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Memories of Another day

Memories of Another day
While my Parents Pulin babu and Basanti devi were living

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Defenders see clear game plan. India is ZIONIST as well as HINDU RASHTRA Thanks to Manusmriti Hegemony and RSS!

 
Defenders see clear game plan. India is ZIONIST as well as HINDU RASHTRA Thanks to Manusmriti Hegemony and RSS!
 
 Troubled galaxy Destroyed Dreams, chapter 352
 
Palash Biswas
 
Pl visit:
 

RSS Chief breaks his silence

Times Now.tv - ‎Aug 18, 2009‎
In RSS, we can change everything excepting that Hindustan is Hindu Rashtra. But we have a particular method. We create consensus first and when that ...

DIFFERENT CONCLUSIONS

Calcutta Telegraph - Swapan Dasgupta - ‎Aug 20, 2009‎
This is quite different from the prevailing RSS orthodoxy that Bharat is a Hindu rashtra that must aspire to a streamlined, efficient, modern state. ...

Bomb Blasts in Nepal: Global Dimensions of Hindutva Terror

Mainstream - ‎Aug 5, 2009‎
Churches in Nepal, the erstwhile Hindu Rashtra on the face of the earth, have maintained a unique tradition. They hold services on Saturdays because it is a ...

Indian opposition leader attacks party top brass

TopNews - Mohit Joshi - ‎Aug 25, 2009‎
He said that the right-wing Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the bjp's ideological parent, should take control of the party. ...

Election verdict 2009: Whither BJP?

Aliran Monthly - ‎Aug 21, 2009‎
It stood for the politics of Hindus, for the building of Hindu Rashtra. This word was coined by Savarkar in 1920s and was meant to be an alternate notion of ...

New faces of an old terror Camp

SahilOnline - Teesta Setalvad - ‎Aug 15, 2009‎
... and promote their organised gang and continue its unlawful activities, namely promoting their fundamentalist ideology to form a separate Hindu Rashtra. ...

Court drops anti-terror provisions against all Malegaon accused

Indian Express - ‎Jul 31, 2009‎
They dont like the idea of a secular India and that why want just a 'Hindu Rashtra' and still harbour such intentions after so many decades of India's ...

Bomb Blasts in Nepal: Global Dimensions of Hindutva Terror

The Sikh Times, UK - ‎Aug 7, 2009‎
By Subhash Gatade Churches in Nepal, the erstwhile Hindu Rashtra on the face of the earth, have maintained a unique tradition. ...

Hindu terrorists inflitrate Indian Army

Pakistan Daily - ‎Aug 2, 2009‎
... Indian military and RAW enter into equation to bail out above mentioned Hindu terrorist organisations all of them vying for Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State). ...
 

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    1. The Jewish communities of India: identity in a colonial era - Google Books Result

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        Former NSA disagrees with scientist, says Pokhran II successful

        Times of India - ‎3 hours ago‎
        That should set the record straight," said Mishra Mishra's statement came as the defence ministry also rejected Santhanam's assertion and added that India ...

        Indian army kills militant in gunfighting in India-controlled Kashmir

        Xinhua - Lin Zhi - ‎4 hours ago‎
        ... owing allegiance to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit was killed Thursday morning in a gun fighting in India-controlled Kashmir, defence officials said. ...

        India releases $122 mn for Gorshkov modification

        Economic Times - ‎Aug 16, 2009‎
        Ideally though, a country the size of India with 7500 km of coastline should have at least five aircraft carriers. A Russian defence delegation was in New ...

        India strengthens economic ties with China but still wary on ...

        Sify - ‎Aug 26, 2009‎
        Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju has said that while India is strengthening its economic ties with China, it will not downplay any sort of possible ...

        India and Maldives agree to step up Defence Cooperation India and ...

        Press Information Bureau (press release) - ‎Aug 20, 2009‎
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        India shows off new tanks

        BBC News - ‎Aug 24, 2009‎
        Attending the event, India's junior Minister of Defence MM Pallam Raju said that they were an "integral part" of the country's "defence preparedness". ...

        Shipyard takeover underlines govt's defence urgency

        Reuters India - Niladri Bhattacharya - ‎Aug 25, 2009‎
        KOLKATA (Reuters) - India's Defence Ministry will take over a commercial shipyard to build military vessels for its navy, ...
         
        Pokharan II was a complete success: Kalam
         
        Updated on Thursday, August 27, 2009, 18:58 IST Tags:pokharan iik santhanamapj abdul kalamnuclear testindia
        Zeenews Bureau

        New Delhi: Hours after the startling statement of K Santhanam alleging that Pokharan II was not completely successful, former President and operational in-charge of 1998 Pokharan-II Tests, APJ Abdul Kalam retaliated saying that , "The tests in Pokharan were completely successful."

        "All parameters of tests were successfully met and there is no ambiguity on its success," Kalam was quoted by a news channel.

        Kalam's comment comes at a crucial time when the latest revelations from Santhanam took the nation by surprise.

        Earlier, K Santhanam, a DRDO scientist who was associated with Pokhran II and worked under Kalam, had claimed that the tests were only partially successful as the results were much below expectations.

        The startling revelations made by Santhanam raised doubts over country's nuclear prowess and the veracity of its claim as a nuke capable state.

        It also stirred up a hornet's nest by giving fresh credence to the earlier debates in the foreign media over the success of India's nuclear tests.

        Santhanam, who was director for 1998 test site preparations, claimed that the yield for the thermonuclear test or hydrogen bomb in popular usage was much lower than what was claimed.

        As per him the yield of Pokharan II tests can only be classified as a "fizzle" rather than big bang.

        In nuclear terminology, a test is classified as a fizzle when the yield is below expectation.

        Santham had also stressed that the country needs to conduct more nuclear tests to consolidate its position and improve its knowledge of nuclear weapon programme before joining Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

        "Based upon the seismic measurements and expert opinion from world over, it is clear that the yield in the thermonuclear device test was much lower than what was claimed. I think it is well documented and that is why I assert that India should not rush into signing the CTBT,'' Santhanam said.

        Soon after the tests, the Indian authorities claimed that Pokhran II test was a huge success as it yielded 45 kilotons (KT). However, this was contradicted by the western experts who said that it was not more than 20 KT.
         
         
         
        27/08/2009

        Sugar becomes bitter, may dampens festival ahead

        World sugar prices have hit the roof touching a 30 years high and threaten to make the coming festival season bitter. Already the impact has been felt in Kerala where Onam festival is round the corner. The price in Kerala is currently Rs 34 a kg and in other cities it is hovering around Rs 30 a kg.

        With Ramadan and Dasara falling next month, consumers are going to have a tough time and the government will soon have to look for answers.

        One report said that India has sugar stocks that will last just for another month.

        India is the largest consumer of sugar in the world and the second largest producer, but poor monsoon this year, the output has been dismal.

        About 36 percent of global sugar production comes from Asia.

        Brazil, another major exporter, too had a bad crop due to fluctuating weather.

        In India, the government has introduced strict limits on companies that stockpile sugar to check rising prices.

        Shortages led Pakistan's government to nearly double sugar prices causing public outrage ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, which has now begun.

        The government has also said that bulk sugar buyers, such as biscuit manufacturers, would be allowed to store only 15 days supply.

        Source: India Syndicate

         
        26/08/2009

        Madonna receives death threat in Serbia

        London, Aug 26 (IANS) Pop diva Madonna has received death threats in Serbia.

        The 'Frozen' hit maker has beefed up her security after the threats during her ongoing 'Sticky & Sweet' world tour and arrived in Belgrade, Serbia, in disguise to perform her concert in front of 30,000 fans Monday, reports contactmusic.com.

        The star took extra precautions after receiving threatening messages from Balkan fanatics, hiring a posse of bodyguards to protect her as she took the stage in the Serbian capital for the first time.

        The worried singer will also be accompanied by the stepped up security in neighbouring Romania, where she is set to play a gig Wednesday.

         

        Advani did say a big lie, confirms new evidence

        New revelations show that BJP leader L. K. Advani was very much present when the decision was taken to swap Pakistani terrorists for the hijacked Indian Airlines passengers in Kandahar in 1999.

        Advani had taken a stand during the elections to the Lok Sabha that he was not aware of the move trade terrorists for the freedom of the hijacked passengers of the Khatmandu-Delhi IC 184 flight or the decision of the then foreign minister Jaswant Singh to accompany the terrorists to Kandahar.

        In an interview to CNN-IBN, Brajesh Mishra, the then National Security Adviser, confirmed what Jaswant Singh had earlier said. Mishra said that Advani, who was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, was present in the Cabinet meeting that took the decision to free the terrorists.

        Jaswant had, last week, called Advani a liar and said that he (Advani) not only knew of the decision to free terrorists but also was part of the Cabinet meeting. But he covered up for Advani, Jaswant said and was bitter that when he (Jaswant) was in trouble over the book on Jinnah, Advani looked the other way.
        The new revelation is likely to cause another blow to the image of Advani who had wanted to become the Prime Minister of India.

        Source: India Syndicate

         

        Decision to expel Jaswant Singh not right: Yashwant Sinha

        New Delhi: After Arun Shourie, another senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader - Yashwant Sinha - has come out against the party's decision to sack Jaswant Singh for his controversial book praising Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, saying the move "was not right"

        "It was not right for the party to take that decision," Sinha, a former finance minister, Thursday told CNN-IBN TV news channel in reply to a question on the expulsion of Jaswant Singh last week.

        Sinha also said that the BJP should not have taken such a decision for a leader "who has served the party for 30 years".

        He said that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would have handled the present crisis in the party in a much better way than L.K. Advani.

        This is the first time Sinha has commented on the expulsion of Jaswant Singh for his book "Jinnah: India - Partition - Independence", in which he has praised Jinnah.

         

         

        Source: IANS

         

        Neo Liberalism and macdonaldisation of India since 1990, Incarnation of CORPORATE raj led by MANMOHAN, CHIDAMBARAM PRANAB ADWANI KARAT gang, War agaist terrorism, Indo US Nuclear Deal and Strategic realliance led by US and Israel, Vesting Internal security in Mossad and CIA has made INDIA ZIONIST Hindu Rashtra whatever you may claim for DEMOCRACY, Secularism and Progress, nothing stands in the way! Indian Foreign Policy cahnged ZIONIST and HINDUIZED accordingly. Recent developments should open our eyes!

         
        No CTBT, India needs more nuclear tests: Pokhran II coordinator opines! Ex President kalam, the Missile man flexes the Nuclear Missile to oblige the Ruling Hegemony and Global Triblis war Economy and political Order of Phoenix! Jinnah Controversy escalates! Gandhians and socialists take fields to DEFEND Gandhian Manusmriti Code quoting Hind Swaraj! While the ECONOMIC Slaughter continues in the Third world! Indian Dipolmats met in New Delhi and failed to create any Road map for Independent Foreign Policy in the US Peripherry!While, Kennedy Myth is Revoked to Humanise US Corporate War Interests Galaxywide! Family members of US Senator Edward Kennedy gathered on Thursday for a private Mass at the seaside home where the 77-year-old towering figure in Democratic politics died two days ago.
         
        Adding to the BJP's woes, former national security advisor (NSA) Brajesh Mishra said on Thursday that L K Advani was part of the decisions taken "unanimously" by the then Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) regarding the release of militants to save 160 hostages on the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.
         
