tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46967469113188947862024-03-15T00:33:36.562-07:00Amar BharatWo Chahte Hain Jaage Na Koiiiii, Ye Raat Ye Andhakar Chale Har Koi Bhatakta Rahe Yunhi, Aur Desh Yunhi Lachar Chaleamarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.comBlogger1369125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-29574241272308913192016-10-22T23:21:00.002-07:002016-10-22T23:22:53.634-07:00Report on Kaligram Muharrum riot, October 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>The report has been prepared using eye-witness accounts by social worker and technologist Bhaswar Goswami, who hails from Kaligram village and is currently working in Bengaluru.</i></span></span></div>
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Arial, Verdana, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.4px;">Durga Puja is a time for celebration, Aradhana of ‘Naari Sakti’ and a way to worship mata for the emancipation of the individuals and the upliftment of the society in Bengal. It is a time when every household buys new cloths, gifts them to family and friends and celebrate the occasion with full merriment everywhere in rural and urban Bengal. But, the same is not true for the villagers of Kaligram, which is about 75 kilometers from the town of Malda in Bengal (location on the map).</i></div>
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Arial, Verdana, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.4px;">This culturally rich and educated village has not known a peaceful Durga puja for at least three decades. Every year, Durga puja is accompanied by the horrors of Muslim oppression and aggression committed in the name of Muharrum celebration. This is especially true when both the festivals fall on the same day or close to each other. Each time, the Muslim procession used to cross this Hindu village, it wreaked havoc in the otherwise peaceful village. In 2015, the village saw gruesome Muslim violence [Read here]. This year the same has repeated again.</i></div>
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Arial, Verdana, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.4px;">Even before the Puja started, as the villagers of Kaligram prepared with joy and devotion for the celebration, there was a fear among the Hindu households about the possibility of Muslim disruption and the flare up of communal tension, since Muharrum coincided with Durga Puja. Local administration had issued multiple discriminatory orders like ‘Hindus cannot play music while Muharrum is underway’, ‘immersion of Durga Idols cannot be done as per practice on certain days’, etc. These orders, though discriminatory were silently accepted by the Hindu villagers in order to maintain communal harmony. Yet, despite this compromise by the local Hindu community, Muslim mob attacked the village on the evening of October 14 and inflicted huge damage to Hindu lives and property.</i></div>
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<i style="color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Arial, Verdana, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.4px;">Here is a chronological account of the incidence:</i></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>13th October, night around 9 PM: Hindus were busy taking their Durga Idol immersion procession through the village, as per Police guidance. Same night Muslims were celebrating what they call ‘Basi karbala’, a specific type of violent celebration for Muharrum practiced in Bengal.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>13th October, night around 10 PM: While immersion procession was passing through the village as per prior schedule, Hindus got to know that local police led by IC Chanchal PS, had diverted ‘Basi karbala’ procession with thousands of Muslims brandishing swords, lathis and other sharp weapons. This was a clear deviation from the 24 years old court settlement that mandated no ‘Basi karbala’ procession to be allowed to pass through the village for ensuring safety and security of the Hindu life.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>13th October, night around 11 PM: Hindus protested to the police and in return got flak from the IC Police. Moreover, Hindu women were insulted by the police administration.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, early morning around 12 AM: Fearing the dire consequences of ‘Basi karbala’ procession passing through the village, Hindus decided to block the road by keeping Durga Idol and not to carry on with the immersion. This made the Muslims to change their mind and divert the ‘Basi karbala’ procession through outer roads.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, early morning, around 4 AM: Malda police administration reached Kaligram with armed police and forced the villagers to take the Durga Idol for immersion. Villagers agreed.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, early morning, around 5 AM: While most of the villagers were busy doing the immersion of their mata with heavy heart, police asked 8 Hindu youth leaders (Ratan Das, Siddharta Nandi, Suman Guha, Manish Sarkar, Gopesh Sarkar, Ajit Pramanik, Ramkrishna Das, and Advocate Himadri Das) to accompany them to police station Chanchal in order to have some discussion. After taking them to the police station, all were arrested, though they had committed no wrongs.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, morning, around 7 AM: News about the arrest of the either people spread through the Village men and women decided to do ‘gherao’ of Chanchal police station in protest of the arrest.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, evening, around 5 PM: Finally, giving in to the demands of the villagers SDPO apologized to the people and released the arrested eight Hindu youth leaders without any condition.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>14th October, night, around 10 PM: Muslim mob gathered around the village with country made bombs, pistols, pipe guns, swords, lathis and other ammunitions, and started to loot and burn the houses. Rapid Action Force (RAF), which was deployed at the place came under attack as well. Two Police personnel got severely injured and the RAF men ran away leaving the villagers completely unguarded. Villagers called up Malda District administration in desperation, but the calls were unanswered.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>15th October, around 5 PM: District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and other officials from the administration reached Kaligram with huge police force, but by then, the mob, which had already inflicted heavy damage to the Hindu property and human life, had run away. Around 50 houses looted and burnt to ashes. Two cars and one truck were also burnt. One jewelry shop & two grocery shops were looted. Cattles were taken away. Hindu women were molested. Three Hindu temples were vandalized beyond repair and their idols Hundreds of Hindus were left homeless and lost their life savings.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>Now, that the Section 144 has been imposed by the administration and the central armed forces are patrolling the village, there is a temporary relief to the Hindu villagers. In the last five days, a bustling village has turned into a riot hit desert, with hundreds becoming homeless, including children and many infants, who are now living in other’s homes and consuming community food. No relief or compensation has been provided by the administration till now.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "pt" serif , "arial" , "verdana" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.4px;"><i>Villagers are running pillars to post in order to file FIRs and looking for ways to bring the issue to the attention of the entire nation, while there are attempts in the local media to suppress the incident in the name of maintaining communal harmony and the administration has chosen to remain a mute spectator.</i></span></span></div>
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Here are three video clips showing the damage to Hindu property in the attacks.</div>
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<a href="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WhatsApp-Video-2016-10-16-at-09.43.39.mp4" style="color: black;">Video 1</a></div>
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<a href="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WhatsApp-Video-2016-10-16-at-09.43.55.mp4" style="color: black;">Video 2</a></div>
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<a href="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WhatsApp-Video-2016-10-16-at-09.47.05.mp4" style="color: black;">Video 3</a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://indiafacts.org/report-kaligram-muharrum-riot-october-2016/" target="_blank">indiafacts</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-50941049005110078062016-10-08T10:08:00.000-07:002016-10-08T10:10:12.641-07:00Arvind Kejriwal: The Reckoning, Spying, splurge, nepotism and more from the secret core of the Kejriwal regime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Spying, splurge, nepotism and more from the secret core of the Kejriwal regime</div>
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SCHOLARS SUGGEST THAT the late US President Richard Nixon, he of the Watergate scandal who had at the height of the 1971 Bangladesh War described Mrs Indira Gandhi as a ‘witch’ and worse, often found it difficult to tell the profane and the sacred apart, consumed as he was by avarice for power and a pathological need to keep tabs on rivals. Faced with opposition within the White House to the use of wiretaps and break-ins to guard his political interests—which he euphemistically referred to as ‘national security concerns’—he once roared, “I mean I want it implemented on a thievery basis. Goddamn it, get in there and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.” Snooping on political opponents for a professed lofty goal would later cost him the presidency. The Watergate scandal—he had got the Democratic National Committee office in a hotel by that name bugged—forced him to resign in 1974.</div>
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Though Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may seem to share rather few traits with Nixon, who liked to rant, swear and slur in private and sometimes in public, many of those who work closely with him report a temperament just as high-strung and melodramatic. In his book, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Crown Prince, The Gladiator and The Hope</em>, his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colleague Ashutosh recounts that under fire in 2014 from former colleagues such as Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan for his alleged engendering of a personality cult, Kejriwal became uncontrollably sentimental. ‘He started to say something, but could not complete. He broke down and as tears fell unheeded, he crumbled to the floor,’ notes Ashutosh in the book. Biographies and declassified tapes and papers on Nixon underline the high drama and emotion—for effect or otherwise— that characterised almost every moment of his. And now, documents of the Delhi government to which<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em> has gained exclusive access show that Kejriwal may resemble the tainted Republican President even more closely than meets the common eye.</div>
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As soon as the IIT-educated former RTI activist returned to power in early 2015 with a brute majority in the Delhi Assembly, it emerges that he began to put together a team that comprised serving and retired officials of the Enforcement Directorate, Police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other agencies, and offered them secret funds, perhaps with the intent to run a body of sleuths that would work in parallel with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Shockingly, this effort was kept under wraps and made without securing the required approval of the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Delhi.</div>
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Nixon’s fate was sealed by a smoking gun in the form of transcripts of a recorded phone call to his Chief of Staff. Such glaring evidence of impropriety may still be elusive in the case closer home, but the documents smack of malfeasance and bring to light the unseemly extent to which the Delhi government went to install a Nixonian secret service division that would be under the control of just one man: Kejriwal.</div>
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It all started with a Delhi government cabinet decision on 1 April 2015 to strengthen the ACB by creating 259 new posts to add to the existing 116, and by bestowing greater powers on a few senior officers. The meeting also proposed raising the secret service fund from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh and hiring technical experts from the accounts, income tax, engineering, legal and revenues departments. The grand plan also envisaged the procurement of 68 vehicles, 70 mobile phones with accessories, 75 computers and 22 printers, apart from other durables, besides high-end equipment for data and research analysis and surveillance and monitoring purposes.</div>
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At another cabinet meeting, held on 29 September 2015, a proposal for the creation of a new unit—a feedback division of sorts—under the Directorate of Vigilance (under which the ACB operates) was discussed and immediately approved. The new division, known only to the grandees of Delhi’s AAP government, was aimed at firming up its vigilance department. The cabinet note said: ‘A need has been felt to improve the monitoring mechanism of activities of various departments in vigilance related matters. Therefore, a unit may be created in the Directorate of Vigilance, Government of NCT of Delhi, manned by serving as well as retired personnel to gather relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of the departments/autonomous bodies/institutions/entities, etc, falling under the jurisdiction of Government of NCT of Delhi and also to do trap cases.’</div>
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According to officials in the know, this ‘feedback’ unit of some 20 odd people has been functional since February this year. More people, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em> learns, were hired later. The chief secretary, who is also the chief vigilance officer of the government, has been kept in the dark about its functioning. The exact nature of this unit— consisting of hardnosed intelligence officers loyal to AAP—be it their performance parameters, reporting structure and so on, have not been officially defined. </div>
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According to officials that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em> spoke to, the office of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung discovered the unit’s existence only as late as August. Evidently, the cabinet decision to create such a unit had not been approved— as required—by the L-G, and in the process, the ruling party has come under sharp attack by bureaucrats for reportedly eavesdropping on them and others with <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">mala fide</em> intentions. Arvind Kejriwal didn’t respond to queries emailed to him by <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em>.</div>
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Amid cries of intrigue and deviation from long-held governmental norms, the Kejriwal government also approved the setting up of a ‘creative’ unit to offer consultancy services on infrastructure and other projects for a period of two years. The members of this group were hired through a Delhi-based human resources firm, Soni Detective & Allied Services Pvt Ltd, which, ironically, has experience mostly in supplying semi-skilled and unskilled manpower to companies rather than highly skilled consultants to Delhi’s Public Works Department (PWD). Strangely, salaries for members of this team were to come from funds set aside for the ambitious third-phase of the Barapullah elevated corridor project—in flagrant violation of norms. “For a government that often hit out at the Central Government for harbouring a hidden agenda against it, the AAP dispensation has remained largely opaque in several of its activities, as these projects confirm. My complaint is that the L-G is not being aggressive enough in reining in these kind of activities. The Centre also should investigate this,” says a senior Delhi government official asking not to be named for fear of being victimised.</div>
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Transparency in governance, the fight against corruption and the interests of the common man have been the three vital parts of AAP’s poll manifestos. In Delhi, the party won two Assembly elections in less than two years, the second victory being one of India’s most resounding ever. The party was voted to power by people who were roused by Kejriwal’s pro-poor image and call to overthrow a political system dominated by the Congress and BJP. The AAP also made possible a near impossibility in traditional Indian politics: it drastically lowered old entry barriers to parliamentary politics that had been raised over the decades by parties that tended to handpick poll contestants either from prominent families or party cadres. There was a time that pundits would compare the BJP-Congress dominated political field to Bollywood, where actors from non-film families rarely make it big.</div>
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The new party, created by Kejriwal and others after they snapped ties with the anti-graft Anna Hazare movement in late 2012, shot to instant fame on the promise of ushering in an entirely new political climate. It offered to make a new beginning, with politicians back to behaving like commoners instead of the dynasts that the country had got used to. Its genesis as a party of values only compounds the embarrassment it seems to have in store. The generous would put it down to the old saying that power corrupts. Others would say they suspected something rotten all along.</div>
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ALREADY, AAP’S PUBLIC image has been sullied by a raft of criminal cases against its leaders, including elected representatives, some of whom have been sacked by the Delhi government. Closer scrutiny only worsens matters for it. Documents in possession of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em> confirm that AAP leaders do not always practice the austerity they so loudly preach. Take the party thrown by the Delhi government to celebrate its second anniversary at the Chief Minister’s official residence. It presented guests with an embarrassment of riches on the menu. At the twin events organised on 11 and 12 February at the Chief Minister’s home, catering arrangements were made by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC), which got Taj Palace Hotel to lay out a lavish spread. For all the Gandhian ways the party brandishes like medallions, the cost of the buffets were billed at a monstrously steep Rs 12,000 per plate. This is far in excess of the ceiling for state-borne expenses for such functions. The maximum permissible amount the government can spend is Rs 2,500 per plate for dinners hosted in five-star and other luxury hotels, with an overall ceiling of Rs 4.5 lakh per event. DTTDC was later asked to offer discounts and raise a new bill. The first bill was Rs 11.04 lakh for twin lunches. The revised bill totalled Rs 9.9 lakh.</div>
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On 6 August 2015, Dr Nikunj Aggarwal sent a handwritten letter addressed to the director of the state-run Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya (CNBC). The subject of the letter was: ‘Request for application for post of S-R orthopedics’, S-R being short for ‘senior resident’. Written lazily and with scant respect for English grammar and punctuation, the letter said: ‘With due respect I. Dr Nikunj Aggarwal DNB orthopedics requesting you to consider my request for the post of SR orthopedics in your esteem instituition. So please kindly consider my request and …. Enclosing a copy of C.V here with. Yours faithfully Dr Nikunj Aggarwal.’</div>
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The CNBC issued an appointment order four days later, though there was no vacancy for the post in the hospital. Less than a month later, on 4 September 2015, he was named Officer on Special Duty to Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain, who, incidentally, is also Delhi’s PWD minister. Aggarwal was appointed to the post on the request of Jain. Why should a CNBC employee under contract be made OSD to the health minister so arbitrarily when there are several other officers of the Delhi government who could fulfil the demands of the role? The answer is simple. Aggarwal is unlike any other candidate: he is the son-in-law of Kejriwal’s sister-in-law.</div>
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If Aggarwal had a privileged stint at CNBC, he fared better in the ministry. He has been granted four extensions so far. While he was a contractual employee, the health minister nominated him for a management development programme for senior healthcare officials at IIM Ahmedabad at a fee of Rs 1.15 lakh (from 20 June to 25 June), though he was not entitled to participate in such courses under the hospital’s rules. Aggarwal also accompanied a group of state officers, architects and doctors on a visit to China, prompting charges of nepotism and financial impropriety.</div>
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Meanwhile, the Delhi government also hired scores of security guards—at high salaries—in state-run hospitals, arguing that doctors have lately been vulnerable to attacks by angry relatives of patients whose lives could not be saved, among other such odd reasons. The administration didn’t follow the standard tender- floating process for such appointments. Given the opacity, critics have reason to suspect a hidden plan to accommodate party workers in such jobs.</div>
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In a striking oversight of all norms on conflict-of-interest, the three security agencies that bagged the contract—Knightwatch, Innovision and SIS India—were also the ones that were asked to carry out surveys of the requirement of security staff in select hospitals in the national capital and submit a report on the extra workforce needed. In another departure from norm, only these three agencies were called for a meeting convened by Delhi’s Health and Family Welfare Department to solicit security proposals.</div>
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The pay scales for the new guards were decided unanimously by these agencies, and this, without citing the wage proposals made by rival agencies. The trio also included a bonus of 8.33 per cent and a gratuity of 4.81 per cent of the basic minimum wage in the rates quoted, though such benefits are usually given to staff members only after at least six months of service at a state-run institution.</div>
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Delhi’s AAP government has left no stone unturned in trying to reach out to people at large through various means, especially in states where it senses prospects of power. As part of a campaign launched in July titled ‘Talk to AK’, which features interactive sessions with the Chief Minister, citizens across the country are being invited to ask Kejriwal questions over the phone, via text messages or social media platforms. It is no coincidence that this campaign comes at a time when AAP is gearing up for Assembly polls in such states as Goa, Punjab and Gujarat.</div>
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However, the public relations agency that is advising the party’s top leaders—including Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia—has run into trouble over violation of contractual obligations. Much to the embarrassment of the government, Perfect Relations, which was awarded a consultancy contract by Delhi’s Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) on the social media campaign conceived by the Chief Minister and his team, is in a tight spot for ‘using confidential information for private gains’, according to a document procured by <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em>. At first, the PR agency had submitted a proposal for a digital advertising campaign on Facebook, YouTube and Google Hangout. After submitting an initial proposal to DIP on 6 July 2016, Perfect Relations later revised its offer, agreeing to forgo its agency fee of 12 per cent of the Rs 1.58 crore project but instead proposing to execute the plan on its own. Officials have noted that Perfect Relations did this despite being aware of the obvious conflict-of-interest involved in appointing itself the beneficiary of its own recommendation. A document states that ‘Secretary, DIP, and Special Secretary (Finance) were sternly counselled on their overlooking this evident first principle conflict of interest in this proposal. This is deeply regretted as non-assessment of the proposal on this count may have blindsided the Honourable Deputy chief minister in agreeing to this proposal.’ The DIP has now been asked by the private secretary, finance, to put out a new call for proposal submissions to enlist a new communications consultant. Payment to Perfect Relations is now kept on hold.</div>
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Simplicity in personal life and probity in public life are the core values that AAP leaders have sworn to uphold. Most of them are of humble origin and this lent them an aura of credibility when they spoke of being <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">aam</em> people along the campaign trail. The trappings of power, however, seem to have put paid to all that.</div>
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Consider the criticism levelled by the opposition against Sisodia for spending time abroad while Delhi was grappling with public health scares following a fresh outbreak of vector-borne diseases such as Chikungunya. L-G Najeeb Jung reportedly summoned Sisodia last month back from Finland to manage a public health crisis with hospitals struggling to accommodate patients. Kejriwal had been away for treatment in Benguluru at the time.</div>
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The frequent foreign trips of Sisodia and Satyendra Jain have not escaped the notice of people and doubts have arisen over their need. Documents reveal that Sisodia, who was on a trip to Brazil with a four-member entourage to attend a conference from 11 to 16 August last year, included in his itinerary Iguazu Falls in neighbouring Argentina without obtaining the approvals required by protocol. This led to the state incurring an additional cost of more than Rs 29 lakh, including transfer charges. The paper trail of Sisodia’s Brazil trip shows that the minister flouted Delhi’s prevailing austerity measures even before he departed by including non-specialists (and only one academic) in his contingent. He also opted to travel business class on KLM instead of Air India.</div>
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IN SEPTEMBER 2015, Sisodia visited Australia and New Zealand, again travelling business class on Singapore Airlines instead of Air India. Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister also went on tour to London from 17 March to 20 March this year. This was to participate in a one-day conference to which he was invited by the student union of London School of Economics. He travelled with his secretary on government expense. “The fact is none of these trips are essentially official and are of no particular use to the people of Delhi. They are as good as personal trips,” says a senior Delhi government official who asks not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.</div>
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From 30 May to 3 June this year, Sisodia visited Berlin to attend the German Habitat Forum. Documents say that no mandatory cadre clearances were obtained for the two officers who accompanied him on the trip. Besides, these visits were made without the required permission of the Lieutenant Governor.</div>
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Satyendra Jain has proven an avid globe-trotter as well. From 12-15 March 2016, he was on a trip to Malaysia to ‘study’ a rapid transport corridor (BRT Sunway Line) in that country along with a five-member team. He flew business class. Asked to reduce the size of his delegation by the Centre, he chose to drop a subject expert.</div>
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Jain also went on a ‘study visit’ to Stockholm from 25-29 October on a casual invitation made by the Swedish envoy to New Delhi. The 11-member delegation included an attendant of Delhi’s Transport Minister Gopal Rai. Both the ministers travelled first class. Jain and some others also undertook a ‘study’ visit to the UK without technical experts. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Open</em> contacted the office of the L-G for comments, unsuccessfully.</div>
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Admittedly, the amounts appropriated by AAP ministers and their hangers-on are minuscule compared with what has come to light in corruption scandals involving other political parties. But as the second official says, “It is usual for political leaders to travel abroad whenever there is an opportunity. However, these are leaders who have come to power hardselling Gandhian values over the excesses of others. That these people are also easily being co-opted by the system is unfortunate.”</div>
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Kejriwal would do well to remember the late US President John Adams’ dictum on the corrosive effects of being in authority: since power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. Richard Nixon discovered this too late.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cover-story/arvind-kejriwal-the-reckoning" target="_blank">openthemagazine</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-71734993152118398492016-09-28T06:28:00.001-07:002016-09-28T06:28:29.717-07:00After OpIndia report, NDTV withdraws Sagarmala petition. Read why.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="post-info-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 12.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Posted on</span> <span class="post-date updated" style="border: 0px; font-size: 12.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">September 19, 2016</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;">On the 7th of September, our columnist</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/muglikar_" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 24.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;">Ashutosh Muglikar</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;">had</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;"> </span><a href="http://www.opindia.com/2016/09/ndtv-stops-sagarmala-project-from-making-losses-for-shareholders-to-making-losses-for-india/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 24.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;">revealed </a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 24.8px;">a dark secret of NDTV. An organisation which was claiming to be a media house, and slowly slithered into the dangerous territory of becoming an NGO which is blocking India’s developmental leap. The matter was largely unrpeorted by media for a long time, and we highlighted this.</span></div>
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</header><div class="post-14417 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news-analysis tag-anti-development tag-featured tag-ndtv tag-ngt tag-petition tag-sagarmala tag-shipping-ministry tag-withdraws" id="content-area" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 30px 34.875px; position: relative; transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 765.219px;">
