities.
Quraishi, making his fifth visit to Dakshina Kannada since taking over
as head of the commission, told reporters here on Saturday that the
opposition's claim of the BJP being anti-minorities in general, and
anti-Muslim in particular is baseless. "While the highest ever
budgetary support for welfare of minorities during previous
governments was Rs 23 crore, it has risen to Rs 167 crore in 2008-09,
and Rs 172 crore in 2009-10," he said.
The Congress government under S M Krishna had six ministers, a dozen
MLAs and six MPs, all from minority communities. Yet these elected
representatives did nothing to uplift the socio-economic conditions of
the minorities in Karnataka, Quraishi observed. The BJP government
despite having no sizable minority representation has gone out of its
way to help the socio-economic empowerment of all six-minority
communities in the state.
An addition of 23 pre and post-metric hostels for the minorities, 48
Morarji Desai residential schools, with 75 per cent reservation for
Muslim students in each of these institutions is a testimony to the
government's resolve to aid this community. Effective utilisation of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan funds of the Centre, and state government
funding for the above two institutions should address educational
backwardness among Muslims, he said.
Lack of economic empowerment and illiteracy are the driving forces,
which lead youths from minority communities to get into anti-social
activities, he said. If one checks the credentials of youths involved
in acts of communal strife in recent past, it is found that most are
unemployed and illiterate, he said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Top LeT militants among 5 ultras killed in Kashmir
STAFF WRITER 13:8 HRS IST
Srinagar, Oct 7 (PTI) Three top Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were among
five ultras killed in three separate encounters with security forces
in Kashmir Valley today.
Acting on a tip off, police assisted by army cordoned Satkoji near
Zachaldara in Kupwara, 80 kms from here.The militants hiding in the
forest opened fire at the joint search party and in the ensuing
encounter, three foreign militants owing allegiance to LeT were
killed, a police spokesman said.
One of the slain militants has been identified as Abu Hamza, a top LeT
Pakistani militant.
Another militant was killed in a gunfight with security forces at
Trikanjan in Baramulla district, 90 kms from here, this morning, the
spokesman said.
Security forces also resumed operation this morning to flush out
militants hiding in Khrew forests in Pulwama district of South Kashmir
and recovered body of a militant, a defence ministry spokesman said.
bademiyansubhanallah
India still the greatest threat for Pak: Petraeus
STAFF WRITER 12:18 HRS IST
Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 7 (PTI) Despite the fact that their military is
fighting tough battle against Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists, the
Pakistan leaders and the ISI still believes India is the greatest
threat to them, a top US military official said today.
"It is important to note that India is still seen as the greatest
threat, greater than the Taliban, greater than even al-Qaeda. So there
are still some dynamics there that are challenging," US Central
Command Commander Gen David Petraeus said at the Association of the US
Army annual meeting.
Commending Pakistani military in taking successful action against the
terrorists in the Swat Valley, Petraeus said they have cleared the
vast majority of the Swat Valley.
The US General said the operations have resulted in the death and
capture of significant number of senior Taliban leaders.
bademiyansubhanallah
Vibes from India are positive: Qureshi
STAFF WRITER 10:5 HRS IST
Washington, Oct 7 (PTI) Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi said that he got positive vibes from India and there was
nothing to "disagree" between the two countries.
"Being a politician, I can read between the lines and I can tell you I
got positive vibes, because my message was positive, my engagement was
positive, my intentions are positive," Qureshi said.
"I have suggested a way forward, and I saw nothing in him (Krishna)
where he could disagree with me," Qureshi said when asked about his
meeting with India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in New York
on September 27 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
Accompanied by their respective foreign secretaries and other top
officials, the two ministers met for more than an hour in a New York
hotel on September 27.
bademiyansubhanallah
No condition imposed on Pak for USD 7.5 aid: Kerry
STAFF WRITER 8:9 HRS IST
Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 7 (PTI) A key US Senator and architect of the
Congressional bill, which doles out USD 7.5 billion to Pakistan in the
next five years, said that "no conditions" have been imposed on
Islamabad in lieu of the non-military aid.
"There is no conditionality whatsoever in this legislation (Kerry-
Lugar bill) with respect to civilian assistance and the economic
assistance that is provided. No conditionality. It is unfortunate the
bill has been characterised in some quarters in ways that are just not
accurate," Senator John Kerry said.
Kerry, Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and its Ranking
member Richard Lugar have authored a bill that pledges USD 7.5 billion
of civilian aid to Pakistan for the next five years.
bademiyansubhanallah
Afghanistan situation deteriorating: Clinton
STAFF WRITER 9:44 HRS IST
Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 7 (PTI) With the top American military commander in
Afghanistan seeking an additional 40,000 troops, the US has
acknowledged that the situation in the war-torn country is
deteriorating and Taliban have the momentum now.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed with the report of General
Stanley McChrystal, Commander of the US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan, on the situation in the war-torn country.
"I think that certainly as we have now seen, General McChrystal's
assessment was that it (situation) is deteriorating, that the Taliban
have the momentum, that they are much more aggressive, they are better
equipped, they are moving more broadly in the country than they had
been before," Clinton told the CBS news yesterday.
McChrystal, in a recent report to President Barack Obama, had said the
situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating.
chhotemianinshallah
Pak's 'jail or jihad' ploy against India
7 Oct 2009, 0822 hrs IST
Reports, which are bound to raise concerns in India, have surfaced
with claims that Pakistan is planning to push as many as 60
"surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the
"jihad" against India.
The ISI is said to have offered the extremists the option of either
going to jail or crossing the Line of Control (LoC). Highly placed
sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments
after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the
next 15 to 20 days.
Officials have claimed that although the Taliban is yet to
successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a
challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset
of winter.
The official added that though the Indian forces are fully alert to
thwart Pakistani designs, the next 15-20 days are quite crucial as
this is the period when they will do everything to infiltrate as many
terrorists as possible.
TIMES NOW had earlier reported on how the new and resurgent Taliban is
now working on a multi-pronged strategy; after losing ground in the
north of Pakistan, they are now moving to the central part of the
country. At the same time, they are trying to move Taliban leader
Mullah Omar to Karachi - a densely populated city that will be
difficult for the US to attack.
The Taliban also plan to decrease the number of suicide attacks, and
instead hit strategically. Most significantly for India, the Taliban
according to intelligence sources, are working to plot a 26/11-style
attack in India in return for favours from Pakistan’s ISI.
chhotemianinshallah
Foreign Secy lashes out against Pak
7 Oct 2009, 1724 hrs IST
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has lashed out against Pakistan and
urged the international community to step up pressure on the country.
Rao warned that Pakistan has to implement its commitment to deal with
terror groups within its territory including the Al-Qaeda, Taliban,
Hizd-e-Islami and the LeT.
She has called for the shuting down of support provided to terrorist
groups active across the Af-Pak border. She said that the challenge
from a resurgent Taliban and Al-Qaeda is real and is one that
threatens us all.
chhotemianinshallah
Pak's ISI bumps off fake money kingpin
7 Oct 2009, 1633 hrs IST
The recovery of the dead body of Majid Manihar, ISI's prime link in
the Fake Indian Currency Business in the sub continent, in a Nepal
Hotel has started fuelling specualtion about an immensely jittery
Pakistan attempting to cover up its role in the fake currency racket.
Majid Manihar, originally an Indian, was found dead with multiple gun
shot wounds in a hotel in Nepalgunj in Nepal on Monday evening.
Ironically, Majid had been the key ISI operative in Nepal for years.
He headed the fake Indian currency note business and was the key
person to the supply route of these notes from Nepal to India.
Majid, a native of Behraich district of Uttar Pradesh, had several
cases against him in up ever since he went absconding. Intelligence
agencies had these inputs that he was the key person involved in
supplying fake Indian currency in India.
The pressure had been building on him since the Uttar Pradesh police
arrested his son, Vikky Manihar, from Bahraich in the Nepal UP border
with a consignemtn of fake notes.
Majid, it is believed has worked both for the ISI and Dawood Ibrahim
over the last two decades, and both were worried that the Indian
authorities would get their hands on him with an Interpol Red Corner
Notice about to be issued in his name.
chhotemianinshallah
Pak army irked by US aid bill
Islamabad, Oct. 7 (Reuters): Pakistan’s army today expressed “serious
concern” about a US aid bill that critics say contains conditions that
amount to a humiliating violation of sovereignty as parliament began a
debate on US aid.
The US Congress last week approved a bill tripling aid for Pakistan to
$1.5 billion a year for the next five years and sent it to President
Barack Obama for signing into law.
The legislation is part of a bid to build a new relationship with
Pakistan that no longer focuses on military ties but on Pakistan’s
social and economic development.
But in an effort to address US concerns that Pakistan’s military may
support militant groups, the bill stipulates that US military aid will
cease if Pakistan does not help fight “terrorists”, including Taliban
and al Qaida members.
The bill, co-authored by Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar, also
provides an assessment of how effective the civilian government’s
control is over the powerful military.
Pakistan’s army chief met his top commanders at army headquarters in
Rawalpindi and reiterated that Pakistan was a sovereign state and had
the right to respond to threats in accordance with its interests, the
military said.
“The forum expressed serious concern regarding clauses impacting on
national security,” the military said.
The army, in a rare public comment on a diplomatic issue, did not
elaborate but said it was providing the government, which supports the
US bill, with “formal input”.
It acknowledged it was parliament that would debate the issue and
enable the government to respond.
President Asif Ali Zardari earlier rejected suggestions that the
bill’s conditions undermined sovereignty.
The controversy comes as the US, Pakistan’s biggest aid donor, is
pressing the army to expand its operations against Pakistani Taliban
fighters to include Afghan Taliban and Qaida militants in lawless
border enclaves. Plans by the US to expand its embassy in Pakistan
have also raised suspicion, as has speculation about the embassy’s use
of private security contractors.
bademiyansubhanallah
Members of the Afghan fire brigade try to extinguish an oil tanker set
on fire by Taliban militants. PTI Photo Photograph (1)
Suicide bomber strikes near Indian Embassy in Kabul; 12 killed
STAFF WRITER 12:40 HRS IST
Kabul, Oct 8 (PTI) A suicide bomber today blew up his car outside the
compound of the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital killing at least
12 people and leaving 83 wounded, including three ITBP jawans, in a
fiery blast that had all the hallmarks of Taliban.
The powerful blast blew up the mission watch tower, destroyed vehicles
and left a trail of death and destruction with Indian Ambassador
Jayant Prasad saying, "Indian Embassy was the target."
"A suicide car bomb took place near the Indian Embassy in which 12
people were killed and 83 wounded. Most of the wounded are civilians,"
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemaral Bashry said.
The Indian Ambassador said, "we have confirmed reports of nine killed,
four critically injured and 12 others severely wounded. The toll may
go up.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kabul: 7 dead, 67 hurt in Indian embassy bombing
Afghan soldiers carry body of a victim after a blast in Kabul,
Afghanistan on Thursday. (Photo: AP)
IANS
First Published : 08 Oct 2009 10:29:45 AM IST
Last Updated : 08 Oct 2009 12:58:26 PM IST
KABUL: At least seven people were killed and 67 injured in a suicide
bombing outside the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital Thursday. No
Indians were killed but some Indian security personnel were wounded in
the blast that damaged the outer wall of the embassy and shattered
windows.
The explosion occurred at about 8.27 a.m. on the heavily fortified
road in downtown Kabul where the Indian embassy and the Afghan
interior ministry is located.
A police source, who asked not to be named, said at the site of the
attack that the blast was triggered by a suicide attacker in a car.
The powerful suicide blast targeting the Indian embassy left at least
seven people dead, Xinhua reported.
Sayed Kabir Amiri, an official at the public health ministry, told DPA
that 67 people were wounded in the blast.
TV visuals showed massive destruction in the area with several cars
extensively damaged and rescue workers carrying away the injured and
the dead.
Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said no Indians had
been killed but some security personnel posted at the outer perimeter
of the embassy had been injured.
He described the explosion as being "of the same intensity" as the
July 7, 2008 bombing in which 44 people, including two Indian
diplomats, had been killed.
"The explosion that I heard at my residence was exactly the same that
I heard at my home (in July 2008)," Prasad told CNN-IBN news channel.
"No Indian has been severely injured or killed in the attack," Prasad
said.
There was damage to the "watch tower and some of the security
personnel on the outer perimeter" had been hurt, but the injuries were
not serious.
Prasad said that there was damage to chancery premises "with doors and
windows blown off" and added that the embassy wall took the impact of
the blast.
On July 7 last year, 44 people, including high-ranking Indian embassy
officials, were killed in the suicide attack at the Indian embassy
that also wounded 147 people. The attack had marked the deadliest
suicide bombing since the fall of Taliban regime in 2001.
Defence Attache Brigadier R. Mehta and political counselor V. Venkat
Rao were killed, along with two Indo-Tibetan Border Police security
personnel - Ajay Panthia and Roop Singh. An Afghan national employed
at the Indian mission also died.
Kabul has seen a series of suicide attacks in the past two months.
Sid Harth
Taliban claims responsibility for Kabul suicide blast
Story Highlights
Bomb goes off, as offices and shops were opening for the day
Blast damages a security checkpoint outside Indian embassy, staffer
says
Karzai's office called attackers "vicious terrorists who killed
innocent people"
Blast comes year after similar suicide attack that killed 58, wounded
more than 100
updated 13 minutes agoNext Article in World »
Read VIDEO
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb attack near the Indian
Embassy in Afghanistan's capital killed 17 people and wounded at least
63 Thursday, Afghan officials said.
The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport
Lane and the Indian Embassy.
1 of 3 The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying an
Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack.
Indian officials said the bomber had intended to strike the embassy.
"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the
embassy gates," Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs
ministry, told CNN on Thursday. "The embassy was the target."
The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were
opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the
embassy's windows, according to Prakash.
A similar attack last year killed at least 58 people outside the
Indian Embassy.
Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said 17 were killed -- most
of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded.
The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking
Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police
officers.
The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said
staffer J.P. Singh, but "there were no casualties on the Indian side."
The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across
from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings.
The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls.
Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for
survivors.
A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an
obvious assault on civilians and said "the perpetrators of this attack
and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent
people for their malicious goals."
About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the
embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were
two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school.
More than 100 were wounded in that blast.
Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of
involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation.
India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of
dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there.
Sid Harth
Nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim, report saysStory Highlights
There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the
report
Report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Nearly 2 out of 3 of world's Muslims are in Asia, report says
Roughly 9 of 10 Muslims worldwide are Sunni, report says
October 8, 2009 -- Updated 0316 GMT (1116 HKT)
By Richard Allen Greene
CNN
(CNN) -- Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are
not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new
study that aims to map the global Muslim population.
Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching
from Turkey to Indonesia.
India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country
except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as
Egypt.
China has more Muslims than Syria.
Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.
And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.
Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching
from Turkey to Indonesia.
The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one
in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.
There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the
report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on
Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total
global population of 6.8 billion.
There are about 2.25 billion Christians, based on projections from the
2005 World Religions Database.
Brian Grim, the senior researcher on the Pew Forum project, was
slightly surprised at the number of Muslims in the world, he told CNN.
"Overall, the number is higher than I expected," he said, noting that
earlier estimates of the global Muslim population have ranged from 1
billion to 1.8 billion.
The report can -- and should -- have implications for United States
policy, said Reza Aslan, the best-selling Iranian-American author of
"No God but God."
Fact Box
Report: Top 10 Muslim countries, by population
1. Indonesia: 202,867,000 (country is 88.2 percent Muslim)
2. Pakistan: 174,082,000 (country is 96.3 percent Muslim)
3. India: 160,945,000 (country is 13.4 percent Muslim)
4. Bangaldesh: 145,312,000 (country is 89.6 percent Muslim)
5. Egypt: 78,513,000 (country is 94.6 percent Muslim)
6. Nigeria: 78,056,000 (country is 50.4 percent Muslim)
7. Iran: 73,777,000 (country is 99.4 percent Muslim)
8. Turkey: 73,619,000 (country is about 98 percent Muslim)
9. Algeria: 34,199,000 (country is 98 percent Muslim)
10. Morocco: 31,993,000 (country is about 99 percent Muslim)
Source: "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," The Pew Forum on
Religion & Public Life. "Increasingly, the people of the Middle East
are making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the worldwide Muslim
community," he told CNN by phone.
"When it comes to issues of outreach to the Muslim world, these
numbers will indicate that outreach cannot be focused so narrowly on
the Middle East," he said.
"If the goal is to create better understanding between the United
States and the Muslim world, our focus should be on south and
southeast Asia, not the Middle East," he said.
He spoke to CNN before the report was published and without having
seen its contents, but was familiar with the general trends the report
identified.
The team at the Pew Forum spent nearly three years analyzing "the best
available data" from 232 countries and territories, Grim said.
Their aim was to get the most comprehensive snapshot ever assembled of
the world's Muslim population at a given moment in time.
So they took the data they gathered from national censuses and
surveys, and projected it forward based on what they knew about
population growth in each country.
They describe the resulting report as "the largest project of its kind
to date."
It's full of details that even the researchers found surprising.
"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all,
and yet they have very sizable numbers of Muslims," said Alan
Cooperman, the associate director of research for the Pew Forum,
naming India, Russia and China.
One in five of the world's Muslims lives in a country where Muslims
are a minority.
And while most people think of the Muslim population of Europe is
being composed of immigrants, that's only true in western Europe,
Cooperman said.
"In the rest of Europe -- Russia, Albania, Kosovo, those places --
Muslims are an indigenous population," he said. "More than half of the
Muslims in Europe are indigenous."
The researchers also were surprised to find the Muslim population of
sub-Saharan Africa to be as low as they concluded, Cooperman said.
It has only about 240 million Muslims -- about 15 percent of all the
world's Muslims.
Islam is thought to be growing fast in the region, with countries such
as Nigeria, which has large populations of both Christians and
Muslims, seeing violence between the two groups.
The Pew researchers concluded that Nigeria is just over half Muslim,
making it the sixth most populous Muslim country in the world.
Roughly nine out of 10 Muslims worldwide are Sunni, and about one in
10 is Shiite, they estimated.
They warned they were less confident of those numbers than of the
general population figures because sectarian data is harder to come
by.
"Only one or two censuses in the world ... have ever asked the
sectarian question," said Grim.
"Among Muslims it's a very sensitive question. If asked, large numbers
will say I am just a Muslim -- not that they don't know, but it is a
sensitive question in many places," he said.
One in three of the world's Shiite Muslims lives in Iran, which is one
of only four countries with a Shiite majority, he said. The others are
Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain.
Huge as the project of mapping the world's Muslim population is, it is
only the first step in a Pew Forum undertaking.
Next year, the think tank intends to release a report projecting
Muslim population growth into the future, and then the researchers
intend to do the whole thing over again with Christians, followed by
other faith groups.
"We don't care only about Muslims," Grim said.
They're also digging into what people believe and practice, since the
current analysis doesn't analyze that.
"This is no way reflects the religiosity of people, only their self-
identification," Grim said. "We're trying to get the overall picture
of religion in the world."
Sid Harth
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/09/30/first.blasphemy.day/index.html
Taking aim at God on 'Blasphemy Day'
Story Highlights
Wednesday marks first organized observance of Blasphemy Day
Leader is devoted to protecting a person's right to ridicule,
criticize, lambaste God
Painter aghast someone could be punished, killed over blasphemous
remarks
September 30, 2009 -- Updated 2158 GMT (0558 HKT)
By Moni Basu
CNN
(CNN) -- In his youth, Ronald Lindsey planned to enter the priesthood,
so fervent was his devotion to God. But these days, Lindsay is devoted
to protecting a person's right to ridicule, criticize -- even lambaste
God.