        "The decisions were taken by the CCS, which had (then) prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, home minister L K Advani, finance minister Yashwant Sinha, defence minister George Fernandes and external affairs minster Jaswant Singh as its members," Mishra told journalist Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN.
         
        what a BETRAYAL by the Hindutva forces fed on  Blind nationalism, Kargil war, Dalit Muslim Tribe Hate, Partition legacy of Two nation theory, POONA Pact credited to Gandhi, Refugee Influx and war against Terrorism! It proves the allegation that BJP is nothing MINUS than HINDU Brahaminical Terrorist party !
         
         sify com reports:
         

        The comment of Mishra, former prime minister Vajpayee's closest aide, comes days after Jaswant Singh said he had "covered" up for Advani during the 2009 Lok Sabha campaign by concealing that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate knew of the terrorist-hostage swap during the 1999 hijacking episode.

        BJP is like Ku Klux Klan: Jaswant Singh

        In a bitter attack on Advani after his sacking from the BJP last week, Jaswant Singh had revealed that the former home minister's claim that he was unaware of Jaswant Singh accompanying three freed terrorists for securing the release of 160 hostages was not true.

        Advani had all along claimed that he was not in the know that Jaswant Singh was on the plane with three terrorists to Kandahar.

        Rebutting Advani's claims, Mishra said: "I am not going to get into anything that then home minister Advani said. I will only draw your attention to the fact that key members of the CCS - George Fernandes, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha - have very clearly said he (Advani) was there."

        Khanduri challenges BJP leadership

        "A proposal was made in the CCS that Jaswant Singh should go and bring back the hostages and it was agreed by the CCS. Let's put it more charitably as George Fernandes said, may be he has forgotten," the former NSA said.

        Giving details of the IC-814 hijacking and demands of the militants, Mishra said: "They (hijackers) wanted the release of 36 terrorists and $200 million and also the interned remains of some terrorist buried in Kashmir. Each and every man (in the CCS) was opposed to the demand. Then there was a decision, a unanimous decision, that in order to save 160 hostages three terrorists will be released. No money, no interned remains (were given)."

        I`m not joining any party: Sudheendra Kulkarni

        Mishra said the CCS was meeting every day during the hostage crisis and "the CCS took the decision that Jaswant Singh should accompany the terrorists to Kandahar".

        "Jaswant Singh proposed that he would go to Kandahar to bring back hostages. He explained that Indian representatives negotiating there had suggested that somebody senior should be there in case of some last minute problems. This he told the CCS. This was agreed to unanimously," he said, adding that Advani was part of the decision.

        SEARCH
         
        As the UN climate summit in Copenhagen approaches, exhortations that "we must get a deal" and warnings that climate change is "the greatest challenge we face as a species" are to be heard in virtually every political forum.
         
        Meanwhile,  China today joined hands with India in telling the rich nations that they should not resort to trade protectionism and must shoulder the main responsibility for mitigating global warming.Mind you, India considers China ENEMY Number One to INVOKE War Gods in south Asia to justify its Nuclear Armament, defence deals and KICKBACKS fed Swiss bank Accounts to feed the Gandhi Credited Brahmin Bania Military raj!

        Adopting a resolution on climate change, China's top legislature said the world's most populous nation should "actively" deal with pressing challenge of climate change.

        Seeking a proactive role for China in negotiating possible solutions to curtailing emissions at an international conference in December in Copenhagen, Denmark, the resolution says Beijing will constructively participate in international conferences and negotiations on climate change.

         

        reuters further reports:
         
         Chinese legislators said on Thursday that their country will "strive to control greenhouse gas emissions" and consider new laws to fight climate change, while warning against using the issue to raise trade barriers.

        The positions were laid out in a resolution passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, or parliament, adding to a flurry of statements on climate change from China, the world's biggest emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases. [ID:nSP434277]

        "We must strengthen energy-saving and emissions reduction, striving to control emissions of greenhouse gases," said the resolution, urging more support for wind, solar and other forms of clean energy.

        China will "draft laws and regulations based on practical circumstances to provide more vigorous legal backing for fighting climate change", said the resolution, which was issued to journalists.

        But it also warned wealthy nations not to use the issue of climate change to impose any form of trade protection.

        Some U.S. lawmakers have said products from China and other big emitters should face possible adjustment measures if these countries' governments do not do more to curtail greenhouse gas emissions in coming years.

        The statement from China's Communist Party-controlled legislature came just over 100 days before nations meet in Copenhagen seeking to agree on a new international pact on global warming. [ID:nSP434277]

        The NPC is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and the Standing Committee is the inner council that meets more often than the annual full parliament session. NPC resolutions are political statements that do not have any binding legal force.

        The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012 and negotiations on a replacement accord are scheduled to conclude in Copenhagen in December.

        China is already the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gas from human activities, especially carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

        These gases absorb infrared radiation originating from the sun, and their growing presence is retaining more heat in the atmosphere and so altering the climate.

        China's emissions of greenhouse gases per person are still much lower than the developed world's per capita average, and Beijing has insisted it will not accept mandatory emissions caps in any new agreement. The current Kyoto Protocol does not demand caps for developing countries. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)




         

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        While describing itself as a "developing country," the resolution said China will firmly "maintain the right to development," and opposes "any form of trade protectionism disguised as tackling climate change.
         

        "We can't get into a stampede to sign CTBT. We should conduct more nuclear tests which are necessary from the point of view of security," K Santhanam told IANS in New Delhi.

         

        "We should not get railroaded into signing the CTBT," Santhanam said when asked about reports of the US pressuring India to sign the CTBT and fresh efforts by the Obama administration to revive non-proliferation activism.

         

        Santhanam, a former official with the Defence Research and Development Organisation, said that the thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb tests, the first and most powerful of the three tests conducted on May 11, 1998 - did not produce the desired yield.

         

        Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) chief R Chidambaram is on record as saying that the bombs yield was 45 kilotons (45,000 tonnes of conventional explosive).

         

        Santhanam's remarks are set to create a flutter in the non-proliferation establishment in the US and may raise doubts about the future of the India-US nuclear deal which will unravel if New Delhi were to test again.

         

        Santhanam's assessment is set to bolster India's opposition to signing the CTBT - an issue that may figure in the discussions when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to the US in November. India has opposed CTBT on grounds that it is discriminatory and tends to divide the world into the nuclear haves and have-nots.

         
        On the other hand,The Indian Air Force today scrambled its MiG 29 fighter jets to intercept an Air France flight entering India from Pakistan over Amritsar as the aircraft had switched on wrong Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) code.
         

        "Taking prompt action after our radars detected an unknown aircraft over our territory, we scrambled two of our MiG 29 air defence fighter jets from Adampur air base to intercept the aircraft at around 0610 hours in the morning, as it had switched on a wrong IFF code," IAF officials said here.

         

        "The mission was aborted soon after the fighters took off as the French aircraft had switched over to the right codes," they added.

         

        IFF codes are meant to help the ground-based radars to automatically differentiate between friendly and enemy aircraft.

         

        The French Airliner's Airbus 343 aircraft was on its way from Paris to Bangkok and was entering India after flying over Lahore in Pakistan.

         

        "After the aircraft switched over to the right codes, it was allowed to proceed towards its destination and the IAF jets came back to its base," they said.

         

        After the 26/11 attacks, the IAF has been keeping a tight vigil on the borders to thwart any attempt by non-state actors to carry out any 9/11 type aerial strikes in India.

         

        Zee news reports:

         

        Opposition PML-Q party has invited former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh to Pakistan to launch his controversial new book on the country's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, saying that it would be a step towards promoting intellectual and people-to-people understanding.

        PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed telephoned Singh and congratulated him on his book, which he described as a "landmark and historical work which sets the record straight".

        "I spoke to Singh yesterday and told him his book reversed the wrongs of history and reflected his commitment to truth and his moral courage. We invited him to launch his book in Islamabad as it would be a step towards promoting intellectual and people-to-people understanding," Sayed said.

        Sayed said Singh had told him he would visit Pakistan after the holy month of Ramzan for the launch of his book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence'.

        PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has also written a letter to Singh to express his appreciation for his book. Meanwhile, one of the persons who was to host Singh in Pakistan for a visit scheduled for this week today claimed the former BJP leader was unable to make the trip as he had been denied security clearance by the Indian government.

        Muhammad Yusuf, who was coordinating with Singh on behalf of a leading book store, said he had spoken yesterday to the former external affairs minister, who told him that he would be unable to come to Pakistan this week.

        "He was denied security clearance by the Indian government. He will visit Pakistan at a later date," Yusuf said, adding that Singh had even been issued a visa by Pakistan for the proposed visit.

        Other persons involved in organising Singh's visit too claimed the Indian government had blocked his trip by refusing to issue a "no-objection certificate." They insisted that all preparations had been completed for Singh's visit.

         

        http://www.zeenews.com/news558743.html

         

         

        Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said attempts were being made to vilify Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the wake of Jaswant Singh's book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and said it was a malicious campaign to distort history for narrow partisan interests.

        He also attacked attempts to make out that Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, the progenitor of the latter day Jana Sangh and BJP, and Jinnah had no role in Partition.

        Mukherjee made sarcastic references to senior BJP leader L K Advani's controversial visit to Pakistan in 2005 and Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and said they should explain the psychology behind glorifying Jinnah.

        "BJP leaders should explain. When Advani will go to Pakistan, he will discover that Jinnah is secular. Jaswant Singh suddenly discovered that he was not responsible ( for Partition). He wanted a united India. These are not historically correct," he told a news agency in the first high-level reaction from Congress to Singh's book.

        "This is mudslinging and vilification. An attempt is being made to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru by accusing him of being responsible for the Partition of India.

        "This is a malicious campaign completely ignoring the facts pertaining to the Partition and an attempt to distort history for narrow partisan interest," Mukherjee said.

        Referring to Singh's book and saffron leaders' attempts to blame Nehru and other Congress leaders for Partition, Mukherjee said, "How can they claim they (HMS leaders) had no role in Partition? The BJP leaders should not forget that the founder of Jana Sangh, S P Mukherjee was one of the main architects of Partition of India."

        He said Mukherjee was then the President of HMS and he not only supported Partition of the country but insisted on Partition of Bengal and Punjab on the basis of Hindu-Muslim and Hindu-Sikh-Muslim majority districts respectively in these two provinces.

        "It is ironical that leaders of that party are trying to distort history and are eager to absolve Jinnah for his role in Partition of this country," he said.

        The Minister said BJP owed an explanation to the people on what prompted their leaders to distort history and vilify Nehru, who was an architect of modern India.

        "The contribution of this statesman (Nehru) in shaping the destiny of this country in its early years of independence does not require any certification from any political party, least of all BJP," he said.

        Mukherjee said the greatness of a leader comes from his actions and the legacy he leaves behind. "He left behind a strong, secular and democratic nation, which is today the largest parliamentary democracy in the world. He has his own place in history and no irresponsible comment could alter his place in history.

         

        Meanwhile, Pakistani Taliban's new chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who only managed to assume the mantle after reaching a power-sharing deal with his rival, has threatened to strike the US in revenge for the slaying of their leader Baitullah Mehsud.

         

        28-year-old Hakimullah issued the threat as he was declared new central 'Amir' (chief) of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but with an estimated 25,000 armed militants and the organisation being under Wali-ur Rehman who was named Amir for South Waziristan, the Pakistani TV channels reported.

