Our recording of some cases of rape, abduction and persecution of minor girls in Bangladesh, through the year 2010, all religious minorities and that too mainly Hindu, reflect a pattern which may throw light on the root cause of the problem. Most of the girls raped and abducted are minors; most will never be rescued; most will be converted to
[On 21 January 2011, upholding life penalty for Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons on the night of Jan. 22nd/23rd 1999, the Supreme Court declared there was no justification for religious conversion in a “secular” nation as it amounted to interference in the relig
In subversive political cultures, the political class excels in competitive deception. Mortal adversaries can live comfortably as friends for years, and friends can do a volte face in no time and turn into enemies. The politics practiced in such a culture has circles within circles and each political move carries a counter-manoeuvre in its bosom. T
Unfurling the Tiranga at Rajpath, President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil and the whole nation in a sombre mood conferred the Ashok Chakra, posthumously, on Major Laishram Jyotin Singh, an unarmed army doctor who was killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul last year. Maj. Laishram Jyotin Singh charged with bare hands at the armed terrorist and pinned
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Hari Om
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26 Jan 2011
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In one of the darkest moments in our post-1947 history, Indian nationalism was mocked and possibly even negated by the cussed intolerance of the Congress led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi and the Islamic-separatist-centric National Conference of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. At the time of finalizing this article, there was no guarantee that the tri
India’s flag is the pride of the country, symbol of our national sovereignty, our constitution, our freedom. The Tiranga stands for our national self-respect, our valour, dignity, unity, and territorial integrity. The fluttering tricolour is the first and foremost identity of the Indian nation. It is for the Tiranga that our armed and securit
The story of Swami Aseemanand, the anti-Christian conversion crusader of Dangs, Gujarat, who reputedly mentored but did not join in the ‘Hindu terrorist’ blasts against overtly Islamic targets at some sites across the country – on a staggeringly shoe-string budget, with paltry sums like Rs 25,000/- and Rs 40,000/- mentioned in str
The twentieth century saw the eruption of total conflict in two World Wars which were unprecedented in scope and scale and havoc thus caused. Near the end of the Second World War, America used nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brought about a staggering paradigm shift in the power of destructive ordnance. Nucle
Can New Delhi control inflation?The result of the Assembly elections in the state of Bihar, announced in the third week of November, was a major setback for the Congress party which leads the United Progressive Alliance mish-mash of alliances that has been in power in New Delhi since 2004. Out of 243 Assembly seats up for grabs, Congress won only f
How a Giant Weapons Maker Became the New Big Brother Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven’t been paying much attention. Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it. True, Lockheed Martin doesn’t actually run t
In recent years, the Indian economy has grown at a rapid rate, and there are expectations that it will continue to do so. India is now the third-largest economy in Asia, behind China and Japan, and, in the current fiscal year, the gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at a rate of 9%, New Delhi predicts. Earlier this year, Indian Prime Minister Ma
Although the net tightens around Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the contents of the US embassy cables have been doled out to us in spoonfuls. Worse, The Guardian edits and distorts the cables in order to protect their readers from unflattering remarks about how their corporations behave overseas. This is not a conjecture but a fact: The Guardian
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Hari Om
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20 Jan 2011
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Officers of the Central Reserve Police Force, harassed by the State Government for the deaths of 17 protesters in the state between June 11 and July 11 last year, must be heaving a sigh of relief since January 15 when Justice Sunil Hali of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court issued an interim order directing the Commission of Inquiry to issue copies o
In Part One of my report last weekend here on the CounterPunch site I showed that the US was secretly funnelling money into Belarus to fund the unelected opposition. Previously, the claim had been routinely denied. Now we have sterling proof. It is engraved in a confidential cable from a US Embassy to the State Department. It is undeniable. Th
@import url(http://www.vijayvaani.com/CuteSoft_Client/CuteEditor/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);On Dec. 5, 2010, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah formally issued recruitment orders for the displaced Kashmiri Hindu youth, selected as per the Prime Minister’s Package for relief and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Mi
Even as serious differences emerge among Kashmiri separatists, there are disturbing signals that hitherto marginalized leaders and groups may be brewing a new confrontation with the Indian nation. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik has urged the people to converge at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on Jan. 26 to unfurl ‘another fl
After several years of comfort, India’s external account is under pressure. Latest RBI numbers of balance of payments contain several hints of greater deterioration and increasing vulnerability. They show that merchandise imports vastly exceed exports, exports of services and inward remittances are not enough to bridge the gap; portfolio inve
In late November, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. But thatR
The First Suit was instituted in January 1950 by Gopal Singh Visharad as Plaintiff against five Muslim residents of Ayodhya and the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Administrative Officers of Faizabad District as Defendants. In the years 1989 and 1990 respectively, the Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Nirmohi Akhara were added as Defendants. Th
1. The OriginA radio message sent at 10.30 a.m. on 23 December 1949 by District Magistrate K.K. Nayar to Chief Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, the chief secretary and the home secretary read thus: ‘A few Hindus entered Babari Masjid at night when the Masjid was deserted and installed a deity there. DM and SP and force at spot. Situation
