Twenty-first Century India

Demand to award the death sntence to SPS Rathore IMMEDIATELY

2009-12-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

SPS Rathore is guilty of the following crimes:
1. Killing Ruchika Girhotra by actively persecuting her and her family until she was forced into committing suicide. Her death was caused by Rathore's actions, and hence he is guilty of murdering her.

2. Persecution and torture of Ruchika's brother.

3. Persecution of the rest of Ruchika's family by misusing his powers as a police official, causing Ruchika's family to have to live in hiding -- like hunted animals -- for 20 years. This utterly destroyed their lives.

4. Sexual assault of Ruchika Girhotra.

5. Damaging India's reputation in the international community. Mother India hangs her head in shame because of beimaan animals like this one. Articles like this one published in BBC and read by everyone on the planet who can read causes every single Indian everywhere to feel ashamed of their Motherland. India is a country to be proud of, and those who bring shame upon her through their actions deserve the STRICTEST punishment. One thousand death sentences would not be sufficient punishment for the amount of damage this person has done.

The judge who was callous enough to award just a $20 (Rs 1000) fine and only 6 months' imprisonment cannot serve on the Judiciary of a country like India. He MUST be DISMISSED IMMEDIATELY WITHOUT PENSION OR ANY BENEFITS. It does not matter how hard it is to fire a sitting Judge, and that too without pension and benefits. JUST DO IT. It is the RIGHT THING TO DO. A complete moron like this Judge simply cannot be allowed to sit in the Indian Judicial System and corrupt it. Make an example out of this idiot who apparently thinks that a Rs 1000 fine and 6 months' imprisonment is reasonable punishment for the heinous crimes committed by SPS Rathore. Also impose a fine of Rs Ten Crore on him, and send him to jail for twenty years for having made a mockery of the Indian Judicial system. I am guessing that he received a bribe of a few Crore rupees to deliver this stupid verdict, so the fine would take back the money he did not deserve. And living in prison for twenty years would help him understand just how long Ruchika's family suffered. This will then be a warning to the other bad apples in the Indian Judiciary who sabotage the system and harm the country to line their own pockets.

SPS Rathore is a murderer (he killed Ruchika through his deliberate actions of persecuting her and her family) and an ENEMY OF INDIA. He MUST be SENTENCED TO DEATH IMMEDIATELY.

The sentence MUST BE CARRIED OUT WITHIN ONE MONTH, i.e. on or before the next Republic Day Jan 26 2010.

If not, those responsible for protecting this beimaan animal and continuing to being shame upon our Mother India will be all eventually hunted down and FINISHED. Enemies of India, know this: you can run, but you cannot hide. We the People will hunt you down and give you the Justice you deserve.

SPS Rathore is a most vile sort of criminal. There are two types of criminals:
1. Poor people who commit crime (eg. steal money, or ask forbribes) because they are hungry, or their parents need expensive medical care, or something like that. This cannot be condoned because poverty is NO EXCUSE FOR CRIME, but in the eyes of God a person who steals money to feed his son or daughter deserves some understanding and compassion.

2. The second type of criminal are the vile sort, like SPS Rathore. SPS Rathore did not commit crimes to help anyone. By sexually assaulting Ruchika, persecuting her and her family, torturing her brother, he was not trying to help his sick mother get treatment or send his son or daughter to a good school. He committed a pure crime that benefited no one and served no purpose except to satisfy his vile animal sexual urges to violate a beautiful young innocent girl.

He therefore deserves a most exemplary punishment.

On top of that, he has committed the even greater crime of making a mockery of the entire judicial system of India by preventing his case from getting decided for 20 years. For TWENTY YEARS, he actively sabotaged the Judicial System of India, just for his personal benefit (avoiding Justice).

He deserves absolutely no mercy. The family of Ruchika Girhotra and the People of India have allowed TWENTY YEARS for the Legal Framework and the Judicial System to do its job.

If that Judicial System fails, the only option left is for the People of India to directly serve Justice. That would involve hunting down and finishing off this vile animal SPS Rathore, and ANYONE and EVERYONE who helped him escape Justice for TWENTY YEARS.

That would not be a pretty situation. In the name of God, We the People of India sincerely advise the authorities to rectify the situation before it REALLY GETS OUT OF HAND.

The only way to rectify the situation now is to award the DEATH PENALTY to SPS Rathore, and to carry it out WITHIN ONE MONTH, i.e. before the next Republic Day Jan 26 2010.

Don't you dare make excuses like "he will have to await his turn at the death row", like the excuses you have been making to avoid having to execute Afzal Guru. These excuses are an insult to the collective intelligence of the country. No one believes that it takes years to hang the people on death row. Hanging a convicted criminal that has already been sentenced to death can be done in 5 minutes or less. In France during the French Revolution the common people managed to be pretty efficient about executing enemies of the People. Don't force the People of India to do the same. We like to be peaceful. But we have finite patience and our tolerance has limits.

If this had happened in any other country -- USA, UK, or any other country -- this vile animal SPS Rathore would have been gunned down by now. The People of India have displayed remarkable civility and respect and trust in the legal system in that no one has yet taken the law in his own hands. But do not take this for granted. Our patience is running low and we will run out at some point if you keep trying our patience.

[Of course, something like this would not have happened in the USA or UK in the first place. Those countries have the RULE OF LAW. Nobody is above the law. In India all these slimy politicians and police goondas think that they are above the law. They have gotten away for too long, but the time has finally come to stop this.]

We do not care how well-connected SPS Rathore his. It does not matter whose uncle his uncle knows. Unless you want to join him in facing the collective anger of the entire nation, execute him and rid Mother India of the shame of having given birth to a piece of sh*t like this.

Let this also be a warning to any other animals that may be lurking in our society. The punishment for attacking an Indian girl is DEATH.

One more point, for all police officials, ministers, Government secretaries, and such like: We the People of India pay taxes from which the Government pays your salaries and expenses. You WORK FOR US. We pay you to do your job -- and that job is to maintain law and order, and bring criminals to justice. We the People are your Boss, because WE PAY YOUR SALARY. Remember that. If you continue to forget that, and act like goondas preying upon the law-abiding citizens and tax-payers while making friends and doing "business" (crime) with the criminals, the result will ultimately not be good for you. We the People are running out of patience and tolerance.

Know one thing about Hindus: we are peaceful and peace-loving, but that is by choice. We are highly civilized and like to avoid violence. Violence befits less evolved and less intelligent creatures -- like animals. But we are not incapable of violence. We are not weak. On the contrary, we are actually very strong. We can shake the earth, crush the mountains, and completely annihilate any enemy if we are forced to use violence. Do not force that to happen. Do not abuse our desire for peace and our great tolerance. This advice is for your own good.

Obama Seems Serious About Fighting Radical Islamic Terrorism

2009-12-07T19:04:00.001-08:00

As I have said before many times, the United States under President Reagan did not realize just how dangerous the Radical Islamic terrorist ideology is when they unlocked the monster from the bottle by funding Osama bin Laden and other mujahideens to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the period 1979-1989.

Subsequently President Clinton and the senior President Bush winked at Pakistani terrorism against India in Jammu and Kashmir, refusing repeatedly to add Pakistan to the US list of terrorist countries (to which countries such as Libya, Sudan, Iran, etc had been added, but not Pakistan, which had killed hundreds of thousands of people in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir using terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India). The reason for this is: US foreign policy under Clinton and the senior Bush was about making money and getting deals; not about upholding moral principles -- such as the prevention of Genocide of the Kashmiri Pandit Hindu minority community -- that got wiped out of Kashmir by Pakistani terrorists under the watch of President Clinton, while he was busy having fun with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office.

The junior President Bush was the first American President who realized that Radical Islamic terrorism is not a matter of joke. It is deadly serious. This is something we Indians had been trying to explain to Americans under Clinton and senior Bush for 11 years -- from 1989 to 2000.

1989 is when the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. Pakistan immediately sent the Radical Islamic terrorists from Afghanistan to Kashmir. Terrorist attacks in Kashmir went through the roof. Every day hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits would be killed, women raped, children killed brutally, with Arabic threats and Koranic verses (about how to treat infidels) inscribed in blood on their skin while they were still alive.

The senior President Bush ignored this for 3 years -- from 1989 to 1992. He was busy fighting the Iraq War for part of this time. Still, that is not an excuse for ignoring Genocide. President Clinton ignored this for 8 years -- smilingly winking at Pakistan and pretending to India that he just can't see the evidence that Pakistan is behind all these terrorist attacks.

Even the junior President Bush was a hypocrite par excellence when it came to seeing the pain inflicted on innocent Indians in hundreds of terrorist attacks by his ISI sidekicks of his pal Musharraf.

The junior Bush also conned his country into going to war against Sadam Hussein in Iraq, even though there was no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda at that time. He neglected the war in Afghanistan for 8 years and allowed Osama bin Laden to make a career out of making home videos and putting them up on the internet from his safe house in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, protected by the ISI and the Pakistani Army.

The junior Bush was perhaps mentally challenged, but it has hard to believe that he could really be dumb enough to not see through Musharraf's trick of repeatedly arresting and releasing the same people (never convicting anyone) and making a huge show of it in a pitifully transparent attempt to show that he was "fighting against Terror." In reality Musharraf was allowing Radical Islamic terrorist leaders like Sheikh Omar, Dawood Ibrahim, Maulana Masood Azhar, etc to live in their own houses in Islamabad or Rawalpindi, and make hate speeches, raise money for Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Al Qaeda, Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, etc and other terrorist organizations, run training camps for their terrorist foot-soldiers, and plan and carry out numerous attacks in India, UK, Spain, and several other countries. The junior Bush reacted strongly whenever some plot against the US or UK was uncovered. But in a clear show or racism and double standards, he turned a blind eye to the terror attacks when the victims were Indian. India even provided him with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of Pakistani terrorist leaders sitting safely in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and plotting attacks against India. The junior Bush did nothing. None of those terrorist leaders -- people like Maulana Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim, Sheikh Omar, etc -- were extradited to India to stand trial, and not even to American prisons, because their targets had been Indian, not Americans or Britishers. This kind of blatant racism and double standards was certain to defeat the efforts of Civilized sections of Humanity to defeat the scourge of Radical Islamic terrorism.

Note that India was unable to finish the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists because America constantly requested India to avoid "raising tensions". This was the height of racist hypocrisy and double standards: when America is attacked she can go to war, but when India is attacked, hundreds of Indian men women and children brutally killed and thousands maimed in new attacks twice a month -- repeatedly -- again and again and again -- she must stay put and avoid "raising tensions".

President Obama, however, seems to be made of different stuff. He seems to be an honest and upright human being; not a slimy politician.

From the very beginning of his Presidential campaign, Obama had focused his attention on Pakistan. He boldly said "if we know that Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan and the Pakistani authorities are not taking action against them, then we will go into Pakistan and finish the job ourselves."

Obama is not "all talk and no action" like so many others have been before him. He increased the number of soldiers in Afghanistan from 50,000 to 70,000 soon after he became President. And just recently, he decided to send an additional 30,000 US soldiers there, taking the total number of US soldiers in Afghanistan to over 100,000 -- double the number it had been before he became President.

Last week, a report appeared in the Times of India that Obama has sent his National Security Adviser General James L. Jones to Islamabad with a hand-delivered letter from Obama saying that if Pakistan does not act against Radical Islamic terrorists operating from Pakistani territory, then the US itself will take action against them.

The text of the TOI article, saved for future reference, is as follows:

Stop using insurgents as strategic tool: Obama to Pak
PTI 30 November 2009, 04:36pm IST

WASHINGTON: In a stern message to Pakistan, the United States has asked it to shed its policy of "using insurgents" like LeT as a strategic tool and warned that if it cannot deliver against terrorists, the US may be impelled to use "any means" at its disposal.

The message, which has been conveyed in a letter from US President Barack Obama to his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, also includes an offer by him to try to "reduce tensions" between India and Pakistan, media reported here.

The two-page letter, hand-delivered by National Security Adviser General (retd) James Jones when he visited Islamabad early this month, offers Pakistan enhancement of strategic partnership if they act as wished by the US, besides additional military and economic aid.

In his letter, Obama has also warned Pakistan that its use of insurgent groups for policy goals "cannot continue" and called for closer collaboration against all extremist groups.

He named five such groups - al-Qaida, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Tehrik-e-Taliban.

"Using vague diplomatic language, he said that ambiguity in Pakistan's relationship with any of them could no longer be ignored," the Washington Post reported.

Jones did some straight-talking with the top Pakistani leadership, the daily said. "If Pakistan cannot deliver, he warned, the US may be impelled to use any means at its disposal to rout insurgents based along Pakistan's western and southern borders with Afghanistan."

When I saw this article, I was very dismissive. I suspected the US was again playing its old game of adopting double standards, and pretending to do something, and instead doing nothing. I had cause to be suspicious: a hand-delivered letter? Nobody except Obama, Jones the courier, and the recipient Zardari of Pakistan would know what the letter says. How does Times of India know what the letter says? America can easily write a letter saying "Happy Birthday" to Zardari, and tell India that the letter said something else: that USA would take action against Radical Islamic terrorists in Pakistan. None of the US newspapers or TV channels, or BBC etc said anything about this letter. Only Times of India is jumping up and down about this so-called letter.

But today the New York Times has published this article confirming the story. This article leads me to believe that Obama is serious about fighting Radical Islamic terrorism. Obama also seems to be a believer in the concept of Humanity, and of the Global Family and Fraternity/Sorority of civilized men and women, and not narrow-minded about race, in the way President Bush junior clearly was (he didn't care about Indians dying in terror attacks).

I have quoted a relevant excerpt from the article as follows for future reference:

Administration Presses Pakistan to Fight Taliban

By DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is turning up the pressure on Pakistan to fight the Taliban inside its borders, warning that if it does not act more aggressively the United States will use considerably more force on the Pakistani side of the border to shut down Taliban attacks on American forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials said.

The blunt message was delivered in a tense encounter in Pakistan last month, before President Obama announced his new war strategy, when Gen. James L. Jones, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, and John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, met with the heads of Pakistan’s military and its intelligence service.

United States officials said the message did not amount to an ultimatum, but rather it was intended to prod a reluctant Pakistani military to go after Taliban insurgents in Pakistan who are directing attacks in Afghanistan.

For their part the Pakistanis interpreted the message as a fairly bald warning that unless Pakistan moved quickly to act against two Taliban groups they have so far refused to attack, the United States was prepared to take unilateral action to expand Predator drone attacks beyond the tribal areas and, if needed, to resume raids by Special Operations forces into the country against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

One senior administration official, when asked about the encounter, declined to go into details. But he added quickly, “I think they read our intentions accurately.”

A Pakistani official who has been briefed on the meetings said, “Jones’s message was if that Pakistani help wasn’t forthcoming, the United States would have to do it themselves.”

American commanders said earlier this year that they were considering expanding drone strikes in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, but General Jones’s comments marked the first time that the United States bluntly told Pakistan it would have to choose between leading attacks against the insurgents inside the country’s borders or stepping aside to let the Americans do it.

The recent security demands followed an offer of a broader strategic relationship and expanded intelligence sharing and nonmilitary economic aid from the United States. Pakistan’s politically weakened president, Asif Ali Zardari, replied in writing to a two-page letter that General Jones delivered from Mr. Obama. But Mr. Zardari gave no indication of how Pakistan would respond to the incentives, which were linked to the demands for greatly stepped-up counterterrorism actions.

“We’ve offered them a strategic choice,” one administration official said, describing the private communications. “And we’ve heard back almost nothing.”

Another administration official said, “Our patience is wearing thin.”

...

During his intensive review of Pakistan and Afghanistan strategy, officials say, Mr. Obama concluded that no amount of additional troops in Afghanistan would succeed in their new mission if the Taliban could retreat over the Pakistani border to regroup and resupply. But the administration has said little about the Pakistani part of the strategy.

“We concluded early on that whatever you do with Pakistan, you don’t want to talk about it much,” one of the president’s senior aides said last week. “All it does is get backs up in Islamabad.”

...

Publicly, senior American officials and commanders take note of that concern. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Pakistan in late October with offers of a strategic partnership. But General Jones followed Mrs. Clinton two weeks later carrying more sticks than carrots, American officials said.

Pakistan may be using US money to complete the long-delayed Punjabi conquests of NWFP, FATA and Balochistan

2009-08-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), and Balochistan which are shown as a part of Pakistan in world maps, were originally parts of Afghanistan that were annexed by the British Empire in the late 1800's soon after the Durand Line was drawn. These sparsely-populated areas (with only 1 to 6.5 million people each) are the home of various Afghan, Pashtun, and Baloch tribes that were led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Frontier Gandhi) of NWFP in the Freedom Struggle and in 1947 voted to join secular India, not the Islamic state of Pakistan. However, since densely-populated (with hundreds of millions of people) Pakistani Punjab separated them geographically from India, they were not allowed to join India and were recognized by the international community as being part of Pakistan.

However, the proud and independent people of these areas have never allowed the Pakistani-Punjabi-dominated Pak Army and the Pak Government to rule over them. Even after 60 years of being "part of Pakistan", there are vast swathes of territory where no Pakistani Punjabi Government agent has ever set foot.

For over 60 years, the the 6.5 million Balochs of Balochistan have been fighting with the 100 million-plus populated Pakistani Punjab for independence from Pakistan.

(The other populous province of Pakistan, Sindh, is Shia-majority; while Pakistani Punjab is Sunni-majority. The Sunni Punjabis completely dominate the Pakistani Army and have controlled Pakistan for the major part of time since 1947. The Shia Sindhis support the Pakistan People's Party of the assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto whose father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was removed from power and hanged in a jail cell by the Sunni Punjabi Pak Army; Benazir herself was removed from power by the Paki Army and forced to flee the country several times after winning elections, lived in exile outside Pakistan for the most part of her political career, and was assassinated by the Sunni Punjabi Al Qaeda with the help of the Sunni Punjabi ISI and Paki Army after she returned to Pakistan.)

Currently Pakistan is ostensibly ruled by late Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari who is the leader of Sindhi Shia PPP (Pakistan People's Party). However, Zardari has no real power and spends almost all his time and effort barely struggling to ensure his own survival (the way Benazir was not able to ensure her own, having fallen to Al Qaeda's Sunni Punjabi bullets). The Pakistani Army and the ISI, which are controlled by Pakistani-Punjabi Sunni religious fanatics, is effectively in control of all "anti-terrorist" operations in Pakistan, as the Shia-dominated Paki Government of Asif Ali Zardari has no real power.

(I say "Pakistani Punjab" to distinguish it from the Punjab province of India, which is home to India's Punjabi Hindu and Sikh community. In 1947, as a part of the Partition of India, half of undivided Punjab was claimed as part of Pakistan by the Pakistani Punjabi Moslem followers of the genocidal fanatic Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and all Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Jews, Ahmadiyyas, Sufis, Parsis, etc were killed or forced to flee to India as refugees.)

In 1948, some tribes from some parts of NWFP (Chitral in particular), along with and supported by the Pakistani Army attacked Kashmir, committed rape, pillage and murder of genocidal proportions against the Kahsmiri Hindu and Sufi community, and were able to conquer part of Kashmir for Pakistan.

This shows that all the people of NWFP were not peace-loving secular followers of "Frontier Gandhi" Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan; some of them were blood-thirsty rabid and genocidal maniacs.

Those sorts of people would readily give shelter to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda gang.

However, the Pakistani Army is not fighting those tribes in NWFP.

It is instead using money and arms given by the US to instead fight the Balochs, and the non-Al-Qaeda-affiliated peace-loving secular Pashtuns of NWFP and FATA (and reporting that it has killed 100 to 700 "terrorists" every day, when those "terrorists" of NWFP and FATA are actually peace-loving secular Pakhtuns who wanted to join secular India instead of Moslem Pakistan in 1947 and are still refusing to accept the rule of Pakistani-Punjabi Sunni religious fanatics.)

Will Barack Obama and his advisers see through this scam? The Pakistani Army and ISI under Pervez Musharraf took Bush for a ride, and the Paki Army and ISI under Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is now taking Obama for a ride.

The US Army or Special Forces are not allowed on the ground in Pakistan because US spies on the ground would interrogate captured Balochs/Pashtuns and figure out that they hate Al Qaeda and Pakistan. That Pakistan IS Al Qaeda.

Pakistan allows US drones to operate out of its own territory because:
1. drones can never find out that Balochs and the Pashtuns Pak Army is fighting are not Al Qaeda (like US spies, interrogators, and soldiers on the ground would), and
2. having the drones operate out of Pakistan allows them to have some control on the operation. They know when the drones fly in or out. They supply the intel from the ground. It's almost too easy. The Pakis just point to some random building or cave and say that they have "intel" that it contains some top bin Laden aide. After the drone makes the hit, the Pakis on the ground have ample time to set up the bodies, take pictures, DNA samples, etc to give to the US.

Then they tell the US that that guy is dead. And then he works undercover, totally safe (because nobody tries to kill a man if they think he's already dead) until he makes a mistake and shows up alive. Then the Pakis say "Oops... we must have made a mistake. Sorry Sir. Won't happen again."

Do you remember how many times the US declared that it had killed the same "top bin Laden aide" and "top Al Qaeda bomb maker" Abu Ubaida al-Masri? Here's an article on how the CIA killed him twice: http://www.infowars.com/cia-kills-al-qaeda-bomb-maker-for-a-second-time/

Bin Laden himself was declared dead so many times that I have lost count. Every time Musharraf (and now Kayani) wanted some more money from Bush (now Obama) he'd declare a couple more "top Al Qaeda operatives" dead. If Bush had a penny for each time he was fooled and swindled by Musharraf he'd be richer than Warren Buffett and Bill Gates put together.

Will Obama be smart enough to avoid the same traps? I sure hope so. But so far, the situation does not look good. Paki Army under Kayani is seemingly doing very well in the same games Musharraf played so successflly with Bush.

Using US tax-payer funds to complete the conquest of the anti-Pakistan secular Pashtuns of NWFP, FATA, and the Balochs of Balochistan, by hoodwinking the US into thinking that it's fighting Al Qaeda terrorists.

We Indians have dealt with the wily Sunni Radical Islamists for 1000 years, and survived 1000 years of genocide under the "rule" of Radical Islamic mass-murderers the likes of which cannot even be imagined in the worst of nightmares (Allauddin Khiljee, Taimur Lang, Babur, Nadir Shah, Mahmood of Ghazni, Mohammed Ghauri, Mohammed bin Tughlaq, Aurangzeb, to name a few; each of whom have killed more people than Stalin Mao and Hitler put together, and in even more horrible and inhuman ways -- yes I know that is hard to believe, knowing the inhuman ideas cooked up by Hitler et. al.). Since 1947, we have dealt with the wily Paki Army and ISI (funded and armed by China, USA, and Saudi Arabia) for 62 years. Believe me, Obama, I know what I am talking about. You can believe this now, or trust Kayani like Bush trusted Musharraf, and find out years later how he made a fool of you.

If Bush meets Musharraf now, I wonder what he would say.

Yo are much smarter than Bush, Obama. I feel optimistic that you will not lose the game like Bush pitifully did.

What happened to the families of the latest Mumbai attack victims?

2009-02-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

How many of us know how the family of the valiant policeman Tukaram Gopal Ombale is doing after losing their sole breadwinner?

Ombale was the policeman who held on to the Pakistani terrorist Kasab even as Kasab pumped bullets into him trying to make him let go so he could escape.

Did Ombale have a wife? Any children? Old and infirm parents? Other relatives who depended upon him? What is happening to them now that he is no more?

What about the 250+ other people who died in the attack?

For most Indians the memory of the Nov 2008 Mumbai massacre is already a distant blur.

The Government of India is playing diplomatic games with the Pakistani Government and thinks it is doing a great job by simply getting Pakistan to grudgingly admit, 3 months after the attacks, that some Pakistanis may have been involved.

This is not a great job. This is a pathetic job. Getting the enemy to simply say what the whole world already knows, and that too after 3 months, is a horrible performance.

Not a single terrorist sitting in Islamabad feels threatened by Indian Government's stupid and muddled diplomatic efforts.

Terrorist attacks against Indians will stop only when Indian "leaders" are held responsible for their fundamental job: ensuring the safety and security of ordinary Indians.

When the next terror attack occurs, will the UPA politicians and their relatives sit in their houses safe and sound, guarded by Black Cat commandos we pay for with our tax money, and watch us get killed again?

Will we continue to sit back and let this continue?

Or should the Government feel afraid? Feel very afraid? That we will pull them down onto the street and deliver Justice if they fail to do their job (protecting us) once again?

Nobody forced Manmohan Singh or Sonia Maino or Lallu Prasad or Arjun Singh to get into the Government. They volunteered. They are using their position to steal money and fatten their pockets, instead of focusing all their time and attention on their primary responsibility: maintaining law and order, and keeping Indian citizens safe and secure. Instead of using laws like TADA and POTA to fight Moslem terrorists, they removed those laws to indulge in Moslem vote bank politics.

If one more attack occurs and ordinary Indian citizens die again, the UPA Government must be held responsible and Justice must be delivered. Being negligent and careless about maintaining national security, and repeatedly allowing citizens to die simply for vote bank politics, amounts to treason against the nation. The punishment for treason is well-known.

Too many people have died for too long. The Government takes security as a joke. This cannot continue forever.

Manmohan Singh, Sonia Maino, Arjun Singh, Lallu Prasad: You are being warned.

Do your job with careful attention. Stop Moslem vote bank politics. Bring back tough anti-terror laws like TADA and POTA immediately and fight Islamic terror with any and all methods available.

You must keep ordinary Indian citizens safe from terror attacks from now onwards. If not, you will regret the consequences, very much.

If you cannot do your job (keeping citizens safe), then resign from the Government. We will find others, who are more capable than you (and will spend less time stealing money and more time running the Government), who can do your job better.

Raj Thackeray is an Enemy of Hinduism India and Humanity

2008-02-24T18:53:00.000-08:00

Some years back, Raj Thackeray (loser nephew of the patriotic and loyal son of India, Balasaheb "Bal" Thackeray, head of the Shiv Sena) started a long and un-ending quarrel with his uncle and cousins. Bal Thackeray forgave him many times, but finally got tired of his antics and kicked him out of the Shiv Sena. Then Raj started a useless party called Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS). He thought that because he also was a Thackeray like his uncle Bal, he could become just as successful in politics (in spite of being a complete idiot and having no morals or principles, unlike his uncle who is both intelligent and has solid values and principles).

But Raj the Loser is a shame on the Thackeray name; he is no Thackeray. His party went nowhere.

Then, some MLA's of Bihar shouted "Go Back to Maharashtra" while a Marathi politician was giving a speech in the Bihar Assembly.

Raj the Loser heard of this incident in Bihar and thought he could gain some political mileage out of this by playing up the "Marathi son of the soil" sentiment.

So he and his people started rioting against poor hard-working Hindus from Bihar and UP who have come to Maharashtra to work as labourers in building construction (nava nirman) projects in big cities like Mumbai and Pune.

In less than a month, more than 35,000 poor and hard-working Hindus from Bihar and UP have left their low-paying back-breaking jobs and only source of livelihood in fear of their lives. On cramped trains, with hungry bellies and hopeless eyes, they are returning home to poor villages in Bihar and UP, where their starving wives and children are waiting, hoping they will return alive.

Since there are not enough jobs for them in Bihar or UP, nNow they will probably have to sell whatever they have or take a loan from a money-lender to pay a tout from Saudi Arabia or Dubai or Qatar to get a low-paying construction job in the Middle East, where they will live like animals and work like slaves so that the oil-sheikhs in the Gulf can live in palatial houses built by Hindu slave labour paid a mere pittance, a hundred-billionth percentage of their oil wealth for a lifetime of back-breaking labour.

India has severe infrastructure problems, we need to construct more roads and buildings, and at the same time we (Raj and his followers) are driving away Bihari workers from construction projects in Mumbai so that they are forced to starve, or leave the country and work like slaves in the Middle East so that their starving children may have a few morsels of food in their bellies once a day.

Should these poor Hindus from Bihar and UP have had to pay this price for the "insult" done to the Marathi politician by the Bihari MLA's?

Politicians insult each other all the time. Now we the poor common people of India are supposed to be targeted by politicians of other states if "leaders" of our own respective states hurt each others egos?

Raj Thackeray is an Enemy of Hinduism, an Enemy of every single Hindu, and an Enemy of India. He must be tried for High Crimes and Treason for trying to damage India's national unity and integrity by trying to make Hindus -- sons and daughters of India -- from Bihar UP and Maharashtra see each other as enemies. He must also be tried for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity for trying to destroy the lives of 2 million poor helpless hard-working Hindus from Bihar and UP living in Maharashtra. He must be given the death penalty. Let this be a lesson and warning to all Indian politicians trying to Divide and Rule over Hindus.

"An Enemy of one Hindu is an Enemy of Every Hindu." Remember this and teach this to every Hindu you know. Hindu Unity is essential for the survival of Hinduism and the future of our children grand-children and generations to come.

This is also an appeal to every current member of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena: if you are a Hindu Buddhist Jain Parsi or Sikh and/or love India and oppose establishment of Islamic Christian or Marxist Fundamentalist rule over India, leave Raj Thackeray's party right now. Go back to Bal Thackeray's Shiv Sena, or RSS. The future of your children is at stake. Stupid Hindus have fought amongst each other and allowed Muslim and Christian invaders to destroy India part by part for 1000 years. Now there is very little left, and no room for error. We are staring at the possibility of the last remaining vestiges of our cultural philosophical and scientific heritage -- the result of more than 5000 years of research/meditation by Vedic maharishis -- being wiped out in less than 150 years if the trends of the last 1000 years continue accelerating at their historical rates.

Times of India reports:

MNS to Sonia Gandhi: Send back Biharis to Bihar
23 Feb 2008, 1913 hrs IST,PTI
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MUMBAI: Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to send back 25 lakh Biharis in the city to their home state.

The MNS was reacting to the behaviour of Bihar MLAs who created unruly scenes during Bihar Governor R S Gavai's address to the state Assembly on Friday wherein some of them reportedly raised slogans saying "Gavai go back to Maharashtra".

"This is not just an insult of the Governor but insult to crores of Dalits. To prevent further insult of Dalit leader like Gavai, Sonia Gandhi should call him back to Maharashtra. But while doing so she should also see to it that 25 lakh Biharis from Mumbai are sent back to Bihar," MNS general secretary Shishir Shinde said in a statement.

