Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Islamist discrimination goes on, UPA looks the other way

'Govt thwarting return of migrants to valley'
An organisation of Kashmiri Pandits on Saturday accused Kupwara district administration of taking possession of their land and thwarting the chances of their return to their ancestral homes in the valley.

"Not the Muslims of Kupwara, but district administration itself is acquiring the land of Kashmiri Pandits in four villages of the district, thereby thwarting the ways and means for return of KPs to their ancestral homes", President of Sanatan Dharam Sabha (SDS) B L Pandita told reporters.

He alleged that the administration in the border district had acquired land of Kashmiri Pandits in villages of Kherman Hanood, Kherman Nandram, Khanabal and Handwara.

The district administration has been acquiring the leftover land of KP migrants in these villages for construction of stadium, floriculture park, tourism hut and police line in violation of the provisions of J&K Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restrain on distress sale) Act 1997, he said.

The officers of the district administration have been doing it despite the circulars issued by Revenue Department vide No. Rev/mr/56/2009 dated July 14, 2009 in which the state government has said that acquiring properties of migrants is contradictory to its policy and will upset the process of return and rehabilitation of migrants to the valley, Pandita said.
Jazia on Amarnath yatra: furthering the Islamic cause
Nancy Kaul
21 May 2010

The dark ages of Islamic domination seem to be slowly seeping back into independent India. First was the Kashmiri Muslim hegemony of not allowing land and infrastructure for Hindu yatris; and now Jazia has been levied on the pilgrims and langars for the revered Amarnath Yatra.

In their appeasement of Muslims, the Omar Abdullah Government and Governor N.N. Vohra-led Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), have fallen on the repressive Mughal policy of imposing Jazia (religious tax) on Hindus in their very own country.

The abode of Lord Shiva, Amriteswara tirtha, is a pilgrimage precious to Hindus; the Shiva lingam manifests itself in the holy cave of Sri Amarnathji. The yatra to Sri Amarnath is as old as the history of Kashmir and Neelmat Purana bears testimony to this. Rishi Kashyap, Adi Sankara, Vivekananda and the common Hindu find peace and solace in the darshan of the Holy Lingam; the soul is entrenched in the divine manifestation.

A levy of Rs 15/- from each yatri (pilgrim) for registration was not considered sufficient by the authorities, so they imposed a charge of Rs 2,800/- per day (earlier Rs 300/day) on the buses and trucks, and Rs 2,300/- on light vehicles, carrying food supplies and pilgrims, in addition to the toll tax on entering the State of Jammu & Kashmir at Lakhanpur. The State Government has not stopped at this, and has further sponsored the radicalisation process by asking the Langar committees, which constitute religious and social organisation, to deposit a non-refundable sum of Rs 25,000/-! At the same time, the area on which the langars are to run has been considerably reduced.

The proponents of Islam have thus imposed religious tax on Hindu yatris, whereas they spend thousands of lakhs of rupees on Muslims in terms of Urs and Haj.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in one breath does away with the tax on houseboat owners and hoteliers in Kashmir, and on the other hand imposes Jazia on Hindus; they will have to pay even for placing their shoes in the racks near the cave and toll on entering the State. These measures reek of an illogical bent towards Islamic talibanisation and immense hatred channelled at slighting the religious sentiments of the Hindus.

Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is in charge of the yatra and the money that the devotees offer. The Board has yet to come clean on how the money is used. The money accumulated should have been used for infrastructure development and yatri comfort; however, typically this money donated by Hindus is being diverted towards the amusement and entertainment of Kashmiri Muslims. In 2006, the then Governor Lt Gen (retd) S.K. Sinha launched a Sufi festival (SASB along with ICCR) in Srinagar on the banks of the Dal Lake, where artistes from Pakistan apart from others participated, with the money of Sri Amarnath Shrine Board! Lakhs was spent and since then ever year this sham of Sufism is conducted from the money of the devotees of Amarnath ji.

Governor Vohra has increased the paradigm of this entertainment sham and it continues. The role of Shri Vohra during the Amarnath Yatra and his overtures to Muslims are neither reformed nor new. His closeness to the People’s Democratic Party is no secret, and along with the Kashmiri Muslims he was largely responsible for the atrocities heaped on the nationalistic Jammu population when they stood up for the Yatra in 2008.

As Chairman of the SASB, N.N. Vohra wanted Muslims as Board members, a move which would have meant direct Muslim interference in a Hindu shrine, whereas no moves to include Hindus in Wakf Boards are ever conceived. Yet the present committee of six members has so far maintained silence over this issue.

The present Chief Minister, who has yet to prove his acumen, has rushed to play to the separatist gallery. His by now famous speech in Parliament, “I am a Muslim and I am an Indian…” and, “not even an inch of land will be given,” with reference to the Amarnath agitation of Jammu cannot be wished away.

