Link To Discussion on Shopian Murders

I posted two links related to the Shopian murders yesterday (see DD's previous post). The first is a report prepared by a so-called 'Independent Women's Initiative for Justice' and has provided the basis for the CBI's critics to assail the official investigation. The report made available on the web forum Kafila has generated an interesting discussion upon this issue since yesterday following Praveen Swami's piece in The Hindu. Interested readers may find the relevant post with comments here (see comments section).

Blowing the Shopian case out of the water

If this does not convince Indians that half the politicians and many of the Govt. officials in Jammu and Kashmir are involved in treason, I'm not sure what will.
Praveen Swami who has been following the Shopian case over the last year brings to the front real investigative journalism and a detailed analysis to expose the Shopian case for the sham it is. For those who have not followed this case, here's the primer. Two ladies were found dead under suspicious circumstances. The Kashmiri parties like PDP and others ran a shrill campaign that the ladies were raped and killed by "Hindu" fundamentalists.
The article analyzes the reports filed by the AIIMS and Forensic labs and exposes the sham act of protest without evidence by the Kashmiri politicians and the support shown by the Kashmiri Govt. doctors in their post mortem reports.

Inside the bodies of the victims, AIIMS forensic experts found several pieces of evidence suggesting drowning. Pin-sized petechial haemorrhages were found on the membranes of their lungs and bronchi. Larger patches of Paltauf’s haemorrhages — bluish-red areas found in the lungs of about half of all drowning victims — were also visible. Doctors also discovered accumulations of fluid within the alveoli, suggesting pulmonary oedema, another sign of drowning.

reathtaking incompetence may have played a role. Shopian doctors Bilal Hassan and Nazia Hassan ruled out drowning as a cause of death, claiming to have carried out a flotation test using samples of lung tissue from a victim.

All in all it exposes where the loyalties of the J&K politicians and Government officials and largely the incompetence of mainstream Indian media for not exposing the truth in this case. Kudos to Praveen and cHindu for their expose of this case.

Brilliant piece on India's criminal justice system when prosecuting cops

First off, hat tip to Mr. Siddharth Varadarajan for this top notch piece of journalism in cHindu.
This piece critically analyzes the devious nature of how SPS Rathore of Haryana and his team manipulated the legal system to escape the case of sexual molestation of a child and only get 6 months in prison after close to twenty years in courts.
This article is commendable in many ways. It pieces together the various ways cops and politicians are working the system to ensure that the process of justice does not proceed. It also lists reasonable remedies to this problem like reforming the police organization to ensure its not a puppet of the government in power.
Lastly it does not shirk away from pointing the light inwards(at the media itself) for not shining the light on this case earlier. One hopes that pieces like this for which cHindu was famous for enables the common man in getting justice from (and cleaning up) a justice system which is like a venereally diseased behemoth.
One naively hopes that cHindu will enable Mr. Varadarajan to continue this article as a series to further focus on other areas of need in India's criminal justice system.

It is shameful to misguide people

"News" reports after August 30 and September 18 were fascinating in many ways. For one thing, there is not a single critical or negative line in any of them. Across hundreds of pages, the "news" consists solely of how wonderful particular candidates were, their achievements, and the progress of their campaigns. Nothing about the issues. Their rivals, people of fewer resources, did not exist in these newspaper pages except, perhaps, as fall guys.

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article69681.ece?homepage=true

I am surprsied that Sainath is "fascinated" by paid news. This has been rampant for the past 5-6 years - thanks to the cluttered market.However, what fascinates me is that a paper that sings paeans for China and and- to reuse Sainath's words- ensures "there is not a single critical or negative line" against China has no qualms whatsoever in lamenting the fall in journalistic standards. In a way, the paper in question is a pioneer in "customizing news" to please its masters.

It will be a classic case of missing the woods for the trees if one were to ponder whether the supplication is attributable to financial favours or ideological affinity.It appears that Sainath - and by extension his employers- are quite ok with manufacturing news if non-cash favours are returned. The paper in question regularly publishes "news" that consists solely of how wonderful China is and its achievements. Critics of Chinese policies, people of fewer resources, do not exist in its pages except, perhaps, as fall guys.Remember one Mr. Dalai Lama? What kind of coverage is extended to him? On what moral grounds can a veteran prostitute take offence to a young girl starting to sleep around to make a few quick bucks? Or is this a manifestation of a concern that competition is giving better bang for the buck (no pun intended!) ?

Double speak is nothing new for the paper in question. We read dozens of well written articles on human rights violation in Guantanamo Bay while precious little is said on Darfur or China's trackrecord on human rights, political and religious freedom. Not surprising given that the paper that swears by freedom of expression blacks out letters critical of its coverage and until recently did not even let readers comment on its stories online!

The LiC has on several occasions defended being a Chinese lapdog saying its his editorial prerogative and has sought to keep it beyond scrutiny. The editors of these Maharashtrian newspapers too exercised their editorial judgements and acted the way they have. Why then this sneering "holier-than-thou" posturing? It is shameful to misguide people. I hope the message gets across loud and clear to newsrooms not only in Maharashtra, but also in Chennai!

China's Role at Copenhagen

Xinhua Ram has posted two links regarding China's role in undermining prospects of a stronger accord at the recently concluded Copenhagen climate summit (here is the Guardian report and here is the one from FT). Today's Guardian has a provocative insider account of the negotiations that went on and how China systematically eliminated any meaningful outcome acting both on its own and through its proxies (do not expect this report to find any space in tomorrow's Hindu edition). This story is in sharp contrast to the recent Hindu editorial ('Far from inspiring') which largely laid the blame at the door of the developed world. Economists too have commented -similar to the Hindu editorial - that the $100 billion is not large enough to spur agreement but it appears, as Mark Lynas points out, that the US was willing to up the amount had China so insisted. One thing seems clear: an international agreement to move forward is not feasible in the near future which means change will have to come through domestic initiatives and/or technological progress.

Swamy on Himself and Samuelson: What The Hindu Left Out

Two versions of Subramanyam Swamy's article on the late professor Paul Samuelson are available, one in the Business Standard and the second in The Hindu. Some of the talk is Swamy's self praise (like claiming that he was 'already a bit of a sensation' before enrolling in a PhD program) but The Hindu left out the part where he attacks Amartya Sen and other leftist economists for denying him the professorship at the Delhi School of Economics as well as the part where the professor supported India's economic reforms begun in the 1990s. No surprise there but here is the excerpt from the Business Standard:

In 1968, Amartya Sen invited me to join the Delhi School of Economics as a full professor, stating in a hand-written letter that my “gaddi was being dusted”. I, therefore, spent three months in the summer of 1968 at the Delhi School of Economics as visiting professor, before returning to Harvard with the intention of winding up and joining as professor of economics at the Delhi School. But I did not realise then that the Left triumvirate of Sen, KN Raj and S Chakravarty had in the three months discovered that I was neither ideologically neutral nor soft like Jagdish Bhagwati, but hard anti-Left and wanted to dismantle the Soviet planning system in India, besides producing the atom bomb. So, when I arrived in India in late 1969, this triumvirate scuttled my ascending the dusted gaddi.

...In the 1990s, after India ushered in reforms, Samuelson wrote me a letter expressing happiness that “at last, India has discovered economic growth”.