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NDTV, a media company, filed a petition before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) making a “Direct Attack” on the Modi Government’s Sagar Mala plans. An Analysis of the proceedings together with news <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/ndtv-shores-up-support-to-save-india-s-coastline-116083100762_1.html" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;">items </a>threw some interesting details. NDTV in its petition has prayed for:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“stopping of work” on all new ports as an interim measure,</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“civil and criminal action” be taken against authorities, governments and private companies</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">formulation of a “national coastal policy”</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">creation of a restoration fund</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cumulative environmental, economic and social impact assessment</li>
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We asked some pertinent questions on this matter:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How does a media company become an expert on environmental issues?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On what basis did NDTV conclude that Governments deserve civil and criminal action for their “neglect, over-sight, and complicit actions”?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Did NDTV submit any “reports” from “experts” to back their claims?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Has NDTV challenged the Environmental impact assessment” as done by ministries?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is NGT empowered to direct formulation of “coastal policies”?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is NDTV’s demand for a blanket scrapping of the Sagarmala projects justified? Or does it reek of some obstructionist tactic?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How is NDTV “empowered” under its Memorandum and Articles of Association” to take up “environmental issues”? A quick analysis of the Memorandum of Association of NDTV shows they have a vague power under Clause 3 (B) (32) to investigate value of any “asset” but it is still not clear if they can file a case or not.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Are all the shareholders of the company aware of these antics of NDTV, which is clearly drifting away from its stated goals of being a media house?</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Any spend on legal and other fees on an activity which NDTV is basically not supposed to indulge in, is justified?<br />Does NDTV itself being embroiled in numerous tax scandals, have the moral right to be pontificating on other issues?</li>
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The only tenuous link of a media company like NDTV to this NGO-esque action could have been their 2011 “Save The Coast” campaign which “highlighted” how developmental activities are hazardous to India’s coastline. But most of the above questions were extremely valid.</div>
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Now, on 16th September 2016, within 2 weeks of our scathing report, NDTV took a <a href="http://www.greentribunal.gov.in/Writereaddata/Downloads/404-2015(PB-I)OA16-9-2016.pdf" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;">U-Turn. </a> According to the order passed by the NGT, NDTV had filed an application to withdraw the petition.</div>
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<a href="http://i1.wp.com/www.opindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NGT-NDTV.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ngt-ndtv" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-14418" height="454" sizes="(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" src="http://i1.wp.com/www.opindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NGT-NDTV.jpg?resize=724%2C534" srcset="http://i1.wp.com/www.opindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NGT-NDTV.jpg?w=724 724w, http://i1.wp.com/www.opindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NGT-NDTV.jpg?resize=300%2C221 300w" style="backface-visibility: hidden; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="615" /></a></div>
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What made NDTV change this stance suddenly? The stated reason is:</div>
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Applicant wishes to withdraw this Application with liberty to file a fresh Application after averring proper facts, grounds and relief that would squarely fall within the ambit and scope to Section 14 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010</div>
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NDTV claims that they now wish to withdraw the application, keeping a window open to file a fresh petition after verifying the facts and ensuring that the matter would fall within the ambit of NGT. So even if we go by this stated reason, does it mean NDTV had not in fact studied the facts before filing this application? Which means it was a premature move? Is this how they practice their journalism too? Writing reports and opinions before studying facts?This was one of the points we had raised in our original article revealing this petition.</div>
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The Sagarmala project was at a stage of infancy when NDTV went for the petition. Worse, they demanded a blanket scrapping of all the sub-projects on a flimsy ground. The Government had not even put out detailed plans. How and why had NDTV felt the urgent need to stall this project at such an early stage? This much they have admitted themselves that they had not done a thorough study. So what was the motive?</div>
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These are the stated reasons. The unstated reasons could well be legal and market driven. As mentioned in our questions, it was unclear whether NDTV’s Memorandum and Articles of Association empowered it to get into NGO mode. A violation of a company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association is a serious issue.</div>
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Secondly, as we had asked earlier, were the shareholders of NDTV, a public company, taken into confidence before NDTV departed from its publicly known business? Did any major shareholders apply pressure of NDTV to stop this anti-development petition once our report exposed NDTV?</div>
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Thirdly, the Sagarmala project will benefit practically every industry in India, and in turn Indians. Large corporates are also major sponsors of NDTV’s advertisements and various events. Did such corporates turn the screw on the loss-ridden NDTV and force their hand?</div>
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Whatever may be the reason, we must continue to remain vigilant. NDTV has kept the door open to come back and threaten Sagarmala again. Whether it is a face-saving escape route or a statement of intent is yet to be seen. But givens NDTV’s track record of being anti-India on many occasions, one cannot sleep in peace.</div>
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<a href="http://www.opindia.com/2016/09/after-opindia-report-ndtv-withdraws-sagarmala-petition-read-why/" target="_blank">opindia</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-7647838283955790902016-09-22T23:25:00.000-07:002016-09-22T23:25:43.890-07:00The Ideology of Exodus – The Fleeing of Hindus from Kairana<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Tufail Ahmad, New Age Islam</b></div>
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On June 9, it emerged that an exodus of Hindus has been taking place over the past two years from the predominantly Muslim town of Kairana, situated just 124 kilometres from India's national capital of New Delhi. Hukum Singh, an MP from the Kairana parliamentary constituency, has produced a list of 346 families which were forced to flee Kairana, leaving behind their homes and businesses. The immediate reasons for the exodus include extortions, murders, targeted attacks and other forms of banditry. Though these appear as acts of crime, the important point is that all of the fleeing families are Hindus.</div>
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According to a report by Zee News, which brought the issue before the nation, the town of Kairana had 30 percent Hindus and 68 percent Muslim population as per 2011 census. However, the Hindu population has declined to eight percent in 2016 while the Muslim population has risen to 92 percent from 68 percent in just about six years, as estimated by local officials. Kairana is not an isolated case. There are areas in India which are called "mini Pakistan" – not by Hindus. A Muslim locality I visited in India a few years ago, a highly educated Muslim youth told me proudly, "This area is mini Pakistan." I turned to him and asked, "Is it something good for Indian Muslims?" As realisation fell upon him, he became silent. The religious nature of the exodus from Kairana fits similar patterns of forced migrations in history.</div>
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Health of societies is defined by movement of ideas. Ideas travel across time and territories through wars, technologies and globalisation. The consequences of ideas do not register on human minds because these take place over long periods of history, often across several lifetimes. Let's explain it this way: if we lived for 200 years and more, our minds would be better equipped to grasp how the society in which we were born has changed over the course of two centuries. Since our lifespan is on an average just about 80-90 years, our mind fails to grasp the movement of ideas occurring over the course of several centuries. In the 7th century, a movement of ideas began from Mecca as a consequence of which there are no Jews in Saudi Arabia today.</div>
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This movement of ideas reached Iran as a result of which today there are no Zoroastrians in Iran, originally their homeland. In the 12th century, this movement of ideas arrived in the Indian Subcontinent as a consequence of which there are no Hindus in Balochistan, there are no Hindus in Afghanistan, there are no Hindus in Pakistan, there are no Sikhs in Lahore which was a Sikh metropolis till recently. In 1947, it took a piece of ours away from us. In the 1990s, in our lifetime, Hindu Pandits were forced to flee from Kashmir. This historical template fits the exodus of Hindu families from Kairana. There are concerns that similar patterns of exclusion are happening in Malda and parts of Assam.A senior police officer who toured Malda recently tells me that cops are being treated as thugs and criminals.</div>
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As per this historical template, this movement of ideas makes it extremely difficult for non-Muslims to live in lands where the Muslim population rises to become dominant. The defining traits of this movement of ideas are: exclusion, intimidation, persecution, conversion and forced migration. For example, not a week passes when a Hindu girl is not abducted and forcibly converted in Pakistan's Sindh province. Forced conversion of Hindu girls in Sindh, sometimes carried out in order to occupy their land, is considered a pious work. The case of Bangladesh is no different where Hindus are being persecuted and systematically murdered.</div>
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But there are counterfeit liberal editors who give examples of Hindu-Muslim unity. Such examples are isolated acts of humanism, not outstanding patterns of communal behaviour that can be described as features of modern civilisation. Exclusionary religions counter pluralism. On Twitter, senior journalist R. Jagannathan tells me that religions need not change, but their adherents must change in support of pluralism. Like Islam, Christianity, being a monotheistic religion, is also exclusionary but its adherents have changed liberally, notably in America and Europe. In the United States, Christians allow their churches to be used by Muslims for Friday prayer, sometimes for a fee. However, Muslims will never allow their mosques to be used by Hindus for any ritual.</div>
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Contrast this with a common scene in the inner circle of New Delhi's Connaught Place where Hindus make way to allow Muslims to offer weekly Friday prayers on public property. The best example of exclusionary practices rooted in religion can be given from the activities of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. While we see many Hindus defending Muslim riot victims in Gujarat and many others parts of India, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind tracks riot victims and innocents lodged in prisons, and ensures first that they are believers of Islam before taking up their cases. If Hindus were to do the same before helping riots victims, they will be called bigots.</div>
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It will be against the historical template of this exclusionary practice to argue that cases like the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir and Kairana will not happen again. Currently, this exclusionary practice is enabled by the Indian state. For example, the rationale of the Indian state demands that Kamlesh Tiwari, the Hindu man held for derogatory remark against Prophet Muhammad, be arrested. Although India does not have Islam's blasphemy law, practically it enforces the blasphemy laws prevalent in other Muslim countries. For example, Kamlesh Tiwari has been languishing in prison under the National Security Act (NSA) without any court hearing. Tiwari's detention is a blot on the face of the Indian republic, as most democracies today do not allow any person, not even a terrorist, to be in imprison without charge.</div>
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Contrast this behaviour of the Indian state towards Kamlesh Tiwari with its behaviour towards a set of Islamic clerics led by Maulana Anwarul Haq Sadiq of Bijnor who went in public, on Indian television, to announce a reward of 51 lakh rupees for anyone who could behead Tiwari whether in prison or outside. All of these clerics are free because the rationale of the Indian state demands that Muslim thugs will not be arrested while any Hindu can be arrested for bad behaviour. I have also been reliably informed that Tiwari's arrest enjoys the support of the Home Minister of India Shri Rajnath Singh. At issue is not Rajnath Singh but the historical template that has become the rationale of the Indian state. This rationale demands that the president of India organise Iftar parties every year at the expense of the taxpayer while not organising religious events of other religions.</div>
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Until this rationale of the Indian state is defeated electorally, politically and constitutionally, please prepare for this historical template to reproduce more examples like Kairana. The question is also this: what can the Indian state do? It will be too much to expect from the current centre-right government in New Delhi. Much like the Congress governments practised secularism and quota politics, the current centre-right government believes in giving Muslims Sufism – not mathematics, economics and physics to Muslim girls from grade one through 12. This outstanding rationale of the Indian republic must be countered so that India becomes an authentic republic with zero tolerance for anyone who breaks law.</div>
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For India to establish itself as a Great Power, the rule of law is the only hope. Currently, the rule of law is routinely mauled by cops who rob poor thela walas for a weekly extortion of ten rupees. Therefore, cops are morally incompetent to secure the Indian republic for our future generations. Here is also something to do: India could invest $100 billion and more in upgrading the last-mile police stations and get foreigners to train cops in professionalism, due process and honesty.</div>
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<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tufail Ahmad is author of "Jihadist Threat to India – The Case for Islamic Reformation by an Indian Muslim."</i></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman, Times, serif, asunaskh;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Source: <a href="http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/tufail-ahmad,-new-age-islam/the-ideology-of-exodus-%E2%80%93-the-fleeing-of-hindus-from-kairana/d/107606" target="_blank">newageislam</a></span></span></div>
amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-89773010833592056222016-09-22T08:54:00.000-07:002016-09-22T08:54:31.484-07:00A campaign of terror: The Pakistanis may never have Kashmir, but their violence has transformed it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
C Christine Fair
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Feigning outrage at the killing of Pakistan-backed Hizbul Mujahideen commander<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/burhan-wani-kashmir-valleys-most-wanted-militant-commander-killed/article8824756.ece" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Burhan Wani</a>, Pakistan’s civilian-led government decried his killing by Indian security forces as “<a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1269894" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">deplorable and condemnable</a>”. This group is considered to be a terrorist organisation by the <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257518.htm" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">United States</a>, the <a href="http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/01eu.htm" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">European Union</a>, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130129005804/http:/mha.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?id_pk=292" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;">India</a> alike. This conniption once again exposed Pakistan’s unstinting support for the zoo of Islamist terrorists that it uses to achieve its foreign policy objectives in India, Afghanistan and elsewhere.</div>
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The timing of this charade is not coincidental: it is contemporaneous with mounting criticisms over Pakistani human rights abuses in Balochistan as it tries to crush any and all opposition to the infamous “<a href="http://thediplomat.com/2016/08/balochistan-the-troubled-heart-of-the-cpec/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">China Pakistan Economic Corridor</a>”. Pakistan explicitly counters criticism over its activities in Balochistan with reference to Indian security force’s killings in Kashmir. This is yet another Pakistani false equivalence.</div>
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It must be said bluntly that in Kashmir, Pakistan has no legal equities. Neither the<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1947/30/pdfs/ukpga_19470030_en.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Indian Independence Act of 1947</a> nor the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boundary-Commission" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Radcliffe Boundary Commission</a> accord Pakistan any right to Kashmir. As is well-known, the Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh only acceded to India after Pakistan dispatched irregular forces to seize the terrain by force.</div>
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As the work of <a href="http://www.shujanawaz.com/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Shuja Nawaz</a> – the brother of a deceased army chief – makes clear, these were <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14736480802055455" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">not non-state actors</a>. In its effort to seize Kashmir through warfare in 1947-48, 1965 and 1999 and by supporting a menagerie of terrorists since 1947 and an intense proxy war since 1989, Pakistan has demonstrated that it actually has little regard for the Kashmiris themselves.</div>
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As the Pakistanis sought to exploit the indigenous uprising that began in 1989, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09592310008423261" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">it raised and dispatched Deobandi and Salafist terrorist organisations such as Jaish-e-Muhammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba</a> respectively, precisely because they have no regard for Kashmiri culture and beliefs. Whereas their Kashmiri proxies were more reticent to kill civilians and attack <a href="http://www.ipcs.org/article/terrorism-in-jammu-kashmir/an-attack-on-sufism-3271.html" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">sufi shrines</a>, these terrorists have shown no compunction.</div>
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They also sustained a reign of terror against women who do not veil as they demand by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9472909/Kashmir-women-ordered-to-cover-up-or-risk-acid-attack.html" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">throwing acid on their faces</a> and other crimes. The consequences of this are visible to any long-time observer. When I first visited the Valley in 1991, I <em style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%;">never</em> saw a woman in a black burqa with niqab. Instead women wore a scarf tied behind their necks. Now the black burqa, niqab and even socks and gloves are ubiquitous even beyond the cities and towns. The Pakistanis may never have Kashmir, but their violence has transformed it.</div>
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Turning to the most recent events, it is well-known that the recent episode of stone pelting has Pakistani backing. The stone pelting has had the intended consequences of goading Kashmir’s poorly equipped and poorly trained police into killing civilians who are protesting. About <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/another-protester-killed-in-kashmir-clashes-death-toll-reaches-84/1/763145.html" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">80 people</a> have been killed in this recent campaign of Pakistan-sponsored uprising and state response.</div>
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To be clear, it is extremely unfortunate that these deaths have occurred. And indeed, the Indian government needs to find other ways of managing crowds than looking for the chimerical <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/kashmir-non-lethal-options-to-pellets-were-cleared-in-2012-but-file-gathers-dust-3003276/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">non-lethal weapons</a>. If Kashmir’s police had proper riot gear and personal protective equipment, the urge to fire at stone pelters would likely diminish. This would benefit India as it would deprive Pakistan of the result it so craves. But this incident reveals more than anything that Pakistan is willing to orchestrate the deaths of Kashmiris for its own political aims.</div>
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The vacuity of the so-called concern about Kashmir is reinforced by the complete omission of any mention of the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0958493022000000341" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Kashmiri Pandits</a> who were ethnically cleansed by Pakistan-backed terrorists in 1990. Why does the “Kashmir problem” only centre on Muslims in the Valley and not any of the other lawful residents of the state?</div>
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Finally, the Pakistani civilian and military leadership continue to renew their demands that all UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir be fulfilled. <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/984278/non-implementation-of-unsc-resolutions-on-kashmir-issue-is-travesty-of-law-maleeha-lodi/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Maleeha Lodhi</a>, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, continues to opine that “non-implementation of UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to the Kashmir issue is a travesty of law”. She, like other Pakistanis making these insensate claims, are banking on the fact that most people have never read the hallowed resolutions.</div>
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I have and <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/47(1948)" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the language</a> is clear. Pakistan was to first withdraw all non-Kashmiri persons from the area, including regular and irregular security forces. Then and only then, India was to demilitarise as well. However, India was allowed to retain enough forces to protect against further Pakistani incursions. Once both of these sequential steps were taken to the satisfaction of a UN appointed body, then the arrangements for a plebiscite were to take place. Pakistanis yammering about the non-implementation of this accord have only themselves to blame.</div>
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Turning to the issue of Balochistan on the one hand and the recent events in Kashmir on the other: both campaigns of violence are manifestations of Pakistani policy. The Pakistan army, along with the Frontier Corps and its various intelligence agencies are waging an all-out war against the Baloch to clear the province for Chinese economic exploitation. There are no estimates of the casualties or of the persons who have<a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/pakistan0711WebInside.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">disappeared</a>. There is no accounting for the whereabouts of these myriad disappeared persons.</div>
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By law, the US is required to impose <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/leahy-vetting-law-policy-and-process.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Leahy Amendment</a> sanctions on any military unit engaging in human rights violations. The Pakistan military is waging this war with the subsidy of the US, which so far has shown nothing but pusillanimity in contending with Pakistan even though Pakistan is the root cause of American failures in Afghanistan.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/a-campaign-of-terror-the-pakistanis-may-never-have-kashmir-but-their-violence-has-transformed-it/" target="_blank">timesofindia</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-53293588922686181422016-09-22T07:06:00.001-07:002016-09-22T08:57:13.164-07:00Uri attack: Both India and Pakistan have nuclear bombs, why is only India anxious?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a class="rbt_bl10" href="http://m.firstpost.com/author/tufail-ahmad" style="color: #3399cc; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="http://m.firstpost.com/author/Tufail Ahmad">Tufail Ahmad </a>Sep 22, 2016 8:39 IST<br />
<img alt="Uri attack: Both India and Pakistan have nuclear bombs, why is only India anxious?" class="fullwidth" src="http://im.firstpost.com/fpimages/380x285/fixed/jpg/2016/09/uri-attack-380-army-camp.jpg" height="50" style="height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 650px;" width="50" />
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The Indian mind, living in its opulence of spirituality and self-belief in all things good, refuses to see the harshness of the truth inherent in the order of the nation states. Every Indian is a yoga guru. Every yoga guru, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, believes that he can engineer the rise of India as a great power without suffering a wound. But the international society of nation-states is a hostile place. This hostility was on display again on 18 September, when eighteen Indian soldiers were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on the Indian Army camp at Uri, planned, sponsored and executed by Pakistan. This is a known enemy. Every Indian is an anti-Chanakya.</div>
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The known enemy attacks us in known ways and in known places. We are taught that Mahmud Ghazni launched 17 attacks on Indian cities during 1000–1027 CE, through known means, through known routes, seizing the Somnath temple in Gujarat in the final invasion. But we are not taught that each time we waited for him to do so, we did not go beyond our borders to prevent him, to tame him, to fight him, to eliminate him. In history, you wouldn't find instances when a known enemy torments an entire people so many times and they don't respond. Much like Mahmud Ghazni, Pakistan, the known enemy, torments us in Jammu & Kashmir. Each time, we have prior intelligence input. Each time, we wait. Each time, we do not engineer a response.</div>
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The 18 September attack at Uri is perhaps the worst Pakistani attack since the Kaluchak attack of 14 May, 2002 when three soldiers, 18 relatives of Indian soldiers and ten civilians were killed. On 2 January this year, the enemy stormed the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, killing seven soldiers. It succeeded because Indian policemen in Punjab were hand-in-glove with the enemies to earn money via illicit drugs routes. Similar attacks have taken place in Jammu & Kashmir regularly. Even after the enemy invaded Kargil in 1999, the largest jihadist war in modern times executed by Pakistan, we chose to serve biryani to General Pervez Musharraf, our tormentor in chief. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear bombs. It is only the Indian mind that feels threatened.</div>
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Pakistan the enemy camouflages successfully for modern times. It calls its state-backed terrorists "non-state actors", the world believes in this phrase. It calls its terrorists "good Taliban", it takes years to explain it to Europeans and Americans that "good" in this context means evil. It sends a writer to visit Sufi shrines of Delhi and write a book. Indians develop trust in the author of the book, <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Delhi by Heart</em>, a title given by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the creator of Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban. The book's purpose is to insert the author in Track II diplomacy. The enemy sends a saree to the mother of its enemy leader. The cost of the saree is: seven soldiers killed in Pathankot and the bruised confidence of 1.25 billion Indians. In warfare, camouflaging your way into the enemy's defences is a successful strategy. Pakistan does it well.</div>
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Lieutenant-General A A K Niazi, the commander of Pakistani troops who surrendered at the fall of Dhaka in 1971, had served during the World War II on the Burma front. In 1964, Niazi, then a brigadier, argued that a weak state like Pakistan must rely on a strategy of infiltration which "implies bypassing of enemy posts by relatively small parties which penetrate deep and unseen into the defences and converge at a pre-designated objective" or "lie down in the enemy area and remain there for extended periods if needed." "The adoption of these [infiltration] tactics by the lesser developed nations like ours is a compelling necessity," he added. Niazi's strategy and the jihadist mindset of the Pakistani army is detailed by C Christine Fair in her book, <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War</em>.</div>
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Pakistan has always used this strategy of infiltration and guerrilla warfare either during the Operation Gibraltar that led to the 1965 war, in Kargil in 1999, on 26/11 in Mumbai and later through the attacks by the Indian Mujahideen in parts of India, and consistently, persistently and aggressively through past nearly three decades in Jammu & Kashmir. The behaviour of the enemy is familiar; its strategy is known to us. Even if India were to hand over Kashmir to Pakistan, the nature of the enemy is such that it will begin targeting other regions of India. Despite knowing this enemy, India's strategy to counter it is not ready, not known, not effective, not consequential. But the enemy, like Mahmud Ghazni, will strike again and again. This tactic has Islamic lineage.</div>
