All of us know that Ramayana is all about Sri Rama’s story.
Kaikeyi asked for boons ordaining Rama to go to the forest, Sita humbly following Him, her falling in love with a deer, Ravana taking her away, Rama waging a war with Ravana and eventually getting Sita back.
Beyond this, Ramayana is a great benefit to our everyday life too. How? If we read Ramayana carefully, chapter by chapter, we can realize the import of the story in our daily life, as conveyed by the great Maharshi.
The first part of the epic talks about a prosperous Ayodhya. The overflowing Sarayu river, the abundance of grains, the devoted king and the devoted subjects, the affluence of the people – all these signifying a wealthy and prosperous land of Ayodhya is clearly depicted.
One day, Dasharata addressed the masses and expressed his wish to crown Rama and retire from his regal duties. The citizens rejoiced. Rama was then informed about the crowning ceremony scheduled for the following day. The whole city was agog with this happy news – decorations and preparations for the crowning ceremony were on.
Hearing this news, Kaikeyi’s aide, Manthara (Kuni) rushed to Kaikeyi ‘Hey! Did you hear that Kausalya’s son Rama is going to be crowned?’
Kaikeyi, being a noble person at heart immediately gifted her with a necklace. ‘Rama is like my own son! I love him even more than Bharata. What difference does it make crowning Rama or Bharata?’
Manthara said, ‘Oh! My dumb Mistress! Don’t you realize that if Rama becomes the king, even Kausalya’s servants will disrespect you? You will be trampled once Rama is crowned. Bharata will be doomed!’ Saying thus, she poisoned Kaikeyi’s mind so much so that the latter merely submitted to her - ‘What should I do now?’
Manthara said ‘Long ago, when you assisted Dasharata in a war, he granted you two boons. Exercise them! One, let Bharata be crowned. Two, have Rama exiled for 14 years.’
Kaikeyi was ready to ask these boons.
That night, when Dasharata came to her harem, she lay there as if in abject misery. As instructed by Kuni, she asked Dasharata for the two promises. It was a blow to the king.
Dasharata pleaded with her to take back her request. He beseeched her, ‘Let Bharata rule. But don’t separate Rama from me. You know I can’t live without him.’ Kaikeyi was stubborn. Begging with Kaikeyi all through the night, Dasharata was completely wrecked by grief and swooned.
At dawn, Kaikeyi summoned Rama and explained Dasharata’s promise to her. ‘Your dad has given me a word that you shall go to the forest!’ she said.
If we read this part of the story, we find that the whole town was plunged into grief. Rama leaves for the forest and the entire Ayodhya follows him. Wails of sorrow sound in every home and there is inauspiciousness all over. The queens Kausalya and Sumitra wail, Vasishta cries, the whole kingdom is in tears as they see Sita following Rama to the forest.
As Rama leaves the kingdom, he halts on the bank river Sarayu for the night. The citizen who have followed him, lie down to sleep. Rama sheds tears seeing their pitiable plight – Such a flourishing and happy kingdom as Ayodhya now bears a deserted and orphaned look! The scene is now transformed into a gloomy one. There is inauspiciousness all over. The king, who ruled for 60,000 years, passes away. The queens are widowed. Bharata renounces the kingdom and is disturbed because of the false blame on him.
In a moment, the whole scenario has turned topsy-turvy. Who is the reason behind this? Is it God? Fate? The king’s misconduct? No! It is thanks to the woman with a hunchback (Kuni) named Manthara.
Introducing an insignificant character called Manthara, Valmiki shows how she could cause a whole kingdom, its king, princes and everyone to crash.
Any organization or setup should be wary of the fact that it could be shaken to its roots by sinister designs of even lowly employee from an insignificant corner.
This important management precept which is a part and parcel of our everyday life is being eloquently taught to us by Ramayana.
Regard
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
A nuclear Talibanistan?
Our view of Pakistan's role in the Afghanistan war has undergone an ominous but necessary series of shifts. At the outset of the war in October 2001, Pakistan correctly was seen as a necessary ally - both politically and geographically - as the primary conduit for our entry and lines of communication into Afghanistan.
Over the years, we came to understand that Pakistan's intelligence service was playing a double game - helping us, but also supporting the Taliban, while Pakistan's northern area had become a safe haven for both the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Thus, Pakistan came to be seen as part of the problem that the Obama administration reasonably has taken to calling the “AfPak” war. Gen. David H. Petraeus told a Senate committee that he saw Pakistan and Afghanistan as “a single theater.”
Now another perception shift is starting to take hold: The increasing instability of the Pakistani government makes Pakistan - more than Afghanistan - the central challenge of our AfPak policy.
Last week, David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer who was Gen. Petraeus' senior counterinsurgency strategist and is now a consultant to the Obama White House, said Pakistan could collapse within months.
“We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses, it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we're calling the war on terror now,” he said.
Mr. Kilcullen said time was running out for international efforts to pull both countries back from the brink. “You just can't say that you're not going to worry about al Qaeda taking control of Pakistan and its nukes ... the Kabul tail was wagging the dog,” he said.
Afghanistan was a campaign to defend a reconstruction program. “It's not really about al Qaeda. Afghanistan doesn't worry me. Pakistan does,” Mr. Kilcullen said. He said maybe we can manage Afghanistan and Richard Holbrooke can cut an international deal, but there is also a chance that Washington will fail to stabilize Afghanistan, Pakistan will collapse and al Qaeda will end up running what he called “Talibanistan.”
“This is not acceptable. You can't have al Qaeda in control of Pakistan's missiles,” he said.
“It's too early to tell which way it will go. We'll start to know about July. That's the peak fighting season ... and a month from the Afghan presidential election.”
Gen. Petraeus himself recently said that “extremists ... pose a truly existential threat to [Pakistan].”
The radical Islamist threat to the already weak and unstable Pakistani government has become acute because of reconciliation of former adversaries: Mullah Omar (leader of the Taliban fighters who have left Afghanistan for their new stronghold in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province) and Baitullah Mehsud (leader of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan) .
According to last week's Der Speigel, “In late February, flyers written in Urdu turned up in the Pakistani-Afghan border region announcing the formation of a new platform for jihad. The Shura Ittihad-ul Mujahideen (SIM), or Council of United Holy Warriors, declared that the alliance of all militants had been formed at the request of Mullah Omar and [Osama] bin Laden.
”There is a new quality to this .... These groups are now the Pakistani face of al Qaeda,” the German newsmagazine reported.
The problem is that the united radical Islamists are expanding the combat zone inside Pakistan, threatening the state itself. Our drone attacks on the united Taliban (and al Qaeda) are driving the radicals deeper into Pakistan, including its major cities. Also, the attacks inevitably also kill Pakistani women and children (or are claimed by the radicals to have done so), which serves as a recruiting tool for new jihadists.
Thus Mr. Kilcullen was quoted by Der Speigel: “I am against the drone attacks. Even if we could kill half of the al Qaeda leaders, what does it help us if we cause an uprising by the population of Pakistan?”
Mr. Kilcullen's quote raises the strong inference that because the Obama administration has increased the George W. Bush administration's level of drone attacks into Pakistan and Gen. Petraeus' top counterinsurgency adviser publicly opposes the attacks, there must be a major policy fight going on within the administration.
Military strategy disputes are understandable. We have no good choices. Because of the overstretched condition of our military, we have too few troops available to deal with Pakistan, which itself has an active and reserve military manpower of 1.4 million.
Yet Pakistan's military seems insufficient to deal with the radical Islamists. After the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in the middle of Pakistan, seized an emerald mine to help finance their war with America and Pakistan, and established Shariah law, the Pakistani government was so weak it accepted a cease-fire with Maulana Fazlullah, a local thug and terrorist.
With our own Army too small, our NATO allies unwilling to help and Gen. Petraeus' senior counterinsurgency adviser worried that the Taliban and al Qaeda may be able to take over nuclear Pakistan, we are left with a policy of temporizing and crossing our fingers.
Tony Blankley is the author of “American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century” and vice president of the Edelman public relations firm in Washington.
Over the years, we came to understand that Pakistan's intelligence service was playing a double game - helping us, but also supporting the Taliban, while Pakistan's northern area had become a safe haven for both the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Thus, Pakistan came to be seen as part of the problem that the Obama administration reasonably has taken to calling the “AfPak” war. Gen. David H. Petraeus told a Senate committee that he saw Pakistan and Afghanistan as “a single theater.”
Now another perception shift is starting to take hold: The increasing instability of the Pakistani government makes Pakistan - more than Afghanistan - the central challenge of our AfPak policy.
Last week, David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer who was Gen. Petraeus' senior counterinsurgency strategist and is now a consultant to the Obama White House, said Pakistan could collapse within months.
“We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses, it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we're calling the war on terror now,” he said.
Mr. Kilcullen said time was running out for international efforts to pull both countries back from the brink. “You just can't say that you're not going to worry about al Qaeda taking control of Pakistan and its nukes ... the Kabul tail was wagging the dog,” he said.
Afghanistan was a campaign to defend a reconstruction program. “It's not really about al Qaeda. Afghanistan doesn't worry me. Pakistan does,” Mr. Kilcullen said. He said maybe we can manage Afghanistan and Richard Holbrooke can cut an international deal, but there is also a chance that Washington will fail to stabilize Afghanistan, Pakistan will collapse and al Qaeda will end up running what he called “Talibanistan.”
“This is not acceptable. You can't have al Qaeda in control of Pakistan's missiles,” he said.
“It's too early to tell which way it will go. We'll start to know about July. That's the peak fighting season ... and a month from the Afghan presidential election.”
Gen. Petraeus himself recently said that “extremists ... pose a truly existential threat to [Pakistan].”
The radical Islamist threat to the already weak and unstable Pakistani government has become acute because of reconciliation of former adversaries: Mullah Omar (leader of the Taliban fighters who have left Afghanistan for their new stronghold in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province) and Baitullah Mehsud (leader of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan) .
According to last week's Der Speigel, “In late February, flyers written in Urdu turned up in the Pakistani-Afghan border region announcing the formation of a new platform for jihad. The Shura Ittihad-ul Mujahideen (SIM), or Council of United Holy Warriors, declared that the alliance of all militants had been formed at the request of Mullah Omar and [Osama] bin Laden.
”There is a new quality to this .... These groups are now the Pakistani face of al Qaeda,” the German newsmagazine reported.
The problem is that the united radical Islamists are expanding the combat zone inside Pakistan, threatening the state itself. Our drone attacks on the united Taliban (and al Qaeda) are driving the radicals deeper into Pakistan, including its major cities. Also, the attacks inevitably also kill Pakistani women and children (or are claimed by the radicals to have done so), which serves as a recruiting tool for new jihadists.
Thus Mr. Kilcullen was quoted by Der Speigel: “I am against the drone attacks. Even if we could kill half of the al Qaeda leaders, what does it help us if we cause an uprising by the population of Pakistan?”
Mr. Kilcullen's quote raises the strong inference that because the Obama administration has increased the George W. Bush administration's level of drone attacks into Pakistan and Gen. Petraeus' top counterinsurgency adviser publicly opposes the attacks, there must be a major policy fight going on within the administration.
Military strategy disputes are understandable. We have no good choices. Because of the overstretched condition of our military, we have too few troops available to deal with Pakistan, which itself has an active and reserve military manpower of 1.4 million.
Yet Pakistan's military seems insufficient to deal with the radical Islamists. After the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in the middle of Pakistan, seized an emerald mine to help finance their war with America and Pakistan, and established Shariah law, the Pakistani government was so weak it accepted a cease-fire with Maulana Fazlullah, a local thug and terrorist.
With our own Army too small, our NATO allies unwilling to help and Gen. Petraeus' senior counterinsurgency adviser worried that the Taliban and al Qaeda may be able to take over nuclear Pakistan, we are left with a policy of temporizing and crossing our fingers.
Tony Blankley is the author of “American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century” and vice president of the Edelman public relations firm in Washington.
An Unconscionable Act
The news reports of the Supreme Court appointed SIT’s charges against a leading activist, Teesta Setalvad are truly disturbing. She is charged with adding morbidity to the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat by “cooking up macabre tales of killings”. One has to see the full SIT report to come to terms with how grievous the charges are. On the face of it the SIT is credible. But by all news accounts Teesta Setalvad has done the cause of justice irreparable harm. And her actions, as described, will undermine the capability of civil society to have any imprimatur of impartiality in investigating riot cases.
If true, she has not only done deep disservice to the victims of the Gujarat riots; she has also undermined the credibility of so-called secular interlocutors. It confirms the suspicion many have, that often those speaking in the name of secularism do not subscribe to the very values they claim to be fighting for: truth, justice, impartiality and the rule of law. Their secularism is in the service of beating down opponents rather than discovering the truth. “Tutoring witnesses”, concocting horror stories in a politically charged situation is a serious crime; of a piece with what the supposedly “bad” guys do. After all, their politics depends upon falsely whipped-up paranoia, tampering with the system of justice, engaging in a pornography of violence and having scant regard for the truth. The fact that this is done in the name of victims, for a supposedly just cause, does not excuse it. It makes it worse.
This story should have been a big front page story. It deserves much more coverage and discussion. Of course, this is not the first time Teesta Setalvad’s role has come under the scanner. Her role in the Zahira Sheikh case was a matter of some concern, and there has been a widespread perception in legal struggles that her advocacy sometimes makes the cause of justice more, not less difficult. One cannot speculate about the circumstances under which she engaged in this self undermining rhetorical overkill. On the face of it, it was all so needless. The events in Gujarat were horrific enough -- there was no need to spoil the case with appalling falsehoods.
The good news is that in the case of Gujarat, at least some wheels of justice are turning. But the SIT’s findings against Teesta Setalvad are a salutary reminder, that the rule of law and the cause of truth should not be allowed to be subordinated to any ideology: communal or secular.
If true, she has not only done deep disservice to the victims of the Gujarat riots; she has also undermined the credibility of so-called secular interlocutors. It confirms the suspicion many have, that often those speaking in the name of secularism do not subscribe to the very values they claim to be fighting for: truth, justice, impartiality and the rule of law. Their secularism is in the service of beating down opponents rather than discovering the truth. “Tutoring witnesses”, concocting horror stories in a politically charged situation is a serious crime; of a piece with what the supposedly “bad” guys do. After all, their politics depends upon falsely whipped-up paranoia, tampering with the system of justice, engaging in a pornography of violence and having scant regard for the truth. The fact that this is done in the name of victims, for a supposedly just cause, does not excuse it. It makes it worse.
This story should have been a big front page story. It deserves much more coverage and discussion. Of course, this is not the first time Teesta Setalvad’s role has come under the scanner. Her role in the Zahira Sheikh case was a matter of some concern, and there has been a widespread perception in legal struggles that her advocacy sometimes makes the cause of justice more, not less difficult. One cannot speculate about the circumstances under which she engaged in this self undermining rhetorical overkill. On the face of it, it was all so needless. The events in Gujarat were horrific enough -- there was no need to spoil the case with appalling falsehoods.
The good news is that in the case of Gujarat, at least some wheels of justice are turning. But the SIT’s findings against Teesta Setalvad are a salutary reminder, that the rule of law and the cause of truth should not be allowed to be subordinated to any ideology: communal or secular.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Is punishment necessay for discipline?
WITH recent instances of corporal punishment stirring up a hornet’s nest, the issue has hit a raw nerve. While it is true that corporal punishment cannot be used as a means to enforce discipline in a civilised society, there are questions that, perhaps, need to be addressed.
How do you handle a classroom when you have 70 students to take care of ? Even one rowdy or disobedient student can cause enough disruption to ruin a class. In such cases what are the ‘classroom guidelines’ that a teacher should go by?
Most educators feel that punishment and discipline doesn’t go hand-in-hand. Instead, it can be achieved by re-enforcing positive qualities in children.
To start with, Lilly Vishwanathan, advocacy manager, project on corporal punishment, Plan India, feels that there is a need to foster a primarily pro-active attitude, empathy from teachers, encouragement techniques and so on — both at the adult level and in adult-student relations.