Copenhagen and After

Did anyone notice that all the opinions of today's newspaper are by foreign writers? This is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence with this paper. The lead op-ed claims to tell the 'truth' about Copenhagen; coming from Fidel Castro, this 'truth' takes the form of paeans to Cuba's allies: notice his references to the 'wise and deep observations' of Evo Morales, the 'timely' remarks of Hugo Chavez in contrast to the 'deceitful, demagogic, and ambiguous' remarks of Obama. For countries like Cuba without emissions comparable to those of large countries, it is easy to take the moral high ground and preach to the crowd. India used to be one of them till recently; so it is saying something that we have now managed to graduate to the club of nations who actually decide rather than complain. Of course, it is understandable for Cubans who did not have a seat at the high table to do so but quite puzzling to see The Hindu make this case to Indians who were actually involved in the negotiations that agreed upon the text of the statement. This is not to say that one should not care about the democratic process and concerns of smaller and less influential nations of the developing world but with a non-binding declaration at issue, the matter is not of such importance as to merit a campaign in India for justice to Cubans.

Scenes from Copenhagen

Scenes from the UN climate talks at Copenhagen.

Even African Third-Worlders get it

While pillorying a fellow liberal from Newsweek for accurately portraying priggish (secular)Indians, dynasty's eminent historian let out a dirty secret. No matter what the secularists tell themselves everyday through their newspapers, the image of these people outside India remains that of obstructionist petty third-worlders. To quote:

“Until very recently, India seemed to pride itself on poking a finger in the eyes of rich superpowers, particularly the United States. Beginning in the mid-1950s, India was the leader of the group of poor, postcolonial nations that banded together in what they called the nonaligned movement, but which routinely tilted to the Soviet Union and bashed American imperialism. To Washington’s consternation, New Delhi voted against the US at the United Nations time and again.... Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when India began to abandon Soviet-inspired economic planning, New Delhi retained a reputation for obstructing America at 
every opportunity.”

Any sincere Indian can vouchsafe that this tendency is prevalent even today among those who rule India. Consternated at this widespread caricature, Guha indignantly terms it 'misleading.' Misleading to whom, one might ask. Guha's article is replete with secular donuts about India's supposed righteous moral position. Take for example Guha's assertion that the "main point of contention" between West and India during 60s was Vietnam and Palestine and India wanted Israel to grant equal rights to Palestinians. But India never asked for reciprocity from the Palestinians or their Arab benefactors to recognize Israel in return, which they don't till date. Or that India took away equal rights of its own citizens when it came to its own Jammu & Kashmir. Not to mention we got nothing from the Arab/Islamic bloc in terms of reciprocal support in United Nations. One need not repeat the real motive of such one-sided pandering, rooted as it was in the perennial quest to appease the formidable Muslim votebank at home.

Guha flings another risible nugget while suggesting that India did its utmost and "sought hard not to take sides during the cold war." A shameful fact of Nehruvian India was its consistent failure to call upon the Soviet Union for the barbaric actions of communist dictators during Hungarian Uprising and Prague Spring. The Soviets rolled tanks and murdered protesters by the thousands to suppress nascent democratic revolts in Hungary and, what then was, Czechoslovakia.

Nehruvian system has remarkably succeeded in covering up its dark acts. Mr Guha has furthered this fabrication. While he vaguely alludes to this charade, Mr Guha fails to pinpoint the faults of Nehruvian consensus.

In continuation, the ritual panegyrics about Obama follows. This, just a week after Obama throwing India under the bus through the joint statement with China in which India was deprived of even the South Asian tinpot power status. Read it for yourself:

The two sides welcomed all efforts conducive to peace, stability and development in South Asia. They support the efforts of Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight terrorism, maintain domestic stability and achieve sustainable economic and social development, and support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan. The two sides are ready to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and development in that region.

Despite suffering such abuse, the one-sided love affair with Obama administration prevails. We 'like' him no matter what. Of course Mr Obama cannot be faulted for looking after his country's interests.

Secular histrionics however are not restricted to history or foreign affairs alone. Mr Jairam Ramesh, Sonia Gandhi appointed minister, in keeping with Nehruvian tendencies, pushed his weight for India to acquiesce on the emission control talks. India was again getting sold out on the cheap had it not been for the watchful opposition.

Contrast this with the shrewd position taken by the Sudanese chairman of G-77, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, as described in this WSJ editorial-

"...[S]omething on the order of a trillion dollars, or more, would be appropriate."

"The world's scientists and policy decision makers have publicly stated that this is the greatest risk humanity has ever faced," says Mr. Di-Aping. "Now if that's the case, it's very strange that $10 billion is considered adequate financing." Mr. Di-Aping deserves credit for taking the climate alarmists on their own terms and drawing consistent conclusions.

Even African Third-Worlders get it.

Congress MP's insensitive remarks on Goan rape case

Chindu reports on the Goan rape case and the Russian consulate's response but avoids mentioning about the angry scenes witnessed in the parliament on this issue. This is inspite of Brinda Karat protesting against the insensitive remarks by a Congress MP.

The Congress MP from Goa, Shantaram Naik, blamed Scarlett and the Russian victim for their plight. Scarlett Keeling is the British national who was found dead in Goa last year.

I am not expecting to see any pink chaddi campaign on this issue.

Capping nuclear liability is unconstitutional

Soli Sorabjee has put it succintly and unequivocally. Capping the nuclear deal is unconstitutional. Congress, with the media in tow, has been acting against our national interests. Instead of a balanced debate on the pros and cons of the deal, we had to read about how nuclear energy was going to change the life of Kalavati.

In effect, this means that in case the actual damage and the cost of remedying environmental degradation exceeds the proposed ridiculously low cap of $450 million or any other sum, the government would have to bear the remaining burden. This would be directly contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling that it is not the role of the government to meet the costs involved. The effect of a cap in reality would be to shift the financial burden of the consequences of the accident to the taxpayer. According to the Polluter Pays Principle that has been embedded in our jurisprudence, the liability and responsibility for compensating the victims of accident and remedying the environmental damage caused is that of the offending industry alone. No part of the liability can be limited nor passed on to the government.

There can be two views about the advantages or disadvantages of foreign investment in India in the nuclear energy sector. But there can be only one view: health well-being and protection of our people are paramount and must override dollar considerations. Foreign multinationals are not solicitors of the fundamental rights of our people. The Bhopal Gas case is a burning reminder.

Any legislation that attempts to dilute the Polluter Pays and Precautionary Principle and imposes a cap on liability is likely to be struck down as it would be in blatant defiance of the Supreme Court judgments. Moreover, it would be against the interests and the cherished fundamental right to life of the people of India whose protection should be the primary concern of any civilised democratic government.

Under the rubble

In this article filled with half-truths and blatant lies, Harsh Mander comes out with a bleeding heart sicular version of the controversy. This being the pet cause, I am not surprised that the article has been filled with almost the entire list of sicular diatribe. Sample this one below.
The Hindu : Columns / Harsh Mander : Under the rubble

History bears witness, for instance, that Buddhism was violently crushed and wiped out from large swathes of India by Brahminical Hinduism; in that case, why should Hindu temples not be pulled down and replaced by Buddhist stupas?

Shantanu has a detailed post (Part 1, Part 2) on this subject.

As Bulbir Punj says, Harsh Mander is one among the secularism's rage boys.

Fwd: First settlers in China and the Orient were Indian migrants

here comes another research finding in support of migration out of india.

 

btw, there is a separate line of study in china suggesting that chinese race has evolved out of the anthropoids (homo erectus, i think) differently than the rest of the human race. the origins of racial superiority have already been laid. hitler was driven by ideological belief in aryan supremacy. the chinese have their own version in han supremacy.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20091211/808/tnl-first-settlers-in-china-and-the-orie.html   The ancestors of the contemporary population of China, Japan and other East Asian countries had migrated from India, according to a research study conducted by a team of scientists from 10 Asian countries.

Fwd: One-night stands accepted

the mistress culture is quite rampant and not so discreet in china. there have been mistress paegent competitions. there have also been official orders from cpc trying to clamp down on officials keeping mistresses. social decadence is now deeply rooted.