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In his book, <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pakistan Mein Tehzeeb Ka Irtiqa</em>, Sibte Hassan (1912-1986), an Indian-Pakistani Marxist who graduated from the Aligarh Muslim University, narrates how Muhammad bin Qasim was not the first Islamic invader of India. The Islamic attacks against Sindh and Balochistan had begun as early as during the era of Umar ibn Khattab, the second caliph of Islam who ruled from 634 to 644 CE. The first attack, which Sibte Hassan says was without consent from Umar but authorised by a local governor in Bahrain, was led by Mugheera ibn Abi Al-Aas and targeted against a port at Debal, near Karachi. Usman ibn Affan, the third Islamic caliph who ruled from 644 to 656 CE, considered an attack on Sindh by land. At that time Makran, a part of Balochistan, was already ruled by a Muslim governor.</div>
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When Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (reigned 661–680 CE) – the first ruler of the Umayyad dynasty – became the caliph, he sent several military expeditions: led by Abdullah bin Sawwar Abdi, by Rashid bin Umru, by Sanan bin Salmah (all names as per phonetics). All of these military raids ended in defeat. Sibte Hassan writes that when Hajjaj bin Yousef became the Governor of Iraq in 694 CE, he finally made up his mind to conquer Sindh and selected his son-in-law Muhammad bin Qasim to lead the invasion. Qasim registered many victories during 712-715 CE. The Muslim conquerors before Muhammad bin Qasim and after him have not stopped in their glories because Islam requires Muslims to conquer all the lands. The Quranic verse 8:39 commands: "And fight them until there is no <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">fitnah</em> and (until) the religion, all of it, is for Allah…" The word <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">fitnah</em> is translated as mischief but in Islamic literature, it means everything that is not Islamic. Similarly, the word "fight" in this verse is actually: <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Qatelu-hum</em>, whose accurate meaning is "kill them."</div>
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The Kashmir conflict today is rooted in Pakistan's religious identity. The Kalima, or the words proclaiming one's faith in Islam, reads: <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">La Ilaha Illalah Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah</em>. Its actual translation is: there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger. But in Pakistan, Islamic clerics have translated it differently as reflected in the wildly popular slogan among Pakistani people: "<em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pakistan ka Matlab kya</em> (What is the meaning of Pakistan), the chorus: <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">La Ilaha Illalah Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah</em>."Nowhere in the Islamic world, Kalima is translated this way. Unless Pakistan's identity undergoes some radical transformation, it is unlikely that it will not view itself as the vanguard state of the Muslim Ummah. In Pakistan, the common understanding is that Pakistan has two types of borders: geographical and ideological. The ISI, which creates, nurtures and shields terrorist groups, considers itself as the ideological guardian of Pakistan, the second state to be established in the name of Islam, the first being Medina.</div>
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People of India must reconcile to the idea that the jihadist attacks in Kashmir will continue as long as Pakistan retains its identity in its current form. However, the Indian state needs to evolve a 100-year strategy against this known enemy. The strategy must be for India to behave like neighbours behave in our villages. When your neighbour hurts you, you shun eye contact and refuse to attend their wedding. When a neighbour encroaches onto your land, you push back. When your neighbour occupies your land, you break their nose. There is a slight distinction in the case of Pakistan. This enemy is not trained to sit idle, not even in its glories, not even in Ramzan. While India's strategy must be to empower Balochs, Sindhis, Kashmiris and Pashtuns, a successful strategy must be to break up Pakistan by striking at the heart of the enemy: the Punjabi elite, right in Punjab, across the shared international border.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Former BBC journalist Tufail Ahmad is a contributing editor at </em>Firstpost<em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">, and executive director of the Open Source Institute, New Delhi. He tweets <a href="http://www.twitter.com/tufailelif" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3399cc; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@tufailelif</a> </em><br />
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<i>Source: <a href="http://m.firstpost.com/politics/uri-attack-both-india-pakistan-have-nuclear-bombs-why-is-it-only-india-feels-threatened-3014862.html" target="_blank">firstpost</a></i></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-28791624392759294492016-03-13T18:06:00.000-07:002016-03-13T18:06:27.806-07:00American Progressives also typify others: Olmsted and Pollock<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There are striking parallels between the seemingly progressive yet deeply prejudiced views of leftist American intellectuals of the 19th century and today.</div>
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<i>by</i> Kausik Gangopadhyay</div>
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<b>Sene One: Mid Nineteenth Century </b><br />
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Abolition of Slavery is a landmark event in American History. At the peak of American Civil war, President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery as a strategic move to win the war through the Emancipation Proclamation (1863). Planters in the Southern states of America used to justify slavery on the ground of supposed racial inferiority of the Negros and need of Slavery as an institution for the benefit of the Negros. But what was the role of progressive American intellectuals of that era regarding abolition of slavery?<br />
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The voice against slavery was gaining ground in the preceding decades. This may give the reader an impression that progressive intellectuals sympathetic to abolition of slavery believed in equality of all races, as opposed to those conservatives who supported slavery as the right institution for upliftment of blacks. Such an understanding, however, would be deeply flawed.<br />
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Frederick Law Olmsted was a versatile personality of that era. He was a farmer as well as a landscape architect, journalist, social critic and public administrator. He was commissioned by the New York Times editor in 1852 to prepare a series of articles about Slavery in the south. His famous book, The Cotton Republic (1861), was based on these articles which presented an all-encompassing picture of slavery. Eminent personalities of that era, including Karl Marx, were influenced by Olmsted's views. What were Olmsted's views exactly? He was firmly against slavery — not primarily because of exploitation of the slaves but mostly on account of the supposed inefficiency of the slaves who, in his understanding, accomplished one third to one half as much work as did “the commonest stupidest domestic drudges at the North.”<br />
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It is not Olmsted alone but other contemporary progressive intellectuals of the United States of the time such as Cassius Marcellus Clay and Hinton Rowan Helper had similar opinions, which formed the core of anti-Slavery argument of those times.<br />
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Do their arguments make sense? Absolutely Not. Eminent economic historians of the twentieth century—Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman—analysed American slavery in their book Time on the Cross (1974) for which Fogel was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences. Their data-based work did dispel many popular false perceptions about slavery, in particular, the myth of Negro slovenliness. The Negros were definitely more hard working and more productive than free white labourers.
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Fogel and Engerman further explain,<br />
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“The antislavery critics...conceived of blacks as members of an inferior race...Most expected that freed Negroes would have to be constrained in various ways if an “orderly” society was to be maintained.”<br />
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No wonder, “one of the biggest biological crisis of the nineteenth century” happened right after abolition of slavery when at least one quarter of the four million former slaves got sick or died between 1862 and 1870. (Jim Downs, Sick from freedom; 2012)<br />
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<b>Scene two: Early Twenty-first century</b><br />
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A large number of American academics probably do not recognise Indian civilisation anything worthy of cognisance. The present West—American society being certainly at the forefront—is the product of the European renaissance in the Middle ages, which awakened the scientific exploration and risk-taking ventures of the West. At the heart of this revolution, argues Peter L. Bernstein in his book Against the Gods (1998), lies the Hindu-Arabic number system developed by the Indian civilisation and passed over to the West by the Arabs.<br />
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Sheldon Pollock is a scholar and a leading expert on Sanskrit. Pollock, a chaired professor in a reputed US university, is the editor of the Murty Classical Library of India, a project launched to translate many volumes of Indian classics into English. This shows identification of Pollock with the cause of Indian civilisation. Rajiv Malhotra's book, The Battle for Sanskrit (2016), summarises Pollock's views on Sanskrit and Indian culture. Pollock considers Sanskrit a Brahminical project and source of oppression in India. Sanskritic hegemony, Pollock feels, deprived India of all creativity. The Ramayana, according to him, is a socially irresponsible book.<br />
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Sanskrit connotes to the language of the cultured people by etymology. But Sanskrit is not really an exception; in civilizational projects, languages often evolve from the high culture of society and their names are indicative of this feature. For example, Mandarin is the imperial lingua franca of China (the language of the bureaucrats); Hebrew and Turkish are two artificially revived languages of the twentieth century by the cultural elites of the respective nations. Nevertheless, two most prominent compositions of Sanskrit, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are both composed by authors belonging to the subaltern classes (left liberal terminology wise)—Valmiki was a highway robber and Vyasa illegitimate Child of a boat-woman. These epics form the heart and the soul of Indian culture. What can be better proof of the fact that Sanskrit integrated the masses of India?<br />
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Pollock is—very crucially—factually wrong too. He considers circa 260 BC as the birth of writing in India, overlooking the extensive evidence of writing found in Harappan sites (second or third millennium BC). Moreover, days when Sanskrit was India's lingua franca, India was one of the most advanced country of the world in terms of science, technology and economic prosperity. It is quite naive to insinuate that Sanskrit is responsible for Indian inferiority (the claim of Sheldon Pollock).<br />
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<b>Progressive Typification</b><br />
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The world-views of two leading progressive scholars of two very different generations show a similar pattern. Indeed, two examples are, by no means, sufficient to make a complete evaluation of the American progressives. However, they may bust some myths about American Progressives and their world-view which is often projected as neutral to race and religion.<br />
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A. Olmsted was for abolition of slavery but strongly believed in inferiority of the Negroes. Pollock is associated with promotion of Indian civilisation but strongly believes in inferiority of Indian civilisation.<br />
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B. Olmsted was factually wrong and prejudiced to consider the slaves as slovenly; but he pretended to be objective. Pollock's worldview has also factual inconsistencies as explained above. He is supposedly objective; so it does invoke the question: does he nurture deep prejudices in his psyche?<br />
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C. Olmsted wanted Negroes to be constrained in an orderly society; he could not imagine a complete equality of the races. Pollock wants to send Sanskrit to museum as a dead language. He is utterly against revival of Sanskrit. Parity of Indian civilisation to its western counterpart is an unacceptable idea for him.<br />
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D. Though slavery was no progressive institution, slaves did survive as second class inhabitants in American society with receipt of almost 90% of payment made to the free workers (Fogel and Engerman, 1974). There was no systemic genocide by slave-owners. However abolition of slavery caused Negroes to perish in unprecedentedly large numbers during 1860s. Likewise, American conservatives are no friends of Indian culture. Indian cultural studies—while being dominated by western academic discourse—can survive without any state patronage from them. But it is difficult to conclude the same with Pollock as gatekeeper for Indian culture. Such a “friend” of Indian culture would probably end up being catastrophic.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://www.pragyata.com/mag/american-progressives-also-typify-others-olmsted-and-pollock-60/" target="_blank">pragyata</a></div>
amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-90911280384297367882016-03-13T17:09:00.001-07:002016-03-13T17:10:43.641-07:00Decoding Barkha Dutt’s open letter to Prime minister<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="theauthor" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BY <a href="http://myvoice.opindia.com/author/kanimozhi/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by kanimozhi">KANIMOZHI</a></span> / <span class="thecategory" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://myvoice.opindia.com/category/open-letter/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">OPEN LETTERS</a></span> / <span class="thetime" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">02 MAR 2016</span></div>
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There are a number of open letters as well as, their counter letters that have been written after JNU Row. Out of all the letters that have been written recently, only three are my favorites, which have been listed below:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.opindia.com/2016/02/an-open-letter-to-rajdeep-iamantinational-sardesai/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Open letter to Raj Deep – By Vivek Agnihotri</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.opindia.com/2016/02/an-open-letter-to-rahul-gandhi-from-an-indian/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Open letter to Rahul Gandhi – By Mrinaal Prem</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.opindia.com/2016/02/open-letter-to-barkha-dutt-from-a-social-media-sanghi-communal-troll-2/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Open Letter to Barkha Dutt – By Vande Mataram</a></li>
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After I had seen numerous open letters, I realized that I am the only person that has not only, not written an open letter but has also not responded to any of the unlimited open letters available. It is probable that none of the letters was addressed to me, but normally those responding to such open letters are not exactly the people the letter was directed to, but third parties.</div>
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Today, many are writing open letters, as if they are sending a <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“whatsapp”</em> forwarded joke message to the Prime Minister of country like India, which is known for its laid back bureaucracy and red-tapism. Since it costs them nothing, they write open letters and expect immediate responses to their open letters; possibly with the assumption that even if the prime minister does not respond to such open letters written, at least, he will send a smiley or a pictorial message as a rejoinder to their letter.</div>
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As a response to the open letters addressed to the Prime Minister of the nation with the population of 1.2billion people, third parties write counter open letters who somehow assume the role of the prime minister. I, therefore, decided never to write an open letter nor to assume that a particular letter is addressed to me and respond.</div>
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But still, my enormous desire for open letters could not stop. To quench my desire for open letters, I started rehearsing and reading all those letters again with the decision that I will not write an open letter which is long; with the intention that a busy person like the prime minister may be able to read and respond at least in the form of smiley or pictorial message.</div>
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Consequently, I decided to decode and simplify one of the letters addressed to the Prime Minister by Ms. Barkha Dutt, who seems to be the best journalist as per to the major opposition parties in the country. She, generically, seems to be representing the hundreds of opposition parties but also the 1.2 billion people.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The actual Barkha Dutt’s letter to the prime minister can be </em><a href="http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/a-letter-to-pm-modi-from-anti-national-sickular-presstitute-barkha-dutt-1279441" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">read from here</em></a><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</em></div>
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We now get down to “<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Decoding Barkha’s Dutt Letter addressed to the Prime Minister”</em> to make it easy for all those who are reading the letter, including the Prime Minister himself if he at all he decides to read her letter.</div>
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For this, I use the dictionary from my favorite, <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/author/17505/r-jagannathan" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">R. Jaganathan</a>. As I consider him the master of decoding speeches and open letters too, other than providing financial advice day & night to the Government of the day. I mean, the advice in the night will be 100% different from what he provided in the day. I love to call him as my <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Guruji</em>, but ever since the Congress’s innovation of Afzal Guru ji, I stopped using <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ji</em>. And we are again distracted from the “decoding process.”</div>
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Actual Headline of her letter is as follows:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “A letter to PM Modi from Anti -National Sickular pressitute”.</strong></em></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deciphering the Headline:</strong></div>
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This is a clever distortion, a thorough attempt to narrow down the argument by painting positive things which is obvious and which everybody can agree on. This is what others refer to as anti-national, since the issue you tabled is different from the main topic. Those few who are against JNU slogans are against the fundamental right of “speech”.</div>
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Example: “I am for a uniform civil code and if that makes me communal, I accept”</div>
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Having decoded the subject of the letter, we now Decode the Letter in one go.</div>
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Dear Prime minister,</div>
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We both are equal, we both started our career together – you as the General Secretary and I as the Reporter. While you were trying to manage the affairs of the party even without being fluent in English, I mastered the art of managing the entire military. I have not only given input to the past government to solve all the problems of the Indian military, but also have the solutions to the problems which you personally could not solve, be it OROP or Defense Procurement. This signifies that I am the most patriotic person in the entire universe.</div>
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Also, I am the best, be it in my part-time job of reporting or full-time job as a consultant to the government. I can be an adviser or critic from The South of Tamil Nadu to Kashmir. Don’t trust my competitors, my service is readily available for you to always see and hence collect. Irrespective of the fact that my friends are teasing me and telling me that I should not provide you any advice. Yet, I am still willing to offer my services.</div>
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Additionally, I have always been thinking that you are more inclined towards the center instead of left leaning like the past government, which was my assumption. But with the action your government has taken at JNU, I am totally convinced. Since all your men are completely under your control, we could in no way influence them, unlike previous NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, yours made our lives miserable.</div>
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Even during 26/11, when several people were killed by Ajmal Kasab and his friends from Pakistan, the previous UPA government was so accommodating. Not only that they allowed us to access to all their data, but also, the ministers of UPA were accommodating. The interesting part was that each of them was speaking in different languages which enabled us to create so many conspiracies and interesting stories which also led to an increase in our TRP coupled with a mount in my salary too. Your government, on the other hand, has made my job quite difficult. Interestingly, they all speak a single language, leaving us with lesser opportunities to create interesting stories or conspiracy theories and hence, the downward slope in our TRP.</div>
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Furthermore, our TRP has come down to 3%.This is because your government does not have a conscience. It only concentrates on filing cases against us and sending us notices. Since there is no support from the government, we – the like-minded people – tried to lobby, so that our TRP could go up. But to our greatest surprise, your government rejected it. My friends refused to support me in pretention because you told them not to help me in increasing my TRP. I came with the idea of taking support from the lawyers to increase our rating, yet they refused to accept my proposal. But your refusal to support our business as well as your refusal to increase our influence with the corporate, our business almost liquidated. To me, this is against our channel.</div>
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We assume, Mr. Prime Minister, which you are aware of our hardship and therefore, you need to do something. It is not only my channel that has this problem, but also other channels except “Times Now” that broadcasts exclusive Dogs barking shows and government-funded channels. All the others channels will be forced to close, if your government refuses to support, just like previous ones. Then again you did not inform us about your visit to Pakistan, due to which we could not get the advantage of 24/7 coverage. It was only a Pakistan TV channel that milked your entire visit. Same with the case of your visit to Kashmir several times, only Pakistani viewers are interested in Kashmir related news so their TRP increased.</div>
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After our best efforts we are able to convince some motor mouthed members of your party, all that news they could create for us are about Beef and Demons. Do you agree that news on “cooking beef” and “worshipping demons” is not something people are interested in? When we report news on those subjects, no one views it. We need news that people will watch and a situation whereby our TRP increases. Even when Kanhaya Kumar was being dragged and pulled, our cameraman was not given proper access to show whether he was bleeding or had broken legs or hands.</div>
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What kind of police force do you have Mr. PM? … could not even break his leg. Our TRP would have gone up not only locally, but the image would have made both national and international headlines. We need to be reporting the abuse of power so that we can get donations through NGO route. In the previous UPA government, we had a Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh who was not able to give us an exclusive interview as he can’t speak at all. But even now, we do not have hope on Prime Minister – a one to one interview as we know that for sure, will not be given by you. Help us Mr. PM … Support an increase in our TRP.</div>
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We know your love for the nation; we also love the nation and also want the nation to become richer so that, we can improve our business by numerous blackmail options we routinely do. But, to our disappointment Mr. Prime minister, all those news coming from your government is not TRP worthy. After persuading for long, your party members were willing to help us, but all that they could do is to hit a couple in Maharashtra in Mumbai. What can we do with this kind of stupid news? We need news like that of CWG or 2G.</div>
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During the previous government, not only did we get all the support to increase our TRP, but also support to make additional income through Ms. Radia and many others. The previous UPA government allowed us to make enough money, honored me by giving several awards but even asked all the school going students to study about me. But to my dismay, I was told that you will be removing even those lessons about me from the Syllabus.</div>
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I am getting older, so before my retirement, I need to make a reasonable amount of money. I also intend to start my own business up. I also published a book that only very few have purchased. Please be kind enough, help us! If you help us, I will try my best to support you. I don’t have money to buy diamonds for you though. If you make up your mind that you are not helping me after reading this letter, well, God help you. I pray to God and I believe that the government that will support me will be in power in 2019.</div>
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Dear Prime Minister, India belongs to people like us, not you. People like me have built this country over a period of 50 years of hard work, and we have built a strong eco system. Whatever you may try, our eco system will fail you, and 2019 will be ours.</div>
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Yours truly,</div>
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Anti-national Presstitute Barkha Dutt.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Post Script<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (This is from me, not Ms. Barkha Dutt):</em></strong></div>
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I don’t expect any response from either the Prime Minister or Barkha Dutt, or anyone who has excellent skills in writing an open letter – including those who have written the above 3 letters. I don’t mind if you abuse me with written comments here or on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kanimozhi" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color, color 0.2s linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">my twitter account</a>, I will not read them. I am requesting for a small open letter from those who are planning to write in future, so that I will be able to decode faster.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://linkis.com/myvoice.opindia.com/nHGdh" target="_blank">opindia</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-41833778738739859262016-03-01T16:39:00.001-08:002016-03-01T16:40:57.386-08:00Varanasi is as old as Indus valley civilization, finds IIT-KGP study<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span itemprop="author" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 10px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="auth_detail" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Jhimli-Mukherjee-Pandey-4216.cms" rel="author" style="color: #666666; cursor: pointer; font-family: proxima-regular1, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 15px; opacity: 0.8;" target="_blank">Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey</a></span><span class="time_cptn" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> | <span itemprop="datePublished" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Feb 25, 2016, 11.49 PM IST</span></span><br />
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Kolkata: It's a perfect example of science meeting faith and technology buttressing myth. A detailed study conducted by IIT-Kharagpur - using GPS, one of the latest tech tools - could well turn the clock back on Varanasi, indicating that the holy town has been a continuous human settlement since the days of the Indus Valley Civilization, around 6000 years ago.</div>
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The project, funded by the Union ministry of human resources development (it has released Rs 20 crore just for the first phase), has even attracted the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM made it a point to explore the project's progress on Sunday at Varanasi, when he met the IIT-Kgp faculty members and inquired about its possibilities and scope.</div>
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The results that have come from a detailed geo-exploration (exploration conducted through GPS technology) conducted by seven IIT-Kgp departments, tracing the different stages through which civilization progressed, and how Varanasi has been able to maintain continuity as a living civilization, unlike comparable seats of human settlement in the world. The researchers have dug 100-metre-deep boring holes all over Varanasi to conclude that there is evidence of continuous settlement at least till 2000BC. There are enough indications that by the time the data collection is over, there would be enough to prove that this date can be pushed back to about 4500BC.</div>
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The oldest part of this civilisation has been traced to the Gomati Sangam area of Varanasi, as indicated by the underground layers that have already been tested.<br />
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It is perhaps time to take a re-look at India's history. IIT Kharagpur is about to make an explosive announcement. It is ready to put the clock 6000 years back on Varanasi, bringing it at par with the Indus valley civilisation, if not older. What's more, the seven departments of IIT Kgp, that are working on the project, are tracing the different stages through which the civilisation has progressed and has yet been able to maintain its continuity as a living civilisation, unlike comparable ancient civilisations around the world.</div>
