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

Wishing all our blog readers and contributors a very happy Deepavali. The significance of Deepavali is the lighting of lamps to signify victory of good over evil, knowledge where there is ignorance.
This blog runs on a similar principle to hold our media (more specifically cHindu) to high standards and prevent them from becoming a mouthpiece to China/Communist interests.
We greatly appreciate your support and do hope you will share the contributions of this blog to your friends as well.

Superman MMS praised for standing up to evil China empire

Thanks to Sudhir for pointing this out. cHindu has given freedom to VK Krishna Iyer to print whatever nonsense comes into his mind. For example he thinks MMS' has stood up to China:

Respected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: This letter comes to you from a patriot in far-off Kochi to a statesman Prime Minister who must vindicate the dignity and values of Bharat Mahan. This nation cannot tolerate anyone questioning your right to every inch of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh. You are our pride and our power, and ‘We, the People of India’, the least and the fallen, are with you. I salute you for your firm stand. No China has any right to protest against Manmohan entering the territory of Arunachal Pradesh. I salute you.

Wow ! Even MMS would be shocked to read that he had stood up to China. Probably sent a bouquet over to VK's home in Kochi :)

Why India needs to press China on Tibet, Uighurs and other areas

The Chinese have once again showed their aggressive intentions by "claiming" Arunachal Pradesh to be part of their country.
This coming from the official newspaper and not any blog. This article once and for all clears the air about its intentions that they will try to get the land by hook or crook. Any sugar coating by China's apologists like LiC and his ilk will not do. Statements like these light the flame,

The 120,000 square kilometers of the so-called Arunachal Pradesh, around the size of South China's Fujian Province, is at the center of the controversy. India currently occupies 90,000 square kilometers of the area. Over the years, India has intensified its effective control over the area by encouraging the immigration of more than 1 million Indians to the region, and applying for loans from international bodies for public facilities projects in the region.

Give me a break. MMS should ask China to go fornicate with itself. Arunachal is part of India. In addition, India should press China to create a new country out of Tibet and give the Uighurs some rights and not violate their land by populating with the Han Chinese clones.

Sycophancy at its finest, kissing up to Obama

I'm not sure if Obama ever heard of cHindu, but his advisers better start adding the website to his faves or get him a copy of the print regularly. Printing an article like this one, A tribute to Obama, a disciple of Gandhi, cHindu and V.R.Krishna Iyer have taken sycophancy to a new level. When we were kids, every once in a while we were asked to write an essay about a leader say Nehru. Obviously writing about Nehru's dalliances with married women would mean flunking grade, so kids in my class had to "praise" how he spent time in prison writing to his daughter and other little stories. This "Op-Ed" reminds me exactly of those kinds of BS papers we submitted.
Lets start at the beginning and work our way to the end,

I salute you, Barack Obama, for winning the Nobel Prize for Peace. By winning it you have made the White House an eighth world wonder of peace and a point of pilgrimage for humanity longing for a new century of lasting tranquility on earth.

Apparently he did not read the news that Obama is planning on sending up to 50,000 troops to Af-Pak in the next year. Guess they are going in with roses to do Gandhi-giri.

The biggest power of nuclear disaster must undergo transformation by a magic of work, wealth and happiness. Such a metamorphosis is possible only if a million Mahatma Gandhis, a trillion revolutionary Jesus Christs and countless Vivekanandas and Obamas consecrate this planet. And now the biggest power on earth has produced in a decadent hemisphere and in a white country of white power an enigma in the shape of Mr. Obama.

Why no Mohammed? Of course yeah he was a blood thirsty murdering tyrant. I am sure "decadent hemisphere and in a white country of white power" were added by LiC to please his Chinese masters. Moving forward,

Mr. Obama, as an Indian at the age of 95 who is committed to cosmic peace, I plead with providence to give you the creative verve to be the divine engineer to save our morally declining planet controlled by the whites into a society free from race, colour, caste, communalism and corruption

"Controlled by the whites", what is this the age of Imperialism? Isn't VK not aware of today's global economy and Asia's position in it? Of course, he couldn't. Probably locked up in Kilpauk MH, he is allowed a few minutes of TV every day.