 

if i remember correctly, volkswagen mini cooper had a branding issue in china after its launch. it was the preferred gift of choice for the mistresses and very soon it became the mistress car in china.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/metro/2009-11/30/content_9074371.htm   The survey also noted that as many as 5 percent of female college students were either mistresses or had sold sex during their period of education.     China's Military Women Hold Up Half The Sky (And Dance, And Sing, And…)

Rabid support to Islamic fundamentalism by Indian media

One incident can expose the clear agenda of Indian media - overt support Islamic fundamentalism.
Recently the Swiss Govt. held a referendum banning minarets in mosques. Note this clearly, minarets aka those creepy towers not the mosques themselves. Did they ban the freedom of worship? No. Did they ask Muslims to pay a tax for practicing their religion? No.
What does our India media do about this, claim that it affects Indian Muslims who live far away. 99% of whom have never visited Switzerland, 90% have probably only seen Switzerland in movies.
The 2 main culprits are Mr. Vishnu Som of NDTV and our beloved Mr. N. Ram of The Hindu.
Vishnu in a response clearly aimed at self publicity shot this nugget out of his behind upon hearing that Islamic minarets were banned,

the ban of minarets in Switzerland represents a fundamental threat to Muslims here in India.

Then posted a few posts in his blog about secularism without giving any rationale behind his statements and has yet to detail out any level of cogent logic behind his support to the fundamentalists. Remember the ban aims at banning actions of fundamentalists who banned Satanic Verses, attacked Salman Rushdie and Taslima, attacked Geert Wilders and burnt Danish cartoons.
Mr. N. Ram in his editorial claims,

The ban, however, has nothing to do with forms of Islam or with whether minarets and domes are essential to Islamic devotional architecture; mosques without them exist all over the world. Instead the SVP campaign for the ban focussed on the burkha, on the Sharia law, and on the allegedly widespread oppression of women in Islamic cultures and countries.

The insanity of Mr.Ram is clearly evident when he states "allegedly widespread oppression". The word allegedly is not wrong, but it clearly whitewashes the pain of women in more than 20 Islamic countries undergo in oppressive societies without fundamental rights. As an editor of a leading newspaper, one expects him to know a little bit of general knowledge, perhaps reading what the Human Rights commission has to say about women's rights in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Indonesia ...
Have these leading journos Vishnu and Ram ever questioned why Saudi Arabia has banned temples, churches, gurudwaras, fire temples? Never. Have they asked about the pathetic conditions of minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh which border India? Never. But they are first to jump when a country thousands of miles away bans a few towers. The height of hypocrisy is ridiculous.
Hat tip to reader Xinhua Ram for bringing this up.

Hitchens analysis on MMS visit and fallouts

Chris Hitchens is known for his outspoken views. His latest article on the peril of US ignoring India for support to terror havens Pak and Afghanistan clearly espouses a vision of a close US-India relationship which was not played by our politicians (for lack of vision) and by our media (for support of ideologies and religious affiliations).

That would have been bad enough at any time, but the visit was of unusual importance. It took place very close to the first anniversary of the Islamic terrorist assault on Mumbai, an attack for which Pakistan has only just begun to place some of its own nationals on trial. We are entering a week in which discussion of a new strategy on Afghanistan will become the dominant theme, and we are doing so having given the opinions of India and Indians one-millionth of the consideration awarded to a pair of trashy socialites.

These thoughts were released just before Mr.Obama's address about adding more troops in Af-Pak.
He hits the nail on the head when he clearly elucidates the double game played by the Pak military and ISI in promising to fight the Taliban and other minions whom they have grown over the last decade.

The enormous subventions given to the Pakistani elite in the "war on terror" are thus partly a subsidy to the very forces we claim to be fighting and partly a bribe to make them at least pretend to stop. Meanwhile, Pakistan's press and the remnant of its education system are virtual machines for the mass production of anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda aimed at persuading people that the real enemy is the democratic secular West. And on top of all this, the country's "national hero" A.Q. Khan for many years enjoyed state collaboration in the running of a nuclear black market that shared fissile materials with countries like Libya and North Korea. Yet the Obama administration, phrasing its strategy for the crisis, cannot get beyond the silly and limited abbreviation Af-Pak.

Stronger words on policy have seldom been said.

A polite question...

...that Tom Friedman asks in his recent article, that also rebuffs the usual comeback 'Don't bring religion,'

“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”

Can we get an honest answer please? For yours sake--and ours.

Aside, Tunku Varadarajan has a regular feature on the Daily Beast now. If you missed the "chilling HBO documentary" on the Mumbai terrorists attacks from years gone by, this makes for a good recap. A salient observation that Tunku makes:

Each time Wasi calls his terrorists in Mumbai, however heated the moment, there is a punctilious, chilling adherence to Muslim norms of intercourse. The phone rings; the gunman answers: “Assalam-o-alaikum.” And Wasi says, cool as an Islamist cucumber: “Walaikumsalam.” Everyday Muslim courtesies must be followed, even as infidels are cut down.

Modular planning of Taj Mahal

Hat tip to B.Shantanu.
Why is it not surprising that Taj Mahal plan conforms to the traditional Hindu units of measures dating back to the Harappan civilization and very well defined in Arthasastra (300BC). Our secular historians tried to ignore that the Muslims just did not have a single measurement scale for civil engineering purposes. How the muslims could build a structure as complex and intricate as Taj Mahal has never been properly explained.

I find it incredulous to believe that Shahjahan built such a musoleum for his nth wife, who died giving birth to 14th child. Well, we know it; he never really built it. Shahjahan tried his darnedest to erase the infidel iconography on the Taj. But he couldn't possibly change the geometric dimensions, could he.

http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul102009/42.pdf

Dimensional analysis has revealed that the modular planning of the Taj Mahal complex was executed using the traditional measurement units mentioned in the Arthasastra, and, in particular, the vitasti measuring 12 angulams of 1.763 cm. The riverfront terrace and garden sections of the complex were planned using square grids of 90 vitasti to the side, while the forecourt and caravanserai section using square grids of 60 vitasti to the side.

The apparent illogicality in the numbers 23 and 17 of the sides of the grid patterns proposed by him is immediately striking, when the grid sides are expressed in terms of gaz.

Should India help Pakistan?

Here is another Pakistani negotiating with a gun held to his own head.

An apparently stable Pakistan waged three wars against India. The failing Pakistani state is sponsoring terrorism in India. It is not much of a choice. But it makes more sense for India to spend its money securing its borders in order to minimize the effects of spillover of a disintegrating Pakistani state. If there is an opportune moment for India to intervene, it is when the civil society revolts against the jihadis.

Today the very idea for the foundation of Pakistan has become its destabilizing factor. The same ideology has been threatening India. If there is a common enemy for India and Pakistan, it is this ideology. The author lectures India on how it should help Pakistan but dare not mention this ideology which masquerades more respectably as religion.

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : India & Pakistan: case for common defence

India’s best protection is likely to come from its traditional enemy, the Pakistan Army. Therefore, India ought to help now, not fight against it.

And so the story continues ...

Its the same on either side of the atlantic.
BBC News - Irish Church accused of abuse cover-up

The report investigated how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against 46 priests.
It found that the Church placed its own reputation above the protection of children in its care.

Pic of the day: Ms. Roy meeting families of dead naxals

Not saying its wrong to meet the families of dead naxals, but when was the last time she met families of soldiers or policemen or regular people like the 26/11 victims?