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The project, which is completely funded by the union ministry of human resources development, has attracted the attention of none less than Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who made it a point to explore its progress on Sunday at Varanasi, when he met the IIT Kgp faculty members and inquired about the possibilities and the scope of the project.</div>
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The results that have come from a detailed geo exploration through the GPS conducted through 100 metre deep bore holes all over Varanasi shows continuous settlement history till 2000 BC. The indicators are that at the end of data collection, this will be put back another '1500 years to establish the final habitable antiquity of Varanasi at 4500 BC.</div>
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The geo-exploration, that is being conducted jointly with the British Geological Survey, has already established the existence of Naimisharanya, a forest that finds mention in the Vedas and in the Kashipurana. This forest was considered mythological all these years.</div>
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The researchers are also trying to set up a riverine route from Kolkata to Varanasi to Prayag (Allahabad). "Since ancient times, people used this route but the advent of the railways stopped it. We are trying to re-establish that route," said Joy Sen, a senior faculty member of the school of architecture and planning, who is also the chief of the project that has been christened Sandhi. The other departments that are involved in sandhi are humanities and social sciences, computer science, information technology, electrical, electronics and telecommunications and oceanography. The riverine route will be developed to carry tourists, said sources.</div>
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Separate heritage trails leading to the five oldest ghats - Asi, Kedar, Dasashwamedh, Panchaganga and Rajghat - are also being created. "We are tracing the ashrams of ancient yogis and spiritual leaders of all religions that dotted the lanes leading to the ghats. Some of these are extinct now, some dilapidated. We will reclaim and restore as much as possible," Sen explained.</div>
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A large part of the project, which began in August last year, aims at creating a green rim and reclaiming the greenery and waterbodies that dotted the entire zone from Sarnath to the campus of Benares Hindu University. Efforts are on to remove encroachment and illegal constructions so that the earlier ecosystem is reclaimed as far as possible. "Varanasi has been the seat of all religions and their holy men, who will all be represented elaborately in the project. Efforts are also being made to establish special zones in areas that are dominated by old age homes and shelters for widows," Sen added.</div>
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Language, music and iconograohy play a major role in Sandhi. Old texts like Kashipuran or Skandapuran, Mahabharata and Ramayana and the Buddhist text Anguttaranikaya are being re-read for descriptions of Kashi and Kashiraj that were considered mythological all these years.</div>
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"We are encountering surprises every day. What was thought to be lore or myth is gradually getting established as history, and that is our biggest achievement," Sen said.</div>
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<div class="show_wdgt topcomment" style="border-top-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 5px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 35px 18px 40px 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 230px;">
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<span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top</span> Comment</h2>
<span class="cmnttxt" style="border: 0px; color: #555555; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indian civilization is without the shred of a doubt, one of the most ancient in the world, and what is perhaps unequivoc... <span class="detail_comment_link" style="border: 0px; color: #777777; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">Read More</span></span><span class="cmntauthor" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vijay S Kumar</span><span class="cmntauthor" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="cmntauthor" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Source: <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Varanasi-is-as-old-as-Indus-valley-civilization-finds-IIT-KGP-study/articleshow/51146196.cms?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=toimobile&utm_medium=referral" target="_blank">timesofindia</a></span></div>
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The MHRD is completely funding the project and has already released Rs 20 crores for it.</div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-7238500620068243362016-02-23T05:56:00.004-08:002016-02-23T06:18:21.861-08:00Mohanlal Pens Emotional Blog on Nationalism, Slams Activists<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lamenting the current situation at JNU and the ongoing discourse on freedom, Malayalam film star Mohanlal has written a blog titled ‘What’s the point of us living when India is dying’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The actor began his blog by saying that a few days ago, he saw the picture of Lance Naik Sudheesh’s four-month-old daughter being shown her father’s dead body, a daughter who the soldier had never seen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In the same newspaper I read about the fight in our universities on what love for the nation is. Fights in assemblies, bar scam and other news stories too were there. I felt sorrow and shame at the same time.</span></blockquote>
<span class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; float: right; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.91667em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Mohanlal, Actor</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mohanlal said that as soldiers die for the nation, there can be nothing more shameful than citizens discussing what freedom and patriotism is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The actor, who has received the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army of India, also questioned the ‘hypocrisy’ of an average citizen who sits within the comforts of his or her house and criticises armed forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">We cover ourselves in thick blankets at the first sign of chill in the weather. We have hot water to brush our teeth and take a bath. It is after utilising these comforts that we go to universities and offices and discuss about our soldiers, abuse them and question them.</span></blockquote>
<span class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; float: right; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.91667em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Mohanlal, Actor</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He then said that while the common citizen enjoys these comforts, the soldiers spend their time mostly in solitude thinking about the families they left behind, the children they didn’t see even once.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I read that even Pakistan was ready to help us retrieve bodies of soldiers in Siachen. Did we show even that much respect to them?</span></blockquote>
<span class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; float: right; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.91667em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Mohanlal, Actor</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He said that like a son or daughter cannot abandon their aged parent, we cannot distance ourselves from the nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Our country is the soil we stand on, the sky above our heads, the air we breathe, the water we drink and finally the piece of land that we will become one with as we die.</span></blockquote>
<span class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; float: right; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.91667em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Mohanlal, Actor</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Stating that while he was not interested in the current discussion, the attitude of some left him disturbed, so he urged parents to speak to their children about what the nation means.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">He concluded by saying that debates and discussions are essential to a democracy, but only if they will strengthen the democracy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Any discussion that does not help us strengthen the freedom we have attained is meaningless and is an insult to the nation.</span></blockquote>
<span class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; float: right; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.91667em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Mohanlal, Actor</span></span></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.thequint.com/india/2016/02/22/mohanlal-pens-emotional-blog-on-nationalism-slams-activists">thequint</a>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-9099925256271792512016-02-20T07:19:00.001-08:002016-02-20T07:21:01.710-08:00Mass communication or mass manipulation? Is journalism living up to the ideals it espouses?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Intolerance in India is not the preserve of political parties as is constantly being made out to be. My experience, detailed below, reveals that intolerance and blocking the expression of alternate views is a national malaise, in which a large mass of people of all hue and color and possible Congress loyalties are also major offenders.</div>
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I was invited to speak at a panel discussion ‘Mass Communication or Mass Manipulation?’ which was held at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce on Monday, February 15, 2016, but rudely interrupted and shut down within minutes of my speech, the full text of which is pasted below. Please decide for yourself if the contents are objectionable enough to invite such behavior.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My speech on ‘Mass Communication or Mass Manipulation?’</strong></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As an individual for whom journalism has been more of a passion than a profession, it is somewhat disturbing to be speaking on a topic like this, which states an endemic problem rather than poses a question.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While its fair to say that both communication and manipulation coexist in the media, the taint of manipulation has been growing stronger and for obvious reasons. The main ones include: the corporatisation of media, with ownership of media being increasingly concentrated in the hands of big business and politicians along with the commoditization of news – with TRPs/circulation/advertising revenue/profits and political and market influence becoming central to all news gathering efforts rather than the activity of journalism itself.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Though journalists attribute credit for this distressing model to one large media house, it has been shamelessly embraced by all media firms. It has become omnipresent and omnipotent. It is an absolute. There is no getting away from it.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But that is existence. The essence is centered in journalism’s real objective, which is to function as the soul of a nation – as a conscience keeper, while the role of any journalist should be to relentlessly work for meaningful change, eventually leading to the upliftment of humanity. A journalist’s only obligation is to the truth. Truth that can be verified in public interest. And journalism is only reliable when it is delivered by a journalist who is independent in mind and spirit.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Some of you might argue that this sort of idealism is impractical and only palatable in theory. But if you do indeed believe that, then why even have this debate? Why indulge anger over alleged mass manipulation by the media? People make their choices – to be either the best or the worst of themselves and their choices are not our concern. But if we are upset about anything in our world, if we find it hard to accept the status quo, then we must focus on our own choices and subsequently, the actions and reactions, the rewards and punishments that lead forth from those choices.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Let me quickly take you through my own journey as an investigative journalist to illustrate the significance of individual choice.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When I became a journalist in 1995, the first briefing given to me by a senior colleague was that salaries would always be depressing, and it was impossible to progress without a Godfather – more so for a woman. That most journalists who were successful, were corporate agents, that there was no question of attempting to write anything about a growing club of powerful corporates who were additionally private treaty partners with media houses, or even in challenging the ruling political establishment, since they would hit back with legal notices, and finally, that I would become a victim of crippling boredom and cynicism within a maximum of 10 years just the same as everyone else.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At the time this was shattering, because I believed journalism was a calling and one that resonated with the highest ideals. In retrospect, I am deeply grateful to this senior colleague for re-setting my expectations to zero on my very first day in the job. I was now free to concentrate on my work, knowing full well that I could not expect any professional gain, since I neither had any powerful connections nor the mindset or the aptitude to cultivate them.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Interestingly, it is in this very backdrop of cynicism, vested interests and gender discrimination that I later went on to deliver, in a span of just 7 years, a deeply incriminating body of investigative work exposing what is now popularly known as the Rs 1.76 lakh crore, 2G telecom scam: the award of 2G telecom licenses to builders rather than telecom players on January 10, 2008 at historic 2001 prices based on an illegal first-come, first-served allocation policy.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This was followed by an expose of the Rs 1.86 lakh crore coal scam, popularly known as Coalgate. Vadragate, the shady land deals of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda’s largesse in licensing 22 thousand acres of land to first-time builders at the cost of poor farmers; Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s corruption scandal, NABARD’s largesse towards rich corporates at the cost of the rural poor; the 4 billion dollar Sahara Ponzi scandal; the potential abuse of power in the award of new banking licenses and Chhattisgarh ex-chief minister’s son Amit Jogi’s election scandal, followed in quick succession.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 2G expose, undisputedly the biggest and most rigorously documented financial scam in independent India, culminated in a Cabinet minister A Raja, his telecom secretary, along with several officials of privately held firm Swan Telecom being jailed for 18 months or more. Similarly, the Supreme Court cancelled 214 of 218 coals mine permits in its order of September 24, 2014. A Public Interest Litigation against the Himachal Chief Minister is being heard in court, while legal action is being prepared against the former Haryana chief minister, B. S. Hooda. Sahara chief, Subroto Roy once an untouchable has also been a resident of Tihar jail since February 2014 while the Robert Vadra scandal became a major cause for the Congress Party’s debacle in the recent elections. NABARD has withdrawn its controversial scheme favoring corporates at the cost of the rural poor.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">However, establishing the direct involvement of the then finance minister, Mr. P Chidambaram, the prime minister’s office and even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in the 2G and Coalgate scandals invited severe hardships. These included personal and professional attacks, surveillance, threats and censorship. It was around October 2008, after many months of reporting on the basis of access to secret documents that the then prime minister, finance minister and telecom minister Mr. A Raja met and decided to have a press conference to clarify that all these stories that I had done were wrong. I was threatened by Raja’s personal secretary and the tightening pressure by the government and big telecom players involved in this scam was used to first censor and eventually block all my stories. This is despite Raja going to jail, the Controller and Auditor General of India, or the CAG independently verifying my exposes, a government committee endorsing the stories and even a landmark Supreme Court verdict in February, 2012 upholding the allegation of illegality that I had made way back in 2007 by cancelling all the 122-telecom licenses.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Through all of this, the worst attack came from within, colleagues and senior editors, the gatekeepers of newsrooms would sit around me discussing with earshot how the 2G corruption didn’t qualify as a story. Since every minister was corrupt, how was the singling out of the telecom minister any great achievement? They doubted my sources, dismissed the verification of facts as opinion, even going so far as to say I didn’t know how to write. This was despite my then tenure of 16 years and the fact that my stories were always printed without any editing and completely overlooking the fact that I was absolutely a zero maintenance resource, with no legal notice to my name till date, despite challenging the richest and most powerful people in the country.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is in this backdrop of hostility and complete scorn for the truth that I still continued to deliver stories. I was told that newspapers didn’t support campaign journalism or activism so basically I learned that it’s not okay to be identified as an activist journalist in India. Such a label is a matter for ridicule and not honor. Once you are given such a tag, your colleagues will persistently suspect your motives, ignore your research and dismiss you for being emotional, and all of this is aimed at destroying the journalist professionally.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite this hostile environment, the 2G scam was rigorously documented in over 50 or 60 stories, becoming the symbol of big and embedded corruption, exposing the nexus between journalists, PR firms, bureaucrats, big business and politicians. Its unexpected upside was that it unleashed unprecedented social and political transformation as the outcome of public anger against corruption.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 2014 general election in India was fought on 3 primary issues: corruption, governance and governments’ political accountability – a first in India’s 67 years of Independence. Through these years, I continued to counter the anger of colleagues, since investigative journalism also hits at the interests of beat reporters who survive by protecting their sources and keeping them happy. And the only way to do that is by not telling the real story and preventing others from doing so as well.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another smart way of killing investigative work is to deny news space, since the devil lies in the detail, especially in the unveiling and unraveling of complex financial scams. So when an editor says that he will only publish your story if it can be condensed to 450 words or less, it is obvious his intention is to block the investigation.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This journey, painful as it has been, has only confirmed for me my core belief: that the only reward for any work, particularly journalistic work, is the work itself. The effect of undertaking such work is that such journalists are pushed to the fringes by their own community. The punishment is that they never become editors, ensuring that they are never given the authority to set the agenda.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Such punishment, such sacrifices can not be undertaken by the faint hearted. Eventually, journalism or any other profession, can only achieve its purpose of serving humanity if it attracts the best people. The best people are those who are strengthened by a deeply spiritual core. This makes the discussion of character, conduct and spirituality even more relevant in a world of ever-expanding and dissenting voices. But it is a discussion that doesn’t seem to interest too many people.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At one level, my story is everybody’s story – a complex and often competing mix of existence and essence, in which true winning emerges out of the ability to endure pain and struggle, about being able to sift the grain from the chaff, and most importantly, to be able to eventually make the right choices.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The real question to be asked in the cacophony of these times is how many people are willing to step forward to truly and joyfully choose the path of service – in this case, mass communication – rather than the path of professional advancement or the path of mass manipulation? If choosing the path of service means embracing a crown of thorns, are they still willing to take the plunge?</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Ernest Hemingway – an American novelist, short story writer and journalist – “The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, some times destroyed”.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you.</em></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.8em;">Some disclosures which reveal why this incident was condemnable:</span></div>
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On Monday night, one of the panelists called to express their dismay at the condemnable conduct meted out to me, which confirmed that this public humiliation was not lost on anyone, the panelists, the students, or the DCAC faculty present there. However, nobody present made the slightest attempt to intervene or rescue the situation.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.</strong> When I was invited, I was told that the decision to select the topic was inspired by the revelations made by me in two interviews published recently – <a href="https://www.myind.net/editors-mostly-function-gatekeepers-block-sensitive-news-will-damage-their-advertisers" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">October 9, 2015</a> and <a href="http://indiafacts.org/state-of-the-indian-media-interview-with-shalini-singh/#" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">January 22, 2016</a> – on the state of the media.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.</strong> Prior to the interview, I checked multiple times with the organizers and the moderator, urging them to indicate the structure of the discussion and the kind of issues they would like to discuss, but they chose not to revert. On Sunday evening, at around 5 pm, I enquired, via a whatsapp message to the organizer, how much time had been allotted to each speaker to speak and was informed that it was 10-12 minutes.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3.</strong> I then called the moderator to ascertain if he, too, was in agreement with the time limit.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4.</strong> I was the first speaker at the event. Barely 3 minutes into my speech, I was abruptly asked to stop and leave the podium. This was while I was pointing out that establishing the direct involvement of the then finance minister, Mr. P Chidambaram, the prime minister’s office and even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in the 2G and Coalgate scandals had invited severe hardships. The DCAC FACULTY which had invited me to the event, DID NOT INTERVENE. They remained silent spectators.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.</strong> Though things became hazy after that, most panelists made it a point to disagree with me on the sliding values in the media.</div>
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One panelist scoffed at my belief that “journalism’s real objective, is to function as the soul of a nation – as a conscience keeper, while the role of any journalist should be to relentlessly work for meaningful change, eventually leading to the upliftment of humanity”. She did not specify what her own idea of journalism is.</div>
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Another panelist indulged himself with a dig – that since everyone was talking about themselves, he wouldn’t. Thanks to the clumsy moderating, none of the panelists were introduced, which is customary protocol. How can a journalist speak without some contextual reference to their work and circumstances?</div>
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The panel, in self congratulatory mode, eventually went on to cheerfully concur that the media space was fair, balanced and above board. None of the other panelists were snubbed or cut short, like I was.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6.</strong> My work and views are well known, particularly to these organizers and journalists, who had read my recent interviews. I have never sought respect or honor and thats why repeated attacks of humiliation have not crippled me so far. But I am completely certain of one thing: that it is despicable to invite someone just to humiliate them in full public view and in front of students.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7.</strong> The conduct that I witnessed, further displays the appalling standards of educational institutions as well as the incompetence and laziness of the faculty. If they don’t have the skill to coordinate a simple event of this nature, be gracious hosts, they should not attempt it. On February 16, I received a message from a DCAC faculty member admitting that the situation was “unfortunate”. Well, who was responsible? How would you have described it if you had been up there on stage instead of me?</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">8.</strong> Character is established by conduct, not false talk and fancy writing. It is horrifying to see well-educated people, people of privilege and influence, passively witness events – without the slightest urge to intervene and correct them.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; color: #505050; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The author can be contacted on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/shaliniscribe" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">@shaliniscribe</a></strong></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.newslaundry.com/2016/02/17/mass-communication-or-mass-manipulation-is-journalism-living-up-to-the-ideals-it-espouses/" target="_blank">newslaundry</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-66261298262640209812016-02-20T05:10:00.000-08:002016-02-20T05:10:54.470-08:00An open letter to Rajdeep “IAmAntiNational” Sardesai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear Rajdeep,</div>
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It seriously doesn’t matter to me what’s your self-image: Nationalist or anti-nationalist. I don’t even care what people think about you. I don’t even see a reason why an honest journalist needs to advocate his ideologies in a national newspaper’s op-ed page. I don’t even know how many honest journalists can get this opportunity of ‘self-promotion’ as most of them are vernacular, non-lutyens journalists, struggling to find news in scorching heat of India that exists outside of Delhi.</div>
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Since your article is based on an absolutely wrong premise, besides self-pity, I think, as a true nationalist, its my duty to correct it and put it in right perspective before your lie becomes the mainstream narrative.</div>
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You write:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“In the 1990s, the country’s polity was divided by secular versus pseudo secular faultlines; now, another divide, and frankly far more insidious, is sought to be created between ‘national’ and ‘anti-national’ forces.”</em></div>
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In the 1990s, the country was divided between haves and have-nots. That’s why the main theme was ‘Garibi Hatao’. As it still does. Then liberalization happened. With liberalization, India got divided on a new fault line. Ones who wanted to make a better livelihood by working hard and those who wanted to milk liberalization with corruption. Corruption requires middlemen, brokers, pimps and sycophants. Thus a group mushroomed, disguised in the garb of secularism and unfortunately you chose to become their voice. Indians have been secular for thousands of years. I hope you know, words like ‘religion’ and ‘secular did not even exist until the advent of Christianity. I am sure your grandfather must have told you that Hindu civilization existed even thousands of years before Jesus Christ.</div>
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‘Secularism’ was a tool that corrupt Congress and the beneficiaries of its corruption used to protect ‘the ecosystem’ from millions of hungry, unemployed, exploited, oppressed but honest, hard-working common citizens. Secularism was invented to consolidate minority votes without isolating Hindus and without appearing to be a minority appeaser. With liberalization, came new multi-national businesses who wanted to overcome red-tapism and needed licenses whereas the ruling parties needed funds. Coincidentally, at the same time English news channels were also in red so they also needed funds. So news channels with power to make or break images needed money and corrupt Congress with money needed image. Thus emerged a new group – The Secular group.</div>
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Anyone who disagreed with their ‘Idea of (corrupt) India’ was labelled non-intellectual and thus the middle class, vernacular Indian who did not have the privilege to study in St. Xaviers, Christchurch, Doon, Scindia, Oxford or Cambridge was made to feel inferior in his own country. They were typecast as illiberal, regressive Hindus. Supporting Pakistan was seen as intellectual. Rejecting Hindu customs and traditions became an intellectual exercise. People who take pride in Hindu philosophy were systematically labelled ‘illiberal’. You were seen protecting, promoting and nurturing such voices.</div>
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Rajdeep, your grandfather must have also told you that everything that is traditional isn’t illiberal. Similarly, everything that’s rebellious in nature isn’t liberal. But Secular India had silenced the grandfathers of India. On TV channels, for sure. That’s how India was divided between organized and funded club members of a ‘Secular India’ and unorganized, simple, honest and truly secular Indians. They were denied entry into mainstream narrative of India. Nobody was talking for them. Nobody was listening to them. It was by design. You were one of the designers.</div>
