No religion please, we're liberals - The Times of India

• The Times of India

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  • MUMBAI
  • So what's so different about this new-born who's being cossetted in his prosperous home? Well, he has no religion. His Hindu Maharashtrian mother and Gujarati Muslim father have decided to leave the choice to him when he grows up. By itself, that may not be overly unusual; there are very many people who give similar choices to their children.
  • It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. "A few months into my pregnancy, we had decided that we would not give our child any religious identity," says Aditi. "We are not against religion, but who are we to choose a religion on our baby's behalf? We will expose him to the values of different faiths and cultures, and when he grows up he will be free to follow any faith—or none if he wishes."
    
    Of course, getting the birth certificate wasn't easy. The first hurdle cropped up at the hospital itself—the authorities were alarmed when the young parents said they would leave the religion column blank in the documents.
  • The couple had almost hit a dead end. There were four choices on the form—Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Others. Aditi says she did not want any of them for her child, as even Others required them to identify the sect or community. She argued with the officer some more and finally agreed on Others, but without any identification. "Others is just to facilitate the generation of the certificate. We know our child has no religion," she says.
  • The couple attributes their decision to their liberal upbringing. Aditi grew up in Kuwait, where she had many Muslim classmates and even picked up a few verses from the Quran. Aalif, son of Abid Surti—a popular writer-cartoonist who counts Osho Rajneesh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Amitabh Bachchan among his fans—grew up in what was then a more cosmopolitan Bandra. Said 75-year-old Abid: "I never wanted any particular religious identity for my two sons. I failed to get their birth certificates without the mention of religion, but I am glad my son and bahu have succeeded in what I failed years ago."

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Paswan wants Buddhist control over Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi temple

• Paswan wants Buddhist control over Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi temple

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  • Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan has come out in support of Buddhist monks who are demanding control over the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, the religion’s holiest shrine.
    “The LJP will fight for Buddhist control over the management of the Mahabodhi temple and to ensure it we seek an amendment to the Mahabodhi Temple Management Act, 1949,” Paswan said here Tuesday.
  • According to the existing law, the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BGTMC) should comprise four Buddhists and the same number of Hindu members for a three-year period with the Gaya district magistrate as its ex-officio chairman.

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Uttar Pradesh district tense after Muharram clashes | Top News

• Top News

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  • Lucknow
  • A group of Muslims, who were taking out a mourning procession Monday evening on the occasion of Muharram, had an altercation with Hindus of the Naibazar area in Bhadohi, some 250 km from here. Later, the altercation snowballed into a clash in which members of both groups threw stones at each other and vandalised property, a police official said.

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Rajdeep Sardesai: Exercises in anti-Hinduism | Great Hindu

• Great Hindu

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  • Rajdeep Sardesai is a Brahmin-turned-brahmin-baiter. Born to a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (cricketer Dilip Sardesai) and a Sociology professor, he turned to journalism in the year 1994 after education in Oxford.

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भारत में जापानी प्रधानमंत्री की पत्नी दिखीं साड़ी में Josh18.in.com

• Josh18.in.com

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  • जापानी प्रधानमंत्री युकिओ हातोयामा के साथ भारत यात्रा पर आईं उनकी पत्नी व एक पूर्व अभिनेत्री मियूकी हातोयामा ने छह गज लंबी साड़ी पहनकर अपने कदम भारत में रखे। भारतीय पहनावे में लिपटी हुईं मियूकी बेहद आकर्षक और सहज दिख रही थीं।
    

     

    वह दिल्ली में एक हिंदू मंदिर की यात्रा और झुग्गी-बस्ती के बच्चों के साथ बातचीत करेंगी।

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शहीद का जन्म दिवस भुलाना उनका अपमान

• शहीद का जन्म दिवस भुलाना उनका अपमान

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  • Punjab - Sangrur City
  • शहीद ऊधम सिंह के जन्म दिवस को सरकार की ओर से भुलाए जाने का दर्द शहीद की नगरी के लोगों में साफ देखा जा सकता है। इतना ही नहीं शहीद की याद में स्थापित यादगारों की उपेक्षा से भी लोग काफी खफा हैं। लोग चाहते हैं कि उनकी याद में अब तक लगाए गए बूटों की उचित ढंग से परवरिश की जाए। जबकि सरकारी बेरुखी के कारण यह बूटे (यादगारें) सूखने के कगार पर खड़े हैं।