         

        The two top commanders had joined hands only because of the power-sharing deal, giving credence to assertions made by Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik that TTP was plagued by infighting.

         

        The two commanders conceded for the first time that Baitullah was dead, 20 days after US and Pakistani officials had said that he was killed in an American missile attack in South Waziristan on August 5.

         

        Zee News reports:

         

        Two days after Pakistani Taliban appointed a new chief, a US drone on Thursday targeted one of the key commanders Waliur Rehman as it fired missiles on his stronghold in South Waziristan killing eight people, mostly militants and wounding another nine.

        Two hellfire missiles were aimed at a suspected militant hide-out of Waliur Rehman and later Taliban fighters were seen removing dead bodies from the destroyed compound, Geo News reported quoting local residents.

        It was not clear whether Rehman, who has been made 'Amir' of South Waziristan in a new power sharing deal with the new Pakistani Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud, was near the compound.

        Waliur Rehman has also been named as controller of all fighters and organisational setup of the TTP.

        The missiles struck in the Kani Guram area of South Waziristan. The same area was hit on Aug 11 in an attack that killed at least eight people, the TV channel said.

        The US has stepped up missile attacks on the Taliban recently after their missiles scored a direct hit and killed feared former TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud.

        Just two days back US drones targeted a compound just outside Wana, the main city of Waziristan aiming to kill another major foe Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of powerful Afghan tribal chief Jalluddin Haqqani. Siraj, as he is known in the region is reported to be operating on both sides of the border.

        Waziristan borders Paktia province of Afghanistan, which is the stronghold of Haqqani network.

        The United States has launched more than 40 missile attacks from unmanned drones on al Qaeda and Taliban targets close to the Afghan border since last year, reportedly killing several top commanders, but also civilians.

         

        US general aims for Afghan hearts in anti-Taliban fight

         

        Gen. Stanley McChrystal

        Map

         

        International soldiers in Afghanistan to wipe out a Taliban insurgency were Thursday issued tips on how to minimise civilian casualties as the war intensifies and foreign troop deaths hit record numbers.

        General Stanley McChrystal, head of more than 100,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, issued "counter-insurgency guidelines" aimed at winning the hearts and minds of Afghans increasingly impatient with the foreign military presence.

        "Protecting the people is the mission," McChrystal told troops.

        "The Afghan people will decide who wins this fight and we (the Afghan government and NATO troops) are in a struggle for their support."

        The seven-page document came as Afghans await the outcome of elections bankrolled by the international community and which appear to be favouring Western-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

        With around 17 percent of the results made public, Karzai leads with 42.3 percent, but is short of the outright majority needed to avoid a second round. His main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, is on 33.1 percent.

        No results are to be released on Thursday or Friday, according to an official of the Independent Election Commission, who said counting was continuing nevertheless. Friday is a holiday in the Muslim country.

        Afghanistan's second presidential election and a parallel vote for provincial councillors were held on August 20 under the shadow of Taliban intimidation, including rocket, grenade and suicide attacks.

        Just two hours after the first results were released in Kabul on Tuesday, the southern city of Kandahar was rocked by a suicide car bomb that killed more than 40 people and bore all the hallmarks of a Taliban attack.

        NATO released details Thursday of the death of a US soldier in the troubled eastern province of Paktika in a fierce gun fight with Taliban who had taken their commander to a clinic to have battle wounds treated.

        It said the Taliban commander's injuries were sustained during fighting on election day -- when their anti-vote campaign peaked -- and that 12 insurgents were killed and six captured in the gun fight Wednesday.

        The US death was the third in two days -- the other two resulted from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), remote-controlled roadside bombs that NATO leaders say are responsible for most foreign troop deaths.

        This year is the deadliest for foreign troops in Afghanistan since they arrived in 2001 to topple the Taliban regime as punishment for harbouring Al-Qaeda in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

        According to the independent website icasualties.org, which keeps a running tally, 299 foreign troops have been killed so far in 2009, compared to 294 for all of 2008.

        While Taliban IEDs also claim many civilian deaths, US and NATO airstrikes have caused indiscriminate deaths and lead to widespread anger among Afghans.

        McChrystal's directive -- ahead of a war review to US President Barack Obama due next month -- urges troops to "think before you act... View your actions through the eyes of the Afghans".

        "If we harm Afghan civilians, we sow the seeds of our own defeat," he said.

        A recent escalation of troop numbers and operations in the troubled south, where the Taliban are strongest, was aimed at securing the election even as insurgents waged a virulent campaign to keep turnout low.

        Figures extrapolated from results already released suggest the rebels' campaign had widespread success, with perhaps 30-35 percent of 17 million registered voters venturing out.

        In some Taliban strongholds, such as Logar province south of Kabul, residents said turnout was negligible.

        "In my village there are more than 6,000 people. Only seven voted," mechanic Mansour Stanikzai told AFP in the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam.

        Expectations of low turnout have led to questions about the legitimacy of the victor, and how strong a mandate he will be able to claim.

        "The reason we had the election was to give legitimacy to the government, and we have failed in that goal," said analyst Haroun Mir.

        "The Taliban has cancelled it out, they forced people to remain in their homes," he said, calling the legitimacy of the final result "in question".

         

        Nepalese cabinet approves Gurung as new Army chief
        Kathmandu: General Chhatra Man Gurung is all set to be made the full Army Chief of Nepal with the cabinet approving his formal appointment to head the 95,000 strong force, a step which could defuse the ongoing confrontation between the government and the Maoists.

        Gurung, the first Nepalese from the ethnic group to head the Army is presently officiating as the Army chief as the incumbent General Rukmangad Katawal has gone on a month long leave prior to his retirement.

        On the cabinet recommendation, the President Ram Baran Yadav will officially appoint Gurung as the new Army Chief. But the appointment would be formally made after the tenure of the present chief expires on September 11.

        Katawal was involved in a controversy as the former prime minister Prachanda sacked him. But the President blocked the Maoist government's move.

        With, the formal appointment of Gurung, the new government headed by Madhav Kumar Nepal hopes to diffuse confrontation with the Maoists, who are blocking the proceedings of Parliament over the issue.

        Prachanda has said that mere retirement of Katwal will not satisfy his party as it wants to make it clear that in democracy the will of the elected government should prevail.

         

        Prabhakaran tried to escape to jungles: Aide

          Worried that LTTE's defeat at the hands of military would crush his dream of a separate Tamil homeland, slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran had made a last ditch attempt to escape to the jungles in the north by breaching the Sri Lankan defence lines during the final phase of the war.
         

        Prabhakaran's now detained close aide Gokulan Master, who was with the Tiger chief during the last stage of the war three months back, disclosed this during interrogation.

         

        A day before he was killed on May 18 in Wanni, the Tiger supremo attempted to escape to the Puthukudiyiruppu Jungles by breaking through the Sri Lankan defence lines, the aide said.

         

        "If we fail in our final plan, we would be killed by the Sri Lankan army. In such an eventuality, no one can claim an Eelam (separate homeland for Tamils) in Sri Lanka and the Eelam dream would become a nightmare," Prabhakaran was quoted as saying by Master.

         

        "So on the morning of May 18, the near 35-year old dream of Tamil Eelam became a nightmare to us," Master told interrogators, according to the 'Bottom Line' newspaper.

         

        When the Sri Lanka Army was about to overrun Visvamadu in the north, Prabhakaran shifted to adjoining Puthukudyiruppu and from there he directed the fight while in underground bunkers set up by utilising containers, Master said.

         

        The newspaper said the LTTE decided to increase its manpower and began recruiting children as young as 12 and adults over 50 years of age during the crucial phase of war.

         

        "These persons thus recruited were inducted into the 'Makkal Padai' or People's Force after a very short training," it said.

         

        Simultaneously, on a concept put forward by senior LTTE leaders Theepan and Balraj, the LTTE started putting up earth bunds, going up from five feet to 20 feet in height, depending on the location, it said.

         

        "When the LTTE lost Pooneryn and Kilinochchi, Prabhakaran once told Pottu Amman (LTTE's intelligence chief) that 75 per cent of his struggle for Eelam had gone downstream," Master said.

        Prabhakaran said that the LTTE had to boost the sagging morale of its cadres and slow down the enemy, at least till the international community intervened on the outfit's behalf, the newspaper quoted Master as saying.

         

        While these ideas were being discussed, Balraj was killed in a Special Forces' ambush, dealing yet another devastating blow to the Tiger outfit, according to Master.

        Bing Searches


         
        Security developments in Afghanistan

        (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 9:30 a.m. British time Thursday.

         

        PAKTIKA - Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops detained a Taliban commander with six other suspected insurgents in a clinic in the Sar Hawza district of southeastern Paktika province Wednesday, ISAF said in statement. The Taliban commander was being treated in the clinic for wounds suffered during a firefight with Afghan forces on August 20. One ISAF service member was killed during the raid, it said, but no other details were available.

         

        HELMAND - Three Afghan children were killed when a shell they were playing with exploded in the Nahr Saraj district of southern Helmand province Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

         

        PAKTIKA - A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded one in Paktika's Sayed Khel district Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

        (Compiled by Kabul bureau; Editing by Paul Tait)

         

        South America to slam US-Colombia base deal

         

        South American presidents are expected to slam a US plan to use military bases in Colombia when they gather for a summit in Argentina at the end of the week specifically to discuss the issue.

         

        The anti-US leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have already vociferously criticized the announcement that Washington wanted to expand its military presence in Colombia to access seven bases.

         

        The more moderate presidents heading up Brazil, Chile and Argentina have likewise expressed concern at the decision, first announced last month by Bogota.

         

        The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit in the Argentine ski resort of Bariloche on Friday is to examine claims by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez that the increased US deployment could be used to invade his country.

         

        Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is to attend, after having snubbed the previous Unasur meeting in Ecuador early this month because of regional friction over the deal.

         

        Ahead of that last meeting, Uribe embarked on a tour of South America to speak to leaders one-on-one about the bases deal, but failed to win any support except from Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

         

        US officials say that, while the deal on the bases was finalized this month, the agreement with Colombia has yet been signed.

         

        US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she expected to ink the accord soon.

         

        She also insisted that the beefed-up US military presence was exclusively aimed at "narco-traffickers, terrorists, and other illegal armed groups in Colombia."

         

        But Chavez on Sunday charged that "they are turning all of Colombia into a (US) base."

         

        He said in his weekly broadcast he had a document that showed the US military intended to operate unhindered "in strategic areas" -- which he interpreted as including the Orinoco Delta in eastern Venezuela and Brazil's northern Amazon basin.

         

        The US aim was to "dominate South America and act freely across the continent," he alleged.

         

        Brazil's defense minister, Nelson Jobim, was to travel to Colombia on Tuesday to talk over the bases decision with his counterpart, Gabriel Silva Lujan.

         

        On Monday, he met with Ecuadorian Defense Minister Javier Ponce. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim also met with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconi.

         

        Falconi said Colombia had requested that several agenda items be discussed in conjunction with the bases issue at Friday's summit, including other military deals in South America.

         

        That latter point could touch on Venezuela's recent purchases of billions of dollars of Russian weaponry, including sophisticated fighter jets and tanks, and Brazil's deal with France to buy five submarines, one of which will be outfitted as a nuclear-powered vessel. Brazil is also poised to buy 36 new fighter aircraft from France, the United States or Sweden.

