UPA's Zero Success In Solving Blast Mystery

By Easwaran Nambudiri

Over 100 super specialist investigators from different wings of the Mumbai Police have been attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad to pursue leads but so far, they have only been able to raid hundreds of places, detain scores of people and dish out a few names of suspects like Sayyad Zahibuddin Ansari and Mohammad Fayyaz.

Ten days after horror struck the throbbing business capital of India, police and other investigating agencies continue to grope in the dark about the identity of the perpetrators. While Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Home Secretary V.K. Duggal pompously declared the day after the blasts that the investigators have got “leads”, nothing concrete has surfaced so far.

“A breakthrough is expected as early as possible,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had boasted in a much-publicised television interview but at the end of the day, the one billion strong nation could hear only about the wild goose chase after fake e-mails sent by pranksters and tom-tommed by television channels to increase their TRP ratings.

As one leading newspaper rightly put it: “Behind the breaking news bulletins and racy accounts of suspects being tracked down and the country being combed to unravel the terror chain—from Kashmiri apple merchants, Islamic social workers from Tripura and Kathmandu and closer home at Mahim—one thing is clear: hardnose investigators have not ventured beyond educated guesses and surmises.”

Over 100 super specialist investigators from different wings of the Mumbai Police have been attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad to pursue leads but so far, they have only been able to raid hundreds of places, detain scores of people and dish out few names of suspects like Sayyad Zahibuddin Ansari and Mohammad Fayyaz. The involvement of SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba, the usual names associated with terror in the country, are the other “major leads” found by the investigators after 10 days of probe.

While it is a foregone conclusion that the act is the handiwork of terrorist groups backed by Pakistan’s ISI, it is sad that the besieged Manmohan Singh government chose to hide its failures on the internal security front by choosing the easier option of blaming Islamabad for the act. Pakistan’s hand is known to every Indian but what the country wants to know from the Prime Minister is whether we have a fool-proof policy to combat terrorism.

In a bizarre and ridiculous statement, the Prime Minister also declared that the India-Pakistan peace process has “suffered” but “there is no setback”. Only Singh and God would be able to explain whatever that meant.

Singh appeared more in a hurry to assert the needlessness of POTA than the determination required to fight the menace. It was with great expectations that the nation looked forward to hear Singh during his visit to Mumbai but sadly, as a Mumbaikar put it, “he failed to inspire the people to instill confidence that we are here. This would be the last time this happened. He appeared more like a bureaucrat sans emotions or sentiments and did not display any collective national will.”

Contrast this with US President George W Bush’s address to the nation in the aftermath of 9/11 and his declaration of the global war against terror. Why go thus far? Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, though vehemently opposed by the pseudo-secularists, served to provide a ray of hope to the denizens of the western metropolis, who have over the years become sitting ducks for the underworld and the terrorists.

Even as investigators continue to grope in a blind alley, the country failed to make any progress on the diplomatic front as well. While the G8 meeting, attended by Prime Minister Singh, did mouth condemnatory references to the Mumbai blasts, the leaders of the world’s most powerful and influential nations avoided mentioning Pakistan.

Rather, virtually giving a ‘clean chit’ to Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said, “I know there’s speculation. That happens in these cases. But I think we need to be led by evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it.” So much for our diplomatic initiative.

Grudgingly though, even the so-called secularists and the authorities in Mumbai have acknowledged the involvement of the ‘local people’ in the blasts.

Was it sheer coincidence that Uttar Pradesh’s rabidly communal Minister Azam Khan chose the timing to demand a separate Muslim Pradesh for the minority community? Of course, there was a deafening silence on the part of the secularists to this demand.

Instead of accepting their failures, Congress leaders are working overtime to recall the terrorist incidents during the NDA government. True, there were attacks at the Akshardham, Red Fort and Parliament House but mind you, they were all foiled, the terrorists killed and yes, the maximum number of ISI modules were busted during those six years of BJP-led governance. The perpetrators of the Godhra carnage are cooling their heals in prisons.

The need of the hour is a tough anti-terrorist law on the lines of similar laws the world over. And as Narendra Modi rightly put it, if the Centre does not want to do it, let the states do it. After all, law and order is a state subject. And the Centre would do well not to sit over such legislations passed by state assemblies—Gujarat for instance.

Only Christian faith schools are acceptable: Amartya Sen

PTI[ THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2006

LONDON: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has attacked the Tony Blair government for encouraging a society in which ethnic minorities were defined almost exclusively by their religion and for allegedly endorsing establishment of faith schools. He also said that faith schools, barring those run by Christians, should be scrapped.

Christian schools "are perfectly acceptable" but other faith schools "are a big mistake and should be scrapped if the Government wants to encourage a unifying British identity," Sen said in an interview to Daily Telegraph.

Claiming that the faith schools have been set up since the Government wanted to give them parity with Christian institutions, he said, "I am actually absolutely appalled."

Sen, who has come from Harvard, is on a Britain tour delivering lectures on how religion is being used to pull this country apart and to encourage inter-communal violence.

Speaking at the Nehru Centre last night, Sen praised Britain's multi-cultural society but criticised the Blair government for what he called two serious policy blunders - increasingly encouraging a society in which ethnic minorities were defined almost exclusively by their religion and endorsing the establishment of faith schools.

In the interview, Sen said, "Christian schools have evolved and often provide a much more tolerant atmosphere than a purely religious school would. A lot of people in the Middle East or India or elsewhere have been educated in Christian schools. A lot of my friends came from St Xavier's in Kolkata- I don't think they were indoctrinated particularly in Christianity." But the new generation of faith schools "are not going to be like that," he added.


Although he wanted mainstream British schools to broaden their curriculum to include more on the contribution of, say, Muslim mathematicians to science, Sen said faith schools "are a pretty bad thing. Educationally, it's not good for the child.

"From the point of view of national unity, it's dreadful because, even before a child begins to think, it's being defined by its 'community', which is primarily religion. That also drowns out all other cultural things like language and literature. I am a believer in the importance of British identity."

But he wanted the definition to be framed in such a way that allowed the evolution of a "plural multi-cultural society", rather than a "mono-cultural" one in which different groups lived side by side with little interaction.

"We have many different identities because we belong to many differe nt groups. We are connected with our profession, occupation, class, gender, political views and language, literature, taste in music, involvement in social issues - and also religion. But just to separate out religion as one singularly important identity that has over-arching importance is a mistake.

"One of the problems of what is happening in Britain today is that one identity, the religious identity, has been taken to represent almost everything." "Of course, this policy immediately has the effect of making some people extremely privileged - those who speak in the name of religion. There may be some moderate people but mostly they are extremists," he added.

"Religion has been inadvertently politicised by the UK government in a way that is counter-productive. It makes the battle against terrorism so hamfisted and clumsy," he said.

The Battle Within

Muslims will have to contribute at two levels in the battle against terrorism: as citizens of India and as fellow community members located at a vantage point to understand the psychology and motive of terrorists and to subvert their operations.

ASIF JALAL

Till yesterday the debate was why and how Indian Muslims are free from the contagious effect of the so-called jehad sweeping the Islamic world, having no concern, barring some in Kashmir, with the business of Al Qaeda, the ISI and terrorism. Indeed, in 2003 security expert B Raman wrote, "The overwhelming majority of Indian Muslims are loyal, law-abiding citizens. They have not allowed their anger against the Indian government or the Hindus for any reason to drive them into the arms of terrorist organisations. India has the most modern, peaceful and forward-looking Muslim community in the world."

More recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh boasted that not even a single Indian Muslim is on the rolls of Al Qaeda. For this relative freedom of Muslims from the jehad ideology we credited our democratic system, the Sufi ethos of Indian Islam and a culture that discouraged any kind of extremism in thought and action.

After a series of blasts ripping through different cities of India and its religious places, however, it is now clear that Indian Muslim youths, however small in number, are working in India as foot-soldiers of international terrorist organizations. They still may not be fighting with the ranks of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, or in Iraq or Palestine, but doubtless some of them are colluding with the global jehadis in the latter’s mission to weaken and destabilise India.

It is estimated, for example, that at least 100 people participated in the execution of the July 11 Mumbai blasts. Without committed local Muslim support such a despicable act would not have been possible. Intelligence experts say that at least 25 Muslim organizations are working on Indian soil to breed alienation among the Indian Muslim youths and to suck them into the global whirl of jehad. And the response of the Muslim masses to these organizations is not that of complete apathy.

The collusion of local Muslims with the global jehadi enlarges the scope of the battle against terrorism. Because it is not just inimical to the existence of Indian state, and its stability, but also against the Muslim community itself, it becomes obligatory for every Muslim also to work actively to defeat this offensive. In a way, it is doubly perilous for the Muslims of India: first, as common citizens vulnerable to the risk of terrorist attacks and second, as a supposed culpable minority susceptible to majority communal backlash, prejudices, suspicion and harassment by security agencies. Because it is more sinister to the Muslim interest, they will have to contribute at two levels, as citizens of India and as fellow community members, located at a vantage point, to understand the psychology and motive of terrorists and to subvert their operations.

Till now the response of the Muslim intelligentsia, activists and the community in general to this challenge has been absolutely lukewarm to say the least. After every act of terrorism, they chose to, at most, issue a muted condemnation and express disapproval from their safe confines. When the ideology of terrorism has invaded Muslim homes and seminaries, and it is drawing legitimacy from the Islamic faith, such a response from the community is by no account adequate.

The Muslim community must take the extremists’ act more seriously because the consequences of terrorism on Indian soil, in a multi-religious society, are enormous. An act of terrorism, even one perpetrated by Kashmiri militants or the ISI, throws peace and communal harmony out of gear across the country. It makes a Muslim’s Indian-ness less credible in the eyes of many.A situation where boys born and brought up in UP and Bihar plant explosives in temples and trains would certainly script a terrible destiny for over 140 million Indian Muslims.

To eradicate this ideology, the Muslims need to make serious, perceptible and relentless efforts. Counter-terrorism requires a systematic plan of action to insulate the general youth and de-toxicate those infected with the ideology. The thinking Muslims will have to go out of the comforts of homes and offices and work in gullies, seminaries, mosques and other public places to acquaint common Muslims of the consequences of terrorist acts for the community. For every one SIMI-like organisation perverting the minds of youths, they will have to raise 10 organisations alerting Muslims to the dangers of such an ideology. They will have to espouse the duty which the Koran assigns to every Muslim: "You are the best community that has ever been brought into being for the sake of mankind. You enjoin what is right and fair and you forbid what is wrong and unfair (3:110)".

Terrorism is also a battle within the Muslim community; a battle between the life instinct of the many and the death wish of a handful of lunatics. A Muslim has reason to fight and win this battle for the good of many of his and her community, and for the the larger interest of India.

'Anti-Congress' blogs blocked

Narendra Nag
CNN-IBN

New Delhi: The block against various websites has been lifted but the ban is still in place.

It seems there is a definite slant to the websites that have been banned - a stance that is not anti-national, but anti-congress.