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बागियों के सम्मान पर उठी विरोध की आवाज

• Jagran - Yahoo! India - News

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  •  
    
    

    आगरा।

  • सेना के भगोड़े सैनिकों के ऐतिहासिक सम्मान पर सिखों में दो फाड़ हो गए हैं। शहर की प्रमुख सिख संस्था गुरुसिख वेलफेयर एसोसियेशन ने मामले की कड़ी निंदा की है। कमेटी ने कहा कि सिख देश की रक्षा की तलवार हैं। उन्होंने सम्मान करने वालों पर प्रहार करते हुए कहा कि कुछ लोग शहर की फिजां खराब करना चाहते हैं।
  • संगठन ने कहा कि आगरा सिंह सभा कमेटी ने भगोडे़ सैनिकों का सम्मान कर बहुत गलत काम किया है। कमेटी लोगों को गुमराह कर शहर का भाईचारा खत्म करना चाहती है।
  • हालांकि हम यह मानते हैं कि जिन सिख फौजियों ने ब्लू स्टार के समय फौज से विद्रोह किया था, वह भावना में बह कर किया था। ऐसे में सरकार से मांग करते हैं कि उनकी पेंशन आदि की सुविधा बहाल रखी जाये।

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Sanatan Sanstha now justifies Thane, Margao blasts

• Sanatan Sanstha
  

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  • Sanatan Sanstha, the right-wing Hindu group which has denied its involvement in the Thane and Margao blasts, has suddenly come out with a justification of the incidents.
    
    "I always wondered why Sanatan's seekers were linked to these two blasts because we do not give such preachings. But upon thinking, I realised the reasoning and analysed it," Sanatan founder Jayant Balaji Athavale said.
    
    "They could not bear the desecration of places of Hindu worship," he wrote in the Sanstha mouthpiece 'Sanatan Prabhat' on Sunday.
  • "Sanatan teaches how to sacrifice the body, soul and wealth. It's only after these sacrifices that they mature in 'sadhana'," he said in the column.
    
    Athavale, however, said the Sanstha does not teach anyone what kind of sacrifice one should make as it should be with one's "own thinking".

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Taqia M J Akbar | Great Hindu

• Chapter 7: Taqia M J Akbar | Great Hindu

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  • M J Akbar is the modern day equivalent of Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He is liberal when inebriated.  When sober, he chants Allah-o-Akbar.
  • Akbar never dares to speak about the “jehadi” side of Islam (convert or kill.

  • He reduced Indian journalism to bare bellies of urban belles.

    His Asian Age was nothing but pornography of Indian Journalism.

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Vijayvaani.com - J&K: Jhelum (not Chenab) Solution

• Vijayvaani.com

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  • J&K: Jhelum (not Chenab) Solution
  • Sandhya Jain
  • BJP mumbles and fumbles

  • BJP’s reluctance to visibly oppose a report which proposes giving the state government more powers over all matters barring foreign affairs, defence and communications (a Sheikh Abdullah obduracy that drove Jawaharlal Nehru crazy), puts a question mark on its true approach to the Saghir Ahmed Report, despite a formal denunciation by Arun Jaitly, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

     

    This suggests that BJP’s uncurbed factionalism may play out on the critically important issue of autonomy for J&K, a stepping stone to the withdrawal of the Indian Army and Indian State from the Valley, and stepping in of Pakistan. On Sunday, 27 December 2009, Panun Kashmir (Agni Shekhar group) felicitated Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for passing a resolution in the MP Assembly on July 24 endorsing the demand for a separate homeland in Kashmir for Kashmiri Pandits. Shockingly, Chouhan was boycotted by all state BJP leaders though he was escorted by national secretary Prabhat Jha and state RSS leaders.

  • Chenab formula

  • More recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special expert Wajahat Habibullah mooted the same division of the state at the Working Group on Centre State Relations, unembarrassed by its overtly communal character and anti-India lineage. This was at the last meeting of the group on 2 September 2007.