Omar Abdullah is so emotionally overwrought for the gun-totting terrorists and their life in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, where they went for terror training to unleash violence in Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of India, that he wants the Centre not to ask them to surrender, but to give them an honourable return. He wants the Central Government to clear four crossover points for them to return to India with their families. Such magnanimity for one group, such pettiness for another community!

The terror network that these terrorism-trained Kashmiri Muslims are part of in PoK and Pakistan is still intact; so is the motive to unleash terror on India through overt and covert means and thousand cuts. Pakistan has not resiled from its agenda of terrorism against India, nor has Lashkar-e-Toiba and many such terror factories. In a recent meeting organized by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (new name of the banned LeT) in Lahore, it demanded that the government of Pakistan should either stop India from building dams on rivers flowing into Pakistan or give a ‘free hand’ to the ‘Kashmiri mujahideen’ (read terrorists) to deal with the issue. After the meeting a joint declaration was issued by the JuD which asked the Pakistan government to keep open the option of using force to protect its water resources if India does not stop work on projects on rivers flowing into the country.

The head of JuD's political affairs wing, Abdur Rehman Makki, and the group's Pakistan Water Movement convener, Hafiz Safullah Mansoor, presided over the meet. It included representatives of major political parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Jamaat-e-Islami and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaaf.

Interestingly, Omar Abdullah wants the Indian State to give amnesty to terrorists who could still be part of this terror network. The terror network with the active help of Pakistan is also taking advantage of the trade and bus routes between Kashmir and POK. Recently, two PoK citizens were sent to judicial lock-up for smuggling satellite phones for a commander and working for militants (read terrorists). One of them had reached Poonch via the weekly Poonch-Rawlakote bus service, while the other was arrested in Mendhar for travelling via the Wagah border.

Another ISI agent managed to return to PoK after spending a month in Mendhar; his involvement surfaced only after he had gone back. Earlier, few traders on Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawlakote route were found working for militants/terrorists by providing hawala money which was being used to fund militancy and terrorism. Sources confirm that the intelligence agencies have issued an alert on this front again.

As if this was not enough, Omar Abdullah has further rushed to the rescue of terrorist Afzal Guru, who has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for masterminding the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. He wants Afzal Guru to be treated like other criminals. A person holding the office of Chief Minister should know better, for Afzal Guru is no criminal but a terrorist. This love for a terrorist is followed by another MLA of Kashmir.

Abdul Rashid, MLA from Langate, attended the funeral prayers of three terrorists killed in a recent encounter with security forces in Handwara area of the frontier Kupwara district. A fortnight ago, the Army launched Operation Thunder Strike, to neutralize terrorists. The MLA in his speech in Shazipora grounds wanted the government to talk to armed terrorists. “The key of peace lies with militants, and there should be direct negotiations with them for they have rendered sacrifices,” he said.

This appalling love for Islamic terrorists and Jazia for Hindu Yatris raises vital questions about the efforts of Pakistan, terror organisations, and the likes of Omar, Mufti, Rashid and others. The effort to Talibanise Indian Muslim society is getting a fillip by such overt and covert actions.

It will be pertinent to watch what the UPA chairperson will do about this tax on Amarnath, as it was her mother-in-law and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who desired the concrete flight of stairs to be made in the 1970s; Indira ji’s love for Shiva and Shakti is well known. Her interpretation of Kashmir was not Islam, but the thousands of years of Advaita Shaivism and Shakti – the fountainhead of Indian Hindu Sanskriti and heritage. She would visit Amarnath and a Shakti peeth in Kashmir with deep devotion.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also have to answer the nation for this talibanisation in Jammu & Kashmir under his watch. On a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, First Lady Gursharan Kaur, the Prime Minister’s wife, insisted on wearing her usual dress of sari and half-sleeve blouse. Will she stand up this time too?

Will the Prime Minister, for he had said:

Deh shiva var mohe hai shubh karman te kabhun na daroon

na daroon ersoh jab chahe laroon, nishche kar apni jeet karoon

[O Siva, grant me the boon that I will never fear to do the right action

That I will not fear, will fight when I want, and with determination will be victorious]

-Guru Gobind Singh

Or do Indians have to look for Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh, and Shivaji Maharaj.
The author is convener, Daughters of Vitasta

Monday, May 24, 2010

Facebook Blocks Access in India to Controversial Page

Where are the freedom of speech and expression perverts? Practicing their art selectively, i am sure.

Facebook has blocked in India the controversial "Everybody draw Mohammed Day!" page that last week led to the site being banned in Pakistan.