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs on July 14 to block blog sites, as they were said to be spreading anti-national message. The list of the websites to be blocked was confidential.

HinduUnity.org, one of the 17 websites banned by the Government, calls itself the mouthpiece of the Bajrang Dal - a quasi-political party.

The owner of another banned website RahulYadav.com thinks the UPA government has banned the site for political reasons.

Exposingtheleft.blogspot.com - one of the four banned blogs on the list has its Sunday post on Congress trying to block a film being made about Sonia Gandhi.

The funniest of the lot is bamapachyderm.com - a woman's self-proclaimed vast right wing conspiracy, which is obviously anti national to the UPA Government.

"There is no provision in the IT Act as it stands now for them impose such a ban in the first place," lawyer and blogger, Gopal Sankaranarayanan says.

All the sites in the list that the Government has banned contain anti-Muslim slash anti-Congress rhetoric. While the website of the Hezbollah's tv channel is not only accessible in India it's hosted here as well.

What everyone questions is, why did the Government ban them and not sue them for defamation charges.

"What we don't know is if such bans have been imposed in the past there are millions and billions of sites that we don't access everyday that could be blocked," Sankaranarayanan says.

The question that remains unanswered is why would the Government want to ban the sites? Is it national security that's at stake or reasons that’s just political.

Bombs recovered from a CONGRESS terrorist's home

7/29/2006 8:36:15 AM HK

Mattannoor:: Police today recovered nine bombs kept in a small bag from the house of Kunnummel Musthafa of Irikkoor a congress worker here. He is reported absconding after the incident.Hands of Muslims are evident in majority of bomb recovery in the state, no matter which party he belongs .

Sonia’s ‘Iraq war’ on Hindus

Posted on 22 July, 2006
By Sandhya Jain

In the western world, politics is more about serving covert, mainly illicit economic interests, than about meeting the genuine aspirations of the people. The most glaring example of this, of course, is the September Eleven incident in New York, which enabled President George Bush to bomb Afghanistan into the Stone Age, set up a puppet regime in Kabul, and go on to depose the Iraqi President Saddam Hussain and grab Iraq’s oil-field contracts and reconstruction dollars.

Occasionally the White House remembers that Osama bin Laden is supposed to be America’s Enemy Number One, and promises to go after him. But these pledges are perfunctory, and it is little wonder that tremendous popular resentment is building up in the US against the war in Baghdad. More importantly, a growing body of important Americans are finding fairly conclusive evidence of administrative collusion and cover-up in the events of that fateful September in 2001.

In the case of the Mumbai blasts which took over 200 lives and injured over 700 persons, one does not suspect that either the UPA regime or the state government were complicit in the tragedy. But their response—in the form of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s surreptitious and silent midnight visit with home minister Shivraj Patil, the wimpish statements of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi and at the G-8 in Moscow—raise grim questions about the sincerity of the dominant Congress party in tackling the growing menace of Islamic terrorism.

Indeed, given the anxiety with which the Congress is wooing the Muslim voters, with prominent cabinet ministers shamelessly blaming the Hindu community for the attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur last month, the principal concern of the government appears to be only to defuse and pre-empt a possible Hindu reaction, rather than nab the culprits and make their sponsors pay a political price for their misdemeanors. The Muslim community is complaining that it is being identified unfairly with terrorism, yet the very fact that the Jammu & Kashmir Government dares ask Hindu pilgrims not to raise slogans like “Bharat Mata ki jai” for fear of creating communal tension gives the game away.

Yet even by the standards of UPA pusillanimity, the decision to ban certain Hindu websites and blogsites—as the first concrete governmental action in the face of such a murderous attack on civil society—would be laughable were it not so outrageous. Like a good western woman, Sonia Gandhi has no stomach to fight Islamic terrorism. So she has side-stepped that issue completely and like President Bush, concentrated upon her real target—the Hindu community!

Hence, the website of Hindu Human Rights, the group of young activists who helped shut down the offensive exhibition of M.F. Husain in London, has been ordered to be blocked by the UPA regime! Hussain is, of course, one of Ms. Gandhi’s favoured artists, as anyone who has been to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation would know. So, though the site does not sport any religious views at all, let alone ‘extreme religious views’, it has been declared unacceptable.

In all, the government has blocked about 18 websites to supposedly check the spread of terror and hate messages on the Internet in the wake of Mumbai’s serial blasts. It is being claimed that the websites could be used by terror groups to communicate and spread provocative messages. The government did not announce the ban officially, and it was the ISP providers who confirmed receiving the site-blocking order. The premier blog site, Blogspot.com (http://blogspot.com/)) has been blockaded and this sent the entire blogging community into acute disarray, as technical reasons have forced a blanket ban on all blogs, since specific pages on the blogspot.com cannot be blocked; only the site can be jammed.

Since the move is reminiscent of the Emergency—the anniversary of which passed barely three weeks ago—anxious bloggers have urgently sought (and found) solutions to the crackdown on freedom of speech. One is to visit www.guardster.com and use the free proxy at the bottom of the page; this will ensure that the Blog sites work without a hitch. Additional proxy sites can be found on this site and there is also www.econsultant.com/proxylist/index.html. One enterprising citizen has suggested using the anti-censoring site of our friendly neighbour, Pakistan. It seems that all blogspot blogs can be accessed at http://pkblogs.com a site created by Pakistani bloggers to bypass blockades by the Islamabad regime. Now that is a confidence building measure!

It goes without saying that the extremely predatory Christian websites such as the Joshua Project, nor the well known Islamic terrorist sites where messages are posted after successful strikes, nor even the known Marxist-Maoist sites have not been censored, even after the horrendous massacre of 87 tribals who were living in a camp to facilitate the Chattisgarh government’s crackdown on the Maoist insurgents.

According to the grapevine, it is no accident that Hindu groups are being targetted in the so-called war on terror. After Godhra, it was said that the Hindu pilgrims from Ayodhya somehow committed mass suicide for no apparent reason. Though security forces shot down three assailants speeding towards the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, two cabinet ministers had no compunctions saying that Hindus had stage-managed the attack. The targetting of Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir is being disguised as an exodus of ‘tourists,’ and now, the devastation of nearly one thousand families (almost wholly Hindu) in Mumbai in just eleven minutes leads to the silencing of Hindu human rights bodies.

Sonia Gandhi is moving with perfect determination in the direction she wants to go. The Hindu community must decide if it wants to follow her or tell her where to get off.

Secularism and a Muslim voice

7/22/2006 8:43:11 AM HK Correspondent

Asghar Ali Engineer is no stranger to media watch people. Last few years I have followed up on many of his articles and have often found a sense of despair in his writing. He goes over board in his effort to prove the facts of history as rubbish.

In his article published in the Milli Gazette in June 2006 he has just done this again.

He says secularism means atheism as it is in the West. Would someone care to tell him that secularism means the State does not have any religious bias on its part of law making and it also means the State does not interfere in the matters of the religious community. Sadly this is what our State has been doing before we became independent even.But can the State of India keep away the Hindu culture which is part and parcel of what makes our country?

He says secularism means atheism as it is in the West. Would someone care to tell him that secularism means the State does not have any religious bias on its part of law making and it also means the State does not interfere in the matters of the religious community. Sadly this is what our State has been doing before we became independent even. But can the State of India keep away the Hindu culture which is part and parcel of what makes our country?

But surprisingly to give a rational mid way approach to his article he goes on to agree that Hinduism is the central life line of India. Long after the Aryan invasion theory has been disproved, writers like Engineer and left aligned historians like to keep harping on the same subject. He says India before the so called invasion was a composition of many tribal cults.Further he talks of the Dravidians and how they were driven down south. Not properly explaining the caste system he goes on talking about the brahmin dominance and of the Brahmins who migrated to the south. and created 33 hundred thousand gods and goddesses! Sounds like an interesting fictional novel on our history.

He uses this to explain that India before Islam and Christianity was comprised of many religions. Not being a historian, i would like to know other than the offshoots of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, what were the other religions that existed? Like any civilisation in the world, the Indian civilisation also has many different beliefs amongst its communities. But the concept of trinity and Santana dharma was always unique to India and its people. If there was a migration, I am sure some relatives would have stayed behind in Europe where the same religion of the Vedas and Upanishads should have also developed. Or we would have to say that the Europeans moved into India got enlightened and then wrote the Vedas and created the Hindu culture.

He says that since most people in the Christan and Islamic religion are converts from the untouchable caste they have a caste structure in these two religions also. It quite amazes me because both prophets of these religions are suppose to have said that all people are equal. Thus if a caste system exists or has been created then it is clearly a case of blasphemy and not listening to God's words.

He even goes on to agree that there are lower caste churches and mosques in several places.

A lot jargon later on Sufism and their respect for other religions he says that most conversion took place through Sufism and that ages later the caste situation has not changed on these converts. In that case why is converted Christians and Muslims still asking for minority status?

He does admit that Macaulay's educational system has corrupted our history and beliefs. He speaks the truth when he says the Hindus picked up on learning when the Hindu - Muslim divide began to emerge and the Muslims were left behind due to their resistance to the new education. But he uses it as a baton to hit the Hindu community who took to the new British education and lies.

He blames the Muslim elite for siding with the British to partition India. then he goes on the blame the RSS for spoiling the Nehru-Gandhi experiment of a secular government.He says even that the RSS. that has a Sikh Sanghtan, considers the Sikh as second class citizens. he gives records of riots and talk of how the Muslims have been killed not talking about the violence created by the Muslim community before and after Independence.

Engineer proclaims that only 5 - 10 percent in India are non secular and they follow the RSS ideology.The rest 85% on population which includes Muslim militants, christian missionaries, naxalites are all secular!

He squarely blames the Sangh parivar for every communal riot that ever occurred or occurs in our country. Facts and figures will prove that majority of the communal riots are in retaliation to provocations by the Muslim community. Communal riots have happened in India even before the RSS was born.

There is a sinister plan going on by the UPA government and the media to cover up the probe into the Mumbai blast. The people being arrested in different part of the country seem to be simply a cover up to hide the main organisations and people behind the blast. Even after the Intelligence Bureau has given indication of terror cells in the country, politician and media are busy highlighting the fact that no Kashmiri links are there. They keep stressing the Mumbai blast probe is giving indications that no major organisations were involved in it and it was the plan of some small group.

The RSS has nothing against the Muslims or Christians in India. Like any other organisation there may be individuals with a different view in the Sangh Parivar who would support extreme right wing vie of the whole issue.The RSS objection is only to the sectarian attitude of these Semitic religion who are converting many Hindus by giving false promises. The RSS aims to educate the Hindus about these issues and make them aware. The RSS has before also invited the Muslim community and the Christians to come to the Hindu mainstream by accepting that all religions can co-exist and by accepting the fact that Hinduism is a way of life for the dwindling majority of India.

