At the Muthi refugee camp in Jammu, a refugee-activist Bhushan Lal folded his hands before Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and asked a simple question: ‘Sir, when a not very educated person like me can understand that Azadi, Autonomy and Pakistan are all one and the same, why does this realisation elude such knowledgeable persons like you?
Human Rights Violations on Hindu refugees in West Bengal, India Case Number: Deganga 2010 P.S. Case No. 317/10 dated 08.09Country: INDIAType of Violation: Right to Property, Right to live, right to integrity, right to religion.Type of Act: Criminal trespass, Extorting of properties, criminal fo
When Lord Macaulay in the early 1800s in his educational Minute said: “We must at present do our best to form a class of person Indian in blood and colour but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect who will be the interpreters between us and the millions we govern”, little did he realise what grave impact it would have
Two potentially momentous events occurred almost simultaneously in the previous fortnight – the Kashmir talks and the Ayodhya verdict. Sadly, both ended on a flat note, thanks to the lack of courage and imagination on the part of the Congress party which dominates the UPA coalition at the Centre. The all-party delegation which visited J
Strange statements are coming out of Cuba these days. Fidel Castro, in the course of a five-hour interview in late August, reportedly told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.” Once that statement hit the headlines, C
We Are Living Through an Exceptional Moment in Human History. The deadlines established by the United Nations Security Council for Iran to yield to the demands imposed by the United States regarding nuclear research and uranium enrichment for medical purposes and to generate electricity will be expiring in these days [October]. This is the onl
Sept. 11, 2010, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, was a day of solemn ceremony, remembrance and reflection. It was also a time to consider the US reaction to the attack nine years ago, including the national effort to destroy al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in order to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks. Of course, part of the US rea
We are now nine weeks away from the midterm elections in the United States. Much can happen in nine weeks, but if the current polls are to be believed, US President Barack Obama is about to suffer a substantial political reversal. While we normally do not concern ourselves with domestic political affairs in the United States, when the only global p
A Sept. 12 news item, carried by many news media around the globe, has made public a crucial aspect of the British war strategy in Afghanistan, as well as the region: the official British involvement in the expansion of the opium trade in Afghanistan. The cited news item reported that the British Ministry of Defence has announced an investigat
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Hari Om
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24 Sep 2010
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September 20 will be regarded as a black day in the history of the post-independent India. On this inauspicious day, the Indian nation witnessed at least 15 members of the Union Home Minister-led parliamentary delegation, including the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, bringing disgrace to the country and virtually ridicul
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B B Lal
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24 Sep 2010
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[Suddenly on Thursday, 23 Sept., hours before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court was to deliver the long-awaited judgment on the Ayodhya title suit, the Supreme Court deferred the verdict till September 28; further delays are now inevitable. We are of the view that the sudden intervention by the apex Court was unwarranted in law, and wil
Sri Brihadeeswara Temple, a thousand year old temple popularly known as Tanjavur Peria Kovil or Big Temple, built by the great Chozha (Chola) Emperor, Rajaraja, will be holding its Millennium Celebrations from September 22 to 26, 2010. The Government is organising a five-day cultural festival involving thousands of artists on the Big Temple pr
Reporting on the renovation of temples at a cost of around Rs. 450 crores by the Tamil Nadu government, the Delhi-based daily, The Pioneer, said, “TN CM is full of Karuna and Nidhi for Temples.” The Chennai edition of The Times of India said, “Tamil Nadu CM turns temple patron”. Both newspapers didn’t fail to rem
The plot thickens as our favorite hero of the Matrix; our own “Captain Neo” Julian Assange, faces danger yet again. When we last parted company with the legendary founder of WikiLeaks, he was breathing a sigh of relief after dodging spurious double-rape charges. The complaints were dropped, and our hero was free to roam the globe once a
Time for Helicopter Ben to Drop Some Money on MainstreamThe Fed is proposing another round of “quantitative easing,” although the first round failed to reverse deflation. It failed because the money went into the coffers of banks, which failed to lend it on. To reverse deflation, the money needs to be funneled directly to st