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Since you love old Hindi songs you must have heard ‘Jiska koi nahin uska to khuda hai yaaron…’ and khuda listened to this hapless mass. A technological innovation came as their rescue. Social media happened. Of course, the secular brigade tried to monopolize it but the entry was open to all. It wasn’t a club. It was a platform. When so-called ‘smart trolls’ <a href="https://twitter.com/OpIndia_com/status/648423197579186177" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">started </a><a href="https://twitter.com/OpIndia_com/status/627856497993646080" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">exposing </a>your secular club members of their lies and sinister intents, your wife tried to humiliate them and create further divide by labelling them as ‘Internet Hindoos’.</div>
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They weren’t Hindoos. They were Indians. They wanted to take pride in India. And you wanted to crush that pride. For that pride would have been counter productive to thekedars of ‘idea of India’. Two ideas, two Indias came out in open. One who loved India. And another who loved ‘idea of India. That’s how ‘nationalist’ and ‘anti-nationalist’ debate started. Nobody called you anti-national. You decided to ridicule nationalists. You started calling Modi supporters as ‘sanghis’, bhakts, and pseudo patriots, without even realizing that these people love Modi for he is a India Bhakt. They will drop Modi the day they doubt his integrity.</div>
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You misunderstood that Modi bhakts are also BJP, RSS bhakt. Your fundamentals were wrong. That’s why it took one evening of prime time for one of your ex-colleagues to demolish your game. Today you have become a victim of your own game. You have sensed that being anti-Hindu, anti-India is not paying dividends and it’s too late for you to be called nationalist. You don’t have credibility, and now it’s a matter of survival for you. If your grandfather was alive, he would have warned you that the race you, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and friends are running ends only in a dark well. Where even penance doesn’t help.</div>
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Nothing can be a more resounding proof than the fact that today you have to use an op-ed page to publicly justify your ideological defeat with a vicious hashtag #IAmAntiNationalist</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>You write:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yes, I am anti-national because in a plural democracy I believe we must have a dialogue with Kashmiri separatists as we must with those in the North-East who seek autonomy. I will listen to student protestors in Srinagar or Imphal as I will to those in an FTII or a JNU.”</em></div>
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I would advise you have a dialogue with Arnab Goswami. With Subhash Chandra. Have a dialogue with Bhakts like me. With Internet Hindoos. Have a dialogue with the innocent Modi supporter who you had beaten up at MSG. But listening isn’t your agenda. If it were you, I would have listened to so-called trolls on twitter and understood why they are so angry with me. But you chose to whine all day about trolls and their abuse. If you can tolerate anti-India slogans I am sure you can also tolerate some abuse on your TL.</div>
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On your timeline thousands of ‘trolls’ keep screaming why you don’t show India’s growth story? Did you listen to them?</div>
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I want to have a dialogue with you. Listen to you. Understand you. But are you ready to invite me? To listen to my point of view?</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Prosecute all those who break the law, incite violence, resort to terror but don’t lose the capacity to engage with those who dissent. The right to dissent is as fundamental as the right to free speech: shouting down alternative views, be they on prime time TV or on the street, is not my idea of India.</em></div>
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Forget Idea of India, first tell us what is India. Is Malda India? Are the states other than Delhi India? Are other CMs not Indian CMs? Is Ramchandra Guha the only Indian intellectual? Or the <a href="http://www.opindia.com/2015/06/death-of-a-journalist-and-silence-of-the-celeb-journalists/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">death </a>of a journalist who was burnt for exposing corruption less secular than the lynching of Akhlaq? Or the turmoil, conflict, negativity, opposition, communalism, intolerance, awards wapsi… only themes of India?</div>
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Is <a href="https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep/status/432000918083493888" style="border: 0px; color: #ff9933; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Nemo </a>the only dog in India?</div>
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If your channel is the only source of information, one would die believing India is Delhi. Modi its villain. Ramchandra Guha its Buddha. Kejriwal its Christ plus Prophet. Those 5-6 panelists as Supreme Court. Regressive Hindus are killing innocent Christians, Muslims, Dalits, writers and now poor students. Rest of the population is starving without beef. And Sonia Gandhi never existed.</div>
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My grandfather told me a journalist’s only requirement is integrity. Integrity isn’t honesty. Integrity is the ability to tell the truth even when no one is listening. When was the last time you raised real issues of India? When was the last time you made your viewers hear a common man’s concerns. Hate Modi. Hate RSS. Hate Bhakts. Hate Hindus. But why this complete blackout of ‘Rest of India’. Do you work for ‘India Today’ or ‘Delhi Today’?</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes, I am anti-national because I don’t believe in doublespeak on issues of nationalism. If support for Afzal Guru is to be seen as ‘sedition’, then at least half the erstwhile Cabinet in Jammu and Kashmir, where the BJP is in coalition with the PDP, would be held guilty.</em></div>
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I absolutely agree with your logic. And by that logic, and no doublespeak, you must also hold Arvind Kejriwal guilty for having partnered with Congress and Congress for partnering with Owaisi and Nitish for partnering with Lalu. Even you must be held guilty for partnering with corrupt and crony capitalist Ambani and your wife for partnering with your unethical enemy group: Times of India</div>
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What you have failed to understand is that ‘is hamam mein sab nange nahin hai, yeh nangon ka hamam hai’. You are one of them.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If the Kashmiri youth today see Afzal as someone who was framed, they should be challenged to a legal and political debate but can they be branded as ‘jihadists’ simply because their views are repugnant to the rest of the country?</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>You are again confusing issues. It’s not about Afzal. It’s about India. It’s about <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘India go back’. India ki barbadi’ ‘ India tere tukde honge’. </em>It’s about that. Afzal, sedition law, FoE, Lawyers’ hooliganism etc are games journalists like you play to shift focus, confuse issues and keep the ‘ecosystem’ protected.</div>
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It’s about terrorism. It’s about alleged terror links of some students. It’s about supporting terror groups. It’s about terror funding. It’s about threat to India’s sovereignty. That’s why people are concerned. Leave sedition laws for the court. You tell us where do you stand? Without any buts. If you are seen protecting the rights of these allegedly terror-linked students, or seen spinning this news and covering them up, you won’t have to put any hashtag, because soon you will become a hashtag yourself – of all anti-nationals.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes, I am anti-national because while I am a proud Hindu who wakes up to the Gayatri mantra, I also like a well done beef steak, which, according to BJP minister Mukhtar Naqvi, is a treasonous act, enough to pack me off to Pakistan. I celebrate the rich diversity of my country through food: Korma on Eid, pork sorpotel with my Catholic neighbours in Goa during Christmas and shrikhand during Diwali is my preferred diet. The right to food of my choice is again a freedom which I cherish and am unwilling to cede.</em></div>
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Unfortunately, your understanding and definition of Hinduism is limited to Gayatri Mantra, beef steak and shrikhand. The day you will understand Hinduism you will regret that you had to waste all your productive life to learn secularism, tolerance, inclusiveness, nationalism etc. when all this wisdom was available in your grandfather’s diaries.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Post-script: Last week, at the Delhi Gymkhana litfest, I suggested that the right to free speech must include the right to offend so long as it doesn’t incite violence. A former army officer angrily got up and shouted, “You are an anti-national who should be lynched right here!” When even the genteel environs of the Gymkhana club echo to such strains, we should all be very worried.</em></div>
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I don’t know much about club culture but I know one thing for sure: when journalists stop travelling beyond their studios to reporting facts, fighting over TRPs instead of truth, and using media to further their agenda or to defend and justify themselves, we should all be not just very worried but take time out to introspect.</div>
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The other day I was invited to a Times Now panel for an Arnab Goswami show where he was exposing the hypocrisy of Indian seculars and liberals. My views about Indian Secular gang are well-known and I expressed them frankly. Next morning, while walking in my park without a dog, a gentleman called me ‘bhakt’. Exactly like you do. Do you know, in Hindu philosophy, Bhakti is a human quality, attained only by honest people. He accused me of being critical of award wapsi gang who hate intolerant Hindus who support Modi and that too on a Arnab Goswami show who is exposing those who hate India and Modi who loves India and who has the support of Hindus who love India which is also loved by Modi…</div>
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If supporting India means supporting Modi and vice versa then I’d rather be called a ‘bhakt’ than being seen exchanging notes with terror support groups.</div>
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Yes, #IAmABhakt, of India</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vivek Agnihotri is a filmmaker, writer and columnist. His next film ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ deals with Naxalism at India’s premier institutes.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vivek tweets at @vivekagnihotri</em></div>
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Source: <a href="http://linkis.com/www.opindia.com/2016/WDyxK" target="_blank">opindia</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-53477077442114089762016-02-10T03:52:00.000-08:002016-02-10T03:52:56.843-08:00SOME POSITIVES THAT HAVE EMERGED FROM PATHANKOT TERRORIST ATTACK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tuesday, 09 February 2016 | Dr Rajeshwar Singh</div>
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Terrorism and Drug Smuggling are Siamese twins. Although both look in different directions, they move together in one direction. They support each other, they help sustain and strengthen each other andproceed with single-minded determination to move towards their goal.</div>
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In Punjab, their target is just one: Bleed India. This truism was once again displayed beyond any doubt in the recent Fidayeen attack on the strategic air base in Pathankot. Just as the dawn was struggling to welcome the New Year in the blood-curdling cold, a sinister, well-armed, well-trained and highly motivated suicide-hugging Fidayeen gang sneaked into the Pathankot air base, which housed, besides several ‘vital assets’, 10,000 family members of air force personnel.</div>
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The ease with which the Fidayeen could move in Pathankot and commandeer the vehicle of the district superintendent of police also speaks volumes of the collusion and deep-rooted criminal nexus between drug smugglers and the Pathankot police. While this nexus is well-known and needs to be somehow broken-easier said than done-it is not confined to Pathankot only but has its tentacles all over Punjab. Drugs are doing more damage to the youth and future of Punjab (and India) than terrorist bullets.</div>
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Although ill-informed media men and so-called ‘experts’ started tearing into the Indian response to the Fidayeen strike, their self conceit blinded them to the several positives that were exhibited by the Indian air force and counter-terrorist machinery that existed on the ground at the air base. When talking about any terrorist strike and the response of the counter-terrorism machinery, the fact that the 'element of surprise' is always with the terrorists has necessarily to be kept in mind. After every terrorist strike, the post-mortem that is doe in the entire media, specially in TV debates, just does nottake into account this 'element of surprise'. Naturally, this gives rise to a lot of misinformation being disseminated.</div>
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My intention is not to run down anybody or any thesis about terrorist strikes, it is my humble endeavour to give a few valuable tips to whosoever speaks, writes and discusses on TV suicide attacks. Urban terrorism is now a fact of life ans we have tio live with it. The dynamics and mechanics of terrorism are such that terrorist strikes will continue to take place, despite best precautionary measures. They just cannot be avoided as it is the job of terrorists to keep the pot boiling. The efficacy and effectiveness of our law enforcement agencies can be gauged only from the time it takes them to"neutralize" the attackers without substantial "collateral" damage. A lot of misconceptions and myths get circulated when all and sundrystart condemning the anti-terrorism machinery without taking hard realities into account.</div>
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The same was the case with the Pathankot air base attacks in which 7 innocent lives were lost. These deaths need to be condoled but what emerged crystal clear was the ‘quick response’ by the Defence Security Corps personnel.</div>
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It showed beyond any reasonabledoubt that even at that unearthly hour when the Fidayeen struck, the reflex action of DSC Jawan was A-grade. India should be proud of suchalert and brave officers and men. It showed that India has learnt itslessons in teaching Fidayeen a lesson of their lives.</div>
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Some of the myths that got circulated after the Pathankot strike were:</div>
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(MYTH 1) The casualties were very high.</div>
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FACT: (a) Only one Air Force Guard Commando was killed in direct combat with the terrorists; (b) In keeping with the highest traditions of the Indian armed forces, whose officers lead from the front, one NSG officer who died was actually accidental in nature. He died while defusing an explosive device;(c) the bulk of the casualties-five in all-occurred in the 'langar' (cook house) of the DSC Lines located near the outer perimeter wall of there air base. Though unfortunate, the five DSC Jawan died when they were not on sentry duty. They were actually off duty. Hence, the casualties can in no way be described as very high. In fact, they were minimal.</div>
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(MYTH 2) Why did it take so much time to terminate the operation?</div>
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FACT: The aim was to keep own casualties minimal. No casualty occurred, except that of the NSG officer who died accidently while defusing an explosive device, and the deaths in the 'langer' in the first fewminutes, there was no casualty after contact was established with theterrorists.</div>
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The operation was neutralize the Fidayeen was done in a very deliberate and meticulous manner to firstly avoid "collateral" damage in terms of own troops and vital assets like buildings and airplanes.</div>
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The operation was deliberately slowed down so that the type of weapons and firepower used by the Fidayeen could be calibrated andeffectively countered. Further, priority was accorded to cutting off all escape routes that the Fidayeen could take as the final aim was to catch them alive.</div>
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These orders had been given by the topmost officer supervising the operation, who was none other than the National Security Adviser tothe Prime Minister.</div>
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Mr Doval, a hard-bpoiled Intelligence officer. Critics who were raising a hue and cry over why it took so long to end the operation even when the Fidayeen were not many in number probably did not know that the air base is spread over 2,000 acres.</div>
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Naturally,the search and combing operations took a long time as they aredeliberately done very slowly and meticulously, avoiding all kinds ofbooby traps.</div>
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That the actual engagement (fire-fight) with the terrorists was actually for just 11 hours speaks volumes of the clinical manner in which this operation was carried out. In fact, it denotes a welcomestep forward in the war against terror.</div>
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Hence, by no stretch of imagination can it be said that the operation was either prolonged or took too long to terminate. The air base security staff need to becongratulated for securing all the valuable assets which were actually air borne within minutes of the sudden attack. This fact is not knownto many.</div>
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(MYTH 3): Why was it announced on the very first day that the operation was over?</div>
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FACT: The two terrorists were holed-up inside a building and they just could not move out or carry out any of their sinister designs as anair-tight cordon had been thrown around them. This encounter site was so tightly secured that the Fidayeen had no options but to either die or surrender.</div>
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They were finally neutralized on January 3. Hence, the operation, in a practical way of speaking, was actually over on the first day itself. Buty it was not called off as search and combing continued. It was the media which hyped it. Mopping up operationcontinued for a few days more.</div>
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(MYTH 4 ): Why were the Army's Special Forces not employed?</div>
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FACT: This was a blatant canard as the Special Forces were kept in readiness to move in any moment in case the need arose not just at the air base but at other military installations in entire Pathankot district.</div>
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(MYTH 5): Even when there was advance information about the Fidayeen attack, how could they enter the air base?</div>
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FACT: Security personnel were deployed to protect vital installations and assets in and around Pathankot, which has the distinction of being the largest cantonment in Asia and has several military installations.</div>
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Further, due to the tactical situation-- the exact location of the Fidayeen was not known nor was it certain whether they had already entered the air base-it was decided to first secure the vital assets and 10,000 civilians and dependents of air force personnel present at the air base. Due to this significant factor and criticality of time,it would have been counter-productive to first secure the 25-kilometrelong outer parameter. Hence, the main consideration was on securing the aircrafts, radars, anti-aircraft batteries. Ammunition/POL dumps, etc. This strategy greatly helped in countering and containing the Fidayeen.</div>
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(MYTH 6): There was no Centralised decision-making apparatus and also there was lack of synergy on the ground.</div>
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FACT: Nothing could be farther from truth than alleging that there was no Centralised decision-making and no synergy on the ground. Little knowledge is always dangerous and it was this lack of knowledge that prompted some critics to make this allegation and assumption.</div>
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The sudden Fidayeen attack would have taken a different shape if time was wasted in convening meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Security and the National Crisis Management Committee of the Union Cabinet.</div>
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The criticism that there was no Centralised action or synergy on the ground is most unwarranted. An accurate reading of the situation and analysis of the intelligence inputs led to the pre-positioning of specialised forces on the ground to deal with the emerging threat andsituation.</div>
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On the ground itself, complete synergy among the forces was seen. Exemplary coordination was also on display which helped the security forces choose the firepower and type of resources to deal with theevolving tactical picture and requirements. Minute-by-minute reports were sent to the National Security Adviser, Mr. Doval, who, in turn, kept the members of the CCS duly informed.</div>
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(MYTH 7): Why was the Army not involved in the entire operation?</div>
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FACT: Nothing could be farther from the truth than this unwarranted criticism Perhaps lack of knowledge led to this allegation beingleveled. The real picture is:</div>
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NInfantry columns played a leading and vital role in the operation - maintaining a tight inner and outer cordon, providing fire support to the strike elements of the NSG, carrying out search and areasanitization operations inside the air base.</div>
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NArmy columns were mobilized on 01.01.2016 itself, well before the first contact was established with the terrorists at 03.30 hours on 02.01.2016. Since the afternoon of 01.01.2016, Army columns were assisting the local police in strengthening nakas and beefing upsecurity at the air base.</div>
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NThe first persons to be involved in formulating the strategy after news of the sudden attack reached the NSA were the Army Chief and the Air Chief who initiated the necessary actions. Both were present in the first meeting called by the NSA at 1500 hours on 01.01.2016).</div>
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N Lt. Gen. KJ Singh, GOC-in-C, Western Command was in overall commandof the operation.</div>
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N The NSG contingent present at the air base consisted of 320specially selected and trained Army soldiers from the Special Action Group (SAG) - component of the NSG and Special Forces units.</div>
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The counter terrorism and counter hijack task force of the NSG was led by Maj. Gen. Dushyant Singh, IG (Operations), NSG, himself an Infantryofficer, who only recently relinquished command of an Infantrydivision in Jammu (and hence was intricately familiar with the general modus operandi of Fidayeen terrorists).</div>
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N The Army had deployed 9 Infantry columns (70 soldiers in eachcolumn) in addition to bomb disposal squads, engineering, medical element and casspier mine / armour protection vehicles.</div>
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Since we Indians will have to live and suffer terrorist strikes by ultras of all hues, we would do well to do our homework and collectall details before jumping in front of TV cameras and air all kinds of misinformation and lies about terrorist attacks as such utterances only go to help the terrorists, who need condemnation and not theforces fighting them at great risk to their life and limb..</div>
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(Dr Rajeshwar Singh, Formerly Police Officer of Uttar Pradesh Govt, is currently Deputy Director of Directorate of Enforcement). </div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/business/some-positives-that-have-emerged-from-pathankot-terrorist-attack.html" target="_blank">dailypioneer</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-18516431961707136452016-02-09T14:14:00.000-08:002016-02-09T14:14:44.060-08:00HOW NOT TO DEAL WITH THE IDEOLOGY OF HATE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #828282; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">Sunday, 07 February 2016 | </span><a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/author/kanchan-gupta" style="border: none; color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Kanchan Gupta</a><span style="color: #828282; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"> | in </span><a class="cat_name" href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/coffee-break" style="border: none; color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Coffee Break</a></strong></div>
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<strong style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Theological pamphleteering, no doubt well meaning and sincere, is of no consequence to the peddlers of violence and death. The latter's taunting tone is already discernible over the babble vacuous politically correct discourse</strong></div>
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At last week’s Counter-Terrorism Conference, organised by India Foundation and themed around the rising tide of global jihad, speaker after speaker waxed eloquent on well-known basics without addressing the core issue: The ideology of hate and how to deal with it. Theological pamphleteering, no doubt well meaning and sincere, is of no consequence to the peddlers of hate, death and destruction. I doubt if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-appointed caliph of the Islamic State, and Abubakar Shekau, who heads Boko Haram, are remotely impressed by counter-scholarship. That would be equally true of the mullahs of Taliban and the foot soldiers of jihad.</div>
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To ignore the ideology that drives Islamism and its resultant violence would be to ignore the real reason behind the continuing surge in transnational terrorism. The barbarians may not be at our gate as yet, but the unstoppable march of zealots, whom George W Bush described as ‘Islamofascists’, as the civilised world retreats, conceding ground with each passing day, should not go unnoticed. To turn a blind eye, to be indifferent, or worse, to be politically correct and tolerate the intolerable would be to our peril. For let there be no mistake, the taunting tone of those who believe in the inevitability of a homogenous ummah replacing the diverse world we know is already discernible over the babble of ill-informed and vacuous politically correct discourse.</div>
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Soon after the ghastly London bombings when Islamists blew themselves up with deadly effect, Ed Husain’s book The Islamist was published, recording his disillusionment with radicals who use faith as a cover for their murderous deeds. A particular passage in that book remains indelibly printed on my mind: “Teacher, I want to go London next month. I want bomb, big bomb in London, again. I want make jihad!” “What?” I exclaimed. Another student raised both hands and shouted: “Me too! Me too!” Other students applauded those who had just articulated what many of them were thinking...</div>
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That’s how Ed Husain records his experience in the Saudi Arabian school where he had taken up a teaching assignment after embracing radical Islam. It was the day after the 7/7 suicide bombings in London that killed 52 commuters. Ed Husain, his faith in radical Islam by then dwindling rapidly after experiencing life in Saudi Arabia, was hoping to hear his students denounce the senseless killings. Instead, he heard a ringing endorsement of jihad and senseless slaughter in the name of Islam. Ed Husain returned to London and penned his revealing account in The Islamist Why I Joined</div>
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Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left. Debunking the Left-liberal intelligentsia’s explanation that deprivation, frustration and alienation among immigrant Muslims in Britain are responsible for the surge in jihadi fervour, Ed Husain wrote: “Many Muslims enjoyed a better lifestyle in non-Muslim Britain than they did in Muslim Saudi Arabia... All my talk of ummah seemed so juvenile now. It was only in the comfort of Britain that Islamists could come out with such radical utopian slogans as one Government, one ever expanding country, for one Muslim nation. The racist reality of the Arab psyche would never accept black and white people as equal... I was appalled by the imposition of Wahhabism in the public realm, something I had implicitly sought as an Islamist...”</div>
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So, what does an Islamist seek? The reams of rubbish churned out by bogus activists and windbag columnists desperately seeking to rationalise crimes committed in the name of Islam, ranging from the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmir valley to the Mumbai massacre, from the attack on Parliament House in New Delhi to the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, from the horrific assault on human dignity by the Taliban in Afghanistan to the nauseating anti-Semitism of the regime in Iran, and from the unspeakable crimes of the Islamic State in the Levant to the limitless horrors of Boko Haram in Nigeria, cannot explain either the core idea of Islamism or what motivates Islamists. For that, we have to go through the teachings of Hasan al-Banna, the original Islamist and progenitor of the Muslim Brotherhood which now wields power in Egypt, the land of the birth of radical Islam.</div>
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Hasan al-Banna’s articulation of Islamism in the 1930s, distilled from complex theological interpretations of Islam, was at once simple enough for even illiterate Muslims to understand and sinister in its implications when seen in the context of what we are witnessing today: “The Quran is our Constitution. Jihad is our way. Martyrdom is our desire.” Imagined grievances and manufactured rage came decades later, as faux justification for adopting this three-sentence injunction that erases the line separating the spiritual from the temporal and giving Islam a political dimension in the modern world, thus expanding the theatre of conflict beyond the sterile sands of Arabia.</div>
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Hasan al-Banna died a nasty death when he was murdered in 1949, apparently in retaliation of the assassination of Egypt’s then Prime Minister, Mahmud Fahmi Naqrashi, but the seed he had planted in his lifetime was to grow into a giant poison tree, watered and nourished by Sayyid Qutub (whose tract, Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq, was interpreted as treasonous, fetching him the death sentence in 1966) which over the years has spread its roots and branches, first across Arabia and then to Muslim majority countries; so potent is that tree’s life force, its seeds, carried by the blistering desert wind that blows from the Mashreq, have now begun to sprout in countries as disparate as Denmark and India, Turkey and Malaysia, changing demographic profiles and unsettling societies.</div>