Asghar Saab this is true secularism. Not your version of half baked truths and a scripture which calls upon believers to take up arms against non believers. Look around you and look at the world. Almost every crisis point in the world would be of an Islamic nature.

Talibani Secularists Provide Alibi For Terrorists

By S.R. Ramanujan

There are 3000 madrasas in Maharashtra with a strength of 200,000 students. 500 madrasas are in Mumbai alone, and it is believed they are the potential breeding grounds for SIMI’s activities.

By now, the drill is getting familiar after each terrorist attack—An emergency cabinet meeting, declaration of nation-wide alert, proforma condemnations, pious statements that the government would fight terror at any cost, appeal for calm and appreciation of people’s resilience against such attacks. This goes on for a week. Meanwhile, the security forces will gun down a few and brand them terrorists responsible for the attack. Then, all will be forgiven and forgotten till the next attack.

According to reports, there are 3000 madrasas in Maharashtra with a strength of 200,000 students. 500 madrasas are in Mumbai alone, and it is believed they are the potential breeding grounds for SIMI’s activities. What is the sole objective of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) that was formed in Aligarh in 1977. It is to “liberate India by converting it to an Islamic land”.

What is the role of SIMI in 7/11 blasts? They are the local collaborators of the Islamist terrorist groups operating from foreign soil-an euphemism for Pakistan-in any attack against Indian targets. SIMI’s role was very much in evidence on Black Tuesday as well. It is possible that the intelligence staff might have tipped off the Police sources. The Police had to think one hundred times before taking any action. The moment the Police apprehend a bunch of people bearing Islamic names, there would be a howl of protests from our home-grown Liberals that minorities are harassed and what would be the reaction of political class to such a development is not difficult to imagine. Look at the way one of the key investigators and deputy inspector general of Mumbai was shifted when his probe took him to the doorsteps of an MLA for his links with the arrested terrorists of LeT and SIMI. When this is the attitude of the political establishment, can we trust them to fight terror?

In fact, SIMI has been receiving the unstinted support of our great secular champion and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and he was the one who vehemently opposed a ban on the SIMI when it was imposed in 2001. Of course, Mulayam was not alone and he was in the company of a good number of so-called secular leaders who were opposed to a ban on SIMI. Very recently, the Uttar Pradesh Government had written a letter to the Centre stating that the state opposed the ban on SIMI as it has not carried out any unlawful activities in the state after September 2005. The most powerful English national daily reported on July 9 - just two days before the Mumbai carnage - that “lack of political will to enforce the ban imposed by Centre on SIMI by UP Government might play havoc with the state’s security as the organisation is regrouping under a different name and could trigger another series of destructive activities”. On 7/11, the only change was the scene of action with SIMI’s role being the same whether Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra. Quoting an unidentified official source, the daily reported that “with elections round the corner, vote bank is more important for Samajwadi Party leadership. They don’t want to annoy the minorities and this is the sole reason why no concrete steps are being taken to put effective check on their activities, what to talk of arresting the main leaders”. In any other country seriously fighting terror, leaders like Mulayam would have been put behind the bars and his antics exposed besides dismissal of the government headed by a sympathiser of terrorist outfits. But in India, minorityism is the mantra and not the security of its citizens.

More than the intelligence failure, what provides the atmosphere for the terrorists to strike at will and at a time and place of their choice is the cavalier manner in which the political class reacts or fails to react to crucial events of communal nature.

First, it is inconceivable to think that without the support of the local population, terrorism from across the border or terrorism of Al Quaida brand can develop roots on the Indian soil. We have seen it in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Take for instance, the public protest by people from the old city of Hyderabad when the Gujarat Police came to nab an accused in the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister. The state government was a silent spectator. Well, there are also quite a few admirers in Hyderabad for Azam Ghouri, a key LeT operative who was killed in an encounter by Hyderabad police. Will the establishment have the courage to put such elements who provide shelter to the terrorists under the scanner and apprehend them? When there is no political will to do that, it is better not to talk of “war against terror”. There are also reports that the RDX consignment caught by the cops in Aurangabad and Nasik was ferried from Hyderabad, the hub of ISI in India.

Let’s also look at various instances which provide a morale booster to the terrorists and declare to the world that India is a very soft state.

The latest one was what happened in Bhiwandi. Normally, any citizen or group of citizens would welcome a police station in their immediate neighbourhood, despite occasional police misbehaviour, as it would provide security. But the minority population of Bhiwandi was opposed to such a move and the opposition did not stop with peaceful protests. They took law into their hands leading to police firing which killed two protestors. As a sequel to this, the minority mob, in a brazen attempt, broke the skull of two cops. What is the reaction of the “secular” crowd? Deafening silence.

Kerala Assembly’s unanimous resolution for the release of Abdul Nasser Madani, an undertrial in Coimbatore jail for masterminding the Coimbatore blasts in 1998 that killed 58 innocent people besides injuring hundreds, speaks volumes on the mindset of our vote bank strategists. This, both the LDF and the UDF expected, would pay attractive dividends at the recently held assembly elections by placating the minority sentiments. What harm Madani would cause in spreading more terror in the already fertile Kerala ground, when he is out, was not the concern of the political class. What all they wanted were votes and for this they were ready to barter the lives of innocent citizens.

Civil Libertywallas are another category as indirect abettors in providing the “right” atmosphere for terrorism to grow. For them, the right to life of the terrorists is more sacred than the right to life of ordinary citizens. When the ATS foiled the attempt of Lashkar terrorists to rampage the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur, and in the process killed three terroritsts, civil liberty groups swung into action with the all too familiar fact finding committees. Everyone knows that facts are “gathered” before they set out on their mission. They concluded that the “encounter” was stage managed by the Police. Did they want the Police to wait till the ultras complete their mission?

Where did the “seculars” hide themselves when Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad Yadav conducted their poll campaigns with Osama bin Laden look-alike in tow to appease the minorities? What sort of a message it would have sent to the jehadis?

India must be the only country among the terror-infested nations to have revoked an anti-terror law like POTA. The excuse for this was two-fold. One, the law was misused and two, even when POTA was in force, there were terrorist attacks on Raghunath temple in Jammu and Aksharadham temple in Gandhinagar. Misuse of law cannot be the excuse for revoking a law and if that is the yardstick there will be no law in our statute book. Yes, there were attacks even when POTA was in force. Just because there are burglaries even when the doors are closed, can we throw open the doors saying anyway there are burglaries?

The price of appeasement

Killers bask in UPA cover
The price of appeasement
Home we bring our warriors dead
By A Special Correspondent

TERROR APOLOGISTS

Mulayam: In UP, SIMI not terrorist. The state is safe for them.
Arjun: Terror attempt on RSS head-quarters a frame up by Sangh. And quota for minorities.
Antulay: Nanded blast a Hindu orchestration.
Yechuri: Terror will end if you draft an anti-US foreign policy.
* They were out in two days.
* All these statements in the wake of Mumbai terror attack!

We must prove that we have the capacity to hound them wherever they are. Terrorists must get the message that the threshold level of patience of Indians is not infinite. If we don't do something now then the enemies of India will keep surprise us.

India’s commercial hub, was hit by seven blasts, killing as many as 200 people and injuring 650 in the city’s worst terror attack in 13 years. The blasts targeted the suburban rail network during the evening rush hour.

The blasts occurred in a 30-minute span starting just after 6 p.m. along the railway lines and stations linking the western suburbs. This is the worst terrorist attack in Mumbai since almost 257 people died in a series of blasts in 1993 that targeted the Bombay Stock Exchange and other commercial landmarks.

The blasts on July 11 took place in Khar, Mahim, Mira Road, Jogeshwari, Borivali, Matunga and Bandra. Some parts of the city’s suburban railway network, used by about 6.1 million people daily, were shut after the blasts.

The Mumbai explosions came after grenade attacks earlier the day by Islamic terrorists that killed eight people in Srinagar, Kashmir. Mumbai generates about five percent of the country’s gross domestic product and contributes more than one-third of the country’s tax revenues. More than 10 million daily passenger trips are provided by the suburban railway and the state-run bus service.

9/11, 7/7, and now 7/11. These are not mere dates. These are a reminder to every civil society to rise in revolt against terror.

Terror is a tactic adopted by the enemy to instil fear and disgust in the state of society and muffle civil dialogue on life-threatening evil. Lessons can be learnt from Israel, which has found an effective communication system, communicating to the terrorists the resolve of civil society. The action taken in retailiation by the defence establishment of Bharat should be swift and decisive. Such a military retaliation alone will teach a lesson to terrorists and states, which cuddle terrorists. This is the only dialogue, which should occur giving the confidence to every Hindu, every Bharatiya that the resolve to protect dharma is unshakeable and this is a sacred duty, responsibility of the state. Now is the time to call for a tangible expression of such responsibility. Attack the sanctuaries of terror in the occupied portions of Jammu and Kashmir and reclaim the land that is part of India.

‘The masterminds are not in India’. A British terrorism expert says the serial attacks in Mumbai were masterminded by outfits from abroad. According to him, “The level of sophistication and organisation needed to carry out such a widespread and tightly coordinated attack is beyond the known capabilities of any of the Islamic groups operating in either Kashmir or elsewhere in India.” Immediately after the blasts, he said, “This has all the hallmarks of a special forces/ intelligence operation... it may have been carried out by expendable extremists, but those who were the promoters and brains have military training.” “The Mumbai blasts is an attack on India’s soft underbelly,” said Ajit Doval, former director, Intelligence Bureau. Doval too agrees with the views of the British expert. “From my experience I think that the blasts are not an indigenous effort. It is the exported variety of terrorism. The blasts of Mumbai have a foreign origin and it is obvious that a lot of effort has gone behind its execution,” Doval, who extensively investigated fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s involvement in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts said. “The saboteurs are telling India that they are alive, kicking and have the capacity to strike at any place in India, at a time of their choosing,” he added.

“Mumbai blasts must have involved more than 25 people who might have knowingly and unknowingly participated. It is very likely that the masterminds are not in India. The actual perpetrators may not be more than four or five but these guys must have got help from many people. The infrastructure for these blasts must have been quite big. Motor vehicles, local agents, people who provided cover to terrorists and people who planted the devices must have been involved. They should be and will be found out.”

The blasts came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in Srinagar.

Chaos engulfed the crowded rail network in India’s financial capital following the blasts that ripped apart densely packed carriages on trains that police said had either pulled into stations or were traveling between them. Doors and windows were blown off the train cars, and witnesses said body parts were strewn on the ground. The city struggled to treat survivors and recover the dead in the wreckage amid heavy monsoon downpours, and the effort continued into days. Survivors clutched bandages to their heads and faces, and some frantically dialed their cell phones. Luggage and debris were spattered with blood. There was no immediate indication if suicide bombers were involved. Police inspector Ramesh Sawant said most of the victims suffered head and chest injuries, leading authorities to believe the bombs were placed in overhead luggage racks. “I can’t hear anything,” said Shailesh Mhate, a man in his 20s, sitting on the floor of Veena Desai Hospital surrounded by bloody cotton swabs. ‘’People around me didn’t survive. I don’t know how I did,” he added.