However, most teachers admit that initially they warn students, but when things get out of hand, they are forced to take ‘action.’
Monika Chopra, a PGT in chemistry from N C Jindal School, Punjabi Bagh, says, “We have a system where we write a note for parents in students’ diaries. Once the student gets three remarks in his/her diary, the parents are called. They, along with the teacher, talk to the child and arrive at a solution.”
Sharing an instance of good practices, Chopra cites an example of a class IX student, “This child was indisciplined and never followed instructions in class. We could figure out that he had a strong desire for stage and public speaking. So, we made him the class mo nitor as well as the house prefect. This worked and we saw a marked improvement in his behaviour and academic performance.”
On the other hand, Deepak Dahiya, a teacher with the Delhi Government School, Roop Nagar, says punishment may be necessary. He says, “I do believe in punishing students to ensure discipline, but one should know where to draw the line. Since our students are first generation learners, we have to teach them everything — behavioural issues, discipline and learning.” He adds, “But once I have punished them, I use various therapies to help the child understand why I punished him, so that he doesn’t repeat it again.”
TIPS FOR BUILDING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHILDREN
Teachers can use a variety of strategies to build positive relations hips with children and prevent violence within the school environment. To do so, they can:
• Listen to children and encourage them to listen to others
• Teach with enthusiasm. Students engaged in work that is challenging, informative, and rewarding are less likely to get into trouble
• Set norms for behaviour in the classroom and refuse to permit violence. Learn and teach conflict resolution and anger management skills
• Invite parents to talk about and share their children’s progress and any concerns they have
• Encourage and sponsor student-led anti-violence activities and programmes ranging from peer education, Bal Panchayats, and mediation to mentoring and training
• Work with school authorities, parents and children to develop and implement a `Safe School Plan,’ including how teachers and other school staff should respond in emergencies
• Enforce school policies that seek to reduce the risk of violence.Take responsibility for areas outside, as well as inside, your classroom
• Encourage students to report crimes or activities that make them suspicious
How do you handle a classroom when you have 70 students to take care of ? Even one rowdy or disobedient student can cause enough disruption to ruin a class. In such cases what are the ‘classroom guidelines’ that a teacher should go by?
Most educators feel that punishment and discipline doesn’t go hand-in-hand. Instead, it can be achieved by re-enforcing positive qualities in children.
To start with, Lilly Vishwanathan, advocacy manager, project on corporal punishment, Plan India, feels that there is a need to foster a primarily pro-active attitude, empathy from teachers, encouragement techniques and so on — both at the adult level and in adult-student relations.
However, most teachers admit that initially they warn students, but when things get out of hand, they are forced to take ‘action.’
Monika Chopra, a PGT in chemistry from N C Jindal School, Punjabi Bagh, says, “We have a system where we write a note for parents in students’ diaries. Once the student gets three remarks in his/her diary, the parents are called. They, along with the teacher, talk to the child and arrive at a solution.”
Sharing an instance of good practices, Chopra cites an example of a class IX student, “This child was indisciplined and never followed instructions in class. We could figure out that he had a strong desire for stage and public speaking. So, we made him the class mo nitor as well as the house prefect. This worked and we saw a marked improvement in his behaviour and academic performance.”
On the other hand, Deepak Dahiya, a teacher with the Delhi Government School, Roop Nagar, says punishment may be necessary. He says, “I do believe in punishing students to ensure discipline, but one should know where to draw the line. Since our students are first generation learners, we have to teach them everything — behavioural issues, discipline and learning.” He adds, “But once I have punished them, I use various therapies to help the child understand why I punished him, so that he doesn’t repeat it again.”
TIPS FOR BUILDING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHILDREN
Teachers can use a variety of strategies to build positive relations hips with children and prevent violence within the school environment. To do so, they can:
• Listen to children and encourage them to listen to others
• Teach with enthusiasm. Students engaged in work that is challenging, informative, and rewarding are less likely to get into trouble
• Set norms for behaviour in the classroom and refuse to permit violence. Learn and teach conflict resolution and anger management skills
• Invite parents to talk about and share their children’s progress and any concerns they have
• Encourage and sponsor student-led anti-violence activities and programmes ranging from peer education, Bal Panchayats, and mediation to mentoring and training
• Work with school authorities, parents and children to develop and implement a `Safe School Plan,’ including how teachers and other school staff should respond in emergencies
• Enforce school policies that seek to reduce the risk of violence.Take responsibility for areas outside, as well as inside, your classroom
• Encourage students to report crimes or activities that make them suspicious
Monday, April 6, 2009
Talibanization of INDIA ?
Muslim organisations are up in arms over an alleged comment on Monday by a Supreme Court judge, who reportedly cited "Talibanisation" while turning down a Muslim student's plea to sport a beard in school. Now, the debate over the Muslim beard -- commonly considered an Islamic virtue rather than an immutable tenet - has come full circle.
The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, a Muslim mass organisation, filed a broader case last month in the highest court, angling for a far-reaching ruling to allow Muslims to keep beards unconditionally, like Sikhs. The Jamiat case is likely to be one of the most fascinating courtroom duels over an Islamic emblem outside the Muslim world.
Here's why. It is not often that an Indian civil case rests largely on the validity of anecdotes from the Islamic world.
Evidence in support of the beard ranges from 1,000-year-old Islamic injunctions from the Hadith (Prophetic traditions) to the Hukum ul Islam, a famous treatise in Arabic. The English translation was specially procured from London's Dar At-Tawheed Publications.
"Our contention is that it is essential for Muslims to keep a beard in the light of the texts and traditions," Anis Suhrawardy, the lawyer representing Jamiat leader Arshad Madani said. Just in case the court rules in favour of the Jamiat, India could become the first non-Muslim country to uphold the Muslim's unfettered right to sport a beard.
Few Muslims think that keeping a beard could amount to supporting the Taliban's extremist character. "I don't dispute a particular judgement but if keeping a beard is akin to being a Taliban, I am proud to be one," Jamiat leader Mahmood Madani told HT. Two previous cases over a right to keep a beard, both involving employees in the armed forces, prompted the special leave petition filed by the Jamiat.
In defence organisations, a person is allowed a beard if it was sported on joining service. Most Muslims agree that the beard has great religious significance but it is commonly treated as non-essential.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Congress election slogan should be -- Jai Ho: Pub Bharo--
The survey found that nearly 44.4 per cent of Class 12 students hadconsumed alcohol in the survey period. Instead of looking at thesefacts, Sonia Gandhi and Renuka Chowdhury are planning to use theso-called Mangalore pub incident as a political weapon. They don’tseem to realise what damage they are doing to India by theirirresponsible behaviour.Congress president Sonia Gandhi is reported to have said that she willfight the upcoming national elections on two issues: One concerningthe attack on a pub in Mangalore and the other concerning thedemolition of the Babri Masjid. The best advice that one can give toher is: Don’t. On both issues, she will pay for her folly. The Muslimcommunity in India will do the greatest good to itself and to itsrelations with the majority community if it graciously concedes theRam Janmabhoomi to its Hindu claimants and not stand on prestige. Allthese years the Muslims have allowed themselves to be exploited byso-called ‘secularists’ and have needlessly alienated themselves frommainstream India, reaping no benefit whichever way. It has doneneither the Muslims nor the Hindus any good. The time has come for theMuslims to change their mindset and concede graciously to the Hindus’claimand thereby win the hearts and souls of their fellow citizens. TheMuslims will lose nothing thereby.On the other hand, they will gain the eternal gratitude of Hindus towhom the Ram Janmabhoomi has tremendous emotional significance. Onepositive step and that will strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity as neverbefore. To both Muslims and Hindus it will be a win-win situation. Byattempting to widen the gulf between the two communities Sonia Gandhiwill render immense harm to the country which she professes to serve.A word to the wise should suffice. As for the Mangalore pubcontroversy, it has been plainly overplayed for political reasons andstatements have been made by Congress leaders that call for strongcondemnation.According to Renuka Chowdhury, Women and Child Development Ministerthere has been “a complete breakdown of law and order in Karnataka”.Nothing of that sort has happened and by making such highlyprovocative remarks, the Minister has only hurt her own party’schances at the forthcoming polls. Complete breakdown of law and order?Really? What happened in Mumbai during the jehadi siege? Was it anexample of high maintenance of law and order with the blood of acouple of hundred innocent people staining the earth? Mangaloreans cando without the patronage of the likes of Renuka Chowdhury and herboss. Besides, in the matter of young people visiting pubs, is theMinister aware of what is happening right under her nose in thecapital?According to a survey conducted by an NGO, called Campaign AgainstDrunken Driving (CADD) “nearly 80 per cent of those visiting pubs andbars in the Indian capital are below the age of 25 and that of theunder-age population at Delhi’s pubs 67 per cent are below 21 years ofage”. It would seem that Delhi’s excise laws ban the sale of liquor toor by anyone below 25 years and if an underage person is caughtconsuming alcohol, or if the vendor is caught, it could mean a fine ofRs 10,000. The CADD study found the laws ineffective, as nearly 33.9per cent of those below the age of 16 easily procure alcohol fromgovernment–authorised liquor shops, bars and pubs.According to a press report, the law also prohibits any person belowthe age of 25 years to be employed at any bar or pub and the offenceis punishable with a fine of Rs 50,000 or imprisonment of three monthsto be levied on the outlet. Says a report in the Free Press Journal:(February 2) “Still nearly 55 per cent of those working as serviceattendants in bars and restaurants are young boys and girls below theage of 25. The research was conducted from December 2008 to January2009 among 1,000 youth who go to the pubs and bars. Nearly 85 per centof the youth surveyed were in the age group of 14-21, even though thelegal drinking age is 25 years”.Can one believe that youngsters between the ages of 14 and 21 visitpubs and that too, in Delhi, where the government is run by theCongress party under the leadership of Sheila Dixit? How many of the youthfulpub-patrons have ever been arrested and how many of the pubs have hadto pay a fine? And what have Renuka Chowdhury and Sonia Gandhi to sayabout these revelations? According to the survey, in Delhi, annuallyabout 2,000 youths under age 21 die from motor vehicle crashes, otherunintentional injuries, homicides and suicides that involve underagedrinking. Prince Singhal founder of CADD is quoted as saying:“Underage drinking is a prelude to drunk driving and thus it isimportant to curb it in the initial stages, so that it does not end upas a habit among young individuals”.Another startling fact revealed was that the drinking age in Delhi hasgone down from 28 to 19 years since 1990. CADD estimates that inanother five to seven years, this figure may come down to 15 years.The survey found that it is not binding for liquor serving outlets orvends to verify the age of the consumer. But the survey found thatnearly 44.4 per cent of Class 12 students had consumed alcohol in thesurvey period. Instead of looking at these facts, Sonia Gandhi andRenuka Chowdhury are planning to use the so-called Mangalore pubincident as a political weapon. They don’t seem to realise what damagethey are doing to India by their irresponsible behaviour.Should we say that there is no law and order in Delhi? Obviously thereisn’t and the police look the other way when teenagers visit pubs. Wedo not have any information on how long these visitors stay at the bar or howmuch liquor they drink. Parents obviously are either unaware of whatis going on or couldn’t care less. One might damn the Shri Ram Sena toone’s heart’s content for using violence, but at least they seem tocare enough. At this point in time we have no statistics as to how oldthe girls serving drinks are and how many teenagers have beenattending the Mangalore pub.According to the CADD survey it is not binding for liquor servingoutlets or vends to verify the age of the consumer; that can onlyencourage the youngsters to take advantage of such a situation. Thatall this is happening in Delhi and under a Congress administrationsuggests not only a weak government that does not care for people buta leadership that is engaged more in talk than in action. Beforetaking up the Mangalore pub issue as a stone to hit at the BJP, SoniaGandhi would do well to set right matters within her own politicaljurisdiction. Both Sonia Gandhi and Renuka Chowdhury surely know whatthe Bible says: Judge not, least ye be judged.
Loss of true science
Excerpts from the following text, taken from the book "Harikatha and Vaishnava Aparadha" by His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj were published by the Leading Indian National Newspaper, "The Times of India", in one of their editorial columns on 19th July, 2007)The synonym of the English word 'logic' of the West is 'Tarkashastra' or 'Yuktividya' , in India. They have ascertained two methods of attaining knowledge, which have their basis of reasoning: the inductive method and deductive method. Whatever finite human beings with finite intellect may ascertain, whether inductive or deductive, is actually in the domain of the process of ascension, which in India is called Avarohavaada. Induction refers to inferring of general law from particular instances, while deducting refers to inferring of particular instance from general law. In his book Raja Vidya, His Divine Grace Tridandi Swami Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj is writing, 'There are two processes for attaining knowledge: one is inductive and the other is deductive. The deductive method is considered to be more perfect. We may take a premise such as, " All men are mortal," and no one need discuss how man is mortal. It is generally accepted that this is the case. The deductive conclusion is: "Mr. Johnson is a man; therefore Mr. Johnson is mortal." But how is the premise that all men are mortal arrived at? Followers of the inductive method wish to arrive at this premise through experiment and observations. We may thus study that this man died and that man died, etc, and after seeing that so many men have died we may conclude or generalize that all men are mortal, but there is a major defect in this inductive method, and that is that our experience is limited. We may never have seen a man who is not mortal, but we are judging this on our personal experience, which is finite. Our senses have limited power, and there are so many defects in our conditioned state. The inductive process consequently is not always perfect, whereas the deductive process from a source of perfect knowledge is perfect. The Vedic process is such a process'.In India, there are disciplic successions coming from Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Nimbarka, Vishnuswami and other great sages. The Vedic literatures are understood through the superior spiritual masters. Arjuna understood the Bhagwad Gita from Lord Krishna, and if we wish to understand it, we have to understand from Arjuna, not from any other source. If we have any knowledge of Bhagwad-Gita, we have to see how it tallies with the understanding of Arjuna. If we understand Bhagwad-Gita in the same way that Arjuna did, we should know that our understanding is correct. This should be the criterion of our studying of the Bhagwad-Gita. If we actually want to receive the benefit from Bhagwad-Gita, we have to follow this principle. The Bhagwad-Gita is not an ordinary book of knowledge that we can purchase from the market place, read and merely consult a dictionary to understand. This is not possible. If it were, Krishna would never have told Arjuna that the science was lost. It is not difficult to understand the necessity of going through the disciplic succession to understand Bhagwad-Gita. If we wish to be a lawyer, an engineer or doctor, we have to receive the knowledge from the authoritative lawyers, engineers and doctors. A new lawyer has to become an apprentice of an experienced lawyer, or a young man studying to be a doctor has to become an intern and work with those who are already licensed practioners. Our knowledge of a subject cannot be perfectionalized unless we receive it through authoritative sources. This has been acknowledged in the Bhagwad Gita.In Sreemad Bhagwatam, Lord Vamana said to Shukracharya, (the spiritual master of demons): "Your disciple Bali Maharaj is in difficulty, it will be befitting for you to perform Yajna for his benefit". Shukracharya smiled and replied, "My disciple has seen you and you have graced him by setting your Holy Lotus Feet on his head. He has performed 'Anusankirtana' , meaning that he has recapitulated about your Name, Form, Attributes, Pastimes, after hearing about these from a bonafide pure devotee. Where is the necessity of performing Karmakanda Yajna? By utterance of your Holy name and glories, all defects in the utterance of mantra and tantra (inversion of sequence) and sinister influence of place, time and articles are removed." Anusankirtana means recapitulation of the glories of Supreme Lord, heard through a bonafide preceptorial channel. Here also a condition is imposed, that the hearing should be in from a bonafide devotee, not from a professional singer.In order to establish how to sing the glories of Supreme Lord Sree Krishna and how to perform Harinama without offence, it is necessary to remember the teachings of the authentic scriptures. The scriptural evidence of Brihad Naradiya Purana gives triple emphasis that there is no other way except Harinama in Kaliyuga. Sage Veda Vyasa confirms the same in Sreemad Bhagwatam 12.13.23.Please understand that there are infinite forms of devotion, of which chanting of the Holy Name is the foremost. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given the following five principal forms of devotion: Association of sadhus, chanting of the Holy Name, hearing of Sreemad Bhagwatam, dwelling in transcendental realm of Mathura Dham, and worship of Deities with firm faith. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has emphatically said that out of these five forms of devotion, Nam-Sankirtana is the best.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
INDOBAMA - The Real Hidden Challange
Within the enormous caverns of the Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan is a nugget for US companies to spend a few billions to construct roads and bridges, mass transit rails and national parks. The US president is right in expecting a massive spin off for his economy from the measure that will improve the top lines of construction companies, if not their profits and lead to a surge in job creation. In more or less the same period the European governments too plan a similar push to their infrastructure investments.