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The world chose to ignore subsequent events and, like those who clamour for a gentler, accommodative approach to Islamism today by pushing for compromise over conflict, ‘enlightened’ scholars and public affairs commentators rationalised Anwar Sadat’s assassination by Islamists on October 6, 1981. Even Egypt erred in setting free scores of conspirators, including a certain Ayman Al-Zawahiri.</div>
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Similarly, the ‘Islamic Revolution’ in Iran with its blood-soaked consequences was hailed as a “people’s victory” over Shah Reza Pehalvi’s dictatorial regime. For Europe, long dubbed Eurabia, it was business as usual Iran’s oil swamped out rational analyses. If any country had the foresight to sense the danger signals, it was, and ironically so, Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak who remained wary of Iran, not least because of its export of rabid Islamism. Tragically, the new rulers in Cairo are not riled by Tehran naming a street after Sadat’s assassin, Khalid Islambouli.</div>
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It was in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that Islamism acquired a new dimension and a vicious edge when it was coupled with Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s severely austere version of Sunni Islam. Arab nationalism, which was unencumbered by Islamism till then, became an expression of faith in radical Islamism. In what passes for Palestinian territories, the intifada was born and reborn, and while the popularity of Yasser Arafat’s largely secular PLO began to decline, Hamas, led by its paraplegic spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, began its murderous march which has culminated with Gaza Strip being declared ‘Hamastan’. Yassin was killed by the Israelis for inspiring young Palestinians to blow themselves up in buses, restaurants and markets, but that has neither shaken Hamas nor weakened its faith in what Hasan al-Banna preached. In Lebanon, the Hezbollah is now facing competition from Fatah-al Islam in Palestinian refugee camps and Syrian dissidents who equally believe ‘Islam is the solution’. In Britain, Hizb ut-Tahrir is seducing young Muslims like Ed Husain with its acid message of intolerance and bigotry. In India, we have the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat. The Deobandis are not to be scoffed at.</div>
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To neutralise the three-sentence injunction of Hasan al-Banna, we need more than a ‘War on Terror’. We need to launch an assault on the idea that motivates radical Islamists. There is no scope for accommodation, nor is there any reason to capitulate or strike a compromise. We still have time to mount a counter-assault. But to do that, and do so successfully, we must first acknowledge and debate the Idea of Islamism.</div>
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<em style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Source: <a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/coffee-break/how-not-to-deal-with-the-ideology-of-hate.html" target="_blank">dailypioneer</a></em></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-82034924038156255402016-01-19T12:58:00.000-08:002016-01-19T13:00:05.685-08:00Sad Suicide of Rohith Vemula Shows Where The Virulent Politics of Caste Hatred Is Headed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">One can then empathise with the desolation the parents of the late Rohith Vemula must be feeling as news came of his suicide. It is indeed sad when a bright aspirant student is deprived of living his dreams.</strong></div>
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<a href="http://swarajyamag.com/author/aravindan-neelakandan/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Aravindan Neelakandan</a></h6>
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Aravindan Neelakandan is the co-author of the acclaimed book "Breaking India". He is also a popular science writer in Tamil.</div>
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Educational institutes are supposed to prepare one to tackle difficulties in life and persevere, not lead to death. One can then empathise with the desolation the parents of the late Rohith Vemula must be feeling as news came of his suicide. It is indeed sad when a bright aspirant student is deprived of living his dreams.</div>
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Vemula left a suicide note that lamented the reduction of human beings to a single identity. The proponents of caste conflict have used it to emphasise that Vemula was a victim of caste oppression, thanks to his ties to the Ambedkar Students Association (read his full suicide note<a href="http://swarajyamag.com/commentary/full-text-of-rohit-vemulas-suicide-letter/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ce413e; outline: none !important; text-decoration: none;"> here</a>). Some members of ASA were suspended for alleged violence on campus.</div>
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The recent events call for an in-depth study of what is happening in the name of Dalit politics, particularly in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh. A vicious racial hate theory has been propagated in the university campuses of Andhra Pradesh in the name of Dalit liberation, abetted by forces inimical to national unity and compromise.</div>
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To understand the kind of violence that has been happening in the campuses of Hyderabad, we have to understand the long history of hate campaigning that has taken place there with patronage from the high seats of power within and outside India.</div>
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The academic kingpin of this divisive phenomenon is Prof Kancha Ilaiah who is now the director of the Centre for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in Hyderabad. Indologist Koenraad Elst has pointed out the striking similarities between the way Ilaiah’s work (incidentally sponsored by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation) depicts Brahmins and the Nazi depiction of Jews.</div>
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Kancha Ilaiah</div>
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Earlier, Ilaiah had worked in Osmania University, Hyderabad. Today it is a veritable den of casteist-racist movements. Pitting Ambedkar against Gandhi, Ilaiah has been marketed in the West as a messiah of the downtrodden in India.</div>
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Gospel for Asia presents Kancha Ilaiah as the ‘Martin Luther King’ of the Indian civil rights movement. In 2005, he testified against India to a US Congress sub-committee on human rights. The hearing was titled, ‘Equality and Justice for 200 Million Victims of the Caste System.’</div>
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Kancha Ilaiah was there along with the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) which was part of the family of organisations linked to CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide). Its current President, Jonathan Aitken, and its former president and patron, Baroness Cox, are both staunch right-wing Christians. And CSW works in a coordinated way with DFN in the US and similar organisations in India and hate-mongers like Kancha Ilaiah in Indian universities.</div>
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In his book ‘Post-Hindu India’ Ilaiah states that Brahmins are worse than animals because even the animal instincts are ‘underdeveloped’ in them. He declares that Hinduism is actually ‘spiritual fascism’ created by ‘the unusual instinct of parasitism’ in Brahmins and says that Dalits ‘have to turn to a war of weapons’ in order to eliminate Hinduism.</div>
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Consider the following lines:</div>
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The Brahmins as a community shared the animal instinct of not being able to produce anything from the earth. This human caste differs from all the other social communities ever since human beings evolved out of the apes.</div>
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Now if you substitute Jews in the place of Brahmins, this will match lines from some Nazi pamphlet. Only these are lines from a book published in 2009 by a prestigious academic publisher – Sage Publications: ‘Post Hindu India’ (page.206).</div>
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Ilaiah has ominously predicted a ‘major civil war’ on the lines of the violent upheavals that happened in Europe and sees it as a ‘necessary evil’. In fact, what is happening in the campuses of universities in Andhra Pradesh – now Telangana – have to be seen as attempts to whip up such gross communal, divisive passions.</div>
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So beef festivals and rallying for Yakub Memon, etc, are basically attempts to pit Dalits against ‘forward castes’. The most unfortunate suicide of Rohith Vemula is but one more tragic result of such ideological posturing and divisive campus politics. But who will hold the Kancha Illaiahs of our universities accountable?</div>
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Source: <a href="http://swarajyamag.com/politics/sad-suicide-of-rohith-vemula-shows-where-the-virulent-politics-of-caste-hatred-is-headed/" target="_blank">swarajyamag</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-53829964639148667792016-01-08T04:05:00.001-08:002016-01-08T04:06:25.458-08:00To avoid another Pathankot India needs change not tears<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Hindsight is a two-bogey train. The first coach is called ‘Clarity’, the second is ‘Wisdom’. The engine is driven by a fuel called ‘Realisation’. And so it is that after every hideous terrorist attack by jihadis from Pakistan, we realise our avoidable follies with great clarity; we believe we are wiser than before. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Unfortunately, the hindsight train makes only a brief halt and neither realisation nor wisdom last more than the 24-hour TRP-driven news cycle that has come to symbolise our life-clock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Till the next train arrives, we, the people and our government, slip back into blissful, blessed complacence. </span></div>
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Schoolchildren pay tribute to the Pathankot martyrs</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Every two-penny analyst has been prompt in raising questions about last weekend’s terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, pillorying the government, mocking the security establishment, doubting the capacity of those tasked with defending India from its enemies. Some gleefully, others morosely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><b>Borders </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">This is not to suggest that the questions and concerns are misplaced. They aren’t. For instance, common sense tells us that our border management, both in the east and the west, remains woefully poor and way behind the need of the times we live in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The report of the committee set up after the Kargil conflict to propose effective border management gathered dust before turning obsolete. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Had we managed our border with Pakistan better, had defunct electronic surveillance equipment been repaired, had drug trafficking routes been blocked, the terrorists who attacked the IAF base could not have entered Punjab. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">What does it tell us of border area security arrangements that they were able to travel 20 km without hindrance? You don’t need to be a strategic affairs expert to realise that real-time intelligence, never mind how it was secured, could have been better used had there been better ground-level inter-agency coordination. Or that there was sufficient time to secure the outer periphery of the base instead of depending on the DSC as the first respondent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">That the terrorists were not able to reach ‘strategic air assets’ is no doubt a tribute to the determined fightback by the DSC jawans. That the subsequent operations saw six terrorists being neutralised without collateral damage to civilian lives is equally a tribute to the valour and spirit of the NSG and Garud commandos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">But behind the valour of our men lurks the cold comfort that we seek. The terrorists who attacked the base were not random jihadis, they were militarily trained, heavily armed, and highly motivated by jihad’s repulsive doctrine, prepared to kill, ready to die. In an asymmetrical war that gives them advantage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><b>Cover-ups</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">There is little or no percentage in belabouring issues that will no doubt (or at least should) concern the security establishment. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is the best India has at the moment. He is not known to seek refuge in convenient cover-ups or gloss over discomfiting facts. Let’s wait and see how the post-attack response pans out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Asking the Opposition not to score political points and feed ill-informed popular outrage is, frankly, meaningless. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">As a nation we have failed to forge a national consensus and resolve in dealing with the scourge of terrorism, both of the home-grown and cross-border variety. Nothing demonstrates this better than the fact that India is possibly the only country which rubs shoulders with jihad-exporters in not having a legal mechanism to deal with terror. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The Prevention of Terrorism Act should have evolved into a law over the past decade, keeping pace with the rapidly-changing terrorscape that now confronts the world. Instead we replaced it with an amended Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 vintage. It hasn’t worked. It won’t work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">We have failed to build a national consensus on dealing with, and exterminating, Left-wing terrorism at home. Maoists still kill with impunity. Our politicians refuse to agree on the menacing rise of Islamism across the country. Fanatics spurred by the jihad impulse run riot in West Bengal, recruit Islamic State foot soldiers in Tamil Nadu, turn ghettoes into no-go zones in western Uttar Pradesh. The power of their veto rides roughshod over the lure of votes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Saluting brave soldiers and policemen who die defending this land comes easy. It fetches Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, WhatsApp forwards. Such expressions of gratitude are often no more than self-gratification through selfies. We mourn, as we should, for the seven bravehearts who laid down their lives at Pathankot. But do we remember the 155 security forces personnel killed in India, 41 of them in Jammu & Kashmir, in 2015? That more jawans died fighting Maoists than jihadis last year? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><b>Lessons </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Let’s face it. These are mere statistics. Neither the people nor the politicians see them as human lives lost. What we, the people, see is as cynical as what they, the politicians, see: An opportunity to score points, entertain primetime TV viewers and mock each other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">A last point that is offered as a lesson - for the majority of Indians, Israel is admirable for its determination not to concede a quarter to its foes. What is not realised and internalised is that determination comes with multiple price tags. Israel pays top dollars for arming its soldiers, buying or developing cutting-edge technology, acquiring real-time intelligence. Israeli politicians do not squabble over cents. Nor do they trade national security for personal pelf. Israelis pay high taxes and demand accountability from their government. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">For every Israeli, each Israeli life is precious and to be protected. They do not see fellow citizens as disposable commodity. Israel, as a nation, pays a stiff price for its tough security doctrine. Media does not compromise national security. Jholawallahs do not set the agenda, bleeding-heart liberals do not determine policy. Bogus debates on ‘tolerance’ do not distract them from their resolve. Yet, human rights are enshrined and protected by an active and independent judiciary. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Now compare that with the way we are. Why complain?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The writer is a political commentator and tweets at @KanchanGupta</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Source <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3387636/To-avoid-Pathankot-India-needs-change-not-tears.html" target="_blank">dailymail</a></span></div>
amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-27872092603682670122016-01-01T12:44:00.004-08:002016-01-01T12:46:28.584-08:00History of Hindu Heroism: A brief chronicle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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History of Hindu Heroism: A brief chronicle</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IndiaFacts columnist Manini has put together a compelling </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">presentation chronicling the long history of Hindu heroism for </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IndiaFacts. Here’s how she describes the presentation:</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a quick chronicle of all those Hindu bravehearts who for </span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over 550 years, fought Islamization and paid with their lives to </span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">keep the Hindu religious and cultural identity alive.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We invite our readers to watch, share, and disseminate this rather superlative and visually pleasing presentation.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/D9Nj8xrVwyjPgZ" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/sandeepIF/history-of-hindu-heroism" target="_blank" title="History of Hindu Heroism">History of Hindu Heroism</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/sandeepIF" target="_blank">IndiaFacts Research Centre</a></strong> </div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-49672220519527246162015-12-31T07:36:00.004-08:002015-12-31T07:37:49.922-08:00OMG! You Wont Believe Star Wars is Based on These Two Famous Ancient Indian Texts. Read the Truth!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td><span style="font-family: Copperplate Gothic Bold;">The Jedi in the Lotus: An Eastern Look at Star Wars<br />By Steven J. Rosen</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="font-family: Arial;">This book looks at the underlying basis of George Lucas' successful film series, showing how it is, in many cases, based on Indic texts, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Naturally, the market for this book is not only students of Hinduism and Eastern spirituality – my usual market – but also fans of the film series, which amounts to literally millions of people. When the Phantom Menace (the first Star Wars prequel) came out in 1999, it was hailed as the most anticipated movie of all time, and it did incredibly well at the box office. What's more, when the video and DVD were recently released, the sales were unprecedented. Now, the next film in the series is due out this month (May 2002), and fans say that this will be the best of them all. Six months after that, Lucasfilms will release the video and DVD of that film, and two years later, the final installment of the Star Wars series is scheduled for release, meaning that the epic fantasy series will be on people's minds for years to come. I ask those of you associated with the Infinity Foundation to help me find a publisher for this work. Time is of the essence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">An outline of my book is as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o The introduction reveals the basic connection: It describes how myths are embedded in the consciousness, in the soul, and have therefore manifested in similar ways throughout the world. Ancient Indian myths are perhaps the earliest examples of these world myths, while Star Wars is merely among the most contemporary. The correlations are many, and they will all be explored throughout the book. I look at George Lucas' major influences, from Flash Gordon to Joseph Campbell, and how Indian tales form the central core around which his series is modelled.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o In Chapter One, I elaborate on the story of Rama as well as that of the Pandavas. In addition, I outline the chronology of events in Star Wars and show overlapping themes and points of similarity and difference.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o Chapter Two explains "the Force," showing its correlation with both Maha-Maya (God's external energy of illusion) and Yoga-Maya (God's internal positive spiritual energy), since The Force has both bad and good dimensions. I will also compare the Force to various manifestations of shakti and to Brahman, the impersonal aspect of the Supreme, for there is much similarity in these concepts. Students of Indian religion will balk at the East-Indian ideas Lucas freely uses when constructing his idea of the Force.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o The Third Chapter will explain the underlying message of the Star Wars films, especially its idea that light and dark aspects of reality can be analogized with Nature vs. Machine paradigms. Each film in the Star Wars series offers food for thought regarding the "organic as opposed to the mechanic," and our Third Chapter will look at them all.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o Perhaps most importantly, in the Fourth Chapter, I will show that just as Star Wars takes place in deep space, most of the battles in the Ramayana take place in sophisticated aircrafts, and Arjuna, too, in the Mahabharata, is said to engage in many battles while in outer space. The Vimana shastras show that ancient India somehow knew of elaborate aircraft and boasted an awareness of advanced technology. While I point out that much of this may be relegated to the realm of fantasy, it is indeed curious that ancient texts engage these very Star Wars-like ideas.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o The Fifth Chapter will elaborate on Yoda's relationship with Luke Skywalker, which is essentially a Guru-Disciple relationship. I will explain their interaction in terms of Indian texts and show how the teacher/pupil dynamic is nowhere as developed as in India. I will also show parallels between India's system of yoga and that which is taught by the Jedi knights.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This will lead into an examination of kshatriya dharma, for the the Jedi knight concept is obviously an extrapolation of the codes of India's warrior caste.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">o The Afterword will sum up the religious components of the film series and explore spiritual elements in many other similar films. In conclusion, I will show that ancient Indian traditions were well ahead of their time, and even today have much to offer the world.</span></blockquote>
Source: <a href="http://www.infinityfoundation.com/Jedi.htm" target="_blank">infinityfoundation</a> </td></tr>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-35373974749038814782015-12-31T07:33:00.000-08:002015-12-31T07:34:10.743-08:00The moderns of ancient India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; max-width: 100%;">Rigveda, Kamasutra, Arthashastra – A rich legacy of abjuring violence against women</em></div>
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Nirbhaya’s rape-murder and the outpouring of protest and anguish that followed invites us to imagine a society in which women are free agents. One which fully accepts that women have the right to make independent decisions – whether in their romantic and sexual lives or in the pursuit of education and work.</div>
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A society that discourages violence against women and condemns even marital rape. If violence occurs, society does not stigmatise the woman victim or blame her for somehow having incited the violence but does its best to offer her support and sympathy.<br />
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Such a society sounds like a utopian dream – particularly in a country still plagued by khap panchayat judgments ordering gang rape as a punishment for women suspected of “inappropriate relationships” and statements by politicians blaming women for rape. However, we wouldn’t have to travel far in space to find this utopia. We simply need to board a time machine, and jump straight into Rigvedic India.<br />
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The Rigveda does mention a rape. The victim is Ushas (Dawn), who flees to a cave, traumatised. She is then befriended by minstrel rishis who track her to her hidden dwelling, and offer praise and support. Singers gather in front of Ushas’s cave praising her radiance and lustre and persuading her to come out, which she eventually does.<br />
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In one of the hymns the rapist is punished; an arrow is shot at him. Society did not judge Ushas. It rallied to her aid, boosting her morale and helping her emerge from post-traumatic depression into a happy and normal life.<br />
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The society of the scriptures stigmatised neither the rape survivor nor the children born as a result of rape. A father who abandoned such a child was looked down upon, whosoever he might be.<br />
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Several Puranic texts chronicle the mighty Brihaspati’s rape of his brother’s wife, Mamata. The child was raised by his maternal grandparents before being adopted by King Bharata. He also became extremely learned. He and his descendants composed the hymns that constitute Book 6 of the Rigveda. While the child prospered, Brihaspati was despised. Mamata was neither stigmatised, nor abandoned by her husband.</div>
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In the Ramayana, the Suryavanshi prince, Danda, a serial rapist is exiled by his father to the Dandakaranya forest, where he proceeds to rape his teacher Shukracharya’s daughter Abja. Incensed, Shukracharya curses Danda – he and his entire clan perish.<br />
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Meanwhile, the regent discovers that Abja had conceived from the rape. He brings her to the Suryavanshi capital, Ayodhya, with great honour. She becomes queen and her child, Harit, later ascends the throne. Not only did the rape victim and her child flourish; no one questioned their rights to the throne. Illegitimacy carried no stigma.<br />
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Besides sexual violence, physical or psychological violence against women is discouraged in the Rigveda, as illustrated by the famous funeral hymn. A woman who lies down, depressed, beside her dead husband is urged to get up and embrace the world of the living – with laughter, good food and song. She is even encouraged to take the hand of a suitor who could be a potential second husband.<br />
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Some Vedic women, far from being helpless and victim-like, were very martial. In a famous hymn about Mudgala’s wife, robbers steal his entire stock of cattle. The couple is left with an old bull and a creaky wooden cart with one wheel missing. After Mudgala makes some ad hoc repairs, the couple give chase, his wife holding the reins and driving the cart drawn by the bull. Her skill ensures that they capture all their own cattle as well as some of their raiders’.<br />
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Other Vedic hymns mention a woman warrior, Vishpala, who fought at night in the Battle of Khela. Losing a leg in battle did not faze the lady. She got an iron leg made and rejoined the battle.<br />
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Leap forward now in time to Vatsyayana and his Kamasutra. Vatsyayana warns husbands (especially in the context of arranged marriages) not to force themselves on their wives: “Women, being of a tender nature, want tender beginnings, and when they are forcibly approached by men with whom they are but slightly acquainted, they sometimes suddenly become haters of sexual connection, and sometimes even haters of the male sex. The man should therefore approach the girl according to her liking.”<br />
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Vatsyayana is equally against date rape; he points out that it has similar effects on the woman who is “forcibly enjoyed” by “one who does not understand the hearts of girls”: she begins to hate sex and mankind in general. Again, no disposition to blame women for being raped; the responsibility lies squarely with the rapist.<br />
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Nor does marriage give a man an inalienable right to his wife’s person – quite a revolutionary idea when marital rape is not criminalised even in modern society. Both Vatsyayana and Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra, maintain that wives could resort to divorce (with the option of remarriage) under some circumstances. Thus, women trapped in violent marriages were not without an exit strategy.<br />
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It would be ideal if violence against women simply didn’t exist. If this is impossible, the best alternative is a society where a woman’s self-worth and honour are not diminished simply by a crime against her person. Hopefully, we can use our distant ancestors’ social norms for inspiration in moving towards such a society.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%;">The writer is associate professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University</em><br />
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Source: <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/the-moderns-of-ancient-india/" target="_blank">TOI</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-7241326087294934462015-11-04T08:43:00.002-08:002015-11-04T08:45:00.670-08:00History and Nationalism: Excerpt from Hinduism and the Clash of Civilization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the main purposes of history books, as taught in different countries in the world,…</div>
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<span class="entry-author-ifw" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 29px; margin-left: 20px;"><a href="http://indiafacts.co.in/author/david-frawley/" rel="author" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none;">David Frawley</a> | </span><span class="entry-category-ifw" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://indiafacts.co.in/category/indology/" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none;">Indology</a></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"> | </span><span class="entry-date-ifw" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">30-10-2015</span></div>