He said "Congress and Lalu Prasad should first teach lessons of good behaviour to Bihar MLAs before giving advises to the people of Maharashtra".

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Friday took a dig at the Bihar MLAs who created ruckus in the Assembly and said, "this was the reason (unruly behaviour) why he was opposed to outsiders in Maharashtra.

"Why did I have to launch an agitation to protect the culture of Maharashtra? The answer to this question lies in the manner in which the MLAs of Bihar behaved in front of the the Bihar Governor, who is a Maharashtrian," he said.

Times of India reports:

25,000 North Indians leave Pune; realty projects hit
24 Feb 2008, 1638 hrs IST,PTI
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PUNE: Fear continues to grip hundreds of North Indian labourers here, who are availing of every possible mode of transport to reach their hometowns, days after dust seemed to settle down on the violence sparked by MNS campaign against migrants.

Official estimates put the figure of workers who left Pune over the last fortnight in the wake of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) anti-North Indian rhetoric at over 25,000, adversely affecting many projects of the construction industry which employs the skilled and unskilled labour from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

To make things worse, the city was agog with rumours that February 25 would see another spate of violence in Maharashtra, triggering a fresh wave of migrant labourers rushing to catch north-bound trains and buses.

The vitiated atmosphere got the authorities concerned as District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar and Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh held meetings of various people's representatives to scotch the rumours and to reassure the jittery workforce.

They were joined by local Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, who picketed at Pune railway station to allay fears of those boarding the trains with their family members, carrying meagre belongings.

Delhi HC Censures Politicians for Having Elaborate Security Arrangements

2007-10-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Delhi High Court has started something that may change the entire future of India. It may seem a very little thing: just criticism of the fact that Indian politicians roam about with entire armies of Black Cat commandos. It is a status symbol for them to have a lot of people guarding them.

This inconveniences the common people of India who are forced to suffer numerous indignities while the egomaniac politicians travel with convoys of cars with loud sirens, loaded with commandos and firepower.

The Delhi High Court has asked the politicians to stay at home if they are so afraid to come out of their armoured houses without a full army of commandos to protect their soft skin and delicate bones.

Perhaps if these politicians did not misrule the country so much, and did not commit so many crimes -- like Arjun Singh's and Antona Maino's torture of school-kids asking for the right to go to college without being stopped by Casteist Reservation, Arjun Singh's Divide and Rule politics based on OBC Casteism, Ksrunanidhi's insults to Lord Ram, Brinda Karat's harassment of Baba Ramdev, Jayalalitha's harassment of Shankaracharya, to name a few -- they would not be so afraid of ordinary citizens of India, and would not need an army of commandos to protect them.

It should not be a status symbol to have a lot of security guards. It should be a sign of cowardliness and weakness. Only the vilest and most unpopular rulers in the entire history of India -- the Nanda Dynasty, the Mughals, the Sultans, and the British -- have needed such elaborate security arrangements.

Popular rulers -- like Chandragupta Maurya, Ashok, Samudragupta, Vikramaditya, Rana Pratap, Chhatrapati Shivaji, to name a few -- did not hide like mice behind a wall of soldiers. They walked and lived among the common people.

The ministers of Scandinavian countries -- like Norway Denmark and Sweden to name a few -- roam about on streets, go to the market, and live like common people, without an army of soldiers following them everywhere.

Now let me come to why this may change the entire future of India. If popular opinion and the power of the Courts force our "leaders" to stop hiding behind commandos, they will no longer be willing to let the country remain a terribly unsafe place for the common man.

Today, these pseudo-secular politicians have removed anti-terror laws like TADA and POTA, making the lives of ordinary citizens infinitely more risky, to get the votes of bin Laden type Muslims. Among all the countries that have faced Islamic terrorism -- India, Israel, Russia, China, USA, UK, Spain, France -- India is the ONLY ONE that has relaxed the legal system and law enforcement apparatus. All other countries have strengthened their legal system after 9/11 with laws like PATRIOT ACT.

These other countries did this because none of them have electorally significant Muslim minorities. They are all Christian-majority or Jewish-majority countries where no politician will get any extra votes for being soft on Muslim terrorists. Indeed, they will get voted out of power if they are soft on Muslim terrorists.

India is the only exception. While the Hindu majority of India remains divided based n Caste (through the actions of Casteist leaders like Arjun Singh, Mayawati, Lallu Prasad, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, etc) the Muslim minority in India decides the outcome of elections.

However, staying in power is less important than one thing: staying alive. Today the Indian politicians -- themselves and their entire extended families protected by armies of Black Cat commandos -- have no fear of death by Islamic terrorism. So, they take actions that help them stay in power. Even though those actions make the ordinary citizens' lives dangerous.

If the ordinary citizens and the power of the Courts can force them to come out of hiding behind their body-guards, they will no longer take actions that make the country dangerous for everyone (rather, anyone who is not a Muslim terrorist). That can entirely change the future of the country.

It can mean the difference between extinction and survival.

Times of India reports:
Politicians should stay at home if they feel threatened: HC
25 Oct 2007, 1839 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: Observing they were not a "national asset", the Delhi High Court on Friday took the politicians head on over having their security guards on tow when they step out and wryly told them to remain in the confines of their homes and offices if they feel threatened by citizens.

"You should not let these men (politicians ) to come out. Their presence in public places itself threatens the common men. I do not know why it has become a matter of prestige for them to move with 10-15 uniform security personnel carrying lethal weapon," a Bench comprising Justice T S Thakur and Justice Veena Birbal told the Centre.

The court made these harsh observations while expressing displeasure over the inconvenience the public have to put up by the overwhelming presence of security guards accompanying politicians at public places.

The Court's observation came while hearing a PIL on police reforms seeking separation of force into two wings to deal with law and order and Investigation independently.

In sharp remarks laced with sarcasm, the judges could not hide their dismay when they said "If these people feel so threatened they should not come out in public places."

The judges said they (politicians) were not a national asset which should be protected and if they were, the citizens would protect and there was no need to be threatened by them (public).

"It has become fashionable and a status symbol. The more people(security men) surrounds these people(politicians) the more prestigious they feel. It is obnoxious that common men are forced to stay on the sidelines and are prevented to walk on the pavements when the politicians pass through", the Court said.

Coimbatore 1998 Blasts Verdict: No Death Penalty

2007-10-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

It took the Court in Tamil Nadu almost 10 years to produce a verdict. By now, nobody remembers the blast victims. The widowed wives and orphaned children are probably dead from malnutrition already. The terrorists have spent the last 10 years in comfort as guests of the Government while the case dragged on for a decade. Not one terrorist was given the death penalty for carrying out an attack that killed 58 people.

Now they will appeal their sentence in a higher court. It will drag on for another 10 years at the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court does not overturn the verdict and let them go, they will probably get a life sentence again.

By that time 20 years will have passed, with no Justice delivered yet. The terrorists will have lived a full life playing cards and watching TV as guests of the Government, while Government-sponsored lawyers battle for their freedom in court.

At some point in the future, an Indian airplane may be hijacked -- like what happened with the Kandahar hijacking -- and the Pakistani hijackers may demand the release of these terrorists. However, the Coimbatore terrorists are small fry; their Pakistani bosses will probably let them enjoy life as guests of the Indian Government while the stupid Indian system wastes its own money paying Government lawyers with Government (taxpayer) money to carry out a decades-long charade in court.

Through our above actions, we are telling future terrorists: come and kill us. IF we ever catch you, we will spend decades pushing paper and playing word games in court while you get to play cards and watch TV in a "prison" while your "trial" goes on. If we can't catch you, you can come and kill more of us again. Nice game; wanna play?

The US, UK, and Spain behaved very differently after the 9/11, 7/7 and 3/11 attacks. Those who attacked them are already dead, and anybody who played a part is either dead or on the run fearing for their lives. Wars are going on in Pakistan Afghanistan and Iraq, and millions of people who supported bin Laden have been killed. There is a good chance that by the time the wars are over, anyone who ever sympathized with bin Laden will be dead.

The terrorists know this. So they dare not attack the US again. Attacks are only happening against India, and will keep happening until India shows some backbone and will to fight back.

That will not come until common people stop accepting being killed and maimed in one attack after another -- regular like clockwork -- while the politicians roam around fearlessly, protected by hundreds of Black Cat commandos.

BBC reports:

Life terms over 1998 India bombs

LK Advani was the alleged target of the bombs

A court in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has sentenced 23 people to life in prison in connection with a series of bombs nine years ago.

Among those sentenced was the man described as the mastermind of the plot, SA Basha.

Nineteen bombs went off in the town of Coimbatore on 14 February 1998 just before Hindu nationalist leader LK Advani was due at an election rally.

Some 58 people were killed in the blasts which caused chaos in the town.

In all 166 people faced charges of being involved in the blasts, and around 153 have been found guilty.

Basha, the founder of the banned radical Muslim group, Al-Umma, is the most high profile defendant to be sentenced.

In August, another prominent defendant, Abdul Nasser Madani, the leader of the Kerala-based People's Democratic Party, was acquitted.

The 1998 bombings sparked clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs in Coimbatore, some 2,400km (1,500 miles) south of Delhi.

The bombs went off close to where Mr Advani was due to speak.

At the time, he was president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was not at the podium when the bombs went off because his flight had been delayed.

Coimbatore was also the scene of Hindu-Muslim clashes in November 1997 after two men belonging to a radical Muslim group allegedly killed a Hindu policeman.

At least 17 people died in the violence that followed.

Investigators said that the bomb blasts were part of a conspiracy to assassinate Mr Advani to avenge the killing of the Muslims.

UP Government Starts zizya Again

2007-10-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Taxes paid to the Government by ordinary taxpayers (80% of whom are Hindu) will be used by the Mayawati UP Government to pay college fees for Muslim students. How is this different from the zizya religious tax imposed on Hindus to pay for Government benefits given to Muslims under Mughal and Sultanat rule?

How is it secular to use Government tax money for benefits given only to people of a certain religion? Aren't there any poor Hindus Buddhists Jains Sikhs Parsis or Christians who need help from the Government to go to college? Why shouldn't they get help from the Government if the Muslims will?

Do Muslims somehow deserve to be treated better than the people of all other religions? Like Manmohan Singh had said: "Muslims have first claim upon India's resources"?

Times of India reports:
UP govt to pay fees of Muslims pursuing professional courses
24 Oct 2007, 0104 hrs IST,Manjari Mishra,TNN

LUCKNOW: Admission fee up to Rs 1 lakh for a professional course will now be paid by Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government, if the student is from an underprivileged minority community.

A major sop targeting the below poverty line segment, the government order issued on September 15 covers "all BPL students pursuing engineering, medical, masters in business management and specialised courses in the universities across India, if they are from a minority community." Director, minority welfare, M A Khan told TOI on Tuesday the government order aims to reimburse registration charges, tuition and library fees and all necessary expenditure incurred by a candidate. The limit, he said, is Rs 1 lakh. The facility has been extended to paid seats as well.

The order has also warned the enforcing agency that if it failed to make the payment within the stipulated deadline, it would face serious consequences. The only condition is a student availing the facility must have studied in a recognised educational institution, including government approved madrasas. The selection of the candidates, according to Khan, will be on first come first served basis.

In fact, two major schemes cleared by the Maya government in quick succession last month have drawn attention for being overtly Muslim-friendly. Though Khan is at pains to explain that the policy is not limited to Muslims but also takes into account other communities like Sikh, Christian Buddhist and Jain, figures of the last census tell their own story. According to the data, minority communities constitute 19.32% of UP's population. Of this, a whopping 18.81% are Muslims while the percentage of Christians, Sikh, and Buddhists is 0.13, 0.18 and 0.12 even as the number of Jains is "negligible".

The other newly-launched social security scheme for BPL minorities offers Rs 10,000 towards meeting marriage expenses of a girl above 18 years of age. Letters have already been dispatched to all district magistrates to clear at least 500 such applications in each district.

Indian Workers Being Tortured in Malaysia

2007-10-14T21:16:00.001-07:00

It is the duty of the Government of India to protect Indian citizens inside and outside the country. These hard-working labourers went to Malaysia to earn money to feed their families and to earn precious foreign exchange for India. Shame on Manmohan Singh for sitting idle and doing nothing while Malaysia has the audacity to insult India by beating up Indian citizens in broad daylight.

Indians working in police, army, paramilitary, and commando forces of India should stop protecting Indian politicians. Their job is to protect the borders of India, and the ordinary citizens of India, not to defend the politicians who do nothing for the country and spend all their time looting the hard-earned money of the hard-working citizens. Let Antonia Maino, Arjun Singh, Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi meet the common people of India face to face without Black Cat Commandos protecting them and beg forgiveness for the innumerable crimes they have committed against the common people of India: casteist divide and rule through OBC Reservations, massacre of schoool students protesting Reservations, arrest and harassment of the Shankaracharya on false charges, and brazen insults directed at Lord Ram and Hinduism.

Hindustan Times reports:

Malaysia: Over 200 Indian workers claim being abused
Press Trust Of India
Kuala Lumpur, October 08, 2007
First Published: 11:05 IST(8/10/2007)
Last Updated: 16:52 IST(8/10/2007)

More than 200 Indian nationals working in a Malaysian factory have alleged that they were being abused by their employment agent and are desperate to return home after three of their colleagues were brutally beaten up.

The 264 Indian workers, employed at a factory in Senai in Johor state, claimed their agent started abusing them when they arrived in Malaysia two years ago.

The workers claimed that three of their colleagues were abducted and beaten up for putting up a notice stating that workers no longer wanted 2.50 (25 rupees), the cost of hostel canteen food, to be deducted from their daily wages.

The Indian workers, part of the 1,500-strong foreign workforce at the plastic-moulding factory, staged a picket to demand the release of the three, local media reports said.

The trio, with bruises all over their bodies, have since returned to the hostel, the report said. One of the workers, Thangaraju, 39, said he could have ended up dead if not for the strike staged by his co-workers.

Thangaraju claimed that he and the other two workers were beaten for hours and the men tried to force him to drink detergent when he asked for water, the report said.

He said the beatings started two months after they arrived at the hostel in November 2005.

"We found worms in the rice served at the canteen. When we complained, 20 of my colleagues were abducted and given a severe beating. Only 10 returned and to date, we don't know what happened to the rest."

Another worker identified as Vadivelu said the workers decided to quit and return home on the advice of their parents.

A factory official said the management wanted to send the injured trio to the clinic but were stopped by their colleagues.

"There is a small group of workers instigating the others. They are forcing the workers to strike and this has disrupted operations."

The official said the factory took over the management of the hostel three days ago after the workers decided they did not want to deal with their agent any more.

Baba Ramdev's Speech at HT Leadership Summit

2007-10-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Baba Ramdev delivered a fantastic speech at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. It is something all Indians should read.

From the Hindustan Times:

...A spiritual superpower

By Swami Ramdev

After 60 years of independence, India presents the spectacle of a country in which extreme affluence and poverty exist cheek by jowl. In this ancient land, the rich are richer than the people of the US or UK, and its citizens imbued with a sense of patriotism and technical knowledge which exceeds that of the Japanese. And its people quite often outwit the Chinese.

On the other hand, some of our poor are the poorest in the world. Hunger, poverty and unemployment have compelled them to live a life of indignity. The degrees of inequality are appalling. The contrast mirrors itself in many other ways. We are world champions in one form of cricket and global leaders in information technology. But we are also known for being a very, very corrupt country. Casteism, crime and terrorism are a slur on our society. Women continue to be helpless victims of dowry, and cases of female foeticide haunt India.

For how long can we afford to indulge in such acts of moral turpitude and insensitivity? We have people who dare to dream and conquer the world. But we also have people who lack the courage to stand up against oppression, injustice and wrongdoing.

I dream of seeing India transformed into a mighty superpower, both economically and spiritually. It will be an ideal nation and a role model for others to emulate. I have a vision with seven dimensions to achieve this:

1 Our country faces a crunch of land and other resources, infrastructure, amenities and jobs. The population explosion is worsening the situation. We must initiate a new social awareness campaign to enlighten people about the benefits of a small family. Having disproportionately large families should become a social stigma. The government and NGOs should reward those who have planned families and care to produce an able generation. In this regard, we should take a cue from China. We should design a strategy to provide higher education to our youth. Not a single one of them must be left out. Some of them should be sent overseas to bring prosperity to our country and to reduce the burden on our resources.

2 Experts and resourceful persons in diverse fields should lend their might to build better transportation and housing and an efficient and clean administration.

3 In a prosperous and happy nation, citizens are conscious of their health, hygiene and cleanliness, and sensitive to their duties. Policymakers and intellectuals must think of ways to achieve these objectives with the active participation of citizens.

4 Over Rs 5 lakh crore is drained out annually on health spending. Hospitals and doctors look upon patients as consumers. Crass commercialism has set in. To improve the health of the common people, it is crucial to bring yoga, pranayam and alternative systems of medicine into the mainstream. This will tap the yet-undiscovered potential of medical and solace tourism, elements in which India is the richest.

Sports must be encouraged. Vedic knowledge should become an essential part of school curricula. In conjunction with this, family values can equip individuals to combat stress and anger, negative emotions like depression and envy, and perversions like sexual abuse. It will also act as a bulwark against deviant behaviour arising out of modern life and brute materialism.

5 The farming community continues to be dependent on the vagaries of nature. While input costs are soaring, output remains uncertain and un-remunerative. The sector is increasingly characterized by speculative activities. As a result, a large number of farmers are stamping out their lives out of sheer depression. The country now needs to plan a second green revolution encompassing alternate crops, herbal plants, horticulture and biotechnology. Farmers must be given a better deal, ensuring reasonable rewards for their toil.

6 Swadeshi is the key to India’s prosperity. It generates pride in the nation and helps build self-sufficiency. The country needs to imbibe the ideals of Bapu’s Swadeshi, Maharshi Dayanand’s Swarajya (self rule) and Swabhimaan (self respect), Swami Vivekananda’s knowledge, and the bravery and courage of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rani Laxmibai and Vir Savarkar. Their ideas and ideals are perhaps more relevent today than anytime in the past in a world which is riven by conflict, insecurity, greed and materialism.

Prejudice should give way to rational thinking. In short, to borrow from a well- known and timeless Vedic verse, our ideal should be: “Lead us from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from mortality to the nectar of eternity.” In Sanskrit, the shloka is: “Asato Ma Sadgamaya, Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya, Mrityora Ma Amritamgamaya.”

The clash of civilisations should give way to amicable discourse with a view to discovering the common threads, which run through them. The world will realise the power of wisdom ladled out by our sages that the universe is one family: “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.”

7 I urge every Indian to take a solemn pledge on the following lines: “I will not use in my lifetime any imported goods. I will add to the prosperity of my country through my knowledge, work, courage, confidence, self-respect, honesty, integrity and faithfulness; If I am awakened, my country is awakened, and will continue to march ahead; I am not just a person, but represent the entire nation; India emanates from me, my knowledge, deeds and behaviour. It builds or tarnishes the image of the motherland, and I will, to the best of my ability, protect the honour of my beloved country.”

I do think of, and live with by pledge. I am confident that every Indian can contribute to make India a great country by doing so.

(Swami Ramdev is revered by millions in India and abroad who have benefitted from his yogic exercises and spiritual discourses. This is the first time he has written for an English newspaper.)

Further Details of Burmese Massacres Emerge

2007-10-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Civilized World has shamefully let down the people of Burma. When faced with inhuman genocide massacre torture and mass-killing of this nature, a line must be drawn, and it must be made clear to the perpetrators that they must stop these ongoing crimes against humanity or face annihilation.

Even now it is not too late. The United States, Japan, Europe and India should make it clear to China and its puppets in Burma that the cumulative military and economic might of the Civilized World will be used without hesitation even to utterly destroy China and Burma if necessary if they do not immediately stop the ongoing inhuman and gruesome attacks on peaceful non-violent Buddhists in Burma and Tibet.

Only when faced with the prospect of utter destruction will the mass-murderers running China stop their crimes. And only then will the citizens of China rise up and overthrow their brutal totalitarian dictatorship.

The Independent reports:
Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta's repression of monks emerges
By Rosalind Russell
Published: 11 October 2007

Monks confined in a room with their own excrement for days, people beaten just for being bystanders at a demonstration, a young woman too traumatised to speak, and screams in the night as Rangoon's residents hear their neighbours being taken away.

Harrowing accounts smuggled out of Burma reveal how a systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror is being waged by the Burmese security forces as they take revenge on those suspected of involvement in last month's pro-democracy uprising.

The first-hand accounts describe a campaign hidden from view, but even more sinister and terrifying than the open crackdown in which the regime's soldiers turned their bullets and batons on unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Rangoon, killing at least 13. At least then, the world was watching.

The hidden crackdown is as methodical as it is brutal. First the monks were targeted, then the thousands of ordinary Burmese who joined the demonstrations, those who even applauded or watched, or those merely suspected of anti-government sympathies.

"There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap. Nothing," said a 24-year-old monk who was held for 10 days at the Government Technical Institute, a leafy college in northern Rangoon which is now a prison camp for suspected dissidents. The young man, too frightened to be named, was one of 185 monks taken in a raid on a monastery in the Yankin district of Rangoon on 28 September, two days after government soldiers began attacking street protesters.

"The room was too small for everyone to lie down at once. We took it in turns to sleep. Every night at 8 o'clock we were given a small bowl of rice and a cup of water. But after a few days many of us just couldn't eat. The smell was so bad.

"Some of the novice monks were under 10 years old, the youngest was just seven. They were stripped of their robes and given prison sarongs. Some were beaten, leaving open, untreated wounds, but no doctors came."

On his release, the monk spoke to a Western aid worker in Rangoon, who smuggled his testimony and those of other prisoners and witnesses out of Burma on a small memory stick.

Most of the detained monks, the low-level clergy, were eventually freed without charge as were the children among them. But suspected ringleaders of the protests can expect much harsher treatment, secret trials and long prison sentences. One detained opposition leader has been tortured to death, activist groups said yesterday. Win Shwe, 42, a member of the National League for Democracy, the party of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died under interrogation, the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, adding that the information came from authorities in Kyaukpandawn township. "However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead." Win Shwe was arrested on the first day of the crackdown.

It was the russet-robed Buddhist clergy, not political groups, who had formed the backbone of demonstrations during days of euphoric defiance and previously undreamed-of hope that Burma's military regime could be brought down by peaceful revolution. That hope has been crushed under the boots of government soldiers and intelligence agents and replaced by fear and dread.

A young woman, a domestic worker in Rangoon, described how one woman bystander who applauded the monks was rounded up. "My friend was taken away for clapping during the demonstrations. She had not marched. She came out of her house as the marchers went by and, for perhaps 30 seconds, smiled and clapped as the monks chanted. Her face was recorded on a military intelligence camera. She was taken and beaten. Now she is so scared she won't even leave her room to come and talk to me, to anyone."

Another Rangoon resident told the aid worker: "We all hear screams at night as they [the police] arrive to drag off a neighbour. We are torn between going to help them and hiding behind our doors. We hide behind our doors. We are ashamed. We are frightened."

Burmese intelligence agents are scrutinising photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders. They have also arrested the owners of computers which they suspect were used to transmit images and testimonies out of the country. For each story smuggled out to The Independent, someone has risked arrest and imprisonment.

Hein Zay Kyaw (not his real name) received a telephone call last week telling him to be at a government compound where the military were releasing 42 people, among them Mr Kyaw's friend, missing since he was plucked from the edge of a demonstration on 26 September. Mr Kyaw told the aid worker: "The prisoners were let out of the trucks. Even though now they were safe, they were still so scared. They walked with their hands shielding their faces as if they were expecting blows. They were lined up in rows and sat down against the wall, still cowering. Their clothes were dirty, some stained with blood. Our friend had a clean T-shirt on. We were relieved because we thought this meant that he had not been beaten. We were wrong. He had been beaten on the head and the blood had soaked his shirt which he carried in a plastic bag."

The United States yesterday threatened unspecified new sanctions against Burma and called for an investigation into the death of Win Shwe.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement: "The junta must stop the brutal treatment of its people and peacefully transition to democracy or face new sanctions from the United States."

The scale of the crackdown remains undocumented. The regime has banned journalists from entering Burma and has blocked internet access and phone lines.

Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK says the number of dead is possibly in the hundreds. "The regime covers up its atrocities. We will never know the true numbers," he said.

At the weekend the government said it has released more than half of the 2,171 people arrested, but exile groups estimate the number of detentions between 6,000 and 10,000.

In Rangoon, people say they are more frightened now than when soldiers were shooting on the streets.

"When there were demonstrations and soldiers on the streets, the world was watching," said a professional woman who watched the marchers from her office.

"But now the soldiers only come at night. They take anyone they can identify from their videos. People who clapped, who offered water to the monks, who knelt and prayed as they passed. People who happened to turn and watch as they passed by and their faces were caught on film. It is now we are most fearful. It is now we need the world to help us."

Thousands of Buddhist monks and peaceful unarmed civilians slaughtered in Burma; gruesome bloody massacres continuing

2007-10-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Horrible pictures and videos of the ongoing slaughter of non-violent peaceful unarmed Buddhist monks and ordinary civilians in Burma by the (mis-)ruling military dictatorship supported by China.

Report from Daily Mail, UK:

Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle

By MARCUS OSCARSSON - More by this author » Last updated at 15:04pm on 1st October 2007 Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.

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Slaughter: Executed monks have been dumped in the jungle

Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy was in Burma's new capital today seeking meetings with the ruling military junta.

Ibrahim Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon yesterday. But he has yet to meet the country's senior generals as he attempts to halt violence against monks and pro-democracy activists.

It is anticipated the meeting will happen tomorrow.

Heavily-armed troops and police flooded the streets of Rangoon during Mr Ibrahim's visit to prevent new protests.

Mr Gambari met some of the country's military leaders in Naypyidaw yesterday and has returned there for further talks. But he did not meet senior general Than Shwe or his deputy Maung Aye - and they have issued no comment.

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Tensions: People gather outside a temple after a police raid today

Reports from exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared" as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians.

Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells.

There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help.

Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples.

There, troops abandoned religious beliefs, propped their rifles against statues of Buddha and began cooking meals on stoves set up in shrines.

In stark contrast, the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay - centres of the attempted saffron revolution last week - were virtually deserted.

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Checkpoint: Police outside the house of opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi today

Executed: The body of a Buddhist monk floats in a river

A Swedish diplomat who visited Burma during the protests said last night that in her opinion the revolution has failed.

Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added.

"The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt.

"Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear."

Mrs Agerlid said Rangoon is heavily guarded by soldiers.

"There are extremely high numbers of soldiers in Rangoon's streets," she added. "Anyone can see it is absolutely impossible for any demonstration to gather, or for anyone to do anything.

"People are scared and the general assessment is that the fight is over. We were informed from one of the largest embassies in Burma that 40 monks in the Insein prison were beaten to death today and subsequently burned."

The diplomat also said that three monasteries were raided yesterday afternoon and are now totally abandoned.

At his border hideout last night, 42-year-old Mr Win said he hopes to cross into Thailand and seek asylum at the Norwegian Embassy.

The 42-year-old chief of military intelligence in Rangoon's northern region, added: "I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks onto trucks.

"They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this."

With his teenage son, he made his escape from Rangoon, leaving behind his wife and two other sons.

He had no fears for their safety because his brother is a powerful general who, he believes, will defend the family.

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Protests: But the situation inside Burma remains unclear

Mr Win's defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled to villages along the Thai border.

They will feel others in the army may follow him and turn on their ageing leaders, Senior General Than Shwe and his deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

Further details from France24:
[Click on link above for the video]

Monday, October 1, 2007
By LEELA JACINTO and JULIEN PAIN

PARIS, Oct. 1 -- Floating face down in a filthy pool of water, a tangled strip of saffron cloth – the distinctive garb a Buddhist monk – still clinging to his neck, the images are a gruesome reminder of the brutality of last week’s military crackdown on Burmese protesters.

The graphic video of what appears to be a dead monk was filmed Sunday in the Pazondaung area of the Burmese city of Rangoon, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma, an Oslo-based opposition group. It is not known when the monk died.

The release of the footage comes as U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari prepares to meet Burmese junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe in the new capital of Naypyidaw Tuesday. The former Nigerian foreign minister’s visit -- which included a meeting with Burma’s best-known opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Sunday -- has sparked hopes in some circles that a diplomacy of sorts might prevail to end the current crisis.

While it is difficult to get an accurate reading about the state of dissent inside the repressive Southeast Asian nation, many Burmese dissidents in exile as well as those inside Burma are afraid the current protests will be a repeat of the 1988 anti-junta demonstrations.

At least 3,000 people were believed killed in the brutal crackdown following the 1988 demonstrations. Martial law was promptly declared and thousands of opposition leaders – including Suu Kyi – were arrested. The charismatic leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) has been under various forms of detention ever since.

In a telephone interview with FRANCE 24, a Buddhist monk in hiding in Burma, who did not want his name or location disclosed due to security fears, appealed for international help.

“The monasteries are surrounded by troops and the monks can’t go outside,” he told FRANCE 24 from his place in hiding in the jungles of Burma. “We need help from the international community.”

Indeed public dissent in the main Burmese cities of Rangoon and Mandalay seems to have ceased. The streets of Rangoon were quiet Monday, according to news reports – a far cry from last week’s public demonstrations which drew as many as 100,000 people into the streets. The Burmese government has put the official death toll from last week’s protests at 10 – including a Japanese photographer who was killed in Rangoon. But human rights groups say the actual toll is much higher.

While the web was a critical source of information about the protests last week, the junta has since blocked network access inside the country. By Friday afternoon, the country’s only two Internet providers -- MPT and Pagan Cybertech – had been taken offline.

Only the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) has been able to access images coming from Burma. In a telephone interview with FRANCE 24, the DVB site's webmaster, “Thida”, explained that their associates in Burma use their own systems to connect to the Internet. She wouldn’t say more, but technicians familiar with communications technology say it would be technically feasible to feed images over a mobile phone line by connecting the phone to a laptop computer.

Attacking a symbol of peace

One of the more shocking aspects of the crackdown was the raw display of state aggression against Buddhist monks, the very symbol of a pacifist religion in this deeply spiritual country. In a country where nearly 90 percent of the estimated 50 million-strong population is Buddhist and where most males have spent at least some time serving in a monastery, monks are a revered symbol of an unchanging Burmese identity in the face of political upheavals.