The Bishop of the Catholic diocese in Kerala’s Ernakulum district, George Punnakotil, has turned a deaf ear to the demands to restore the job of sacked professor T.J. Joseph. Prof Joseph was employed by Newman College, run by diocese. Considering the resentment in the larger section of the minority, Prof Joseph has been suspended for one year
As Kashmiris of various political and religious persuasions prepare to receive the all-party delegation which arrives from New Delhi today, to break the vicious cycle of violence unleashed by separatists and terrorist groups, Panun Kashmir ploughs a lonely furrow, agonizing over the future, if any, of the marginalised Kashmiri Hindu (Pandit) commun
When the Norwegians met in February 2008 to propose names for the Nobel Peace Prize, they were perhaps aware of the possible controversy that nominations for Barack Obama could generate. After all, Obama would assume office as American President only on January 20, 2009. And till then, it is common knowledge Obama did not do anything spectacular to
Sanghol and the Archeology of Punjab, ed. Himanshu Prabha Ray is a remarkable work, and besides editing the book, Ray has contributed substantially by writing as many as six out of eleven chapters in the book. It is well-illustrated with photographs and designs, including some hitherto unpublished material. The discoveries at Sanghol were first pub
September 12, 2010, a referendum on constitutional reform was held in Turkey. The results are known: 58% for and 42% against the reforms. Turkish citizens voted for the changes in the law of the land proposed by the country’s government. Twenty-six amendments deal for the most part with relations between the military and the civilian governme
The Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has rightly come to the conclusion that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Disturbed Areas Act cannot be diluted or done away with at the moment in Jammu & Kashmir, where the semantics of terror tactics are changing, though the basic Jihadi terrorism
Padmagiri hillock lies in the centre of Dindukkal town, Tamil Nadu. A beautiful temple, hundreds of years old, is situated atop the hillock. Its presiding deities are Sri Padmagiriswarar and Sri Abirami Ambal. The Sthal Purana says that the sage Agasthya, who was asked to settle south of Vindhyas by Bhagwan Shiva, was blessed with the darshan of Bh
“The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings....The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even
Catching a somnolent Indian political and security establishment unawares, the Chinese dragon has taken virtual charge of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan in the northwest corner of the undivided kingdom of Kashmir. This – like the 38,000 sq. km. in Ladakh connecting Tibet and Xinjiang, and 5000 sq. km. in Shaksgam Valley given by Pakistan in 1
On Aug.18, the Obama administration issued a statement supporting the creation of a United Nations Commission to investigate Myanmar government’s alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. The statement said such a commission would advance the cause of human rights in Myanmar by “addressing issues of accountability for responsible
The latest round of anti-Hindu terror let loose by well organized bands of Muslim criminals in West Bengal is nothing new, except that it went on for a long time with the local administration failing to provide any meaningful help and security to the beleaguered Hindu population, a majority community suffering at the hands of an aggressive minority
The drawdown of US forces in Iraq has served to shift attention toward Afghanistan, where the United States has been increasing its troop strength in hopes of forming conditions conducive to a political settlement. This is similar to the way it used the 2007 surge in Iraq to help reach a negotiated settlement with the Sunni insurgents that eventual
We have reached a decisive transition in the evolution of US military doctrine. The “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) directed against Al Qaeda launched in the wake of 9/11 is evolving towards a full-fledged “war of religion”, a “holy crusade” directed against the Muslim World. US military dogma and war prop
[Eighteen months ago, a Palestinian lawyer called Zaid Nabulsi published a wonderful text, witty, sharp, – called An Incurable Disease of the Mind. Now Nabulsi has written a witty follow-up – Israel Shamir] - My family and I long to return to the Gardens of Cordoba (Qurtuba). We agonize wit
September 11, 2010 will be the 9th anniversary of the sudden collapse and pulverization into fine toxic dust (except for the thermite-sectioned steel beams), of the three World Trade Center towers (1, 2 & 7). What really happened on 9/11, contrary to the mainstream media-promulgated Bush/Cheney White House conspiracy theories, is becoming incre
It has now been nine years since al Qaeda attacked the United States. It has been nine years in which the primary focus of the United States has been on the Islamic world. In addition to a massive investment in homeland security, the United States has engaged in two multi-year, multi-divisional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, inserted forces in other