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Hari Om
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14 Jan 2011
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“No truck with Kashmir and Kashmiri leadership. Enough is enough. Kashmiri leadership has converted Jammu into a colony. Kashmiri leadership has destroyed Jammu socially, culturally, politically and economically and the Jammu leadership has always sided with the Kashmiri leadership to jeopardize Jammu’s general political and economic ri
Over the past few days, Christian churches have been attacked in at least two countries - Nigeria and Egypt - while small packages containing improvised explosive devices were placed on the doorsteps of Christian families in Iraq. Attacks against Christians are not uncommon in the Islamic world, driven by local issues and groups, and it is unclear
Diaspora’s politics Meanwhile the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora, despite being a Hindu majority, continues to trust its dubious leaders who are either Christian or Dravidian ideologues. It still buys the carrot of “Tamil Nationhood” sold to them by a leadership which has not changed the political and ideological stances maintaine
The agenda of the ChurchGenerally there is an utter lack of understanding in both India and Sri Lanka about the tricky role played by the Church which has been exclusively focusing on forming a “Tamil Christian Nation”, a combination of the Indian State of Tamil Nadu and the North-East of Sri Lanka. That is why the Church backed the LTT
The Role of the Mountbattens, Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah and Britain’s Other Men and Women It would be interesting to see how today’s Kashmiri insurgent leaders, including Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ahmed Geelani and Yasin Malik of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (Yasin Malik), would react when they are told that they are followin
A recent study in the United States confirms that the Asian brain responds differently than a western brain to the same stimulus. The study confirms the existence of two different thought processes. In this context, one needs to asses the western media hype of the new Asian century. What Asian century? It should be the Asian Reaction. F
The Indian community in Malaysia has the highest suicide rates in the country, as compared to other ethnic groups. It is 600% higher than the Malay Muslim community, and is certainly attributable to the fact that the burden of life is heaviest on Indians owing to their pathetic socio-economic status. Low incomes, lack of education and skills, famil
NC-Congress regime penalizes Early Times It is a measure of the insecurity of the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu & Kashmir that, despite an impressive mandate, the regime has for the past one year been actively harassing the news daily, Early Times, denying government advertisements without tangible rationale other than the fact that the pa
Forced conversions and the lack of freedom of religion continue to bedevil the Hindu citizens of Malaysia. Coupled with this is the real threat and continuous demolition of Hindu temples, Hindu settlements, and desecration of Hindu burial grounds. For a country that professes to be multi-ethnic and liberal, with rule of law, a constitution
Indians are generally recognized as a vibrant and successful community wherever they migrate, and even the poor indentured labour of the colonial era managed to elevate itself to positions of status and wealth in countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad, Africa, and the Caribbean nations, through sheer dint of hard work and education. In independen
Sugar prices in the last quarter (October–December) of 2010 have gone up by approximately twenty percent. On an annualised basis that works out to eighty percent (yes 80%). And that is the unnoticed, uncommented bitter-sweet story. Interestingly, this increase has been achieved gradually on a weekly basis. That this has come in a pe
Last week [Dec. 22, 2010], the US Senate gave its advice and consent to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which had been signed in April. The Russian legislature still has to provide final approval of the treaty, but it is likely to do so, and therefore a New START is set to go into force. That leaves two questions to discuss. Fi
The recent suicides by over 60 poor borrowers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh have brought the operations of microfinance institutions (MFIs) under public scrutiny. It is well documented by both print and electronic media that these debt-driven suicides were due to coercive methods of loan recovery used by commercial MFIs. The commercial MFIs
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Accused of Running Human Organ, Drug Trafficking Cartel In another grim milestone for the United States and NATO, the Council of Europe (COE) released an explosive report last week [Dec. 15, 2010], “Inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo.” The report charged
That justice must be seen to be done is a wise adage. As allegations swirl and corroborative evidence surfaces of a possible quid pro quo in the wealth amassed by the kin of ‘uncle judges,’ the Supreme Court must urgently limit the damage to its credibility by revisiting questionable judgments by controversial or tainted judges.
The First and Second World Wars currently hover like the Sword of Damocles over the heads of all humanity During the 1950s I grew up in a family who rooted for the success of African Americans in their just struggle for civil rights and full legal equality. Then in 1962 it was the terror of my own personal imminent nuclear annihilation during
We’ve seen behind the curtain, as the Fed waved its magic liquidity wand over Wall Street. Now it’s time to enlist this tool in the service of the people. The Fed’s invisible hand first really became visible with the bailout of AIG. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in June 2009:“Many of us were, shall we say, if not sur
Different stances; same playJayalalithaa openly flaunts her Hindu religious identity, goes to temples, performs homams and yagnyas, starts her election campaigns from temples, donates money to temples (once she donated an elephant to Guruvayur Temple) and consults astrologers. All this is done purely for selfish reasons to win elections or to captu
Saint JayalalithaaKanyakumari is a significant place for Hindus; it is the abode of Devi Kanyakumari; the famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial is also situated there. This place witnessed one of the worst communal riots, Mandaikadu Riots (between Christians and Hindus) during the early 1980s as Christians have been consistently trying to conquer this s