According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, more than a dozen monasteries in major Burmese cities were raided last week and at least 700 monks were detained.

“It was a very significant turnaround that the military used violence against monks,” said Win Min, a professor at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University in an interview with the AFP news wire service. “It added fuel to the fire.”

While the 1988 demonstrations were led by Burmese students, they were subsequently joined by monks, who were not spared the subsequent brutal crackdown by the military regime.

For Burma’s omnipotent State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has -- under various acronyms -- brutally controlled the country since 1978, the prospect of a politically mobilized Buddhist priesthood represents a threat to their power.

But from his jungle hiding place, the Buddhist monk -- who said he was one of the leaders of the recent protest during an interview with FRANCE 24 last week -- said his fellow monks were not giving up hope.

“Right now, our only way to protest is to pray,” he said. “There are different ways of protesting and prayer is one of them. But come what may, we will continue to protest. Even if they (the junta) are blocking us at the moment, we won’t stop.”

Burmese Army soldiers bludgeoning Buddhist monks to death by beating their skulls to pulp

2007-09-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

From an eyewitness in Rangoon, Burma:

"They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.

The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured, bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.

When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery."

Anti-Buddha anti-religion Godless Communist Chinese-supported brutal military "government" in Burma is continuing the barbaric massacres of Buddhist monks.

Burma is under almost complete black-out of telephone internet and all other communications services. Phone service is unreliable and intermittent, and possibly being tapped by the Burmese military government to identify journalists or others who may be trying to leak information out. An eyewitness account has been reported over a possibly tapped phone line at grave personal risk by somebody's sister in Burma and reported on the Buddhist Peace Fellowship website:

Sept 28, 07:

How You Can Support the People of Burma

Update 9/28/07:

A dispatch received from someone with a relative in Yangon (Rangoon), via Richard Reoch of Shambhala:

We just got phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours ago. We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse. For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning.

A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.

The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured , bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.

When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery.

Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks please please !!!!!!!!!!!!
'Arrested' is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death !!!!!!

(Name withheld to protect the identity)
Hong Kong

How you can support the People of Burma:

1) Join or organize a vigil in your town or city. We have posted a calendar of vigils on the BPF website. There are currently events scheduled in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, and Milan (Italy). We are updating the list regularly, so please keep checking it. Check with your local BPF chapter to see if they are planning a vigil.

If you plan a vigil, we are encouraging people to use these common elements:

* Silent vigil, and hold to principles of nonviolence in support of the monks and nuns. If you do chant, use the Metta Sutta, as this is the chant the monks and nuns of Burma have been praying. Click here for a copy of the Metta Sutta that you can print and distribute to people at your vigil. Please avoid protest chants.

* Wear red or maroon.

* Bring a BPF banner, if you have one.

2) Sign a petition

AAVAZ Online Petition to Support Burma

U.S. Campaign for Burma Petition

The Buddhist Channel

3) Light a candle and place it in your window every night this week, along with this sign in support of the nonviolent protest. And please spread the word.

4) Make a donation to the Foundation for the People of Burma, an affiliated group of BPF that provides humanitarian aid to Burmese people of all ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs.

5) Help get video equipment into Burma. From BPF board member Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey:

In lieu of an actual physical international presence on the ground in Burma, one of the best ways we have to supporting the effort of the Burmese people is to make sure these lines of communication to the outside world stay open and up-to-date.

We are trying to find a way to gather photographic, video and transmission equipment and get it into Burma through contacts in Thailand. We would appreciate your help by sending any extra equipment of this nature that you may have to our office in North Carolina, where they will be compiled and sent as quickly as possible to the appropriate people. This can be old, used and even out-dated equipment--as long as it works and you are willing to part ways with it.

If you do not have equipment of this nature but would like to help you can also send donations to help pay for additional equipment and shipping charges. Please make checks payable to stone circles with “Burma video equipment” in the memo line.

Please send all resources to:

The Stone House

attn: Burma equipment

6602 Nick’s Rd

Mebane, NC 27302

Statements in Support of Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Burma

Includes statements from:

* Buddhist Peace Fellowship
* BPF Melbourne Australia
* International Network of Engaged Buddhists
* His Holiness the Dalai Lama
* Buddhists and Khmer Society Network of Cambodia
* Shambhala

The Dalai Lama's message to the People of Burma

2007-09-28T17:54:00.001-07:00

As everybody knows, the Chinese-supported military dictatorship that has misruled Burma for the last several decades is currently engaged in yet another bloody suppression of democratic protests against its illegitimate cruel and brutally inhuman misrule.

Unarmed and peaceful Burmese civilians and Burmese Buddhist monks leading the peaceful protests are being brutally beaten and shot by the Burmese military. Unarmed and peaceful Buddhist monks have been shot and killed, for the first time in the history of Burma. A crime of this magnitude did not happen as far as we know even in previous massacres of pro-Democracy activists in Burma before. Not even the British colonialists dared to be so uncivilized as to kill unarmed and peaceful monks in broad daylight in public.

90% of the people of Burma are deeply religious Buddhists, in spite of decades of Godless Communist Chinese oppression. Burma will definitely reach boiling point as soon as this news spreads. Those responsible for killing Buddhist monks will all be hunted down and brought to Justice eventually. The Burmese military is trying to prevent this by taking Burma back to the Stone Age: all phone, internet, newspapers, etc have been blacked out in Burma. However, at this point there are rumours that several units of the Burmese military are refusing to obey orders to massacre protesters, as it is unthinkable for most people in Burma -- even most of the most hardened solders -- to raise arms against the highly revered Buddhist monks.

An innocent Japanese photographer has been shot at point-blank range in cold blood by a Burmese soldier.

It is high time that the Civilized World intervenes in this uncivilized spectacle. The military generals running Burma are guilty of innumerable Crimes Against Humanity.

Following the Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Organization must IMMEDIATELY sanction an invasion of Burma to prevent continued gross and egregious violations of human rights and Crimes Against Humanity by the illegitimate Burmese military government. The United States, Japan, India, and other Civilized Nations must IMMEDIATELY invade Burma, establish Democracy under Aung San Suu Kyi -- the rightful leader of Burma, and bring the Burmese military rulers (puppets of anti-Buddha Godless Chinese Communists) to Justice.

The Chinese Communist Party is guilty of destroying Buddhism in China and Tibet. It is now trying to do the same in Burma through its proxies in the Burmese military. This must not be allowed to happen.

The following is the message from the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who is peacefully resisting a similar war by Godless Chinese Communists trying to destroy Tibetan Buddhism:

Message to the People of Burma

Message

I extend my support and solidarity with the recent peaceful movement for democracy in Burma. I fully support their call for freedom and democracy and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such non-violent movements. Moreover, I wish to convey my sincere appreciation and admiration to the large number of fellow Buddhists monks for advocating democracy and freedom in Burma.

As a Buddhist monk, I am appealing to the members of the military regime who believe in Buddhism to act in accordance with the sacred dharma in the spirit of compassion and non-violence.

I pray for the success of this peaceful movement and the early release of fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Tenzin Gyatso
September 23, 2007

Raoul Maino (a.k.a. Rahul Gandhi) trying to hide his criminal record

2007-09-28T17:19:00.001-07:00

The Nehru Dynasty (now going under the Gandhi name) is known for producing criminals who have indulged in gross abuse of power for the last 60 years. After Indira Gandhi's attempt at destroying Democracy in India by declaring an Emergency after she lost the elections and abusing the state machinery to kill political rivals like pro-Democracy activist Jai Prakash Narayan in the process, Rajiv Gandhi tried to measure up to his illustrious mother in criminality and abuse of power by robbing the Government Treasury (stealing the money of poor hard-working taxpayers of India) through Bofors scams and such-like.

However, Rajiv's Roman-Catholic Italian son Raoul (who calls himself Rahul in the Indian media) seems all set to break all previous family records by a wide margin. He is doing exactly what the People of India have come to expect from the Nehru Dynasty.

Before even starting a proper political career, he has already managed to be caught by the FBI for international currency smuggling, and is currently actively engaged in subverting the police investigation process to cover up a gang-rape he allegedly took part in. The Nehru Dynasty is using all their power over the pliable Indian mainstream news media to hide these facts from the People of India. However, Truth has an inconvenient habit of eventually getting out.

Thanks to a dear Reader for bringing these items to my attention.

Now the people of India need to decide if they want a rapist and international currency smuggler to rule our Motherland.

Also, Congress Party workers need to think carefully whether they want to support a party run by an anti-Hindu Roman Catholic family that has gone out of its way to denigrate Hinduism at every step it has taken in its entire stay in power:
1. declared that the Hindu religious icon Lord Ram never existed, and is trying to destroy a sacred Hindu religious artifact: the bridge that Lord Ram built connecting India and Lanka
2. has no respect for secularism, and actively engages in religious discrimination against Hindus and promotes Roman Catholics in the Congress party. Almost all Chief Ministers in Congress-ruled states are Christian.
3. issued coins with the Christian cross on them. Remember Secularism? It means that the Government cannot promote any religion. Issuing coins with Christian religious symbols constitutes promotion of Christianity using Indian tax-payer's money.
4. will gang-rape the daughter of a Hindu Congress worker to entertain his Italian Roman-Catholic friends. Are we still living under British Raj, or what?

All Hindu workers in Congress party should think carefully: do you want your daughters and wives to be gang-raped for the entertainment and enjoyment of Roman-Catholic Italian Christian guests of the ruling family? If so, go ahead and support the Congress. Give your lives to keep Antonia and Raoul Maino in power.

Otherwise, leave the Congress Party. Work for and vote for someone who is Indian, and loyal to India. Someone who respects Indian girls and will not gang-rape them to please his Italian friends.

How long has it been since we got Independence from the British? How long has it been since the movie theatres in India used to say "No Dogs or Natives allowed"? How long has it been since Bhagat Singh, Netaji, Khudiram, Lala Lajpat and hundreds of thousands of others sacrificed everything to free our Motherland from abusive racist and murderous Christian occupiers from Britain France and Portugal?

It's been barely 60 years.

How can you bring in this Maino family from Italy to rule us all over again? Are you men, or goats?

Leave the Congress Party today. Let Justice prevail Let the Nehru Dynasty be finally brought to Justice for the crimes of the last 60 years.

Yahoo reports:

Suit filed to probe Rahul Gandhi's detention by FBI
By Indo-Asian News Service

Lucknow, March 8 (IANS) A suit has been filed in the high court here seeking information about the alleged detention of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and his Colombian girlfriend by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2001.

The petition, filed by four lawyers, is likely to be heard Wednesday.

According to the public interest litigation, Gandhi, the son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and his companion were released after being detained at Boston airport following the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office.

At that time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Indian prime minister and Gandhi was not a member of the Lok Sabha.

"Vajpayee's principal secretary and then national security adviser Brajesh Misra spoke to top US authorities to enable Rahul Gandhi and his girlfriend to get away," claimed Prem Chandra Sharma, who moved the court along with three others.

Sharma claimed to have gathered this information through the Internet and said he had downloaded certain documents to substantiate his allegations.

The petition alleged that Gandhi was found in illegal possession of about $200,000. And it was in that connection that the FBI had detained him along with his girlfriend Sep 21, 2001.

The FBI was said to have sought an explanation about Gandhi's possession of such a huge amount of money, which he was unable to provide, the petition said.

The petition sought a writ of mandamus to the Indian ambassador to the US as well as the union home secretary to make a disclosure about the entire episode.

Hindu Unity reports:

RAHUL GANDHI INVOLVED IN GANG RAPE

At the outset I wish to confirm that Hindu Unity is aware of the seriousness of the charges we are levelling against Rahul Gandhi (aka Raul Maino) son of Sonia Gandhi (aka Antonia Maino). Members of Hindu Unity in Lucknow and Amethi have confirmed the news and will soon come out with necessary evidence to nail Rahul Gandhi and his friends. The following is the information that Hindu Unity has gathered. The photograph was obtained from the girl's family and is being posted here with their permission.

On 3rd December 2006, Rahul Gandhi was camping at Amethi along with 7 others including 4 foreigners (two from Britain and other two from Italy, names not known).Around 9 P.M all of them were drinking liquor at a V.I.P. guest house in a high security zone. They had an uninvited guest, a young girl named Sukanya Devi, 24 years of age, a staunch follower of Nehru-Gandhi family and daughter of Congress worker Balram Singh.

Sukanya was looking for an opportunity to meet Rahul Gandhi since last two years and on that fateful night she able to meet him. Sukanya's family has been supporting the Congress party since the time of Nehru.

When she met Rahul he spoke to her for a couple of minutes and later he and his friends offered here liquor. Sukanya was amazed seeing all this, she was not feeling comfortable, she refused to have liquor and took permission to leave, but she was forced to stay back and drink. She kept resisting, but they raped her one by one. She cried for help, but her cries fell on deaf ears. Even the security personnel preferred to remain as mute spectators.

She kept weeping all along and was threatened and asked to keep her mouth shut. She was given Rs.50,000 /-. She straightaway went to the local police station. The police refused to book any complaint and asked her to go home.

Before she could reach home, Congress workers had gathered at her house and gave a different version of the incident to her father. They accused her of trying to seduce Rahul Gandhi. Her father Balram Singh, without giving her a chance to explain what had happened to her beat her up mercilessly. Balram Singh learnt the facts from others who were witness to the crime, but he preferred to remain quite as he did not want to challenge Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party.

Sukanya's mother Sumitra Devi, who learnt about the whole incident immediately went with her daughter to Police HQ in Amethi. The Police officials refused to book any complaint and advised her to remain quite. She went from pillar to post pleading for justice, but no one heard her pleas.

Sumithra Devi gave a statement in a press conference with a very thin attendance and there she was confronted by Congressmen who physically assaulted both mother & daughter. On 27th December 2006 Sumithra Devi went to New Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi. Sonia refused to meet her. With no options left she went to Human Rights Commission who just noted down her complaint and asked her to leave.

The Congressmen have threatened to kill both Sumithra Devi and her daughter Sukanya if she makes the rape issue public. Both the mother and daughter are in despair trying to seek justice. Both mother and daughter were camping in New Delhi for over a fortnight to get an appointment with the President of India. They have not got an appointment either with the President or with the Chief Justice.

Both mother and daughter are now in hiding. If the Congressmen don't kill her, the Opus Di (secret service of the Vatican) definitely will. It is important that we locate Sumanthra Devi and Sukanya, offer them protection.

Pseudo-secular bureaucrat in Bihar harassing old Hindu man for wearing tilak on forehead

2007-09-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a dear Reader for bringing this incident to my attention. Pseudo-secularism has reached a new high in India. An anti-Hindu bureaucrat in Bihar is harassing an innocent old Hindu man who works in his office for the "crime" of wearing a tilak on his forehead.

What next? Harass Hindu women for wearing sindur?

Please forward this information to all you know. Let us mobilize and press the Bihar Government run by Nitish Kumar to dismiss the pseudo-secular anti-Hindu officer involved (CK Anil) for harassing and victimizing Hindus in their own Motherland. Let us teach this pseudo-secular anti-Hindu slimeball a lesson he will not forget. Let us make sure Hindus all over India know how we are being victimized in broad daylight in our own Motherland, because we are too tolerant.

Let Justice be done. Let this anti-Hindu officer CK Anil be dismissed from his job, and ostracized by Hindus everywhere. He is a pseudo-secular anti-Hindu criminal who has committed a crime against Hinduism. He must pay.

BBC reports:

Hindus upset over ban on holy dot

By Amarnath Tewary
BBC News, Bihar

(Photos: Prashant Ravi)" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203">

Mr Mishra has worn the tilak throughout his career

A senior official in India's Bihar state faces suspension for wearing the Hindu red mark on his forehead at work.

Lakshman Mishra, deputy director of the agriculture department, is accused of breaching a new government dress code.

He says he has worn the mark, or tilak, on his forehead at work for 30 years and it is his religious right to do so.

His colleagues support him - nearly all of them arrived at work on Friday wearing red marks in protest, and unions are threatening mass action.

Suicide threat

Mr Mishra's troubles began in August when new guidelines were issued on what state government officials could wear at the office.

No one should be suspended for wearing a holy tilak as it's a matter of personal choice

Bihar Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh

His department head, CK Anil, warned Mr Mishra that he considered his tilak to be in breach of the code.

When he refused to remove it, Mr Anil recommended him for suspension.

Mr Anil is a young, no-nonsense civil service high-flier who has already reprimanded staff in another department for spitting out betel leaf they had been chewing at work.

He is currently not taking calls from the media.

Many people in northern India wear the red holy mark on their foreheads and it is a common sight in government offices.

Mr Mishra says he has no intention of giving up the practice.

"I've been sporting the red holy dot on my forehead for the last 30 years of my career," he told the BBC.

"It has religious sentiment for me and if somebody goes on harassing me on this pretext I'll have no option but to commit suicide."

Anger

Barring some senior officials, all the employees of the state agriculture department went to work on Friday with tilaks on their foreheads in protest at his treatment.

(Photos: Prashant Ravi)" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203">

Civil servants came out in protest on Friday

They laid siege to Mr Anil's office and demanded he withdraw his recommendation that Mr Mishra be suspended.

"The officer's move has hurt our religious sentiments and as our protest against his order we've come to the office today adorning our foreheads with the red dot. Let him suspend all of us now," said union leader Baidyanath Yadav.

Several other state government unions are also angry and are threatening mass protests if his suspension order is not revoked with immediate effect.

Even state Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh agrees, saying "no one should be suspended for wearing a holy tilak as it's a matter of personal choice".

British Empire Used Indians as Guinea-Pigs in Nazi-style Horrifying Human Experiments

2007-09-02T01:04:00.000-07:00

The British have created this large-scale myth of having a "gentlemanly" and "fair play"-loving culture. And yet they ran the largest-scale human slavery business for several centuries. Their Dacoit-Queen shamelessly wears a diamond stolen from India on her crown. And now, they have been exposed as having been involved in horrifying human experiments on Indians (to conduct "scientific" experiments like "studying the effects of poison gas on humans") during the dark days of the thieving-robbing-stealing-raping and inhumanly brutal British Empire.

The Times of India reports:

Britain used Indian troops as guinea pigs
2 Sep 2007, 0001 hrs IST,Rashmee Roshan Lall ,TNN

LONDON: Indian soldiers serving under the British Raj were used as guinea pigs to test the effects of poison gases on humans by scientists from the world's oldest chemical warfare research installation here in the UK, according to newly-released archival documents.

The Indian soldiers suffered severe burns from the gas as part of the trials, which started in the early 1930s and lasted almost through to Indian independence.

The trials were part of a study by British scientists to ascertain if the poison gas inflicted greater damage on coloured skins than on white Caucasians. The scientists had been posted to the Indian sub-continent to develop poison gases to use against the Japanese.

Several-hundred Indians were part of the trials, according to documents released by the UK's National Archives. It is unclear if the Indians were told about the potentially serious medical implications of the trials before they were sent into the gas chambers by the scientists from Porton Down, the UK's chemical warfare research laboratory.

On Saturday, The Guardian newspaper quoted a lawyer representing British soldiers similarly tested at Porton Dwon to say, "I would be astonished if these Indian subjects (of the Empire) gave any meaningful consent to taking part in these tests, particularly as they were conducted during the days of Empire. No one would have agreed...if they knew beforehand what was going to happen".

Mustard gas is now a recognised carcinogencic substance and the Indians suffered severe burns. Some British servicemen, recruited over time to take part in similar experiments, recently won compensation for being duped into being treated as guinea pigs.

The tests on the Indians, before and during World War II, are seen to be part of a deadly programme of identifying the exact amount of poison gas that could prove deadly on the battlefield. The British scientists, who recorded in the documents that several Indians suffered so severely they had to be hospitalised, reported a "large number" of burns.

Many of the Indians, who were sent into the gas chambers wearing no more than "drill shorts and open-necked khaki cotton shirts" to gauge the effect of mustard gas on the eyes, also had to be hospitalised after the experiment.

The revelation is seen to be a shocking afterword to the lengthy accounts of British colonial behaviour in India.

But in a sign the British authorities are unwilling to entertain claims for compensation from the affected Indian soldiers or their heirs and successors, officials are quoted to say the trials took place in a different era and the studies in India "included defensive research...(and) supported those conducted in simulated conditions in the UK in a different environment".

UK Christian Fundamentalists Ban Yoga

2007-09-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

These Europeans were living among barbaric and brutal medieval customs in the middle ages till the ancient wisdom of Hinduism and Buddhism reached them through the efforts of the great Mongol conqueror Chenghiz Khan.

They became followers of Lord Krishna, also known as Vishnu, one of whose incarnations is Lord Buddha. Unable to pronounce the Sanskrit name of God (Krishna) properly, they started calling Him "Christ".

Not being intelligent or enlightened enough to understand the intellectually deep philosophy of Hinduism (or even the simplified version called Buddhism), they collected a set of stories from the Buddhist Tripitaka and Jataka tales, changed the Sanskrit names of Indo-Aryan characters like the Gautam Buddha into Hebrew/Aramaic names like Jesus/Abraham/etc, added some fanciful stories of their own over several centuries, and called this collection of fairy tales the Bible.

Bible literally means "the book". These ignorant fools of medieval Europe had never had the fortune of having any other book before. The Bible was the first and only book they had ever come across.

Compare this with the millions of Sanskrit verses full of ancient wisdom that had been composed compiled and passed down over hundreds of generations in India and China.

Today these ignorant Christian fundamentalist morons of Europe still do not know the first thing about God, or about where their "religion" came from.

Indians are giving them the medical wisdom and knowledge of Yoga for free, to help their obese fat and overweight kids, pot-bellied men, and fat women improve their health. And their Christian fundamentalist Churches -- misguided, ignorant, and unaware of its origin as a place of worship for Lord Krishna -- are stopping them from learning this wisdom that can save and improve their lives.

You can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.

These European Christian fundamentalist morons are free to live in ignorance. We don't care whether they learn Yoga or not. We do not care whether they live life better or not. They can do Yoga, or they can buy toxic slimming medications; it is their business.

The real problem happens when they send their narrow-minded "missionaries" and "evangelists" to convert Indian Hindus and Buddhists from these enlightened Indian faiths to their misguided and ignorant European "religion".

The Times of India reports:

UK churches ban yoga group
1 Sep 2007, 0110 hrs IST,IANS

LONDON: Two local churches have banned a group from conducting yoga classes because the ancient practice is allegedly "un-Christian". The yoga class for children was to be run by Louise Woodstock at the Silver Street Baptist Church and St James' Church of England in Taunton, Somerset. But church ministers this week banned it and branded yoga as a "sham" and "un-Christian".

Woodstock, who was turned away from the churches on Thursday, said: "I couldn't believe it when they suddenly said I couldn't have the hall any more because yoga is against their Christian ethos. It's crazy because we're talking about kids pretending to be animals and doing exercise routines to rhymes." "The churches are being narrow-minded. I explained to the church that my yoga is a completely non-religious activity. There is no dogma involved."

Reverend Simon Farrar of the Baptist Church withdrew his consent for using the hall for a children's activity group after discovering it was for yoga. St James's church also barred her for the same reason. Rev Farrar said: "Clearly, yoga impinges on the spiritual life of people in a way which we as Christians don't believe is the same as our ethos."

Rev Tim Jones, the vicar of St James' church, told The Telegraph: "The philosophy of yoga cannot be separated from the practice of it, and any teacher of yoga must subscribe to the philosophy. As Christians, we believe that this philosophy is false and not something we wish to encourage."

More Terror Attacks Caused by Pseudo-Secular Congress Government's Appeasement of Radical Islam

2007-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Radical-Islam-appeasing policies of the pseudo-secular United Progressive Alliance Government of the Congress Party and the anti-Hindu Leftists has led to another grisly attack on the People of India.

This attack in Hyderabad is just one more in a long line of regular attacks that have been occurring with monotonic regularity every few months: Haryana, Mumbai, Delhi, Ayodhya, Ghatkopar, Nagpur, Mumbai again, Srinagar, and so on.

The UPA Government bears direct responsibility for this new terror attack in Hyderabad, as does it for all the other ones as well. All these attacks are occurring as a direct result of the terrorist-friendly policies of the pseudo-secular Radical-Islam-appeasing UPA Government: policies like scrapping anti-terror laws like POTA while the rest of the world is creating laws like PATRIOT ACT to crack down on Islamic terrorism, and organizing movements to grant Presidential pardons to hard-core Radical Islamic terrorists like Muhammad Afzal who organized high-profile attacks like the 2001 attacks on the Parliament of India and the 1993 Mumbai blasts have only one result: encourage Radical Islamic zealots to attack us again and again and again.

The UPA Ministers are safe under the protection of the brave Black Cat Commandos of India. We, the common people, are dying and getting maimed in fresh attacks every few months.

The UPA is playing politics with our blood: using its terrorist-friendly policies to try to win Muslim votes.

While we are lying bleeding on the streets, Manmohan and Sonia are thinking: "We are going to grant pardon to Mohammad Afzal; that should get us more Muslim votes in the next election."

Or "We scrapped the anti-terror POTA law that was being used to catch Radical Islamic terrorirts. Now the Muslims should vote for us."

The big question is: how long will the People of India mutely stand by and watch this horrifying game of dirty vote-bank politics being played with our blood?

When will we say "Enough is enough. Now Manmohan Sonia and Shivraj must pay for the near and dear ones we lost due to their Islamic vote bank politics. Eye for eye; tooth for tooth"? When?

When will the UPA pay for the horrifying crimes they are committing?

How long will Hindu blood and Hindu lives be considered cheap and disposable?

We Indians are used to Hindus getting slaughtered at the drop of a dime. For a thousand years we have lived under Radical Islamic Taliban-style genocidal Radical Islamic maniacal and blood-thirsty rulers like Aurangzeb, Allauddin, Taimoor, Balban, etc.

We are used to seeing Hindus being killed, tortured, kidnapped, extorted, evicted, and exploited.

When will we stand up and demand equal rights as human beings?

When will we stand up and fight back against those genocidal Radical Islamists who have been killing us with impunity for a thousand years?

BBC reports:

Shutdown call after India bombs

Almost all the bodies have been identified and handed over to relatives

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has called a shutdown in the southern city of Hyderabad to protest against Saturday's twin blasts.

At least 42 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in explosions at an open-air auditorium and a restaurant.

Almost 36 hours after the attacks, police are yet to find any clear leads.

The state authorities say groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh are responsible for the blasts. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh denied the accusation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a policy of "zero tolerance" in dealing with terrorism.

On alert

In response to the party's call for a day-long shut-down, schools and colleges and shops across Hyderabad city remain closed.

Although people can be seen walking on the streets, traffic on the roads is thin.

One of the blasts ripped through the Lumbini amusement park

The city has been placed on alert and a large number of policemen have been deployed to maintain peace.

Indian President Pratibha Patil has said the attacks were aimed at disturbing harmony in the city, Hyderabad which has a mixed Muslim and Hindu population.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has described the blasts as a suspected "terrorist act".

Minutes apart

"Available information points to the involvement of terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan," the minister told reporters without giving any names.

Officials have begun the process of handing over the bodies of those killed to their relatives.

Barring a couple, all the bodies have been identified and have been handed over to their relatives.

Police are yet to find any clear leads

India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited the site of the explosions, as well as injured people in hospital, on Sunday to urge vigilance.

Saturday's explosions took place minutes apart at an open-air auditorium and a popular outdoor restaurant.

In the first blast, hundreds of people were watching a laser show at the Lumbini amusement park when a bomb went off, flinging people off their seats.

The second attack took place at Gokul Chat shop - a restaurant which served snacks and savouries.

The explosions came three months after 11 people were killed in a bombing at the city's 17th Century Mecca Mosque.

Police have yet to formally name suspects for that attack.

How To Answer Hypocrites Who Complain About India's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

2007-08-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Too often, I have have ill-informed and ignorant people complain about "India's massive greenhouse gas emissions". These ill-informed and ignorant "environmentalists" accuse India of being the worst greenhouse gas emitter in the world. These ignorant idiots then proceed to call for India to slow down her economic growth by reducing fuel consumption, stop buying cars and A/C's, and "practise austerity".

We are asked to stay backward and "austere" while the rest of the world -- particularly Western Europe and USA -- continues to wastefully plunder the resources of the world like they have done for the last two hundred years.

This is a politically correct and "feel good" point of view to take. But here are some facts you can use to refute these ill-informed and ignorant statements.

Recently, I exposed Praful Bidwai of the Hindustan Times who wrote a moronic article asking Indians to slow down economic growth by reducing consumption and other economic activities, and "practise auterity".

Well, we were practising austerity and ran an environmentally sound and sustainable economy for five thousand years. That is what made us vulnerable to attack and conquest by the environmentally disastrous "Industrial Revolution"-powered West. Then, for the next two hundred years they ruled over us, robbed and stole everything they could lay their hands on, and reduced us to abject poverty from which we are only starting to recover.

[Even today, the shameless dacoit-queen of England wears the Kohinoor diamond stolen from India on her crown in broad daylight. Only a Queen of Thieves could be so shameless.

Someone with an iota of self-respect would return stolen property to the rightful owner -- the Government of India.]

For two hundred years, the West wasted precious resources worldwide and led opulent lives financed with the life-blood of poor hard-working people in colonies like India. The British filled the atmosphere with billions of tons of greenhouse gases over those two hundred years.

Today Americans waste billions of tons of petroleum for fun, to go on "long drives", or to heat poorly-insulated houses during winter.

They want us to "practise austerity", just when we have started to compete effectively with them in the global economy and regain our rightful place on the world stage.

After two hundred years of slavery, when we have barely started to recover, they are asking the poor and hard-working people of India to "practise austerity". What a shameless joke!

Here is an article, again from the Hindustan Times, exposing the lies of those who make tall claims about India's greenhouse gas emissions:

Greenhouse gases: India says it is not the largest emitter

Dharam Shourie, Press Trust Of India
United Nations, August 02, 2007
First Published: 10:56 IST(2/8/2007)
Last Updated: 11:07 IST(2/8/2007)

Rejecting the contention that it is among the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, India has charged the developed nations with externalising the problem they had created and trying to pass on the cost of the solution to the developing nations.