     

    Interestingly, at the conclusion of his presentation to the Working Group, Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrungoo asked Habibullah three questions which left him fumbling for answers:-

     

    1] If the autonomous character of the State is determined by religious demography, after such an autonomous unit is created, could we have a secular devolution within that? Please understand that Jinnah worked for the Muslim state of Pakistan and then wanted Pakistan to be secular, after creating it on a religious principle. Do you want to replicate this in Kashmir?

     

    2] You propose a division of Jammu in a way that the entire process coincides with the demographic divide in the region. Is it prudent to have an administrative model with deepens the religious cleavage in the state?

     

    3] Is it a coincidence that the administrative units into which you propose to divide the State coincide with the Musharraf Plan?

     

  • A pertinent point about this last meeting of the Working Group was that BJP’s Arun Jaitly maintained stoic silence throughout the first day when Dr. Chrungoo took up cudgels with Habibullah. Jaitly took no stand on Habibullah’s disgraceful presentation (perhaps because it coincided with the Track II diplomacy of the Vajpayee era) and failed to support Panun Kashmir. Nor did he challenge NN Vohra for supinely supporting the communal division of Jammu. He never attended on the second day (typical of the manner in which Indian parliamentarians take their duties).
  • Jhelum formula the solution
  • The question now remains, is there a Hindu counter-proposal to the Dixon-Musharraf-Habibullah-Chenab solution? Is there any way Hindus can undermine the repugnant Article 370?

  • This can be achieved by keeping the Jhelum as an unofficial dividing line in Kashmir. The north and east of the Jhelum can be given to Kashmiri Hindus as a Union Territory (the Panun Kashmir homeland), wherein the Indian constitution prevails, Article 370 is negated, and full emotional integration with India can take place.

  • The author is Editor, www.vijayvaani.com

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India Retold: ND TIWARI: MUCH MORE THAN A SEX SCANDAL

• India Retold: ND TIWARI: MUCH MORE THAN A SEX SCANDAL

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  • Indians are largely indifferent to this aspect of the demeanour of India's politicians since nothing really damaging about them has ever been revealed by mainstream media. But all that may change now, thanks to a Telugu TV channel, ABN Andhra Jyothi.
    
    ND Tiwari's romps with prostitutes - a thrice a day routine, according to some - in the Raj Bhavan has graphically highlighted that the media has failed to perform an important national duty.
  
  • The standard argument is that what they do in their bedrooms is nobody's business. No one can fault this line about privacy. Indians are largely indifferent to this aspect of the demeanour of India's politicians since nothing really damaging about them has ever been revealed by mainstream media. But all that may change now, thanks to a Telugu TV channel, ABN Andhra Jyothi.
    
    ND Tiwari's romps with prostitutes - a thrice a day routine, according to some - in the Raj Bhavan has graphically highlighted that the media has failed to perform an important national duty.
  • Let us take the case of Tiwari. Firstly, it is impossible that he would have paid for his daily 'exercises' from his own pocket. All expenses would have been 'adjusted' under some head or the other of the tax payer's money. Second, it is a given that as CM and Union Finance Minister, he must have been provided with - even demanded - top-quality call girls by business houses, contractors etc to get undue favours out of him. Third, it is very likely that on more than one occasion in life, he would even have been blackmailed into taking important decisions against his better judgment and the interest of the state. In short, probity was an immediate casualty. And remained so for many decades.
    
    I am not willing to believe that the media is innocently unaware of these and even more far-reaching ramifications of private lives of political leaders. Yet, it chooses to look the other way. Why? Is it because they are all naked in the same hamam? Is it because the media wants to, in the case of politicians alone, go by a value system that some leading media stars personally live by? Why is it that, along this dimension, they do not blindly ape standards set by the US?
    
    Permissive Americans are surprisingly moral when it comes to their leaders. The reason, as we all know, is straightforward. They expect those who lead their nation to possess the strength of character that they believe is required for the job.
  • Who are we kidding? Is it ever possible to so surgically separate the public from the private? Is history not replete with instances of sex being used as an extremely powerful strategic, political and business weapon, often to settle near-intractable issues coercively? Given how corrupt India's political leaders are - Shekhar Gupta calls them plunderers - are we to swallow the manifestly dishonest line that they have kept their sexual escapades away from their public duties and decision-making? Are we to shut ourselves to the clear and present danger of such behaviour carrying within it the seed of disaster along any number of dimensions?
  • It is time for the media to wake up, shed its blinkers and start looking at the private lives of netas from, among other things, a national interest and security perspective.