Super Bowl Sunday Praying for a Hail Mary was painted by Dana Ellyn.
You might say he is a blasphemer's savior.
The devout Catholic turned non-believer leads a movement that is all
about protecting people's rights to speak irreverently about religion.
Criticizing God is an act punishable by death in several nations. In
America, blasphemy laws remain on the books in six states, though they
are largely arcane and not enforced.
But everywhere, it seems to Lindsay, scoffing at God is not socially
acceptable.
People are willing to tolerate the harshest statements about the
president of the United States, he said. But talk about Jesus or
Mohammed -- that's a whole different ball game.
"We think religious beliefs should be subject to examination and
criticism just as political beliefs are," said Lindsay, 56, who heads
the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York, an organization that
claims about 100,000 followers worldwide. "But we have a taboo on
religion."
Outraged by nations that want to execute blasphemers and propelled by
a deep belief in the freedom of expression, Lindsay is forging ahead
with his "nothing is sacred" movement. Wednesday marks the first
organized observance of Blasphemy Day, a series of events, exhibits
and lectures unfolding in a host of mostly North American cities that
are part of a larger Campaign for Free Expression.
The day coincides with the fifth anniversary of a Danish newspaper's
publication of controversial cartoons about Mohammed. The depictions
of the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse sparked
protests by Muslims worldwide and prompted media outlets to censor
themselves.
But to Lindsay, a society is not truly free unless people can freely
air their views on any subject -- including God.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, when asked about the day on
Wednesday, declined to comment.
Blasphemy Day even includes a contest that invites participants to
come up with slogans that might be judged blasphemous by society. And,
yes, the winner gets a T-shirt heralding the prized slogan.
Lindsay offered this sample: "There's nothing wrong with God that a
dose of reality won't cure."
Some of the entries are so crude they can't be published by CNN. But
since the Center for Inquiry is all about freedom of expression, it
can't reject any of them.
Lindsay has made it clear that expletive-ridden, crass slogans are not
the type of entry that is destined to win, but he makes no apologies
for statements that might offend a devout person's sensitivities.
Neither does artist Dana Ellyn, 38, of Washington D.C., who is showing
her provocative paintings of God and religion in a special Blasphemy
Day show Wednesday evening.
Ellyn grew up as a non-believer but later studied religion on her own
to understand it. After all, she said, it's such an important part of
society.
She found the concept of faith fascinating. It was an unknown to her.
She painted a scene from Noah's Ark with a black child sitting under
the table. How did the races evolve, her art asks those who believed
in the Biblical tale? She portrayed Jesus painting his crucifixion
nails after she noticed a church group using space next to a nail
salon in a shopping mall stung by recession.
She said she realizes her work makes people uncomfortable, though her
intent is not to disrespect.
"Even to say, 'I don't believe in God' is enough to knock someone out
of their chair and then to see it in a picture ... I've had a lot of
hate come my way."
And even though she doesn't believe in hell, she feels a bit uneasy
hearing that she is going straight to it.
"I am in no way trying to be a poster child for atheism," Ellyn said.
"But I don't want to be punished for not believing in God."
Ellyn said she never means to harm anyone, so she finds it frightening
that someone could be punished -- or lose their life -- over remarks
or actions considered blasphemous. An Afghan student journalist was
sentenced to death for distributing a paper that allegedly blasphemed
Islam. A British schoolteacher spent time in a Sudanese jail after she
allowed her students to name teddy bears after Mohammed.
These are cases that worry Lindsay and the members of his
organization. He is most distressed by the U.N. General Assembly
considering next month a binding resolution on the defamation of
religion.
All this did not come easy to Lindsay, the son of Catholic parents who
bared his soul in a confession booth each week. Later, he studied
religion and philosophy in at Georgetown University. The more he read,
the more he questioned beliefs that had been ingrained from childhood.
Slowly, the would-be-priest turned into an atheist lawyer -- and a
21st-century defender of time-worn sacrilege
Sid Harth
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/10/08/bergen.pakistan/index.html#cnnSTCText
Commentary: U.S.-Pakistan goals coming into alignment
Story Highlights
Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst: Pakistanis turning
against militants
The strategic interests of U.S., Pakistan are growing closer, Bergen
observes
Bergen: Pakistani public, military, government potent force against
Taliban
Bergen cautions Pakistanis still very wary of U.S. influence, motives
October 8, 2009 -- Updated 1147 GMT (1947 HKT)
By Peter Bergen
CNN
Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, is a fellow at the New
America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that promotes
innovative thought from across the ideological spectrum, and at New
York University's Center on Law and Security. He's the author of "The
Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader."
Militant attacks, such as this one in Islamabad on Monday, are turning
the Pakistani population against jihadists.
(CNN) -- It hasn't been too often in the past couple of years that
you could write about good news from Pakistan. But if there is a
silver lining to the atrocities that have plagued the country in the
past several years, it is the fact that the Pakistani public,
government and military are increasingly seeing the jihadist militants
on their territory in a hostile light.
The Taliban's assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the country's most
popular politician; al Qaeda's bombing of the Marriott hotel in
Islamabad; the attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in
Lahore; the widely circulated video images of the Taliban flogging a
17-year-old girl; and multiple large-scale attacks on Pakistani police
and army installations by the Taliban have provoked real revulsion
among the Pakistani public.
In fact, historians will likely record the Taliban's decision to move
earlier this year from Pakistan's Swat Valley into Buner District,
only 60 miles from Islamabad, as the tipping point that finally
galvanized Pakistan to confront the fact that the jihadist monster it
had helped to spawn was now trying to swallow its creator.
The subsequent military operation to evict the Taliban from Buner and
Swat was not seen by the Pakistani public as the army acting on behalf
of the United States as was often the case in previous such
operations, but something that was in their own national interest.
Support for Pakistani army operations against the Taliban in Swat has
increased from 28 percent two years ago to 69 percent today.
In fact, arguably not since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
have American strategic interests and Pakistani strategic interests
been so closely aligned.
This month it looks virtually certain that the Pakistani military will
launch an operation into the tribal regions of Waziristan against the
militants based there, who have long provided a haven to al Qaeda.
That comes on the heels of an aggressive American drone campaign in
the Waziristan region that Pakistani leaders have privately
encouraged.
And the militants are losing the war of ideas in Pakistan. Support for
suicide bombing has dropped from 33 percent to 5 percent in Pakistan
over the past several years. The number of Pakistanis who feel the
Taliban and al Qaeda operating in Pakistan are a 'serious problem" has
risen from 57 percent to 86 percent since 2007.
When Baitullah Meshud, the Taliban leader who had unleashed his
suicide bombers across Pakistan in the past two years, was killed two
months ago in a U.S. drone strike, the tone of the Pakistani media
coverage was celebratory. "Good Riddance, Killer Baitullah" was the
lead headline in the quality Dawn newspaper.
The changing attitudes of the Pakistani public, military and
government constitutes arguably the most significant strategic shift
against al Qaeda and its allies in the past several years. It will
have a direct impact on the terrorist organization and allied groups
that are headquartered in Pakistan.
What does this mean for Obama's "Af-Pak" plan? Well, the newly hostile
attitude of the Pakistanis to the armed religious zealots on their
lands has not translated into any great love for the United States,
which is consistently viewed unfavorably by large majorities of them.
As the debate about Afghanistan in the White House moves forward, one
important factor in that discussion must be the hostility of the
Pakistanis to a large additional troop deployment in neighboring
Afghanistan. This is particularly important in light of the fact that
the Pakistani military is doing what the U.S. government has hoped for
for several years, which is taking newly aggressive steps against
important elements of the Taliban in Waziristan.
However, changing attitudes in Pakistan do not mean, for the moment,
that the Pakistani military will do much to move against the Taliban
groups based on their territory that are attacking U.S. and other NATO
forces in Afghanistan, such as Mullah Omar's Quetta shura, the Haqqani
network and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi-Islami.
Every silver lining in Pakistan must also have a cloud.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter
Bergen.
Sid Harth
Pakistan seeks long U.S. commitment
Story Highlights
U.S. debates whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or scale back
mission
Congress just passed an aid package for Pakistan worth $1.5 B a year
for five years
Clinton, Gates: U.S. in Afghanistan for long haul
October 7, 2009 -- Updated 0147 GMT (0947 HKT)
By Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi
met with U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton and urged the United States to
articulate a long-term vision for the region, amid debate over U.S.
involvement in Afghanistan.
Pakistani For. Min. Shah Mehmood Qureshi and U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton meet in Washington.
"The people of the region have to be assured that the United States
has a long-term vision," Qureshi told reporters after his meeting on
Tuesday in Washington. "Not just for Afghanistan and Pakistan but the
entire region."
Qureshi wouldn't comment on the debate in Washington about whether the
U.S. should send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan or scale back
the mission, with Qureshi calling it a judgment for "military
commanders on the field."
He said that Pakistan has made great strides in combating terrorism on
its soil, but still needed U.S. support, and he urged Washington not
to abandon the region as it did after helping Afghan fighters drive
Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989.
"You have to keep in mind history," he said. "The inconsistency of the
past has to be kept in mind and we have to build on learning from the
mistakes of the past."
When asked how long he thought the U.S. should stay in Afghanistan,
Qureshi said "until the job is done. A peaceful, stable Afghanistan. A
peaceful, stable region."
Secretary Clinton said the U.S. and Pakistan enjoyed a "broad
strategic partnership" which is "critically important for the security
and prosperity of both of our nations."
"This is a commitment that we feel very strongly about and which we
are evaluating to determine the best way forward to achieve the
results and get the outcomes that we both share," Clinton told
reporters.
Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a rare joint interview,
said Monday that the United States is committed to a regional strategy
to build long-standing relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We're not leaving Afghanistan," Gates told CNN's Christiane Amanpour
and former CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno, "There should be
no uncertainty in terms of our determination to remain in Afghanistan
and to continue to build a relationship of partnership and trust with
the Pakistanis. That's long term. That's a strategic objective of the
United States."
Congress just passed an aid package for Pakistan worth $1.5 billion a
year for the next five years to help combat extremism in the country
and foster social and economic development.
Sid Harth
Commentary: Where's Osama bin Laden?
Story Highlights
Peter Bergen: Osama bin Laden still inspires al Qaeda
He says 8 years after 9/11, the "war on terror" has failed to capture
him
He says law of averages suggests bin Laden will eventually be caught
or killed
September 11, 2009 -- Updated 1132 GMT (1932 HKT)
By Peter Bergen
Special to CNN
Editor's note: Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, is a
fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank
that promotes innovative thought from across the ideological spectrum,
and at New York University's Center on Law and Security. He's the
author of "The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's
Leader."
Peter Bergen says Osama bin Laden is still alive and still significant
eight years after September 11.
HELMAND, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight years after September 11, the
"war on terror" has gone the way of the dodo. And President Obama
talks instead about a war against al Qaeda and its allies.
What, then, of al Qaeda's enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden, who has
vanished like a wisp of smoke? And does he even matter now?
The U.S. government hadn't had a solid lead on al Qaeda's leader since
the battle of Tora Bora in winter 2001. Although there are informed
hypotheses that today he is in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
on the Afghan border, perhaps in one of the more northerly areas such
as Bajaur, these are essentially guesses, not "actionable"
intelligence.
A longtime American counterterrorism analyst explained to me, "There
is very limited collection on him personally."
That's intelligence community shorthand for the fact that the usual
avenues of "collection" on a target such as bin Laden are yielding
little or no information about him. Those avenues typically include
signal intercepts of phone calls and e-mails, as well as human
intelligence from spies.
Given the hundreds of billions of dollars that the "war on terror" has
consumed, the failure to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader is one of
its signal failures.
Does it even matter whether bin Laden is found? Yes, it does. First,
there is the matter of justice for the almost 3,000 people who died in
the September 11 attacks and for the thousands of other victims of al
Qaeda's attacks around the world.
Second, every day that bin Laden remains at liberty is a propaganda
victory for al Qaeda.
Third, although bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri aren't
managing al Qaeda's operations on a daily basis they guide the overall
direction of the jihadist movement around the world, even while they
are in hiding.
Those messages from al Qaeda's leaders have reached untold millions
worldwide via television, the Internet and newspapers. The tapes have
not only instructed al Qaeda's followers to continue to kill
Westerners and Jews, but some also carried specific instructions that
militant cells then acted on.
In March 2008, for instance, the al Qaeda leader denounced the
publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper
as a "catastrophe" for which punishment would soon be meted out. Three
months later, an al Qaeda suicide attacker bombed the Danish Embassy
in Islamabad, killing six.
Some reading this may think: But what's the proof that the al Qaeda
leader is still alive? Plenty. Since September 11, bin Laden has
released a slew of video and audiotapes, many of which discuss current
events. After a nine-month silence, for instance, bin Laden released a
22-minute audiotape on March 14, sharply condemning the recent Israeli
invasion of Gaza.
Are these tapes real? Not one of the dozens of tapes released by bin
Laden after 9/11 has been a fake. Indeed the U.S. government has
authenticated many of them using bin Laden's distinctive voiceprint.
And what about the persistent reports that he is ill? In 2002,
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said bin Laden had kidney
disease, for which he required a dialysis machine, and was therefore
likely dead. But the stories of bin Laden's life-threatening kidney
problems are false, judging by his appearance in videos that he
released in 2004 and again in 2007, in which he showed no signs of
illness.
On the 2007 tape, the al Qaeda leader had even dyed his white-flecked
beard black, suggesting that as the Saudi militant entered his fifth
decade, he was not immune to a measure of vanity about his personal
appearance.
In fact, bin Laden looked much better in those videos than he did in
the video he released shortly after the battle of Tora Bora in late
2001, where he had narrowly escaped being killed in a massive American
attack.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that bin Laden and al-
Zawahiri are almost certainly hiding out in the tribal areas of
Pakistan, on the Afghan border.
Arthur Keller, a CIA officer who ran a spy network in Pakistan's
tribal areas in 2006, told me the problems of working in the region:
"It's an incredibly remote area. They're hiding in a sea of people
that are very xenophobic of outsiders, so it's a very, very tough nut
to crack."
An additional factor operating in bin Laden's favor is the personal
popularity he has long enjoyed in Pakistan. Three years after the
September 11 attacks, for instance, a Pew poll found that al Qaeda's
leader had a 65 percent favorability rating among Pakistanis.
However, it is clear from the videos of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri that
aired in the years since the attacks that they are not living in
caves.
In those tapes, both men's clothes were clean and well-pressed. Caves
generally don't have laundry facilities. And the videos that they have
released are well-lit and well-shot productions, suggesting access
either to electrical outlets or to generators to run lights. Al-
Zawahiri is often filmed in a library setting, and on one of his
videos from March 2006, there are curtains clearly visible behind him,
suggesting that the tape was shot in a house.
By early 2008, the Bush administration had tired of the Pakistani
government's unwillingness or inability to take out al Qaeda's
leaders, and in July, the president authorized Special Operations
forces to carry out ground assaults in the tribal regions without the
permission of the Pakistani government.
But in the face of the intense Pakistani opposition to American boots
on the ground, the Bush administration chose to rely instead on drones
to target suspected al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Bush ordered the CIA
to expand its attacks with Predator and Reaper drones.
Between July 2008 and this month, U.S. drones have killed dozens of
lower-ranking militants and at least 10 mid- and upper-level leaders
within al Qaeda or the Taliban.
This strategy seems to have worked, at least in terms of combating the
ability of al Qaeda to plan or carry out attacks in the West. Law-
enforcement authorities have uncovered no serious plots against U.S.
or European targets that were traceable to militants who had received
training in Pakistan's tribal regions after the drone program had been
dramatically ramped up there.
The increased pace of the American drone attacks in Pakistani's tribal
areas was motivated in part by the hope that it would increase
panicked communications among the militants, which might help pinpoint
the locations of the top leaders in al Qaeda or the Taliban, but that
approach has not paid off when it comes to bin Laden.
If killing bin Laden with a drone has proved difficult, so too will be
capturing him alive.
His former bodyguard Abu Jandal told Al Quds al Arabi newspaper,
"Sheikh Osama gave me a pistol. ... The pistol had only two bullets,
for me to kill Sheikh Osama with in case we were surrounded or he was
about to fall into the enemy's hands, so that he would not be caught
alive "
Should bin Laden be captured or killed, that would probably trigger a
succession battle within al Qaeda.
While al-Zawahiri is the deputy leader of the terror group and
therefore technically bin Laden's successor, he is not regarded as a
natural leader. Indeed, even among his fellow Egyptian militants, al-
Zawahiri is seen as a divisive force, and so he is unlikely to be able
to step into the role of leader of al Qaeda and of the world jihadist
movement that is occupied by bin Laden.
By the law of averages, eventually, bin Laden will be captured or
killed. Yet the ideological movement that he helped spawn --
"Binladenism" -- will live on long after he is gone. That is bin
Laden's legacy.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter
Bergen.
...and I am Sid Harth
Sid Harth
Commentary: Al Qaeda's support is fading
Story Highlights
Audrey Cronin: Terror arrests and Afghan debate make it seem al Qaeda
is gaining
She says the reality is that the terror group is losing support
Cronin: U.S. should encourage the disillusionment with al Qaeda in
Muslim world
October 6, 2009 -- Updated 1937 GMT (0337 HKT)
By Audrey Kurth Cronin
Special to CNN
Editor's note: Audrey Kurth Cronin, a professor at the U.S. National
War College and research associate of the Changing Character of War
program at Oxford University, is the author of "How Terrorism Ends:
Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist
Campaigns" (Princeton University Press, September 2009). This article
represents her views only, not necessarily those of any U.S.
government agency.
Audrey Kurth Cronin says recent events have raised new concerns about
terrorism and al Qaeda.
(CNN) -- President Obama entered office hoping to displace the global
war on terrorism with a new age of engagement, thereby replacing fear
with hope and relinquishing terrorism as the centerpiece of U.S.
foreign policy.
Yet terrorism is once again in the center of the bull's-eye for
Washington policymakers.
The war in Afghanistan is at a watershed. Having been relatively
neglected in favor of the intervention in Iraq, the administration
must now decide whether to recommit to a full-fledged counter-
insurgency, perhaps with an additional 40,000 U.S. troops on top of
the more than 60,000 already slated for the conflict. Alternatively,
some argue for a strategy that focuses on the original problem -- of
al Qaeda and its extremist associates rather than more ambitious state-
building.
The former would appear to be more costly and perhaps a slippery slope
to a protracted war that might not be winnable; the latter could be
ineffective in halting the potential resurgence in an unstable region
of an al Qaeda threat to the United States and its allies.
Meanwhile, in the past few weeks it seems clear that the United States
has foiled a series of terrorist plots that collectively constituted
the gravest threat to the American homeland since 9/11. Najibullah
Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant, has pleaded not guilty to
conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in New York, while a
Jordanian has been arrested, accused of attempting to destroy a
Dallas, Texas, skyscraper.
In addition, charges have been made against three men in North
Carolina for plotting to attack a Marine Corps base and another man
has been charged with conspiring to blow up federal buildings in
Illinois.
Is al Qaeda resurgent? Is the United States under threat because of
the failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden? Americans need to take
a deep breath, because the answer to both questions, while requiring
some caveats, is no.