This is one part of the plan that should be of most concern to India, probably even more than the proposal to cut tax breaks for firms which ship jobs overseas. Because, in the same time frame ie within the next two years or 2012, we also plan to spend about $500 billion to develop our infrastructure in a massive way. The dampener on outsourcing will be moderated as Indian and US companies will be on the same wave length on this—cut costs. But that benefit will not work in the race to capture the global infra funds.
Put simply, after a nice lull of several years, companies planning to invest in Indian infra sectors will now face steep competition in attracting the attention of global infra fund managers. They will have to sound convincing that India offers a better deal than the US or Europe in the infrastructure business, in the next few years. This will include the rules for doing business and the rules for raising finance. All this has to be done, in the midst of the ripples that have already begun in the global financial markets about the Obama plan. At least one global fund house has already begun mobilising finance at Libor plus 500 bps to invest in US infrastructure.
We also have to remember that even for domestic infra funds, the rules for investment abroad have been simplified. Few fund managers at this stage will be able to say that given a chance they will prefer to invest in a special purpose vehicle to develop a road project in India than one in the US. These are not academic exercises but real bread and butter choices that companies in very harsh financial markets will be making very soon.
If that sounds challenging there is no doubt it is and talking to the Indian companies has made me sure that they too think the Obama plan will impact them big. So it is very urgent that we get our act right on the stuff that crimp infra investment in India.
And here, instead of moaning about the problems, I feel there is cause for cheer if one looks at some things we have recently got right. Of these, the one that needs a big round of applause is a government proposal to allow single bidders for projects, especially for roads and highways. This might seem like playing with government money but it is not. Of the 34 projects that the NHAI had advertised, only 16 have received any bids. Of these, six stretches have got only one bid.
Before readers begin to draw pictures of cartels playing cahoots with rules, it is worth recounting that the railways face the same problem. Its flagship project to construct a locomotive factory at Madhepura in Bihar has received only one financial bid out of the three companies that had put in technical bids. The phase II of the Mumbai metro project has done worse. It has got no bidders from among the seven companies that put in technical bids.
The central government is plainly waking up to the sudden drying of funds in infrastructure sector. But what is most needed at this juncture is similar realisation among state governments too. Indian infra projects with the glorious exception of the Delhi Metro have consistently been delayed in completion, largely due to state level bottlenecks. The latest flash report of the ministry of programme implementation shows that 47% of the 523 biggest projects involving the government are running delayed. The more important piece of statistic is that this has raised the cumulative cost of these projects by over 11%. The implications are obvious. Since infra project developers rarely get funding at less than 14-16% rate of interest in normal circumstances, an 11% cost over run means adding one more per cent to the project cost.
So, it is quite pleasing that governments, both at the centre and states, have revised their take on land acquisition. On February 23, for the first time in nearly two years states and the Centre publicly acknowledged that they need to go for the jugular to get land for projects. Infra projects were almost paralysed as a fall out of the problems in acquiring land from 2007 onwards. But at a meeting of the state chief secretaries with the cabinet secretary to work out ways to make the government stimulus package work, ministry officials, to quote the government release, told states to give "special attention to land acquisition wherever projects are stalled on account of this reason". In Indian government speak that could mean a big step forward.
Would these be enough? I doubt it. In the next few months, several Indian entities will approach the international markets to raise debt to finance their projects. To ensure they have any reasonable chance to compete, the entire infra project approval and delivery mechanism needs to be redrawn very fast
This is one part of the plan that should be of most concern to India, probably even more than the proposal to cut tax breaks for firms which ship jobs overseas. Because, in the same time frame ie within the next two years or 2012, we also plan to spend about $500 billion to develop our infrastructure in a massive way. The dampener on outsourcing will be moderated as Indian and US companies will be on the same wave length on this—cut costs. But that benefit will not work in the race to capture the global infra funds.
Put simply, after a nice lull of several years, companies planning to invest in Indian infra sectors will now face steep competition in attracting the attention of global infra fund managers. They will have to sound convincing that India offers a better deal than the US or Europe in the infrastructure business, in the next few years. This will include the rules for doing business and the rules for raising finance. All this has to be done, in the midst of the ripples that have already begun in the global financial markets about the Obama plan. At least one global fund house has already begun mobilising finance at Libor plus 500 bps to invest in US infrastructure.
We also have to remember that even for domestic infra funds, the rules for investment abroad have been simplified. Few fund managers at this stage will be able to say that given a chance they will prefer to invest in a special purpose vehicle to develop a road project in India than one in the US. These are not academic exercises but real bread and butter choices that companies in very harsh financial markets will be making very soon.
If that sounds challenging there is no doubt it is and talking to the Indian companies has made me sure that they too think the Obama plan will impact them big. So it is very urgent that we get our act right on the stuff that crimp infra investment in India.
And here, instead of moaning about the problems, I feel there is cause for cheer if one looks at some things we have recently got right. Of these, the one that needs a big round of applause is a government proposal to allow single bidders for projects, especially for roads and highways. This might seem like playing with government money but it is not. Of the 34 projects that the NHAI had advertised, only 16 have received any bids. Of these, six stretches have got only one bid.
Before readers begin to draw pictures of cartels playing cahoots with rules, it is worth recounting that the railways face the same problem. Its flagship project to construct a locomotive factory at Madhepura in Bihar has received only one financial bid out of the three companies that had put in technical bids. The phase II of the Mumbai metro project has done worse. It has got no bidders from among the seven companies that put in technical bids.
The central government is plainly waking up to the sudden drying of funds in infrastructure sector. But what is most needed at this juncture is similar realisation among state governments too. Indian infra projects with the glorious exception of the Delhi Metro have consistently been delayed in completion, largely due to state level bottlenecks. The latest flash report of the ministry of programme implementation shows that 47% of the 523 biggest projects involving the government are running delayed. The more important piece of statistic is that this has raised the cumulative cost of these projects by over 11%. The implications are obvious. Since infra project developers rarely get funding at less than 14-16% rate of interest in normal circumstances, an 11% cost over run means adding one more per cent to the project cost.
So, it is quite pleasing that governments, both at the centre and states, have revised their take on land acquisition. On February 23, for the first time in nearly two years states and the Centre publicly acknowledged that they need to go for the jugular to get land for projects. Infra projects were almost paralysed as a fall out of the problems in acquiring land from 2007 onwards. But at a meeting of the state chief secretaries with the cabinet secretary to work out ways to make the government stimulus package work, ministry officials, to quote the government release, told states to give "special attention to land acquisition wherever projects are stalled on account of this reason". In Indian government speak that could mean a big step forward.
Would these be enough? I doubt it. In the next few months, several Indian entities will approach the international markets to raise debt to finance their projects. To ensure they have any reasonable chance to compete, the entire infra project approval and delivery mechanism needs to be redrawn very fast
Friday, February 27, 2009
A tale of two cities
Two films in recent times have sought to capture the imagination of the city; Slumdog Millionaire and Delhi-6. The first in its English version is a stunning hit and the other has been met by a quiet silence. Danny Boyle's Slumdog is a western attempt to read Bollywood. It is a mythical reading of Bollywood. Myth seeks to reconcile fundamental tensions using any set of symbols. What Slumdog does is to weave Bollywood and Hollywood and it is this that makes it fascinating. What it says about poverty, violence in itself is banal.
The semiotic task it performs can be seen as a set of tables. Firstly, there is the Bollywood myth of the slum where goodness by itself is self-defeating. As a turf subject to temporariness, the slum is always prone to the tyranny of gangs, cops and politicians. It takes the machismo, the physical violence of the hero to break through. There is however a second myth of the city emerging. It derives from the intellectual and inventive power of the Diaspora which brings with it the same idealism but a better set of skills from the world of management and engineering.
The second myth was actually captured by the TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorpati'. It centres on a quiz as the rule game of an information society. The skills of the slum don't always work in the intellectual akhada of the quiz. Danny Boyle takes the myth of the slum and the quiz and blends them into one story of a slum boy who makes it big in a quiz game. To make it realistic and more competitive he makes the quiz master played by Anil Kapoor a tougher, seedier and hostile creature. This is a character contemptuous of any chai wala who can even dream of entering a quiz.
Now comes the sleight of hand because Bollywood has never merged the two. What is Boyle's procedure for merging the two myths of mobility into one story?
Firstly, he speeds up and compresses time. The movie which is a triptych of parts - the child boy in the slum, the adolescent boy, and the young man- speeds up time. What was a scrap book reads internally like flip-book. Space is now read as time. The second move is a more complex one. Boyle argues that the knowledge of the slum, the little things that happen to you, the visualness of urban life, the primers that you read, are "information". It also creates a subplot where the police are suspicious of the hero's skills. It is under interrogation - which is the only quiz slum kids undergo with the police - that Dev Patel explains how he could answer the questions. The pairing of the two forms of questioning is powerful. It reminds one that interrogation in a police station is also a quiz, and secondly that a quiz intellectually can be as tough as a police interrogation. Both make you sweat it out and in both the stake is survival. Where Boyle is shaky is when he regards the slum as a repository of information. Maybe his message is that we should hybridise knowledge and information. The body as physicality no longer provides the skills because globally the body is the locus of desire, not of labour or physical power.
It is only on seeing Delhi-6 that one realised that Slumdog creates the myth of Bollywood in a hall of mirrors by inverting, inflating and reversing it. Delhi-6 is about an Indian boy from a Diasporic family who escorts his grandmother to her home in Chandini Chowk. If Slumdog is about desire and information, Delhi-6 is about love and stupidity. Stupidity is what happens to knowledge when it is caught in the dark alleyways of superstition. America haunts the movie and it is caught in the visuality of exhibits and spectacles where suddenly the Statue of Liberty is ensconced next to Jama Masjid. The exhibits outside are but dreams within, where Chandini Chowk searches for the America of success and desire in all of us. In Slumdog it is the quiz, in Delhi-6 it is Indian Idol. Both demand a high spectatorship, yet both are dreams of individual mobility. One seeks information to escape the slum, one combines knowledge and the mobile-nubile body to escape the slum, the middle class slum of conservatism and intolerance.
In Boyle's film, the slums of Bombay enact the myth of individual mobility. The tension is the tension of competition. The streets of Chandini Chowk recognise that individual success or freedom cannot come with mobility alone, it needs a collective change of mentalities. Two communities which have synergetically come together fall apart in a fight over a 'black monkey' which threatens all of them. The message is clear; one can't be free till a community is also free. It is here that Delhi-6 brilliantly adds something that Danny Boyle does not understand. Despite the myth of information and the ersatz attempts to see the city as a knowledge society, Bollywood provides a theory of culture. Chandini Chowk with all its rituals reminds the worlds of Bombay and Bangalore. It is a warning that when you priviledge information over knowledge and disembed the two, a culture is emasculated. When a culture is threatened violence becomes the answer, the quick answer to difficult questions. Delhi-6 reminds you that culture is a slow thing, even stupid but it has possibilities. Culture is a whole, a commons in the way a pub culture or quiz culture are not. In a quiet way, a small film on Chandini Chowk tells Slumdog Millionaire it has not quite grasped Bollywood or India. Information can never substitute for the complexity of culture. Every stupid Indian knows that
The semiotic task it performs can be seen as a set of tables. Firstly, there is the Bollywood myth of the slum where goodness by itself is self-defeating. As a turf subject to temporariness, the slum is always prone to the tyranny of gangs, cops and politicians. It takes the machismo, the physical violence of the hero to break through. There is however a second myth of the city emerging. It derives from the intellectual and inventive power of the Diaspora which brings with it the same idealism but a better set of skills from the world of management and engineering.
The second myth was actually captured by the TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorpati'. It centres on a quiz as the rule game of an information society. The skills of the slum don't always work in the intellectual akhada of the quiz. Danny Boyle takes the myth of the slum and the quiz and blends them into one story of a slum boy who makes it big in a quiz game. To make it realistic and more competitive he makes the quiz master played by Anil Kapoor a tougher, seedier and hostile creature. This is a character contemptuous of any chai wala who can even dream of entering a quiz.
Now comes the sleight of hand because Bollywood has never merged the two. What is Boyle's procedure for merging the two myths of mobility into one story?
Firstly, he speeds up and compresses time. The movie which is a triptych of parts - the child boy in the slum, the adolescent boy, and the young man- speeds up time. What was a scrap book reads internally like flip-book. Space is now read as time. The second move is a more complex one. Boyle argues that the knowledge of the slum, the little things that happen to you, the visualness of urban life, the primers that you read, are "information". It also creates a subplot where the police are suspicious of the hero's skills. It is under interrogation - which is the only quiz slum kids undergo with the police - that Dev Patel explains how he could answer the questions. The pairing of the two forms of questioning is powerful. It reminds one that interrogation in a police station is also a quiz, and secondly that a quiz intellectually can be as tough as a police interrogation. Both make you sweat it out and in both the stake is survival. Where Boyle is shaky is when he regards the slum as a repository of information. Maybe his message is that we should hybridise knowledge and information. The body as physicality no longer provides the skills because globally the body is the locus of desire, not of labour or physical power.
It is only on seeing Delhi-6 that one realised that Slumdog creates the myth of Bollywood in a hall of mirrors by inverting, inflating and reversing it. Delhi-6 is about an Indian boy from a Diasporic family who escorts his grandmother to her home in Chandini Chowk. If Slumdog is about desire and information, Delhi-6 is about love and stupidity. Stupidity is what happens to knowledge when it is caught in the dark alleyways of superstition. America haunts the movie and it is caught in the visuality of exhibits and spectacles where suddenly the Statue of Liberty is ensconced next to Jama Masjid. The exhibits outside are but dreams within, where Chandini Chowk searches for the America of success and desire in all of us. In Slumdog it is the quiz, in Delhi-6 it is Indian Idol. Both demand a high spectatorship, yet both are dreams of individual mobility. One seeks information to escape the slum, one combines knowledge and the mobile-nubile body to escape the slum, the middle class slum of conservatism and intolerance.
In Boyle's film, the slums of Bombay enact the myth of individual mobility. The tension is the tension of competition. The streets of Chandini Chowk recognise that individual success or freedom cannot come with mobility alone, it needs a collective change of mentalities. Two communities which have synergetically come together fall apart in a fight over a 'black monkey' which threatens all of them. The message is clear; one can't be free till a community is also free. It is here that Delhi-6 brilliantly adds something that Danny Boyle does not understand. Despite the myth of information and the ersatz attempts to see the city as a knowledge society, Bollywood provides a theory of culture. Chandini Chowk with all its rituals reminds the worlds of Bombay and Bangalore. It is a warning that when you priviledge information over knowledge and disembed the two, a culture is emasculated. When a culture is threatened violence becomes the answer, the quick answer to difficult questions. Delhi-6 reminds you that culture is a slow thing, even stupid but it has possibilities. Culture is a whole, a commons in the way a pub culture or quiz culture are not. In a quiet way, a small film on Chandini Chowk tells Slumdog Millionaire it has not quite grasped Bollywood or India. Information can never substitute for the complexity of culture. Every stupid Indian knows that
Monday, February 23, 2009
MALAYSIAN POLICE BRUTALLITY AGAINST MALAYSIAN INDIANS
Today, I tagged along with our Human Rights Activists who have been
fighting Police Abuses for a long time – S. Jayathas, S. Surendran,
Manickavasagam (MP for Kapar) and M. Manohar (MP for Teluk Intan),
to find out what actually transpired when the 6 were killed by the
Police in Kulim.
fEver since their killing the other day, I have been very bothered
by the event. The media shouted out "criminals" – as if that was
the foregone truth. The Police had executed all 6 of them as if they
were the Prosecutor, Judge and Executioner all in one and utterly
above the law. It was not one, not two; it was six -and it seems
with impunity. Every one had their own view of the episode. But I
needed some answers.