She said,

The government has declared a war on people living in forests. As a writer and before I speak out something, I wanted to learn more,

Really what about all the hot air spewing out of her mouth for the last few months?
cHindu had an opportunity to do the right thing from journalistic integrity and question Ms.Roy, but as usual dropped the ball.

26/11 anniversary image to remember.

While we all are remembering the anniversary, think of what the leader of India Mr. Manmohan Singh is doing around the anniversary of the dastardly attacks in Mumbai last year.

Dont forget, one year after the incidents the masterminds are still free, people who have lost their families are still in pain. But the leader of India, Mr. Manmohan Weasel Singh is partying.
We shall not forget.

Calling out Wahabbism the root of terror

Sometimes someone has to call a spade a spade. Mr. Ram Jethmalani, in an international conference on terrorism said,

Unfortunately in the 17th century, they produced an evil man in Saudi Arabia by the name of Wahab, who was concerned about the decline of the Muslim world, but he hit upon a wrong remedy.

He continued stating,

India had friendly relations with a country that supported Wahabi terrorism

I'm not sure that Saudi Arabia supported Wahabi terror, than actually creating and sustaining it.
Of course all the other luminaries attending the conference denied Jethmalani's statements and claimed the usual rigmarole of no religion being the root of terror. If the leaders and legal heads of countries will not call out one of the biggest problems facing civil society today, at least cant they hear out a person willing to speak his mind? What next, the Ulemas going to call a fatwa on Jethmalani?

Corruption in vernacular press

I read with interest the below articles by Mrinal Pande on the corruption in vernacular press.
The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Hindi media and an unreal discourse
The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : The gains from masking reality

Elections expose the underbelly of our dysfunctional democracy. In the past, when booth capturing was in vogue, politicians pampered with goondas. Now, the politicians are cuddling up to media people. The nature of corruption has become more sophisticated and the amount of money involved has grown in line (or exponentially?) with our economy. But corruption and politics continue to remain conjoined. Media is just the new battle ground.

In southern states, politicians have taken it to the next level, starting their own media channels. Andhra is a violent demonstration of misuse of political power to gain media control. In a short span of 5 years in power, Congress broke the backbone of Eenadu, started its own media entity, Sakshi, and grew from zero to 3600 crores.

Inspite of such ostentatious display of power, it remains that vernacular press is a tool in political corruption. Vernacular press is a sissy when compared to English Language Media. ELM is the torchbearer when it comes to selling editorial space. In fact, we, at this blog, make far greater accusations against ELM. But I will leave it for another day.

Mao, who?

I find the below image (courtesy: outlook) quite disturbing. Here are these tribals venerating a figure they barely know, and fighting a war they hardly understand. Mao had only hatred for India and the maoist struggle is aimed at dismembering India for Mao's country to come and gobble it up. The tribals are dispensable foot soldiers in a war being legitimized by Leftist jholawallas and the ELM.



Below is an excerpt from an IntelliBriefs post on Mao:

A 1974 poem by Mao Zedong displays the scorn with which China viewed India. The poem is like this:
The tiger avers its head,
The tattered lion grieves,
The bear flaunts its claws,
Riding the back of the cow,
The moon torments the sun,
The pagoda gives forth light,
Disaster comes to birth,
The olive is seen waving.

As
John W Garver explains, what Mao meant by this poem was that the tiger
was the United states, the lion the Great Britain, the bear the Soviet
Union, the moon the Islamic countries of West Asia, the sun the rich
countries of the West, the pagoda the Vietnamese revolutionary
struggle, and its light the prospect of imminent victory. A pagoda
giving forth light is a common Chinese literary smile indicating good
fortune. The phrase disaster comes to birth referred to Mao’s dictum
that either revolution would prevent war or war would lead to
revolution, while the olive branch referred to the people’s desire for
peace. The cow was India, which, according to Mao, has no talents and
is only food or for people to ride and for pulling carts. The cow could
starve to death if its master did not give it grass to eat. And even
though this cow may have great ambitions, they are futile.

Liar in Chief N Ram's open support to China

Thanks to Hindu Fundamentalist for bringing to our attention N Ram's perfidy. You can read his post here.
A visitor of this country, a dignified and respectable one at that, visits a monastery in a part of this country. N Ram's jaundiced eyes see it as "provocation"? You can read the report here.

Pointing out the immediate provocation for the propaganda was the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang, Mr. Ram felt there was no justification in allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to a sensitive border site in Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, the Dalai Lama's political outbursts against China from Tawang were violative of the framework of past bilateral agreements that mandated India to bar any anti-China activity on its soil, he said.

Sensitive border site? Who has made the site sensitive Mr. Ram? Do you suppose that the Indian government take permission from Beijing before its heads of state or visitors visit its legal territory?

The big picture on India-China relations is much brighter than the perceived tension in bilateral ties being orchestrated by a section of the media, analysts and former Defence officials...

O! yes. And the stapling of visa is the latest expression of bonhomie and the bountiful brotherly love that the People's republic of China has for India. It is only the pesky "section of the media, analysts and former Defence officials" who are at fault!!! Who is Mr. Ram trying to mislead? Is there an end to his delusion?

India has to become more pro-active in its approach against the belligerence of China and scrap the Inner line permit (believe it! an Indian citizen has to take permission of authorities to travel within his own country!) which will allow greater integration of Arunachal with the rest of India.

Resurgence Recipe for BJP?

The conservative, Republican side of American politics has seen some modest reversal in its slide since the votes were counted in the recent American elections. They were virtually decimated in the general election of 2008 by Barack Obama. The Republicans have wrested back all the state executive offices in the swing state of Virginia, and have, surprise surprise, claimed the governorship of New Jersey-- a solidly Democrat state. (Just to provide a perspective, it's equivalent in shock value to Tamilians dumping Dravidian parties for national ones.)

It's another issue that the Republicans lost two of their long held Congressional seats. There have been countless post-mortems of this phenomenon, especially since the American media more or less bats for the Democrats. Post-poll surveys point towards a successful campaign by the Republican individual nominees in wooing the independents, and middle-classes worried about the economy. It helped them that there was a lower turnout among minority Black voters who usually vote for the Democrats.

While there is no miracle recipe that the Republicans have discovered, their counterparts across the pond seem to have landed upon one. It is all but certain that the conservative Tories led by David Cameron will win the elections in UK, ending their twelve years drought. This has excited the more sober, clairvoyant conservatives in US. UK is a quasi-Euro socialist state, with its big govt. programs and socialist policies--the taxpayers even fund their news channel, albeit grudgingly. With the high govt. deficits and public medical insurance expenses to be signed, the bills have started piling up. And they will need to be paid, from the taxpayers' pocket obviously. It is this underlying similarity of circumstances that makes conservatives like David Frum take notice. According to him, there are few lessons to be drawn by American conservatives:

• While upholding your principles, align your priorities with the priorities of the country at large.
• Volunteer to do what you will be forced by political necessity to do anyway.
• The leader you want is someone who appeals to the voters you need to gain, not the voters you already have.

This is pretty much true for any democratic state where the right has made a comeback, be it France, Germany, or for that matter, dynasty's own Italy. Media by its very nature and structure has to be hostile to the right, but building pockets of favor within the media is not entirely impossible. The right in US has virtually pulled a coup in this regard with Heritage, Hoover, Manhattan Institute providing it the intellectual heft and various publications like Commentary, National Review and Weekly Standard fighting the trench warfare. Fox is another story.

If the BJP in India looks back at the Vajpayee era, it will realize that it has lived through this phenomenon, but it sorely needs a present day role model to replicate that success. Their choice of national president, even if supposedly thrusted by the RSS, is good. Nitin Gadkari is a pragmatic leader, rooted in ideology but with his feet on the ground. He might just be the cure that the party so desperately craves. It should.

