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