This moron wants to be taken seriously

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : India must catch up with U.S.-Iran thaw

Equally, it is a sign of the sad depletion of intellectual resources in our country in the recent decade or two that precisely at such a formative period in contemporary world politics, the titans in our strategic community and the media are squatting with eyes cast across the Himalayas, hoping to hear the notes of war drums. The international community will never take us seriously as a regional power if we behave like morons.

The Iran pipeline was constantly making headlines and the petroleum minister was engaging Iran at various levels. All this changed once the nuclear deal entered into the picture. As Brahma Chellany pointed out, what we lost with the deal is our ability to pursue national interests which is evident in the way we are kowtowing to U.S. on the Iran issue. But that is no reason for us to ignore the saber rattlling reverberating in the Himalayas. Below is a sampling from today's newspaper. If our former diplomat is unable to perceive it, it is because he has his head firmly buried in bull excrement.
The intellectual resources of our country could only have shot up after
Bhadrakumar ceased to be a diplomat.

The Hindu : Front Page : India asks China to stop development activity in PoK

The Indian observation came a day after Beijing expressed its “strong disappointment” over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, and New Delhi, in its reaction, noted that such comments would not help in resolving the border issue.

The Hindu : Front Page : Amid tensions, Wen set to meet Manmohan

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are set to meet on October 23 against the backdrop of heightened tensions between India and China over the disputed border.

cHindu hypocrisy on handling naxalite problem in WB and other parts of the country

From our reader Xinhua Ram exposing the double standards by Leftist media on the naxalite problem, juxtaposing similar problems, but different analysis simply because one happened in a state where the Left is in power:
How do you solve the Naxalite problem? Do nothing. Just protect the CPI(M) cadres!

Step 1: Keep out the armed forces

... every instance of unjust use of violence, including sponsored vigilantism of the Salwa Judum kind, erodes the state’s credibility, legitimacy, and authority. It is a betrayal of the trust reposed in it by the people. Naxalites, and indeed armed extremists of all hues, thrive by provoking state violence and inviting repression not just on themselves but on the civilian population as a whole. The Indian state must not lose sight of the long-term goals of addressing social and economic inequities, and achieving development targets.

Step 2: Help resolve Lalgarh crisis

..politically inspired violence seeks the cover of socio-economic grievances. Maoist outlaws who went on the rampage in the Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district of West Bengal, carrying out murderous attacks on workers of the ruling CPI(M) and destroying their houses and party offices, were looking to settle political scores in the guise of protesting ‘police atrocities.’ Using the neighbouring State of Jharkhand as the base, they established a reign of terror and drove out security personnel and CPI(M) workers and sympathisers.

Snake (china) says its friends with the rabbit(India)

Chanakya once said, "A neighbouring ruler should always be considered an enemy but friendship and alliances must be cultivated with the neighbour’s neighbour".
India has long forgotten the wise man's sayings only to be bitten by its neighbors time and time again.
Now China's ambassador comes out with a saccharine coated editorial about why India and China should/will be friends.
The whole article is filled with bullshit that it reeks from top to bottom. Of course LiC will point this as an example of the peaceful intent of his Chinese masters. But any sane person reading this article can see through this as nothing but a fake attempt to bolster confidence among Indian media.

Indian media serve as a ‘window’ or a ‘bridge’ to the Indian public to understand China. The opinions and perspectives of the Indian media on China and on bilateral relations may influence and even shape the image of China in the eyes of the Indian government and people. The media should keep abreast with the paces of the bilateral relations and tap more positive information, so as to convey objective messages to the two peoples and serve as a booster to promote bilateral relations.

Really then why is it that the Chinese media is not reflecting the same and doing a lot of saber rattling?
The author Zhang Yan's description is one filled with bombast

The writer is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of India.

Can someone come up with a similar title for our beloved LiC?

A Muslim leader against the Haj subsidy, no joke here.

Apparently the Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali our LiC's pal thinks the Haj Subsidy should not only be stopped, its wrong as per the Islamic religious scriptures.

One should arrange for his expenses of Haj and Umrah out of his or dependent progeny lawful earnings, as commanded by the Holy Prophet (PBUH)”, “Allah is pure and He accepts only what is pure” (page 14).