PS- While I believe Gadkari is a decent choice for the BJP presidency, he is still not a mass leader, and perhaps won't be in the near future. That position remains unclaimed in the present BJP.

When Liars and Hypocrites get awards- LiC gets KR Narayanan award

Thanks to reader Sudhir for pointing this out.
It pains me to see journalism awards being handed out to petty hypocrites and liars. Like the Indian movie scene where deserving portrayals rarely get awards, the KR Narayanan award was given to Hon. LiC.

Justice K. Narayana Kurup, former acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, said Mr. Ram had been selected for the honour in view of his excellence in journalism. “It is for highlighting the problems of the ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka through a series of articles, fostering better relations between India and China, and for sensitising the readers of The Hindu to the hazards of climate change and global warming,”

Lets look at the reasons:

• Problems of ethnic Tamils - LiC sucked up to Lankan Prez and modern Hitler, skipped most of the problems until the war was over.
• Fostering relations between India and China - If sucking up to one's master (China) and defending them to the level of treason against one's nation is called "fostering better relations".
• Hazards of climate change - If publishing a few articles from the Guardian is called "senstising the readers to the hazards of climate change"

This award spits at the work done by former President KR Narayanan and disrespects his integrity to social and political life by giving it to a hypocrite.

When genocide becomes riots

Contrast this with N.Ram's approach to Gujarat riots, repeatedly calling it a pogrom. But what the whole world considers as cultural genocide of Tibetans, N.Ram thinks otherwise. He justifies the act of the Chinese perpetrators, and blames the Tibetan victims as savage, violent, thuggish, ransacking mobs.
 
Indian journalist tells Tibet's reality, slaps separatists' lies - People's Daily Online

In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of a two-day forum on development of Tibet, Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of the Hindu and Group publications, said the separatists told lies about Tibet to the world.

They told lies not only concerning the death toll in the March 14 riots in 2008, but also concerning the real purpose of the Dalai Lama's remarks of not seeking for independence, he said.

"However, as the evidence on the nature of the riots piled up, the realization dawned that it was too much to expect any legitimate government of a major country to turn the other cheek to such savagery and such a breakdown of public order," he said.

N.Ram out of touch with reality

Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang was the provocation? N.Ram is clearly turning a blind eye to Chinese transgressions. China criticised Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh during the elections. It also started issuing paper visas to J&K residents. The list is fairly long. It is stupid to think that the readers are not aware of the facts and come out with such baseless statements.

The Hindu : Front Page : Reality different from rhetoric on ties with China, says N. Ram

Pointing out the immediate provocation for the propaganda was the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang, Mr. Ram felt there was no justification in allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit to a sensitive border site in Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, the Dalai Lama’s political outbursts against China from Tawang...

Central Chronicle - Madhya Pradesh's News Portal

Few will believe when China says that His Holiness Dalai Lama is hell-bent on breaking or damaging the: "growing" Sino-Indian ties.
Just consider how China, routinely through its officials in international meets, Armed Forces near the Line of Actual Control, spokespersons and state-controlled media, says and does everything possible to humiliate India.
Recently, it even criticised the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh ...
And yet, one finds in India powerful voices sympathizing and justifying the Chinese behaviour

An Announcement

This is just to let you all know that I opened a new twitter account: twitter.com/cbcnn_Pilid. I hope to post at least a few times a week. Of course, I will continue to post analyses on the blog.

Fwd: Maoists helped by China

now that idiot ananth krishnan will be pressed into service to talk about the peaceful rise of china. the naxals have never had it so easy, with funding coming both from china and the christists.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/maoists-helped-by-chinese-arms-smugglers-centre/104824-2.html   Home Secretary G K Pillai said the Naxals were getting arms from India's neighbour, China. This is the first time the Centre has officially admitted to any body from China to have had a hand in the Naxal movement.

Double standards on chauvinism

cHindu in its article hits the nail on the head when it exposes the Raj Thackeray lead gang of goons called MNS as a chauvinist group. The recent example of attacking an MLA for taking oath in Hindi being the tail of the long list of such actions.

The great pity is that this provocative act of linguistic chauvinism seems to have won the approval of significant sections of the Marathi-speaking population, especially young people, across the State.

What is missing though is the similar approach to the Sheila Dixit lead Congress Govt. In recent times Delhi has shown numerous incidents of violence towards outsiders more specifically to members from the North eastern provinces. They are Indians as Sheila Dixit is. The media has chosen to bat a blind eye towards these atrocities happening with the tacit approval of Madame Dixit.

'Going Muslim?'

Tunku Varadarajan has a neat phrase for the US Army Major, Nidal Hasan, who slaughtered his fellow soldiers-'Going Muslim.'

This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American--a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood--discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan.

Celebrating Buddha's decade cHindu style

All over the nation the Communists have been routed. The vaunted Third Front which was in the headlines during the N-deal brouhaha a year back is sidelined. In Kerala the CPM lead front grows thinner. In West Bengal, the Congress with Mao-Mata has gained control of the MP's for the first time in decades.
Amidst the ruins, cHindu has decided to tout the "accomplishments" of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. This blog has been fair to Buddha who is really a decent leader on a bad party, kind of like PV Narasimha Rao's Congress.
But as a CM he is responsible for his Govt. not just individual accomplishments. cHindu in this article has composed the paens in the vein of a Ganashakti writer singing the tunes of the Red brigade.

“There is no looking back, the only way is the one forward,” has been his refrain over the years. Mr. Bhattacharjee stays on track, apparently cool and stoic, while all around him, the sound and fury of political enemies and detractors grows fiercer by the day.

cHindu goes on to blame many of the failures of the Buddha lead CPM govt. to Mao-Mata and Congress, conveniently ignoring that CPM has lead that state for 30+ years and has little to show as accomplishments other than running the state to the ground.
In a time when areas of Bengal are in the throes of poverty and lawlessness, districts under threat of the Maoists, Mr. Buddhadeb is:

holding film festivals (the Kolkata Film Festival on which he has always been keen will be from November 10 to 17) at a time when the State is being buffeted by inter-party clashes

cHindu parrots Chinese li(n)es on Brahmaputra dam

A kid often believes whatever outlandish tale its parent tells it. Subservient employees believe whatever their master(s) inform them. cHindu is a newspaper in the service of one cause, parrot the views of the Chinese Government without question. Its lapdog attitude is one of the worst among a stable of media outlets in India serving various special interests as it goes to question the veracity of its own country.
In an article, China reassures India on dam projects by Ananth Krishnan the same old story is retold.

“China is a responsible country and will not do anything to damage the interests of others,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu said when asked about China’s plans to build dams on the Brahmaputra, or the Yarlung-Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet. The river flows 1,625 km in Tibet before it enters India.

The entire article reeks of cow manure about how China's planned approaches of building dams over rivers feeding water to India will not in any way impact India's water needs. How does Ananth help the Chinese Govt. make their case? Testimony from "experts" who claim that the dams would not impact India's supply in any way. Note that there is no elaboration on who these "experts" are, what are their credentials.
But then again cHindu has no use for qualified experts to elaborate anything on India's interests.
The interesting point is the Indian minister P.K.Bansal's brain cramped statement,

He said while run of the river projects were China’s right to pursue, India’s concern was there should not be diversion in existing flow exceeding 79 BCM (billion cubic metres). “There is no evidence of any such diversion so far,”

With ministers like these who needs enemies?

Remote sensing confirms China building dam

View the pic below and read the article here from Indian Express. Form your own conclusions.
I'm guess cHindu will say China building water park like Kishkinta and not a dam.