Al Qaeda is facing more negative trends than what international forces
are facing in Afghanistan, although it is always possible that U.S.
missteps could rekindle the extremist terror narrative and
organization. Similarly, killing bin Laden will not end al Qaeda, but
neither will his fugitive status sustain it.
To answer the question of how al Qaeda will end, we can draw upon
decades of experience with how other terrorist campaigns have fizzled
out.
The history of terrorist groups points to various ways they may
decline and end: the destruction of leadership, failure to transition
between generations, achieving their stated cause, negotiating a
settlement, succumbing to military or police repression, losing
popular support and transitioning to other malignant activities such
as criminality or war.
Not all of these pathways are probable for every group, and they are
not all relevant to al Qaeda. For example, it is clear that al Qaeda
will not end if Osama bin Laden is killed. Groups that have ended this
way such as Japan's Aum Shinrikyo or Peru's Shining Path have been
hierarchical, reflecting to some degree a cult of personality and
lacking a viable successor, none of which describes al Qaeda.
It also will not die out between generations, as did many of the left-
wing groups of the 1970s. Al Qaeda has transitioned beyond its
original structure and is a multigenerational threat. Likewise,
achieving the cause or reaching a negotiated settlement does not apply
to al Qaeda.
Groups that have achieved their ends have had limited goals. Al Qaeda
seeks maximalist goals: Using violence to mobilize the global Muslim
community, throw off the influence of the West, eliminate support for
Arab regimes and establish a new world order (sometimes called a
Caliphate) is hardly realistic.
The remaining pathways deserve greater scrutiny. Although the campaign
against al Qaeda has yielded gratifying results, the limits of driving
the core into hiding and reducing its capacity to operate have been
demonstrated. Democracies find it hard to sustain policy of repression
at home or abroad, as it can undermine civil liberties and strain
domestic support.
American use of military force signified Western resolve, killed al
Qaeda leaders and prevented attacks, all of which were vital; but
force alone cannot drive this group to its end.
A loss of popular support has ended many terrorist groups, and it is a
plausible scenario for al Qaeda. Support can be compromised through
miscalculation, especially in targeting, and popular backlash. The
Real Irish Republican Army and India's Sikh separatists come to mind.
Or a campaign can fail to convey a positive image or progress toward
its goals, which amply applies to al Qaeda.
While the group continues to be dangerous, the faltering popularity of
this campaign with most Muslims provides clear evidence of this
dynamic underway.
For instance, a Pew Global Attitudes Project poll released in
September showed a remarkable drop in support for suicide bombing and
Osama bin Laden in key Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan,
Egypt, Turkey and Jordan. In Pakistan, whereas some 41 percent
approved of suicide terror attacks five years ago, that number has
fallen to a mere 5 percent today.
Finally, groups can transition from terrorism to other kinds of
violence, escalating to insurgency or even conventional war, for
example -- especially if there is state sponsorship. Some argue that
this may already have happened in the case of al Qaeda and link the
current debate over Afghan strategy to this concern.
In this regard, it is counterproductive to consider al Qaeda as a
global insurgency. This concept bestows legitimacy, emphasizes
territorial control, encourages our enemies to join forces and puts
the United States into an us-versus-them strategic framework that
precludes clear-eyed analyses of the strategies of leverage that are
being used against the United States and its allies.
In short, if we are thinking about classic pathways to the end, the
secret to undermining this campaign is not "winning hearts and minds"
but enhancing al Qaeda's tendency to lose them.
More terrorist attacks will be attempted and a few will no doubt
succeed in parts of the world, conceivably even in the United States.
But it makes a significant difference whether such attacks are
undertaken by a few recruits without proper training or support or by
those who have managed to visit an al Qaeda training camp in a safe
haven with full support. Thus far, the trends are heading in a
favorable direction.
Even in its diminished state, al Qaeda and its franchises remain armed
and dangerous. This group can still hurt us. But appreciating how
terrorist campaigns actually end offers the greatest promise for
removing ourselves from the strategic myopia that currently grips much
of Western counter-terrorism efforts and for clarifying our political
objectives.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Audrey
Kurth Cronin.
Sid Harth
Islam in the New Afghan Public Sphere
A public lecture by Nushin Arbabzadah, UCLA held on Thursday, January
22, 2009 in Bunche Hall 10383, UCLA.
Download Podcast
Duration: 57:48
Nushin Arbabzadah was brought up in Kabul during the Soviet occupation
of Afghanistan. She has graduate degrees in German and Spanish
literature and linguistics from the University of Hamburg and in
Middle Eastern Studies from Cambridge University, where she was a
William H. Gates scholar. Nushin's first book, From Outside In:
Refugees and British Society, was published in London by Arcadia in
April 2007. She has also edited an anthology of contemporary
journalistic writing from Muslim majority countries called No Ordinary
Life: Being Young in the Worlds of Islam (London: British Council,
2005). Before coming to UCLA, Nushin worked for the BBC, where she
specialized on social and political issues in contemporary
Afghanistan.
This lecture is part of a series on Islam in Central Asia co-sponsored
by the Center for European and Eurasian Studies and the Center for
Near Eastern Studies.
Date Posted: 2/20/2009
Asia Institute • 11288 Bunche Hall • Los Angeles, CA 90095-1487
Campus Mail Code: 148703 • Tel: (310) 825-0007 • Fax: (310) 206-3555
Email: as...@international.ucla.edu
Sid Harth
Afghanistan's ethnically split ballot box
Ethnic voting shows Afghans do not view the state as a service
provider and loyalty to ethnic groups comes before the country as a
whole, writes Nushin Arbabzadah
By Nushin Arbabzadah
AsiaMedia Contributing Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The BBC's Afghan desk recently asked the three leading candidates of
the presidential election the following question: "What would you do
if you were to lose the election?" All three -- Hamid Karzai, Abdullah
Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani -- came up with the standard response: "We
would respect the people's verdict." In other words, Afghanistan is
now a democracy ruled by the will of the people. Such humble words
delivered with humility are just what's expected from politicians of
developing countries whose survival relies mainly on foreign aid. In
the motto of the benevolent international community: no ballot, no
aid. Or in the case of Afghanistan, no pots of paint flown specially
from Dubai to decorate the president's office.
Be that as it may, the truth is that not all Afghans have been able to
deliver their verdict in this election. The Taliban, in contrast to
the mavericks in Kabul, are sticking to the traditional bullet-not-
ballot style of governance, successfully managing to frighten the
people in the south into non-participation. Although small voter
turnout was expected in the restive south, the people were not free
from threat even in relatively calmer regions. In Herat, the local
strongman Ghulam Yahya Akbari reportedly threatened to fire rockets if
the people dared to venture out and greet Karzai on his campaign trip
to their city. In sum, the security that is an absolute must for a
fair election was not felt even in relatively calmer regions of
Afghanistan. It is this condition of high risk for questionable reward
that is making many Afghans wonder whether the 2009 election was an
exercise in true democracy.
Be that as it may, Afghan and international observers were quick to
point out that the fact that at least 35 percent of the population
ventured out to cast their votes in spite of threats of violence shows
that ordinary Afghans have matured politically and a democratic
culture is taking root in the country. A comparison between the
conditions in the 2004 and 2009 elections explains this view. In
contrast to 2004, when the public mood was optimistic, the Taliban
were on the run and neighboring countries Iran and Pakistan were well
disposed towards Kabul, voters this year had little reason to believe
in democracy -- let alone risk their lives to cast their votes. After
all, 2009 turned out to be a much more violent year, with Taliban
attacks reaching the heart of the capital and the Kabul administration
and its international allies having lost credibility both in terms of
delivering peace or improving the people's living conditions. And yet
millions of Afghans risked their lives, ventured out and cast their
votes fully aware that voting meant taking a serious risk and knowing
very well that the election would be fraudulent and the candidates
most probably either lying or making empty promises. Afghan and
international observers celebrate this as evidence that Afghanistan
has moved forward and is no longer an essentially tribal society upon
whom the West has imposed democracy by sheer force of military. In
brief, a success story.
The recently published preliminary results based on a random sample of
one million votes tell a different story. According to the sample, the
people's verdict has given rise to two leaders: Karzai, closely
followed by Abdullah. In other words, a Pashtun leader followed
closely by a half-Tajik leader with a majority Tajik support base.
This is what analysts call "identity voting". The preliminary results
show that Karzai's attempt at nation-building has failed, and most
Afghans' loyalty lies first with their ethnic group and then the
nation as a whole. Karzai's critics have repeatedly pointed out that
his nation-building attempts have been largely superficial, consisting
on throwing dinner parties for discredited leaders of ethnic and
religious minority groups. In the words of presidential candidate
Ramazan Bashardost, making a Hazara leader sit next to nomadic Pashtun
leader at dinner is not exactly nation-building. The many mass graves
scattered around the country bear witness to the ethnic rivalries that
followed the Soviet army's withdrawal from Afghanistan and led to the
civil wars of the early 1990s. During the presidential election
campaign, ex-Taliban commander turned candidate Mullah Rocketi was the
only contender to openly admit that ethnic mistrust was the only
reason why Afghans so easily became tools in the service of foreign
powers and hence carried on fighting. Nation-building has a long way
to go in Afghanistan but as economist Paul Collier argues, leaders
must build a nation before they can build a state.
This pattern of identity voting is the natural outcome of the
ethnicized politics that has thrived over the last three decades. And
ethnicized politics creates lazy politicians who are automatically
given support by members of their ethnic communities regardless of
their performance, personal integrity or even education. The fact that
voters in Afghanistan have opted for identity voting shows that the
idea of the state as a service provider has still not taken root in
Afghanistan and ethnic loyalties override loyalty to Afghanistan as a
whole. To put it bluntly, apart from a small group of educated young
people, most Afghans haven't moved on from the ethnicized politics
that led to the civil wars of the early 1990s. The only difference
between then and now is that ballots are used instead of bullets. But
this, in itself, is a kind of progress.
This article was published originally in The Guardian.
The views expressed above are those of the author and are not
necessarily those of AsiaMedia or the UCLA Asia Institute.
Date Posted: 9/1/2009
Sid Harth
INDIA: Magazine office in Prabhadevi ransacked
Six men barge into 'Society' magazine's office, throw computers off
tables, break windows, and shout slogans about Shiv Sena chief Bal
Thackeray
The Times of India
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
By Nimish Sawant
Mumbai --- The office of Society magazine at Prabhadevi was on Monday
ransacked by a group of six unidentified men, ostensibly because they
were upset with an article about Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in
its August issue.
This is the second instance of a publishing house being attacked by
workers of a political party this year.
According to the Dadar police, two men entered the premises of Magna
Publishing house, which publishes the magazine, at 3.45 pm under the
pretext of meeting the editorial staff. Soon, around four more persons
joined them.
"They barged into the office on the fifth floor and threw computers
off the table, broke the windows glass panes. Then they came
downstairs and took out some saffron flags shouting slogans such as
'Jai Shivaji, Jai Bhawani', saying something to do with Balasaheb
before fleeing," said an employee of Magna. While fleeing, they again
threw a huge flower pot on the glass wall of the reception hall. No
officials of Society magazine were available for comment as they were
busy recording their statements at the Dadar police station.
Zonal deputy commissioner of police (Zone 5) Milind Bharambe said,
"The identity of the accused is not yet established. Prima facie, it
appears that they were Sainiks. We are just recording the statements.
We have registered a case of rioting, trespassing and wrongful
assembly and causing damages."
chhotemianinshallah
Pak sends a message via Kabul bomber
Attacks, outside and inside
K.P. NAYAR
A damaged building at the site of the blast in Kabul on Thursday. A
car bomb blew up outside the Indian embassy, killing two policemen and
15 other Afghans. Three Indo-Tibetan Border Police guards were wounded
and their watchtower damaged. (AP picture)
Washington, Oct. 8: A powerful but fortuitously aborted attack on the
Indian embassy in Kabul today was Pakistan’s message to India that its
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) can hit Indian interests anytime,
anywhere with impunity.
It came exactly four days after Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah
Mahmood Qureshi, who has stayed back in the US after his testy meeting
with external affairs minister S.M. Krishna in New York on September
27, publicly warned that Indians “have to justify their interest” in
Kabul.
Qureshi concluded his US tour with a meeting with secretary of state
Hillary Clinton at the same time terrorists in Kabul were preparing to
drive out the explosives-packed sports utility vehicle to be detonated
near the side wall of the embassy today. At least 17 people, mostly
bystanders, were killed and three Indian embassy guards injured in the
explosion.
In his blunt public warning four days ago, Qureshi said India’s “level
of engagement (in Kabul) has to be commensurate with” the fact that
“they do not share a border with Afghanistan, whereas we do.… If there
is no massive reconstruction (in Afghanistan), if there are not long
queues in Delhi waiting for visas to travel to Kabul, why do you have
such a large (Indian) presence in Afghanistan? At times it concerns
us,” Qureshi told the Los Angles Times.
The second suicide attack on the Indian mission in Kabul in 15 months
will strengthen a partisan view at the CGO Complex off New Delhi’s
Lodhi Road, the seat of India’s external intelligence agency, that the
terrorist attack on Mumbai last November was actually Pakistan’s
answer to India for regressing on the progress made over several years
towards resolving Kashmir in detailed talks with General Pervez
Musharraf, both by the NDA and UPA governments.
Such a view is based on an assessment that Pakistan considerably
dismantled its terrorist infrastructure against India, particularly
across the Line of Control in Kashmir, during the Musharraf years, but
has not been rewarded in any significant way by the political process
in New Delhi aimed at redressing Islamabad’s perceived grievances on
bilateral relations.
Between November last year and now, the establishment at the Research
and Analysis Wing (RAW) and elements in the Prime Minister’s Office
and the cabinet secretariat with intelligence backgrounds have
strenuously tried to put the lid on this view, which has serious
ramifications for New Delhi’s Pakistan policy.
Today’s attack in Kabul will, however, reinforce this view, albeit in
whispers in intelligence circles. Because it has come 10 days after
Krishna took a tough line at his meeting with Qureshi, the suicide
bombing will be seen as a warning to India not to go back, once again,
on the process started by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his
Pakistani counterpart in Sharm-el-Sheikh in July to restart their
bilateral dialogue.
Pakistan clearly sees Krishna’s stand at his meeting with Qureshi as
tantamount to rolling back the Sharm-el-Sheikh process.
When Qureshi emerged with Clinton yesterday to speak to reporters, he
was almost fatalistic about India and had low expectations. “The
meeting that I had with Mr Krishna... was, in my view, a positive
meeting, a constructive meeting. And being a politician, I can read
between the lines and I can tell you I got positive vibes, because my
message was positive, my engagement was positive, my intentions are
positive.... Obviously, he is going to go back and consult with the
leadership in Delhi and we will take it from there. But I have
suggested a way forward.”
The attack in Kabul, which has all the hallmarks of an ISI-inspired
plot, is also a warning to Pakistan’s civilian leadership not to
compromise its interests in Afghanistan and in bilateral relations
with India amid signs of a deterioration in cordiality between the
Pakistan army and the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.
The attack was executed a day after foreign secretary Nirupama Rao
made a policy speech on Afghanistan at a meeting in New Delhi
outlining India’s priorities in Kabul.
chhotemianinshallah
Kabul blast finger at ‘outside bases’
A damaged building at the site of the blast near the Indian embassy in
Kabul on Thursday. (AP)
Kabul, Oct. 8 (Agencies): A car bomb blew up outside the Indian
embassy here today, killing two policemen and 15 other Afghans on the
street in an attack Delhi said was aimed at its mission, a claim that
is certain to direct suspicion at Pakistan.
The 8.27am blast comes 15 months after two Indian diplomats and 56
others died in a car bomb attack on the embassy, which India and US
intelligence blamed on Pakistani spy agency ISI, pointing to its
resentment at India’s growing influence in Afghanistan.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said none of the embassy staff was
among the 76 injured today, but three Indo-Tibetan Border Police
guards were wounded and their watchtower damaged.
“The suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the
embassy with a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of
targeting the embassy,” Rao said in Delhi.
She said the blast was similar in size and pattern to the July 2008
attack but the security measures taken since then had “worked
effectively” in protecting embassy staff.
The Afghan interior ministry is just down the street but if the
embassy was the target, Pakistan is the obvious suspect although India
didn’t name the neighbour.
Only yesterday, however, Rao had linked the growing violence in
Afghanistan with support from across the border. Asked who might be
behind the attack, the Indian ambassador in Kabul, Jayant Prasad,
said: “What do you think of the fact that the international community
is regularly targeted? It’s the same answer.”
The Afghan foreign ministry spokesman pointed to “enemies of the
relations between the two countries (India and Afghanistan)” and said
their “bases are outside of Afghanistan”. Sayed Abdul Ghafar, a senior
Kabul police officer, bluntly said Pakistani militants were involved.
Islamabad as well as Pakistani militants are alarmed that India has
given $1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan, where it’s building highways
and new consulates. Pakistan fears being squeezed between India on the
east and a Delhi-backed Afghanistan in the west.
News agencies said a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, had owned
up to the blast, which happened when an SUV driver slowed down near a
side wall of the embassy and detonated his payload, partially
destroying the watchtower and an outer protective wall.
“We are really heartbroken,” ambassador Prasad said. He said the huge
concrete wall put up around the embassy after last year’s attack had
helped protect the building, but some doors and windows were still
blown out. An armoured UN Landcruiser was damaged but its driver was
unharmed.
Ahmad Farid, a shopkeeper who still bears an angry red scar on his
face from last year’s bombing, said: “Look at my face — this is from
the last Indian embassy bombing and now here we have another
explosion.”
One of today’s injured, Mohammad Arif, was leaving the embassy when
the explosion hurled him against a concrete barrier, leaving him
bloodied on the left side of his head.
Most of the dead were ordinary Afghans, many of them merchants. The
bomb left a large crater in the road, and the scene was littered with
burnt-out vehicles, body parts and scraps of clothing.
The heavily guarded area had only recently been reopened to traffic
after being closed for months following the previous bombing.
The Swedish and Indonesian embassies too are nearby. An employee at
the Indonesian embassy said that during the July 2008 bombing, his
office window was shattered and glass cut his left arm. “We are really
not safe here next to the Indian embassy,” he said.
chhotemianinshallah
Blast can’t intimidate’
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Oct. 8: India today said it wouldn’t be intimidated by the
kind of attack targeting its embassy in Kabul today and promised to
continue working for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
“India will not be intimidated by these criminal killers. We will take
all steps to protect Indian lives and installations in Afghanistan,”
minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor said. Foreign
secretary Nirupama Rao is expected to travel to Kabul tomorrow.
India has pledged over $1.26 billion in aid to war-torn Afghanistan,
making it the fifth-largest donor after the US, Britain, Japan and
Canada. Sources said those behind today’s attack were against the
Indian presence in Afghanistan.
chhotemianinshallah
HIDDEN DEPTHS
Transforming Pakistan: Ways out of Instability By Hilary Synnott,
Routledge, Rs 1,100
Hilary Synnott is a former diplomat in India (1993-6) and Pakistan
(2000-3), and the author of a perceptive book, The Causes and
Consequences of South Asia’s Nuclear Tests. His new book will reach an
influential audience in Britain and in the US, and should be mandatory
reading in Pakistan. According to him, India sees no advantage in
promoting anarchy in Pakistan; Siachen has little or no strategic
importance; Zardari and his party are deeply unpopular; Urdu as a
national language is not an “entirely successful” device; the
“strategic depth” that the Pakistan military craves for in Afghanistan
is “a baffling idea”; the Pakistanis failed to create a pliable
government in Kabul after the Soviet pullout; and there are limits to
the ISI’s control over militants.