At the outset, let me say that I am not condoning crimes or
criminals; but there are so many questions that this incident raises
that we need some good answers, and fast, as this situation seems to
be spinning out of control – before the ink dries on one, another
seems to happen. Kugan's case before Prabakaran's settled, and now
the six before Kugan's case is settled.
We visited the shootout site, the families of 3 of the deceaseds and
spent some time with the neighbour at the shootout site. The picture
that emerges is different than what the mainstream media has been
putting out. The MSM paints a picture that the Police only returned
fire after being shot at and that this turn of events was totally
unavoidable and that they were dealing with a bunch of unscrupulous
criminals.
Let me detail some of the facts we gathered before commenting on
them. The scene of the shooting was in a small town of Karangan some
15km from Kulim. It was in a small house which was being renovated
in one of the backroads of Karangan, a little off the main road of
the town. The fence around the house was a tall wall made up of
corrugated sheet – something you would do to cut off from view what
was going on inside.
A very forthcoming neighbour told us that when he returned home from
work that rainy night at around 10 or so, he was met with a large
group of policemen in front of his house, who had already packed his
family into the prayer room of his house in the event of stray
bullets during the impending ambush. He was asked to get in with
them. He only heard the frightening shootout that dreadful night
from within his prayer room.
The shootout took place at around 10.30, a very noisy and
frightening episode, narrated that neighbour. There did not seem to
be any attempt by the Police to try to get the people they were
seeking out from the premises, by summoning them out first using
hailers or some such device, before the shoot out. The shooting just
happened. The neighbour knew nothing more till the bodies of the
killed men were removed at somewhere between 4 and 5 am the next
morning.
The first of the killed men, the one that the Police probably had a
reason to get, the owner of the house where the shootout happened,
was shot in the middle of the top of his head, top down it appeared.
The family of this victim mentioned he had several more shots on the
front side of his body – as if someone shot at him from the front.
This individual, we were told by the family had no prior police
record.
The second victim that we visited was someone who was actually
working in Singapore for a company called SBS (maybe the Singapore
Bus Company) who had come back to Kulim for a holiday. He was due
to go back shortly and had a return ticket for that. His death
certificate also indicated death due to shots in the chest.
Apparently he had several shot wounds on the front side of his body
also, as if shot from the front. He appeared to be a friend of the
first victim.
It is not clear from the little information we got that this person
was at all a close accomplice or even a participant in any crime
that may have been in the works. Of course, I am concluding this
with very little information, but these are the facts as we got them
from the family. The family was distraught, because this had damaged
the standing of the family in the community, having their dead son
branded a criminal. This victim also has no past criminal record, we
were told by the family.
The third family we visited was that of a young chap of about 20.
His family lives in a dilapidated little estate house in Padang
Serai. He had seven siblings and it was obvious the family was just
existing. This young chap, it appears, was working for the first
victim assisting in the renovation of the house where the shootout
happened. The parents did not seem to know much more about what he
did. He was obviously not being paid very much, as he had just 2
days before the incident asked one of his family members for 20
ringgit.
He had shot wounds on the forehead and it looked like the back of
his head was all bloodied as if from an exiting bullet. He was
dressed only in a towel at the time of his death. His parents even
had difficulty putting together some money to buy him a shirt and a
dhoty for his burial. 36 ringgit was all they had. They could not
even afford the coffin in which he was ultimately buried. The Police
disallowed the victims' kin to examine the body when they tried to.
The body was all bloodied in the front. This victim also had no past
record, we were told.
To say the least, this was a carnage. It appears like we are in Gaza
or in Iraq or in Afghanistan or even in Sri Lanka – the scale and
method of killing suggests nothing short of this. Let me ask, are we
in one of these countries or is Malaysia descending there?
It looks like Indian lives have become very cheap, very cheap in
this country – the lives of anjing keling, yes that's what it is,
the cheap lives of the anjings - that they can be wasted in this
manner. Uthayakumar was so right!
By all of this, I am in no way saying crime is alright. What I am
saying is the way the problems of crime are being dealt with. Let me
lay out some perspectives for you all to consider:
1) What was the need to kill these people? They were not terrorists.
They had no previous records. They were not murderers, surely not
the mafia. They could have been easily arrested. In fact, where the
first victim regularly stays is just a stone's throw from the Police
Station. Why were they not apprehended? Or why were they not given a
chance to come out with their hands up to surrender themselves for
arrest – even in war this is done. Why were they not given this
chance?
2) We understand there were a number of sharp shooters from around
the country on hand for the job for the Police. This seem to
indicate that this was a planned kill event.
3) Why was it that the shot wounds were all in the front side of the
victims – not any location on the body, but systematically on the
front side?
4) One victim was shot on the top of the head. How could that happen
in a normal exchange of fire? That seems to suggest some crouching
position and a shot into the head, from the top.
5) Why were the victims not shot at on their legs or where they will
not be killed but disabled on being shot?
6) Why were the kin of one of the victims denied their right to
inspect the body?
7) If it was a shootout between the Police and the victims, only two
could have had the guns, as the police produced two guns; why were
the shot wounds so systematic in the chest and the heads on all
three of the victims? We do not know about the other two victims –
but I suspect they will show similarities.
In summary, this ugly incident in the series of incidents of police
killing and atrocities seem to emphasise the following issues.
a) The Police in Malaysia continue killing Indian crime suspects
with impunity – taking upon themselves the role of Prosecutor, Judge
and Executioner all in one. I am sure that the powers be know
exactly what they are doing. So, we have to take it that they are
trying to provoke a response from us so they can slam emergency rule
or something like that and set us all back?
b) The Police very urgently need to be Policed. That looks like
a very remote possibility, as long as UMNO rules this country of
ours. See what's happening to the reform-driven MACC, it has become
just another tool of UMNO. Any IPCMC will probably end up in that
same rubbish bin. In any case, this UMNO regime seems to be
promoting Police brutality as a means of maintaining their hold on
the levers of power.
c) So many crime suspects in Malaysia are from among the Indian
community. I think the answer to this has been already abundantly
answered by Uthayakumar – this underclass of Indians are a direct
result of the UMNO policies over the last 50 years of marginalizing
Indians – neglecting the development of the Indian community. There
does not yet seem to be any serious effort to get to the bottom of
this problem.
d) The way the Police are shooting Indian crime suspects seem to
give additional credence to the racist line of UMNO – the anjing
keling line. They seem to be wittingly or unwittingly creating a
stereotype of the Indians in the country – despicable,
troublecausing and uncouth Indian. What do you think the jibes of
children in school reflect – when little Indian children are
called "anjing keling" by their Malay classmates.
e) Poverty seems to be intertwined with all of this. Take the case
of the third victim that we visited - what kind of money was he
making for him to be lumped up and shot. Does this make sense, 20
years old, barely making a living and then shot in the middle. These
are the youth of the country who should be nurtured and built up
into the the human potential we so much need.
This is all very infuriating.
There comes a time when all of this has to stop. This cannot
continue. UMNO , stop playing games and get on with doing something
positive about the problem. If you do not know how, then get expert
help. I am sure there are agencies around the world that can help.
Or are we to take it that you just do not want to, and then the only
way we can find some resolution to the problem is by replacing you,
UMNO.
UNITED WE MUST STAND
UNITED WE MUST ACT!!!!!
fighting Police Abuses for a long time – S. Jayathas, S. Surendran,
Manickavasagam (MP for Kapar) and M. Manohar (MP for Teluk Intan),
to find out what actually transpired when the 6 were killed by the
Police in Kulim.
fEver since their killing the other day, I have been very bothered
by the event. The media shouted out "criminals" – as if that was
the foregone truth. The Police had executed all 6 of them as if they
were the Prosecutor, Judge and Executioner all in one and utterly
above the law. It was not one, not two; it was six -and it seems
with impunity. Every one had their own view of the episode. But I
needed some answers.
At the outset, let me say that I am not condoning crimes or
criminals; but there are so many questions that this incident raises
that we need some good answers, and fast, as this situation seems to
be spinning out of control – before the ink dries on one, another
seems to happen. Kugan's case before Prabakaran's settled, and now
the six before Kugan's case is settled.
We visited the shootout site, the families of 3 of the deceaseds and
spent some time with the neighbour at the shootout site. The picture
that emerges is different than what the mainstream media has been
putting out. The MSM paints a picture that the Police only returned
fire after being shot at and that this turn of events was totally
unavoidable and that they were dealing with a bunch of unscrupulous
criminals.
Let me detail some of the facts we gathered before commenting on
them. The scene of the shooting was in a small town of Karangan some
15km from Kulim. It was in a small house which was being renovated
in one of the backroads of Karangan, a little off the main road of
the town. The fence around the house was a tall wall made up of
corrugated sheet – something you would do to cut off from view what
was going on inside.
A very forthcoming neighbour told us that when he returned home from
work that rainy night at around 10 or so, he was met with a large
group of policemen in front of his house, who had already packed his
family into the prayer room of his house in the event of stray
bullets during the impending ambush. He was asked to get in with
them. He only heard the frightening shootout that dreadful night
from within his prayer room.
The shootout took place at around 10.30, a very noisy and
frightening episode, narrated that neighbour. There did not seem to
be any attempt by the Police to try to get the people they were
seeking out from the premises, by summoning them out first using
hailers or some such device, before the shoot out. The shooting just
happened. The neighbour knew nothing more till the bodies of the
killed men were removed at somewhere between 4 and 5 am the next
morning.
The first of the killed men, the one that the Police probably had a
reason to get, the owner of the house where the shootout happened,
was shot in the middle of the top of his head, top down it appeared.
The family of this victim mentioned he had several more shots on the
front side of his body – as if someone shot at him from the front.
This individual, we were told by the family had no prior police
record.
The second victim that we visited was someone who was actually
working in Singapore for a company called SBS (maybe the Singapore
Bus Company) who had come back to Kulim for a holiday. He was due
to go back shortly and had a return ticket for that. His death
certificate also indicated death due to shots in the chest.
Apparently he had several shot wounds on the front side of his body
also, as if shot from the front. He appeared to be a friend of the
first victim.
It is not clear from the little information we got that this person
was at all a close accomplice or even a participant in any crime
that may have been in the works. Of course, I am concluding this
with very little information, but these are the facts as we got them
from the family. The family was distraught, because this had damaged
the standing of the family in the community, having their dead son
branded a criminal. This victim also has no past criminal record, we
were told by the family.
The third family we visited was that of a young chap of about 20.
His family lives in a dilapidated little estate house in Padang
Serai. He had seven siblings and it was obvious the family was just
existing. This young chap, it appears, was working for the first
victim assisting in the renovation of the house where the shootout
happened. The parents did not seem to know much more about what he
did. He was obviously not being paid very much, as he had just 2
days before the incident asked one of his family members for 20
ringgit.
He had shot wounds on the forehead and it looked like the back of
his head was all bloodied as if from an exiting bullet. He was
dressed only in a towel at the time of his death. His parents even
had difficulty putting together some money to buy him a shirt and a
dhoty for his burial. 36 ringgit was all they had. They could not
even afford the coffin in which he was ultimately buried. The Police
disallowed the victims' kin to examine the body when they tried to.
The body was all bloodied in the front. This victim also had no past
record, we were told.
To say the least, this was a carnage. It appears like we are in Gaza
or in Iraq or in Afghanistan or even in Sri Lanka – the scale and
method of killing suggests nothing short of this. Let me ask, are we
in one of these countries or is Malaysia descending there?
It looks like Indian lives have become very cheap, very cheap in
this country – the lives of anjing keling, yes that's what it is,
the cheap lives of the anjings - that they can be wasted in this
manner. Uthayakumar was so right!
By all of this, I am in no way saying crime is alright. What I am
saying is the way the problems of crime are being dealt with. Let me
lay out some perspectives for you all to consider:
1) What was the need to kill these people? They were not terrorists.
They had no previous records. They were not murderers, surely not
the mafia. They could have been easily arrested. In fact, where the
first victim regularly stays is just a stone's throw from the Police
Station. Why were they not apprehended? Or why were they not given a
chance to come out with their hands up to surrender themselves for
arrest – even in war this is done. Why were they not given this
chance?
2) We understand there were a number of sharp shooters from around
the country on hand for the job for the Police. This seem to
indicate that this was a planned kill event.
3) Why was it that the shot wounds were all in the front side of the
victims – not any location on the body, but systematically on the
front side?
4) One victim was shot on the top of the head. How could that happen
in a normal exchange of fire? That seems to suggest some crouching
position and a shot into the head, from the top.
5) Why were the victims not shot at on their legs or where they will
not be killed but disabled on being shot?
6) Why were the kin of one of the victims denied their right to
inspect the body?
7) If it was a shootout between the Police and the victims, only two
could have had the guns, as the police produced two guns; why were
the shot wounds so systematic in the chest and the heads on all
three of the victims? We do not know about the other two victims –
but I suspect they will show similarities.
In summary, this ugly incident in the series of incidents of police
killing and atrocities seem to emphasise the following issues.
a) The Police in Malaysia continue killing Indian crime suspects
with impunity – taking upon themselves the role of Prosecutor, Judge
and Executioner all in one. I am sure that the powers be know
exactly what they are doing. So, we have to take it that they are
trying to provoke a response from us so they can slam emergency rule
or something like that and set us all back?
b) The Police very urgently need to be Policed. That looks like
a very remote possibility, as long as UMNO rules this country of
ours. See what's happening to the reform-driven MACC, it has become
just another tool of UMNO. Any IPCMC will probably end up in that
same rubbish bin. In any case, this UMNO regime seems to be
promoting Police brutality as a means of maintaining their hold on
the levers of power.
c) So many crime suspects in Malaysia are from among the Indian
community. I think the answer to this has been already abundantly
answered by Uthayakumar – this underclass of Indians are a direct
result of the UMNO policies over the last 50 years of marginalizing
Indians – neglecting the development of the Indian community. There
does not yet seem to be any serious effort to get to the bottom of
this problem.
d) The way the Police are shooting Indian crime suspects seem to
give additional credence to the racist line of UMNO – the anjing
keling line. They seem to be wittingly or unwittingly creating a
stereotype of the Indians in the country – despicable,
troublecausing and uncouth Indian. What do you think the jibes of
children in school reflect – when little Indian children are
called "anjing keling" by their Malay classmates.
e) Poverty seems to be intertwined with all of this. Take the case
of the third victim that we visited - what kind of money was he
making for him to be lumped up and shot. Does this make sense, 20
years old, barely making a living and then shot in the middle. These
are the youth of the country who should be nurtured and built up
into the the human potential we so much need.
This is all very infuriating.
There comes a time when all of this has to stop. This cannot
continue. UMNO , stop playing games and get on with doing something
positive about the problem. If you do not know how, then get expert
help. I am sure there are agencies around the world that can help.
Or are we to take it that you just do not want to, and then the only
way we can find some resolution to the problem is by replacing you,
UMNO.
UNITED WE MUST STAND
UNITED WE MUST ACT!!!!!
Swat valley: transition from Buddha to Radio Mullah
Celebrated in the Hindu scriptures as 'udyan' (garden), it's a stunningly picturesque place where the Buddha once walked, cultures intersected, poets sang and mystics came in search of peace. But, sadly, Swat valley in northwest Pakistan has now become synonymous with unrest, bloodshed and Talibanisation.
Not many know that the Swat valley, which is in the news now for the local government's much-criticised peace deal that allows the Taliban to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, in return for surrendering arms, has an unbroken history of over 2,000 years that has seen many religions and civilisations come and go.
'The Swat river is mentioned in the Rig Veda as Suvashtu which literally means the river on which settlements can be made,' Kumkum Roy, professor of ancient Indian history at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the author of 'Historical Dictionary of Ancient India', told IANS.
'Kushan rulers also had connections with the Swat valley,' she said.