"The present state of greenhouse gases (GHG) concentration in the atmosphere is the result of over a century and half of unabated emissions by the developed countries," Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen told the General Assembly's special session convened to discuss the issue of climate change.

Giving figures to buttress his argument, Sen said India with 17 per cent of the population has only 4 per cent of global GHG.

Stating a more important measure is per capita emission, he told the delegates that India's per capita CHG emission is one ton per annum against global average of four tons per annum.

Despite that India has taken to further steps to cut down these emissions, he said, pointing out that the primary energy consumption growth rate is 3.4 per cent per year against GDP growth rate exceeding 9 per cent.

"It is worth noting that this is in contrast to the developed countries, and even a few developing countries, where higher growth rates have followed the traditional pattern of increased use of energy," Sen said.

The developed nations have accepted the responsibility for excessive emission, he said, asking the industrialised world to now show leadership in controlling the polluting gases.

"Why Are We So Scared Of Offending Muslims ?" asks Christopher Hitchens

2007-07-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens has written an article on Slate Magazine asking the question I have been asking for so long: "Why are people of all other religions so scared of offending Muslims, while Muslims don't seem to care at all about what we think about their religious extremism and antics like rioting worldwide about some silly cartoon, or imposing a reign of terror on respected authors like Salman Rushdie, etc. etc. etc.?

Right after two tall US buildings were destroyed by Radical Islamists, Americans have started waking up to the threat of Islamic extremism. Indians, on the other hand, seem oblivious to this grave threat, in spite a thousand years of Radical Islamic oppression (rape, torture, genocide, forced conversions, zizya religious tax, to name a few), a Partition that killed millions of Hindus and took away 25% of our Motherland, and repeated horrifying acts of Radical Islamic terrorism in Kashmir, Delhi, Ayodhya, Bombay, and so many other parts of India that maim and kill thousands of innocent Indian Hindus every year.

Will Indians finally wake up after seeing how the Americans are reacting to Islamic terrorism to protect themselves and the future of their children? Or will we keep sleeping and condemn our future generations to live in the middle ages like the ex-Buddhists of Afghanistan and ex-Hindus of Pakistan and Bangladesh?

Christopher Hitchens writes on Slate:

God-Fearing People
Why are we so scared of offending Muslims?
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, July 30, 2007, at 12:33 PM ET

During the greater part of last week, Slate's sister site On Faith (it is jointly produced by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, both owned by the Washington Post Co., which also owns Slate) gave itself over to a discussion about the religion of Islam. As usual in such cases, the search for "moderate" versions of this faith was under way before the true argument had even begun. If I were a Muslim myself, I think that this search would be the most "offensive" part of the business. Why must I prove that my deepest belief is compatible with moderation?

Unless I am wrong, a sincere Muslim need only affirm that there is one god, and only one, and that the Prophet Mohammed was his messenger, bringing thereby the final words of God to humanity. Certain practices are supposed to follow this affirmation, including a commitment to pray five times a day, a promise to pay a visit to Mecca if such a trip should be possible, fasting during Ramadan, and a pious vow to give alms to the needy. The existence of djinns, or devils, is hard to disavow because it was affirmed by the prophet. An obligation of jihad is sometimes mentioned, and some quite intelligent people argue about whether "holy war" is meant to mean a personal struggle or a political one. No real Islamic authority exists to decide this question, and those for whom the personal is highly political have recently become rather notorious.

Thus, Islamic belief, however simply or modestly it may be stated, is an extreme position to begin with. No human being can possibly claim to know that there is a God at all, or that there are, or were, any other gods to be repudiated. And when these ontological claims have collided, as they must, with their logical limits, it is even further beyond the cognitive capacity of any person to claim without embarrassment that the lord of creation spoke his ultimate words to an unlettered merchant in seventh-century Arabia. Those who utter such fantastic braggings, however many times a day they do so, can by definition have no idea what they are talking about. (I hasten to add that those who boast of knowing about Moses parting the Red Sea, or about a virgin with a huge tummy, are in exactly the same position.) Finally, it turns out to be impossible to determine whether jihad means more alms-giving or yet more zealous massacre of, say, Shiite Muslims.

Why, then, should we be commanded to "respect" those who insist that they alone know something that is both unknowable and unfalsifiable? Something, furthermore, that can turn in an instant into a license for murder and rape? As one who has occasionally challenged Islamic propaganda in public and been told that I have thereby "insulted 1.5 billion Muslims," I can say what I suspect—which is that there is an unmistakable note of menace behind that claim. No, I do not think for a moment that Mohammed took a "night journey" to Jerusalem on a winged horse. And I do not care if 10 billion people intone the contrary. Nor should I have to. But the plain fact is that the believable threat of violence undergirds the Muslim demand for "respect."

Before me is a recent report that a student at Pace University in New York City has been arrested for a hate crime in consequence of an alleged dumping of the Quran. Nothing repels me more than the burning or desecration of books, and if, for example, this was a volume from a public or university library, I would hope that its mistreatment would constitute a misdemeanor at the very least. But if I choose to spit on a copy of the writings of Ayn Rand or Karl Marx or James Joyce, that is entirely my business. When I check into a hotel room and send my free and unsolicited copy of the Gideon Bible or the Book of Mormon spinning out of the window, I infringe no law, except perhaps the one concerning litter. Why do we not make this distinction in the case of the Quran? We do so simply out of fear, and because the fanatical believers in that particular holy book have proved time and again that they mean business when it comes to intimidation. Surely that should be to their discredit rather than their credit. Should not the "moderate" imams of On Faith have been asked in direct terms whether they are, or are not, negotiating with a gun on the table?

The Pace University incident becomes even more ludicrous and sinister when it is recalled that Islamists are the current leaders in the global book-burning competition. After the rumor of a Quran down the toilet in Guantanamo was irresponsibly spread, a mob in Afghanistan burned down an ancient library that (as President Hamid Karzai pointed out dryly) contained several ancient copies of the same book. Not content with igniting copies of The Satanic Verses, Islamist lynch parties demanded the burning of its author as well. Many distinguished authors, Muslim and non-Muslim, are dead or in hiding because of the words they have put on pages concerning the unbelievable claims of Islam. And it is to appease such a spirit of persecution and intolerance that a student in New York City has been arrested for an expression, however vulgar, of an opinion.

This has to stop, and it has to stop right now. There can be no concession to sharia in the United States. When will we see someone detained, or even cautioned, for advocating the burning of books in the name of God? If the police are honestly interested in this sort of "hate crime," I can help them identify those who spent much of last year uttering physical threats against the republication in this country of some Danish cartoons. In default of impartial prosecution, we have to insist that Muslims take their chance of being upset, just as we who do not subscribe to their arrogant certainties are revolted every day by the hideous behavior of the parties of God.

It is often said that resistance to jihadism only increases the recruitment to it. For all I know, this commonplace observation could be true. But, if so, it must cut both ways. How about reminding the Islamists that, by their mad policy in Kashmir and elsewhere, they have made deadly enemies of a billion Indian Hindus? Is there no danger that the massacre of Iraqi and Lebanese Christians, or the threatened murder of all Jews, will cause an equal and opposite response? Most important of all, what will be said and done by those of us who take no side in filthy religious wars? The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant, or neutral, without inviting their own suicide. And the advocates and apologists of bigotry and censorship and suicide-assassination cannot be permitted to take shelter any longer under the umbrella of a pluralism that they openly seek to destroy.

China under Mao: the Unvarnished Truth, and Lessons for India

2007-07-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

India is one of the few places remaining on this planet where there still exists large numbers of morons who believe in Communism, in spite of all the evidence to its unsuitability from the horrific experiences of the unfortunate people of the former Soviet Union, China, etc.

Today in India, between the three major Revolutionary Communist (Naxalite) parties of India: the People's War Group, the Maoist Communist Centre, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), a full one quarter of India's districts are threatened by violent Communist extremism. This is a real danger.

At the same time, we have the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Communist Party of India, which are both extremely sympathetic to the viewpoints of the Naxalites, and in their respective manifestos still espouse the goal of organizing a Communist Revolution in India, steadily increasing their electoral influence over more and more parts of India. Today the CPI and CPI(M) claim to not believe in violent means to achieve their ends, but their eventual goals (Communist Revolution and establishment of a Communist State in India) remain the same as that of the Naxalites.

The People of India should also not forget that when China attacked India in 1962, the Naxalites, as well as the CPI and CPI(M), welcomed the Chinese Army ("People's Liberation Army") into India, and raised slogans like "Chairman Mao is our Chairman".

At this time, it is enlightening to read about what happened to the Communist Revolution that happened in neighbouring China. Here is an interesting article that exposes the brutal facts of China's brainless and ruthless leader Mao Zedong's Communist Revolution that killed uncountable millions of innocent non-violent Chinese Buddhists.

The Death Camp of Communist China

By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Posted on 7/23/2007
[Subscribe or Tell Others]

A hysteria of sorts has been generated by reports that some of China's products lack quality control. Some cat food has been tainted. A few cell phone batteries have blown up. Cough syrup contained stuff that makes you sick. And so on. In response, the Chinese government actually executed its regulatory head of food and product safety, Zheng Xiaoyu.

How very strange this last point is! In the West, we long ago gave up the idea that these people are actually supposed to carry out their jobs and should be personally responsible for their failure to do so.

What is most striking about these criticisms is how historically insular they appear in light of the modern history of China. This is a subject that is deeply painful, horrifying in its detail, highly instructive in helping us understand politics — and also puts into perspective these reports of recent troubles in China. It's a scandal, in fact, that few Westerners are even aware, or, if they are aware, they are not conscious, of the bloody reality that prevailed in China between the years 1949 and 1976, the years of communist rule by Mao Zedong.

How many died as a result of persecutions and the policies of Mao? Perhaps you care to guess? Many people over the years have attempted to guess. But they have always underestimated. As more data rolled in during the 1980s and 1990s, and specialists have devoted themselves to investigations and estimates, the figures have become ever more reliable. And yet they remain imprecise. What kind of error term are we talking about? It could be as low as 40 million. It could be as high as 100 million or more. In the Great Leap Forward from 1959 to 1961 alone, figures range between 20 million to 75 million. In the period before, 20 million. In the period after, tens of millions more.

As scholars in the area of mass death point out, most of us can't imagine 100 dead or 1000. Above that, we are just talking about statistics: they have no conceptual meaning for us, and it becomes a numbers game that distracts us from the horror itself. And there is only so much ghastly information that our brains can absorb, only so much blood we can imagine. And yet there is more to why China's communist experiment remains a hidden fact: it makes a decisive case against government power, one even more compelling than the cases of Russia or Germany in the 20th century.

The horror was foreshadowed in a bloody civil war following the Second World War. After some nine million people died, the communists emerged victorious in 1949, with Mao as the ruler. The land of Lao-Tzu (rhyme, rhythm, peace), Taoism (compassion, moderation, humility), and Confucianism (piety, social harmony, individual development) was seized by the strangest import to China ever: Marxism from Germany via Russia. It was an ideology that denied all logic, experience, economic law, property rights, and limits on the power of the state on grounds that these notions were merely bourgeois prejudices, and what we needed to transformed society was a cadre with all power to transform all things.

It's bizarre to think about it, really: posters of Marx and Lenin in China, of all places, and rule by an ideology of robbery, dictatorship, and death that did not come to an end until 1976. So spectacular has the transformation been in the last 25 years that one would hardly know that any of this ever happened, except that the Communist Party is still running the place while having tossed out the communist part.

The experiment began in the most bloody way possible following the second world war, when all Western eyes were focused on matters at home and, to the extent there was any foreign focus, it was on Russia. The "good guys" had won the war in China, or so we were led to believe in times when communism was the fashion.

The communization of China took place in the usual three stages: purge, plan, and scapegoat. First there was the purge to bring about communism. There were guerillas to kill and land to nationalize. The churches had to be destroyed. The counterrevolutionaries had to be put down. The violence began in the country and spread later to the cities. All peasants were first divided into four classes that were considered politically acceptable: poor, semi poor, average, and rich. Everyone else was considered a landowner and targeted for elimination. If no landowners could be found, the "rich" were often included in this group. The demonized class was ferreted out in a country-wide series of "bitterness meetings" in which people turned in their neighbors for owning property and being politically disloyal. Those who were so deemed were immediately executed along with those who sympathized with them.

The rule was that there had to be at least one person killed per village. The numbers killed is estimated to be between one and five million. In addition, another four to six million landowners were slaughtered for the crime of being capital owners. If anyone was suspected of hiding wealth, he or she was tortured with hot irons to confess. The families of the killed were then tortured and the graves of their ancestors looted and pillaged. What happened to the land? It was divided into tiny plots and distributed among the remaining peasants.


"There is only so much ghastly information that our brains can absorb, only so much blood we can imagine."

Then the campaign moved to the cities. The political motivations here were at the forefront, but there were also behavioral controls. Anyone who was suspected of involvement in prostitution, gambling, tax evasion, lying, fraud, opium dealing, or telling state secrets was executed as a "bandit." Official estimates put the number of dead at two million with another two million going to prison to die. Resident committees of political loyalists watched every move. A nighttime visit to another person was immediately reported and the parties involved jailed or killed. The cells in the prisons themselves grew ever smaller, with one person living in a space of about 14 inches. Some prisoners were worked death, and anyone involved in a revolt was herded with collaborators and they were all burned.

There was industry in the cities, but those who owned and managed them were subjected to ever tighter restrictions: forced transparency, constant scrutiny, crippling taxes, and pressure to offer up their businesses for collectivization. There were many suicides among the small- and medium-sized business owners who saw the writing on the wall. Joining the party provided only temporary respite, since 1955 began the campaign against hidden counterrevolutionaries in the party itself. A principle here was that one in ten party members was a secret traitor.

As the rivers of blood rose ever higher, Mao brought about the Hundred Flowers Campaign in two months of 1957, the legacy of which is the phrase we often hear: "Let a hundred flowers bloom." People were encouraged to speak freely and give their point of view, an opportunity that was very tempting for intellectuals. The liberalization was short lived. In fact, it was a trick. All those who spoke out against what was happening to China were rounded up and imprisoned, perhaps between 400,000 and 700,000 people, including 10 percent of the well-educated classes. Others were branded as right wingers and subjected to interrogation, reeducation, kicked out of their homes, and shunned.

But this was nothing compared with phase two, which was one of history's great central planning catastrophes. Following collectivization of land, Mao decided to go further to dictate to the peasants what they would grow, how they would grow it, and where they would ship it, or whether they would grow anything at all as versus plunge into industry. This would become the Great Leap Forward that would generate history's most deadly famine. Peasants were grouped into groups of thousands and forced to share all things. All groups were to be economically self-sufficient. Production goals were raised ever higher.

People were moved by the hundreds of thousands from where production was high to where it was low, as a means of boosting production. They were moved too from agriculture to industry. There was a massive campaign to collect tools and transform them into industrial skill. As a means of showing hope for the future, collectives were encouraged to have huge banquets and eat everything, especially meat. This was a way of showing one's belief that the next year's harvest would be even more bountiful.

Mao had this idea that he knew how to grow grain. He proclaimed that "seeds are happiest when growing together" and so seeds were sown at five to ten times their usual density. Plants died, the soil dried out, and the salt rose to the surface. To keep birds from eating grain, sparrows were wiped out, which vastly increased the number of parasites. Erosion and flooding became endemic. Tea plantations were turned to rice fields, on grounds that tea was decadent and capitalistic. Hydraulic equipment built to service the new collective farms didn't work and lacked any replacement parts. This led Mao to put new emphasis on industry, which was forced to appear in the same areas as agriculture, leading to ever more chaos. Workers were drafted from one sector to another, and mandatory cuts in some sectors was balanced by mandatory high quotas in another.

In 1957, the disaster was everywhere. Workers were growing too weak even to harvest their meager crops, so they died watching the rice rot. Industry churned and churned but produced nothing of any use. The government responded by telling people that fat and proteins were unnecessary. But the famine couldn't be denied. The black-market price of rice rose 20 to 30 times. Because trade had been forbidden between collectives (self-sufficiency, you know), millions were left to starve. By 1960, the death rate soared from 15 percent to 68 percent, and the birth rate plummeted. Anyone caught hoarding grain was shot. Peasants found with the smallest amount were imprisoned. Fires were banned. Funerals were prohibited as wasteful.

Villagers who tried to flee the countryside to the city were shot at the gates. Deaths from hunger reached 50 percent in some villages. Survivors boiled grass and bark to make soup and wandered the roads looking for food. Sometimes they banded together and raided houses looking for ground maize. Women were unable to conceive because of malnutrition. People in work camps were used for food experiments that led to sickness and death.


"Because trade had been forbidden between collectives (self-sufficiency, you know), millions were left to starve."

How bad did it get? 1968 an 18-year-old member of the Red Guard, Wei Jingsheng, took refuge with a family in a village of Anhui, and here he lived to write about what he saw:

"We walked along beside the village… Before my eyes, among the weeds, rose up one of the scenes I had been told about, one of the banquets at which the families had swapped children in order to eat them. I could see the worried faces of the families as they chewed the flesh of other people's children. The children who were chasing butterflies in a nearby field seemed to be the reincarnation of the children devoured by their parents. I felt sorry for the children but not as sorry as I felt for their parents. What had made them swallow that human flesh, amidst the tears and grief of others — flesh that they would never have imagined tasting, even in their worst nightmares?"

The author of this passage was jailed as a traitor but his status protected him from death and he was finally released in 1997.

How many people died in the famine of 1959–61? The low range is 20 million. The high range is 43 million. Finally in 1961, the government gave in and permitted food imports, but it was too little and too late. Some peasants were again allowed to grow crops on their own land. A few private workshops were opened. Some markets were permitted. Finally, the famine began to abate and production grew.

But then the third phase came: scapegoating. What had caused the calamity? The official reason was anything but communism, anything but Mao. And so the politically motivated roundup began again, and here we get the very heart of the Culture Revolution. Thousands of camps and detention centers were opened. People sent there died there. In prison, the slightest excuse was used to dispense with people — all to the good, since the prisoners were a drain on the system, so far as those in charge were concerned. The largest penal system ever built was organized in a military fashion, with some camps holding as many as 50,000 people.

There was some sense in which everyone was in prison. Arrests were sweeping and indiscriminate. Everyone had to carry around a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. To question the reason for arrest was itself evidence of disloyalty, since the state was infallible. Once arrested, the safest path was instant and frequent confession. Guards were forbidden from using overt violence, so interrogations would go on for hundreds of hours, and often the prisoner would die during this process. Those named in the confession were then hunted down and rounded up. Once you got through this process, you were sent to a labor camp, where you were graded according to how many hours you could work with little food. You were fed no meat nor given any sugar or oil. Labor prisoners were further controlled by the rationing of the little food they had.

The final phase of this incredible litany of criminality lasted from 1966 to 1976, during which the number killed fell dramatically to "only" one to three million. The government, now tired and in the first stages of demoralization, began to lose control, first within the labor camps and then in the countryside. And it was this weakening that led to the final, and in some ways the most vicious, of the communist periods in China's history.

The first stages of rebellion occurred in the only way permissible: people began to criticize the government for being too soft and too uncommitted to the communist goal. Ironically, this began to appear precisely as moderation became more overt in Russia. Neo-revolutionaries in the Red Guard began to criticize the Chinese communists as "Khrushchev-like reformers." As one writer put it, the guard "rose up against its own government in order to defend it."

During this period, the personality cult of Mao reached it height, with the Little Red Book achieving a mythic status. The Red Guards roamed the country in an attempt to purge the Four Old-Fashioned Things: ideas, culture, customs, and habits. The remaining temples were barricaded. Traditional opera was banned, with all costumes and sets in the Beijing Opera burned. Monks were expelled. The calendar was changed. All Christianity was banned. There were to be no pets such as cats and birds. Humiliation was the order of the day.

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Thus was the Red Terror: in the capital city, there were 1,700 deaths and 84,000 people were run out. In other cities such as Shanghai, the figures were worse. A massive party purge began, with hundreds of thousands arrested and many murdered. Artists, writers, teachers, scientists, technicians: all were targets. Pogroms were visited on community after community, with Mao approving at every step as a means of eliminating every possible political rival. But underneath, the government was splintering and cracking, even as it became ever more brutal and totalitarian in its outlook.

Finally in 1976, Mao died. Without a few months, his closest advisers were all imprisoned. And the reform began slowly at first and then at breakneck speed. Civil liberties were restored (comparatively) and the rehabilitations began. Torturers were prosecuted. Economic controls were gradually relaxed. The economy, by virtue of human and private economic initiative, was transformed.

Having read the above, you are now in a tiny elite of people who know anything about the greatest death camp in the history of the world that China became between 1949 and 1976, an experiment in total control unlike anything else in history. Many more people today know more about China's exploding cell-phone batteries than they do about the hundred million dead and the untold amount of suffering that occurred under communism.

When you hear about shoddy products coming from China or wheat poorly processed, imagine millions in famine, with parents swapping children to eat in order to stay alive. And what do China's critics today recommend? More control by the government. Don't tell me that we've learned anything from history. We don't even know enough about history to learn from it.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author of Speaking of Liberty. See his Mises.org archive. Send him mail. Comment on the blog.

Note on sources, all of which you should buy and read in detail: "China: A Long March into Night," by Jean-Louis Margolin in The Black Book of Communism, by Stéphane Courtois et al. (Harvard, 1999), pp. 463–546; Death by Government, by R.J. Rummel (Transaction, 1996); Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine, by Jaspar Becker (Owl Books, 1998); and Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (2006).

Hindu woman being tortured in Malaysian Government and Courts to force her to convert to Islam

2007-07-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

A Malaysian Hindu woman is being forcibly fed beef and physically and mentally tortured by the Government and Courts of Malaysia. They are trying to force her to convert to Islam.

This kind of forced conversion of minority Hindus has been going on all over Pakistan and Bangladesh for the last one thousand years. This was how Hindus were reduced from 18% in 1947 to a negligible 0.1% of Pakistan's population in the 60 years since then.

The same kind of Islamic oppression of minority Hindus goes on in all other Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia as well.

Indian Hindus are secular and broad-minded, so they have elected anti-Hindu Christian fundamentalists like Sonia Gandhi to rule over them. So the Government of India -- the only Hindu-majority country on this planet with the power to prevent these crimes against Hindus worldwide -- does nothing to protect Hindus from being wiped out (Nepal is too small and too weak to protect Hindus worldwide).

Will we the people of India watch silently? Or will we do something to protect this innocent helpless Hindu woman all alone by herself in friendless Malaysia?

You can make a difference to her life. Spread the word about her plight among everyone you know. Force the Government of India to intervene on her behalf to protect her human rights. The Government of anti-Hindu Christian fundamentalist Sonia Gandhi will do nothing to help her unless we the common people of Hindu-majority India force her Congress party to act.

The choice is yours. Either like a human would. Or ignore her plight and let her suffer just because she is a Hindu.

If she had been a Christian being tortured to convert her to Islam, Christian-majority countries like UK and USA would protect her aggressively.

If she had been a Muslim being tortured by Christians, Muslim countries would protect her.

If she had been a Jew Israel would come to her defence.

But she is a Hindu. No Government of any country cares about protecting Hindus.

Will you help make a difference to her life?

BBC reports:

Malaysia 'convert' claims cruelty

By Jonathan Kent
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Revathi Massosai alleges harsh treatment in detention

A Malaysian woman held for months in an Islamic rehabilitation centre says she was subjected to mental torture for insisting her religion is Hinduism.

Revathi Massosai, the name by which she wants to be known, says she was forced to eat beef despite being a Hindu.

Miss Massosai was seized by the Islamic authorities in January when she went to court to ask that she be registered as a Hindu rather than a Muslim.

The case is one of a number that have raised religious tensions in Malaysia.

Miss Massosai was born to Muslim converts and given a Muslim name, but she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and has always practised that faith.

However, under Malaysia's Islamic law, having Muslim parents makes one a Muslim and, as such, one is not allowed to change one's faith or marry a non-Muslim.

But Miss Massosai married a Hindu man in 2004 and the couple have a young daughter.

Headscarf

When in January she asked a court to officially designate her a Hindu she was detained and taken to an Islamic rehabilitation centre.

Only the Islamic courts can allow a Muslim legally to change faith

Her detention was twice extended to six months, during which time she says religious officials tried to make her pray as a Muslim and wear a headscarf.

However, the claim that will particularly shock Hindus is that the camp authorities tried to force her to eat beef.

A lawyer representing the Malacca state Islamic department responsible for Miss Revathi's arrest, rejected her allegations and said officials believe that she can still be persuaded to embrace Islam.

She is adamant that she will remain a Hindu. In the meantime, Miss Revathi and her daughter have been placed in the custody of her Muslim parents.

Morons halted US Army's plan to raid Pakistan and capture Al Qaeda leaders in 2005

2007-07-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

The US Army contains some smart people, but the US Government continues to make stupid decisions. Like going into Iraq and creating a massive mess, when it should have gone into Pakistan -- the headquarters of global Radical Islamic terrorism -- in the first place.

It seems that in spite of the Iraq mess the US Army made elaborate plans to go to Pakistan again in 2005, but the US Government shot down those plans again. In spite of the fact that bin Laden remains safe and sound as a guest of the Paki Government, and plans new attacks worldwide every day. If this reluctance to hit Pakistan continues, Osama bin Laden may never be caught.

The New York Times reports:

U.S. Aborted Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in Pakistan in ’05

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 7 — A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.

The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.

But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said.

The decision to halt the planned “snatch and grab” operation frustrated some top intelligence officials and members of the military’s secret Special Operations units, who say the United States missed a significant opportunity to try to capture senior members of Al Qaeda.

Their frustration has only grown over the past two years, they said, as Al Qaeda has improved its abilities to plan global attacks and build new training compounds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which have become virtual havens for the terrorist network.

In recent months, the White House has become increasingly irritated with Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for his inaction on the growing threat of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

About a dozen current and former military and intelligence officials were interviewed for this article, all of whom requested anonymity because the planned 2005 mission remained classified.

Spokesmen for the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and the White House declined to comment. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed about the planned operation.

The officials acknowledge that they are not certain that Mr. Zawahri attended the 2005 meeting in North Waziristan, a mountainous province just miles from the Afghan border. But they said that the United States had communications intercepts that tipped them off to the meeting, and that intelligence officials had unusually high confidence that Mr. Zawahri was there.

Months later, in early May 2005, the C.I.A. launched a missile from a remotely piloted Predator drone, killing Haitham al-Yemeni, a senior Qaeda figure whom the C.I.A. had tracked since the meeting.

It has long been known that C.I.A. operatives conduct counterterrorism missions in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Details of the aborted 2005 operation provide a glimpse into the Bush administration’s internal negotiations over whether to take unilateral military action in Pakistan, where General Musharraf’s fragile government is under pressure from dissidents who object to any cooperation with the United States.

Pentagon officials familiar with covert operations said that planners had to consider the political and human risks of undertaking a military campaign in a sovereign country, even in an area like Pakistan’s tribal lands, where the government has only tenuous control. Even with its shortcomings, Pakistan has been a vital American ally since the Sept. 11 attacks, and the militaries of the two countries have close ties.

The Pentagon officials said tension was inherent in any decision to approve such a mission: a smaller military footprint allows a better chance of a mission going undetected, but it also exposes the units to greater risk of being killed or captured.

Officials said one reason Mr. Rumsfeld called off the 2005 operation was that the number of troops involved in the mission had grown to several hundred, including Army Rangers, members of the Navy Seals and C.I.A. operatives, and he determined that the United States could no longer carry out the mission without General Musharraf’s permission. It is unlikely that the Pakistani president would have approved an operation of that size, officials said.

Some outside experts said American counterterrorism operations had been hamstrung because of concerns about General Musharraf’s shaky government.

“The reluctance to take risk or jeopardize our political relationship with Musharraf may well account for the fact that five and half years after 9/11 we are still trying to run bin Laden and Zawahri to ground,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.

Those political considerations have created resentment among some members of the military’s Special Operations forces.

“The Special Operations guys are tearing their hair out at the highest levels,” said a former Bush administration official with close ties to those troops. While they have not received good intelligence on the whereabouts of top Qaeda members recently, he said, they say they believe they have sometimes had useful information on lower-level figures.

“There is a degree of frustration that is off the charts, because they are looking at targets on a daily basis and can’t move against them,” he said.

In early 2005, after learning about the Qaeda meeting, the military developed a plan for a small Navy Seals unit to parachute into Pakistan to carry out a quick operation, former officials said.

But as the operation moved up the military chain of command, officials said, various planners bulked up the force’s size to provide security for the Special Operations forces.

“The whole thing turned into the invasion of Pakistan,” said the former senior intelligence official involved in the planning. Still, he said he thought the mission was worth the risk. “We were frustrated because we wanted to take a shot,” he said.

Several former officials interviewed said the operation was not the only occasion since the Sept. 11 attacks that plans were developed to use a large American military force in Pakistan. It is unclear whether any of those missions have been executed.

Some of the military and intelligence officials familiar with the 2005 events say it showed a rift between operators in the field and a military bureaucracy that has still not effectively adapted to hunt for global terrorists, moving too cautiously to use Special Operations troops against terrorist targets.

That criticism has echoes of the risk aversion that the officials said pervaded efforts against Al Qaeda during the Clinton administration, when missions to use American troops to capture or kill Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan were never executed because they were considered too perilous, risked killing civilians or were based on inadequate intelligence. Rather than sending in ground troops, the Clinton White House instead chose to fire cruise missiles in what became failed attempts to kill Mr. bin Laden and his deputies — a tactic Mr. Bush criticized shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since then, the C.I.A. has launched missiles from Predator aircraft in the tribal areas several times, with varying degrees of success. Intelligence officials say they believe that in January 2006, an airstrike narrowly missed killing Mr. Zawahri, who hours earlier had attended a dinner in Damadola, a Pakistani village.

General Musharraf cast his lot with the Bush administration in the hunt for Al Qaeda after the 2001 attacks, and he has periodically ordered Pakistan’s military to conduct counterterrorism missions in the tribal areas, provoking fierce resistance there. But in recent months he has pulled back, prompting Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to issue stern warnings in private that he risked losing American aid if he did not step up efforts against Al Qaeda, senior administration officials have said.

Officials said that mid-2005 was a period when they were gathering good intelligence about Al Qaeda’s leaders in Pakistan’s tribal areas. By the next year, however, the White House had become frustrated by the lack of progress in the hunt for Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri.