Synnott accuses the army of deforming democracy, making judgments
divorced from national interest, and “double dealing and dangerous
adventurism”. It has never ceded control on key foreign policy issues.
After 9/11, the army was “showered” with assistance, and the ISI was
courted because of its “expertise” about militants. It was never clear
how Pakistan was spending the funds given to it.
Synnott describes the internal separatism in every province (except
Punjab) as the result of resentment against what tantamounts to
internal colonialism. Baluchistan, for example, with a high
concentration of natural resources, has had its desire for autonomy
and development brutally suppressed by the army in a “slow-motion
genocide”.
In the border areas, there is increased influence of clerics as
opposed to traditional tribal maliks, who continue to profit from both
sides. The tribes prefer the status quo to moving closer
administratively to Pakistan. None of the agreements between local
leaders and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and
the North-West Frontier Province has succeeded. The politicians have
left the problem to the army, but its deployment in Fata since 2004
meets with popular opposition to Pakistan’s efforts to tackle
militancy.
Pakistan, notes Synnott, is deeply unpopular in Afghanistan, a
hostility with its roots in the Durand Line. Attempts by Pakistan to
influence Kabul are to ensure a pliant western neighbour to counter
India in the east. Pakistan’s objectives in the tribal areas and
Afghanistan have never been those of the US. Politicians and the army
create, co-opt and support militant religious groups to serve their
purposes, and Pakistani agencies encourage terrorists to get into
India. When LeT and JeM were banned in 2002, Synnott confirms they
promptly regrouped under aliases because they are regarded as military
assets.
Synnott doubts if any Indo-Pak agreement for modus vivendi can be
delivered politically. The army’s dominance has to be transformed if
Kashmir and the Durand Line are to be resolved: meanwhile both
disputes need to be rendered “less salient”. Synnott’s conclusions —
advocating more investment by the US, EU, China, and other nations for
the transformation of the Pakistani body politic — are contestable. He
calls for external assistance over multiple sectors and, in the long
term, with US in pole position. But few third-world countries will
accept unreservedly that friendship with the US brings real benefits.
Synnott is surprisingly cautious about incriminating the ISI in the
terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, the 2008 bombing of the
Indian Embassy in Kabul, or the 26/11 tragedy. Indian readers will be
astonished by a reference to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as the “architect of
India’s nuclear programme”, and a comparison of Kalam with A.Q. Khan.
But this book provides a superb overview of the volatile situation in
Pakistan today, and tells a complicated story lucidly.
KRISHNAN SRINIVASAN
bademiyansubhanallah
Huge blast rocks Pakistan's Peshawar city: police
Associated Press
Peshawar, October 09, 2009
First Published: 12:18 IST(9/10/2009)
Last Updated: 12:53 IST(9/10/2009)
A car bomb ripped through a crowded bazaar in the northwestern
Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday leaving at least 10 people dead
and 40 wounded, police and the government said.
The blast hit a shopping area close to the city’s main Khyber Bazaar
and ambulances were rushing to the scene, said local police official
Asghar Hussain.
“Eight to 10 people were killed and 40 wounded in the blast,” minister
for information in the North West Frontier Province Government Mian
Iftikhar Hussain said.
“The bomb was planted in a car parked in the market,” he said.
It was not immediately clear if it was a remote-controlled device or a
suicide attack.
“We are investigating whether it was a suicide blast or the device was
planted in the vehicle,” the minister told reporters.
Peshawar is the main city in the northwest and has been a frequent
target of militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda who are waging
war.
bademiyansubhanallah
Obama gets 'comprehensive update' on situation in Pakistan
Press Trust Of India
Washington, October 08, 2009
First Published: 09:54 IST(8/10/2009)
Last Updated: 09:58 IST(8/10/2009)
US President Barack Obama on Thursday received a comprehensive update
on the situation in Pakistan at his "situation room" meeting with top
intelligence, defense and security aides.
"The President received a comprehensive intelligence and
counterterrorism assessment as well as an assessment of the political
and diplomatic situation," a White House official said after the
meeting which lasted for more than three hours.
Obama continues to look for ways to improve cooperation, and to
continue disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaeda, the official
told PTI.
The meeting was held amids uproar inside Pakistan on the US aid
through the Kerry-Lugar bill with the Pak Army and opposition parties
expressing concerns over the conditions imposed on it in lieu of the
military aid.
The meeting was attended by Vice-President Joe Biden; Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton; Defense Secretary Robert Gates; US Ambassador
to the UN Susan Rice; Special US Representative for Pakistan and
Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen; and Central Command Commander General David
Petraeus.
National Security Advisor General (rtd) James Jones, his Deputy Tom
Donilon; Director of National Intelligence Admiral (rtd) Dennis Blair;
CIA Director Leon Panetta and John Brennan, Assistant to the President
for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, also participated in the
deliberations.
General Stanley McChrystal, US Commander in Afghanistan; Karl
Eikenberry, US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Anne Patterson, US
Ambassador to Pakistan, attended the meeting through video
conferencing.
Though there was no immediate official reaction after the meeting, the
top leaders of the Obama administration is believed to have brain
stormed all aspects of the US posture and policy towards Pakistan and
its link to Afghanistan.
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the
primary focus was on groups that can strike US and its allies, or
groups who would provide safe haven for those that wish to do that.
"I think we'll get into a firm analysis of where we are in Pakistan,
the steps that have been taken by the Pakistani government through
greater cooperation, but obviously progress that has to continue to
happen in order to continue to confront extremists in their country,"
Gibbs said before the start of the meeting.
Gibbs said it has not been determined yet how many such meetings would
take place – with the next one being scheduled for Friday – to discuss
the Af-Pak strategy. This might take several weeks.
bademiyansubhanallah
Nirupama Rao heads to Kabul; India demands global terror treaty
Agencies
New Delhi, October 09, 2009
First Published: 09:33 IST(9/10/2009)
Last Updated: 12:04 IST(9/10/2009)
Taking a serious view of the incident, India has called for an
international terror treaty to tackle the growing menace even as
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao visits Afghanistan on Friday. She will
take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the suicide attack on
the Indian embassy in Kabul, in which 17 people were killed.
Expressing concern over the terror attack on Indian embassy in Kabul,
India's envoy to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri has asked the
world leaders to negotiate an international treaty to tackle terrorism
expeditiously.
"Our Embassy in Kabul was again subjected to yet another terrorist
attack, which has resulted in injury of Indian
security personnel as well as death of large number of Afghan
civilians," Puri told the committee of the General Assembly
that handles a range of social, humanitarian affairs and human rights
issues.
"While it is important for the international community to condemn
terrorism and these attacks in an unequivocal manner,
it is also critical that we strengthen the legal framework in the
fight against terrorism," he noted.
Earlier, the UN Chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks at the Indian
embassy. The Security Council also deplored the "reprehensible" attack
demanding that those responsible be brought to justice.
On its website, the Taliban write that one of their "martyrs" carried
out suicide car bomb attack in a heavily
fortified diplomatic area and added that the Indian embassy "was the
main target".
At least 17 people were killed and 76 injured, some seriously, when a
Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the
Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday morning. This was the second such
terror attack since July 2008.
Barring three Indian paramilitary personnel who were injured, all the
other casualties in Thursday's attack were Afghans. The dead included
two police officers and 15 civilian visa seekers.
The deafening 8.27 am blast extensively damaged the embassy's
fortified outer wall and blew off windows and doors of the building.
The injured Indians were from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
deployed outside the mission.
The explosion, the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months, was
heard across a large area. Scores of people outside the embassy fell
bleeding and others ran for cover crying for help. It left a large
crater in the ground outside the embassy.
bademiyansubhanallah
A reminder of India’s burden and stake in Afghanistan
Siddharth Varadarajan
New Delhi: The suicide attack on the Indian embassy compound in Kabul
underlines a curious irony about the situation in Afghanistan: Despite
playing no direct role in the American-led war against the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda, India is rapidly becoming one of the most highly favoured
targets of terrorists in that country.
In 2008, a suicide bomber believed to be linked to the Haqqani network
blew himself up outside the embassy, killing 58 people, including
three Indian officials. And workers and engineers on Indian-led
projects have been kidnapped and killed by the Taliban in the past,
forcing India to limit its assistance to projects not involving its
own manpower.
Barely 24 hours before Thursday’s deadly attack in Kabul, Foreign
Secretary Nirupama Rao had expressed her government’s frustration at
the “sense of defeatism” which has begun to overwhelm international
public opinion about the situation in Afghanistan and which serves no
purpose other than to encourage insurgent groups to step up their
activities. She also warned against “facile attempts to strike
Faustian bargains with terrorists,” a thinly veiled message to those
in the United States who might find a quick pullout linked to a
Pakistani-brokered political settlement with the Taliban a viable or
tempting option.
The timing of the embassy bombing was obviously a coincidence but the
Taliban – which has claimed responsibility in a statement on its
website, shahamat.org – would like nothing better than to have the
same defeatist spirit take hold of New Delhi, one of the largest
providers of development assistance to the Afghan government.
Last year, India was told by U.S. officials that the embassy bombing
had been sanctioned at the highest levels of the Pakistani
intelligence establishment. This time, too, the Indian government is
likely to conclude the suicide attack was scripted in Rawalpindi,
presumably as a part of the “countermeasures” America’s top military
commander in Afghanistan recently warned India about.
General Stanley A. McChrystal’s assessment, contained in an official
report prepared by him a month ago, was schizophrenic. He said India
was “exacerbating regional tensions” and encouraging “Pakistani
countermeasures” by its increasing political and economic influence in
the beleaguered country. But he also said Indian activities “largely
benefit the Afghan people.”
At the root of this American ambiguity about the Indian role in
Afghanistan is the division within Washington about virtually every
aspect of the Obama administration’s AfPak policy. Should more U.S.
soldiers be sent to Afghanistan, as Gen. McChrystal has demanded, or
not? Should the war be expanded to Pakistani territory or not? Is it
possible to reach an understanding with the Taliban if the latter
breaks its ties with the Al-Qaeda? Is the Pakistani military part of
the problem or the solution?
On the last question, Gen. McChrystal minced his words. Senator John
Kerry was a little more direct, noting in Senate hearings earlier this
month that “it has been difficult to build trust with Pakistan’s
military and intelligence services over the years because our
interests have not always been aligned and because ties between the
ISI and Taliban remain troubling.”
Ms. Rao drew attention to those ties when she told a seminar here on
Wednesday that the international community needs to put “effective
pressure on Pakistan to implement its stated commitment to deal with
terrorist groups within its territory, including the members of the Al-
Qaeda, Taliban’s Quetta Shura, Hizb-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba and
other like-minded terrorist groups.” Without this, she said, it would
be “difficult to forestall the restoration of status quo ante, to a
situation similar to what prevailed prior to 11 September 2001.”
Unfortunately for India, none of the options currently being
considered by the U.S. is very palatable. Much as New Delhi fears
American defeatism, it also knows any expansion in U.S. military
operations in Afghanistan will likely make the situation worse, not
better. Both scenarios, in any case, will increase American dependence
on the Pakistani military, something India sees as fundamentally wrong-
headed.
Preoccupied with finding the optimal military strategy, President
Obama has done little to take forward his promise of seeking a
regional solution. As a target of terror in Afghanistan, India has a
right and an obligation to be more assertive in the quest for a more
rational approach to the Afghan problem.
Sid Harth
Indian arrested with Rs 47 crore worth White Heroin
STAFF WRITER 11:58 HRS IST
Kathmandu, Oct 9 (PTI) In one of the largest drugs seizures in Nepal,
an Indian has been arrested for allegedly possessing 19 kg of White
Heroin worth Rs 47 crores.
Ravikumar Kethandapatti Rangasamy, a resident of Tamil Nadu was
yesterday arrested by Nepal police with the Heroin as he was about to
board a Thai Airways flight on his way to Jakarta via Bangkok from
Tribhuvan International Airport.
White Heroin is the most refined and expensive type of heroin,
according to experts.
Rangasamy had hidden the contraband drug by making false compartments
inside three 15 litre steel flasks, police said.
Further investigation in the matter is on.
Sid Harth
Gilani wants early resumption of Composite Dialogue
STAFF WRITER 19:7 HRS IST
Islamabad, Oct 9 (PTI) Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today said
Pakistan wants early resumption of the Composite Dialogue process with
India for the resolution of all core issues, including Kashmir and
differences over sharing of river waters.
Gilani made the remarks as he wound up a visit to Muzaffarabad, the
capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Talking to reporters, he reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to good
relations with all its neighbours, including India and Afghanistan.
Replying to a question, he said the Kerry-Lugar bill is not a
bilateral agreement with the US and it is thus not binding on Pakistan
to accept it.
The US aid bill is being discussed in parliament and all public
representatives will be given time to air their views on it, he said.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who has returned from a visit
to the US, will brief parliament on the bill.
bademiyansubhanallah
France arrests engineer at nuclear research lab CERN over 'Qaida
links'
AFP 10 October 2009, 10:29am IST
PARIS: French agents have arrested an engineer working at the CERN
nuclear research lab on suspicion of being in contact with the al-
Qaida militant network and planning attacks, officials said Friday.
"Perhaps we have avoided the worst," interior minister Brice Hortefeux
told journalists, adding that investigators were trying to establish
which targets in "France or elsewhere" the suspect was hoping to
strike.
Security sources in Paris said the suspected Islamist, one of a pair
of brothers detained on Thursday, worked at the European Organisation
for Nuclear Research on the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva.
The pair were arrested in Vienne, a town on the Rhone river some 100
kilometres (65 miles) southwest of the Alpine lab, by officers from
France's security service acting on a warrant from an anti-terrorist
magistrate.
According to officials, the engineer had made contact over the
Internet with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African
offshoot of Osama bin Laden's loosely organised global Islamist
militant movement.
He had expressed a desire to carry out attacks, but had "not got to
the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation", one said.
CERN confirmed a physicist working at the site had been arrested
"under suspicion of links to terrorist organisations", and said it was
helping the French police with their investigation.
"He was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a
contract with an outside institute. His work did not bring him into
contact with anything that could be used for terrorism," it added in a
statement.
According to a report on the newspaper Le Figaro's website, the
suspects are a 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin who has been
the subject of a police inquiry for a year-and-a-half and his 25-year-
old brother.
The report, citing sources close to the inquiry, said the elder
brother had had several Internet exchanges with figures considered
close to Al-Qaeda and had provided a list of suggested French targets
for attack.
Judicial sources told AFP that investigators had come upon the pair
while monitoring the Internet as part of a separate inquiry into the
recruitment of would-be jihadists to send to Afghanistan as
guerrillas.
Intelligence agents recorded several incriminating exchanges between
the brothers and suspected al-Qaida contacts. Two laptops, three hard
drives and several USD memory sticks were seized from their home, they
said.
"We are in a situation of permanent alert. We follow statements made
by the leaders of certain organisations day by day. We never let our
guard down. The danger is permanent," Hortefeux said.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb was born in 2007 when a largely-
Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat,
swore allegiance to Bin Laden and rebranded itself as his
organisation's local franchise.
Intelligence officials consider it one of the most serious threats to
France, which has a large North African diaspora population.
CERN is Europe's leading laboratory for the study of the fundamentals
of sub-atomic physics. It operates particle accelerators to study the
behaviour of atoms at high speed and learn about the basic laws of
nature.
It is a civilian organisation, backed by 20 member states, and is not
connected to nuclear weapons technology.
The lab said the suspect had been working on the "LHCb experiment"
which its website says "will help us to understand why we live in a
universe that appears to be composed almost entirely of matter, but no
antimatter."
chhotemianinshallah
Human rights groups call for ending caste system
Lalit K Jha/ PTI / Washington October 10, 2009, 10:13 IST
Three human rights group supported the call of a top UN official to
end caste system in India and other countries where it is still being
practiced.
"Governments in India and other caste-affected countries should
support the new UN framework to eliminate caste discrimination," said
Rikke Nohrlind, coordinator, International Dalit Solidarity Network.
"It is time for these nations to cooperate with the UN to address a
human rights issue that affects 260 million people," Nohrlind said in
a statement as the call to end the discrimination was issued jointly
by the Human Rights Watch, the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
(NCDHR), and the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN).
The joint statement came after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Navi Pillay, has issued a strong call to end caste discrimination.
In an opinion article, Pillay stated that "the time has come to
eradicate the shameful concept of caste," and called on the
international community to come together "as it did when it helped put
an end to apartheid."
Sid Harth
10.10.09
Muslims, the love jihad and Advani’s dreams
This fellow is quite a hoot.
Alleging that ‘love jihad’ was the latest tool being used by
miscreants to promote anti-national activities, Shri Rama Sene chief
Pramod Muthalik said his organisation would launch a nation-wide
agitation against it.
Aww…so every Muslim male is a suspect? Every college girl is pliable?
What survey? You talk to a couple of girls going out with Muslim men
and you have results?
What about those who marry Hindus? Should we assume that those women
and men are not anti-national only because they are not Muslims? Who
is this Rama Sene to decide on patriotism? Will its chief have the
courage to target celebrities who are married to Hindus? Is the issue
only of conversion?
On a recent flight, the young woman sitting next to me got chatting.
After covering one quarter of the world’s nationalities and half the
states of India, she still did not get an answer to “Where are you
actually from?” I love that actually. Mumbai is not actual in anyone’s
book and these days after the crash-landing saying 'moon' won’t work
besides it being too cheesy. I was left with no option but to accept
my fate. Muslim, I said, feeling a lump in my throat and everywhere
lumps are possible. I mean, it was an emotional moment.
Her eyes widened, and I know it for a fact for she had small eyes.
“Oh?”
“Well, yes,” I shrugged, imagining she would now hold herself away,
look at my rather nice handbag suspiciously or even the ring she
liked. It might hold something damaging. I put on the best jihadi face
I could manage, you know narrowing of eyes and wicked grin.
She turned enthusiastically, “Tell me, why don’t you Muslims allow
people to marry outside?”
“They do. But there is not a policy decision. Why do you ask?”
“I am seeing this Muslim guy for four years and now his parents say
they won’t let him marry a Hindu.”
“As long as he stands by you…and I hope they are not expecting you to
convert.”
“I don’t mind that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. What is there to convert? You just say some prayers, no?”
“Well…So, what is their problem?”
“I don’t know. His mother will go to spa and all but she should
understand that a Hindu girl is also a human being.”
“The spa won’t teach her that. And if both of you are sure, it should
not be a problem.”
“I know it will, so we will continue like that for as long as we can
and then go our separate ways.”
“Is it so easy?”
“That is the practical decision.”
She did not think of him as anti-national. She was willing to convert.
And the stole she had wrapped round her neck was because her mother
wanted it that way.
I had no intention of getting into a discussion on Islam and she was
most certainly not up to anything beyond chit-chat. She shared
something because she felt that she could get a point of view from a
Muslim who looked like she went to the spa. I guess it’s time for me
to.
On what grounds are Bihar schools being forced to teach Urdu? That the
initiative comes from the JD (U)-BJP government is surprising, but as
the report clearly implies it has to do with getting Muslim votes.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said:
“We will be appointing Urdu teachers in every state-run school to
enable the students learn the language.”
This is fascism. What is the percentage of Urdu-speaking people in the
state? On what grounds do we assume that all Muslims are conversant
with Urdu? A Muslim in Kerala or Gujarat will fumble with the basics
of the language. And even in Uttar Pradesh it will be the elite that
will speak it with some fluency. In most states, even if people speak
Urdu, there will be a regional flavour to it.