         

        "There are no off-limit subjects at the meeting," Falconi said.

         

        "We think that all aspects linked to security in the region need to be tackled by the presidents. It's not about accusing anybody, only holding transparent dialogue with the aim of strengthening regional unity," he said.

         

        Unasur groups Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guayana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

        Last week, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged US President Barack Obama to attend a Unasur summit to hear the grievances.

         

        Obama said only he would "look at possibilities" and would next meet with Lula on September 24-25, at a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, in the US state of Pennsylvania.

         

        Under a current cap exercised by the US Congress, the number of US citizens deployed to bases in Colombia cannot exceed 800 uniformed and 600 civilian personnel.

         

        The US daily The Washington Post claimed in an editorial on Monday that Chavez was stirring up trouble over the bases to distract attention from his alleged support of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel organization deemed a "terrorist" group by Washington.

         

        The newspaper, which has good sources in US defense and political circles, asserted that giving the US military access to seven bases in Colombia was an "unremarkable" expansion of existing US operations in the country.

         

         UN envoy slams 'entrenched' racism in Australia
         
         

        A United Nations envoy slammed Australia's military-led intervention in remote Aboriginal communities and said racism was "entrenched" in the country, in a damning assessment on Thursday. Skip related content

        UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights James Anaya said the intervention policy, where thousands of troops and police were sent to help curb alcohol-fuelled sexual abuse and domestic violence, was clearly discriminatory.

        He urged the government to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act in the Northern Territory, and called for compensation for the "stolen generations" of Aboriginal children, who were taken from their parents to promote racial integration.

        "It undermines the right of indigenous peoples to control their own destinies, their right to self-determination," Anaya, referring to the intervention, told reporters in Canberra.

        "There is entrenched racism in Australia," he added. "These measures overtly discriminate against Aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatise already stigmatised communities."

        Under the intervention, the conservative government of ex-prime minister John Howard slapped restrictions on welfare payments, alcohol and pornography in 73 desert townships and introduced measures to boost school attendance.

        The controversial move has met with fierce objections from Aborigines, with one group this week calling on the UN to declare them refugees in their own country, claiming the government action had left them powerless.

        Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to scrap the policy since taking office in late 2007, disappointing many Aboriginal leaders, despite issuing a historic apology for the wrongs suffered since white settlement in 1788.

        Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said moves to reintroduce the Racial Discrimination Act, suspended in the Northern Territory when the crackdown started in June 2007, would come into parliament later this year.

        "I think what's important is that we recognise we have a huge task in front of us to close the gap, to close the life expectancy gap, the employment gap, the gap in education," Macklin said.

        "We know how big the task is and we certainly intend to keep getting on with it."

        Anaya's two-week visit here is the first by a UN rapporteur on indigenous human rights, or roving representative for the international body. He will report back to the UN Human Rights Council.

        His comments coincided with the outlining of a new representative body for the highly disadvantaged indigenous population, following the disbanding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2005.

        Macklin welcomed the proposal, which called for an independent body headed by elected representatives, but she promised only "modest and appropriate" funding.

        Australia's 517,000 Aborigines, descended from the country's original inhabitants, suffer disproportionate rates of infant mortality, health problems and suicide with life expectancy some 17 years below the national average.

        China urges U.S. to halt surveillance near its shores
         

        China called on the United States States to reduce and eventually halt air and sea military surveillance close to its shores after a series of territorial disputes this year.

         

        The request was made during a special session on maritime safety between the two countries' militaries on Wednesday and Thursday, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing China's Defence Ministry.

        Five times this year, Chinese vessels have confronted U.S. surveillance ships in Asian waters, the U.S. Defence Department said in May. China said the U.S. vessels had intruded its territory. There has since been a sixth incident.

         

        "China believes the constant U.S. military air and sea surveillance and survey operations in China's exclusive economic zone had led to military confrontations between the two sides," the ministry said.

        "The way to resolve China-U.S. maritime incidents is for the U.S. to change its surveillance and survey operations policies against China, decrease and eventually stop such operations."

         

        Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, confirmed the request.

         

        "Our position has not changed," Stevenson said, citing a U.S. Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy statement during a June visit to China that the U.S. "exercises its freedom of navigation while putting emphasis on taking care to avoid any unwanted incidents."

        The United States maintains on principle that waters beyond 12 miles offshore are open to all shipping, while China holds that the U.S. should not trespass within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

         
        Israeli PM to discuss peace in 'emotional' Berlin visit
         
         

        The hawkish Israeli leader sat down to talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel focused on the latest US-backed drive to revive the Middle East peace talks as well as attempts to halt Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

        Netanyahu warned of the threat posed by Tehran as he earlier accepted a gift of original blueprints of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz for Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial from a German publisher.

        "We cannot allow those who call for the destruction of the Jewish state to go unchallenged," he said in a clear reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly said that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map" and that the Nazi genocide of European Jewry was a "myth."

        "We cannot allow evil to prepare the mass deaths of innocents. It should be nipped in the bud."

        The blueprints, which date from 1941-42 and include plans drawn with cool technical precision of a gas chamber and a crematorium, were discovered in a Berlin apartment last year and then bought by the Bild newspaper.

        More than one million Jews, Roma and others deemed "subhuman" by Adolf Hitler's regime were killed at Auschwitz, near the Polish city of Krakow, out of a total six million slaughtered by the end of World War II in 1945.

        Netanyahu earlier met Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel's challenger in September 27 elections in Germany, on the second and final leg of a four-day European tour -- his first since taking office in March.

        "Minister Steinmeier stressed the importance of a resumption of substantial Israel-Palestinian negotiations," his ministry said. "Both sides must undertake concrete steps in this context."

        After meeting Merkel, Netanyahu will visit a villa on the Wannsee lake on the outskirts of Berlin where senior Nazis adopted in January 1942 the "final solution" -- plans to exterminate all Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.

        Netanyahu, who has described the upcoming visit to Wannsee as "emotional," will be the first Israeli prime minister to visit the site's museum which was opened in 1992 on the 50th anniversary of the "final solution" conference.

        He lauded the Jewish state's close ties with Germany, which were officially established in 1965 following a fraught debate in Israel, a country deeply scarred by the Holocaust.

        Germany now is considered Israel's strongest ally in Europe.

        "Every time I am in Germany I bless the relationship we have with the German government. Not only because of the present and the future, but also because of the past," he told reporters shortly after arriving Wednesday.

        Netanyahu came to Berlin from London where he met British counterpart Gordon Brown and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who has been pressing him to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank in order to jumpstart peace talks.

        Although Netanyahu seemed cool to the request, he expressed optimism that a deal could be clinched in the coming weeks, with direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks launched by the end of September.

        The settlements were set to figure in talks with Merkel, as well as Israeli calls for tougher economic sanctions against Iran and reported German mediation in efforts to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Palestinian militants.

        Berlin has declined to comment on any involvement in such talks.

         
        China denounces proposed Dalai Lama visit to Taiwan 

        China promptly denounced a proposed trip to Taiwan by the Dalai Lama on Thursday, saying any such visit by a man Beijing brands a separatist threatened to "sabotage" improving relations. Skip related content

        Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing, approved the visit by the Nobel Peace laureate to comfort victims of a deadly typhoon at a time of burgeoning trade and investment between the rivals.

        "No matter under what form or identity Dalai uses to enter Taiwan, we resolutely oppose this," China's Taiwan Affairs Bureau said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency.

        "Some of the people in the Democratic Progressive Party use the disaster rescue excuse to invite Dalai to Taiwan to sabotage the hard-earned positive situation of cross-straits relations."

        Beijing brands the India-based Tibetan luminary as a separatist and condemns his trips abroad.

        An aide to the Dalai Lama in the Indian town of Dharamsala said the spiritual leader had been keen to visit Taiwan.

        "As of now, we are planning a visit to Taiwan and the dates are still being worked out," Tenzin Taklha said. "We want to make it very clear that the Dalai Lama is visiting Taiwan to express condolences to victims and lead prayers."

        China is considered unlikely to retaliate by choking off growing economic ties between the long-time political rivals.

        By blaming the opposition DPP and not Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou or the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT), Beijing may have indicated it does not wish to escalate the issue.

        "Beijing will be a little uncomfortable, but if they understand how severe the disaster is they will show some respect to Taiwan's people," KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih said.

        About 650 people are feared dead after Typhoon Morakot, the island's worst typhoon in 50 years, soaked Taiwan from August 7-9.

        China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

        But Beijing is also aware any strong moves against the Dalai Lama could play into the hands of Taiwanese opponents of President Ma, who has sought to ease tensions with Beijing.

        RESTORING IMAGE

        The Taiwan president's office, under fire for perceptions the response to Typhoon Morakot was too slow, and national security officials met for five hours late on Wednesday and decided to permit a visit, the Government Information Office said.

        Admitting the Dalai Lama lets Ma give the impression that Ma is not driven solely concerned with ties with Beijing, said Hsu Yung-ming, a political science professor at Soochow University.

        "He doesn't want people to think he cares only about China, that he also cares about Taiwan," Hsu said.

        Taiwan, home to a large exiled Tibetan community and millions of Buddhists, allowed visits by the Dalai Lama in 1997 and 2001.

        Ma last year quashed hopes for a new visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader, saying the timing was wrong. Taiwan Buddhist groups criticised that decision.

        Since taking office in 2008, Ma's administration has avoided action that could anger Beijing as he pursues trade ties.

        "We've ... decided to let the Dalai Lama visit as he is coming here to pray for the dead victims, as well as the survivors," Ma told reporters while visiting typhoon survivors.

        The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule over Tibet.



        Govt rejects scientist's stand on Pokhran II success

        The Defence Ministry on Thursday rejected senior DRDO scientist K. Santhanam's assertion that the 1998 Pokhran II nuclear tests were not fully successful, adding that India has a meaningful number of nuclear weapons and an effective delivery system to go with it.

        Sources in the ministry told the Times Now television channel that India has a nuclear deterrent that is adequate for its security.

        K. Santhanam, who was director for 1998 test site preparations, told the Times of India in an interview that the yield of thermonuclear explosions was actually much below expectations and the tests were perhaps more a fizzle rather than a big bang.

        In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield.

        Santhanam said the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed. Santhanam also said that given this fact, India should not rush into signing the CTBT.

        He emphasized the need for India to conduct more tests to improve its nuclear weapon programme.

        The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT.

        The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-
        US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government''s top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons programme. It was said the disincentives the nuclear deal imposed on testing would not really matter as further tests were not required.

        According to security expert Bharat Karnad, Santhanam''s admission is remarkable because this is the first time a nuclear scientist and one closely associated with the 1998 tests has disavowed the government line.

        "This means the government has to do something. Either you don''t have a thermonuclear deterrent or prove that you have it, if you claim to have it,'''' said Karnad.

        The yield of the thermonuclear device test in 1998 has led to much debate and while western experts have stated that it was not as claimed, BARC has maintained that it stands by its assessment.

        Indian scientists had claimed after the test that the thermonuclear device gave a total yield of 45 KT, 15 KT from the fission trigger and 30 KT from the fusion process and that the theoretical yield of the device (200 KT) was reduced to 45 KT in order to minimise seismic damage to villages near the test range.