In early 2006, President Bush ordered a “surge” of dozens of C.I.A. agents to Pakistan, hoping that an influx of intelligence operatives would lead to better information, officials said. But that has brought the United States no closer to locating Al Qaeda’s top two leaders. The latest message from them came this week, in a new tape in which Mr. Zawahri urged Iraqis and Muslims around the world to show more support for Islamist insurgents in Iraq.

In his recently published memoir, George J. Tenet, the former C.I.A. director, said the intelligence about Mr. bin Laden’s whereabouts during the Clinton years was similarly sparse. The information was usually only at the “50-60% confidence level,” he wrote, not sufficient to justify American military action.

“As much as we all wanted Bin Ladin dead, the use of force by a superpower requires information, discipline, and time,” Mr. Tenet wrote. “We rarely had the information in sufficient quantities or the time to evaluate and act on it.”

Pakistani nuke dealer A. Q. "Xerox" Khan a free man

2007-07-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

A. Q. Khan, known as "Xerox Khan" in Pakistan for having photo-copied nuclear secrets from the West to make Pakistan's "Islamic Bomb", was exposed a few years ago as the leader of a international gang that sold dangerous nuclear technology to rogue nations like North Korea, Iran, and Libya, and to international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Indian intelligence agencies had reported this gang's activities for several years since the early 1990's, while the Pakistan-loving West had turned a blind eye. The smuggling of missiles and nuclear centrifuges between North Korea and Iran with Puke-i-stan acting as middleman, was mostly done on land through Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (which linked Iran through Pakistan to China, which provided access to North Korea) in order to avoid getting caught by US warships on international waters. The involvement of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in this smuggling ring was how Indian intelligence agencies came to know about this nefarious gang: from Pakistani terrorists caught by Indian Army in Kashmir. [Puke-i-stan = land of puke (vomit)]

The Pakistan-loving gullible morons in the US Government finally had to acknowledge this gang's activities after the pressure on them to recognize Puke-is-stan for what it is -- nerve-centre of international Islamic terrorism -- got too great after 9/11.

However, instead of interrogating A. Q. Khan to find other members of this Radical Islamic nuclear-smuggling terrorist gang, the gullible Puke-loving Americans let Puke-i-stan keep A. Q. Khan "in custody". Now, it is revealed that A. Q. Khan lives in five-star comfort and luxury in Pakistan, and is for all practical purposes a free man. He is being richly rewarded by Pakistan for endangering the future of Humanity by selling weapons of mass destruction for cash.

New York Times reports:

July 2, 2007, 10:58 am
Pakistan Loosens Reins on A.Q. Khan

By Mike Nizza

A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who ran an arms bazaar that spread nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, is starting to feel freedom again after three and a half years of what amounted to house arrest. The Associated Press quoted two unnamed Pakistani officials on the details:

‘’He is virtually a free citizen,'’ said one of the officials, who is attached to the nuclear program.

However, the second official said Khan was only allowed to meet associates and relatives on a list approved by authorities, who would continue to provide him with a security detail that will restrict his movements.

The news emerged two days after a Pakistani newspaper reported that one of Dr. Khan’s lawyers “appealed to the nation to come on the streets and voice protest against the detention of Dr A.Q. Khan just like it has shown solidarity with the chief justice.” That chief justice says he was driven from office by the country’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on trumped-up corruption charges, and is waging an intense challenge to Gen. Musharraf’s leadership.

Many Pakistanis revere Dr. Khan as a national hero for creating the country’s nuclear weapons, and have long viewed his detention at home, after a presidential pardon, as punishment enough. (Another recent home detention case in Los Angeles was, by contrast, not seen as “punishment enough”, to say the least.)

‘’Who has not proliferated?'’ said Tasnim Aslam of Pakistan’s foreign ministry. ‘’What about all those U.S. scientists who proliferated? Where do you think the Manhattan Project comes from?'’

Another sign of the Pakistani desire to put this whole saga behind them were the articles in local newspapers last week highlighting a State Department spokesman’s boilerplate statement that A.Q. Khan’s nuclear network was closed for good.

Congressman Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from the New York City borough of Queens whose district is home to many Asian immigrants, emphatically disagreed during a subcommittee hearing he led, entitled “A.Q. Khan’s Nuclear Wal-Mart: Out of Business or Under New Management?”

“The Administration can believe whatever convenient fiction it likes,” he said in opening remarks. But “the Khan network is more likely to be open under new management rather than truly out of business.”

The hedging is due to the small amount of information that is actually known about Dr. Khan’s network. Pakistan has refused to allow American officials to interview him, and has released few details otherwise.

Apparently, the A.P. is still on the list, though. A reporter’s call to Dr. Khan’s home in a wealthy part of Islamabad may be “his first public comment in about three years,” the wire service said. Unfortunately, he would only break the sort of news that comes from Aunt Millie, not international nuclear villains.

‘’I am feeling much better, though I can’t say I am 100 percent fit,'’ he said.

The Bush administration has not yet formally responded to the easing of restrictions on Dr. Khan. It will be interesting to see how the administration balances the stability of a crucial ally, Gen. Musharraf, with the desire to see someone who has provided crucial help to the nuclear ambitions of at least two members of the president’s “axis of evil” held to greater account.

Praful Bidwai asks poor Indians to practise "austerity" and remain poor to reduce global warming caused by the rich West

2007-07-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

Praful Bidwai has written a long article in The Hindustan Times, full of long words but no substance. He is accusing Indian middle class of being wasteful and extravagant for having bought a few washing machines, cars, and air-conditioners, and is exhorting them to show "austerity".

His entire article contains not one single suggestion about how Indians can reduce global warming without going back to the low-tech village lifestyle that allowed Muslim and Christian invaders to conquer and (mis-)rule over us for a thousand years.

Global warming is a problem caused by rich people in the US, Europe, and oil-rich countries of the Middle-East. Indians on average use 20 TIMES LESS energy than that used by the average American, European, or oil sheik. Asking Indians to stop engaging in important economic activities like buying cars, AC's, mobile phones and washing machines (which in turn will stop the economic growth happening in India) is hypocritical of the highest order.

One wonders if Praful Bidwai is being paid by the same anti-outsourcing anti-India anti-competitive low-skill-but-high-pay unionized morons that form the base of the Socialist Parties of Western Europe and the Democratic Party of America; they want to keep India backward by asking us to stop our economic activities with excuses like global warming that they themselves are responsible for, while these American and Western European unionized Leftist morons continue to drive their two-or-more SUV's and minivans per family and go on expensive road-trips every weekend burning millions of tons of gasoline/petrol/diesel every day on their union-negotiated-high-salaries while oil prices keep climbing, and poor Indians struggling every day to feed their starving children and keep them warm in cold winter nights are accused of causing global warming.

Praful Bidwai should be investigated by India's police and intelligence agencies. If he indeed is being paid by anti-India interests to write this kind of crap he should be tried for treason for conspiring to sabotage India's economic development.

Hindustan Times reports:

No room for hot air
Praful Bidwai
July 02, 2007
First Published: 00:19 IST(2/7/2007)
Last Updated: 00:22 IST(2/7/2007)

Tony Blair will be remembered by his critics and supporters for one thing: bringing China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa into a dialogue on climate change with the G-8 industrialised states. But as on Africa, Blair’s exertions on climate change have produced no tangible results. The summit after the G-8 meet, along with these Outreach Five (O-5) states, has failed to generate an agreement on combating the greatest menace to civilisation as we know it: global warming. This was as true of Heiligendamm this month as of Gleneagles in 2005.

Neither these 13 of the world’s 25 biggest economies, nor any other forum, have responded adequately to the unprecedented public concern about climate change. A survey covering 14 countries finds that 86 per cent of people feel “anxious” about climate change, and want governments to fight it proactively. A majority says it’s the world’s greatest challenge. Four-fifths say it should become easier to buy renewable electricity; nine-tenths want at least a fourth of all electricity generated from renewable sources.

There is a stark contrast between the gravity of this concern, and the promise made at Heiligendamm to negotiate a multilateral pact on global warming, beyond the Kyoto Protocol's expiry (2012). The G-8 lamely pledged to give “serious consideration” to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (over 1990 levels). What the world needs is 80 per cent emissions reduction and a shift to a new energy paradigm — through legally binding targets.

The industrialised nations of the Global North have all along failed to agree even to cap their emissions although that would cost less than what they spend, for instance, on toys or cosmetics. Fifteen years after the Rio conference, they are back to square one. Meanwhile, the South’s bigger economies are imitating their consumption patterns. Alarmingly, China has already overtaken the US as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, years ahead of earlier forecasts.

India’s position on climate change is illogical, untenable and in need of reform.It’s plain that alternative leadership on climate change won’t come from countries like China, India or Brazil. They doggedly refuse even to discuss capping their emissions, leave alone cut them. India’s position on this is especially deplorable. It says “growth … prospects in the developing world” must in no circumstances be “constrained”; higher GDP growth “is the best way for developing countries to address … the issue of … protecting the climate.”

India emphasises on the “principle of common but differentiated responsibility”. This is shorthand for asking that the North pay the bulk of the costs for reversing climate change. India also demands concessions like patent-free “clean energy” technology transfer and financial assistance.

True, the primary responsibility for reversing climate change is the North’s, because it is historically responsible for causing it. The average Indian and Chinese contribute respectively one-twentieth and one-sixth as much to global warming as the average American.

However, it’s also imperative that rapidly growing Southern countries, including India, undertake obligations to cut their ballooning emissions. India’s overall emissions are growing almost four times faster than the global average. They are expected to rise two-and-a-half times by 2030. Vehicular emissions are projected to rise about six-fold.

Even if the North reduces its emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, developing countries, including India, will still need to cut theirs by about 60 per cent. This must immediately translate into quantified stage-by-stage emission cuts. Instead, all we have is the parrot-like emphasis that India won’t be a “significant” greenhouse emitter “in the foreseeable future”.

This flies in the face of facts: India is already the world’s fifth largest emitter, and will soon overtake No. 3 and 4, Japan and Russia. Surely, the responsibility for reversing climate change — a global, universal good, if there was one — cannot be confined to the top four emitters, or, for that matter, 20. The South cannot evade the secondary onus, or postpone its obligations indefinitely.

It’s pernicious to cite per capita emissions as the sole ethical criterion for defining global responsibility. Per capita numbers mean little in India's highly unequal, stratified society, with some of the world's highest rich-poor inequalities. Nor do they take into account India's low per capita access to “natural sinks”, like oceans and forests.

It is not India’s poor, the bulk of whom survive at subsistence level, whose emissions are rising. It is the 80 to 100-million-strong rich and middle-classes, who are on a consumption binge — as if there were no tomorrow. Their insatiable appetite is driving an unprecedented boom in automobiles, air-conditioners, washing machines, microwave ovens and plasma TV.

It is unethical and cynical for the government to obliterate this crucial distinction and hide behind the poor. It should admit that there is not one India, but two, as regards climate change: the 700 million who lack access to modern cooking fuels and tap water; and the elite with its wasteful luxury consumption. The world too should treat India as a dual entity.

Three other points are pertinent. First, India admits there is a universal obligation to mitigate climate change. A universal objective is worth pursuing; it is intrinsically a global good. No conditions should be attached to it — e.g. extraneous benefits such as free technology, or a Marshall Plan-II, which subsidises the South.

Second, there is a strong case for freeing all technology of patents. But that is a generic argument against allowing monopolies in the name of supporting “innovation”: in fact, over 95 per cent of patents are never worked; they are used to claim denial and exclusion, which leads to misanthropy, as in the case of HIV-AIDS drugs. The argument cannot be used selectively for emission-reducing technologies alone.

Third, India cannot convincingly claim it is on a low-emission path by citing CNG buses, the Metro Rail, reductions in energy use per unit of output in certain industries, and by arguing that its environmental and energy efficiency programmes have produced handsome results.

No study has demonstrated that the Metro contributes to emission reductions, especially compared to public buses, or that its efficiency overcomes its adverse environmental, energy and economic impact, including concentration of high-rise districts. For every unit addition to such expensive “public” transport modes, there is a several-fold increase in privatised transport: India’s car production has doubled in six years.

Most countries have seen a decline in energy consumption per unit output. India’s performance isn’t impressive. India’s emissions per absolute dollar of GDP are four times higher than America’s. India’s highly carbon-inefficient economy ranks 85th among 141 countries. India is more carbon inefficient than Bangladesh, Brazil or Indonesia; or even Northern countries like Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and Sweden.

India’s environmental record is embarrassing: the extensive deforestation, relentless pollution of rivers, runaway growth of hazardous industries, construction of big dams (which cause a fourth of our emissions), and promotion of technologies like nuclear power, which produce long-lived wastes. India is indisputably on an ecologically unsound growth path.

On any criterion of environmental equity, India must stop whining about pressure to cap its emissions, and move towards real cuts. That is the best way of laying claim to global moral and ecological leadership-and the ideal means of recovering, and making an example out of, our rapidly eroding tradition of austerity.

Kashmir's "Rage Boy"

2007-07-01T03:25:00.000-07:00

This guy symbolizes all that is wrong with Radical Islam. With his Taliban-style beard he looks like a goat, but do not be fooled. This is no ordinary goat, this guy represents a very dangerous ideology that can wipe out Humanity as we know it and take the world back to the times of the medieval uncivilized Middle East.

Radical Islamic zealots like him have committed innumerable genocides wiping out Hindus and Buddhists from all over Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan over the last 1000 years, and Bangladesh most recently. The only reason we can laugh at stupid Radical Islamic idiots like him now is that people like him are a minority in Hindu-majority civilized India, and only for that reason, we are safe, as yet.

If you were looking at this stupid angry goat in Afghanistan or Pakistan like Daniel Pearl did while the goat cut his head off in the name of Allah, you would not be laughing. Remember that. And support and help fight the 1000-year-old war for survival of Humanity against these Radical Islamist goat-faced Taliban terrorists.

Times of India reports:

Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth
1 Jul, 2007 l 0150 hrs ISTlChidanand Rajghatta/TIMES NEWS NETWORK

WASHINGTON: He's the angry, irate, face of Islamic fury; the poster child of Muslim protests. They are calling him the 'Rage Boy'. A Kashmiri protester who turns up at almost every major demonstration to express Islamist anger about real and perceived slights and has become photographers' favourite, is now a blog darling.

No one knows his name, but bloggers have unearthed several news agency pictures of the same Srinagar-based man ranting in demonstrations against Danish cartoons, the Pope's swipe against Islam, terrorism in J&K, Israeli atrocities and sundry other issues.

In each case, wire photographers take a close up of this bearded young man, eyes ablaze and fist gesticulating in a slogan shouting frenzy. His picture has turned up so frequently that "Spotting the Islamic Rage Boy" has become a blogging pastime.

"Guess what? Islamic Rage Boy has been sighted again on Friday, June 22, the worldwide day of rage," Snapped Shot, a blog dedicated to photojournalism, chortled last week. The blog directed readers to a familiar picture of the man it called a "professional protester, jihadi-style" agitating in a Srinagar protest against knighthood for Salman Rushdie.

The mans face has become so familiar that he's even engendered merchandise, with the firm Cafi Press issuing T-shirts and sweatshirts imprinted with his furious visage. The slogan on one T-shirt reads: "Someone I love blew up a bunch of Infidels and all I received was this wretched, blood-soaked T-Shirt".

Rage Boy posters, mouse-pads, magnets, and tile coasters are also available. A Rage Boy clock has the following inscription: "Question: What time is it, Rage Boy? Answer: Time to Die, Infidel."

"Rage Boy" has now become such a cult figure that he's even attracted the attention of Christopher Hitchens, the iconoclastic British columnist, notorious for skewering Mother Teresa among others.

In a 'Slate' magazine article, Hitchens refers to "scenes from the strenuous life of a professional Muslim protester in Srinagar" and says over the last few years, "There have been innumerable opportunities for him to demonstrate his piety and his pissed-offness."

"And the cameras have been there for him every time. Is it a fatwah? Is it a copy of the Quran allegedly down the gurgler at Guantanamo? Is it some cartoon in Denmark? Time for Rage Boy to step in and for his visage to impress the rest of the world with the depth and strength of Islamist emotion," writes Hitchens.

Hitchens is critical of the media for exaggerating what are essentially small protests, saying all the photographers have to do is to take a few steps back to see how small the demonstrations are instead of magnified close-ups of the Rage Boy. Some bloggers have suggested the photographers have just gotten lazy and they have a deal going with the "Rage Boy" to provide them with angry close-ups.

Why India should have a Popularly Elected President

2007-05-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

The President of India is, for the most part, just a rubber-stamp. The President has almost no real power. Then why does India have a President at all?

The President's office is misused as a Retirement Home to reward loyal servants of the Nehru Dynasty. The only exceptions were early Presidents like Rajendra Prasad, and the current President Kalam who was appointed by the NDA, not by Congress.

The current Congress-led UPA Government is talking about choosing the idiot Arjun Singh, loyal servant and pet dog of Sonia Nehru, as the next President. This is absolutely outrageous. Having a lunatic like Arjun Singh as President of India would be a National Shame.

It is time to put an end to this 60-year-long charade. Citizens of India, rise and be heard. Demand change. Here is the demand I want you to consider, and support once you agree it has merit.

"Either the Office of the President must be given real power (and the President must be popularly elected like in the United States), or the Office of the President must be abolished.

We, the Citizens of India, will no longer tolerate the Nehru Dynasty charade of insulting the Nation by rewarding old senile useless unpopular criminal servants and lap-dogs of the Nehru Dynasty, like the current Nehru Dynasty candidate Arjun Singh, by making them Presidents of India."

If you agree to this, forward this demand to all your friends and family. Let the New India rise and be heard. Let the toothless brainless 80+ and 90+ senile lunatics like Arjun Singh go where they belong: to the hospice to wait for death. The President's Office is NOT a Retirement Home.

Paki "peace-keeping" soldiers sold guns to terrorists in Congo

2007-05-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

This is exactly what one expects Pakis to do. Lie, cheat, steal. All the time.

This kind of Paki trickery has been going on forever. How long will this be tolerated?

BBC reports:

UN troops 'traded gold for guns'

By Martin Plaut
BBC News, eastern DR Congo

Pakistan is the biggest contributor to the UN peacekeeping effort

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt.

These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war.

The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened.

The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout".

These events took place in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Pakistani battalion of the UN peacekeeping mission deployed there two years ago and helped bring peace to an area that had previously seen bitter fighting between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups.

Locals welcomed them, but the lure of the rich alluvial gold mines proved too much to resist for some, recalls the head of the miners' association, Liki Likambo.

"I saw a UN Pakistani soldier who came to buy gold from one of the gold negotiators here in Mongbwalu. I was there in the shop. I saw it with my own eyes."

Deals

Soon the Pakistani officers were doing deals directly with the FNI militia.

The gold from mines run by militias went to Pakistani peacekeepers

Evarista Anjasubu - a local businessman said he had known of transactions between Pakistani officers and two of the most notorious militia leaders called Kung Fu and Dragon who controlled the gold mines.

"They were already friends. I knew well. It was gold that was the basis of their friendship. So the gold extracted from the mines went directly to the Pakistanis. They used to meet in the UN camp in Mongbwalu, in a thatched house."

As the trade developed the Pakistani officers brought in the Congolese army and then Indian traders from Kenya.

Richard Ndilu, in charge of immigration at Mongbwalu airstrip, became suspicious in late 2005 when an Indian businessman arrived there and went to stay at the camp of the Pakistani peacekeepers.

Scandal

Alerted to this illegal trade by her officials, the District Commissioner of Ituri, Petronille Vaweka, went to Bunia airport to intercept a plane from Mongbwalu.

I was there in the shop. I saw it with my own eyes

Miners' association head Liki Likambo

She said her way was blocked by Congolese army officers, who refused to allow her to inspect the cargo.

"I knew they had gold because the price of gold increased when the Indians went to Mongwalu," she said.

"When we wanted to verify what was inside the plane the pilot refused to allow us to enter the plane - me who was the chief, he refused! It was a big scandal."

When the UN was alerted to the allegations of gold trading by Human Rights Watch in late 2005, they instituted a major investigation by the Office for Internal Oversight Services.

What they uncovered was even more explosive.

Rearming

This is from a witness statement given to the UN by a Congolese officer engaged in the disarming of the militia in the nearby town of Nizi:

The battle for mining concessions has cost countless lives

"The officer expressed his regrets over the malpractices of a Pakistani battalion under the auspices of Major Zanfar. He revealed the arms surrendered by ex-combatants were secretly returned to them by Major Zanfar thereby compromising the work they had collectively done earlier.

"Repeatedly he saw militia who had been disarmed one day, but the next day would become re-armed again. The information he could obtain was always the same, that it would be the Pakistani battalion giving arms back to the militia."

This evidence was backed up by an interpreter working with the Pakistani battalion at Mongbwalu.

On arriving at the Officer's Mess, the interpreter found two militia leaders - known as Kung Fu and Dragon.

The interpreter said that the first question from Major Ali was to Kung Fu - asking him: 'What about the weapons I gave you? What about the weapons Monuc gave you?'

Stand-off

A UN investigation team arrived in Mongbwalu in August 2006.

At first the Pakistani battalion there cooperated with them. But when they attempted to seize a computer with apparently incriminating documents on it a stand-off ensued.

The UN-found weapons were returned to militias in Mongbwalu

The Pakistanis surrounded the UN police accompanying the investigators with barbed wire and put two armoured personnel carriers outside their living quarters at a nearby Christian mission.

Thoroughly intimidated, the investigators were airlifted out of Mongbwalu.

The Pakistani troops are replaced every six months and the BBC investigation concerns events that took place prior to the deployment of the current Pakistani battalion.

When we put the allegations of weapons trading to the head of the UN in Congo, Ambassador William Swing, he denied emphatically that peacekeepers had been rearming the militia.

"This I can categorically deny. What we have done is just the opposite. We have demobilised more than 20,000. We have taken in caches of arms. We have destroyed arms. We have done public burnings of these arms. And there is absolutely nothing to that allegation."

He says that the investigation into gold trading has yet to be completed.

A UN official connected with the inquiry told the BBC there seems to have been a plan to bury it, to avoid alienating Pakistan - the largest contributor of troops to the UN.

The UN in New York has refused to explain what took place or why, nearly two years after the allegations first surfaced, the Congolese people have no idea what action - if any - has been taken to discipline the Pakistani soldiers concerned.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said the UN had informed it of the allegations only on Tuesday, and they would be looked into.

UK study shows vegetarians have higher IQ and better health

2007-05-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

Many ancient customs of India have often been mocked and made fun of by ignorant prideful Westerners.

"Why do you not eat beef?" "Is it some kind of weird Hindoo superstition?" "Do you consider the cow to be your mother?" "Holy cow!"

Every Indian Hindu who has travelled or lives abroad is very familiar of snide remarks of this kind.

Most of them have proved their strength of spirit and resolve by steadfastly following the ancient wisdom contained in these ancient customs handed down by their ancestors in spite of these insulting comments they have often faced, living in Christian-majority and Muslim-majority societies.

A small minority of them has proved susceptible to peer-pressure and started eating beef. Most of the latter try to justify their decision by calling themselves "open minded" and "progressive" [and bad-mouthing Hindus who don't eat beef as "backward" and "full of superstition"].

In truth these beef-eating Hindus are just weaklings who could not resist peer pressure from the beef-eating Christians and Muslims they live among. They should be pitied for their weakness; not disliked for their insulting and superior attitude towards Hindus who continue to follow ancient customs. May Lord Krishna have pity upon them and grant them more mental strength.

Now a study conducted in the UK shows that vegetarians have higher IQ and live healthier lives than those who regularly eat beef. People who eat only chicken and fish (but not beef etc) have just as high IQ and live just as healthy lives. People who regularly eat beef have lower IQ and live less healthy lives.

BBC reports:

High IQ link to being vegetarian

Vegetarianism has been linked to better heart health

Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says.

A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.

Researchers said it could explain why people with higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates.

The study of 8,179 was reported in the British Medical Journal.

Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.

Men who were vegetarian had an IQ score of 106, compared with 101 for non-vegetarians; while female vegetarians averaged 104, compared with 99 for non-vegetarians.

We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment

Liz O'Neill, of The Vegetarian Society

There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who reported eating fish or chicken.

Researchers said the findings were partly related to better education and higher occupational social class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.

Vegetarians were more likely to be female, to be of higher occupational social class and to have higher academic or vocational qualifications than non-vegetarians.

However, these differences were not reflected in their annual income, which was similar to that of non-vegetarians.

Lead researcher Catharine Gale said: "The finding that children with greater intelligence are more likely to report being vegetarian as adults, together with the evidence on the potential benefits of a vegetarian diet on heart health, may help to explain why higher IQ in childhood or adolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adult life."

Intelligence

However, she added the link may be merely an example of many other lifestyle preferences that might be expected to vary with intelligence, such as choice of newspaper, but which may or may not have implications for health.

Liz O'Neill, of the Vegetarian Society, said: "We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment.

"Now we've got the scientific evidence to prove it. Maybe that explains why many meat-reducers are keen to call themselves vegetarians when even they must know that vegetarians don't eat chicken, turkey or fish."

But Dr Frankie Phillips, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "It is like the chicken and the egg. Do people become vegetarian because they have a very high IQ or is it just that they tend to be more aware of health issues?"

Ayurveda on way to regaining rightful place on world stage

2007-04-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

India has a long glorious history of medical technology. Sushruta and Charaka performed complicated operations to save lives in ancient India, far before anyone else in known history.

Ayurveda, after languishing in neglect for a thousand years, is finally on its way to regaining its rightful place on the world medical science and technology stage.

Hindustan Times reports:
US varsities to teach Ayurveda
Madhur Singh
New Delhi, April 16, 2007
First Published: 20:46 IST(16/4/2007)
Last Updated: 21:24 IST(16/4/2007)

American patients may soon find their doctors advising them on the health benefits of amla and karela, and on how to keep vata, pitta and kapha doshas balanced. Starting this year, some half a dozen American medical schools are set to introduce courses in Ayurvedic medicine.

The courses will be offered under the continuing medical education (CME) programme for doctors and as part of the ‘alternative medicines’ modules for medical students. They will be introduced in schools in the Washington DC area. The teachers will be experts from India, and their expenses will be paid for by the Indian government.

These will be credit courses, and the aim will be to encourage doctors to use Ayurveda as an add-on or as an independent system of medicine. Only one mainstream American medical school, the Connecticut Medical School, offers courses in Ayurveda as of now, although some 20 schools teaching alternative systems of medicine do so.

The move is aimed at tapping the growing interest in herbal medicines and naturopathy across the world. According to Shiv Basant, Joint Secretary, Department of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), his department, in conjunction with Indian embassies abroad, has been working consistently to promote Indian systems of medicine abroad.

India exports about Rs 300 cr worth of Ayurvedic medicines and Rs 1,000 cr worth of medicinal plants. “The figure has been increasing at the rate of about 10 per cent year on year,” Shiv Basant says.

Dr Navin Shah, former president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), who played a pivotal role along with the Department of Ayush and the Indian embassy in the US in bringing Ayurveda courses to American universities, points out that the herbal medicines market in America alone is worth $40bn. Other than the obvious benefits that can accrue to the Indian pharma sector, introducing Ayurvedic courses in American universities also contributes to enhancing India’s soft power.

“There has been a conscious effort to promote Indian systems of medicine abroad,” says Shiv Basant, “and we will continue to organise expositions, road-shows and courses.”

The Ayush department has helped organise short courses in Indian systems of medicine, particularly Ayurveda in the West Indies, Germany and Hungary. The Indian embassy in Budapest is organising an Ayurveda festival in October, where participants from all Eastern European countries are expected to attend.

Shameless Imams want hardworking Hindu taxpayers to pay for their trips to Mecca

2007-04-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

These people have no shame. On the one hand they claim to follow the Koran, which clearly says that people going on Haj should pay their own expenses, and on the other hand they want the hard-working taxpayers of Hindu-majority India to pay their hard-earned money for their trips to Mecca.

These shameless beggars are saying that massive subsidies for costly airfares "is just like the biscuits, water and other provisions provided by the people to Hajis". If so, then those must be very expensive biscuits !

Subsidizing these trips to Mecca benefits Saudi Arabian economy by giving them tourism revenue, and India only suffers massive loss of foreign exchange.

It is also completely against Secularism to subsidize religious activities in this way. No Government of India has ever given even one rupee in subsidy to a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain to go on any religious missions. Only the Muslims are chosen for these kinds of favours.

The Imams are saying that taking Government subsidies for going on Haj does not violate "Koranic beliefs". Perhaps they are right. The Koran has always supported taking money, land, or women, from non-Muslims. It is to be expected that the Koran would enthusiastically support the idea of the foolish Government of a Kaafir-majority poor country -- with millions of starving Hindu children and Hindu farmers committing suicide to escape the pains of poverty and hunger -- giving tens of millions of Dollars to Muslim fundamentalists and extremists going on vacation and Islamic terrorism conferences in Saudi Arabia, less than 50 years after Muslim extremists killed off millions of its people and took away 25 per cent of its land, and while Muslim extremists plot and carry out terrorist attacks on its Hindu citizens on a regular basis.

Those who do not understand why I call Muslim religious events in Mecca "Islamic terrorism conferences" above should take a look at the Koran. It is full of gruesomely violent thoughts and instructions: asking Muslims to kill, maim, kidnap, rape and torture non-Muslims practically constantly throughout the book.

No wonder that is what Muslims have been doing all over the world, throughout the last fourteen hundred years.

Times of India reports:

Subsidy not against Quranic beliefs: clerics
[27 Aug, 2006 0348hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

LUCKNOW: The order of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court banning subsidy on all pilgrimages has been interpreted by the Muslim clerics and religious leaders in the state in different ways. This order will affect only the Haj pilgrims as they are the only ones who get a subsidy from the government.

The clerics were unanimous in their opinion that the subsidy did not go against the Quranic belief that a Haji should finance his pilgrimage on his own.

Opinions and interpretations of the Muslim clerics and leaders varied from a shade of remorse to finding other ways of aiding the Haj pilgrims.

Zafaryab Jilani, member, All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), said, "There is no issue about removing the subsidy for Haj pilgrims. The government was only giving subsidy on the air fair. It can allow us to use other airlines —instead of Air India— who are more than ready to give discounts." The government spends huge sums on religious events like Kumbh Mela, Amarnath yatra and so on, he added.