There is no doubt that it is a lovely language and must get exposure,
but there ought not to be any compulsion. If Bihar wants to expose its
youngsters to a wider variety, then why not include Marathi or
Malayalam?
The state language is Maithili and Bhojpuri and most Bihari ministers
cannot even speak Hindi well. So, let’s cut out the nonsense. It might
help if Urdu teachers refused to become a part of this political game.
L.K.Advani was in Vashi for an election meeting and after all the
baloney about water, electricity and roads – yeah, these don’t matter
– he came to the crux:
“It is my cherished dream to have a ‘bhavya’ (beautiful) Ram Mandir at
Ayodhya.”
Why would the Vashi voter be interested in what happens in Ayodhya?
Why would the Vashi voter care about Advani’s dream? How would the
Vashi voter know how beautiful it will be? Is Advani an architect? Why
is the temple’s beauty of importance? Where will the money come from?
Of course, the Vashiwallas will have to continue with water shortage,
bad roads and power cuts. So that a man can realise his dream.
The crowd cheered. It does not mean they are thrilled. It is because
the candidate had managed to get a few people to hold banners. People
are not stupid, but politicians are.
That’s not the end:
Advani also spoke of his other dream, of having American style debates
for political candidates, like the presidential debates in the US.
What will they debate? The colour of the sanctum? How much gold to
cover Lord Rama with? Will it be a cradle or a throne? Oh, this is an
issue – are we going to display the deity as an innocent child or a
mature adult? What will better help us market India as a global
phenomenon?
Advaniji is like Kumbhakaran*. He must sleep so much for how else
would he dream so much?
*
Kumbhakaran was Ravana’s brother in the epic Mahabharata who was
cursed to sleep for months on end. I am implying this aspect of his
personality and not the other one in which he ate everything,
including humans, upon waking up. Nah. Advaniji comes across as
someone who’d be picky about his meals.
Posted by Farzana Versey at 2:08:00 PM
Sid Harth
12.9.09
The Malik-Chidambaram Face-off
The Malik-Chidambaram Face-off - A Satire
by Farzana Versey
Countercurrents, September 12, 2009
This is an exclusive peek into the private debate that took place
between Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik and India’s Home
Minister P Chidambaram regarding the 26/11 attacks. Mr. Malik had
suggested they meet at any place – India, Pakistan or elsewhere. After
much deliberation, Nepal was chosen. They had seen former Spice Girl
Geri Halliwell plant a peck on the Nepal king’s cheek. Détente was all
about gaal se gaal mila…
P Chidambaram: Just wondering.
Rehman Malik: Now what? You think too much. You remind me of Dalip
Kumar, you know he also has this pose of hand under chin. Big tragedy
king. India’s gain, Pakistan’s loss.
PC: What happened? He has nukes?
RM: Nahin yaar. He is original Peshawar banda, and you got him. He
became so famous doing all those rona roles. Sometimes, I think he
misses being with us.
PC: You gave him Nisha award, right?
RM: Nishan-e-Pakistan…
PC: Oh, whatever.
RM: Not vatever. We have enough on plate…
PC: Plate? Are we starting with lunch?
RM: Nahin, I mean we have enough problem; you want us to probe what
happens in your country, then you send formal request in Marathi. How
can we understand?
PC: It is not for you to understand. This is bureaucracy. Did you
understand anything that Baitullah Mehsud used to say? You think only
you need time? We also need time.
RM: How much? I told reporters that day that we filed the chargesheet
in court within 76 days whereas Indians took more than 90 days to
prepare it.
PC: Have you seen our population? Our courts have too much work. And
all because of you guys. If you want to infiltrate why did you guys
leave during partition at all?
RM: Tohada dimaag toh theek-thaak hain? I was only in kindergarten
that time.
PC: You went to kindergarten?
RM: Haan toh…Jack and Jill saath saath vich hill climb and then Humpty
Dumpy came tumbling after…
PC: You are mixing up your nursery rhymes.
RM: So vaat? How is Arun Shourie saab? He is ekdum intel gents, full
of fatafat rhyming.
PC: Can we get down to business?
RM: Down ya up, business is business. Bolo, kithe shuroo kainda?
PC: So what are you doing with the dossier?
RM: Which one – Baluchistan or Mumbai?
PC: Excuse me, but your own PM made it clear there was nothing given.
RM: We don’t have to give everything we make. Waise, your Man saab is
changa aadmi…ekdum jo moonh mein aaya bol diya…
PC: Er…
RM: Err…ghalat honda?
PC: Ok, we both know English.
RM: We both studied statistics also.
PC: Oh, well, I am a lawyer, too.
RM: I got doctorate in criminology.
PC: So find the criminals for us.
RM: Lau ji, if you are saying we send criminals then how we can have
them also…this is like eating cake and having it…Mary Queen of Scots
said.
PC: No, she did not.
RM: How you know what she said and what she didn’t? The problem with
you Indians is jumping the gun and not pumping the gun.
PC: We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi…we believe in non-violence.
RM: Chhad yaar. But I am not minding. You took effort to come over
here to debate, I am grateful to Allah.
PC: Hmm…I took the flight you know.
RM: Oh yes, that also in conmy class. That Parnab is on new trip.
PC: We understand that we need to pull up our socks.
RM: Loose hain kya? Please tell me why all Indian finance ministers
carry that funny briefcase like someone carrying black money?
PC: The budget report is there.
RM: Ok, so budget has to have small buxa, not big. Nice symball.
PC: “Gham ka heera
dil mein rakho
kis ko dikhaate phirte ho
ye choron ki duniya hai…”
RM: Wah-wah, you know Urdu so well.
PC: All finance ministers must know. In India it is tradition to quote
Urdu poetry.
RM: But you did not.
PC: I know. Big mistake. We need to appease people.
RM: But Muslims are poor.
PC: Who is talking about Muslims, we have to show Pakistanis that we
are Jack of all trade.
RM: Jack in the box…
PC: Please, can we start the debate?
RM: Ho gaya ji. Baat cheet. Hor ki? Kuchch spice gal ho jaaye.
PC: It does not become us.
RM: Who is wanting anyone to become. I only asked for spice gal…gal
meaning talk. You Indians are so big country but you only have one
railway track line mind. I don’t want any trouble. Zardari saab said
one nice thing to Sarah sahiba and whole of Pakistan was called
Republican.
PC: You are anyway half American.
RM: Haan, sahi hain. But you are full Italian.
PC: I take your leave sir.
RM: Allah hafiz…
PC: Thank you for reminding me…where is Hafiz Saeed?
RM: And who is Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi? Make up your mind who did what.
Next time we will have more material and debate on border. Then we
will see doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani.
PC: We have a shortage of ghee and butter in India, you are rubbing
it…
RM: Correct. Rab sab jaanda, I tell you.
Both depart. Rehman Malik takes PIA fusst class and asks for razai. P
Chidambaram gets into economy and the seats next to him are vacated.
Ajmal Kasab continues to grin in court.
Posted by Farzana Versey at 2:18:00 PM 3 comments
Sid Harth
Indian Actor, American Character-
The Psychology Of Security Measures
By Farzana Versey
26 August, 2009
www.Countercurrents.org
August 2009, Phoenix : A man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle
over his shoulder is among the many gun-toting protestors outside the
convention centre where President Barack Obama gives a speech.
August 2009, Newark Airport : Indian actor Shahrukh Khan is detained
at the airport and there are questions asked, mainly the wrong ones.
February 2002, Mumbai Airport : I am standing at the counter and the
man at Immigration reads out my name aloud as though it is alien. He
goes through all the pages of the passport without looking at me and
then bangs down the document that declares me a citizen of the
Republic of India on the table.
In the taxi on the way home the driver says in Hindi, his mouth
stuffed with paan , “You know, they killed our people.” He does not
know I am one of Them. He makes no mention of the Gujarat riots; he
only talks about the burning train of Godhra. He keeps up the rant. I
wish to say something, speak out, argue. My throat is locked, my hands
with nail marks of unsaid words.
After the incident of Sharukh Khan, we have had a slew of reports and
opinion pieces that have held forth on how icons must be treated and
are treated. Some ‘balanced' commentators have stated that it does not
have to do with his being a Muslim and having a Muslim name. These
could well be valid trains of thought. However, there is a more dire
script lurking beneath. It has little to do with physical security and
all to do with psychological security. One would have called it
xenophobia, but here safety is sought on the basis of not necessarily
what is foreign but what is ingrained.
If security measures are all that important, then why did the US
administration ask the actor if he would accept an apology for his two-
hour detention? The culture of fawning that the Americans have pointed
out to is indeed more prevalent in India . We are given examples of
celebrity Americans who did time in jail for crimes committed. This
denotes a modicum of equitable justice, not a lack of deification.
Paris Hilton and Mike Tyson are not shunned socially. They become even
more saleable and keep the media machinery well-oiled. The Indian
judiciary, too, has arrested famous people for keeping arms, rash
driving resulting in death, poaching, rape. Sanjay Dutt spent years in
an isolated cell meant for hardened terrorists only because he had a
gun at home whereas a local minister who used it during the Bombay
riots was not even called to the police station.
Therefore, the point is not whether a simple internet search would
show up the actor's name. The Americans have now said that they wanted
to know the names of his sponsors because there are instances of many
supposedly being involved in illegal trade and having underworld
links.
Is this a cop-out? If so, then one wonders why. The elitist attitude
starts here. The actor calls a Congress minister who speaks to the
Indian Consulate and the US authorities. He brags, “Post-9/11, one
could understand and one did not complain. But this time it was a bit
too much. I have travelled to other countries. I never faced any
problem in the UK where I am treated like a state guest. They escort
me to the car.''
Perhaps, he ought to run a search and find out how many people with
certain names are detained and have no access to MPs. They are not
escorted and treated like state guests. And these are not people who
make 9/11 the yardstick for terrorism for we in India , among several
other countries, have been there years before.
This sort of amateurish political empathy conveys scant regard for
those lower down the rung in the hierarchy. In what amounts to another
sort of fawning, there have been analyses putting forth the argument
that such stringent security measures have prevented any further
attacks from taking place in the US . It is not security measures that
have stalled such attacks. It is the political machinery that makes
sure to nuke other territories that are considered a security risk.
Everytime an American politician visits another country, s/he will
indicate how that country and “We in the United States ” are fighting
terrorism. The US wants to be a part of every package deal to ensure
greater intrusion.
The Cold War is over so it prods icebergs and, sure enough, there are
conflicts. The saviour prepares. Marines are sent off. NATO sets up
shop.
The film Khans and their ilk will not fathom the complexity of the
9/11 factory of hallucination that produces hatred. When the man with
the big gun at the Obama convention said, in Bill Clinton fashion,
that he carried the weapon because he could, he was unmasking the
culture of pugilism. Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University
political scientist, finds the trend disturbing: “It actually becomes
quite scary for many people. It creates a chilling effect in the
ability of our society to carry on honest communication.”
The security-conscious society has had several instances of trigger-
happy people. The issue is beyond the legality of such choice. What is
more important is that unlike the ‘subjects' of US imperialism where
weapons are used by lesser folks, in America campuses become the
battle-ground. For a society that talks about freedom, it has given us
the concept of road rage where people cannot even tolerate traffic.
These are games at the larger social level where the stampedes occur
in the mind and alter mindsets. The skirmish for individual space
results in each one venerating the cult of collectivism. Those who do
not follow the rules of such aggro are sidelined from the arena.
I have not been detained or questioned at American airports despite an
obvious Muslim name before or after 9/11. But, the time I forgot to
remove my shoes at the security check, it was another passenger who
wagged her finger at me. I still remember that woman's face. She did
not know me or my name or my beliefs, if any. Her fear was
internalised and naturally directed at a foreigner.
India has imported this bogey, except the foreigner here is one of us.
I was one to the taxi driver and the man at the immigration counter. I
am one when they see Pakistani visas on my passport.
In what is a bizarre move, I know of Americans of Pakistani origin who
are asked to produce their Pakistani passports and national identity
cards if they wish to visit India as tourists. It does not matter that
they are naturalised US citizens and not permitted to have any other
passport. It does not matter that years have passed.
As Indians we have a history of being colonised, so it is not
difficult for us to accept the outside system, especially if it
buffers the divisions that have been written into our scriptures.
Shahrukh Khan declared with cockiness, “I don't want an apology. I
just want to go back to my country.”
He said this in the US , character in place as targeted Muslim. When
he returns to India he will play the Muslim who knows Hindu mythology
and is therefore legitimate. This is the puerile panacea sought by
those who know that cocoons make for safe places.
The little people herded in little cells for just belonging to a
religion or a community are conscripted as totem criminals to support
the thesis of security.
Muslims in India today are as much suspects as they are in the United
States . When the Mumbai attacks took place someone had suggested that
since I visited the Sea Lounge at the Taj hotel often it is possible
that I had provided a map to the terrorists. This was an Indian. The
humour is so dark that it makes sure no light seeps in to call of the
bluff.
These are the anonymous terrorists who have learned their
psychological warfare from a picture of Rudy Giuliani wearing a
protective helmet when it is all over. Nothing makes people more
afraid than rubble, it would seem.
* * *
Farzana Versey is a Mumbai-based columnist and author of A Journey
Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan , Harper Collins, India . She
can be reached at kaagha...@gmail.com
Sid Harth
Can We Win In Afghanistan
And Would It Be Worth The Price?
By Timothy V. Gatto
09 October, 2009
www.Countercurrents.org
Does anyone really think that a continued U.S. and NATO presence will
actually achieve anything significant in Afghanistan? Will an
additional 40,000 soldiers defeat the Taliban or will it only lead to
more American deaths? It seems that a continued presence in that war-
torn nation will only bring grief and death while U.S. and NATO troops
continue to try and reign in the Taliban, which can only be compared
to the debacle in Vietnam, where trying to track down the Viet Cong
and the NVA could only be compared to trying to herd of cats.
I believe that General McCrystal believes that the Taliban can be
defeated but at what cost? We have yet to see a plan that will
accomplish this. The situation in that mountainous land where the
Taliban appear, kill a few soldiers and damage military equipment and
then disappear is shockingly reminiscent of the situation in Vietnam.
Peak US strength in Vietnam in April, 1969 was 543.400. We lost that
war. We also tried to win “The hearts and minds” of the people in that
war and we never succeeded. Will we repeat the same behavior in
Afghanistan and expect different results?
The war is in its eighth year and we are losing ground. The majority
of Americans don’t support ramping up the war effort. We are in
unprecedented times financially. The manufacturing base of the United
States has been eroding for almost two decades. We have become a
service economy; the only robust area of the manufacturing sector is
oddly enough, the military weapons sector. Do our leaders expect this
war will lead to a type of federal jobs program? Our military spending
accounts for almost half of the military budget of the entire planet.
We will spend just about a trillion dollars this year on our military.
The defense industry is definitely not experiencing lean times.
The problem with military spending is that once the money is spent,
there is no return on our investment. Military equipment has a bad
habit of getting used up in short order and it isn’t usually recycled.
When a tank or an airplane outlives its usefulness it goes on the
scrap heap. Munitions are made to be destroyed. A cruise missile costs
in the neighborhood of $569000. An F-18 costs $54.7 million. The unit
cost of the Army's UH-60L Black Hawk is $5.9 million. The cost of a
new M1A2 tank is approximately $4.3 million. War is an expensive
business. Despite threatened cuts at the Pentagon, Boeing's military
business--including f-15 Strike Eagles, Patriot and Harpoon missiles,
Apache, Longbow and Chinook helicopters, P-8A Poseidon antisubmarine
aircraft--is still in good shape. Last year it accounted for $32
billion, 53% of revenues, and $3.2 billion, or 82%, of operating
profit. (Forbes September 2009). I could go on but I think I made my
point.
While most of this article has been about hardware, the human element
cannot be ignored. We lost 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam. It stands to
reason that the more soldiers we send to Afghanistan, the more
casualties we will suffer. The civilian deaths in Iraq have been
calculated to be from 300,000 to 1.3 million depending on who is
reporting. The U.S. military does not keep a tally. Besides civilian
deaths and military combat deaths, depleted uranium exposure, PTSD,
and crippling injuries add to U.S. casualties. Just like Agent Orange
in Vietnam, the military refuses to acknowledge the harmful effects of
DU, such incidents as birth defects and crippling bone loss. Let’s
hear those comments saying depleted uranium is as safe as aspartame.
We all know how safe that is. Since Rumsfeld pushed it through the
FDA, citing flawed studies on monkeys in 1984 when he was President of
Searle Pharmaceuticals, cancerous brain tumors increased by 800%, but
that’s probably just a coincidence, right? We all know that our
government only works in the peoples best interests.
Speaking of the American peoples best interests, ridding the Afghan
nation of the Taliban means that we are fighting them over there so
that we don’t have to fight them over here. It’s funny; I seem to have
heard that phrase before. No matter, whatever. I also seem to remember
that before we sent our military folks into Afghanistan, the Taliban
offered Osama Bin Laden’s head up on a platter if we formally charged
him with crimes. Somehow that never came to pass and now we are
desperately fighting not only al Qaeda, in both Pakistan and
Afghanistan, but the Taliban. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t
these the very same Mujahedeen that we financed to fight Russia? Sure
does get confusing, can’t tell the players from one another over
there. Maybe we should provide them with uniforms so we could tell
them apart.
Let me get everything straight so I don’t criticize the Obama
Administration unfairly. The reason that we are trying to eliminate
the Taliban is because they don’t treat women very well. I can
understand that, they probably treat them as badly as the Saudi’s (our
number two military aid recipient) treat their women. The Taliban also
interfere with the Afghan government’s bribes and kickbacks for
services and their blind eye towards opium production (90% of the
planet’s supply). I also remember something about a proposed oil
pipeline. Let me mention Pepe Escobar’s article from the Asia Times
titled U.S. Growing Arc of Instability:
“Most of all, the underlying logic remains divide and rule. As for the
divide, Beijing would call it, without a trace of irony, "splittist".
Split up Iraq - blocking China's access to Iraqi oil. Split up
Pakistan - with an independent Balochistan preventing China from
accessing the strategic port of Gwadar there. Split up Afghanistan -
with an independent Pashtunistan allowing the building of the Trans-
Afghanistan Pipeline bypassing Russia.
Al Qaeda, since they are no longer funded by the CIA, is our #1 enemy.
Osama Bin Laden would get a sovereign nation from which to launch
their attacks on America and the rest of the “free” world if we send
our troops home.
All of this confusion has me wondering, as I’m sure it gives President
Obama pause also. I’m curious as to whether or not the U.S or any
other NATO member state has attempted to negotiate with the Taliban
since they offered up Bin Laden? The current leader of Afghanistan is
no stranger to “”the art of the deal” In 1997, UNOCAL led an
international consortium - Centgas - that reached a memorandum of
understanding to build a $2 billion, 1,275-kilometer-long, 1.5-meter-
wide natural-gas pipeline from Daulatabad in southern Turkmenistan to
Karachi, via the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, crossing into
Pakistan near Quetta. A $600 million extension to India was also being
considered. The dealings with the Taliban were facilitated by the
Clinton administration and the ISI. But the civil war in Afghanistan
would simply not go away. Unocal had to pull out. In this geo-
strategic grand design, the Taliban were the proverbial fly in the
ointment.
It would be in the best interests of all concerned to lay their cards
out on the table. If I’m sensing things correctly, after a stalemate
in Korea and a loss in Vietnam followed by a totally senseless war in
Iraq, the American people are in no mood to bluff or be bluffed.