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One of the main purposes of history books, as taught in different countries in the world, is to instill a sense of national pride and honor—in short, to inculcate a sense of patriotism and nationalism. Whether it is the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany or China, this is certainly the case today and has been so as long as these countries have existed as modern nations. The lives of great leaders, particularly the founders of the country are highlighted, the continuity of the nation’s history is emphasized, and the importance of the nation in the history of world and the greatness of the national culture are stressed. Students are expected to come away from reading accounts of their history with a sense of national greatness and purpose, not only for the past but also for the future.</div>
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However, India is a strange and unique country in which history books are often anti-national in nature. India has largely kept intact the British approach to Indian history devised in the colonial era. Students of such textbooks come away apologetic or confused about their country and its traditions. Textbooks in Marxist ruled states of India like West Bengal and Kerala leave their students with a sense of the greatness of Communism and Communist countries like China or even Russia which is no longer Communist, rather than any real regard for India and its great traditions.</div>
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An early 19th-century manuscript of Rigveda (padapatha) in Devanagari.</div>
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History books in India try to ignore the dominant Hindu ethos of the country and its history before the Islamic period. India’s greatest historical and cultural document, the Mahabharata and Ramayana are hardly given any attention in the schools. So too, the Vedas, Puranas, Buddhist Jatakas and other prime historical and cultural documents of the country are ignored because of their religious overtones. If they do address India as a nation, it is only India of the independence movement that they acknowledge, as if prior to 1947 India did not really exist. While Nehru is made important, older kings from the Rigvedic Bharatas to Yudishthira of the Mahabharata period to the Marathas of the eighteenth century are hardly mentioned. There is no real sense of any historical continuity to the culture, much less to the country. While Mahatma Gandhi is emphasized, the greater spiritual traditions of India and its great teachers from the Vedic rishlS, Vedantic Buddhists and Jain sages to modern savants like Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi are not given much attention.</div>
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It is true that history should not be a mere instrument of a destructive nationalism and should avoid instilling aggression against other lands and peoples, even when upholding what is valuable in a nation’s history. But this does not require that the national value of historical studies is negated altogether.</div>
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The question, therefore, is how the history accounts in India made to reflect and instill a genuine nationalism and sense of the country’s history and destiny. India, after all, is one of the great civilizations of the world, with cultural traditions that have much value for humanity. Such historical accounts must reflect the richness and diversity of Indic civilization, but they cannot ignore its unity and continuity either.</div>
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The fact is that you cannot build a nation without creating history books that instill a positive nationalism, particularly in the youth. The real danger in India is not the arising of a chauvinistic nationalism like that of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy—which are foreign to the mentality and ethos of the country—but a lack of national spirit and historical consciousness that keeps people alienated from their roots and the country divided.</div>
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India needs a real nationalism and for this a national sense of history, pride and purpose is required. A true Indian nationalism will be rooted in an Indian ethos of dharma, spirituality and pluralism, but this does not mean there can be no national or historical pride without encouraging communalism in the country. On the contrary, a greater sense of national identity would be the best thing to counter the disintegrating influence of religious, castist and regional interests that are bringing the country down.</div>
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Therefore we must ask: Why can’t Indians connect India’s traditional ancient literature, the Vedas, with its archaeology through Harappa and the many sarasvati River sites? Why can’t Indians find national pride in their own history both on literary and archaeological levels? Why should history in India be used for national shame, rather than National pride? Why should history of India place Indic civilization out of India? These are questions that must be answered.</div>
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Western and Indic Views of History</h2>
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The subject of history in the Western context is very different than in the Indian context. In the Western view, history is mainly an account of political events and economic progress, a purely outward affair. In the Hindu view, history is a means of teaching detachment, showing how great kings and kingdoms come and go in the course of time. It has an inner value as a spiritual teaching about the nature of human life and the need for liberation from worldly concerns. In the Western view, history is progressive from the crude beginnings of agriculture and village life moving forward to the present day urban culture. In the Hindu view history is cyclical, with various cultures coming and going over time as the soul seeks liberation from the phenomenal world.</div>
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The Western progressive account of history is quite flawed. For example, the first civilizations of the ancient world that we can document—including Egypt. Sumeria, India and China—did not regard themselves as the first but were aware of many cultures and kingdoms before them, particularly prior to a great flood. The civilizations that we regard as the first saw themselves as very old with many antecedents! Yet we pretend that there was nothing before them!</div>
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Mauryan building in the Barabar Mounts. Grotto of Lomas Rishi. 3rd century BCE.</div>
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In addition, the civilizations of the Third Millennium BCE, like those of Egypt and Harappan/Sarasvati India, had better urban and architectural achievements than those that followed for many centuries. Even Europe had its Dark Ages after the Roman period in which much knowledge was lost. This idea of history as linear progress is clearly not the case. While humanity has progressed scientifically, this is mainly over the past five hundred years.</div>
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On the other hand. we see a spiritual decline since ancient times and over the last century we can note a decline in culture, art, music and philosophy in Europe itself, coinciding or even caused by great advances in science.</div>
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As India is the only civilization of antiquity to survive the onslaught of time, it is the special responsibility of Indians to discover not only their own history but also that of the entire ancient world. Just as there are unquestioned distortions of ancient India, similar distortions of other ancient cultures also exist. For example, the religion of ancient Egypt, which like that of the Vedas demonstrates much occult and spiritual significance, is similarly dismissed as polytheism, idolatry or henotheism (worshipping different Gods as the supreme God), exactly like the Vedas.</div>
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Revamping the way history is taught in Indian schools would be a major step in the direction of a more authentic and spiritually sensitive history of the world. It is a scientific and spiritual imperative, not only for India but for all countries.</div>
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[<span style="color: blue;"><em>Excerpted from the David Frawley’s book Hinduism and the Clash of Civilization.</em> </span>]</div>
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Source: <a href="http://indiafacts.co.in/history-and-nationalism-excerpt-from-hinduism-and-the-clash-of-civilization/" target="_blank">indiafacts</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-65813255951254924372015-10-07T09:35:00.000-07:002015-10-07T09:35:16.628-07:00The answer to life, the universe and everything<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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| 6-minute read | 01-10-2015</div>
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MINHAZ MERCHANT</div>
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<span style="color: #565656; font-size: 20px; line-height: 27px;">Stephen Hawking, arguably the world’s greatest living theoretical physicist, recently stated: “We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth. So in an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life.”</span><span style="color: #565656; font-size: 20px; line-height: 27px;">The successful launch of space observatory Astrosat by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 28 places India in an elite league of nations. The space observatory can “listen” to signals from outer space, including those from intelligent life in other solar systems and galaxies.</span></div>
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Polls conducted in various countries show that more than 50 per cent of people in Britain, Germany and France believe that intelligent life exists in other parts of the universe. According to a recent report by Katrina Pascaul in <em>Tech Times</em>, “A new survey has found that more than one in two individuals in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany believe there is intelligent life out there in space. According to new YouGov research, the majority of the public in these three countries believe that living entities, which have the ability to communicate and do not hail from Earth, exist. Findings show that more than half of Germans (56 per cent) believe this, the most likely to do so among the survey participants. Fifty-four per cent of Americans and 52 per cent of British people share the opinion. The British people who believe alien life exists say the most likely reasons for the paradox are that intelligent life is too far away for us to be able to contact it, and that our technology is not advanced enough for communication.”</div>
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Other reports confirmed that Hawking is supporting “the biggest and most ambitious search plan yet (in which) astronomers plan to study more than ten times more space than ever before in and around the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies in a bid to seek out potential radio emissions that could come from advanced civilisations. The project, known as Breakthrough Listen, comprises a $100 million, ten-year search, launched by the Breakthrough Initiatives group at the Royal Society in London. The research will survey one million stars in the Milky Way, as well as the stars in the 100 closest galaxies.”</div>
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As an undergraduate student of physics, the first paper I wrote was on the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. The answer seemed self-evident: the universe must surely teem with intelligent life. The problem is we are Earth-centric. Life in outer space need not be humanoid. The laws of physics are still evolving. Plasmoid life and indeed life beyond anything we can imagine today is possible. The law of probability underscores the reason for life in outer space being a virtual certainty. Here’s why:</div>
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<strong>1.</strong> There are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.</div>
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<strong>2.</strong> Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has several hundred billion solar systems.</div>
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<strong>3.</strong> Our sun constitutes just one of these solar systems.</div>
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<strong>4.</strong> Several million, possibly billion, solar systems in the observable universe have planets with environmental, atmospheric and chemical conditions suitable to harbouring life.</div>
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Prior to “Time Zero”, the stage when the universe was created, there was – literally – nothing. A perfect vacuum. From that vacuum has emerged everything in the universe – atoms, stars, galaxies, black holes, quasars, dark matter, planets – and, on Earth, life.</div>
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At the point of “singularity” when there was nothing, in that fraction of a fraction of a second before the Big Bang that created the universe, lies the greatest mystery physicists and mathematicians like Hawking and Roger Penrose continue to wrestle with. What precisely was the event that created this universe from a perfect vacuum at the point of singularity?</div>
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Hawking calls these the most important questions facing humankind: How did the universe emerge at the point of singularity from a perfect vacuum at Time Zero? Are we alone in the universe? And finally, why does the universe exist at all?</div>
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This is where science, philosophy and faith intersect.</div>
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Within this absolute space-time vacuum (postulated by the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems based on Einstein's general theory of relativity), an event occurred which no leading scientist has yet been able to fully explain. That event probably involved the mutual annihilation of a positron-electron twin pair carrying identical (positive and negative) charges and mass. The result of this vacuum fluctuation was the Big Bang, the widely accepted theory of how our universe began.</div>
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Before Time Zero, during the pre-universe "nothingness", it is hypothesised that constant and instantaneous mutual annihilation of positron-electron pairs occurred several trillion times every second. These multiple collisions cancelled each other out, leading to a perpetual state of zero mass, zero time and zero space – the perfect vacuum. The mutual annihilation of electrons and positrons, however, occurred in unimaginably small crevices of time – 10<sup>-100</sup> seconds or less.</div>
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To the observer nothing was occurring: the event started and ended before it could be observed and therefore, as far as the observer was concerned, had not occurred at all. From this nothingness a freak, once-in-a-quadrillion positron-electron pair escaped mutual annihilation 13.70 billion years ago, causing the Big Bang and the creation of our universe as well as a "mirror" negative universe.</div>
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<strong>Are we alone?</strong></div>
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Our nearest solar system is Alpha Centauri. To get there, travelling at the speed of light, would take 4.3 years. Travelling at the speed of the world's fastest experimental spacecraft, Helios II (1,57,000 mph), it would take over 12,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri. Other solar systems are even further off. Galaxies are, of course, trillions of miles away. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains around 350 billion solar systems – many, as NASA's Kepler space telescope confirmed, with orbiting planets like the Earth with surface water, moderate temperature and life-supporting oxygen. Andromeda, the galaxy closest to the Milky Way, is even more massive with over 1,000 billion solar systems. It is around 2.70 million light years away from us. So if electromagnetic radiation originating from a planet in Andromeda began transmitting 2.70 million years ago (the Plio-Pleistocene era on Earth) it would have barely reached us this year.</div>
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And in these distances lies the answer to the question: if it exists, why hasn't intelligent life from extraterrestrial planets, presumably with highly sophisticated communications and transportation technology, made contact with us? Humans, after millions of years of evolution from Australopethicus hominids to Neanderthals through to "modern" man, began sending out electromagnetic radiation (in its earliest form as radio transmissions) a mere 125 years ago. Those signals have today scarcely reached the edge of our solar system cluster. Time and distance, both unimaginably vast, explain why no contact has been established with us by other intelligent species.</div>
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So while we are certainly not alone in the universe, we may not make contact with other planetary life for centuries. But there is little doubt that one day contact will be made. What shape, form and mode that contact takes is uncertain. But when it does happen, it will mark one of the most important events in recorded history.</div>
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All of human intelligence and wisdom, from Aristotle and Aryabhata to the Vedas and Einstein, does not have an answer, however, to the most fundamental question that has divided sages and philosophers over the centuries: Why does the universe exist at all?</div>
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As even scientists today concede wryly, God alone knows.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.dailyo.in/technology/universe-milky-way-solar-system-isro-astrosat-big-bang-stephen-hawking/story/1/6553.html" target="_blank">dailyo</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-90561188173023844372015-10-06T15:11:00.003-07:002015-10-06T15:13:11.674-07:00Beef Wars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">“<b>What’s your beef</b>?” is a common American phrase. It’s a question a person asks someone who talks or acts without reason or goes off on a rant with no purpose other than creating a confrontational situation. This is the question to ask many media and political ranters who have been trying hard to link every incident to Modi. "<b>If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian</b>” said ex-Beatle Paul McCartney who turned vegan long ago. Since they don’t, people put up such pics on SM so others can see:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">I have kept the pic small so it doesn’t offend too much. Five years ago, a café owner was ordered to remove an extractor fan because the resident next to the café was offended by the fumes of bacon. This was in England where bacon is a routine food item. For those who are not familiar, bacon is made from pork – from pigs. Do you want me to tell you the Faith of the complaining neighbour? I don’t think so; it doesn’t take Einstein to figure that out. Now, bacon is common food in almost all western countries and for a Muslim to complain about the smell of bacon from a café (where even Muslims were patrons) should be considered absurd. But such is the stupidity of councils and govts that they will pander to the nonsensical victimhood of minorities (<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/10/uk-cafe-owner-ordered-to-remove-extractor-fan-because-smell-of-frying-bacon-offends-muslims" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: purple;"><b><u>read the full story here</u></b></span></a>).</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Cow-slaughter ban</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> has existed in many states in India for ages. Some states have adopted that policy in the last few decades. For centuries the cow has been a sacred symbol in India, particularly for the Hindus. Recently, the Maharashtra govt extended the ban to bulls and buffaloes too. The Maharashtra ban on cow-slaughter has been in place since the 1970s but govts never enforced it strictly. There is nothing wrong in respecting the sentiments of Hindus. Consider this – Every hotel, airline and food stalls at airports now put up a sign saying they use only “<b>Halal meat</b>”. Surely, that is not to respect the sentiments of Christians or Jews, is it? It is highly unlikely you will find hotels and restaurants that routinely offer pigs (pork) as food. Will you? Why is it that only Muslim sentiments must be respected over what food is offered and how the animal is slaughtered?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Once the Maharashtra government slapped a ban on sale or possession of beef there were responses from all the Sickular scoundrels. Bollywood reacted (<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/Beef-ban-Bollywood-reacts-on-Twitter/photostory/46453554.cms" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: purple;"><b><u>slide show</u></b></span></a>). The usual Sickos in MSM reacted. Others from political parties reacted. That’s how this new beef war started. Earlier, to defy the cow-slaughter ban some morons held a “<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Osmania-University-beef-festival-sparks-violence-2-vehicles-torched/articleshow/12681180.cms" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: purple;"><b><u>Beef eating festival</u></b></span></a>” at Osmania University in 2012 which led to violence. Do note, there has been a cow slaughter ban (in then what was united Andhra) since 1977. So why would the authorities allow an activity that brazenly breaks the law? <b>If it offends Hindus, no law is important</b><b>, one can break it</b> – that’s a social law in India in most states. If these people had eaten beef privately in stealth it wouldn’t have mattered but they wanted to make a public statement. Criminal media passes this and the bigger jokers will even celebrate it like the Monk and the Moron:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">The StreetThug wants to eat steak immediately after the beef-festival debate and the Category5Moron wants to eat meat dripping with blood. I doubt anyone cares what morons like these eat – they can eat rats, dogs, insects, bats, snakes. And if they want to break the law and express their defiance even more strongly - they can even eat dead human-beings. These Anti-Hindu thugs just want to keep offending Hindu sentiments and that is all. Govt should usually not make laws over social issues and food habits. After all, I doubt there’s any law that says only “Halal meat” should be sold but everyone is offering that. Isn’t it? The respect for Hindu sentiments on cows should have come naturally. But most of these people in media and politics who want to kill cows don’t want it to end there – they want Hindus to disappear so that a Chrislamic State can become a reality. You just have to give 15 minutes to <b>Akbar Owaisi</b> (family friend of the Monk and the Moron).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">They want Hindu traditions and customs to disappear. They want Hindus to stop celebrating <b>Holi</b>. They ridicule and condemn even <b>Raksha Bandhan</b>. They want<b>kite-flying</b> to stop because the string sometimes slashes some birds. <b>But they want to kill cows</b>. Someone put it nicely when he showed that these same morons have extraordinary sympathy for stray dogs that are becoming a menace in many cities:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">So, the latest round of outrage is over a 50-year old man, <b>Akhlaq</b>, who was <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/next-door-to-delhi-mob-kills-50-year-old-injures-son-over-rumours-they-ate-beef/" style="color: #838383; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: purple;"><b><u>lynched</u></b></span></a>by a mob because there was a rumour he and his family consumed beef. The family denies it and claims it was mutton and that was what was stored in their fridge too. Given the consistent pattern of our media getting news wrong I would naturally be sceptical about the reason for the attack. However, let us assume he was lynched for the reason the reports say. Now, nobody… <b>nobody has to die for eating something</b>. Even if that offends anyone or breaks the law, nobody needs to die. But this culture of madness and killing in UP happens for many other reasons too. But the outrage and the attempt to link it to Modi and Hindus wanting to kill a Muslim is the kind of stupidity that is criminal by our MSM and many politicians. Fortunately, such media-scams aren’t passing anymore, thanks to SM. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">How brazen and stupid can it get? Well, there is <b>Akhilesh Yadav</b> – CM of UP who, instead of assuring strong action against the killers, asks the PM to ban the export of beef. And the entire media carried his ignorant crap like a box of parrots. All it took was for someone to educate this beef-challenged kid:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">The beef-export ban is already in place for some time but our UP CM wants to pin the nonsense in UP on Modi. That is the whole game of politicians and media – as if Modi is policing every nook and corner of this country. It is true that there are a lot of social issues that Modi is failing to address but he certainly can’t be a cop monitoring every corner. What are CMs and local police meant for? To talk nonsense when crimes happen in their region? But the overall trick is to bring up some issue to outrage on before every election. Remember the “<b>attack on Christians</b>” fraudulent campaign before Maharashtra and Haryana elections? <b>Well there is Bihar around the corner</b>. So, the already prosecuted Beef-war in progress now becomes a Muslim killed over beef. Hope for the losers is eternal. I am not sure this will work either. <b>What’s their beef</b>? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.mediacrooks.com/2015/10/beef-wars.html#.Vg8y7_lVikq" target="_blank">mediacrooks</a></span></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-52922710772721265072015-09-28T15:26:00.001-07:002015-09-28T15:26:26.413-07:00Audio transcript of discussion with S Gurumurthy on Quantitative Easing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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America which introduces more cash into system is to finance largely imports at the consumption level but in Japan it is quantitative using is to promote exports they do export financing. For example Abe govt (Japan Government) decides that they would pump in $50 billion a month over the next 18 months.</div>
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They will finance the Japanese corporate for their exports, in which let us assume Japanese govt. insists on 60% of the exports to be funded from Japan that is the import content of a project of say in Bombay-Delhi corridor, if they say 60% of the export from Japan and they finance this 60% so they convert this inflation into income without affecting the local economy, so the most important thing is you export your currency virtually.</div>
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This is because Japanese is savings driven economy but in America same may not work as it is a consumption driven economy, there you are financing consumption, here you are financing exports, which add to GDP, there you are financing consumption in imports which reduces the GDP so there is a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">huge difference</em>.</div>
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How do you see the Quantitative Easing in Europe?</h5>
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Quantitative Easing in Europe is again because of the weakening of the society which places burden on the state. Most of the economies except Germany weighed down by the enlightenment aged progressing into atomization of families and society. So state dependency is increased; so in 2006, there was a paper circulated in European Union where they discussed this issue, what is happening because they can’t discuss very directly just as you can’t discuss secularism in India, you can’t discuss limitations on individual rights, nobody has the guts & these is no leadership but China can do it, Japan can, even Russia can do it, none of these Anglo Saxon countries or Continental Europe can do it because they just don’t have the intellectual leadership which can take on present situation as they discuss in a very subtle manner how the families and communities has weaken in the process burden on government has increased.</div>
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The government is no more able to discharge the burden. They will be citing Scandinavian countries which are just nothing (in size), they are not even half the cities of India. So this is actually a State-Society imbalance in bearing responsibilities which is reflecting in economies. It is the western economies which are now failing and they are trying to correct it within the scope of system which is not going to work unless a very large part of responsibility is given back to the society and the family which they will say is republican approach. It is not correct having destroyed the family you can not hand over responsibility to weaken the family if you have to recreate the family. What you need is not economy, you need culture, tradition, religion which you don’t have and you need reverence. Modernity actually targets reverence. Actually there should be no reverence for anybody and there is a lot of study on all of these individually.</div>
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Paul Woodruff has written a book titled <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reverence-Renewing-Forgotten-Paul-Woodruff/dp/0195157958" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue</a></strong>. How everybody is equal teacher and students are equal, parents and wards are equal he says, a huge economical consequences this affects propensity to savings, it affects the type of savings whether equity or fixed rate of return so all these are now to be read into economics. So the only Asian can probably re interpret the economics. it is not possible for Europe. May be America will be able to do it because very large part of America even today is religious.</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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This is what you call middle part of the country; i. e. in terms of the economy what it contributes is overall economy is probably is 20%. This is Pareto principle (80:20) the thing is West Coast and East Coast are the ones that are the engines of America, the middle not so much. If you look at really where the productivity of America happens is usually on the coasts.</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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No, I am not talking about economy, I am talking about sustainability. Sustainability of life model is very different from the contribution you measure in economic terms. So that in respect I believe normative living is the only way economy will sustain. There is no normative living, there is regulated living. Normative living is something which is generated by society, family without the intervention of formal system. Formal system is regulatory, so I think ultimately you have got to align normative life style which we call “Dharma”. Where there is self restraint, nobody restrains from enjoying, you restrain yourself. Modernity says you go out and enjoy, who are you? Who is anybody to question you? These are 2 different paradigms even if they tell we don’t do it that is a sustaining the fact you go out and enjoy the world, the world is open to you for enjoying it. This is the basis of modern economics but why you are not doing it?</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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As a rule it was true… One thing is over last 5-10 years small changes are happening… i. e. if a student is going to college for studies, the student loan debt is so high that he/ she doesn’t have a realistic way of paying back that and then start saving to buy a house. So what is happening amongst all families now is that these students are beginning to come back and live with their parents after they do their under graduate education because there is no other source, in a way it is forced upon them. I am not saying it is true for everybody but there is a trend towards that.</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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These are all marginal developments, how many American students are going for higher studies that is percentage of students going for higher studies?</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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Right now everybody has to do an under grad degree rather bachelors degree. One : Two – That is I would say 50% and the other one which misses out are the single families, minorities or where there are immigrants who have just come in so they are not able to get into the system and so on and so forth. This is still one of the highest numbers in terms of people applying to go for under grad education that is going up.</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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See, there are only 28% of American families having husband and wife living with children “Only 28%”. About 21% couples living without children. Parent family is about 20-21% and balance is all……</div>