Commuter transit systems have been tempting targets for terrorists in recent years, with bombers killing 191 in Madrid, Spain, in 2004, and 52 in London last year. A senior Bombay police official, P.S. Pasricha, said the Bombay explosions were part of a well-coordinated attack.

The bombings occurred after the stock markets ended. The commercial capital suffered similar serial blasts in 1993 that included the Bombay Stock Exchange, killing more than 250 people. July 11 evening’s first explosion hit a train at a railway station in the northwestern suburb of Khar.

Other blasts followed down the line of the western railway at the Mahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivili, Mira Road and Jogeshwari stations. Some passengers reportedly jumped from speeding trains in panic.

The terror attack on Mumbai trains was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and local Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists and was designed to trigger communal conflagration in the country’s financial capital, intelligence sources said.

While still waiting for clues to emerge, top intelligence sources in New Delhi seem pretty sure the blasts on the trains were plotted by Lashkar modules which are increasingly collaborating with activists of SIMI, which boasts of strong pockets of influence across Maharashtra.

Unlike last time, when tip-offs helped the Maharashtra police foil the fidayeen attack on RSS headquarters at Nagpur, this time, Maharashtra and central sleuths failed to detect the plot.

Officials are convinced that the terrorists’ objective was to cause communal mayhem in the city. The conviction is based on two facts. First, the trains were targeted just after the communal-tinged violence in Bhiwandi, and the protests by Shiv Sainiks over the insult to the statue of Meenatai Thackeray by miscreants.

Hindu American Foundation condemns terrorist attacks
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) expressed horror and outrage over coordinated terrorist attacks on commuter trains in Mumbai.

“We all Americans join in condemning the murder of hundreds of innocent victims in Mumbai, and pray for a speedy recovery for the injured,” said Mihir Meghani, president of HAF. “The brutality of these terror attacks highlights the ruthless potential of foreign-based terror groups operating in India, and the harsh reality that India is a frontline nation in the international war against terror.”

Hindu Council UK condemns
This is a cowardly and brutal act designed to kill and maim innocent people travelling on the very central railway line of the city. The attack was designed to kill as many people as possible, like New York, Bali, Madrid, London.

Dr Krishan Kumar at the prayers meeting at Geeta Bhawan temple in Lozelles, Birmingham, said, “We had just been praying for the 7/7 victims and now the 7/11. People of all faiths will unite in condemning these terrorists.”

Dilip Joshi from the Southampton temple and an HCUK executive said, “These terrorists will neither live themselves peacefully nor let others live, they are simply evil.”

Vishwa Hindu Parishad, UK
Today India experienced another major human disaster, a series of bomb explosions causing massive loss of life and limb.

On behalf of the Hindu community in the United Kingdom, we extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the bereaved and affected families. We ask the Government of India to take all measures in order to ensure the safety of her citizens, and to bring to justice those responsible for these massacres.

Resurgent Hindutva: Need of the century

24th Annual Meet of Bharatiya Vichara Kendram, Thiruvananthapuram

—P. Parameswaran
By S. Chandrasekhar

About 200 delegates from all over the state participated in the deliberations from July 7 to 9, 2006. Researchers’ meet, academic meet and Gita movement activists’ meet formed part of the deliberations.

The CPM’s attempt to convert Kerala into another West Bengal will cause Kerala becoming another Kashmir. The CPM in its hunger to capture the 46 per cent Christian and Muslim votes has encouraged fanatics and terrorists. Inclusion of extremists in the state administration has put the state and nation under threat.

Inaugurating the 24th annual conference of the Bharatiya Vichar Kendram (BVK) at Samskriti Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, RSS ideologue and Kendram’s Director Padamshri P. Parameswaran said the BVK was launched in 1982, when two major forces—US and the former USSR were dominating the world and in Kerala Communism was strong and clashes were erupting between the CPM and the RSS. The BVK gave a new dimension by giving the message of ideological debate and not physical confrontation. He added that in the past two decades the Kendram has been able to expose Communism as an unscientific ideology, with the result that the CPM exists as another political party, not as another political ideology. Similarly, when the BVK enters its 25th year with the slogan of “Resurgent Hindutva: Need of the Century”, two major threats are looming over the world—cut-throat globalisation and market economy propounded by Christian-dominated Western forces and Islamic jehadi extremism, he said. “While, on the one hand, nations are collapsing due to the impact of globalisation and West is lording over the world through a new colonialism, on the other hand, the whole world has turned into a theatre of Islamic extremism. Be it Bali, New York or New Delhi, the ugly face of jehadism is spreading fear and uncertainty all over the world.” He said the only alternative to both these dangerous forces is Hindutva where the Rigveda sees the whole world as a birdcage, all encompassing and safe, not tyrannical. The speech made by Swami Vivekananda on September 11 at the “World Parliament of Religions” is still relevant, but it was on this same September 11 that Islamic terrorism reared its ugly head in New York. The Semitic religions believe in exclusion but Hindutva believes in inclusion, diversity and pluralism. The conference of religions heads held in Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin emphasised that unless clashes between Islam and Christianity do not stop, it is difficult to stop the world from being extinct. He said in this Shri Guruji centenary year a fitting tribute will be to project Hindutva as a panacea for all the world’s evils and to strengthen the ideological anchor of the RSS, which combines the spiritual strength of the sages and the physical prowess displayed by Hindu emperors. He further said in Kerala where Hindu society is facing threats from Communism, Christianity, Islam, consumerism and criminalism, it is the duty of every Hindu to strive for developing a positive, strong Hindu society in the state which is assertive and inclusive, a Hindu samaj rooted in Kerala’s age-old traditions, and part of the national Hindutva movement. He concluded that NSS and SNDP are pillars of the Hindu society in Kerala and that whenever, Shri Guruji visited Kerala stalwarts of NSS and SNDP like Mannth Padmanabhan, R. Sankar and Kerala Kaumudi Sukumaran used to invite him to their homes and have discussions for long hours and every well-wisher of Hindutva should make efforts for bringing the Sangh closer to the NSS and SNDP, which will be a great achievement during Shri Guruji’s birth centenary and for Hindu society’s deliverance.

About 200 delegates from all over the state participated in the deliberations from July 7 to 9, 2006. Researchers’ academic meet and Gita movement activists’ meet formed part of the deliberations.

The resolution adopted by the conference said the CPM’s attempt to convert Kerala into another West Bengal will cause to Kerala becoming another Kashmir. The CPM in its hunger to capture the 46 per cent Christian and Muslim votes has encouraged fanatics and terrorists. Inclusion of extremists in the state administration has put the state and nation under threat. Like in West Bengal, where the CPM has been ruling with the total support of the 25 per cent Muslim population, in Kerala too the CPM’s strategy to continue in power by appeasing the 46 per cent Christians and Muslims for pocketing their votes will make Kerala another Kashmir, where Hindus are third class citizens. The resolution also attacked the CPM for exploiting the religious sentiments of the Muslims by emphasising issues relating to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine during elections. The resolution urged the people of Kerala and nationalists to be wary of the CPM and its suicidal and anti-national policies and strive to retain Kerala’s age-old identity.

Call for 'Muslim Pradesh' divides SP

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Wednesday, July 19, 2006

New Delhi, July 19: The reported demand for a separate ‘Muslim Pradesh’ in Western UP by senior state Minister Mohammad Azam Khan has created voices of dissent in Samajwadi Party, with former Union Minister Rasheed Masood dubbing the proposal a ‘result of psychological imbalance’.

"The demand for a separate state for Muslims does not only deserve condemnation but it is also against the interests of the community," Masood, a Lok Sabha MP, said in a statement, adding ‘Muslims of India have already suffered a lot by the creation of Pakistan’.

Noting that communal forces day in and day out were trying to break the secular and democratic fabric of the country, Masood, who represents Saharanpur in Western UP, said, ‘a separate state on the basis of religion is being demanded, then what will be the fate of those who are living in other states belonging to the same religion’.

Expressing hope that Muslims by and large would not support such a proposal, he said such a demand is the ‘result of pyschological imbalance’.

He noted that such a statement always helps the communal forces rather than a particular party.

"I am confident that this is not the stand of the party but an individual," Masood, who was once a close associate of RLD leader Ajit Singh, said.

Khan, while reacting to the demand for a separate ‘Harit Pradesh’ by the Rashtriya Lok Dal, reportedly had said that instead of creating a ‘Harit Pradesh’, a ‘Muslim Pradesh’ should be created carving out districts of western region of the state.

Indifference — thy name is the Spirit of Mumbai

Friday, July 14, 2006 21:41 IST



Ashoke Pandit

I was in Cooper Hospital helping the victims of Terrible Tuesday. The smell of burnt flesh, the sight of the blood-strewn corridor, wailing women and fathers fainting marked the night of 7/11.

The next day, all news channels were claiming that life in Mumbai was back on track within 14 hours of the blasts that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds.

They went on and on about the spirit of Mumbai. I was amazed to see people carry on with their chores as if nothing had happened the previous night.

There was no doubt that a section of people were on the streets, helping the wounded get to the hospital and providing food and water to the stranded. The other section,typically drawing room activists with opinions on everything, watched TV through the evening, had dinner and went to bed.

They had to get up next morning to get to work, the same way they had on Tuesday. Their routine continued as if nothing had happened. Then we scream hoarse, 'We are a bunch of resilient people who got back to our normal life when our fellow Mumbaikars were blown off to death'.

Our resilience seems to be our insensitivity to pain. Would the 'resilient' be the same if he was the one who had to run around in hospitals to claim the charred body of his kin? Would he be able to march to work the next day with the same sprint in his gait?

But now he can, because he is not affected. We always think that such things happen to others and not to us. This pigeonhole mentality of ours is taking us to the drains.

In fact, we don't know the difference between resilience and indifference. If we were a bunch of resilient people, we would have fought back and not gone galloping to take the first train to work. Such was the indifference of our
leaders that there was no need felt to declare a national mourning.

This might be the only country in the world where the stock market zooms up by 500 points following a series of blasts and the finance minister makes a statement that the terror attack will not affect our economy. What are we made of?

At times I think that our political establishment fans this whole 'spirit' thing, because it suits them. People on the other side of the border have realised that this spirit is leading this country to impotency. Why else would our PM repeat after every terror attack that we will not bend? To an outsider, we are a country of spineless people.

See how the US handled the situation post-9/11. Osama is in hiding and meekly sends out cassettes of threat in the name of terror. For last five years, there has not been a single terror attack in the US. In India however, there is a terror attack every day and all we do is praise our spirit. What is more terrifying is that this country seems to be getting immune to a culture of terrorism and we are feeling proud about it.

