While Egypt’s revolution was very much about domestic matters - bread and butter, corruption, repression - its most immediate effects have been international. Not for a long time has Egypt loomed so large in the region, to both friend and foe. At least 13 of the 22 Arab League countries are now affected: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Ira
The United States government has overestimated the amount of shame that it and American citizens can live down. On February 15 “the indispensable people” had to suffer the hypocrisy of the US Secretary of State delivering a speech about America’s commitment to Internet freedom while the US Department of Justice (sic) brought
[Today, 27 Feb. 2011, Malaysian citizens of Indian origin, mainly Hindus, are marching in solidarity against the racism of the ruling UMNO regime – Editor] You wake up in 2011 from a deep slumber beginning in 1957 and look around and see. You are appalled by what you see. What had been the natural order of things while you were deep in s
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Hari Om
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26 Feb 2011
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On Feb. 22, the Congress-led UPA’s interlocutors, Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari, met with refugees (all Hindus and Sikhs) from Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir (POJK) at Ward No. 1 of Bhour Camp on the outskirts of Jammu city, winter capital of the state. A representative of the refugees asked them two specific que
[Today is the Atma Samarpan Divas of Veer Savarkar - editor]Congress leader Digvijay Singh recently stated (26 Jan) that Savarkar had the original idea of the two-nation theory which was later adopted by Jinnah. This is not the first (and one may safely assume not the last) time that Veer Savarkar has been blamed for putting forth the two-nation th
The Muslim world, from North Africa to Iran, has experienced a wave of instability in the last few weeks. No regimes have been overthrown yet, although as of this writing, Libya was teetering on the brink. There have been moments in history where revolution spread in a region or around the world as if it were a wildfire. These moments do not c
[Bahrain, Feb 18] “Have you ever seen an island with no beaches?” The question posed by the young Bahraini taxi man standing among thousands of chanting anti-government protesters seemed at first to be a bit off the wall. But his explanation soon got to the heart of the grievances that have brought tens of thousands of Bahrainis on to t
Truth has its own way of dislodging lies. Indian public life is full of blatant lies told to the common man in name of socialism, secularism, communalism and numerous other isms which are little more than jargon, intended only to confuse the masses. Obvious facts are distorted for political motives and all distortions done with the help of unscrupu
Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on 16 February that he is not a “lame-duck prime minister” will go down in history as one of the most ironic from the head of state of a major nation since 1973, when US President Richard Nixon, trying to stonewall the Watergate break-in scandal and facing impeachment, made the famous stat
History Repeats Itself? From the "King of Java” to the Pharaoh of EgyptPresident Suharto of Indonesia was deposed following mass protests in May 1998. The Western media in chorus pointed to “democratization”: the “King of Java” had been deposed by mass protests, much in the same way as Hosni Mubarak, described by
Western media always welcomes the overthrow of a dictator - great headline news - but this instance was greeted with less than euphoria by Western - especially American - leaders, who tried to soft-peddle it much as did official Egyptian media till the leader fled the palace. Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak was a generously paid ally for the
As the ice between the Government and Parliament melts on the constitution of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, it is certain that the focus will increasingly shift to certain fundamental issues in the coming weeks. Given the number of scams that have broken out in recent times, several questions follow: Who are party to the loot and plunder of th
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Rustam
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22 Feb 2011
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BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Friday took an extraordinary step and apologized to Congress president and UPA chairperson for the party-appointed task force which had alleged that she and her late husband (former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) had accounts in Swiss banks. The BJP had appointed this task force to unravel the
[Roughly a decade or so ago, Swiss authorities revealed names of some world leaders with bank accounts in their country, which showed that a former Indian Prime Minister had an account worth $ 2 billion, to which his heirs were beneficiaries. During her stay in this country from 1965 onwards, Ms Sonia Gandhi has been linked with many dubious deals
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Hari Om
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20 Feb 2011