And this one,

A pilgrim should avoid the earnings of others and not seek others monetary help

Apparently even the land of the pure, seems to think a Haj subsidy is wrong, then why are we still paying up for this?

Even the High Court of Lahore in a 1997 judgment said it is un-Islamic to avail of subsidy and perform Haj. I am sure the authorities concerned will agree that spending about Rs. 400 crore (which may go up in future) for 0.06 per cent of Muslim population is justifiable.

Hu Jia got robbed by the Nobel committee

Hat tip to "I Me and Myself" for informing us of this.
cHindu has a sardonic way of promoting someone who has fought most of his life against an ideology it fervently espouses. Hu Jia is well known internationally as the most prominent human rights activist in China who was jailed by the Commie Govt. for trying to free his countrymen from the yoke of Communism.
As cHindu says,

The little-known Mr. Hu has in recent years become the international face of the country’s civil rights movement a small group of activists, scholars and lawyers who campaign for greater political freedoms here, and often face intimidation from the authorities.

Hu is not alone in his fight, there are many others who have been incarcerated in Chinese prisons for thinking and discussing human rights something a Communist regime denies.

Mr. Hu has also controversially called for a public inquiry into the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, an event which saw the deaths of hundreds of students. Discussing the event is still taboo in China today.

Here's hoping Hu's efforts yields results in the near future.

cHindu's solution to Maoist violence. Do nothing.

The master of obvious, LiC states the "intelligent" solution to India's Maoist problems. Keep the Army out and let the bureaucrats and state governments handle the problem. cHindu ignores the obvious root cause to the problem the tacit support by the communist regimes and the Left intelligentsia to the Maoist terrorists.
Stating obvious solutions like the one below does not really help in any way.

Providing social opportunity, tackling unemployment, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods are the ways to deal with extremist organisations that seek to alienate the people from the state by taking up these very same issues. The last thing democratic India needs is a spiral of violence, counter-violence, repression, and further extremist provocations.

Why not just print money and drop it into the Naxal strongholds and ask them to give up?

Nobel for Good Intentions

I just read that the Nobel Committee has chosen Obama for this year's Nobel Peace Price. Obviously the prize is no longer meant to award achievements which Obama has little of since he was only elected President less than a year ago. Indeed, the citation acknowledged as much:

"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said...

Is the bar for qualification so low that merely attracting media attention and offering kind words of hope sufficient? Apparently so. Even the chairman of the Nobel Committee only said that the point of the award was to 'enhance what he is trying to do'. By reducing the criteria to the quantum of publicity and platitudes, the committee has ended up devaluing the prize.

Michael Gerson put it well in the Washington Post today:

Apparently, they now give out a Nobel Peace Prize for good intentions. Unless I have missed something, President Obama has not yet achieved a nuclear free world -- which was also, by the way, Ronald Reagan's good intention. He has not yet achieved peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- a prospect the Israel Foreign Minister recently dismissed as years away. He has not yet tamed the nuclear ambitions of Iran, which has responded to outreach with deception, defiance, bloody crackdowns and missile testing. He has not yet pacified Afghanistan -- preferring, so far, to dither and fidget. He has not yet removed the nuclear threat of North Korea, the world's wackiest, totalitarian nuclear power. He has not yet solved the problems of global warming, achieved a free Tibet, ended the slaughter in Congo, lifted the oppression of Burma or settled the conflict in Darfur.

At first I thought the announcement of the prize was a joke. On further reflection, the Noble Committee has made itself a joke. It has decided to give a ribbon before the race, a trophy for aspiration, a gold star for admirable sentiments. Which means that the decision it made is entirely, purely, solely political. Members of the committee like Obama's goals and rhetoric. And since they aren't American citizens, this is the only way they could vote for him. In the process, they have forfeited any claim to seriousness. Peace -- the kind of peace that keeps people from being killed and oppressed -- is an achievement, not a sentiment. The Noble Peace Prize Committee can no longer distinguish between the two.

Enough Said. Also click here to read interesting reactions to this from around the world.