Playing the blame game

Why is chindu even publishing such unsubstantiated letters? Are we to believe N.Mohamed, Chennai that all the evil in Islam has come from outside and not from within? How about a quick look at Hadith books. Is N.Mohamed or N.Ram suggesting that Quran is wrong?

The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : On the hijab

Muslim women had the right to property 1400 years ago. They could not be forcibly married. They had the right to divorce and widow re-marriage was accepted by society. They had the freedom of expression and participated in decision-making. Unfortunately, Muslims started following other communities in which men dominated and are paying the price for it.

Kashmiri separatism

The root cause of Kashmiri separatism is well-known. Oh well, why name the obvious? We also get ourselves worked up over other countries fomenting or supporting the separatist tendencies. Recently, China has taken the Kashmiri cause, along with Arundhati and other concerned citizens. Yes, the same flash mob that grabs the spotlight whenever any terrorist life is threatened by the course of law. That.

Here's a sample, in secular Telegraph (the real one from UK is the communal Telegraph, any liberal worth his salt will tell you). Ignore the name of the reporter for a moment. Just follow the report and its wordings.

Starting with the title itself:

"Staple Grounds Kashmir Scientist"

Huh?! I have never heard of a Tamil, Telugu, Bengali or Marathi scientist for that matter. Even the NRI fella who won the nobel is recognized as Indian-origin scientist. The poor gent was so PO'ed, he had to write a whole op-ed chastising the seculars trying to rub themselves in his Nobel gold dust.

This one, Romshoo, though, is a "Kashmiri" scientist. Recourse to victimhood, but of course, follows obviously. The valley society has made it into an art form. Right from extracting money from Narayana Murthy for earthquakes, to making rubbish claims about reparations for a terrorist-friendly county-level cricketer getting nabbed by the police, their society is knee deep into exploiting its supposed victimhood.

He claims, "[he] was virtually offloaded," by the immigration authorities.

Oye Romshoo, will you load yourself on El Al if Israel were not to recognize the Palestinian Authority?

But look at the nastiness of the journo:

"China disputes the citizenship of Kashmiris holding Indian passports and issues visas on a separate document that Indian immigration authorities refuse to accept."[emphasis added]

Sounds very much like Tibetans holding Indian passports or some such legitimate refugee group given asylum and the succor of national identity. There is NO Kashmiri citizenship. They are Indians--and I say this with some sadness--holding Indian passports.

But Romshoo takes the charade further:

“The issue is adversely affecting business and career prospects of hundreds of Jammu and Kashmir citizens,” Romshoo said.

Again, "Jammu and Kashmir citizens." Such chutzpah, from a thankless scientist of a wretched society that survives on the generous subsidies of Indians no less! Ah, the nerve of these ingrates.

And this is published in a supposedly national daily?! Seriously, why bother the Chinese or the prickly Scandinavians when you cannot put your own house in order.

But then again, it's a clever distraction from the failures of the secular state. Hell, it works.

Sold out media establishment lamenting about journalism

All this talk of media corruption coming from chindu, which has sold its entire establishment to the chinese, while the other media entities are still learning the tricks by selling "coverage packages". Ironic, isn't it.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Journalism for sale

The new shame is the extensive and brazen participation of not insignificant sections of the news media, notably large-circulation Indian language newspapers in two of India’s largest States, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, in this genre of corruption

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : The medium, message and the money

The Hindu : Opinion / Readers' Editor : Online : Media greed during elections poses serious ethical questions

Left extremists of various hues

Amulya Ganguli: This context automatically makes the violence of the reds more justifiable than the state’s.

Arundhati Roy: If I was a person who has been dispossessed, whose wife has been raped or have been pushed of their lands, and who is being faced with 'police force', I would say that I am justified in taking up arms if that's the only way I have to defend myself.

These are the same bunch of people who cry hoarse against any opposition to Islamic terrorism, although Hindus have been facing such terror for a few hundred years now.

SV on Modi's 'action-reaction' quote

Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Godhra was the ghastly incident which triggered off Gujarat riots. The secular, left lib, intellectuals have gone to great extent to mis-represent the riots and misinterpret Modi's statements.

Reality, one bite at a time: Modi's 'action-reaction' quote

‘Kriya pratikriya ki chain chal rahi hai. Hum chahate hain ki na kriya ho aur na pratikriya. (What is happening is a chain of action and reaction. What I want is that there should be no action and no reaction).’ Asked about the violence which erupted throughout Gujarat on the day of the VHP-sponsored bandh, he said:

Godhra mein jo parson hua, jahan par chalees mahilaon aur bacchon ko zinda jala diya, is mein desh mein aur videsh mein sadma pahunchna swabhavik tha. Godhra ke is ilake ke logon ki criminal tendencies rahi hain. In logon ne pahele mahila teachers ka khoon kiya. Aur ab yeh jaghanya apraadh kiya hai jiski pratikria ho rahi hai. (It is natural that what happened in Godhra day before yesterday, where forty women and children were burnt alive, has shocked the country and the world. The people in that part of Godhra have had criminal tendencies. Earlier, these people had murdered women teachers. And now they have done this terrible crime for which a reaction is going on).

Modi's statements are given above, along with the translation. Whether taken within the context or without, there is no call for violence in Modi's remarks. Unlike Rajiv Gandhi's infamous statement (“Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.”), there is no classification of violence into bad and good in Modi's statements. But the media has taken excessive liberties with truth. Here is the interpretation by our 'secular' journalists.

Apart from being a crude attempt to deflect criticism of his failures as chief minister, Modi’s ‘action-reaction’ theory is also morally repugnant. As Vir Sanghvi has argued, ‘What Mr Modi and his ilk are really saying is this: Because the riots were a response to a horrific and immoral act at Godhra, they are somehow less morally reprehensible . . . But cause-and-effect cannot be a moral philosophy. You cannot whitewash an event, wipe away somebody’s guilt or provide moral justification by pointing to the cause of their behaviour.

On an ending note, here is Siddharth Varadarajan again:

But though Modi did not himself invoke Newton’s name when he spoke of action and reaction, his reference to the law was obvious.

Even Newton might find it hard to deduce the reference to his law from Modi's statements. There is no talk of "equal and opposite" reaction but a cyclical action-reaction chain of escalating events (which is a characteristic of riots). SV is trying to put words into Modi's mouth.

Gandhi accepts responsibility for deaths in Partition as per SV principles

Recently during an offbeat tweet on asking Ms. Sagarika Ghose to produce some facts on a Modi quote(which has not yet done at the time of this post), Mr. S. Varadarajan pointed out an obscure statement "made in an interview" by Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as proof of some form of culpability in the Godhra riots. There have been several "quotes" by Modi, most famously the so-called "action reaction"  quote which have been liberally used by "journalists" like SV and Ms. Ghose which lead me to this line of research. Godhra is not the first time an Indian leader has been accused of being responsible for causing deaths of people in riots. One of the most infamous incidents were the Partition riots in India and Pakistan which claimed lakhs of lives.
The British had announced that they were leaving India, as per the decrees of the Labour Party which was in power. They were in a caretaker mode with Lord Mountbatten being the titular Viceroy with Congress, Muslim League and other parties working in close conjunction to transition power after Independence.
SV Principle #1 - Tie any link however obscure from the past to future events. 
Leveraging principles used by SV and other similar writers in their articles we come up with this analysis.
M.K. Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi leader of the Indian Independence Movement hated violence to the effect that he would subject an entire nation to decades of slavery if he felt that they did not follow his principles. Case in point the Chauri Chaura incident, after which Gandhi claimed that God told him to subject Indians to slavery under the British yoke,

God has been abundantly kind to me. He had warned me that there is not yet in India that truthful and non-violent atmosphere which can justify mass disobedience which can be described as civil, which means gentle, truthful, humble, knowing, wilful yet loving, never criminal and hateful. God spoke clearly through Chauri Chaura.