Comment by Pushkar:
I think it started with Nehru, i suppose who agreed for partition on bed with lady mountbattern.

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BURKAH HITLER DUTT | Great Hindu

• Great Hindu

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  • When the Hindu defenders present a valid point, a break is ordered.  Questions are framed in such a manner as to insinuate that Hindus are terrorists. Besides, she does not interview.  She interrogates.  She does not allow the interviewee to talk.  She does a fillibuster.

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Usual Suspects: How long will the denial continue?

• Usual Suspects

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  • Finally, the tyranny of the pracharaks is causing a slow exodus from the party. Good people are leaving in dribs and drabs. In the past few months, two of the best Lok Sabha MPs from 2004-2009 have left the party: Kiran Rijiju and Kharabela Swain. Swain, in fact, was hounded by the pracharaks for exposing moral turpitude. He was told "we don't want intellectuals in the party".

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India Retold: RUCHIKA CASE: CHILLING LESSON

• India Retold: RUCHIKA CASE: CHILLING LESSON

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  • Thanks to his 'zamindarni' lawyer wife and a judge who was more concerned about of the age of the accused than the offence committed by him, Rathore has been not only got just six months imprisonment and a Rs 1000 fine but has been granted bail too.
    
  • It is not an individual police officer's crime that is involved in the Ruchika case; it is the relative status of the instruments of state and the ordinary citizen that is being disturbed by it. That is not acceptable. If the Maharaja of Patiala, as revealed by Diwan Jarmani Dass, could pick any girl/woman he liked on the street, if zamindars could do so too, if the British did it when they were here, then how can you and I question the right of the new royals of today to perpetuate that tradition? We have to be told that as graphically as possible, and as often as necessary, so that others do not even think about throwing a pebble into that exclusive pool.
    
    That is why when a Ruchika decides to fight, the system closes ranks and fights back harder.
  • Till that happens, notwithstanding what happens to Rathore, what do you think I will do if something similar were to happen to my daughter? Whatever I have to, to ensure that she does not lose the smile on her face, even if that helps the criminal gets away. That's the chilling lesson for me. If that makes me a coward and makes the system mock at my helplessness, so be it. It is the society that must feel ashamed, not me. Will you risk your child's life?

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महाजाल पर सुरेश चिपलूनकर (Suresh Chiplunkar): एनडी तिवारी के बहाने दो-तीन प्रमुख मुद्दों पर बहस की दरकार… ND Tiwari, Sex Scandal, Governor of AP

• महाजाल पर सुरेश चिपलूनकर (Suresh Chiplunkar)

  
  
  
  • बहरहाल सवाल तो कई हैं, लेकिन ऐसे माहौल में दो महत्वपूर्ण मुद्दों पर बात छूट गई लगती है, इसलिये उन्हें यहाँ पेश कर रहा हूं…
    
    

    पहला मुद्दा – क्या अब भी हमें राज्यपाल पद की आवश्यकता है?
  • तात्पर्य यह कि राज्यपाल नामक “सफ़ेद हाथी” जितना काम करता है उससे कहीं अधिक बोझा राज्य के खजाने (यानी हमारी जेब पर) डाल देता है। जानना चाहता हूं कि क्या राज्यपाल नामक “सफ़ेद हाथी” पालना जरूरी है? एक राजभवन का जितना खर्च होता है, उसमें कम से कम दो राज्य मंत्रालय समाहित किये जा सकते हैं, जो शायद अधिक काम के साबित हों…।
  • अब आते हैं दूसरे मुद्दे पर…
    
    