Centuries later, the scenic river, which flows from the majestic Hindukush mountains into the Kabul river in the Peshawar valley, is a magnet for Pakistani tourists who love to flaunt the Swat valley as the Switzerland of Pakistan.
Some historical accounts also mention that in 327 BC Alexander the Great crossed the Swat river with part of his army and before going south to conquer the locals at what are now Barikoot and Odegram.
The region has also played host to a succession of dynasties like the Mauryans, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Syphians, the Kushans, the Turk-Shahis and the Hindu-Shahis down the ages before the invasion by Mahmud of Ghazni who brought Islam to the valley in the 11th century.
Buddhism thrived in the region that was once the centre of the Gandhara civilisation. The Swat museum has the footprints of the Buddha, who, as legend has it, came to Swat during his last reincarnation as the Gautama Buddha.
Statues of the Buddha, stupas, monasteries, rock carvings, art, coins, pottery and other artefacts can be found everywhere in the valley. Emperor Ashoka is also said to have ordered the erection of a stupa in the region.
In 403 AD, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hien, counted 6,000 monasteries in the valley. Two centuries later, Hsuan Tsang, another itinerant monk, saw around 1,400 monasteries.
This splendid multi-layered heritage now stands imperilled with a resurgent Taliban determined to impose its austere version of the ideal Islamic society based on Sharia that has no place for music or other niceties of life and scorns sending girls to school.
Although the restive Swat valley has been known for anarchy and lawlessness for some time, the process of Talibanisation started acquiring a sinister ring in July 2006 when Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric-turned Taliban ideologue and commander, started broadcasting his Wahhabi interpretation of the Quran and preaching extremist messages to people in the valley.
'Radio Mullah', as he came to be known, soon became a local legend and acquired an army of volunteers who pillaged and burnt girls' schools, CD shops, the famous ski resort and Buddha statues to turn his dream of installing an Islamic emirate into reality.
Not surprisingly, much after their ideological fellow travellers across the border in Afghanistan who brutally destroyed the famous Buddha statues in Bamiyan, they have also turned their ire on what they consider remnants of an infidel culture.
Nearly one and a half years ago, Fazlullah's informal army defaced a 23-foot-high, 7th century Meditating Buddha, carved in a rock in the lap of a mountain in Jehandabad village, in Swat, triggering protests among conservationists and Buddhists all over the world.
Things can only get worse with the Islamabad-backed provincial government striking a deal with the local Taliban represented by Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of 'FM Mullah.'
Not many know that the Swat valley, which is in the news now for the local government's much-criticised peace deal that allows the Taliban to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, in return for surrendering arms, has an unbroken history of over 2,000 years that has seen many religions and civilisations come and go.
'The Swat river is mentioned in the Rig Veda as Suvashtu which literally means the river on which settlements can be made,' Kumkum Roy, professor of ancient Indian history at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the author of 'Historical Dictionary of Ancient India', told IANS.
'Kushan rulers also had connections with the Swat valley,' she said.
Centuries later, the scenic river, which flows from the majestic Hindukush mountains into the Kabul river in the Peshawar valley, is a magnet for Pakistani tourists who love to flaunt the Swat valley as the Switzerland of Pakistan.
Some historical accounts also mention that in 327 BC Alexander the Great crossed the Swat river with part of his army and before going south to conquer the locals at what are now Barikoot and Odegram.
The region has also played host to a succession of dynasties like the Mauryans, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Syphians, the Kushans, the Turk-Shahis and the Hindu-Shahis down the ages before the invasion by Mahmud of Ghazni who brought Islam to the valley in the 11th century.
Buddhism thrived in the region that was once the centre of the Gandhara civilisation. The Swat museum has the footprints of the Buddha, who, as legend has it, came to Swat during his last reincarnation as the Gautama Buddha.
Statues of the Buddha, stupas, monasteries, rock carvings, art, coins, pottery and other artefacts can be found everywhere in the valley. Emperor Ashoka is also said to have ordered the erection of a stupa in the region.
In 403 AD, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hien, counted 6,000 monasteries in the valley. Two centuries later, Hsuan Tsang, another itinerant monk, saw around 1,400 monasteries.
This splendid multi-layered heritage now stands imperilled with a resurgent Taliban determined to impose its austere version of the ideal Islamic society based on Sharia that has no place for music or other niceties of life and scorns sending girls to school.
Although the restive Swat valley has been known for anarchy and lawlessness for some time, the process of Talibanisation started acquiring a sinister ring in July 2006 when Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric-turned Taliban ideologue and commander, started broadcasting his Wahhabi interpretation of the Quran and preaching extremist messages to people in the valley.
'Radio Mullah', as he came to be known, soon became a local legend and acquired an army of volunteers who pillaged and burnt girls' schools, CD shops, the famous ski resort and Buddha statues to turn his dream of installing an Islamic emirate into reality.
Not surprisingly, much after their ideological fellow travellers across the border in Afghanistan who brutally destroyed the famous Buddha statues in Bamiyan, they have also turned their ire on what they consider remnants of an infidel culture.
Nearly one and a half years ago, Fazlullah's informal army defaced a 23-foot-high, 7th century Meditating Buddha, carved in a rock in the lap of a mountain in Jehandabad village, in Swat, triggering protests among conservationists and Buddhists all over the world.
Things can only get worse with the Islamabad-backed provincial government striking a deal with the local Taliban represented by Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of 'FM Mullah.'
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Reclaiming India and Pakistan. Just imagine, pre-islamism, Sanatana Dharma territory.
The attacks on Mumbai are reminiscent of the first Arab incursions, by sea between 634 and 637 AD through Thana, Broach and Debal. These were repulsed and led to incursions through land routes in the Northwest between 650-711 AD. Muhammad Bin Qasim finally succeeded in occupying parts of Sindh in 712 AD. In contrast to the 70 years it took to occupy Sindh in face of Hindu resistance, the Islamic armies had conquered Persia, Syria, Egypt within eight years of the Prophet"s death. North Africa was taken between 640 AD and 709 AD with Spain falling in 711 AD. Thus the entry of Islam into Hindu India which now has broken into a Muslim Pakistan, a Muslim Bangladesh and a Muslim Afghanistan faced more resistance than its triumphant march elsewhere. When Christian Europe finally won against Islam, they did not leave growing colonies within, to repopulate and create new Islamic nations. Arabs, no longer need attack India. The Muslim descendents of the Hindus, at least in Pakistan and Bangladesh, having severed themselves from their roots and heritage, find greater commonality with Arabic language, customs and religion. The idea of roots, state, civilization or cultural heritage are super ceded by the common ground of Islam.
Islam, does not recognize the idea of sovereignty of state or the concept of individual free will guiding individual choice –whether towards lifestyle or to one"s spiritual path. All Semitic faiths speak of a single God, but clearly not the same one, as each claims an exclusive covenant and an exclusive revelation through an exclusive prophet and salvation through the individual agency representing the religion. Thus if all were true then there must be three equal Gods or if only one were true then there is one true God and two other false Gods with two false creeds and two false institutions. If all were false, the idea of God must be difficult to sustain for the majority of the world and these religions must find a separate mission than offer salvation -invited or uninvited. Of the three great faiths one must admit that the modern Jewish faith does not directly negate
others and does not indulge in the task of conversions overtly and covertly and therefore intrinsically seeks no conflict -only the right of self existence. The Hindus seek peaceful self existence but differ from all, in laying no claim to a unique covenant or a unique
relationship with their own particular God. They further believe in self inquiry, the right to- differ, question, criticize, adopt or reject any particular aspect or tenet of spiritual life. Faith is welcome but not necessary and lack of faith or criticism does not call for execution. No conversions are needed as spiritual life does not mandate membership in an exclusive creed. State has no spiritual responsibility. The spiritual path at the beginning calls for personal purity and righteousness, with non violence and harmlessness to all- and evolves finally towards individual spiritual inquiry leading to
enlightenment or realization -of the nature of God. Venerable Prophets are many, within and outside India, who can be guides but are not necessarily needed. Being reflections of the Divine through the human form they are exalted beings but may have human limitations or imperfection at times. There is no Hindu Umma, Dar al Hind and Dar al
Harb and there are no Momins and Kafirs. No Ghazis are required to wield swords to decapitate heads of Kafirs to reap rewards in an indulgent Zannat to please the one God. For Hindus- property, life and women of Non Hindus, are not subject to enjoyment, destruction, enslavement and confiscation as per scriptural guidelines. Places of worship where others worship are not special targets of wrathful destruction. Hindus have largely chosen to accept, ignore, negate and justify their suffering, believing that tolerance and patience would certainly be rewarded in the long run by dawning of reason among those
who have brutalized India for about ten centuries. Large scale negation has been supplemented by outright falsification of the scale of atrocities on part of Islamic invaders. Indians have also submitted to more subtle but equally pernicious civilizational and spiritual subversion along with economic destruction by the Christian West. Purposeful erosion of the Hindu culture (Kul-achar) and ethos, was ensured, post Independence by the Congress-Communist nexus, under the cloak of secularism. This destruction continues unabated today.
Political empowerment of minorities is yet to occur in Europe and North America while in Islamic countries systematic cleansing has reduced minorities to near extinction almost everywhere. Indian congress, communists, secularists and Human right activists have not
bothered themselves with the Hindu victims of Islam or Christianity. They have built their credibility among foreigners and anti- Hindu faiths by sabotaging the ideal of India"s Nationhood based on Sanatan Dharma.
The idea of a tolerant Islamic State (for Non Muslims) is a contradiction in terms. For Christianity, state and religion, have historically been symbiotic entities -one thriving on the expansion of the other, each empowering the other. State was certainly the vehicle
for Christianity" s spread and eventual conquest of Europe rendering extinct all indigenous forms of spirituality and culture, from Greece to Lithuania beginning from Italy. For Islam, conquest of Arabia wiped out millennia of pre-Islamic Arabic history and culture. Persia and Egypt did not fare better. State as an entity, is subservient to Islam
and is merely its tool for expansion. In Western Europe and more prominently in America, while the pursuit of an individual religion is not interfered with but political empowerment of minority faiths other than Judaism is not even entertained as an idea in political or social discourse .The idea of Hindutva, Hindu fundamentalism are not merely
illogical concepts but are carefully crafted themes to empower the exclusivist faiths who battle today for the soul and soil of India.
There is no state other than India, that has seen political empowerment of minority faiths to an extent that persecution of majority is no longer looked upon with surprise. The ethnic cleansing of 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus in Hindu majority India is ignored, while
communal riots in response the burning of Hindu pilgrims in Godhra is termed pogrom with international condemnation, humiliation, and enquiry commissions whose findings contradict the charge of genocide due to state complicity or permissiveness. This of course cannot satiate the Indian media"s Hindu bloodlust. India"s English media,
human rights activists, television and it"s ruling Cabal reflect a coalition of Christians, Communists, Moslems, Western educated McCaulayites and foreign agents who live on the crumbs from middle east or the West. The zenith of one"s recognition in politics,
academia, art , media, or intellectual circles is related to the degree of virulence one is able to muster against the Hindu and the culture of his forefathers. Regrettably, the defense of majority Hindus in their own land is at the hands of parties like BJP, whose
apologetic conviction of their own heritage offers little hope. Their need for eulogies from the nation"s enemies is only matched by their gutlessness, lack of vision for their nation, colossal lack of cohesive planning and the spinelessness of political opportunism.
How about the spiritual foundation? the very reason why the Hindu has not given up his identity through millennia of occupation. India"s conquest to a large extent was due to loss of Dharma. Dharma as it relates to individual action guides the individual towards his larger sphere of responsibility towards family, community, nation, environment, and world at large. It is not merely individual salvation that religion should contract to, but it must exhort the individual to righteous and courageous action to uphold eternal values enjoined in Sanatan Dharma. Hindu spiritual leaders have miserably failed to exhort Hindus to the highest ideals of civic or community life and have forgotten the entire notion of Rashtra Dharma. Creating competing cults and creeds for self promotion, ritualistic worship or individual salvation without fulfilling all aspects of one"s Dharma is the foundational deficit that is once again propelling India into subjugation by Asuric forces. India"s multitude of temple goers and professional priests can no longer understand the ethos that had decreed motherland to be more exalted than the heavens. Therefore, the ritualistic, cult based, habit reinforced and temple oriented Hindu today is oblivious of the environment he lives in. The insularity of ritualistic behavior has degraded a deep worship tradition to "customary practice" severing philosophic continuity with our children - while outsiders have hardly been subtle in their contempt. For almost a thousand years jeering Islamic armies destroyed temples telling the Hindus that their Gods were mere idols who could not protect themselves, while the Hindu kept rebuilding his temples. The mosque built by the genocidal Babur was no mosque but merely a usurped temple that the weak Hindu finally used his bare hands to bring down
-but to what dramatic disbelief, condemnation and outrage -that a servile Hindu could do this! None bothered that a place of worship was named after a genocidal monarch - for it is but natural for Islam to honor its Ghazis. To protect Babur"s monument (though no Islamic scholar claimed it to be a true mosque) seemed to be a national obsession for the liberal Indian, for it to be brought down a national shame? Can such a country survive its citizenry? Is there a Church in Poland named after Hitler (a faithful) or for that matter, one in Rome after Constantine or Theodosius?
Finally one must come to the intellectual elite of India. The intellectual leaders of India are no longer creative, natural thinkers in indigenous languages but are brilliant products and protagonists of Western Education. One would be hard put to find an Indian thought
leader today who reads or writes in a language other than English. The Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Greeks, Germans, Spaniards, Mexicans or Egyptians do not have "English" intellectual Elite. These countries do no obsess themselves with intellectuals adorned with Booker prizes or Oscars for denigrating their countries. Their leading newspapers, media, or academic institutions do not have to use English to be well
regarded. It is perfectly cute to have the Chinese Premier shake his head at the US President and exchange pleasantries through an interpreter while it is not for the Indian savage to do the same. Indian parents regard education in English and higher studies in the English speaking West to be the highest form of academic achievement. It is a natural consequence to imbibe the English based knowledge systems and discard the vast indigenous intellectual wealth, available in Sanskrit and other indigenous literature. Thus the first rung of our civilization -the intellectual Indian has been simply de-indigenized. Validated by economic success and access to leadership positions this Indian intellectual leadership is Indian only in appearance -in character it represents colonial continuity. It is
virulently anti -Hindu and seeks not to be identified with Hindutva . Why else is "Hindu Tattva" or the essence of being a Hindu a dirty word while "being a good Christian" - a claim to value. Is it not the Hindu seer who gave the world Numbers and Counting, Astronomy, Music, Grammar, Yoga and Ayurveda besides Philosophy and the first glimpse of God ? What knowledge streams did the Prophets from the Monotheistic
faiths bequeath to the world ? India"s English media and its English Children have turned the Hindu into a despicable, backward and intolerable heathen, who is now violent as well. To unleash violence outside one"s borders on alien lands is natural as long as the
perpetrators are Christians or Moslems but to defend oneself and one"s faith within one"s own borders is fundamentalism in case of the Hindu. When the Christians or Moslems disallow proselytization or conversion it is the natural inclination to preserve one"s identity but for the Hindu to take such a view would be unacceptable bigotry. Barring
exceptions, India"s intellectual elite today is India"s most pernicious enemy - an elite reared on the subsidized state sponsored education funded by the toiling Hindu.