The move follows protests by Muslims in the country over the page which invites users to put up caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

"Out of respect for the local regulations, standards and customs, we have decided to restrict access to the 'Everyone Draw Mohammed!' page from India, after being contacted by authorities and reviewing the matter closely," a spokeswoman for Facebook said on Sunday in an email.

We have not removed the Page from Facebook, but have only restricted access to it from India," she added.

The page was inaccessible from India from late Saturday.

Officials at India's Departments of Telecommunications and Ministry of Home Affairs said on Sunday that they were not aware of the Indian government blocking the site. The country's Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 allows the government to block web sites under certain conditions.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Sonia Gandhi statement on Maoists hailed

Well, well, well after self imposed maun vrat, do read Sonia Maino's opinion on Maoist terrorism. As soon as the statement came out, it was hailed by poisonous people(bolded below in the article) masquerading as writers, academics basically Naxal-Lites if not full naxal terrorists. Surely, if these bigoted people hail this statement, it cannot be good for the common folks but excellent news for their goonda comrades.
New Delhi: Writers, academics and jurists have hailed Congress president Sonia Gandhi's statement that the "extreme neglect" of tribal areas is linked to Maoist insurgency.

"We welcome the statement ... that the extreme neglect of the tribal areas is at the root of the present crisis in those (Maoist) regions," they said in a joint statement here.

"We hope this appreciation of the need to go deeper into the question would lead to initiatives for immediate cessation of hostilities and dialogue so that the process of people-oriented development can be made feasible."

The signatories to the statement include former Supreme Court judges VR Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant, poets Shankar Ghosh and Joy Goswami, writers Mahasweta DevI and Arundhati Roy, historian Romila Thapar, playwright Bibhas Chakraborty, former Indian ambassador to Portugal Madhu Bhaduri, academics Amit Bhaduri, Amit Bhattacharyya, PK Vijayan and Randhir Singh, and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan.

The statement was issued just before Maoist guerrillas blasted a bus in Chhattisgarh Monday killing more than 30 people. The Maoists are most active in tribal areas, which are home to the poorest of the poor in the country.
Lets keep the Naxal-Lite (bolded above) scumbags rants and breastbeatings aside and focus on the statement of Sonia Maino. Just see how extremely neglected was Kobad Gandhi, a naxalite thug arrested by the police in 2009?
Kobad Ghandy was born to Nergis and Adi, a senior finance executive in Glaxo. He hails from a wealthy Gujarati Parsi family in Mumbai. They lived in a huge house at Worli Seaface in Bombay. His sister, Maharukh, ran a family hotel in Mahableshwar with her husband. His brother, Farokh, ran an ice-cream unit.

He did his schooling from Doon School, where he was Congress leader, Sanjay Gandhi's classmate. He went to St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and did his chartered accountancy from London.
Tsk tsk tsk, see how poor and extremely neglected was Kobad!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Judicial activism to blame for Naxal rise
MYSORE: Union law minister Veerappa Moily on Monday asked the judiciary to restrain itself from admitting PILs and said "unrealistic judicial activism on the part of the judges is one of the main reasons for increased Naxalism in the country".

Talking to reporters here, he said the Supreme court judgment in the Godavarman case, which in his words was against the ground realities and prevailing conditions in the forests, led to the displacement of a large number of tribals forcing them to join Maoist groups. "If the court had exhibited restraint and gone according to ground realities today situation in the forests would have been totally different," he said, adding that even the new Supreme Court CJ had raised the point.

In the Godavarman case, the SC had expanded the scope of the term "forest" and included within its scope forests mentioned in the government record as well as forests in the dictionary meaning irrespective of the nature of ownership and classification on December 12, 1996.

Moily said his concern was that when judges admit PILs and deliver judgments, "they should be realistic and go by the ground realities instead of believing arguments". He echoed Congress leader Dijvijay Singh's on "Salwa Judum" and said it was a blunder committed by the state government to deal with the Naxal menace. "There is no difference of opinion in the UPA government on the issue of tackling Naxalism," he claimed.
Naxal sympathizers will find it tough
NEW DELHI: The massacre of civilians by Maoists could not have come at a worse time for their champions and sympathisers among civil society and the political class. It exposes their claim about Maoists being "misplaced ideologues" — who are fighting the cause of the poor and the downtrodden — as false just when a propaganda has been cranked up to guilt trip the state into abandoning the fight against the extremists.

The massacre of bus passengers is a far more heinous crime than the massacre of CRPF personnel. The paramilitary personnel who were butchered came from families of marginal farmers and landless labourers. Though they did not qualify to be class enemies whose annihilation was an ideal to be achieved by Maoists, their pamphleteers have sought to justify their criminal deed by tagging their victims as mercenaries of the anti-people state.