It's great to have a spirit of resilience; at least we fight back. But an entire country suffering from a spirit syndrome in the name of indifference and insensitivity is not worth it.
(Ashoke Pandit is a filmmaker and a social activist)

Bharat Mata under siege in Poonch

7/20/2006 10:58:19 PM
By Balbir K. Punj

The Poonch district administration has imposed a ban on raising the slogan "Bharat Mata ki Jai" (Victory to Mother India) during the Budha Amarnath Yatra. Raising the slogan could lead the pilgrim to jail, even if he evades the reprisal of Muslim fundamentalists. Many Hindu and allied nationalistic organisations are vehemently protesting the ban. But I can discover distinct reasons why this ban should have a shock value for the nation.

First, it would scandalise our illusion that Islamic terrorism is restricted to Kashmir Valley in J&K. The situation in Jammu portends to be equally bleak. Second, it is another example of how we are appeasing "de-nationalising" elements to preserve a farcical "secularism." In the past, more than one reigning CMs of Karnataka left no stone unturned to prevent people from hoisting the national flag on a public ground in Hubli on the pretext that it was Wakf property. The UPA government refused to indict M.F. Husain for his obscene portrayal of "Bharat Mata" (Mother India), although resolutions were adopted against the Danish cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.

Budha Amarnath (Aged Amarnath) is an ancient Shiva temple situated against a picturesque natural backdrop, at the height of about 4,500 ft, in a place called Raj Mandi, 25 kilometres from Poonch town in Jammu region. The Amarnath Yatra, it is said, is incomplete without a pilgrimage to Budha Amarnath. But the pilgrims’ turnout at Budha Amarnath diminished over the last several years due to terrorist threats. Of late, Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has revived the yatra. Last year, some 10,000 pilgrims visited Budha Amarnath between August 5 and 13. This, although nothing to match the four-lakh turnout at the snow cave of Amarnath, was a significant figure. The Bajrang Dal which took up the challenge of the Islamic terrorists, turned the religious pilgrimage into a nationalist rally. It was received with enthusiasm by the local Hindu population and paramilitary forces that provided the protective cover. The exodus of over four-lakh Hindus (Kashmiri Pandits) from the valley is fairly well-known, although equally underplayed by the "secularists." Less known is the fact that gods were the first to be forced out by the Islamic fundamentalists as they began their campaign to oust the Pandits. According to a report prepared by the Panun Kashmir Movement 10 years ago, 127 temples, besides 16,000 Pandit houses, were destroyed by Islamic fundamentalists between 1986 and 1992. According to it, 32 temples were destroyed in Kashmir within 48 hours of the destruction of the Babri structure on December 6, 1992 (J&K Militants have damaged 127 temples, Times of India, February 20, 1996).

But the slow exodus of Hindus from some districts of Jammu region is one of the best kept secrets. In Poonch district their population fell from 11% to 8% between 1981 and 2001. In Rajouri district it fell from 41.66% to 39.73%, while in Doda it has been a marginal fall from 42.69% to 42.02%. Jammu district is 93% and Doda district is 74% Hindu. The massacre of 22 Hindus in Kulhund village of Doda district that shocked the nation last April hints that Islamic terrorism is making deep inroads in Jammu. A Hindu pilgrimage in J&K, be it the Amarnath Yatra or a yatra to Raghunath temple, is a bugbear for Islamic fundamentalists. Their logic is simple: anything Hindu is Indian and needs to be discouraged. The Kashmiri Pandits were expelled because they supported the free flow of the Indian Constitution in the Valley.

It has been the truth for one millennium, that in parts of India where demographic, political and cultural strengths of Hindus had diminished, partition had taken place. From present day Afghanistan, Sindh, West Punjab, East Bengal, this withdrawal has continued. It is a truth that the "secular" establishment would hate to admit. But then they are abetting its repeat. Is Poonch not part of India (even Pakistan doesn’t dispute it, it disputes only the Valley)? Then if "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" is banned in Poonch, a Muslim majority district, the government itself sends out a wrong message about the loyalty of Muslims. The decision on "Bharat Mata ki Jai" has not come from the government in Srinagar. The district commissioner of Poonch, Pramod Jain, is seemingly behind it.

In 1953, Jan Sangh founder Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had laid down his life seeking complete the integration of Kashmir Valley. He was deeply inspired by Praja Parishad’s call "Ek desh mein do nishan/Ek desh mein do vidhan/Ek desh mein do pradhan/Nahin chalengey, nahin chalengey (Two symbols, two Constitutions, two heads of state in one country are not acceptable)." Nehru had pandered to Sheikh Abdullah who aimed at carving out a "Sheikhdom" independent of India and Pakistan, but tried to suppress the nationalist Praja Parishad. Those interested in the subject should read My Years With Nehru, the memoirs of B.N. Mallick, the former IB director chosen by Nehru to execute this devious agenda. The results of Nehru’s blunders are evident to us. We are still repeating the Nehruvian blunders.

HRD minister Arjun Singh, who made a pilgrimage to Osama bin Laden’s country, Saudi Arabia, and cleared a plan to set up a Saudi Arabian cultural centre at Jamia with UGC money, recently said during a Cabinet meeting after the Mumbai blasts, that Hindutva groups fake terrorist attacks and routinely blame them on Muslims. It shows to what level "secularism" has plummeted. Osama bin Laden at least has the honesty and guts to call for Islamic domination of the world, but our "secularists" are a sad picture of degeneration.

If the know-all Arjun Singh knew it better than the home ministry, that Hindutva groups fake terrorist attacks and blame them on Muslims "routinely," then it was criminal and communal to be silent about it until Mumbai happened. On the contrary, the UPA government was pressing forth with a complete ban on SIMI for days before Mumbai occurred. Maharashtra is ruled by a "secular" government, and it has not experienced any riot in the recent past unlike in Gujarat. There is no "secular" logic to explain the blasts. Of course, what can explain the blast is our "secular" degeneration. SIMI, along with LeT, is the universal suspect after the Mumbai blasts. Not even the most hardcore "secularist" can deny this basic fact.

With "secularists" like these, who needs enemies?

Taking oath in Allah's name is constitutional

Thiruvananthapuram, July 21: The Kerala High Court said on Friday that taking oath in the name of Allah was constitutionally valid. A division bench consisting of Justice J.B. Koshy and Justice V. Ramkumar gave this judgment while dismissing a public interest petition seeking dismissal of 11 Muslim MLAs of the State who had taken their oath in the name of Allah.

The petition was filed by Madhu Parumala, vice president of the Bharatiya Janatha Yuva Morcha. The judges said that the MLAs action was constitutional since Allah was the Arabic word for God. Taking oath in the name of Allah was no different from taking oath in the name of God, they said.

According to the bench, it was not essential for elected MLAs to reflect the faith of their voters while taking oath. The MLAs had taken the oath in their personal capacity, the bench said. If the MLAs were prevented from taking oath in the name of Allah, it would undermine the secular nat-ure of the nation, the bench said. Majority of the 11 MLAs who took the oath in the name of Allah were from the Indian Union Muslim League. One was from the Congress and one was an independent supported by the CPI(M).

It may be recalled that in 2003, the HC had invalidated JSS MLA Umesh Challiyil?s taking his oath in the name of Sree Narayana Guru, the patron saint of the Ezhava community.
The HC had held that though the Guru was worshipped as God by many, taking oath in his name was not constitutionally valid.

Parumala had referred to this in his petition. He pointed out that since the 11 MLAs did not take a solemn oath or an oath in the name of God, they should be dismissed and should not be allowed to take part in Assembly sessions.

Now, SP quotes 'Quota for Muslims in Par'

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Lucknow, July 18: In a bid to woo Muslim voters ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Samajwadi Party demanded reservation for Muslims in Parliament, Assemblies and government jobs in proportion to their population.

"Muslims should be given reservation in the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and government jobs in proportion to their population," party's national general secretary Beni Prasad Verma said.

He said his party would field Muslim candidates in the next Assembly elections in the state in proportion to their population.

Referring to former Prime Minister V P Singh's demand for reservation for most-backward Muslims within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, Verma said Singh should have done this when he had implemented the Mandal Commission report.

India Blocks Blogs in Wake of Mumbai Bombings

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 18, 2006

NEW DELHI, July 18 — As India’s financial capital, Mumbai, observed a moment of silence today to commemorate the serial bombings of its commuter trains seven days ago, a blistering silence blanketed the Indian blogosphere.

For reasons yet unexplained by the authorities, the Indian government has apparently directed local Internet service providers to block access to a handful of outlets that host blogs, including the popular blogspot.com. Indian bloggers have reacted with anger and confusion, accusing the government of censorship and demanding to know why their sites have been jammed.

Nilanjana Roy, a Delhi-based writer who runs kitabkhana.blogspot.com, a literary blog, called the seeming censorship “a dangerous precedent.”

“You have a right to know what is being banned, and why it’s being banned,” she said. “I can understand if it’s China or Iran or Saudi Arabia. I’m truly appalled when it’s my country doing this.”

The ban, in theory, meant that people living in India were kept from reading anything that appeared on the blocked outlets — whether Indian blogs or otherwise. But the ban seemed far from effective. While some Internet service providers blocked access, others did not.

Many more blog afficionados simply go around the blockade by figuring out how to read their favorite sites. One Web site offered help by way of a free blog “gateway.”

“Is your blog blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran or China?” the site asked, and went on to offer instructions for outwitting the surprising shutdown.

That site was prompted by the efforts of the Pakistan Telecom Authority to block blogspot.com last February, as they attempted to prevent the proliferation of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Their publication had fueled violent protests across Pakistan.

Last Thursday, a technician at a Bangalore-based service center of one Internet provider said the government had ordered the block of blogspot.com “due to security reasons.” Another service provider in New Delhi said the government, without explanation, had directed his company to block access to a list of less than a dozen Web sites. He could offer no details about the sites.

Officials at the Ministry of Communications here did not return repeated calls. An official at the ministry’s department of information and technology, Gulshan Rai, said he was aware of “two pages” that had been blocked for spreading what he called “antinational sentiments,” but was unable to provide details.

The secretary for telecommunications, D. S. Mathur, that bureau’s highest-ranking civil servant, hung up the phone when reached at home.The minister of communications, Dayanidhi Maran, was traveling in San Francisco and unavailable for comment.

If nothing else, the tempest over the restricted sites is a testament to growing government anxiety about how to control this new and mushrooming medium.

Like blogs anywhere else, Indian blogs serve as forums to pontificate on every conceivable subject: books, movies, politics, cricket. There are blogs devoted to everyday self-indulgence: one blogger, a self-described amateur photographer, writes of jogging in the monsoon, while another recalls what she wore to a cocktail party.

There are blogs, too, that strive to be public service tools, including one that within hours of the Mumbai train blasts began listing phone numbers of hospitals where victims were being taken; called mumbaihelp.blogspot.com, it is among those blocked.

Last Tuesday’s attacks on the Mumbai trains left a death toll of 182 and injured more than 700. A week later, frenetic Mumbai observed a short silence today in memory of the victims.