One must end with a discussion on solutions. As a first measure the Hindu majority of India must find its voice and aspiration reflected in the media. It must not support an anti India media through viewership, audience, subscription or advertisement revenue in any
form. India must demand a media free of foreign ownership or revenue based influence. Indians must control their media. Equally important for Indians is to elect a leadership that to start with is not anti-India. Needless to say, any leadership that is anti- Hindu is
anti-majority and by definition, anti-India. They cannot be at the helm of the country. Therefore, the UPA, its adherents and its supporting parties must be defeated and discarded into political oblivion. Marxism is welcome as part of academic discourse but its anti-national and anti-majority views do not permit it to be a legitimate political body . Marxist organizations and political parties need to be outlawed. The nexus of criminals and politicians has to be broken by a strengthened judiciary and ruthless imposition of law. A criminalized democracy manipulated by feudal families, foreigners, anti India and anti Hindu agencies is worse than an undemocratic, but ethical administration. India of the past has done far better under Vikramaditya or Chandragupta. The academic institutions of India starting from at its schools need to be entirely revamped. Study of its indigenous languages, knowledge streams, and its classical history from indigenous sources must be mandatory for all, but most of all for its political leadership and administration, as a prerequisite for electoral contest or administration. Anti India
academicians cannot have any public funding sources towards salary, research and publications and media presentations offending Hindu sentiments should not be tolerated. India"s 1.2 billion people and 1 billion Hindus must be what they want to be, not what others manipulate them to be -in this respect they must learn from China. Minorityism in the form of appeasement, selective economic aid, reservation, media propagation and political empowerment for votes, must be eliminated without any compunction -Hindu"s who have chosen to adopt foreign religions have no basis for special consideration,
though they remain free to practice their faith in private. Political action or activism that promotes sedition or violence must be met with violence and eliminated ruthlessly. Hindus should not be supportive of any Hindu religious institution, cult, temple or spiritual leaders who remain disconnected from the concept of a nationalism based on Sanatan Dharma .There cannot be any spiritual path divorced from Dharma in its
broadest sense .To support such self serving Hindu institutions and spiritual leaders is a folly as well. The intellectual leadership of India must be reconstructed and realigned to be steeped in its historical traditions that have always reflected a combination of value systems - a search for discriminatory wisdom, simple living, cultivation of Dharma combined with a sense of honor and valor. Meekness, avoidance of responsibility, search for self gratification and success should not be lauded but are worthy of rejection and
derision. India cannot honor those who dishonor it. Leaders in politics, academia, media, corporate world, arts, sciences or spiritual domain must not be honored anymore for being Anti-Hindu. If Tasleema Nasreen cannot be given asylum in India for offending
sensibilities of Muslims, on what grounds does one have to tolerate the likes of Arundhati Roy, M F Hussain, Jayalalitha , Brinda Karat, Karan Thapar, Shabana Azmi, Agnivesh or AR Antulay?
Hindu majority India managed to lose power and suffer enslavement, decapitation, conversion, jiziya, dhimmitude, and famines apart from annihilation of its identity for over a thousand years. Its current course shows no memory of this experience. All Hindus must act now, through forging a common Hindu identity and must express this identity
through a Hindu vote for a Hindu India - a Muslim India or a Christian India cannot be a pluralistic tolerant India. Let Islam and Christianity demonstrate this first in the lands they control. Let the US elect a non Christian Governor or President and let Indonesia or
Pakistan have a Hindu President first. Let rest of the world demonstrate its equality to the Hindu .The Hindu must protect himself first, to deliver humanity. While India as a nation state should stand for equality for all its citizens and proclaim all life to be sacred as decreed by Sanatan Dharma - it must let its external enemies know, that the future theatres of war would be on their soil and the rites of war would be one that they inflict on others.
Islam, does not recognize the idea of sovereignty of state or the concept of individual free will guiding individual choice –whether towards lifestyle or to one"s spiritual path. All Semitic faiths speak of a single God, but clearly not the same one, as each claims an exclusive covenant and an exclusive revelation through an exclusive prophet and salvation through the individual agency representing the religion. Thus if all were true then there must be three equal Gods or if only one were true then there is one true God and two other false Gods with two false creeds and two false institutions. If all were false, the idea of God must be difficult to sustain for the majority of the world and these religions must find a separate mission than offer salvation -invited or uninvited. Of the three great faiths one must admit that the modern Jewish faith does not directly negate
others and does not indulge in the task of conversions overtly and covertly and therefore intrinsically seeks no conflict -only the right of self existence. The Hindus seek peaceful self existence but differ from all, in laying no claim to a unique covenant or a unique
relationship with their own particular God. They further believe in self inquiry, the right to- differ, question, criticize, adopt or reject any particular aspect or tenet of spiritual life. Faith is welcome but not necessary and lack of faith or criticism does not call for execution. No conversions are needed as spiritual life does not mandate membership in an exclusive creed. State has no spiritual responsibility. The spiritual path at the beginning calls for personal purity and righteousness, with non violence and harmlessness to all- and evolves finally towards individual spiritual inquiry leading to
enlightenment or realization -of the nature of God. Venerable Prophets are many, within and outside India, who can be guides but are not necessarily needed. Being reflections of the Divine through the human form they are exalted beings but may have human limitations or imperfection at times. There is no Hindu Umma, Dar al Hind and Dar al
Harb and there are no Momins and Kafirs. No Ghazis are required to wield swords to decapitate heads of Kafirs to reap rewards in an indulgent Zannat to please the one God. For Hindus- property, life and women of Non Hindus, are not subject to enjoyment, destruction, enslavement and confiscation as per scriptural guidelines. Places of worship where others worship are not special targets of wrathful destruction. Hindus have largely chosen to accept, ignore, negate and justify their suffering, believing that tolerance and patience would certainly be rewarded in the long run by dawning of reason among those
who have brutalized India for about ten centuries. Large scale negation has been supplemented by outright falsification of the scale of atrocities on part of Islamic invaders. Indians have also submitted to more subtle but equally pernicious civilizational and spiritual subversion along with economic destruction by the Christian West. Purposeful erosion of the Hindu culture (Kul-achar) and ethos, was ensured, post Independence by the Congress-Communist nexus, under the cloak of secularism. This destruction continues unabated today.
Political empowerment of minorities is yet to occur in Europe and North America while in Islamic countries systematic cleansing has reduced minorities to near extinction almost everywhere. Indian congress, communists, secularists and Human right activists have not
bothered themselves with the Hindu victims of Islam or Christianity. They have built their credibility among foreigners and anti- Hindu faiths by sabotaging the ideal of India"s Nationhood based on Sanatan Dharma.
The idea of a tolerant Islamic State (for Non Muslims) is a contradiction in terms. For Christianity, state and religion, have historically been symbiotic entities -one thriving on the expansion of the other, each empowering the other. State was certainly the vehicle
for Christianity" s spread and eventual conquest of Europe rendering extinct all indigenous forms of spirituality and culture, from Greece to Lithuania beginning from Italy. For Islam, conquest of Arabia wiped out millennia of pre-Islamic Arabic history and culture. Persia and Egypt did not fare better. State as an entity, is subservient to Islam
and is merely its tool for expansion. In Western Europe and more prominently in America, while the pursuit of an individual religion is not interfered with but political empowerment of minority faiths other than Judaism is not even entertained as an idea in political or social discourse .The idea of Hindutva, Hindu fundamentalism are not merely
illogical concepts but are carefully crafted themes to empower the exclusivist faiths who battle today for the soul and soil of India.
There is no state other than India, that has seen political empowerment of minority faiths to an extent that persecution of majority is no longer looked upon with surprise. The ethnic cleansing of 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus in Hindu majority India is ignored, while
communal riots in response the burning of Hindu pilgrims in Godhra is termed pogrom with international condemnation, humiliation, and enquiry commissions whose findings contradict the charge of genocide due to state complicity or permissiveness. This of course cannot satiate the Indian media"s Hindu bloodlust. India"s English media,
human rights activists, television and it"s ruling Cabal reflect a coalition of Christians, Communists, Moslems, Western educated McCaulayites and foreign agents who live on the crumbs from middle east or the West. The zenith of one"s recognition in politics,
academia, art , media, or intellectual circles is related to the degree of virulence one is able to muster against the Hindu and the culture of his forefathers. Regrettably, the defense of majority Hindus in their own land is at the hands of parties like BJP, whose
apologetic conviction of their own heritage offers little hope. Their need for eulogies from the nation"s enemies is only matched by their gutlessness, lack of vision for their nation, colossal lack of cohesive planning and the spinelessness of political opportunism.
How about the spiritual foundation? the very reason why the Hindu has not given up his identity through millennia of occupation. India"s conquest to a large extent was due to loss of Dharma. Dharma as it relates to individual action guides the individual towards his larger sphere of responsibility towards family, community, nation, environment, and world at large. It is not merely individual salvation that religion should contract to, but it must exhort the individual to righteous and courageous action to uphold eternal values enjoined in Sanatan Dharma. Hindu spiritual leaders have miserably failed to exhort Hindus to the highest ideals of civic or community life and have forgotten the entire notion of Rashtra Dharma. Creating competing cults and creeds for self promotion, ritualistic worship or individual salvation without fulfilling all aspects of one"s Dharma is the foundational deficit that is once again propelling India into subjugation by Asuric forces. India"s multitude of temple goers and professional priests can no longer understand the ethos that had decreed motherland to be more exalted than the heavens. Therefore, the ritualistic, cult based, habit reinforced and temple oriented Hindu today is oblivious of the environment he lives in. The insularity of ritualistic behavior has degraded a deep worship tradition to "customary practice" severing philosophic continuity with our children - while outsiders have hardly been subtle in their contempt. For almost a thousand years jeering Islamic armies destroyed temples telling the Hindus that their Gods were mere idols who could not protect themselves, while the Hindu kept rebuilding his temples. The mosque built by the genocidal Babur was no mosque but merely a usurped temple that the weak Hindu finally used his bare hands to bring down
-but to what dramatic disbelief, condemnation and outrage -that a servile Hindu could do this! None bothered that a place of worship was named after a genocidal monarch - for it is but natural for Islam to honor its Ghazis. To protect Babur"s monument (though no Islamic scholar claimed it to be a true mosque) seemed to be a national obsession for the liberal Indian, for it to be brought down a national shame? Can such a country survive its citizenry? Is there a Church in Poland named after Hitler (a faithful) or for that matter, one in Rome after Constantine or Theodosius?
Finally one must come to the intellectual elite of India. The intellectual leaders of India are no longer creative, natural thinkers in indigenous languages but are brilliant products and protagonists of Western Education. One would be hard put to find an Indian thought
leader today who reads or writes in a language other than English. The Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Greeks, Germans, Spaniards, Mexicans or Egyptians do not have "English" intellectual Elite. These countries do no obsess themselves with intellectuals adorned with Booker prizes or Oscars for denigrating their countries. Their leading newspapers, media, or academic institutions do not have to use English to be well
regarded. It is perfectly cute to have the Chinese Premier shake his head at the US President and exchange pleasantries through an interpreter while it is not for the Indian savage to do the same. Indian parents regard education in English and higher studies in the English speaking West to be the highest form of academic achievement. It is a natural consequence to imbibe the English based knowledge systems and discard the vast indigenous intellectual wealth, available in Sanskrit and other indigenous literature. Thus the first rung of our civilization -the intellectual Indian has been simply de-indigenized. Validated by economic success and access to leadership positions this Indian intellectual leadership is Indian only in appearance -in character it represents colonial continuity. It is
virulently anti -Hindu and seeks not to be identified with Hindutva . Why else is "Hindu Tattva" or the essence of being a Hindu a dirty word while "being a good Christian" - a claim to value. Is it not the Hindu seer who gave the world Numbers and Counting, Astronomy, Music, Grammar, Yoga and Ayurveda besides Philosophy and the first glimpse of God ? What knowledge streams did the Prophets from the Monotheistic
faiths bequeath to the world ? India"s English media and its English Children have turned the Hindu into a despicable, backward and intolerable heathen, who is now violent as well. To unleash violence outside one"s borders on alien lands is natural as long as the
perpetrators are Christians or Moslems but to defend oneself and one"s faith within one"s own borders is fundamentalism in case of the Hindu. When the Christians or Moslems disallow proselytization or conversion it is the natural inclination to preserve one"s identity but for the Hindu to take such a view would be unacceptable bigotry. Barring
exceptions, India"s intellectual elite today is India"s most pernicious enemy - an elite reared on the subsidized state sponsored education funded by the toiling Hindu.
One must end with a discussion on solutions. As a first measure the Hindu majority of India must find its voice and aspiration reflected in the media. It must not support an anti India media through viewership, audience, subscription or advertisement revenue in any
form. India must demand a media free of foreign ownership or revenue based influence. Indians must control their media. Equally important for Indians is to elect a leadership that to start with is not anti-India. Needless to say, any leadership that is anti- Hindu is
anti-majority and by definition, anti-India. They cannot be at the helm of the country. Therefore, the UPA, its adherents and its supporting parties must be defeated and discarded into political oblivion. Marxism is welcome as part of academic discourse but its anti-national and anti-majority views do not permit it to be a legitimate political body . Marxist organizations and political parties need to be outlawed. The nexus of criminals and politicians has to be broken by a strengthened judiciary and ruthless imposition of law. A criminalized democracy manipulated by feudal families, foreigners, anti India and anti Hindu agencies is worse than an undemocratic, but ethical administration. India of the past has done far better under Vikramaditya or Chandragupta. The academic institutions of India starting from at its schools need to be entirely revamped. Study of its indigenous languages, knowledge streams, and its classical history from indigenous sources must be mandatory for all, but most of all for its political leadership and administration, as a prerequisite for electoral contest or administration. Anti India
academicians cannot have any public funding sources towards salary, research and publications and media presentations offending Hindu sentiments should not be tolerated. India"s 1.2 billion people and 1 billion Hindus must be what they want to be, not what others manipulate them to be -in this respect they must learn from China. Minorityism in the form of appeasement, selective economic aid, reservation, media propagation and political empowerment for votes, must be eliminated without any compunction -Hindu"s who have chosen to adopt foreign religions have no basis for special consideration,
though they remain free to practice their faith in private. Political action or activism that promotes sedition or violence must be met with violence and eliminated ruthlessly. Hindus should not be supportive of any Hindu religious institution, cult, temple or spiritual leaders who remain disconnected from the concept of a nationalism based on Sanatan Dharma .There cannot be any spiritual path divorced from Dharma in its
broadest sense .To support such self serving Hindu institutions and spiritual leaders is a folly as well. The intellectual leadership of India must be reconstructed and realigned to be steeped in its historical traditions that have always reflected a combination of value systems - a search for discriminatory wisdom, simple living, cultivation of Dharma combined with a sense of honor and valor. Meekness, avoidance of responsibility, search for self gratification and success should not be lauded but are worthy of rejection and
derision. India cannot honor those who dishonor it. Leaders in politics, academia, media, corporate world, arts, sciences or spiritual domain must not be honored anymore for being Anti-Hindu. If Tasleema Nasreen cannot be given asylum in India for offending
sensibilities of Muslims, on what grounds does one have to tolerate the likes of Arundhati Roy, M F Hussain, Jayalalitha , Brinda Karat, Karan Thapar, Shabana Azmi, Agnivesh or AR Antulay?
Hindu majority India managed to lose power and suffer enslavement, decapitation, conversion, jiziya, dhimmitude, and famines apart from annihilation of its identity for over a thousand years. Its current course shows no memory of this experience. All Hindus must act now, through forging a common Hindu identity and must express this identity
through a Hindu vote for a Hindu India - a Muslim India or a Christian India cannot be a pluralistic tolerant India. Let Islam and Christianity demonstrate this first in the lands they control. Let the US elect a non Christian Governor or President and let Indonesia or
Pakistan have a Hindu President first. Let rest of the world demonstrate its equality to the Hindu .The Hindu must protect himself first, to deliver humanity. While India as a nation state should stand for equality for all its citizens and proclaim all life to be sacred as decreed by Sanatan Dharma - it must let its external enemies know, that the future theatres of war would be on their soil and the rites of war would be one that they inflict on others.
Mumbai terror, implications for US interests (Congressional Research report)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9940655/001R40087 Congressional Research Service document. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India and implications for US Interests by K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs dated December 19, 2008
Excerpts:
A 2006 session of the U.S.-India Joint Working Group
on Counterterrorism ended with a statement of determination from both countries to further
advance bilateral cooperation and information sharing on such areas of common concern as
bioterrorism, aviation security, advances in biometrics, cyber-security and terrorism, WMD
terrorism, and terrorist financing.105 The Working Group has met a total of nine times since its 2000 creation, most recently in August 2008. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mullen was in New Delhi in early December to meet with senior Indian leaders, where he reiterated the U.S.
military’s commitment to work closely with Indian armed forces on counterterrorism. http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/pr120408a.htm.