        British experts, however, later challenged the claims saying that the actual combined yield for the fission device and thermonuclear bomb was not more than 20 KT.

        Sources claim that Santhanam had admitted that the test was a fizzle during a discussion on CTBT organized by IDSA.

        India conducted five nuclear tests at the Pokhran test range. Three of them were conducted on May 11 and two on May 13, 1998.

        Rajagopala Chidambaram headed the team, which conducted tests, and the device was developed at the Defence Research and Development Organization's Ballistics Research Laboratory.


         
        Defenders see clear game plan

        Washington, Aug. 25: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put his foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon in an unenviable situation on July 16 at the end of his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani when he let Gilani outline the framework of their joint statement and then failed to make what Singh's critics would describe as corrective amendments to Pakistan's formulations on Balochistan and terrorism.

        The outlines of the joint statement, as proposed by Gilani to Menon and Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir, were at odds with a draft that Menon had carried with him from New Delhi, according to those familiar with that draft.

        Bashir had by and large rejected Menon's draft during negotiations in Sharm-el-Sheikh in the two days preceding the prime ministerial summit.

        This correspondent has been unable to confirm whether Singh had actually seen the original draft that was prepared in South Block as he was constantly travelling: to Italy from July 8 to 10, to France on July 13-14 and then to Egypt directly from France.

        One can only surmise that the Prime Minister, who believes in delegation of work, left the original drafting to his minister for external affairs and the foreign secretary, who were in Sharm-el-Sheikh by the time Singh arrived there.

        Very few people in the Indian delegation to Egypt are privy to what transpired at the end of the one-on-one meeting between the two Prime Ministers, but according to the sequence of events pieced together from accounts of those who know, Menon did not say a word to his Prime Minister or to Gilani, but left with Bashir to write the joint statement as directed by the two heads of government.

        Those who defend Menon argue that he could not have done anything else. It would have been impertinence bordering on insubordination for the foreign secretary to even appear to have a difference of opinion with the Prime Minister in front of Gilani. And the two foreign secretaries were in a race against time to produce the joint statement.

        But one question begs an answer. Why did India agree to any joint statement at all when not all previous Indo-Pak meetings have ended with a joint statement? Besides, in its final form, the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement is neither joint — as its differing interpretations in New Delhi and Islamabad showed — nor is it a statement in the conventional sense. It turned out to be merely a record of what the two Prime Ministers discussed.

        Menon decided that it was discreet not to question what he was told to put into the joint statement because Singh, despite his genteel exterior, can be cutting when he needs to be, according to those who have worked closely with the Prime Minister over a long time.

        When Singh had his first meeting with General Pervez Musharraf in New York in September 2004, his foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was one of the last to know that there would be a one-on-one meeting at the summit level before the delegation-level talks. Natwar objected to it with an intemperate "that cannot be". The Prime Minister calmly but decisively cut his foreign minister to size by responding: "Natwar, let me decide what can be and cannot be." End of discussion.

        Years earlier, when he was finance minister, Manmohan Singh sent a file to South Block for an opinion from then external affairs minister Madhavsinh Solanki. Foreign secretary J.N. Dixit, who believed that he was both making foreign policy and running it, sent the file back to the finance ministry with his comments.

        Singh wrote on the file that while he appreciated the foreign secretary's views, he would like to have an opinion from the external affairs minister. The file was returned to Dixit.

        Days before his retirement, Menon had no desire to be pulled up by the Prime Minis-ter and hung out to dry. So he decided against "speaking the truth to power" as the memorable Quaker phrase coined during the Cold War went.

        Defenders of the Prime Minister recall a joint news conference after he met Musharraf at the New York Palace hotel on September 14, 2005. The summit-level talks had broken down and Singh made a few grim remarks. Then Musharraf, hoping to repeat his nationally televised circus in Agra in 2001, began answering a question from a Pakistani journalist. The dictator-President was into his first sentence when Singh walked off the stage. Musharraf was forced to follow as he was in Indian space and Singh was the host.

        The incident is being cited to show that the Prime Minister knows what he is doing and is no pushover. Singh's defenders insist that the Prime Minister has a clear game plan for eventually settling with Pakistan or at least having a continuous working relationship with Islamabad and that Balochistan and delinking terrorism from the Composite Dialogue are part of that plan.

        However, these sources are not prepared to lay their cards on the table on the ground that it is premature.

        Unfortunately for Singh, he does not have many supporters of any such strategy, at least as of now, with even some members of his cabinet harbouring reservations about any such plan.


        http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090826/jsp/nation/story_11410105.jsp

        South Asia

        Page last updated at 07:30 GMT, Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:30 UK






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        Teddy who saw the tide of Bangla misery
        - A dynasty that shares triumph and tragedy with Nehru-Gandhis loses its last stalwart

        Washington, Aug. 26: Even in death, the Kennedys chart America's political agenda. The passing away of Edward M. Kennedy, the last of a generation of Kennedys who held America and much of the world in thrall for half-a-century, will slow down, if not altogether stymie, President Barack Obama's most ambitious initiative: affordable health care for all Americans.

        Obama needs 60 votes in the procedure-centric US Senate to pass his health care reforms as they are evolving in the face of determined opposition from a coalition of Republicans, conservatives and the cash-rich insurance industry. With the death of Kennedy, the third longest serving member of the US Senate, the Democrats have only 59 votes, one short to prevent a process known as "filibuster" that can indefinitely delay most votes in the legislative chamber.

        Kennedy's last political act a few weeks ago was to write to legislators in his home state of Massachusetts urging them to change the state law and authorise the governor of Massachusetts, a fellow Democrat, to nominate a successor, "should a vacancy occur" in the Senate, a reflection on his coming death.

        His concern was that without his 60th vote in the Senate, health care reform — "the cause of my life", Kennedy called it — would be delayed and possibly diluted or derailed.

        Legislators in Massachusetts vacillated, worried about criticism that the law was being changed to suit politics. But today, one day too late, they were huddled, examining whether they could still do what Kennedy asked for and overcome the biggest challenge yet to the Obama presidency.

        Few people remember that Kennedy, whose legacy is built around his struggles for Americans on domestic issues, made one of his rare and early forays into foreign policy in Calcutta and eastern India.

        Although he was heir to the Kennedy legacy after the tragic assassinations of his two older brothers, in 1971 Edward Kennedy was still relatively junior in the Senate, where seniority is sacrosanct.

        He was chairman of only an obscure sub-committee on refugees that reported to the main Judiciary Committee of the chamber when the crackdown in East Pakistan began after the election victory of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

        Casting aside his reticence then to wade into foreign policy, Kennedy visited the camps in India where refugees from East Pakistan were being given shelter.

        He publicised the reign of terror by the Pakistani army in what later became Bangladesh by describing the plight of refugees who had come to India as "one of the most appalling tides of human misery in modern times".

        Then US President Richard Nixon and the architect of Nixon's policy in South Asia, Henry Kissinger, were solidly backing Pakistan against the breaking away of East Pakistan.

        Kennedy elevated his Senate sub-committee into prominence by holding hearings about the problems of refugees who were flooding eastern India.

        It was only after these hearings on Capitol Hill that drew attention across the US to a developing humanitarian catastrophe in South Asia that Nixon and Kissinger agreed to send any significant food aid to refugees from East Pakistan and somewhat softened their pro-Pakistan stand at the UN.

        Kennedy acknowledged India's rise in recent years and had a keen awareness of its importance, but unlike many fair-weather colleagues of his on Capitol Hill, he never chased Indian American money. Nor was he taken in by any hype about India that is now common in the US.

        As a result, he remained a distant friend of India, a friend nevertheless who did not jump on the bandwagon of cheerleaders for New Delhi on Capitol Hill.

        Kennedy never wavered in his long-held, principled positions on issues: his positions were not altered by lobbying campaigns or expediency that resulted in changes in US foreign policy.

        An example was the Indo-US nuclear deal, over which Kennedy had serious reservations as someone who was a life-long proponent of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

        In November 2006, Kennedy voted in the Senate in favour of a "killer amendment" to the nuclear deal that would have required the US President to certify that New Delhi was maintaining a cap on its fissile material production before orders for export of nuclear equipment to India could be executed.

        Another senator who then voted for this failed amendment — which would have killed the nuclear deal — was Barack Obama, who has since changed his mind and is going ahead with the deal in its present form.

        As fate would have it, Kennedy did not have to vote against the nuclear deal in its final stage in the Senate and be cast in Indian eyes as being unfriendly for that reason.

        He was the only senator who was absent from the chamber when the nuclear deal went for its final vote in 2008. By that time he was already diagnosed with his brain tumour and had stopped going to Capitol Hill except for very crucial votes.

        Although he remained largely aloof from India and Indian Americans during this decade of closer Indo-US relations, most people of Indian origin here view the Kennedy family as a mirror image of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty back in their native country.

        The two dynasties shared similar heartbreaks, identical tragedies — assassinations by gunmen, Sanjay Gandhi's and JFK junior's plane crash — and a total sway over their people.

        Kennedy won his last election to the Senate in 2006 with a landslide securing a phenomenal 69.3 per cent of votes. At the lowest point in his long career, after a fatal accident at Chappaquiddick that Kennedy did not immediately report, he won re-election with as much as 62 per cent of the vote.

        Any inheritor of the Kennedy family's political legacy will have a long trek to grow into his shoes. But by those standards, India's first dynasty in public life appears secure and poised to outlive the Kennedys.

        Mourning Kennedy and vowing to continue his fight for health care reform under Obama, his supporters were tonight quoting from a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., which applies to the late senator's unfinished goal.

        "I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

        http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090827/jsp/frontpage/story_11414866.jsp

        Jaswant book cover grants hill state wish

        Siliguri, Aug. 26: Jaswant Singh's book has repaid his debt to Darjeeling for sending him to Parliament: the hill district has been granted the status of a "state" in the rear flap of the tome.

        Darjeeling is referred to as "the hill state" in the introduction to the author in the extended cover of the book, Jinnah, India-Partition-Independence, that gave the BJP the excuse to expel him.

        The introduction, printed with a picture of Jaswant, reads: "He is a Member of Parliament, in the Lok Sabha, having successfully contested the 2009 elections from the hill state of Darjeeling."

        Rupa & Co, the publisher of the book, said the reference to Darjeeling as a state was a "mistake". "This is the first time we have come to know of it and we feel it was a mistake. We often refer to places like Darjeeling and Siliguri as hill cities. It seems that things somehow got intermingled and the mistake was committed," said Raju Burman, a Rupa partner based in Calcutta.

        Asked whether Jaswant had provided the content for the introduction, Burman said: "Usually, we get the bio-data from authors and it is the people in our editorial who write the content. We had overlooked it but now that it has been brought to our attention, we will definitely look into it."

        The bloomer has come as music to the ears of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. "Sometimes, it is nice to hear of pleasant mistakes," said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the publicity secretary of the Morcha, which ensured Jaswant's poll victory from Darjeeling. "We are happy to hear it (the reference to the hill state) and if it is a mistake, we must say the mistake is a prophecy," Chhetri added.

        Jaswant could not be contacted at his residence in Delhi.

        http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090827/jsp/frontpage/story_11414980.jsp

         

        Tata Steel Posts Unexpected Loss on Prices, Output

        Bloomberg - Debarati Roy - ‎57 minutes ago‎
        Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Tata Steel Ltd., India's biggest producer, posted an unexpected loss in its first quarter because of lower prices and production cuts at unit Corus.