It is impossible to know how many Indian blogs are affected by the blocking measure. One blogger, Mitesh Vasa, from Vienna, Virginia, has documented “40,128 Indian bloggers who mention India as their country.” That does not include those who do not name on their site which country they are based in, nor others who identify their country of origin, as Peter Griffin does from Mumbai, as “utopia.”

Mr. Griffin, who helped set up the mumbaihelp site, said he woke up this morning to a furious litany of 300 e-mails, mostly from bloggers enraged by the government blockade. Among the speculations offered in those e-mails was that certain blogs could have been used by terrorist groups to coordinate operations.

“Even if that were true, it doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Griffin argued. Anyone with a domain name, he said, could effectively do the same thing on an ordinary Web site.

Crush these daily attacks on India

When asked whether those who helped September 11, 2001 attacks on America could be forgiven, General H Norman Schwartzkopf retorted, "It is God's job to forgive, it is our job to arrange the meeting."

Compare this tough stance with India's spineless approach to terrorist attacks which are ravaging the body and soul of India every day.

In the latest of such attacks on July 11, 2006, Pak-sponsored terrorists killed over 200 innocents, and maimed many more, in bomb blasts in local trains in Mumbai, India's commercial capital. And as usual, the Indian Prime Minister made some hollow declarations against terrorism and the killings.

And immediately after the Prime Minister condemned terrorist violence, terrorists murdered five more Hindus in Poonchh in Jammu and Kashmir.

Long line of attacks

And the same Prime Minister had ritually condemned the killings after the terrorists had massacred 32 Hindus in April, 2006 in Doda. And the government went through similar rhetoric after Bangladesh-sponsored attack in Varanasi in March, 2006 claimed 30 lives, and after attack in Delhi in October, 2005 claimed 71 innocents.

It may also be recalled that during 1980s and 1990s, Pak-sponsored terrorists killed thousands of Hindus in Kashmir forcing several lakhs of Hindus to flee from Kashmir. And after making Kashmir a Hindu-less region, terrorists have been massacring Hindus at several places in Jammu region to drive out Hindus.

Even Pak-sponsored attack on Indian Parliament in 2001 went unpunished. 2002 witnessed attack on Raghunath Temple in Jammu and Akshardham temple in Gujarat. 2003 saw Mumbai bomb blasts. In 2005, terrorists attacked Ayodhya, New Delhi and Bangalore. And as already mentioned, 2006 has brought many more of such attacks.

These attacks are not isolated incidents; these are a part of a long line of attacks Hindus have suffered since Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army attacked Indian sub-continent in 711.

Starting with a zero Muslim population, Indian sub-continent including the present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and even a part of Iran was Hindu land till Muhammad bin Qasim's attack in 711.

After repeated invasions over the centuries, Hindus lost Afghanistan in 987. Pakistan was lost in 1947. And though Hindus fought bravely to defend their religion and motherland, they suffered the loss of millions of lives and plunder and destruction of thousands of temples during the repeated attacks for over a thousand years.

Pak-Bangla motive

To defeat the invaders, it is essential to know their motive. Though India is a secular country, both Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamic Republics, and have driven out most of the Hindus and Sikhs from their land. Moreover, Pakistan's ISI, the most powerful organ in Pakistan, and its loyal pupil Bangladesh's Director General of Field Intelligence, are determined to bleed India through 'a thousand cuts', and to create one more Islamic country on Indian soil. Successive ISI chiefs had all along been working in this direction.

And to achieve this task, Pakistan and Bangladesh have sent countless terrorists and crores of their nationals into India. Besides, they have planted a number of Madrassas on India's border with Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

Denial and self-deception

Instead of punishing Pakistan and Bangladesh for launching terrorist attacks, Indian government has a standing policy of denial, self-deception and inaction against terror; and is content with the ritual sounding of red alert after each terrorist strike.

Unlike what USA has done after September 11, 2001 attack; and what U.K. has done after July 7, 2005 attack, India has not taken any concrete action to prevent terrorist attacks.

Steeped in fake secular stupor, most of the Indian political parties and media are busy with disinformation campaign, and are inventing phony explanations for frequent terrorist attacks. Just like the government, most of the media are brushing aside the imperative need to defeat the Pak-Bangla demographic invasion and terror attacks; and are just emphasizing inanities like peace-talks and harmony.

Pak- Bangla consortium knows that it cannot defeat India in a full scale war. Since 1980s when Pakistan and Bangladesh started their war through terrorists, India has lost over 70,000 lives to terrorism. Due to the government's policy of inaction and soft borders, innumerable Pak-Bangla terrorists are stalking all over India to strike at the place and time of their choice.

Winning an inevitable war

Considering the continuing Pak-Bangla demographic aggression and terrorist attacks, war with Pakistan and Bangladesh is inevitable. At present India is in a position to win this war. The day India stops wailing, and takes the war to the enemy territory, India would start winning the war against terror.

India has lost more soldiers in Pak-Bangla sponsored terrorist attacks than in its wars with Pakistan in 1965, 1971 or 1999.

Terrorism persists because its victims surrender. India has the capability to smash Pak-Bangla terrorism, but not the will. Attacks continue because India does not respond.

Pak-Bangla alliance wants to achieve through terrorism what it could not achieve in full scale wars with India in 1965, 1971 and 1999. Besides, the terrorists are able to select the target, time and place of attack, and restrict the war to Indian territory. This war has to be taken to the territory of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The only solution

We cannot expect others to fight our battles. The injury India is suffering now is self-inflicted because of prolonged inaction against repeated attacks and demographic aggression.

Since the government's policy of denial, drift and inaction is leading to gradual Pak-Bangla take-over of India, the only alternative for the nationalist organizations, political parties and individuals is to assert themselves, and force the government to crush India's tormentors.

Chanakya's Chanakya Niti and Sun-tzu's Art of War as also countless lessons of world history emphasize the complete crushing of enemies before the enemies crush us.

Enemies must be crushed; not embraced. Since violence is the only language terrorists understand, only the strong deterrent action can defeat the aggressors. Accordingly, as per "doctrine of hot pursuit" of International Law, India must smash all terrorist network in Pakistan and Bangladesh; and if necessary, launch a war with these nations to make them see reason.

Suicidal peace talks and confidence building measures like Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangla bus and rail links must be discarded since they are inviting more terrorists and infiltrators to walk into India to attack security forces, to kill innocents and to blow up temples.

Further, the Supreme Court's judgement delivered on July 12, 2005, and relating to Sarbananda Sonowal's petition, and The Foreigners Act, 1946 must be implemented to deport crores of Pak-Bangla infiltrators threatening the creation of one more Islamic country on Indian soil.

Moreover, since the February 22, 1994 unanimous Resolution of Indian Parliament declares Jammu & Kashmir an integral part of India and demands vacation of Pak-occupied Kashmir, any "flexible approach" regarding Jammu and Kashmir will violate the said resolution. Besides, since Article 370 of Indian Constitution has encouraged separatism and brought genocide and eviction of Hindus from Kashmir, this Article must be deleted to bring Jammu & Kashmir at par with other Indian states.

And unless India fights its tormentors and takes the fight to enemy territory, tragedies like the one that hit Mumbai on July 11, 2006, will continue to batter India.

JG Arora

IGNOU books contain insulting remarks about Gods: BJP

Press Trust of India
Lucknow, July 18, 2006

The BJP on Tuesday alleged that the IGNOU books contained insulting remarks about Lord Shiva, Krishna and goddess Durga and charged the UPA government with indulging into a deep-rooted conspiracy to "please a particular community".

State BJP President Keshari Nath Tripathi alleged the history books of IGNOU contained insulting remarks for Lord Shiva, Krishna and goddess Durga and they were "deliberately" included in the syllabus to humiliate Hindus and their culture.

"It's a deep conspiracy of the Centre to please a particular community," he said alleging that NCERT books also had derogatory details about ancestors of Hindu and also Sikh Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur.

He said the party was exploring legal alternatives to keep a check on such attempts of the Central government which was under pressure of leftist and trying to please minority community.

Hindu sites banned in India!!

7/18/2006 9:16:05 AM HK

Post-7/11, a Government order had directed Internet service providers (ISP) in the country to block access to certain websites. Various ISPs say they were asked to block access to a list of 20 odd websites, which these include sites like Hinduunity.com, and Hinduhumanrights.org - all sites that supposedly spread extreme views. But trying to prevent access to extremist views seems to have backfired on the Government, because instead of blocking only those specific blogs and possibly escaping all this attention - the ISPs have gone ahead and blocked all blogs.

Do you see any Muslim sites here? Or haven’t they read any radical religious sites other than those that mention the word, " HINDU"! What is so radical about
Hinduhumanrights.org ? Is it because they speak the truth? Sites like Hinduunity has been blocked before also in Maharashtra and Andhra by the pseudo secular officials . We don't recollect reading about any protests by these very people who are crying foul now.

Readers of Haindava keralam,be prepared to be on a witch hunt. Slowly growing as an important source of information for many Hindus around the world and India, we are sure to be targeted pretty soon. Radical Muslim sites have started quoting us on various issues and see the Haindava Keralam site as a direct threat to their propaganda.

The need of the hour is to stand together with us and help in bringing up to date un biased reporting to the general hindu brothers. The need is for you to support us morally and financially to fight this media oppression by the Christian and Islamic nexus.

US using India against China, says Sudarshan

INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK
SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2006

NEW DELHI: The Rashtriya Swayam Sangh has blasted the United States for its double standards on terrorism, and pleaded that India must not allow itself to be used for US's selfish gains.

In an interview published in the Sangh Parivar's mouthpiece Panchjanya, the RSS Supremo, K S Sudarshan, while reacting to the Mumbai serial blast, has said that even though the USA knows of Pakistan's involvement in perpetuating terrorism, it refuses to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. Why? Because it is "using Pakistan against India so that India could be used in its strategic battle against China."

Elaborating, the Parivar head said that the US is worried that missiles capable of striking targets 12000 KMs away are in China's possession. And for the US, the best way to counter that would be to "control the entire geo-political space around India", and to achieve that, it is important that it props up India against its communist neighbour. "We must understand this game and not become a tool to be used against China".

As expected, Sudarshan has harsh words for the Congress and Communists, who he accuses of working towards dividing the Hindus. He thinks terrorism has grown, thanks to the policy of appeasement of Muslims by this government, and that some of the central ministers are actually working towards driving a wedge between the Hindus and the Muslims. On a reconciliatory note, however, he says there are plenty among the Muslims who are true patriots and would not fall into this trap and claimed that RSS is getting excellent support from these people and is actually engaged in a meaningful dialogue with them.

Extending the reconciliatory note further, he said that given the increasing intensity and frequency of terrorist strikes in India, it is important for the entire nation to act as one. Since all attempts by India to forge friendship with Pakistan are rebuffed, it is "time for us to forget the differences of heart and opinion, come together, and give a stinging response to Pakistan."

The Sangh Parivar's mouthpiece also comes down heavily in its editorial on the appeasement policy pursued by political parties. The editorial holds the so-called secular leaders responsible for the Mumbai blasts.