Tim Gatto is an Army veteran of almost 21 years. His new book, "From
Complicity to Contempt" An American Writer and Veteran Speaks Out
Against American Lies is available at most bookstores.
Sid Harth
Send More Troops, To Partition Afghanistan
By Ramtanu Maitra
08 October, 2009
www.Countercurrents.org
President Barack Obama met on Sept. 29 with his Afghanistan-Pakistan
policymakers and heard views of 17 individuals that included Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor Gen. Jim Jones
(ret.), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen,
CENTCOM Chief David Petraeus, and Vice President Joe Biden. The
meeting, the second of at least five President Obama has planned as he
reviews his Afghanistan strategy, comes after he received a critical
assessment of the war effort from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man he
put in charge of the Afghan War earlier this year.
Reports of the meeting indicate that the Administration members are
divided on the issue of induction of more troops in Afghanistan.
McChrystal is reportedly looking for 30-40,000 additional soldiers,
added to the present U.S. troop strength of 68,000 and 35,000 NATO
troops. According to an unnamed senior Administration official, cited
by the media, there was no discussion of specific troop levels at the
meeting in the White House.
Besides from General McChrystal and General Petraeus, the White House
is also under pressure from its NATO allies, particularly Britain, to
put more troops into Afghanistan and slog it out for years.. At this
crucial juncture, when the strategy behind the war is being reviewed,
if Washington toes the London line, inevitably the United States will
plunge itself into a Vietnam-like situation. More people will be
killed on a routine basis, but that itself will become the motivation
(or pretext) to stick around and kill more. The situation has not
reached that point yet, but certain quarters in the United States and
the British establishment are pushing the President in that direction.
But beyond the fears of many, that mindless killings for years will do
nothing better than to create a stalemate, there is yet another
certainty which London understands clearly, but not many in Washington
do. If the war in Afghanistan is pursued, with or without more troops
sent to Afghanistan now, or in the near future, such a war will be
waged primarily against the majority Pushtun community, within which
the dreaded Saudi- and British-created Taliban ideologues remain
embedded.
The British Pressure
Since the Pushtun community spans the Afghanistan-Pakistan borders,
crossing the un-demarcated Durand Line, if an endless war is looming,
the Pushtuns of Pakistan will get fully involved. They have so far
participated in this eight-year war mostly by being “good hosts” to
the fleeing fellow Pushtun warriors and their foreign Islamic militant
friends; but if this war is continued with the objective not to end
it, it is almost a certainty that the Pakistani Pushtuns will be a
part of it.
And the Pushtun community in Pakistan is much larger than that in
Afghanistan. This means that the draining of the United States’ and
Pakistan’s manpower and resources, not to mention Afghanistan’s, under
such circumstances, would be much bigger than it ever was in Vietnam.
What London understands, and fully welcomes, and Washington does not,
is that such an endless war has only one possible outcome, which is
the break-up of Afghanistan along ethnic lines.
Because of the ethnic solidarity between Afghan and Pakistani
Pushtuns, Pakistan, already in a volatile state because of the war in
Afghanistan, will have to face Pushtun wrath and the threats of a
break-up. It also should be noted that in that part of the world, and
particularly after years of bloodshed, such a partition will not come
through peace negotiations. It will come out of the barrels of
Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and other weapons
of selected destruction.
On Sept. 2, the City of London’s Financial Times, in its lead
editorial, “Obama’s dilemma over Afghanistan,” wrote, “Barack Obama
will almost certainly have to decide in the next few weeks whether to
send more U.S. troops in order to defeat the Taliban. The decision is
set to be one of the most difficult he has faced since becoming
president.”
The British establishment mouthpiece went on to endorse McChrystal’s
statement that “success is achievable,” adding: “Mr. Obama, for now,
would be right to heed his demands. . . . In part, the president has
no choice, since he only recently put the man in the job. But Gen.
McChrystal is also forging a sensible strategy. He has framed the
mission in the right terms, emphasizing
the need to team up the Afghan National Army in bigger numbers. He has
stressed the need for allied troops to get among the people, rather
than just killing Taliban insurgents in large numbers.”
Sir Sherard Cowper-Cowles: Britain’s Man on the Spot
Besides the Financial Times and other arms of the British media, Sir
Sherard Cowper-Coles, the Foreign Office’s special envoy to Pakistan
and Afghanistan, has become an advocate for introducing more U.S.
troops into the abyss known as Afghanistan. Cowper-Coles’ and his
fellow Empire-servers’ selling point to the Americans is that, with
the greater muscle and ruthlessness that America possesses, the war is
winnable. While London is lying to get Washington to go where it
wants, very few in Washington have the gumption to ask: What does
winning mean?
Cowper-Coles tries very hard to keep his British intelligence cover
intact. One of the myths that circulates in Britain is that high-level
intelligence officers do not become high-level diplomats, and for
sure, Sherard Cowper-Coles gets around in the world of diplomacy at a
very high level. But there are others who point out that there are
exceptions, and Cowper-Coles is one. It is said that such exceptions
are made when such an intelligence officer-cum-diplomat is posted in
sensitive places.
Cowper-Coles has been Ambassador to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and
Afghanistan. In February 2009 it was announced that he would be taking
up a new role as special representative of the U.K. Foreign Secretary
to Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, the old spook has earned
his bread. The move was facilitated by Foreign Secretary David
Miliband, another active servers of the British Empire.
Cowper-Coles had performed well on behalf of the empire-servers,
including Tony Blair and Buckingham Palace. He was the political
counselor in Paris during 1997-99. It was in August 1997 that Princess
Diana died in Paris under “mysterious circumstances,” forcing
Buckingham Palace to duck from one corner to another.
According to one report, the alleged MI6 roster showed that only three
Secret Intelligence ervice (SIS) officers were posted to Paris in
1997: Sherard Louis Cowper-Coles, Colin Roberts, and Richard David
Spearman. Cowper-Coles’ role—if any—in the morbid affair of Diana’s
death was never divulged.
Cowper-Coles earned kudos from Tony Blair when he was identified as
“the man” who was instrumental in getting the Serious Fraud Office to
abandon its investigation into the corrupt al-Yamamah arms-deal
scandal involving Britain’s BAE Systems, Saudi Princes Turki al-Faisal
and Bandar bin-Sultan, Wafik Said, kickbacks, prostitutes, and global
terror, including 9/11
(see EIR, June 22, 2007).
While he was in Afghanistan as British Ambassador, Cowper-Coles used
his fellow agents in an attempt to split the Taliban, which the Saudis
and the Brits created, in the 1990s, and each own a piece of (see last
week’s EIR). The project was exposed, when Afghan President Hamid
Karzai expelled two MI6 agents on Dec. 27, 2007, on charges that they
posed a threat to the country’s national security. An unnamed Afghan
government official told the London Sunday Telegraph that “this
warning,” that the men had been financing the Taliban for at least ten
months, “came from the Americans.
They were not happy with the support being provided to the Taliban.
They gave the information to our intelligence services, who ordered
the arrests.” Afghan government officials said the decision to expel
them was taken at the behest of the CIA, after the two agents were
caught funding Taliban units. One of the agents, Mervyn Patterson,
worked for the United Nations, while the other, Michael Semple, worked
for the European Union.
According to The Scotsman’s report, Afghan intelligence officials
discovered the plan—which would have established a training camp for
1,800 fighters and 200 low-level commanders, in an attempt to convince
them to switch sides—on a thumb-sized computer memory stick that they
seized Dec. 23, 2007, in Helmand province. The memory stick revealed
that about $126,000 had been spent preparing the camp, and about
$201,000 more was earmarked to run it in 2008.
On Dec. 26, 2007, Britain’s Daily Telegraph exposed the occurrence of
several clandestine meetings between Britain’s MI6 and the Taliban the
previous Summer. Afghan and British officials, guarded by heavily
armed British soldiers, partook in at least six high-level meetings
with Taliban commanders who sought to defect to the government.. The
chain of events that led to these secret meetings spawned from
Britain’s previous attempts at negotiations, nearly a full year prior,
in a dusty Afghan backwater called Musa Qala.
The London Times wrote that, when Patterson and Semple were arrested,
they had $150,000 with them, which was to be given to Taliban
commanders in Musa Qala. “British officials have been careful to
distance current MI6 talks with Taliban commanders in Helmand from the
expulsions of Michael Semple, the Irish head of the EU mission and
widely known as a close confidant of Britain’s ambassador, Sir Sherard
Cowper-Coles, and Mervyn Patterson, a British advisor to the UN,” the
Times wrote. But what has not been told, is that these two MI6 agents
were operating in Helmand, the center of Afghanistan’s vast opium
production.
Holbrooke’s ‘Mini-Me’: Bring Back the Raj
Cowper-Coles, in an exuberant speech where he identified himself as
Holbrooke’s “Mini-Me” (it is no coincidence that Holbrooke is pushing
for more troops in Afghanistan!), at the International Institute for
Strategic Studies (IISS) in London on Sep. 12, said “the simple pull-
out option is not one that any responsible govern-ment could follow,
nor is it one that any country that values its
relationship with the United States, above all with President Obama’s
America, could possibly contemplate in any responsible way. While
Obama remains committed, we remain committed.” Or, is it the other way
around, Sir Sherard?
He went on, “We must not forget the original reason why we are there,
to prevent those great tribal lands on both sides of the Durand Line
from ever again posing a threat to our national security.” He
recommended as a prerequisite, “an enduring long-term commitment that
involves financing training and monitoring the Afghans.”
In addition, he proposed decentralization of Afghan power in Kabul;
the provincial governors in Afghanistan “need to be given the means
through which to re-create local government in Afghanistan.” “Power
needs to be distributed away from Kabul to the people who actually
govern the country. We need to create shuras [administrative groups
led by tribal leaders] which will do dispute resolution, including
civil and criminal cases, and which will do security.”
Those in Washington who are aware of what Cowper-Coles is talking
about, would know that he is setting up the system that the British
Empire had used in the Indian subcontinent during its almost 200 years
of colonial rule, from the mid-18th to the mid-20th centuries. In the
British Raj, Britain maintained almost 550 princely states within
India, with the feudal lords as administrators.
The British would have a presence there for two basic reasons: to
collect a part of the revenue earned by that feudal lord annually, and
to train the feudal lord’s soldiers, so as to use them whenever the
British Raj had to fight a war, be that in Africa, the Middle East,
Asia or Europe.
More importantly, the prescription laid down by Cowper-Coles is
primarily to undermine the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan and lay a solid foundation for partition.
The same method, during the British Raj days, helped the colonials to
break up India, and keep the Kashmir dispute as a flashpoint between
the two newly born nations, India and Pakistan.
Another carrier of the British Empire’s sceptre, Daniel Korski of The
Spectator, made amply clear when he wrote on Sept. 4, the day British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the IISS, that “our tactics
clearly need a review. Britain and its allies should not try to build
a modern Weberian state in Kabul that has the monopoly on the use of
violence and a self-financing, service-providing administrative
apparatus. The task is to midwife a pre-Westphalian state that acts
against existential threats like al-Qaeda, but has to negotiate its
power, access and ability to deliver (limited) services with local
power-brokers” (emphasis added).
Finally, to expedite the break-up of Afghanistan, London is courting
the so-called moderate Taliban. In this, Cowper-Coles, besides
covertly training the Taliban in the drug-infested province of
Helmand, works with his fellow empire-server, David Miliband. On July
28, The Times Online reported Miliband’s assertion that it is time to
talk to the Taliban. “Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the former British
Ambassador to Kabul, advocated the policy soon after arriving in
Afghanistan in 2004. British diplomats and commanders were carrying it
out, albeit on a small scale, until the furious intervention of Hamid
Karzai, the Afghan President,” the article said
The Times Online concluded that “Mr Miliband is anxious to reassure
the public that there is ore to the Afghan campaign than the continued
slaughter of young British troops.” What the British news media did
not clarify, is what that “more to the Afghan campaign” really is. But
it is evident that “more to the Afghan campaign” means breaking up
Afghanistan by weakening Kabul and controlling the provincial
governors.
It is the same old-same old, British colonial policy.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kabul attack handiwork of enemies of Indo-Afghan ties: India
IANS 10 October 2009, 08:24pm IST
KABUL/NEW DELHI: Without naming Pakistan or its spy agency ISI, India
on Saturday said the attack on its embassy in Kabul earlier this week
was the
handiwork of the enemies of India-Afghan friendship and their "patrons
across the border".
Unfazed by the second such incident in 15 months, New Delhi also
reiterated its "unwavering commitment" to the reconstruction of
Afghanistan and its assistance to the Afghan people "in realising a
democratic, peaceful and prosperous" country.
"The attack was clearly the handiwork of those who are desperate to
undermine Indo-Afghan friendship and do not believe in a strong,
democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan," Indian Foreign Secretary
Nirupama Rao said in Kabul.
Expressing her "deep concern and revulsion" over the "barbaric and
cowardly attack," she stressed that the attack was "so clearly aimed
against the people of India and the people of Afghanistan and their
abiding friendship".
At least 17 people were killed and over 80 injured when a Taliban
suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near the Indian
embassy in Kabul Thursday morning. Barring three Indian paramilitary
personnel who were injured, all the other casualties were Afghans.
"The international community and indeed the people of Afghanistan face
a clear and present danger from the perpetrators of such wanton acts
of terrorism and their patrons residing across the border," Rao said
in a veiled reference to Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI).
The ISI was also suspected of having masterminded the July 7, 2008
attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed two Indian diplomats
in the first attack on an Indian mission abroad.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the claim
is widely seen as a ploy to distract attention from the ISI's alleged
involvement in the incident.
The Afghan foreign ministry said Thursday that "the attack was
orchestrated by the same group stationed outside Afghanistan that
planned and executed the first attack on the Indian embassy in July
last year".
Afghan Ambassador to the US Said T. Jawad has blamed the ISI for the
latest attack on the Indian embassy.
"Yes, we do," the Afghan envoy told the PBS news channel in an
interview when asked if he was pointing the figure at Pakistan for the
suicide bombing.
"We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based
on the evidence on the ground and a similar attack taking place in
Afghanistan," Jawad said.
While condemning the terrorist attack on the Indian embassy, it was
emphasised by the foreign secretary, on behalf of the government of
India, that the scourge of terrorism must be resolutely opposed,
resisted and overcome through undiluted commitment and effort by the
international community, India's external affairs ministry said in New
Delhi after Rao returned from her two-day trip to Kabul.
During her visit, Rao met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Foreign
Minister Dafdar Rangeen Spanta and National Security Advisor Zalmai
Rassoul. They assured her that the Afghan government "would do all in
its power to expeditiously investigate the dastardly attack and bring
to justice the perpetrators and those behind this attack".
They were unanimous in their view that the attack was carried out by
elements from outside Afghanistan seeking to damage the excellent
relations that exist between India and Afghanistan, the ministry said
about the meetings between Rao and top Afghan ministers and
officials.
Rao flew to Kabul Friday and inspected the chancery premises and its
surrounding areas to make an on-the-spot assessment of the devastation
caused by the blast.
She met the officers and staff of the Indian embassy, including the
members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBT) entrusted with
security of the mission. Two ITBP men had suffered shrapnel injuries
during the attack.
Rao complimented the ITBP men for their bravery, resoluteness and
dedication for working unflinchingly under such trying circumstances.
She assured them that the government will take all possible measures
to ensure their safety, security and welfare.
She also conveyed condolences to the families of around 17 Afghan
nationals killed in the attack, especially the families of the two
Afghan security personnel who died during the attack. She commended
their presence of mind and alertness which "prevented what could have
been a far greater tragedy".
India has pledged $1.2 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,
making it the sixth largest bilateral donor.
bademiyansubhanallah
Let's bombard Pakistan
Jug Suraiya Monday October 05, 2009
Not just India but the international community should immediately
bombard Pakistan. Not with missiles and bullets but with something
even more explosive: facts. Following near unanimous charges from
across the globe that it must shoulder responsibility for
international terrorism, Pakistan is whipping itself into a frenzy of
hysteria. In a total rejection of reality by resorting to violent
emotionalism it is like a child having a tantrum. That it is an
enraged child with nuclear weapons makes for an extremely dangerous
situation. To defuse the escalating tension, Pakistan has to be helped
to face reality.
And the reality is that far from being a victim of Indian war-
mongering, Pakistan is teetering on the brink of becoming a failed
state, largely because of its own internal contradictions: an on-and-
off (mainly off) democracy which is at odds with its own military and
intelligence establishment, widely held to be the biggest terror
exporting consortium in the world. The offer by the Taliban -- which
the Pakistani army is supposedly combating -- that it would side with
the armed forces in a war against India by sending 10,000 suicide
bombers across the border gives the lie to Islamabad's repeated claim
that there is no state-sponsored terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
(The Taliban offer is as bizarre as if the Naxal insurgents operating
in some 160 Indian districts were to volunteer to join forces with the
state they were fighting against to take on Pakistan, a fantasy
scenario that many might deem to be the best thing for all parties
concerned.)
Pakistan is not just politically but also financially bankrupt:
inflation is running at 25 per cent and the national coffers are so
depleted that there is only enough to keep the country going for two
weeks. Forget financing an exorbitant war; Pakistan can't even finance
peacetime without help from donor agencies like the IMF. In contrast,
the vital signs of India's democracy remain strong, as attested to by
the J&K polls which registered a record turnout, as notably distinct
from PoK where elections aren't held at all. Despite the global
downturn, the Indian economy, even accepting scaled-down projections,
is expected to chug along at a 6 per cent rate of growth. India is too
busy looking after its legitimate economic, political and social
concerns -- and these are many and varied -- to want, or to even think
seriously of, a war which would prove not just disastrous but
potentially suicidal for both countries.
These are the twin realities of India and Pakistan. How can Pakistan
-- the Pakistan of the common citizenry, if not that of the army and
the ISI -- best be made to see these realities? One way to bring a
belligerent Pakistan to heel is through the use of sanctions and
embargoes: cut off supplies of cash and goods and Islamabad would soon
fall into line. While all military aid -- which a wilfully oblivious
Washington keeps supplying in the fond hope that it will be used in
the so-called 'war on terror' and not against India -- should
certainly be stopped forthwith, it wouldn't be a good idea to cut off
the flow of civil supplies, a move which would only heighten
Pakistan's persecution complex that everyone is ganging up on it.
Driven into a corner, Pakistan with its history of proliferation,
could well take recourse to selling nuclear know-how and material on
the international grey market, with horrific repercussions.
What is needed is not a global shut-down on Pakistan but the exact
reverse: facilitating an opening-up of the country in terms of
informational input. Right now Pakistan is an ostrich with its head
deeply buried in the sand of misinformation created by its official
propaganda machine and by the more rabble-rousing elements in its
media. Through diplomatic pow-wows at different levels; through
exchange programmes of journalists, students, business people,
religious leaders; through television and the internet; through
meetings between the defence brass of the two countries, Pakistan
needs an infusion of information to help cure it of its delusional
disorder.
So by all means let's go Paki bashing. But bash them not with
firepower or military force, but with facts, which are bang on target.
chhotemianinshallah
Joint Statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Prime
Minister of Pakistan Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani
Sharm-el-SheikhJuly 16, 2009
The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Prime Minister
of Pakistan Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani met in Sharm El Sheikh on July 16,
2009.
The two Prime Ministers had a cordial and constructive meeting. They
considered the entire gamut of bilateral relations with a view to
charting the way forward in India - Pakistan relations.
Both leaders agreed that terrorism is the main threat to both
countries. Both leaders affirmed their resolve to fight terrorism and
to cooperate with each other to this end.