SV Principle #2 - Misuse quotes from similar incidents to suit interests
During World War 2 when Jews were faced with the prospect of genocide, Gandhi emailed his friend Hitler and told him,

We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents.

While there was news all around the world about the concentration camps setup to exterminate Jews, Gandhi on his principles of non-violence would want them dead than fight the oppressors. This was stooping to the level that he would not involve the British Govt. in his discussions with Hitler.
Again clearly exhibiting his desire to see mass murders happen as per SV's principles.

SV Principle #3 - Take a quote made around the time of the incident and modify to suit your purposes
India and Pakistan were in flux around the time of Partitions, the states were being created, power was not fully transitioned and there was a large movement of people. There were many organizations like the Muslim League tacitly involved in the execution of mass violence against groups of people migrating to and from India. And this led to retaliatory violence. In the midst of all this Gandhi had an opportunity to deploy the Army to ensure that there was order in the migration and the elements causing the violence be put down.
What did Gandhi say when asked about using British Force to prevent riots?

"The Congress cannot afford to impose its will on warring elements in India through the use of British arms" (August 25, 1946).

As per SV principles, since the participants "enjoyed" violence, Gandhi wanted them to be taught a lesson and let them self destruct in the orgy of massacres, conclusively proving that he "accepted responsibility" for those who died during the Partition violence.

Footnote: This writer and this blog do not imply in any way Gandhi was responsible in any of the afore mentioned tragedies, but uses the principles of selective quotes and analysis by writers like SV to emphasize that any theory can be written if there are a few facts around it. We do feel that the media should take a responsible unbiased stand towards investigating such incidents and not be lead by petty agendas to highlight story angles of their choice.

China orders kids to salute all cars. Smart thinking

In what is clearly an example of Commie lunacy which should be questioned (and ridiculed at), the Chinese Govt. has asked all kids to salute all cars passing by. Wonder how such news would be regarded if Indian Govt. had attempted to pass something similar.

Choice for Indian Muslims, to be in India or Pakistan?

This is a great existential question, would India Muslims prefer to be in India or in Pakistan?
Recently I read both sides of the arguments, one a case against life in India made in the cHindu and the other by a Muslim writer against life in Pakistan.
Harsh Mander puts together a solid argument claiming the usual litany of complaints,

the constant dread of being profiled as a terrorist, or of a loved one being so profiled, with the attendant fears of illegal and prolonged detention, denial of bail, torture, unfair and biased investigation and trial, and extra-judicial killings. There is, on the other hand, the lived experience of day-to-day discrimination, in education, employment, housing and public services, which entrap the community in hopeless conditions of poverty and want.

On the other hand Zafar Agha makes compelling argument that staying in India was the best decision his parents took.

Pakistan shunned renaissance wisdom and post-industrial democratic institutions.Such a medieval state has had to run out of steam sooner or later. So it is now implodingand being consumed by the medieval and tribal hatred it nurtured against India. Thank you mom and pop, for not migrating to Islamic state of Pakistan because I would have also exploded if not imploded by the jihadi forces that are consuming Pakistan now.

We can complain all about the police and bureaucracy. But cHindu chose to ignore the biggest problem facing Muslim is the vacuous leadership and its rigid opposition to anything modern.
Read both these articles and let us know of your thoughts. Shalom!

Simple naivete or calculated dhimmitude?

In most alien invasion movies one would see the locals (barring the smart heroes) fall into 2 broad categories; the ones who look up to the aliens as saviors (Independence day etc.) to the ones where a group of leaders and intellectuals accept the inevitable and agree to dhimmitude ala the X-Files and agree to the colonization for exchange of power in the new setup.
Now cHindu lead by fearless leader LiC and Sidd V decide that India's approach of kissing up to its Northerly neighbor is the best approach. They praise MMS' attitude of continuing dialogue while not bringing up contentious issues like the Karakoram highway or Arunachal or Tibet as it does not put the Chinese in the spot.

Mr. Ravi’s briefing points avoided any specific mention of contentious issues. “The Prime Minister stressed that neither side should let our differences act as an impediment to the growth of functional cooperation between the two countries,” he quoted Dr. Singh as saying. He said Premier Wen “concurred … that issues that may arise in the course of our bilateral relations should be properly handled through discussions and they should not become an impediment in the development of our friendly relations.”

Guess this picture says a lot ...
All in all everything in favor of China. Not concessions from the Chinese, no acceptance of their aggression as we don't want them to get angry and LiC is happy that his masters are satisfied.

Yarlung Tsangpo Dam and Brahmaputra diversion

One of the major criticisms of the Three Gorges Dam is the sedimentation from the upstream. Geologists have predicted that sedimentation would have significant impact on not only the sluice gates but also the overall structural integrity. So China found a neat little solution for the sedimentation problem
Three Gorges Dam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In order to maximize the utility of the Three Gorges Dam and cut down on sedimentation from the Jinsha, or the upstream of the Yangtze River before reaching Yibin, China plans to build a series of dams at the downstream of Jinsha, including Wudongde Dam, Baihetan Dam, Xiluodu Dam, and Xiangjiaba Dam. The total capacity of those four dams is 38,500 MW, almost double the capacity of the Three Gorges.

and also realised double the capacity through the four new dams.

If, say, China were to do the Three Gorges project again -- or the Yarlung Trangpo dam -- it would start with building dams upstream and then embark on the ambitious project in the final phase. We know that construction on Zangmu site has started at about the same time the Brahmaputra diversion project was supposed to.

View Proposed hydropower dams on Yarlung Tsangpo (upper Bramahputra) River in a larger map


China has always shown scant regard for the environment. Even in the case of Three Gorges dam, the weight of water from the dam reservoir is estimated to be so heavy that it will slightly tilt the Earth's rotational axis. But it did not deter China from going ahead with the project. Brahmaputra diversion could be a human catastrophe but that in itself is not enough to deter imperialistic China.

Two opposing views

The Hindu : National : Chidambaram reiterates offer to Maoists

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday reiterated the offer of talks to the CPI (Maoist) if it gave up violence.

CNN-IBN: Govt at war with Naxals to aid MNCs: Arundhati Roy

CNN-IBN Do you accept that the violence must end in that sense? The Home Minister said very clearly - 'as far as I can see, the only hurdle to holding talks with the CPI-Maoists is the violence which stalks the area in which they operate'. Now, surely they must give up arms.

Arundhati Roy: That is what I am saying is disingenuous. When the attack is from the Government forces - a Government which is bringing in the Army and the Air Force, calling for war on the poorest people in the country - it becomes tough.

There are a few more gems in the interview, if you care to dig up.

CNN-IBN Arundhati Roy says that not one anganwadi worker has been killed but we do know that 659 people have died because of them of which 259 were police officers and 400 civilians

With CNN-IBN and Arundhati Roy having the same obtuse angle to the left, extra care has been taken by CNN-IBN to ensure that Ms.Roy is not cornered. But the lies still stand out.

America's Afghan policy

Good article by M.K.Bhadrakumar although the prognosis is not presented in its entirety.  The Daily Pioneer article on the same topic has been more forthright.
The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Freed scribe smashes US policy

I learned that the goal of the hard-line Taliban was far more ambitious... They wanted to create a fundamentalist Islamic emirate with Al Qaeda that spanned the Muslim world.

With Bhardrakumar's article title talking about America and Pakistan, I was expecting a more detailed analysis in that direction. But almost the entire article talks about Afghanistan, apart from an oblique reference to Pakistan at the very beginning and a strange conclusion in the end.
The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : America, Pakistan and the Taliban

But then, no one remembers anymore that it was the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan that in the first instance destabilized Pakistan.