It says when patriotism becomes a matter of shame and the majority community is insulted to gain political mileage, then the influence of terrorist organisations is bound to increase.

After the blasts when India's national security advisor Narayanan hinted at the hand of Pakistan-backed militant outfits before the Cabinet, two ministers opposed it. They in turn blamed Hindus for the blasts. Their postulation was not supported by any sound reasoning.

Mulayam Singh also made a statement giving clean chit to SIMI. The SP leader's statement came keeping in mind the elections in Uttar Pradesh. The Hindu community being a divided lot, he wants to capture the Muslim votes. Prior to this, Lalu Prasad Yadav had ordered a new enquiry into the Godhra carnage. This was also done keeping in mind the assembly elections in Bihar.

Drawing a parallel between the sympathisers and the militant outfits, it says the secular leaders are doing more harm to the country.

Secularism and the Hindu

Secularism and the Hindu
Kosla Vepa Ph.D

Introduction

As I realize the sociological implications of the social engineering going on in the name of Secularism, I am filled with a sense of incredulity for the concept of Secularism as it is practiced in India today. This essay is an attempt to explain the reasons for my belief Secularism in India today is bereft of any integrity and / or intellectual honesty, nor is there any internal consistency. What is good for the goose (the minority) is rarely good for the gander (the Hindu).

2. What is the dictionary meaning of secularism

sec·u·lar·ism (se(k'y?-l?-ri(z'?m) pronunciation

n.

1. Religious skepticism or indifference.
2. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

secularist sec'u·lar·ist n.secularistic sec'u·lar·is'ti

from Wikipedia

Secularism is a form of governance that is not affiliated with any particular religion.
In political terms Secularism is a movement toward the separation of church and state as opposed to a union.

As the term "secularism" is often used in different contexts, its precise definition can vary from place to place. A democracy need not necessarily be secular. For example, the United States of America is a democracy but still has "in God we trust" printed on its currency. Another example is the Iraqi Constitution which seeks to establish a democratic government but also calls for the Supreme Federal Court to be made up of judges who are experts in Sharia (Islamic Law).

Its proponents argue secularism is the concept that states should be governed by a process of reasoning rather than dogmatic belief. Its opponents argue that secularism is a concept which, instead of preserving freedom of religion, actually holds all religions in contempt.

A government based on the peoples ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity being protected by the rule of law are seen as superior to a government based on the divine rights of kings, however the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity existed for over a century before the Laicité law(1) (introduced in France in1880 )was introduced.

Secularism may also be defined as the idea that religion should not interfere with or be integrated into the public affairs of a society.

The reason I draw attention to the above definitions is that the Indian model of secularism does not conform to any of these definitions. In fact no definition of secularism is offered in the Indian constitution. While the general public in India understands it to mean "equal respect for all religions, and Morarji Desai's Janata Party government introduced the Constitution (45th Amendment) Bill seeking to define 'secular' to mean 'equal respect for all religions', the Congress Party refused to endorse such a definition.

1. In practice the Government of India and the legal system do not treat all religions and in particular the Hindu faith with equal respect, nor does it treat all religions equally under the law. There are countless examples, of which some of the most egregious are the separate civil law provisions for Muslims, in which the civil law sections of the Indian Penal code do not apply to Muslims.
   
   
2. Another is the special status of Jammu and Kashmir state simply for no other reason than the fact that it is a majority Muslim state
   
   
3. A third is the special subsidy given to Muslims to undertake the Hajj pilgrimage, which runs into very large sums of money. No such subsidy is available for Hindus to visit their places of pilgrimage even to proximate locations such as Mt. Kailash
   
   
4. While the government maintains a hands off attitude to the administration of Mosques, it administers Hindu trusts through the appointment of a Administrative officer (there is no requirement for him or her to be a Hindu) and not only does not subsidize the maintenance of Hindu temples many of which are in disrepair but diverts money from Hindu trusts to Muslim religious Waqfs.
   
   
5. Minority Educational institutions get subsidies that are not available to Hindu educational trusts. The situation became so dire that the Ramakrishna math started by Swami Vivekananda himself, petitioned to be classified as a non Hindu institution, in order that they be eligible to receive subsidies.
   

Such unequal treatment under the law is becoming intolerable to the Hindu, who is becoming increasingly alienated in the land of his own forefathers, which is another reason for the nascent self awareness of the Hindu and his increasingly vocal participation in the Hindu renaissance movement

(1)Starting around 1880, the French state gradually took over the running of most hospitals, banned catechism from state schools, legalized divorce, removed crucifixes from public offices and required civil weddings at the local town hall before a couple could wed in church.

3. What are some postulates of Indian secularism

Secularism Sutras or the Aphorisms of the Secular (adapted from Vishal Agarwal)

1. Majority communalism is reprehensible while minority communalism is understandable. Hindu communalism is worse than Muslim and Christian communalism. In fact any communalism by groups other than Hindu is rarely referred to as communalism.
   
   
2. Highlighting any act of minority communalism invites being branded as a Hindu fanatic and is itself considered a communalist act.
   
   
3. Dams and Factories are the modern Temples of India. But they cannot replace mosques and churches.
   
   
4. India is not one nation but a Multi-national state, in other words, it is only notionally a nation state.
   
   
5. Hinduism is the opiate of Indian masses.
   
   
6. Secularism is the greatest good, to which all other goods are subordinated. All morals and ethics can be ignored in the defense of Secularism. In fact to be secular is the highest accolade that can be awarded in the secular parlance
   
   
7. If you are not `Secular', at best you are a `Communal' and are most likely to be elevated to a right wing Hindutvawadi who is closely connected to the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, even though you may not have been born then.
   
   
8. Marx, Mullah and Missionary are the Trimurti of Secularism. Secularism leads to omniscience. What do communalists know?
   
   
9. Majority communalists deserve no human rights. Minorities, including their communal elements, are entitled to special privileges.
   
   
10. Hinduism is a colonial construct, and to call it a religion is at best a stretch and at worst against the secular ethos of the country. Tribals are magically transformed into Hindus only when they rape nuns.
    
    
11. It is `Progressive' and `liberal' to eat beef and to oppose it is to be obscurantist, elite and well on your way to become a fascist.
    
    
12. Children should be indoctrinated with Secularism when they are young.
    
    
13. Conversion out of Hinduism is a fundamental right of human beings. The right to Conversion and the resultant act of conversion to Hinduism is communalism. Acculturation of tribal Hindus with mainstream Hindu culture is a deep and conspiratorial fascist act of the Sangh parivar.
    
    
14. Secular Jihads, Secular Crusades and Secular Pogroms are all kosher as long as they restrict their attack on Hindus and Hinduism. When 50 women and children were burnt to death in Godhra, the newspaper reports made a special mention of the fact that they were Hindu Karsevaks (volunteers), implying that was the motive for killing them. Karsevaks were the children of a lesser God and their murder was therefore understandable. They had brought it upon themselves.
    
    
15. Hindu lives are cheap. According to Sharia, they are worth 1/16 the life of a Muslim, according to Secularism, they are worth evenless. It is interesting that the number of Hindu Lives lost in the subcontinent since independence in wars, riots etc is more than 16 times that of Muslim lives lost
    
    
16. Secularists cannot be Hindu. They can call themselves of 'Hindu descent', or 'Hindu and Muslim' or 'good humans' or 'Good Muslims' or 'Good Christians', but never, never, as 'good Hindus'.
    
    
17. All Hindu acts of self assertion are Hindu fanaticism. All Hindu organizations that do not say 'all religions are equally good' areHindu Nazis. To assert pride in being a Hindu is an automatic qualifier to being termed a nationalist Hindu
    
    
18. All charities that do not cater to Minority victims are fascist. However, it is OK for NGO's or other charities to cater to minority communities preferentially.
    
    
19. Secularists claim to be virtuous because of their indifference to religion. But they draw the line when they are faced with the real test of acceptance of diversity in ideas. In general they tend to be extremely bigoted when faced with a viewpoint other than their own.

4. My view of Secularism

Let me start of by saying that genuine acceptance of diversity is very much a part of the tradition of Sanaatana Dharma and not only would I have no problems with such a stand, but in reality I embrace it with all my heart and with great gusto. If secularism is defined as an embracement of diversity not only of ethnic and religious communities but also diversity of ideas, then one can safely say that preaching secularism to the Hindu is like carrying coal to Newcastle. But just because the Dharma is genuinely accepting of other belief systems does not mean it should be held up to a higher standard of conduct than the rest of the world . For example the word secular is synonymous with apostasy in many countries which profess that their state religion is Islam. We do not feel such countries have anything to teach India about secularism and have no business lecturing India on the virtues of secularism. Similarly, such is the case with Communism .In communist ideology, secularism is synonymous with atheism and the communist ideology is for all practical purposes a state religion with little tolerance for any other belief system. China is a typical example where there is very little tolerance for most religions and those that did not originate in China or did not have a substantial Chinese tradition, are treated with special suspicion. China can hardly be termed a secular state. But we never hear the Indian left , many of whom are ardent admirers of China and rarely have a word to say about lack of secularism in China.


5. The Hostility of the Western Civilization towards the Hindu Faith

In general it is our view that for a communist to preach secularism to a Hindu is like Lucretia Borgia preaching chastity to Mother Teresa. But this is what happens in India. The bulk of the criticism of the Hindu comes from Left wing ideologues, both in India and abroad who while making no secret of their abhorrence for Hinduism are careful to conceal their equally vehement dislike for protecting the freedom of the individual. In fact a large part of the antagonism towards the Hindu faith in the West stems from the freedoms which are enshrined in the core values of Hinduism. As far as the West is concerned, the Hindu is in an unenviable position of drawing the ire of both the left and the right wing. We know why the left wing abhors Hinduism. The Hindu represents to the Communist everything he abhors - reverence for tradition, acceptance of the individuality of humanity in general, a tolerance for ambiguity, a strong and objective ethical value system which is independent of the subjective circumstances, a freedom to choose his God (the embodiment of the supreme spirit or Brahman) and to (or not to) worship in any way he or she chooses. It is also interesting and a telling commentary that while nastik (atheistic) traditions are accepted within the Hindu fold, the converse is certainly not true. Communist ideology considers theistic beliefs in general and Hindu beliefs in particular to be the opiate of the masses. Such intolerance and bigotry towards Hindus would automatically disqualify most Communists from calling themselves genuinely secular, if the operative definition is that there should be equal respect for all traditions under secularism

The right wing abhors Hinduism for reasons which are ironically not all that different from those of the communists. First and foremost there is deep mistrust of Hinduism because it is regarded as a Pagan religion and the fact that it does not have a single founder or Prophet. The implications of this criticism are profound. What is being implied here is that such a person would much rather let his life be dictated to by the edicts of a prophet who may have preached to an audience in an era which has little relevance to the conditions extant today, rather than rely on the powerful instruments of his own mind as exemplified in the rational approach to scientific knowledge gathering (which is what Hinduism espouses even for PAra Vidya ,higher knowledge) using techniques such as observation, perception, logical inference. The five instruments of knowledge gathering (Pramaana, or PramAna) associated with Jnana Yoga or the Yoga of Knowledge are (see link below on acquiring knowledge)

PramAna: The Instruments for acquiring knowledge

pratyaksha (perception)

anumAna (inference)

upamAna (analogy)

shabda (testimony--sacred [shruti and smRti] & secular)

arthApatti (implication of hypothesis, postulate)

anupalabdhi (non-apprehension, non-cognition)

This is a choice which every individual makes, whether to accept on faith the words of a Prophet or to reason out for one self the belief system that is bested suited for his or her individual circumstance. The choice depends clearly on the predilections of the individual and there is no right answer that will be suitable for everybody. Unfortunately the right wing in the West does not see it that way. They take the reductionist view that there is only one correct path and that is the one prescribed in their belief system.