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Addressing the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation-sponsored conference on the subject “Common Interests, Common Future: Dialogue Across the LoC” at New Delhi on Feb. 15, National Conference ideologue and J&K Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather demanded withdrawal of all central laws and institutions which were extended to the st
On Feb. 13, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) issued a statement demanding that the government of Pakistan execute US government contractor Raymond Davis or turn him over to the TTP for judgment. Davis, a contract security officer for the CIA, has been in Pakistani custody since a Jan. 27 incident in which he shot two men who reportedly pointed a
If it is true, as credible sources suggest, that JNU professor Amitabh Mattoo has joined the Congress Party as a prelude to elevation as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (a post vacated by the controversial Shashi Tharoor), then the move must be viewed as an expression of the ruling party’s determination to press ahead with implementatio
The Limits of Social Movements The mass movements which forced the removal of Mubarak reveal both the strength and weaknesses of spontaneous uprisings. On the one hand, the social movements demonstrated their capacity to mobilize hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in a successful sustained struggle culminating in the overthrow of the
Great Britain, mother of Western colonialism whose footprints still deface the world, admits it cannot cope with citizen-adherents of a sister faith unless they accept the primacy of her Anglican Christian culture, while practicing their religion in private. In other words, national identity will be determined by the ‘core values’ and p
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is now replacing the Taliban as the number one enemy of the Washington-London-Riyadh nexus in Afghanistan. Here is the evidence. On Jan. 26, Karzai inaugurated the Afghan Parliament, ending weeks of intense political pressure from the Obama Administration, in particular. Afghanistan’s government was plun
“Just listen to that roar,” urged a CNN correspondent in Egypt, as thousands of Egyptian protesters charged, fists pumped, against hundreds of armed Egyptian security forces. What a roar it was, indeed. The protests have shown the world that Arabs are capable of much more than merely being pitiable statistics of unemployment and illiter
It is the most outlandish corruption story one has ever heard in India – bribes for the 2G Spectrum deal were routed through cheques to a media company owned by the first family in Tamil Nadu. Even by our remarkably abysmal standards that must be a new low; and in terms of sheer brazenness, a new high. A chartered accountant friend, tongue fi
Quiet tourist backwater Tunisia under its only rulers since independence -- Habib Bourghiba (1956-1987) and then Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali (1987-2011) -- was a much appreciated ally of the United States. However, as bin Ali fled to Saudi Arabia last month, US leaders suddenly were hailing those who defied his US-trained police with their US-made tear
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Hari Om
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12 Feb 2011
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Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on Feb. 6 met at Thimpu (Bhutan) for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the meeting of the standing committee of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC). They met six months after the collapse of talks between Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and
Higher Education in the Service of Democracy Thinking is not the intellectual reproduction of what already exists anyway. As long as it doesn’t break off, thinking has a secure hold on possibility. Its insatiable aspect, its aversion to being quickly and easily satisfied, refuses the foolish wisdom of resignation. The utopian moment in t
It is very difficult to trace the history of a subject that is believed to predate history. There are several viewpoints on this subject with a civilisational perspective. For instance, the Wikipedia states that Hawala has its origins in classical Islamic law, and is mentioned in texts of Islamic jurisprudence as early as the eighth century. Hawala
IntroductionTo understand the Obama regime’s policy toward Egypt, the Mubarak dictatorship and the popular uprising it is essential to locate it in an historical context. The essential point is that Washington, after several decades of being deeply embedded in the state structures of the Arab dictatorships, from Tunisia through Morocco, Egypt
The campaign by the establishment press against Julian Assange is intensifying. CBS’s 60 Minutes tried to trash him last Sunday, but Assange left CBS’ interviewer, Steve Kroft, floundering. Last Sunday also saw New York Times editor Bill Keller consumed several thousand words in the NYT’s Magazine abusing Assange with disgrac
Let It Burn “A fabulous Easter gift,” commented Monsanto Director of Development Initiatives Elizabeth Vancil. Nearly 60,000 seed sacks of hybrid corn seeds and other vegetable seeds were donated to post-earthquake Haiti by Monsanto. In observance of World Environment Day, June 4, 2010, roughly 10,000 rural Haitian farmers gathered in
As an analyst and observer of the recent rebellions in the Middle East, specifically Egypt, I want to make three developing observations. First, the Egyptian people cannot confront local despots and “regime change” without addressing the patron of Mubarak’s regime - the United States. Second, because of the US’ influence and