        Anil Ambani group welcomes govt stand on gas for NTPC

        Economic Times - ‎1 hour ago‎
        NEW DELHI: The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Thursday welcomed the government stand to protect the interests of state-run power utility NTPC in its legal dispute with Reliance Industries over gas supplies from the Krishna-Godavari basin.

        India seeks to reverse export decline in new trade policy

        Sify - ‎2 hours ago‎
        India's new Foreign Trade Policy was unveiled Thursday with a mix of fiscal sops and procedural reforms in a bid to reverse 10 consecutive months of decline in merchandise exports and ensuring healthy growth of out-bound shipments.

        'India has designs to destabilise Pakistan'

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        1
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        Welcome to the website of the brave soldiers of Hindutva Brotherhood and Kashmiri Hindu Liberation Army


        M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

        HinduRashtra.Org strongly supports and encourages any action against Karunanidhi following his recent anti-Hindu statements made against Lord Sri Rama and the holy Ram Setu site:

        "Some say there was a person over 17 lakh years ago. His name was Rama. Do not touch the bridge (Rama Sethu) constructed by him. Who is this Rama? From which engineering college did he graduate? Is there any proof for this?"

        "Anyway, neither Valmiki nor Ram is here now (to vouch for claims of Ram's existence). There is only a group that thinks of people as fools. They will be proved wrong."

        "I have not said anything more than Valmiki, who authored Ramayana. Valmiki had even stated that Rama was a drunkard. Have I said so?"

        "Ram is as big a lie as the Himalayas and the Ganga are true."

        This anti-Hindu scum has also made statements in the last few years such as "a Hindu means a thief" and "Hinduism is not a religion at all."

        Karunanidhi claims he is an Atheist however he has never made statements against Jesus Christ or Mohammed.

        Click here to find out about the holy Ram Setu site and the work to save it from destruction by anti-Hindu forces.

        Hindu Rashtra Monitor - Latest HB+KHLA Events/Developments

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        Hindu Human Rights Report 2006

        Hindu Human Rights Report 2005

        Hindu Human Rights Report 2004

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        Hindu nationalism

        From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

        Jump to: navigation, search

        Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of India. Some scholars have argued that the term 'Hindu nationalism' which refers to the concept of 'Hindu Rashtra' is a simplistic translation and is better described by the term 'Hindu polity'[1].

        The native thought streams became highly relevant in the Indian history when they helped form a distinctive identity to the Indian polity[2] and provided a basis for questioning colonialism[3]. They inspired the freedom movements against the British rule based on armed struggle[4], coercive politics[5] and non-violent protests[6]. They also influenced social reform movements and economic thinking in India [5].

        In India, the term 'nationalism' doesn't have the negative connotations which it has in Western intellectual circles. On the contrary, the term is hallowed by its association with the freedom movement against British colonialism and the establishment of democracy[7].

        Contents

        [hide]

        [edit] History

        Emperor Krishnadevaraya ,one of the greatest Hindu emperors of India
        Shivaji's rule was hailed as 'Hindavi Swarajya' (Self rule of the natives)

        The usage of the word 'Hindu' to describe the native polity of India have been found in the historical accounts of medieval India. These usages show that the word Hindu, until the early nineteenth century was emphasized by nativity rather than by religion[8].

        Prominent among the South Indian rulers of the fourteenth century were the Sangama rulers of Vijayanagara empire who were hailed as 'Hinduraya suratana', the best among the Hindu rulers[9] The Sangama rulers were in constant conflict with the Sultanate of Bijapur, and this usage of the word 'Hindu' in the title, was obviously to distinguish them as native rulers as against the Sultans who were "perceived to be foreign in origin". It has been noted by Historians that "Hindus" did not conceive themselves as a religious unity in any sense except in opposition to foreign rule. For example, the early seventeenth-century Telgu work, 'Rayavachakamu', condemns the Muslim rulers for being foreign and barbarian and only rarely for specifically religious traits .[10].

        The other references include the glorification of the Chauhana heroes of Jalor as 'Hindu' by Padmanabha in his epic poem, Kanhadade-prabandha, which he composed in AD 1455. The Rajput ruler, Maha Rana Pratap became renowned with the title of 'hindu-kula-kamala-divakara' for his relentless fight against the Moghuls[11]. 'Hindavi Swarajya' (self rule of the natives) was how the rule of Shivaji, the most notable of the rulers of the seventeenth century was described. The usage of 'Hindavi' (translated as 'of Hindus' in Marathi) in 'Hindavi Swarajya' is considered to mean Indian Independence rather than the rule by a religious sect or a community[8].

        [edit] Hindu Renaissance in the late 19th century

        Raja Ram Mohan Roy endeavored to create from the ancient Upanishadic texts a vision of rationalist modern India.

        Many Hindu reform movements originated in the late nineteenth century. These movements led to the fresh interpretations of the ancient scriptures of Upanishads and Vedanta and also emphasized on social reform[5]. The marked feature of these movements was that they countered the notion of western superiority and white supremacy propounded by the colonizers as a justification for British colonialism in India. This led to the upsurge of patriotic ideas that formed the cultural and an ideological basis for the freedom struggle in India[3].

        [edit] Brahmo Samaj

        The Brahmo Samaj was one of the earliest Hindu renaissance movements in India under the British rule. It was started by a Bengali scholar, Ram Mohan Roy in 1828. Ram Mohan Roy endeavored to create from the ancient Upanishadic texts, a vision of rationalist 'modern' India. Religiously he criticized idolatry and believed in a monotheistic religion devoid of any idolatry and religious customs. His major emphasis was social reform. He fought against caste discrimination and advocated equal rights for women[12]. Although the Brahmos found favorable response from the British Government and the Westernized Indians, they were largely isolated from the larger Hindu society due to their intellectual Vedantic and Unitarian views. But their efforts to systematize Hindu spirituality based on rational and logical interpretation of the ancient Indian texts would be carried forward by other movements in Bengal and across India[3].

        [edit] Arya Samaj

        Arya Samaj is considered one of the overarching Hindu renaissance movements of the late nineteenth century. Swami Dayananda, the founder of Arya Samaj, rejected idolatry, caste restriction and untouchability, child marriage and advocated equal status and opportunities for women. He opposed "Brahmanism" (which he believed had led to the corruption of the knowledge of Vedas) as much as he opposed Christianity and Islam. [5]. Although Arya Samaj was a social movement, many revolutionaries and political leaders of the Indian Independence movement like Ramprasad Bismil[13] ,Shyamji Krishnavarma, Bhai Paramanand and Lala Lajpat Rai were to be inspired by it. [14]

        [edit] Swami Vivekananda

        Swami Vivekananda on the Platform of the Parliament of World Religions.

        Another 19th century Hindu reformer was Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda as a student was educated in contemporary Western thought[3]. He joined Brahmo Samaj briefly before meeting Ramakrishna, who was a priest in the temple of the mother goddess Kali in Calcutta and who was to become his Guru[3]. Vivekananda's major achievement was to ground Hindu spirituality in a systematic interpretation of Vedanta. This project started with Ram Mohan Roy of Brahmo Samaj and which had produced rational Hinduism was now combined with disciplines such as yoga and the concept of social service to attain perfection from the ascetic traditions in what Vivekananda called the "practical Vedanta". The practical side essentially included participation in social reform[3].

        He made Hindu spirituality, intellectually available to the Westernized audience. His famous speech at the Parliament of World religions at Chicago on September 11,1893, followed huge reception of his thought in the West and made him a celebrity in the West and subsequently in India too[3].

        A major element of Vivekananda's message was nationalist. He saw his effort very much in terms of a revitalization of the Hindu nation, which carried Hindu spirituality and which could counter Western materialism. The notions of White supremacy and Western superiority, strongly believed by the colonizers, were to be questioned based on Hindu spirituality. This kind of spiritual Hinduism was later carried forward by Mahatma Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. It also became a main inspiration for the current brand of Hindu nationalism today[3]. Historians have observed that this helped the nascent Independence movement with a distinct national identity and kept it from being the simple derivative function of European nationalisms[2].

        [edit] Sri Aurobindo

        Sri Aurobindo

        Sri Aurobindo was a nationalist and one of the first to embrace the idea of complete political independence for India. He was inspired by the writings of Swami Vivekananda and the novels of Bankim Chandra. [15]. He "based his claim for freedom for India on the inherent right to freedom, not on any charge of misgovernment or oppression". He believed that the primary requisite for national progress, national reform, is the free habit of free and healthy national thought and action and that it was impossible in a state of servitude[16]. He was part of the revolutionary group Anushilan Samiti and was involved in armed struggle against the British[17] In his brief political career spanning only four years, he led a delegation from Bengal to the Indian National Congress session of 1907 [16] and contributed to the revolutionary newspaper Bande Mataram.

        In 1910, he withdrew from political life and spent his remaining life doing spiritual exercises and writing[15]. But his works kept inspiring revolutionaries and struggles for freedom, including the famous Chittagong Uprising[18].

        Both Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo are credited with having found the basis for a vision of freedom and glory for India in the spiritual richness and heritage of Hinduism.

        [edit] Independence movement

        The influence of the Hindu renaissance movements was such that by the turn of the century, there was a confluence of ideas of the Hindu cultural nationalism with the ideas of Indian nationalism[5]. Both could be spoken synonymous even by tendencies that were seemingly opposed to sectarian communalism and Hindu majoritism[5].The Hindu renaissance movements held considerable influence over the revolutionary movements against the British rule and formed the philosophical basis for the struggles and political movements that originated in the first decade of the twentieth century.

        [edit] Revolutionary Movements

        [edit] Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar

        Anushilan Samiti was one of the prominent revolutionary movements in India in the early part of twentieth century. It was started as a cultural society in 1902, by Aurobindo and the followers of Bankim Chandra to propagate the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. But soon the Samiti had its goal to overthrow the British rule in India[4]. Various branches of the Samiti sprung across India in the guise of suburban fitness clubs but secretly imparted arms training to its members with the implicit aim of using them against the British administration[19] On April 30,1908 at Muzaffarpur, two revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw bombs at a British convoy aimed at British officer Kingsford. Both were arrested trying to flee. Aurobindo was also arrested on 2 May, 1908 and sent to Alipore jail. The report sent from Andrew Fraser, the then Lt Governor of Bengal to Lord Minto in England declared that although Sri Aurobindo came to Calcutta in 1906 as a Professor at the National College, "he has ever since been the principal advisor of the revolutionary party. It is of utmost importance to arrest his potential for mischief, for he is the prime mover and can easily set tools, one to replace another." But charges against Aurobindo were never proved and he was acquitted. Many members of the group faced charges and were transported and imprisoned for life. Others went into hiding.[20]

        In 1910, when, Aurobindo withdrew from political life and decided to live a life of renounciate[15], the Anushilan Samiti declined. One of the revolutionaries, Jatindra Das Mukherjee, who managed to escape the trial started a group which would be called Jugantar. Jugantar continued with its armed struggle with the British, but the arrests of its key members and subsequent trials weakened its influence. Many of its members were imprisoned for life in the notorious Andaman Cellular jail [20].

        Savarkar (above) and Gandhi politely agreed to disagree on whether Ramayana justified the use of violence in freedom struggle.