    क्या भारतीय राजनीति में “टेब्लॉयड संस्कृति” का प्रादुर्भाव हो रहा है? यदि हो रहा है तो होना चाहिये अथवा नहीं?
  • मैं सीरियसली सोच रहा हूं कि तिवारी जी ने इस्तीफ़े में “स्वास्थ्य कारणों” की वजह बताई, वह सही भी हो सकती है, क्योंकि वियाग्रा के ओवरडोज़ से स्वास्थ्य समस्याएं उत्पन्न हो ही जाती हैं… है ना? और तिवारी जी की गलती इतनी बड़ी भी नहीं है, उन्होंने तो कांग्रेस की स्थापना के 125 वर्ष का जश्न थोड़ा जल्दी मनाना शुरु कर दिया था, बस…

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Destiny of West Bengal Hindus: The Coming Days of Slavery to Islam

• Destiny of West Bengal Hindus

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  • Radhasyam Brahmachari
  • How fast-breeding Muslims are turning West Bengal (and entire India for that matter) into a Muslim-majority state and signs of the consequences that await its Hindu populations.
  • West Bengal suffered from large refugee influx during the partition in 1947, leading to political unrests later on. The partition of Bengal entailed the greatest exodus of people in Human History. Some 3.5 million Hindus migrated from East Pakistan to India, while only 500,000 Muslims crossed border from West Bengal to East Pakistan, although it was Muslims, who demanded a separate Muslim state and created Pakistan. The influx of Hindu refugees created crisis of land and food in West Bengal lasting more than three decades. The politics of West Bengal, since the partition in 1947, has developed round the nucleus of refugee problem. Both the Rightists and the Leftists in politics of West Bengal have not yet become free from the socio-economic conditions created by the partition of Bengal.
  • Again, the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the fresh influx of millions of Hindu refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strain on its infrastructure.

  • There are mainly three factors for this explosion of Muslim population.

    • Firstly, planned and deliberate rejection of family-planning measures by the Muslims;
    • Secondly, the uncontrolled influx of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border; and,
    • Thirdly, through conversion of Hindus to Islam.
  • Figure 2: Decline of Hindu Population in West Bengal (Courtesy: Mohit Ray)
  
  • In other words, entire West Bengal will become a Muslim-majority state in the next 40 years. 
  • It is needless to say that, as soon as the Muslim population would rise to 40% in 2034, it would be difficult for the Hindus to live in peace in the state. Secret IB report tells that Muslims will claim the land on the eastern side of River Hooghly as an Islamic state or a part of greater Bangladesh. In such a situation, there will remain two options before the Hindus: either to accept Islam or to become refugee again and flee their homes to other parts of India to save their lives, dignity and religious faith.
  • Many apprehend that Hindus will be outnumbered by Muslims much earlier than the projection presented above, due to the fact that population of Muslim children is much higher than the population adults
  • Table 3 shows how the Hindu populations are declining and Muslim populations rising throughout India. If continue unchecked, entire India may turn into a Muslim-dominant country in 5 to 6 decades.

  • Year	Indian Religionists	Muslim	Christian
    1901	86.64	12.21	1.15
    1941	84.44	13.38	2.18
    1951	87.24	10.43	2.33
    1991	85.01	12.59	2.32
    2001	67.56	30.38	2.06

    (Source: Religious Demography of India by A P Joshi, M D Srinivas and J K Bajaj, 2003)

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Solution to Telangana crisis « Indian Realist

• Indian Realist

  tags: no_tag

  • My compromise formula for the current unrest in Andhra Pradesh about the formation of Telangana state:

    Split the state into Telangana and Andhra. Let Hyderabad be a UT for 25 years before being transferred to Telangana.

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Glamourpuss Suzanne Arundatti Roy | Great Hindu

• Great Hindu

  tags: no_tag

  
  • Her team was busy opposing the Narmada Project. Next day, when the journalists arrived, all they could find was litter of condoms on the spot.
  • Suzanne Arundhati Roy’s mother is a Christian who got divorced from her Hindu husband. Arundhati Roy could not forgive her Hindu father and her hatred for her father made her a fanatical anti-Hindu woman. Her native place is Ayemenem, Kerala where she was born on the 24 the November of 1961.
  • Having tasted utter poverty in a tea plantation (her father was a tea plantation worker), she wanted to earn money by hook or by crook and she succeeded in doing so when she got full support from Pope and his nominees in India

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|| Satyameva Jayate || » Weekend Reading: Worrying about China…

• || Satyameva Jayate ||
  

  tags: no_tag

  • Three brief excerpts for the weekend on why China is becoming a worry for the global economy and why those numbers are hard to believe…
  • First, an extract from China has now become the biggest risk to the world economy by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

  • At some point, American workers will rebel. US unemployment is already 17.5pc under the broad “U6″ gauge followed by Barack Obama. Realty Track said that 332,000 properties were foreclosed in October alone. More Americans have lost their homes this year than during the entire decade of the Great Depression. A backlog of 7m homes is awaiting likely seizure by lenders. If you are not paying attention to this political time-bomb, perhaps you should.