Fazlu Rehman, Imam of Tille Wali masjid, however, said that it was bad for the Muslims. "We respect the court and would not say anything against it but the subsidy on Haj pilgrimage was a great help to the Muslims," he said. The Imam stated that a meeting of the Muslim Personal Law Board would be called as soon as the papers of the order are
available to them. "We will together decide the future course of action."

Yusuf Qureshi of the United Democratic Front (UDF) stated that the government will be the loser as they were getting one lakh passengers for Air India at one go.

"Now these passengers will go through the travel agents and get better facilities than that provided by the old Air India planes," Qureshi said. Qureshi said that the government started doling out a subsidy after the cruise service was discontinued. Arshad Khan of People's Democratic Front (PDF) said that the subsidy should continue. "The court will do what it thinks fit while the government should should what it deems fit," he said.

The Muslim clerics and leaders denied that enjoying a subsidy on Haj pilgrimage is against the tenets of Islam. The Quran says that the expenditure incurred by a Haj pilgrim should be borne by the person himself — or his close relatives. Jilani said, "The Muslims actually pay more as the Airlines are charging more than the cost of the service they provide."

He pointed out that the travel agents were charging a similar fee and yet making a profit. Arshad Khan of PDF expressed similar views.

Imam Fazlu Rehman said that the subsidy is like somebody giving you something as a gift on your way to the pilgrimage. "As Indian citizens we are entitled to this much support from the government.

The expenditure is high and the subsidy is a big help. It should be treated as providing a free train under special circumstances," he said.

Qureshi argued that the subsidy was in the form of gifts that are given to those going on a pilgrimage. "It is just like the biscuits, water and other provisions provided by the people to Hajis," he said. Jilani said that the Haj subsidy matter was in court for a long time and the government lost as their counsel failed to provide a proper defence.

Times of India reports:

Govt ready to subsidise all pilgrimages
Dhananjay Mahapatra
[15 Apr, 2007 0017hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

NEW DELHI: In its determination to protect Haj subsidies, particularly in view of the ongoing elections in UP, Centre has told Supreme Court that it was ready to offer similar support, at state expense, to pilgrimages organised by other communities.

Positing its offer as being in sync with the "secular ideals" of the Constitution, Centre virtually made a policy announcement by agreeing to provide financial assistance to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and other religious communities. Government's brief appeared quite clear: to restate its commitment to Haj subsidy.

Though Supreme Court had earlier rescued the Centre by staying an Allahabad High Court order banning Haj subsidy, it could not restrain itself from asking the government whether it had ever subsidised the annual Sikh Jatha to Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. Keen not to leave any chink in its Haj armour, Centre swiftly agreed that it was open to providing subsidies for other pilgrimages too.

Centre did not specify whether assistance would be in the same scale as is being given to Haj pilgrims. Centre's earlier assertions regarding help to other communities were limited to arrangements for law and order during the Kumbh Mela and the management of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

With the Congress-led government seeking to challenge its bitter critic Samajwadi Party in UP for the minority vote in the state, Centre would see a setback on Haj subsidies as a big blow to its political calculations. Even as Congress has been promising minority-centric measures in the wake of the Sachar committee, striking down of the Haj subsidy would have quickly set its "secular" rivals at the party's throat.

The ministry of external affairs's statement in an affidavit, filed in response to a PIL challenging the Haj subsidy, is unambiguous and shorn of ifs and buts. It said: "It is very much pertinent to state at this juncture that the government is not averse to the idea of granting support to the pilgrimages conducted by any community." The ministry said the PIL filed by Praful Goradia has challenged Haj Committee Act of 1959, which has been repealed with the enactment of HCA, 2002.

Terming the PIL as politically motivated, MEA stoutly defended Centre's policy to subsidise air-travel of pilgrims to Mecca for the annual Haj. Citing the HCA, 2002, enacted during the NDA regime, the ministry said the policy decision was first taken in the mid-90s and is being continued.

It said expenditure for facilitating and supporting the pilgrimage to religious places is covered under Art 282 of the Constitution and took the stand that the SC itself has held in several judgments that a policy decision cannot be questioned by the court unless it is contrary to the Constitution.

On the plea of the petitioner that granting subsidy to one community violated secularism, which is the basic fabric of the Constitution, the ministry said: "A policy decision to grant subsidy to Haj pilgrims is in no way going to affect the principles of secularism."

On the contrary, such policy decisions stimulate the ideals set out by the Constitution which intends to secularise amongst others the liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and opportunity, it said.

Seeking to seal the case against interference by the court, MEA said the amount of subsidy (which is the difference of air fare) is allocated in the Union budget. Once Parliament passes the Union budget after due consideration of all relevant issues, courts ought not to issue any direction against the subsidy which would be tantamount to deleting budgetary allocations, it said.

dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com

DMK introduces zizya in Tamil Nadu

2007-04-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party ruling Tamil Nadu has introduced reservations for Muslims and Christians in Tamil Nadu Government jobs and educational institutions. Poor Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs are thus being encouraged to convert to Islam or Christianity in order to become eligible for getting access to education and jobs in their own motherland.

The Sultans of Delhi and Mughal Emperors like Aurangzeb -- who spent their lives constantly destroying Hindu temples, butchering Hindus, kidnapping Hindu women and raping and torturing them till they agreed to convert to Islam -- used financial incentives like zizya as well in their crusades against Hinduism.

Hindus Buddhists Jains and Sikhs living under Muslim rule were forced to pay the zizya religious tax. Over the 1000-year-long Muslim tyranny over India, during times of famine, food shortage, crop failure, etc., this zizya tax caused millions of starving Hindus and Buddhists to convert to Islam in order that their starving children might stay alive.

Now poor Hindus Buddhists and Sikhs in Tamil Nadu, where Reservations have already touched 69%, are essentially being told by the DMK Government: "If you want to go to college or get a job, convert to Islam or Christianity. Otherwise, remain Hindu and starve." Do you still think India is a secular country ?

The UPA Government led by the anti-Hindu Catholic fanatic Antonia Maino (a.k.a. Sonia Gandhi) has recently shamelessly introduced Re. 2 coins embossed with the Christian Cross.

Now Hindus are being openly denied opportunities in their own ancient homeland, while they are being reserved for Christians and Muslims only.

How much more of this will the Hindus of India tolerate ? Now is the time for Hindus of India to unite. To forget about Caste differences. To fight for survival.

It is not difficult. All we have to do is to be able to identify our friends and enemies. Anyone practising Casteist Divide and Rule politics, dividing Hindus on the basis of, say, Caste (like Arjun Singh, or V P Singh, and anyone in the same Parties or Alliances with them) is an enemy.

Anyone preaching Hindu Unity, like the RSS or the BJP, or the Shiv Sena, is a friend.

Those who are against OBC Casteist Reservations and angry with BJP and Shiv Sena for not opposing them, please understand that BJP or Shiv Sena cannot protest against OBC Reservations because doing so will mean playing into the hands of people like Arjun Singh.

Arjun Singh and Sonia Gandhi want Hindus to fight amongst each other. We must not. Our OBC brothers and sisters will see through Arjun Singh's tricks on their own, and will oppose Casteism and Divide and Rule on their own.

Hindus of India, unite. If you don't, you will be exterminated.

Your tolerance is being used against you. Your enemies are motivated by mad and intolerant religious fanaticism preached in the Koran and Bible; tolerating this intolerance will have disastrous results.

Hindus must unite and inspire fear among the fanatic Muslims and Christians who seek to destroy us; only then will they start showing secularism, religious tolerance, and civilized behaviour.

Spread these thoughts among all you know. I have reached these conclusions after a lot of thought. I know many of you are afraid of being associated with the RSS. But in truth, Hinduism in India can be saved only if all Hindus of India, of all castes, languages, regions, unite under the RSS flag.

The enemies of Hinduism know this. That is precisely why they are trying to besmirch the RSS by spreading malicious propaganda about it all the time.

The RSS has been banned in in Hindu-majority India three times since Independence; each time on flimsy grounds and false accusations. The enemies of Hinduism have been fighting it desperately.

A small minority of Hindus have been working hard to keep the RSS alive for the last hundred years. Now is the time for the rest to lend a hand.

Join RSS today and work for Hindu Unity, so that your children can have a better future than the unfortunate Hindus of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Kashmir.

Join RSS today, so that your daughter is not kidnapped into a harem and forcibly converted to Islam, the way Hindu girls are being treated in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Join RSS today, so that your son and daughter are not forced to convert to Islam or Christianity in order to qualify for college educations and jobs in their own motherland.

Vande Mataram. Jai Hind.

Times of India reports:

TN announces 'exclusive reservation' for minoritiesAdd to Clippings
[5 Apr, 2007 1252hrs ISTPTI]

CHENNAI: In the midst of a raging controversy over the Supreme Court's stay on the 27 per cent reservation for OBC students in the elite educational institutions, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced an 'exclusive reservation' for Christians and Muslims in government services and educational institutions.

Intervening during a debate on the demands of grants for minorities department, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi told the state assembly that the government had accepted the recommendations of the state Backward Classes Commission, headed by Justice M Janardanam, retired judge of the Madras High court, in this regard.

The Commission, which had been asked to go into the question, had stated that the report of the Second Class Backward Commission, headed by J A Ambashankar, which went into the number of backward class people in the state, could be the basis for the 'exclusive reservation’ for Christians and Muslims.

The Ambashankar Commission had studied the population of backward class people among Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

The government would take legal steps to implement the exclusive reservation for minorities once the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on the 69 per cent reservation case, pending before it, Karunanidhi said.

He said full details on the exclusive reservation would be announced after consultations with 'friendly parties' of the DMK.

Stalinist Reign of Terror in West Bengal

2007-03-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Outside West Bengal, few people know the grim political reality of Stalinist de facto One Party Rule in West Bengal, enforced through rigged elections, intimidated polling officials, murdered opponents, and entire districts full of millions of terrorized villagers.

Vir Sanghvi paints a comprehensive and informative picture. If the Communists are not stopped, the rest of India will share the same fate over the coming decades, state by state. Because, elections cannot remove Stalinist mass-murderers from power; only a revolution can, or President's Rule.

And yet, the rest of India is silently watching while Jallian Walla Bagh style massacres are occurring in broad daylight in Nandigram, Singur, and less recently at Kespur (2000-2001), Bantala, among others.

Hindustan Times reports:

The Bengal Paradox
Counterpoint | Vir Sanghvi
March 17, 2007

It is now over a decade since I moved out of Calcutta. But watching the news last week, I felt I was back. As I saw those terrible shots of policemen beating up women in Nandigram, as I read about the massacre of innocent villagers, and as I noted the cold, commissar-like response of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the killings, I remembered what it was like to live in West Bengal.

The following day, as Mamata Banerjee shouted into the TV cameras, as her spokesman Derek O’Brien referred to Buddhadeb as a ‘lunatic’ on TV, and as a Bengal bandh ensured that millions of people were inconvenienced (ambulance drivers were prevented from reaching the sick), I realised how little things had changed.

Like the rest of us, the people of West Bengal get the politicians they deserve. They get the thugs and murderers of the CPM and they get the hysterical, self-destructive opposition of Mamata Banerjee. Small wonder then that while Bengalis prosper all over the world (and in the rest of India), Bengal remains a backwater, always at least a decade behind the rest of the country.

When I first moved to Calcutta in 1986, Jyoti Basu was already India’s longest-serving chief minister and the subject of universal admiration among the middle class — outside of Calcutta. Within the state capital itself, many educated people took an entirely different view.

It wasn’t that they did not admire Basu’s stature — it was the rest of him that they disapproved of. The general view then was that while he was a well-educated bhadralok (unlike the north Indian politicians whom Bengalis love to despise), his reputation outside the state was based on hot air. His credentials as a man of the people were dented by his love of the good life, by the annual trip to London in the summer (always on some pretext; it was never described as a holiday), by his son’s dodgy reputation and by his complete intolerance of dissent.

A couple of years before I moved to Calcutta, Ananda Bazar Patrika, where I worked, had suffered a violent and disastrous strike. The violence had emanated not so much from disgruntled employees as from professional activists affiliated to the CPM. In those days, the group’s Bengali daily was anti-communist and the party had decided that ABP had to be punished. ABP employees were beaten up outside the office and the police determinedly looked the other way — they had orders from the government not to intervene.

But even Jyoti Basu was considered a pro-free speech liberal compared to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the classic humour-less, dour communist. When City of Joy was shot in Calcutta during my time there, Jyoti Basu was broadly supportive of the filming. It was Buddhadeb who opposed the decision. His view was not motivated by any sense of literary high-mindedness (I thought, at first, that he might have disapproved of the idiotically sentimental Dominique Lapierre book on which the film was based) but out of a conviction that evil Westerners had arrived to denigrate his city.

It is traditional now to regard the CPM as being the most honest party in India and, given the financial integrity of the current leadership, this is probably accurate. But when I lived in Calcutta, we joked that the M in CPI(M) stood for ‘Marwari’ because so many of the party’s leading lights were clearly in the pay of the city’s dominant business community.

But the corruption worried us less than the violent streak at the centre of the CPM. Like most successful communist parties, the CPM is cadre-based. And like communists everywhere, its cadres cling to the totalitarian view that individuals are less important than The Cause.

Anybody with some experience of rural West Bengal will tell you that the CPM has done an outstanding job in land reform since it came to power in 1977. But they will also admit that the price Bengal has paid for this is to allow the cadres to take over the villages.

In many rural areas, communist cadres dominate everyday life with the same ruthless efficiency demonstrated by the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka. More than the police or the local administration, it is the cadres who wield the real power. They routinely rig elections (though I reckon the CPM would win anyway though perhaps with smaller margins) and impose a reign of terror on the villagers, murdering anyone who dares defy their authority.

In Calcutta we saw the cadres in action when the party required a show of strength. On election day, they would prevent people who were likely to vote for the Opposition from reaching the polling booths. When bandhs were declared, they would ensure that Calcutta shut down.

It was generally accepted that the police would never intervene if CPM cadres were involved. And sometimes the cops would actually lend a hand. It was in the early 1990s (I think) that Mamata Banerjee learnt this the hard way. During a Calcutta bandh, she was publicly assaulted and so comprehensively thrashed by a police party that she had to spend months in hospital recovering. As journalists and editorialists, we were outraged. But the CPM didn’t give a damn to what the papers said.

Oddly enough, the rest of India — or, at least, educated urban India — never saw the CPM as a party based on violent, totalitarian cadres with a Stalinist intolerance of dissent and opposition. Nobody commented on the corruption. Or on the intrigues that ensured that control of the party remained in the hands of a small band of apparatchiks.

When these commissars — most of whom rarely stood for election — held forth on democracy and the will of the people, they were listened to with a baffling respect. When they complained about the fascist core at the heart of the Sangh Parivar, nobody pointed out that all totalitarian parties — including their own — had such a core. When they spoke about free speech, few people pointed to the CPM’s own mixed record in this regard.

When they treated the machinations and intrigues of Indian politics with lofty disdain, most of us failed to point out that their own party was as full of manipulation and petty feuds. And when they lectured us about the evils of capitalism, we rarely reminded them that Jyoti Basu had repackaged himself as the businessman’s best pal while sipping Scotch with the city’s richer Marwaris.

I thought back to my years in Calcutta when I saw the TV footage of the Nandigram massacre. Anybody who has lived in Calcutta will understand at once what happened. The CPM had tolerated the defiance of the villagers for long enough. If they were unwilling to give up their land for the greater good then they had to be punished. And so, in the finest traditions of global communism, the cadres were despatched on a mission that would have done Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse-Tung proud. They beat up the villagers, murdered a few people and terrorised the area. The tame police force followed and shot the few innocents who continued to protest.

Was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee responsible? I doubt it. My guess is that the cadres listen to the apparatchiks and not to the chief minister. It is no secret that large chunks of the Politburo would like to see Bhattacharjee go. And so, they don’t really care how much the massacre embarrasses him or whether his position has now become untenable. Elected politicians will come and go. But the grim-faced men who run the cadres will go on forever.

What followed was as sadly predictable. Mamata Banerjee represents one of the great wasted opportunities of Indian politics. There was a time, in the early 1990s, when I thought she had it in her to topple Jyoti Basu and to lead a revolt against the stranglehold of the CPM.

Alas, Mamata has proved to be her own worst enemy. When she should have fought Jyoti Basu, she fought Pranab Mukherjee. When she should have rallied her troops, she quarrelled with her closest aides. When she should have led the Congress, she linked up with the BJP. When she should have stuck by the BJP, she deserted the NDA in the aftermath of the Tehelka sting.

You see her now on TV screeching loudly while her spokespeople destroy their own case with childish abuse. You know that beneath the hysteria lurks the truth. But you know also that this outburst too will fade, that Mamata will soon shoot herself in the foot again and that she will slip back into sulky electoral oblivion. The CPM cadres will continue to rule the villages. And the party’s leaders will once again deliver self-righteous little speeches about how everybody else is wrong and they are right.

What is it about Bengal, I wonder, that ensures that not only does the CPM get away with murder but that all of the Opposition, from Mamata Banerjee to the pathetically inept Congress, always destroys itself?

Nobody I spoke to in all my years in Calcutta had an answer. Or was able to explain why the state voluntarily opted for a one-party system run by a totalitarian cadre.

I call it the Bengal paradox. And until we learn why Bengalis, who shine wherever they go, are so different when they are at home, we will never understand the hold an obsolete 19th-century totalitarian ideology has on a state full of some of India’s most talented and intelligent people.

Email author: counterpoint@hindustantimes.com

Fascist CPM Government's Reign of Terror in West Bengal: Massacre in Broad Daylight

2007-03-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

The CPI(M)-led Left Front Government of West Bengal has stayed in power for over thirty years by brute force. Sometimes they have rigged elections, captured polling booths by force and stuffed ballot boxes with false votes, and sometimes they have simply intimidated (beaten up, and when necessary, murdered) their political opponents out of the elections, especially in rural West Bengal where rule of law exists only for CPI(M) supporters.

Now the Fascist Government is up to a new tactic: they are setting up "Special Economic Zones" in villages where Opposition voters live.

That is, if they suspect you are a supporter of the Opposition Trinamool Congress or the BJP in rural West Bengal, they will simply "acquire" your land, your house, and all your property, in order to build a Tata Motor car factory, or an Indonesian fertilizer factory, or something of the sort. They will pay you a pittance for the land, not the prevailing market rate, and even that pittance will probably never materialize -- you will end up running from pillar to post, filing thousands of applications over the next several decades to get your money. In short, your life will be destroyed, and you and your family will land up on the streets as beggars, rickshaw-pullers, or prostitutes.

The moral of the story: if you don't want to be kicked out of your house and lose everything you have, you better make sure you and everybody else in your village vote for the Left Front in the elections.

The people of Singur and Nandigram are fighting valiantly against this evil Government. They need the support of the rest of us, all over India. We must unite to fight this barbaric Fascists. If not, tomorrow they may decide that your house should be "acquired" for a Tata motor or fertilizer company office.

At least 11 people have been killed in Nandigram according to official figures. Acording to some reports, more than 50 have been killed by the Fascist mass-murderous CPI(M) Government of West Bengal. Several others have been raped and killed in Singur over the past several months. Before India became Independent, the British did this at Jallain Walla Bagh. The Left Front has already done this tens of times over the last 30 years. Is this Independence ? Is this Freedom ?

Let the children of Mother India unite in revenge. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Let no Fascist Left Front "leader" be safe anywhere in India.

We the people of India have been too peaceful for too long, and our corrupt murderer thief liar robber and rapist "leaders" have become too complacent. They think they can get away with anything -- literally get away with 11 murders in broad daylight. They are treating us as animals. If they are to treat us as human beings, not as animals, they must fear us, just a little bit. We must make them fear us.

If Mahatma Gandhi were alive today, he would say the same thing. Being non-violent must not mean being reduced to the status of animals. We are human beings, not goats or sheep to be slaughtered at will for profit.

We must prove this to our "leaders".

Spread this thought around to everybody you know. Let a hundred million voices rise in anger to condemn this Fascist mass-murder in broad daylight. Let some Fascist CPI(M) blood be spilled in revenge. Let Mother India rise to protect her children from the cowardly traitorous murderous thieving tyrants who oppress them.

Vande Mataram ! Jai Hind !

Hindustan Times reports:

11 killed, 40 injured in Nandigram police firing
Sujit Nath and Aloke Banerjee
Nandigram/Kolkata, March 14, 2007

At least 11 people were killed while 40 others were injured after a large contingent of police entered Nandigram in East Midnapore district, opened fire and clashed with local people on Wednesday morning.

Unconfirmed reports put the death toll to more than 20 while the Opposition alleged that more than 50 people had died of police firing.

The Trinamool Congress has called a 12-hour Bangla bandh on Friday, which has been supported by the Congress, BJP and SUCI. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee demanded resignation of the chief minister and alleged that many bodies had been sunk in the nearby river.

Trouble started at about 8 in the morning when over a 2000-strong police force armed with AK 47 rifles attempted to enter Nandigram, which has been cut off from the rest of the state for over two months now by villagers resisting land acquisition for setting up an SEZ.

The first barricade was put up by women and children who resisted the police from entering the villages. The police fired tear gas shells and then rubber bullets and finally live cartridges. A section of villagers were armed and they retaliated and injured several policemen.

The plan to push in police into the trouble-torn and tense area was chalked out by the CPI(M) top brass last Saturday, insiders told HT. They were under pressure from the East Midnapur unit of the party led by MP Lakshman Seth who felt that the CPI(M) would permanently lose ground in the area unless barricades were removed and normalcy was restored in Nandigram. A large section of the CPI(M) secretariat was also of the same view and felt that the manner villagers were keeping the administration paralysed for over two months was creating a bad precedent.

According to the strategy, the police was asked to remove resistance, enter the villages and 'restore law of the land'. They were to be followed by CPI(M) activists, who would “reinstall civil society” in Nandigram. The Opposition too alleged that armed CPI(M) cadres had mixed with the police, fired upon villagers and then attempted to enter the villages. Another group of party activists cordoned off the entire area checked all vehicles to prevent journalists from entering the scene of violence. Several scribes were beaten up. "We wont allow the media to enter the village. So far you were running the show. Now it is our turn," Lakshman Seth said bluntly.

The opposition members staged a walk out in the assembly. The government also came under heavy criticism from Left Front partners CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc. An emergency Front meeting has been called on Wednesday. The Chief Minister is expected to give a statement in the state assembly.

Police said that entry inside the Nandigram had become necessary because there was no law and order in the area and the police needed to gain access. The Director General of Police, AB Vohra said that 14 policemen were injured including an additional SP.

The sudden raid came as a surprise for the villagers as they started running here and there to maintain a safe distance. It was a horrific sight as armed policemen were seen dragging villagers out of their houses and beating them.
“It is like a war. I don’t know where my family members are. I never expected such an attack from the policemen,” Saber, one of the villagers of Gorchakraberia said.

Around 10 am the entire area turned into a battlefield. “I can see every were bodies are scattered all over paddy field smeared with blood. Those who were injured are screaming for help but instead of providing any aid policemen were seen kicking them with their boots,” Ehsan one of the local villagers told Hindustan Times over telephone.

Email authors: sujit.nath@hindustantimes.com & alokebanerjee@hindustantimes.com

Civilized World Waking up to Pakistani Duplicity on Islamic Terrorism

2007-03-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

There is an old saying: you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

Pakistan has been practising Islamic terrorism against India for several decades now. For decades, it fooled the gullible West into thinking of the Radical Islamic genocidal attacks on the minority Hindu Pandits of Kashmir as a "freedom struggle". Of course, the fact that the victims were Hindus helped a lot; the Christian-majority West tends to forget its humanitarian values when Christian lives are not at stake.

The Times of India reports:

'Divide Pak' ads came from cable company, says CNN
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
[13 Mar, 2007 0950hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

WASHINGTON: CNN has disowned an advertisement that calls for disintegration of Pakistan into several smaller countries being shown in the Washington DC area saying ''some local cable operators may have accepted the advert to run in their own airtime.''

The ad, which typically appears during the morning news hour on the channel which broadcasts CNN in the Washington metro area, promotes a book by a Syed Jamaluddin titled, Divide Pakistan to Eliminate Terrorism .

A male voice in a British accent says Pakistan and its intelligence agency are promoting chaos around the world and “seek to take terrorism to new heights.” He credits Jamaluddin with ''courageously exposing the truth.''

The ad has sent Pakistani circles into a tizzy after the Daily Times verbatim reproduced the story first reported in The Times of India .

On Monday, a CNN spokesperson called ToI to say the ad was placed by the cable company which could buy airtime between CNN programs to market any message. What’s undeniable is that the ads continue to appear on Channel 62, which broadcasts CNN in the Maryland area for subscribers to Comcast.

At a time of heightened attention to Afghanistan and Pakistan and multiple congressional hearing, the ads reflect poorly on Islamabad’s already dubious reputation as an ally in the war on terrorism.

But then the unknown and untraceable Syed Jamaluddin is not the only one raising awkward questions about Pakistan’s role in international terrorism.

In a stunning rebuke, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Monday obliquely accused the country’s military and intelligence of promoting a terrorist agenda.

''Why is it that all terrorist plots -- from the September 11 attacks, to Madrid, to London, to Mumbai -- seem to have roots in Islamabad?'' Bhutto asked in a Washington Post op-ed, before answering, ''Pakistan's military and intelligence services have, for decades, used religious parties for recruits. Political madrassas -- religious schools that preach terrorism by perverting the faith of Islam -- have spread by the tens of thousands.''

Bhutto also accused the Musharraf regime of strategically helping the US only when international criticism of the terrorists' presence becomes strident. She cited the arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a top Taliban strategist, by Pakistani authorities late last month as a case in point.

''The timing, right on the heels of American and British pleas for renewed toughness, is too convenient. Akhund was arrested solely to keep Western governments at bay,'' she wrote.

Her charges may well be right and Pakistan may have suckered Washington more than that. A Swiss daily reported on Sunday that Akhund, who is Taliban’s former defence minister, was freed two days after his reported capture by Pakistani security forces.

The Swiss weekly SonntagsBlick said one of its reporters spoke to Akhund on February 28 unhindered in an Islamic school in the southwestern city of Quetta.

''The news is not true,'' AP reported SonntagsBlick as writing. ''The world press reported: top-Taliban imprisoned. At the same time he was sitting with a SonntagsBlick reporter having coffee.''

The report broadly conforms to previous episodes where Pakistani extremists and terrorists are merely quarantined by Islamabad as state guests when the heat is on and then set free when world attention turns away.

Taj Mahal: The Hidden Truth

2007-02-22T02:00:00.000-08:00

This is a BBC article exposing facts suppressed from the people of India by the "secular" (anti-Hindu) Governments of the Congress and Left parties.

A noted Western historian had written a definitive history book full of irrefutable historical facts that prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple of Lord Shiva that was desecrated and converted into a tomb for his wife by Radical Islamist Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

The book was banned in India by the "secular" Governments. Now the Internet is making it impossible to keep the Truth hidden away.

How will our anti-Hindu Muslim-vote-banking UPA Government keep the Truth suppressed this time ? Will they block access to blogs and other websites again like they did a few months ago ?

Aerial view of the Taj Mahal

The interior water well

Frontal view of the Taj Mahal and dome

Close up of the dome with pinnacle

Close up of the pinnacle

Inlaid pinnacle pattern in courtyard

Red lotus at apex of the entrance

Rear view of the Taj & 22 apartments

View of sealed doors & windows in back

Typical Vedic style corridors

The Music House -- a contradiction

A locked room on upper floor

A marble apartment on ground floor

The Hindu religious symbol "OM" in the flowers on the walls

Staircase that leads to the lower levels

300 foot long corridor inside apartments

One of the 22 rooms in the secret lower level

Interior of one of the 22 secret rooms

Interior of another of the locked rooms

Vedic design on ceiling of a locked room

Huge ventilator sealed shut with bricks

Secret walled door that leads to other rooms

Secret bricked door that hides more evidence

Palace in Barhanpur where Mumtaz died

Pavilion where Mumtaz is said to be buried

BBC reports:
The Taj's Other Story

If you have ever visited the Taj Mahal then your guide probably told you that it was designed by Ustad Isa of Iran, and built by the Moghul Emperor, Shah Jahan, in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Indian children are taught that it was built in 22 years (1631 to 1653) by 20,000 artisans brought to India from all over the world.

This story has been challenged by Professor P.N. Oak, author of Taj Mahal: The True Story, who believes that the whole world has been duped. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.

In the course of his research, Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodelled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.

The use of captured temples and mansions as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Hamayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions.

Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. The term 'Mahal' has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria.

'The usual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani,' he writes. 'Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building.'

Taj Mahal is, he claims, a corrupt version of Tejo-mahalaya, or the Shiva's Palace. Oak also says that the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era:

1. Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.

2. European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.

3. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time.

Oak also points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief that the Taj Mahal is a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum.

Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples.

Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.

The only way to really validate or discredit Oak's research is to open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal, and allow international experts to investigate.

Exhibition of documents concerning Aurangzeb's genocide of Hindus

2007-02-20T04:10:00.000-08:00

I am grateful to the Anonymous dear reader who brought this to my attention. This is an excellent article by Francois Gautier about the exhibition he is organizing about the genocidal activities of the Radical Islamic genocidal tyrant Aurangzeb.

The evidence irrefutably disproves the lies propagated by the Leftist anti-Hindu historians like Romila Thapar, Arjun Dev, etc who have so far tried very hard to suppress the truth about the Hindu Holocaust: the massive-scale genocide of Hindus Buddhists Jains and Sikhs carried out by brutal Radical Islamic maniacs who ruled over India for a thousand years.

People like Romila Thapar and Arjun Dev have written these lies in the NCERT history textbooks read by millions of schoolkids all over India. Lies cannot be used for any good purpose. The truth must come out. And Romila Thapar and her gang of anti-Hindu liars must pay for their criminal dishonesty and fabrication of "facts" used to mislead and hide the truth from entire generations of Indians.

Rediff reports:
The truth about Aurangzeb
By Francois Gautier
February 16, 2007

FACT, the Trust which I head, is holding an exhibition on 'Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal documents', from February 16 to 20 at New Delhi's Habitat Center, the Palm Court Gallery, from 10 am to 9 pm.