Moreover, they were armed and trained to fight back in their defence. The bus passengers who were killed could not be accused of any such crime. Even if you count out the 20 alleged Special Police Officers, the Maoists, in their pursuit of the goal of capture of state power, killed at least 30 innocent unarmed combatants.

The defenders of Maoists raise a cacophony of protests against collateral casualties US forces cause even when they are on genuine anti-terror missions. But there are many instances when even the US has called off operations that looked set to eliminate terrorists for the fear of causing collateral damage.

In fact, those who regularly attack the government for not agreeing to a truce on terms dictated by Maoists cannot justify the killing of the SPOs either. For, to act otherwise would amount to conceding the spurious argument that while the government should give up violence, Maoists are justified in killing whoever they treat as 'class enemies' and their adjuncts since they are fighting for the rights of the poor.

The latest brutality should alert civil society to the fact that while Maoists will exploit their resourcefulness for tactical reasons, they actually care two hoots for what civil rights activists and others stand for. The bus passengers were killed just when advocates of Maoists in the political class and among rights activists were gloating over their alleged success in forcing the government to concede that the threat of extremists could not be tackled merely by using force. The killing of civilians shows that for Marxists, indiscriminate violence remains the most preferred weapon, although for tactical reasons, they may invoke the Constitution and the rule of law enshrined there.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Parmarth Niketan and Jeremy Pivens Journey of a Lifetime


I saw Swami Chidanand and Rishikesh for the first time on a Discovery Channel show called Jeremy Pivens Journey of a Lifetime. Then searching for his ashram, stumbled on to Parmarth Niketan and its Gurukul. Saw this advertisement in the paper and am thankful to people associated with Nirmal Ganga, Sparsh Ganga project.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Support Naxals, face punishment

NEW DELHI: Toughening its stance against Naxalites, the Centre on Thursday warned Maoist sympathizers — including members of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — found supporting the ultras by propagating their ideology or by any other means to be ready to face severe punishment.

The dire warning, which marks a significant escalation and carries the risk of confrontation with influential rights activists, also represents a rebuff to the post-Dantewada clamour for a relook at the use of force against Naxals.

The law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, empowers the state to punish those collaborating with a banned organization with imprisonment up to 10 years. Besides, section 39 of the UAPA also provides for fine to be slapped on those found collaborating with extremists.

Though the two provisions have been enforced by authorities in states worst affected by violence, state governments as well as the Centre have more often than not winked at the espousal of the Maoist cause by the rights activists. The declaration of the new intent came a day after home minister P Chidambaram was heckled in JNU, though the Centre's annoyance over continued support for the extremists from sections of civil society goes back a while.

The home ministry said, "It has come to the notice of the government that some Maoist leaders have been directly contacting certain NGOs and intellectuals to propagate their ideology and persuade them to take steps, which would provide support to the CPI (Maoist) ideology."

Asking the general public to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of the Maoists and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda, the ministry said, "This is being issued in public interest so that the general public are aware that the CPI (Maoist) and all its formations and front organizations are terrorist organizations whose sole aim is armed overthrow of the Indian state and that they have no place in India's parliamentary democracy."

In what can come as a rude shock for civil rights activists, the investigating agencies looking into Naxal affairs along with Delhi Police also warned the citizens to be 'careful' before throwing their weight behind Maoists. This comes at a time when several such activists have been named in the FIR along with Kobad Ghandy for helping the alleged Naxalite leader in waging war against the state.

A senior Delhi Police officer said there was ''growing evidence'' that a section of the intelligentsia was helping the Naxal leaders flee states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal to set up base in colonies of east and south Delhi. ''Besides this, these individuals are also helping various frontal organizations of the Maoists to raise funds,'' said the official.

The recent arrest of Naxal leader Gopal has given important clues to the Delhi Police in this regard, said senior special cell officers.

The civil rights activists are, however, livid over the directive. Gautam Navlakha{Off course this Navlakha joker will be livid and outraged as he is one of those named in the Kobad Gandhi FIR}, a senior editor with a prominent magazine, said that such a directive from the home ministry was ''outrageous''. ''This is an attempt to thwart dissenting voices and a demand that all individuals toe the official line. Even a couple of Congress men led by Digvijay Singh had protested the recent development. Is the government planning to silence him too?'' questioned Navlakha.{Tomorrow this fool will demand Kasab be released, that is, if he and his ilk haven't already done so. And he will label it as a "dissenting voice" to which no dissent is allowed. I refuse to buy his idiotic and hoary morality which is different from normal morality and vehemently register my dissent. India, it seems, has more than its fair share of arse holes and suddenly these twerps are coming out of the woodwork, what gives?}