The Mumbai incident elicited more vocal calls for deepening U.S.-India counterterrorism
cooperation that could benefit both countries. Such cooperation has been hampered by sometimes divergent geopolitical perceptions and by U.S. reluctance to “embarrass” its Pakistani allies by conveying alleged evidence of official Pakistani links to terrorists, especially those waging a separatist war in Kashmir. Mutual distrust between Washington and New Delhi also has been exacerbated by some recent clandestine U.S. efforts to penetrate Indian intelligence agencies.
Despite lingering problems, the scale of the threat posed by Islamist militants spurs observers to encourage more robust bilateral intelligence sharing and other official exchanges, including on maritime and cyber security, among many more potential issue-areas. See Lisa Curtis, After Mumbai: Time to Strengthen U.S.-India Counterterrorism Cooperation, Heritage Foundation
Backgrounder, December 9, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/upload/bg_2217.pdf.
U.S. law enforcement agencies possess specialized equipment that can trace voice-over-internet calls, along with other expertise for examining the global position and satellite phone systems used by the attackers. One unnamed senior Indian intelligence source was quoted as saying that FBI assistance in tracing VoIP calls will be a “test case for U.S. promises.” (Praveen Swami, “Key Test for Indo-U.S. Intelligence Ties” (op-ed), Hindu (Chennai), December 3, 2008; quote in “Terror Boat Was Almost Nabbed Off Mumbai,” Times of India (Delhi), December 10, 2008.)
Summary
On the evening of November 26, 2008, a number of well-trained militants came ashore from the
Arabian Sea on small boats and attacked numerous high-profile targets in Mumbai, India, with
automatic weapons and explosives. By the time the episode ended some 62 hours later, about 165
people, along with nine terrorists, had been killed and hundreds more injured. Among the
multiple sites attacked in the peninsular city known as India’s business and entertainment capital
were two luxury hotels—the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident—along with the main
railway terminal, a Jewish cultural center, a café frequented by foreigners, a cinema house, and
two hospitals. Six American citizens were among the 26 foreigners reported dead. Indian officials
have concluded that the attackers numbered only ten, one of whom was captured.
The investigation into the attacks is still in preliminary stages, but press reporting and statements
from U.S. and Indian authorities strongly suggest that the attackers came to India from
neighboring Pakistan and that the perpetrators likely were members and acting under the
orchestration of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. The LeT is believed to
have past links with Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. By some accounts, these links
are ongoing, leading to suspicions, but no known evidence, of involvement in the attack by
Pakistani state elements. The Islamabad government has strongly condemned the Mumbai
terrorism and offered New Delhi its full cooperation with the ongoing investigation, but mutual
acrimony clouds such an effort, and the attacks have brought into question the viability of a
nearly five-year-old bilateral peace process between India and Pakistan.
Three wars—in 1947-48, 1965, and 1971—and a constant state of military preparedness on both
sides of the border have marked six decades of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan. Such
bilateral discord between two nuclear-armed countries thus has major implications for regional
security and for U.S. interests. The Administration of President-elect Barack Obama may seek to
increase U.S. diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving conflict between these two countries. The
Mumbai attacks have brought even more intense international attention to the increasingly deadly
and destabilizing incidence of Islamist extremism in South Asia, and they may affect the course
of U.S. policy toward Pakistan, especially. The episode also has major domestic implications for
India, in both the political and security realms. Indian counterterrorism capabilities have come
under intense scrutiny, and the United States may further expand bilateral cooperation with and
assistance to India in this realm.
For broader discussion, see CRS Report RL33529, India-U.S.
Relations, and CRS Report RL33498, Pakistan-U.S. Relations. This report will not be updated.
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33529.pdf
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33498.pdf
Chidambaram’s visit cancelled; US report puts focus on 26/11
Livemint Posted: Fri, Jan 9 2009. 12:38 AM IST
Mint could not immediately ascertain whether the home minister’s trip had been put off because of the imminent change in the US leadership
Liz Mathew
New Delhi: Home minister P. Chidambaram’s proposed trip to the US to share evidence about the involvement of Pakistan-based groups in the Mumbai terror attacks has been cancelled even as a US Congressional research report said it may be time to evolve a new foreign policy for South Asia.
In less than two weeks, Barack Obama will take charge as the next president of the US. Mint could not immediately ascertain whether the home minister’s trip had been put off because of the imminent change in the US leadership.
According to a top official in the ministry of external affairs, or MEA, Chidambaram’s visit had been cancelled because India had already handed over evidence establishing links between the attacks and Pakistan-based “elements” to Pakistan and given copies to the US. The official did not want to be identified. When contacted, Chidambaram declined to comment. He had been expected to meet US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Washington.
Meanwhile, the report, “Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India and Implications for US Interests”, prepared by the Congressional Research Service for circulation among lawmakers, said the Mumbai attacks could complicate the US’ South Asia policy.
“Potential issues for the 111th Congress with regard to India include legislation that would foster greater US-India counterterrorism relations. With regard to Pakistan, Congressional attention has focused and is likely to remain focused on the programming and potential further conditioning of US foreign assistance, including that related to security and counterterrorism,” the report said.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank, said the attacks have “re-hyphenated India and Pakistan in the US foreign policy” and “it would be a fair hypothesis to say that the Mumbai attacks were partly carried out to complicate US foreign policy”.
“I think it is now time that the US does a fundamental rethink on its Pakistan policy rather than its South Asia diplomatic efforts,” Mehta said.
Former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra said, “Much is going to depend on the (Joe) Biden visit. Obama is sending Biden, along with four colleagues, to see for themselves.” US vice-president-elect Joe Biden is scheduled visit to Pakistan this week.
Independently, Ted Osius, minister counsellor for political affairs at the US embassy in India, told a conference organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce on Thursday that the US would want to look at Russia as an alternative to route its supplies and equipment for bases in Afghanistan and thereby reduce reliance on Pakistan.
Ruhi Tewari, Rahul Chandran and Asit Ranjan Mishra and PTI contributed to this story.
liz.m@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/Articles/PrintArticle.aspx?artid=BA08F254-DDB1-11DD-A9CC-000B5DABF636
SP blows hot, and then cold, on pullout threat
8 Jan 2009, 0246 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: A day after the Supreme Court threw a spanner in the Centre's bid to bail out Mulayam Singh Yadav in the DA case, the Samajwadi Party raised the ante with threats of pullout from the UPA, only to suddenly calm down after an audience with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The sudden rise and fall in SP temper, with party general secretary Amar Singh as protagonist, left political circles bewildered as observers linked the flip-flop to the brazen CBI attempt to get SP chief out of the agency's net.
SP linked its anger to the UPA government's refusal to act decisively against Pakistan, and the late-evening U-turn was also argued around terror, but few were ready to buy the argument.
While the Centre has done its part to help Mulayam Singh out of the CBI net, going to the extent of seeking a withdrawal of the case after having sought the SP chief's prosecution, Samajwadis feel that more needs to be done to clinch the issue.
As the drama played out within a day of the apex court's strong remarks on CBI, the terror-Pakistan link to the rise and drop in SP anger had few takers.
Amar Singh told reporters in the afternoon that SP could withdraw support to UPA as the latter had failed to take decisive action against Pakistan for the Mumbai terror attacks.
"During an all-party meeting 40 days ago, the government had promised party chief Mulayam Singh that decisive action against Pakistan will be taken in 15 days...that deadline is over," he said, adding that a decision would be taken at the parliamentary board meeting on Thursday.
As Congress downplayed the outburst, saying it only showed SP's concern over terrorism, Amar Singh drove to 10, Janpath, for a meeting with Sonia Gandhi. He emerged from her residence to say there was no question of a pullout and that he had only expressed the sentiments of his party workers.
After having built a case around terror in the day-long drama, SP leaders may gather on Thursday to raise the pitch even further. It suits Samajwadis to take a belligerent stand on Pakistan, having realised that public mood has turned completely against the politicking as it did during the Batla House encounter.
SP believes that a tough stance on terror would endear it to voters across the board. That rival Mayawati has also taken a strong line on terror only shows how language of UP politics has changed since the Mumbai attacks.
Excerpts:
A 2006 session of the U.S.-India Joint Working Group
on Counterterrorism ended with a statement of determination from both countries to further
advance bilateral cooperation and information sharing on such areas of common concern as
bioterrorism, aviation security, advances in biometrics, cyber-security and terrorism, WMD
terrorism, and terrorist financing.105 The Working Group has met a total of nine times since its 2000 creation, most recently in August 2008. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mullen was in New Delhi in early December to meet with senior Indian leaders, where he reiterated the U.S.
military’s commitment to work closely with Indian armed forces on counterterrorism. http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/pr120408a.htm.
The Mumbai incident elicited more vocal calls for deepening U.S.-India counterterrorism
cooperation that could benefit both countries. Such cooperation has been hampered by sometimes divergent geopolitical perceptions and by U.S. reluctance to “embarrass” its Pakistani allies by conveying alleged evidence of official Pakistani links to terrorists, especially those waging a separatist war in Kashmir. Mutual distrust between Washington and New Delhi also has been exacerbated by some recent clandestine U.S. efforts to penetrate Indian intelligence agencies.
Despite lingering problems, the scale of the threat posed by Islamist militants spurs observers to encourage more robust bilateral intelligence sharing and other official exchanges, including on maritime and cyber security, among many more potential issue-areas. See Lisa Curtis, After Mumbai: Time to Strengthen U.S.-India Counterterrorism Cooperation, Heritage Foundation
Backgrounder, December 9, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/upload/bg_2217.pdf.
U.S. law enforcement agencies possess specialized equipment that can trace voice-over-internet calls, along with other expertise for examining the global position and satellite phone systems used by the attackers. One unnamed senior Indian intelligence source was quoted as saying that FBI assistance in tracing VoIP calls will be a “test case for U.S. promises.” (Praveen Swami, “Key Test for Indo-U.S. Intelligence Ties” (op-ed), Hindu (Chennai), December 3, 2008; quote in “Terror Boat Was Almost Nabbed Off Mumbai,” Times of India (Delhi), December 10, 2008.)
Summary
On the evening of November 26, 2008, a number of well-trained militants came ashore from the
Arabian Sea on small boats and attacked numerous high-profile targets in Mumbai, India, with
automatic weapons and explosives. By the time the episode ended some 62 hours later, about 165
people, along with nine terrorists, had been killed and hundreds more injured. Among the
multiple sites attacked in the peninsular city known as India’s business and entertainment capital
were two luxury hotels—the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident—along with the main
railway terminal, a Jewish cultural center, a café frequented by foreigners, a cinema house, and
two hospitals. Six American citizens were among the 26 foreigners reported dead. Indian officials
have concluded that the attackers numbered only ten, one of whom was captured.
The investigation into the attacks is still in preliminary stages, but press reporting and statements
from U.S. and Indian authorities strongly suggest that the attackers came to India from
neighboring Pakistan and that the perpetrators likely were members and acting under the
orchestration of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. The LeT is believed to
have past links with Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. By some accounts, these links
are ongoing, leading to suspicions, but no known evidence, of involvement in the attack by
Pakistani state elements. The Islamabad government has strongly condemned the Mumbai
terrorism and offered New Delhi its full cooperation with the ongoing investigation, but mutual
acrimony clouds such an effort, and the attacks have brought into question the viability of a
nearly five-year-old bilateral peace process between India and Pakistan.
Three wars—in 1947-48, 1965, and 1971—and a constant state of military preparedness on both
sides of the border have marked six decades of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan. Such
bilateral discord between two nuclear-armed countries thus has major implications for regional
security and for U.S. interests. The Administration of President-elect Barack Obama may seek to
increase U.S. diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving conflict between these two countries. The
Mumbai attacks have brought even more intense international attention to the increasingly deadly
and destabilizing incidence of Islamist extremism in South Asia, and they may affect the course
of U.S. policy toward Pakistan, especially. The episode also has major domestic implications for
India, in both the political and security realms. Indian counterterrorism capabilities have come
under intense scrutiny, and the United States may further expand bilateral cooperation with and
assistance to India in this realm.
For broader discussion, see CRS Report RL33529, India-U.S.
Relations, and CRS Report RL33498, Pakistan-U.S. Relations. This report will not be updated.
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33529.pdf
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33498.pdf
Chidambaram’s visit cancelled; US report puts focus on 26/11
Livemint Posted: Fri, Jan 9 2009. 12:38 AM IST
Mint could not immediately ascertain whether the home minister’s trip had been put off because of the imminent change in the US leadership
Liz Mathew
New Delhi: Home minister P. Chidambaram’s proposed trip to the US to share evidence about the involvement of Pakistan-based groups in the Mumbai terror attacks has been cancelled even as a US Congressional research report said it may be time to evolve a new foreign policy for South Asia.
In less than two weeks, Barack Obama will take charge as the next president of the US. Mint could not immediately ascertain whether the home minister’s trip had been put off because of the imminent change in the US leadership.
According to a top official in the ministry of external affairs, or MEA, Chidambaram’s visit had been cancelled because India had already handed over evidence establishing links between the attacks and Pakistan-based “elements” to Pakistan and given copies to the US. The official did not want to be identified. When contacted, Chidambaram declined to comment. He had been expected to meet US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Washington.
Meanwhile, the report, “Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India and Implications for US Interests”, prepared by the Congressional Research Service for circulation among lawmakers, said the Mumbai attacks could complicate the US’ South Asia policy.
“Potential issues for the 111th Congress with regard to India include legislation that would foster greater US-India counterterrorism relations. With regard to Pakistan, Congressional attention has focused and is likely to remain focused on the programming and potential further conditioning of US foreign assistance, including that related to security and counterterrorism,” the report said.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank, said the attacks have “re-hyphenated India and Pakistan in the US foreign policy” and “it would be a fair hypothesis to say that the Mumbai attacks were partly carried out to complicate US foreign policy”.
“I think it is now time that the US does a fundamental rethink on its Pakistan policy rather than its South Asia diplomatic efforts,” Mehta said.
Former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra said, “Much is going to depend on the (Joe) Biden visit. Obama is sending Biden, along with four colleagues, to see for themselves.” US vice-president-elect Joe Biden is scheduled visit to Pakistan this week.
Independently, Ted Osius, minister counsellor for political affairs at the US embassy in India, told a conference organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce on Thursday that the US would want to look at Russia as an alternative to route its supplies and equipment for bases in Afghanistan and thereby reduce reliance on Pakistan.
Ruhi Tewari, Rahul Chandran and Asit Ranjan Mishra and PTI contributed to this story.
liz.m@livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/Articles/PrintArticle.aspx?artid=BA08F254-DDB1-11DD-A9CC-000B5DABF636
SP blows hot, and then cold, on pullout threat
8 Jan 2009, 0246 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: A day after the Supreme Court threw a spanner in the Centre's bid to bail out Mulayam Singh Yadav in the DA case, the Samajwadi Party raised the ante with threats of pullout from the UPA, only to suddenly calm down after an audience with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The sudden rise and fall in SP temper, with party general secretary Amar Singh as protagonist, left political circles bewildered as observers linked the flip-flop to the brazen CBI attempt to get SP chief out of the agency's net.
SP linked its anger to the UPA government's refusal to act decisively against Pakistan, and the late-evening U-turn was also argued around terror, but few were ready to buy the argument.
While the Centre has done its part to help Mulayam Singh out of the CBI net, going to the extent of seeking a withdrawal of the case after having sought the SP chief's prosecution, Samajwadis feel that more needs to be done to clinch the issue.
As the drama played out within a day of the apex court's strong remarks on CBI, the terror-Pakistan link to the rise and drop in SP anger had few takers.
Amar Singh told reporters in the afternoon that SP could withdraw support to UPA as the latter had failed to take decisive action against Pakistan for the Mumbai terror attacks.
"During an all-party meeting 40 days ago, the government had promised party chief Mulayam Singh that decisive action against Pakistan will be taken in 15 days...that deadline is over," he said, adding that a decision would be taken at the parliamentary board meeting on Thursday.