Update: AP has an piece on the 'Common Misconceptions about the Nobel Peace Prize' where Geir Lundestad, secretary of the prize committee says that the award is not necessarily given for successful efforts but 'to encourage those who receive it to see it through, sometimes at critical moments'.

Celebrating 35 years of Kamal's work in film industry

There are a lot of top stars in the Indian industry who have not made films worth their salt in a decade or more, yes SRK and Rajnikanth would top that list. Though the expectation for them is low given their acting prowess. Someone who has silently crept up that list who surprised me most is Kamal Hassan. He has not made a single good movie in close to a decade and now the film industry celebrates 50 years of Kamal.
He has made some of the best movies in the past like Nayagan, Aboorva Sagodarargal, Salangai Oli etc.
Now lets look at some of his films from the last decade, it is literally a ham fest with films like Dasavatharam, Vasool Raja, Vettaiyadau Vilayadu, Aalavandan, Indian and so on. Its sad that the media has added to the legend without judging him objectively. Instead heaping praise for his "multi-tasking" abilities which lead to a flick like Dasavatharm capable of providing sleep to the worst insomniacs.

Importance of river linking project highlighted by recent floods

I'm not a civil engineer or someone with years of construction experience. What I'm suggesting here is common sense. India has a history of rampant droughts in regions mixed with heavy floods in other regions (most recently in AP and Karnataka) sometimes both concurrently.
Wikipedia says,

Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its normal boundaries

Simple physics states that dams and river paths are constructed to handle a certain volume of water. After a certain rise in volume, these become a non factor in control and the water overflows lead to inundation of land and cause all kinds of havoc to the low lying areas. This is where the river linking project comes into picture. This was highlighted by several engineers in the past only to be given priority by State and Central Govts. looking at narrow political reasoning. The NDA government took it up as an election plank but was not able to make a realistic implementation. The river linking project links the major rivers in India to ensure that surplus water is not wasted, floods can be minimized and droughts can be prevented. This is vitally important given that with the population growth of India there is a projected shortfall of water resources within the next decade or so which could reach calamity levels according to some experts. There have been the usual "expert" trashing the concept of river linking claiming the usual bogeys of environmental impacts. Perhaps value of human life is not as important to them when they are unable to provide any real alternative.
I'm open to your thoughts on this issue.

Stating the obvious - ISI is a terrorist organization

Since the fiasco after Sharm El_Sheikh, cHindu has this annoying and asinine thread of painting the Indo-Pak relationship in a positive vein when the actions of Pak to contain terror within has failed by all accounts. For the average Indian, the whole business of peace with Pak is a bunch of crock. Simply put the biggest export out of Pak has been terror. Asking them to stop terrorist activities is a bit like asking an elephant not to poop. There has been no real activity from the Pak side handling the suspects of the Mumbai attacks, including arresting the key people involved.
Finally cHindu in a whim of patriotism decides to support the Indian cause. Score one for patriotism.

Given the ups and downs in the bilateral relationship, the trust deficit, and the need to prepare the ground for confidence-building over the long-haul, India is entirely justified in reserving judgment until the trial actually commences and makes visible headway.

It rebuffs Pak's stalling techniques,

But the problem of Lashkar’s terrorism is not simply legal. Sooner or later, Pakistan has to realise that these kinds of terrorist groups have to be confronted politically. Islamabad’s insistence on “evidence” and other legal niceties is all very well but those are not the tools it is using to deal with the threat the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda are posing to it.

But the topping is the statement on ISI's control over its terrorist minions,

The Inter Services Intelligence directorate may think it can manage the LeT and kindred groups for all time to come and that they will never pose an existential threat to Pakistan in the way the TTP does. Such a belief is seriously misplaced. The threat posed by such terrorist groups may be uneven but its impact on the future of Pakistan is uniformly destructive...Unfortunately, the ISI has not yet taken a decision to make the course correction that Pakistan so desperately needs.

Really do you think that the ISI wants a course correction? It has control over the country. It gets to play with the funds from the US to dispose as it will. It has a corrupt Govt. lead by an inefficient moron (Zardari). Why would it want to change course? But cHindu has never been one with common sense.