Bismarck understood that the meaning of the concept of separation of Church and State was not that the State should have no religion, nor even that it should not discriminate between citizens on the basis of religion. It was that the Church – hitherto the dominant religio-political entity of European life – should be subordinate to the
The floodwaters that began devastating Pakistan at the end of July are continuing their destructive course. While the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, situated west of the River Indus, the country’s lifeline, are waiting for the floodwaters to recede, the Indus is now devastating the southern province of Sindh on its way to th
Readers of my articles will recall that I have warned as far back as December 2006, that the global banks will collapse when the Financial Tsunami hits the global economy in 2007. And as they say, the rest is history.Quantitative Easing (QE I) spearheaded by the Chairman of Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke delayed the inevitable demise of the fiat sha
Ex-Prime Minister and post-Downing Street millionaire Tony Blair, to celebrate the publication of his book A Journey, is holding a ‘signing’ session at Waterstones, Piccadilly on 8 September. That this man, responsible for taking us into an illegal war, playing his part in the ruination of an ancient country because he ‘belie
Public discussion of potential attacks on Iran’s nuclear development sites is surging again. This has happened before. On several occasions, leaks about potential airstrikes have created an atmosphere of impending war. These leaks normally coincided with diplomatic initiatives and were designed to intimidate the Iranians and facilitate a sett
Bernanke’s “Nuclear Option”The equities markets are in disarray while the bond markets continue to surge. The avalanche of bad news has started to take its toll on investor sentiment. Barry Ritholtz’s “The Big Picture” reports that the bears have taken the high-ground and bullishness has dropped to its lowest lev
Without a revolution, Americans are historyThe United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welc
600 sign up for campaign of disobedienceNearly 600 Israelis have signed up for a campaign of civil disobedience, vowing to risk jail to smuggle Palestinian women and children into Israel for a brief taste of life outside the occupied West Bank. The Israelis say they have been inspired by the example of Ilana Hammerman, a writer who is threate
Madhusree Mukerjee’s book [Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II, New York, Basic Books, 2010] is not a denunciation of British rule of India, but a meticulous chronicling of the role of the British Raj in furthering a famine in Bengal, and suppressing the fact that this deliberate holo
A Lesson for the WorldRecently the unelected potentates of the EU Commission in Brussels have sought to override what has repeatedly been shown to be the overwhelming opposition of the European Union population to the spread of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in EU agriculture. EU Commission President now has a Maltese accountant as healt
The World’s People Reject Genetic Pollution of Food and the EnvironmentFrench citizens destroy trial vineyardEarly Sunday morning, French police stood helpless as sixty people, locked inside an open-air field of genetically modified grapevines, uprooted all the plants. In Spain last month, dozens of people destroyed two GMO fields. On th
Pharmaceutical multinationals are gobbling up Indian drug makers and may soon be dominating the Indian market. This could mean a steep hike in prices of medicines and the extinction or marginalization of SMEs in the sector, unless Indian authorities wake up in time. For decades, Indians have enjoyed easy access to cheaper drugs, priced at a fr
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Hari Om
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02 Sep 2010
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On August 26, Lok Sabha members discussed the situation in Kashmir and suggested ways and means to surmount the problem confronting the nation in Kashmir. National Conference president and Union Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah did well to tell Parliament that those who were demanding independence for Kashmir were not well-wishers of the people of Kashm
The Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have agreed to engage in direct peace talks Sept. 2 in Washington. Neither side has expressed any enthusiasm about the talks. In part, this comes from the fact that entering any negotiations with enthusiasm weakens your bargaining position. But the deeper reason is simply that ther
The cycles of public unrest in the valley, described by many as ‘Intifada’, aim to bring two things to the fore. One, that nobody is willing in the valley to stand up to the secessionist sentiment articulated in its various variants. Second, that this sentiment is an expression of a deep alienation of the people of the state which has t