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If you see the rise of single parent families and children and couples with children there is inverse proportion. One is going up and other is going down. See what will happen after 30 years so ultimately if you say single parent families are unable to educate their children’s single parent family are rising. Can you prove it in economics?</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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They get a lot of breaks, though in the sense if you show aptitude the state underwrites a lot of education.</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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So again, it means you are putting burden on the state. See basically you don’t have a self restraining mechanism which says I will sacrifice for my child unless the parent thinks like that it is burden on the state. Unless the child thinks like that, the burden is on state. So how are you going to generate that spirit that is my duty to take care of their house. You can destroy it but cannot recreate it. This is what I think is going to be a terminal issue in the western model f what is known as “A Methodological Individualism” which is foundation of efficient market theory. The problem is with that you are measuring efficient market theory on the paradigm which is failing.</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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What is your outlook on Indian economy in next 4-5 years? How do you see it progressing?</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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See, India will rise because Indian Entrepreneur spirit is on rise. I am not talking about educated entrepreneurship. India is a paradigm of a Uneducated employer and educated employee. Go to Tiruppur, Ludhiana, Patiala etc.., out of 35% largest exporters one half of them is less than 5th standard.</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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I completely believe you, I studied in Hyderabad in Agarwal High School where attendance at school was optional but attendance at shop was mandatory. 3’0 clock after the class we had to go to the shop for collection.</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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RKR institution campus with 30000 students is owned by a person who is 8th standard pass but he is making business out of education</div>
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Sree Iyer</h5>
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Sometimes I think, not educated also helps because you don’t worry about lot of other things that might go wrong</div>
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Gurumurthy</h5>
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You become insecure if you are educated unless you have a fixed income.</div>
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Source: <a href="https://performancegurus.net/portfolio-items/audio-chat-with-noted-economist-s-gurumurthy-on-qe/" target="_blank">performancegurus</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-61654362208314025322015-09-24T08:33:00.002-07:002015-09-24T08:35:26.208-07:00Who are Hindus? And is Hinduism even a religion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Some say that it is a culture or way of life, which has some validity as well.</h4>
<a href="http://www.dailyo.in/user/7804/davidfrawleyved" style="color: #565656; float: left; text-decoration: none;">DR DAVID FRAWLEY</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.dailyo.in/user/7804/davidfrawleyved" style="clear: left; color: #565656; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Dr David Frawley" src="http://media2.intoday.in/dailyo//user//201506/prodavid-frawley_061915083036.jpg" height="40" style="border-radius: 100%; float: left; height: 60px; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; width: 60px;" title="Dr David Frawley" width="40" /></a><strong style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 27px; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/hinduism-identity-religion-yoga-bhagavad-gita-philosophy-sanatan-dharma/story/1/5019.html&title=Who%20are%20Hindus?&summary=Some%20say%20that%20it%20is%20a%20culture%20or%20way%20of%20life,%20which%20has%20some%20validity%20as%20well." id="sendrdt" rel="nofollow" style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Share on Reddit"><br /></a><a href="http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/hinduism-identity-religion-yoga-bhagavad-gita-philosophy-sanatan-dharma/story/1/5019.html&title=Who%20are%20Hindus?&summary=Some%20say%20that%20it%20is%20a%20culture%20or%20way%20of%20life,%20which%20has%20some%20validity%20as%20well." id="sendrdt" rel="nofollow" style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Share on Reddit"><br /></a><a href="http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/hinduism-identity-religion-yoga-bhagavad-gita-philosophy-sanatan-dharma/story/1/5019.html&title=Who%20are%20Hindus?&summary=Some%20say%20that%20it%20is%20a%20culture%20or%20way%20of%20life,%20which%20has%20some%20validity%20as%20well." id="sendrdt" rel="nofollow" style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Share on Reddit"><br /></a></strong><br />
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<strong style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 27px; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/hinduism-identity-religion-yoga-bhagavad-gita-philosophy-sanatan-dharma/story/1/5019.html&title=Who%20are%20Hindus?&summary=Some%20say%20that%20it%20is%20a%20culture%20or%20way%20of%20life,%20which%20has%20some%20validity%20as%20well." id="sendrdt" rel="nofollow" style="color: #565656; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-right: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Share on Reddit">Hindu as a geographical concept</a></strong></div>
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The question what is yoga and is it a religion reflects the related question as to what is Hinduism and is it a religion?</div>
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Some say that Hindu is only a geographical concept and connotes anything Indian, which would quickly end any discussion of Hinduism as a religion. This idea, however, clearly does not work.</div>
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Hinduism is a legally-recognised religion throughout the world and has benefits accordingly, like any other religion, including the right of marriage, non-profit status, and the right to establish religious institutions. Those regarding themselves as Hindus in terms of religious identity constitute the most affluent and educated religious group in America along with the Jews, as recent studies have indicated.</div>
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Obviously we cannot limit Hindu as an identity to those born in India, as then Hindus outside of India, including Westerners who have taken on a Hindu religious identity, could not be Hindus. Note the Western-published magazine <em>Hinduism Today</em>, which comes out of Hawaii and is written mainly by non-Indians.</div>
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While Hindu may have originally been primarily a geographical term, it definitely has taken on a broader religious and cultural meaning. Mahatma Gandhi himself used the term in a religious sense and regarded himself as a Hindu.</div>
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<strong>Hindu as Sanatana Dharma</strong></div>
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If one looks at the ancient literature, the correct term for Hinduism would be "Sanatana Dharma" or the Eternal Dharma, with Shaivite, Vaishnava, Shakta and other groups as its branches. This would identify Hinduism with the Vedic tradition, but in a flexible manner. Most people in the world today tend to do this, regarding, for example, the Bhagavad Gita as the main scripture of Hinduism, though the Gita as a text is older than the term Hindu for Sanatana Dharma.</div>
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A case could be made for replacing the term Hinduism with Sanatana Dharma to reduce misconceptions. But, however preferable, that would take much time and effort to accomplish. Hinduism is a legally and academically-recognised religion in the world and the term Sanatana Dharma is not well known.</div>
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Yet Hinduism is not a religion like the dominant Western religions, which complicates the discussion. It has no single or final prophet, One God, scripture, institution or code of belief. This has caused some people to say that Hinduism is not a religion at all.</div>
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However, Hinduism has probably the world's largest and oldest spiritual and religious literature through the many vedas, puranas, shastras, tantras and modern gurus. It has numerous temples, deities and monastic orders, probably more so than any other religion. Hindu religious festivals like the kumbh mela are by far the largest in the world.</div>
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We can perhaps better define Hinduism as a pluralistic religious, cultural and spiritual tradition, rather than try to limit it to the terms that Western religions originally made for themselves. Buddhism is not much different in this regard and conforms even less to the usual Western idea of religion, as it has no God or creator, which many Hindu sects do.</div>
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<strong>Hinduism as more than a religion</strong></div>
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Some say that Hinduism is a culture or way of life, which has some validity as well. Hinduism includes many aspects of culture like art, music, dance and literature. In addition the term can refer to a way of life like the rules of daily living that many Hindus follow.</div>
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Some regard Hinduism like yoga as a science of consciousness. Certainly yoga practices of various types are common in all branches of Hinduism. Some prefer the term Hindu Dharma over Hinduism, to bring out more the connection with dharma.</div>
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So rather than stereotype Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma in simplistic verbal definitions, perhaps we should just accept the term Hinduism or Hindu Dharma for now - but redefine it in a broader sense as a pluralistic tradition that encompasses religion, spirituality, philosophy and culture. Hindus can choose to practice any part of these, with different Hindu sects having their own emphasis. Even atheists are not barred from being Hindus if they accept the principles of Dharma.</div>
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There can be religious or non-religious Hindus, but Hinduism does have an important place among the great religions of the world, whatever name you prefer to give it.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/hinduism-identity-religion-yoga-bhagavad-gita-philosophy-sanatan-dharma/story/1/5019.html" target="_blank">dailyo</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4696746911318894786.post-45800597877471613112015-09-24T08:08:00.002-07:002015-09-24T08:22:50.655-07:00India Holds Bill Gates Accountable For His Vaccine Crimes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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October 5 2014</div>
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As Bill Gates faces a lawsuit for the illegal testing of tribal children in India, it appears that his crimes against humanity have finally caught up with him.</div>
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A recent report published by <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Health Impact News</em> has reported that the Gates Foundation has found itself facing a pending lawsuit, due to an investigation that is being carried out by the Supreme Courts of India.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Health Impact News</em> stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“While fraud and corruption are revealed on almost a daily basis now in the vaccine industry, the U.S. mainstream media continues to largely ignore such stories. Outside the U.S., however, the vaccine empires are beginning to crumble, and English versions of the news in mainstream media outlets are available via the Internet.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One such country is India, where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and their vaccine empire are under fire, including a pending lawsuit currently being investigated by the India Supreme Court.”</em> [1]</div>
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The <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Health Impact News</em> article centered largely on a four-page report that was recently published by<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Economic Times India</em>.</div>
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Eager to know more, I investigated their story and discovered that the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and two organizations funded by them, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), have found themselves under fire, after a writ of petition originally submitted to the Supreme Court of India, by Kalpana Mehta, Nalini Bhanot and Dr. Rukmini Rao in 2012, was finally heard by the courts.</div>
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The petitioners submitting the petition stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“BMGF, PATH and WHO were criminally negligent trialling the vaccines on a vulnerable, uneducated and under-informed population school administrators, students and their parents who were not provided informed consent or advised of potential adverse effects or required to be monitored post-vaccination.”</em> [2]</div>
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Young Tribal Girls Tested With HPV Vaccines</h3>
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The <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Economic Times India</em> published their report August 2014. They stated that in 2009, tests had been carried out on 16,000 tribal school children in Andhra Pradesh, India, using the human papiloma virus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil.</div>
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According to the report written by KP Narayana Kumar, within a month of receiving the vaccine, many of the children fell ill and by 2010, five of them had died. A further two children were reported to have died in Vadodara, Gujarat, where an estimated 14,000 tribal children were vaccinated with another brand of the HPV vaccine, Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmitheKline (GSK).</div>
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Shockingly, the report stated that many of the consent forms used to vaccinate the girls were signed “illegally,” either by the wardens from the hostels where many of the girls resided, or using thumbprints from illiterate parents.</div>
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This travesty was not discovered until a team of health activists from the non-government organization SAMA, an organization specializing in women’s health, decided to investigate what had been going on.</div>
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According to the report, they were shocked to discover that a total of 120 girls had been taken ill, suffering from a variety of symptoms, including “epileptic seizures, severe stomach aches, headaches and mood swings.”</div>
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The <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Economic Times</em> stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Sama report also said there had been cases of early onset of menstruation following the vaccination, heavy bleeding and severe menstrual cramps among many students. The standing committee pulled up the relevant state governments for the shoddy investigation into these deaths.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It said it was disturbed to find that ‘all the seven deaths were summarily dismissed as unrelated to vaccinations without in-depth investigations …’ the speculative causes were suicides, accidental drowning in well (why not suicide?), malaria, viral infections, subarachnoid hemorrhage (without autopsy) etc.”</em></div>
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This information is even more shocking when you discover that the organization funding the study was none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who declared the project a total success.</div>
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Kumar wrote:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“According to the BMGF, the WHO, the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India have all recommended vaccination ‘as a proven and highly effective preventive measure for cervical cancer.’ The project used vaccines that are licensed in India and that have been administered safely around the world tens of millions of times, preventing countless cases of cervical cancer illness and death, ‘maintains a BMGF spokesperson in an emailed response (see GAVI & PHFI create incentives …’”</em></div>
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He continued:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“BMGF’s role in funding the controversial studies, however, has led to many healthcare activists in India voicing their apprehensions. ‘BMGF has to take full responsibility because PATH is funded by them. It is also unethical when people championing the cause of vaccines are the same ones who are also investing in vaccine development,’ said V Rukmini Rao, one of the activists who filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court in connection with the HPV vaccine studies.”</em> [3]</div>
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Absolutely, and this is not the first time that these organizations have been caught illegally testing vaccines in developing countries.</div>
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Gates Foundation, WHO, PATH, GAVI, UNICEF Behind Chad Vaccine Disaster</h3>
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In December 2012, in the small village of Gouro, Chad, Africa, situated on the edge of the Sahara Desert, five hundred children were locked into their school, threatened that if they did not agree to being force-vaccinated with a meningitis A vaccine, they would receive no further education.</div>
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These children were vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge. This vaccine was an unlicensed product still going through the third and fourth phases of testing.</div>
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Within hours, one hundred and six children began to suffer from headaches, vomiting, severe uncontrollable convulsions and paralysis. The children’s wait for a doctor began. They had to wait one full week for a doctor to arrive while the team of vaccinators proceeded to vaccinate others in the village.</div>
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When the doctor finally came, he could do nothing for the children. The team of vaccinators, upon seeing what had happened, fled the village in fear.</div>
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The original report written in a small, local newspaper called <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">La Voix</em>, the only newspaper to have published the original story, stated that forty children were finally transferred to a hospital in Faya and later taken by plane to two hospitals in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad.</div>
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After being shuttled around like cattle, many of these sick, weak children were finally dumped back in their village without a diagnosis and each family was given an unconfirmed sum of £1000 by the government. No forms were signed and no documentation was seen. They were informed that their children had not suffered a vaccine injury.<br />
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However, if this were true, why would their government award each family £1000 in what has been described as hush money?<br />
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The only mainstream news channel to have highlighted the plight of these poor children was a local channel called Tchad, which filmed footage of the then-Prime Minister of Chad visiting the children in hospital.<br />
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VacTruth has copies of both reports, along with medical and government documents.<br />
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Despite this evidence and VacTruth’s detailed and extensive coverage, including highlighting television footage, once again, the vaccine program was hailed a success. To watch videos reporting the story, see the references at the end of this article. [4] [5]<br />
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The groups involved with this project were PATH, WHO, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation. During investigations, it was discovered that the whole project was being run by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.<br />
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In a press release, the Gates Foundation stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“MenAfriVac is a tremendous success story for the global health community. It is the first vaccine developed specifically for Africa, and it proves that global partnerships can develop and deliver high-quality, low-cost vaccines.</em><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ten years ago, we invested in the Meningitis Vaccine Project, an innovative model that brought together PATH, the World Health Organization, African health ministers and the Serum Institute of India today, we celebrate the result: a modern vaccine selling for less than US 50 cents per dose with the potential to end Africa’s deadly meningitis epidemics.</em><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We believe that vaccines are one of the best buys in global health. In January, Bill and Melinda Gates called on the global community to make this the Decade of Vaccines. There is no better way to launch this decade than with a new vaccine that will improve and save lives.”</em> [6]</div>
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VacTruth can prove otherwise.</div>
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Government Inquiry Holds GAVI Accountable for Multiple Deaths</h3>
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Despite the fact the Gates Foundation call vaccines “one of the best buys in global health,” a government inquiry in Pakistan has found the complete opposite.</div>
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In 2011, the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Express Tribune</em> published a story stating that:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“ISLAMABAD: A government inquiry has found that polio vaccines for infants funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation are causing deaths and disabilities in regional countries including Pakistan.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The startling revelation is part of an inquiry report prepared by the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission (PMIC) on the working of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). The PMIC, headed by Malik Amjad Noon, has recommended that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani immediately suspend the administration of all types of vaccines funded by the GAVI.”</em></div>
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According to the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Express Tribune</em>, the main vaccinations in question were the polio vaccine and the 5-in-1 pentavelent vaccine, which were said to be responsible for the deaths and disability of a number of children in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Japan.</div>
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The vaccines were funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) an organization financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Children’s Vaccine Program, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.</div>
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Writing on the official report, made exclusive to the newspaper, the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Express Tribune</em>stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The report states, ‘<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The procured vaccines are not tested in laboratories to confirm their efficacy and genuineness</span>. This leaves room for use of spurious and counterfeit vaccines.’”</em> [7] (emphasis added)</div>
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If this is true, then once again the Gates Foundation has been linked to mass vaccination initiatives using untested, unsafe vaccinations.</div>
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The Gates Foundation and WHO Labeled Unethical by Medical Experts</h3>
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In 2012, Ramesh Shankar Mumbai, an author writing for the Pharmabiz website, reported that two medical experts from India had accused the Gates Foundation and WHO of being unethical.</div>
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In his report, Mumbai stated that Dr. Neetu Vashisht and Dr. Jacob Puliyel of the Department of Pediatrics at St. Stephens Hospital in Delhi, wrote the following information in their report in the April issue of<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Indian Journal of Medical Ethics</em>.<br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It was unethical for WHO and Bill Gates to flog this program when they knew 10 years back that it was never to succeed. Getting poor countries to expend their scarce resources on an impossible dream over the last 10 years was unethical.”</em><br />
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Pharmabiz.com reported that Dr. Vashisht and Dr. Puliyel had continued their report by stating:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Another major ethical issue raised by the campaign is the failure to thoroughly investigate the increase in the incidence of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) in areas where many doses of vaccine were used. NPAFP is clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly.”</em><br />
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Pharmabiz.com continued:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The authors noted that while India was polio-free in 2011, in the same year, there were 47500 cases of NPAFP. While data from India’s National Polio Surveillance Project showed NPAFP rate increased in proportion to the number of polio vaccine doses received, independent studies showed that children identified with NPAFP ‘were at more than twice the risk of dying than those with wild polio infection.’”</em> [8]</div>
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The corruption and deceit by these organizations does not stop there.</div>
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The Gates Foundation Blamed for 10,000 Vaccine-Related Deaths</h3>
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In 2013, yet another report named the Gates Foundation and GAVI as being responsible for multiple deaths using untested vaccinations on children from the developing world.</div>
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The report, published on the website Occupy Corporatism and written by Susanne Posel stated:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It was found out through an investigation, that GAVI was using an untested vaccine; giving this dangerous vaccine to Pakistani children shows the lack of empathy associated with these organizations.</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">GAVI was blamed for the deaths of 10,000 children in Pakistan when they came in and administered polio vaccines that resulted in casualties.”</em> [9]</div>
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As we know, GAVI is heavily funded by the Gates Foundation. [10]</div>
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So, what was the name of the organization that investigated GAVI and found them using untested polio vaccinations in Pakistan?</div>
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According to the<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Express Tribune</em> article, which I referred to earlier in this article, it was none other than the Indian government, who, upon discovering the shocking truth, recommended the immediate suspension of the administration of all types of vaccines funded by GAVI. [7]</div>
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In a recent radio show hosted by Sallie O. Elkordy, Susanne Posel gave her frank and honest views on the whole sorry mess that we find ourselves in today.</div>
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Warning: This report is not for the faint-hearted. [11]</div>
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Conclusion</h3>
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It is difficult to believe that, despite the mounting evidence outlining the many crimes against humanity that have been committed by the Gates Foundation, GAVI, UNICEF and PATH, Bill Gates is portrayed as a hero among many.<br />
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However, according to the definition of hero in the Oxford Dictionary, the word hero means:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“A person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”</em> [12]<br />
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The dictionary I used said nothing about vaccinating innocent, vulnerable children with untested and unsafe vaccinations, causing them to suffer agonizing, untimely deaths.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://vactruth.com/2014/10/05/bill-gates-vaccine-crimes/?utm_source=SocialWarfare&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare" target="_blank">vactruth</a></div>
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amarbharathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14275805456975344542noreply@blogger.com0