The net result of all these observations is that the Dharma does not appeal to either the ideologues of the left or the theologists on the right and it becomes clear why there is extraordinary opposition to the very conception of the Hindu faith. It also explains the very vocal opposition bordering on pathological hostility to the notion that the very antiquity and the unbroken Civilizational tradition of the Hindu bespeaks a timelessness and the fact that it bestows a wisdom that is adaptable to millennially long time spans.


6. The consequences of the hostility of the Political Left and the Political right

The left wing is more perspicacious in its choice of weapons and more thorough in its quest to bury the uniquely Indic antecedents of the people who live in the Indian subcontinent.

First and foremost it seeks to deny an indigenous/autochthonous identity to the very foundations of the Hindu faith, namely the authorship of the Vedas. Secondly they try to undermine the antiquity of the Veda by making the authors the descendants of a mythical race of people called Aryans, about whom little is known except that they were blonde and blue eyed and rode on chariots drawn by 4 horses and entered India after the decay of the Saraswathi Sindhu civilization. So much at variance is this viewpoint to the historical record of the vast literature of India (in fact the only extant literature of that period) that it borders on the incredulous. Third it seeks to fragment the historical legacy of India by divorcing the archaeological and linguistic heritage from each other. In the words of Nicholas Kazanas, the British Greek Scholar

"The Harappans were obviously a literate and highly civilized people who maintained their 1000 year old culture with peaceful means through trade and perhaps religion rather than conquest and expansion. The area they inhabited was, according to Rao (1991: 1), ³1.5 million square kilometers² ­ though I suspect it was much bigger. Then at about 2000 down to 1800, because of ecological and environmental changes including the alteration of the routes of some rivers and as a result, the desiccation of the Saraswati river, they, or many of them, began to move eastwards to the Gangetic basin while their culture was breaking down. At about this time, then, enter our illiterate barbarians, the Aryans. Here the Allchins (Parpola and Witzel) fail to notice the glaring contradiction in their theory: if the Aryans had acquired the ³material culture and lifestyle² of the Harappans before they entered into Saptasindhu, then the RV hymns ought to reflect Harappan elements (urbanization, fixed fire-hearths, bricks, silver, cotton, rice); but it is the later texts (BrAhmaNas and sUtras) that do so, and not at all the RV hymns. Anyway, the Aryans take over and after 2 or 3 centuries produce a most astonishing collection of hymns, to be followed by other collections, various prose works about cultic rites and codes of social behavior. Lord Renfrew (ignoring the archaeological evidence he cites) suggests they came as mounted bands and formed an elite (1989: 197) presumably with their horses alone since in all else they were just like the natives. All that the natives left were their ruined brick-built cities and some seals with inscriptions the nature and use of which is still unknown. In this Region of the Seven Rivers, then, we have an archaeologically well attested culture that seems to have no literature at all (other than the briefest inscriptions) ­ no code of laws, no religious hymns or secular songs, no fables and tales, and then an illiterate people that is not archaeologically attested yet produces, in quick succession, all the kinds of literature that the previous culture lacked. It is a most amazing paradox, an astonishing coincidence of space, time and people. All this is, of course, possible ­ just as it is possible to be struck by lightning in one¹s bed, or to fall from the 10th floor on the lawn below and live with only a few concussions. Many wondrous things are possible in life, but the question is ­ do they really happen? "

Kazanas can be excused for the incredulity he displays at this rank exhibition of negating the most logical conclusion , namely that the Saraswathi Sindhu civilization is really the archaeological evidence of the presence of the Vedics at a later stage in their evolution from the time they talk about the battle of the Ten Kings, which is described in the early phases and mandalas of the Rg.


7. Blaming social ills on Hinduism

Having consigned the Indic civilization at best to an also ran and a mere spectator to the drama of unfolding events in the rest of the ancient world, the next step was to show that all that was bad in current day India was the result of the Indic tradition. That this was the goal of max Mueller from the outset when he was assigned the task of translating the sacred books of the east into English is clear when in a letter to his wife he wrote in 1886:

'The translations of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years.' ,

Max Muller, Letter to his wife , Oxford, December 9,1867

So, the purpose of translating the Vedas was not so much an academic exercise to learn what they contained, but in reality to show the world that all that was reprehensible in India was directly attributed to them. In other words, the effort by Max Mueller was a hatchet job to portray the Hindu faith in a less than stellar light. This has been the general approach of most of those who followed in the footsteps of Max Mueller and claimed to be Indologists and the British colonial administration, which has also taken the same approach. We come now to the present, where , almost every social evil in India according to the Wiki, is attributed to the tenets of the Hindu faith

Hinduism is criticized, wrongfully or rightfully, on the basis of some past and some current regressive social customs such as Dowry, Sati and Casteism. These trends are however on the decline in recent times due to a growing population of large well-educated Hindu middle class.

How the connection is made to the Hindu faith as propounded in the sacred texts is not very clear, since rarely is there a quotation given that explicitly condones such behavior. The contrast with the treatment of social evils in the west and in Islamic societies is glaring. For instance, slavery was widespread in the west and still is extant in Islamic societies like Saudi Arabia or in the Sudan, but there is very little mention that many in the west regarded the practice as being sanctioned by their religion and the fact that they fought a civil war in America because of slavery indicates to us the righteousness of those who espoused support for slavery. And yet there is very little attempt by those who should know better to hold the Church responsible for the actions of the vast majority of its flock. The same is the case with the widespread practice of serfdom in Eastern Europe or the practice of the 'Droit de Seignior' (the right of the Baron to have the first night with the newly wedded bride). Such a practice gets explicit mention in Mozart's musical (the Marriage of Figaro). There is very little accountability of the church in many of these matters, which was in many cases an active participant. We will not speak of the active complicity of the Church in matters such as the Inquisition, the genocide against the native American peoples by the Spaniards and the rest of the Europeans and numerous other instances.

The double standard by which the Hindu faith is held responsible for everything under the sun is ubiquitous and endemic, while the attendant bigotry associated with such a stance, in part resulting in Hindus being treated as the children of a lesser God is usually ignored. Then there is the question of the so called Hindu Nationalism. To quote Wiki again

8. “Hindutva and the Hindu Nationalist"

Another criticism is directed towards the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, which has followed similar trends as the rise of the Christian Right in the west. This movement has been blamed by its critics for religious riots, such as the one which followed the destruction of Babri mosque in 1992. The Babri Mosque was believed to have been constructed by Muslim rulers after destroying an original Hindu temple at that site which marked the birth-place of Ram, the most highly revered God in Hindu religion. Many believe that the rise of Hindu Nationalist movement is a reaction to suppression of the Hindu civilization by Islamic invaders in the middle ages, followed by a lengthy British rule of India in the 18th and 19th centuries.

That there was a reaction to the century’s long holocaust (see for instance Will Durant's History[1]) during the Islamic era and the abuses of authoritarian rule by the British without any accountability is not in question and should hardly come as a surprise to anybody. What is incredulous is to make a facile comparison to the many egregious acts of the church over the centuries to the Hindu renaissance. The Babri -Ramjanmabhoomi incident as been blown up out of all proportion without considering the historical background to the case. There had not been a prayer conducted at this so called mosque for well over 30 years at the time of independence. The case had been under litigation for well over 100 years and justice delayed is a case of justice denied. The structure had been one of hundreds built over the centuries over the remnants of temples destroyed by the Islamic invader. So pervasive is the perverted form of secularism prevalent in India today that even to mention that such destruction happened is to draw the wrath of the secular brigade. In the entire operation of the destruction of the structure not one life was lost. Still, it was an illegal act and the perpetrators should be brought to justice. Yet the fact remains that there are several misstatements in popular accounts of what I would like to term the Hindu renaissance as exemplified in Wiki's Hindutva article and the portrayal is not balanced and accurate. To brand an entire religious following for the acts of a few are neither just nor will it be considered an unbiased portrayal.


9. Conclusions

The Hindu in India is faced with a unique situation. While he is theoretically part of a majority, he is so fractured ideologically speaking into various ideological groups that he is virtually powerless to influence the politics of the country. His adversaries know this. The entire burden of maintaining a secular state is placed on the hapless Hindu, when the real perpetrators of anti secular behavior lie elsewhere in the electorate. The minority consistently appeal to their minority status to ask for special privileges, knowing full well that the Hindu is powerless and is in reality has no more powers than the Muslim and is for all practical purposes a minority . The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that no political party including the Bharatiya Janata Party will fashion an electoral platform to appeal solely to Hindutva sentiments. The Hindutva vote while considerable, is stuck currently at 23% and shows little signs of increasing, despite the palpable effects of the Hindu renaissance. In numerical terms this is the single largest ideological grouping in the country. However, little attempt is made by the strategic thinkers to coalesce other groups around this admittedly largest single group. In contrast the attempt to garner Muslim votes is unabashedly anti-secular in tone and most of the parties fall over each other trying to appease this second largest group in India. The remainder of the Hindu population appears to be content to be reduced to second class status in the land of their forefathers. Of course the simple answer to this is that the Hindu should adopt a unified stand at least on those key issues that affect the exercise of their faith. However, one constant characteristic of the Hindu, throughout the ages, has been his inability to stay unified even when confronted by blatantly disruptive forces and there seems to be little hope that he will change his behavior anytime soon.

I do not see a practical way out of this impasse. This is evident in the increasing frustration of the 23% of the electorate that regards itself as Hindutva. They see themselves as increasingly embattled and under siege. It is dangerous for the future health of the republic that such a large constituency, even though it may not be a majority, sees itself as helpless to influence the politics sufficiently to advance Hindu causes. Till now the Hindus have eschewed by and large violence as a means of achieving their ends, as the Muslims have done repeatedly using riots as a means of expression in most of the country and using ethic cleansing in Jammu and Kashmir to drive out the Hindu population. The question facing the Hindu is stark. Will he go the way of the Buddhist in India and disappear into the sunset or will he resort to means that he has hitherto been reluctant to use. There is no clear cut answer to these questions and we do not have the ability to prognosticate the future.