It is hard to conclude that the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan destabilized Pakistan. On the contrary, it could be argued that Pakistan was able to extend its lifeline by extorting aid in return for supporting U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.
I don't remember having read before anyone blaming U.S. for the mess in Pakistan. Now that we have it in print, I predict that very soon we will see the left lib intellectuals getting onto this bandwagon.

Modern Mahabharata - story by LiC

In this version of Mahabharata the story is similar but in some ways different. But this one is penned by LiC aka cVed Vyasa, so there are "editorial" changes to the storyline. In the ancient land of Tibet lived a religious tribe of Pandavas aka Buddhist Tibetians. Their kin and neighbors were the Kauravas (Commie Chinese) who were a very peace loving people. Once they heard that the Pandavas(Tibetians) were not managing their land efficiently they asked them to surrender.
The arrogant Pandavas(Tibetians) refused and dominated their people like slaves. So the righteous Kauravas Commie Chinese) decided to take action and evict the Pandavas out of their land to "protect" the Tibetian people.
After a brief struggle the Pandavas and their leader Dalai Lama, were exiled to neighboring India. Using India as a launch pad, the Pandavas have been involved in funding separatist violence in Tibet! Despite all the efforts of the peace loving Kauravas(Commie Chinese) to get the Pandavas to the table to discuss peace, the Dalai Lama has fomented violence against the people of Tibet. So says the honorable cVed Vyasa (LiC) and the saga continues...

The price for standing upto Maoist aka Christian Commie Terrorists

ub-Inspector Diwakar Bhattacharya, who was shot dead inside the Sankrail Police Station in West Midnapore district of West Bengal on Tuesday. Two policemen, including the SI,were killed and the officer-in-charge of the station was abducted by a group of Maoists. The station was ransacked and firearms, including rifles, revolvers and pistols, were looted from the armoury.

Where are the Leftist intellectuals now?

MOP victory is encouraging

Media's Own Party may have scraped through the assemblies in the three states, but if someone has to be cheerful about the outcome it has to be the not-so-loyal opposition. Arunachal Pradesh has always swung towards the central ruling coalition, mortally scared as the Arunachalis are of the dragon sitting in their backyards. But the highlights clearly are the robust scores notched by the opposition in Haryana and Maharashtra. Haryana may even have ruined the MOP party had the stellar leadership of Rajnath Singh not walked out of its alliance with Chautala. But let bygones be bygones.

The partisan pollsters had predicted sweeping MOP victory, even a two-thirds, in the Haryana assembly. Failure to muster a simple majority must be a downer. But the dashed hopes of the sycophants may not make it to the opinion sheets. The MOP spinsters will however flip it to make it look like a foregone conclusion.

Maharashtra is another story. BJP's national leadership might be morose at the moment but there are clear signs that when it comes to trench warfare its footsoldiers are not in a mood to give up. Yes, despite the total failure of MOP's state leadership--it should have received a sound drubbing--till the Thackeray brothers sort it out, change will have to wait. Numbers seem to indicate a strong undercurrent of discontent that can be tapped by a suave leader come next elections, in Haryana and Maharashtra. Stock market booms cannot provide for ballooning deficits. And media sparkle can generate only so much halo around the dynasty.

AK sees no cause for alarm over China's water wars

The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : India, China and water security

Some reports have alleged that Beijing was going back on its commitment to India to not divert the Brahmaputra. The Zangmu site is essentially a hydel power project — a ‘run of the river’ power generation project, which experts say is no cause for alarm as it will have little impact on the course of the river downstream.

However, Indian Express and Economist see the "run of the river" project as a dam and a cause for concern:
Indian Express: China begins building dam on its side of the Brahmaputra

But strong evidence has now emerged to suggest that China has begun constructing a dam on the river

Dammed rivers | Banyan's notebook | Economist.com

FOR years, any suggestion that China intended to dam the Yarlung Tsangpo, known to downstream countries as the Brahmaputra, was met with bald-faced denials. Yet earlier this month Gezhouba, one of China's biggest construction companies, admitted it had built the concrete feedline for a dam on the river at Zangmu in Tibet, south-east of Lhasa near the disputed border with India. Satellite images show work well underway. Zangmu and the sites of four other planned dams are marked on this map.

China wrecked havoc in Himachal and Arunachal through flash floods. Decreased water flow is not the only concern for India.
India Today (dated June 25, 2001) :Made In China

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has concrete evidence that the flash floods which ravaged large tracts in the border states of Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh last year were caused by the Chinese.

There is too much at stake for India on what China does upstream. Brahmaputra's rapid descent of 3000m in 200km makes it such a violent river that it already causes devastating floods in North East and Bangladesh. After the proposed hydel power projects along the Yarlung Tsangpo, the downstream flooding problem will be compounded.

In Yunnan, China built four hydel power dams along the Salween, which many experts say resulted in flooding downstream in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

As economist says, we cant go by what the Chinese say.

Yet for all its smile diplomacy and talk of a "harmonious world", China's consultation with riparian states about its dam plans is close to nil.

China about to cut India's water supply by 20%. cHindu sez no worries Hindi Chini bhai bhai

Sometimes reading cHindu makes me reach for antacid pills by the dozen. Articles like this - India, China and water security by Ananth Krishnan and special notes by our pal Sidd Varadarajan.
The big ticket item is the aggressive posturing by China to dam off Brahmaputra to serve its needs for water up north and cHindu advises Indians not to worry as the Chinese have no intentions of doing so.

How concerned should India, which lies downstream on the Brahmaputra, be? Work on the Brahmaputra, or Yarlung-Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, is still in the early stages. China’s projects on this river are of two kinds — one, for hydel power generation, and the more ambitious kind, still in the works, a massive diversion project that envisages diverting the river’s waters to the arid north.

He quotes India's approach of "trust but verify" which has worked so well with Pakistan and China in the past as examples. Also supported as evidence of China's intentions, is the supposed technical feasibility of the western dams which are in earthquake prone zones and face public opposition due to the resettlement.
If there is sufficient demand for water what guarantee is there that the Chinese government will not give the green light to this project?

Chennai police finds WMD's - flying kites with manja

I'm not joking when I say this, Chennai police has the intelligence of a 3 year old. According to TR,

Flying a kite is an offence under Section 71 (Clause XIV) of the Madras City Police Act, 1888. This initiative is to safeguard the lives of the people, particularly children,” Commissioner of Police T. Rajendran said.

Apparently there have been so many cases where the euphoria of flying kites has caused significant loss to property and lives that the police is taking serious action:

They will now be booked under Sections of the IPC that provide for arrest and remand. Such acts of negligence cannot be ignored… parents and elders should create awareness among children on the hazards of kites. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Washermanpet) N.K. Senthamarai Kannan said 18 persons were taken into custody for flying kites with ‘maanja’. Police were trying to locate the suppliers of ‘maanja’ in Chennai.

The problem here is the use of maanja which can cause injury, personally having been at both ends of kite fighting. The larger issue is the negligence of parents and teachers in not educating their children the dangers of using glass and other abrasive materials to make maanja which could easily cause damage to biological tissue. Banning kites is akin to cutting off the nose to spite the face.
What next banning cricket on the streets because the balls can hit bystanders?

Wishing B.Raman the best of health

From Kanchan Gupta,

Received mail from B Raman. Going in for biopsy for urinary bladder cancer.
You could mail him best wishes: seventyone2@gmail.com

Mr.Raman has been one of the foremost experts in National security and his insights are detailed in his blog.(Check out the blog link to the right). We wish him the best and look forward to his speedy recovery.

Wishing you a happy Deepavali

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