        [edit] India House

        A revolutionary movement was started by Shyamji Krishnavarma, a Sanskritist and an Arya Samajist, in London, under the name of India House in 1905. The brain behind this movement was said to be V D Savarkar. Krishnaverma also published a monthly "Indian Sociologist", where the idea of an armed struggle against the British was openly espoused. [21]. The movement had become well known for its activities in the Indian expatriates in London. When Gandhi visited London in 1909, he shared a platform with the revolutionaries where both the parties politely agreed to disagree, on the question of violent struggle against British and whether Ramayana justified such violence. Gandhi, while admiring the "patriotism" of the young revolutionaries, had dissented vociferously from their violent blueprints for social change. In turn the revolutionaries disliked his adherence to constitutionalism and his close contacts with moderate leaders of Indian National Congress. Moreover they considered his method of "passive resistance" effeminate and humiliating. [22].

        The India House had soon to face a closure following the assassination of Sir Curzon-Wyllie by the revolutionary Madan lal Dhingra, who was close to India House. Savarkar also faced charges and was transported. Shyamji Krishnaverma fled to Paris[21]. India House gave formative support to ideas that were later formulated by Savarkar in his book named 'Hindutva'. Hindutva was to gain relevance in the run up to the Indian Independence and would also form the core to the political party named Hindu Mahasabha started by Savarkar[5].

        [edit] Indian National Congress

        [edit] "Lal-Bal-Pal"

        "Lal-Bal-Pal" is the phrase that is used to refer to the three nationalist leaders Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal who held the sway over the Indian Nationalist movement and the freedom struggle in the early parts of twentieth century.

        A rare photograph of the three leaders who changed the political discourse of the Independence movement

        Lala Lajpat Rai belonged to the northern province of Punjab. He was influenced greatly by the Arya Samaj and was part of the Hindu reform movement [5]. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1888 and became a prominent figure in the Indian Independence Movement. [23]. He started numerous educational institutions. The National College at Lahore started by him became the centre for revolutionary ideas and was the college where revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh studied [24]. While leading a procession against the Simon Commission, he was fatally injured in the lathi charge by the British police. His death led the revolutionaries like Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh to kill the British officer J.P. Saunders, who they believed was responsible for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. [23]

        Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a nationalist leader from the Central Indian province of Maharashtra. He has been widely acclaimed the "Father of Indian unrest" who used the press and Hindu occasions like Ganesha festivals and symbols like the Cow to create unrest against the British administration in India [25]. Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890. Under the influence of such leaders, the political discourse of the Congress moved from polite accusation that imperial rule was "un-British" to the forth right claim of Tilak that "Swaraj is my birthright and I will have it"[26].

        Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal was another prominent figure of the Indian nationalist movement, who is considered a modern Hindu reformer, who stood for Hindu cultural nationalism and was opposed to sectarian communalism and Hindu majoritism [5]. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1886 and was also one of the key members of revolutionary India House. [27]

        [edit] Gandhi and Ramarajya

        Though Gandhi never called himself a Hindu nationalist, but he always was a big preacher of Dharma.

        Though Gandhi never called himself a "Hindu nationalist", he believed in and propagated concepts like Dharma and "Rama Rajya" (Rule of Lord Rama) as part of his social and political philosophy. Gandhiji said "By political independence I do not mean an imitation to the British House of commons, or the soviet rule of Russia or the Fascist rule of Italy or the Nazi rule of Germany. They have systems suited to their genius. We must have ours suited to ours. What that can be is more than I can tell. I have described it as Ramarajya i.e., sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority. [28]. He emphasized that "Rama Rajya" to him meant peace and justice. "Whether Rama of my imagination ever lived or not on this earth, the ancient ideal of Ramarajya is undoubtedly one of true democracy in which the meanest citizen could be sure of swift justice without an elaborate and costly procedure." [29]. He also emphasized that it meant respect for all religions " My Hinduism teaches me to respect all religions. In this lies the secret of Ramarajya." [30]

        Madan Mohan Malviya, an educationist and a politician with the Indian National Congress was also a vociferous proponent of the philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita. He was the president of the Indian National Congress in the year 1909 and 1918[6]. He was seen as a 'moderate' in the Congress and was also considered very close to Gandhi. He popularized the Sanskrit phrase "Satyameva Jayate" (Truth alone wins), which today is the national emblem of the Republic of India[31]. He founded the Benaras Hindu University in 1919 and became its first Vice-Chancellor[32].

        [edit] Subhas Bose

        Apart from Gandhi, revolutionary leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose referred to Vedanta and the Bhagavad-Gita as sources of inspiration for the struggle against the British [33].

        Subhas Chandra Bose who called himself a socialist, believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda.

        Swami Vivekananda's teachings on universalism, his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired Subhas Chandra Bose from his very young days. The fresh interpretation of the India's ancient scriptures appealed immensely to Subhas[34]. Hindu spirituality formed the essential part of his political and social thought through his adult life, although there was no sense of bigotry or orthodoxy in it[35].Subhas who called himself a socialist, believed that socialism in India owed its origins to Swami Vivekananda[36]. As historian Leonard Gordan explains "Inner religious explorations continued to be a part of his adult life. This set him apart from the slowly growing number of atheistic socialists and communists who dotted the Indian landscape." "Hinduism was an essential part of his Indianness"[37]. His strategy against the British too included the use of Hindu symbols and festivals. In 1925, while in Mandalay jail, he went on a hunger strike when Durga puja was not supported by prison authorities[38].

        Another leader of prime importance in the ascent of Hindu nationalism was Dr K B Hedgewar of Nagpur. Hegdewar as a medical student in Calcutta had been part of the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar[39]. He was charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and served a year in prison. He was briefly a member of Indian National Congress[39]. In 1925, he left the Congress to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which would become the focal point of Hindu movements in Independent India. After the formation of the RSS too, Hedgewar was to take part in the Indian National Congress led movements against the British rule. He joined the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a second term in prison[39]. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started by him became one of the most prominent Hindu organization with its influence ranging in the social and political spheres of India.

        [edit] Partition of India

        The Partition of India outraged many majority Hindu nationalist politicians and social groups.[citation needed] Savarkar and members of the Hindu Mahasabha were extremely critical of Gandhi's leadership[citation needed]. They accused him of appeasing the Muslims to preserve a unity that in their opinion, did not exist; Savarkar endorsed the concept of the Two-nation theory while disagreeing with it in practice[citation needed]. Some Hindu nationalists also blamed Gandhi for conceding Pakistan to the Muslim League via appeasement[citation needed]. And they were further inflamed when Gandhi conducted a fast-unto-death for the Indian government to give Rs. 55 crores which were due to the Pakistan government, but were being held back due to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947[citation needed].

        After the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, the Sangh Parivar was plunged into distress when the RSS was accused of involvement in his murder. Along with the conspirators and the assassin, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was also arrested. The Court acquitted Savarkar, and the RSS was found be to completely unlinked with the conspirators[40]. The Hindu Mahasabha, of which Godse was a member, lost membership and popularity. The effects of public outrage had a permanent effect on the Hindu Mahasabha, which is now a defunct Hindutva party.

        [edit] Evolution of ideological terminology

        The word 'Hindu', throughout the history, had been used as an inclusive description which lacked a definition and was used to refer to the native traditions and people of India. It was only in late eighteenth century that the word 'Hindu' came to be used extensively with religious connotation, while still being used as a synecdoche describing the indigenuous traditions[8].

        [edit] Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra

        [edit] Savarkar

        Savarkar was one of the first in the twentieth century to attempt a definitive description of the term 'Hindu' in terms of what he called Hindutva meaning Hinduness[41]. The coinage of the term 'Hindutva' was an attempt by Savarkar who was an atheist and a rationalist, to delink it from any religious connotations that had become attached to it. He defined the word Hindu as "He who considers India as both his Fatherland and Holyland". He thus defined Hindutva ("Hindu-ness") or Hindu as different from Hinduism[41]. This definition kept the Abrahamic religions (Christianity and Islam) outside its ambit and considered only native religious denominations as Hindu.[42].

        This distinction was emphasized on the basis of territorial loyalty rather than on the religious practices. In this book that was written in the backdrop of the Khilafat Movement and the subsequent Moplah riots, Savarkar wrote "Their (Muslims' and Christians') holy land is far off in Arabia or Palestine. Their mythology and Godmen, ideas and heroes are not the children of this soil. Consequently their names and their outlook smack of foreign origin. Their love is divided"[41].

        Savarkar, also defined the concept of Hindu Rashtra (translated as "Hindu polity")[1]. The concept of Hindu Polity called for the protection of Hindu people and their culture and emphasized that political and economic systems should be based on native thought rather than on the concepts borrowed from the West.

        [edit] Golwalkar

        M S Golwalkar, the second head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was to further this non-religious, territorial loyalty based definition of 'Hindu' in his book 'Bunch of thoughts'. 'Hindutva' and 'Hindu Rashtra' would form the basis of Golwalkar's ideology and that of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. While emphasizing on religious pluralism, Golwalkar believed that Semitic monotheism and exclusivism were incompatible with and against the native Hindu culture. He wrote "Those creeds (Islam and Christianity) have but one prophet, one scripture and one God, other than whom there is no path of salvation for the human soul. It requires no great intelligence to see the absurdity of such a proposition". He added "As far as the national tradition of this land is concerned, it never considers that with a change in the method of worship, an individual ceases to be the son of the soil and should be treated as an alien. Here, in this land, there can be no objection to God being called by any name whatever. Ingrained in this soil is love and respect for all faiths and religious beliefs. He cannot be a son of this soil at all who is intolerant of other faiths." [43]

        He further would echo the views of Savarkar on territorial loyalty, but with a degree of inclusiveness, when he wrote "So, all that is expected of our Muslim and Christen co-citizens is the shedding of the notions of their being 'religious minorities' as also their foreign mental complexion and merging themselves in the common national stream of this soil."[43]

        [edit] Contemporary descriptions

        Later thinkers of the RSS, like H V Sheshadri and K S Rao, were to emphasize on the non theocratic nature of the word "Hindu Rashtra", which they believed was often inadequately translated, ill interpreted and wrongly stereotyped as a theocratic state. In a book by H.V. Sheshadri, the senior leader of the RSS writes "As Hindu Rashtra is not a religious concept, it is also not a political concept. It is generally misinterpreted as a theocratic state or a religious Hindu state. Nation (Rashtra) and State (Rajya) are entirely different and should never be mixed up. State is purely a political concept. ... The State changes as the political authority shifts from person to person or party to party. But the people in the Nation remain the same.[44]. They would maintain that the concept of Hindu Rashtra is in complete agreement with the principles of secularism and democracy.[45]

        The concept of 'Hindutva' is continued to be espoused by the organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party. But the definition, does not have the same rigidity with respect to the concept of 'holy land' laid down by Savarkar, and stresses on inclusivism and patriotism. BJP leader and the then leader of opposition, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in 1998, articulated the concept of 'holy land' in Hindutva as follows "Mecca can continue to be holy for the Muslims but India should be holier than the holy for them. You can go to a mosque and offer namaz, you can keep the roza. We have no problem. But if you have to choose between Mecca or Islam and India you must choose India. All the Muslims should have this feeling: we will live and die only for this country."[46].