Prime Minister Singh reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators of
the Mumbai attacks to justice. Prime Minister Gilani assured that
Pakistan will do everything in its power in this regard. He said that
Pakistan hasprovided an updated status dossier on the investigations
of the Mumbai attacks and had sought additional information/evidence.
Prime Minister Singh said that the dossier is being reviewed.
Both leaders agreed that the two countries will share real time,
credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats.
Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on
threats in Balochistan and other areas.
Both Prime Ministers recognized that dialogue is the only way forward.
Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue
process and these should not be bracketed. Prime Minister Singh said
that India wasready to discuss all issues with Pakistan, including all
outstanding issues.
Prime Minister Singh reiterated India's interest in a stable,
democratic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Both leaders agreed that the real challenge is development and the
elimination of poverty. Both leaders are resolved to eliminate those
factors which prevent our countries from realizing their full
potential. Both agreedto work to create an atmosphere of mutual trust
and confidence.
Both leaders reaffirmed their intention to promote regional
cooperation.
Both Foreign Secretaries should meet as often as necessary and report
to the two Foreign Ministers who will be meeting on the sidelines of
the forthcoming UN General Assembly.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/11/01hdline.htm
bademiyansubhanallah
A file photo of Pak Army chief Gen Pervez Kiyani at a meeting in
military HQ in Rawalpindi. AP/PTI Photograph (1)
25 hostages freed; 4 terrorists killed in rescue bid
STAFF WRITER 7:23 HRS IST
Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Oct 11 (PTI) Commandos today stormed a building near
Pakistan's Army General Headquarters where a group of terrorists were
holed up, freeing 25 hostages and killing four gunmen, the chief
military spokesman said.
Nearly 20 hours after the terrorists launched an audacious attack on
the Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and took several
security personnel hostages, the commandos launched an operation to
eliminate the attackers.
Military Spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the commandos have
freed 25 hostages and killed four terrorists, including some who were
wearing suicide jackets. He said three of the hostages also died
during the operation.
Troops were conducting mopping up operations to check the presence of
other terrorists in the area.
Abbas did not give details about casualties among the troops who had
carried out the final assault.
bademiyansubhanallah
Pak's great game: Evict India from Afghanistan through terror
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN 11 October 2009, 12:13am IST
WASHINGTON: Afghanistan has boldly stepped up where even India has
been discreet in treading, bluntly accusing the Pakistani intelligence
agency ISI of masterminding the latest bombing of the Indian Embassy
in Kabul which killed 17 people.
"Yes, we do," Afghan Ambassador to the US Said Jawad told the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) in an interview here when asked if he was
pointing the figure at Pakistan for the suicide bombing that took
place on Thursday.
"We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based
on the evidence on the ground and similar attack taking place in
Afghanistan," Jawad said. He did not elaborate on the evidence.
Jawad was following up similar charges from Afghan officials in Kabul,
who were quick to identify Pakistani intelligence as the mastermind
even though India’s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was initially
circumspect in suggesting that New Delhi would let the investigations
take its course before reaching any conclusion.
The previous attack referred to by Jawad and other Afghan officials
was the bombing of the Indian Embassy in July 2008, which US officials
disclosed was conducted by the ISI-backed Haqqani network. That
network was heard being described by Pakistan’s army chief Pervez
Ashfaq Kiyani as Islamabad’s “strategic asset” in intelligence
intercepts, result in the suspicion in Washington and New Delhi that
Pakistani’s military-intelligence apparatus masterminded the attack on
the embassy. That attack killed 58 people, including a popular young
Indian diplomat and a senior military attaché.
On Saturday though, India’s Nirupama Rao also stepped up to the plate,
saying Thursday’s embassy attack was the handiwork of the enemies of
India-Afghan friendship and their "patrons across the border," but not
directly naming Pakistan.
"The attack was clearly the handiwork of those who are desperate to
undermine Indo-Afghan friendship and do not believe in a strong,
democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan," Rao, who has rushed to Kabul
for assessment, said, while reiterating India’s “unwavering
commitment” to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been pressing unsubtly with Washington that it resents
Indian presence in Afghanistan, where New Delhi has invested more than
$ 1.5 billion to build hospitals, school and other civil
infrastructure, while expanding its soft power influence.
Pakistan, in contrast, is now widely reviled in Afghanistan and is
regarded as the source of all its troubles, beginning with the
training and infiltration of the Taliban in the early 1990s to take
over Kabul after the eviction of the Soviet Union at the end of the
Cold War.
Getting Islamabad to unhitch its obsession with Afghanistan with the
idea of using it as “strategic depth” against India, whose ties with
Kabul pre-date Pakistan’s 1947 creation, is part of the Obama
administration’s long-term solution for the region.
But Pakistan has been insisting on its right to challenge Indian
presence in Afghanistan because of the perceived threat it poses.
Earlier this week, the Pakistani military high command issued a thinly-
disguised rebuff to US efforts, saying "Pakistan is a sovereign state
and has all the rights to analyse and respond to the threat in
accordance with her own national interests.” The embassy bombing took
place around the same time.
chhotemianinshallah
Mainstream, Vol XLVII, No 43, October 10, 2009
Challenge before the Democratic Forces
Editorial
Sunday 11 October 2009, by SC
As we go to press news has come of the Indian embassy in Kabul being
the target of a fresh terrorist attack. The attack took place this
morning (that is, on October 8) killing 17 persons and leaving more
than 80 injured. (Reports suggest that the casualty figures are
steadily mounting.)
Since August this is the fourth terror strike on major installations
in the Afghan capital. This attack eerily resembles the one that
rocked the same embassy building in July last year; more than 50
persons perished as a result (and they included four Indian nationals—
prominent members of the embassy staff as well as security personnel
on guard there). That attack, according to reliable sources in this
country, was masterminded by Pakistan’s ISI—an allegation made not
only by the Government of India but also the Afghan administration
headed by President Hamid Karzai. This time even before New Delhi
could point the accusing finger at Islamabad the Taliban has publicly
declared its responsibility behind the blast caused by a suicide
bomber blowing up his car outside the compound of the embassy. That is
quite striking as the ISI’s close links with the Taliban do not bear
repetition (and this despite the current clashes between the Taliban
and the Pakistani security forces in the tribal regions in the Afghan-
Pak border). However, it needs to be also pointed out that due to
heavy fortification of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital
carried out after the July 2008 explosion, this time the net effect of
the terror strike was less than what happened 15 months ago: no member
of the mission was either killed or injured although three ITBP
personnel guarding the building suffered minor injuries.
It is now learnt that because of India’s direct involvement in
Afghanistan’s national reconstruction efforts—several projects are
coming up in that country with Indian assistance—New Delhi would
continue to be target of terror outfits (some of which have been
fostered and promoted by the Pak intelligence network) totally opposed
to Afghanistan’s regeneration and hence modernisation.
Meanwhile India’s internal security remains under strain on account of
the Maoist depredations and the state’s response. The latest
development on this front has heightened legitimate concern. Only day
before yesterday (that is, on October 6) Jharkhand’s Special Branch
Inspector Francis Induwar’s body, along with his severed head, was
found near the Raisha valley under the Namkom P.S. about 12 km from
Ranchi—he was abducted some time ago by suspected Maoists, and this
gruesome killing is also suspected to be the handiwork of the Maoists.
This has shocked not only the people of Jharkhand but also citizens of
the entire country beyond measure, and human rights groups, vocally
protesting against both Maoist and state terror, have not hesitated to
roundly condemn with promptitude such activities on the part of those
claiming to defend the interests of the hapless people in the tribal
hinterland of Central India (precisely because such terror acts help
to legitimise the state’s counter-terror operations that would only
perpetuate the spiral of violence in the affected regions bringing
untold misery to the tribal population who are already the real
victims of this violence besides being subjected to unending age-old
deprivation and exploitation).
In the circumstances the authorities are hell-bent on going ahead with
their military operations against the Maoists in the tribal belt
without taking any political measure to tackle Maoism. (Such an
operation has already been launched in West Bengal’s Lalgarh although
those well aware of the ground reality know that this is not a Maoist
base even if Left-wing extremists have registered their presence there
of late.) This myopic approach, one is convinced from past experience,
will be counter-productive in the final analysis. As of now, Union
Home Ministry sources have grudgingly confessed that success has
eluded the security forces both in Lalgarh and Chhattisgarh (where too
the so-called Operation Green Hunt is underway). So it is difficult to
hazard any guess about what the actual outcome of such a strategy
would be and who (the security forces or the Maoists) would inflict
more damage on the adversary. But on one point there should be no
dispute: howsoever much the Central Ministers declare their intention
to minimise collateral damage, that damage cannot be avoided in such a
massive military operation and in that eventuality the country would
earn the permanent hostility of the tribals, the indigenous adivasis,
who are already alienated from the polity at large due to inhuman
neglect on the part of the powers that be.
According to latest reports, the Indian Air Force would be pressed
into service against the Maoists. Of course the Air Chief has
clarified that the IAF won’t be waging a war against the Maoists (in
deference to Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s aversion to such a step)
but would only open fire in self-defence. But does this also mean that
moves are afoot to escalate Operation Green Hunt?
Simultaneously, in West Bengal the State administration run by the CPM
is threatening with dire consequences those intellectuals who are
opposed to such military action against “Maoists” like Chhatradhar
Mahato. Mahato has never been in the thick of the Maoist movement but
has led a democratic and popular struggle against police atrocities in
Lalgarh. (Incidentally, he was arrested by such a devious method by
the police seeking to demean the noble profession of journalism that
would make any and every self-respecting journalist hang his/her head
in shame.)
All these pose a serious challenge before the country’s democratic
forces as a whole.
October 8 S.C.
Sid Harth
Politics of hatred grips Maharashtra hinterland
Krishna Kumar
Sangli (Maharashtra), October 10, 2009
Politics of hatred has cast its dark shadow over assembly elections in
Maharashtra's Sangli district.
A riot triggered by Muslim miscreants has led to the consolidation of
Hindutva forces here.
On September 3, a poster put up by a local Ganesh utsav mandal showing
Maratha warrior Shivaji slaying Mughal general Afzal Khan sparked a
riot, the wounds of which are fresh.
Some Muslim radicals in Miraj took objection to the poster that led to
stone throwing incidents in which Ganesh idols were damaged.
A month on, peace prevails, but political parties, especially the BJP,
are out to cash in on communal sentiments.
Suresh Khade, the BJP candidate from Miraj in Sangli, is not
campaigning in minority-dominated areas-he doesn't have to-and by all
accounts, would win hands down.
The riots have communally polarised the populace to such an extent
that a huge percentage of Hindus will vote for Khade. A similar
situation prevails in the Sangli seat where another BJP candidate
Sambhaji Pawar is sitting pretty knowing the polarisation will see him
through.
The Hindus are angry after the idols were vandalised. Many mandals
refused to immerse their idols till they were allowed to put up the
poster. But the administration did not budge and after more than a
week of stalemate, the police forced the mandals to immerse the idols.
To cash in on these sentiments, the saffron party is telling the
electorate to take 'revenge' on the Congress- NCP government for the
"humiliation". "The Muslims did not have any reason to be angry as the
poster was not against their community, yet they broke our idols and
the police and the government did nothing. Why should we vote for the
Congress-NCP?" asks Sanjay Kadam of Miraj.
Imran Ilyas Naikwadi, a social worker in Miraj, who also runs an NGO,
admits that a few criminals were involved in the stoning incident
which sparked off the violence.
"The situation could have been controlled, Muslims do not have a
problem with the poster, I repeat that it was some criminals who did
it and we went and apologised, but no one was ready to listen,"
Naikwadi adds.
He says the clashes were controlled the same day, but CDs and
photographs of the damaged idols began circulating which sparked riots
again on September 4. Naikwadi believes the situation will become
normal soon.
However, the BJP, which is assured of victory, is still talking of
"vengeance". Two nationallevel leaders have come to Miraj over the
past week and have been telling people to show their "anger" through
the ballot boxes.
Khade, however, justified BJP's campaigning. "The Hindus are bound to
be angry with the government for the way the whole issue was handled.
We are going to get benefit out of it as the people know we are a
Hinduvadi party," Khade says.
The saffron party and its rhetoric have led to a few parts of Sangli
and nearby areas like Kolhapur witnessing vandalising and looting of
shops and business establishments belonging to people of the minority
community.
In many villages, local Hindu outfits have told villagers not to
patronise shops belonging to Muslims. Areas like Kavte Piran,
Ichalganji (a textile town), Elavi and Kolhapur have seen Hindus
boycotting Muslim shops.
This 'economic blockade' appears to be the result of a systematic
campaign by radical Hindu outfits. For instance, immediately after the
riots, incendiary pamphlets were distributed freely among the Hindu
populace.
Sangli district collector acknowledged the pamphlets were distributed
but said they have been stopped.
Courtesy: Mail Today
chhotemianinshallah
VHP opposes gold plating of Lord Balaji temple
PTI Sunday, October 11, 2009 14:50 IST
Chennai: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) today appealed to the
administration of the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in
Tirumala near Tirupati to drop the work on gold plating of the outer
wall of sanctum sanctorum, saying it was "an intereference in the
religious nature" of the structures.
"There is a craze for covering temple walls and other structures with
gold. There is no religious sanction for these acts (as) it is the
willful desire of some politicians and individuals (to do so)," VHP
International Working President S Vedantam said.
In a letter to Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam (TTD) chairman
Adhikesavulu, he said covering temple walls with gold would damage the
inscriptions written on the walls and other places.
"There are invaluable treasures of our tradition and history behind
these inscriptions.. nobody demanded such an action. The total
destruction of ancient authentic records by this work is an
interference in the religious nature of the structure," he said.
"VHP appeals to stop the work by avoiding further damage to the
inscriptions," he said.
Late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had launched
the first phase of the gold plating project estimated to cost Rs.150
crore during the last Brahmothsavam festival.
chhotemianinshallah
Gangster Act slapped on VHP leaders in Ayodhya
PTI Friday, October 9, 2009 21:47 IST
Faizabad: Gangster Act was slapped on Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
leaders for trying to create communal tension and riots in the twin
cities of Ayodhya-Faizabad during Dusshera and Durga Puja for the past
two years.
A local court last evening, after hearing the investigating officer OP
Singh, ordered to frame VHP leaders under Gangster act. According to
police, Kesarwani and Gupta were running a gang that was involved in
criminal activities especially during festivals.
Police on October 2 had arrested Gyan Kesarwani, vice president of
area unit and Ashok Kumar Gupta another local VHP leader active in
Ayodhya and Faizabad. Faizabad senior superintendent of police RKS
Rathore told that since last two years, during Dusshera and Durga Puja
festivals, Kesarwani and his goons were trying to create communal
tension that may lead to communal riots.
"Last year and this year, during Ram Baraat, Ram Vivaah and Dusshera
ceremonies they tried to create communal riot by keeping peaces of
meat on the way of the passing procession," SSP added.
This time also some anti social elements on being incited by Kesarwani
and Gupta attacked a Muslim dominated locality of Kashmiri Mohalla,
and Rath Heveli ransacking the shops of minority community and
communally abused them trying to crate a riot type of situation,
police sources said.
chhotemianinshallah
Pak raises Kashmir at UN committee; India reacts strongly
PTI Sunday, October 11, 2009 13:26 IST
United Nations: Pakistan has raised the Kashmir issue at a UN
committee saying the "decolonisation agenda" of the world body would
be incomplete without resolution of the problem, drawing a strong
reaction from India which asserted that the state is its integral
part.
Speaking at a special committee of the General Assembly that addresses
the issue of decolonisation, Amjad Hussain B Sial, Pakistan's deputy
permanent representative to the UN, asked the international community
to support the Kashmiri people's "right to self-determination".
"The decolonisation agenda of the United Nations would be incomplete
without resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue," he said.
"Negation of the right to self-determination breeds discontent,
ignites conflicts and threatens peace and security. Unfortunately,
South Asia and Middle East have witnessed it directly," Sial said.
Countering the claims made by Sial, senior Indian diplomat Anupam Ray,
exercising his 'right to reply', said that Kashmir is an integral part
of India.
"Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and participates in
the democratic process of India," Ray said.
The Indian side maintained that Kashmir remained a bilateral issue."It
has always been a bilateral issue and should not be addressed in
multilateral fora," Ray noted.
Ray expressed regret that Pakistan had reverted to "language of the
past" and was "not addressing the crying need of the hour, which is
dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism and tacking the
perpetrators of terrorism".
Sial, in his speech yesterday, claimed that Kashmir was not an
integral part of India.
"The Security Council and the UN, in several resolutions, have
recognised it as disputed territory," he said, adding that the final
solution should be made in accordance with the "will" of the people
expressed through "free and fair plebiscite" conducted by the United
Nations.
Insisting that Jammu and Kashmir remained an "international issue",
Sial said Pakistan "reserves the right to refer this issue at the UN
as necessary".
The senior Pakistan diplomat also reaffirmed Islamabad's pledge to
work through peaceful means to resolve its differences with New Delhi
on the Kashmir issue, which is imperative for durable peace, stability
and progress in the region.
The Special Committee on Decolonisation was created in 1962 by the UN
General Assembly to support and monitor a resolution passed in 1960
that declared that all people have a right to self-determination.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kandhmal riots: US lawmakers seek action
Sandeep Mishra, TNN 12 October 2009, 12:00am IST
BHUBANESWAR: The ghost of last year's anti-Christian riots in Orissa's
Kandhmal district, which left over 40 dead and thousands homeless, is
back to haunt the state government with a group of American lawmakers
seeking action against those involved in the violence.
As many as 21 US lawmakers, led by Republican Trent Franks, have
written a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik expressing concern
over the alleged intimidation of the Christians in the communally-
divided region and the possibility of the perpetrators of the violence
going scot-free.
"Such attacks on the fundamental freedom of religion threaten not only
India's reputation for religious diversity, but also the very
stability of India's secular democracy," said a news agency report,
quoting the letter sent late last month.
"Given the recent experience with religiously inspired terrorism,
we're concerned that if Hindu extremists can act with impunity toward
religious minorities in India, these extremists and their ideologies
will begin to affect international security as well," it added.
The letter comes after the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) in August put India under its Watch List for the
"country's failure to protect the rights of religious minorities".
The letter hasn't gone down well with Hindu organisations. "Who're
they to interfere in Orissa's internal problems?"
Bajrang Dal leader Subash Chouhan asked, "How can anyone say that
Christians are the victims of violence at a time when bombs and
firearms are being seized from Christian rehabilitation camp?"
Hindu Jagaran Sammukhya Orissa chief Ashok Sahu, who unsuccessfully
contested the Kandhmal Lok Sabha seat in the recent polls, too,
objected to the letter. "On what basis have they written such a
misleading letter, if at all they have sent one? It’s uncalled for and
the US lawmakers have no role to play in Orissa matters," he said.
Even some Christian leaders have also taken exception to the latter.
‘‘The term Hindu extremists in the letter is unfortunate because we’ve
maintained that criminals have no religion and whatever happened in
August-September, 2008, was never the act of Hindus,’’ said Orissa
Minority Front president Swarupananda Patra. ‘‘Blaming Hindus doesn’t
make minorities happy, as they are aware of Hinduism’s secular tenant
which probably isn’t known to the US lawmakers.’’
bademiyansubhanallah
Have asked US to 'warn' India: Rehman Malik
PTI 11 October 2009, 07:09pm IST
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik says the US has
been told to "warn" India not to meddle in the country's affairs and
charged New Delhi with supplying "some kind of terrorism" in
Balochistan.