    …much of Beijing’s $600bn stimulus has been spent building yet more plant and infrastructure so that China can ship yet more goods, or has leaked into property and stocks.

    Credit has exploded. Allocated by Maoist bosses for political purposes, it has become absurd. China is rolling as much steel as the next eight producers combined. It is churning more cement than the rest of the world. Fixed investment is up 53pc this year. Once you know that Hunan authorities have torn down two miles of modern flyway so that they can soak up stimulus by building it again, or that the newly-built city of Ordos is sitting empty in Inner Mongolia, you know what must come next.

  • 
  • View from Shangri-La, Hong Kong
  • If this has not sobered you enough, read these excerpts from China’s record debt has economists worried by Bill Powell:

  • The U.S. fueled its housing and consumption bubbles by providing easy credit. China seems headed in the same direction, although the victims would be different this time.

    In the first nine months of the year, Beijing has shoveled $1.27 trillion in new loans into the economy, up 136% from the same period last year. That money has gone to three main areas: infrastructure, manufacturing, and real estate.

    …Moreover, an increasing number of Chinese loans are being funneled into projects unlikely to generate an attractive economic return. From 2000 to 2008 it took just $1.50 in new credit to generate $1 of GDP growth. Now that ratio is 7 to 1. (In the U.S., just before the financial crisis hit, the ratio was only 4 to 1.)

  • And finally, from How China Stiffed the World in Copenhagen by John Lee:
  • Beijing is completely aware that these numbers are wildly inaccurate despite aggressively defending them after release. For the sake of its image and reputation, Beijing still wants to assure outsiders that it remains in charge even though in important respects it is not. It would not want a team of independent experts seeing for themselves the deception, dysfunction, and lawlessness that takes place throughout China under the watch of unaccountable local officials.

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Hindu focus : Police say the accused hired three goons to vandalise the church

• Hindu focus

  tags: no_tag

  •   Police say the accused hired three goons to vandalise the church
  • BIDAR
  • The Bidar district police Thursday claimed to have solved the case of an attack on a church in Humnabad town in Bidar district on November 17 with the arrest of a former pastor of the church and three hired goons who allegedly attacked the church.
  • Superintendent of Police Satish Kumar in a press statement said here that the main accused, Vasant, who was the pastor of the Humnabad church till June this year before his transfer to a church at Basantpur in Chincholi taluk in Gulbarga district had conspired to damage the church with the hope that the church authorities would cancel his transfer and keep him in Humnabad.

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Passionate About India: IT IS SO UNFORTUNATE THAT WE HAVE CONVERTED THE WORLD’S FOOD BOWL INTO A BEGGING BOWL!- Arindam Chaudhuri

• Passionate About India
  

  tags: no_tag

  • There is no reason why the middlemen in Indian agriculture should get such high margins. More shocking is the fact that in the case of no other commodity, especially in the industrial sector, have the manufacturers been a deprived lot as is the case with the Indian farming community. The middlemen add no value whatsoever and yet corner heft y margins. Most of the elements involved in these activities have strong political lobbies because of which they are always able to prevent the entry of organized retailers in this business. We all know how e-choupal of ITC benefited the farming lot. Similarly, if organized wholesalers like Metro Cash & Carry or Reliance Field Fresh are allowed to enter into contracts with the farmers directly, then the farmers would surely get far higher prices than what they get right now. Also, along with all that, the central government should take necessary steps to amend the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) system. It is through this that state governments control agriculture in their respective states. And this is the system because of which farmers cannot sell their produce directly to the end user or the retailer. Reform in the APMC would go a long way in correcting the anomaly in the agricultural market. In an era where the price of everything is going down, there’s no reason why the price of farm produce should increase – and given that, why the farming community should continue to be the deprived lot.