Why an exhibition on Aurangzeb, some may ask. Firstly, I have been a close student of Indian history, and one of its most controversial figures has been Aurangzeb (1658-1707). It is true that under him the Mughal empire reached its zenith, but Aurangzeb was also a very cruel ruler � some might even say monstrous.

What are the facts? Aurangzeb did not just build an isolated mosque on a destroyed temple, he ordered all temples destroyed, among them the Kashi Vishwanath temple, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, and had mosques built on a number of cleared temple sites. Other Hindu sacred places within his reach equally suffered destruction, with mosques built on them. A few examples: Krishna's birth temple in Mathura; the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat; the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares; and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four, if not five figures. Aurangzeb did not stop at destroying temples, their users were also wiped out; even his own brother Dara Shikoh was executed for taking an interest in Hindu religion; Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb's forced conversions.

Yet, Percival Spear, co-author with Romila Thapar of the prestigious A History of India (Penguin), writes: 'Aurangzeb's supposed intolerance is little more than a hostile legend based on isolated acts such as the erection of a mosque on a temple site in Benares.' L'histoire de l'Inde moderne (Fayard), the French equivalent of Percival Spear's history of India, praises Aurangzeb and says, 'He has been maligned by Hindu fundamentalists'. Even Indian politicians are ignorant of Aurangzeb's evil deeds. Nehru might have known about them, but for his own reasons he chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb's destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts.

Since then six generations of Marxist historians have done the same and betrayed their allegiance to truth. Very few people know for instance that Aurangzeb banned any kind of music and that painters had to flee his wrath and take refuge with some of Rajasthan's friendly maharajahs.

Thus, we thought we should get at the root of the matter. History (like journalism) is about documentation and first-hand experience. We decided to show Aurangzeb according to his own documents. There are an incredible number of farhans, original edicts of Aurangzeb hand-written in Persian, in India's museums, particularly in Rajasthan, such as the Bikaner archives. It was not always easy to scan them, we encountered resistance, sometimes downright hostility and we had to go once to the chief minister to get permission. Indeed, the director of Bikaner archives told us that in 50 years we were the first ones asking for the farhans dealing with Aurangzeb's destructive deeds. Then we asked painters from Rajasthan to reproduce in the ancient Mughal style some of the edicts: the destruction of Somnath temple; the trampling of Hindus protesting jaziya tax by Aurangzeb's elephants; or the order from Aurangzeb prohibiting Hindus to ride horses and palanquins; or the beheading of Teg Bahadur and Dara Shikoh.

People might say: 'OK, this is all true, Aurangzeb was indeed a monster, but why rake up the past, when we have tensions between Muslims and Hindus today?' There are two reasons for this exhibition. The first is that no nation can move forward unless its children are taught to look squarely at their own history, the good and the bad, the evil and the pure. The French, for instance, have many dark periods in their history, more recently some of the deeds they did during colonisation in North Africa or how they collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War and handed over French Jews who died in concentration camps (the French are only now coming to terms with it).

The argument that looking at one's history will pit a community against the other does not hold either: French Catholics and Protestants, who share a very similar religion, fought each other bitterly. Catholics brutally murdered thousands of Protestants in the 18th century; yet today they live peacefully next to each other. France fought three wars with Germany in the last 150 years, yet they are great friends today.

Let Hindus and Muslims then come to terms with what happened under Aurangzeb, because Muslims suffered as much as Hindus. It was not only Shah Jahan or Dara Shikoh who were murdered, but also the forefathers of today's Indian Muslims who have been converted at 90 per cent. Aurangzeb was the Hitler, the asura of medieval India. No street is named after Hitler in the West, yet in New Delhi we have Aurangzeb Road, a constant reminder of the horrors Aurangzeb perpetrated against Indians, including his own people.

Finally, Aurangzeb is very relevant today because he thought that Sunni Islam was the purest form of his religion and he sought to impose it with ruthless efficiency -- even against those of his own faith, such as his brother. Aurangzeb clamped down on the more syncretic, more tolerant Islam, of the Sufi kind, which then existed in India. But he did not fully succeed. Four centuries later, is he going to have the last word? I remember, when I started covering Kashmir in the late '70s, that Islam had a much more open face. The Kashmir Muslim, who is also a descendant of converted Hindus, might have thought that Allah was the only true God, but he accepted his Kashmiri Pandit neighbour, went to his or her marriage, ate in his or her house and the Hindu in turn went to the mosque. Women used to walk with open faces, watch TV, films.

Then the shadow of Aurangzeb fell on Kashmir and the hardline Sunnis came from Pakistan and Afghanistan: cinemas were banned, the burqa imposed, 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits were chased out of Kashmir through violence and became refugees in their own land and the last Sufi shrine of Sharar-e-Sharif was burnt to the ground (I was there). Today the Shariat has been voted in Kashmir, a state of democratic, secular India, UP's Muslims have applauded, and the entire Indian media which went up in flames when the government wanted Vande Mataram to be sung, kept quiet. The spirit of Aurangzeb seems to triumph.

But what we need today in India -- and indeed in the world -- is a Dara Shikoh, who reintroduces an Islam which, while believing in the supremacy of its Prophet, not only accepts other faiths, but is also able to see the good in each religion, study them, maybe create a synthesis. Islam needs to adapt its scriptures which were created nearly 15 centuries ago for the people and customs of these times, but which are not necessarily relevant in some of their injunctions today. Kabir, Dara Shikoh and some of the Sufi saints attempted this task, but failed. Aurangzeb knew what he was doing when he had his own brother beheaded. And we know what we are saying when we say that this exhibition is very relevant to today's India.

May the Spirit of Dara Shikoh come back to India and bring back Islam to a more tolerant human face.

Francois Gautier
http://www.rediff.com/news/franc.html

US judge recommends Yoga and Meditation

2007-02-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

This is a very informative article on Yoga and Meditation written by a dear reader Shri M. P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner, Government of Kerala, published with thanks.

Let me bow to Indian Maharishi Patanjali with folded hands who helped in removing the impurities of the mind through his writings on Yoga, impurities of speech through his writings on grammer, and impurities of body through his writings on Ayurveda.

The US Judiciary has recently approved the power of yoga and meditation vide a recent judgement in the American court. "Man Who Slapped Wife Sentenced to Yoga, It's Anger Management, Says Judge." First there was house arrest. Now there's yoga. A judge ordered a man convicted of slapping his wife to take a yoga class as part of his one-year probation. "It's part of anger management," County Criminal Court at Law Judge Larry Standley said of the ancient Hindu philosophy of exercise and well-being. "For people who are into it, it really calms them down."

Standley, a former prosecutor, said the case of James Lee Cross was unique. Cross, a 53-year-old car salesman from Tomball, explained that his wife was struggling with a substance abuse problem and that he struck her on New Year's Eve during an argument about her drinking. "He was trying to get a hold of her because she has a problem," Standley said after the court hearing. "I thought this would help him realize that he only has control over himself." The sentence came as a surprise to Cross, who was told to enroll in a class and report back to Standley on his progress. "I'm not very familiar with it," Cross said of yoga. "From what I understand, it may help in a couple ways, not only as far as mentally settling, but maybe a little weight loss." Darla Magee, an instructor at Yoga Body Houston in River Oaks, said she would recommend that Cross take a basic yoga class emphasizing breathing and including a variety of postures -- forward bends, back bends and twists. "Yoga can help us to get rid of many emotional issues we might have," she said. "It's a spiritual cleanse." Prosecutor Lincoln Goodwin agreed to a sentence of probation without jail time because Cross had no significant criminal history. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2365341.

Yoga which is one of the greatest Indian contribution to the world has got vast potential in all fields. In Tihar jail India Yoga is experimented among the inmates and found successful. Their criminal mentality is changed. This study aimed at investigating the effect of Vipassana Meditation (VM) on Quality of Life (QOL), Subjective Well-Being (SWB), and Criminal Propensity (CP) among inmates of Tihar Jail, Delhi. To this effect the following hypotheses were formulated.

1. There will be a significant positive effect of VM on the QOL of inmates of Tihar jail.

2. VM will have a positive and significant effect on SWB of inmates.

3. Criminal propensity (CP) of inmates will decrease significantly after attending the VM course.

4. There will be significant difference in SWB and CP of experimental (Vipassana) group and control (non-Vipassana) group.

5. Male and female inmates will differ significantly in SWB and CP, as a result of VM.

In the famous "Time" magazine the importance meditation and yoga, an ancient Indian system, is high-lighted that the ancient mind- and spirit-enhancing art is becoming increasingly popular and gaining medical legitimacy. It is a multi billion dollar business in US. In many Universities it is accepted as subject and included in the Syllabus. In the latest famous book "Inspire! What Great Leaders Do" written by Mr. Lance Secretan recently published by John Wiley and Sons, the benefit of meditation is elaborately described for good corporate governance. By practising transcendental meditation, or TM, many people have got relief from back pain, neck pain, depression. The mind calms and quiets, . What thoughts you have during meditation become clearer, more focused. Anger, anxiety and worries give way to a peace. In the world exhorbitant medical expeneses one can definitely make use of meditation. Maharshi Mahesh Yogi and Sri Ravi Sankar are poplarising this. The Iyengar Yoga institute in the US is famous.

In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna has inspired Arjuna to rise from his depression by preaching Gita in the battlefield and to rise from the depression to do his duties. In Holy Gita we can see, being hidden by the cosmic overview of any institution beset with myriad problems, not the least of which is its lack of moral probity, there is a groundswell of educated people seeking answers to deeply personal but universally asked questions. Chie Executives taking lessons from yoga, meditation and learning how to deal with human resources equations in an enlightened manner. Individuals from every walk of life can get ideas of how to be better human beings, more balanced and less stressed out.

Medical studies continue to show regular meditation working magic in reducing blood pressure and stress-related illnesses, including heart disease. Brain images show that regular meditation helps calm the most active sensory-assaulted parts of the brain. The ancient Hindu sage Patanjali who had mastered the secrets of the human mind has written a book "Yogasutra".In this book we can see how super powers can be achieved by meditation. It has both cosmic relevance and cosmic resonance. In spite of its universal appeal, for most people total control of mind remains an elusive goal and daunting task. From time immemorial, there have been many attempts throughout the world to unlock the mysteries of the mind and to achieve total control over it through a variety of techniques. One of the most powerful of these techniques is meditation.

Many spiritual leaders, sages, saints, and holy people such asSri. Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna, Madam Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda have practised this. One of the ways to control physiological reactions to psychological stimuli is meditation, Yoga, Zen Buddhism etc. The scientists take Transcendental Meditation (TM) as the uniform technique, and base their observations on the study of the subjects engaged in this form of meditation. In summing up the results the scientists have come to conclusion that the effect of meditation is a "wakeful, hypo-metabolic state". They have found that:

1) Yogis could slow both heart rate and rate of respiration

2) Yogis could slow the rate of metabolism as confirmed by decreased oxygen consumption and carbon-di-oxide output.

3) Electro-Encephalo-Gram (EEG - recording of brain activity) in Yogis showed changes of calmness in the form of "alpha rhythm" during both eyes closed and eyes open recordings.

4) Their skin resistance to electric stimulation was increased (indicating increased tolerance to external stimuli).

Our usual 'defence-alarm' reaction to emotional and physical stress is in the form of "fright, flight, and fight" mediated through over-secretion of certain neuro-transmitters and neuro-modulators, namely adrenaline and dopamine by way of stimulation of sympathetic nervous system. Under the influence of these chemicals and hormones, we reflexively become panicky or aggressive, our blood pressure rises. Thus stress and anxiety is the end result if we allow our natural age-old sympathetic reactions to act and to come to surface. We try to run away, become fearful, or fight the situation. But today these 'defence-alarm' reactions have no place in our lives. Rather, they should be replaced by more calm and serene reactions of equanimity and fearlessness. The need is to just 'face the brute, and it will go away'. Such desirable reactions of non-aggression and peaceful attitude are generated by Y ga and meditation. EEG Studies on Yogis and The Zen Meditations: Yogis practising Raja-Yoga claim that during the state of samadhi they are oblivious to the internal and external stimuli, and they enjoy a calm ecstasy during that state. A study was undertaken to record the electrical activity of their brain during this state by means of a regular and useful test known as electroencephalography EEG. Physiological and experimental studies have demonstrated that the basis of conscious state of brain, among other things, is due to activation of "reticular system" in the brain-stem in response to internal and external stimuli. These stimuli bring about various changes during sleeping and wakeful states of the organism and these can be studied by EEG. The study was carried out on four subjects during the state of concentration and meditation. Effects of external stimuli, like a loud gong, strong light, thermal simulation, and vibrations were studied. The results were compiled and analyzed. It was observed that two Yogis could keep their hands immersed in extremely cold water for about 50 minutes (raised pain threshold). During state of meditation, all of them showed persistent "alpha activity" in their EEG with increased amplitude wave pattern, both during 'eyes closed' and 'eyes open' recording. It was observed that these alpha activities could not be blocked by various sensory stimuli during meditation. It was also observed that those, who had well-marked "alpha activity" in their resting EEG showed greater aptitude and zeal for maintaining the practice of Yoga. Similar observations and results were obtained when EEGs were recorded in persons adept in Zen Meditative technique. Can we say that only those persons who exhibit such recording of "alpha wave rhythm" in their EEG are fit for Yoga? and be designated as right candidates for meditation and Yoga practices? (Such experiments are indeed very few and the number of yogis examined is also very small. Therefore, scientifically and statistically these observations have only a tentative importance. Further research is definitely called for, albeit it will have its own limitations.) It is said that in the unknown period of Lord Jesus Christ, He was under meditation.

Indians forgot about 7/11 attacks, so Islamic terror strikes again

2007-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have said multiple times on this blog that the only reason we Indians are being attacked by Radical Islamic terrorists so many times, while USA UK and Spain were attacked only once (on 9/11, 7/7, and 3/11 respectively), is because we Indians keep forgetting about past attacks very soon after they occur. Our political leaders know that we will not punish the Government for failing to fulfill its most fundamental duty: protecting the life and property of ordinary citizens, and instead focusing on Casteist Divide and Rule politics aimed at dividing Hindus (like the OBC Reservations), and winning elections by trying to appease the Muslim vote bank.

India is the only country in the world that relaxed anti-terror laws (UPA Govt. got rid of the POTA law) while the rest of the world created stronger laws to fight Islamic terror (like the PATRIOT ACT of America).

What does that tell you about our Government's priorities ?

The BBC reports:

Dozens dead in India train blasts

The fire engulfed two carriages on the Samjhauta Express

At least 64 people have been killed in a series of explosions and a fire on a Pakistan-bound train in the northern Indian state of Haryana, officials say.

Passengers reported hearing two blasts as the train passed near Panipat, about 80km (50 miles) north of Delhi.

The train - the Samjhauta Express - was part of a service taking passengers from Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan.

A spokesman for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the explosions were probably an "act of terror".

A number of other passengers were injured, and officials say the death toll may rise.

'Explosive devices'

The BBC's Navdip Dhariwal in Delhi says a series of small blasts took place in two carriages at about midnight (1830 GMT), as the train reached a station in the village of Deewana.

She says the train came to a standstill and a ball of fire engulfed the two coaches.

The injured were pulled out of the burning carriages onto the trackside by fellow passengers, she adds.

"I heard a loud explosion and then it was all smoke," passenger Tara Chand was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

"Looking at the intensity of the smoke, many people must have suffocated to death before being charred."

Officials said many of the victims were Pakistanis but some were Indian security personnel.

Railway officials said five small explosive devices capable of causing a huge fire were defused at the site.

The Samjhauta Express is one of two train services connecting India and Pakistan.

After a two-year gap, it was reopened in 2004 as part of the peace process between the two countries.

Communists attack Rahul Dravid for performing Surya Namaskar

2007-02-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

After a thousand years of slow destruction of Hinduism and Hindu culture and heritage, India has finally reached the final stage. Now Communists trying to prove their regard for "secularism" (defined as anti-Hinduism and Muslim-appeasement in the Indian context) are openly attacking people for performing non-religious Hindu activities like Surya Namaskar and other forms of Yoga.

Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid is being attacked by these anti-India anti-Democracy anti-Hindu Mao-worshipping Communists for participating in a Yoga camp organized by the RSS.

The Communists are calling the RSS "sectarian" and "fascist". This has been a long-standing trick employed by anti-Hindu elements in India: bad-mouth someone or something often enough for long enough, and the gullible common people of India will believe it. And most India, from the common man to public figures like Rahul Dravid or Amitabh Bachhchhan will be afraid to associate themselves with the RSS for fear of being labelled "fascist".

There isn't and has never been any evidence to support the commonly-used "fascist" charge against RSS. Going by real evidence, RSS is a peaceful volunteer organization focused on social service and charity. It is "fascist" only in the baseless dream-world the Communists live in.

Since 1947 these anti-Hindu elements have tried to destroy the RSS by banning it three times. Each time the RSS was found not-guilty of any and all charges by the Courts of India. If the Communists can prove the RSS "fascist" why don't they go to Court and get it banned once and for all ? They cannot because they know their charges are baseless and cannot be substantiated by even the flimsiest kind of evidence. So they are trying to destroy the RSS by bad-mouthing it day after day in public and trying to intimidate people like Rahul Dravid who want to take part in its altruistic social development activities.

By tying up with their anti-Hindu Christian missionary partners have also gotten the RSS labelled a "terrorist organization" by the Christian-dominated US Government. Why did the Us agree ? Because the RSS hinders the Christian missionary groups' "convert poor Hindus to Christianity by offering money an jobs" activities by helping poor Hindus in Indian villages get educated, get jobs, support themselves, and develop pride in their ancient Hindu cultural heritage by learning about it. Then, they no longer need the measly dollars of the American Christian evangelist priests, and they no longer want to join a backward unscientific irrational fairy-tale-full religion like Christianity by giving up the rational scientific thought-and-question-encouraging open-minded faith like Hinduism.

The anti-Hindu Communists are calling the RSS "fascist" but offering no reason, argument, or proof to support their absurd claims.

Who is fascist ? The volunteer group that organized Yoga lessons for poor villagers, or the un-democratic Mao-worshipping group of corrupt Leftist politicans that tries to intimidate everybody from joining the social service activities of the RSS by calling it "fascist" ?

You decide.

If you think the RSS is being targeted for peacefully working to prevent the continuing destruction of one of the few remaining enlightened religions on this planet -- Hinduism -- by the forces of irrational "believe it or God will send you to Hell" unscientific "listen to what the cleric says" fundamentalist dogmatic and backward religions like Islam and Chrisianity, then join the RSS or help its activities.

If you are afraid of being targetted as "fascist" by the anti-Hindu Communists and hence don't want to help the RSS, at least spread this article so that others more willing to take risks will read my arguments and help the RSS in peacefully preventing the destruction of Mankind's greatest treasure: the enlightened path, the Sanatana Dharma, called Hinduism.

Hindustan Times reports:

Dravid attends RSS function; Left unhappy
Sutirtho Patranobis
New Delhi, February 6, 2007

The Left parties have expressed their displeasure over Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid attending a function organised by an RSS-affiliated body in Nagpur in January.

On January 20, Dravid inaugurated a "surya namaskar" (a yoga-based ritual to worship the sun) programme organised on the occasion of Makar Sankranti by Vidya Bharati, an RSS-affiliated organisation that runs a chain of schools. After lighting the lamp at a gathering in the Ramnagar area of Nagpur, Dravid went on to give a speech and asked the attending children to do 'surya namaskar' daily. It keeps the body fit, Dravid added.

Following the event, RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya carried an article on the event complete with a picture of Dravid, flanked by RSS members, addressing the audience. The article was carried in the February 4 issue of the weekly magazine. In the issue, dated February 11, Panchjanya again made a reference to Dravid, saying that after his participation in the January 20 programme, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh followed suit and organised a similar event.

The Left said on Tuesday that what Dravid played at the Ramnagar Maidan in Nagpur on January 20 was not cricket. Both CPIM and CPI raised objections to the fact that one of the most famous cricketers in the country is rubbing shoulders with an organisation that spreads "sectarian politics" and is "fascist in nature".

"He (Dravid) might be the Indian cricket captain but he is also an individual and an adult. In the end, it is his choice. And if his choice of company is the RSS, good luck to him. Everyone knows, that RSS promotes an ideology that is sectarian. It is his choice if he wants to be made use of by the RSS," CPIM politburo member, Brinda Karat, told HT. She added that the 'surya namaskar' is not a monopoly of the RSS and millions of Indians go through the ritual everyday.

CPI's National Secretary D Raja was more direct and said that Dravid should not have taken part in an RSS function. "Why should he take part in a function organised by RSS, which believes in a fascist and communal ideology? Why should he allow himself to be identified with RSS," Raja asked.

"I was asked to got to a function where a lot of school children were coming to talk on the benefits of yoga. I have no political leanings. Yoga is something where even the Indian cricket team does. I had no idea that this could be used for political purposes,’’ Rahul Dravid told HT from Calcutta on Tuesday evening.

Email Sutirthopatranobis: sutirthopatranobis@hindustantimes.com

Did Pakistan lie about the Kashmir earthquake casualties ?

2007-02-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

The Kashmir earthquake is distant memory for most people now, but it happened just 16 months ago and was on our front-pages for several months afterwards (being used by Pakistan for fund-raising), till just about six months ago.

Pakistan raised a massive hue and cry about the earthquake, asking for millions of dollars from the international community. A large number of Islamic "charities" also sprung up workdwide to collect money for aid, as people all over the world, of all religions, donated with an open hand, hoping that this would make the Radical Islamists trying to kill and terrorize us that they were making a mistake by considering us the enemy.

But neither Pakistan nor the "charities" published any detailed accounts of how the money was spent and by whom, and on what. Several news reports have told us that Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists with Kaslashnikov rifles were going about all over Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, in charge of "relief work".

It was also reported that money raised by Islamic "charities" had been used to plot and organize Islamic terrorist attacks, such as the recent plot by 23 British-born Muslims of Pakistani descent to blow up 10 airplanes en route from UK to USA.

The earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir occurred close to the Line of Control separating Indian Kashmir from Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir -- just about 50 miles from the LoC on the Pakistani side.

About 1400 people were reported dead on the Indian side. Pakistan started screaming and howling on the international arena, saying that over 73,000 people had been killed on its side of the border, and asking for large amounts of money.

Since the epicenter was so close to the LoC, and the population density is roughly the same on both sides of the Loc (because of the mountainous terrain that cannot support heavy densities of human population), shouldn't one have expected the casualties to have been roughly equal on both sides ?

How did Pakistan come to have 52 times as many people dead in the earthquake than India did ? Did Pakistan lie ?

True, a lot of dead-bodies were shown; several hundred bodies, though no international agency actually inspected and verified that 73,000 bodies were there as claimed by Pakistan. I accept that this verification was hard to do because the immediate priority was to bury the bodies before they started rotting -- though it was pretty cold and rotting was not as major a problem as it would have been in hotter climes.

So, let's even say we believe that Pakistan actually had 73,000 dead bodies.

But how do we know all of the dead-bodies people who had really died in the earthquake ? Or were many of the dead-bodies that of hapless Pakistani minority Hindus kidnapped from other parts of Pakistan, killed and left to rot among the earthquake debris to attract International sympathy and money ?

Pakistani Hindus have been reduced from over 16% of Pakistan's population after the Partition of 1947 to less than 0.1% today. It is no secret that they are regularly intimidated, their property taken away, their temples demolished, their women kidnapped, tortured and forcibly converted to Islam, and their menfolk killed in broad daylight while the police and the judiciary turn a blind eye.

An organized ethnic cleansing program has been systematically run for 60 years, that the International community has chosen to ignore. Protecting Hindu lives is not a priority for the Christian West. Protesting persecution of Hindus by Pakistani Muslims is not useful politically for the Muslim-vote-banking "secular" leaders of Hindu-majority India.

Hindu-majority India, trying to prove itself "secular", chooses never to protest against crimes perpetrated on Hindus by Muslims.

How do we know that Pakistan did not kill off a few thousand more Hindus from the minuscule number that remains, and use their dead-bodies to get international sympathy and aid ? They had been killing the Hindus anyway, so this would be hitting two birds with one stone: easily getting rid of evidence of genocide -- dead-bodies -- using the opportunity provided by the earthquake, and getting vast amounts of foreign money at the same time; money that was used right back to carry out more terrorist attacks on the un-Islamic "infidel" world.

As I have said before, it is very suspicious to see claims of 73,000 killed on one side of the LoC and only 1,400 on the other side, by an earthquake that occurred practically on the LoC (the epicentre only 50 miles away on the Pakistani side) and had roughly the same sparse population on both sides in that inhospitable mountainous terrain.

Did Pakistan lie ? I guess we may never know.

Muslim pujari in Durga's abode

2007-01-29T06:49:00.000-08:00

A very nice article from the Times of India.

The Times of India reports:

Muslim pujari in Durga's abode
[29 Jan, 2007 0205hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

VISAKHAPATNAM: This is the essence of secular India. Respect and tolerance for all faiths. In a shining example of this, Payakaraopeta, a village in this district has a Muslim pujari at its Durga temple. He, like any other pujari , chants prayers in Sanskrit, helps visitors with their prayers and also carries out all the rituals.

What sets him apart is his name—Sheikh Mira Sahib. Payakaraopeta is located close to Tuni, a small town known for its betel leaf production. Every Monday, over a hundred people from several nearby villages climb the unpaved steps of Seethamma hill to pray to the goddess. Mira Sahib guides them all in performing various rites and the worshippers acknowledge him as their pujari .

With a shaven head, bare-chested and wearing a dhoti, Mira Sahib begins his day at the temple at 7 am and spends his time till late afternoon in saying prayers and helping the pilgrims.

He then returns home and attends to his chores. His earning is the dakshina that is given to him by devotees. "I used to herd buffalos about 25 years ago. I also used to help in weeding the path on this hill for archaeologists who were looking for some old relics and hidden caves," Mira reminisces.

"One day my gunapam (spearlike tool) hit something irregular. It was an idol of Goddess Durga. There were a few idols lying about uncared for, so I tossed this one also downhill. I came home and forgot about what I did. That night in my sleep the goddess appeared before me as my daughter. She demanded that I perform puja to her daily. Then she vanished. I was nonplussed and didn't know what to do for sometime. Then I made up my mind to follow her instructions," says he.

Next day Mira went back to the hill and installed the idol at the place he had found it. A few weeks later he began performing the puja to her.

"I learned a few mantras by listening to other worshippers. Later, I learned them properly from my guru, Subramanya Sastry. He taught me in spite of opposition from some people," he recollects.

US finally publicly acknowledges that Al-Qaeda is in Pak

2007-01-25T13:38:00.000-08:00

In 2003, the US went to war in Iraq to take on Islamic terrorists. It should actually have gone to war in Pakistan, which is where the world's top Radical Islamic leadership organizing terrorist campaigns against India and the rest of the Civilized World, has been sheltered for the last several decades.

The US has been calling Pakistan a "frontline ally" in the War On Terror, while all throughout the Government Army and intelligence agencies (ISI) of Pakistan have been actively colluding with the Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Radical Islamic terrorist organizations. Individual US Army officers and CIA agents on the field have often complained against Pakistani complicity in Islamic terrorism, as has the other crucial US ally in the region: Afghanistan. And still the US kept patting Pakistan on the back officially, however stronger got the signals of Pakistani duplicity hypocrisy and dishonesty.

Finally, after all these years, the US seems to have woken up and seen the truth.

Let's hope something good will come out of it. Like the destruction of the Pakistani terrorism apparatus, for instance.

The Pakistani terrorism apparatus that has killed over 100,000 innocent Indian Hindu and Muslim men women and children in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, the North-East, Delhi, Mumbai, Ayodhya, and hundreds of other Indian cities in a vicious and bloody terrorist campaign that Pakistan has been running for the last several decades.

While the rest of the Civilized World, the Christian West, has silently watched, shamelessly refraining from protesting because practically none of the victims were Christian.

CNN reports:

Analysts: Al Qaeda has safe haven in Pakistan frontier
POSTED: 10:26 p.m. EST, January 24, 2007
Story Highlights
• Pakistan-Afghanistan border seen as al Qaeda host, intelligence official says
• View stems from recent Pakistani government pact with tribal leaders
• U.S. has long suspected area was haven for Taliban, as well

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan have become an accepted haven for al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN on Wednesday.

That's not a formal assessment, the official said, but a growing view by U.S. intelligence analysts in the months since the Pakistani government reached an agreement with tribal authorities to not threaten the region's autonomy as long as the tribes agreed not to harbor foreigners.

The official told CNN that "the training camps are full" in the region, suggesting al Qaeda activity.

"This is a real safe haven to operate from. I am not talking about Taliban, I am talking about al Qaeda central," he said, referring to core members of al Qaeda. (Watch President Bush outline successes against terrorism Video)

The official said that before the agreement, Pakistani authorities were able to impede the ability of al Qaeda to regroup in the region. Now, the official said, it is easier for al Qaeda to operate.

U.S. military officials for some months have said the region became a Taliban haven because the agreement had no real enforcement penalties. There had been a strong suspicions that many of the attacks in Afghanistan have been organized by Taliban elements staging from inside Afghanistan.

NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan mistakenly fired on a Pakistani post Monday near Shawal, North Waziristan, in the border region, a Pakistan Army spokesman told CNN.

One Pakistani soldier was killed and two were wounded in the errant attack. NATO said responsibility for the mistake was "unclear."

On Monday,al-Zawahiri released his latest videotape taunting the United States over the Iraq war and anti-terror efforts.

Al-Zawahiri rejected President Bush's earlier contention that U.S. forces have deprived al Qaeda of haven in Afghanistan, calling the claim a "naked, barefaced lie."

NATO kills Paki soldiers infiltrating terrorists into Afghanistan

2007-01-24T01:02:00.000-08:00

NATO's "frontline ally" Pakistan has finally started receiving richly-deserved punishment for its continued support to Radical Islamic terrorism in India, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

The Times of India reports:

Border skirmish hits Nato, Pak relations
Chidanand Rajghatta
[24 Jan, 2007 0005hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

WASHINGTON: NATO forces fired on a Pakistani check post on the border with Afghanistan on Monday killing a Pakistani soldier and wounding several others in the first incident of its kind, exacerbating tensions between the west and what skeptics say is a dubious ally in the war on terror.