Malik claimed President Asif Ali Zardari has been raising the issue in
every forum he has been addressing.
"When talks with Director CIA were held we said very clearly that
India should be warned. Whatever we are seeing in Baluchistan we've
signatures that they are supplying some kind of terrorism and they
must stop it," he said.
During the meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his
Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, Malik Said, the issue of
Balochistan was raised.
"The proof is that the issue was there in the common communique (joint
statement) but later it was removed," he said.
"When Indian Prime Minister returned back there was pressure in Lok
Sabha. We don't know if there is super power in India which is not
allowing them to move ahead," Malik said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Political leadership taken into confidence on Kerry-Lugar bill: PM
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Monday
said he has taken the political leadership of the country into
confidence on the Kerry-Lugar bill, as he believed that there was a
remedy to every wrong. Regarding his marathon talk to political
leaders on Sunday about the Kerry-Lugar bill, the Prime Minister said
in his talks there was a unanimity of views on the matter.He said his
discussions were part of efforts to bring harmony among the political
leadership of the country and to seek the views of the political
leaders on the matter that was being discussed in the Parliament.
“I always feel that leadership is the opinion maker, even if they are
not in the parliament, they are opinion makers. I have taken everybody
into confidence and believe that Parliament is the forum where it
should be debated and a national consensus built and a national
response be given on this issue,” he told reporters at the Chaklala
Air Base, prior to his departure for a four-day visit to China to
attend the 8th SCO summit.
Prime Minister Gilani recalled his meeting with Senator Kerry at the
Foreign Relations Committee during his visit to Washington and said he
found him to be supportive and pro-Pakistan. He however said that
there were some reservations about certain clauses of the Kerry-Lugar
bill.
“But at the same time there are few problems which were discussed at
the level of Parliament and there was concern from some quarters as
well. And I think to every wrong there is a remedy, and Parliament is
the only forum where this thing should be debated,” Gilani said.
The Prime Minister said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will be
winding up the discussion on the bill at the Parliament and present
government’s point of view.
Prime Minister Gilani on Sunday telephoned leaders of various
political parties to take them into confidence on the Kerry-Lugar
Bill. The Prime Minister called Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif
and PML-F Chief Pir Pagara, PML-Q Chief Chaudhry Shujaat, PML-Q leader
Pervaiz Elahi, JUI-F Chief Fazlur Rehman, President ANP Asfandyar Wali
Khan, PTI Chief Imran Khan, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain, MQM leader Farooq
Sattar, MNA from FATA Munir Orakzai, Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Munawwar
Hassan and President of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan
Achakzai.
A high level meeting of the country’s top leadership on Saturday
discussed the implications and various aspects of Kerry- Lugar Bill
for Pakistan. It was decided that a national response to the Kerry-
Lugar Bill will be given at the conclusion of the debate in the
Parliament.
bademiyansubhanallah
Obama looks forward to receiving Manmohan Singh
Indo-Asian News Service
Washington, October 12, 2009
First Published: 10:25 IST(12/10/2009)
Last Updated: 10:29 IST(12/10/2009)
President Barack Obama has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is
making the first state visit of his presidency next month, that he
looks forward to receiving the Indian leader in Washington.
Obama also expressed concern over last week's attack on the Indian
embassy in Kabul in a telephone call to Manmohan Singh on Saturday,
returning a call from the prime minister to congratulate him on
winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
"Late on Saturday morning, President Obama returned Indian Prime
Minister Singh's phone call. Prime Minister Singh had called President
Obama on Friday to congratulate him on having won the Nobel Peace
Prize," the White House said in a statement.
"The president also underscored his concern for the attack on the
Indian embassy in Kabul and said that he looked forward to receiving
the prime minister in Washington later this year," the statement
said.
"The president expressed his appreciation for the call and
congratulations. He noted that he was humbled and grateful for having
received the Nobel, and that he saw it as a call to collective action
on shared challenges," the statement said.
Obama and his wife Michelle will host Manmohan Singh for his first
state dinner at the White House on November 24, described as "...an
important event" by his spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"I think it goes without saying that India is an important ally,"
Gibbs told reporters on Friday.
"And obviously we continue to be very engaged with the Indians to
bring about peace in obviously an important region of the world," he
said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Shaken but undeterred
Hindustan Times
October 11, 2009
First Published: 23:22 IST(11/10/2009)
Last Updated: 09:29 IST(12/10/2009)
The second suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy building in Kabul
is a stark reminder that few countries have as much at stake in the
present war in Afghanistan as India. There is a simple historical
fact: the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan coincided with the worst years
of the Kashmir insurgency. This was no coincidence. The Taliban
allowed militant groups to set up safe havens on Afghan soil and tap
the country’s heroin exports for funding. They also provided a
tangible example of how insurgents could use religion and rifles to
come to power. This was the earlier ‘Af-Pak’ equation, one that
allowed Pakistan to wage asymmetric warfare against India at little
cost. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no hard evidence that
if the present Taliban formation were to come to power, it would not
again convert Afghanistan into a hub of global terrorism.
While the embassy attacks and the killing of Indian workers in
Afghanistan are a reminder of the Taliban’s enmity, the truth is that
there are few countries where India has as strong a positive
association. Polls have shown that India is among the most favourite
nations with the Afghan public. In Afghanistan’s August election, both
of the main candidates saw India as a friend — a rare state of affairs
in South Asia. It is not as if India has a perfect record when it
comes to Afghanistan. For example, it made a poor decision to support
the Soviet invasion. Nonetheless, India has become the preferred land
of exile and nation of example for Afghan leaders.
Both realist and idealist motivations merge when it comes to India’s
interest in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, India’s own political and
strategic limitations mean it is reduced to a largely humanitarian
role in Afghanistan — and one fundamentally dependent on the United
States, eventually creating a stable and independent Afghan polity.
Which is all the more reason India must use every opportunity to
assert its Afghan role. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s decision to
fly to Kabul after the blast is a good gesture. But India should also
consider increasing its aid commitments and its paramilitary
deployments. Under no circumstances should those responsible for the
attacks come to believe that acts of terror will make India sacrifice
its national interest.
Sid Harth
Clean chit to Hafiz Saeed a setback for India: BJP
STAFF WRITER 18:30 HRS IST
New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) BJP today said a Pakistan court order quashing
cases against Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz
Saeed was a "big setback" to India's efforts to bring him to justice
and "proof" that Pakistan does not want to act against those behind
the attack.
"The Lahore High Court order today giving a clean chit to Hafiz Saeed
is proof that Pakistan does not want to take action against Mumbai
terror attack accused," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
He argued India had provided ample proof that the JuD Chief was the
mastermind of the 26/11 attacks but Pakistan still maintained that he
was not involved and presented this view in the court to help him go
free.
"This is a big setback to India's efforts. India should ensure that
either Pakistan hand over the 26/11 accused or take action against
them," Javadekar said.
Sid Harth
Pak court drops two anti-terror cases against Saeed
STAFF WRITER 17:10 HRS IST
By M Zulqernain
Lahore, Oct 12 (PTI) JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, the brain behind the
Mumbai attacks, today got a major reprieve from a Pakistani court
which ordered quashing of two cases against him under the anti-
terrorism law, triggering a sharp reaction from India which claims
there was enough evidence to nail him.
A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court said Saeed could not be
charged under the Anti-terrorism Act as his outfit was not banned in
the country.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said on several occasions that the
JuD has been banned, but official sources have told PTI that no formal
notification has been issued so far to proscribe the group.
Sid Harth
41 killed, 50 wounded in Pak suicide attack
STAFF WRITER 16:6 HRS IST
Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Oct 12 (PTI) A suicide bomber threw himself at a passing
para-military convoy near a crowded market killing 41 people and
wounding 50 in Shangla district in Pakistan's Malakand division, two
days after Taliban militants stormed the army headquarters in
Rawalpindi.
Witnesses said the suicide bomber blew himself up near a security
forces vehicle as it was passing through a security check post in the
market at Alpuri and most of the dead were civilian passers by.
The attack occurred close to a police station.
North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar
Hussain said 41 people, including six security personnel, were killed
in the blast. Police officials said over 50 people, including soldiers
and policemen, were injured.
"The condition of five of the injured security personnel was reported
to be serious," a local police official told private TV channel.
Sid Harth
India keen to bring peace and harmony with Pak: PM
STAFF WRITER 13:38 HRS IST
London, Oct 12 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that India
is keen to bring peace and harmony with Pakistan.
Singh stated this in a message to 'Pakistan-India Friendship Forum,
UK' on the occasion of the Eid and Diwali celebrations at the C and L
Country Club this weekend.
"We are very keen to bring peace and harmony between the two
countries," the Prime Minister said in the message.
Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his message to the Forum
Chairman Rajan Sehgal, said that his country will continue efforts to
bring the people of two sides closer.
He said people of both sides should realise the global changes taking
place around them. "We must prove the entire world that we are no more
'Third World' countries.
Sid Harth
'Punjab militants joining hands with Pakistani Taliban'
STAFF WRITER 15:33 HRS IST
M Zulqernain
Lahore, Oct 12 (PTI) Banned militant groups in Pakistan?s Punjab
province are gaining strength with every passing day after having
joined hands with the local Taliban who operate in the region with
ease, police officials have said.
Several members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jaish-e-
Mohammed (JeM) from southern Punjab, who fought in the Afghan war,
have tied up with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to carry out attacks
against important installations, the officials said.
"This Pashtun-Punjabi alliance of extremists was also behind the
attack on the army?s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi," a senior
Crime Investigation Department (CID) officer told PTI.
He was referring to an attempt by terrorists over the weekend to storm
the army?s headquarters. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack
while nine terrorists were gunned down by commandos.
Sid Harth
Nuclear physicist admits link to al-Qaeda plotters: Report
PTI Monday, October 12, 2009 15:35 IST
London: An internationally renowned nuclear physicist has admitted to
French investigators that he acted as an al-Qaeda "mole", the media
reported today quoting French judicial sources.
A picture began to emerge over the weekend of Adlene Hicheur, 32, who
works at the "Big Bang" hadron collider on the Swiss-French border,
and who is likely to be formally accused today of having "links with a
terrorist organisation".
However, his brother, Zitouni Hicheur, 25, who was arrested with him
last Thursday at their parents' home just south of Lyon, has been
released, The Independent newspaper reported.
Investigators believe the elder brother, who has worked on high-level
nuclear research projects in Britain and the United States, acted
alone when he sent e-mails to Algerian members of al-Qaeda and listed
potential terrorist targets in France.
The experiment where he worked is one of a series of research projects
along the 17-mile (27-kilometre) circular tunnel under the Swiss-
French border.
chhotemianinshallah
Lahore HC orders quashing of two terror cases against Saeed
Posted: Monday , Oct 12, 2009 at 1954 hrs
A Pakistani court on Monday ordered quashing of two cases under an
anti-terrorism law against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, blamed by India
for masterminding 26/11 attacks, saying he could not be charged under
the act as his outfit was not banned in the country.
A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court issued the order in
response to a petition filed by Saeed last month in which he had
challenged two First Information Reports registered against him by
police in Faisalabad city of Punjab province under the Anti-Terrorism
Act.
Police had booked him for allegedly inciting people to wage 'jehad'
against infidels and seeking funds for the JuD during speeches he made
in Faisalabad in August.
However, Justices Asif Saeed Khosa and Najamuz Zaman pointed out that
since the JuD had not been included in the list of banned
organisations under the first schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act,
Saeed could not be charged under the law. The court admitted Saeed's
petition and ordered the quashing of the two FIRs. During the hearing,
the counsel for the Punjab government acknowledged that the JuD was
not in the list of banned terrorist groups. He said the JuD was only
included in the government's watch list after the UN Security Council
declared it a terrorist organisation last year.
Saeed's lawyer A K Dogar told the court that his client was a "law-
abiding" citizen. Neither Saeed nor the JuD is involved in any illegal
activities, he claimed.
Saeed had also alleged in his petition that the two FIRs were
registered against him due to pressure on Pakistan from India.
Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, was placed
under house arrest in December last year after the UN Security Council
imposed restrictions on the JuD. He was freed on the orders of the
Lahore High Court in June. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said on
several occasions that the JuD had been banned, but official sources
have said that no formal notification has been issued so far to
proscribe the group.
Comments |
Government Pls Act on your onw
By: Bhanu | Monday , 12 Oct '09 18:40:04 PM
Our central Govt never takes decisions or acts on their own. First
they wait for US to persuade or pressurise Pak to arrest or accept
that the terrorist is an Pak person. Then they wait for Pak Govt to
arrest and bring that personto court. after all waiting this would be
the result.its shame to have such a fools being elelcted by us...
See no evil, say no evil, hear no evil
By: Jati S Hoon | Monday , 12 Oct '09 18:28:10 PM
It is not a crime to kill and make war on,"INFIDELS"' says Pakistan
Lahore high court judges.After all Pakistan was created to get rid off
all non-believers, hence we the Pakistan highest judiciary is
upholding the law.
Attack Pakistan
By: Afroz khan | Monday , 12 Oct '09 18:07:36 PM
Wake up Manmohan singh; its high time India shud attack pakistan get
this Hafiz Sayed
Professor
By: T.M.Vinod Kumar | Monday , 12 Oct '09 17:54:31 PM
Hafiz Mohd Saeed is the best asset of Pakistan foreign policy to
mobilse money, train the illiterate and the poor with the help of
Pakistan army and ISI and motivate Jehadees to kill innocent people
and themselves for money in the name of allah. Therefore Saeed's
atrocities, barbarism and criminal activities are beyond laws of
Pakistan. Islam is a religion of peace. Goal of islam and that of
Saeeds are poles apart. Is he a true muslim?. It is people like Saeed
who had made every muslims world over a suspicious individual.Saeeds
biggest contribution is to give followers of peace, muslims a label of
potential terrorist.
History repeats
By: Dr. Ahmed | Monday , 12 Oct '09 17:44:48 PM
History repeats. Pakistan Govt did not register any case against the
mass killer as India Govt did not register any case again mass Killer
Bajrang Dal, Shive sena in 92-93 Mumbai riot. India Govt introduced
Anti Muslim Act (TADA) to selectively arrested Muslims and hanged
Muslims legally to put an example for Muslims to understand that mass
killing for Bal Thackeray, Shive sena, Bajrang Dal is okayin India but
mass killing for Dowd Ibrahim, Tiger Menon likes Muslims is NOT okay.
When it comes to Hindu there is no enough evidence to register a case
BUT for Muslims there is everything to register case and to prove
Muslim a mass killer.
Wholesale Merchant of Death
By: Iquebal Ahmed | Monday , 12 Oct '09 17:27:33 PM
Merchant of death, sorry, the wholesale merchant of death from the
otherside of the subcontinent. He is among the protected species there
like we have our own here. The greatest loser in the evil games of
this world is the humanity. God told angels ' I am putting a deputy on
earth', they said 'How can You put someone who will cause damage and
bloodshed.' Man was never in peace with his surroundings. History of
mankind provides ample evidence to this fact. And this is never going
to end.
Lahore H.C orders quashing of terror cases against Hafiz sayeed...
By: D.A.Srinivasan | Monday , 12 Oct '09 17:09:18 PM
Sir, it looks Pak has not charged the terrorist Sayeed of terrorism
committed by him against india with evidence given by india.It looks
as thought the Pakis have kept the evidence furnished by india under
the carpet and charged Sayeed of terrorism without producing material
evidence furnished by india.Our Police India are also aware of such
tactics and use it to save very influential persons from the acts of
crime. Pakis have not done anything new.India should now bring
pressure on Pakis through all means available with us to corner Pakis
in the international scenario.We can not solely dependent on U.S.There
are other means available to hurt Pakis interest.I hope our Govt will
take corrective actions to see that Pak is punished for the crime
committed by them through their terror groups and the I.S.I since pak
is aware that India can not resort to military action for obvious
reason.
Terror from pakistan
By: abraham | Monday , 12 Oct '09 16:42:49 PM
India is not Pakistan.We have many thing to loose if jump into
conclusion and act blindly. Whereas pakistan is a country which is
going to disintegrate shortly and devastated by themself. Until then
guard our territory and people and keep watching.
Saeed out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By: SVS Subrahmaniam | Monday , 12 Oct '09 16:42:12 PM
It is not unexpected! Pakistan does not bother or care for India
whether with UPA government or NDA government. Indira Gandhi again
should born who liberated East Pakistan now to liberate West Pakistan!
PM Wake up and take a bold step
By: freddie (Indian) | Monday , 12 Oct '09 16:36:48 PM
Indian Govt is nothing but a puppet this as been known to the world.
Well I would like to asked our PM that are you stupid or an idiot who
want to talk to pakistan for peace. If that is the case then why it is
taking so long almost 60 years. Either it looks like inspite of
fighting 3.2/2 war in the past 60 years, pakistan have never learnt a
lesson is this because we have a week govt or is that we ourself
corrupt. We do not need to compare ourself with pakistan when you come
yourself with a small state then your thinking also will be small. Why
is Indian politican who do not consider a open poll and asked the
public what they want from pakistan after 26/11 and you will Mr.PM
what message you will get. It looks like our PM is living in a fools
paradise not only fooling the Indian public but the entire world.
America want India to go to war with Pakistan so that they can sell
their arms, Is that true Mr.Obama, world knows that the recession was
only in USA and UK.
Hafeez Said
By: Sunil Sinha | Monday , 12 Oct '09 15:51:40 PM
Pakistan is a country where "jehadist" rule. The day is not far when
"war lords" will be ruling this country. The 7.5 billion dollars aid
with conditions from Kerry Lugar bill to Pakistan, will not and never
be used improve its economy, and will not and never dismantle terror
organizations operating on its land. No matter how much Pakistan is an
ally to United States in war against terror, but it will work in
reverse.
Dismissing terror FIR against
By: Surjeet | Monday , 12 Oct '09 15:42:29 PM
Is it FIR on Terror or anti terror!!Anyway, this is nothing new. All
of us except the Govt. know that Pakistan keeps buying time till
everyone around gets tired and gives up.And yet our PMji never learns,
The reason is simple, as our Govt also does not want to do anything,
Pak. tactics probably suits them.T~what else could be the reason of so
much of trust on Pak.'Each time Pak. takes (as expected) action, each
time Govt. comes back to us just to say how bad Pak is!!This is shere
India Govt. failure,Mark my word nothing at all will happen to
Saeed.Then, as a next step we shall ask the USA to do something!! The
USA will not take any action at our behest. There way of looking at
things and ours may be totally different. We have to decide what
action we have to take, not the USA.
JuD Chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed IS I.S.I SPONSERED TERRROIST LEADER
By: n.r.i | Monday , 12 Oct '09 17:02:25 PM
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO THIS DESH POT LEADER OF JuD Chief Hafiz Mohd
Saeed WHO IS WELL TRAINED I.S.I. TERROR LEADER WHO KNOWS THE WORKING
OF PAKI. ARMY AND I.S.I.EVEN AMERICAN IS TRYING TO PROTECT THIS
TERRORIST WHO IS WORKING AGAINST INDIAN INTEREST AND NOT AMERICAN .
FOR GOD SAKE PLEASE TELL INDIAN GOVERMENT OFFICAILS TO STOP RUNNING TO
PATHETIC COUNTRY LIKE AMERICA FOR HELP . THEY HAVE NEVER - WILL NOT
AND IS NEVER GOING TO HELP INDIA . SO STOP FOOLING YOUR SELF AND
INDIAN PUBLIC .