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What is Jihad | S S Bedi

• S S Bedi

  tags: no_tag

  • Written by S S Bedi   

  • Those opposed to militant Islam will have to be like the hunter who aims his rifle between the eyes of the man-eater tiger and shoots till the tiger is dead meat. The hunter bears no enmity with the tiger, but shoots him dispassionately, so that he himself can live, and NOT end up by becoming the dinner of the man-eater.

    This has to be the attitude, not based on a hate of Islam, but a determination to put a full and final end to militant Islam, so that Human society can progress without the hindrance of any religion obstructing its path.

    After militant Islam is militarily defeated and then destroyed; the need of the day would be to come up with workable creative ideas, for brainwashing the remaining religious fanatics with techniques like anesthesia leading to amnesia and re-education of such brainwashed ex-religious fanatics; or the use of mass lobotomy to achieve the same result. Only such a technique could prevent religious fanaticism from being resurrected with a name other than militant Islam and insure the progress of human civilization without any obstacle from any religion.

  • To make it more subtle; the need is for religion and religious fanaticism to move out of human minds and be replaced by rational-humanism.

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Alien System is Alien to Indian Ethos | Amba Charan Vashishtha

•  Amba Charan Vashishtha

  tags: no_tag

  • By Amba Charan Vashishth,
  • In Ruchika case our system of justice is the criminal

  • The culprit definitely is Rathore, but more than that is the system of criminal jurisprudence which we have inherited from the British and earlier invading regimes. Our further crime was to blindly adopt and accept this system which has nothing to do with the Indian ethos. It protects the criminal and punishes the victim. The alien governments imposed this system as it suited them the most to dig their feet deep in power to keep the country a slave of them. The judicial system we are continuing with today does not in any way suit the Indian way of life, her culture, traditions and ethos. It helps the criminal to get off with his crime with boldness and honour and leaves the aggrieved crying for justice which normally gets inordinately delayed and in a majority of cases ends up in denial of justice.

    The latest instance is the way the lone Pakistani terrorist caught red-handed in killing dozens of innocent men and women in the 26/11 Mumbai attack is exploiting the present judicial system in India and making a fun of it. It is this strange system that is giving life to the Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru sentenced to death by the highest court of the country about five years back.

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Assertive Maulanas, Submissive Gurus

• Vijayvaani.com

  tags: no_tag

  • Assertive Maulanas, Submissive Gurus
  • J P Sharma
  • While the steadfast pursuit of Muslim appeasement by political parties is easy to understand on account of votebank politics, it is difficult to fathom the motives of Hindu religious leaders in kow-towing to Muslim clerics. In sharp contrast to the compromising attitude of Hindu gurus, the Maulanas not only stuck to their own understanding of the demands of their religion, but had no hesitation in re-opening, without provocation, an issue which had been settled more than sixty ago (by deleting the parts of Vande Mataram held objectionable).
  • Dharmo rakshati rakshitah
  • If the leaders of the Dharma Raksha Manch are serious about protecting Dharma, they must first acquire a good knowledge of the aggressing faiths, the technology and strategy they use, and the sources of their strength. They should then find suitable ways to repel the aggressors. They must begin by removing the weaknesses of their own camp which led to the land being repeatedly conquered by big and small invaders, and weld the community into a unified and strong body capable of meeting the present and future challenges.
  • The writer is a former Addl. Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat

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Azadi to radical Islamists, slavery for patriots - 3

• Vijayvaani.com

  tags: no_tag

  • Azadi to radical Islamists, slavery for patriots - 3
  • Hari Om

  • I will focus only on seven issues to make the point that Jammu is indeed a victim of gross discrimination. These include poor road connectivity, inadequate power generation units, small number of administrative units, acute unemployment, glaring disparity in wages, wrong admission policy, and invidious distinctions as far as allotment of funds are concerned.

     

    One: The road length in Kashmir, which has a land area of less than 16,000 sq km, was 7,129 kilometers in November 2006. In contrast, the road length in Jammu with an area almost two times that of Kashmir was just 4,571 kilometers.