A teachable moment...for Obama

Obama's recent fiasco in Denmark should serve as a "teachable moment" for all the perennial Pakistan-friendly types. Personal popularity can never trump permanent interests. WSJ sums it up aptly:

In that sense, the Olympic defeat is a relatively painless reminder that interests trump charm or likability in world affairs.

Within a brief span of one year we have seen all the high-talk of the Obama campaign melt in thin air. Talking across the aisle--even with dictators, post-partisanship, all that reaching out to the world, reducing inequality by bringing public healthcare etc., all the apex agenda items have been virtually capped, rollbacked, and on the verge of elimination. Instead of bridging across the aisle there's vicious name-calling and vitriol being hurled at political opponents. The raging fire of realism has engulfed and tamed the overambitious Obama agenda. However there's no guarantee that secular copycats back home won't repeat it. History will repeat itself as farce, till Gandhis do us part.

Should Prakash Karat be jailed for treason?

Of all the various types of politicians from the inefficient to the corrupt the worst of the lot are the treasonous ones. When various military, civil and bureaucratic experts across lines in India have raised alarm over the overtly aggressive behavior of China, there is one group trying to belittle their claims. I present to you the Communist Party of India Marxist.
It's leader Prakash Karat without any logical or analytical evidence claims,

There has been a revival of the bogey of the threat from China among sections of the corporate media and strategic experts. A series of hostile manoeuvres by China have been cited… All such reports were either baseless or highly exaggerated… Both the Chinese and Indian governments have stated that there are no tensions growing on the border

Please remember here, this comes from the same party (CPI-M) which supported China during the Indo-China war of 1962. As usual he raises the usual bogey of Indo-US cooperation being the root cause of the alarm.

The recent efforts to create complications in India-China relations must be seen in this context. Within India, the lobbies that want the strategic alliance with the United States to be cemented are precisely those who seek to thwart the potential of India-China cooperation.”

Perhaps the recent incidents like, have missed Karat's eyes.

• The building of roads surrounding the Indian border in Tibet and Arunachal
• The tacit support to the ISI by China over the years
• China's refusal to accept Arunachal as an Indian province
• China's building dams across Brahmaputra in an effort to squeeze India's water supply
• The issuing of separate visa papers by China to Kashmiris

In any other country the support of a hostile neighbor to the detriment of one's country (what ever the reason) is a sign of treason. The extreme prejudice with which these hostile maneuvers have been disregarded in an attempt by a leading party in conjunction with a leading newspaper is clear evidence once again that these parties have indulged in treason and should be punished accordingly. Wonder if the UPA government will take the lead and do something for a change?

N.Ram celebrating China's 60th birthday

n.ram is unabashed in his praise of china. the enormous loss of life, massive population displacement, and suppression of human rights have all been conveniently scraped over. what remained after the scavenging is portrayed as a glorious garden. for those of us not wearing the red tinted glasses, the carcass and the stench are terrible to bear.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Xinhua Ram

Compare these


Tian'anmen showcases rise of China : N Ram

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article27610.ece

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Beijing birthday spin distorts reality

A little-known fact is that 80 per cent of poverty reduction in China took place in the first 10 years of reform (1979-1989) - a time when the party was releasing its grip over the economy. After Tiananmen, poverty alleviation slowed dramatically. Since 2000, those in absolute poverty have doubled.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26151637-7583,00.html

60 years of repression

Sixty years of communist rule in China is nothing to celebrate.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/years+repression/2053244/story.html


Blood and Treasure On the Empire State Building

Try as hard as they might, the secret police and communist officials couldn't kill as many Chinese as efficiently as the widespread famine triggered by the Great Leap Forward --Chairman Mao's attempts to impose collectivism on China's peasant farmers -- which resulted in between 20 and 43 million people starving to death.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/30/stiletto-china-empire-state-building/


Dissidents Give China Failing Grade on 60th Anniversary of Communist Rule

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-01-voa29.cfm

china is the enemy banging on the door

'Chinese see India as enemy, but army lacks devotion' - Yahoo! India News

India is the country that is spoken of most often as an enemy in China, a British newspaper reported Sunday...
Censors, otherwise draconian in their grip over Chinese netizens, permit 'alarmingly frank discussion' on the internet on going to war against India over Tibet.

hat tip: rajeev