As Congress downplayed the outburst, saying it only showed SP's concern over terrorism, Amar Singh drove to 10, Janpath, for a meeting with Sonia Gandhi. He emerged from her residence to say there was no question of a pullout and that he had only expressed the sentiments of his party workers.
After having built a case around terror in the day-long drama, SP leaders may gather on Thursday to raise the pitch even further. It suits Samajwadis to take a belligerent stand on Pakistan, having realised that public mood has turned completely against the politicking as it did during the Batla House encounter.
SP believes that a tough stance on terror would endear it to voters across the board. That rival Mayawati has also taken a strong line on terror only shows how language of UP politics has changed since the Mumbai attacks.
Brisking neighbour
Officials estimate that the Taliban has either burnt down or blown up more than 140 educational institutions in the past two years. The picture shows students outside a school after it was destroyed in the Kundar village of Swat Valley.
A small bomb blast does not make the headlines in Karachi anymore. The ensuing dialogue is always followed by the same question: how many killed? One, two or even 10 does not merit a pause in the conversation, let alone a prayer for the departed. These stoic rejoinders are not limited to Karachi. Similar reactions punctuate news of bombings all over Pakistan, perhaps with even more pronounced restraint when the incidents take place in the tribal areas. Just as the news of a bomb blast is met with little incredulity, Pakistanis, confronted with an Islamist insurgency spanning into its third year, continue to insist that their daily lives remain unaffected by the upsurge in Islamist violence around the country. The twin symptoms, resignation and denial, are denominators of Pakistan's new 'normal' — defined as it is by violence so commonplace and insecurity so routine that it no longer registers shock or protest.
This redefinition of ordinary has not been gradual. Even a mere five years ago, the Taliban was an idea relegated to beyond the western border in Afghanistan, and tourists continued to swarm areas like Swat for summer vacations. Ski lifts were crowded and guesthouses remained full all season. The death of that Swat is now old news, no longer reported by journalists, either in Pakistan or abroad.
Yet the magnitude of violence and fear unleashed tells a story of how, in a short span of time, a population can be so vastly terrorised that it is rendered effectively mute. Officials estimate that the Taliban has either burnt down or blown up more than 140 educational institutions in the past two years, leaving nearly a million of the children without access to education. With nearly 30 per cent of the girls having withdrawn from schools and colleges anyway, the news of the announcement by Mullah Shah Doran, the Taliban's second in command, that all girls would be forbidden from attending school from January 15, 2008 was relegated to the inside pages of most newspapers.
If the girls in Swat are bearing the brunt of the Taliban campaign against education, the girls daring to go to school in the urban centre of Lahore are not spared either. The bomb squad in the city reported nearly 50 threats to various schools and colleges in the past few months. The threats were part of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's effort to expand its activities into the cultural capital. As part of this campaign, nearly five "cultural blasts" took place on January 9, 2009 outside theatres which were accused of spreading immorality. The incidents were connected to blasts that took place in the city last year near the Al-Hamra Arts Centre and Garhi Shahu ice cream parlours. The last time the area was threatened, in the form of an anonymous letter written to Shabbir Labha, head of a local trader's organisation, the writer said the area would be bombed if the sale of pornographic CDs was not halted immediately. One day later, traders voluntarily burned 60,000 CDs in a pragmatic move to avert an attack on their market. This most recent "cultural blast," however, came without warning, costing millions of rupees in damage to the theatres.
Singular incidents such as these come and go, but their cumulative effect on the maimed psychology of people is far from being of "low intensity," the term used to describe the explosive used in the most recent Lahore attack. In the past year, Pakistan has overtaken both Iraq and Afghanistan in the number of suicide attacks, with casualties numbering over 600.
No category of targets — from schools to juice shops and from fancy hotels to barber shops — has been spared. The victims have been security officials, businessmen, poor trader women, shopkeepers and, of course, even former Prime Ministers. Television audiences have become used to watching clips of decapitated heads of suicide bombers, which are regularly made available to TV crews after attacks. Everyone knows that when a suicide bomber detonates his explosives, his head pops off and is usually found intact.
The visibility and constant onslaught of violence has a peculiar effect on those witnessing it. As the grasp of the insurgency widens, from the remote tribal areas always, relegated to the recesses of the Pakistani geographical imagination, to the streets of Karachi and even the cultural centre of Lahore, the world of the individual Pakistani constricts further and further. The web of concern and empathy, once expansive enough to encompass fellow countrymen, gets ever narrower, stretching only to include those in ever smaller circles. In contracting their radius of concern, Pakistanis look only to their near and dear, finding solace in the small group that may still remain untouched, and insulating themselves from the assassinated, the kidnapped, the looted and the threatened.
As a result, it is not just bomb blasts that merit little attention, empathy or protest from Pakistanis. Ever worsening crimes — from the live burial of five Balochi women by the relative of a Minister to the unleashing of dogs on a 17-year-old pregnant girl — prompt little mass protest other than by token women's groups and journalists. In a mental exercise engaged in only by the most traumatised, Pakistanis routinely slice their much taxed sympathy into those few that matter and the millions that don't. In the words of one Karachi-ite, "I look down, do my work, pick my children up from school and don't worry too much about what is happening. It's the only way I can survive here."
And then there are the moral conundrums permeated by violence that strategically attacks a set of confused ideological premises which have long plagued the moral conscience of Pakistanis. One area where this confusion is glaring is the regulation of cultural practices considered un-Islamic under the draconian Taliban rubric. It is thus not just the Taliban threats that have an impact on local populations but their reverberations. One example is the Lahore High Court's recent decision to ban 'mujra,' the age-old dance form practised in Lahore for nearly 400 years.
Following the ruling, the theatres where the dancers performed went on strike, prompting the court to reverse the ban and order the dancers to "wear shawls covering their necks and wear shoes." Necks and bare feet were considered too erotic, and hence impermissible. The moral of the story is clear: in a society unsure of the religious merit of its culture and unable to articulate the place of religion, all ills can be blamed on the guilty pleasures that can produce moral shame, and hence justify terror. In this case, the misogyny heaped on female entertainers and the guilt of those selling and consuming their product are effectively used to valorise even the terror produced by the Taliban. When those enjoyments relegated to the guilty recesses of consumption are attacked, their elimination, however crude, is painted as purification rather than denigration of society.
In the years and months since the Taliban insurgency has taken hold, its measure has been taken in lives lost and property damaged. Little effort has been made, however, to evaluate how the incursion of religious extremism has altered civil and social life in Pakistan. The indirect effects of the constriction of empathy, the tacit acceptance of insecurity and the self-imposed moral monism that is intolerant of all differences are effects that have a longer and much more drastic effect. This can already be seen in the muffled non-existence of civil society that can no longer organise or conceptualise a position on any political or legislative issue.
If Pakistan does not have a national, organised movement of civil society groups against terror, it is not because Pakistanis are not suffering. The conglomeration of a survivalist indifference, in which caring is reserved not for the larger world but for the chosen few of one's immediate circle, and the confusion of faith and its role as a moral regulator are ultimately giving birth to a new, more menacing definition of normalcy.
In a country where the population is inured to violence and has resigned itself to persecution, there can be little expectation of political organisation or representation beyond the most illusory. Lulled into catatonia by such pervasive helplessness,
Pakistanis can do little except deny that the violence exists, persecutes and targets them every single day, or stubbornly insist that even if it does, it means little and that life — simply if uncertainly — goes on just as before, with a new definition of normal.
Barbarians at the gate
There is sufficient reason to be worried about the gutless civilian Government in Pakistan abjectly capitulating to the Islamic fanatics of Swat Valley who have prohibited girls from attending school, ordered women to stay at home, instructed parents to give their daughters as ‘wives’ to the Taliban, begun flogging men in public squares, and will soon replace popular entertainment by way of films and music with stoning victims of rape to death in bazaars. With the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi — never mind that we are talking about the Pakistani variety of Mullah Omar’s masked Afghan killers — virtually coming to power in Malakand division of North-West Frontier Province, reducing the secular ANP Government to no more than a nominal ‘authority’ forced to do Islamabad’s bidding, it’s only a matter of time before the geographic expanse of ‘Jihadistan’ increases to consume large chunks of what remains of Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s moth-eaten Pakistan.
It’s really of little or no relevance that last week’s ‘peace deal’ hinges on the imposition of ‘Nizam-e-Adl’, or shari’ah criminal law: Malakand won’t be the only place in the world where limbs will be chopped off for petty offences or women done to death for the crimes of men. Nor should we be unduly impressed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s description of the Taliban as “murderous thugs and militants” who “pose a danger to Pakistan, the US and India”. Surely he hasn’t forgotten that it was Benazir Bhutto who connived with the ISI to promote the Taliban, nor should he pretend to be ignorant of the fact that it was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who aggressively preached “Islam is the solution, the Islamic Bomb is the means”. Having sent Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the gallows, Gen Zia-ul-Haq could not but have aggressively pushed Islamism and its attendant evils. The poison fruit is now for the PPP and the people of Pakistan to relish.
Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP was not being facetious when he said that the Taliban are a mere five hours away from India. Parliament may have missed the point and the Prime Minister’s flatterers may be upset that he should have compared the absentee head of Government as a ‘night watchman’, but it would be outright stupid to ignore the fact that the barbarians are at the gate. Let us also bear in mind that the Deobandi madarsas which produced the taliban who then went on to become the Taliban — in Pakistan and Afghanistan — are not entirely dissimilar to the madarsas which have mushroomed across the length and breadth of India, nurtured by both mullahs and their patrons in the ‘secular’ political parties, of which the Congress is just one example.
Let it also be said that the ‘intolerance’ of the Taliban which so alarms us is not specific to the ‘murderous thugs’ of Swat Valley and Kandahar. We have seen dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen being hounded out of Kolkata by Islamic fanatics and forced to leave India by the ‘secular’ UPA Government which now wrings its hands and waxes eloquent on the dangers of the rise of Talibani fanaticism. If only such concern had been expressed over the editor and publisher of The Statesman being arrested for reproducing a scintillating article from The Independent, written by Johann Hari, Mr Anand Sharma’s vapid reaction to the fall of Swat Valley would have carried some conviction. If Pakistan is now paying a steep price for its duplicitous policy of using violent Islamism to further its strategic interests in Afghanistan and bleed India through a ‘thousand cuts’, we too shall pay a price for following a line of least resistance and legitimising appeasement by grafting what the Prime Minister described as “Muslims first” to the policies of an allegedly secular state.
There are other similarities which make India as vulnerable as Pakistan to the scourge of Taliban. For all its emphasis on subjugating the country to the supremacy of Islam, of being one with the ummah, and its repeated proclamation of the equality of Muslims, Pakistan has abysmally failed to deliver good governance. Elected Prime Ministers and military dictators have equally fleeced the country, pushed the masses deeper into poverty, made a mockery of the judicial system, and maintained a dissolute elite’s hegemony over Pakistan’s politics, economy and society. Islamism was once a useful means to distract the masses and silence critics. Islamism now has become a powerful tool to mobilise the masses against the elite. Real grievances and imagined victimhood have coalesced to create a fetid swamp that breeds the deadliest of germs, of which the Taliban is a particularly venomous species.
Cut to India. The vast Muslim underclass remains unaffected and untouched by the Prime Minister’s “Muslims first” creed. While Mr Manmohan Singh spends sleepless nights agonising over the plight of those suspected to be involved in jihadi terrorism, millions of Muslims spend sleepless nights — as do millions of Hindus — wondering where their next meal is going to come from. When the Government decides to reward the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loud message to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in action, ensure a better life for your families. By casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing them of killing ‘innocent’ Muslims, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues encourage moderates to turn extremists. When madarsas are euologised and Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools are relentlessly demonised, the ulema feel sufficiently emboldened to include hate in their teachings. When the Government slyly allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense justice according to shari’ah, and lets them function without so much as a whimper of protest, it tells Muslims that India’s secular justice system is incapable of protecting their interests. When a wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should run their personal lives, the state abdicates its responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here too the Government has come to believe that Islam is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan’s is spreading; the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ are the produce of this swamp.
The distance between Swat Valley and Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi.
It’s really of little or no relevance that last week’s ‘peace deal’ hinges on the imposition of ‘Nizam-e-Adl’, or shari’ah criminal law: Malakand won’t be the only place in the world where limbs will be chopped off for petty offences or women done to death for the crimes of men. Nor should we be unduly impressed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s description of the Taliban as “murderous thugs and militants” who “pose a danger to Pakistan, the US and India”. Surely he hasn’t forgotten that it was Benazir Bhutto who connived with the ISI to promote the Taliban, nor should he pretend to be ignorant of the fact that it was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who aggressively preached “Islam is the solution, the Islamic Bomb is the means”. Having sent Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the gallows, Gen Zia-ul-Haq could not but have aggressively pushed Islamism and its attendant evils. The poison fruit is now for the PPP and the people of Pakistan to relish.
Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP was not being facetious when he said that the Taliban are a mere five hours away from India. Parliament may have missed the point and the Prime Minister’s flatterers may be upset that he should have compared the absentee head of Government as a ‘night watchman’, but it would be outright stupid to ignore the fact that the barbarians are at the gate. Let us also bear in mind that the Deobandi madarsas which produced the taliban who then went on to become the Taliban — in Pakistan and Afghanistan — are not entirely dissimilar to the madarsas which have mushroomed across the length and breadth of India, nurtured by both mullahs and their patrons in the ‘secular’ political parties, of which the Congress is just one example.
Let it also be said that the ‘intolerance’ of the Taliban which so alarms us is not specific to the ‘murderous thugs’ of Swat Valley and Kandahar. We have seen dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen being hounded out of Kolkata by Islamic fanatics and forced to leave India by the ‘secular’ UPA Government which now wrings its hands and waxes eloquent on the dangers of the rise of Talibani fanaticism. If only such concern had been expressed over the editor and publisher of The Statesman being arrested for reproducing a scintillating article from The Independent, written by Johann Hari, Mr Anand Sharma’s vapid reaction to the fall of Swat Valley would have carried some conviction. If Pakistan is now paying a steep price for its duplicitous policy of using violent Islamism to further its strategic interests in Afghanistan and bleed India through a ‘thousand cuts’, we too shall pay a price for following a line of least resistance and legitimising appeasement by grafting what the Prime Minister described as “Muslims first” to the policies of an allegedly secular state.
There are other similarities which make India as vulnerable as Pakistan to the scourge of Taliban. For all its emphasis on subjugating the country to the supremacy of Islam, of being one with the ummah, and its repeated proclamation of the equality of Muslims, Pakistan has abysmally failed to deliver good governance. Elected Prime Ministers and military dictators have equally fleeced the country, pushed the masses deeper into poverty, made a mockery of the judicial system, and maintained a dissolute elite’s hegemony over Pakistan’s politics, economy and society. Islamism was once a useful means to distract the masses and silence critics. Islamism now has become a powerful tool to mobilise the masses against the elite. Real grievances and imagined victimhood have coalesced to create a fetid swamp that breeds the deadliest of germs, of which the Taliban is a particularly venomous species.
Cut to India. The vast Muslim underclass remains unaffected and untouched by the Prime Minister’s “Muslims first” creed. While Mr Manmohan Singh spends sleepless nights agonising over the plight of those suspected to be involved in jihadi terrorism, millions of Muslims spend sleepless nights — as do millions of Hindus — wondering where their next meal is going to come from. When the Government decides to reward the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loud message to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in action, ensure a better life for your families. By casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing them of killing ‘innocent’ Muslims, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues encourage moderates to turn extremists. When madarsas are euologised and Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools are relentlessly demonised, the ulema feel sufficiently emboldened to include hate in their teachings. When the Government slyly allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense justice according to shari’ah, and lets them function without so much as a whimper of protest, it tells Muslims that India’s secular justice system is incapable of protecting their interests. When a wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should run their personal lives, the state abdicates its responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here too the Government has come to believe that Islam is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan’s is spreading; the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ are the produce of this swamp.
The distance between Swat Valley and Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi.
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