     

    Two: Chenani in Jammu province is the only State Power Plant with an installed capacity of 25 MW. The remaining State Power Plants with an installed capacity of 333.36 MW are in the Kashmir Valley. Besides, there are a number of gas turbines in Kashmir, which also cater to the needs of its people.

     

    Three: Kashmir province has ten districts at the rate of one per 1585.3 sq km on an average, with a few districts being only one-tehsil districts. In contrast, Jammu province too has ten districts, but at the rate of one per 2629.3 sq km on average. One glaring example: Srinagar district in Kashmir with a land area of 2,228 sq km and which consisted of only 168 villages was divided two years ago into two districts – Srinagar and Ganderbal. In contrast, Jammu district having an area of 3,079 sq km and which consisted of 1,054 villages was left high and dry, notwithstanding the creation of Samba district out of it.

  • Four: The unemployment rate in Kashmir is less than 30 percent. In contrast, the unemployment rate in Jammu province is 69.75 percent. The people of Jammu have very little representation in the Civil Secretariat. According to a government report of 2007, the number of employees working in the Civil Secretariat was 1715. These include gazetted, non-gazetted and class IV employees. The number of gazetted officers was 199. The share of Kashmir was 118 (56 percent) and that of Jammu 81 (44 percent). As for the number of non-gazetted employees, it was 1041 (767 or 73.67 percent from Kashmir and 274 or 26.23 percent from Jammu). The number of class IV employees was 363 (256 or 70.52 percent from Kashmir and 107 or 29.48 percent from Jammu).

     

    Five: Each Jammu-based worker in the Public Health Engineering Department under the Community Participation Scheme (CPC) gets a monthly wage of Rs 500, as against the monthly wage of Rs 2100 for his Kashmiri counterpart.

     

    Six: A scrutiny of the MBBS/BDS selection lists reveals that Jammu’s share in the State’s medical colleges dwindled from 60 percent in 1990 to 52 percent in 1991 to 38 percent in 1994 to 36 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 1997 to 17 percent in 1998. Between 1998 and 2008, the share of Jammu in these colleges was only marginal.

     

    Seven: The development of Jammu province has been prevented by inadequate funds allotted to it. For example, in the Eighth five year plan (1992-1997), Ninth Plan (1997-2002), Tenth Plan (2002-2007) and Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) Jammu’s share in such sectors as agriculture was Rs 57.61 crore; 147.31 crore; 270.49 crore; and 337.56 crores, respectively. In contrast, the share of Kashmir was 104.5 crore; 253.17 crore; 380.29 crore; and 519.41 crore, respectively.

     

    This is just one example. The story regarding irrigation, roads and buildings, health, tourism, sewerage, drainage, housing and urban development, and power is no different.

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Jammu BJP leaders skip function in honour of MP CM

• Jammu
  

  tags: no_tag

  • Jammu:
  • Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was here on Sunday to attend a felicitation function in his honour, left without any of the state BJP leaders meeting him. The MP CM was here as an “exclusive guest” of Panun Kashmir, which felicitated him for passing a resolution in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on July 24 endorsing the demand for a separate territory in Kashmir for Kashmiri Pandits.

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Nepal Maoists find unexpected ally in BJP leader Koshiyari - The Times of India

• The Times of India

  tags: no_tag

  • Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas have found an unexpected ally in a party that once criticised its effort to abolish the world’s only
  • Hindu monarchy and transform Nepal into a secular republic. Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former BJP chief minister of Uttarakhand and an RSS ideologue, has assured Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda that he would convey to India’s external affairs ministry the furore created by Indian Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor’s reported statement about Nepal’s army and would seek a clarification from the Manmohan Singh government.
    
    The 67-year-old Kumaoni politician, who became Uttarakhand’s chief minister in 2001 but was forced to resign the following year after his party lost the state assembly election, Monday met Prachanda at the latter’s residence in Kathmandu as part of his interaction with Nepal’s politicians during his short Kathmandu visit.
    
    After the meeting, the Indian politician told journalists that he would raise before the MEA Gen Kapoor’s reported statement that Nepal’s army should not induct combatants from the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army as it would lead to the politicisation of the state army.

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