The US and German-installed leadership of Kosovo finds itself under siege after the Council of Europe voted Tuesday [Jan. 25] to endorse a report charging senior members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) of controlling a brisk trade in human organs, sex slaves and narcotics. Coming on the heels of a retrial later this year of KLA commander and fo
[As soon as the Somsekhara Commission submitted its final report on alleged attacks on churches in Karnataka in 2008, which ruled out any organised Hindu hand in the same, Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily upped the ante by demanding a CBI probe into the church attacks (30 Jan. 2011, Indian Express). Deliberately vitiating the atmosphere and dis
Poor people gonna rise up And get their share Poor people gonna rise up And take what’s theirs And finally the tables are starting to turn Talkin' bout a revolution – Tracy Chapman’s Talkin’ Bout A Revolution, 1988 The sleeping Egyptian giant has finally awoken. The Arab world’s most
We have the habit of taking public space for granted as if it has continuously been there. Yet public space is always the expression of the intentions of some person or institution. Purposes are given to a place by a person or institution and it is put forward as a place that has symbolic meaning. Many instruments are used to sustain that symbolic
In Mathematics, 1 M is always less than 4 M. But when the M on the left side of the equation is a superhero of a Hindu jati dharma, it can beat any multiples of the M on the right side of the equation. Such is the power of jati dharma. The 1 M in the present instance is Muniyandi, grama devata of the Telugu Velama Naidus. Their village de
As a successful chartered accountant with an evolved sense of responsibility regarding the crisis engendered in the world by the growing number of fiscal scandals that are sending nations, societies and people into crisis, M.R. Venkatesh has issued a clarion wake-up cal to Indian society with his seminal Sense, Sensex and Sentiments. The Failure of
What the Tunisian revolution and WikiLeaks tell us about American support for corrupt dictatorships in the Muslim world. Here’s one obvious lesson of the Tunisian Revolution of 2011: paranoia about Muslim fundamentalist movements and terrorism is causing Washington to make bad choices that will ultimately harm American interest
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Hari Om
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05 Feb 2011
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It is good that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has been in Jammu for two days for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation as it prevails in the state. One hopes he will adopt a holistic approach to the issues facing the state and give inputs to the Prime Minister based on his assessment. As Union Home Minister he would know his responsibiliti
Sooner or later like all great powers, China will be compelled to protect its vast investments in many difficult and distant parts of the world when things go awry. China’s mantra is that nothing will go wrong. But evidence for that is thin. China had similar rosy expectations of the economic and financial health of the United States and
The Jan. 24 bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport killed 35 people and injured more than 160. The attack occurred at approximately 4:40 p.m. as passengers from several arriving international flights were leaving the airport after clearing immigration and customs. The attacker (or attackers; reports are still conflicting over wh
The Graham Staines murder case stunned the world, and was perhaps one of the most discussed and distorted incidents reported in the annals of legal battles. We have heard of media trials often, but in this instance there was media judgment before investigation and trial were initiated and the accused persons identified by legally authorised agencie
Another step on the slippery path to hara-kiriThe recent decision of the Supreme Court bench to expunge certain key lines in their judgment on the Dara Singh appeal just 4 days after pronouncing the verdict in open court, has most damaging implications both for this country’s judicial system and its socio-political framework. The facts
[Sunday 30 Jan 2011] Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Eryan said today that Egyptian opposition groups have agreed to back former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to negotiate with the government, Al Jazeera reports: Egypt’s opposition groups have agreed to support opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei to negotiate with the governmen
How Macro-Economic Policy Triggers Worldwide Poverty and UnemploymentGeneral Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the defunct and deposed president of Tunisia is heralded by the Western media, in chorus, as a dictator. The Tunisian protest movement is casually described as the consequence of an undemocratic and authoritarian regime, which defies the norms of t
The Supreme Court shocked the Hindu community when on 25 Jan. 2011, it succumbed to pressure from Christian activists and modified its 21 Jan. 2011 judgment in the Graham Staines murder case, without the filing of a curative petition by any party to the case; without notice to the lawyers of convicted Rabindra Kumar Pal (alias Dara Singh) and Mahen