The incident, which involved helicopter gunships from the U.S-led coalition, occurred in the Zway Naray area in Shawal Valley in North Waziristan inside Pakistani territory. It appears to have been a punishment for infiltrating terrorists into Afghanistan.

Islamabad condemned the attack amid an uproar in Pakistan's parliament, but NATO forces, which have been chafing at Taliban crossings into Afghanistan, were unrepentant. One report quoted coalition forces as saying they were responding to firing from the Pakistani check post, a tactic which would square with frequent Indian charges that Pakistan's military provides cover for infiltrating terrorists.

The incident on the ground flew against the frequently expressed sentiment in the higher diplomatic sphere about Pakistan's status as a frontline ally. Western ground commanders who have complained in the past about Pakistan hosting terror camps and infiltrating Taliban fighters into Afghanistan have often been shut up by political and diplomatic compulsions.

But the unspoken truce appears to have been broken on Monday and the use of a helicopter gunship would suggest clearance from a higher military command. US officials made of show of suggesting that the action might have taken place within the Afghan border but that would make the death of a Pakistani soldier more complicated.

Tension has been rising both on the Pak-Afghanistan border and in the diplomatic sphere between Islamabad, Kabul and NATO capitals over Pakistan's inability of unwillingness to crack down on Taliban and Al Qaida fighters crossing into Afghanistan.

Some western analysts have gone so far as to say Pakistan is hosting terror camps inside its borders. The U.S intelligence chief John Negroponte twice testified before Congress last week that Al Qaida elements operated from "secure hideouts" in Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also become increasingly strident and vocal about Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism inside Afghanistan. The testimony, and other statements by U.S and Afghan officials expressing increasing skepticism about Pakistan's commitment to fight terror, has been met with angry denials and belligerent outbursts from Islamabad's military dictatorship.

Pakistan says it has deployed more than 80,000 troops on its border with Afghanistan and lost 600 men in action. But most of the casualties are said to be from its fight against separatist elements in the Frontier and Balochistan, not against the Taliban, which is seen as a Pakistan-ISI proxy.

Reporters – including a New York Times' Carlotta Gall - who have tried to get close to the scene of action and the truth have been intimidated and assaulted by Pakistan's intelligence, which is widely believed to handle the Taliban.

"We now know why. Gall's reporting has determined that Quetta is an important rear base for the Taliban, and that the Pakistani authorities are encouraging and perhaps sponsoring the cross-border insurgency," the NYT said in an editorial.

"Americans need to know more about this collusion and to demand better answers from Musharraf," the paper said. "It is simply impossible to believe that this support takes place without the approval of the Pakistani military."

The editorial pointed out that Pakistan is now the third-largest recipient of American foreign aid and said "The very least Washington should be demanding of Musharraf is that he enforce an immediate halt on Pakistani military support for the Taliban insurgents who are crossing the border and killing American troops."

But bellicose Pakistani politicians spoke of retaliation against western forces in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, Pakistani lawmaker Senator Hamidulah Jan Afridi told the government that "They (Nato forces) will not stop unless one or two of their planes were shot down."

"Violation of Pakistani territory from across the troubled western border must be retaliated," the country's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi concurred. "Such attacks should be treated just like enemy attacks."

But going by past form, the Bush administration is expected to gloss over the spat while differentiating between Musharraf, who it regards as a faithful ally, and renegade elements in the Pakistani establishment.

Hours after the border spat, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside a U.S military base in Afghanistan, killing ten people.

Sunni Muslims riot in Bangalore because Shia Iraqis hanged Saddam

2007-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

As I have repeatedly pointed out before, Indian Muslims need to decide if they want to improve themselves taking advantage of the rights and privileges they get as equal and free citizens of India (freedoms, facilities, rights, and privileges that Muslims living in medieval and uncivilized Muslim countries like Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, do not get), or behave like the barbaric and uncivilized animals Muslims in aforementioned Muslims countries do.

In recent times, vast numbers of Indian Muslims have rioted, killed innocent non-Muslims, destroyed property, and created chaos in various parts of India over issues like publication of cartoons in Denmark, movies made by Maqbool Fida Hussein, and now, the hanging of Shia-killer Sunni Muslim Saddam Hussein by the Shia-dominated Government of Iraq.

Those Muslims living in India's borders who are more interested in causing chaos over issues of Denmark and Iraq than in going to school, getting educated, and learning to earn a decent honest living, are most welcome to leave India and commit their useless and unproductive acts in Denmark or Iraq. Assuming anybody in Denmark or Iraq wants them to be allowed into those countries.

These useless people who have nothing to contribute to Civilization and to the Economy, or to anybody else will probably not be particularly wanted anywhere.

The question is: how long will the Hindus and civilized Muslims loyal to India tolerate these morons committing these senseless acts making themselves a public nuisance.

If you think the police and armed forces of India should crack down like a ton of bricks upon these uncivilized Radical Islamic trouble-making animals and either civilize them or wipe them out, post a comment here and let the rest of India know what you think.

The Times of India reports:

Bangalore on edge after communal clashes
[22 Jan, 2007 1035hrs ISTIANS]

BANGALORE: A day after police firing sparked by communal clashes left one person dead and several injured, tension simmered in the IT city on Monday. However, authorities said they were confident peace would return soon.

A 12-year-old boy was killed and at least 22 people were injured when the police opened fire to chase away mobs that attacked them and also vandalised private and public property in the residential-cum-commercial areas of the city's eastern districts.

Curfew was clamped in many parts of east Bangalore including Bharati Nagar, Frazer town and Commercial Street.

“There is a lot of fear among people and no one wants to risk their life as there has been a lot of violence in the city since Friday,” Sangmesh, a steward at the Eden Park restaurant, said.

The violent clashes started on Friday after people protested violently against the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in communally sensitive areas with a large Muslim population.

On Sunday, several shops and buses were also set ablaze in the clashes. A Virat Hindu Samavesha, organised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in association with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was being held in one of the violence-hit areas.

“I have not seen such violence in the last six-seven years and I have asked my kids to not to venture out of home till Wednesday. Who knows what is going to happen this afternoon,” Sangmesh said. He added that there was at least a 40 per cent drop in their business on Sunday.

Said Abdul, a newspaper vendor on Infantry Road: “This kind of violence has never been witnessed in the last 10 years. Some violence and a curfew was seen here when Kannada actor Raj Kumar was kidnapped by forest brigand Veerappan a few years back.”

Anil, a manager of Hotel Gold Star at Queens Road, said he had asked the waiters and office boys not to venture near towards Bharati Nagar, Shivaji Nagar and Russell Market. “These are the most sensitive and violence-prone areas. We are learning to cope with the violence with a lot of apprehension among our guests, people and all our staff,” he said.

At least 1,000 policemen have been deployed in these violence-prone areas and two platoons of the Rapid Action Force, along with the police, will conduct a flag march in the city to instill confidence in the people. All schools in the violence-hit areas will remain closed till Tuesday.

“The situation is under control and we are trying our best to bring peace to the city after three days of violence. There was a lot of violence on Sunday as mobs torched buses, stabbed each other, pelted stones at vehicles despite all our efforts. They forced us to open fire and one person was killed,” Bangalore Police Commissioner N Achuta Rao, said.

India getting more and more tolerant to Pakistani Islamic terrorist attacks, observes USA

2007-01-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

Spineless leaders like Manmohan Singh and other Muslim-appeasing vote banking (pseudo-)secular UPA leaders, secure in the knowledge that they themselves and their near and dear ones are safely being guarded by the heroic soldiers and Black Cat commandos of India, are following policies tolerant to terrorism, endangering the lives of ordinary citizens of India.

The Government is more interested in "improving relations with Pakistan" than in making sure that innocent civilians living in its borders are protected and can live in safety and security.

Pakistani Islamic terrorists know that Indian Government will not do much to avenge terrorists attacks killing innocent Hindus of India. Indeed, they even know that in case any of them get caught by India after carrying out devastating terror attacks, the Government of India will keep them in five-star comfort for years, even decades, while Government-appointed lawyers fight for them in Court. In case they happen to get convicted, the Government of India will try its best to let them off with a Presidential Pardon.

The US has just published a report noting that "New Delhi's threshold for responding militarily to terrorist attacks has apparently increased since the two countries approached the brink of war in 2001 following a terror strike on the Indian parliament."

India is now willing to tolerate bigger and more devastating Islamic terror attacks from Pakistan before it considers taking revenge to discourage future attacks.

This is what usually happens: once Government of India sees that People of India have gotten into the habit of forgetting about past attacks, and are not holding the Government accountable for failing to take adequate measures to discourage terrorism, the Government feels comfortable tolerating bigger and bigger attacks.

This will stop only when the People of India rise up as one and take revenge against the morons of the UPA who are playing with our lives.

If we do not take action to protect our own lives, nobody else will.

Hindustan Times reports:

India could punish Pakistan for terror attack: US
Indo-Asian News Service
Karachi, January 21, 2007

Improved India-Pakistan relations notwithstanding, the US apprehends a terror attack on a high profile target could prompt India to "punish Islamabad for its continued support to Pakistan-based militants".

Like last year, the US continues to fear that "an attack on a high-profile target might lead New Delhi to take action to curtail militant capabilities in Pakistan or Pakistani Kashmir and punish Islamabad for its continued support to Pakistan-based militants," a report to be presented to Congress says, Dawn reported on Sunday.

If this happens, "we remain concerned about the potential that such a conflict could escalate," the Department of Homeland Security says in its annual report.

The report also mentions the possibility of a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, noting "the prospect of renewed tensions with nuclear-armed India remains despite improved relations" between them.

It expresses a measure of satisfaction over the three-year India-Pakistan peace process and the commitment of both Islamabad and New Delhi to continue with it.

The report also notes that New Delhi's threshold for responding militarily to terrorist attacks has apparently increased since the two countries approached the brink of war in 2001 following a terror strike on the Indian parliament.

It notes that the Mumbai train bombings last year disrupted but did not derail the composite dialogue and that a mechanism for exchanging information on terrorist attacks has been established.

"Yet, the prospect of renewed tensions between the two remains despite these improved relations," the report warns.

"New Delhi's concerns about Pakistan's tolerance, at a minimum, (and) of terrorist attacks on Indian soil remain a dominant theme in relations, and risks derailing rapprochement."

In a separate assessment of the threat of a nuclear conflict in South Asia, the report notes that improved relations between India and Pakistan have decreased the possibility of such a disaster.

"Although both New Delhi and Islamabad are fielding a more mature strategic nuclear capability, they do not appear to be engaged in a Cold War-style arms race based on a quest for numerical superiority."

Prophet Mohammed's message to "nonbelievers": "I come to slaughter all of you."

2007-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

For a thousand years, Radical Islamists have slaughtered "unbelievers" and "infidels" in bloody genocidal invasions and reigns of terror all over Central Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, vast parts of India, West Asia, and parts of Europe.

This has been done strictly in accordance with the instructions in the Koran.

And yet, the Civilized World is still sleeping. Silly people with small brains, no knowledge of history, and heads in the clouds calling themselves "Liberals" and "Secularists" are telling us -- in India, Western Europe, and USA -- that Islam is a "religion of peace" and that we should refuse to believe that people like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, the Taliban, the Al Qaeda in Iraq and elsewhere, the terror attacks of 9/11, 3/11, 7/7 and 7/11, the Armenian Genocide, the mass killings of 1946 (called jihad and "Direct Action") of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Hussein Shaheed Sohrawardy of the Muslim League, the ongoing extermination of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the thousand-year-long genocide of Hindus, destructions of temples, kidnappings rapes torture and forced conversions of Hindu girls and women -- unmarried, married, or freshly widowed -- to Islam by Islamic invaders and rulers like Timur, Nadir Shah, Ghauri, Ghazni, Aurangzeb and countless other Radical Islamic mass-murderers over centuries and centuries, have nothing to do with Islam and the teachings of the Koran. And we are silently listening to this hogwash from these silly sentimental Islam-loving self-proclaimed "Liberals" and "Secularists" that are acting as accomplices of Radical Islam in the Islamic destruction of Liberalism and Secularism.

All this has already happened before. In Central Asia, West Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan. Advanced, Secular, and Liberal Hindu Buddhist and Christian Civilizations have been destroyed by Radical Islam and replaced with the hideously medieval primitive uncivilized animal "cultures" of today's Saudi Arabia, Libya, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, etc.

Radical Islam has many faces. One face is that of people like Osama bin Laden. And the other is that of various Imams and clerics and self-proclaimed Islamic religious leaders who are trying to convince us that Radical Islam poses no threat to us and out Liberal Secular broad-minded generous kind and peace-loving Civilization.

And as long as we keep trusting them and ignoring the numerous attacks we face from Radical Islam every day, they will keep destroying us piece by piece by piece, as they have been doing for the last one thousand years.

Exactly how stupid do the Radical Islamists think we are ? And exactly how stupid and silly and sentimental are we really ? To not see a threat that has been destroying us piece by piece at steadily rising rates for a thousand years now ?

The Radical Islamists think they are doing God's work. As if God wanted all of us to live in caves like bearded monkeys of the Taliban, and spend all our time beating stoning and whipping women. They are doing Satan's work. That is what Salman Rushdie said, in the "The Satanic Verses". That is what the Pope recently said. The Koran is a document that very closely resembles the Bible and holy books of other Civilized religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. But it has some critical parts modified very significantly, by Satan. Anyone who reads the Koran comes to this understanding, unless their souls are owned by Satan to start with. This is what Salman Rushdie implies in his book "The Satanic Verses". The book has been banned in India by the self-proclaimed "Liberal" and "Secular" talking heads who run our great country. They don't want the people of India to know exactly how dangerous and Satanic and evil the Koran has been declared to be, by an educated modern civilized and secular Indian Muslim himself -- Salman Rushdie.

Most Indian Muslims have never read the Koran. They never signed up to worship Satan out of their own choice. They were born into it, because their ancestors were forced into it, either by force, or because of economic reasons (over centuries, many poor Hindus of India converted to Islam to avoid having to pay the cripplingly high zizya religious tax levied on non-Muslims; they just wanted to have food to feed their under-nourished kids, not to worship Satan and kill Hindus and Buddhists).

Once this vast majority of Indian Muslims reads the Koran and finds out exactly how evil and Satanic its ideology is, they will want to convert back to the native original religion of their persecuted ancestors -- Hinduism or Buddhism. Now that India is free from Radical Islamic rule, there is no longer a crippling zizya religious tax on Hindus and Buddhists.

The only problem is that the Koran, like any other Fascist document, imposes the death penalty on anybody who wants to leave Islam. Just like Hitler imposed the death penalty on anybody who wanted to leave the Nazi Party. This is exactly the problem faced by sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar's son Ashish Debsharma who recently converted back to Hinduism.

The Government of India will have to protect Indian Muslims who want to leave the House of Satan and come back into the Civilized way of life their ancestors were forced to leave. Does it have enough backbone to do so ? Do we have enough backbone to protect Muslims who want to convert back to Hinduism and are afraid of other Muslims who will try to kill them for doing so ?

We must. And we will.

The time is soon coming when Mother India will expect every son and daughter of hers to do their duty. A thousand years of ignominy and shame will finally be over and a new India will emerge to carry on the bright flame of Progress and Civilization of our illustrious and glorious ancestors.

Are you ready ?

CNN Reports:

Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads

POSTED: 1:50 p.m. EST, January 18, 2007

Story Highlights

• Extremist: "In war, people die"
• Many moderates say foreign policy is to blame for growing radicalism
• Moderate says some extremists believe killing people is "quite cool"
• Imam Usama Hasan says Quran does not justify killings, religion is about peace

More on CNN TV: CNN explores terror's new breeding ground in Britain. Watch the premiere of "CNN: SIU -- The War Within," this weekend at 8 p.m. ET.

British-born extremists like Omar Brooks say they are prepared for jihad.

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is: "I come to slaughter all of you."

"We are the Muslims," said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. "We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."

Anjem Choudary, the public face of Islamist extremism in Britain, added that Muslims have no choice but to take the fight to the West.

"What are Muslims supposed to do when they are being killed in the streets in Afghanistan and Baghdad and Palestine? Do they not have the same rights to defend themselves? In war, people die. People don't make love; they kill each other," he said.

But in the same debate, held on the prestigious grounds of Dublin's Trinity College in October, many people in the crowd objected.

"These people, ladies and gentleman, have a good look at them. They actually believe if you kill women and children, you will go to heaven," said one young Muslim who waved his finger at the radicals.

"This is not ideology. It's a mental illness."

'Foreign policy has a lot to do with it'

This war of words is part of a larger debate going on in Britain -- the war within the Muslim community for the hearts and minds of young people. The battle of ideas came to the fore again this week when the trial began for six men who are accused of an "extremist Muslim plot" to target London on July 21, 2005.

The Woolwich Crown Court was told the men plotted to carry out a series of "murderous suicide bombings" on London's public transport system, just 14 days after the carnage of the July 7 London bombings, which killed 52 commuters and four bombers.

While Islamic extremists are believed to be a tiny minority of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims, they have no problem having their criticism heard. They have disdain for democracy -- and, most of all, the Bush administration's war on terror policies.

A poll taken in June 2006 for the Times of London newspaper suggested that 13 percent of British Muslims believe the July 7 London bombers were martyrs.

"Foreign policy has a lot to do with it," said Hanif Qadir, a youth worker and a moderate voice for Islam in Walthamstow, one of London's biggest Muslim neighborhoods. "But it's the minority radical groups that use that to get to our young people."

In August, British police descended on Walthamstow, saying they had foiled a conspiracy to blow up a dozen U.S.-bound airliners with liquid explosives. That set off the biggest security alert since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Police arrested 24 people in connection with the alleged terror plot, although one man was released after it was determined he was an innocent bystander.

Britain's Scotland Yard and MI5 have also said they are aware of at least 30 terrorist cells and potential plots inside Britain.

'Blowing people up is quite cool'

Young Muslims are easy prey, Qadir told CNN, because they believe the British government crackdown has scapegoated them because of their religious beliefs. The youth also can empathize with those who castigate the Bush administration.

There are some who believe "blowing people up is quite cool," Qadir said.

Qadir asked them why that was justified.

"The answers that I got back is: When a bomb goes off in Baghdad or in Afghanistan and innocent women and children are killed over there, who cares for them? So if a bomb goes off in America or in London, what's wrong with that?" he said.

Qadir is trying to get mosque leaders, many still practicing the tribal traditions of Pakistan, to communicate with the younger generation. But he says it is an uphill battle when radicals like Choudary dominate the debate, getting their faces -- and their message -- out in the public.

"Our scholars ... are not coming out of their holes -- their mosques and their holes -- to engage with these people. They're frightened of that," Qadir said.

The message of extremism can also thrive among youth who see no way out of ethnic ghettos.

"They're into all kinds of vices -- street crime, gun crime, drugs, car theft, credit card fraud. But then now you've got another threat," Qadir said.

"The new threat is radicalism. It's a cause. Every young man wants a cause."

Activist calls for Islamic law

Choudary, whose group Al-Mahajiroun disbanded before the British government could outlaw it under its anti-terror laws, spoke to CNN and made clear he wants to see Islamic law for Britain.

"All of the world belongs to Allah, and we will live according to the Sharia wherever we are," said Choudary, a lawyer. "This is a fundamental belief of the Muslims."

Asked if he believes in democracy, he said, "No, I don't at all."

"One day, the Sharia will be implemented in Britain. It's a matter of time."

Choudary cited the videotaped "will" of one of the London subway bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, who said, "Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight."

Choudary said he sides strongly with that statement -- "we have everything we need in those wills" -- and he cited passages from the Muslim holy book, the Quran, that he says justify jihad.

"I happen to be in an ideological and political war," Choudary said. "My brothers in al Qaeda and other Mujahedeen are involved in a military campaign."

While Choudary and other radicals continue to try to spread their beliefs, others say there is no justification for jihad in England. Imam Usama Hasan memorized the Quran by the time he was 11 and at 19, he briefly fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets.

"If you have the wrong intention, you can justify your criminal actions from any text -- whether it's the Quran or Bible or Shakespeare," Hasan said.

He said it makes him "furious" when radicals quote the Quran out of context to justify killing of innocents. It's a "very tiny" minority with such beliefs, he said, but "it only takes a handful, of course, to create devastation."

"Many people are terrified of Muslims. They are terrified of a brother walking down the road with his eastern dress and his hat and his beard, because they have seen these images associated with suicide bombers," he said.

"It is up to us to dispel that fear -- to smile at people to tell them that ... the message of Islam is not about bits of cloth. It is not about the beard or head scarf or the face veil or violence. It is about peace."

Mullah Omar living in Quetta, Pakistan; under ISI protection, says captured Taliban spokesman

2007-01-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

Pakistan has been playing games with the International Community on the War on Radical Islamic Terrorism. It has, from the very beginning, allowed Radical Islamic terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar to live under Pakistani Government protection. At the same time, it is taking large amounts of money, guns, missiles, and other military equipment from the US, claiming to need it to fight against Radical Islamic terror, while actually using it against India in Kashmir and against Baloch nationalist freedom fighters who have no ties fo Al Qaeda and have never committed any acts of terror against any civilians.

Both India and Afghanistan have been complaining about continuing Pakistani support to Radical Islamic terrorists attacking both India and Afghanistan. American soldiers and US military leaders have themselves gone on record saying that Pakistan is not a reliable ally in the war against Radical Islam.

Will the Civilized World keep its eyes closed about these heinous crimes Pakistan is committing in broad daylight against Indians and Afghans until Pakistan finally does something that may affect Western civilian populations directly ? Such as, give a suitcase plutonium bomb to an Al Qaeda terrorist to set off in downtown New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., or Chicago ?

The US and Western Europe played political games with India and ignored Pakistan's virulent and vicious campaign of Islamic terrorism against India for over three decades; the price to pay were the attacks of 9/11, 3/11, 7/7, and more that may come any day. Continued Western tolerance of Pakistani terrorism against India and Afghanistan will, more likely than not, lead to a similarly or even more devastatingly high price for the West in the not-too-distant future.

You are either Civilized, or against Civilization. No political games. It is too dangerous to play with fire.

Just like it was too dangerous to play political games with Hitler, as the leaders of UK, France and USA did at that time, and if they had not been very very lucky, they would have lost the war, and the world would have been a barbaric and medieval Nazist place today. The Civilized World was very very lucky that Hitler was stupid enough to let Einstein Oppenheimer and a bunch of other brilliant German Jews to escape Europe and reach America, where they built what Hitler himself had been pretty close to building first: the Atom Bomb. If Einstein and Oppenheimer had been jailed or killed in Hitler's concentration camps, America might not have made the Bomb. Then Japan might have never lost the war, and could threaten Allied Powers in US Asia and Europe. If Hitler had managed to use Einstein and Oppenheimer himself rather than kick them out of Europe (many Jews worked for Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, not knowing or not believing that Hitler was truly exterminating Jews) then Hitler might have made the Bomb first. Then Germany would have surely won the war.

It is very very dangerous to play with fire. We all know that.

The question is: will the thick-headed small-minded politicians of America and Western Europe get this simple idea into their little brains through their thick skulls in time to save the world ?

Or will they continue to focus on Muslim vote banks (like Chirac does in France with a 10% Muslim minority vote bank) and religious tolerance and political correctness (like the Liberals of USA do, blissfully ignoring the serious threats to the modern ideology of Liberalism, secularism, religious equality and tolerance posed by the ongoing rise of Radical Islam).

BBC reports:

Mullah Omar 'hiding in Pakistan'

Muhammad Hanif was seen sitting in a dimly-lit room

Taleban leader Mullah Omar is living in Pakistan under the protection of its ISI intelligence agency, a captured Taleban spokesman has said.

The spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, made the apparent confession to Afghan agents who videotaped the questioning.

Mr Hanif is seen sitting in a dimly-lit room telling agents that Mullah Omar is in the city of Quetta. Correspondents confirm the voice is his.

Mullah Omar has not been seen since 2001. Pakistan rejected the claims.

'Baseless'

Afghanistan's intelligence agency distributed copies of the video CD to journalists on Wednesday.

We have no information on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar. He is not living in Pakistan

Aftab Khan Sherpao
Pakistani Interior Minister

Although the voice is confirmed as that of Mr Hanif, the conditions under which he made his statements are not clear.

He is sitting in the video and heard speaking in a soft voice.

Asked about Mullah Omar, he says: "He lives in Quetta."

"He is protected by the ISI," Mr Hanif adds, referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made similar allegations last year.

Mullah Omar (C) and Taleban leaders are still at large

Mr Hanif also alleges that former ISI head Hamid Gul is supporting the Taleban against Afghan and foreign troops.

The ISI was instrumental in backing the Taleban after civil war swept Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989.

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told the Associated Press news agency the claim that Mullah Omar was in Quetta was "totally baseless".

"We have no information on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar. He is not living in Pakistan.

"Afghan intelligence has made contradictory statements since the arrest of this so-called spokesman of Taleban. We don't know who this person is, and from where he had been arrested."

'Anthrax'

Afghan agents say they arrested Muhammad Hanif in the eastern province of Nangarhar near the border with Pakistan on Monday.

Two others travelling with him were also apprehended.

Nangarhar Governor Gul Aghar Sherzai said he had been picked up in a house which also contained what he described as packets of anthrax powder.

He did not say if the powder found was the deadly anthrax bacteria, or how much of it there was. Local intelligence officials and police would not confirm any discovery of anthrax.

Mr Hanif has been highly active over the past year, regularly e-mailing news organisations with the Taleban's version of events in the east of the country.

A man called Qari Mohammad Yousuf has performed similar functions for the Taleban in the south.

The two men were appointed after the capture in Quetta, Pakistan, of former Taleban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi in October 2005.

The Taleban have confirmed Mr Hanif's arrest.

On Wednesday, they named a replacement, Zabihollah Mojahed, the Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

Indian nurses forced to work as slaves in Saudi Arabia

2007-01-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

The pattern of Indian women being horribly mistreated and horrifyingly exploited in primitive and uncivilized Saudi Arabia seems never-ending.

Most people don't know much about Saudi Arabia. It is a land of Bedouins who never made any cultural or scientific achievements: like discovering the idea of building a house, write a book, poetry, compose music, understand the theories of economics, politics, mathematics, science or technology, how to treat people of other religions with decency and respect, or how to treat women in a civilized manner. They are a primitive and uncivilized race that suddenly found out that it was sitting on the world's largest deposits of oil in the 1950's. And they got very very rich, without ever having worked hard for a day in their lives, unlike people from the other Great Civilizations of the world like the Europeans, Persians, Chinese, and Indians, who all made great progress in architecture, music, literature, poetry, science, technology, politics, economics, religion, law, etc, and whose people have a long history of hard work, and whose cultures have a long-held and deeply-ingrained respect for knowledge, hard work, and education.

Not a single Saudi does any useful work. They all get oil money from the Saudi Government. So they sit in their harems and try out newer and newer ideas of mistreating women and decadent twisted sexual "adventures". The idle mind is the Devil's workshop.

All their work, from low-tech housemaids' work to the high-tech engineering, is done by people from other countries, mostly from India. Paid for with oil money.

The Saudis, like other oil-rich Bedouin countries in the Middle East, are still in the medieval slave-trading mentality of the 14th Century. Poor hard-working people from India who are attracted by promises of high salaries are the easiest to victimize.

The Times of India reports:

Indian nurses forced to continue working
Nilanjana Bhaduri Jha
[17 Jan, 2007 1736hrs ISTINDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK]

NEW DELHI: Slaves. Archaic and other-worldly as the word sounds, it best describes the current state of a number of Indian nurses working in Saudi Arabia, struggling to return to India but being held back against their wishes.

Simply put, the women want to come back home but are not being allowed to. The Gulf dream in their eyes, these nurses went on a three-year work contract with the Saudi Ministry of Health.

The contracts expired in December 2006, but they are now being forced to continue working despite the fact that they have pleaded that they do not want to renew their employment.

The nurses had been placed in hospitals run by the Saudi Ministry of Health in Rumah, Tumair, Sajer and Al Nafy under the sponsorship of Nukhba House Medical Services Company, a Riyadh-based firm.

The grounds for holding them back: That the company has a contract with the Saudi Ministry of Health. The project at the hospitals has been extended and so has been the company’s contract with the ministry.

The sponsor is now shrugging off responsibility, conveying that the Saudi “health ministry has insisted that the same work force should continue till finalisation of the project,” the Indian Embassy has said in a status report to the Indian government.

As of now there is no word on the legality of the nurses’ stay in Saudi Arabia post-December. The Indian government fears that the nurses, already much exploited during the period of their contract, will be even more vulnerable to abuse now with their contracts lapsed.

The last three years have been an agonising experience for them. They were not allowed to come back home on vacation in all this time, the company defaulted on salaries on several occasions and now this.

The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has repeatedly taken the matter up with the government there. Among other measures, through the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then through a plaintive letter written by the Indian Ambassador M O H Farook to the Saudi Minister of Labour and the Governor of Riyadh seeking their personal intervention in the case.

In his letter, the Ambassador has drawn the attention of the Saudi authorities to the exploitation of the nurses. He has exhorted the Saudis to resolve the issue expeditiously, invoking the principles of natural justice, pleading that it is inhuman to compel female employees to work against their wishes, even after the expiry of their contracts, and that the need to rejoin their families in their native places is even more crucial in the case of female workers.

At the recently-concluded Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here, delegates from the Gulf complained of unhealthy working conditions, poor pay, stringent labour laws, language problems et al, making a special mention of Saudi Arabia.

Indian workers there lived in “labour-camp-like environments” and often had to face hostile employers or sponsors, who held up their passports, Balachandran Nair, General Convener, Non-Resident Keralites Welfare Association in Saudi Arabia told Timesofindia.com.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, who is looking into the matter, says, “These nurses and other workers go through agents or touts, who send them to the sponsors. Then they get exploited,” adding that redressal of the problems faced abroad by Indian workers is a priority with his ministry.

The minister signed an agreement last month with the UAE labour ministry to ensure a better deal for Indian workers there. The agreement, which he hopes to sign with all other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, envisages ensuring that all contracts are implemented in toto, without reduction in wages or living conditions deteriorating. It also states that the workers will not be forced to sign any further agreements on the terms and conditions of their employment once they are in that country.