        In 1995, in a landmark judgment the Supreme Court of India observed that "Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as a way of life or a state of mind and is not to be equated with or understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu and since the Hindu is disposed to think synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange gods and divergent doctrines as inadequate rather than wrong or objectionable, he tends to believe that the highest divine powers complement each other for the well-being of the world and mankind."[47]

        [edit] Post Independence Movements

        [edit] Somnath temple movement

        Somnath temple: Sardar Patel ordered its reconstruction in 1948

        The Somnath temple is an ancient temple at Prabhas Patan in the coastal Indian province of Gujarat, which had been destroyed several times by the Muslim foreign invaders, starting with Mahmood Ghaznavi in 1025 AD. The last of such destructions took place in 1706 AD when Prince Mohammad Azam carried out the orders of Moghul ruler Aurangzeb to destroy the temple of Somnath beyond possible repair. A small mosque was put in its place[48].

        Before Independence, Prabhas Pattan where Somnath is located was part of the Junagarh State, ruled by the Nawab of Junagarh. On the eve of Independence the Nawab announced the accession of Junagarh, which had over 80% Hindu population, to Pakistan. The people of Junagarh rose in revolt and set up a parallel government under Gandhian leader and freedom fighter, Shri Samaldas Gandhi. The Nawab, unable to resist the popular pressure, bowed out and escaped to Pakistan. The provincial government under Samaldas Gandhi formally asked Government of India to take over. [49]. The Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel came to Junagadh on November 12, 1947 to direct the occupation of the state by the Indian army and at the same time ordered the reconstruction of the Somanath temple[50]

        When Sardar Patel, K M Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Gandhiji with the proposal of reconstructing the Somnath temple, Gandhiji blessed the move, but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public and the temple should not be funded by the state. He expressed that he was proud to associate himself to the project of renovation of the temple[51] But soon both Gandhiji and Sardar Patel passed away and the task of reconstruction of the temple was now continued under the leadership of K M Munshi, who was the Minister for Food and Civil, supplies in the Nehru Government[51].

        The ruins were pulled down in October 1950 and the mosque was moved to a different location. In May 1951, Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India, invited by K M Munshi, performed the installation ceremony for the temple[52] Rajendra Prasad said in his address "It is my view that the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple will be complete on that day when not only a magnificent edifice will arise on this foundation, but the mansion of India's prosperity will be really that prosperity of which the ancient temple of Somnath was a symbol.".[53]. He added "The Somnath temple signifies that the power of reconstruction is always greater than the power of destruction"[53]

        This episode created a serious rift between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw in movement for reconstruction of the temple an attempt at Hindu revivalism and the President Rajendra Prasad and Union Minister K M Munshi, saw in its reconstruction, the fruits of freedom and the reversal of injustice done to Hindus[53].

        [edit] The Emergence of the Sangh Parivar

        The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was started in 1925, had grown as a huge organisation by the end of British rule in India. But the assassination of Gandhi and a subsequent ban on the organisation plunged it into distress. The ban was revoked when it was absolved of the charges and it led to the resumtion of its activities[40].

        The 1960s saw the volunteers of the RSS join the different social and political movements. Movements that saw a large presence of volunteers included the Bhoodan, a land reform movement led by prominent Gandhian Vinodha Bhave[54] and the Sarvoday led by another Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan[55]. RSS supported trade union, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh also grew into considerable prominence by the end of the decade.

        Another prominent development was the formation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organisation of Hindu religious leaders, supported by the RSS, with the aim of uniting the various Hindu religious denominations and to usher social reform. The first VHP meet at Mumbai was attended among others by all the Shankaracharyas, Jain leaders, Sikh leader Master Tara Singh, the Dalai Lama and contemporary Hindu leaders like Swami Chinmayananda. From its initial years, the VHP led a concerted attack on the social evil of untouchability and casteism while launching social welfare programmes in the areas of education and health care, especially for the Scheduled Castes, backward classes and the tribals[56].

        The organisations started and supported by the RSS volunteers came to be known collectively as the Sangh Parivar. Next few decades saw a steady growth of the influence of the Sangh Parivar in the social and political space of India[56].

        [edit] See also

        [edit] References

        • Walter K. Andersen. 'Bharatiya Janata Party: Searching for the Hindu Nationalist Face', In The New Politics of the Right: Neo–Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies, ed. Hans–Georg Betz and Stefan Immerfall (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 219–232. (ISBN 0-312-21134-1 or ISBN 0-312-21338-7)
        • Partha Banerjee, In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India (Delhi: Ajanta, 1998). OCLC 43318775
        • Bhatt, Chetan, Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths, Berg Publishers (2001), ISBN 9781859733486.
        • Blank, Jonah. Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God. 
        • Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. ISBN 81-7167-519-0. 
        • Ainslie T. Embree, 'The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation', in Accounting for Fundamentalisms, The Fundamentalism Project 4, ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 617–652. (ISBN 0-226-50885-4)
        • Gandhi, Rajmohan. Patel: A Life. 
        • Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar (1923). Hindutva. Delhi, India: Bharati Sahitya Sadan. 

        [edit] Notes

        1. ^ a b The Hindu Phenomenon by Girilal Jain, ISBN no. 81-86112-32-4
        2. ^ a b Chatterjee Partha (1986)
        3. ^ a b c d e f g h Peter van der Veer, Hartmut Lehmann, Nation and religion: perspectives on Europe and Asia, Princeton University Press, 1999
        4. ^ a b Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Published by Routledge, 2003
        5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Chetan Bhatt (2001)
        6. ^ a b Vidya Dhar Mahajan, Constitutional history of India, including the nationalist movement, Published by S. Chand, 1971
        7. ^ page 21, Elst Koenraad, Decolonizing the Hindu mind, Rupa Co 2001
        8. ^ a b c On Understanding Islam: Selected Studies, By Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Published by Walter de Gruyter, 1981, ISBN 9027934487, 9789027934482
        9. ^ Carla M. Sinopoli, The political economy of craft production: crafting empire in South India, c. 1350-1650, Published by Cambridge University Press, 2003
        10. ^ Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Hinduism Modern, Encyclopedia of religion and war
        11. ^ M. G. Chitkara, Hindutva, Published by APH Publishing, 1997, ISBN 8170247985, 9788170247982
        12. ^ Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India, Cambridge University Press, 2002
        13. ^ Bhagat Singh, Why I am an atheist, Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh by Bhagat Singh, Shiv Verma, National Book Centre, 1986
        14. ^ Michael Francis O'Dwyer, India as I knew it, 1885-1925, Published by Constable, 1926
        15. ^ a b c William Theodore De Bary, Stephen N Hay, Sources of Indian Tradition, Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1988, ISBN 8120804678
        16. ^ a b Peter Heehs, Religious nationalism and beyond, August 2004
        17. ^ Elleke Boehmer, Empire, the National, and the Postcolonial, 1890-1920: Resistance in Interaction Published by Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 019818445X, 9780198184454
        18. ^ Manini Chatterjee, Do and Die: The Chittagong Uprising, 1930-34, Published by Penguin Books, 1999
        19. ^ By J. C. Johari, Voices of Indian Freedom Movement, Published by Akashdeep Pub. House
        20. ^ a b Arun Chandra Guha Aurobindo and Jugantar, Published by Sahitya Sansad, 1970
        21. ^ a b Anthony Parel, Hind Swaraj and other writings By Gandhi, Published by Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0521574315, 9780521574310
        22. ^ Manfred B. Steger, Gandhi's dilemma: nonviolent principles and nationalist power, Published by Macmillan, 2000, ISBN 0312221770, 9780312221775
        23. ^ a b Lajpat Rai, Bal Ram Nanda, The collected works of Lala Lajpat Rai, Published by Manohar, 2005, ISBN 8173046603, 9788173046605
        24. ^ Haṃsarāja Rahabara, Bhagat Singh and His Thought. Published by Manak Publications, 1990, ISBN 8185445079, 9788185445076
        25. ^ Donald Mackenzie Brown, The Nationalist movement: Indian political thought from Ranade to Bhave, Published by University of California Press, 1965
        26. ^ Gail Omvedt, Reinventing revolution: new social movements and the socialist tradition in India, Published by M.E. Sharpe, 1993
        27. ^ Saral Kumar Chatterji , Bipin Chandra Pal, Published by Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1984
        28. ^ Harijan, 2-1-1937
        29. ^ Young India, 19-9-1929
        30. ^ Harijan 19-10-1947
        31. ^ Ranganathan Magadi, India Rises in the West, Published by Lulu.com, 2006 ISBN 1430301058, 9781430301059
        32. ^ Aparna Basu, The Growth of Education and Political Development in India, 1898-1920, Published by Oxford University Press, 1974
        33. ^ Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb, Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Published by Routledge, 2003
        34. ^ Sisir Kumar Bose, Aleander Werth, Narayan Gopal Jog, Subbier Appadurai Ayer, Beacon Across Asia: A Biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, Published by Orient Blackswan, 1996
        35. ^ Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Thy Hand, Great Anarch!: India, 1921-1952, Published by Chatto & Windus, 1987
        36. ^ P. R. Bhuyan, Swami Vivekananda, Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2003
        37. ^ Leonard A. Gordon, Brothers Against The Raj:A Biography of Indian Nationalist Leaders Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose, Published by Columbia University Press, 1990
        38. ^ S.K. Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose, Eds. Sisir Kumar Bose And Sugata Bose, The Alternative Leadership: Speeches, Articles, Statements and Letters June 1939–1941, Published by Orient Blackswan, 2004
        39. ^ a b c Chitkara M G, Hindutva, Published by APH Publishing, 1997 ISBN 8170247985, 9788170247982
        40. ^ a b Report of Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, By India (Republic). Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, Jeevan Lal Kapur, Published by Ministry of Home affairs, 1970,page 165
        41. ^ a b c Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar: Hindutva, Bharati Sahitya Sadan, Delhi 1989 (1923)
        42. ^ Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. pp. 21. ISBN 81-7167-519-0. 
        43. ^ a b MS Golwalkar, Bunch of thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu Prakashan, 19262
        44. ^ K.S. Rao in H. V. Seshadri, ed.:Why Hindu Rashtra?, p.24
        45. ^ Elst, Koenraad (2005). Decolonizing the Hindu mind. India: Rupa. pp. 480–486. ISBN 81-7167-519-0. 
        46. ^ The Nation, January 24, 1998
        47. ^ Supreme Court on Hindu Hindutva and Hinduism
        48. ^ Ram Gopal, Hindu culture during and after Muslim rule: survival and subsequent challenges, Published by M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1994, ISBN 8185880263, 9788185880266
        49. ^ Vapal Pangunni Menon, The Story of the Integration of the Indian States, Published by Macmillan, 1956
        50. ^ Hindustan Times, 15 Nov, 1947
        51. ^ a b Marie Cruz Gabriel, Rediscovery of India, A silence in the city and other stories, Published by Orient Blackswan, 1996, ISBN 8125008284, 9788125008286
        52. ^ Peter Van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath, eternal shrines, contested histories, 1992
        53. ^ a b c Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, Indian constitutional documents,Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1967
        54. ^ Suresh Ramabhai, Vinoba and his mission, Published by Akhil Bharat Sarv Seva Sangh, 1954
        55. ^ Martha Craven Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future, Published by Harvard University Press, 2007 ISBN 0674024826, 9780674024823
        56. ^ a b Smith, David James, Hinduism and Modernity P189, Blackwell Publishing ISBN 0-631-20862-3

        [edit] External links


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